Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20240713

Floor on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, from the rising of the sun until its setting, you remain the same. We find solace in your changeless faithfulness; your mercies sustain us each hour. Lord, do not keep silent as our lawmakers grapple with the great issues of our time. Reveal your purposes to them, guiding them on the paths of courage and obedience. Lord, remind them that you appointed them to their work, and they are accountable to you. May they not forget that you are the supreme judge of the universe in whose presence humanity must one day stand. We pray in your holy name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask to speak in morning business for one minute. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley as democrats in the house of representatives work to pass Speaker Pelosis Prescription Drug bill, i remind my colleagues that for any bill to become law, it must be bipartisan and President Trump must be able to sign it. Unlike current house efforts, the grassleywyden Prescription Drug pricing reduction act fits the bill. Its bipartisan, and President Trump has endorsed it. My republican colleagues in the house recently pointed to it in other words, the grassleywyden bill during an energy and Commerce Committee hearing as the only path forward to lower Prescription Drug prices. I welcome this support from republicans in the house of representatives. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell this week will provide an opportunity for our democratic colleagues to prove that their longstanding goal of impeaching the president is not, not getting in the way of their ability to legislate. The speaker of the house and the democratic leader have taken pains to insist that their partys impeachment obsession will not block important business for the American People. Well, were going to find out. As soon as the senate completes the domestic funding legislation were currently considering, well turn back to our National Defense and give Senate Democrats another chance to advance the funding for our armed forces which they chose to filibuster just last month. In other words, this week will bring a litmus test for washington democrats so consumed by impeachment that they cannot even fund our men and women in uniform. Do our Service Members really need to be pawns in the democrats fight with the white house . Its hard to imagine a more basic legislative responsibility than funding the department of defense. We need to fund the tools and training that our men and women in uniform need to carry out their missions. We need to give our military commanders the resources to keep pace with major competitors like china, which has nearly doubled its military spending over the past decade. In recent days our democrat colleagues have publicly railed against the administrations approach to syria and the middle east without, i would note, offering much of a strategy of their own. But if they vote to block defense funding later this week, they will literally be obstructing the very funding to carry out the missions they say are so important. The last few days have shown especially clearly that American Forces remain in harms way every day and their missions do not pause just because some politicians dont find it convenient to fund them. We owe the pentagon the budgetary certainty it needs to maintain the readiness of our military forces and invest in the capabilities needed to sustain our military edge into the future. We also need to be good, reliable partners to our friends and allies. So get this, madam president. This appropriations bill would fund 250 million in military assistance for ukraine under the Ukraine Security assistance initiative. If that sounds familiar, that would be the exact same program that democrats are currently trying to impeach the president for allegedly slowwalking. So welcome to washington, where democrats try to impeach President Trump for supposedly slowwalking aid for ukraine and simultaneously filibuster the funding for the exact same Ukraine Program here in the senate. Welcome to washington. I think its safe to say that would elevate irony to a whole new art form. I hope it doesnt come to that. I hope instead that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will land on the same side when it comes to support for the men and women who keep us safe and for our vulnerable International Partners who look to us for leadership. On another matter, this week we will vote on another effort by our democratic colleagues to undo successful Trump Administration policy. In recent days our colleagues across the aisle have forced two failed votes on similar resolutions. One would have cut taxes for the wealthiest residents of blue states at the expense of working families everywhere else. The other would have resurrected an obamaera proposal to bury American Energy under red tape. Both those efforts failed, but our democratic colleagues are back at it, back at it with another bad policy. This time theyd like to reverse Trump Administration guidance that has reduced Health Care Premiums for American Families and reaffirm protections for those with preexisting conditions. So, madam president , section 1332 of obamacare gives states the opportunity to escape some of that laws worst burdens. States have the opportunity to apply for waivers that allow for more types of Health Insurance plans and more options for consumers. More than a dozen states have had these waivers approved. Not just red states. Democratic governors in places like colorado, delaware, and rhode island have applied for and received these waivers. Where governors of both parties are embracing this opportunity, good things are happening. According to one analysis, the seven states where new waivers were implemented during the Trump Administration have seen premiums decline, decline by 7. 5 . The Trump Administration guidance continues this success and gives states even more of what they asked for, even more flexibility to escape obamacares burdens, more choices for consumers and lower premiums. But apparently our democratic colleagues are not terribly fond of letting states shake off the unhelpful strictures of obamacare. Perhaps it makes their signature law look bad that governors of both parties are eager to escape from it. But that cant be their public argument. So in their effort to reduce this flexibility some democrats are rehashing tired old claims about a conspiracy to hurt americans with preexisting conditions. Republicans have been clear and weve been consistent. We support protections for americans with preexisting conditions. The c. M. S. Administrator has specifically stated that, quote, a section 1332 waiver cannot, cannot undermine coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Thats the head of c. M. S. In fact, it is this Trump Administration policy that will help American Families, including those with preexisting conditions, by helping to bring down the soaring premiums and restore the dwindling options that obamacares failures have brought about. So i would urge the senate to reject this misguided resolution. We dont need Health Care Policy from the supporters of medicare for none. Democrats grand scheme to take away the Health Insurance plans of 180 million americans, and replace it with onesizefitsall government plans. Americans deserve more say, not less. On one final matter, when i joined President Trump last year as he signed the farm bill, we marked a new chapter for an historic american crop. In a victory for growers, processors and manufacturers across the country, especially in my state of kentucky, the initiative for full hemp legalization became law. Now this morning the u. S. Department of agriculture plans to take the important next step. Secretary perdue will release a new usda legislation to implement my initiative and move hemp closer to being treated like every other commodity. This will help farmers around the country continue pioneering this crop into the 21st century. And im proud to say kentucky is prepared to take the lead. For generations our growers and producers have made the bluegrass state an agricultural powerhouse, well positioned at the forefront of hemps resurgence. Following the downturn in tobacco, it was my tobacco buyout legislation that helped farmers transition toward new opportunities and a growing number are looking to this past crop, one grown by washington, jefferson, and henry clay, as they plan for the future. As the buyout payments came to an end, i secured the creation of hemp pilot projects programs in the 2014 farm bill, empowering farmers and researchers to begin a multiyear experiment with hemps capabilities. Thanks to leaders like agriculture commissioner ryan quarles and james comer, kentucky was leading the charge. The results were clear, the Pilot Program is working so we knew the 2018 farm bill had to take the next step. Im grateful to Agriculture Committee chairman pat roberts who included my Hemp Initiative in the bill that is now law. Id also like to thank the many members on both sides of the aisle, including senator ron wyden, who helped in the effort as well. My hemp provisions in the farm bill directed usda to craft a new Regulatory Framework so hemp could be cultivated nationwide. And with each state given the opportunity to develop its own plan for hemp oversight. Im grateful secretary purdue accepted my invasion for the Kentucky Hemp tour so he could see our progress up close and learn from Kentucky Hemp farmers and regulators as usda developed its policies. This year alone hemp is growing on more than 26,000 acres in kentucky, across 101 of our 120 counties. It supports hundreds of jobs and tens of millions in sales. So impressed upon usda the need to finalize this framework before the 2020 growing season and id like to thank secretary purdue and the usda for fulfilling this commitment with the anathema were expected later this morning. I look forward to reviewing usdas guidelines and hearing from hemp stakeholders around the country. Our work to support the future of hemp is hardly over. There are ongoing conversations with the f. D. A. On c. B. D. Products, ongoing work to help growers and retailers to access credit and financial products. There will inevitably be ups and downs as this new industry develops. But todays announcement is another crucial step. So its a privilege for me to stand with kentucky farmers every step of the way. Together well continue charting hemps course well into the future. The presiding officer leadershi p time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of h. R. 3055, which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 141, h. R. 3055, an act making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice, science and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes. The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer no, were not. Mr. Durbin thank you. Madam president , i want to comment on an incident that occurred late last week on the floor of the senate regarding temporary protected status, known as t. P. S. , for people from the country of venezuela. T. P. S. Can be provided by the president to nationals of a country when that countrys experiencing violence or a catastrophe that makes returning to the country unsafe. This is a protection offered by america under many different administrations to help those who might be in the United States when a calamity occurs in their home countries. It has often been granted for countries suffering outbreaks of war or natural disaster, which leads me to the issue of venezuela. Currently, the United States is working with regional partners to foster an end to the disastrous dictatorial regime still clinging to power in venezuela. I was there last year. I saw what was heart breaking heartbreaking, considering that this was once a proud latin american democracy. People are literally starving in venezuela. They faint in the workplace from lack of nutrition. Hospitals dont have electric power or the most basic medicines. I visited a Childrens Hospital in caracas and they told me they didnt have any antibiotics or the basic cancer drugs necessary for the children who came to their hospital. Millions are fleeing venezuela as refugees into neighboring countries. There is brutal political repression. Opposing dictator maduro is a virtual guarantee of house arrest or worse. Staggering government corruption and a systematic dismantling of that countrys democracy are taking place on a regular basis and resulted in Election Results which were incredible and not believed by anyone in the region when they were announced a few months back. I have been supportive of this administrations efforts to work with other nations to support the interim presidency of juan guaido and provide assistance to millions of fleeing venezuelans, and although i fear this issue has escaped President Trumps attention, one simple step that he can take is to grant temporary protected status to venezuelans currently in the United States. Some are here as students. Others are here on work visas, but they are on temporary status. What im asking the president to do is to give them temporary protected status so that they wouldnt have to return to venezuela while the danger still lurks. Despite repeated requests by myself and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, President Trump has repeatedly refused. He goes to audiences in florida and talks about confronting the venezuelan dictatorship. Then it he turns around and refuses to give protection to the venezuelans in the United States who need this protection. Ironically while the president s department of state has issued travel warnings advising americans not to visit venezuela because of the danger, this president still wont protect venezuelans within the United States who are afraid to return. I have met many such venezuelans in my home state of illinois, and i can tell you they are desperately worried about returning to the chaos, violence, and hopelessness of the current venezuela. Since the white house refuses to act, the house of representatives passed a bipartisan bill granting temporary protected status to venezuelans this last july by a 272158 margin. Senator bob menendez of new jersey, marco rubio of florida and i have introduced a Similar Senate bill, but the majority leader mcconnell refuses to bring up any bill that might not meet the approval of president donald trump, even a bill offered by leaders in his own political party. Senator menendez and i have tried to call up the house bill for passage only to face objection repeatedly from Senate Republicans. Last week, to deflect blame from President Trump and the Senate Republicans who object to our bill, the junior senator from florida came to the floor with his own approach. He blocked the bipartisan house venezuela t. P. S. Bill from passing and offered a dubious amendment undermining t. P. S. For others as the price for helping the venezuelans. In other words, he said well, perhaps we could help venezuelans as long as its at the expense of others who are in similar status from other countries. His proposal would, in fact, significantly weaken the entire temporary protected status program. For example, his proposal would require congressional approval of any extension of t. P. S. Beyond the original period, and it would limit such extension to an arbitrary 18month period. Ultimately, the junior senator from floridas proposal is using the plight of venezuelans to basically gut the existing temporary protected status program. Weve seen folks on the other side of the aisle resort to this when it came to daca. Republicans in the senate trying to use a vulnerable population such as the young people who were raised here in the United States and want a chance to work their way to citizenship, to use those vulnerable populations as bargaining chips for an antiimmigrant agenda. Once again, these members are simply refusing to stand up to the president when he fails on these issues. The solution indeed is simple. This administration should grant temporary protected status on its own to the venezuelans, but it refuses. Senate republicans could pass the bipartisan house bill to grant venezuelans temporary protected status, but the Senate Republicans refuse. So let everyone be clear where the real failure to help venezuelans actually rests. Madam president , later today, at the request of the republicans on the senate side, ill be making a unanimous consent request relative to the Health Care Issue which was raised by senator mcconnell earlier. Im told they are not quite ready this morning, so i am going to defer that offer until later in the day when they will be ready and we can have a colloquy on the floor of the United States senate. Madam president , i yield the floor. Mr. Schumer mr. President. Madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer were not in a quorum. Mr. Schumer thank you. Madam president , the republican leader has been falsely accusing democrats of delaying the overall process. He just seems to be in a box and pulls things out of thin air. The crux of the issue, as everybody knows, is that the Republican Leadership in the senate and on the Appropriations Committee has refused to sit down and negotiate with democrats on bipartisan allocations to the various agencies. This has this is always how we have done the Appropriations Bills when we have succeeded. Democrats and republicans sit down together and negotiate the 302as and bs, but here the republicans without consultation of the democrats just unilateral ly propose taking over 12 billion from Critical Health programs and military families to pay for the president s border wall, a wall that President Trump promised mexico would pay for. Democrats, of course, are not going to proceed to a defense bill that steals from our troops to pay for a border wall the American People dont want and arent supposed to pay for, but in this republican hall of mirrors, that means democrats are delaying a pay raise for our troops, quoteunquote, as the leader charged yesterday, even though thats not true, and i believe that he knows very well well i believe he knows very well that the pay raise is strongly bipartisan. The truth is simple. As the leader knows, the annual pay raise will go into effect regardless of whether we pass defense appropriations or the ndaa. In fact, the department of defense just confirmed to the Senate Democratic appropriators yesterday that the pay raise for our troops will take effect on january 1 without requiring any further legislation. The troops and their families will see a 3. 1 pay raise in january. I know that the president ties the majority leader in a box, in a knot, and he sort of flails around and doesnt know how to get out of it because hes afraid to tell President Trump what hes doing wont pass. But instead he blames democrats. That seems to be his wont these days, but its totally false. Not according to just me but according to the department of defense. And then he even went a step further. In the republican hall of mirrors, democrats might even, quote, be delaying military assistance for ukraine. Can you believe this, that the majority leader would Say Something like this . The comments laughable. It was the Trump Administration that delayed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of alreadyappropriated urgently needed military assistance to ukraine earlier this year, a fact now being investigated by the house impeachment inquiry. The fact of the matter is the only purported delay in the appropriations process is republicans insisting on taking our money, our military taking money from our military to spend on a border wall, something democrats wont countenance. Thats it. If the republican appropriators drop that request and sat down with democrats to negotiate a bipartisan way forward, which is the only way appropriations can proceed, im sure we could line up the rest of the bills through the year. So lets cut the nonsense. Leader mcconnell, have the honor and decency and courage to tell President Trump hes going to accept the whole process again just as he did last time. We can roll up our sleeves and get to work if you do just that. Were already working on the noncontroversial bills, and we could do it for the rest if and when our republican friends decide to meet us halfway. Now, on health care. Tomorrow, Senate Democrats will use a provision of the Congressional Review Act to force a vote on one of the most crucial policy questions we have faced all session, the future of Health Care Protections for americans with preexisting conditions. The Trump Administration has tried several different ways to undermine the protections and sabotage our health care system. One of the most damaging efforts is this rule that gives states the green light to help to push junk Health Insurance plans. These plans are hardly worth the paper they are printed on. Many dont cover maternity care, Prescription Drugs, Mental Health or other services and they could have a way to work around your treatment. Imagine sign up for one of these plans and discover that your childs heart condition or cancer or lifesaving Prescription Drugs werent covered when you needed it most. That shouldnt be allowed to happen. Republicans and this administration are trying to allow it to happen. As you can imagine, Many Insurance Companies love the idea, data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows that the Top Three Companies that issue these junk plans spend barely 40 on premiums. Just think about that, republicans want to use taxpayer dollars to fund these junk plans. Is that money going towards paying for Peoples Health care . No. Its going to pad Insurance Company profits. Tomorrow the senate will face a simple choice on whether or not to defend protections for americans with preexisting conditions. My republican friends can either stand with the Trump Administration and use taxpayer dollars to pad profits for Insurance Companies or stand up for American Families who struggle to afford health care. Finally, on climate. Last week i announced a bold new plan to rapidly phase out gaspowered vehicles for clean vehicles. We need a plan of this scale and ambition to reduce one of the largest drivers of carbon emissions, transportation, while at the same time creating tens of thousands of new jobs and reinvigorating American Auto manufacturing. Predictably, the deeppocketed special interests in oil and gas are already lining up to oppose this plan of over the years, big oil and big gas has spent millions of dollars in lobbying to kill climatefriendly legislation and protect their bottom lines. A headline read yesterday announcing, quote, big oil gears up to fight schumer electric vehicle plan. Well, i have three words for big oil bring it on. Bring it on because this fight is too important. Climate change is happening right now and its rutting in more severe resulting in more severe weather, sealevel rise and changes to our agriculture. As we speak, california is suffering from some of the worst wildfires it has ever seen. Scientists tell us if we do not take drastic action to alter our current path, we will not be able to avoid the most damaging consequences of climate change. Bring it on because this plan is supported not only by the Environmental Community and Climate Action groups, but by labor unions like the u. A. W. , and the whole aflcio and auto may like ford and g. M. They all know that future is moving towards clean cars and we ought to get there before china and create tens of thousands of new goodpaying jobs right here in the u. S. Bring it on. If the special interest of big oil and gas want to oppose goodpaying jobs for american workers, if they want to oppose america leading the world in the industries of the future, if they want to oppose protecting our planet for our children and grant children grandchildren, they are on the wrong side of history and we will fight them every single step of the way. I yield the floor. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call ms. Collins madam president. The presiding officer the senator from maine. Ms. Collins madam president , i ask that proceedings under the call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Collins madam president , im delighted that the senate is taking up four very important Appropriations Bills. One of them i discussed at length last week. That is the transportation and h. U. D. Appropriations bill, which i authored along with my Ranking Member senator jack reed of rhode island. In forging that bill, we gathered information from 75 of our fellow senators who had 950 requests. We went through each of the requests very carefully, and we have built a bill that is truly bipartisan, that reflects the priorities of this body, and that i trust will be approved as part of this package later this week. I also want to take the opportunity today, as im managing the four bills, in the unavoidable absence of the full committee chairman, senator shelby, to talk about some of the other Appropriations Bills that have been brought before us. As the presiding officer is well aware, the Appropriations Committee is a committee that makes a real effort to Work Together to put aside petty partisanship, and instead listen to one another and work for the common good. We make an extraordinary effort to find common ground. How i wish that that could be done throughout washington today. But the Appropriations Committee remains a bastion of common sense, of collegiality, and of working together to seek common ground. And thats why weve had such success in reporting so many of the Appropriations Bills. Im very proud that the thud bill, as we call the transportation and housing bill, was one of those that was reported unanimously by a vote of 310. For the next few moments i would like to talk about another bill that had unanimous support on the committee, and that is the c. J. S. Appropriations bill, commerce, justice, and state. Let me begin by acknowledging the hard work of the chairman, senator moran, and the Ranking Member, senator shaheen, for their work in balancing the many priorities that are included in this bill. Once again we saw the chairman and the Ranking Member working together as a team in a bipartisan, indeed a nonpartisan way in order to find common ground. Id like to comment on a few of the provisions of the bill that i think are particularly important. First, im encouraged that the bill continues to provide strong support for the National Sea Grant College Program despite the administrations desire to eliminate this program. The committee actually provided an increase of 7 million over last years funding level. The university of Maine Sea Grant Program is a National Leader in ocean research, an issue that i know is very important to the presiding officer from florida as well. Within the Sea Grant Program, there is there is 2 million for critical Lobster Research building on the 2 million that was included last year. The Sea Grant Program recently announced seven Research Awards supported by this funding for which were awarded to maine entities in recognition of their extraordinary expertise and research. This investments will help us to better understand how the lobster stock is reacting to changing environmental conditions and ensure that this iconic industry, indeed one of the very symbols of the state of maine, continues to thrive. The problem is that were seeing increasing warming of the gulf of maine. In fact, it is warming the second fastest of any body of water in the world, mr. President. And that has brought new kinds of sea r sea life. For example, an invasive green crab that never existed in maine waters. So were watching the impact very carefully and particularly on our lobster industry. Im also glad that the bill prioritizes the development of technologies to better track the white whale population. The number of white whales is problematic. While it is not as low as it was a few years ago, it is still troublesome that the population continues to be under stress. The noaa fisheries has targeted the Maine Lobster industry with potentially very onerous white whale regulations despite the governments inability to adequately monitor the movement of these whales. Mr. President , we must better understand where the whales are and where they are not. And this, too, is important in terms of our warming waters. The major food supply for the white whales has moved to the north, towards canada, and thats why the entanglements that weve seen, which we all deplore, have involved canadian gear. And i think that is very important to recognize. There have also been some canadian ship strikes. Mr. President , our lobster men and women have been such careful stewards of the resource, and that has been true for generations. Lobstering is often a family business, passed on from generation to generation. The lobster men and women of maine care deeply about our lobster stocks and about ensuring that lobsters are there for generations to come, and they have been extraordinary conservationists. They invented the v notching of lobsters, the sizing to make sure that lobsters that are big and breeders are tossed overboard or those that are too small are returned to the water. Unfortunately, our canadian counterparts often do not follow those same cooperative conservation measures. And there is an area off the coast of maine that is known as the gay zone where it is in dispute whose waters, whether its the United States or canada, the gray zone is. And what we find is well find american and canadian lobstermen both in that area or close by, and our lobster men and women following strict conservation methods such as throwing back the lobsters that are too small or the big breeder lobsters, only to see their canadian counterparts keep those lobsters, and in some cases, they are undoubtedly the very lobsters that have been thrown back into the sea by our lobster men and women. So those conflicting conservation methods between american and canadian fisheries have caused fishermen to grow increasingly concerned that their canadian counterparts are threatening the sustainability of critical fishing stocks, as well as that fragile right whale population. So the bill that has been reported by the Appropriations Committee encourages noaa to work cooperatively with state and national and canadian fisheries officials on these important issues. I also want to express my thanks to the subcommittee for rejecting the president s proposed elimination of the Economic Development administration known as the e. D. A. , and instead providing a reasonable increase. The investments made through the e. D. A. Provide vital Financial Support for rural mainers to boost Economic Growth and create more jobs. It has been an essential partner with states, local governments, with the private sector in boosting areas of maines economy. The bill also focuses attention on an issue that i know the presiding officers very aware of because of his membership on the aging committee, which im privileged to chair, and that is the serious problem of financial fraud directed at our seniors. The g. A. O. A few years ago estimated that our seniors lose nearly 3 billion a year to financial fraud. I think thats just the tip of the iceberg, because many seniors are too embarrassed to report the fraud that they had suffered. It is important, it is vital that the Justice Department continue to fight financial fraud, and im delighted that the former attorney general Jeff Sessions implemented my recommendation that every u. S. Attorneys office should have designated a financial Fraud Attorney who can bring cases and help to protect our seniors. We need to aggressively prosecute illegal robocallers and increase efforts to collect unpaid fines and penalties imposed on them by federal agencies. Its only a its only a National Effort that can go after a call center that is located in india, for example, as some of them have been. And while to the Justice Department the individual amounts may seem small, they are devastating to a senior who has worked hard to save money for their retirement years. In addition, when you aggregate all those losses, they result in literally billions of dollars. The bill also provides increased investments to Law Enforcement at all levels, partnerships that are especially critical to preventing the heroin and Opioid Epidemic that plagues my state of maine and many others. Naming just a few, the comprehensive opioid abusive program and the drug and veterans treatment courts are essential to the multifaceted approach it will take to stem this epidemic. I appreciate that the subcommittee has once again rejected cuts to the cops antiheroin task force, a program that has helped maines Drug Enforcement agency target illegal opioid sales. I want to finally highlight the increased funding for the byrne, jag, and cups hiring programs and for the regional information sharing systems known as risk. Mr. President , many of maines sheriffs have come and talked to me about the importance of the risk program. It supports a cooperative effort of information sharing to fight crimes at all levels and has been particularly useful to maines rural counties. There are also important investments supporting the First Step Act which we passed late last year. It will help implement the goals of the new law and particularly with respect to rehabilitative programs at the bureau of prisons. We need to make sure that those who are being released from our jails and prisons have the skills and tools that they need to pursue a lawful life and not resort to their previous habits that landed them in jail. Thats why the educational and job Training Programs that we have in maine and elsewhere are so important and will be expanded by this bill. Mr. President , those are just a few of the terrific provisions that are in the c. J. S. Appropriations bill, and again i want to commend the chairman, the regular member, and the entire Appropriations Committee for their hard work. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. Thune mr. President , before i begin, i want to say i was very sad to hear of the death of former senator kay hagan yesterday. Kay represented the state of North Carolina here in the United States senate. She was a very dedicated public servant, i think someone that all of us here who were here at the time enjoyed working with and always was a very bright presence, and as i said tremendously dedicated to the people that she represented and the issues that she cared so deeply about. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family today, and just ask that all members here continue to lift her family up. Mr. President , i want to also congratulate the senator from maine on the work that she is doing in the appropriations process as its moving forward. She shares a very important subcommittee on the Appropriations Committee and also is involved in so many other issues. One thing when she was speaking, i certainly wanted to mention was just the work that she does to protect seniors across this country. A very vulnerable population, vulnerable to the fraud attempts made by bad actors out there. She mentioned robocalls. She has been a leader on the legislation to try and ban the types of robocalls that prey on our Senior Citizens and lead to all that fraud that happened, that billions of dollars that she referenced every single year. Its so important because there are so many perpetrators of schemes out there that are designed to prey on and take advantage of those populations in our country, particularly our elderly that are susceptible to that. And so i want to thank her for her leadership on that as well as many other issues that are involved in the appropriations bill that she mentioned earlier. Mr. President , later this week, were going to vote on a democrat resolution to repeal guidance the president issued to give states more flexibility to design insurance plans that meet the needs of their residents. Democrats have tried to portray this resolution as a move to protect people with preexisting conditions. That was just a smoke screen. Democrats know very well republicans are committed to protecting those with preexisting conditions. In reality, this is just another political messaging bill. Its also another attempt by democrats to maximize washington control of Americans Health care. In keeping with their push toward socialism, democrats want to make very sure that states dont have the chance to escape from any of obamacares bureaucracy. But let me back up for a minute and talk about the waivers and the guidance from the president that the democrats are attacking. Section 1332 of the Affordable Care act, the law that democrats enacted on a completely partisan basis, allows states to apply for waivers from certain obamacare requirements. The requirements that can and cannot be waived are the same today as they were the day obamacare passed. Let me repeat that, mr. President. The obamacare requirements that can or cannot be waived are the same today as they were the day that obamacare passed. The 2018 guidance from the white house did not change anything about what requirements can and cannot be waived under section 1332. Mr. President , let me be very clear. 1332 waivers do not allow states to waive obamacares preexisting condition protections. They do not allow health plans to utilize preexisting condition coverage exclusions. They do not allow health plans to refuse coverage for people with preexisting conditions. And they do not allow plans to charge individuals more based on a preexisting health condition. So what do 1332 waivers do . The waivers give states the opportunity to take action to stabilize Insurance Markets and try out new ways of providing coverage to individuals who might not otherwise be able to afford insurance. My colleagues across the aisle would have the American Public believe that these waivers will, and i quote, allow states to greenlight substandard junk insurance plans, end quote. Well, let me remind my colleagues that these plans that they deride as junk plans are the very same shortterm limited duration plans that were permitted in seven out of the eight years of the Obama Administration. Another refrain that we will hear from my democrat colleagues is that the administrations guidance will permit states to waive essential health benefits, what we call e. H. B. s. I want to remind them that the Affordable Care act itself permits the waiving of e. H. B. s by states. The Trump Administration guidance does not change this. So, again, while democrats would have people believe that democrats are destroying essential health benefits, states can already choose to waive them. And have not to date. Most of the states that applied for waivers wanted to use them for reinsurance programs to drive down premiums. Waivers give states some relief from obamacares onesizefits all to drive down prices and help individuals afford care. Its about choice. Its about empowering americans to decide what type of coverage meets their needs. Mr. President , we might not be having this conversation today if obamacare had lived up to the rosy promises that were made when it was passed. But i dont have to tell anyone that it dont come anywhere close to living up to those promises. Obamacare was supposed to give americans who didnt have something s. To health care Affordable Care while allowing those who had plans as everyone knows what actually happened was different. Millions of americans lost their plans. Health insurance premiums went up, not down. And premiums and out of pocket costs on the exchanges were unaffordable for many people from the very first day. The average montly monthly premium for a family plan on the exchanges has increased by 742 over the past two years. 742, mr. President , that is close to the average mortgage payment in my state of south dakota. So its not surprising that states would be looking for ways to help families afford care through these 1332 waivers. And waivers, are, in fact, helping to lower premiums. Seven states that received waivers saw average premiums for a benchmark silver plan drop by 7. 5 from 2018 to 2019. States are using these 1332 waivers to make health care more affordable and obamacare premiums less burdensome. They are not i repeat, they are not using the waivers to do anything to undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions, something, that as i said earlier, they couldnt legally do anyway. Its worth noting, mr. President , more than one state with a democrat governor not republican governor, democrat governor has applied for a 1332 waiver this year. Are democrat senators here suggesting that these governors want to undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions . I dont think so. Mr. President , numerous americans are struggling to afford their obamacare premiums and many others have been priced out of the obamacare market all together. It only makes sense to give states as much flexibility as possible to address obamacares problems and expand insurance access for their residents. But democrats are so set on maximizing washingtons control of Americans Health care that they are opposed it to determine any obamacare flexibility even if that flexibility is resulting in lower premiums for the American People. Mr. President , todays resolution is just another example of democrats prioritizing their political ideology over the welfare of the American People, and i hope that it will be defeated. Mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Portman mr. President , i appreciate my colleague from south dakota talking about this issue before us this week, which is these 1332 waivers, and hes absolutely right, millions of americans are getting lessexpensive health care. Isnt that the whole idea here, that Health Care Needs to be affordable, you need to have goodquality health care, and there is nothing in these waivers by the way many of which are going to states that have a democrat governor, but theres nothing in these waivers to prevent people getting coverage with preexisting conditions. In fact, that is the law of the land so these 1332 waivers cannot take rights away from people with health care. I think this is the sort of thing we ought to support in this chamber, which is more Affordable Health care and health care for people who otherwise couldnt afford it. My colleague is on the floor, senator collins from maine, it was discussed earlier we are actually legislating today. I think that is great because we are passing spending bills. The senate will pass four different spending bills, and she is managing all four of them. These are bipartisan bills that will pass in this chamber and go over to the house an conference with the five bills they have passed. It is not that far apart as far as money they have in the 302b category. We will hopefully get it over to the president to sign. Her bill, senator collins bill, is the transportation bill. That is particularly important to my state of ohio, and others states and other states that are needing infrastructure. She deals with bridges that need to be replaced, that are obsolete, many are dangerous. We have one in ohio which is not only obsolete but it lass no shoulder anymore because it keeps having to be widened to accommodate the traffic and it makes it very dangerous, and weve been trying for years to get the funding into that. Well, this bill has some funding that will help with regard to these kinds of bridges that have heavy traffic that are unsafe. Lets get to this. This is infrastructure. It is something that we should agree upon good for republicans and democrats. Im here, mr. President to talk today about the historic Workforce Needs we have in this country, and if we to the right things to respond to it, the historic opportunity we have to bring people out of the shadows and into work by providing them the skills they need to able to access the jobs that are out there. Pro growth federal policies, including the tax reform we passed here, tax cuts, regulatory relief, and opening up more energy resources, all of that is helping to boost jobs and grow our economy. The most recent data shows the economy grew by a healthy 6. 2 and unemployment is down to 3. 5 . Thats the lowest it has been in 50 years. So the economy is moving, and so me, what is most exciting is were seeing solid wage growth for the first time in years. So nonsupervisory employees, including bluecollar workers has seen over the past couple of years about a 6 increase in their wages. Thats about 1. 30 per hour. Think about that, after a decade, really in my home state, a decade and a half of flat wages, wages that didnt keep up with inflation, we are seeing real wage growth. Over two years, 6 , 1. 30 an hour, that means something to the people i represent. But it is also compounded year after year if we continue with this. This is great news for the people i represent. They have been frustrated. They work hard, they play by the rules, they do the right thing and they cant get ahead and now they are starting to get ahead and thats good. I hear from Small Business owners in ohio, theyve been able to do a lot with the tax cuts by creating new jobs. Everybody has. I met with dozens of businesses around our state, had roundtable discussions and asked what happened with the tax relief and where its going and its going to better equipment, better technology. Its going to higher wages, Better Benefits for workers. So for the past 18 months, we have now seen more job openings in america than there are people looking for work. Think about that. For the past 18 months consistently every month weve had more job openings out there than there are people looking for work. No time in this century has that happened. So this is this is precedent setting, and its a good thing. And its all good news. But its not the whole story. Part of the story is that were still seeing a lot of individuals who are missing the benefits of this economic expansion. Why . Because in part, they dont have the skills that are needed to take advantage of this Economic Growth. So youve got more jobs than people looking and yet you have the skills gap which keeps us from being table to have the people in the right place for the right jobs. I hear from a lot of employers, they say we cannot continue to group if we dont find these workers and some Companies Say that we have to leave ohio or the United States if we dont have the workforce. Because workforce, like other inputs is very important to able to have a competitive economy. So weve got to solve this problem. In ohio and elsewhere there are thousands of job openings for positions like welders, machinists in factories, computer programmers and coders in almost every sector of economy. If you go to ohio, go to jobs. Com, ohiomeansjobs. Com, you will see these jobs advertised. And these jobs you will see are what economists call middleskill jobs. They dont require a College Degree, but they do require some training and expertise after high school. What weve got to do is close that skills gap by providing more of this training and education for these workers. The supply of skilled workers in this category, students pursuing posthigh school certificates, falls way short of the demand thats out there and its holding back our economy from fulfilling its potential. In the most recent skills gap study, deloitte highlighted this. There are 184,000 unfilled jobs. But the data shows that there may be an estimated 2. 4 million jobs unfilled between 2018 and 2028. With a potential negative impact of 2. 5 trillion. The skills gap is there, but unfortunately its widening and if we dont do something about it, were going to have a lot more unfilled manufacturing jobs, good jobs, good pay. The betion kind of training the best kind of training is career and educational training. Some may recall it as being called Vocational Education. Todays Vocational Education is not yesterdays, its high technology, great equipment, providing the level of skills that young people need to understand what is out there in the real world and to get a job. This is a very important part of what were doing as a country and i see it all over ohio. Recently i toured the advantage career center, june years and junior and seniors can study things like carpetry, automotive technology, welding, like criminal justice. A few weeks ago i was able to speak to over 1,000 impressive c. E. T. Students advocating the program in washington, d. C. They talked to a lot of the representatives in the United States senate. It is called skills u. S. A. These young people are eager to get this training. They want to get the training to able to get the jobs that are out there. But we need to he get more young people engaged in that. More parents signing off on that. More College High School counselors signing off on that. I cofounded and cochair what is called the c. T. E. Caucus here in the senate. It is focused on career and technical senators many we have gone are from two to ten senators in the c. T. E. Caucus. Our dwoal is it to increase the awareness of c. T. E. , making had sure people know that is a good education option, to get more students interested in Career Training and it an opportunity to connect young people to skilled jobs. We have passed good legislation to do that. Last year the president signed into law the educating tomorrow workforce act and that and the brook grant which is providing 1. 3 billion in funding for ambitious federally funded high schools, helped to encourage high quality so to be sure that the c. T. E. Programs are high performing. But career and Technical Education goes well beyond the Great High School programs. Certificate granting workforce Training Programs Post High School are another key way to close the skills gap. In fact, it is probably the most important way, because you can get an industry recognized certificate that can lead to a job. Think of the programs being offered at the local Community College or local technical or trade school. But for the posthigh School Training opportunities, weve got a problem, and weve got a solution. The problem is they are expensive and a lot of young people cant afford the opportunity is to allow pell granlts to be used conscious grants to be used for these Training Programs. Currently we use pell grants for collegelevel education, and this is for families who are lowincome families, their kids can go to college on a pell grant. Unfortunately they cant use the pell grant to get the shortterm training that will get them a job, a 15week training in welding for instance. The bipartisan jobs act, which i cosponsored with senator tim kaine from virginia will allow us to do just that. It will allow us to do the same thing with college with the shorterterm Training Programs that gives you a highquality industry recognized credential. Under current law, students are allowed to have a pell grant if they attend college for an Associates Degree or bachelors degree but not for an accredited skills program. In this economy and age it doesnt make sense. Im supportive of pell grants for college. You should know more than half the young people who take out a pell grant dont get a College Degree or certificate that helps them to get the job. In the shortterm Training Programs, it is highly likely that they will get the certificate and get that job. The jobs act is needed right now to meet the needs out there. These workforce Training Programs provide students with the academic and technical skills, knowledge and training necessary to succeed in their future careers. They encompassion the kind of high quality rigorous job Training Programs that are easily transferable to the jobs that are in demand right now. Whether its learning how to conduct h vak install hvac installation, how to operate a machine in a factory, which means being able to program a computer that runs the machine or how to Program Computers generally. How to be a coder, how to ensure you have the skills to be able to be in one of our Great Health Care tech jobs that are open right now. These programs teach students the practical, Transferable Skills that keeps our economy moving. I hear about this every time im home in hoag. During in ohio. I held for separate round tables, one at brain yard industries in cleveland, ohio talking about this issue with owners with administrators from our Community Colleges, with students themselves, with workers who are on the job and guess what . All these groups agree that the jobs act is a great idea whose time has come. They all agree that the skills Training Programs create a path to goodpaying jobs and they want the health. We know a lot of Business Owners will help the employees once they get the job to be able to go back to school if they want to, maybe get a two or fouryear degree, maybe get a masters degree in engineering to take the education to the next level. Because you take a shortterm Training Program doesnt mean you wont go back to college. That might be appropriate for some companies and many individuals. In fact, a representative from clark state Community College crystal jones who is in attendance in dayton, ohio said she specifically believed that a lack of pell grant assistance to young people looking to get training certificates is a significant barrier. She said it makes it more difficult if their efforts to in their efforts to make sure they get the skilled workers they need. They said the jobs act will help. Its been endorsed by the National Skills coalition, the association for career and Technical Education, the business round table and so many other groups. Were told its the number one priority of the association of Community Colleges and trustees and of the American Association of Community Colleges. A lot of us here in this Chamber Support our Community Colleges. They do an awesome job. This is their top priority so we should listen to them. Im also pleased the jobs act was included in President Trumps f. Y. 2020 budget proposal. I thank the president for that and i thank the administration for supporting it as i thank so many outside stakeholders who are promoting this idea. Lets allow pell to be used for shortterm Training Programs that we need. The reason this jobs act has such strong support is because its the best proposal out there right now to help fill the skills gap that we have. It will cover programs that at a minimum require 150 hours and eight weeks to complete. Alternative proposals are out there but they severely limit the programs by requiring many more hours. 320 hours as an example in one program. Our Community Colleges in ohio tell me that none of their shortterm Training Programs, none of them would qualify for that number of hours. Programs like welding, precision machining, c. D. L. Programs for truck drivers, electrical trades. They all need the job the act and need it now. As we work to reauthorize, passing the jobs act is the top priority for senator kaine and myself and also supported by ramping member murray and and we appreciate their support. I hope colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join us. It makes too much sense not to do it. If we make career and Technical Education a priority and if we enact the jobs act as ive discussed today, were going to address the number one issue were hearing from employers all around the country and were going to help so many thousands of americans have a better opportunity going forward. Were going to help our economy at a time when we need to have this workforce there in order to have the economy continue to grow. Theres momentum in ohio today with businesses expanding and seeking skilled workers but the skills gap is an impediment. We need to seize this opportunity, keep our economy moving in the right direction and help ohioans develop the skills to grow in the career of their choice and to fulfill their potential in life. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back my time. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from minnesota. A senator thank you. Id like to thank any colleague from ohio for raising the issues about the skills back. Ms. Smith this is something very important in minnesota as well. I agree with you. I think this should be a place where we can find some bipartisan agreement. Thank you for your word, senator portman. Today i rise to talk about another gap that i would like to ask my colleagues for help in filling. Mr. President , for many americans, the 35day Government Shutdown during the last Holiday Season is a distant memory. The National Parks have reopened with their usual programming. Airports are running like normal and federal employees are back on the job with the backpay that they lost because of no fault of their own because of the federal Government Shutdown. But for one group of workers, things are not back to normal. These are the lowwage workers employed by federal contractors serving in cafeterias, providing Building Security and keeping federal buildings clean. They work these federal contractors work shoulder to shoulder with federal employees and though they are often invisible, they play a crucial role in keeping the federal government working for americans. So thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of these workers at federal facilities all across the country were not allowed to work during the federal Government Shutdown. They went without paychecks during the height of the Holiday Season. They skipped christmas gifts. They missed tuition payments. And they even in some cases were unable to afford the insulin that they need to stay alive if they live with diabetes. But unlike federal employees, these employees of federal contractors didnt get the backpay when the government reopened. They were ready and willing to work every single day of those 35 days of the shutdown but they couldnt through no fault of their own and they paid the price. And thats just not right. Making ends meet in a lowwage job is hard enough. And making ends meet when you miss two paychecks, when those paychecks are taken away from you is nearly impossible. Families that didnt get the income that they were expecting were first to borrow from friends. They were first to fall down on the help of others. They had to make difficult choices. And they are still, many of them, in a financial hole that was created not by them, that they cant dig themselves out of. So colleagues, i rise today to tell you to ask you to help me in righting this injustice. Im glad to be joined by several of my colleagues today on the senate floor who also have been strong advocates for these workers. Senator brown from ohio, senator van hollen from maryland, senator kaine from virginia, along with many of my colleagues have helped to try to right this wrong. And in this way we have introduced Bipartisan Legislation to provide modest backpay to these workers. The house included our backpay language in the appropriations package that is on the senate floor today. So it is in the bill that the house passed. But unfortunately senator mcconnells substitute amendment strips out this critical provision that would provide backpay to these federal contract workers. So today what im proposing is that we come together in a bipartisan way and that we add back the backpay language, we put it back in the legislation. And i filed an amendment that would accomplish this. Now, i have talked with many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle here in the senate chamber. And i have to tell you i have not found a Single Person who is willing to say, who even wants to say that these federal contractors dont deserve backpay. In fact, more often than not when i talk to my colleague, theyll say didnt we take care of that . Well, colleagues, we didnt take care of that. Now we have an opportunity to fix this gap. We have an opportunity to do something for these federal contract workers who are proud federal Government Employees in almost every sense of the word. Our proposal would allow contractors to fund backpay for their employees through a well known and often used contracting process known as equitable adjustment. Often people there say tina, this is a good idea but it would be so difficult to accomplish this. Actually there is an existing mechanism for accomplishing exactly what we need to do here, and it is called equitable adjustment. As ive also made clear to my colleagues who have asked questions about this, that im happy to work with anyone who has suggestions for what we can do to further up prove this improve this proposal. Weve been told across the board that this is a good way of accomplishing this as an equitable way, a way that would have good accountability, and that it would work. Now, over the last ten months, i have been proud to stand up with federal contract employees who have been fighting for this amendment and also standing with so many others around the country. Tragically in july one of our strongest voices for these workers, s. C. I. U. President Hector Figuero passed away unexpectedly at age 57. He was an amazing advocate for workers all over this country and he knows how important it is to solve this federal contractor backpay problem and he understood advice serially the difference it makes in the lives of people who lost that income. It should not be lost forever. Hector led 170,000 janitors, food service workers, and others in their effort to secure decent wages and better working conditions. And he played a crucial role in making sure that these workers voices were heard on capitol hill and in state legislators. Hector was a source of inspiration for both workers and public officials. And i miss him from being a partner in this effort. Now, colleagues, recently we lost another partner in this fight also. Chairman Elijah Cummings from maryland was a longtime champion for baltimore workers and he was the leader of the primary House Committee on federal workplace issues. In march chair cummings led a letter with 48 house members saying, and i quote, we must act to ensure federal contractor employees are made whole. So i rise today to ask, to urge my colleagues federal contract workers should be made whole as chair cummings worked so hard to accomplish. Lets not forget chair cummings message. Lets not forget the passion in the work of Hector Figuero. Lets not forget about these workers. Lets follow on the advocacy of these people and so many others to pass backpay for federal contract workers. And make sure that these hardworking americans get the backpay that they deserve. Now, mr. Chair, im so grateful to be joined on the floor today with several of my colleagues, including senator Chris Van Hollen who has been such a strong advocate for federal contract workers and making sure that they do not have to pay the price for this shutdown that happened through no fault of their own. So im very glad to be here with senator van hollen today and i yield the floor. Mr. Van hollen mr. President . The presiding officer i recognize the senator from maryland. Mr. Van hollen thank you, mr. President. I want to start by thanking our colleague, the senator from minnesota, senator smith, for her steadfast support for this group of federal contract employees who were left behind. And i plan to address my remarks to that subject in one moment. Blue before i do that but before i do that, mr. President , i just want to call on every senator to stand up against the vicious character assassination thats taking place against patriotic americans testifying under oath in the house. Today were hearing in the house the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel vingman. He served as an officer in the United States army, an infantry officer oversea, including in south korea and germany and a deployment to iraq for combat operations where he was wounded in an i. E. D. Attack and awarded a purple heart. Just a little while ago, the house heard sworn testimony from Ambassador William Taylor who is currently our acting ambassador to ukraine. He also served in the United States army. He served in vietnam. He served in germany. Later in a different capacity he served in baghdad as the director of iraq Reconstruction Management office. He served in cabal, afghanistan coordinating international assistance. He was selected by secretary pompeo to be our acting ambassador in the ukraine. So, mr. President , we can disagree on a whole lot of things. We can also reach different conclusions based on the facts. But i would hope every member, including importantly our Republican Senate colleagues, will stand up against the character assassination being launched at these witnesses who are giving testimony under oath and under penalty of perjury. It is absolutely disgraceful this kind of character assassination impugning peoples motives. These are patriotic americans. So we should at the very least agree on that. Mr. President , i also believe we should agree on this Important Initiative thats been brought before this body before by senator smith just to do justice and be fair to contract workers who perform a lot of thankless and often unnoticed tasks for the federal government but are essential to its workings. These are cafeteria workers. These are janitors. These are folks who work in federal offices not just in washington, d. C. , but all over the country. And when we had that unnecessary, shameful 35day Government Shutdown, we not only locked out a lot of federal workers from doing their jobs, not only did the Small Business administration freeze approvals of Small Business loans, which were important to many businesses around the country, not only did the department of agriculture shutter the Farm Service Centers in rural communities, not only did thousands of homeowners face long delays in loan processing approvals from the f. H. A. , but these federal contract workers who are living in many cases paycheck to paycheck went without pay for 35 days. And they never recouped that pay. We did the right thing in this body for federal Government Employees. We recognized that the government was shut down through no fault of their own. Theres nothing that federal workers did to cause the Government Shutdown. They wanted to be at work doing their jobs for the American People. And we recognized that. We recognized that they should not be penalized for something they had nothing to do with. We should do the same thing now for federal contract workers, and that is exactly what this measure will do. Now, these contract workers make typically between 450 and 650 a week. These are not People Living high on the hog. These are people getting by day to day. One of them is ms. Lili johnson. Shes from hagerstown, maryland. She worked as a cleaning Services Contractor for the department of agriculture for over 20 years. She is the primary breadwinner for her family and is helping raise two grandchildren. During the shutdown, she struggled with her rent, her car payments, her Life Insurance payments on top of keeping food on the table. She lost 1,600. Now, that may not sound like a lot to some senators, but i can tell you its a lot of money for someone whos living paycheck to paycheck, trying to meet the bills, family primary breadwinner. And what this bill is about is making sure that lila johnson and others like her are not penalized for something they had nothing to do with. Marbled by something harmed by something that was totally beyond their control. And so, mr. President , i want to thank senator smith, i want to thank our colleague, senator brown, my colleague from maryland, senator cardin, and i also want to also remember, as my colleague from minnesota did, Elijah Cummings, who passed away recently, a great marylander. I knew elijah for over 20 years. And he committed himself to many causes important to social justice, both for marylanders but for every american. And this was one of them. This was one of those things that he just recognized was fundamentally unfair, people who are scraping to get by paycheck to paycheck being punished for something they had nothing to do. Wanting to show up to work every day but being shut out and then being denied their paycheck. Lets remedy this wrong, and lets make sure we adopt this measure. I thank you, mr. President. I thank the senator from minnesota, and i yield the floor. Mr. Kaine mr. President , i thank my colleagues for their eloquent words on behalf of the federal contractors. If you are a virginia senator, if you are a maryland senator, you meet federal contractors in any occasion all around the state. We often think of the federal contractors as significantly located in the d. C. Area or in hampton roads, but some of the smallest counties in virginia have significant federal contractors, and so im very, very happy to join my colleagues and applaud senator smiths effort in this regard. All americans were affected by the unnecessary shutdown at the end of last year, people trying to go to parks to enjoy time with their families or visiting other federal installations were shut down. We saw the lines of federal employees waiting outside jose andreas federal kitchen trying to get free meals. But some of the most affected, though, as my colleagues have explained, were workers who were suddenly without paychecks through no fault of their own. Now, these workers, 800,000 of them, worked directly for the federal government. We were able to secure back pay for those workers, and in a very positive way and this was something that the body did together that i think was important we not only got a backpay bill for federal workers affected by the last shutdown, but we also guaranteed that in any future guarantees, they would get their pay. If you guarantee that people will be paid, why would you lock them out of their office and deprive them of the ability to serve their fellow americans . But hundreds of thousands of contract workers were not included in that back pay bill, and theyve been thus left behind. Many of these americans are paid on an hourly basis. Theyre not annual salary employees. And they do live paycheck to paycheck. When the shutdown hit, they went home with no pay for weeks, five weeks, and to word on when or whether their job would start back up again. The people that i meet who are in this category are very hardworking. They are security guards, they are calf tear workers, theyre cleaning theyre cafeteria workers, theyre cleaning workers. People whose diligent working in their jobs keeps the enterprise going. Missing ones pay is not a trivial thing. Many families had to borrow, rely on friends or family to get by, use the services of soup kitchens or clothe closets. Many likely are still carrying debt incurred because of the shutdown. Some had to make withdrawals from their federal thrift savings plan with penalty and interest because of that. The individuals who are affected but its also bluntly their families and its even the communities and local businesses where there are these contracting employees. I asked during the shutdown for virginians to share stories with me, and many did, federal employees affected by the shutdown, but it was not just the employees who shared; it was also these contractors. Of course i did hear a number of stories of virginians coming together. I had a chance to go work as a volunteer at the d. C. Central kitchen and what struck me was how many of the volunteers were people who had been furloughed, and they werent being paid, and they wanted to serve their fellow americans. But because they were being locked out of their office, they decided to go to the central kitchen and worked serving meals to their federal he colleagues. But along serving meals to their federal colleagues. But along that, these are all from virginians who are federal contractors. Michael from herndon, like many of your constituents, i work as a Government Contractor for a Small Business. My entire Household Income depends on serving government clients, which i am unable to do in light of the Government Shutdown. My company is losing revenue every day and has arrived at the point where we must force employees to use vacation, take leave without pay, or be furloughed. Unlike federal employees, who will almost certainly receive backpay, my employees have no recourse. I have worked exclusively in sesqui the government, and this is the i have worked exclusively in serving the government, and this is the first time. My employees are struggling. Small businesses are the engine of Economic Growth and stability in our region, and the shutdown is destroying us. Please work with all parties to reopen the government as soon as possible. Sue kamar of great falls. I am the korea of a business 100 focused on federal contractors. Were nearing the point where were losing revenues because our people cant work, invoices are not getting paid by the government, and were facing a dire cash flow situation. This will affect our ability to make payroll, leading to borrow money at higher Interest Rates and increase the perils of shutting down our business. Many of our furloughed employees are having a tough time paying bills and making ends meet. Some of them are contemplating a privatesector career, leading to the loss of valuable talent to serve the government. Virginia from maclaine, i am a federal contractor working. I have been furloughed due to the federal Government Shutdown and will not be receiving compensation after this is over. This is not a vacation for me, nor is it a vacation for any other federal worker. It is impossible to plan for lost pay when you arent sure how much pay you mighting losing, and it is impossible to amend deadlines when you arent sure how many projects will be unattended to. Im a young person. This is my first job. A Washington Post article from january detailed the struggles of many lowwage workers including one who lives in the district, julia, a contracted janitor for the last 27 years, most recently at the department of agriculture, cares for her elderly mother with dementia and shes had to use the last of her sick days to keep money coming in. All told, she lost 1,000 in savings, went into debt, and relied on the charity of churches for free meals. Again, these are people who make the life choice and they could have made orchises, but they and they could have made otherchoices, but they made the choice to serve the government. They did that not for grand fame or glory or riches, but they do have an expectation that they wont be gratuitously kicked around. Maybe a thank you or maybe just be treated fairly. I think we did take a step forward when we passed the backpay bill to guarantee that federal workers would be treated fairly. And i think senator smiths amendment, which i am proud to be an original cosponsor that i hope well have a chance to take up, would remedy the situation with respect to these workers. Not ever contractor. This is the fair compensation for lowwage workers act, so it is specifically focused on compensation to the workers who receive low wages, those most vulnerable and most affected by losing salary for five weeks. The house included in provision in its appropriation bill this past summer. It is not in the appropriations bill that were now considering in the senate. I implore the majority leader and all of my colleagues to do for these lowwage federal contractors what we did for federal employees. Recognize the hardships that the shutdown caused these workers and their families and to add backpay to federal contractors, the bill that were getting ready to vote on. This would be a step forward and a precedent. We havent done this in the past. But just as the guarantee of backpay for federal employees i believe starts to build in a little bit of a fire wall against a schottdown, i actual against a shutdown, i actually think having a rule that we would provide backpay also starts to provide a little bit of a fire wall against a shutdown. I think we should all be antishutdown. Having mechanisms that make it harder to shut the government down or less likely is something we should all support. Without us doing right by these workers, many of them will take years to recover from a financial hole that the shutdown put them in. I would ask my colleagues to join together and support senator smith and her amendment. With that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown i thank the senator for his work on this and speak being out on this, on an issue of justice, an issue of papers, and an issue i mean, how can you be against this i dont even pretend to understand it. Senator smith, who is still relatively new to this body, has taken leadership on an issue that is important in terms of human rights as any i could imagine this body hastain. This fight for has taken up. This fight for federal contract workers who suffered because of President Trumps disastrous shutdown earlier this year. You think about this, these are workers making 8 and 10 i know my colleagues dont know anybody well, they know people that make 8 and 10 an hour. They just never ask them their names and talk to them about their lives. We dress we will, we have good pages here. Most of the people that serve us, the cafeteria workers here, the people that when we leave at night, the people that come in at night and clean our offices, you know, these in this case, many of them are federal employees. But some of them are contract workers. Go to the cleveland airport, mr. President. Talk to the people that drive the wheel drive the carts taking people to and from their planes. Or talk to the people that push the wheelchairs of people that have a little trouble getting on and off the planes. These people dont work for united airlines. They dont work for Cleveland Hopkins airport or the National Airport or whatever the airport in minneapolisst. Paul is equaled. They work for contractors. Those are the people that are ignored, making 8, 10, 12 an hour. We dont Pay Attention to them in this body. We dont know their names. We dont speak for them too often. And senator smith and senator cain are speaking for them because we know what happened to them. I think americans dont realize that thousands of janitors and cafeteria workers and security guards spent wokes out of work, weeks out of work, out of work because of the disastrous shutdown. Theyre employed by private contractors, not the government, paid too little to begin with and they have no way of making up those lost hours and lost wages. Missing a paycheck, you know, a lot of people in this country can absorb missing a paycheck. If youre in the 1 or the 2 or the 5 or the 10 wealthiest people, certainly the billionaire president and his multimillionaire except for the cabinet members that are billionaires, in his cabinet with massive portfolios. But most americans, most americans missing a paycheck is a big deal. The president doesnt understand, doesnt seem to care to understand that working people couldnt just send a letter to creditors saying, you know, please excuse me this month, mr. Landlord, ms. Landlord from paying rent or paying my mortgage or paying for my medications at the local c. V. S. They take money out of their savings if they have any savings. Awful hard to have savings at 10, 12, and 14 an hour. They take money out of those savings or more mikely in the indication of these contractors that are 10, 12, and 14 an hour, they turn to family members. They run up their credit cards or go to payday lenders and never get out from under that, mr. President , as you know. Some of them, many, many of them are still dealing with the debt. I remember talking to cafeteria workers in senator kaines state in arlington, federal contract workers who serve food at our smithsonian museum, theyre not federal workers. Most of the people that go to the smithsonian figure the people serving the food and cleaning the place or cleaning the offices and the exhibits are probably Government Employees but theyre not. One worker told me i have to pay rent. I have other bills. I have a College Student in his second semester. He needs help with his books. The president of one seiu local that represents janitors and Security Officers said those workers and their families, quote, will continue to relive the trauma on a daily basis until theyre compensated for 35 days. 35 days of income they went without. Already living on the edge in this body because of and this body because of its inaction, because of its head in the sand, because of its pa pardon my language bone headedness, this body simply ignores them and washes their hands. I dont know their names so were not going to do anything to help them even though it was the trump shutdown that betrayed these workers. He denies the same the same president betrays workers by denying the overtime pay therve theyve earned. The same president puts people on the Supreme Court who put their thumb on the scale of justice always to support worker always to support corporations over workers, always to support wall street over consumers, always to support Insurance Companies, Health Insurance companies over patients. Put on top of that the trump tax cuts, a massive giveaway to the wealthiest 1 . I spoke to a group of Union Members today. They wanted a transportation bill. They want an infrastructure bill. They know what the bridge looks like connecting my state and cincinnati over the ohio river with down the hall, senator mcconnells state. They know the needs there. Weve got no money because of this tax cut that my friends over here voted for that went to the most of which went to the wealthiest 1 . Because of the trump shutdown, these workers were talking about went without paychecks. Hes done nothing to fix it. It comes back to the dignity of work. All work has dignity. Dr. King said no job is menial if it pays an adequate wage but it also means getting to go to work every day and earning that pay. These contract workers, their work has dignity. If the president understood that, hed make sure they get their paychecks. The house already passed backpay for contractors four months ago. I ask my colleagues to join us on senator smiths amendment because, mr. President , if you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. Mr. President , i ask that the following comments be inserted in a different place in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. I rise to speak about amendment 1088 that i introduced with senator jones. The amendment is straightforward, provides 5 million to fund centers of excellence at 1819 land grant university. This amendment includes an offset. Let me tell you why i introduced this. The authorization for the centers of excellence was included in the 2018 farm bill. I offered as an amendment in the senate Agriculture Committee. It could be critical for schools like central state, west of columbus and heeg. The chairman and ohio. The Senate Majority leader supported it as did the chair of the ag appropriations subcommittee. The entire committee supported it. It passed by a voice vote. And then we passed the farm bill. Sent it to the president. We got 87 votes in this body for the farm bill. Thats more than ever i believe any farm bill has ever passed the senate. These centers will focus on important challenges facing the Agricultural Sector and its workforce. Mr. President , id like to submit for the record a letter of support from dr. Kent smith, president of languageston university in oklahoma on behalf of the council of 1890 University President s. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. Dr. Smith notes the 1890s has been promised these centers for excellence for 30 years. The senate needs to act and needs to include my amendment to right this wrong. I remind my colleagues that the 18930 land 1890 land grants were created because many states rather than allowing African American students to attend the 1862 land grant universities decided to set up in the name of segregation in those days, to set up a separate system of colleges and universities. The 1890s schools as my colleagues know despite providing a pathway to the middle class for generations of mostly African American students have been ignored or at best underfunded since their creation. Ive tried to figure out, mr. President , why my amendment is not just automatically accepted. Again, it was authorized by the Agriculture Committee. It passed the senate unanimously. It was signed by the president. Why this amendment isnt acceptable . The majority cant be opposed because the house funded this program, because the majoritys cleared amendments that duplicate house funding. It cant be because my amendment is too expensive. As the majority im told is willing to declare a thunehoeven amendment that funds tribal colleges is a good thing at the same level as my amendment. I work with the committee to find an offset for my amendment and even though the authorization is for 10 million a year, at the committees urging ive reduced it to 5 million. Still, still, mr. President , for whatever reason they cant seem clear to support this. I know we would this came up to a floor vote wed pass it overwhelmingly. I dont know why we need to do that rather than just accept this. I urge my colleagues to include this commonsense fully paid for amendment in the appropriations bill. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , this is the part of the remark this isnt part of the remarks i planned for but let me surprise the senator from ohio and say i agree with him. We need to pass a transportation bill. He mentioned some of the Union Workers he was talking to this morning. And they Want Congress to function as it should which means we should pass our Appropriations Bills. The transportation, housing, and urban Development Bill that the senator from maine is the bill manager on. And we ought to do all of our Appropriations Bills, including keeping our commitment to our men and women in the military by passing the defense appropriations bill. But unfortunately we know that politics has overwhelmed our ability to function here in congress and democrats for some reason decided to filibuster the defense appropriation bill just recently. And what i worry about is this obsession with politics and dividing the nation 12 months before the next general election where everybody whos a registered voter will have a chance to vote on the next president of the United States, were going to put let that dominate our discussions to the failure of our ability to actually pass Appropriations Bills, fund the military, fund a highway bill which would provide much needed Infrastructure Development all across our country, including fastgrowing states like the presiding officer and i happen to come from. So i hope that the growing sense that i have, we are simply going to quit functioning a year out before the election because of the obsession over politics and impeachment mania does not prove to be true. But the storm clouds are on the horizon and im becoming increasingly convinced that unfortunately thats the only thing that Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats care about. And that our ability to actually get our work done is going to be tragically squandered. So, mr. President , let me talk about some good news. Of course, this weekend the world celebrated as the hunt for the leader of isis, the latest terrorist organization that has dominated the news, the hunt for the leader finally came to an end and President Trump announced that the successful raid by u. S. Troops led to the death of abu bakr albaghdadi, the worlds number one terrorist. This, of course, is reminiscent of that effort under the Obama Administration to take out Osama Bin Laden years after hed led the effort to kill 3,000 americans on 9 11 in new york and here in washington at the pentagon. With the elimination of the isis caliphate earlier this year, it was only a matter of time before albaghdadi would run out of places to hide. And i just want to say how much i admire and appreciate the courage and the dedication of the men and women who contributed to this raid and that and who actually made it happen. This is an amazing combination of talent, training, intelligence, cooperation with our partners in the middle east that led to this incredible effort and successful effort. So im grateful for our military leaders, our intelligence professionals, the Service Members and our allies who have been tirelessly working for this goal for years. I applaud President Trump for making the difficult decision to put american troops in harms way. Fortunately it did not result in any loss of life or injuries, im told, to the troops that actually executed the raid. But this is lets give credit where credit is due. Just like president obama deserved credit to making the difficult decision to take out Osama Bin Laden, President Trump should be entitled to credit for making a difficult but important and correct decision to take out isis leader. Because of the Decisive Action and flawless execution of troops on the ground, it was a great day for freedomloving people, for all americans that the worlds number one most wanted man was now brought to justice. Coincidentally, yesterday i was in austin speaking to the Mortgage Bankers association and admiral mcraven came on right after me. So it was an amazing coincidence and a real treat for the Mortgage Bankers who after i got through talking to them got to hear from the man who led the raid that brought down Osama Bin Laden in 2011. And it was a remarkable moment to reflect on our nations ongoing fight to eradicate terrorism and the great leaders and the great professionals who have contributed to our effort to keep america safe. Its important that we all remember that the fight is not yet won and it actually may never be finally concluded. We must remain committed to working with our allies in the region and around the world to continue to eliminate terrorism wherever we can and to prevent its resurgence. As i indicated earlier, later this week the senate will begin voting on spending bills to fund the department of defense so they can continue this fight and it would be ironic, indeed, if our democratic colleagues thwarted our effort to fund the department of defense once again in the wake of this incredible accomplishment by those professionals. Last month democrats blocked us from even considering the defense spending bill. Their seemingly never ending disputes with President Trump Transcend National security. I hope this weekends announcement has brought this decision into some perspective. We need to quickly pass the defense spending bill to encourage our military wont be impacted by these political games. Mr. President , on another matter, i continue to hear from my constituents back home about the number of texans who are struggling to cover the cost of their Prescription Medications. We know that deductibles, particularly under the Affordable Care act have gotten to be very high. As a matter of fact, its not uncommon to hear people say they have a 5,000 or more deductible. The copays that they have to pay for Prescription Drugs, strangely enough, in their deductible, the 5,000 lets say you would have to pay under your Affordable Care act policy, you get none of the benefit of the negotiated discounts or rebates that the Drug Companies get with prescription pharmacy benefit managers. That does not flow to the consumer, and so actually consumers are being treated much worse than the Insurance Companies and the pharmaceutical companies are and deriving virtually no benefit. Ive heard stories we had one particularly profound story about a woman whose son was diabetic and still is diabetic, but he became an adult and she said, how much his decisions for purchasing his insulin affected his decision to move out of the house, to get a job, whether to marry or not, just basically because he had to manage the high cost of the copay for the insulin that was necessary to preserve his life. And, unfortunately, as in many cases, people end up rationing, selfrationing their drugs to make them last longer, but thats a great health risk to them, to skip doses or to take less or to otherwise not follow your doctors orders. But people are frustrated, and theyre confused, and theyre increasingly worried about how they and their loved ones are going to continue to cover these rising costs. And they want to know what congress intends to do about it. I frequently tell folks back home that the most frustrating moments in washington, d. C. , are when the white house and congress agree when republicans and democrats agree that something is a problem and needs to be done and yet nothing gets done. Thats a hard one to explain. Everybody says, yes, we need to deal with high Prescription Drug costs, but we dont seem to be capable of getting things done. Im always happy to share updates about progress we make within our committees on the finance and Judiciary Committee that i serve on, but, unfortunately, when it comes to getting a bill across the floor of the United States senate, its it has proved to be an insurmountable challenge. We spend a lot of time hearing from patients, drug providers and others and it is a complex topic. But i think a lot of the folks involved in the business sort of enjoy that black box they operate in and theyre afraid of the transparency that would actually reveal who is getting the money and why it is that the savings doesnt flow to consumers. Weve been looking at every stop a drug takes en route from research and development to the shelf of your medicine cabinet, and weve seen some things that are pretty alarming. There are pharmaceutical c. E. O. s earning big bonuses, of course as chemicals go up. Im not opposed to c. E. O. s getting paid well for new, lifesaving, innovative drugs, but i am if they do it at the expense of consumers. Farm benefit managers weve seen who negotiate backdoor rebates that drive up outofpocket costs. And of course pharmaceutical companies that game the patent system to stave off competition as long as possible. In one of our finance committee hearings, i was able to ask the c. E. O. Of abivi about their product humira, the most commonly prescribed drug in america today, i believe. It is it the poster child for the kind of gamesmanship that ought to infuriate all of us. Humira is a wonderful drug used to treat arthritis and a number of other conditions. Its been available for about 15 years. You might think that would be sufficient time to cover the patent period and that a generic alternative or a biosimilar might be available which would be cheaper, much to the benefit of consumers. But you would be wrong. Abivi currently has several patents 136 patents. In fact, the maze of patents on humira is that there is no biosimilar available in america. This jumbled network of patents makes it nearly impossible for a competitor to come into the market. To date, there are five competitors to humira in europe. Five. But not in america, not to the benefit of american consumers. But all of these five competitors who sell a biosimilar to humira in europe are blocked from being sold here in the United States until 2023. Now, thats not an accident. Again, i dont begrudge companies that discover lifesaving and innovative drugs getting the coverage of a patent for the appropriate period of time, because thats where they recoup their research and development costs. And, unfortunately, not all of these drugs discoveries turn out with a good story. But this strikes me as gamesmanship and abuse of the system. Patents were intended to guard intellectual property and encourage researchers to pour time and resources into developing these new drugs. But these drugmakers arent just using the patent system to protect their intellectual property. Theyre abusing it to the detriment of consumers to increase their bottom line. Well, earlier this year i introduced a bill with our colleague from connecticut, senator blumenthal, to take aim at this practice. The affordable prescriptions for patients act disarms these socalled patent thickets to enable patents to come to market sooner. This streamlines the litigation process by limiting the number of patents that these companies can use, so companies are spending less time in the courtroom. Competitors would be able to resolve patent issues faster and bring their drugs to market sooner. Better competition, im convinced, means better prices for patients. Our country is a leader in pharmaceutical innovation and partly because we offer robust protection for intellectual property. And thats a good thing. But we have to do more to stop the bad actors taking advantage of those innovation protections in order to maintain their monopoly at the expense of the American People, and thats exactly what the legislation that ive introduced with senator blumenthal would do. By the way, it passed unanimously out of the senate Judiciary Committee. So the affordable prescriptions for patients act doesnt stifle innovation. It doesnt limit patent rights and it doesnt cost taxpayers a dime. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Congressional Budget Office released a cost estimate for this bill and found that it would lower federal spending by more than a half billion dollars a year. Excuse me, a half billion dollars over ten years. And this is just savings to the federal government for medicare and medicaid. There would undoubtedly be Additional Savings for consumers in their private Health Insurance. Well, despite the fact this legislation received the unanimous support of the Judiciary Committee that i mentioned in june, its yet to make it to the senate floor for a vote. As it turns out, im informed that the minority leader, the senator from new york, senator schumer, is leading the charge in blocking the senates ability to consider that bill. Our colleague, the minority leader, loves to say that the senate is a legislative graveyard because we havent voted on a number of ultra partisan bills passed by the house, but when it comes to passing bills that actually have bipartisan support, bills that can actually pass both chambers and become lurks it looks like become law, it looks like the minority leader has become the gravedigger in chief. Why he would refuse to allow a vote on a bill cosponsored by one of his own members that would lower drug costs for patients across the country and save more than a half a billion dollars over ten years for taxpayers is beyond me. It seems like a nobrainer. But, again, im afraid politics may have once again interfered with our democratic colleagues interest in making sound Public Policy. While our democratic colleagues continue their crusade to remove the president from office, the American Peoples lives arent getting any easier. Their lives arent on hold, such that they can simply wait out the politics that seems to crowd out good Public Policy here in washington, d. C. And we know for sure that their Prescription Medications arent getting any cheaper. So i would urge our colleague, the Senate Minority leader, to quit blocking the bipartisan bill that i have discussed here today so our constituents, all of our constituents in texas, in new york, in maine, all over the country can begin to enjoy some relief from their mounting outofpocket drug costs. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Ms. Collins mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maine. Ms. Collins mr. President , i would ask unanimous consent that rather than adjourning or recessing at 12 30, we recess at 12 35. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Collins thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i want to associate myself with the comments that were just made by the senator from texas on the important issue of lowering the cost of Prescription Drugs. Not only the finance committee and the Judiciary Committee, but also the senate health, education, pensions, and Labor Committee have all reported good bills that would help provide relief from the everescalating costs of Prescription Drugs. Like the senator from texas, i, too, have introduced a bill a bipartisan bill with senator tim kaine to prevent the gaming of the patent system in which a brandname Pharmaceutical Company will wait until the last moment and then erect a thicket of new patents, precisely to prevent a lowercost generic or biosimilar from coming to the market. It is a shame that apparently there are some apparently the minority leader is blocking bills from coming to the floor in this area, despite their widespread, partisan support, according to what the senator from texas has just said. So this is an issue we should address. 90 of our seniors take at least one Prescription Drug. 36 of them take four or more in a months time, and they are particularly burdened by the high cost of Prescription Drugs. I, too, have looked at the manufacturer of humira, the bestselling drug in the world, a drug that brings some 18 billion in profit to abvi, the manufacturer, and that is fine that abvi has been able to recoup the considerable r d that went into what truly is a miraculous drug for people with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and some sort of inflammatory valve diseases. But when the patent period has expired, they should not be allowed to block a lowercost generic or, in this case, biosimilar from coming to the market. And yet that is exactly what has happened. Mr. President , let me turn to speak on another important issue that is addressed in the transportation appropriations bill that is on the senate floor right now, and that is the aviation safety. And i know the presiding officer also has done a great deal in this area and that the c. E. O. Of boeing is testifying on capitol hill today. The importance of aviation safety, in light of the crashes of the two boeing 737 max aircraft, cannot be overstated. Last october with lyon air flight 610 crashed shortly after takeoff in indonesia killing all 189 passengers and crew onboard, and just five months later in march of this year, the Ethiopian Airlines flight crash killed 157 passengers and crew. It is simply unacceptable that both of these crashes involved the same aircraft, the boeing 737 max, and were likely caused because of the same new system known as mcas, as well as pie lots unfamiliarity with the system and a lack of training. More egregious was the fact that the changes were made to mcas after certification for this system had already been delegated by the faa to boeing by the f. A. A. To boeing. It is clear that boeing did everything it could to avoid having to provide additional training or make pilots even aware of the mcas system. Mr. President , like you, i have met with some of the families of the victims of these crashes. And their pain and grief are truly heartbreaking. I am committed to ensuring that we never experience anything like this ever again. As chairman of the thud subcommittee, ive been working with my Ranking Member senator jack reed to do our part in improving aviation safety. We need to hold accountable not only boeing but also the f. A. A. And any other entities that may have played a role in these crashes. In july our thud subcommittee held an oversight hearing of the f. A. A. Where we questioned the acting deputy administrator and the associate administrator for aviation safety on the agencys review of the max aircraft as well as the agencys aircraft certification processes. Since that time numerous recommendations have been issued by the National Transportation safety board and the joint authorities technical review which consists of technical efforts from leading International Aviation regulators. First and foremost it is imperative that both boeing and the f. A. A. Admit the mistakes made with the max aircraft, remedy those serious errors in order to gain the Publics Trust in the aircraft again. Just today boeings c. E. O. Testified before congress and admitted that boeing, quote, made mistakes and got some things wrong. End quote. Yet we have we have yet to hear what specific changes the f. A. A. Will require from boeing prior to bringing the max back into service and what longterm changes they will make to their aviation and aircraft certification process. Ranking member jack reed and i continue to send letters and inquiries to the f. A. A. For Additional Information regarding the agencys organization designation, authorization, authorization of the o. D. A. Program as well as statements made by f. A. A. Officials at our july hearing which appear to be incomplete at best and possibly outright wrong. We need to make sure that f. A. A. Is a check on the delegation process, a true check and is not captured by the industry that it regulates. Safety has to be the number one priority for f. A. A. Way ahead of making sure that manufacturers can meet their deadlines for aircraft delivery. Safety has to come first. As the result of the work we conducted on our thud subcommittee and our oversight hearing, Ranking Member reed and i have provided increased funding for aviation safety and aircraft certification activities. The need for additional staffing has been confirmed by the joint authorities technical review report which determined that f. A. A. S Certification office for boeing had inadequate staff involved in the max certification program. In addition, the joint authorities found that f. A. A. Needs to expand its satisfying for Human Factors and human system inte integration work ast relates to aircraft certification. In other words, if theres a new system, we cannot allow training on that system to be bypassed and mentioned and mention of the system to not be included in the mans that accompany the aircraft. Pilots have to know going into that cockpit exactly what could happen and they need training on simulators. Clearly a lot of work needs to be done on this issue. I believe we have taken some important first steps in the thud bill that is before us. Thank you, mr. President. I would yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate more lives to the coverage when they return at 2 15 p. M. Eastern here cspan2. The House Rules Committee will be considering a resolution laying out of the democratic plan for the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The committee will set parameters for thursdays debate and consider amendments. Live 3 00 eastern on cspan3, online or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Thursday and vote in the house on the resolution to affirm the committees worked so far and expand the authority of investigating committees. It will lay out some of the process determine which hearings will be open to the public. The house meets thursday morning at nine eastern live on cspan. We are making it easy for you to follow the impeachment inquiry on cspan. Org. Search all of our coverage for video on demand of all the congressional briefings and hearings as well as the administrations response during the impeachment inquiry process. Log on to our impeachment inquiry webpage at cspan. Org impeachment. Youre fast and easy way to watch cspans unfiltered coverage anytime. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy thence from washington, d. C. And around the country so you could make up your own my. Mind. Created by cable 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Both the democratic and Republican Leaders in the house briefed reporters after the caucus meetings. They touched on the impeachment inquiry and other legislative ma