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jkruk

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dw_instance_sm

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formal

single

homophobic

Women's Healthcare Madam President, on another matter also related to healthcare, today Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans have scheduled votes on two divisive, anti-choice, anti-women, and anti-family bills. The Senate has voted them down before; it will again. After weeks of complaining that the impeachment trial of President Trump was preventing the Senate from doing the people's business, this is what the Senate Republicans have proposed: fake, dishonest, and extreme legislation that has nothing to do with improving the lives of ordinary Americans. I say ``fake'' because these bills pretend we don't already have laws on the books that protect infants. Additional legislation is completely unnecessary, irrational, a show with no positive effect on the women of America who need healthcare. Healthcare, Mr.President. Healthcare, Republican Senators. Healthcare. That is what women want, not these show bills that appeal to an extreme view. The American people know it. The American women know it. Additional legislation such as proposed today is at best unnecessary and irrational. But it is dishonest because these bills are not intended to fix real problems faced by real Americans; they are intended to provoke fear and misunderstanding about a very difficult issue so Republicans can score political points with their far-right base. Any Senator who thinks this is going to appeal to the mainstream of their constituents--women throughout their States--is missing the point. I say ``extreme'' because these bills would, in effect, criminalize women's reproductive care and intimidate healthcare providers--another example of the Senate Republicans' war on Roe v. Wade and a woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own private healthcare decisions and to not have politicians tell a woman what to do. Putting these already defeated bills up for a show vote is not a good-faith attempt to improve the lives of everyday Americans--particularly everyday American women--as Republicans claim they want to desperately do. Every single Senate Republican knows these bills cannot and will not pass, but they are putting them on the floor anyway to pander to the hard right and to cover up the fact that they will not provide good healthcare for women, that they are voting day in and day out to take away the right to healthcare of women throughout America and letting the administration, led by President Trump, do just that. If Republicans were serious about getting back to the people's business, there is no shortage of bipartisan legislation we could consider. Nearly 400 bills have passed the House, hundreds of them on a bipartisan basis, and they have collected dust in this Chamber. They have gone into Leader McConnell's legislative trash can. On healthcare alone, we have legislation to protect Americans with preexisting conditions, legislation that would eliminate junk insurance plans, and legislation to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, which my colleague from Illinois will talk about, I believe, shortly. All of these bills have languished in Leader McConnell's legislative junkyard. When Leader McConnell or any Republican says ``Oh, impeachment stopped us from doing things,'' look at what we are not doing today--not only what we are doing, which is meaningless to women, but what we are not doing--protecting their healthcare, protecting Roe v. Wade, which two-thirds of American women want protected. Any of the proposals that are in McConnell's legislative graveyard would be better than this anti-choice, anti-women, and anti-family legislation, but, typical of Leader McConnell, Republicans have chosen once again to play politics on the Senate floor. Leader McConnell should stop wasting the few votes he does schedule with these shameless political stunts and instead bring legislation to the floor that would actually improve the healthcare of the American people and of American women in particular. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1125-3

formal

implicit bias

liberal

Black History Month Madam President, this is Black History Month, and I want to take the time to celebrate a person who made history when it came to healthcare. Helen Octavia Dickens was born in Dayton, OH, in 1909, a daughter of a former slave. She attended Crane Junior College in Chicago, now Malcolm XCollege. In 1934, she graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, as the only African-American woman in her class of 137 students. She was the university's first Black woman physician graduate. Dr. Dickens became a specialist in obstetrics, eventually moving to Philadelphia to work in a birthing center, where she provided care for the poor. While there, she broke barriers by becoming the first African-American woman to be admitted into the American College of Surgeons, receive board certification in obstetrics and gynecology, and practice medicine in Philadelphia. Her work to help heal and guide women of all ages was nothing short of inspiring and her efforts to shine light on the troubling issue of health disparities in the United States that continues to this day. Let me be specific. America has a long history of medical inequality. Sadly, we know that history has not ended. From premature births to premature deaths, people of color disproportionately bear the brunt of America's troubled healthcare system. On average, they live sicker, die sooner, and go without needed medical care more often. Communities of color suffer disproportionately from HIV, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney failure, prostate cancer, and other medical conditions. President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law nearly 10 years ago. It is still one of my proudest votes. Thanks to that law, 20 million Americans gained health insurance--more than 1 million in my home State of Illinois. I am proud to say that law has taken strong steps to address racial inequalities in healthcare across America. A report last month found that the Affordable Care Act helped narrow racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and coverage, especially in States like mine--Illinois--that expanded the reach of Medicaid. Yet we know that better is not nearly good enough when it comes to healthcare. Nearly half of Black Americans--46 percent--live in the 15 States that did not expand Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act was passed. Another area of racial disparity is maternal and infant health. I raise this issue because instead of these drive-by issue votes, which Senator McConnell insists on without debate and without amendment, we should be addressing an issue that should have bipartisan support. Let me be specific about what I mean. The United States ranks 32nd out of the 35 wealthiest nations when it comes to infant death, infant mortality. Let me repeat that. Our Nation ranks 32nd out of the 35 wealthiest nations when it comes to infant mortality, and babies of color are the hardest hit. If you are an African-American infant born in America today, you are twice as likely to die in the first year of birth compared to White infants. And the mother giving birth? In the United States, African-American women are three to four times more likely to die giving birth than other women in this country. In Illinois, sadly, they are six times more likely to die. The United States is one of only 13 countries in the world where the maternal mortality rate is worse now than it was 25 years ago. Instead of impaling ourselves politically on the issues that divide us, can we come together on an issue that could unite us: that we are going to do something in America to reduce the infant and maternal mortality, particularly among African Americans. I have given a lot of thought to what we can do to try to bridge this racial divide to help women and babies of color. For the past two Congresses, I have introduced a bill with Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly called the MOMMA Act. The bill would expand Medicaid coverage for new moms from 60 days after birth to a full year postpartum to ensure adequate care after the child is delivered. The bill would also ensure implicit bias and cultural competency training for healthcare providers to help address health disparities in communities of color and increase access to doulas. We are simply not doing enough to correct this injustice and save the lives of new moms and babies across the country. Instead, Senate Republicans are pushing two anti-choice bills this day that will do nothing--nothing--to help improve maternal and infant outcomes in America nor to help address racial disparities that currently exist. If they actually wanted to save and improve the lives of new moms and babies, they should consider passing legislation like the MOMMA Act, which I have just described. I am going to try to call this to the floor this afternoon. Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air in the U.S. Senate if, on a bipartisan basis, we could agree to do something about this public health crisis affecting infants and mothers across America? The fact that we rank so low in the world standings of safety when it comes to delivering a baby among African-American parents in this country is just unacceptable and unforgivable. Can we muster the courage to stop the political shootings here on the floor, this drive-by shooting of political issues, and instead address an issue which truly is a life-and-death matter that we all should agree on? The Republicans have a choice this afternoon to join me in this effort. I am proud to stand here today and to honor Helen Dickens, the African-American doctor I described earlier who passed away in 2001. Her fierce advancement in the medical field helped pave the way for future doctors, particularly women of color, and led to important discoveries in women's health. Today, much of what we know about the importance and effectiveness of annual OB/GYN visits was influenced by Dr. Dickens' work. With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, she helped train general practitioners to give women the exams they need to note early detection of cervical and uterine cancer. In 1982, the University of Illinois honored Dr. Dickens with the Distinguished Alumni Award. While the United States has a troubled past in addressing racial inequality, we need to learn from the mistakes of the past to ensure that all Americans receive the healthcare they deserve in the future. Dr. Helen Dickens and many other African-American pioneers give me hope for a brighter future. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1126-3

formal

Chicago

racist

Black History Month Madam President, this is Black History Month, and I want to take the time to celebrate a person who made history when it came to healthcare. Helen Octavia Dickens was born in Dayton, OH, in 1909, a daughter of a former slave. She attended Crane Junior College in Chicago, now Malcolm XCollege. In 1934, she graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, as the only African-American woman in her class of 137 students. She was the university's first Black woman physician graduate. Dr. Dickens became a specialist in obstetrics, eventually moving to Philadelphia to work in a birthing center, where she provided care for the poor. While there, she broke barriers by becoming the first African-American woman to be admitted into the American College of Surgeons, receive board certification in obstetrics and gynecology, and practice medicine in Philadelphia. Her work to help heal and guide women of all ages was nothing short of inspiring and her efforts to shine light on the troubling issue of health disparities in the United States that continues to this day. Let me be specific. America has a long history of medical inequality. Sadly, we know that history has not ended. From premature births to premature deaths, people of color disproportionately bear the brunt of America's troubled healthcare system. On average, they live sicker, die sooner, and go without needed medical care more often. Communities of color suffer disproportionately from HIV, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney failure, prostate cancer, and other medical conditions. President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law nearly 10 years ago. It is still one of my proudest votes. Thanks to that law, 20 million Americans gained health insurance--more than 1 million in my home State of Illinois. I am proud to say that law has taken strong steps to address racial inequalities in healthcare across America. A report last month found that the Affordable Care Act helped narrow racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and coverage, especially in States like mine--Illinois--that expanded the reach of Medicaid. Yet we know that better is not nearly good enough when it comes to healthcare. Nearly half of Black Americans--46 percent--live in the 15 States that did not expand Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act was passed. Another area of racial disparity is maternal and infant health. I raise this issue because instead of these drive-by issue votes, which Senator McConnell insists on without debate and without amendment, we should be addressing an issue that should have bipartisan support. Let me be specific about what I mean. The United States ranks 32nd out of the 35 wealthiest nations when it comes to infant death, infant mortality. Let me repeat that. Our Nation ranks 32nd out of the 35 wealthiest nations when it comes to infant mortality, and babies of color are the hardest hit. If you are an African-American infant born in America today, you are twice as likely to die in the first year of birth compared to White infants. And the mother giving birth? In the United States, African-American women are three to four times more likely to die giving birth than other women in this country. In Illinois, sadly, they are six times more likely to die. The United States is one of only 13 countries in the world where the maternal mortality rate is worse now than it was 25 years ago. Instead of impaling ourselves politically on the issues that divide us, can we come together on an issue that could unite us: that we are going to do something in America to reduce the infant and maternal mortality, particularly among African Americans. I have given a lot of thought to what we can do to try to bridge this racial divide to help women and babies of color. For the past two Congresses, I have introduced a bill with Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly called the MOMMA Act. The bill would expand Medicaid coverage for new moms from 60 days after birth to a full year postpartum to ensure adequate care after the child is delivered. The bill would also ensure implicit bias and cultural competency training for healthcare providers to help address health disparities in communities of color and increase access to doulas. We are simply not doing enough to correct this injustice and save the lives of new moms and babies across the country. Instead, Senate Republicans are pushing two anti-choice bills this day that will do nothing--nothing--to help improve maternal and infant outcomes in America nor to help address racial disparities that currently exist. If they actually wanted to save and improve the lives of new moms and babies, they should consider passing legislation like the MOMMA Act, which I have just described. I am going to try to call this to the floor this afternoon. Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air in the U.S. Senate if, on a bipartisan basis, we could agree to do something about this public health crisis affecting infants and mothers across America? The fact that we rank so low in the world standings of safety when it comes to delivering a baby among African-American parents in this country is just unacceptable and unforgivable. Can we muster the courage to stop the political shootings here on the floor, this drive-by shooting of political issues, and instead address an issue which truly is a life-and-death matter that we all should agree on? The Republicans have a choice this afternoon to join me in this effort. I am proud to stand here today and to honor Helen Dickens, the African-American doctor I described earlier who passed away in 2001. Her fierce advancement in the medical field helped pave the way for future doctors, particularly women of color, and led to important discoveries in women's health. Today, much of what we know about the importance and effectiveness of annual OB/GYN visits was influenced by Dr. Dickens' work. With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, she helped train general practitioners to give women the exams they need to note early detection of cervical and uterine cancer. In 1982, the University of Illinois honored Dr. Dickens with the Distinguished Alumni Award. While the United States has a troubled past in addressing racial inequality, we need to learn from the mistakes of the past to ensure that all Americans receive the healthcare they deserve in the future. Dr. Helen Dickens and many other African-American pioneers give me hope for a brighter future. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1126-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, in 1619, Africans were first brought to Virginia, against their will, to be enslaved. From that moment on, White Americans systematically and violently denied the rights of citizenship to Black Americans. The adoption of the 15th Amendment, ratified in February 1870, was a historic effort to correct course. It recognized the right of all male citizens, including Black men, to vote. This amendment was the first time that we promised to protect the right of African Americans to full and equal participation in our democracy. In the 150 years since then, we have tried to expand on that promise many times, like when women of all races and ethnicities finally won the right to vote in 1920. Yet our promise remains elusively unfulfilled. Today, in honor of Black History Month, I would like to take a moment to discuss the trajectory of that broken promise, as well as its impact on our character as a nation. We began to break our promise shortly after we made it. During the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, White men and women across the country developed a number of techniques--some obvious and brutal, some subtle and pernicious--to keep African Americans away from the polls and out of government. The broader goal of these tactics was to hamper the Black population's ability to recover from slavery by blocking their access to education and the economic means of building wealth. I believe that it is important to acknowledge that Maryland partook in these pernicious behaviors right alongside other States. Maryland residents and government officials engaged in ballot tampering, imposed literacy and property restrictions, stoked racist fears to galvanize the White vote, and intimidated Black voters using outright violence. My intention here is not to condemn my home State. To the contrary, I am exceedingly proud of the struggles for justice that have bloomed in Maryland through abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas and civil rights leaders like Thurgood Marshall. I draw inspiration from the lineage of African-American public servants in Maryland who overcame enormous obstacles in order to amplify the voices of their brothers and sisters. These public servants include Verda Welcome, the first Black woman ever elected to any State's senate, as well as Adrienne Jones, the current speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, who is the first African American and first woman to serve in that position. They also include my friend and hero, Congressman Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who devoted his life to fighting for equality and fairness and lifting up our beloved community of Baltimore. I am likewise grateful for all of the Marylanders whose names we might not know, but who nevertheless work every day to expand educational equity, reform our justice system, shrink the wealth gap, deliver healthcare, and otherwise make our society better. Thanks to brave and dedicated people like these in Maryland and across the country, we have made significant strides toward racial justice. I began my remarks by discussing Maryland's bleaker moments in history for two reasons. First, to demonstrate that we must never take progress for granted--Maryland has not always been a tolerant, inclusive State, it did not become one by accident, and it will not continue to be one unless we work to make it so. Democracy and the rule of law do not just happen; we need to protect and nourish them every day. Second, to illuminate how those injustices that still exist, of which there are many, are not new and are not incidental--they are not just disparate effects of forces beyond our control. They are deeply rooted in policies and systems intentionally designed to subjugate African Americans. One of the strongest, most disheartening examples of this phenomenon is the ongoing assault on the right to vote. This is not ancient history. States all over the country continue to ``modernize'' strategies developed a century ago to suppress African-American voting power. Some of these strategies are blatant and recognizable, like mass purges of voter rolls; the gerrymandering of districts with ``surgical precision,'' according to one court; and intimidation of Black voters. Some of the strategies are disguised behind excuses or fear tactics, like obstructive voter ID laws and felony disenfranchisement. Regardless, these tools of oppression are alive and operating as intended. One in every 13 African Americans has lost his or her right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement. Seventy percent of the voters purged from one State's roll in 2018 were African Americans. Studies reveal that implementing strict voter ID laws widens the Black-White turnout gap by more than 400 percent. So long as we allow these sorts of practices to continue under the exaggeration of voter ``fraud,'' we are denying African Americans their full right to vote and breaking the promise we made 150 years ago. This is a problem on principle, of course, but also for practical reasons; when we exclude people from fully participating in our democracy, we prevent them from achieving the social, economic, and civic reforms they need to strengthen their families and communities. So what are we going to do about that? I know what I will do; I will fight for laws that will guarantee every American a voice in our democracy. That is why I have introduced bills to restore the Federal right to vote to ex-offenders and to penalize the voter intimidation and deception efforts so frequently aimed at people of color. These measures alone will not eliminate suppression of the Black vote, but they are steps in the right direction. The racism that we vowed to root out a long time ago is still here. We may have reined it in, or it may have taken new forms that we do not recognize yet, but it is still here. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked, ``It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.'' It is true that we cannot legislate love, but we can and must legislate equality. Until we guarantee the right to vote regardless of race, we fall short of the unique promise and potential of the United States of America. How can we be, at last, the Shining City on the Hill, while we continue to deny people their right to vote because of the color of their skin? For the sake of our democracy and our common humanity, for the sake of those who have suffered and died, for the sake of those living and those yet to come, let us make good on our 150-year-old promise. Let us build on the progress we have achieved, and let us stay vigilant about the threats that remain. Let us fulfill the right to vote.

2020-01-06

Mr. CARDIN

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1143-3

formal

Baltimore

racist

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, in 1619, Africans were first brought to Virginia, against their will, to be enslaved. From that moment on, White Americans systematically and violently denied the rights of citizenship to Black Americans. The adoption of the 15th Amendment, ratified in February 1870, was a historic effort to correct course. It recognized the right of all male citizens, including Black men, to vote. This amendment was the first time that we promised to protect the right of African Americans to full and equal participation in our democracy. In the 150 years since then, we have tried to expand on that promise many times, like when women of all races and ethnicities finally won the right to vote in 1920. Yet our promise remains elusively unfulfilled. Today, in honor of Black History Month, I would like to take a moment to discuss the trajectory of that broken promise, as well as its impact on our character as a nation. We began to break our promise shortly after we made it. During the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, White men and women across the country developed a number of techniques--some obvious and brutal, some subtle and pernicious--to keep African Americans away from the polls and out of government. The broader goal of these tactics was to hamper the Black population's ability to recover from slavery by blocking their access to education and the economic means of building wealth. I believe that it is important to acknowledge that Maryland partook in these pernicious behaviors right alongside other States. Maryland residents and government officials engaged in ballot tampering, imposed literacy and property restrictions, stoked racist fears to galvanize the White vote, and intimidated Black voters using outright violence. My intention here is not to condemn my home State. To the contrary, I am exceedingly proud of the struggles for justice that have bloomed in Maryland through abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas and civil rights leaders like Thurgood Marshall. I draw inspiration from the lineage of African-American public servants in Maryland who overcame enormous obstacles in order to amplify the voices of their brothers and sisters. These public servants include Verda Welcome, the first Black woman ever elected to any State's senate, as well as Adrienne Jones, the current speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, who is the first African American and first woman to serve in that position. They also include my friend and hero, Congressman Elijah Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who devoted his life to fighting for equality and fairness and lifting up our beloved community of Baltimore. I am likewise grateful for all of the Marylanders whose names we might not know, but who nevertheless work every day to expand educational equity, reform our justice system, shrink the wealth gap, deliver healthcare, and otherwise make our society better. Thanks to brave and dedicated people like these in Maryland and across the country, we have made significant strides toward racial justice. I began my remarks by discussing Maryland's bleaker moments in history for two reasons. First, to demonstrate that we must never take progress for granted--Maryland has not always been a tolerant, inclusive State, it did not become one by accident, and it will not continue to be one unless we work to make it so. Democracy and the rule of law do not just happen; we need to protect and nourish them every day. Second, to illuminate how those injustices that still exist, of which there are many, are not new and are not incidental--they are not just disparate effects of forces beyond our control. They are deeply rooted in policies and systems intentionally designed to subjugate African Americans. One of the strongest, most disheartening examples of this phenomenon is the ongoing assault on the right to vote. This is not ancient history. States all over the country continue to ``modernize'' strategies developed a century ago to suppress African-American voting power. Some of these strategies are blatant and recognizable, like mass purges of voter rolls; the gerrymandering of districts with ``surgical precision,'' according to one court; and intimidation of Black voters. Some of the strategies are disguised behind excuses or fear tactics, like obstructive voter ID laws and felony disenfranchisement. Regardless, these tools of oppression are alive and operating as intended. One in every 13 African Americans has lost his or her right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement. Seventy percent of the voters purged from one State's roll in 2018 were African Americans. Studies reveal that implementing strict voter ID laws widens the Black-White turnout gap by more than 400 percent. So long as we allow these sorts of practices to continue under the exaggeration of voter ``fraud,'' we are denying African Americans their full right to vote and breaking the promise we made 150 years ago. This is a problem on principle, of course, but also for practical reasons; when we exclude people from fully participating in our democracy, we prevent them from achieving the social, economic, and civic reforms they need to strengthen their families and communities. So what are we going to do about that? I know what I will do; I will fight for laws that will guarantee every American a voice in our democracy. That is why I have introduced bills to restore the Federal right to vote to ex-offenders and to penalize the voter intimidation and deception efforts so frequently aimed at people of color. These measures alone will not eliminate suppression of the Black vote, but they are steps in the right direction. The racism that we vowed to root out a long time ago is still here. We may have reined it in, or it may have taken new forms that we do not recognize yet, but it is still here. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked, ``It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.'' It is true that we cannot legislate love, but we can and must legislate equality. Until we guarantee the right to vote regardless of race, we fall short of the unique promise and potential of the United States of America. How can we be, at last, the Shining City on the Hill, while we continue to deny people their right to vote because of the color of their skin? For the sake of our democracy and our common humanity, for the sake of those who have suffered and died, for the sake of those living and those yet to come, let us make good on our 150-year-old promise. Let us build on the progress we have achieved, and let us stay vigilant about the threats that remain. Let us fulfill the right to vote.

2020-01-06

Mr. CARDIN

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1143-3

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, the country is deeply divided on multiple issues right now. The impeachment trial is both a symptom of our times and another example of our division. At the beginning of our Nation, we did not have an impeachment inquiry of a President for almost 100 years with the partisan impeachment of Andrew Johnson. After more than 100 years, another impeachment inquiry was conducted when the House began a formal impeachment inquiry into President Nixon in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 410-4. Within a period of weeks, President Nixon resigned before he was formally impeached. Then, just over two decades later, President Clinton was impeached by the House, on another mostly partisan vote leading to a partisan acquittal in the Senate. This season of our history has been referred to as the Age of Investigations and the Age of Impeachment. We have had multiple special counsels since 1974 over multiple topics. This is more than just oversight; it has been a unique time in American history when the politics of the moment have driven rapid calls for investigation and impeachment. Over the past 3 years, the House of Representatives has voted four times to open an impeachment inquiry: once in 2017, once in 2018, and twice in 2019. Only the second vote in 2019 actually passed and began a formal inquiry. The Mueller investigation that consumed most of 2018 and 2019 answered many questions about Russian attacks on our voting systems--although no votes were changed--but it was also a $32 million investigation that took more than 2 years of America's attention. For the last 4 months the country has been consumed with impeachment hearings and investigations. The first rumors of issues with Ukraine arose August 28 when POLITICO published a story about U.S. foreign aid being slow-walked for Ukraine, and then on September 18 when the Washington Post published a story about a whistleblower report that claimed President Trump pressured an unnamed foreign head of state to do an investigation for his campaign. Within days of the Washington Post story on September 24, Speaker Pelosi announced that the House would begin hearings to impeach the President, which led to the formal House vote to open the impeachment inquiry on October 31 and then a vote to impeach the President on December 18. But after the partisan vote to impeach the President, Speaker Pelosi held the Articles of Impeachment for a month before turning them over to the Senate, which began the formal trial of the President of the United States on January 16, 2020. After hearing hours of arguments from both House managers and the President's legal defense team and Senators asking 180 questions to both sides, the trial concluded February 5, 2020. There are key dates to know: April 21, 2019, President Zelensky is elected President of Ukraine. May 21, President Zelensky sworn in. After the ceremony, President Zelensky abolishes Parliament and calls for quick snap elections on July 21. July 21, Ukrainian Parliamentary elections. President Zelensky's party wins a huge majority. July 25, President Trump calls President Zelensky to congratulate him and his party. August 12, An unnamed whistleblower working in the U.S. intelligencecommunity filed a complaint that he had heard from others that the President of the United States had tried to pressure President Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden on an official phone call July 25, 2019. August 26, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community declares the whistleblower report ``an urgent matter'' and asks for its release within 7 days. The Justice Department looks over the report and notes that although it was written by a person in the intelligence community, it is not related to intelligence matters, so it does not fall within the Inspector General's jurisdiction and it is forwarded on to the Department of Justice for review. August 28, POLITICO publishes a story that the annual military aid for Ukraine is currently being slow-walked. September 9, the Inspector General contacts the House Intelligence Committee to let them know that he has not been able to release the whistleblower report to their committee. September 13, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenas the whistleblower report. September 18, the Washington Post prints a story with ``unnamed sources'' that there is a whistleblower report about the President talking with a foreign leader about a campaign matter. September 24, the House began an informal impeachment inquiry after Speaker Pelosi announced it at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. September 25, President Trump released the official unredacted ``read out'' of the phone call with President Zelensky from July 25. September 26, the whistleblower report is declassified and released publicly. October 31, the House formally votes along party lines for an impeachment inquiry. December 18, the House votes to impeach the President with two articles--abuse of Power and obstruction of congress January 15, Speaker Pelosi releases the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. January 16, Senate trial on impeachment begins. February 5, Senate trial concludes with acquittal on both articles. Ukraine became independent in 1991 when it broke away from the Soviet Union, but the Ukrainians have faced constant pressure from Russia ever since. In 2014 Ukraine forced out its pro-Russia President, and Moscow retaliated by taking over Crimea--and stealing the Ukrainian Navy--then rolling tanks into eastern Ukraine and taking all of eastern Ukraine by force. Russian and Ukrainian troops continue to fight every day in eastern Ukraine. The people of Ukraine face an aggressive Russia on the east and pervasive Soviet era corruption throughout the government and the business community. President Trump met the previous President of Ukraine in 2017 to talk about other countries helping Ukraine with greater military support funds and to ask how Ukraine could address corruption on a wider scale. The two Presidents also spoke about lethal aid--allowing the Ukrainians to buy sniper rifles, anti-tank Javelin missiles, and other lethal supplies--to help them fight the invading Russians. The United States also started sending a couple hundred American troops to train Ukrainian soldiers in the far west of Ukraine. On April 21, 2019, President Zelensky was overwhelmingly elected as the new President of Ukraine. He was a sitcom actor/comedian who had no political experience but was well known for his television show in which he played the part of a corruption-fighting teacher who was elected as President of Ukraine. His television popularity helped him win the election, but when he was sworn in on May 21, he was relatively unknown to most of the world. On the same day as his inauguration, May 21, President Zelensky abolished Parliament and called for snap elections to put his party in power. With a new President in place and parliamentary elections in Ukraine coming, starting in June of 2019, the President ordered foreign aid to Ukraine to be held until the end of the fiscal year, but agencies were informed that they should do all the preliminary work needed before the aid was sent, so it would be ready to release at a moment's notice. The leadership in Ukraine was not notified that there was a hold on their foreign aid. The new Parliament was elected on July 21, and President Zelensky's party won by a landslide. By mid-August, the new Parliament was working on anti-corruption efforts and trying to establish a high court on corruption, which they put in place September 5, 2019. There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the early days of the new administration, but by mid-August there was clear evidence of actual change in a country that desperately needed a new direction from its corrupt past. On July 25, when President Trump called President Zelensky, the President congratulated President Zelensky for the big win in Parliament and talked about ``burden-sharing''--other nations also paying their share of support for Ukraine. The two Presidents talked about their disapproval of the previous mbassadors to each other's countries. But instead of following all the staff preparation notes written by Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, the National Security Council staffer assigned to Ukraine, and just talking about ``corruption'' in general, the President brought up a question about Ukraine and the 2016 election interference, which I will note below. President Zelensky also brought up to President Trump that his staff was planning to meet with Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, in the coming days, which led to a conversation about Joe Biden and the firing of the previous prosecutor in Ukraine. After the call, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman contacted an attorney at the National Security Council to express his ``policy concerns'' about the call. It is interesting to note that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman's boss, Tim Morrison, was also on the call, but he did not see any problems or concerns with the call according to his own testimony in the House impeachment inquiry. Within a month, a whistleblower filed a report about the call, saying he heard about the call secondhand and was concerned about the implications of a conversation about elections on a head-of-state call. To keep the July 25th call in context with other news, the day before it took place July 24 Robert Mueller had testified before Congress as the last official act to close down the 2\1/2\ year Mueller investigation and clear the President and his campaign team of any further accusation of election interference. During the impeachment trial in the Senate, the House managers repeated over and over that the President was planning to cheat ``again'' on the next election, but the final conclusion of the Mueller report was that ``ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the (Trump) Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.'' This is especially notable because for years a rumor circulated that Ukraine was part of the 2016 election interference and that someone in Ukraine was hiding the Democratic National Committee, DNC, server that was hacked by the Russians in 2016. As the conspiracy theory goes, it was actually the Ukrainians who hacked the DNC, not the Russians. This is the ``Crowdstrike'' theory that President Trump asked President Zelensky to help solve during the call. Agencies of the U.S. intelligence community have stated over and over that they did not believe that Ukraine was involved in the Russian election interference from 2016. I personally agree with the intelligence community assessment but Rudy Giuliani and multiple others around President Trump believed there was a secret plan in 2016 to hurt President Trump's election from Ukraine. This accusation was amplified by bits of truth, including that the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States wrote an editorial in support of Hillary Clinton in 2016 right before the election, and several other Ukrainian officials publicly spoke out against Candidate Trump in 2016. There is nothing illegal about a foreign nation speaking out for or against a Presidential candidate, whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in 2016 or anyone else in the future. It may not be wise to take sides before an election, but it is not illegal. Just because some Ukrainian officials took sidesdoes not mean that the whole Ukrainian Government worked on a cyber attack on our elections. But since this rumor had persisted, and it was a new administration now in Ukraine, President Trump asked President Zelensky to help clear up the facts if he could. That is certainly not illegal or improper, and it is certainly not something that could help the President in the 2020 election, especially since the 2016 Russian election accusation had just been closed the day before. The 2016 ``Crowdstrike'' theory is the issue that President Trump asked President Zelensky to ``do us a favor'' about, not the Bidens or Burisma. During the July 25 call after the question about ``Crowdstrike,'' President Zelensky mentioned to President Trump that one of his advisers would be meeting with Rudy Giuliani soon. Then, President Trump affirmed that meeting and encouraged them to talk about the Biden investigation and the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor. That may seem out of the blue, but in Washington, D.C., that week, the city was buzzing about a Washington Post article that had been written 3 days before July 22, 2019--detailing Hunter Biden's giant salary--$83,000 per month--for doing essentially nothing for a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company and how it undercut Vice President Biden's message on corruption. It is important to get the context of that week to understand the context of the phone call that day. I have no doubt that the story was just as big of news in Kiev, Ukraine, as it was in Washington, D.C., that week. President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had been in and out of Ukraine since November 2018, meeting with government officials and trying to find out more about the ``Crowdstrike'' theory or any other Ukrainian connection to the 2016 election. During that time, Rudy Giuliani met several former prosecutors from Ukraine who blamed their departure on Vice President Biden. It is clear that Rudy Giuliani was working to gain information about both of these issues in his capacity as President Trump's private attorney. It is not criminal for Rudy Giuliani to work on opposition research for a Presidential campaign or to work on behalf of his client to clear his name from any issues related to the 2016 campaign, which he had done since November 2018. Some have stated that since this was ``foreign information,'' it is illegal. That is absolutely not true. In fact, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee in 2016 paid a British citizen, Christopher Steele, to work his contacts in Russia to create the now debunked ``Steele Dossier,'' which the FBI used to open its investigation into President Trump, leading directly to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller. That dossier was opposition research done in Russia by a British citizen, paid for by the Clinton campaign team. Their opposition research was not illegal, but the use and abuse of that document by the FBI to start an investigation was certainly inappropriate and is most likely illegal. But the FBI warrant issue is still being investigated by the ongoing Durham probe. During the July 25, 2019, call, President Zelensky brought up the issue of Rudy Giuliani, and President Trump replied to his statement. You can argue that President Trump should not have discussed the issue with President Zelensky when he brought it up, but it is certainly not illegal or impeachable to talk about it, especially when there are serious questions about Hunter Biden's work with Burisma. That is not a conservative conspiracy theory; the issue of Hunter Biden's employment in Ukraine was a problem for years at the State Department. It had been raised to Vice President Biden when he was still in office. Every State Department official interviewed for the Trump impeachment investigation noted that at best it was a clear conflict of interest, and it was the center of a huge story on corruption in the Washington Post on July 22, 2019. It had the appearance of high-level corruption by using a well-placed family member on the board of a known corrupt gas company in Ukraine to shelter it from prosecutors. Hunter Biden had only resigned from the Burisma board a few months before the July 25 phone call, just prior to when his dad announced his run for the Presidency in 2019. After the July 25 phone call, Attorney General Barr did not have any followup meetings or calls with Ukrainian officials. Rudy Giuliani did have additional conversations with Ukrainian officials, which are legal to do since he is a private attorney representing the President. Text of July 25, 2019 Phone Call Between Presidents Trump and Zelensky The President: Congratulations on a great victory. We all watched from the United States and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn't given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It's a fantastic achievement. Congratulations. President Zelensky: You are absolutely right Mr. President. We did win big and we worked hard for this. We worked a lot but I would like to confess to you that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections and yes it is true that these were unique elections. We were in a unique situation that we were able to achieve a unique success. I'm able to tell you the following; the first time you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we can talk over the phone more often. The President: (laughter) That's a very good idea. I think your country is very happy about that. President Zelensky: Well yes, to tell you the truth, we are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government. You are a great teacher for us and in that. The President: Well it is very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it's something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn't do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it's something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. President Zelensky: Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000% and I can tell you the following; I did talk to Angela Merkel and I did meet with her I also met and talked with Macron and I told them that they are not doing quite as much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions. They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for Ukraine. It turns out that even though logically, the European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union and I'm very grateful to you for that because the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost. ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes. The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike. I guess you have one of your wealthy people . . . The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible. President Zelensky: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you. The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it . . . It sounds horrible to me. President Zelensky: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I'm knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament, the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not accept me as a new President well enough. The President: Well, she's going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor so good luck with everything. Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It's a great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, they're incredible people. President Zelensky: I would like to tell you that I also have quite a few Ukrainian friends that live in the United States. Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower. I will talk to them and I hope to see them again in the future. I also wanted to thank you for your invitation to visit the United States, specifically Washington DC. On the other hand, I also want to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation. We are buying American oil but I am very hopeful for a future meeting. We will have more time and more opportunities to discuss these opportunities and get to know each other better. I would like to thank you very much for your support. The President: Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we'll work that out. I look forward to seeing you. President Zelensky: Thank you very much. I would be very happy to come and would be happy to meet with you personally and get to know you better. I am looking forward to our meeting and I also would like to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the city of Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful country which would welcome you. On the other hand, I believe that on September 1 we will be in Poland and we can meet in Poland hopefully. After that, it might be a very good idea for you to travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine. The President: Okay, we can work that out. I look forward to seeing you in Washington and maybe in Poland because I think we are going to be there at that time. President Zelensky: Thank you very much Mr. President. The President: Congratulations on a fantastic job you've done. The whole world was watching. I'm not sure it was so much of an upset but congratulations. President Zelensky: Thank you Mr. President bye-bye. Based on a whistleblower report about the July 25 call, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the report on September 13 and started its impeachment inquiry on September 24. In the Senate impeachment trial, House managers stated their belief that the President had carried out a ``scheme to cheat in the 2020 election'' by withholding financial aid to Ukraine and withholding a White House meeting with the new President of Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine announcing it would investigate Joe Biden, Burisma, and 2016 election interference. Let's discuss the facts of both. White House Meeting There is no question that President Trump had offered a White House meeting to President Zelensky three times: once in May on a phone call after President Zelensky won his election, once in June in a letter, and finally in the July 25 call after President Zelensky's party won the parliamentary elections. But Tim Morrison--State Department official called as a witness by the House--also testified that they were working on heads-of-state meetings with 12 other heads of state during that same time period. Many nations were trying to line up meetings in the White House during the summer of 2019. During the July 25 call, President Zelensky offered to instead move their meeting from a White House meeting to a face-to-face meeting in Warsaw, Poland, when they would both be there on September 1, 2019. The Presidents agreed, and planning began on the meeting in August. By August 22, the meeting planning was in full swing, as noted by emails in the House hearing's evidence. However, Hurricane Dorian slammed into the United States in the hours leading up to the September 1 meeting, causing a last-minute shift to the Vice President traveling to Poland so the President could stay in the United States to monitor hurricane relief. We know that Vice President Pence met face-to-face with President Zelensky, and they spoke about other nations paying their fair share to help Ukraine and the issue of corruption across Ukraine. We know from the preparation materials and the meeting notes themselves that during the meeting the Vice President did not bring up or discuss the issue of Burisma, Joe Biden, or any other campaign conversation with President Zelensky. The White House found the next available time when President Trump and President Zelensky would both be in the same place at the same time to set up a face-to-face meeting: September 25 at the U.N. Assembly in New York. That meeting was set up, and it took place as scheduled. In the Senate impeachment trial, the House managers maintained that only a White House meeting was sufficient and that it was being withheld, but the facts show that President Zelensky himself floated the idea of a meeting in Poland and that the meeting was not barred or withheld. In the early months of President Zelensky's term, there was a great deal of concern about him, his staff, and his plans because he was an unknown political figure. Until more was known about him, it was entirely appropriate to show caution in coordinating a meeting, but once his nationwide anti-corruption efforts began in August, it was clear that face-to-face meetings were planned and carried out. There was no withholding of a face-to-face meeting with President Trump and President Zelensky. There cannot be a quid pro quo if the meeting was not withheld from Ukrainian officials. The House managers claimed that there was a secret plot to ``extort'' or ``bribe'' the leadership of Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden in exchange for around $400 million of U.S. aid. The aid was State Department and foreign military aid that had been provided for the past 4 years, since Ukraine had been in a war with Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and its occupation of Crimea and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, the United States started sending aid to help the Ukrainian Government. Congress allowed lethal and non-lethal aid to support Ukraine, but during the previous administration, only non-lethal aid was sent. UnderPresident Trump's administration, it was determined that the United States would give the leadership of Ukraine lethal aid to help them fight off Russian tanks, which was President Zelensky's reference to ``javelins'' in the July 25 phone call and his gratitude to President Trump for allowing those tank killing rockets to flow to Ukraine. To be clear, the theory of funds being withheld from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation does not originate from the July 25 call read-out. There is nothing in the text of the call that threatens the withholding of funds in exchange for an investigation. The theory originates from the fact that aid was held back by the Office of Management and Budget, headed by the President's Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, and the ``presumption'' of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, that the aid must have been held because of the President's desire to get the Biden investigation done, since the President's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was working to find out more about the Biden investigation. Ambassador Sondland told multiple people about his theory, but when he finally called President Trump and asked him directly about it, the President responded that he did not have any quid pro quo; he just wanted the President of Ukraine to do what he ran on and ``do the right thing.'' Obviously, people who assume the worst about President Trump take this as a secret message that there actually was a quid pro quo, but the most important fact is that Ambassador Sondland did not read it that way after his call with the President. Ambassador Sondland believed that the President was serious. Unfortunately, the White House Counsel was never allowed to cross examine Ambassador Sondland during the House investigation to get the facts about who he talked to and why he came to believe for a while that there was an effort to push for investigations in exchange for money. During the Senate trial, I listened closely to the facts surrounding the withholding of aid money to Ukraine. This was by far the most serious charge against the President. Two key questions had to be answered for me: Why was the aid held, and why was the aid released? There was no question the aid was held for a of couple months. The question was why? Statements from the House witnesses during the House impeachment inquiry answered the two key questions: The aid was held because there was a legitimate concern about the new President of Ukraine and his administration in the early days of his Presidency and the aid was released on time when the new Ukrainian Parliament starting passing anti-corruption laws in August and after Vice President Pence sat down face to face with President Zelensky on September 1 in Poland to discuss their progress on corruption. We should not lose track of what was happening in Ukraine in 2019. A new President was elected who was a TV actor with no political experience and no record on how he would handle Russia or the issue of widespread national corruption in Ukraine. He ran on a platform of anti-corruption at all levels, but no one knew how he would govern. His campaign was funded by a Ukrainian oligarch who owned a major media outlet, and one of his first advisers was the former attorney for that oligarch. I personally spoke to many of the State Department officials in Ukraine in May of 2019 and heard their concerns about the new government. Then, newly elected President Zelensky used his power to dissolve their Parliament the day he was sworn in and called for ``snap elections'' in which the vast majority of the newly elected leaders were from his newly formed party. To our State Department and the White House, this was either a really a good sign or a really bad sign. Either Ukraine was about to take a major change for the better with new leadership, or this new young leader was about to assume real centralized power. No one knew for certain in May, June, and July of 2019. Within a few weeks in August, the new Parliament got to work passing anti-corruption laws and making significant changes in their accountability and for the country. This was a very good sign. When Vice President Pence met face to face with President Zelensky September 1, both sides had confidence the country was taking a new direction. On September 10 Vice President Pence and Senator Rob Portman met with President Trump to tell him about the progress that had been made, and both advised lifting the hold on aid. The aid was lifted the next day, September 11. No investigation into Hunter Biden or Burisma was ever done by Ukraine, and no part of the U.S. Department of Justice was ever involved in any investigation of Hunter Biden or Burisma. Although the aid was frozen in June, there was no public announcement of the hold, as explained by the White House Counsel, to keep this from becoming a public issue while the White House monitored the progress and status of the transition in Ukraine. On August 27, POLITICO published an article that noted that the foreign aid had been held by the United States. This caused President Zelensky's office to reach out to the State Department and ask why. During the House impeachment proceedings, four of the House witnesses--Ambassador Voelker, Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Taylor, and Tim Morrison--all testified that the Ukrainian leadership learned about the temporary hold in aid after the POLITICO article was published. The issue of the hold was also the first question from President Zelensky to Vice President Pence when they met on September 1 in Poland. The idea that the leadership in Ukraine had pressure placed on them to do an investigation fails the most essential test. Did the leadership of Ukraine even know that the aid was being held? The answer from multiple American and Ukrainian leaders was no, they did not know there was a hold on the aid from the White House. You cannot have pressure to act on an investigation if they did not even know the aid was being held. It is interesting to note, when I researched the records of past foreign aid payment dates and times to Ukraine, I found the 2019 aid was in line with the date the 2016, 2017, and 2018 aid was sent. The vast majority of the military aid to Ukraine was obligated in August or September for the past 4 years. Although the aid was ready to go out the door a couple months earlier in 2019, it was certainly not late, based on the record of the previous 3 years. In fact, the State Department aid was obligated September 30 in 2019, but it was obligated September 28 in 2018. As quoted by the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, ``The aid was held such a short time, we did not even notice.'' During the 2 days of question-and-answer time, I asked a specific question related to this issue because I felt it was important to get the context of the aid, since there had been so much made of the issue during the trial. Here is the full text of my question to the White House Counsel: House Managers have described any delay in military aid and state department funds to Ukraine in 2019 as a cause to believe there was a secret scheme or quid pro quo by the President. In 2019, 86% of the DOD funds were obligated to Ukraine in September, but in 2018, 67% of the funds were obligated in September and in 2017, 73% of the funds were obligated in September. In the State Department, the funds were obligated September 30 in 2019, but they were obligated September 28 in 2018. Each year, the vast majority of the funds were obligated in the final month or days of the fiscal year. Question: Was there a national security risk to Ukraine or the United States from the funds going out late in September in the two previous years? Did it weaken our relationship with Ukraine because the vast majority of our aid was released in September each of the last three years? In response to my question, White House Counsel detailed the fact that military aid from the United States was not for immediate use. It was designed to help the Ukrainian military buy materials for the next year, so it was common for the aid to be obligated at the end of the fiscal year--September 30--and it was also common for some money to be left unobligated and carried over into the next fiscal year, as it was in 2019. While it is easy to create an intricate story on the hold placed on foreign aid to Ukraine, it is also clear that President Trump has temporarily held foreign aid from multiple countries over the past 2 years, including: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Lebanon, and others. There is no question that a President can withhold aid for a short period oftime, but it must be released by September 30, the end of the fiscal year, which it was in this instance. Article I, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants the U.S. House of Representatives ``the sole power of impeachment,'' while article I, section 3 states that ``the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.'' The Constitution is clear that the House does not control the Senate process and the Senate does not control the House process; however, during the impeachment trial of President Trump, the House tried repeatedly to dictate to the Senate how it should conduct its trial. The ``sole power to try'' means laying out rules for the trial, including when and if to call additional witnesses or request more documents. In addition to laying out roles and responsibilities for impeachment, our Constitution also provides basic rights for the accused. The Fifth Amendment ensures due process. However, the receipt of due process is not contingent upon waiving another right, like immunity or executive privilege. But that is exactly what the House tried to force President Trump to do. The President is not above the law, but neither is the House of Representatives. If there was a question as to the scope and proper use of the President's right to assert immunity or executive privilege regarding conversations he had with his closest advisers, that question is proper for a court to determine, not Congress, and surely not the House on its own accord. To put this in constitutional terms, the legislative branch cannot prevent the executive branch from having access to the judicial branch. The House wanted to move quickly and prevent the President from ever going to court to resolve any issue. That has never been done for a good reason, the separation of powers. In previous legal battles with the President, it has taken months to resolve critical issues, like Bush v. Gore in 2000 or even in the Clinton impeachment trial, when the House took 2 months to resolve an issue with witnesses in court. It does not have to drag on for years. The House also wanted the Chief Justice of the United States to ``rule on'' any issue quickly instead of allowing the President to go through the courts. This would have created a new judicial executive branch by putting all the judicial power of the nation in one person, not in the judicial branch, as is stated in the Constitution. It would have also ignored the text of the Constitution where it notes that the Chief Justice ``presides'' in the court of impeachment, not ``decides.'' The sole power of impeachment is in the Senate, not the Senate plus the one Justice. The Chief Justice keeps the trial moving along, based on the rules of the trial, but he or she is not a decider of fact; that is reserved to the Senate. The House managers wanted to ignore that part of the Constitution to move the trial faster for expedience. We cannot ignore the Constitution or create bad precedent, no matter which party is being tried for impeachment. Further, the Sixth Amendment guarantees that the accused has the ability to both confront the witnesses against him and to have the assistance of counsel. The majority of the impeachment inquiry in the House was done without a meaningful opportunity for the President to participate, and administration witnesses were denied the ability to have counsel present for depositions. The Constitution lays out a clear separation of powers but importantly also provides a system of checks and balances. For something as important as impeachment, it is imperative that the process be one that is squarely within the bounds of the Constitution and is one that the American people can trust. Unfortunately, the process undertaken by the House to impeach President Trump falls wildly short of the standards put in place by our Founders. Article II, section 4 of the Constitution states that ``the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.'' During the trial of President Trump, there was a lot of conversation about what constitutes a ``high crime'' or ``misdemeanor.'' Notably, the House did not charge the President with any crimes; rather, the House chose to impeach the President for ``abuse of power'' and ``obstruction of Congress.'' The House theoretically could have chosen to file Articles of Impeachment for crimes such as bribery, extortion, solicitation of interference in an election, or violations of the Impoundments Clause Act. For any of these crimes, the House would have had to prove specific elements of each. Since they couldn't prove any of those crimes, they chose to charge the President with abuse of power. As was noted in the trial, 40 Presidents have faced accusation of abuse of power, going back as far as George Washington. The abuse of power charge for President Trump was based on allegations that he improperly withheld aid to Ukraine and conditioned a meeting with President Zelensky at the White House in exchange for an investigation into former Vice President Biden and his son Hunter. Over the course of the last 4 months, we heard the term ``quid pro quo'' used over and over again, but the facts do not show criminal quid pro quo. As previously mentioned, President Zelensky asked to meet with President Trump in Poland, and that meeting was set up. Further, while the aid to Ukraine was delayed, it wasn't delayed more than it had been the previous 2 years, and the aid was released without an investigation--or even an announcement of one--into the Biden's. The second Article of Impeachment, obstruction of Congress, had an even weaker constitutional foundation. The investigation was announced September 24 did not officially begin until October 31. The impeachment vote in the House was December 18. This very short time table and the accusation that the President refused to follow the law, honor the courts, and that he acted like a ``King'' did not meet even the most basic constitutional standards for justice. For example, during the Mueller investigation, the President's team fully cooperated with the investigation that included over 2,000 subpoenas and 500 witnesses, including the President's Chief of Staff, multiple Cabinet officials, and many lower level officials who were all made available. It was clear throughout the investigation that the President did not like or agree with the Mueller investigation, but he also fully cooperated with every subpoena, each witness, and every document. In fact, they released over a million pages of documents to the Mueller team. President Trump also made his disagreement with the courts very clear on issues like the census, whether travel restrictions can be put in place to ensure national security, or whether particular funds can be used to secure our southern border. But each time the President lost in court, his administration complied with orders from the judiciary. That is how our system of government is supposed to work. When disagreements happen between the legislative branch and the judicial branch, they usually lead to resolution, not impeachment. The Fast and Furious investigation, which lasted more than 3 years in the Obama administration, led to a vote in the House to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, but it never led to an impeachment inquiry, even though there was a clear and consistent refusal to cooperate with Congress or turn over key documents for 3 years. In this case, the accusation that President Trump ignored subpoenas or refused to follow the law is not correct. The President's team made it very clear that they would cooperate during the impeachment inquiry with properly authorized and issued subpoenas, but the House refused to issue subpoenas that were consistent with the law to seek resolution for documents and witnesses. The House was focused on speed, not legal process. The House, in a rush to impeachment last fall, issued multiple subpoenas for documents and testimony before the House had given authority to the committees to issue subpoenas for an impeachment inquiry, which happened October 31. Since there was no authority to issue the subpoenas, they were not duly authorized. The House also demanded testimony from the President's inner circle without working through the legal questions, and the House demanded executive agency witnesses appear without allowing them to bring agency counsel with them. All of thoseissues created very real legal and constitutional problems. Agency individuals have always been allowed to have legal counsel with them when they are deposed, except this time. As a Member of Congress, I cannot demand the President turn over documents or give testimony in any fashion that I would prefer just because I have oversight responsibilities. In the same way, the President or other executive branch officials cannot demand I turn over my notes or provide my staff for testimony without going through the courts and gaining a legal subpoena. Congress has vigorously and rightfully protected its rights from unwarranted investigations from any President and Presidents have done the same. But in all cases, the law must be followed and the proper process must be pursued to get the information in a legal way. From the very first moments of the Senate trial, the House managers fought for additional witnesses and documents from the President. Their argument and justification for the second Article of Impeachment centered on the White House's refusal to turn over documents and make every witness available without going through the normal legal process. Per the resolution adopted by the Senate, the House record was part of the trial record. The Senate had the testimony of the witnesses the House chose to question as part of the overall information of the trial. The House already had 28,000 pages of documents that were part of the evidence they submitted to the Senate, although, the House managers admitted during the Senate impeachment trial that they still have not released all of the documents and witness testimony that they had gathered in their investigation to the White House Counsel or to the Senate. We do not fully know why the House held back some of its witness testimony and released others. The House witness testimony was used extensively in the Senate trial. These are the witnesses who testified live or via video in the House and Senate Impeachment: David Holmes, Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy Ukraine, State Department; Dr. Fiona Hill, White House Advisor, National Security Council; David Hale, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, State Department; Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Tim Morison, Former White House Adviser; Kurt Voelker, Former Special Envoy for Ukraine; LTC Alexander Vindman, National Security Council; Jennifer Williams, aide to the Vice President; Marie Yovanovitch, Former Ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; Bill Taylor, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. The House managers repeated over and over that additional witnesses would only take a week to depose, which is a clearly false statement. New witnesses took longer than a week to depose in the House inquiry; clearly it would take just as long or longer in a Senate trial. The remaining ``wish list'' of witnesses all had clear issues that needed to be resolved in the courts, which would take a couple of months to resolve, which is why the House managers did not push for their testimony in the House impeachment process. They valued speed more than legal process. House managers repeatedly stated that witnesses only took a week to depose in the Clinton Senate impeachment trial, but they know that during the Clinton Senate trial, all three called witnesses previously deposed in the House inquiry or in the grand jury investigation, and all issues of executive privilege had already been decided through the courts. There were no new witnesses in the Senate trial of President Clinton. Also, the Clinton White House had already had the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses or the investigators in the Clinton impeachment inquiry. This time, the Trump White House had been denied that right. So, if new witnesses would be added for the Senate trial, the White House should have the right to also cross-examine the previous House witnesses they had been denied the right to cross examine in the past. This would all take much longer than a week, and the House managers knew that. During the Clinton impeachment trial in the Senate, there were no additional documents requested, only previously deposed witnesses. The House managers did not go through the legal process to get documents, like the Mueller investigation had done, so all of the new document requests from the House managers would take at least 3 to 5 weeks to complete, once a legal subpoena is delivered. It takes time to search all databases, review the documents for classified materials, determine any legal issues, and release them to the investigation. Once the documents are turned over, both legal teams need time to review the documents. Again, the House managers knew these facts, but they continued to repeat over and over that it would only take a week to get all the documents. The first question for the Senate trial was, do we have enough evidence and testimony to answer the questions the House presented in their Articles of Impeachment? If the answer is yes, then we do not need additional witnesses or documents. If the answer is no, then we do need additional information. There were many leaks and newspaper stories during the trial designed to push the Senate to vote to ask for more testimony, but that did not change the primary question. We already knew from evidence that there was no quid pro quo, no Ukrainian investigations, and no withholding of a public meeting with President Trump. The New York Times story on January 26 and again on January 31 are clear examples of an attempt to bring doubt on the information and witness testimony. Both stories stated that someone had read the pending John Bolton book manuscript and that in the book, Bolton stated that President Trump had talked about investigations in exchange for aid funding for Ukraine. The New York Times also wrote that the book would state that Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone were also a part of the scheme. I looked at both stories closely and noticed that the reporters had not read the manuscripts or quoted the manuscripts; they were reports from someone who stated that they had read the manuscripts. Both stories took significant liberties to describe the intent in the manuscripts, but the reporter had apparently also not spoken to John Bolton. On January 23, 2020, the National Security Council lawyers sent a letter to the legal team handling the book publishing for John Bolton to inform him that the manuscript contained some classified information and it would need have some edits before publication in March. Then, on January 26, the New York Times published a story that someone had leaked some of the details of the book, but they had not released the actual manuscript. While I am interested in seeing the actual manuscript, I am also very aware that this selective leak was designed by the New York Times and whoever leaked the information to influence the ongoing trial. It was clear from the earliest days of the trial that the House had a clear political strategy as well as a courtroom strategy. During the trial. I had the responsibility to hear the facts but also to separate the politics from the facts. Politically, it was best for the House to move as quickly as possible through impeachment so that vulnerable Democratic Members could vote for impeachment and then move quickly to other topics. But since the Presidential election is in full swing, it was politically better for Democrats to make the Senate trial move as slow as possible to hurt the President during the campaign. That explains why the House did not take the time to formally request documents or testimony from many individuals; they needed to move fast and try to force the Senate to move slowly. It also explained why the House passed impeachment on a party line vote, then held the Articles of Impeachment for a month before delivering them to the Senate to start the trial. The House managers said repeatedly that the evidence was clear and that they had proved their case, but if that was true, why would the Senate need to call additional witnesses? I think the reason is that the witness process was about delay, more than facts. The facts do not support the accusation in the Trump impeachment, and it certainly did not need to come to this moment of national division. While it was clear that the House managerswanted to drag the trial on for months in the Senate, through the primary election season, their case consisted of hypothetical story lines and ``presumptions'' more than facts that warrant the removal of a President. This does not meet what Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 65 described as the ``due weight'' for the arguments. But impeachment has certainly created the division in our society that Alexander Hamilton predicted. Over 200 years ago he wrote, ``The prosecution [of impeachments], will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.'' This has been an incredibly divisive season in our Nation. It is not about one person; it is about all of us. We individually choose how we handle disagreements with family, friends, and people on the other side of particular issues. Our government represents us, so it is up to us to model for our government how to handle disagreements. We are now past impeachment, and it is time to work on the issues that matter most to the American people. As we move forward, every American should speak out on the issues that are important to them and the voices that speak for their point of view. But we should remember that we have much more in common than we have that divides us. It is my hope that our Nation does not go through a season like this again for a very long time and that we can move past this age of impeachment to an age of oversight and accountability. I appreciate all the engagement with our office during the impeachment proceedings. We had thousands of calls and emails over the past month. We had hundreds of thousands of views on the nightly Facebook Live updates each day during the trial. While not every Oklahoman agrees with every decision I make on behalf of our State, I am grateful most choose to be respectful in expressing their points of view. At the end of the day, we are Oklahomans. We may not all agree on each issue, but we can be respectful of each other in our disagreement. I am honored to serve our State and Nation. We have many important issues to address in the coming days I pray we can work on them together for the future of our State and Nation.

2020-01-06

Mr. LANKFORD

Senate

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formal

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antisemitic

Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, the country is deeply divided on multiple issues right now. The impeachment trial is both a symptom of our times and another example of our division. At the beginning of our Nation, we did not have an impeachment inquiry of a President for almost 100 years with the partisan impeachment of Andrew Johnson. After more than 100 years, another impeachment inquiry was conducted when the House began a formal impeachment inquiry into President Nixon in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 410-4. Within a period of weeks, President Nixon resigned before he was formally impeached. Then, just over two decades later, President Clinton was impeached by the House, on another mostly partisan vote leading to a partisan acquittal in the Senate. This season of our history has been referred to as the Age of Investigations and the Age of Impeachment. We have had multiple special counsels since 1974 over multiple topics. This is more than just oversight; it has been a unique time in American history when the politics of the moment have driven rapid calls for investigation and impeachment. Over the past 3 years, the House of Representatives has voted four times to open an impeachment inquiry: once in 2017, once in 2018, and twice in 2019. Only the second vote in 2019 actually passed and began a formal inquiry. The Mueller investigation that consumed most of 2018 and 2019 answered many questions about Russian attacks on our voting systems--although no votes were changed--but it was also a $32 million investigation that took more than 2 years of America's attention. For the last 4 months the country has been consumed with impeachment hearings and investigations. The first rumors of issues with Ukraine arose August 28 when POLITICO published a story about U.S. foreign aid being slow-walked for Ukraine, and then on September 18 when the Washington Post published a story about a whistleblower report that claimed President Trump pressured an unnamed foreign head of state to do an investigation for his campaign. Within days of the Washington Post story on September 24, Speaker Pelosi announced that the House would begin hearings to impeach the President, which led to the formal House vote to open the impeachment inquiry on October 31 and then a vote to impeach the President on December 18. But after the partisan vote to impeach the President, Speaker Pelosi held the Articles of Impeachment for a month before turning them over to the Senate, which began the formal trial of the President of the United States on January 16, 2020. After hearing hours of arguments from both House managers and the President's legal defense team and Senators asking 180 questions to both sides, the trial concluded February 5, 2020. There are key dates to know: April 21, 2019, President Zelensky is elected President of Ukraine. May 21, President Zelensky sworn in. After the ceremony, President Zelensky abolishes Parliament and calls for quick snap elections on July 21. July 21, Ukrainian Parliamentary elections. President Zelensky's party wins a huge majority. July 25, President Trump calls President Zelensky to congratulate him and his party. August 12, An unnamed whistleblower working in the U.S. intelligencecommunity filed a complaint that he had heard from others that the President of the United States had tried to pressure President Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden on an official phone call July 25, 2019. August 26, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community declares the whistleblower report ``an urgent matter'' and asks for its release within 7 days. The Justice Department looks over the report and notes that although it was written by a person in the intelligence community, it is not related to intelligence matters, so it does not fall within the Inspector General's jurisdiction and it is forwarded on to the Department of Justice for review. August 28, POLITICO publishes a story that the annual military aid for Ukraine is currently being slow-walked. September 9, the Inspector General contacts the House Intelligence Committee to let them know that he has not been able to release the whistleblower report to their committee. September 13, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenas the whistleblower report. September 18, the Washington Post prints a story with ``unnamed sources'' that there is a whistleblower report about the President talking with a foreign leader about a campaign matter. September 24, the House began an informal impeachment inquiry after Speaker Pelosi announced it at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. September 25, President Trump released the official unredacted ``read out'' of the phone call with President Zelensky from July 25. September 26, the whistleblower report is declassified and released publicly. October 31, the House formally votes along party lines for an impeachment inquiry. December 18, the House votes to impeach the President with two articles--abuse of Power and obstruction of congress January 15, Speaker Pelosi releases the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. January 16, Senate trial on impeachment begins. February 5, Senate trial concludes with acquittal on both articles. Ukraine became independent in 1991 when it broke away from the Soviet Union, but the Ukrainians have faced constant pressure from Russia ever since. In 2014 Ukraine forced out its pro-Russia President, and Moscow retaliated by taking over Crimea--and stealing the Ukrainian Navy--then rolling tanks into eastern Ukraine and taking all of eastern Ukraine by force. Russian and Ukrainian troops continue to fight every day in eastern Ukraine. The people of Ukraine face an aggressive Russia on the east and pervasive Soviet era corruption throughout the government and the business community. President Trump met the previous President of Ukraine in 2017 to talk about other countries helping Ukraine with greater military support funds and to ask how Ukraine could address corruption on a wider scale. The two Presidents also spoke about lethal aid--allowing the Ukrainians to buy sniper rifles, anti-tank Javelin missiles, and other lethal supplies--to help them fight the invading Russians. The United States also started sending a couple hundred American troops to train Ukrainian soldiers in the far west of Ukraine. On April 21, 2019, President Zelensky was overwhelmingly elected as the new President of Ukraine. He was a sitcom actor/comedian who had no political experience but was well known for his television show in which he played the part of a corruption-fighting teacher who was elected as President of Ukraine. His television popularity helped him win the election, but when he was sworn in on May 21, he was relatively unknown to most of the world. On the same day as his inauguration, May 21, President Zelensky abolished Parliament and called for snap elections to put his party in power. With a new President in place and parliamentary elections in Ukraine coming, starting in June of 2019, the President ordered foreign aid to Ukraine to be held until the end of the fiscal year, but agencies were informed that they should do all the preliminary work needed before the aid was sent, so it would be ready to release at a moment's notice. The leadership in Ukraine was not notified that there was a hold on their foreign aid. The new Parliament was elected on July 21, and President Zelensky's party won by a landslide. By mid-August, the new Parliament was working on anti-corruption efforts and trying to establish a high court on corruption, which they put in place September 5, 2019. There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the early days of the new administration, but by mid-August there was clear evidence of actual change in a country that desperately needed a new direction from its corrupt past. On July 25, when President Trump called President Zelensky, the President congratulated President Zelensky for the big win in Parliament and talked about ``burden-sharing''--other nations also paying their share of support for Ukraine. The two Presidents talked about their disapproval of the previous mbassadors to each other's countries. But instead of following all the staff preparation notes written by Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, the National Security Council staffer assigned to Ukraine, and just talking about ``corruption'' in general, the President brought up a question about Ukraine and the 2016 election interference, which I will note below. President Zelensky also brought up to President Trump that his staff was planning to meet with Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, in the coming days, which led to a conversation about Joe Biden and the firing of the previous prosecutor in Ukraine. After the call, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman contacted an attorney at the National Security Council to express his ``policy concerns'' about the call. It is interesting to note that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman's boss, Tim Morrison, was also on the call, but he did not see any problems or concerns with the call according to his own testimony in the House impeachment inquiry. Within a month, a whistleblower filed a report about the call, saying he heard about the call secondhand and was concerned about the implications of a conversation about elections on a head-of-state call. To keep the July 25th call in context with other news, the day before it took place July 24 Robert Mueller had testified before Congress as the last official act to close down the 2\1/2\ year Mueller investigation and clear the President and his campaign team of any further accusation of election interference. During the impeachment trial in the Senate, the House managers repeated over and over that the President was planning to cheat ``again'' on the next election, but the final conclusion of the Mueller report was that ``ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the (Trump) Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.'' This is especially notable because for years a rumor circulated that Ukraine was part of the 2016 election interference and that someone in Ukraine was hiding the Democratic National Committee, DNC, server that was hacked by the Russians in 2016. As the conspiracy theory goes, it was actually the Ukrainians who hacked the DNC, not the Russians. This is the ``Crowdstrike'' theory that President Trump asked President Zelensky to help solve during the call. Agencies of the U.S. intelligence community have stated over and over that they did not believe that Ukraine was involved in the Russian election interference from 2016. I personally agree with the intelligence community assessment but Rudy Giuliani and multiple others around President Trump believed there was a secret plan in 2016 to hurt President Trump's election from Ukraine. This accusation was amplified by bits of truth, including that the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States wrote an editorial in support of Hillary Clinton in 2016 right before the election, and several other Ukrainian officials publicly spoke out against Candidate Trump in 2016. There is nothing illegal about a foreign nation speaking out for or against a Presidential candidate, whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in 2016 or anyone else in the future. It may not be wise to take sides before an election, but it is not illegal. Just because some Ukrainian officials took sidesdoes not mean that the whole Ukrainian Government worked on a cyber attack on our elections. But since this rumor had persisted, and it was a new administration now in Ukraine, President Trump asked President Zelensky to help clear up the facts if he could. That is certainly not illegal or improper, and it is certainly not something that could help the President in the 2020 election, especially since the 2016 Russian election accusation had just been closed the day before. The 2016 ``Crowdstrike'' theory is the issue that President Trump asked President Zelensky to ``do us a favor'' about, not the Bidens or Burisma. During the July 25 call after the question about ``Crowdstrike,'' President Zelensky mentioned to President Trump that one of his advisers would be meeting with Rudy Giuliani soon. Then, President Trump affirmed that meeting and encouraged them to talk about the Biden investigation and the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor. That may seem out of the blue, but in Washington, D.C., that week, the city was buzzing about a Washington Post article that had been written 3 days before July 22, 2019--detailing Hunter Biden's giant salary--$83,000 per month--for doing essentially nothing for a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company and how it undercut Vice President Biden's message on corruption. It is important to get the context of that week to understand the context of the phone call that day. I have no doubt that the story was just as big of news in Kiev, Ukraine, as it was in Washington, D.C., that week. President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had been in and out of Ukraine since November 2018, meeting with government officials and trying to find out more about the ``Crowdstrike'' theory or any other Ukrainian connection to the 2016 election. During that time, Rudy Giuliani met several former prosecutors from Ukraine who blamed their departure on Vice President Biden. It is clear that Rudy Giuliani was working to gain information about both of these issues in his capacity as President Trump's private attorney. It is not criminal for Rudy Giuliani to work on opposition research for a Presidential campaign or to work on behalf of his client to clear his name from any issues related to the 2016 campaign, which he had done since November 2018. Some have stated that since this was ``foreign information,'' it is illegal. That is absolutely not true. In fact, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee in 2016 paid a British citizen, Christopher Steele, to work his contacts in Russia to create the now debunked ``Steele Dossier,'' which the FBI used to open its investigation into President Trump, leading directly to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller. That dossier was opposition research done in Russia by a British citizen, paid for by the Clinton campaign team. Their opposition research was not illegal, but the use and abuse of that document by the FBI to start an investigation was certainly inappropriate and is most likely illegal. But the FBI warrant issue is still being investigated by the ongoing Durham probe. During the July 25, 2019, call, President Zelensky brought up the issue of Rudy Giuliani, and President Trump replied to his statement. You can argue that President Trump should not have discussed the issue with President Zelensky when he brought it up, but it is certainly not illegal or impeachable to talk about it, especially when there are serious questions about Hunter Biden's work with Burisma. That is not a conservative conspiracy theory; the issue of Hunter Biden's employment in Ukraine was a problem for years at the State Department. It had been raised to Vice President Biden when he was still in office. Every State Department official interviewed for the Trump impeachment investigation noted that at best it was a clear conflict of interest, and it was the center of a huge story on corruption in the Washington Post on July 22, 2019. It had the appearance of high-level corruption by using a well-placed family member on the board of a known corrupt gas company in Ukraine to shelter it from prosecutors. Hunter Biden had only resigned from the Burisma board a few months before the July 25 phone call, just prior to when his dad announced his run for the Presidency in 2019. After the July 25 phone call, Attorney General Barr did not have any followup meetings or calls with Ukrainian officials. Rudy Giuliani did have additional conversations with Ukrainian officials, which are legal to do since he is a private attorney representing the President. Text of July 25, 2019 Phone Call Between Presidents Trump and Zelensky The President: Congratulations on a great victory. We all watched from the United States and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn't given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It's a fantastic achievement. Congratulations. President Zelensky: You are absolutely right Mr. President. We did win big and we worked hard for this. We worked a lot but I would like to confess to you that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections and yes it is true that these were unique elections. We were in a unique situation that we were able to achieve a unique success. I'm able to tell you the following; the first time you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we can talk over the phone more often. The President: (laughter) That's a very good idea. I think your country is very happy about that. President Zelensky: Well yes, to tell you the truth, we are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government. You are a great teacher for us and in that. The President: Well it is very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it's something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn't do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it's something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. President Zelensky: Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000% and I can tell you the following; I did talk to Angela Merkel and I did meet with her I also met and talked with Macron and I told them that they are not doing quite as much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions. They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for Ukraine. It turns out that even though logically, the European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union and I'm very grateful to you for that because the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost. ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes. The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike. I guess you have one of your wealthy people . . . The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible. President Zelensky: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you. The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it . . . It sounds horrible to me. President Zelensky: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I'm knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament, the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not accept me as a new President well enough. The President: Well, she's going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor so good luck with everything. Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It's a great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, they're incredible people. President Zelensky: I would like to tell you that I also have quite a few Ukrainian friends that live in the United States. Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower. I will talk to them and I hope to see them again in the future. I also wanted to thank you for your invitation to visit the United States, specifically Washington DC. On the other hand, I also want to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation. We are buying American oil but I am very hopeful for a future meeting. We will have more time and more opportunities to discuss these opportunities and get to know each other better. I would like to thank you very much for your support. The President: Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we'll work that out. I look forward to seeing you. President Zelensky: Thank you very much. I would be very happy to come and would be happy to meet with you personally and get to know you better. I am looking forward to our meeting and I also would like to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the city of Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful country which would welcome you. On the other hand, I believe that on September 1 we will be in Poland and we can meet in Poland hopefully. After that, it might be a very good idea for you to travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine. The President: Okay, we can work that out. I look forward to seeing you in Washington and maybe in Poland because I think we are going to be there at that time. President Zelensky: Thank you very much Mr. President. The President: Congratulations on a fantastic job you've done. The whole world was watching. I'm not sure it was so much of an upset but congratulations. President Zelensky: Thank you Mr. President bye-bye. Based on a whistleblower report about the July 25 call, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the report on September 13 and started its impeachment inquiry on September 24. In the Senate impeachment trial, House managers stated their belief that the President had carried out a ``scheme to cheat in the 2020 election'' by withholding financial aid to Ukraine and withholding a White House meeting with the new President of Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine announcing it would investigate Joe Biden, Burisma, and 2016 election interference. Let's discuss the facts of both. White House Meeting There is no question that President Trump had offered a White House meeting to President Zelensky three times: once in May on a phone call after President Zelensky won his election, once in June in a letter, and finally in the July 25 call after President Zelensky's party won the parliamentary elections. But Tim Morrison--State Department official called as a witness by the House--also testified that they were working on heads-of-state meetings with 12 other heads of state during that same time period. Many nations were trying to line up meetings in the White House during the summer of 2019. During the July 25 call, President Zelensky offered to instead move their meeting from a White House meeting to a face-to-face meeting in Warsaw, Poland, when they would both be there on September 1, 2019. The Presidents agreed, and planning began on the meeting in August. By August 22, the meeting planning was in full swing, as noted by emails in the House hearing's evidence. However, Hurricane Dorian slammed into the United States in the hours leading up to the September 1 meeting, causing a last-minute shift to the Vice President traveling to Poland so the President could stay in the United States to monitor hurricane relief. We know that Vice President Pence met face-to-face with President Zelensky, and they spoke about other nations paying their fair share to help Ukraine and the issue of corruption across Ukraine. We know from the preparation materials and the meeting notes themselves that during the meeting the Vice President did not bring up or discuss the issue of Burisma, Joe Biden, or any other campaign conversation with President Zelensky. The White House found the next available time when President Trump and President Zelensky would both be in the same place at the same time to set up a face-to-face meeting: September 25 at the U.N. Assembly in New York. That meeting was set up, and it took place as scheduled. In the Senate impeachment trial, the House managers maintained that only a White House meeting was sufficient and that it was being withheld, but the facts show that President Zelensky himself floated the idea of a meeting in Poland and that the meeting was not barred or withheld. In the early months of President Zelensky's term, there was a great deal of concern about him, his staff, and his plans because he was an unknown political figure. Until more was known about him, it was entirely appropriate to show caution in coordinating a meeting, but once his nationwide anti-corruption efforts began in August, it was clear that face-to-face meetings were planned and carried out. There was no withholding of a face-to-face meeting with President Trump and President Zelensky. There cannot be a quid pro quo if the meeting was not withheld from Ukrainian officials. The House managers claimed that there was a secret plot to ``extort'' or ``bribe'' the leadership of Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden in exchange for around $400 million of U.S. aid. The aid was State Department and foreign military aid that had been provided for the past 4 years, since Ukraine had been in a war with Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and its occupation of Crimea and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, the United States started sending aid to help the Ukrainian Government. Congress allowed lethal and non-lethal aid to support Ukraine, but during the previous administration, only non-lethal aid was sent. UnderPresident Trump's administration, it was determined that the United States would give the leadership of Ukraine lethal aid to help them fight off Russian tanks, which was President Zelensky's reference to ``javelins'' in the July 25 phone call and his gratitude to President Trump for allowing those tank killing rockets to flow to Ukraine. To be clear, the theory of funds being withheld from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation does not originate from the July 25 call read-out. There is nothing in the text of the call that threatens the withholding of funds in exchange for an investigation. The theory originates from the fact that aid was held back by the Office of Management and Budget, headed by the President's Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, and the ``presumption'' of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, that the aid must have been held because of the President's desire to get the Biden investigation done, since the President's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was working to find out more about the Biden investigation. Ambassador Sondland told multiple people about his theory, but when he finally called President Trump and asked him directly about it, the President responded that he did not have any quid pro quo; he just wanted the President of Ukraine to do what he ran on and ``do the right thing.'' Obviously, people who assume the worst about President Trump take this as a secret message that there actually was a quid pro quo, but the most important fact is that Ambassador Sondland did not read it that way after his call with the President. Ambassador Sondland believed that the President was serious. Unfortunately, the White House Counsel was never allowed to cross examine Ambassador Sondland during the House investigation to get the facts about who he talked to and why he came to believe for a while that there was an effort to push for investigations in exchange for money. During the Senate trial, I listened closely to the facts surrounding the withholding of aid money to Ukraine. This was by far the most serious charge against the President. Two key questions had to be answered for me: Why was the aid held, and why was the aid released? There was no question the aid was held for a of couple months. The question was why? Statements from the House witnesses during the House impeachment inquiry answered the two key questions: The aid was held because there was a legitimate concern about the new President of Ukraine and his administration in the early days of his Presidency and the aid was released on time when the new Ukrainian Parliament starting passing anti-corruption laws in August and after Vice President Pence sat down face to face with President Zelensky on September 1 in Poland to discuss their progress on corruption. We should not lose track of what was happening in Ukraine in 2019. A new President was elected who was a TV actor with no political experience and no record on how he would handle Russia or the issue of widespread national corruption in Ukraine. He ran on a platform of anti-corruption at all levels, but no one knew how he would govern. His campaign was funded by a Ukrainian oligarch who owned a major media outlet, and one of his first advisers was the former attorney for that oligarch. I personally spoke to many of the State Department officials in Ukraine in May of 2019 and heard their concerns about the new government. Then, newly elected President Zelensky used his power to dissolve their Parliament the day he was sworn in and called for ``snap elections'' in which the vast majority of the newly elected leaders were from his newly formed party. To our State Department and the White House, this was either a really a good sign or a really bad sign. Either Ukraine was about to take a major change for the better with new leadership, or this new young leader was about to assume real centralized power. No one knew for certain in May, June, and July of 2019. Within a few weeks in August, the new Parliament got to work passing anti-corruption laws and making significant changes in their accountability and for the country. This was a very good sign. When Vice President Pence met face to face with President Zelensky September 1, both sides had confidence the country was taking a new direction. On September 10 Vice President Pence and Senator Rob Portman met with President Trump to tell him about the progress that had been made, and both advised lifting the hold on aid. The aid was lifted the next day, September 11. No investigation into Hunter Biden or Burisma was ever done by Ukraine, and no part of the U.S. Department of Justice was ever involved in any investigation of Hunter Biden or Burisma. Although the aid was frozen in June, there was no public announcement of the hold, as explained by the White House Counsel, to keep this from becoming a public issue while the White House monitored the progress and status of the transition in Ukraine. On August 27, POLITICO published an article that noted that the foreign aid had been held by the United States. This caused President Zelensky's office to reach out to the State Department and ask why. During the House impeachment proceedings, four of the House witnesses--Ambassador Voelker, Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Taylor, and Tim Morrison--all testified that the Ukrainian leadership learned about the temporary hold in aid after the POLITICO article was published. The issue of the hold was also the first question from President Zelensky to Vice President Pence when they met on September 1 in Poland. The idea that the leadership in Ukraine had pressure placed on them to do an investigation fails the most essential test. Did the leadership of Ukraine even know that the aid was being held? The answer from multiple American and Ukrainian leaders was no, they did not know there was a hold on the aid from the White House. You cannot have pressure to act on an investigation if they did not even know the aid was being held. It is interesting to note, when I researched the records of past foreign aid payment dates and times to Ukraine, I found the 2019 aid was in line with the date the 2016, 2017, and 2018 aid was sent. The vast majority of the military aid to Ukraine was obligated in August or September for the past 4 years. Although the aid was ready to go out the door a couple months earlier in 2019, it was certainly not late, based on the record of the previous 3 years. In fact, the State Department aid was obligated September 30 in 2019, but it was obligated September 28 in 2018. As quoted by the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, ``The aid was held such a short time, we did not even notice.'' During the 2 days of question-and-answer time, I asked a specific question related to this issue because I felt it was important to get the context of the aid, since there had been so much made of the issue during the trial. Here is the full text of my question to the White House Counsel: House Managers have described any delay in military aid and state department funds to Ukraine in 2019 as a cause to believe there was a secret scheme or quid pro quo by the President. In 2019, 86% of the DOD funds were obligated to Ukraine in September, but in 2018, 67% of the funds were obligated in September and in 2017, 73% of the funds were obligated in September. In the State Department, the funds were obligated September 30 in 2019, but they were obligated September 28 in 2018. Each year, the vast majority of the funds were obligated in the final month or days of the fiscal year. Question: Was there a national security risk to Ukraine or the United States from the funds going out late in September in the two previous years? Did it weaken our relationship with Ukraine because the vast majority of our aid was released in September each of the last three years? In response to my question, White House Counsel detailed the fact that military aid from the United States was not for immediate use. It was designed to help the Ukrainian military buy materials for the next year, so it was common for the aid to be obligated at the end of the fiscal year--September 30--and it was also common for some money to be left unobligated and carried over into the next fiscal year, as it was in 2019. While it is easy to create an intricate story on the hold placed on foreign aid to Ukraine, it is also clear that President Trump has temporarily held foreign aid from multiple countries over the past 2 years, including: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Lebanon, and others. There is no question that a President can withhold aid for a short period oftime, but it must be released by September 30, the end of the fiscal year, which it was in this instance. Article I, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants the U.S. House of Representatives ``the sole power of impeachment,'' while article I, section 3 states that ``the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.'' The Constitution is clear that the House does not control the Senate process and the Senate does not control the House process; however, during the impeachment trial of President Trump, the House tried repeatedly to dictate to the Senate how it should conduct its trial. The ``sole power to try'' means laying out rules for the trial, including when and if to call additional witnesses or request more documents. In addition to laying out roles and responsibilities for impeachment, our Constitution also provides basic rights for the accused. The Fifth Amendment ensures due process. However, the receipt of due process is not contingent upon waiving another right, like immunity or executive privilege. But that is exactly what the House tried to force President Trump to do. The President is not above the law, but neither is the House of Representatives. If there was a question as to the scope and proper use of the President's right to assert immunity or executive privilege regarding conversations he had with his closest advisers, that question is proper for a court to determine, not Congress, and surely not the House on its own accord. To put this in constitutional terms, the legislative branch cannot prevent the executive branch from having access to the judicial branch. The House wanted to move quickly and prevent the President from ever going to court to resolve any issue. That has never been done for a good reason, the separation of powers. In previous legal battles with the President, it has taken months to resolve critical issues, like Bush v. Gore in 2000 or even in the Clinton impeachment trial, when the House took 2 months to resolve an issue with witnesses in court. It does not have to drag on for years. The House also wanted the Chief Justice of the United States to ``rule on'' any issue quickly instead of allowing the President to go through the courts. This would have created a new judicial executive branch by putting all the judicial power of the nation in one person, not in the judicial branch, as is stated in the Constitution. It would have also ignored the text of the Constitution where it notes that the Chief Justice ``presides'' in the court of impeachment, not ``decides.'' The sole power of impeachment is in the Senate, not the Senate plus the one Justice. The Chief Justice keeps the trial moving along, based on the rules of the trial, but he or she is not a decider of fact; that is reserved to the Senate. The House managers wanted to ignore that part of the Constitution to move the trial faster for expedience. We cannot ignore the Constitution or create bad precedent, no matter which party is being tried for impeachment. Further, the Sixth Amendment guarantees that the accused has the ability to both confront the witnesses against him and to have the assistance of counsel. The majority of the impeachment inquiry in the House was done without a meaningful opportunity for the President to participate, and administration witnesses were denied the ability to have counsel present for depositions. The Constitution lays out a clear separation of powers but importantly also provides a system of checks and balances. For something as important as impeachment, it is imperative that the process be one that is squarely within the bounds of the Constitution and is one that the American people can trust. Unfortunately, the process undertaken by the House to impeach President Trump falls wildly short of the standards put in place by our Founders. Article II, section 4 of the Constitution states that ``the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.'' During the trial of President Trump, there was a lot of conversation about what constitutes a ``high crime'' or ``misdemeanor.'' Notably, the House did not charge the President with any crimes; rather, the House chose to impeach the President for ``abuse of power'' and ``obstruction of Congress.'' The House theoretically could have chosen to file Articles of Impeachment for crimes such as bribery, extortion, solicitation of interference in an election, or violations of the Impoundments Clause Act. For any of these crimes, the House would have had to prove specific elements of each. Since they couldn't prove any of those crimes, they chose to charge the President with abuse of power. As was noted in the trial, 40 Presidents have faced accusation of abuse of power, going back as far as George Washington. The abuse of power charge for President Trump was based on allegations that he improperly withheld aid to Ukraine and conditioned a meeting with President Zelensky at the White House in exchange for an investigation into former Vice President Biden and his son Hunter. Over the course of the last 4 months, we heard the term ``quid pro quo'' used over and over again, but the facts do not show criminal quid pro quo. As previously mentioned, President Zelensky asked to meet with President Trump in Poland, and that meeting was set up. Further, while the aid to Ukraine was delayed, it wasn't delayed more than it had been the previous 2 years, and the aid was released without an investigation--or even an announcement of one--into the Biden's. The second Article of Impeachment, obstruction of Congress, had an even weaker constitutional foundation. The investigation was announced September 24 did not officially begin until October 31. The impeachment vote in the House was December 18. This very short time table and the accusation that the President refused to follow the law, honor the courts, and that he acted like a ``King'' did not meet even the most basic constitutional standards for justice. For example, during the Mueller investigation, the President's team fully cooperated with the investigation that included over 2,000 subpoenas and 500 witnesses, including the President's Chief of Staff, multiple Cabinet officials, and many lower level officials who were all made available. It was clear throughout the investigation that the President did not like or agree with the Mueller investigation, but he also fully cooperated with every subpoena, each witness, and every document. In fact, they released over a million pages of documents to the Mueller team. President Trump also made his disagreement with the courts very clear on issues like the census, whether travel restrictions can be put in place to ensure national security, or whether particular funds can be used to secure our southern border. But each time the President lost in court, his administration complied with orders from the judiciary. That is how our system of government is supposed to work. When disagreements happen between the legislative branch and the judicial branch, they usually lead to resolution, not impeachment. The Fast and Furious investigation, which lasted more than 3 years in the Obama administration, led to a vote in the House to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, but it never led to an impeachment inquiry, even though there was a clear and consistent refusal to cooperate with Congress or turn over key documents for 3 years. In this case, the accusation that President Trump ignored subpoenas or refused to follow the law is not correct. The President's team made it very clear that they would cooperate during the impeachment inquiry with properly authorized and issued subpoenas, but the House refused to issue subpoenas that were consistent with the law to seek resolution for documents and witnesses. The House was focused on speed, not legal process. The House, in a rush to impeachment last fall, issued multiple subpoenas for documents and testimony before the House had given authority to the committees to issue subpoenas for an impeachment inquiry, which happened October 31. Since there was no authority to issue the subpoenas, they were not duly authorized. The House also demanded testimony from the President's inner circle without working through the legal questions, and the House demanded executive agency witnesses appear without allowing them to bring agency counsel with them. All of thoseissues created very real legal and constitutional problems. Agency individuals have always been allowed to have legal counsel with them when they are deposed, except this time. As a Member of Congress, I cannot demand the President turn over documents or give testimony in any fashion that I would prefer just because I have oversight responsibilities. In the same way, the President or other executive branch officials cannot demand I turn over my notes or provide my staff for testimony without going through the courts and gaining a legal subpoena. Congress has vigorously and rightfully protected its rights from unwarranted investigations from any President and Presidents have done the same. But in all cases, the law must be followed and the proper process must be pursued to get the information in a legal way. From the very first moments of the Senate trial, the House managers fought for additional witnesses and documents from the President. Their argument and justification for the second Article of Impeachment centered on the White House's refusal to turn over documents and make every witness available without going through the normal legal process. Per the resolution adopted by the Senate, the House record was part of the trial record. The Senate had the testimony of the witnesses the House chose to question as part of the overall information of the trial. The House already had 28,000 pages of documents that were part of the evidence they submitted to the Senate, although, the House managers admitted during the Senate impeachment trial that they still have not released all of the documents and witness testimony that they had gathered in their investigation to the White House Counsel or to the Senate. We do not fully know why the House held back some of its witness testimony and released others. The House witness testimony was used extensively in the Senate trial. These are the witnesses who testified live or via video in the House and Senate Impeachment: David Holmes, Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy Ukraine, State Department; Dr. Fiona Hill, White House Advisor, National Security Council; David Hale, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, State Department; Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Tim Morison, Former White House Adviser; Kurt Voelker, Former Special Envoy for Ukraine; LTC Alexander Vindman, National Security Council; Jennifer Williams, aide to the Vice President; Marie Yovanovitch, Former Ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; Bill Taylor, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. The House managers repeated over and over that additional witnesses would only take a week to depose, which is a clearly false statement. New witnesses took longer than a week to depose in the House inquiry; clearly it would take just as long or longer in a Senate trial. The remaining ``wish list'' of witnesses all had clear issues that needed to be resolved in the courts, which would take a couple of months to resolve, which is why the House managers did not push for their testimony in the House impeachment process. They valued speed more than legal process. House managers repeatedly stated that witnesses only took a week to depose in the Clinton Senate impeachment trial, but they know that during the Clinton Senate trial, all three called witnesses previously deposed in the House inquiry or in the grand jury investigation, and all issues of executive privilege had already been decided through the courts. There were no new witnesses in the Senate trial of President Clinton. Also, the Clinton White House had already had the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses or the investigators in the Clinton impeachment inquiry. This time, the Trump White House had been denied that right. So, if new witnesses would be added for the Senate trial, the White House should have the right to also cross-examine the previous House witnesses they had been denied the right to cross examine in the past. This would all take much longer than a week, and the House managers knew that. During the Clinton impeachment trial in the Senate, there were no additional documents requested, only previously deposed witnesses. The House managers did not go through the legal process to get documents, like the Mueller investigation had done, so all of the new document requests from the House managers would take at least 3 to 5 weeks to complete, once a legal subpoena is delivered. It takes time to search all databases, review the documents for classified materials, determine any legal issues, and release them to the investigation. Once the documents are turned over, both legal teams need time to review the documents. Again, the House managers knew these facts, but they continued to repeat over and over that it would only take a week to get all the documents. The first question for the Senate trial was, do we have enough evidence and testimony to answer the questions the House presented in their Articles of Impeachment? If the answer is yes, then we do not need additional witnesses or documents. If the answer is no, then we do need additional information. There were many leaks and newspaper stories during the trial designed to push the Senate to vote to ask for more testimony, but that did not change the primary question. We already knew from evidence that there was no quid pro quo, no Ukrainian investigations, and no withholding of a public meeting with President Trump. The New York Times story on January 26 and again on January 31 are clear examples of an attempt to bring doubt on the information and witness testimony. Both stories stated that someone had read the pending John Bolton book manuscript and that in the book, Bolton stated that President Trump had talked about investigations in exchange for aid funding for Ukraine. The New York Times also wrote that the book would state that Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone were also a part of the scheme. I looked at both stories closely and noticed that the reporters had not read the manuscripts or quoted the manuscripts; they were reports from someone who stated that they had read the manuscripts. Both stories took significant liberties to describe the intent in the manuscripts, but the reporter had apparently also not spoken to John Bolton. On January 23, 2020, the National Security Council lawyers sent a letter to the legal team handling the book publishing for John Bolton to inform him that the manuscript contained some classified information and it would need have some edits before publication in March. Then, on January 26, the New York Times published a story that someone had leaked some of the details of the book, but they had not released the actual manuscript. While I am interested in seeing the actual manuscript, I am also very aware that this selective leak was designed by the New York Times and whoever leaked the information to influence the ongoing trial. It was clear from the earliest days of the trial that the House had a clear political strategy as well as a courtroom strategy. During the trial. I had the responsibility to hear the facts but also to separate the politics from the facts. Politically, it was best for the House to move as quickly as possible through impeachment so that vulnerable Democratic Members could vote for impeachment and then move quickly to other topics. But since the Presidential election is in full swing, it was politically better for Democrats to make the Senate trial move as slow as possible to hurt the President during the campaign. That explains why the House did not take the time to formally request documents or testimony from many individuals; they needed to move fast and try to force the Senate to move slowly. It also explained why the House passed impeachment on a party line vote, then held the Articles of Impeachment for a month before delivering them to the Senate to start the trial. The House managers said repeatedly that the evidence was clear and that they had proved their case, but if that was true, why would the Senate need to call additional witnesses? I think the reason is that the witness process was about delay, more than facts. The facts do not support the accusation in the Trump impeachment, and it certainly did not need to come to this moment of national division. While it was clear that the House managerswanted to drag the trial on for months in the Senate, through the primary election season, their case consisted of hypothetical story lines and ``presumptions'' more than facts that warrant the removal of a President. This does not meet what Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 65 described as the ``due weight'' for the arguments. But impeachment has certainly created the division in our society that Alexander Hamilton predicted. Over 200 years ago he wrote, ``The prosecution [of impeachments], will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.'' This has been an incredibly divisive season in our Nation. It is not about one person; it is about all of us. We individually choose how we handle disagreements with family, friends, and people on the other side of particular issues. Our government represents us, so it is up to us to model for our government how to handle disagreements. We are now past impeachment, and it is time to work on the issues that matter most to the American people. As we move forward, every American should speak out on the issues that are important to them and the voices that speak for their point of view. But we should remember that we have much more in common than we have that divides us. It is my hope that our Nation does not go through a season like this again for a very long time and that we can move past this age of impeachment to an age of oversight and accountability. I appreciate all the engagement with our office during the impeachment proceedings. We had thousands of calls and emails over the past month. We had hundreds of thousands of views on the nightly Facebook Live updates each day during the trial. While not every Oklahoman agrees with every decision I make on behalf of our State, I am grateful most choose to be respectful in expressing their points of view. At the end of the day, we are Oklahomans. We may not all agree on each issue, but we can be respectful of each other in our disagreement. I am honored to serve our State and Nation. We have many important issues to address in the coming days I pray we can work on them together for the future of our State and Nation.

2020-01-06

Mr. LANKFORD

Senate

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formal

single

homophobic

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, today I rise to honor Kimberly Hazelgrove for her service and sacrifices for our country and her successful efforts to advocate for families like her own who lost loved ones serving our Nation. Kimberly Hazelgrove is a former sergeant first class in the U.S. Army. In 2004, her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Hazelgrove was killed in a helicopter crash near Mosul, Iraq. That loss was devastating enough, but after his death, Ms. Hazelgrove also lost the military benefits her family earned serving the United States and that she needed to support her family. They lost those benefits because of a 1970s-era law that causes Gold Star families to lose out on financial benefits that their spouses paid into and earned. For 16 years, Ms. Hazelgrove advocated on Capitol Hill for the repeal of that law, the Survivor Benefit Plan-Disability and Indemnity Compensation offset, while raising her family as a single mother. She said, ``I was angry . . . Very angry for the inequities that I was seeing, not only for myself, but for a lot of my friends going through it and it just lit a fire, and I found a stronger voice than I had before.'' My office and I met with Ms. Hazelgrove and took up her cause. Gold Star families like hers have sacrificed so much for this country and nothing should get in the way of providing them with benefits that they have paid into and earned. We worked together with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to write legislation that will fix this, and this past December, because she never gave up, we got it done. We passed a fix in the Senate, and the President signed it into law. Because of Ms. Hazelgrove's perseverance and strong advocacy, 67,000 military spouses will now get the benefits they have earned to support themselves and their families. Thank you, Kimberly, for raising your voice and for all the work you do to fight for fellow Gold Star families. I am sure my Senate colleagues will join me in honoring Ms. Kimberly Hazelgrove for her exemplary efforts.

2020-01-06

Mr. BROWN

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1152-2

formal

single mother

racist

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, today I rise to honor Kimberly Hazelgrove for her service and sacrifices for our country and her successful efforts to advocate for families like her own who lost loved ones serving our Nation. Kimberly Hazelgrove is a former sergeant first class in the U.S. Army. In 2004, her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Hazelgrove was killed in a helicopter crash near Mosul, Iraq. That loss was devastating enough, but after his death, Ms. Hazelgrove also lost the military benefits her family earned serving the United States and that she needed to support her family. They lost those benefits because of a 1970s-era law that causes Gold Star families to lose out on financial benefits that their spouses paid into and earned. For 16 years, Ms. Hazelgrove advocated on Capitol Hill for the repeal of that law, the Survivor Benefit Plan-Disability and Indemnity Compensation offset, while raising her family as a single mother. She said, ``I was angry . . . Very angry for the inequities that I was seeing, not only for myself, but for a lot of my friends going through it and it just lit a fire, and I found a stronger voice than I had before.'' My office and I met with Ms. Hazelgrove and took up her cause. Gold Star families like hers have sacrificed so much for this country and nothing should get in the way of providing them with benefits that they have paid into and earned. We worked together with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to write legislation that will fix this, and this past December, because she never gave up, we got it done. We passed a fix in the Senate, and the President signed it into law. Because of Ms. Hazelgrove's perseverance and strong advocacy, 67,000 military spouses will now get the benefits they have earned to support themselves and their families. Thank you, Kimberly, for raising your voice and for all the work you do to fight for fellow Gold Star families. I am sure my Senate colleagues will join me in honoring Ms. Kimberly Hazelgrove for her exemplary efforts.

2020-01-06

Mr. BROWN

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1152-2

formal

single

homophobic

On Thursday, February 13, 2020, the Senate passed S. Res. 490, as follows: S. Res. 490 Whereas, on Sunday, February 2, 2020, the Kansas City Chiefs (in this preamble referred to as the ``Chiefs'') defeated the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 31 to 20 to win Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Florida; Whereas the Chiefs, established on August 14, 1959, playing in their 60th season in the National Football League (referred to in this preamble as the ``NFL''), made their third Super Bowl appearance and their first Super Bowl appearance since Super Bowl IV; Whereas Super Bowl LIV was the culmination of the 100th season of the NFL, a season in which the league has promoted stars both past and present, served the community, and looked toward the next 100 years of football; Whereas the Chiefs overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and scored 21 straight points in the final 6 minutes and 13 seconds of gameplay to earn the victory; Whereas the victory in Super Bowl LIV earned the Chiefs their second Super Bowl victory, ending their 50-year Super Bowl drought that had lasted since the team last won Super Bowl IV on January 11, 1970; Whereas the Chiefs were participants in the first ever Super Bowl and are now champions of the centennial season of the NFL; Whereas the Chiefs began their championship season in another great Missouri city, St. Joseph, holding training camp on the campus of Missouri Western State University for the tenth straight year; Whereas head coach Andy Reid earned his 222nd career win, placing him sixth on the all-time wins list of the NFL and earning his first Super Bowl title in his 21-year tenure as a head coach in the NFL; Whereas Andy Reid is the 24th head coach of the NFL to appear in more than 1 Super Bowl; Whereas in the 2019 NFL season, the Chiefs earned a playoff bid for the sixth time in 7 seasons under Andy Reid; Whereas quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed 26 of 42 pass attempts for 286 yards and 2 touchdowns, rushed 9 times for 29 yards and 1 touchdown, and was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl LIV; Whereas Patrick Mahomes became the youngest player in NFL history to earn both the NFL Most Valuable Player award and a Super Bowl title, while setting a playoff record for most touchdowns thrown before the first interception to start a player's playoff career; Whereas in the American Football Conference Championship, Patrick Mahomes completed an iconic 27-yard scramble down the sideline for a touchdown to take the lead against the Tennessee Titans; Whereas Patrick Mahomes became the first NFL quarterback with 3 double-digit comebacks in a single postseason; Whereas Damien Williams rushed for 104 yards and scored 2 touchdowns, increasing his career playoff touchdown total to 11, tying Hall of Famer Terrell Davis for the most touchdowns in an individual's first 6 playoff games; Whereas Travis Kelce had 6 receptions for 43 yards and 1 touchdown; Whereas Tyreek Hill had 9 receptions for 105 yards, including a crucial 44-yard reception on third-and-fifteen with only 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter; Whereas Sammy Watkins had 5 receptions for 98 yards; Whereas Bashaud Breeland led the team with 7 tackles and 1 interception; Whereas Chris Jones was a disruptive force with 3 passes defended; Whereas Frank Clark sacked the quarterback of the 49ers, Jimmy Garoppolo, on fourth-and-ten with fewer than 2 minutes remaining to seal the victory; Whereas Harrison Butker was 1-for-1 in field goal attempts and 4-for-4 in point-after attempts; Whereas Dustin Colquitt, the longest-tenured Chief, earned his first Super Bowl victory in his 15th season; Whereas kick returner Mecole Hardman, tight end Travis Kelce, safety Tyrann Mathieu, and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz were named to the Associated Press All-Pro team for the 2019 season; Whereas the Chiefs should be recognized for their tremendous resiliency in the face of adversity when trailing 24-0 against the Houston Texans in the American Football Conference Divisional Round, down by 10 against the Tennessee Titans in the American Football Conference Championship Round, and trailing 20-10 against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV; Whereas the entire Chiefs roster contributed to the Super Bowl victory, including Nick Allegretti, Jackson Barton, Blake Bell, Bashaud Breeland, Alex Brown, Harrison Butker, Morris Claiborne, Frank Clark, Dustin Colquitt, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Cam Erving, Rashad Fenton, Eric Fisher, Kendall Fuller, Mecole Hardman, Demone Harris, Chad Henne, Tyreek Hill, Anthony Hitchens, Ryan Hunter, Chris Jones, Travis Kelce, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Darron Lee, Jordan Lucas, Patrick Mahomes, Tyrann Mathieu, LeSean McCoy, Matt Moore, Ben Niemann, Derrick Nnadi, Dorian O'Daniel, Mike Pennel, Byron Pringle, Reggie Ragland, Austin Reiter, Demarcus Robinson, Khalen Saunders, Mitchell Schwartz, Anthony Sherman, Daniel Sorensen, Terrell Suggs, Darwin Thompson, Charvarius Ward, Sammy Watkins, Armani Watts, Damien Williams, Xavier Williams, Damien Wilson, James Winchester, Stefen Wisniewski, Andrew Wylie, and Deon Yelder; Whereas the victory of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV instills an extraordinary sense of pride for fans in the States of Missouri and Kansas and across the Midwest; and Whereas people all over the world are asking, ``How `bout those Chiefs?'': Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) congratulates the Kansas City Chiefs and their entire staff, Mayor of Kansas City Quinton Lucas, Governor of Missouri Mike Parson, and loyal fans of the Kansas City Chiefs for their victory in Super Bowl LIV; and (2) respectfully directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to-- (A) the chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Kansas City Chiefs, Clark Hunt; (B) the president of the Kansas City Chiefs, Mark Donovan; and (C) the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-25-pt1-PgS1159-2

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 35) to amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-26-pt1-PgH1211-2

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2490) to amend the National Trails System Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the feasibility of designating the Chief Standing Bear National Historic Trail, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-26-pt1-PgH1212-2

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4852) to amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make available to veterans certain additional information about postsecondary educational institutions, and for other purposes, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-26-pt1-PgH1212

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Ms. SHALALA, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged report (Rept. No. 116-409) on the resolution (H. Res. 866) providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2339) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes, which was referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-02-26-pt1-PgH1223-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

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. THOMPSON of Mississippi: Committee on Homeland Security. Supplemental report on H.R. 1140. A bill to enhance the security operations of the Transportation Security Administration and stability of the transportation security workforce by applying the personnel system under title 5, United States Code, to employees of the Transportation Security Administration who provide screening of all passengers and property, and for other purposes (Rept. 116- 398, Pt. 2). Ms. SHALALA: Committee on Rules. House Resolution 866. Resolution providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2339) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes (Rept. 116-409). Referred to the House Calendar. consensus calendar Under clause 7 of rule XV, the following motion was filed with the Clerk: Motion No. 12, February 26, 2020 by Mr. Peterson on H.R. 1379.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-02-26-pt1-PgH1224

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. Votes will be taken in the following order: Ordering the previous question on House Resolution 866; Adoption of House Resolution 866, if ordered; and Agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, if ordered. The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as 5-minute votes.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgH1239-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on ordering the previous question on the resolution (H. Res. 866) providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2339) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgH1239-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on ordering the previous question on the resolution (H. Res. 866) providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2339) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgH1239-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, which the Chair will put de novo. The question is on the Speaker's approval of the Journal. Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgH1241

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Under clause 2 of rule XIII, reports of committees were delivered to the Clerk for printing and reference to the proper calendar, as follows: Ms. WATERS: Committee on Financial Services. H.R. 3641. A bill to enhance civil penalties under the Federal securities laws, and for other purposes; with an amendment (Rept. 116- 410). Referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgH1249

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on an entirely different matter, earlier this week I said paying tribute to departing Senate staff is one of my favorite and least favorite things to do, simultaneously. So I am especially unhappy to be back at it again today. There is almost nobody--nobody--in this institution with whom I have worked more closely, or whose counsel I have sought more frequently, over the past 6\1/2\ years than Laura Dove. Few people actually understand how important the Secretaries for the Majority and to the Minority are to this institution. These two officers supervise each side's cloakroom and floor staff. They are sort of like air traffic controllers who help Senators sequence the bills, amendments, and nominations that we vote on. They keep every office apprised of what exactly has happened, is happening, and will happen on the floor. They serve as in-house procedural experts to each side, advising the leader and the chairmen. And they build close relationships with every Member of their side, trying to ensure the floor schedule reflects everything from Senators' policy priorities to their personal scheduling conflicts. And while the two Secretaries are doing all this work in parallel with each other, they are also constantly working together. On many daily questions of process and of timing, their one-on-one relationship is the diplomatic frontline between the two sides of the aisle. The Senate, as you know, is a consent-based institution. Almost every practicality is made much easier with bipartisan agreement--from scheduling major votes to packaging nominees, to literally turning the lights on every morning. And it is often Laura and her counterpart, Gary, who hammer out those details. Consider the limitless scope of this job. It is no wonder Laura has made a certain piece of human resources phraseology into her personal mantra and her cloakroom's motto: ``Other duties as assigned.'' The Secretary for the Majority is essential to the Senate, and so Laura has become essential to all of us. There cannot be many father-daughter pairs in world history--in world history--who have bonded over parliamentary procedure, but the fact is, it doesn't just seem like the Senate is Laura's natural habitat; she literally grew up in this place. Laura's father, Bob Dove, started in the Parliamentarian's Office in the 1960s. He kept rising, and in the 1980s and 1990s, he was the Parliamentarian. Bob was known for a wry saying he would repeat after tough days: ``You may love the Senate, but the Senate may not love you back.'' Unfortunately, for his family, one of the Senate's love languages turns out to be keeping people here late at night, which meant that the Dove family dinners, orchestrated by Laura's mom, Linda, sometimes happened in the corners of this very building. The exposure sparked Laura's curiosity. Those family dinners turned into days off from school, spent wandering the halls and trying to imitate the duties of the pages. Then she put on the page uniform herself, and that is how this distinguished decades-long Senate career began: delivering notes, filling water glasses, and studying for math tests in the attic dorms of the Library of Congress. That was the mid-1980s. Laura debuted in the cloakroom right around the time I debuted as a freshman Senator. Neither of us knew what awaited us. From the lowest rung to the top of the ladder, Laura threw herself into literally everything. At every step, no task was too insignificant and no challenge was too great. Laura has had a hand in every accomplishment of this institution for nearly a decade. She has played a significant role in literally every single victory of this majority. Her job performance alone would be stunningly impressive. But what is even more unfathomable is the level of kindness and good cheer she has maintained while doing it. She seems to begin every day with a smile on her face and a show tune on her lips. She treats everybody with the same respect and simple kindness, from the pages whom she invites over for home-cooked holiday meals to the Senators whose family details she has committed to memory. She is as happy tutoring junior staff in Senate basics as talking strategy with senior members. No matter how late the floor was open the night before, the same Laura clocked in the next morning, full of joy and maybe a new recipe to share with fellow Senate foodies. Laura reminds us that the Senate's strength comes from its people. She has embodied this in her professional conduct, fighting to preserve and protect this institution as she helped us navigate through it, and she has embodied this institution in her personal character as well. She treats everybody with such warmth and respect as though this Chamber were our shared second home--and in some cases, it literally has been. This staffer is so dedicated that she has rung in major milestone birthdays on these very premises, stolen sleep on a couch during overnight sessions--you get the picture. Few were shocked when Laura's previous attempts to leave the Senate fizzled out after a year or so. I remember being relieved when I got another year, but I suspected she would be back. But this time is different. In recent months, I know Laura has grown more and more excited to reallocate some time from her second home to her real home, to the family she has built with her husband Dan and their children, Abby and Jake. Laura loves this body, its rules, its quirks, and its history more than almost anything. I say almost anything. But she loves a family dinner with those three, a glass of Chardonnay, and a game night by the fireplace even more. And as they prepare to send their oldest off to college soon, that time is becoming extra precious. For us Senators it is hard to imagine what it is going to feel like next week when Laura is not here. I imagine she may feel the same way. But I know this: Those of us who remain will frequently ask ourselves ``What would Laura do?'' And whether the issue at hand is institutional or strategic or culinary, we will know asking that question will point us in the right direction. I also know that Laura will be departing with some new wisdom of her own. She will know that, in a rare occurrence, her brilliant father actually got one thing wrong--that funny old saying: ``You may love the Senate, but the Senate won't love you back.'' Well, his daughter will leave knowing that is only half true. So, Laura, this institution cannot thank you enough, nor can this majority, nor can I. But I feel certain you will never quite be a stranger to the Senate. I don't think you could manage it even if you tried. So we won't say goodbye. We will just conclude with one more piece of Laura lingo she made famous: ``Ciao for now.''

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1162

formal

single

homophobic

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on an entirely different matter, earlier this week I said paying tribute to departing Senate staff is one of my favorite and least favorite things to do, simultaneously. So I am especially unhappy to be back at it again today. There is almost nobody--nobody--in this institution with whom I have worked more closely, or whose counsel I have sought more frequently, over the past 6\1/2\ years than Laura Dove. Few people actually understand how important the Secretaries for the Majority and to the Minority are to this institution. These two officers supervise each side's cloakroom and floor staff. They are sort of like air traffic controllers who help Senators sequence the bills, amendments, and nominations that we vote on. They keep every office apprised of what exactly has happened, is happening, and will happen on the floor. They serve as in-house procedural experts to each side, advising the leader and the chairmen. And they build close relationships with every Member of their side, trying to ensure the floor schedule reflects everything from Senators' policy priorities to their personal scheduling conflicts. And while the two Secretaries are doing all this work in parallel with each other, they are also constantly working together. On many daily questions of process and of timing, their one-on-one relationship is the diplomatic frontline between the two sides of the aisle. The Senate, as you know, is a consent-based institution. Almost every practicality is made much easier with bipartisan agreement--from scheduling major votes to packaging nominees, to literally turning the lights on every morning. And it is often Laura and her counterpart, Gary, who hammer out those details. Consider the limitless scope of this job. It is no wonder Laura has made a certain piece of human resources phraseology into her personal mantra and her cloakroom's motto: ``Other duties as assigned.'' The Secretary for the Majority is essential to the Senate, and so Laura has become essential to all of us. There cannot be many father-daughter pairs in world history--in world history--who have bonded over parliamentary procedure, but the fact is, it doesn't just seem like the Senate is Laura's natural habitat; she literally grew up in this place. Laura's father, Bob Dove, started in the Parliamentarian's Office in the 1960s. He kept rising, and in the 1980s and 1990s, he was the Parliamentarian. Bob was known for a wry saying he would repeat after tough days: ``You may love the Senate, but the Senate may not love you back.'' Unfortunately, for his family, one of the Senate's love languages turns out to be keeping people here late at night, which meant that the Dove family dinners, orchestrated by Laura's mom, Linda, sometimes happened in the corners of this very building. The exposure sparked Laura's curiosity. Those family dinners turned into days off from school, spent wandering the halls and trying to imitate the duties of the pages. Then she put on the page uniform herself, and that is how this distinguished decades-long Senate career began: delivering notes, filling water glasses, and studying for math tests in the attic dorms of the Library of Congress. That was the mid-1980s. Laura debuted in the cloakroom right around the time I debuted as a freshman Senator. Neither of us knew what awaited us. From the lowest rung to the top of the ladder, Laura threw herself into literally everything. At every step, no task was too insignificant and no challenge was too great. Laura has had a hand in every accomplishment of this institution for nearly a decade. She has played a significant role in literally every single victory of this majority. Her job performance alone would be stunningly impressive. But what is even more unfathomable is the level of kindness and good cheer she has maintained while doing it. She seems to begin every day with a smile on her face and a show tune on her lips. She treats everybody with the same respect and simple kindness, from the pages whom she invites over for home-cooked holiday meals to the Senators whose family details she has committed to memory. She is as happy tutoring junior staff in Senate basics as talking strategy with senior members. No matter how late the floor was open the night before, the same Laura clocked in the next morning, full of joy and maybe a new recipe to share with fellow Senate foodies. Laura reminds us that the Senate's strength comes from its people. She has embodied this in her professional conduct, fighting to preserve and protect this institution as she helped us navigate through it, and she has embodied this institution in her personal character as well. She treats everybody with such warmth and respect as though this Chamber were our shared second home--and in some cases, it literally has been. This staffer is so dedicated that she has rung in major milestone birthdays on these very premises, stolen sleep on a couch during overnight sessions--you get the picture. Few were shocked when Laura's previous attempts to leave the Senate fizzled out after a year or so. I remember being relieved when I got another year, but I suspected she would be back. But this time is different. In recent months, I know Laura has grown more and more excited to reallocate some time from her second home to her real home, to the family she has built with her husband Dan and their children, Abby and Jake. Laura loves this body, its rules, its quirks, and its history more than almost anything. I say almost anything. But she loves a family dinner with those three, a glass of Chardonnay, and a game night by the fireplace even more. And as they prepare to send their oldest off to college soon, that time is becoming extra precious. For us Senators it is hard to imagine what it is going to feel like next week when Laura is not here. I imagine she may feel the same way. But I know this: Those of us who remain will frequently ask ourselves ``What would Laura do?'' And whether the issue at hand is institutional or strategic or culinary, we will know asking that question will point us in the right direction. I also know that Laura will be departing with some new wisdom of her own. She will know that, in a rare occurrence, her brilliant father actually got one thing wrong--that funny old saying: ``You may love the Senate, but the Senate won't love you back.'' Well, his daughter will leave knowing that is only half true. So, Laura, this institution cannot thank you enough, nor can this majority, nor can I. But I feel certain you will never quite be a stranger to the Senate. I don't think you could manage it even if you tried. So we won't say goodbye. We will just conclude with one more piece of Laura lingo she made famous: ``Ciao for now.''

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1162

formal

Chicago

racist

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, as Iowa farmers count down the days to get into the fields, baseball fans are counting down the days for that first pitch to cross the plate. As a farmer and also as a baseball fan, hope springs eternal. However, we have gotten wind that Major League Baseball is throwing local clubs a curve ball--a curve that would hurt baseball, hurt local economies, and the fields of dreams in my home State. That is three strikes right there. I have got news. Don't count us baseball fans out. These local communities and this U.S. Senator aren't going to sit on the sidelines. Now, here is the news: Major League Baseball said that it may cut ties with as many as 42 Minor League clubs, including three historic affiliates in Iowa: The Burlington Bees, the Clinton LumberKings, and the Quad Cities River Bandits. I have been in communication with the deputy commissioner of Major League Baseball, Dan Halem, both in letters and on the phone, about the importance of these teams to Iowa. I am sure a lot of my colleagues have made the same contacts. I have also joined, with a bipartisan group of my colleagues, in introducing a resolution today supporting all Minor League Baseball teams across the country. For generations of Iowans, these ball clubs are a vibrant source of civic pride, a vibrant source of entertainment, and--would you believe it--also a vibrant source of economic development. While I have been to just a handful of Major League Baseball games, I have fond, fond memories of going to Minor League Baseball games in Waterloo, IA. We call them the Waterloo White Hawks, a club team for the Chicago White Sox. I had an opportunity, as a young person, to see Luis Aparicio play there in Waterloo before he made it big in the majors as a shortstop for the Chicago White Sox. You can see that I want Iowans to continue to have that same experience. For the record, I am and will always go to bat for Iowa. As Iowa's senior Senator, I will do what I can to ``root, root, root for the home team.'' I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

2020-01-06

Mr. GRASSLEY

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1164-2

formal

blue

antisemitic

Workforce Development Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk about how this strong American economy has led to historic workforce needs and how, if we do the right things to respond to that problem, it can become an opportunity--an opportunity to bring Americans off thesidelines, who for too long have not been in the workforce or have been underemployed, to bring them back in to work. It gives us the potential to do two things. One is to strengthen the economy. It is already strong, but it would be even stronger if we could fill this gap. By the way, if we don't fill this gap, if we don't provide the workforce, the economy will weaken. Second, it is to help millions of Americans who are not working, on the sidelines, or who are underemployed to find meaningful employment with good pay and good benefits. Pro-growth Federal tax policies, regulatory policies, and other policies over the past few years have worked. Some of us have talked about the need to reform the Tax Code and make it work better. A trillion dollars has been invested in the U.S. economy since tax reform. As an example, we have seen unemployment at low levels--3.6 percent unemployment today, which is just about a 50-year low in terms of unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office has told us through recent data that we have grown at a steady 2.3 percent rate in the past year. That is good. This unemployment number is important, but also important is that we are seeing wage growth. In fact, we have now had 18 straight months of wage growth of over 3 percent. It is the first time we have had this in at least a decade. That is very important because you think about really, for the past decade, what we have had is flat wages or even declining wages relative to inflation. That is certainly true in my home State of Ohio. It has been about a decade and a half since we have seen any real wage growth. Now we have this steady wage growth. In fact, among blue-collar workers--what the Labor Department says--nonsupervisory employees have seen the highest percentage increase in wage growth. For blue-collar workers, there has been a 6.6-percent wage growth over the past 2 years. By the way, that is about $1.50 an hour on average. It is a big deal, and it is very important because that was one of the great objectives we had in tax reform and tax cuts, was to ensure that we get the economy moving and give people the chance to earn more, to be able to have a feeling that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they could get ahead. We are seeing that. That is great news for the American people and great news for the folks I represent in Ohio who are finally benefiting from higher wages. At the same time, I am hearing from small business owners all over the State of Ohio--in fact, businesses at every level--that although they are able to move forward and add jobs, they are looking for workers, and that workforce is their biggest single challenge. We have now had 22 straight months of more jobs being offered than there are workers looking for work--22 months, almost 2 years of that. So there are a lot of openings out there. One thing that is interesting is that even though the economy is strong and we have unemployment at about 50-year lows, there still are people on the sidelines who aren't coming in to work, as they would normally. Economists call this a low labor force participation rate. What that means is, even though we have a strong economy and lots of jobs out there, there are still millions of Americans who are on the sidelines. It is estimated that there are about 8 million working-age men--this would be between the ages of 25 and 55--who are not looking for work today. This means the unemployment number which I mentioned earlier, at 3.6 percent, which is a very low number--almost a 50-year low--is not the real number. The real number is actually higher than that if you assume a normal labor force participation rate. In other words, if you had some of these people who are out of work--I mentioned the 8 million men--coming into the workforce, the unemployment rate would be higher. In fact, if you go back to what the normal labor force participation rate would be just before the last great recession, the unemployment rate today would be about 7.6 percent, so about double what it actually is. That is an opportunity. That is an opportunity. Now, why aren't these folks working? Well, there are a number of reasons for that. Let's be honest. We don't really know. We have done a lot of analysis of it in our own office trying to figure it out, and part of it is the opioid crisis, I am convinced. I have come to the floor 60 times in the last few years to talk about the opioid crisis. We are making progress on that now. That is good. But when surveys are done by the Department of Labor or by the Brookings Institute, they show that a substantial number, as many as 45 to 50 percent of people they survey, say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis who are out of work altogether. So those, roughly, 8 million men, for example, in one study, 47 percent say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis. Two-thirds have acknowledged it is prescription pain medication. This goes to the issue of opioids--opioid prescription drugs, heroin, fentanyl, and so on. When people are addicted, often it is impossible for them to get their act together to be engaged in work on a regular basis. So the opioid crisis definitely affects this. Another one, of course, is a lot of people are in our jails and prisons. We have a record number of people in prison. A lot of people are now getting out. The idea of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, which is legislation that is actually helping to get people back to work, is important, but, frankly, if you have a felony record, it is tough to get a job. That is why we often see these people are on the sidelines. Another issue that I think needs to be looked at is this skills gap. This is a big part of what is going on right now. There are jobs out there, but they require a certain level of skill. So it is great that we have low unemployment. It is great we have all these openings right now, but we just don't have enough skilled workers to fill those jobs that keep growing. I visited dozens of factories and businesses over the past year, and I keep hearing: We have this job for a welder, and we can't find any welders. There are plenty of people looking for work out there, on the sidelines looking for work, but there are no welders. There is one company in Ohio that told me they can hire up to 100 welders. It is a big manufacturing company. In Ohio and across the country, there are lots of these job openings for machinists, medical technicians in hospitals, and there are a lot of techs who are wanted right now--computer programmers, people who know how to code. Coding is really important right now, particularly as you go into medical electronic records, as an example. If you look on ohiomeansjobs.com this morning--and that is a website that is up there showing what jobs are available in Ohio--there are 187,000 jobs this morning being offered in Ohio. When you look at what those jobs are, you will see a lot of them require these skills we are talking about. They don't require necessarily a college degree, by the way. I am talking about technical skills. I mentioned techs and welders. I didn't mention truckdrivers, but that is one area where we need workers in Ohio. We are desperate for people who have the skills to be able to drive a truck. That requires getting a commercial truck driver's license, a CDL. These jobs are there, but they do require some level of skills training after high school. I think that skills gap, if it can be closed, would make a huge difference right now for our economy. Obviously, we need these jobs, and if the workforce isn't there, these businesses are going to move. They are going to move from Ohio, not just to Indiana but to India because that is where the jobs are going to be if we don't provide this level of skills training. Secondly, it is just a great opportunity for these individuals. Some are young people coming up, some are people midcareer. Getting skills training is so critical. Post-high school certificates are what we really need. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute have highlighted this with a survey they do regularly. They say there are roughly 360,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs across the United States right now. They say it is going to get worse. They say the skills gap may lead to an additional 2.4 million manufacturing jobs unfilled over the next 10 years with a negative economic impact of $2.5 trillion. This is a big deal for our economy. The basic training for the kind of jobs I am talking about is called careerand technical education, CTE. For those who are a little older, you might think of a vocational school. CTE is so impressive today. It is not your old vocational school, it is high-tech, using much better equipment. The schools that are taking it seriously are bringing in excellent teachers from the outside, from industry, to understand what is needed in the real world. CTE is a great opportunity for so many young people. A few months ago, I toured the Vantage Career Center in Van Wert, OH. I go to a lot of career centers. I love to go. I am very inspired when I go. In Van Wert, they have juniors and seniors from more than a dozen school districts coming into one CTE center. They are studying things such as automotive technology, welding, nursing assistant training, carpentry, and truckdriving. They are finding when these students get out, they can typically get a job. Some are going on to further skills training. Some are going on to community college, some are going on to 4-year institutions, but for young people in high school, look at CTE. It makes so much sense. I cofounded and co-chair what is called the Senate CTE Caucus. When I first got here in 2011, I started this with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. We started off having 3 of us in the caucus, and now there are 29 people in the caucus. Why? My colleagues go home, and they are hearing the same thing I am hearing, which is that we need to close the skills gap. Companies are looking for people, and it is a great opportunity for people who are on the outside to get into the inside to get a job with good pay and benefits. Our job is to increase awareness of these skills programs as an education option. Our job is to get students who are more interested in skills training into these jobs. This month of February is Career and Technical Education Month. We are putting together a resolution. We have 57 Senators who signed on to the resolution so far, and if you haven't signed on, let us know. It is an opportunity to just raise visibility about what is working well in so many of our States and the amazing opportunities out there for our young people. We passed some good legislation to help. In 2018, we passed the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act, which is working to improve the quality of CTE education programs, making sure we are using equipment and the standards of today's industry to make these programs even more effective. But skills training goes well beyond just these great high school programs. Industry-recognized, certificate-granting technical workforce training programs post-high school are another key to close the skills gap. Think of some of the workforce training programs you have probably heard about in your community that are being offered by your community college or may be offered by a local technical school. They give people a certificate they can then take to get a job that is industry recognized. For these kinds of post-high school training programs, I think the big opportunity comes in improving access because programs are expensive and a lot of young people can't afford them. A lot of midcareer people can't afford them. One thing we can do immediately is say: Let's expand Pell grants to include these kinds of programs. You can get a Pell grant if you want to go to a community college or go to a 4-year college or university. For some people, that is the right track, but, frankly, for a lot of people, they are looking to get these technical skills and get a certificate and get a job. There is no reason they shouldn't get the same help that the government is providing someone who wants to go to a 4-year college or university for these programs to provide the skills that are so desperately needed. In fact, I would say we ought to focus on that more. We ought to change our mindset and say: Let's not just focus on college, as important as it is--and it is the right track for some students--but let's put an equal emphasis on skills training. We have legislation that is very simple. It says that for low-income families, where the students are eligible for Pell for college or university, let's make them eligible for one of these skills training programs that are less than 15 weeks. It has to be a high-quality program and provide this industry-recognized certificate. Our legislation is called the JOBS Act. It makes so much sense. It is bipartisan and bicameral and we should get it done. By the way, for those students who go through a technical training program and get that certificate and end up getting a job, a lot of them do go to college, but guess who pays for it? Typically, it is the company who pays for it. So they don't end up having this big debt or burden that so many students have. Student debt in Ohio is about $27,000 per student; whereas, if you go to one of these programs and end up getting an associate's degree or bachelor's degree or master's degree, typically you aren't paying anything because your employer is going to pay for you to get that additional training. My hope is that we can move this legislation forward quickly. It is something I hear from everyone back in Ohio. Over the past few weeks, we held roundtables on workforce at manufacturing businesses such as Stanley Electric in Madison County and Fecon, Inc., in Warren County, and we talked about this issue with businessowners, with community colleges, with workers who are actually on the job, and all these groups agree the JOBS Act is needed and needed badly. What is more, we know that a lot of businessowners who are getting engaged in this are willing to help these skills training programs to be more effective and to provide the skills training that actually works for them. The JOBS Act has now been endorsed by the National Skills Coalition, the Association for Career and Technical Education, the Business Roundtable, and other groups. It is the No. 1 priority, we are told, of the Association of Community Colleges and the American Association of Community Colleges. We heard the same thing from the Ohio Association of Community Colleges when I met with them earlier this month. I must state that I am also very pleased that the JOBS Act is included in the President's budget this year, as it was last year. I applaud President Trump and his administration for promoting this and on the work they are doing in training, internships, apprenticeships, and the JOBS Act, to provide this funding to encourage more Americans to get the skills training needed for them to have a better future. It is the best proposal out there, I believe, to help fill the skills gap right away. There are some alternative proposals out there that limit the kind of programs that would be eligible for this by requiring them to be a certain number of hours. Our community colleges in Ohio tell me that none of their short-term training programs would qualify for some of these alternatives that people are talking about. For programs like welding, precision machining, and electrical trades, we need to get the funding into the short-term training programs now. As I said earlier, this is CTE Month, Career Technical Education Month, so it is a good time to talk about all forms of technical education. If we make expanding these technical skills programs a priority, if we enact the JOBS Act that I have been talking about today, we are going to address the No. 1 issue we hear from our employers, and we are going to help millions of Americans have a better opportunity. There is momentum in Ohio right now. Businesses are expanding and seeking skilled workers, but, again, the skills gap is still an impediment. We need to seize this opportunity, keep our economy moving in a positive direction, and help Ohioans develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice and fulfill their potential in life. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1166-2

formal

tax cut

racist

Workforce Development Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk about how this strong American economy has led to historic workforce needs and how, if we do the right things to respond to that problem, it can become an opportunity--an opportunity to bring Americans off thesidelines, who for too long have not been in the workforce or have been underemployed, to bring them back in to work. It gives us the potential to do two things. One is to strengthen the economy. It is already strong, but it would be even stronger if we could fill this gap. By the way, if we don't fill this gap, if we don't provide the workforce, the economy will weaken. Second, it is to help millions of Americans who are not working, on the sidelines, or who are underemployed to find meaningful employment with good pay and good benefits. Pro-growth Federal tax policies, regulatory policies, and other policies over the past few years have worked. Some of us have talked about the need to reform the Tax Code and make it work better. A trillion dollars has been invested in the U.S. economy since tax reform. As an example, we have seen unemployment at low levels--3.6 percent unemployment today, which is just about a 50-year low in terms of unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office has told us through recent data that we have grown at a steady 2.3 percent rate in the past year. That is good. This unemployment number is important, but also important is that we are seeing wage growth. In fact, we have now had 18 straight months of wage growth of over 3 percent. It is the first time we have had this in at least a decade. That is very important because you think about really, for the past decade, what we have had is flat wages or even declining wages relative to inflation. That is certainly true in my home State of Ohio. It has been about a decade and a half since we have seen any real wage growth. Now we have this steady wage growth. In fact, among blue-collar workers--what the Labor Department says--nonsupervisory employees have seen the highest percentage increase in wage growth. For blue-collar workers, there has been a 6.6-percent wage growth over the past 2 years. By the way, that is about $1.50 an hour on average. It is a big deal, and it is very important because that was one of the great objectives we had in tax reform and tax cuts, was to ensure that we get the economy moving and give people the chance to earn more, to be able to have a feeling that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they could get ahead. We are seeing that. That is great news for the American people and great news for the folks I represent in Ohio who are finally benefiting from higher wages. At the same time, I am hearing from small business owners all over the State of Ohio--in fact, businesses at every level--that although they are able to move forward and add jobs, they are looking for workers, and that workforce is their biggest single challenge. We have now had 22 straight months of more jobs being offered than there are workers looking for work--22 months, almost 2 years of that. So there are a lot of openings out there. One thing that is interesting is that even though the economy is strong and we have unemployment at about 50-year lows, there still are people on the sidelines who aren't coming in to work, as they would normally. Economists call this a low labor force participation rate. What that means is, even though we have a strong economy and lots of jobs out there, there are still millions of Americans who are on the sidelines. It is estimated that there are about 8 million working-age men--this would be between the ages of 25 and 55--who are not looking for work today. This means the unemployment number which I mentioned earlier, at 3.6 percent, which is a very low number--almost a 50-year low--is not the real number. The real number is actually higher than that if you assume a normal labor force participation rate. In other words, if you had some of these people who are out of work--I mentioned the 8 million men--coming into the workforce, the unemployment rate would be higher. In fact, if you go back to what the normal labor force participation rate would be just before the last great recession, the unemployment rate today would be about 7.6 percent, so about double what it actually is. That is an opportunity. That is an opportunity. Now, why aren't these folks working? Well, there are a number of reasons for that. Let's be honest. We don't really know. We have done a lot of analysis of it in our own office trying to figure it out, and part of it is the opioid crisis, I am convinced. I have come to the floor 60 times in the last few years to talk about the opioid crisis. We are making progress on that now. That is good. But when surveys are done by the Department of Labor or by the Brookings Institute, they show that a substantial number, as many as 45 to 50 percent of people they survey, say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis who are out of work altogether. So those, roughly, 8 million men, for example, in one study, 47 percent say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis. Two-thirds have acknowledged it is prescription pain medication. This goes to the issue of opioids--opioid prescription drugs, heroin, fentanyl, and so on. When people are addicted, often it is impossible for them to get their act together to be engaged in work on a regular basis. So the opioid crisis definitely affects this. Another one, of course, is a lot of people are in our jails and prisons. We have a record number of people in prison. A lot of people are now getting out. The idea of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, which is legislation that is actually helping to get people back to work, is important, but, frankly, if you have a felony record, it is tough to get a job. That is why we often see these people are on the sidelines. Another issue that I think needs to be looked at is this skills gap. This is a big part of what is going on right now. There are jobs out there, but they require a certain level of skill. So it is great that we have low unemployment. It is great we have all these openings right now, but we just don't have enough skilled workers to fill those jobs that keep growing. I visited dozens of factories and businesses over the past year, and I keep hearing: We have this job for a welder, and we can't find any welders. There are plenty of people looking for work out there, on the sidelines looking for work, but there are no welders. There is one company in Ohio that told me they can hire up to 100 welders. It is a big manufacturing company. In Ohio and across the country, there are lots of these job openings for machinists, medical technicians in hospitals, and there are a lot of techs who are wanted right now--computer programmers, people who know how to code. Coding is really important right now, particularly as you go into medical electronic records, as an example. If you look on ohiomeansjobs.com this morning--and that is a website that is up there showing what jobs are available in Ohio--there are 187,000 jobs this morning being offered in Ohio. When you look at what those jobs are, you will see a lot of them require these skills we are talking about. They don't require necessarily a college degree, by the way. I am talking about technical skills. I mentioned techs and welders. I didn't mention truckdrivers, but that is one area where we need workers in Ohio. We are desperate for people who have the skills to be able to drive a truck. That requires getting a commercial truck driver's license, a CDL. These jobs are there, but they do require some level of skills training after high school. I think that skills gap, if it can be closed, would make a huge difference right now for our economy. Obviously, we need these jobs, and if the workforce isn't there, these businesses are going to move. They are going to move from Ohio, not just to Indiana but to India because that is where the jobs are going to be if we don't provide this level of skills training. Secondly, it is just a great opportunity for these individuals. Some are young people coming up, some are people midcareer. Getting skills training is so critical. Post-high school certificates are what we really need. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute have highlighted this with a survey they do regularly. They say there are roughly 360,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs across the United States right now. They say it is going to get worse. They say the skills gap may lead to an additional 2.4 million manufacturing jobs unfilled over the next 10 years with a negative economic impact of $2.5 trillion. This is a big deal for our economy. The basic training for the kind of jobs I am talking about is called careerand technical education, CTE. For those who are a little older, you might think of a vocational school. CTE is so impressive today. It is not your old vocational school, it is high-tech, using much better equipment. The schools that are taking it seriously are bringing in excellent teachers from the outside, from industry, to understand what is needed in the real world. CTE is a great opportunity for so many young people. A few months ago, I toured the Vantage Career Center in Van Wert, OH. I go to a lot of career centers. I love to go. I am very inspired when I go. In Van Wert, they have juniors and seniors from more than a dozen school districts coming into one CTE center. They are studying things such as automotive technology, welding, nursing assistant training, carpentry, and truckdriving. They are finding when these students get out, they can typically get a job. Some are going on to further skills training. Some are going on to community college, some are going on to 4-year institutions, but for young people in high school, look at CTE. It makes so much sense. I cofounded and co-chair what is called the Senate CTE Caucus. When I first got here in 2011, I started this with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. We started off having 3 of us in the caucus, and now there are 29 people in the caucus. Why? My colleagues go home, and they are hearing the same thing I am hearing, which is that we need to close the skills gap. Companies are looking for people, and it is a great opportunity for people who are on the outside to get into the inside to get a job with good pay and benefits. Our job is to increase awareness of these skills programs as an education option. Our job is to get students who are more interested in skills training into these jobs. This month of February is Career and Technical Education Month. We are putting together a resolution. We have 57 Senators who signed on to the resolution so far, and if you haven't signed on, let us know. It is an opportunity to just raise visibility about what is working well in so many of our States and the amazing opportunities out there for our young people. We passed some good legislation to help. In 2018, we passed the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act, which is working to improve the quality of CTE education programs, making sure we are using equipment and the standards of today's industry to make these programs even more effective. But skills training goes well beyond just these great high school programs. Industry-recognized, certificate-granting technical workforce training programs post-high school are another key to close the skills gap. Think of some of the workforce training programs you have probably heard about in your community that are being offered by your community college or may be offered by a local technical school. They give people a certificate they can then take to get a job that is industry recognized. For these kinds of post-high school training programs, I think the big opportunity comes in improving access because programs are expensive and a lot of young people can't afford them. A lot of midcareer people can't afford them. One thing we can do immediately is say: Let's expand Pell grants to include these kinds of programs. You can get a Pell grant if you want to go to a community college or go to a 4-year college or university. For some people, that is the right track, but, frankly, for a lot of people, they are looking to get these technical skills and get a certificate and get a job. There is no reason they shouldn't get the same help that the government is providing someone who wants to go to a 4-year college or university for these programs to provide the skills that are so desperately needed. In fact, I would say we ought to focus on that more. We ought to change our mindset and say: Let's not just focus on college, as important as it is--and it is the right track for some students--but let's put an equal emphasis on skills training. We have legislation that is very simple. It says that for low-income families, where the students are eligible for Pell for college or university, let's make them eligible for one of these skills training programs that are less than 15 weeks. It has to be a high-quality program and provide this industry-recognized certificate. Our legislation is called the JOBS Act. It makes so much sense. It is bipartisan and bicameral and we should get it done. By the way, for those students who go through a technical training program and get that certificate and end up getting a job, a lot of them do go to college, but guess who pays for it? Typically, it is the company who pays for it. So they don't end up having this big debt or burden that so many students have. Student debt in Ohio is about $27,000 per student; whereas, if you go to one of these programs and end up getting an associate's degree or bachelor's degree or master's degree, typically you aren't paying anything because your employer is going to pay for you to get that additional training. My hope is that we can move this legislation forward quickly. It is something I hear from everyone back in Ohio. Over the past few weeks, we held roundtables on workforce at manufacturing businesses such as Stanley Electric in Madison County and Fecon, Inc., in Warren County, and we talked about this issue with businessowners, with community colleges, with workers who are actually on the job, and all these groups agree the JOBS Act is needed and needed badly. What is more, we know that a lot of businessowners who are getting engaged in this are willing to help these skills training programs to be more effective and to provide the skills training that actually works for them. The JOBS Act has now been endorsed by the National Skills Coalition, the Association for Career and Technical Education, the Business Roundtable, and other groups. It is the No. 1 priority, we are told, of the Association of Community Colleges and the American Association of Community Colleges. We heard the same thing from the Ohio Association of Community Colleges when I met with them earlier this month. I must state that I am also very pleased that the JOBS Act is included in the President's budget this year, as it was last year. I applaud President Trump and his administration for promoting this and on the work they are doing in training, internships, apprenticeships, and the JOBS Act, to provide this funding to encourage more Americans to get the skills training needed for them to have a better future. It is the best proposal out there, I believe, to help fill the skills gap right away. There are some alternative proposals out there that limit the kind of programs that would be eligible for this by requiring them to be a certain number of hours. Our community colleges in Ohio tell me that none of their short-term training programs would qualify for some of these alternatives that people are talking about. For programs like welding, precision machining, and electrical trades, we need to get the funding into the short-term training programs now. As I said earlier, this is CTE Month, Career Technical Education Month, so it is a good time to talk about all forms of technical education. If we make expanding these technical skills programs a priority, if we enact the JOBS Act that I have been talking about today, we are going to address the No. 1 issue we hear from our employers, and we are going to help millions of Americans have a better opportunity. There is momentum in Ohio right now. Businesses are expanding and seeking skilled workers, but, again, the skills gap is still an impediment. We need to seize this opportunity, keep our economy moving in a positive direction, and help Ohioans develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice and fulfill their potential in life. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1166-2

formal

tax cuts

racist

Workforce Development Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk about how this strong American economy has led to historic workforce needs and how, if we do the right things to respond to that problem, it can become an opportunity--an opportunity to bring Americans off thesidelines, who for too long have not been in the workforce or have been underemployed, to bring them back in to work. It gives us the potential to do two things. One is to strengthen the economy. It is already strong, but it would be even stronger if we could fill this gap. By the way, if we don't fill this gap, if we don't provide the workforce, the economy will weaken. Second, it is to help millions of Americans who are not working, on the sidelines, or who are underemployed to find meaningful employment with good pay and good benefits. Pro-growth Federal tax policies, regulatory policies, and other policies over the past few years have worked. Some of us have talked about the need to reform the Tax Code and make it work better. A trillion dollars has been invested in the U.S. economy since tax reform. As an example, we have seen unemployment at low levels--3.6 percent unemployment today, which is just about a 50-year low in terms of unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office has told us through recent data that we have grown at a steady 2.3 percent rate in the past year. That is good. This unemployment number is important, but also important is that we are seeing wage growth. In fact, we have now had 18 straight months of wage growth of over 3 percent. It is the first time we have had this in at least a decade. That is very important because you think about really, for the past decade, what we have had is flat wages or even declining wages relative to inflation. That is certainly true in my home State of Ohio. It has been about a decade and a half since we have seen any real wage growth. Now we have this steady wage growth. In fact, among blue-collar workers--what the Labor Department says--nonsupervisory employees have seen the highest percentage increase in wage growth. For blue-collar workers, there has been a 6.6-percent wage growth over the past 2 years. By the way, that is about $1.50 an hour on average. It is a big deal, and it is very important because that was one of the great objectives we had in tax reform and tax cuts, was to ensure that we get the economy moving and give people the chance to earn more, to be able to have a feeling that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they could get ahead. We are seeing that. That is great news for the American people and great news for the folks I represent in Ohio who are finally benefiting from higher wages. At the same time, I am hearing from small business owners all over the State of Ohio--in fact, businesses at every level--that although they are able to move forward and add jobs, they are looking for workers, and that workforce is their biggest single challenge. We have now had 22 straight months of more jobs being offered than there are workers looking for work--22 months, almost 2 years of that. So there are a lot of openings out there. One thing that is interesting is that even though the economy is strong and we have unemployment at about 50-year lows, there still are people on the sidelines who aren't coming in to work, as they would normally. Economists call this a low labor force participation rate. What that means is, even though we have a strong economy and lots of jobs out there, there are still millions of Americans who are on the sidelines. It is estimated that there are about 8 million working-age men--this would be between the ages of 25 and 55--who are not looking for work today. This means the unemployment number which I mentioned earlier, at 3.6 percent, which is a very low number--almost a 50-year low--is not the real number. The real number is actually higher than that if you assume a normal labor force participation rate. In other words, if you had some of these people who are out of work--I mentioned the 8 million men--coming into the workforce, the unemployment rate would be higher. In fact, if you go back to what the normal labor force participation rate would be just before the last great recession, the unemployment rate today would be about 7.6 percent, so about double what it actually is. That is an opportunity. That is an opportunity. Now, why aren't these folks working? Well, there are a number of reasons for that. Let's be honest. We don't really know. We have done a lot of analysis of it in our own office trying to figure it out, and part of it is the opioid crisis, I am convinced. I have come to the floor 60 times in the last few years to talk about the opioid crisis. We are making progress on that now. That is good. But when surveys are done by the Department of Labor or by the Brookings Institute, they show that a substantial number, as many as 45 to 50 percent of people they survey, say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis who are out of work altogether. So those, roughly, 8 million men, for example, in one study, 47 percent say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis. Two-thirds have acknowledged it is prescription pain medication. This goes to the issue of opioids--opioid prescription drugs, heroin, fentanyl, and so on. When people are addicted, often it is impossible for them to get their act together to be engaged in work on a regular basis. So the opioid crisis definitely affects this. Another one, of course, is a lot of people are in our jails and prisons. We have a record number of people in prison. A lot of people are now getting out. The idea of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, which is legislation that is actually helping to get people back to work, is important, but, frankly, if you have a felony record, it is tough to get a job. That is why we often see these people are on the sidelines. Another issue that I think needs to be looked at is this skills gap. This is a big part of what is going on right now. There are jobs out there, but they require a certain level of skill. So it is great that we have low unemployment. It is great we have all these openings right now, but we just don't have enough skilled workers to fill those jobs that keep growing. I visited dozens of factories and businesses over the past year, and I keep hearing: We have this job for a welder, and we can't find any welders. There are plenty of people looking for work out there, on the sidelines looking for work, but there are no welders. There is one company in Ohio that told me they can hire up to 100 welders. It is a big manufacturing company. In Ohio and across the country, there are lots of these job openings for machinists, medical technicians in hospitals, and there are a lot of techs who are wanted right now--computer programmers, people who know how to code. Coding is really important right now, particularly as you go into medical electronic records, as an example. If you look on ohiomeansjobs.com this morning--and that is a website that is up there showing what jobs are available in Ohio--there are 187,000 jobs this morning being offered in Ohio. When you look at what those jobs are, you will see a lot of them require these skills we are talking about. They don't require necessarily a college degree, by the way. I am talking about technical skills. I mentioned techs and welders. I didn't mention truckdrivers, but that is one area where we need workers in Ohio. We are desperate for people who have the skills to be able to drive a truck. That requires getting a commercial truck driver's license, a CDL. These jobs are there, but they do require some level of skills training after high school. I think that skills gap, if it can be closed, would make a huge difference right now for our economy. Obviously, we need these jobs, and if the workforce isn't there, these businesses are going to move. They are going to move from Ohio, not just to Indiana but to India because that is where the jobs are going to be if we don't provide this level of skills training. Secondly, it is just a great opportunity for these individuals. Some are young people coming up, some are people midcareer. Getting skills training is so critical. Post-high school certificates are what we really need. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute have highlighted this with a survey they do regularly. They say there are roughly 360,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs across the United States right now. They say it is going to get worse. They say the skills gap may lead to an additional 2.4 million manufacturing jobs unfilled over the next 10 years with a negative economic impact of $2.5 trillion. This is a big deal for our economy. The basic training for the kind of jobs I am talking about is called careerand technical education, CTE. For those who are a little older, you might think of a vocational school. CTE is so impressive today. It is not your old vocational school, it is high-tech, using much better equipment. The schools that are taking it seriously are bringing in excellent teachers from the outside, from industry, to understand what is needed in the real world. CTE is a great opportunity for so many young people. A few months ago, I toured the Vantage Career Center in Van Wert, OH. I go to a lot of career centers. I love to go. I am very inspired when I go. In Van Wert, they have juniors and seniors from more than a dozen school districts coming into one CTE center. They are studying things such as automotive technology, welding, nursing assistant training, carpentry, and truckdriving. They are finding when these students get out, they can typically get a job. Some are going on to further skills training. Some are going on to community college, some are going on to 4-year institutions, but for young people in high school, look at CTE. It makes so much sense. I cofounded and co-chair what is called the Senate CTE Caucus. When I first got here in 2011, I started this with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. We started off having 3 of us in the caucus, and now there are 29 people in the caucus. Why? My colleagues go home, and they are hearing the same thing I am hearing, which is that we need to close the skills gap. Companies are looking for people, and it is a great opportunity for people who are on the outside to get into the inside to get a job with good pay and benefits. Our job is to increase awareness of these skills programs as an education option. Our job is to get students who are more interested in skills training into these jobs. This month of February is Career and Technical Education Month. We are putting together a resolution. We have 57 Senators who signed on to the resolution so far, and if you haven't signed on, let us know. It is an opportunity to just raise visibility about what is working well in so many of our States and the amazing opportunities out there for our young people. We passed some good legislation to help. In 2018, we passed the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act, which is working to improve the quality of CTE education programs, making sure we are using equipment and the standards of today's industry to make these programs even more effective. But skills training goes well beyond just these great high school programs. Industry-recognized, certificate-granting technical workforce training programs post-high school are another key to close the skills gap. Think of some of the workforce training programs you have probably heard about in your community that are being offered by your community college or may be offered by a local technical school. They give people a certificate they can then take to get a job that is industry recognized. For these kinds of post-high school training programs, I think the big opportunity comes in improving access because programs are expensive and a lot of young people can't afford them. A lot of midcareer people can't afford them. One thing we can do immediately is say: Let's expand Pell grants to include these kinds of programs. You can get a Pell grant if you want to go to a community college or go to a 4-year college or university. For some people, that is the right track, but, frankly, for a lot of people, they are looking to get these technical skills and get a certificate and get a job. There is no reason they shouldn't get the same help that the government is providing someone who wants to go to a 4-year college or university for these programs to provide the skills that are so desperately needed. In fact, I would say we ought to focus on that more. We ought to change our mindset and say: Let's not just focus on college, as important as it is--and it is the right track for some students--but let's put an equal emphasis on skills training. We have legislation that is very simple. It says that for low-income families, where the students are eligible for Pell for college or university, let's make them eligible for one of these skills training programs that are less than 15 weeks. It has to be a high-quality program and provide this industry-recognized certificate. Our legislation is called the JOBS Act. It makes so much sense. It is bipartisan and bicameral and we should get it done. By the way, for those students who go through a technical training program and get that certificate and end up getting a job, a lot of them do go to college, but guess who pays for it? Typically, it is the company who pays for it. So they don't end up having this big debt or burden that so many students have. Student debt in Ohio is about $27,000 per student; whereas, if you go to one of these programs and end up getting an associate's degree or bachelor's degree or master's degree, typically you aren't paying anything because your employer is going to pay for you to get that additional training. My hope is that we can move this legislation forward quickly. It is something I hear from everyone back in Ohio. Over the past few weeks, we held roundtables on workforce at manufacturing businesses such as Stanley Electric in Madison County and Fecon, Inc., in Warren County, and we talked about this issue with businessowners, with community colleges, with workers who are actually on the job, and all these groups agree the JOBS Act is needed and needed badly. What is more, we know that a lot of businessowners who are getting engaged in this are willing to help these skills training programs to be more effective and to provide the skills training that actually works for them. The JOBS Act has now been endorsed by the National Skills Coalition, the Association for Career and Technical Education, the Business Roundtable, and other groups. It is the No. 1 priority, we are told, of the Association of Community Colleges and the American Association of Community Colleges. We heard the same thing from the Ohio Association of Community Colleges when I met with them earlier this month. I must state that I am also very pleased that the JOBS Act is included in the President's budget this year, as it was last year. I applaud President Trump and his administration for promoting this and on the work they are doing in training, internships, apprenticeships, and the JOBS Act, to provide this funding to encourage more Americans to get the skills training needed for them to have a better future. It is the best proposal out there, I believe, to help fill the skills gap right away. There are some alternative proposals out there that limit the kind of programs that would be eligible for this by requiring them to be a certain number of hours. Our community colleges in Ohio tell me that none of their short-term training programs would qualify for some of these alternatives that people are talking about. For programs like welding, precision machining, and electrical trades, we need to get the funding into the short-term training programs now. As I said earlier, this is CTE Month, Career Technical Education Month, so it is a good time to talk about all forms of technical education. If we make expanding these technical skills programs a priority, if we enact the JOBS Act that I have been talking about today, we are going to address the No. 1 issue we hear from our employers, and we are going to help millions of Americans have a better opportunity. There is momentum in Ohio right now. Businesses are expanding and seeking skilled workers, but, again, the skills gap is still an impediment. We need to seize this opportunity, keep our economy moving in a positive direction, and help Ohioans develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice and fulfill their potential in life. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1166-2

formal

single

homophobic

Workforce Development Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk about how this strong American economy has led to historic workforce needs and how, if we do the right things to respond to that problem, it can become an opportunity--an opportunity to bring Americans off thesidelines, who for too long have not been in the workforce or have been underemployed, to bring them back in to work. It gives us the potential to do two things. One is to strengthen the economy. It is already strong, but it would be even stronger if we could fill this gap. By the way, if we don't fill this gap, if we don't provide the workforce, the economy will weaken. Second, it is to help millions of Americans who are not working, on the sidelines, or who are underemployed to find meaningful employment with good pay and good benefits. Pro-growth Federal tax policies, regulatory policies, and other policies over the past few years have worked. Some of us have talked about the need to reform the Tax Code and make it work better. A trillion dollars has been invested in the U.S. economy since tax reform. As an example, we have seen unemployment at low levels--3.6 percent unemployment today, which is just about a 50-year low in terms of unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office has told us through recent data that we have grown at a steady 2.3 percent rate in the past year. That is good. This unemployment number is important, but also important is that we are seeing wage growth. In fact, we have now had 18 straight months of wage growth of over 3 percent. It is the first time we have had this in at least a decade. That is very important because you think about really, for the past decade, what we have had is flat wages or even declining wages relative to inflation. That is certainly true in my home State of Ohio. It has been about a decade and a half since we have seen any real wage growth. Now we have this steady wage growth. In fact, among blue-collar workers--what the Labor Department says--nonsupervisory employees have seen the highest percentage increase in wage growth. For blue-collar workers, there has been a 6.6-percent wage growth over the past 2 years. By the way, that is about $1.50 an hour on average. It is a big deal, and it is very important because that was one of the great objectives we had in tax reform and tax cuts, was to ensure that we get the economy moving and give people the chance to earn more, to be able to have a feeling that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they could get ahead. We are seeing that. That is great news for the American people and great news for the folks I represent in Ohio who are finally benefiting from higher wages. At the same time, I am hearing from small business owners all over the State of Ohio--in fact, businesses at every level--that although they are able to move forward and add jobs, they are looking for workers, and that workforce is their biggest single challenge. We have now had 22 straight months of more jobs being offered than there are workers looking for work--22 months, almost 2 years of that. So there are a lot of openings out there. One thing that is interesting is that even though the economy is strong and we have unemployment at about 50-year lows, there still are people on the sidelines who aren't coming in to work, as they would normally. Economists call this a low labor force participation rate. What that means is, even though we have a strong economy and lots of jobs out there, there are still millions of Americans who are on the sidelines. It is estimated that there are about 8 million working-age men--this would be between the ages of 25 and 55--who are not looking for work today. This means the unemployment number which I mentioned earlier, at 3.6 percent, which is a very low number--almost a 50-year low--is not the real number. The real number is actually higher than that if you assume a normal labor force participation rate. In other words, if you had some of these people who are out of work--I mentioned the 8 million men--coming into the workforce, the unemployment rate would be higher. In fact, if you go back to what the normal labor force participation rate would be just before the last great recession, the unemployment rate today would be about 7.6 percent, so about double what it actually is. That is an opportunity. That is an opportunity. Now, why aren't these folks working? Well, there are a number of reasons for that. Let's be honest. We don't really know. We have done a lot of analysis of it in our own office trying to figure it out, and part of it is the opioid crisis, I am convinced. I have come to the floor 60 times in the last few years to talk about the opioid crisis. We are making progress on that now. That is good. But when surveys are done by the Department of Labor or by the Brookings Institute, they show that a substantial number, as many as 45 to 50 percent of people they survey, say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis who are out of work altogether. So those, roughly, 8 million men, for example, in one study, 47 percent say they are taking pain medication on a daily basis. Two-thirds have acknowledged it is prescription pain medication. This goes to the issue of opioids--opioid prescription drugs, heroin, fentanyl, and so on. When people are addicted, often it is impossible for them to get their act together to be engaged in work on a regular basis. So the opioid crisis definitely affects this. Another one, of course, is a lot of people are in our jails and prisons. We have a record number of people in prison. A lot of people are now getting out. The idea of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, which is legislation that is actually helping to get people back to work, is important, but, frankly, if you have a felony record, it is tough to get a job. That is why we often see these people are on the sidelines. Another issue that I think needs to be looked at is this skills gap. This is a big part of what is going on right now. There are jobs out there, but they require a certain level of skill. So it is great that we have low unemployment. It is great we have all these openings right now, but we just don't have enough skilled workers to fill those jobs that keep growing. I visited dozens of factories and businesses over the past year, and I keep hearing: We have this job for a welder, and we can't find any welders. There are plenty of people looking for work out there, on the sidelines looking for work, but there are no welders. There is one company in Ohio that told me they can hire up to 100 welders. It is a big manufacturing company. In Ohio and across the country, there are lots of these job openings for machinists, medical technicians in hospitals, and there are a lot of techs who are wanted right now--computer programmers, people who know how to code. Coding is really important right now, particularly as you go into medical electronic records, as an example. If you look on ohiomeansjobs.com this morning--and that is a website that is up there showing what jobs are available in Ohio--there are 187,000 jobs this morning being offered in Ohio. When you look at what those jobs are, you will see a lot of them require these skills we are talking about. They don't require necessarily a college degree, by the way. I am talking about technical skills. I mentioned techs and welders. I didn't mention truckdrivers, but that is one area where we need workers in Ohio. We are desperate for people who have the skills to be able to drive a truck. That requires getting a commercial truck driver's license, a CDL. These jobs are there, but they do require some level of skills training after high school. I think that skills gap, if it can be closed, would make a huge difference right now for our economy. Obviously, we need these jobs, and if the workforce isn't there, these businesses are going to move. They are going to move from Ohio, not just to Indiana but to India because that is where the jobs are going to be if we don't provide this level of skills training. Secondly, it is just a great opportunity for these individuals. Some are young people coming up, some are people midcareer. Getting skills training is so critical. Post-high school certificates are what we really need. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute have highlighted this with a survey they do regularly. They say there are roughly 360,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs across the United States right now. They say it is going to get worse. They say the skills gap may lead to an additional 2.4 million manufacturing jobs unfilled over the next 10 years with a negative economic impact of $2.5 trillion. This is a big deal for our economy. The basic training for the kind of jobs I am talking about is called careerand technical education, CTE. For those who are a little older, you might think of a vocational school. CTE is so impressive today. It is not your old vocational school, it is high-tech, using much better equipment. The schools that are taking it seriously are bringing in excellent teachers from the outside, from industry, to understand what is needed in the real world. CTE is a great opportunity for so many young people. A few months ago, I toured the Vantage Career Center in Van Wert, OH. I go to a lot of career centers. I love to go. I am very inspired when I go. In Van Wert, they have juniors and seniors from more than a dozen school districts coming into one CTE center. They are studying things such as automotive technology, welding, nursing assistant training, carpentry, and truckdriving. They are finding when these students get out, they can typically get a job. Some are going on to further skills training. Some are going on to community college, some are going on to 4-year institutions, but for young people in high school, look at CTE. It makes so much sense. I cofounded and co-chair what is called the Senate CTE Caucus. When I first got here in 2011, I started this with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. We started off having 3 of us in the caucus, and now there are 29 people in the caucus. Why? My colleagues go home, and they are hearing the same thing I am hearing, which is that we need to close the skills gap. Companies are looking for people, and it is a great opportunity for people who are on the outside to get into the inside to get a job with good pay and benefits. Our job is to increase awareness of these skills programs as an education option. Our job is to get students who are more interested in skills training into these jobs. This month of February is Career and Technical Education Month. We are putting together a resolution. We have 57 Senators who signed on to the resolution so far, and if you haven't signed on, let us know. It is an opportunity to just raise visibility about what is working well in so many of our States and the amazing opportunities out there for our young people. We passed some good legislation to help. In 2018, we passed the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act, which is working to improve the quality of CTE education programs, making sure we are using equipment and the standards of today's industry to make these programs even more effective. But skills training goes well beyond just these great high school programs. Industry-recognized, certificate-granting technical workforce training programs post-high school are another key to close the skills gap. Think of some of the workforce training programs you have probably heard about in your community that are being offered by your community college or may be offered by a local technical school. They give people a certificate they can then take to get a job that is industry recognized. For these kinds of post-high school training programs, I think the big opportunity comes in improving access because programs are expensive and a lot of young people can't afford them. A lot of midcareer people can't afford them. One thing we can do immediately is say: Let's expand Pell grants to include these kinds of programs. You can get a Pell grant if you want to go to a community college or go to a 4-year college or university. For some people, that is the right track, but, frankly, for a lot of people, they are looking to get these technical skills and get a certificate and get a job. There is no reason they shouldn't get the same help that the government is providing someone who wants to go to a 4-year college or university for these programs to provide the skills that are so desperately needed. In fact, I would say we ought to focus on that more. We ought to change our mindset and say: Let's not just focus on college, as important as it is--and it is the right track for some students--but let's put an equal emphasis on skills training. We have legislation that is very simple. It says that for low-income families, where the students are eligible for Pell for college or university, let's make them eligible for one of these skills training programs that are less than 15 weeks. It has to be a high-quality program and provide this industry-recognized certificate. Our legislation is called the JOBS Act. It makes so much sense. It is bipartisan and bicameral and we should get it done. By the way, for those students who go through a technical training program and get that certificate and end up getting a job, a lot of them do go to college, but guess who pays for it? Typically, it is the company who pays for it. So they don't end up having this big debt or burden that so many students have. Student debt in Ohio is about $27,000 per student; whereas, if you go to one of these programs and end up getting an associate's degree or bachelor's degree or master's degree, typically you aren't paying anything because your employer is going to pay for you to get that additional training. My hope is that we can move this legislation forward quickly. It is something I hear from everyone back in Ohio. Over the past few weeks, we held roundtables on workforce at manufacturing businesses such as Stanley Electric in Madison County and Fecon, Inc., in Warren County, and we talked about this issue with businessowners, with community colleges, with workers who are actually on the job, and all these groups agree the JOBS Act is needed and needed badly. What is more, we know that a lot of businessowners who are getting engaged in this are willing to help these skills training programs to be more effective and to provide the skills training that actually works for them. The JOBS Act has now been endorsed by the National Skills Coalition, the Association for Career and Technical Education, the Business Roundtable, and other groups. It is the No. 1 priority, we are told, of the Association of Community Colleges and the American Association of Community Colleges. We heard the same thing from the Ohio Association of Community Colleges when I met with them earlier this month. I must state that I am also very pleased that the JOBS Act is included in the President's budget this year, as it was last year. I applaud President Trump and his administration for promoting this and on the work they are doing in training, internships, apprenticeships, and the JOBS Act, to provide this funding to encourage more Americans to get the skills training needed for them to have a better future. It is the best proposal out there, I believe, to help fill the skills gap right away. There are some alternative proposals out there that limit the kind of programs that would be eligible for this by requiring them to be a certain number of hours. Our community colleges in Ohio tell me that none of their short-term training programs would qualify for some of these alternatives that people are talking about. For programs like welding, precision machining, and electrical trades, we need to get the funding into the short-term training programs now. As I said earlier, this is CTE Month, Career Technical Education Month, so it is a good time to talk about all forms of technical education. If we make expanding these technical skills programs a priority, if we enact the JOBS Act that I have been talking about today, we are going to address the No. 1 issue we hear from our employers, and we are going to help millions of Americans have a better opportunity. There is momentum in Ohio right now. Businesses are expanding and seeking skilled workers, but, again, the skills gap is still an impediment. We need to seize this opportunity, keep our economy moving in a positive direction, and help Ohioans develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice and fulfill their potential in life. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1166-2

formal

religious freedom

homophobic

India Mr. President, on another matter, the President yesterday returned to Washington from India. The United States and India are natural allies. If the United States and India are close friends and partners, the world will be a safer, more prosperous place. India has an amazing culture and great people. So unifying America and India is a very good thing. But did the President do anything on his trip that substantively advanced that objective? No, he did not. Sadly, the President's trip to India was typical of foreign policy in the Trump era--a big spectacle with handshakes and photo-ops but without meaningful progress or accomplishment for the United States. There were real things for the President to accomplish in India. We are now India's largest trading partner--one of the largest markets for our agricultural products, medical devices, even motorbikes. Did the President make any progress on a trade deal to reduce the significant market access barriers that American companies face? No. India is in the midst of fierce protests over a law that restricts religious freedom. Did the President stand up for religious freedom and democratic values? No. He didn't even bring up the issue with the Prime Minister. There are 4 million Indian Americans. I am proud to say many are in the New York area. They have done and continued to do so much for this great country. Their history, music, culture, literature are woven into the very fabric of American life. Indian-American families form the backbone of so many strong communities in New York City, in Long Island and the suburbs, and all over the country. They deserve more than Presidential photo-ops in their native land. They deserve a President who takes the friendship between the United States and India seriously and works to build a strategic alliance. But this President cannot seem to manage anything beyond reality-show diplomacy, and that is why President Trump will likely end his first term bereft of any significant foreign policy achievement.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1172-2

formal

echo

antisemitic

Tribute to Laura Dove Mr. President, finally, on a different note and a very happy note, I want to conclude my remarks by noting the departure of a staffer who, although she works for Leader McConnell, is truly a resource for and a credit to the Senate as a whole--Laura Dove. It is a happy note for her. She is moving on to even bigger and better things. But it is a sad note for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, in the Senate because she has done such a good job. Laura is the Secretary for the Majority. As with many job titles in Washington, Laura's title does not come close to capturing what she actually does, nor does it remotely reflect her importance to this Chamber. The two caucus Secretaries--Gary Myrick for the Senate minority and Laura Dove for the majority--literally make the Senate function. Their negotiations determine when we come in and out of session, which amendments will be considered, and their parliamentary expertise guides Senators of both parties. Laura's attention to detail is such that even the dress code of the Senate does not escape her. Laura has certainly been around this Chamber for as long as many of the Senators she advises. The Senate is in her blood. Her father, Bob Dove, was the Senate Parliamentarian. Dinner table conversations in the Dove household must have included the arcana of Senate procedure, particularly because some of those family dinners occurred here in the Senate itself, as Mr. Dove worked the sometimes late hours of the Senate. Both of Mr. Dove's daughters served as pages, and now both of Laura's children have served as pages as well--a family tradition unique among family traditions. Few have done as much to support the page program as Laura. She not only keeps a watchful and supportive eye over their time on thefloor, but she has invited them into her home, welcoming any page wishing to celebrate a Jewish holiday with her family. I want to thank her especially for how much she has done for Senate pages, and from the vantage point of the lens of the C-SPAN camera, the Senate floor looks like a forum for disagreement and sometimes for vociferous debate. Few beyond this Chamber appreciate how important it is for our two parties to cooperate every day amidst those disagreements to make the work of the Senate come to life. Though our parties have vastly different opinions on everything, ranging from policy to procedure, Laura has always represented the position of her caucus honestly and treated our staff with civility and respect. She even takes a bit of that work home with her. Her husband, Dan Solomon, worked for someone--Senator Wofford--who was a good, strong, liberal Democrat, if there ever was one. The Republican leader this morning gave a very personal and emotional tribute to Laura's service. You could see how much she means to him and the entire Republican caucus. I echo those sentiments, and I would extend them to the Senate as a whole. Few care more about this institution, its traditions, its history, and its future than Laura Dove, and few have worked harder to support the Senate in their careers. Robert Duncan, Laura's assistant, will be taking her place today. He has big shoes to fill but is a really talented guy who knows how this place works. All I can tell you, Robert, is if you listen to Gary Myrick, you can't go wrong. Laura, we wish you nothing but the best for the next chapter of your life, and we thank you profoundly for your service to the Senate. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1172-3

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, our Nation's continued progress and the socioeconomic mobility of our citizens are contingent on the education and skills of the American workforce and its ability to adjust to and fulfill the needs of the 21st-century economy. Career and technical education, CTE, programs are essential to every student's education, providing them access to the important knowledge, skills, and credentials needed to obtain careers in rapidly growing, high-demand industries. Today, approximately 11.8 million students across the Nation are enrolled in CTE programs offered by thousands of career academies, comprehensive high schools, CTE high schools, community colleges, and CTE centers. Through applied learning, these students obtain workplace skills and technical training that mirror in-demand positions in the workforce. In the next decade, nearly 3 million skilled workers will be needed to fill infrastructure positions in the United States, including jobs related to designing, building, and operating transportation, housing, telecommunication, and utilities facilities. CTE programs intentionally match skills with workforce demands, lowering the probability of high school dropout and increasing the likelihood of graduating on time. These skills-based training programs will help fill the estimated 30 million U.S. jobs available with an average income annual income of $55,000 that do not require a bachelor's degree yet necessitate some level of postsecondary education. Across Virginia, I hear from manufacturers frustrated by the shortage of qualified skilled production employees--roles that require the training and instruction provided by CTE. It is essential that we highlight the important role of CTE in the country's ability to meet the challenges we face in economic development, student achievement, and global competitiveness. In 2018, Congress affirmed the importance of CTE by passing the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act which supports CTE programs in secondary and postsecondary education. Today, with my Senate CTE Caucus cochairs Senator Portman, Senator Baldwin, and Senator Young and more than half of my colleagues in the Senate, I am pleased to introduce a bipartisan resolution to designate February as Career and Technical Education, CTE, Month. CTE Month encourages students, parents, counselors, educators, and school leaders to learn more about the diverse educational opportunities offered in their communities and recognize the valuable role of CTE in developing a well-educated and highly skilled workforce in the United States. By formally recognizing CTE Month through this resolution, it is our aim to raise greater awareness of the importance of improving access to high-quality CTE for millions of America's students and our Nation's ongoing economic competitiveness.

2020-01-06

Mr. KAINE

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1213

formal

Chicago

racist

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, today pay tribute to the memory of retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Charles Pitman, a leader who served in our Nation's Armed Forces for nearly 40 years, earning the Silver Star, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, and a Purple Heart. Chuck Pitman was born in Chicago in 1935 and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1952 and the U.S. Marine Corps in 1953. A pilot by the age of 14, Chuck logged more than 12,000 flight hours during his career, flying jets and attack and reconnaissance helicopters. He flew three combat tours in Vietnam, where his aircraft were shot down seven times by enemy fire. On January 7, 1973, Chuck was commanding officer of the Marine Air Reserve Training Detachment in New Orleans when he saw a sniper firing at civilians from a hotel on the news. Without approval from his supervisors and at the risk of his career with the Marines, he and his crew flew a Marine helicopter loaded with police officers to the hotel and helped to end the carnage. Many of the police officers and survivors credited his actions with saving countless lives. Chuck served as special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Iranian hostage crisis. By 1990, Chuck was a three-star general and retired from the Marine Corps. His commands included the Marine Aviation Training Support Group in Pensacola, a role as assistant wing commander for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in California, and the command of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Japan. Chuck spent much of the rest of his life in Florida's Pensacola Beach. He volunteered his time with organizations including the Marine Corps League of Pensacola and participated in numerous veteran's events throughout the city, becoming a fixture in the community. I express my sincere condolences to his wife, two sons, and two daughters on the loss of an American hero and patriot. May God bless his family during this time of sorrow.

2020-01-06

Mr. RUBIO

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1214-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The following communications were laid before the Senate, together with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: EC-4035. A communication from the Director of Congressional Relations and Government Affairs, Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the Office's January 2020 quarterly report to Congress (OSS-2020- 0201); to the Committees on Appropriations; Armed Services; and Foreign Relations. EC-4036. A communication from the Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Nomenclature changes; Technical Amendment'' ((7 CFR Chapter I) (Docket No. AMS-LRRS-19-0099)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 19, 2020; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. EC-4037. A communication from the Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Farm Credit Administration, transmitting the Administration's proposed fiscal year 2021 Budget and Performance Plan; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. EC-4038. A communication from the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs), transmitting legislative proposals relative to the ``National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021''; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4039. A communication from the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict), transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Report to Congress on Procedures for Status Review of Detainees outside the United States''; to the Committees on Armed Services; and the Judiciary. EC-4040. A communication from the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs) transmitting, pursuant to law, a notice of additional time required to complete a report relative to the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) budget meeting the nuclear stockpile and stockpile stewardship requirements; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4041. A communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the six-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to Venezuela that was declared in Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4042. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Addition of Entities to the Entity List, and Revision of Entry on the Entity List'' (RIN0694-AH96) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 20, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4043. A communication from the President of the United States, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the continuation of the national emergency with respect to Libya declared in Executive Order 13566; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4044. A communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, a six-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to Iran as declared in Executive Order 12957 of March 15, 1995; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4045. A communication from the Secretary of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the export to the People's Republic of China of items not detrimental to the U.S. space launch industry; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4046. A communication from the General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Cyber Security - Communications between Control Centers Reliability Standard'' received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4047. A communication from the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the progress made in licensing and constructing the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4048. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Air Plan Approval; California; Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District'' (FRL No. 10005-31-Region 9) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4049. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Air Plan Approval; California; San Diego County Air Pollution Control District'' (FRL No. 10004-14-Region 9) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4050. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Air Plan Approval; Massachusetts; Infrastructure State Implementation Plan Requirements for the 2015 Ozone Standard'' (FRL No. 10005-36-Region 1) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4051. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Air Plan Approval; Washington; Updates to Source- Category Regulations'' (FRL No. 10005-19-Region 10) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4052. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Air Plan Conditional Approval; Arizona; Maricopa County'' (FRL No. 10005-65-Region 9) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4053. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; Ventura County; 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area Requirements'' (FRL No. 10005-67-Region 9) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4054. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Clean Air Plans; 2008 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area Requirements; Determination of Attainment by the Attainment Date; Imperial County, California'' (FRL No. 10005-51-Region 9) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4055. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Revenue Ruling: 2019- 13 and Revenue Ruling 2009-14'' (Rev. Rul. 2020-05) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4056. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Determination of the Maximum Value of a Vehicle for Use with the Fleet-Average and Vehicle Cents-Per-Mile Valuation Rules'' ((RIN1545-BP14) (TD 9893)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4057. A communication from the Director, Office of Regulations and Reports Clearance, Social Security Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Advance Designation of Representative Payees for Social Security Beneficiaries'' (RIN0960-AI33) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4058. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Passports; Clarification of Previous Rule Relating to Treatment of Serious Tax Debt'' ((RIN1400-AE90) (22 CFR Part 51)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 19, 2020; to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4059. A communication from the Board Members of the Railroad Retirement Board, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Board's Congressional Justification of Budget Estimates Report for fiscal year 2021; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4060. A communication from the Secretary of Education, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Department's Annual Performance Report for fiscal year 2019 and Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 2021; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4061. A communication from the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Analysis of Entity's Systems, Controls, and Legal Compliance, fiscal year 2019''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4062. A communication from the President of the United States, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Economic Report of the President together with the 2020 Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers; to the Joint Economic Committee. EC-4063. A communication from the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Justice, transmitting, a report relative to the views of the Department on H.R.J. Res. 79 and S.J. Res. 6, the ``Removing the Deadline for the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment''; to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4064. A communication from the Director, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the corrected and updated report entitled ``2019 Report of Statistics Required by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005''; to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4065. A communication from the Director, Office of Regulation Policy and Management, Department of Veterans Affairs, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Amendments'' (RIN2900-AQ85) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. EC-4066. A communication from the Attorney Adviser, Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Risk Reduction Program'' (RIN2130-AC11) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 19, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4067. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, Office of General Counsel, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to a vacancy in the position of Inspector General, Department of Transportation, received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 12, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4068. A communication from the Associate Administrator for OPA, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Pipeline Safety: Safety Underground Natural Gas Storage Facilities'' (RIN2137-AF22) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 12, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4069. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Special Local Regulation; Gasparilla Marine Parade; Hillsborough Bay; Tampa, FL'' ((RIN1625-AA08) (Docket No. USCG-2020-0020)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4070. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Special Local Regulations; Recurring Marine Events, Sector Miami'' ((RIN1625-AA08) (Docket No. USCG-2018-0749)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4071. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Safety Zone, Delaware River, Philadelphia, PA'' ((RIN1625-AA00) (Docket No. USCG-2019-0897)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4072. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Safety Zone; Super Bowl 2020, Bayfront Park, Miami, FL'' ((RIN1625-AA87) (Docket No. USCG-2019-0830)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4073. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Safety Zone; Delaware River, Hamilton Township, NJ'' ((RIN1625-AA00) (Docket No. USCG-2020-0072)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4074. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Coast Guard Sector Virginia; Technical Amendment'' (Docket No. USCG-2019-0943) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4075. A communication from the Attorney, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Safety Zones; Humboldt Bay Bar and Entrance Channel, Eureka, CA, Noyo River Entrance Channel, Ft. Bragg, CA, and Crescent City Harbor Entrance Channel, Crescent City, CA'' ((RIN1625-AA00) (Docket No. USCG-2019-0956)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4076. A communication from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Safety Zone; Hurricanes, Tropical Storms and Other Disasters in South Florida'' ((RIN1625-AA00) (Docket No. USCG-2016-1067)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4077. A communication from the Attorney, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Navigation and Navigable Waters, and Shipping; Technical, Organizational, and Conforming Amendments for U.S. Coast Guard Field District 1'' ((RIN1625-ZA83) (Docket No. USCG- 2018-0532)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4078. A communication from the Attorney, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Navigation and Navigable Waters, and Shipping; Technical, Organizational, and Conforming Amendments for U.S. Coast Guard Field Districts 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 17'' ((RIN1625-ZA38) (Docket No . USCG-2018-0533)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4079. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``International Fisheries; Pacific Tuna Fisheries; Fishing Restrictions for Tropical Tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean 2018-2020'' (RIN0648-BH13) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4080. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pollock in Statistical Area 610 in the Gulf of Alaska'' (RIN0648-XG885) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4081. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Atlantic Herring Fishery; Adjustments to 2018 Management Area Annual Catch Limits'' (RIN0648-XF898) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4082. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Inseason Adjustment to the 2020 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Pollock, Atka Mackerel, and Pacific Cod Total Allowable Catch Amounts'' (RIN0648-XY059) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4083. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pollock in Statistical Area 610 in the Gulf of Alaska'' (RIN0648-XY068) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4084. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Reallocation of Pacific Cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area'' (RIN0648-XY066) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4085. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Catcher Vessels Greater Than or Equal to 60 Feet Length Overall Using Pot Gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area'' (RIN0648-XY067) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4086. A communication from the Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Pot Catcher/Processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area'' (RIN0648-XY065) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4087. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Pacific Island Pelagic Fisheries; 2018 U.S. Territorial Longline Bigeye Tuna Catch Limits'' (RIN0648- XG025) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4088. A communication from the Assistant Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Technical Amendment To Update Internet Web Addresses in Marine Mammal Protection Act and Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act Regulations'' (RIN0648-BH09) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4089. A communication from the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Expanding the Scallop Dredge Exemption Areas Under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan'' (RIN0648- BH68) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4090. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; Amendments 50A-F'' (RIN0648-BI84) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4091. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``International Fisheries; Pacific Fisheries; 2019 Commercial Pacific Bluefin Tuna Inseason Actions; Notice of Commercial Pacific Bluefin Tuna 2020 Catch Limit'' (RIN0648-XW017) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 13, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4092. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; 2019-2020 Biennial Specifications and Management Measures; Correction'' (RIN0648-BJ21) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4093. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; 2018 Allocation of Northeast Multispecies Annual Catch Entitlements and Approval of a Regulatory Exemption for Sectors'' (RIN0648-XF989) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 14, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4094. A communication from the Chief of Regulatory Development, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fees for the Unified Carrier Registration Plan and Agreement'' (RIN2126-AC25) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 18, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4095. A communication from the Associate Managing Director, Office of Managing Director, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Structure and Practices of the Video Relay Service Program; Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities, Report and Order'' ((FCC 20-7) (CG Docket Nos. 10-51, and 03-123)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 19, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4096. A communication from the Senior Director of Government Affairs and Corporate Communications, National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Amtrak, transmitting, pursuant to law, Amtrak's fiscal year 2021 General and Legislative Annual Report, fiscal year 2021 grant request, and Amtrak's fiscal year 2021-2025 Five-Year Service and Asset Line Plan; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1215-3

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. MORAN (for himself and Mr. Tester) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to: S. Res. 518 Whereas Disabled American Veterans was founded on September 25, 1920, and chartered by Congress on June 17, 1932, in recognition of the role of Disabled American Veterans as the official voice of the wartime-disabled veterans of the United States; Whereas, in 2020, Disabled American Veterans celebrates 100 years of serving veterans of the Armed Forces, their families, survivors, and communities; Whereas Disabled American Veterans is the largest wartime veterans service organization in the United States comprised exclusively of men and women who became disabled while defending the United States, with approximately 1,000,000 service-disabled veterans in its membership; Whereas the National Headquarters of Disabled American Veterans is located in Kentucky, and the National Service and Legislative Headquarters of Disabled American Veterans is located in Washington, D.C., and Disabled American Veterans has 52 departments and 1344 chapters located throughout the United States; Whereas, since its founding, Disabled American Veterans has served veterans of the United States who have become wounded, injured, or ill due to service in the Armed Forces by advocating for the establishment of the Department of Veterans Affairs and urging Congress to pass legislation to provide benefits and services for service-disabled veterans; Whereas, in 1920, Disabled American Veterans began representing the interests of veterans and subsequently developed a professional national service officer corps, which has made Disabled American Veterans the preeminent provider of claims assistance to injured and ill veterans of the United States, their families, and survivors; Whereas Disabled American Veterans continues to provide direct onsite assistance to injured and ill members of the Armed Forces on active duty through 30 Transition Service Officers, who provide benefits counseling and assistance to separating members of the Armed Forces seeking to file initial claims for benefits administered through the Department of Veterans Affairs; Whereas Disabled American Veterans co-presents the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic and the National Disabled Veterans Training Exposure Experience Tournament, has organized a nationwide transportation network providing free transportation to medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs for injured and ill veterans, operates an active Charitable Service Trust that funds the needs of local providers assisting at-risk local veterans, maintains an active volunteer corps providing millions of hours of service to veterans and communities, and created the Jesse Brown Memorial Youth Scholarship Program to contribute to the lives of young people in the United States; Whereas Disabled American Veterans has championed important initiatives for improving the lives of all veterans, such as-- (1) the establishment of-- (A) a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs; (B) the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; (C) a modernized appeals process for disability claims; (D) an advance appropriation to ensure adequate and timely funding for health care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs; (E) benefits for family caregivers; and (F) the model for present-day Vet Centers; and (2) the elimination of the offset between military retired pay based on years of service and veterans' disability compensation; and Whereas Disabled American Veterans continues to advocate and create awareness for many issues affecting veterans of the United States, such as equitable benefits and services for women veterans, appropriate resources for mental health and suicide prevention services, and benefits for all veterans exposed to toxic substances: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) recognizes that, throughout 100 years of service, Disabled American Veterans has made significant contributions to veterans, both with and without disabilities, and the communities of veterans, ``fulfilling our promises to the men and women who served''; (2) honors the vital and ongoing role Disabled American Veterans plays in supporting the needs of veterans and their families in the United States; and (3) commemorates the legacy of Disabled American Veterans in the provision of services and advocacy for veterans throughout 100 years of history of the United States.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1232-2

formal

based

white supremacist

Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Reed, Mr. Braun, Mr. Carper, Mr. Boozman, Mr. King, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Ernst, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Brown, Ms. Warren, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Booker, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Casey, Mr. Peters, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Coons, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Markey, Mr. Warner, Ms. Harris, and Mrs. Fischer) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to: S. Res. 521 Whereas public education is a significant institution in a 21st-century democracy; Whereas public schools in the United States are where students come to be educated about the values and beliefs that hold the individuals of the United States together as a nation; Whereas public schools prepare young individuals of the United States to contribute to the society, economy, and citizenry of the country; Whereas 90 percent of children in the United States attend public schools; Whereas Federal, State, and local lawmakers should-- (1) prioritize support for strengthening the public schools of the United States; (2) empower superintendents, principals, and other school leaders to implement, manage, and lead school districts and schools in partnership with educators, parents, and other local education stakeholders; and (3) support services and programs that are critical to helping students engage in learning, including counseling, extracurricular activities, and mental health supports; Whereas public schools should foster inclusive, safe, and high-quality environments in which children can learn to think critically, problem solve, and build relationships; Whereas public schools should provide environments in which all students have the opportunity to succeed beginning in their earliest years, regardless of who a student is or where a student lives; Whereas Congress should support-- (1) efforts to advance equal opportunity and excellence in public education; (2) efforts to implement evidence-based practices in public education; and (3) continuous improvements to public education; Whereas every child should-- (1) receive an education that helps the child reach the full potential of the child; and (2) attend a school that offers a high-quality educational experience; Whereas Federal funding, in addition to State and local funds, supports the access of students to inviting classrooms, well-prepared educators, and services to support healthy students, including nutrition and afterschool programs; Whereas teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals should provide students with a well-rounded education and strive to create joy in learning; Whereas superintendents, principals, other school leaders, teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents make public schools vital components of communities and are working hard to improve educational outcomes for children across the country; and Whereas the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, is an appropriate period to designate as ``Public Schools Week'': Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate designates the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, as ``Public Schools Week''.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1233-3

formal

public school

racist

Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Reed, Mr. Braun, Mr. Carper, Mr. Boozman, Mr. King, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Ernst, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Brown, Ms. Warren, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Booker, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Casey, Mr. Peters, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Coons, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Markey, Mr. Warner, Ms. Harris, and Mrs. Fischer) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to: S. Res. 521 Whereas public education is a significant institution in a 21st-century democracy; Whereas public schools in the United States are where students come to be educated about the values and beliefs that hold the individuals of the United States together as a nation; Whereas public schools prepare young individuals of the United States to contribute to the society, economy, and citizenry of the country; Whereas 90 percent of children in the United States attend public schools; Whereas Federal, State, and local lawmakers should-- (1) prioritize support for strengthening the public schools of the United States; (2) empower superintendents, principals, and other school leaders to implement, manage, and lead school districts and schools in partnership with educators, parents, and other local education stakeholders; and (3) support services and programs that are critical to helping students engage in learning, including counseling, extracurricular activities, and mental health supports; Whereas public schools should foster inclusive, safe, and high-quality environments in which children can learn to think critically, problem solve, and build relationships; Whereas public schools should provide environments in which all students have the opportunity to succeed beginning in their earliest years, regardless of who a student is or where a student lives; Whereas Congress should support-- (1) efforts to advance equal opportunity and excellence in public education; (2) efforts to implement evidence-based practices in public education; and (3) continuous improvements to public education; Whereas every child should-- (1) receive an education that helps the child reach the full potential of the child; and (2) attend a school that offers a high-quality educational experience; Whereas Federal funding, in addition to State and local funds, supports the access of students to inviting classrooms, well-prepared educators, and services to support healthy students, including nutrition and afterschool programs; Whereas teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals should provide students with a well-rounded education and strive to create joy in learning; Whereas superintendents, principals, other school leaders, teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents make public schools vital components of communities and are working hard to improve educational outcomes for children across the country; and Whereas the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, is an appropriate period to designate as ``Public Schools Week'': Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate designates the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, as ``Public Schools Week''.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1233-3

formal

public schools

racist

Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Reed, Mr. Braun, Mr. Carper, Mr. Boozman, Mr. King, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kaine, Ms. Ernst, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Brown, Ms. Warren, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Booker, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Casey, Mr. Peters, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Coons, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Markey, Mr. Warner, Ms. Harris, and Mrs. Fischer) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to: S. Res. 521 Whereas public education is a significant institution in a 21st-century democracy; Whereas public schools in the United States are where students come to be educated about the values and beliefs that hold the individuals of the United States together as a nation; Whereas public schools prepare young individuals of the United States to contribute to the society, economy, and citizenry of the country; Whereas 90 percent of children in the United States attend public schools; Whereas Federal, State, and local lawmakers should-- (1) prioritize support for strengthening the public schools of the United States; (2) empower superintendents, principals, and other school leaders to implement, manage, and lead school districts and schools in partnership with educators, parents, and other local education stakeholders; and (3) support services and programs that are critical to helping students engage in learning, including counseling, extracurricular activities, and mental health supports; Whereas public schools should foster inclusive, safe, and high-quality environments in which children can learn to think critically, problem solve, and build relationships; Whereas public schools should provide environments in which all students have the opportunity to succeed beginning in their earliest years, regardless of who a student is or where a student lives; Whereas Congress should support-- (1) efforts to advance equal opportunity and excellence in public education; (2) efforts to implement evidence-based practices in public education; and (3) continuous improvements to public education; Whereas every child should-- (1) receive an education that helps the child reach the full potential of the child; and (2) attend a school that offers a high-quality educational experience; Whereas Federal funding, in addition to State and local funds, supports the access of students to inviting classrooms, well-prepared educators, and services to support healthy students, including nutrition and afterschool programs; Whereas teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals should provide students with a well-rounded education and strive to create joy in learning; Whereas superintendents, principals, other school leaders, teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents make public schools vital components of communities and are working hard to improve educational outcomes for children across the country; and Whereas the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, is an appropriate period to designate as ``Public Schools Week'': Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate designates the week of February 24 through February 28, 2020, as ``Public Schools Week''.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-02-27-pt1-PgS1233-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration of the bill (H.R. 2339) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes, will now resume. The Clerk will report the title of the bill.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-28-pt1-PgH1286-2

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2819) to extend the authority for the establishment of a commemorative work in honor of Gold Star Families, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-28-pt1-PgH1286

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, which the Chair will put de novo. The question is on the Speaker's approval of the Journal. Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-02-28-pt1-PgH1289

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Under clause 2 of rule XIV, executive communications were taken from the Speaker's table and referred as follows: 3936. A letter from the Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service, Federal Grain Inspection Services, Department of Agriculture, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Fees for Rice Inspection Services and Removal of Specific Fee References [Doc. No.: AMS-FGIS-18-0088] (RIN: 0581-AD85) received February 25, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 3937. A letter from the Director, Regulations Management Team, Rural Development, Rural Utilities Service, Department of Agriculture, transmitting the Department's interim Major final rule -- Rural Broadband Loans, Loan/Grant Combinations, and Loan Guarantees [Docket No.: RUS-19-Telecom-0003] (RIN: 0572-AC46) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 3938. A letter from the FPAC-BC, Commodity Credit Corporation, Department of Agriculture, transmitting the Department's interim rule -- Regional Conservation Partnership Program [Docket ID: NRCS-2019-0012] (RIN: 0578- AA70) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 3939. A letter from the Congressional Review Coordinator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture, transmitting the Department's final rule -- National Veterinary Accreditation Program [Docket No.: APHIS- 2017-0065] (RIN: 0579-AE40) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 3940. A letter from the General Counsel, Farm Credit Administration, transmitting the Administration's proposed rule -- Amortization Limits (RIN: 3052-AC92) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 3941. A letter from the General Counsel, Farm Credit Administration, transmitting the Administration's final rule -- Rules of Practice and Procedure; Adjusting Civil Money Penalties for Inflation (RIN: 3052-AD41) received February 26, 2020, 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. 3942. A letter from the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting a letter on the approved retirement of Lieutenant General Paul A. Ostrowski, 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. 3943. A letter from the Executive Secretary, National Labor Relations Board, transmitting the Board's Major final rule -- Joint Employer Status Under the National Labor Relations Act (RIN: 3142-AA13) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Education and Labor. 3944. A letter from the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, transmitting the Corporation's final rule -- Miscellaneous Corrections, Clarifications, and Improvements (RIN: 1212- AB34) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Education and Labor. 3945. A letter from the Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting the Twenty-ninth Report to Congress on Progress Made in Licensing and Constructing the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 16523; Public Law 109-58, Sec. 1810; (119 Stat. 1126); to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 3946. A letter from the Secretary, Department of Commerce, transmitting a report certifying that the export of the listed item to the People's Republic of China is not detrimental to the U.S. space launch industry, pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 2778 note; Public Law 105-261, Sec. 1512 (as amended by Public Law 105-277, Sec. 146); (112 Stat. 2174); to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 3947. A letter from the Director, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting Transmittal No. 19-75, pursuant to the reporting requirements of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended; to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 3948. A letter from the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, Department Commerce, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Amendments to Country Groups for Russia and Yemen Under the Export Administration Regulations [Docket No.: 200204-0044] (RIN: 0694-AH93) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 3949. A letter from the Chief Counsel, Office of Chief Counsel, FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Suspension of Community Eligibility [Docket ID: FEMA-2019-0003; Internal Agency Docket No.: FEMA-8609] February 26, 2020, 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. 3950. A letter from the Acting Director, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, transmitting the Service's report titled, ``Analysis of Entity's Systems, Controls and Legal Compliance'' for FY 2019 under the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982; to the Committee on Oversight and Reform. 3951. A letter from the Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of The President, transmitting the Office's 2017 Information Collection Budget of the United States Government; to the Committee on Oversight and Reform. 3952. A letter from the Acting Director, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, transmitting the Agency's FY 2019 No FEAR Act Report, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 2301 note; Public Law 107- 174, 203(a) (as amended by Public Law 109-435, Sec. 604(f)); (120 Stat. 3242); to the Committee on Oversight and Reform. 3953. A letter from the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. House of Representatives, transmitting the Office's Management Advisory Report -- Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) Program Advisory (Report No.: 20-CAO- 01); to the Committee on House Administration. 3954. A letter from the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Justice, transmitting a report titled, ``Tribal Crime Data Collection Activities, 2016'', pursuant to 34 U.S.C. 10132(g); Public Law 90-351, Sec. 302(g) (as added by Public Law 111-211, Sec. 251(b)); (124 Stat. 2298); to the Committee on the Judiciary. 3955. A letter from the Solicitor General, Office of Solicitor General, Department of Justice, transmitting the Department's decision in ``United States v. Rudolfo Gonzalez- Fierro, No. 18-2168 (10th Cir. 2020)'', pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 530D(a)(1); Public Law 107-273, Sec. 202(a); (116 Stat. 1771); to the Committee on the Judiciary. 3956. A letter from the Principle Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Justice, transmitting the Department's views on H.J. Res. 79 and S.J. Res. 6, the ``Removing the Deadline for the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment''; to the Committee on the Judiciary. 3957. A letter from the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule -- Regulatory Amendments Implementing the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018 [Docket No.: 19-06] (RIN: 3072-AC77) received February 25, 2020, 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. 3958. A letter from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of General Counsel, Small Business Administration, transmitting the Administration's final rule -- Streamlining and Modernizing Certified Development Company Program (504 Loan Program) Corporate Governance Requirements (RIN: 3245-AG97) received February 25, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Small Business. 3959. A letter from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of General Counsel, Small Business Administration, transmitting the Administration's final rule -- Small Business HUBZone Program and Government Contracting Programs (RIN: 3245-AG38) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Small Business. 3960. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting a report to Congress concerning emigration laws and policies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, as required by the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 2432(b); Public Law 93-618, Sec. 402(b); (88 Stat. 2056) and 19 U.S.C. 2439(b); Public Law 93-618, Sec. 409(b); (88 Stat. 2064); to the Committee on Ways and Means. 3961. A letter from the Chief, Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, transmitting the Service's IRB only rule -- Revenue procedure for farmers changing election out of 236A from 236A(d)(3) to 263(i) (Revenue Procedure 2020-13) received February 25, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Ways and Means. 3962. A letter from the Director, Office of Regulations, Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs, Social Security Administration, transmitting the Administration's Major final rule -- Removing Inability to Communicate in English as an Education Category [Docket No.: SSA-2017-0046] (RIN: 0960-AH86) received February 26, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Ways and Means. 3963. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of Defense, transmitting draft proposed legislation, titled, ``National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021'' requested to be enacted during the second session of the 116th Congress; jointly to the Committees on Armed Services, Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, Oversight and Reform, House Administration, Foreign Affairs, and Veterans' Affairs.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-02-28-pt1-PgH1421-2

formal

XX

transphobic

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 votes objected to under clause 6 of rule XX. The House will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgH1426-10

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5003) to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to provide enhanced protection against debt collector harassment of members of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgH1433-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5932) to ensure greater transparency about the terms and conditions of financing provided by China to member states of the international financial institutions, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgH1433-5

formal

Detroit

racist

Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, the students on the robotics team in the small northwestern North Dakota town of Alexander set a goal at the beginning of this school year to win their State competition. Their determination and hard work paid off in February, and now the Alexander High School FIRST Tech Challenge Team #9963 team is preparing to represent North Dakota in the world championship competition. FIRST is the acronym for the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology organization, which plans the annual competitions between schools. There, the students build and program robots to perform challenging tasks and then compete with other teams. Robotics competition is growing in popularity in schools because it provides an ideal opportunity for young people to apply their knowledge of STEM subjects. It also teaches valuable life skills like communication, creativity, and collaboration and opens up countless doors of opportunity for the future. While new to some schools, the Alexander students have participated in the North Dakota championship competition for the past 5 years. Each year, they have brought home a trophy from one of the categories. For this year's competition, these future engineers built and programmed a robot theynicknamed ``Spiderbot,'' which competed against other robots, doing tasks like maneuvering under bridges and stacking blocks on a plate. This progressive small town of less than 500 residents is preparing its students for 21st century careers by offering robotics as a career and technical education course for credit at the school. The success of this program is due in large part to the support and encouragement from many, including school administrators, teachers, volunteers, and parents. To the students on the Alexander Robotics Team, their adviser Cathy White, and all who support them, I send my congratualations on becoming State champions. They are an inspiration to so many with their knowledge and passion. North Dakota will be watching as they compete in the world championships in Detroit in late April. I have a feeling we will be hearing much more from all of them in future careers as successful engineers and entrepreneurs.

2020-01-06

Mr. CRAMER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1252-3

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I rise to celebrate Robert S. Fraser's retirement from the Federal Government after 50 years of faithful service to our country. Mr. Fraser traveled for over 40 years with the U.S. Air Force, both as a dependent and serving on active duty. He attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he graduated in 1973 and received the Outstanding Cadet in Engineering Sciences. In 1993, he retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force and began a distinguished career at the National Security Agency, where he received multiple achievements and awards. Throughout his career, Mr. Fraser has had a selfless dedication to duty and professionalism.

2020-01-06

Mr. BENNET

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1252

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

At 3:04 p.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered by Mr. Novotny, one of its reading clerks, announced that the House has passed the following bills, in which it requests the concurrence of the Senate: H.R. 2339. An act to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes. H.R. 2819. An act to extend the authority for the establishment of a commemorative work in honor of Gold Star Mothers Families, and for other purposes.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1253-4

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The following bills were read the first and the second times by unanimous consent, and referred as indicated: H.R. 2339. An act to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the sale and marketing of tobacco products, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance. H.R. 2819. An act to extend the authority for the establishment of a commemorative work in honor of Gold Star Mothers Families, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1253-5

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The following communications were laid before the Senate, together with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: EC-4097. A communication from the Farm Production and Conservation Business Center Analyst, Commodity Credit Corporation, Department of Agriculture, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) Interim Rule'' ((7 CFR Part 1464) (RIN0578-AA70)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. EC-4098. A communication from the Secretary of Defense, transmitting a report on the approved retirement of Lieutenant General Paul A. Ostrowski, United States Army, and his advancement to the grade of lieutenant general on the retired list; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4099. A communication from the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Temporary General License: Extension of Validity'' (RIN0694-AH97) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4100. A communication from the Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendments to Country Groups for Russia and Yemen under the Export Administration Regulations'' (RIN0694-AH93) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4101. A communication from the Director of Legislative Affairs, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Regulatory Capital Rule: Revisions to the Supplementary Leverage Ratio To Exclude Certain Central Bank Deposits of Banking Organizations Predominantly Engaged in Custody, Safekeeping, and Asset Servicing Activities'' (RIN3064-AE81) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4102. A communication from the Executive Director, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Annual Update of Filing Fees'' ((RIN1902-AF68) (Docket No. RM20-3-000)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4103. A communication from the Chief of Policy, Regulation and Analysis, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of the Interior, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``2020 Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustments for Oil, Gas, and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf'' (RIN1010-AD99) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4104. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``District of Columbia: Negative Declaration for the Oil and Gas Industry 2015 Control Technique Guideline'' (FRL No. 10005-75-Region 3) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 24, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4105. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Management Division, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Procedures for Review of CBI Claims for the Identity of Chemicals on the TSCA Inventory'' (FRL No. 10005- 48-OCSPP) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 24, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4106. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Revenue Procedure for farmers changing election out of 263A from 263A(d) (3) to 263A(i)'' (Rev. Proc. 2020-13) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4107. A communication from the Director, Office of Regulations and Reports Clearance, Social Security Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Removing Inability to Communicate in English as an Education Category'' (RIN0960-AH86) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 26, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4108. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to sections 36(c) and (d) of the Arms Export Control Act, the certification of a proposed license for the manufacture of significant military equipment abroad and the export of defense articles, including technical data and defense services to Italy, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway for the design and development of composite components for the manufacture of subassemblies for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Center Fuselage in the amount of $50,000,000 or more (Transmittal No. DDTC 19-083); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4109. A communication from the Acting Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, transmitting, a report of five recommendations adopted by the Administrative Conference of the United States at its 72nd Plenary Session; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4110. A communication from the Senior Procurement Executive, Office of Acquisition Policy, General Services Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2020-5, Small Entity Compliance Guide'' ((48 CFR Chapter 1) (FAC 2020-05)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4111. A communication from the Senior Procurement Executive, Office of Acquisition Policy, General Services Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2020-05, Introduction'' ((48 CFR Chapter 1) (FAC 2020-05)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4112. A communication from the Senior Procurement Executive, Office of Acquisition Policy, General Services Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Federal Acquisition Regulation; FAR Case 2014-002, Set-Asides under Multiple-Award Contracts'' ((48 CFR Parts 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 42, and 52) (FAC 2020-05)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4113. A communication from the General Counsel and Acting Chief Executive and Administrative Officer, Merit Systems Protection Board, transmitting, pursuant to law, reports entitled ``U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board Annual Performance Report for fiscal year 2019, Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 2020-2021, and Strategic Plan for fiscal year 2020-2024''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4114. A communication from the Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``2017 Information Collection Budget of the United States Government''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4115. A communication from the District of Columbia Auditor, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Twenty Percent of ODCA Recommendations Implemented; 49% In Progress''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4116. A communication from the Associate General Counsel for General Law, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, two (2) reports relative to vacancies in the Department of Homeland Security, received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4117. A communication from the Assistant General Counsel for General Law, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, two (2) reports relative to vacancies in the Department of Homeland Security, received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4118. A communication from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of Financial Assistance, Small Business Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Streamlining and Modernizing Certified Development Company Program (504 Loan Program) Corporate Governance Requirements'' (RIN3245-AG97) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. EC-4119. A communication from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of the HUBZone Program, Small Business Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``HUBZone Program Provisions for Governor-Designated Covered Areas'' (RIN3245-AH06) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. EC-4120. A communication from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of Size Standards, Small Business Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Small Business Size Standards: Calculation of Annual Average Receipts'' (RIN3245-AH16) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. EC-4121. A communication from the Deputy General Counsel, Office of Women's Business Ownership, Small Business Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Office of Women's Business Ownership: Women's Business Center Program'' (RIN3245-AG02) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 21, 2020; to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. EC-4122. A communication from the Chief of Regulatory Development, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Incorporation by Reference; North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria; Hazardous Materials Safety Permits'' (RIN2126-AC28) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4123. A communication from the Secretary of the Federal Maritime Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Regulatory Amendments Implementing the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018'' (RIN3072-AC77) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4124. A communication from the Deputy Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Improving Outage Reporting for Submarine Cables and Enhanced Submarine Cable Outage Data'' ((GN Docket No. 15-206) (FCC 19-138)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4125. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Standard Instrument Approach Procedures; Miscellaneous Amendments (40); Amendment No. 3889'' ((RIN2120-AA65) (Docket No. 31294)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4126. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Standard Instrument Approach Procedures; Miscellaneous Amendments (17); Amendment No. 3890'' ((RIN2120-AA65) (Docket No. 31295)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4127. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendment of the Class D and E Airspace, Establishment of Class E Airspace, and Revocation of Class E Airspace; Louisville, KY'' ((RIN2120-AA66) (Docket No. FAA- 2019-0109)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4128. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2016- 9073)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4129. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Dassault Aviation Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0700)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4130. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0714)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4131. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0720)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4132. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0864)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4133. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019- 0670)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4134. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Helicopters'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA- 2019-0663)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4135. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Helicopters'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0125)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4136. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2016-6143)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4137. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2017-0052)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4138. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. Helicopters'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA- 2017-0052)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4139. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019- 0525)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4140. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0720)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4141. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0100)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4142. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Leonardo S.p.A Helicopters'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0150)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4143. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Final Rule: Pilot Professional Development'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2014-0504)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1253-6

formal

based

white supremacist

The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated: POM-186. A concurrent resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio urging the United States Congress to encourage the Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to change the crash indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) regulation standards to consider only crashes in which the driver was at fault for the crash; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. House Concurrent Resolution Number 8 Whereas, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uses the Safety Measurement System (SMS) to assess commercial motor vehicle carriers in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs); and Whereas, The BASICs include Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and Driver Fitness; and Whereas, SMS data allows the FMCSA to assess carrier noncompliance with the regulations promulgated by the FMCSA and provides the commercial motor vehicle carrier industry and other safety stakeholders with comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety performance data; and Whereas, SMS data is used to make safety-based business decisions using all available sources of information; and Whereas, The Crash Indicator BASIC includes data concerning all state-reported crashes, regardless of the carrier's or driver's role in the crash; and Whereas, By including crashes in which a carrier or driver was not at fault, the current data creates an inaccurate, incriminating, and imbalanced portrayal of the carrier's or driver's crash record, with the potential for devastating personal and business consequences for otherwise upstanding and safe carriers and drivers: Now therefore be it Resolved, That we, the members of the 133rd General Assembly of the State of Ohio, urge the Congress of the United States to encourage the Administrator of the FMCSA to change the Crash Indicator BASIC regulation standards to consider only crashes in which the driver was at fault for the crash; and be it further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this resolution to the President Pro Tempore and Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States, the members of the Ohio Congressional delegation, and the news media of Ohio.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1255

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated: POM-186. A concurrent resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio urging the United States Congress to encourage the Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to change the crash indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) regulation standards to consider only crashes in which the driver was at fault for the crash; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. House Concurrent Resolution Number 8 Whereas, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uses the Safety Measurement System (SMS) to assess commercial motor vehicle carriers in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs); and Whereas, The BASICs include Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and Driver Fitness; and Whereas, SMS data allows the FMCSA to assess carrier noncompliance with the regulations promulgated by the FMCSA and provides the commercial motor vehicle carrier industry and other safety stakeholders with comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety performance data; and Whereas, SMS data is used to make safety-based business decisions using all available sources of information; and Whereas, The Crash Indicator BASIC includes data concerning all state-reported crashes, regardless of the carrier's or driver's role in the crash; and Whereas, By including crashes in which a carrier or driver was not at fault, the current data creates an inaccurate, incriminating, and imbalanced portrayal of the carrier's or driver's crash record, with the potential for devastating personal and business consequences for otherwise upstanding and safe carriers and drivers: Now therefore be it Resolved, That we, the members of the 133rd General Assembly of the State of Ohio, urge the Congress of the United States to encourage the Administrator of the FMCSA to change the Crash Indicator BASIC regulation standards to consider only crashes in which the driver was at fault for the crash; and be it further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this resolution to the President Pro Tempore and Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States, the members of the Ohio Congressional delegation, and the news media of Ohio.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-02-pt1-PgS1255

formal

XX

transphobic

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 votes objected to under clause 6 of rule XX. The House will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgH1448-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4508) to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgH1457

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (S. 1822) to require the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data with respect to the availability of broadband services, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

2020-01-06

Mr. PALLONE

House

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgH1458

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, an op-ed I penned recently mentioned countries that still have blasphemy laws on the books, and it touched a nerve in Bangladesh. I certainly didn't mean to imply that it was the worst offender, and I commend Bangladesh for its support of almost 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees who are fleeing Burma. Bangladesh's secular government has also taken steps to prosecute perpetrators of religious-based crimes. However, a 2016 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that religious and civil society groups in Bangladesh fear increasing religious extremism. Moreover, some Bangladeshi leaders have warned that violators of the blasphemy laws would be prosecuted. Bangladesh and the 68 other countries that still have blasphemy laws on the books should repeal these laws. That is why I am cosponsoring a resolution, S. Res. 458, calling on the global repeal of blasphemy laws. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Mr. GRASSLEY

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-4

formal

extremism

Islamophobic

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, an op-ed I penned recently mentioned countries that still have blasphemy laws on the books, and it touched a nerve in Bangladesh. I certainly didn't mean to imply that it was the worst offender, and I commend Bangladesh for its support of almost 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees who are fleeing Burma. Bangladesh's secular government has also taken steps to prosecute perpetrators of religious-based crimes. However, a 2016 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that religious and civil society groups in Bangladesh fear increasing religious extremism. Moreover, some Bangladeshi leaders have warned that violators of the blasphemy laws would be prosecuted. Bangladesh and the 68 other countries that still have blasphemy laws on the books should repeal these laws. That is why I am cosponsoring a resolution, S. Res. 458, calling on the global repeal of blasphemy laws. I yield the floor.

2020-01-06

Mr. GRASSLEY

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-4

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week, the Senate has a good opportunity to update the laws governing the way we harness and deploy America's tremendous domestic energy resources. It has been well over a decade since the last time comprehensive energy legislation was signed into Federal law. Following our overwhelming vote yesterday to proceed to consideration of the American Energy Innovation Act, the Senate is on track to change that very soon. The American Energy Innovation Act put forward by Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin is thoroughly bipartisan. It contains provisions sponsored or cosponsored by more than 60 of our colleagues. It has come to include 50 individual pieces of legislation that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered last year. Over the past 3 years, the Trump administration and this Congress have worked together to secure historic advances for both the producers and consumers of affordable domestic energy. We have opened access to new energy reserves, streamlined the regulation of liquid natural gas exports, and halted or reversed the most egregious Obama-era regulatory burdens. The growing record is clear. We have helped to usher in a prosperous new era of U.S. energy independence. The legislation we are considering this week is designed to build on those successes. It takes proactive steps to ensure the security, efficiency, and affordability of American energy for years to come. First, it puts a strong tailwind behind programs, grants, and research efforts that are focused on energy innovation. That means significant investments in improving energy efficiency and grid storage technologies; new resources for the development of renewable geothermal, nuclear, and other energy sources to help sustain domestic energy independence; reauthorization for the Department of Energy's cutting-edge research at the Advanced Research Projects Agency; and a renewed commitment to carbon capture, utilization, and storage at coal production facilities. In addition to energy innovation, the legislation also focuses on energy security. Since the last comprehensive update to the Federal energy laws in 2007, our Nation's critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, has changed significantly, and so have the threats it faces. Our colleagues' legislation tackles this head-on. It introduces incentives for electrical grid modernization and cyber security projects. It encourages utility providers to take proactive measures to protect ratepayers from the devastating effects of potential cyber attacks. It makes new technical cyber security assistance available to municipalities and rural utilities and authorizes grant funding for on-the-job workforce retraining. Perhaps most importantly, the legislation before us is not only designed for continued advances in areas where the U.S. energy sector has seen success, it is also meant to take a sober assessment of where we are falling short. As my colleague Chairman Murkowski noted yesterday, the United States currently relies on foreign imports to meet our demand for dozens of mineral commodities. We are talking about rare substances with critical applications in manufacturing, energy production, and national security. These are critical products, but at present, domestic production does not satisfy domestic demand. That is why this legislation provides for new survey and cataloging efforts to identify new domestic supplies of important materials. It invests in extraction technologies that would harness existing mining infrastructure in places like Appalachian coal country to help meet the demand. As the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know the importance of these investments firsthand. The working families and job creators in my State know that clean coal technologies and longstanding mining operations can continue to add tremendous value to the security and prosperity of our Nation. There is a reason why this legislation has earned widespread praise from the researchers and energy industry leaders who would be affected the most. It is a product of serious, good-faith, bipartisan work. That is why organizations from the National Mining Association to the Environmental Defense Fund have found common ground in endorsing it. I will have more to say about this legislation in the coming days, but right now, I am grateful for our colleagues on the Energy Committee for their work in bringing it to the floor. I look forward to considering their important legislation in the days ahead, and I would encourage all Members to join me in supporting this excellent work.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-6

formal

job creator

conservative

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week, the Senate has a good opportunity to update the laws governing the way we harness and deploy America's tremendous domestic energy resources. It has been well over a decade since the last time comprehensive energy legislation was signed into Federal law. Following our overwhelming vote yesterday to proceed to consideration of the American Energy Innovation Act, the Senate is on track to change that very soon. The American Energy Innovation Act put forward by Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin is thoroughly bipartisan. It contains provisions sponsored or cosponsored by more than 60 of our colleagues. It has come to include 50 individual pieces of legislation that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered last year. Over the past 3 years, the Trump administration and this Congress have worked together to secure historic advances for both the producers and consumers of affordable domestic energy. We have opened access to new energy reserves, streamlined the regulation of liquid natural gas exports, and halted or reversed the most egregious Obama-era regulatory burdens. The growing record is clear. We have helped to usher in a prosperous new era of U.S. energy independence. The legislation we are considering this week is designed to build on those successes. It takes proactive steps to ensure the security, efficiency, and affordability of American energy for years to come. First, it puts a strong tailwind behind programs, grants, and research efforts that are focused on energy innovation. That means significant investments in improving energy efficiency and grid storage technologies; new resources for the development of renewable geothermal, nuclear, and other energy sources to help sustain domestic energy independence; reauthorization for the Department of Energy's cutting-edge research at the Advanced Research Projects Agency; and a renewed commitment to carbon capture, utilization, and storage at coal production facilities. In addition to energy innovation, the legislation also focuses on energy security. Since the last comprehensive update to the Federal energy laws in 2007, our Nation's critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, has changed significantly, and so have the threats it faces. Our colleagues' legislation tackles this head-on. It introduces incentives for electrical grid modernization and cyber security projects. It encourages utility providers to take proactive measures to protect ratepayers from the devastating effects of potential cyber attacks. It makes new technical cyber security assistance available to municipalities and rural utilities and authorizes grant funding for on-the-job workforce retraining. Perhaps most importantly, the legislation before us is not only designed for continued advances in areas where the U.S. energy sector has seen success, it is also meant to take a sober assessment of where we are falling short. As my colleague Chairman Murkowski noted yesterday, the United States currently relies on foreign imports to meet our demand for dozens of mineral commodities. We are talking about rare substances with critical applications in manufacturing, energy production, and national security. These are critical products, but at present, domestic production does not satisfy domestic demand. That is why this legislation provides for new survey and cataloging efforts to identify new domestic supplies of important materials. It invests in extraction technologies that would harness existing mining infrastructure in places like Appalachian coal country to help meet the demand. As the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know the importance of these investments firsthand. The working families and job creators in my State know that clean coal technologies and longstanding mining operations can continue to add tremendous value to the security and prosperity of our Nation. There is a reason why this legislation has earned widespread praise from the researchers and energy industry leaders who would be affected the most. It is a product of serious, good-faith, bipartisan work. That is why organizations from the National Mining Association to the Environmental Defense Fund have found common ground in endorsing it. I will have more to say about this legislation in the coming days, but right now, I am grateful for our colleagues on the Energy Committee for their work in bringing it to the floor. I look forward to considering their important legislation in the days ahead, and I would encourage all Members to join me in supporting this excellent work.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-6

formal

job creators

conservative

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week, the Senate has a good opportunity to update the laws governing the way we harness and deploy America's tremendous domestic energy resources. It has been well over a decade since the last time comprehensive energy legislation was signed into Federal law. Following our overwhelming vote yesterday to proceed to consideration of the American Energy Innovation Act, the Senate is on track to change that very soon. The American Energy Innovation Act put forward by Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin is thoroughly bipartisan. It contains provisions sponsored or cosponsored by more than 60 of our colleagues. It has come to include 50 individual pieces of legislation that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered last year. Over the past 3 years, the Trump administration and this Congress have worked together to secure historic advances for both the producers and consumers of affordable domestic energy. We have opened access to new energy reserves, streamlined the regulation of liquid natural gas exports, and halted or reversed the most egregious Obama-era regulatory burdens. The growing record is clear. We have helped to usher in a prosperous new era of U.S. energy independence. The legislation we are considering this week is designed to build on those successes. It takes proactive steps to ensure the security, efficiency, and affordability of American energy for years to come. First, it puts a strong tailwind behind programs, grants, and research efforts that are focused on energy innovation. That means significant investments in improving energy efficiency and grid storage technologies; new resources for the development of renewable geothermal, nuclear, and other energy sources to help sustain domestic energy independence; reauthorization for the Department of Energy's cutting-edge research at the Advanced Research Projects Agency; and a renewed commitment to carbon capture, utilization, and storage at coal production facilities. In addition to energy innovation, the legislation also focuses on energy security. Since the last comprehensive update to the Federal energy laws in 2007, our Nation's critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, has changed significantly, and so have the threats it faces. Our colleagues' legislation tackles this head-on. It introduces incentives for electrical grid modernization and cyber security projects. It encourages utility providers to take proactive measures to protect ratepayers from the devastating effects of potential cyber attacks. It makes new technical cyber security assistance available to municipalities and rural utilities and authorizes grant funding for on-the-job workforce retraining. Perhaps most importantly, the legislation before us is not only designed for continued advances in areas where the U.S. energy sector has seen success, it is also meant to take a sober assessment of where we are falling short. As my colleague Chairman Murkowski noted yesterday, the United States currently relies on foreign imports to meet our demand for dozens of mineral commodities. We are talking about rare substances with critical applications in manufacturing, energy production, and national security. These are critical products, but at present, domestic production does not satisfy domestic demand. That is why this legislation provides for new survey and cataloging efforts to identify new domestic supplies of important materials. It invests in extraction technologies that would harness existing mining infrastructure in places like Appalachian coal country to help meet the demand. As the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know the importance of these investments firsthand. The working families and job creators in my State know that clean coal technologies and longstanding mining operations can continue to add tremendous value to the security and prosperity of our Nation. There is a reason why this legislation has earned widespread praise from the researchers and energy industry leaders who would be affected the most. It is a product of serious, good-faith, bipartisan work. That is why organizations from the National Mining Association to the Environmental Defense Fund have found common ground in endorsing it. I will have more to say about this legislation in the coming days, but right now, I am grateful for our colleagues on the Energy Committee for their work in bringing it to the floor. I look forward to considering their important legislation in the days ahead, and I would encourage all Members to join me in supporting this excellent work.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-6

formal

working families

racist

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week, the Senate has a good opportunity to update the laws governing the way we harness and deploy America's tremendous domestic energy resources. It has been well over a decade since the last time comprehensive energy legislation was signed into Federal law. Following our overwhelming vote yesterday to proceed to consideration of the American Energy Innovation Act, the Senate is on track to change that very soon. The American Energy Innovation Act put forward by Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin is thoroughly bipartisan. It contains provisions sponsored or cosponsored by more than 60 of our colleagues. It has come to include 50 individual pieces of legislation that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered last year. Over the past 3 years, the Trump administration and this Congress have worked together to secure historic advances for both the producers and consumers of affordable domestic energy. We have opened access to new energy reserves, streamlined the regulation of liquid natural gas exports, and halted or reversed the most egregious Obama-era regulatory burdens. The growing record is clear. We have helped to usher in a prosperous new era of U.S. energy independence. The legislation we are considering this week is designed to build on those successes. It takes proactive steps to ensure the security, efficiency, and affordability of American energy for years to come. First, it puts a strong tailwind behind programs, grants, and research efforts that are focused on energy innovation. That means significant investments in improving energy efficiency and grid storage technologies; new resources for the development of renewable geothermal, nuclear, and other energy sources to help sustain domestic energy independence; reauthorization for the Department of Energy's cutting-edge research at the Advanced Research Projects Agency; and a renewed commitment to carbon capture, utilization, and storage at coal production facilities. In addition to energy innovation, the legislation also focuses on energy security. Since the last comprehensive update to the Federal energy laws in 2007, our Nation's critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, has changed significantly, and so have the threats it faces. Our colleagues' legislation tackles this head-on. It introduces incentives for electrical grid modernization and cyber security projects. It encourages utility providers to take proactive measures to protect ratepayers from the devastating effects of potential cyber attacks. It makes new technical cyber security assistance available to municipalities and rural utilities and authorizes grant funding for on-the-job workforce retraining. Perhaps most importantly, the legislation before us is not only designed for continued advances in areas where the U.S. energy sector has seen success, it is also meant to take a sober assessment of where we are falling short. As my colleague Chairman Murkowski noted yesterday, the United States currently relies on foreign imports to meet our demand for dozens of mineral commodities. We are talking about rare substances with critical applications in manufacturing, energy production, and national security. These are critical products, but at present, domestic production does not satisfy domestic demand. That is why this legislation provides for new survey and cataloging efforts to identify new domestic supplies of important materials. It invests in extraction technologies that would harness existing mining infrastructure in places like Appalachian coal country to help meet the demand. As the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know the importance of these investments firsthand. The working families and job creators in my State know that clean coal technologies and longstanding mining operations can continue to add tremendous value to the security and prosperity of our Nation. There is a reason why this legislation has earned widespread praise from the researchers and energy industry leaders who would be affected the most. It is a product of serious, good-faith, bipartisan work. That is why organizations from the National Mining Association to the Environmental Defense Fund have found common ground in endorsing it. I will have more to say about this legislation in the coming days, but right now, I am grateful for our colleagues on the Energy Committee for their work in bringing it to the floor. I look forward to considering their important legislation in the days ahead, and I would encourage all Members to join me in supporting this excellent work.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1273-6

formal

safeguarding

transphobic

Ms. SINEMA. Madam President, I rise today to honor the esteemed career and public service of Dr. William Wallace Covington, who is retiring as regents' professor of forestry at Northern Arizona University, NAU. As founder and director of NAU's Ecological Restoration Institute, Dr. Covington's research has substantially contributed to our understanding of the conditions necessary to maintain healthy forest ecosystems. His demonstrations that selective thinning and controlled fires may mitigate more intense, destructive fires have undoubtedly helped save significant swathes of southwestern ponderosa pine forests, including those found in Arizona. Dr. Covington was recognized as an Outstanding Teaching Scholar by NAU, and received the Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Fire Ecology, has testified before both congressional and State natural resource committees and advised a former Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and former Secretary of the Interior. Dr. Covington's dedication to novel research and evidence-driven outcomes has been essential in safeguarding our communities from uncontrolled fires. I thank Dr. Covington for his years of dedicated work and public service on behalf of Arizona, the Southwest, and the American people. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from Bruce Babbitt recognizing Dr. Covington.

2020-01-06

Ms. SINEMA

Senate

CREC-2020-03-03-pt1-PgS1294

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message from the President of the United States; which was read and, together with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered to be printed:To the Congress of the United States: Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003, with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes or institutions is to continue in effect beyond March 6, 2020. In the wake of the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017, Zimbabwe's national elections in July 2018, and President Mugabe's subsequent death in September 2019, Zimbabwe has had ample opportunity to implement reforms that could set the country on a constructive path, stabilize the southern African region, and open the door to greater cooperation with the United States. Unfortunately, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration has yet to signal credible political will to implement such reforms. Indeed, the Zimbabwean government has arguably accelerated its persecution of critics and economic mismanagement in the past year, during which security forces have conducted extrajudicial killings, rapes, and alleged abductions of numerous dissidents. These actions and policies by certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes or institutions continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13288 with respect to Zimbabwe. Donald J. Trump. The White House, March 4, 2020.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgH1489

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, in the meantime, the Senate will continue considering an important package of comprehensive energy legislation. For the first time in more than a decade, we are looking at a thorough update to the laws governing innovation, security, and workforce development all across the American energy sector. As Chairman Murkowski has noted, 12 years is a long time. The demands we face in researching, producing, refining, storing, and protecting our abundant domestic energy have evolved a great deal since 2007, so it is high time for relevant Federal policy to evolve as well. I am grateful the chairman was willing to take on this important task, and I am glad she and Senator Manchin led their colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee through an overwhelmingly bipartisan process to produce this bill. As I mentioned yesterday, the legislation aggregates 50 individual bills. It contains input from more than 60 Senators. It covers an exhaustive range of energy-related challenges, from power storage and renewable technologies to carbon capture and electrical grid cyber security. It has earned the support of a similarly broad range of industry, advocacy, and research organizations. In one joint letter, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the American Nuclear Society, the Nature Conservancy, and 36 other signatories endorsed it as ``the culmination of extensive efforts to develop practical legislative solutions.'' That is the American Nuclear Society and the Nature Conservancy--that ought to tell you what you need to know about this bill. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation done right. This is how you take practical steps to build consensus on issues that affect every American in every State. Around this time last year, you will recall we saw a high-profile example of exactly what not to do. The far-left edge of the House Democratic caucus rolled out a massive scheme to forcibly remake much of our economy and our society according to their radical top-down designs. We all remember the Green New Deal--categorical bans on the most affordable forms of American energy, a dim future for millions of energy jobs, unprecedented Washington mandates on every subject from building codes to personal transportation. We all remember what happened next: This socialist fantasy did not stay confined to ideological fringe; it quickly grew into a broader rallying cry. When the Senate had the opportunity to vote on this wish list of central planning, only four--just four--of our Democratic colleagues could bring themselves to vote against it. That is quite a remarkable commentary on the state of our politics. Experts estimated the Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. The Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will let us direct responsible and targeted investment in a smart way toward key energy priorities. The Green New Deal sought to have Washington micromanage everyday life in this country to a degree that the 20th-century Socialists would have drooled over. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will create better policy and regulatory conditions for American workers, American innovators, and American job creators to actually thrive. Speaking as the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know firsthand that many Americans in the middle of the country suffered badly during the Obama era because Washington bureaucrats decided American energy had to fit their ideological designs. The very last thing we want is to move backward and expand those errors exponentially with radical leftwing experiments that would make the last administration's War on Coal look like child's play. What Kentuckians and all Americans deserve is for the Federal Government to make prosperity and domestic energy dominance easier--easier--not harder. They deserve investment and support to help the communities that have fueled this country for generations to prosper once again, and that is what this bipartisan bill will actually deliver. I am proud to support this smart legislation. Clearly, I am not alone, since only three Senators voted against advancing the bill this week. So I would urge all of my colleagues to keep up their support, and let's see this package through to the finish line.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1450

formal

job creator

conservative

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, in the meantime, the Senate will continue considering an important package of comprehensive energy legislation. For the first time in more than a decade, we are looking at a thorough update to the laws governing innovation, security, and workforce development all across the American energy sector. As Chairman Murkowski has noted, 12 years is a long time. The demands we face in researching, producing, refining, storing, and protecting our abundant domestic energy have evolved a great deal since 2007, so it is high time for relevant Federal policy to evolve as well. I am grateful the chairman was willing to take on this important task, and I am glad she and Senator Manchin led their colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee through an overwhelmingly bipartisan process to produce this bill. As I mentioned yesterday, the legislation aggregates 50 individual bills. It contains input from more than 60 Senators. It covers an exhaustive range of energy-related challenges, from power storage and renewable technologies to carbon capture and electrical grid cyber security. It has earned the support of a similarly broad range of industry, advocacy, and research organizations. In one joint letter, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the American Nuclear Society, the Nature Conservancy, and 36 other signatories endorsed it as ``the culmination of extensive efforts to develop practical legislative solutions.'' That is the American Nuclear Society and the Nature Conservancy--that ought to tell you what you need to know about this bill. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation done right. This is how you take practical steps to build consensus on issues that affect every American in every State. Around this time last year, you will recall we saw a high-profile example of exactly what not to do. The far-left edge of the House Democratic caucus rolled out a massive scheme to forcibly remake much of our economy and our society according to their radical top-down designs. We all remember the Green New Deal--categorical bans on the most affordable forms of American energy, a dim future for millions of energy jobs, unprecedented Washington mandates on every subject from building codes to personal transportation. We all remember what happened next: This socialist fantasy did not stay confined to ideological fringe; it quickly grew into a broader rallying cry. When the Senate had the opportunity to vote on this wish list of central planning, only four--just four--of our Democratic colleagues could bring themselves to vote against it. That is quite a remarkable commentary on the state of our politics. Experts estimated the Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. The Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will let us direct responsible and targeted investment in a smart way toward key energy priorities. The Green New Deal sought to have Washington micromanage everyday life in this country to a degree that the 20th-century Socialists would have drooled over. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will create better policy and regulatory conditions for American workers, American innovators, and American job creators to actually thrive. Speaking as the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know firsthand that many Americans in the middle of the country suffered badly during the Obama era because Washington bureaucrats decided American energy had to fit their ideological designs. The very last thing we want is to move backward and expand those errors exponentially with radical leftwing experiments that would make the last administration's War on Coal look like child's play. What Kentuckians and all Americans deserve is for the Federal Government to make prosperity and domestic energy dominance easier--easier--not harder. They deserve investment and support to help the communities that have fueled this country for generations to prosper once again, and that is what this bipartisan bill will actually deliver. I am proud to support this smart legislation. Clearly, I am not alone, since only three Senators voted against advancing the bill this week. So I would urge all of my colleagues to keep up their support, and let's see this package through to the finish line.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1450

formal

job creators

conservative

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, in the meantime, the Senate will continue considering an important package of comprehensive energy legislation. For the first time in more than a decade, we are looking at a thorough update to the laws governing innovation, security, and workforce development all across the American energy sector. As Chairman Murkowski has noted, 12 years is a long time. The demands we face in researching, producing, refining, storing, and protecting our abundant domestic energy have evolved a great deal since 2007, so it is high time for relevant Federal policy to evolve as well. I am grateful the chairman was willing to take on this important task, and I am glad she and Senator Manchin led their colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee through an overwhelmingly bipartisan process to produce this bill. As I mentioned yesterday, the legislation aggregates 50 individual bills. It contains input from more than 60 Senators. It covers an exhaustive range of energy-related challenges, from power storage and renewable technologies to carbon capture and electrical grid cyber security. It has earned the support of a similarly broad range of industry, advocacy, and research organizations. In one joint letter, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the American Nuclear Society, the Nature Conservancy, and 36 other signatories endorsed it as ``the culmination of extensive efforts to develop practical legislative solutions.'' That is the American Nuclear Society and the Nature Conservancy--that ought to tell you what you need to know about this bill. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation done right. This is how you take practical steps to build consensus on issues that affect every American in every State. Around this time last year, you will recall we saw a high-profile example of exactly what not to do. The far-left edge of the House Democratic caucus rolled out a massive scheme to forcibly remake much of our economy and our society according to their radical top-down designs. We all remember the Green New Deal--categorical bans on the most affordable forms of American energy, a dim future for millions of energy jobs, unprecedented Washington mandates on every subject from building codes to personal transportation. We all remember what happened next: This socialist fantasy did not stay confined to ideological fringe; it quickly grew into a broader rallying cry. When the Senate had the opportunity to vote on this wish list of central planning, only four--just four--of our Democratic colleagues could bring themselves to vote against it. That is quite a remarkable commentary on the state of our politics. Experts estimated the Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. The Green New Deal could have cost our government more than the GDP of the entire world. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will let us direct responsible and targeted investment in a smart way toward key energy priorities. The Green New Deal sought to have Washington micromanage everyday life in this country to a degree that the 20th-century Socialists would have drooled over. Instead, this bipartisan legislation will create better policy and regulatory conditions for American workers, American innovators, and American job creators to actually thrive. Speaking as the senior Senator from Kentucky, I know firsthand that many Americans in the middle of the country suffered badly during the Obama era because Washington bureaucrats decided American energy had to fit their ideological designs. The very last thing we want is to move backward and expand those errors exponentially with radical leftwing experiments that would make the last administration's War on Coal look like child's play. What Kentuckians and all Americans deserve is for the Federal Government to make prosperity and domestic energy dominance easier--easier--not harder. They deserve investment and support to help the communities that have fueled this country for generations to prosper once again, and that is what this bipartisan bill will actually deliver. I am proud to support this smart legislation. Clearly, I am not alone, since only three Senators voted against advancing the bill this week. So I would urge all of my colleagues to keep up their support, and let's see this package through to the finish line.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1450

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, last night we passed by unanimous consent legislation to revise and extend for 5 more years the key programs that Congress established under the Older Americans Act of 1965. I cosponsored the final version of this measure, which passed our Chamber as a Senate amendment to the Dignity in Aging Act, H.R. 4334. I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Senator Collins for leading the bicameral negotiations that made this bipartisan compromise possible. I expect that the other Chamber will soon accept the changes we made to their version of this legislation, so that Congress can send the final version to the President's desk in fairly short order. For over five decades, the Older Americans Act has made resources available to the Aging Network and States for services to the elderly and disabled. An example is the nutrition services program authorized under title III, which makes resources available for home-delivered meals, enabling the homebound to remain independent. This statute also helps older Americans live independently by supporting community-based services, making information about care options available to family caregivers, and supporting the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. As I continue my 99 county meetings across the State of Iowa each year, I welcome the feedback and ideas I get from local residents to help make our communities safer and stronger for older Americans. I also want to take this opportunity to commend the members of the Elder Justice Coalition, as well as groups such as the Iowa Association of Area Agencies on Aging, for their efforts in this area. These organizations and their members deserve recognition for their continued work on behalf of the Nation's older Americans and their contributions to this year's Older Americans Act extension. In a decade, all of our Nation's baby boomers will have reached the age of 65 or older, and this demographic shift creates new challenges for our communities. With this in mind, I am currently working with my colleagues on other bipartisan initiatives to improve the quality of life for older Iowans, including legislation that would extend the Elder Justice Act. As the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I wrote the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act to curb elder abuse and beef up tools and resources within local communities to help prevent financial fraud and exploitation of older citizens. For those Iowans who enjoy working and need to continue working to pay the bills, I have also championed legislation to strengthen age-related workplace discrimination laws. Mr. President, as noted by the former head of the Iowa Association of Area Agencies on Aging, ``The Older Americans Act provides the foundation that allows Iowa to continue to be a great place to for Iowans to call home.'' I want to again thank my colleagues for working with me in a bipartisan way on this legislation to improve the lives of older Americans in Iowa and across the United States.

2020-01-06

Mr. GRASSLEY

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1468-4

formal

based

white supremacist

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, last night the Senate unanimously passed my legislation, the Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020. I developed this important legislation with Senator Bob Casey, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Aging Committee, which I chair, to reauthorize and strengthen the landmark Older Americans Act. A bipartisan group of 24 Senators cosponsored this reauthorization, and 128 national organizations endorsed it. I rise today to commend this bipartisan achievement that will ensure that vital services for our seniors continue and are strengthened. Since 1965, the Older Americans Act has helped to ensure that millions of seniors receive the support they need to age independently and with dignity. Administered by the Administration for Community Living, the Older Americans Act authorizes an array of services through a network of 56 State units on aging and more than 600 area agencies on aging, serving more than 10 million Americans throughout the Nation each year. OAA programs provide nutritious food, transportation, assistance to caregivers, and in-home services for older adults. These investments foster a sense of community for older adults and save taxpayers money by reducing hospitalizations and the need for long-term residential care. As our population ages, demand for Older Americans Act services has grown. Our legislation extends OAA programs for 5 years and provides increased investments to meet growing demands. For example, one hallmark OAA program is Meals on Wheels. Last year, this home-delivered nutrition program provided seniors with 358 million meals. In many States, however, the need is soaring. In Maine, there is a waitlist of 400 to 1,500 people, depending on the time of the year and the location in our State. That is why it is so important that this bill helps to ensure that more seniors in need of nutritious food can be served through important programs such as Meals on Wheels. At $11 a day, a meal is far cheaper than the $2,400 average cost of a hospital stay. Using Older Americans Act dollars, the Southern Maine Agency on Aging conducted a pilot study that provided seniors discharged from the hospital with 4 weeks' worth of food. The results were astounding--hospital readmissions were reduced by 38 percent--a 387-percent return on investment. On a national scale, the savings would be an astronomical $51 billion annually. Our legislation also includes several provisions to combat social isolation, which can have devastating health effects, particularly on older adults who are already vulnerable. As the executive director of the Eastern Maine Area Agency on Aging, Dyan Walsh, said, The Older Americans Act is a great victory for the aging services network and those we serve. There are many important provisions in the bill, not the least of which is the focus on research to study the negative consequences of social isolation and loneliness which impacts so many rural older adults. We look to the future with a renewed focus to integrate innovativestrategies that will advance our mission to support communities and those who are the most vulnerable. The Older Americans Act is a shining example of a Federal policy that works. Every $1 invested into the Older Americans Act generates $3 by helping seniors stay at home through low-cost, community-based services. I thank the dozens of stakeholders we have worked with over the past several months to reauthorize and strengthen OAA, including the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, AARP, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, the National Alliance for Caregiving, Meals on Wheels America, the National Association of Counties, and the Alzheimer's Association. I ask unanimous consent to have these letters of support printed in the Record at the end of my remarks. I urge my colleagues in the House to support this important reauthorization so that we can swiftly send it to the President's desk to get signed into law.

2020-01-06

Ms. COLLINS

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1471

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I recently had the honor of being welcomed by Game Changers, an organization based in Louisville, KY, devoted to guiding our youth toward productive and meaningful lives, for a panel discussion on the impact of violence in our community. The executive director of Game Changers is Christopher 2X, who I have known for many years and watched change the lives of so many Kentuckians through his advocacy, leadership, and community building efforts. In December of 2019, just a few months ago, Christopher showed me the findings of Game Changers's study on the impact of youth violence recently released by his organization. Subsequently, I asked him to organize an event in West Louisville with a panel of community leaders and parents to discuss the report and how violent crime affects the lives of Louisville youth. At the event, we not only discussed the findings, but also heard from Louisvillians whose real-life stories are contained in the pages of those reports. Kentucky Education Commissioner, Dr. Wayne D. Lewis, educated us on the burden that violence has on children. However, the only way to grasp the true tragedy of violent crime is to hear from those impacted. I met with Deshante Edwards, who not only lost her son, Donte, but now sees her 6-year-old grandson subsequently lose focus in school. I listened as Krista and Navada Gwynn told me that, as a result of the murder of their son, Christian, their 17- and 11-year old children are too petrified to go outside. Only personal stories such as these truly demonstrate the extreme toll taken on children exposed to violence. That is why I feel compelled to share Game Changers's findings on violence and its impact on our youth with my colleagues. Tragically, children are exposed to violence in every corner of our Nation. I ask unanimous consent that this report be printed in the Congressional Record with the hope that every Member of Congress will read it and work with me to create safer communities for our children.

2020-01-06

Mr. PAUL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1472

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

At 10:02 a.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered by Mr. Novotny, 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. 4508. An act to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani Women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program. The message also announced that the House has passed the following bill, with an amendment, in which it requests the concurrence of the Senate: S. 1822. An act to require the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data with respect to the availability of broadband services, and for other purposes.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-04-pt1-PgS1475-4

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following message from the President of the United States; which was read and, together with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered to be printed:To the Congress of the United States: Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015, with respect to the situation in Venezuela is to continue in effect beyond March 8, 2020. The situation in Venezuela continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 with respect to the situation in Venezuela. Donald J. Trump. The White House, March 5, 2020.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgH1530

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I planned to spend my remarks today discussing our bipartisan, bicameral agreement to fund the fight against the new coronavirus. I was looking forward to congratulating all my colleagues and discussing all the ways this funding will help our public health experts, frontline healthcare professionals, and State and local officials combat the spread of this virus and mitigate its effects. It is a serious agreement to meet a serious challenge, and today we will send it to President Trump's desk. So today will be an important day for the country, and it was going to be a proud day for the Senate, but instead the Nation's eyes are on this body for an entirely different reason. A few weeks ago, I spoke on this floor about a dangerous trend that threatens our self-governance. I explained how some in the Democratic Party appear more interested in attacking the institutions of our government than in working within them, how Democrats increasingly respond to political disappointments with extreme claims that our system of government itself must be broken. The failure can't be their own. It can't be that the left needs better arguments or ideas. No. No, the fault must lie with the Constitution itself. Democrats have tried to cloak their anger at President Trump in rhetoric about protecting norms and institutions, but, in reality, it is their own side of the aisle where anti-institutionalism is rampant. Rampant. We can talk about attacks on the office of the Presidency, on the Electoral College, on the First Amendment, on the Senate itself, but most striking of all has been the shameless efforts to bully our Nation's independent judiciary, and yesterday those efforts took a dangerous and disturbing turn. By now many already know what the Democratic leader shouted outside the Supreme Court yesterday morning. I am sorry to have to read it into the Record. First, he prompted a crowd of leftwing activists to boo two of the Associate Justices--as though Supreme Court Justices were professional athletes and Senator Schumer were jeering from the stands. Then the senior Senator from New York said this: I want to tell you, Gorsuch! I want to tell you, Kavanaugh! You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions. I am not sure where to start. There is nothing to call this except a threat, and there is absolutely no question to whom--to whom it was directed. Contrary to what the Democratic leader has since tried to claim, he very, very clearly was not addressing Republican lawmakers or anyone else. He literally directed the statement to the Justices by name. He said: ``[I]f you go forward with these awful decisions,''which could only apply to the Court itself. The minority leader of the United States Senate threatened two Associate Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Period. There is no other way to interpret that. Even worse, the threat was not clearly political or institutional. As I will discuss in a moment, these kinds of threats are sadly nothing new from Senate Democrats. This was much broader--much broader. The Democratic leader traveled to the workplace of the two Justices, and in front of a crowd of activists, he told those Justices ``you will pay the price'' right in front of the Supreme Court building and ``you won't know what hit you.'' He said this right in front of the Supreme Court building. If any American had these words shouted at them from a sidewalk outside their office, they would hear those threats as personal, and most likely they would hear them as threatening or inciting violence. That is how any American would interpret those words if they were directed at them. That is certainly how the press and leading Democrats would have characterized them if President Trump or any senior Republican had said anything even remotely--remotely--similar. We have seen much more hay made out of much less. Perhaps our colleague thinks this is absurd. Perhaps he would like the most generous possible interpretation; that he got carried away and he didn't mean what he said, but if he cannot even admit to saying what he said, we certainly cannot know what he meant. At the very best, his comments were astonishingly reckless and completely irresponsible. Clearly, as the Chief Justice stated in a rare and extraordinary rebuke, they were ``dangerous'' because no matter the intention, words carrying the apparent threat of violence can have horrific, unintended consequences. In the most recent year on record, the U.S. Marshal Service tracked thousands of threats and inappropriate communications against the judiciary--thousands of threats against the judiciary. Less than 3 years ago, of course, an unhinged and unstable leftwing activist attempted a mass murder of congressional Republicans at a baseball field right across the river. A Senate leader appearing to threaten or incite violence on the steps of the Supreme Court could literally be a matter of deadly seriousness. So I fully anticipate our colleague would quickly withdraw his comments and apologize. That is what even reliably liberal legal experts like Laurence Tribe and Neal Katyal have publicly urged. Instead, our colleague doubled down--doubled down. He tried to gaslight the entire country and stated that he was actually threatening fellow Senators, as though that would be much better, but that is a fiction. A few hours later, the Democratic leader tripled down. Instead of taking Chief Justice Roberts' sober and appropriate statement to heart, he lashed out, yet again, and tried to imply the Chief Justice was biased--biased--for doing his job and defending the Court. Let me say that again. He tripled down, and he lashed out, yet again, and tried to imply that the Chief Justice was biased for doing his job and defending the Court. Our colleague therefore succeeded in attacking 33 percent of the Supreme Court in a space of a few hours. Throughout the impeachment and the Senate trial, for months, Washington Democrats preached sermons about the separation of powers and respect among equal branches. So much for all of that. And sadly, this attack was not some isolated incident. The leftwing campaign against the Federal Judiciary did not begin yesterday--not yesterday. My colleagues will recall that during the impeachment trial the senior Senator from Massachusetts and outside pressure groups tried to attack the Chief Justice, sitting right in that chair, for staying neutral instead of delivering the outcomes that they wanted. These same groups came to Senator Schumer's defense yesterday with gratuitous attacks against the Chief Justice for condemning the threats against his colleagues. Last summer--last summer a number of Senate Democrats sent an extraordinary brief to the Supreme Court. It threatened to inflict institutional change on the Court if it did not rule the way the Democrats wanted. In other words, give us the ruling we want or we will change the numbers of the Court. Here is what they wrote: ``The Supreme Court is not well. . . . '' Really? The Supreme Court is not well. . . . Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ``restructured . . . '' What that means is, you rule the way we want or we are going to expand the numbers and change the outcome--a political threat, plain as day. As you read the document, you half expected it to end by saying: That is some nice judicial independence you got over there. It would be a shame if something happened to it. It couldn't have been more clear. Independence from political passions is the cornerstone of our judiciary in our country. Judicial independence is what enables courts to do justice even when it is unpopular, to protect constitutional rights even when powerful interests want them infringed. Judicial independence is what makes the United States of America a republic of laws rather than of men. It has been almost a century since the last time Democrats threatened to pack the Supreme Court because they wanted different rulings. History still judges that disgraceful episode to this day. I would suggest that my Democratic colleagues spend less time trying to threaten impartial judges and more time coming up with ideas that are actually constitutional. Fortunately, this extraordinary display contains one ironic silver lining. These clumsy efforts to erode a pillar of American governance have just reminded everyone why that pillar is so crucial. These efforts to attack judicial independence remind us that independence is essential. Every time Democrats try to threaten sitting judges, we are reminded exactly--exactly--why the Framers gave them life tenure and salary protection, precisely why they did it. Every time Democrats toy with packing new seats onto the Court, we are reminded exactly why, as Justice Ginsburg recently said, ``Nine seems to be a good number.'' Justice Ginsburg said, ``Nine seems to be a good number.'' The distinguished men and women of the Supreme Court do not and must not serve at the pleasure of angry partisans--must not serve at the pleasure of angry partisans. They do not need to pay any mind to unhinged threats, as shameful as they may be. In fact, as the Chief Justice reminded us yesterday, they are duty-bound to pay such things no attention at all. Their job description is simple: to apply the law to the facts, as the Chief Justice put it, ``without fear or favor from whatever quarter.'' I have great confidence the Court will do just that. I am confident that if the facts and the Constitution would have led the Court to disappoint Democrats the day before yesterday, they would still feel free to do so today, tomorrow, and beyond, notwithstanding these shameful tactics. I had hoped I would not need to reiterate what every Republican Senator told the Court in August after Senate Democrats sent their threatening brief, but today I have no choice but to say it again: Republicans are absolutely and unshakably committed to the core constitutional principle of an independent Federal judiciary--the core constitutional principle of an independent Federal judiciary. As long as this majority holds the gavel, we will never let the minority leader's dangerous views become policy. This majority will ensure that the only casualties of this recklessness are the reputations of those who engage in it.

2020-01-06

Mr. McCONNELL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1509-6

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I recently had the honor of being welcomed by Game Changers, an organization based in Louisville, KY, devoted to guiding our youth toward productive and meaningful lives, for a panel discussion on the impact of violence in our community. The executive director of Game Changers is Christopher 2X, whom I have known for many years and watched change the lives of so many Kentuckians through his advocacy, leadership, and community building efforts. In December of 2019, just a few months ago, Christopher showed me the findings of Game Changers's study on the impact of youth violence recently released by his organization. Subsequently, I asked him to organizean event in West Louisville with a panel of community leaders and parents to discuss the report and how violent crime affects the lives of Louisville youth. At the event, we not only discussed the findings but also heard from Louisvillians whose real-life stories are contained in the pages of those reports. Earnestine ``Tina'' Tyus described how the ongoing physical and the mental suffering of her grandson, Ki'Anthony Tyus resulted after being shot. Rather than excelling at football and basketball, Ki'Anthony was focused on learning how to walk again. Violence also has indirect consequences. Stevonte Wood started failing out of school, treating those around him poorly, and had trouble sleeping at night. This downward spiral was a result of witnessing the murders of his mother and older brother. Jarron Jones, a behavioral therapist, recounts a story of how a once-promising baseball career for one student may now never come to fruition because he is too afraid of violence to continue playing the sport. Only personal stories such as these truly demonstrate the extreme toll taken on children exposed to violence. That is why I feel compelled to share Game Changers's findings on violence and its impact on our youth with my colleagues. Tragically, children are exposed to violence in every corner of our Nation. I ask unanimous consent that this report be printed in the Congressional Record with the hope that every Member of Congress will read it and work with me to create safer communities for our children.

2020-01-06

Mr. PAUL

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1592-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The following communications were laid before the Senate, together with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: EC-4190. A communication from the Director of the Regulations Management Team, Rural Utilities Service, Department of Agriculture, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Rural Broadband Loans, Loan/Grant Combinations, and Loan Guarantees'' (RIN0572-AC46) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 25, 2020; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. EC-4191. A communication from the Secretary of Defense, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to a review of the National Military Strategy (NMS) by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combatant Commanders (OSS-2020- 0294); to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4192. A communication from the Alternate Federal Register Liaison Officer, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment'' (RIN0790-AK88) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4193. A communication from the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs), transmitting additional legislative proposals relative to the ``National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021''; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4194. A communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, a six-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to Somalia that was declared in Executive Order 13536 on April 12, 2010; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4195. A communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, a six-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to South Sudan that was declared in Executive Order 13664 of April 3, 2014; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4196. A communication from the Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Financial Disclosures about Guarantors and Issuers of Guaranteed Securities and Affiliates Whose Securities Collateralize a Registrant's Securities'' (RIN3235-AM12) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4197. A communication from the Assistant General Counsel for Legislation, Regulation and Energy Efficiency, Department of Energy, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Energy Conservation Program for Appliance Standards: Procedures for Use in New or Revised Energy Conservation Standards and Test Procedures for Consumer Products and Commercial/Industrial Equipment'' ((RIN1904-AD38) (10 CFR Parts 430 and 431)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4198. A communication from the Acting Chief of the Regulations and Standards Branch, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Department of the Interior, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf - Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment'' (RIN1014-AA47) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4199. A communication from the Director of Congressional Affairs, Office of Enforcement, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 2020-001, Enforcement Discretion Not to Cite Certain Violations of 10 CFR 73.56 Requirements'' (RIN3150-A112) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 2, 2020; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4200. A communication from the United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, transmitting, pursuant to law, the 2020 Trade Policy Agenda and 2019 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4201. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Beginning of Construction for the Credit for Carbon Oxide Sequestration under Section 45Q'' (Notice 2020-12) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4202. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``2020 Calendar Year Resident Population Figures'' (Notice 2020-10) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4203. A communication from the Chief of the Publications and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Revenue Procedure: Exemption from Section 6048 Reporting With Respect to Certain Tax-Favored Foreign Retirement and Non-Retirement Savings Trusts'' (Rev. Proc. 2020-17) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4204. A communication from the Regulations Writer, Office of Regulations and Reports Clearance, Social Security Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Extension of Expiration Dates for Three Body System Listings'' (RIN0960-AI46) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4205. A communication from the Assistant Legal Advisor for Treaty Affairs, Department to State, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of International Agreements other than Treaties entered into with Taiwan by the American Institute in Taiwan; to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4206. A communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, a six-month periodic report on the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities that was declared in Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015; to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4207. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the submission of the 2020 Report on Implementation of the New START Treaty, and the 2020 Certification and Report on Technical Collection for the New START Treaty; to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4208. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to technical collection for the New START Treaty (OSS-2020-0293); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4209. A communication from the Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislation, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Fiscal Year 2018 Performance Report to Congress for the Office of Combination Products''; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4210. A communication from the Acting Assistant Secretary for Legislation, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Financial Report for the Medical Device User Fee Amendments''; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4211. A communication from the Director of Regulations and Policy Management Staff, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Food Additive Regulations; Synthetic Flavoring Agents and Adjuvants; Confirmation of Effective Date'' ((21 CFR Parts 172 and 177) (Docket No. FDA-2015-F-4317)) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4212. A communication from the Director of Regulations and Policy Management Staff, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Definition of the Term `Biological Product' '' (RIN0910-AH57) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4213. A communication from the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Benefits Payable in Terminated Single- Employer Plans; Interest Assumptions for Paying Benefits'' (29 CFR Part 4022) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4214. A communication from the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Administrative Review of Agency Decisions'' (RIN1212-AB35) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4215. A communication from the District of Columbia Auditor, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Earmark Review: DMPED Can Improve Grant Management''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4216. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pollock in Statistical Area 620 in the Gulf of Alaska'' (RIN0648-XY070) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4217. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic; Electronic Reporting for Federally Permitted Charter Vessels and Headboats in Atlantic Fisheries'' (RIN0648-BG75) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4218. A communication from the Acting Director, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Reef Fish Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico; 2020 Recreational Accountability Measure and Closure for Gulf of Mexico Gray Triggerfish'' (RIN0648-XS023) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4219. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Final Rule to Modify IFQ Program Medical and Beneficiary Transfer Provisions'' (RIN0648-BJ07) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4220. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Blueline Tilefish Fishery; 2020 Specifications'' (RIN0648- XX037) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4221. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy Construction Activities at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, California'' (RIN0648-BH28) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4222. A communication from the Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Coastal Migratory Pelagic Resources of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic; Framework Amendment 7'' (RIN0648-BI83) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4223. A communication from the Attorney, Regulatory Affairs, Consumer Product Safety Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Revisions to Safety Standard for Portable Bed Rails'' (16 CFR Part 1224) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 4, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4224. A communication from the Attorney Adviser, Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``System Safety Program and Risk Reduction Program: Final Rule'' (RIN2130-AC73) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 3, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4225. A communication from the Deputy Bureau Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and Connect USVI Fund Notice and Filing Requirements and Other Procedures for Stage 2 Fixed Competitive Proposal Process'' ((RIN3060-AK57) (WC Docket No. 18-143, 10-90, and 14-58)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on February 28, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1595-6

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. HAWLEY (for himself, Mr. Daines, Mr. Braun, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Tillis, Mrs. Loeffler, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Sasse, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Lee, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Perdue, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Inhofe, and Ms. McSally) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Select Committee on Ethics: S. Res. 532 Whereas the Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, is the Leader of the Democratic Caucus and a former member of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate; Whereas, at a protest at the Supreme Court of the United States on March 4, 2020, Senator Schumer inveighed against 2 Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by saying, ``I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have release the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.''; Whereas Senator Schumer went on to warn Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, ``You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.''; Whereas the statements of Senator Schumer are an attempt to unduly influence the judicial decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and to undermine the vision of the founders of the United States of the ``complete independence of the courts of justice'', as Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 78; Whereas the statements of Senator Schumer could be read to suggest a threat or call for physical violence against 2 Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States; Whereas the Chief Justice of the United States immediately rebuked Senator Schumer, stating that ``threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous''; Whereas, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, political violence in the United States has increased over the last decade; Whereas, in 2018, the United States Marshals Service investigated 4,542 threats and inappropriate communications against the judiciary; Whereas 4 Federal judges have been targeted and murdered since 1979 and 2 family members of another Federal judge have been murdered; and Whereas Senator Schumer has acknowledged that threatening statements can increase the dangers of violence against government officials when he stated on June 15, 2017, following the attempted murder of several elected Members of Congress, ``We would all be wise to reflect on the importance of civility in our [N]ation's politics'' and that ``the level of nastiness, vitriol, and hate that has seeped into our politics must be excised'': Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) censures and condemns in the strongest possible terms the Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, for his threatening statements against Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh; and (2) calls on all members of the Senate to respect the independence of the Federal judiciary.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1600-2

formal

based

white supremacist

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations: S. Res. 533 Whereas, as of March 2020, there are approximately 3,764,000,000 women and girls in the world; Whereas women and girls around the world-- (1) have fundamental human rights; (2) play a critical role in providing and caring for their families and driving positive change in their communities; (3) contribute substantially to food security, economic growth, the prevention and resolution of conflict, and the sustainability of peace and stability; and (4) must have meaningful opportunities to more fully participate in and lead the political, social, and economic lives of their communities; Whereas the advancement and empowerment of women and girls around the world is a foreign policy priority for the United States and is critical to the achievement of global peace and prosperity; Whereas 2020 marks the anniversary of significant milestones toward advancing the human rights and equality of women and girls, including-- (1) the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States; and (2) the 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, which was established through the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000; Whereas the National Security Strategy of the United States, published in December 2017-- (1) declares that ``[s]ocieties that empower women to participate fully in civic and economic life are more prosperous and peaceful''; (2) supports ``efforts to advance women's equality, protect the rights of women and girls, and promote women and youth empowerment programs''; and (3) recognizes that ``governments that fail to treat women equally do not allow their societies to reach their potential''; Whereas, on October 6, 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (22 U.S.C. 2152j et seq.) was enacted into law, which includes requirements for a government-wide ``Women, Peace, and Security Strategy'' to promote and strengthen the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict prevention overseas, enhanced training for relevant United States Government personnel, and follow-up evaluations of the effectiveness of the strategy; Whereas the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, dated June 2019, recognizes that-- (1) the ``[s]ocial and political marginalization of women strongly correlates with the likelihood that a country will experience conflict''; (2) there is a ``tremendous amount of untapped potential among the world's women and girls to identify, recommend, and implement effective solutions to conflict'', and there are ``benefits derived from creating opportunities for women and girls to serve as agents of peace via political, economic, and social empowerment''; and (3) barriers to the meaningful participation of women and girls in conflict prevention and resolution efforts ``include under-representation in political leadership, pervasive violence against women and girls, and persistent inequality in many societies''; Whereas, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (commonly referred to as ``UN Women''), peace negotiations are more likely to end in a peace agreement when women and women's groups play a meaningful role in the negotiation process; Whereas, according to a study by the International Peace Institute, a peace agreement is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years if women participate in the development of the peace agreement; Whereas there are 83 national action plans relating to the empowerment of women around the world, 11 regional action plans, and at least 9 additional national action plans in development; Whereas the joint strategy of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) entitled ``Department of State & USAID Joint Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism'' and dated May 2016-- (1) notes that women can play a critical role in identifying and addressing drivers of violent extremism in their families, communities, and broader society; and (2) commits to supporting programs that engage women ``as key stakeholders in preventing and countering violent extremism in their communities''; Whereas, according to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the Department of State, the full and meaningful participation of women in criminal justice professions and security forces vastly enhances the effectiveness of the security forces; Whereas, despite the contributions of women to society, hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world continue to be denied the right to participate freely in civic and economic life, lack fundamental legal protections, and remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; Whereas, every year, approximately 12,000,000 girls are married before they reach the age of 18, which means that-- (1) nearly 33,000 girls are married every day; or (2) nearly 23 girls are married every minute; Whereas, despite global progress, it is predicted that by 2030 more than 150,000,000 more girls will marry before reaching the age of 18, and approximately 2,400,000 girls who are married before reaching the age of 18 are under the age of 15; Whereas girls living in countries affected by conflict or other humanitarian crises are often the most vulnerable to child marriage, and 9 of the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are considered fragile or extremely fragile; Whereas, according to the International Labour Organization, 71 percent of the estimated 40,300,000 victims of modern slavery in 2016 were women or girls; Whereas, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (commonly referred to as ``UNICEF'')-- (1) approximately \1/4\ of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are victims of physical violence; (2) approximately 120,000,000 girls worldwide, slightly more than 1 in 10, have experienced forced sexual acts; and (3) an estimated 1 in 3 women around the world has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence; Whereas, according to the 2018 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime entitled ``Global Report on Trafficking in Persons'', 72 percent of all detected trafficking victims are women or girls; Whereas, on August 10, 2012, the United States Government launched a strategy entitled ``United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally'', which is the first interagency strategy that-- (1) addresses gender-based violence around the world; (2) advances the rights and status of women and girls; (3) promotes gender equality in United States foreign policy; and (4) works to bring about a world in which all individuals can pursue their aspirations without the threat of violence; Whereas, in June 2016, the Department of State released an update to that strategy, underscoring that ``[p]reventing and responding to gender-based violence is a cornerstone of the U.S. Government's commitment to advancing human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls''; Whereas, despite the achievements of individual female leaders and evidence that democracy and equality under the law form a mutually reinforcing relationship in which higher levels of equality are strongly correlated with the relative state of peace of a country, a healthier domestic security environment, and lower levels of aggression toward other countries-- (1) women around the world remain vastly underrepresented in-- (A) national and local legislatures and governments; and (B) other high-level positions; and (2) according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women account for only 25 percent of national parliamentarians and 21 percent of government ministers; Whereas the ability of women and girls to realize their full potential is critical to the ability of a country to achieve strong and lasting economic growth, self-reliance, and political and social stability; Whereas the overall level of violence against women is a better predictor of the peacefulness of a country, the compliance of a country with international treaty obligations, and the relations of a country with neighboring countries than indicators measuring the level of democracy, level of wealth, or level of institutionalization of the country; Whereas, although the United Nations Millennium Project reached the goal of achieving gender parity in primary education in most countries in 2015, more work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in primary and secondary education, and particularly in secondary education worldwide as gender gaps persist and widen, by addressing-- (1) discriminatory practices; (2) harmful cultural and social norms; (3) inadequate sanitation facilities, including facilities to manage menstruation; (4) child, early, and forced marriage; (5) poverty; (6) early pregnancy and motherhood; (7) conflict and insecurity; and (8) other factors that favor boys or devalue girls' education; Whereas, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-- (1) approximately 129,200,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 17 remain out of school; (2) girls living in countries affected by conflict are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys; (3) girls are twice as likely as boys to never set foot in a classroom; and (4) up to 30 percent of girls who drop out of school do so because of adolescent pregnancy or child marriage; Whereas women around the world face a variety of constraints that severely limit their economic participation and productivity and remain underrepresented in the labor force; Whereas the economic empowerment of women is inextricably linked to a myriad of other human rights that are essential to the ability of women to thrive as economic actors, including-- (1) living lives free of violence and exploitation; (2) achieving the highest possible standard of health and well-being; (3) enjoying full legal and human rights, such as access to registration, identification, and citizenship documents, and freedom of movement; (4) access to formal and informal education; (5) access to, and equal protection under, land and property rights; (6) access to fundamental labor rights; (7) the implementation of policies to address disproportionate care burdens; and (8) receiving business and management skills and leadership opportunities; Whereas closing the global gender gap in labor markets could increase worldwide gross domestic product by as much as $28,000,000,000,000 by 2025; Whereas, pursuant to section 3(b) of the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (22 U.S.C. 2151-2(b)), it is the international development cooperation policy of the United States-- (1) to reduce gender disparities with respect to economic, social, political, educational, and cultural resources, as well as wealth, opportunities, and services; (2) to strive to eliminate gender-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, including through efforts to develop standards and capacity to reduce gender-based violence in the workplace and other places where women work; (3) to support activities that secure private property rights and land tenure for women in developing countries, including-- (A) supporting legal frameworks that give women equal rights to own, register, use, profit from, and inherit land and property; (B) improving legal literacy to enable women to exercise the rights described in subparagraph (A); and (C) improving the capacity of law enforcement and community leaders to enforce such rights; (4) to increase the capability of women and girls to fully exercise their rights, determine their life outcomes, assume leadership roles, and influence decision making in households, communities, and societies; and (5) to improve the access of women and girls to education, particularly higher education opportunities in business, finance, and management, in order to enhance financial literacy and business development, management, and strategy skills; Whereas, pursuant to National Security Presidential Memorandum 16, entitled ``Promoting Women's Global Development and Prosperity'', ``It is the policy of the United States to enhance the opportunity for women to meaningfully participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities as individuals, workers, consumers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors, so that they enjoy the same access, rights, and opportunities as men to participate in, contribute to, control, and benefit from economic activity.''; Whereas, according to the World Health Organization, global maternal mortality decreased by approximately 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, yet approximately 830 women and girls continue to die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy or childbirth each day, and 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; Whereas, according to the United Nations Population Fund, of the 830 women and adolescent girls who die every day from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, 507 die each day in countries that are considered fragile because of conflict or disaster, accounting for approximately \3/5\ of all maternal deaths worldwide; Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that women and girls comprise approximately \1/2\ of the 67,200,000 refugees and internally displaced or stateless individuals in the world; Whereas women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, including those subject to forced displacement, face increased and exacerbated vulnerabilities to-- (1) gender-based violence, including, rape, child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation and assault; (2) disruptions in education and livelihood; (3) lack of access to comprehensive health services and information; and (4) food insecurity and malnutrition; Whereas malnutrition poses a variety of threats to women and girls specifically, as malnutrition can weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to infections, and affects their capacity to survive childbirth, and children born of malnourished women and girls are more likely to have cognitive impairments and higher risk of disease throughout their lives; Whereas it is imperative-- (1) to alleviate violence and discrimination against women and girls; and (2) to afford women and girls every opportunity to be full and productive members of their communities; and Whereas March 8, 2020, is recognized as International Women's Day, a global day-- (1) to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the past, present, and future; and (2) to recognize the obstacles that women face in the struggle for equal rights and opportunities: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) supports the goals of International Women's Day; (2) recognizes that the ability of women and girls to fully access and enjoy fundamental human rights has intrinsic value that affects their quality of life and ability to determine their own futures; (3) recognizes that the empowerment of women and girls is inextricably linked to the potential of a country to generate-- (A) economic growth and self-reliance; (B) sustainable peace and democracy; and (C) inclusive security; (4) recognizes and honors individuals in the United States and around the world, including women human rights defenders, girl activists, and civil society leaders, who have worked throughout history to ensure that women and girls are guaranteed equality and fundamental human rights; (5) recognizes the unique cultural, historical, and religious differences throughout the world and urges the United States Government to act with respect and understanding toward legitimate differences when promoting any policies; (6) reaffirms the commitment-- (A) to end discrimination and violence against women and girls; (B) to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of women and girls; (C) to pursue policies that guarantee the fundamental human rights of women and girls worldwide; and (D) to promote meaningful and significant participation of women in every aspect of society and community, including conflict prevention, protection, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; (7) supports sustainable, measurable, and global development that seeks to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and (8) encourages the people of the United States to observe International Women's Day with appropriate programs and activities.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1601

formal

extremism

Islamophobic

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations: S. Res. 533 Whereas, as of March 2020, there are approximately 3,764,000,000 women and girls in the world; Whereas women and girls around the world-- (1) have fundamental human rights; (2) play a critical role in providing and caring for their families and driving positive change in their communities; (3) contribute substantially to food security, economic growth, the prevention and resolution of conflict, and the sustainability of peace and stability; and (4) must have meaningful opportunities to more fully participate in and lead the political, social, and economic lives of their communities; Whereas the advancement and empowerment of women and girls around the world is a foreign policy priority for the United States and is critical to the achievement of global peace and prosperity; Whereas 2020 marks the anniversary of significant milestones toward advancing the human rights and equality of women and girls, including-- (1) the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States; and (2) the 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, which was established through the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000; Whereas the National Security Strategy of the United States, published in December 2017-- (1) declares that ``[s]ocieties that empower women to participate fully in civic and economic life are more prosperous and peaceful''; (2) supports ``efforts to advance women's equality, protect the rights of women and girls, and promote women and youth empowerment programs''; and (3) recognizes that ``governments that fail to treat women equally do not allow their societies to reach their potential''; Whereas, on October 6, 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (22 U.S.C. 2152j et seq.) was enacted into law, which includes requirements for a government-wide ``Women, Peace, and Security Strategy'' to promote and strengthen the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict prevention overseas, enhanced training for relevant United States Government personnel, and follow-up evaluations of the effectiveness of the strategy; Whereas the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, dated June 2019, recognizes that-- (1) the ``[s]ocial and political marginalization of women strongly correlates with the likelihood that a country will experience conflict''; (2) there is a ``tremendous amount of untapped potential among the world's women and girls to identify, recommend, and implement effective solutions to conflict'', and there are ``benefits derived from creating opportunities for women and girls to serve as agents of peace via political, economic, and social empowerment''; and (3) barriers to the meaningful participation of women and girls in conflict prevention and resolution efforts ``include under-representation in political leadership, pervasive violence against women and girls, and persistent inequality in many societies''; Whereas, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (commonly referred to as ``UN Women''), peace negotiations are more likely to end in a peace agreement when women and women's groups play a meaningful role in the negotiation process; Whereas, according to a study by the International Peace Institute, a peace agreement is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years if women participate in the development of the peace agreement; Whereas there are 83 national action plans relating to the empowerment of women around the world, 11 regional action plans, and at least 9 additional national action plans in development; Whereas the joint strategy of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) entitled ``Department of State & USAID Joint Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism'' and dated May 2016-- (1) notes that women can play a critical role in identifying and addressing drivers of violent extremism in their families, communities, and broader society; and (2) commits to supporting programs that engage women ``as key stakeholders in preventing and countering violent extremism in their communities''; Whereas, according to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the Department of State, the full and meaningful participation of women in criminal justice professions and security forces vastly enhances the effectiveness of the security forces; Whereas, despite the contributions of women to society, hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world continue to be denied the right to participate freely in civic and economic life, lack fundamental legal protections, and remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; Whereas, every year, approximately 12,000,000 girls are married before they reach the age of 18, which means that-- (1) nearly 33,000 girls are married every day; or (2) nearly 23 girls are married every minute; Whereas, despite global progress, it is predicted that by 2030 more than 150,000,000 more girls will marry before reaching the age of 18, and approximately 2,400,000 girls who are married before reaching the age of 18 are under the age of 15; Whereas girls living in countries affected by conflict or other humanitarian crises are often the most vulnerable to child marriage, and 9 of the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are considered fragile or extremely fragile; Whereas, according to the International Labour Organization, 71 percent of the estimated 40,300,000 victims of modern slavery in 2016 were women or girls; Whereas, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (commonly referred to as ``UNICEF'')-- (1) approximately \1/4\ of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are victims of physical violence; (2) approximately 120,000,000 girls worldwide, slightly more than 1 in 10, have experienced forced sexual acts; and (3) an estimated 1 in 3 women around the world has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence; Whereas, according to the 2018 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime entitled ``Global Report on Trafficking in Persons'', 72 percent of all detected trafficking victims are women or girls; Whereas, on August 10, 2012, the United States Government launched a strategy entitled ``United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally'', which is the first interagency strategy that-- (1) addresses gender-based violence around the world; (2) advances the rights and status of women and girls; (3) promotes gender equality in United States foreign policy; and (4) works to bring about a world in which all individuals can pursue their aspirations without the threat of violence; Whereas, in June 2016, the Department of State released an update to that strategy, underscoring that ``[p]reventing and responding to gender-based violence is a cornerstone of the U.S. Government's commitment to advancing human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls''; Whereas, despite the achievements of individual female leaders and evidence that democracy and equality under the law form a mutually reinforcing relationship in which higher levels of equality are strongly correlated with the relative state of peace of a country, a healthier domestic security environment, and lower levels of aggression toward other countries-- (1) women around the world remain vastly underrepresented in-- (A) national and local legislatures and governments; and (B) other high-level positions; and (2) according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women account for only 25 percent of national parliamentarians and 21 percent of government ministers; Whereas the ability of women and girls to realize their full potential is critical to the ability of a country to achieve strong and lasting economic growth, self-reliance, and political and social stability; Whereas the overall level of violence against women is a better predictor of the peacefulness of a country, the compliance of a country with international treaty obligations, and the relations of a country with neighboring countries than indicators measuring the level of democracy, level of wealth, or level of institutionalization of the country; Whereas, although the United Nations Millennium Project reached the goal of achieving gender parity in primary education in most countries in 2015, more work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in primary and secondary education, and particularly in secondary education worldwide as gender gaps persist and widen, by addressing-- (1) discriminatory practices; (2) harmful cultural and social norms; (3) inadequate sanitation facilities, including facilities to manage menstruation; (4) child, early, and forced marriage; (5) poverty; (6) early pregnancy and motherhood; (7) conflict and insecurity; and (8) other factors that favor boys or devalue girls' education; Whereas, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-- (1) approximately 129,200,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 17 remain out of school; (2) girls living in countries affected by conflict are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys; (3) girls are twice as likely as boys to never set foot in a classroom; and (4) up to 30 percent of girls who drop out of school do so because of adolescent pregnancy or child marriage; Whereas women around the world face a variety of constraints that severely limit their economic participation and productivity and remain underrepresented in the labor force; Whereas the economic empowerment of women is inextricably linked to a myriad of other human rights that are essential to the ability of women to thrive as economic actors, including-- (1) living lives free of violence and exploitation; (2) achieving the highest possible standard of health and well-being; (3) enjoying full legal and human rights, such as access to registration, identification, and citizenship documents, and freedom of movement; (4) access to formal and informal education; (5) access to, and equal protection under, land and property rights; (6) access to fundamental labor rights; (7) the implementation of policies to address disproportionate care burdens; and (8) receiving business and management skills and leadership opportunities; Whereas closing the global gender gap in labor markets could increase worldwide gross domestic product by as much as $28,000,000,000,000 by 2025; Whereas, pursuant to section 3(b) of the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (22 U.S.C. 2151-2(b)), it is the international development cooperation policy of the United States-- (1) to reduce gender disparities with respect to economic, social, political, educational, and cultural resources, as well as wealth, opportunities, and services; (2) to strive to eliminate gender-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, including through efforts to develop standards and capacity to reduce gender-based violence in the workplace and other places where women work; (3) to support activities that secure private property rights and land tenure for women in developing countries, including-- (A) supporting legal frameworks that give women equal rights to own, register, use, profit from, and inherit land and property; (B) improving legal literacy to enable women to exercise the rights described in subparagraph (A); and (C) improving the capacity of law enforcement and community leaders to enforce such rights; (4) to increase the capability of women and girls to fully exercise their rights, determine their life outcomes, assume leadership roles, and influence decision making in households, communities, and societies; and (5) to improve the access of women and girls to education, particularly higher education opportunities in business, finance, and management, in order to enhance financial literacy and business development, management, and strategy skills; Whereas, pursuant to National Security Presidential Memorandum 16, entitled ``Promoting Women's Global Development and Prosperity'', ``It is the policy of the United States to enhance the opportunity for women to meaningfully participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities as individuals, workers, consumers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors, so that they enjoy the same access, rights, and opportunities as men to participate in, contribute to, control, and benefit from economic activity.''; Whereas, according to the World Health Organization, global maternal mortality decreased by approximately 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, yet approximately 830 women and girls continue to die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy or childbirth each day, and 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; Whereas, according to the United Nations Population Fund, of the 830 women and adolescent girls who die every day from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, 507 die each day in countries that are considered fragile because of conflict or disaster, accounting for approximately \3/5\ of all maternal deaths worldwide; Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that women and girls comprise approximately \1/2\ of the 67,200,000 refugees and internally displaced or stateless individuals in the world; Whereas women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, including those subject to forced displacement, face increased and exacerbated vulnerabilities to-- (1) gender-based violence, including, rape, child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation and assault; (2) disruptions in education and livelihood; (3) lack of access to comprehensive health services and information; and (4) food insecurity and malnutrition; Whereas malnutrition poses a variety of threats to women and girls specifically, as malnutrition can weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to infections, and affects their capacity to survive childbirth, and children born of malnourished women and girls are more likely to have cognitive impairments and higher risk of disease throughout their lives; Whereas it is imperative-- (1) to alleviate violence and discrimination against women and girls; and (2) to afford women and girls every opportunity to be full and productive members of their communities; and Whereas March 8, 2020, is recognized as International Women's Day, a global day-- (1) to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the past, present, and future; and (2) to recognize the obstacles that women face in the struggle for equal rights and opportunities: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) supports the goals of International Women's Day; (2) recognizes that the ability of women and girls to fully access and enjoy fundamental human rights has intrinsic value that affects their quality of life and ability to determine their own futures; (3) recognizes that the empowerment of women and girls is inextricably linked to the potential of a country to generate-- (A) economic growth and self-reliance; (B) sustainable peace and democracy; and (C) inclusive security; (4) recognizes and honors individuals in the United States and around the world, including women human rights defenders, girl activists, and civil society leaders, who have worked throughout history to ensure that women and girls are guaranteed equality and fundamental human rights; (5) recognizes the unique cultural, historical, and religious differences throughout the world and urges the United States Government to act with respect and understanding toward legitimate differences when promoting any policies; (6) reaffirms the commitment-- (A) to end discrimination and violence against women and girls; (B) to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of women and girls; (C) to pursue policies that guarantee the fundamental human rights of women and girls worldwide; and (D) to promote meaningful and significant participation of women in every aspect of society and community, including conflict prevention, protection, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; (7) supports sustainable, measurable, and global development that seeks to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and (8) encourages the people of the United States to observe International Women's Day with appropriate programs and activities.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1601

formal

property rights

racist

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations: S. Res. 533 Whereas, as of March 2020, there are approximately 3,764,000,000 women and girls in the world; Whereas women and girls around the world-- (1) have fundamental human rights; (2) play a critical role in providing and caring for their families and driving positive change in their communities; (3) contribute substantially to food security, economic growth, the prevention and resolution of conflict, and the sustainability of peace and stability; and (4) must have meaningful opportunities to more fully participate in and lead the political, social, and economic lives of their communities; Whereas the advancement and empowerment of women and girls around the world is a foreign policy priority for the United States and is critical to the achievement of global peace and prosperity; Whereas 2020 marks the anniversary of significant milestones toward advancing the human rights and equality of women and girls, including-- (1) the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States; and (2) the 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, which was established through the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000; Whereas the National Security Strategy of the United States, published in December 2017-- (1) declares that ``[s]ocieties that empower women to participate fully in civic and economic life are more prosperous and peaceful''; (2) supports ``efforts to advance women's equality, protect the rights of women and girls, and promote women and youth empowerment programs''; and (3) recognizes that ``governments that fail to treat women equally do not allow their societies to reach their potential''; Whereas, on October 6, 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (22 U.S.C. 2152j et seq.) was enacted into law, which includes requirements for a government-wide ``Women, Peace, and Security Strategy'' to promote and strengthen the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict prevention overseas, enhanced training for relevant United States Government personnel, and follow-up evaluations of the effectiveness of the strategy; Whereas the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, dated June 2019, recognizes that-- (1) the ``[s]ocial and political marginalization of women strongly correlates with the likelihood that a country will experience conflict''; (2) there is a ``tremendous amount of untapped potential among the world's women and girls to identify, recommend, and implement effective solutions to conflict'', and there are ``benefits derived from creating opportunities for women and girls to serve as agents of peace via political, economic, and social empowerment''; and (3) barriers to the meaningful participation of women and girls in conflict prevention and resolution efforts ``include under-representation in political leadership, pervasive violence against women and girls, and persistent inequality in many societies''; Whereas, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (commonly referred to as ``UN Women''), peace negotiations are more likely to end in a peace agreement when women and women's groups play a meaningful role in the negotiation process; Whereas, according to a study by the International Peace Institute, a peace agreement is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years if women participate in the development of the peace agreement; Whereas there are 83 national action plans relating to the empowerment of women around the world, 11 regional action plans, and at least 9 additional national action plans in development; Whereas the joint strategy of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) entitled ``Department of State & USAID Joint Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism'' and dated May 2016-- (1) notes that women can play a critical role in identifying and addressing drivers of violent extremism in their families, communities, and broader society; and (2) commits to supporting programs that engage women ``as key stakeholders in preventing and countering violent extremism in their communities''; Whereas, according to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the Department of State, the full and meaningful participation of women in criminal justice professions and security forces vastly enhances the effectiveness of the security forces; Whereas, despite the contributions of women to society, hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world continue to be denied the right to participate freely in civic and economic life, lack fundamental legal protections, and remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; Whereas, every year, approximately 12,000,000 girls are married before they reach the age of 18, which means that-- (1) nearly 33,000 girls are married every day; or (2) nearly 23 girls are married every minute; Whereas, despite global progress, it is predicted that by 2030 more than 150,000,000 more girls will marry before reaching the age of 18, and approximately 2,400,000 girls who are married before reaching the age of 18 are under the age of 15; Whereas girls living in countries affected by conflict or other humanitarian crises are often the most vulnerable to child marriage, and 9 of the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are considered fragile or extremely fragile; Whereas, according to the International Labour Organization, 71 percent of the estimated 40,300,000 victims of modern slavery in 2016 were women or girls; Whereas, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (commonly referred to as ``UNICEF'')-- (1) approximately \1/4\ of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are victims of physical violence; (2) approximately 120,000,000 girls worldwide, slightly more than 1 in 10, have experienced forced sexual acts; and (3) an estimated 1 in 3 women around the world has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence; Whereas, according to the 2018 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime entitled ``Global Report on Trafficking in Persons'', 72 percent of all detected trafficking victims are women or girls; Whereas, on August 10, 2012, the United States Government launched a strategy entitled ``United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally'', which is the first interagency strategy that-- (1) addresses gender-based violence around the world; (2) advances the rights and status of women and girls; (3) promotes gender equality in United States foreign policy; and (4) works to bring about a world in which all individuals can pursue their aspirations without the threat of violence; Whereas, in June 2016, the Department of State released an update to that strategy, underscoring that ``[p]reventing and responding to gender-based violence is a cornerstone of the U.S. Government's commitment to advancing human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls''; Whereas, despite the achievements of individual female leaders and evidence that democracy and equality under the law form a mutually reinforcing relationship in which higher levels of equality are strongly correlated with the relative state of peace of a country, a healthier domestic security environment, and lower levels of aggression toward other countries-- (1) women around the world remain vastly underrepresented in-- (A) national and local legislatures and governments; and (B) other high-level positions; and (2) according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women account for only 25 percent of national parliamentarians and 21 percent of government ministers; Whereas the ability of women and girls to realize their full potential is critical to the ability of a country to achieve strong and lasting economic growth, self-reliance, and political and social stability; Whereas the overall level of violence against women is a better predictor of the peacefulness of a country, the compliance of a country with international treaty obligations, and the relations of a country with neighboring countries than indicators measuring the level of democracy, level of wealth, or level of institutionalization of the country; Whereas, although the United Nations Millennium Project reached the goal of achieving gender parity in primary education in most countries in 2015, more work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in primary and secondary education, and particularly in secondary education worldwide as gender gaps persist and widen, by addressing-- (1) discriminatory practices; (2) harmful cultural and social norms; (3) inadequate sanitation facilities, including facilities to manage menstruation; (4) child, early, and forced marriage; (5) poverty; (6) early pregnancy and motherhood; (7) conflict and insecurity; and (8) other factors that favor boys or devalue girls' education; Whereas, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-- (1) approximately 129,200,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 17 remain out of school; (2) girls living in countries affected by conflict are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys; (3) girls are twice as likely as boys to never set foot in a classroom; and (4) up to 30 percent of girls who drop out of school do so because of adolescent pregnancy or child marriage; Whereas women around the world face a variety of constraints that severely limit their economic participation and productivity and remain underrepresented in the labor force; Whereas the economic empowerment of women is inextricably linked to a myriad of other human rights that are essential to the ability of women to thrive as economic actors, including-- (1) living lives free of violence and exploitation; (2) achieving the highest possible standard of health and well-being; (3) enjoying full legal and human rights, such as access to registration, identification, and citizenship documents, and freedom of movement; (4) access to formal and informal education; (5) access to, and equal protection under, land and property rights; (6) access to fundamental labor rights; (7) the implementation of policies to address disproportionate care burdens; and (8) receiving business and management skills and leadership opportunities; Whereas closing the global gender gap in labor markets could increase worldwide gross domestic product by as much as $28,000,000,000,000 by 2025; Whereas, pursuant to section 3(b) of the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (22 U.S.C. 2151-2(b)), it is the international development cooperation policy of the United States-- (1) to reduce gender disparities with respect to economic, social, political, educational, and cultural resources, as well as wealth, opportunities, and services; (2) to strive to eliminate gender-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, including through efforts to develop standards and capacity to reduce gender-based violence in the workplace and other places where women work; (3) to support activities that secure private property rights and land tenure for women in developing countries, including-- (A) supporting legal frameworks that give women equal rights to own, register, use, profit from, and inherit land and property; (B) improving legal literacy to enable women to exercise the rights described in subparagraph (A); and (C) improving the capacity of law enforcement and community leaders to enforce such rights; (4) to increase the capability of women and girls to fully exercise their rights, determine their life outcomes, assume leadership roles, and influence decision making in households, communities, and societies; and (5) to improve the access of women and girls to education, particularly higher education opportunities in business, finance, and management, in order to enhance financial literacy and business development, management, and strategy skills; Whereas, pursuant to National Security Presidential Memorandum 16, entitled ``Promoting Women's Global Development and Prosperity'', ``It is the policy of the United States to enhance the opportunity for women to meaningfully participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities as individuals, workers, consumers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors, so that they enjoy the same access, rights, and opportunities as men to participate in, contribute to, control, and benefit from economic activity.''; Whereas, according to the World Health Organization, global maternal mortality decreased by approximately 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, yet approximately 830 women and girls continue to die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy or childbirth each day, and 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; Whereas, according to the United Nations Population Fund, of the 830 women and adolescent girls who die every day from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, 507 die each day in countries that are considered fragile because of conflict or disaster, accounting for approximately \3/5\ of all maternal deaths worldwide; Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that women and girls comprise approximately \1/2\ of the 67,200,000 refugees and internally displaced or stateless individuals in the world; Whereas women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, including those subject to forced displacement, face increased and exacerbated vulnerabilities to-- (1) gender-based violence, including, rape, child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation and assault; (2) disruptions in education and livelihood; (3) lack of access to comprehensive health services and information; and (4) food insecurity and malnutrition; Whereas malnutrition poses a variety of threats to women and girls specifically, as malnutrition can weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to infections, and affects their capacity to survive childbirth, and children born of malnourished women and girls are more likely to have cognitive impairments and higher risk of disease throughout their lives; Whereas it is imperative-- (1) to alleviate violence and discrimination against women and girls; and (2) to afford women and girls every opportunity to be full and productive members of their communities; and Whereas March 8, 2020, is recognized as International Women's Day, a global day-- (1) to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the past, present, and future; and (2) to recognize the obstacles that women face in the struggle for equal rights and opportunities: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) supports the goals of International Women's Day; (2) recognizes that the ability of women and girls to fully access and enjoy fundamental human rights has intrinsic value that affects their quality of life and ability to determine their own futures; (3) recognizes that the empowerment of women and girls is inextricably linked to the potential of a country to generate-- (A) economic growth and self-reliance; (B) sustainable peace and democracy; and (C) inclusive security; (4) recognizes and honors individuals in the United States and around the world, including women human rights defenders, girl activists, and civil society leaders, who have worked throughout history to ensure that women and girls are guaranteed equality and fundamental human rights; (5) recognizes the unique cultural, historical, and religious differences throughout the world and urges the United States Government to act with respect and understanding toward legitimate differences when promoting any policies; (6) reaffirms the commitment-- (A) to end discrimination and violence against women and girls; (B) to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of women and girls; (C) to pursue policies that guarantee the fundamental human rights of women and girls worldwide; and (D) to promote meaningful and significant participation of women in every aspect of society and community, including conflict prevention, protection, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; (7) supports sustainable, measurable, and global development that seeks to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and (8) encourages the people of the United States to observe International Women's Day with appropriate programs and activities.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1601

formal

welfare

racist

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations: S. Res. 533 Whereas, as of March 2020, there are approximately 3,764,000,000 women and girls in the world; Whereas women and girls around the world-- (1) have fundamental human rights; (2) play a critical role in providing and caring for their families and driving positive change in their communities; (3) contribute substantially to food security, economic growth, the prevention and resolution of conflict, and the sustainability of peace and stability; and (4) must have meaningful opportunities to more fully participate in and lead the political, social, and economic lives of their communities; Whereas the advancement and empowerment of women and girls around the world is a foreign policy priority for the United States and is critical to the achievement of global peace and prosperity; Whereas 2020 marks the anniversary of significant milestones toward advancing the human rights and equality of women and girls, including-- (1) the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States; and (2) the 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, which was established through the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in October 2000; Whereas the National Security Strategy of the United States, published in December 2017-- (1) declares that ``[s]ocieties that empower women to participate fully in civic and economic life are more prosperous and peaceful''; (2) supports ``efforts to advance women's equality, protect the rights of women and girls, and promote women and youth empowerment programs''; and (3) recognizes that ``governments that fail to treat women equally do not allow their societies to reach their potential''; Whereas, on October 6, 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (22 U.S.C. 2152j et seq.) was enacted into law, which includes requirements for a government-wide ``Women, Peace, and Security Strategy'' to promote and strengthen the participation of women in peace negotiations and conflict prevention overseas, enhanced training for relevant United States Government personnel, and follow-up evaluations of the effectiveness of the strategy; Whereas the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, dated June 2019, recognizes that-- (1) the ``[s]ocial and political marginalization of women strongly correlates with the likelihood that a country will experience conflict''; (2) there is a ``tremendous amount of untapped potential among the world's women and girls to identify, recommend, and implement effective solutions to conflict'', and there are ``benefits derived from creating opportunities for women and girls to serve as agents of peace via political, economic, and social empowerment''; and (3) barriers to the meaningful participation of women and girls in conflict prevention and resolution efforts ``include under-representation in political leadership, pervasive violence against women and girls, and persistent inequality in many societies''; Whereas, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (commonly referred to as ``UN Women''), peace negotiations are more likely to end in a peace agreement when women and women's groups play a meaningful role in the negotiation process; Whereas, according to a study by the International Peace Institute, a peace agreement is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years if women participate in the development of the peace agreement; Whereas there are 83 national action plans relating to the empowerment of women around the world, 11 regional action plans, and at least 9 additional national action plans in development; Whereas the joint strategy of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) entitled ``Department of State & USAID Joint Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism'' and dated May 2016-- (1) notes that women can play a critical role in identifying and addressing drivers of violent extremism in their families, communities, and broader society; and (2) commits to supporting programs that engage women ``as key stakeholders in preventing and countering violent extremism in their communities''; Whereas, according to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the Department of State, the full and meaningful participation of women in criminal justice professions and security forces vastly enhances the effectiveness of the security forces; Whereas, despite the contributions of women to society, hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world continue to be denied the right to participate freely in civic and economic life, lack fundamental legal protections, and remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; Whereas, every year, approximately 12,000,000 girls are married before they reach the age of 18, which means that-- (1) nearly 33,000 girls are married every day; or (2) nearly 23 girls are married every minute; Whereas, despite global progress, it is predicted that by 2030 more than 150,000,000 more girls will marry before reaching the age of 18, and approximately 2,400,000 girls who are married before reaching the age of 18 are under the age of 15; Whereas girls living in countries affected by conflict or other humanitarian crises are often the most vulnerable to child marriage, and 9 of the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are considered fragile or extremely fragile; Whereas, according to the International Labour Organization, 71 percent of the estimated 40,300,000 victims of modern slavery in 2016 were women or girls; Whereas, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (commonly referred to as ``UNICEF'')-- (1) approximately \1/4\ of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are victims of physical violence; (2) approximately 120,000,000 girls worldwide, slightly more than 1 in 10, have experienced forced sexual acts; and (3) an estimated 1 in 3 women around the world has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence; Whereas, according to the 2018 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime entitled ``Global Report on Trafficking in Persons'', 72 percent of all detected trafficking victims are women or girls; Whereas, on August 10, 2012, the United States Government launched a strategy entitled ``United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally'', which is the first interagency strategy that-- (1) addresses gender-based violence around the world; (2) advances the rights and status of women and girls; (3) promotes gender equality in United States foreign policy; and (4) works to bring about a world in which all individuals can pursue their aspirations without the threat of violence; Whereas, in June 2016, the Department of State released an update to that strategy, underscoring that ``[p]reventing and responding to gender-based violence is a cornerstone of the U.S. Government's commitment to advancing human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls''; Whereas, despite the achievements of individual female leaders and evidence that democracy and equality under the law form a mutually reinforcing relationship in which higher levels of equality are strongly correlated with the relative state of peace of a country, a healthier domestic security environment, and lower levels of aggression toward other countries-- (1) women around the world remain vastly underrepresented in-- (A) national and local legislatures and governments; and (B) other high-level positions; and (2) according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women account for only 25 percent of national parliamentarians and 21 percent of government ministers; Whereas the ability of women and girls to realize their full potential is critical to the ability of a country to achieve strong and lasting economic growth, self-reliance, and political and social stability; Whereas the overall level of violence against women is a better predictor of the peacefulness of a country, the compliance of a country with international treaty obligations, and the relations of a country with neighboring countries than indicators measuring the level of democracy, level of wealth, or level of institutionalization of the country; Whereas, although the United Nations Millennium Project reached the goal of achieving gender parity in primary education in most countries in 2015, more work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in primary and secondary education, and particularly in secondary education worldwide as gender gaps persist and widen, by addressing-- (1) discriminatory practices; (2) harmful cultural and social norms; (3) inadequate sanitation facilities, including facilities to manage menstruation; (4) child, early, and forced marriage; (5) poverty; (6) early pregnancy and motherhood; (7) conflict and insecurity; and (8) other factors that favor boys or devalue girls' education; Whereas, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-- (1) approximately 129,200,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 17 remain out of school; (2) girls living in countries affected by conflict are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys; (3) girls are twice as likely as boys to never set foot in a classroom; and (4) up to 30 percent of girls who drop out of school do so because of adolescent pregnancy or child marriage; Whereas women around the world face a variety of constraints that severely limit their economic participation and productivity and remain underrepresented in the labor force; Whereas the economic empowerment of women is inextricably linked to a myriad of other human rights that are essential to the ability of women to thrive as economic actors, including-- (1) living lives free of violence and exploitation; (2) achieving the highest possible standard of health and well-being; (3) enjoying full legal and human rights, such as access to registration, identification, and citizenship documents, and freedom of movement; (4) access to formal and informal education; (5) access to, and equal protection under, land and property rights; (6) access to fundamental labor rights; (7) the implementation of policies to address disproportionate care burdens; and (8) receiving business and management skills and leadership opportunities; Whereas closing the global gender gap in labor markets could increase worldwide gross domestic product by as much as $28,000,000,000,000 by 2025; Whereas, pursuant to section 3(b) of the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (22 U.S.C. 2151-2(b)), it is the international development cooperation policy of the United States-- (1) to reduce gender disparities with respect to economic, social, political, educational, and cultural resources, as well as wealth, opportunities, and services; (2) to strive to eliminate gender-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, including through efforts to develop standards and capacity to reduce gender-based violence in the workplace and other places where women work; (3) to support activities that secure private property rights and land tenure for women in developing countries, including-- (A) supporting legal frameworks that give women equal rights to own, register, use, profit from, and inherit land and property; (B) improving legal literacy to enable women to exercise the rights described in subparagraph (A); and (C) improving the capacity of law enforcement and community leaders to enforce such rights; (4) to increase the capability of women and girls to fully exercise their rights, determine their life outcomes, assume leadership roles, and influence decision making in households, communities, and societies; and (5) to improve the access of women and girls to education, particularly higher education opportunities in business, finance, and management, in order to enhance financial literacy and business development, management, and strategy skills; Whereas, pursuant to National Security Presidential Memorandum 16, entitled ``Promoting Women's Global Development and Prosperity'', ``It is the policy of the United States to enhance the opportunity for women to meaningfully participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities as individuals, workers, consumers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors, so that they enjoy the same access, rights, and opportunities as men to participate in, contribute to, control, and benefit from economic activity.''; Whereas, according to the World Health Organization, global maternal mortality decreased by approximately 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, yet approximately 830 women and girls continue to die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy or childbirth each day, and 99 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; Whereas, according to the United Nations Population Fund, of the 830 women and adolescent girls who die every day from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, 507 die each day in countries that are considered fragile because of conflict or disaster, accounting for approximately \3/5\ of all maternal deaths worldwide; Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that women and girls comprise approximately \1/2\ of the 67,200,000 refugees and internally displaced or stateless individuals in the world; Whereas women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, including those subject to forced displacement, face increased and exacerbated vulnerabilities to-- (1) gender-based violence, including, rape, child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation and assault; (2) disruptions in education and livelihood; (3) lack of access to comprehensive health services and information; and (4) food insecurity and malnutrition; Whereas malnutrition poses a variety of threats to women and girls specifically, as malnutrition can weaken their immune systems, making them more susceptible to infections, and affects their capacity to survive childbirth, and children born of malnourished women and girls are more likely to have cognitive impairments and higher risk of disease throughout their lives; Whereas it is imperative-- (1) to alleviate violence and discrimination against women and girls; and (2) to afford women and girls every opportunity to be full and productive members of their communities; and Whereas March 8, 2020, is recognized as International Women's Day, a global day-- (1) to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the past, present, and future; and (2) to recognize the obstacles that women face in the struggle for equal rights and opportunities: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) supports the goals of International Women's Day; (2) recognizes that the ability of women and girls to fully access and enjoy fundamental human rights has intrinsic value that affects their quality of life and ability to determine their own futures; (3) recognizes that the empowerment of women and girls is inextricably linked to the potential of a country to generate-- (A) economic growth and self-reliance; (B) sustainable peace and democracy; and (C) inclusive security; (4) recognizes and honors individuals in the United States and around the world, including women human rights defenders, girl activists, and civil society leaders, who have worked throughout history to ensure that women and girls are guaranteed equality and fundamental human rights; (5) recognizes the unique cultural, historical, and religious differences throughout the world and urges the United States Government to act with respect and understanding toward legitimate differences when promoting any policies; (6) reaffirms the commitment-- (A) to end discrimination and violence against women and girls; (B) to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of women and girls; (C) to pursue policies that guarantee the fundamental human rights of women and girls worldwide; and (D) to promote meaningful and significant participation of women in every aspect of society and community, including conflict prevention, protection, peacemaking, and peacebuilding; (7) supports sustainable, measurable, and global development that seeks to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and (8) encourages the people of the United States to observe International Women's Day with appropriate programs and activities.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1601

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

``WOMEN OF THE AVIATION WORKFORCE WEEK'' Ms. ROSEN (for herself and Mr. Moran) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary: S. Res. 534 Whereas the first week of March is internationally known as ``Women of Aviation Worldwide Week''; Whereas Women of Aviation Worldwide Week was created by the Institute for Women Of Aviation Worldwide; Whereas, over the last 5 years, the aviation industry has experienced an increase in passenger traffic by an average of 6.5 percent per year; Whereas the aviation industry is anticipating a significant shortage of skilled professionals in the coming years; Whereas the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor projected that, in the next 10 years, the overall employment of airline and commercial pilots is expected to grow more than 6 percent in the United States; Whereas less than 2 percent of the aircraft maintenance technicians in the world and less than 10 percent of all working aeronautical engineers are women; Whereas the Federal Aviation Administration reports that less than 8 percent of pilots and only 26 percent of air traffic controllers in the United States are women; Whereas women make up only 24 percent of the employees in the aerospace industry; Whereas aviation is a science, technology, engineering, and math (commonly known as ``STEM'') focused career path; Whereas the future of an abundant aviation workforce depends on a robust and diverse pool of candidates; and Whereas women such as Amelia Earhart, Cicely Williams, Nicole Malachowski, Bessie Coleman, and Jeannie Leavitt have inspired, and will continue to inspire, young women to pursue careers in aviation: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) designates March 2 through March 8, 2020, as ``Women of the Aviation Workforce Week''; (2) celebrates the aviation workforce of the United States; (3) encourages educational and training institutions to recruit women to join the aviation workforce; (4) encourages employers in the aviation industry to hire a diverse workforce, including women, veterans, and other underrepresented individuals; and (5) commits to-- (A) raising awareness about the gender gap in the air and space industry; and (B) taking legislative actions to address the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (commonly known as ``STEM'') fields.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1602

formal

Cleveland

racist

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I have 6 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: Committee on Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Foreign Relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on the Judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, January 16, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, Stanley Blumenfeld, and Mark C. Scarsi, each to be a UnitedStates District Judge for the Central District of California, John Charles Hinderaker, to be United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, John Leonard Badalamenti, to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, William Scott Hardy, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, John F. Heil III, to be United States District Judge for the Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma, David Cleveland Joseph, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana, Anna M. Manasco, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, Drew B. Tipton, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, and Grace Karaffa Obermann, of Virginia, Stephen Sidney Schwartz, of Virginia, Kathryn C. Davis, of Maryland, and Edward Hulvey Meyers, of Maryland, each to be a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims.

2020-01-06

Mr. KENNEDY

Senate

CREC-2020-03-05-pt1-PgS1610

formal

XX

transphobic

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 votes objected to under clause 6 of rule XX. The House will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgH1541-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. Votes will be taken in the following order: Motions to suspend the rules and: Agree to H. Res. 410; and Pass H.R. 1771. The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as 5-minute votes.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgH1548-3

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 410) encouraging reunions of divided Korean-American families, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgH1548-4

formal

XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1771) to require consultations on reuniting Korean Americans with family members in North Korea, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgH1549

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Under clause 2 of rule XIV, executive communications were taken from the Speaker's table and referred as follows: 4066. A letter from the Congressional Review Coordinator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Department of Agriculture, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Establishment of Regulations for the Evaluation and Recognition of the Animal Health Status of Compartments [Docket No.: APHIS-2017-0105] (RIN: 0579-AE43) received March 5, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104- 121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Agriculture. 4067. A letter from the Alternate OSD FRLO, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting the Department's interpretive rule -- Military Lending Act Limitations on Terms of Consumer Credit Extended to Service Members and Dependents [Docket ID: DOD-2013-OS-0133] (RIN: 0790-ZA14) received March 5, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Armed Services. 4068. A letter from the Secretary, Division of Corporation Finance, Securities and Exchange Commission, transmitting the Commission's Major final rule -- Financial Disclosures about Guarantors and Issuers of Guaranteed Securities and Affiliates Whose Securities Collateralize a Registrant's Securities, 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. 4069. A letter from the Director, Regulations Policy and Management Staff, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Food Additive Regulations; Synthetic Flavoring Agents and Adjuvants; Confirmation of Effective Date [Docket No.: FDA-2015-F-4317] received March 5, 2020, 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. 4070. A letter from the Director, Regulations Policy and Management Staff, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Definition of the Term ``Biological Product'' [Docket No.: FDA-2018-N-2732] (RIN: 0910-AH57) received March 5, 2020, 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. 4071. A letter from the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting a determination pursuant to Sec. 564 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens living abroad and that involves a novel (new) coronavirus (nCoV) first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China in 2019; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 4072. A letter from the Assistant Secretary for Legislation, Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting the FY 2019 Medical Device User Fee Amendments Financial Report; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 4073. A letter from the Chief of Staff, Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule -- Electronic Delivery of Notices to Broadcast Television Stations [MB Docket No.: 19-165]; Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative [MB Docket No.: 17-105] received March 5, 2020, 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. 4074. A letter from the Deputy Bureau Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule -- Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and Connect USVI Fund, Notice and Filing Requirements and Other Procedures for Stage 2 Fixed Competitive Proposal Process [WC Docket Nos.: 18-143, 10-90, 14-58] received March 5, 2020, 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. 4075. A letter from the Chief, Policy and Rules Division, Office of Engineering and Technology, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule -- Amendment of the Commission's Rules to Make Non-Substantive Editorial Revisions to the Table of Frequency Allocations and to Various Other Rules [ET Docket No.: 19-289] received March 5, 2020, 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. 4076. A letter from the Director, Office of Congressional Affairs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, transmitting the Commission's enforcement guidance memorandum -- Enforcement discretion not to cite certain violations of 10 CFR 73.56 requirements [2020-01] (RIN:3150-A112) received March 5, 2020, 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. 4077. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting a report covering the period from November 10, 2019, to January 8, 2020 on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution, pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 1541 note; Public Law 107-243, Sec. 4(a); (116 Stat. 1501) and 50 U.S.C. 1541 note; Public Law 102-1, Sec. 3 (as amended by Public Law 106-113, Sec. 1000(a)(7)); (113 Stat. 1501A-422); to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 4078. A letter from the Director, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting Transmittal No. 20-12, pursuant to the reporting requirements of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended; to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 4079. A letter from the Alternate OSD FRLO, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting the Department's interim final rule -- Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) [Docket ID: DOD-2019-OS-0103] (RIN: 0790-AK90) received March 5, 2020, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on House Administration. 4080. A letter from the Inspector General, Office of Inspector General, U.S. House of Representatives, transmitting the final report on the Data Diode Implementation and Testing project; to the Committee on House Administration. 4081. A letter from the Alternate OSD FRLO, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting the Department's final rule -- Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment [Docket ID: DOD-2016-OS-0045] (RIN: 0790-AK88) received March 5, 2020, 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. 4082. A letter from the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Justice, transmitting proposed legislation that would strengthen the government's ability to prosecute those who commit elder fraud against our nation's seniors; jointly to the Committees on Financial Services and the Judiciary. 4083. A letter from the Inspector General, United States Railroad Retirement Board, transmitting the Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Justification for the Office of Inspector General, pursuant to 45 U.S.C. 231f(f); Aug. 29, 1935, ch. 812, Sec. 7(f) (as amended by Public Law 93-445, Sec. 416); (97 Stat. 436); jointly to the Committees on Appropriations, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Ways and Means.

2020-01-06

Unknown

House

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgH1552-2

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we celebrated women and girls around the globe for their tremendous contributions to our communities, our countries, and the world. From Albania to Zimbabwe, women face enormous risks to pursue progress in defiance of attitudes, policies, and actions that treat them as second-class citizens. Too often, these women are punished for their courage. As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Beijing Declaration on the equal rights of women, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving women's empowerment and equal status throughout the world. Today, I want to highlight 25 women who have risked their lives, withstood torture, and been unjustly detained for fighting for human rights, democracy, a free and fair press, and the rights of vulnerable LGBT populations, as well as safeguarding their culture and the environment. The repressive responses of their respective governments speaks to the power these women command, the implications of their cause, and the movements they inspire. In Russia, President Putin's government utilizes politically motivated imprisonment to bolster its power by cracking down on journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, Ukrainian citizens, and civil society advocates. Yulia Tsetkova is the latest target of the authorities' long-running campaign against LGBT activists. Tsetkova has been placed on house arrest and faces years of imprisonment for her creative work at a youth amateur theater which the state has labeled ``homosexual propaganda,'' for drawings described as criminal ``pornography'' and for administrating two LGBT-themed groups on social media deemed'' gay propaganda.') The Chinese Communist Party has waged a powerful campaign to suppress vibrant ethnic minority communities and political dissent. The government has brutally cracked down in Xinjiang, where it has extrajudicially interned and subjected more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to forced labor, torture, and abuse. Rahile Dawut, a Xinjiang University professor who researched and documented traditional Uyghur culture, disappeared in December 2017. Sanubar Tursun, a renowned Uyghur singer, disappeared in November 2018, shortly before she was scheduled to perform in France. We will not forget their names nor their work. The Chinese Communist party has also targeted Tibetans for celebrating their heritage. In late 2015, officials detained at least eight Tibetans accused of organizing observances of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Those detained included Bonkho Kyi, who had organized a public picnic to celebrate the occasion. Kyi was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, although details of the criminal charges remain unavailable. In Iran, human rights defenders have been steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated arrest and abuse by authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh has devoted her life to advocating for human rights in Iran, speaking out against the death penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs. Sotoudeh was rearrested in June 2018 for defending women protestors against the forced hijab and faces 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Atena Daemi, also a lifelong human rights activist, is serving a 7-year prison sentence for handing out anti-death penalty leaflets. She has been on hunger strike twice and is in dire need of medical attention due to dizziness and numbness. Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, has been imprisoned since May 2015 and is serving a 16-year sentence. Mohammadi is critically ill with pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder resulting in seizures and temporary partial paralysis. Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and imprisoned environmentalists. Niloufar Bayani, a McGill University-graduate, worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and, most recently, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She was arrested along with several coworkers, including Sepideh Kashami, on charges of espionage. Multiple government bodies have found no evidence suggesting the environmentalists detained were spies. While detained, Bayani has reportedly suffered from torture and threats of sexual assault. Governments around the world are also attacking the free press and targeting journalists, particularly those who speak truth to power and expose the failures of those very governments.Many women journalists have been targeted and unjustly detained. In particular, the escalating use of criminal charges of ``false news'' or ``fake news'' to imprison journalists and activists is alarming. Certainly, these incitements of ``fake news'' echo President Trump and his administration's regressive rhetoric and attacks on the press and democratic values. As of December 2019, Turkey was the world's second worst jailer of journalists with 47 in prison, coming in close second to China with 48. President Erdogan has cracked down on independent criticism by shuttering more than 100 news outlets and jailing dozens of journalists. Editor Hatice Duman was imprisoned in 2003 and is serving a life sentence based on charges of propaganda and being a member of a banned group. Duman was the owner and news editor of the socialist weekly ``Atilim,'' which had opposed President Erdogan's policies. She was convicted based on authorities' claim of her attendance at a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party demonstration and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's husband later said the police threatened sexual violence against his family if he did not testify against his wife. Aysenur Parildak and Hanim Busra Erdal, two journalists for ``Zaman,'' are both serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses based on claims that ``Zaman'' had ties to Fethulaah Gulen. Sadiye Eser, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish ``Mezopotamya News Agency,'' has also been detained by police since November 2019 on politically motivated charges of membership of a terrorist organization. In Egypt, President Sisi has attempted to quash dissent and consolidate control by wrongfully imprisoning human rights defenders. Mahienour el-Masry, a human rights lawyer, has spent her career organizing peaceful protests, advocating for political prisoners, and denouncing human rights violations. She was arrested in September 2019 following a wave of protests calling for President Sisi's resignation and charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, spreading ``false news,'' and using social media to publish false rumors. Esraa Abdel Fattah, a human rights activist and reporter for the banned ``Tahrir News,'' was arrested on charges of spreading ``false news,'' membership in a banned group, and abuse of social media networks in October 2019. Abdel Fattah was reportedly beaten, hung from handcuffs for hours, and choked with her clothes while interrogated. In Burundi, authorities have cracked down on free expression in anticipation of the country's 2020 elections. Christine Kamikazi and Agnes Ndirubusa, journalists at Burundi's last remaining independent newspaper ``Iwacu,'' were arrested and convicted on charges of attempting threat against state security by collaborating with the rebel group RED-Tabara. Kamikazi and Ndirubusa were traveling with two colleagues to report on in-fighting between Burundian security forces and RED-Tabara when they were arrested. They were convicted despite the fact that ``Iwacu'' had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area for reporting and the fact that the RED-Tabara attack had already occurred before their travels to the region. Finally, a year ago today, I highlighted 14 women political prisoners in a statement marking International Women's Day. Of those 14, 8 remain in detention today. These include Saudi women's rights and human rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya'a al-Zahrani; Senator Leila de Lima, detained for her criticism of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uyghur PhD student detained in China; and Aster Fissehatsion, a political dissident held incommunicado without charge nor trial since 2001 in Eritrea. In Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Eritrea, these women threatened by a repressive government, abusive authorities, and critical risks to their health are advocating for the betterment of their entire communities. Sadly, these 25 women highlighted today only represent a small fraction of countless women and girls unjustly detained and imprisoned. On this International Women's Day, we reflect on the remarkable achievements of women and the work that remains to be done by all of us to reach gender parity. The women political prisoners we have highlighted today serve as role models championing human rights, democracy, cultural tolerance, and environmental preservation. Their detention should embolden the rest of us to take up their causes in their absence. I call on governments unjustly detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these political prisoners. We will not forget these women, what they have fought for, and what they have sacrificed for all of us as a result.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgS1620-3

formal

terrorism

Islamophobic

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we celebrated women and girls around the globe for their tremendous contributions to our communities, our countries, and the world. From Albania to Zimbabwe, women face enormous risks to pursue progress in defiance of attitudes, policies, and actions that treat them as second-class citizens. Too often, these women are punished for their courage. As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Beijing Declaration on the equal rights of women, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving women's empowerment and equal status throughout the world. Today, I want to highlight 25 women who have risked their lives, withstood torture, and been unjustly detained for fighting for human rights, democracy, a free and fair press, and the rights of vulnerable LGBT populations, as well as safeguarding their culture and the environment. The repressive responses of their respective governments speaks to the power these women command, the implications of their cause, and the movements they inspire. In Russia, President Putin's government utilizes politically motivated imprisonment to bolster its power by cracking down on journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, Ukrainian citizens, and civil society advocates. Yulia Tsetkova is the latest target of the authorities' long-running campaign against LGBT activists. Tsetkova has been placed on house arrest and faces years of imprisonment for her creative work at a youth amateur theater which the state has labeled ``homosexual propaganda,'' for drawings described as criminal ``pornography'' and for administrating two LGBT-themed groups on social media deemed'' gay propaganda.') The Chinese Communist Party has waged a powerful campaign to suppress vibrant ethnic minority communities and political dissent. The government has brutally cracked down in Xinjiang, where it has extrajudicially interned and subjected more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to forced labor, torture, and abuse. Rahile Dawut, a Xinjiang University professor who researched and documented traditional Uyghur culture, disappeared in December 2017. Sanubar Tursun, a renowned Uyghur singer, disappeared in November 2018, shortly before she was scheduled to perform in France. We will not forget their names nor their work. The Chinese Communist party has also targeted Tibetans for celebrating their heritage. In late 2015, officials detained at least eight Tibetans accused of organizing observances of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Those detained included Bonkho Kyi, who had organized a public picnic to celebrate the occasion. Kyi was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, although details of the criminal charges remain unavailable. In Iran, human rights defenders have been steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated arrest and abuse by authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh has devoted her life to advocating for human rights in Iran, speaking out against the death penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs. Sotoudeh was rearrested in June 2018 for defending women protestors against the forced hijab and faces 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Atena Daemi, also a lifelong human rights activist, is serving a 7-year prison sentence for handing out anti-death penalty leaflets. She has been on hunger strike twice and is in dire need of medical attention due to dizziness and numbness. Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, has been imprisoned since May 2015 and is serving a 16-year sentence. Mohammadi is critically ill with pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder resulting in seizures and temporary partial paralysis. Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and imprisoned environmentalists. Niloufar Bayani, a McGill University-graduate, worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and, most recently, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She was arrested along with several coworkers, including Sepideh Kashami, on charges of espionage. Multiple government bodies have found no evidence suggesting the environmentalists detained were spies. While detained, Bayani has reportedly suffered from torture and threats of sexual assault. Governments around the world are also attacking the free press and targeting journalists, particularly those who speak truth to power and expose the failures of those very governments.Many women journalists have been targeted and unjustly detained. In particular, the escalating use of criminal charges of ``false news'' or ``fake news'' to imprison journalists and activists is alarming. Certainly, these incitements of ``fake news'' echo President Trump and his administration's regressive rhetoric and attacks on the press and democratic values. As of December 2019, Turkey was the world's second worst jailer of journalists with 47 in prison, coming in close second to China with 48. President Erdogan has cracked down on independent criticism by shuttering more than 100 news outlets and jailing dozens of journalists. Editor Hatice Duman was imprisoned in 2003 and is serving a life sentence based on charges of propaganda and being a member of a banned group. Duman was the owner and news editor of the socialist weekly ``Atilim,'' which had opposed President Erdogan's policies. She was convicted based on authorities' claim of her attendance at a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party demonstration and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's husband later said the police threatened sexual violence against his family if he did not testify against his wife. Aysenur Parildak and Hanim Busra Erdal, two journalists for ``Zaman,'' are both serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses based on claims that ``Zaman'' had ties to Fethulaah Gulen. Sadiye Eser, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish ``Mezopotamya News Agency,'' has also been detained by police since November 2019 on politically motivated charges of membership of a terrorist organization. In Egypt, President Sisi has attempted to quash dissent and consolidate control by wrongfully imprisoning human rights defenders. Mahienour el-Masry, a human rights lawyer, has spent her career organizing peaceful protests, advocating for political prisoners, and denouncing human rights violations. She was arrested in September 2019 following a wave of protests calling for President Sisi's resignation and charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, spreading ``false news,'' and using social media to publish false rumors. Esraa Abdel Fattah, a human rights activist and reporter for the banned ``Tahrir News,'' was arrested on charges of spreading ``false news,'' membership in a banned group, and abuse of social media networks in October 2019. Abdel Fattah was reportedly beaten, hung from handcuffs for hours, and choked with her clothes while interrogated. In Burundi, authorities have cracked down on free expression in anticipation of the country's 2020 elections. Christine Kamikazi and Agnes Ndirubusa, journalists at Burundi's last remaining independent newspaper ``Iwacu,'' were arrested and convicted on charges of attempting threat against state security by collaborating with the rebel group RED-Tabara. Kamikazi and Ndirubusa were traveling with two colleagues to report on in-fighting between Burundian security forces and RED-Tabara when they were arrested. They were convicted despite the fact that ``Iwacu'' had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area for reporting and the fact that the RED-Tabara attack had already occurred before their travels to the region. Finally, a year ago today, I highlighted 14 women political prisoners in a statement marking International Women's Day. Of those 14, 8 remain in detention today. These include Saudi women's rights and human rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya'a al-Zahrani; Senator Leila de Lima, detained for her criticism of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uyghur PhD student detained in China; and Aster Fissehatsion, a political dissident held incommunicado without charge nor trial since 2001 in Eritrea. In Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Eritrea, these women threatened by a repressive government, abusive authorities, and critical risks to their health are advocating for the betterment of their entire communities. Sadly, these 25 women highlighted today only represent a small fraction of countless women and girls unjustly detained and imprisoned. On this International Women's Day, we reflect on the remarkable achievements of women and the work that remains to be done by all of us to reach gender parity. The women political prisoners we have highlighted today serve as role models championing human rights, democracy, cultural tolerance, and environmental preservation. Their detention should embolden the rest of us to take up their causes in their absence. I call on governments unjustly detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these political prisoners. We will not forget these women, what they have fought for, and what they have sacrificed for all of us as a result.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgS1620-3

formal

terrorist

Islamophobic

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we celebrated women and girls around the globe for their tremendous contributions to our communities, our countries, and the world. From Albania to Zimbabwe, women face enormous risks to pursue progress in defiance of attitudes, policies, and actions that treat them as second-class citizens. Too often, these women are punished for their courage. As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Beijing Declaration on the equal rights of women, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving women's empowerment and equal status throughout the world. Today, I want to highlight 25 women who have risked their lives, withstood torture, and been unjustly detained for fighting for human rights, democracy, a free and fair press, and the rights of vulnerable LGBT populations, as well as safeguarding their culture and the environment. The repressive responses of their respective governments speaks to the power these women command, the implications of their cause, and the movements they inspire. In Russia, President Putin's government utilizes politically motivated imprisonment to bolster its power by cracking down on journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, Ukrainian citizens, and civil society advocates. Yulia Tsetkova is the latest target of the authorities' long-running campaign against LGBT activists. Tsetkova has been placed on house arrest and faces years of imprisonment for her creative work at a youth amateur theater which the state has labeled ``homosexual propaganda,'' for drawings described as criminal ``pornography'' and for administrating two LGBT-themed groups on social media deemed'' gay propaganda.') The Chinese Communist Party has waged a powerful campaign to suppress vibrant ethnic minority communities and political dissent. The government has brutally cracked down in Xinjiang, where it has extrajudicially interned and subjected more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to forced labor, torture, and abuse. Rahile Dawut, a Xinjiang University professor who researched and documented traditional Uyghur culture, disappeared in December 2017. Sanubar Tursun, a renowned Uyghur singer, disappeared in November 2018, shortly before she was scheduled to perform in France. We will not forget their names nor their work. The Chinese Communist party has also targeted Tibetans for celebrating their heritage. In late 2015, officials detained at least eight Tibetans accused of organizing observances of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Those detained included Bonkho Kyi, who had organized a public picnic to celebrate the occasion. Kyi was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, although details of the criminal charges remain unavailable. In Iran, human rights defenders have been steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated arrest and abuse by authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh has devoted her life to advocating for human rights in Iran, speaking out against the death penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs. Sotoudeh was rearrested in June 2018 for defending women protestors against the forced hijab and faces 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Atena Daemi, also a lifelong human rights activist, is serving a 7-year prison sentence for handing out anti-death penalty leaflets. She has been on hunger strike twice and is in dire need of medical attention due to dizziness and numbness. Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, has been imprisoned since May 2015 and is serving a 16-year sentence. Mohammadi is critically ill with pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder resulting in seizures and temporary partial paralysis. Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and imprisoned environmentalists. Niloufar Bayani, a McGill University-graduate, worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and, most recently, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She was arrested along with several coworkers, including Sepideh Kashami, on charges of espionage. Multiple government bodies have found no evidence suggesting the environmentalists detained were spies. While detained, Bayani has reportedly suffered from torture and threats of sexual assault. Governments around the world are also attacking the free press and targeting journalists, particularly those who speak truth to power and expose the failures of those very governments.Many women journalists have been targeted and unjustly detained. In particular, the escalating use of criminal charges of ``false news'' or ``fake news'' to imprison journalists and activists is alarming. Certainly, these incitements of ``fake news'' echo President Trump and his administration's regressive rhetoric and attacks on the press and democratic values. As of December 2019, Turkey was the world's second worst jailer of journalists with 47 in prison, coming in close second to China with 48. President Erdogan has cracked down on independent criticism by shuttering more than 100 news outlets and jailing dozens of journalists. Editor Hatice Duman was imprisoned in 2003 and is serving a life sentence based on charges of propaganda and being a member of a banned group. Duman was the owner and news editor of the socialist weekly ``Atilim,'' which had opposed President Erdogan's policies. She was convicted based on authorities' claim of her attendance at a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party demonstration and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's husband later said the police threatened sexual violence against his family if he did not testify against his wife. Aysenur Parildak and Hanim Busra Erdal, two journalists for ``Zaman,'' are both serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses based on claims that ``Zaman'' had ties to Fethulaah Gulen. Sadiye Eser, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish ``Mezopotamya News Agency,'' has also been detained by police since November 2019 on politically motivated charges of membership of a terrorist organization. In Egypt, President Sisi has attempted to quash dissent and consolidate control by wrongfully imprisoning human rights defenders. Mahienour el-Masry, a human rights lawyer, has spent her career organizing peaceful protests, advocating for political prisoners, and denouncing human rights violations. She was arrested in September 2019 following a wave of protests calling for President Sisi's resignation and charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, spreading ``false news,'' and using social media to publish false rumors. Esraa Abdel Fattah, a human rights activist and reporter for the banned ``Tahrir News,'' was arrested on charges of spreading ``false news,'' membership in a banned group, and abuse of social media networks in October 2019. Abdel Fattah was reportedly beaten, hung from handcuffs for hours, and choked with her clothes while interrogated. In Burundi, authorities have cracked down on free expression in anticipation of the country's 2020 elections. Christine Kamikazi and Agnes Ndirubusa, journalists at Burundi's last remaining independent newspaper ``Iwacu,'' were arrested and convicted on charges of attempting threat against state security by collaborating with the rebel group RED-Tabara. Kamikazi and Ndirubusa were traveling with two colleagues to report on in-fighting between Burundian security forces and RED-Tabara when they were arrested. They were convicted despite the fact that ``Iwacu'' had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area for reporting and the fact that the RED-Tabara attack had already occurred before their travels to the region. Finally, a year ago today, I highlighted 14 women political prisoners in a statement marking International Women's Day. Of those 14, 8 remain in detention today. These include Saudi women's rights and human rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya'a al-Zahrani; Senator Leila de Lima, detained for her criticism of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uyghur PhD student detained in China; and Aster Fissehatsion, a political dissident held incommunicado without charge nor trial since 2001 in Eritrea. In Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Eritrea, these women threatened by a repressive government, abusive authorities, and critical risks to their health are advocating for the betterment of their entire communities. Sadly, these 25 women highlighted today only represent a small fraction of countless women and girls unjustly detained and imprisoned. On this International Women's Day, we reflect on the remarkable achievements of women and the work that remains to be done by all of us to reach gender parity. The women political prisoners we have highlighted today serve as role models championing human rights, democracy, cultural tolerance, and environmental preservation. Their detention should embolden the rest of us to take up their causes in their absence. I call on governments unjustly detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these political prisoners. We will not forget these women, what they have fought for, and what they have sacrificed for all of us as a result.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgS1620-3

formal

safeguarding

transphobic

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we celebrated women and girls around the globe for their tremendous contributions to our communities, our countries, and the world. From Albania to Zimbabwe, women face enormous risks to pursue progress in defiance of attitudes, policies, and actions that treat them as second-class citizens. Too often, these women are punished for their courage. As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Beijing Declaration on the equal rights of women, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving women's empowerment and equal status throughout the world. Today, I want to highlight 25 women who have risked their lives, withstood torture, and been unjustly detained for fighting for human rights, democracy, a free and fair press, and the rights of vulnerable LGBT populations, as well as safeguarding their culture and the environment. The repressive responses of their respective governments speaks to the power these women command, the implications of their cause, and the movements they inspire. In Russia, President Putin's government utilizes politically motivated imprisonment to bolster its power by cracking down on journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, Ukrainian citizens, and civil society advocates. Yulia Tsetkova is the latest target of the authorities' long-running campaign against LGBT activists. Tsetkova has been placed on house arrest and faces years of imprisonment for her creative work at a youth amateur theater which the state has labeled ``homosexual propaganda,'' for drawings described as criminal ``pornography'' and for administrating two LGBT-themed groups on social media deemed'' gay propaganda.') The Chinese Communist Party has waged a powerful campaign to suppress vibrant ethnic minority communities and political dissent. The government has brutally cracked down in Xinjiang, where it has extrajudicially interned and subjected more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to forced labor, torture, and abuse. Rahile Dawut, a Xinjiang University professor who researched and documented traditional Uyghur culture, disappeared in December 2017. Sanubar Tursun, a renowned Uyghur singer, disappeared in November 2018, shortly before she was scheduled to perform in France. We will not forget their names nor their work. The Chinese Communist party has also targeted Tibetans for celebrating their heritage. In late 2015, officials detained at least eight Tibetans accused of organizing observances of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Those detained included Bonkho Kyi, who had organized a public picnic to celebrate the occasion. Kyi was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, although details of the criminal charges remain unavailable. In Iran, human rights defenders have been steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated arrest and abuse by authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh has devoted her life to advocating for human rights in Iran, speaking out against the death penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs. Sotoudeh was rearrested in June 2018 for defending women protestors against the forced hijab and faces 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Atena Daemi, also a lifelong human rights activist, is serving a 7-year prison sentence for handing out anti-death penalty leaflets. She has been on hunger strike twice and is in dire need of medical attention due to dizziness and numbness. Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, has been imprisoned since May 2015 and is serving a 16-year sentence. Mohammadi is critically ill with pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder resulting in seizures and temporary partial paralysis. Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and imprisoned environmentalists. Niloufar Bayani, a McGill University-graduate, worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and, most recently, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She was arrested along with several coworkers, including Sepideh Kashami, on charges of espionage. Multiple government bodies have found no evidence suggesting the environmentalists detained were spies. While detained, Bayani has reportedly suffered from torture and threats of sexual assault. Governments around the world are also attacking the free press and targeting journalists, particularly those who speak truth to power and expose the failures of those very governments.Many women journalists have been targeted and unjustly detained. In particular, the escalating use of criminal charges of ``false news'' or ``fake news'' to imprison journalists and activists is alarming. Certainly, these incitements of ``fake news'' echo President Trump and his administration's regressive rhetoric and attacks on the press and democratic values. As of December 2019, Turkey was the world's second worst jailer of journalists with 47 in prison, coming in close second to China with 48. President Erdogan has cracked down on independent criticism by shuttering more than 100 news outlets and jailing dozens of journalists. Editor Hatice Duman was imprisoned in 2003 and is serving a life sentence based on charges of propaganda and being a member of a banned group. Duman was the owner and news editor of the socialist weekly ``Atilim,'' which had opposed President Erdogan's policies. She was convicted based on authorities' claim of her attendance at a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party demonstration and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's husband later said the police threatened sexual violence against his family if he did not testify against his wife. Aysenur Parildak and Hanim Busra Erdal, two journalists for ``Zaman,'' are both serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses based on claims that ``Zaman'' had ties to Fethulaah Gulen. Sadiye Eser, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish ``Mezopotamya News Agency,'' has also been detained by police since November 2019 on politically motivated charges of membership of a terrorist organization. In Egypt, President Sisi has attempted to quash dissent and consolidate control by wrongfully imprisoning human rights defenders. Mahienour el-Masry, a human rights lawyer, has spent her career organizing peaceful protests, advocating for political prisoners, and denouncing human rights violations. She was arrested in September 2019 following a wave of protests calling for President Sisi's resignation and charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, spreading ``false news,'' and using social media to publish false rumors. Esraa Abdel Fattah, a human rights activist and reporter for the banned ``Tahrir News,'' was arrested on charges of spreading ``false news,'' membership in a banned group, and abuse of social media networks in October 2019. Abdel Fattah was reportedly beaten, hung from handcuffs for hours, and choked with her clothes while interrogated. In Burundi, authorities have cracked down on free expression in anticipation of the country's 2020 elections. Christine Kamikazi and Agnes Ndirubusa, journalists at Burundi's last remaining independent newspaper ``Iwacu,'' were arrested and convicted on charges of attempting threat against state security by collaborating with the rebel group RED-Tabara. Kamikazi and Ndirubusa were traveling with two colleagues to report on in-fighting between Burundian security forces and RED-Tabara when they were arrested. They were convicted despite the fact that ``Iwacu'' had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area for reporting and the fact that the RED-Tabara attack had already occurred before their travels to the region. Finally, a year ago today, I highlighted 14 women political prisoners in a statement marking International Women's Day. Of those 14, 8 remain in detention today. These include Saudi women's rights and human rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya'a al-Zahrani; Senator Leila de Lima, detained for her criticism of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uyghur PhD student detained in China; and Aster Fissehatsion, a political dissident held incommunicado without charge nor trial since 2001 in Eritrea. In Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Eritrea, these women threatened by a repressive government, abusive authorities, and critical risks to their health are advocating for the betterment of their entire communities. Sadly, these 25 women highlighted today only represent a small fraction of countless women and girls unjustly detained and imprisoned. On this International Women's Day, we reflect on the remarkable achievements of women and the work that remains to be done by all of us to reach gender parity. The women political prisoners we have highlighted today serve as role models championing human rights, democracy, cultural tolerance, and environmental preservation. Their detention should embolden the rest of us to take up their causes in their absence. I call on governments unjustly detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these political prisoners. We will not forget these women, what they have fought for, and what they have sacrificed for all of us as a result.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

CREC-2020-03-09-pt1-PgS1620-3

formal

echo

antisemitic

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we celebrated women and girls around the globe for their tremendous contributions to our communities, our countries, and the world. From Albania to Zimbabwe, women face enormous risks to pursue progress in defiance of attitudes, policies, and actions that treat them as second-class citizens. Too often, these women are punished for their courage. As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Beijing Declaration on the equal rights of women, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving women's empowerment and equal status throughout the world. Today, I want to highlight 25 women who have risked their lives, withstood torture, and been unjustly detained for fighting for human rights, democracy, a free and fair press, and the rights of vulnerable LGBT populations, as well as safeguarding their culture and the environment. The repressive responses of their respective governments speaks to the power these women command, the implications of their cause, and the movements they inspire. In Russia, President Putin's government utilizes politically motivated imprisonment to bolster its power by cracking down on journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, Ukrainian citizens, and civil society advocates. Yulia Tsetkova is the latest target of the authorities' long-running campaign against LGBT activists. Tsetkova has been placed on house arrest and faces years of imprisonment for her creative work at a youth amateur theater which the state has labeled ``homosexual propaganda,'' for drawings described as criminal ``pornography'' and for administrating two LGBT-themed groups on social media deemed'' gay propaganda.') The Chinese Communist Party has waged a powerful campaign to suppress vibrant ethnic minority communities and political dissent. The government has brutally cracked down in Xinjiang, where it has extrajudicially interned and subjected more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to forced labor, torture, and abuse. Rahile Dawut, a Xinjiang University professor who researched and documented traditional Uyghur culture, disappeared in December 2017. Sanubar Tursun, a renowned Uyghur singer, disappeared in November 2018, shortly before she was scheduled to perform in France. We will not forget their names nor their work. The Chinese Communist party has also targeted Tibetans for celebrating their heritage. In late 2015, officials detained at least eight Tibetans accused of organizing observances of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday. Those detained included Bonkho Kyi, who had organized a public picnic to celebrate the occasion. Kyi was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, although details of the criminal charges remain unavailable. In Iran, human rights defenders have been steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated arrest and abuse by authorities. Nasrin Sotoudeh has devoted her life to advocating for human rights in Iran, speaking out against the death penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs. Sotoudeh was rearrested in June 2018 for defending women protestors against the forced hijab and faces 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Atena Daemi, also a lifelong human rights activist, is serving a 7-year prison sentence for handing out anti-death penalty leaflets. She has been on hunger strike twice and is in dire need of medical attention due to dizziness and numbness. Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, has been imprisoned since May 2015 and is serving a 16-year sentence. Mohammadi is critically ill with pulmonary embolism and a neurological disorder resulting in seizures and temporary partial paralysis. Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and imprisoned environmentalists. Niloufar Bayani, a McGill University-graduate, worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and, most recently, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. She was arrested along with several coworkers, including Sepideh Kashami, on charges of espionage. Multiple government bodies have found no evidence suggesting the environmentalists detained were spies. While detained, Bayani has reportedly suffered from torture and threats of sexual assault. Governments around the world are also attacking the free press and targeting journalists, particularly those who speak truth to power and expose the failures of those very governments.Many women journalists have been targeted and unjustly detained. In particular, the escalating use of criminal charges of ``false news'' or ``fake news'' to imprison journalists and activists is alarming. Certainly, these incitements of ``fake news'' echo President Trump and his administration's regressive rhetoric and attacks on the press and democratic values. As of December 2019, Turkey was the world's second worst jailer of journalists with 47 in prison, coming in close second to China with 48. President Erdogan has cracked down on independent criticism by shuttering more than 100 news outlets and jailing dozens of journalists. Editor Hatice Duman was imprisoned in 2003 and is serving a life sentence based on charges of propaganda and being a member of a banned group. Duman was the owner and news editor of the socialist weekly ``Atilim,'' which had opposed President Erdogan's policies. She was convicted based on authorities' claim of her attendance at a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party demonstration and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's husband later said the police threatened sexual violence against his family if he did not testify against his wife. Aysenur Parildak and Hanim Busra Erdal, two journalists for ``Zaman,'' are both serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses based on claims that ``Zaman'' had ties to Fethulaah Gulen. Sadiye Eser, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish ``Mezopotamya News Agency,'' has also been detained by police since November 2019 on politically motivated charges of membership of a terrorist organization. In Egypt, President Sisi has attempted to quash dissent and consolidate control by wrongfully imprisoning human rights defenders. Mahienour el-Masry, a human rights lawyer, has spent her career organizing peaceful protests, advocating for political prisoners, and denouncing human rights violations. She was arrested in September 2019 following a wave of protests calling for President Sisi's resignation and charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, spreading ``false news,'' and using social media to publish false rumors. Esraa Abdel Fattah, a human rights activist and reporter for the banned ``Tahrir News,'' was arrested on charges of spreading ``false news,'' membership in a banned group, and abuse of social media networks in October 2019. Abdel Fattah was reportedly beaten, hung from handcuffs for hours, and choked with her clothes while interrogated. In Burundi, authorities have cracked down on free expression in anticipation of the country's 2020 elections. Christine Kamikazi and Agnes Ndirubusa, journalists at Burundi's last remaining independent newspaper ``Iwacu,'' were arrested and convicted on charges of attempting threat against state security by collaborating with the rebel group RED-Tabara. Kamikazi and Ndirubusa were traveling with two colleagues to report on in-fighting between Burundian security forces and RED-Tabara when they were arrested. They were convicted despite the fact that ``Iwacu'' had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area for reporting and the fact that the RED-Tabara attack had already occurred before their travels to the region. Finally, a year ago today, I highlighted 14 women political prisoners in a statement marking International Women's Day. Of those 14, 8 remain in detention today. These include Saudi women's rights and human rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassima al-Sada, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya'a al-Zahrani; Senator Leila de Lima, detained for her criticism of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uyghur PhD student detained in China; and Aster Fissehatsion, a political dissident held incommunicado without charge nor trial since 2001 in Eritrea. In Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Eritrea, these women threatened by a repressive government, abusive authorities, and critical risks to their health are advocating for the betterment of their entire communities. Sadly, these 25 women highlighted today only represent a small fraction of countless women and girls unjustly detained and imprisoned. On this International Women's Day, we reflect on the remarkable achievements of women and the work that remains to be done by all of us to reach gender parity. The women political prisoners we have highlighted today serve as role models championing human rights, democracy, cultural tolerance, and environmental preservation. Their detention should embolden the rest of us to take up their causes in their absence. I call on governments unjustly detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these political prisoners. We will not forget these women, what they have fought for, and what they have sacrificed for all of us as a result.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

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based

white supremacist

Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on January 28, 2020, I submitted a statement for the Record on H. Con. Res. 83, which directs the President to terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities against Iran. H. Con. Res. 83 was passed by the House of Representatives on January 9, 2020, and received in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations on January 13, 2020. Pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 1546(c), H. Con. Res. 83 should have been treated as a privileged resolution and reported out of the committee on January 28. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority leadership opted not to hold a committee debate or vote on H. Con. Res. 83. As I explained in my statement of January 28, I understand that this decision was based primarily on the view that a concurrent resolution, under the War Powers Resolution, may be privileged only if it uses the word ``remove'' or the phrase ``removal of United States Armed Forces engaged in hostilities,'' rather than ``terminate'' or ``terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities,'' as used in H. Con. Res. 83. As I will explain, however, this view is not consistent with Senate precedent. On February 13, 2020, the Senate passed S.J. Res. 68. This resolution contains identical operative language to H. Con. Res. 83, directing the President to ``terminate'' the use of U.S. Armed Forces for hostilities against Iran. The very fact that S.J. Res. 68 was considered in the Senate on a privileged and expedited basis clarified that there are no magic words required for privilege under the War Powers Resolution, and that the use of ``terminate'' qualifies for such privilege. As a result, it is clear that H. Con. Res. 83 should have been accorded privileged status and, pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 1546(c), should have been reported out of committee and put up for a Senate vote. Fortunately, the Senate prerogatives under the War Powers Resolution were vindicated by the debate, privileged consideration, and vote on S.J. Res. 68. As such and in light of the identical purpose and operative texts of the Senate joint resolution and the House concurrent resolution, there is no need at this point for a second, identical debate to occur either in the committee or on the Senate floor. In other words, inaction on H. Con. Res. 83 is harmless. Both Chambers of Congress have made their views and the views of the American people with regard to U.S. hostilities against Iran quite clear. I hope President Trump and his national security staff abide by this message.

2020-01-06

Mr. MENENDEZ

Senate

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XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Levin of Michigan). 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 votes objected to under clause 6 of rule XX. The House will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Levin of Michigan)

House

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XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. Votes will be taken in the following order: Suspending the rules and: Agreeing to H. Res. 756; and Agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal. The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as 5-minute votes.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore

House

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XX

transphobic

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quigley). Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. The question is on the Speaker's approval of the Journal. This will be a 5-minute vote.

2020-01-06

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quigley)

House

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgH1578

formal

tax cut

racist

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on COVID, as our country continues to experience the spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, the effects are beginning to be more acutely felt. First and foremost, our hearts go out to the families of those who have lost loved ones during this illness. Second, our healthcare systems are under tremendous stress, businesses have been forced to cut back, and the virus is already starting to take a toll on the economy. As the impact of the coronavirus spreads, the administration appears to have shifted its focus, holding a press conference yesterday to talk about measures the administration might pursue to calm the markets. I would remind the White House: By far, the best way to ensure economic security for the American people is to deal directly with the coronavirus itself. Again, getting a handle on the crisis and addressing the virus itself is by far the best way to respond to any negative effects on our economy. The administration seems to believe that the answer to any problem is another tax cut. And no matter what they say about it when they put it together, it always seems to benefit the wealthy and the big and powerful corporations. This is a healthcare crisis; it demands a healthcare solution. To borrow an expression: You must treat the disease, not the symptoms. Mr. President, do you hear that? You must treat the disease--the coronavirus--not the symptom, which is the result of the coronavirus, which is the economy. The President wakes up to a problem only after it has an effect on Wall Street, and his solutions are often aimed, misguidedly, only at calming the nerves on Wall Street. The real answer in this case is to protect the American people, focus on their health and economic security, and competently respond to the public health crisis at our doorstep. Speaker Pelosi and I have mentioned several actions we could take, from paid sick leave for impacted workers to unemployment insurance, food and housing security, and protections against price gouging. But one thing the administration must focus on right now, above all, is fixing the problems we are having with testing. The most powerful tool in responding to a virus is to know precisely where it is and how it is spreading. Because the administration took weeks before they developed an accurate test and because the administration was slow to ramp up the number of Americans tested and is now having trouble turning around the results of those tests at a fast enough pace, we are now far behind where we ought to be in understanding how far the virus has already spread. The United States has the best hospitals, doctors, and scientists in the world. Yet, currently, we are lagging far behind other countries when it comes to testing our citizens. We are behind the United Kingdom, behind France, behind China, behind Switzerland, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, and Italy. Every day we read a new story in the press about Americans having difficulty getting a test for coronavirus even though they are displaying symptoms. Our own Health and Human Services was unable to say how many Americans have been tested. It is shocking; it is infuriating. If other countries can do this, why can't we? If other countries do it right, why can't we? South Korea, which has far more prevalent amounts of coronavirus, is already seeing the number of new reports go down because they have done extensive, thorough, and accurate testing. The result here--why we are not doing as well as other countries is a direct result of the colossal failure of leadership and planning from this administration and this President. One word describes the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus so far: ``Incompetence.'' I know there are hard-working CDC scientists and experts trying to help the American people. The political appointees are the ones who don't seem to get it and are putting politics over the safety and security of the American people. And it goes right to the top. In the midst of a public health crisis--a serious and dangerous public health crisis--the President has repeatedly pushed unscientific claims about the coronavirus, the availability of a vaccine, and given bad advice--bad advice--to Americans who might have symptoms. If the President would just keep quiet, it would be better than what he is doing, which is negative. What we really need is leadership. More than ever, we need the President to drop the conspiracy theories, end the Panglossian optimism, and the unscientific speculation. Now more than ever, we need President Trump to lead our government's response with competence and to be truthful with the American people. As I said yesterday, we are all rooting for that, but the President and his administration must take a hard look in the mirror, focus on the problem at hand, not the side effects, and get to work on fixing them.

2020-01-06

Mr. SCHUMER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1642-6

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, H.R. 1--this past Sunday marked one year since the House passed H.R. 1, the For the People Act. This bill takes urgent and long overdue steps to renew our democracy. It will reverse the corrupting effects of Citizens United. It will restore protections for voting. And it will take aim at Washington's culture of corruption, which has run rampant under this administration. It could not come at a better time. Every election, we see the sweeping power of big money. State legislatures have found new ways to deny Americans, often minorities, access to the ballot. Our adversaries--including the Russians--work day and night to influence our elections and sow confusion in the public sphere. H.R. 1 would forcefully and directly address each of these issues. But, like every other bill passed by the House over the past 2 years, it has been buried in Leader McConnell's legislative graveyard. We must move it. This bill is about making our democracy work and giving American citizens some faith in the future. Republicans, rather than working with Democrats to strengthen our democracy, have stood in the way. They have blocked election security legislation and sanctions to deter foreign adversaries from trying to interfere in our democracy. They have enabled President Trump's assault on the separation of powers through their silence on the President's many abuses of power. Even today, the Republicans are putting forward a nominee for the Federal Election Commission who expressed doubts regarding the benefits of even the most reasonable restrictions on campaign spending, including disclosure. When H.R. 1 first passed the House, Leader McConnell called this bill to restore voting rights and get money out of politics a ``terrible proposal'' and a ``power grab.'' If Leader McConnell thinks that getting big money out of politics is a terrible idea, if he truly believes making it easier for Americans to vote is a power grab by Democrats, then God help the Republican Party and God help this country. Democrats will not stop fighting for this bill, nor will we ever stop fighting to restore the democratic values that have guided our Nation for 2\1/2\ centuries. In the United States, each person's vote should have the same weight as everyone else's. That is a hallmark of our democracy. A fair and free election is the wellspring of our democracy. It is what Americans have died for in the battlefields around the world, what civil rights activists have marched for across the bridges and the generations. And though the Republican leader has been adamant in his opposition to this legislation, the American people, thank God, will have a chance this November to elect a new Senate that will move this country in a dramatically different direction. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

2020-01-06

Mr. SCHUMER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1643

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I rise in support of S. 1822, the Broadband DATA Act, and in a moment I will make a unanimous consent request with regard to that legislation. This bill will ensure that the FCC has the most accurate broadband coverage maps in the world today to deploy 5G networks. As you know, we were in a race to win that race globally, and I think we can still do it. In December, the Senate unanimously passed this measure, S. 1822, but because the House passed a slightly amended version last week, we need to act again to get this bill across the finish line. We have a digital divide in this country which threatens to leave rural America behind. We have done a lot to address that divide. However, an estimated 20 million Americans still lack access to broadband--Americans like those in Arizona or Mississippi or other States across our heartland. Every year, the FCC spends billions of dollars to promote deployment of broadband across the United States. S. 1822 will result in highly detailed and accurate maps so that the FCC can direct support to areas most in need. This legislation represents extensive negotiation and work on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, for which I congratulate this Senate. My hat is off to our colleagues in the other body and thanks to all the staff who have helped on both sides of the aisle. Madam President, I ask the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 1822. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 1822) entitled ``An act to require the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data with respect to the availability of broadband services and for other purposes.'', do pass with an amendment. Motion to Concur

2020-01-06

Mr. WICKER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1660-2

formal

based

white supremacist

Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to take a moment to recognize the brave and selfless individuals from the St. Michael's College Fire and Rescue Squad, based in Colchester, VT. These young men and women respond to emergencies on a moment's notice to help those in need--all while balancing the demands of their full college course load. St. Michael's College Fire and Rescue helps bring a greater degree of safety to residents in Chittenden County, and we are thankful for their efforts. Today, I would liketo commemorate their 50 years of service. St. Michael's Fire and Rescue Squad was founded in late 1969, after a local student died while waiting for emergency medical services to arrive. The community recognized that in order to prevent further tragedies of this nature, greater resources must be dedicated to emergency responders. Students rose to this challenge, and with the help of Donald ``Pappy'' Sutton, the former dean of students, they formed the squad. Despite starting out with only minimal equipment, this remarkable group now serves 385 square miles of Chittenden County, spanning their reach into surrounding towns and along 26 miles of Interstate 89. The territory covered far exceeds what we might expect from a group of college volunteers, but their capacity to serve only goes to show just how dedicated the St. Michael's Fire and Rescue team truly is. Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of this team is the fact that they are all between the ages of 18 and 22. The maturity and grace displayed by these young individuals while fulfilling their duties is nothing short of inspiring. These are people who, for some, have just left home for the first time and yet are successfully responding to crisis situations which would tax even the most experienced of us. These responders will sometimes be the first on the scene for a car crash, overdose, fire or medical emergency, and a split-second decision could make the difference between a life saved and a life lost. And we should not forget: these responders are all students managing their college classes in addition to volunteering. Emergencies give no credence to a student's sleep schedule; sometimes these students will get woken up in the late hours of the night or early hours of the morning to put out a fire, despite having class the following morning. Those who receive credit for their volunteer work are on call for 24 hours a week, taking turns sleeping in the designated volunteer bunks. The work done by the St. Michael's Fire and Rescue team is not always glamorous, but it has kept the community remarkably safer. On average, the squad responds to more than 3,000 calls each year--some just false alarms, others far more severe in nature. But what has remained consistent is the relief that these volunteers have offered to local emergency responders and the peace of mind they have bestowed upon our residents. By offering support to our hard-working first responders, they inevitably ensure that more Vermonters get the help they need in the nick of time. In the process, they have inspired other college campuses around the Nation to form their own volunteer response teams, who can then help their own communities in times of need. This is the type of bravery and selflessness that we are proud to see exemplified in our young citizens, and I am honored to have them recognized today.

2020-01-06

Mr. LEAHY

Senate

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formal

safeguard

transphobic

Mr. CRAMER. Madam President, I rise today to recognize the city of Minot. It has been 60 years since the U.S. Air Force and Minot began working together to establish the Minot Air Force Base in northwestern North Dakota. This was in the late 1950s, when Minot leaders stepped up to buy the land where the air base now stands. Throughout the ensuing decades of growth and change in the Minot community and the base itself, this cooperation has continued. This year, the Air Force Global Strike Command has recognized this solid partnership by awarding its Barksdale Trophy to the city of Minot. This honor is given to the community providing the most outstanding support to one of its bases. Minot Air Force Base's 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing support the Air Force Global Strike Command. The trophy is awarded by Shreveport and Bossier, LA, which are home to the command and the Barksdale Air Force Base. The Minot Area Chamber of Commerce submitted the city's nomination for this award and in it detailed many notable projects and partnerships over the years. This includes a community auction, which for 30 years has raised $800,000-plus for programs supporting the morale of those at the base. Another 30-year event is a Military Ball, bringing airmen and their spouses and area residents together for a special evening. A favorite holiday tradition is the thousands of home-baked cookies delivered to airmen who are spending their first year in Minot and are unable to be home for Christmas. Those stationed at the base and their families reciprocate by volunteering to help with Minot's many programs and annual events, including the North Dakota State Fair and the Norsk Hostfest. In North Dakota, we take pride in the two Air Force bases within our borders that help to safeguard world peace. The support we give to those who call North Dakota home while stationed at these bases is not done for recognition nor awards. Yet, receiving the Barksdale Trophy is a well-deserved nod to North Dakota's legendary hospitality and its steadfast support of the Minot Air Force Base. Mr. President, I congratulate the residents of the Minot area for being awarded this prestigious Barksdale Trophy. On behalf of all North Dakotans, I thank them for their support of our Nation's military and for welcoming those who are called to serve in this noble mission.

2020-01-06

Mr. CRAMER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1668-2

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

The following communications were laid before the Senate, together with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: EC-4237. A communication from the Director of the Regulatory Review Group, Commodity Credit Corporation, Department of Agriculture, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance Programs'' (RIN0560-AI50) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. EC-4238. A communication from the Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Department of Energy, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to a violation of the Antideficiency Act; to the Committee on Appropriations. EC-4239. A communication from the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment), transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Annual National Defense Stockpile Operations and Planning Report''; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4240. A communication from the Alternate Federal Register Liaison Officer, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Health Promotion'' (RIN0790-AK25) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Armed Services. EC-4241. A communication from the Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, transmitting a legislative proposal entitled ``The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Whistleblower Award Incentive Legislative Proposal''; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4242. A communication from the Senior Counsel, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, transmitting, pursuant to law, a policy statement entitled ``Responsible Business Conduct: Self-Assessing, Self-Reporting, Remediating, and Cooperating'' received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4243. A communication from the Acting General Counsel, National Credit Union Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Public Unit and Nonmember Shares'' (RIN3313-AF00) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4244. A communication from the Alternate Federal Register Liaison Officer, Office of the Secretary, Department of Defense, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Military Lending Act Limitations on Terms of Consumer Credit Extended to Service Members and Dependents'' (RIN0790-ZA14) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4245. A communication from the Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Exemptions From Investment Adviser Registration for Advisers to Certain Rural Business Investment Companies'' (RIN3235-AM68) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. EC-4246. A communication from the Secretary of Energy, transmitting a legislative proposal relative to the ``Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act of 1977 (as amended)''; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. EC-4247. A communication from the Secretary of Energy, transmitting a legislative proposal relative to the ``Energy Policy Act of 2005''; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. EC-4248. A communication from the Secretary of Energy, transmitting a legislative proposal relative to the ``Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)''; to the Committee on Finance. EC-4249. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act, the certification of a proposed license for the export of defense articles, including technical data and defense services, to Thailand to support the sale, delivery, operation, and maintenance for S-70i helicopters in the amount of $50,000,000 or more (Transmittal No. DDTC 19-039); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4250. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to sections 36(c) and (d) of the Arms Export Control Act, the certification of a proposed license for the manufacture of significant military equipment abroad and the export of defense articles, including technical data and defense services to Australia to support the design and manufacture of the Aerosonde Mk 4.7G unmanned aircraft system and associated equipment in the amount of $100,000,000 or more (Transmittal No. DDTC 19-043); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4251. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act, the certification of a proposed license amendment for the export of defense articles, including technical data and defense services, to the Republic of Singapore to support the maintenance, repair, and overhaul of F100 engines in the amount of $50,000,000 or more (Transmittal No. DDTC 19-084); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4252. A communication from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, transmitting, pursuant to section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act, the certification of a proposed license for the export of firearms abroad controlled under Category I of the U.S. Munitions Lists of 9mm semi-automatic pistols to Oman in the amount of $1,000,000 or more (Transmittal No. DDTC 19-057); to the Committee on Foreign Relations. EC-4253. A communication from the Inspector General, Railroad Retirement Board, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report entitled ``Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Justification''; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. EC-4254. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-219, ``Housing Conversion and Eviction Clarification Amendment Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4255. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-220, ``Tingey Square Designation Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4256. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-221, ``Alethia Tanner Park Designation Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4257. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-222, ``Accounting Clarification for Real Estate Professionals Amendment Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4258. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-223, ``Polystyrene Food Service Product and Packaging Prohibition Amendment Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4259. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-224, ``Abandonment of the Highway Plan for a Portion of 39th Street, N.W., S.O. 18-41885, Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4260. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-225, ``Abandonment of the Highway Plan for Eastern and Anacostia Avenues, N.E., S.O. 19-47912, Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4261. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-226, ``Urban Farming Land Lease Amendment Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4262. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-227, ``Student Access to Treatment Amendment Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4263. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-228, ``Closing a Portion of 4th Street, N.E., and a Public Alley in Square 3765, S.O. 18-41561, Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4264. A communication from the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report on D.C. Act 23-243, ``Direct Support Professional Payment Rate Act of 2020''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4265. A communication from the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Commission's fiscal year 2019 annual report; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4266. A communication from the Federal Co-Chair, Appalachian Regional Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Commission's Semiannual Report of the Inspector General for the period from April 1, 2019 through September 30, 2019; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4267. A communication from the Director of External Affairs, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Cost-of-Living Adjustments and Identity Verification'' (5 CFR Parts 1630, 1632, and 1650) received in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 9, 2020; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4268. A communication from the Chairman, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the Commission's fiscal year 2019 Buy American Act Report for the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC); to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. EC-4269. A communication from the Assistant Administrator of the Diversion Control Division, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of Solriamfetol in Schedule IV'' ((21 CFR Part 1308) (Docket No. DEA-504)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4270. A communication from the Assistant Administrator of the Diversion Control Division, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Additions to Listing of Exempt Chemical Mixtures'' ((RIN1117-ZA05) (Docket No. DEA-505F)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4271. A communication from the Assistant Administrator of the Diversion Control Division, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of Lasmiditan in Schedule V'' ((21 CFR Part 1308) (Docket No. DEA-558)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4272. A communication from the Director, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, transmitting, pursuant to law, two reports entitled ``2019 Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts'' and ``Judicial Business of the United States Courts'', and their accompanying Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); to the Committee on the Judiciary. EC-4273. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendment of the Class E Airspace; Rifle, Colorado'' ((RIN2120-AA66) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0328)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4274. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendment of the Class E Airspace; Gunnison, Colorado'' ((RIN2120-AA66) (Docket No . FAA-2019- 0341)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4275. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendment of the Class E Airspace; Missoula, Montana'' ((RIN2120-AA66) (Docket No. FAA-2019- 0761)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4276. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Amendment of the Class E Airspace; Astoria, Oregon'' ((RIN2120-AA66) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0315)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4277. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019- 0871)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4278. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Dassault Aviation Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0868)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4279. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0526)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4280. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Dassault Aviation Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0872)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4281. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier, Inc., Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0877)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4282. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0727)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4283. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0016)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4284. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Defense and Space S.A. (Formerly Known as Construcciones Aeronauticas, S.A.) Airplanes'' ((RIN2120-AA64) (Docket No. FAA-2019-0869)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4285. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Standard Instrument Approach Procedures; Miscellaneous Amendments (40); Amendment No. 3893'' ((RIN2120-AA65) (Docket No. 31298)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4286. A communication from the Management and Program Analyst, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Standard Instrument Approach Procedures; Miscellaneous Amendments (61); Amendment No. 3894'' ((RIN2120-AA65) (Docket No. 31299)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4287. A communication from the Deputy Chief, Office of Economics and Analytics, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Auction of Priority Access Licenses for the 3550-3650 MHz Band; Notice and Filing Requirements, Minimum Opening Bids, Upfront Payments, and Other Procedures for Auction 105; Bidding in Auction 105 Scheduled to Begin June 25, 2020'' ((AU Docket No. 19-244) (FCC 20-18)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. EC-4288. A communication from the Associate Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Expanding Flexible Use of the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz Band'' ((GN Docket No. 18-122) (FCC 20-22)) received during adjournment of the Senate in the Office of the President of the Senate on March 6, 2020; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

2020-01-06

Unknown

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1669-8

formal

the Fed

antisemitic

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I have 7 requests for committees to meetduring 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: Committee on Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Matthew P. Donovan, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, and William Jordan Gillis, of Georgia, and Victor G. Mercado, of California, both to be an Assistant Secretary, all of the Department of Defense. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Rules and Administration The Committee on Rules and Administration is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 11 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nomination: James E. Trainor III, of Texas, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission. Select Committee on Intelligence The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a closed roundtables. Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights The Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Subcommittee on Intellectual Property The Subcommittee on Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 2:15 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

2020-01-06

Mr. ALEXANDER

Senate

CREC-2020-03-10-pt1-PgS1674-3