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

That should be the basic ingredients of tax reform. First it should be fair to taxpayers of this country. The tax bill enacted two years ago was certainly not fair. It failed in that test. As i pointed out, who benefited . Well, large corporations benefited dramatically by this bill, but they said look, well pass it on to the workers. But did they pass it on to the workers . In 2018, 1. 1 trillion were used to repurchase stock to make the wealthiest even wealthier and did not go to the benefit of the workers. It benefited the greatest on the personal income tax side to the highest income taxpayers. They are the ones who benefited the most. It was not fair to middleclass taxpayers. Secondly, a tax reform bill should be fiscally responsible. After all, we have taxes in order to raise revenue, in order to pay for services so we dont borrow from the future for our children and grandchildren to pay for what were doing today. The administration said that this would be a fiscally responsible bill, so now the verdicts back. 2 trillion added to the national deficit. 2 trillion. It certainly has failed on fiscal responsibility. Corporate taxes have gone down 40 , so weve given a break to corporations at the expense of our deficit. And whos picking up the bill . Middleincome taxpayers. The tax code should be efficient and it should try to make it as simple as possible. No one can argue that the 2017 tax bill has simplified the tax code or has made it more efficient. To the contrary, were now told were going to need a technical corrections because of mistakes that were included in it. I can tell you in talking to many individuals who had plan based upon the tax code that theres so much more uncertainty in the tax code than there was prior to the passage of the 2017 tax bill. Whos going to pick up the tab . Middleincome taxpayers. Let me just give you some examples. The 2017 bill included a limitation on state and local tax deductions. Well, mr. President , let me talk a little bit about the taxpayers of maryland. Almost 50 of maryland taxpayers use the itemized deduction and took the advantage of taking off of their federal taxes what they have paid in state and local taxes, so we dont have a tax on a tax. As a result of the limitations imposed in the 2017, these taxpayers now are no longer able to take the form out or state and local tax deductions. In fact, because of the full changes, maryland, where we had almost 50 taking advantage of itemized deductions, that number is about down to 25 . We lost about half of the filers who cant take any of these deductions today. This is an affront on federalism but it also hurts middleincome taxpayers and is fill philosophically wrong to have a tax on a tax. The verdict is in with maryland taxpayers. The average refunds are down 6 . Refunds are what middleincome taxpayers depend upon, and thats down in our state. It is, has also affected the ability of state and local governments to provide essential services that are important for all citizens but are very much dependent by middleincome families, whether its support for public education, public safety, et cetera. All those are now being stressed because of the restrictions on state and local tax deductions. Let me also talk about middleincome taxpayers, they dont benefit from the Corporate Tax cuts. I already pointed that out. But they were made permanent. The individual tax changes were temporary in nature. Again hurting middleincome families. Lastly, let me point out it was advertised by this administration that it would strengthen our economy. When you take a look at the first six quarters since the passage of the 2017 tax bill, wealthy families and corporations, the god god the Gross Domestic Product has grown far less than predicted. Theres actually been a slight decline, and we havent seen a boost to the economy. Mr. President , there is a better way to do this. This bill ignores Small Businesses. I have the opportunity to be Ranking Member on the Small Business and entrepreneur committee, and weve had many discussions with Small Business leaders who tell us this tax bill actually hurt them, didnt help them, because they dont pay the c rate. They pay the individual rate. And the pass throughs that were put in here dont benefit small companies. So where were talking about helping the driver of our economy, Small Businesses, the tax giveaway two years ago made it even more difficult. A better way is to work in a true bipartisan fashion, engage all members of the congress on both sides of the aisle, and let us truly change our tax code so that middleincome families benefit, that we dont burden future taxpayers by irresponsible changes that are not fully funded, and that we do it in a way in which it will help the growth of our economy. Thats what we should be doing. Missed opportunity two years ago. Its moving the nation in the wrong direction. With that, mr. President , i would suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from montana. Mr. Tester are we in a quorum call . I ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Tester i rise today because too many of our veterans feel they have run out of options when this comes to the scars of war. Niece are folks who have served in defense of our freedoms, who often suffer tremendous invisible wounds of war. I cant tell you the number of times ive heard from men and women in uniform in montana and across this country who feel helpless, they feel as though theyve been abandoned by their own country. And the facts tell us that were not doing enough here in this body to help. The reality is that our country loses as many as 20 active duty or veteran Service Members each and every day due to suicide. Regardless of political party, we can all agree that one life lost to suicide is too many. That is why as Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee ive been working with my colleagues across the aisle, colleagues like senator sullivan, to make sure that our vents have access to the health and care they need. The bill were going to consider shortly, our support for Suicide Prevention act ensures that he would take a comprehensive approach to veterans care. This bill starts biic and addressing staffing needs for v. A. Employees and professionals who are our nations first line of defense when this comes to combating veteran suicide. It is clear that weve got much more to do to prevent the National Health epidemic, and it starts with understanding the scope of the problem. If we dont have the tools in place to take care of these folks when they return home, then we should think twice before we send them in the first place. I would urge the senate to vote for this bill when it comes up, to get it passed out of this body quickly so the president can quickly sign it into law. It is not something to solve our suicide problems among our veterans by itself, but it is certainly one of the tools in the toolbox that can help, that can help folks when they need help. To ensure that no veteran slips through the cracks. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor and i want to thank the senator from alaska for everything hes done to make sure that this bill becomes a reality. Mr. Sullivan mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Mr. Sullivan i want to thank my friend from the great state of montana, senator tester. This is actually a bill that he and i have cosponsored out of the Veterans Affairs committee, and its the companion bill that were going to be bringing over from the house to vote on here in a couple minutes to hopefully get this on the president s desk very soon, to get him to sign it. You know, theres a lot of legislation that focuses on these kind of issues, how do we address this growing problem of suicide in our country but particularly, mr. President , the real tragedy all suicides are tragic, but theres very high numbers of suicides that impact our veterans. My state, the great state of alaska, has more vets per cap that than any state in the country. Were proud of that patriotic passage of the tragically, though, sadly we also have some of the highest suicide rates in america. And so since ive come to this body, have the privilege to serve my fellly alaskans, focusing on suicide has been a very, very important issue for me. Its a very important issue for my constituents. Its a very important issue for america. As a matter of fact, the first bill i cosponsored as a u. S. Senator was called the clay hunt Suicide Prevention act, which was named after a young marine who had a number of deployments and, unfortunately, when he was seeking help couldnt really get it and, unfortunately, this young, brave hero took his own life. So this should be a priority for the senate, and we have been prioritizing the veterans and the members of the military who are in crisis when we draft legislation that tries to address these challenges. But what were doing today, mr. President , is also important, and this bill actually focuses on the people who help our veterans. These are Suicide Prevention coordinators. Theyre specifically trained, specially trained employees at v. A. Medical centers who identify and connect highrisk veterans with the care they need. Across the nation, these v. A. Professionals conduct outreach, promote awareness, disseminate Suicide Prevention best practices. They are literally on the front lines. But, as you can imagine, this isnt an easy job. This is a hard job. And there are reports that many of these prevention coordinators throughout the v. A. System are overworked and unable to keep up with their many responsibilities. So what we are focused on here, mr. President , is that we want to make sure that the people who are helping our veterans are also taken care of, adequately resourced, so they can do the best job in terms of helping our veterans. The v. A. Must have skilled and resourced workforce available, trained to recognize the warning signs of a veteran in crisis and then be able to work with that veteran, hopefully successfully connect them with lifesaving resources before its too late. So that is what the support for Suicide Prevention coordinators act requires. Thats what senator tester and i worked together on to bring this out of the v. A. Committee. And hopefully if we get that right, then it has a positive impact on lessening this high rate of suicide among our veterans. Senator tester mentioned what was in this, but its not just additional resources, but its also a comprehensive study by the g. A. O. To make sure that our coordinators are resourced, have a strategy to make sure they can do their jobs most effectively to impact our veterans. So its an overall look at the v. A. System of preventing veteran suicide with a focus on these frontline coordinators who do really, really important work, theyre not always recognized. For those who are doing that work, i commend you, the senate commends you. And i think were going to have an overwhelming vote here in a couple minutes that will make sure your ability to do this really, really important job for our veterans, for our nation, that youre going to be able to do it better. So, mr. President , i applaud the leadership on both sides of the aisle for bringing this bill to the floor. And i encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation. Lets get it on the president s desk for his signature soon and we can take another step, another step to make sure that we are taking care of our veterans and trying to address this horribly tragic situation where far too many veterans in america are taking their own lives. I yield the floor. Mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Sul i ask unanimous consent that jeffrey catalyst, a navy fellow in senator cruzs office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the congress. The presiding officer without objection. The presiding officer under the previous order, the senate will proceed to legislative session to consider h. R. 2333 which the clerk will report. The clerk h. R. 2333, an act to direct the comptroller general of the United States to conduct an assessment of the responsibility, workload, and vacancy rates of the department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention coordinators, and for other purposes. The presiding officer under the previous order, the bill is considered read a third time and the question is on passage of the bill. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote test test test vote vote the presiding officer have all senators voted . Any senator wish to change their vote . In this vote the yeas are 94, the nays are zero. The bill is passed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive to resume consideration of the vandyke nomination. Mr. Cornyn mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , as all america knows, climbing Health Care Costs continue to keep the American People up at night. A Kaiser Foundation poll in september found that the Number One Health concern of the American People is Prescription Drug pricing, a whopping 70 of those polled think that lowering Prescription Drug costs should be a top priority a top priority for congress. Making it the number one item on our todo list. But our friend and colleague from new york, the minority leader, objected last time i offered unanimous consent to take up and pass a bill, which ill describe here momentarily and i hope given the intervening time and reflection he will not do so today and we can get this bill passed and address this top priority of the American People. The good news is republicans and democrats both agree we need to do something about it. I have the honor of serving on both the finance and judiciary committees where weve been looking into this problem and some of the potential solutions. There are pharmaceutical c. E. O. s who earn big bonuses as sales go up. And im not opposed to them receiving compensation, but pharmacy benefit managers who negotiate backdoor rebates and that drives up costs and thats a problem because of lack of transparency. And what i find very concerning is anticompetitive behavior when it comes to patents by drug manufacturers. There are two practices in particular, legislation i intend to offer in a unanimous consent to address. One is product copying, which happens when a Company Develops reformulation of a company that is about to lose exclusivity. One way to protect the investment and intellectual property of american innovators is to give them exclusivity over the ability to license that intellectual property over the drugs. That encourages people to make those investments and in turn benefits the American People and the world literally by creating new lifesaving drugs, and thats a good thing, but there is a period of exclusivity and after that expires, after that goes away, it opens that particular formulation up to generic competition, meaning the price will almost certainly be much lower and more affordable by the American People. But this issue of product topping is a real is gamesmanship as you can as i will explain. First of all, before the drug loses exclusivity, the manufacturer pulls the drug off the market. This is done not because the new formula is more effective, but it will block generic competitors. The second issue is patent thickening which occurs when pharmaceuticals use patents with identical claims that make it nearly impossible for competitors to enter the market. This is nothing more and nothing less than abuse of our patent system and it is coming at a high cost for patients who rely on affordable drugs. Earlier this year i introduced a bill with our friend and colleague from connecticut, senator blumenthal, who happens to be a democrat who address these anticompetitive behavior. Our bill is called the affordable prescription for patients act and it streamlines the litigation process by limiting the number of patent these companies can use in court. So companies are spending less time in the courtroom and more time innovating more more lifesaving drugs by opening up these drugs and lowering more affordable prices for consumers. This does not stifle innovation. It doesnt limit patients rights and it doesnt cost taxpayers a dime. In fact the Congressional Budget Office estimates it would lower lower federal spending by more than a half billion dollars over ten years. And this is just savings to the federal government for medicare and medicaid. Undoubtedly it would show significant savings for consumers with private Health Insurance as well. Im sure it comes as no surprise then that this legislation passed unanimously out of the judiciary committee. Not a single senator opposed it. But that happened in june. This is december and theres been no Movement Since then. Weve tried to be patient because we know there are other bills coming from the health, education, labor and pension committee, there is a bill coming out of the finance committee, on which the presiding officer and i sit, and my hope would have been to make progress on a larger package, but here we are at the end of the year and there has been no moaft and i think we have been patient, you but there comes a time when patience ceases to be a virtue, particularly when it is something that will benefit the American People. Theres no concerns about the policies laid out in the bill as you can see by some of the comments reflected in this chart. Again, my colleague our colleague the democrat from connecticut, senator blumenthal said this will end abuses in the abuses of patent. Senator durbin, who is the democratic whip, a member of leadership, who said it is it i cosponsored it and i believe it should pass and should become the law of the land. Imagine my surprise when the when the democratic leader objected to a unanimous consent request to pass it a couple of weeks ago. He even went so far as to call this a manipulative charade and a little game, which is strange because it also called it a good bill. His biggest criticism was that it didnt do enough. But, as i pointed out then, if you sit around waiting for the big bill to get passed, nothing happens in the meantime, and its the loss to the American People. So i think its past time for us to take up this legislation and get it passed, get it signed by the president. Our friends in the house of representatives are already passed two bills which put together essentially reflect the same policy. Well, i cant think of any other reason for the democratic leader to object than pure politics. He doesnt want anybody to get a, quote, win that goes for the senator for iowa when shes offered a bill to reauthorize the violence against women act, she happens to be on the ballot in 2020 as well. The only rationale i can possibly think of that the democratic leader would continue to object to these bipartisan consensus bills is that he doesnt want somebody to able to score a point on this side because he feels like that will disadvantage his candidates in the next election and advantage us. You know, theres a time when we have to put those election considerations to the side and focus on making good policy. I happen to believe good policy is good politics. But the truth is our the democratic leader, in objecting to the passage of this legislation, does have one very big and powerful cheerleader behind him, and that is the Drug Companies. The Drug Companies love it when Bipartisan Legislation gets blocked on the senate floor for whatever reason. The truth is they hate this bill and they dont want to see anything done on this issue. And it inadvertently or not the democratic leader seems to be providing them a lot of cover right now. My constituents didnt send me to washington to play these endless games. They sent me here to get results, and thats exactly what i aim to do. So, mr. President , as id ask consent as if in legislative session, the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 132, s. 1416, i ask unanimous consent that the Committee Report substitute be withdrawn and the counteramendment at the desk be agreed to and the and the cornyn amendment be agreed to. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Schumer reserving the right to object. The presiding officer the senator from new york. Mr. Schumer my friend has covered up all that he hasnt done on making drug cost lower. 99 of what the public wants is not being allowed on the floor by his leadership when he was the whip, and now he wants to get well with a bill this small. Open up the floor for debate. Well debate all the big things that really reduce prices of things that people want, and well debate his bill. I object. The presiding officer objection is heard mr. Cornyn mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn i would point out to my friend from new york, im not the leader, the floor manager of legislation. Thats up to senator mcconnell, the senator from kentucky. Obviously because of foot dragging on important things like appropriation bills, usmca, the important trade agreement with canada and mexico, and now the impeachment mania thats consumed the house of representatives, thats crowded out our ability to get other things done. Hence, my loss of patience after waiting since june to get this bill passed. So this isnt a case of me wanting to get well. This is a case of wanting to make the American People well by providing them access to lowcost generic alternative drugs and preventing big pharma from engaging in the sort of gamesmanship that keep drug prices up and keep the American Consumer down. Mr. President , i yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Casey i ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Casey i also ask consent to speak as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I rise this morning this afternoon to talk about a couple of issues. Ill start with health care and also talk about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as another piece of legislation were considering in the next couple of days. Let me start with health care. A lot to talk about here. We dont have time for all of it today, but a number of things happening on the health care front that i think most americans are aware of, but maybe have not heard a lot about recently. I would argue there are three basic threats to health care right now. Not Just Health Care for system system for some, but in large measure health care for all. One is a lawsuit which is being litigated in the fifth Circuit Court of appeals. It its a lawsuit that would wipe out the Affordable Care act, and thats that lawsuit has already prevailed at the District Court level. So its now before the appellate court. If that lawsuit were to prevail, the Affordable Care act i should say by its full name, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act would be declared unconstitutional. That would have ramifications not only for those 20 million who got covered coverage they didnt have before, but also the tens of millions who have protections they never had before the act was passed in 2010. So if you have a preexisting condition, for example, roughly one out of two americans have a preexisting condition, if you have one, you should be very concerned about the result of that lawsuit, the determination of which could be made in a matter of days or weeks. So thats a big threat. Thats the biggest threat to health care for virtually every american, or at least every american family. The second big threat to health care is what the administration has undertaken since day one of the trump administration, and thats the sabotage of the existing system in this regard, especially with respect to the insurance exchanges. What the administration has done is tried to take administrative action, action by agencies under the president s jurisdiction to undermine the exchanges, so how did they do that . Well, they cut the advertising, so when they advertised to say you can shop for a Health Insurance plan on the exchanges, they cut the advertising budget by 90 . They left 10 there. That was, i guess were supposed to be happy with that. So they cut advertising by 90 . Then they started attacking the contracts for navigators. These individuals all across the country that sit with people and say let me help you go through the options you might have, purchasing insurance or changing your insurance plan. For example, right now, were in an open enrollment period. So folks can change your Health Insurance plans until sunday, basically, december 15. It would be nice to have a navigator, an assistant, in a sense, sitting next to you if youre making those decisions about your health care. So threat number one to health care is the lawsuit. Threat number two is the sabotage. Threat number three has not quite played out yet, but i cant i dont know a member of the house and the senate whos in the Republican Caucus in either chamber who is not against the threat the cuts to medicare and medicaid proposed by the administration. Now, i thought it was bad when the administration or i should say House Republicans back in the spring of 2018, i thought it was bad when they proposed a cut of 1 trillion to the Medicaid Program over ten years. That was bad enough. That was dangerous enough. But the administration went further than that. The administrations proposal and i have to say unless its contradicted, the official position of republican members of congress is a tenyear cut to medicaid of 1. 5 trillion. 1. 5 trillion. So that means that the official republican position in congress, unless they say they disagree with the president , i havent heard any member say that yet is that the Medicaid Program should be cut by 150 billion each and every year for ten years. Thats the thats the proposed cut. Thats medicaid. Medicare and by the way, medicaid is the kids disability in nursing home program, for shorthand. Most of the people helped by medicaid are folks in nursing homes, lowincome children, children from lowincome families, and children with disabilities have a substantial stake in this. So when you consider those three threats to health care, the lawsuit, the sabotage, and the budget cut, all are bad news. But then when you start getting into the detail of each, you realize one aspect of this that i wanted to raise today. And thats the adverse impact on children. Were told by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Center for children and families holding up a november 2019 report or summary of a report on the back and the front. I wont read all of it and wont enter it into the record because there is a lot of detail here we probably cant enter into the record. But i would like to read a couple of highlights. First of all the headline and these folks of course have been doing research on childrens Health Insurance for many, many years, spent their lives working on this. The headline reads the number of uninsured children is on the rise, on the rise. So the country that the United States of america which finally decades after passing the Medicaid Program which is a great advancement in childrens Health Insurance, then added to that by the by enactment in the 1990s of the childrens Health Insurance program or had the letter s before it, the schip program which really was adopting programs that had been adopted in my home state of pennsylvania and a few others. So that same country that made a great advancement for Childrens Health with medicaid, tens of millions of kids, then made a greater advancement with the childrens Health Insurance program. Then made even more substantial gains when we passed the Patient Protection Affordable Care act. And drove down substantially the number of uninsured americans. Basically what happened was about 20 Million People got Health Care Coverage in about six years. Not even a decade. About six years 20 Million People got health care. A number of those americans were children. So as we were driving down substantially the uninsured rate, what has happened in the last two years . The uninsured rate is going up. The Census Bureau told us in september uninsured rate going up by two Million People or to be exact, 1. 9 Million People. And a big share of the 1. 9 Million People who are uninsured now, that number going up instead of going down as it had for most of the decade, a lot of those are children. Heres finding number one, our summary of finding number one. In this report by the this georgetown Health Policy Institute Center for children and families, november 2019. By jone alker and lauren ro roy gardner. Finding number one. The number of uninsured children in the United States has increased by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018 bringing the total to over four million children uninsured in the nation. So that same nation which made great advancements by lowering the number of uninsured children is now going in the wrong direction. Finding number two, these coverage logses are widespread with losses are widespread with 15 states showing statistically significant increases. In the number and or the rate of uninsured children. The following states are listed. Alabama, arizona, florida, georgia, idaho, illinois, indiana, missouri, montana, north care care, ohio, tennessee, texas, utah, and West Virginia. So that is significant. Those states are represented in some places by two democratic senators, sometimes one republican senator or two republican senators, and sometimes senators of both parties. So its happening in a widespread fashion. Uninsured rate of children going up. Point number three or finding number three, loss of coverage is most pronounced for white children and latino children, some of which may fall into both categories. The other category where the number is going substantially down is younger children under the age of six. So were not just talking about children losing coverage, were talking about that number being more pronounced for children under the age of six. Children in low to moderateincome families who earn about 180 and 250 of the poverty level, meaning a little more than 29,000 bucks to 53,000 bucks. Annually bucks are my word, not the reports words. 250 of poverty meaning 29,435 to 53,325 annually for a family of three. So these folks who are struggling in a lot of ways, lowincome families trying to climb that ladder to get to the middle class, in many cases working two jobs or three jobs, trying to make ends meet, at least in many cases their children got coverage. Now those same families have children losing coverage. Point number four and last point, states that have not expanded medicaid to parents or other adults under the Affordable Care act have seen increases in their rates in the rate of uninsured children three times as large as states that have. Meaning states that expanded medicaid. So the expansion of medicaid was part of that advancement that i talked about. So, mr. President , the three threats to health care are bad enough. Its especially bad when you consider that the the americans who are carrying the heaviest burden on that uninsured rate going down im sorry, uninsured rate going up are in fact children. Mr. President , second thing i want to raise is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. We had a great effort undertaken in the 2018 farm bill. There were efforts by some to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which we used to know as food stamps. Those efforts fortunately were unsuccessful to cut the program into to knock people off of the snap program. We came together, a bipartisan effort in both house and senate. The president signs it into law just about a year ago, december of 2018. The ink was barely dry on his signature when his administration and the department of agriculture started to think of other ways to do the same thing to snap that they couldnt do by way of legislation. So where are we . Well, we have basically three proposals now over the course of the last year by the administration that would take four Million People out of the snap program. Kick four Million People off the program. Heres what one of those proposals would do. According to the United States department of agricultures own estimates, the proposed changes to one part of snap called categorical eligibility would eliminate millions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and it could also leave nearly one million children without access to free school meals. Mr. President , i dont know about everyone here, but i think thats a step in the wrong direction. The sip mnl nutrition the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is not only important for that family, many of them working families, many of them with a child in the household who needs food assistance, who faces food and security without snap, many of those same families might have a child and an individual with a disability in the same household or one or the other. Thats the snap program. By the way, everyone else in the country benefits when people are spending those snap dollars because when you provide those dollars and folks are buying food, guess what happens . You guessed it. The economy gets a jumpstart from that activity. So this snap program isnt just about the people who are directly benefiting. I think we have an obligation to help them for sure. We all benefit when theres economic activity. There is a more than buck more than a bang for the buck in the snap program. You spend a buck and you get a lot more than a buck in return. Now, this is all in the context of where we are with a lot of families. You know, we hear a lot here hear a lot on the floor of this chamber and im sure on the floor of the other body, the house. We hear a lot about, well, certain people shouldnt get this benefit and they make some make an argument against that. Now, its interesting that in the snap program, for many years now, not just for the last couple of years, for many years now the payment error rate in that program has been way down, at the lowest levels ever. Why . Because of good efforts to detect fraud and also Technology Allows payments to be tracked. So the payment error rate is at its lowest level ever and yet you still have efforts undertaken to knock people out of the program. That is not just insulting but is very dangerous to peoples lives. So i hope the administration and i hope members of the senate would tell the administration to back off those proposals. That have been undertaken to knock literally if you had the effect of all three proposals to knock four Million People off of the program, many of them children as well. Now this all happens in the context of those Health Care Issues that i raised before. The same child or the same family that might have their snap benefit, cut or benefits cut or taken away might be the same family thats losing their coverage because of proposed cuts to medicaid and medicare or because of the uninsured rate going way up in the country that was driving it way down. So both are happening at the same time. Mr. President , i would ask now consent to have this set of remarks appear in a separate part of the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I just want to raise another issue today and then ill conclude. This is about coal miners across the country but in particular a couple of states like my home state of pennsylvania. I know this is true of kentucky and virginia and West Virginia just to name several or i should say the main states that were talking about here. The bipartisan american miners act of 2019. This is senate bill 2788. I know that senator manchin and others have spoken about this. Were trying to get this legislation or some version of this passed by the end of this year. And i wont go through all the details of the legislation, but it attempts to help both on the miners pension issue and these are obviously retired coal miners as well as the health care for those same those same miners, those same families. Just make a comment about what this means. Those same families, many of those same families i should say had to wait way too long, several years before this body acted to provide a measure of relief to some of those retirees retired miners on health care. But the job isnt done yet on health care but even more so on pensions. The point ive always made here is our government made a promise to them decades ago. In fact, it was the time when president truman was in office in the late 19 40es. We made 1940s. We made a promise to coal miners at that time. In that whole intervening time period, those decades, they kept their promises. Many of them were sent overseas to fight in wars from world war ii to korea to vietnam and beyond. So they kept their promise to their country by fighting for their country. They kept their promise to their employer by going to work every day in the most dangerous job in the world likely. Im not sure theres one thats more dangerous. They kept their promise to their families to go to work and to support them. Sometimes on that one income of a coal miner. In my home area of northeastern pennsylvania, the novel Stephen Crane known for the red badge of courage but what hes not known for as much is an essay he wrote about coal mining in the late 18930s to be exact. He described all the ways a coal miner come die in a coal mine. He described the coal mine is a place of unscrutable darkness, a soundless place of tangible loneliness. And then walk through the ways a miner could die. Now i know weve advanced from the 1890s. Thank god we have. But there are still coal miners in the recent history of this country who have lost their lives and all theyve asked us to do they havent asked us to come up with some new fancy plan for them and their families. All theyve asked us to do is fofor to have this government, e executive branch and the legislative branch, to keep the promise to coal miners and their families with regard to health care and pensions. Both of those parts of our policy are promises. So when we work on this between now and the end of the year to try to find a solution, we will be only meeting that basic obligation of keeping our promise to retired coal miners and their families, like they kept their promise to their country. Mr. President , i would yield the floor. Mr. Moran mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from kansas. Mr. Moran first of all, i ask unanimous consent that kelly mcmanus, a military fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges through the end of the congress. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Moran thank you, mr. President. Today i want to take a moment to recognize the contributions of kelly. As i indicated, she is a member of my staff. Shes u. S. Army major kelly mcmanus, who has spent last year working in my personal office as part of the United States Army Congressional fellowship program. Before kelly departs my office here at the end of the year to return to the big army, i rise to express my appreciation to major to the major for all of her hard work and dedication in service to our nation. Kellys ten years of service in the United States army has developed their leadership abilities and shaped her perspective on major defense issues of national significance. These assets and attributes have made her an invaluable astoat our team as we work to serve kansans, Service Members and veterans. Before joining our office, kellys assignments have taken her around the world in service to our country. She deployed to both iraq and kuwait in support of operations new dawn and spartan shield from 23011 through 2012. Served as the medical planner forethe nato headquarters in turkey and reported to weisbaden, germany, to serve on the command. Kelly has also served stateside leading her detachment through fort dix new jersey, and commanded a medical company at joint base louismccord in washington state. Kelly joined our team in january 2018. From day one she embraced kansas and its people and the challenges they faced day in and day out. She visited our military installations and talked with soldiers and airmen. She learned from the kansas people so she could bring their thoughts and ideas back to the nations capital. These personal conversations with kansans and her experience in the army have helped drive meaningful policy. Sheols a led our efforts to secure Maternity Leave for those serving in the National Guard and reserve after taking after talking with an expectant mother in the kansas National Guard. She has also sought to increase access to Suicide Prevention programs and destigmatize the notions surrounding mental illness. Her experiences serving in uniform have been instrumental to my efforts to support our veterans. Over the past year, i have continually been impressed by her leadership and professionalism. She has proven herself to be a fully integrated member of my team, carrying the equal weight and responsibility of my personal staff. Her Seamless Communications and skill in tackling issues big and small have been a great benefit to our office and to the people that we serve. Kelly has exceeded all of my expectations and has demonstrated a commitment to excellence that has been nothing short of outstanding. A testament to her he were to over the past year was a testament to her leadership over the past year was her promotion to major in july. It was my honor to be part of her promotion ceremony and pin her new and deserving rank on her uniform. It will be sad when she leaves at the end of the month, but i know she will serve the army well next year in the army budget lydon office. Kelly is one of the impressive military officers i have had the opportunity to know and i hold her in the highest regard personally and professionally. She is a significant asset to our country and to the United States army. Kelly represents the best that the army has to offer, and i know she will continue to be of benefit to the future of our nation. There is no group of people i hold in higher regard than those who serve our nation. I want to reiterate my gratitude to kelly. Once again, thank you, kelly, foreall you have done for kansans this year and what you will continue to do for our nation. You have been a model of Selfless Service and leadership. I know you will continue to do great things throughout your army career and your life of service wherever that path may lead you. Mr. President , thank you. I yield the floor. Mr. Moran i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Grassley mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask that the calling a of the quorum please be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley i cam to the floor today to pay i come to the floor today to pay tribute to an extraordinary iowan with whom i shared a decadelong friendship with, a very prominent democrat from my state. Over this past weekend, former iowa congressman berkeley bidell passed away. For nearly a century of life, berkeley took his grandmothers advice to heart. Quote, you can do almost anything within reason if you will only set your mind to it, end of quote. From an early age, berkeley bidell set his mind to a High Standard of achievement. He set an example for the rest of us. He practiced what he preached. And he made a difference in this world. As a child raised during the great depression, berkeley became a soldier in the u. S. Army. Obviously, a world war ii veteran, an entrepreneur and job creator, a philanthropist, a policy influencer, and, most of all, a devoted husband and father. What i left out is how i got acquainted with him. He was a fellow member of the house of representatives during my early years and for some time after i came to the United States senate. Our decadeslong friendship began when berkeley and i were elected to serve iowans in the u. S. House of representatives. That was in 1974. Soon after the orientation for new members, barbara and i developed a close relationship with eleanor and berkeley. This friendship remained for the next 45 years. Now, looking back, those were lonely days for a freshman Republican House member. Thats when the watergate scandal upended midterm elections. Voters elected 92 house 91 new house members to that congress, and i happened to be the only republican in the iowa congressional delegation. Among our socalled watergate class of is the 74, i was joined by iowans tom harkin, michael bluwan and berkeley bidell. We were all freshman members of the congress. We joined then with more senior members from the state of iowa. Kneel smith who went 0en to serve 36 years in the house and ed mivinsky. Senators