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

Were grawded and defrauded and relieved of some of all of our student debt. 220,000 student borrowers are waiting for betsy devos to do something but they havent done anything except for them having to be harder to prove it. Each of these students are supposed to get their own lawyer, their own investigator and prove the fraud. Is that reasonable for a young student carrying a student debt whos been defrauded to have that responsibility . Secretary devos thinks yes. I think no. And thats what this vote is all about. Who agrees about my with my position on this issue . Most of the advocates for students, but also the Veterans Organization across america led by the american legion. They are supporting our effort now, under this congressional review act, to do away with the new education secretary rule. They say it is unfair to veterans and it is it and unfair to student borrowers. Bill oxford called the rule that were going to get a chance to rule on after the debate fundamentally rigged against defrauded borrowers. Hes speaking on behalf of veterans. He could be speaking on behalf of young men and women across america who have been misled by these schools over and over again. The Bipartisan Center action, naacp, third way, 20 associate attorneys general and others have joined me to have this rule overturned. Today the senate has a chance to show the country that we can come together and do the right things for students and veterans. How many times have we given speeches about how much we care about veterans . Heres a chance to vote with the veterans, those especially who have been defrauded out of their g. I. Bill of rights. How many times have people told us, these student debts are too much, they are ruining kids lives. Give them a chance. Im not for forgiving all loans to all students, but these students have been defrauded. They should have an opportunity to start life again and not burdened with a debt that will make their liesm impossible. I hope life impossible. I hope my colleagues will join me. Regardless of what you think of the 2016 rule, we can do better than what secretary devos has come up with. Mr. President , i understand ive been advised that were not quite ready for my request of the chair and so i will say a couple of more words on the subject. I moved it along quickly but didnt have to. Under the new betsy devos rule, it turns out that of the 100 of students who were asking for leaf being defrauded, under her rule an estimate is 3 3 will be successful. 97 of these students will not have their opportunity to get this leaf. One relief. One of my colleagues who i respect very much came to the floor here and said, if your car is a lemon, the senator said, you dont sue the bank, you sue the dealer. A college can be a lemon just like a car can be. Well, in his scenario the school is the dealer and the department of education is the bank, but the case that hes making for students who are defrauded by a school sold a lemon of an education, we should go after the offending school. Wouldnt that sound right if the school defrauded you, you should be able to go after them. It turns out the rule that secretary devos promulgated ties the hands of those going after the school. You cant take them to court. It eliminates class actions so students from the same school, like Corinthian College that went bankrupt keefnt come together as a class cant even come together as a class. You have to lawyer up individually. You have to get ready to fight in court or some room thats been set aside where the forprofit school, department of education, is going to argue against you. Is that we what what we want to say to these students who had a bad College Experience and want to get on with their lives and that these forprofit colleges didnt transfer anywhere and that these this did not lead to a job. The question is, are we going to stand up for the students, many of whom are veterans or are we going to stand up for the schools that have been affected by this. I am at this point going to ask that we at least i dont know if the paperwork is ready yet or not. It is not . I suggest a quorum. The presiding officer then the clerk should call the roll. Quorum call mr. Durbin mr. President. The presiding officer the assistant democratic leader. Mr. Durbin i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Durbin i understand there is a discharge position at the desk for Senate Joint Resolution 56 signed by at least 30 senators which will cause the joint resolution to be discharged under the congressional review act, is that correct . Yes, it is. Mr. Durbin i move to the joint under chapter 8, title 5 of the u. S. Code relating to borrower defense institutional accountability. The presiding officer the question is on the motion to proceed. Mr. Durbin i ask for the yeas and nays. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. There is. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 55, the nays are 41. The motion is agreed the clerk will report. The clerk 439, s. J. Res. 56, joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States code, and so forth. Mr. Wicker madam president . The presiding officer the senator from mississippi. Mr. Wicker i rise tonight in support of the broadband data act and in a moment i will make a unanimous consent request with regard to that legislation. This bill will ensure that the federal Election Commission has the most broadband accurate coverage maps in the world today to deploy 5g networks. As you know, we are in a race to win that race globally and i think we can still do it. In december the Senate Unanimously passed this measure, s. 1822, but because the house passed a slightly amended version last week, we need to act again to get this bill across the finish line. We have a Digital Divide in this country which threatens to leave Rural America behind, and weve done a lot to address that divide. However, an estimated 20 million Americans Still lack access to broadband. Americans, like those in arizona or mississippi or other states across our heartland. Every year the f. E. C. Spends billions of years to promote deployment of broadband across the United States. S. 1822 will result in highly detailed and accurate maps so that the f. E. C. Can direct support to areas most in need. This legislation represents extensive negotiation and work on a bipartisan basis for which i congratulate this senate and in a bicameral basis. My hat is off to my colleagues in the other body and thanks to all the staff whove helped on both sides of the aisle. And so, madam president , i ask the chair lay before the senate the message to accompany s. 1822. The presiding officer the chair lays before the senate the following message from the house. The clerk resolve, that the bill from the senate, s. 1822, entitled an act to require the federal Communications Commission to issue rules related to the collection of data with respect to the availability of Broadband Services and for other purposes do pass with an amendment. Mr. Wicker and now, i move to concur in the house amendment and i ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be considered laid made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection, so ordered. Mr. Wicker thank you, madam president. The presiding officer the senator from from ohio. Mr. Braun thank you, madam president. I want to thank my colleague, senator let me start again. I want to thank my colleague, senator durbin, for leading efforts this week to undo betsy devos harmful rollback of protections for millions of americans with loans ripped off by shady forprofit colleges. This is an example where the senate stood up to the president , stood up to the billionaire secretary of education Whose Mission in that job is to privatize and turn big privatize Public Education and turn profits for her and her friends and her allies, and this senate bipartisanly stood up to her, stood up to the president , stood up to the majority leader and did the right thing. Weve seen these forprofit colleges in ohio, schools like corinthian and i. T. T. They make big promises with fake this is the time the word fake is accurate. They make big promises with fake or deceptive job placement rates. They trick students into taking out huge loans only to close up shop and leave them with meaningless degrees or, worse yet, just credits but always mountains of debt. These are people trying to get an education, to improve their job prospects. To build a better life. Too often these predatory schools target black and black students, latino students, lowincome students, firstgeneration College Students. Many of them are veterans returning from serving our country starting in and looking to start a new career. These forprofit colleges are willing to exploit people who have taken out loans to go there, who are veterans. Sometimes they go to school, they serve their country, they come back, they go to school. And theyre willing to take advantage of them. These forprofit schools, its all about lining the pocket of their c. E. O. s. We need to stand with defrauded student borrowers. We need to hold these forprofit schools accountable. But of course weve learned not to hold our breath when it comes to the Trump Administration holding anyone accountable. At least holding anyone rich and powerful accountable. Instead of figuring out how to provide relief for students, secretary devos, betsy devos went to work figuring out how to let the schools that scammed them off the hook. 300,000 people submitted borrower defense claims as of last december. More than 200,000 of those requests are still pending. More than 7700 ohioans, 7,700 people in my state are waiting for relief. In 2016, the Obama Administration announced a rule to help these students get their loans canceled, but, madam president , the Devos Department of education, the Trump Department of education dragged its feet on processing borrower defense claims, they rewrote the rule to make it damn near impossible for defrauded students to get the relief they were promised. They were throwing up hurdle after hurdle, narrow time limits, making students gather all kinds of unnecessary paperwork, banning students from appealing a decision. Devos rule opens up the schools for schools to once again use mandatory arbitration. Im not a lawyer, but i know from seeing this done to far too many of my constituents, its legal fine print that forprofit schools sneak into their enrollment agreements that deny students their day in court. Students dont know they are part of these agreements. They lose their day in court. I hear from ohioans all the time who have been scammed by these schools. Tasha burkeholder came to washington last month to bring attention to this important issue. She is an army veteran. She served our country with honor. She is a mother of four. She returned home. She wanted to do forensics with the f. B. I. , so she enrolled in i. T. T. s criminal justice program. She didnt think of it as a forprofit school. She didnt know she was about to get scammed. She had served our country, she wanted to serve our country further. She went to this forprofit school. I. T. T. Told her that her g. I. Benefits would cover the full tuition and they would help her get a job after graduation. When she began to suspect the program wasnt the highquality education that it claimed and tried to transfer, she found out that no other schools, no other legitimate schools would accept her i. T. T. Credits. The supposedly hightech school was using outdated books. Faced with a choice of continuing at i. T. T. Or starting completely over, she finished her degree. She ended up 100,000 in debt. Remember, madam president , i. T. T. Told her the g. I. Bill would cover everything. Well, except for 100,000. She ended up 100,000 in debt with a degree that unfortunately employers didnt take seriously. Those are the people that secretary devos, those are the people that President Trump with his own Trump University want to take over our Higher Education system. Now she has lost her shot at using the g. I. Benefit she earned, she is drowning in debt. Ms. Burkeholder and other student veterans defrauded by shady schools deserve better than the treatment they are getting under betsy devos. Not only is betsy devos refusing to help, her new borrower defense rule will let other forprofit colleges continue to run the same scams on other students and student veterans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is supposed to crack down on these schools and Loan Servicing companies that handle peoples Student Loans. Thats why we created the cfpb to look out for people like miss burkeholder. But under President Trump, under betsy devos, they refused to let the cfpb look into Loan Services that are scamming students. I asked the cfpb director today about this. We have been asking her for a year to take this over and make it work. She continues to yield to her billionaire billionaire friend in the cabinet, secretary devos, who is a billionaire friend of the billionaire president , and continues has no interest in making them accountable. President trumps cfpb director is rolling over, refusing to do her job, protecting the tens of millions of americans with Student Loans. It comes back, madam president , always to whose side are you on . Are you going to stand with student veterans or are you going to stand with these forprofit c. E. O. s, these c. E. O. s of forprofit schools that are literally making a Million Dollars a year . Are you going to fight for defrauded americans saddled with Student Loans or the shady schools ripping them off . Its pretty clear with whom President Trump and betsy devos are standing. Over and over and over, President Trumps administration betrayed the people he promised to fight for. Im glad my colleagues stood up today. It was a bipartisan victory. It said to President Trump and betsy devos and majority leader mcconnell that that kind of fraud, that kind of exploitation is something that we will no longer accept. To our veterans, to other students who were defrauded by these forprofit colleges. Madam president , i ask that the following remarks be at a different point in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. I rise to honor a leader in the fight for justice, a great ohioan who we lost last month, judge Nathaniel Jones. At a ceremony dedicating the federal courthouse in honor of judge jones in 2003, former congressman louis stokes said that the courthouse served as a testament to the Outstanding Public Service by a local who made good. Judge jones certainly was that. Born in youngstown in 1926, he served a country that did not yet recognize his full legal equality. He served his country in world war ii. He went on first to be a journalist, to work for youngstown and to work for the youngstown newspaper. He covered Jackie Robinson when Jackie Robinson played in aaa and game a friend of his. He went on to become a respected lawyer, a federal judge, an International Civil and human rights advocate. He was a local who made good but more importantly, he was a man who did good. He committed his life to the pursuit of justice and equality. Were all the better for it. He led efforts to end employment discrimination as the executive director for the fair Employment Practices commission. The first African American u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of ohio, he served as assistant general counsel for president johnsons kerner commission. That commission issued a landmark report warning that racism and poverty were the root causes of violence in our nations cities during the 1960s. As general counsel for the aacp, judge jones directed efforts to fight discrimination faced by African American soldiers and worked to desegregate Public Schools in the north, stepping in personally to argue several cases. He was confirmed in 1979, nominated by president carter to the sixth Circuit Court of appeals, one of only 39 African Americans to ever serve on the federal circuit. As a judge, he felt it was his duty to be an instrument of change in a system that too often denied justice to people with color. Many of the cases that came before the court, he so often sided with those taking on powerful interests in fighting for their rights, something we see far too little of in this body and in this government. In south africa began to move beyond the dark days of apartheid and have a future of inclusion and equality, judge jones was called to help draft the countrys new constitution. Cincinnati, which he called home for some 45 years, the footprints of his good work can be seen across the city. Some of my some of my favorite times were sitting in judge jones office and listening to him tell about his days as a reporter, snowing Jackie Robinson, talking about his days at the naacp, talking about his beliefs in justice and his passion for fair play. He was one of the early supporters of the National Underground Railroad Freedom center. He mentored numerous Young Lawyers who served as his law clerks. He offered his assistance to local leaders seeking to address the lingering stigma of racism. Still far too present in our society. Judge jones was a brilliant legal thinker. Hes a dogged advocate for civil rights, a wonderful husband and a father. Im privileged to know well stephanie, his daughter, who worked for worked in the house of representatives some years ago. Hes a good friend he was a good friend, and he was a mentor to so many. He was also relentless optimist who never, never ceased to believe in the promise of our great country. The legacy of judge Nathaniel Jones will live on through hits farreaching work for justice and through the many, many lives he touched. I yield the floor. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Portman i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Portman madam president , my colleague from ohio just spoke about nathaniel r. Jones whrofs a Circuit Court judge, sixth Circuit Court of appeals in cincinnati and had a distinguished career as a judge, but a long distinguished career as a true champion of civil rights, going back to the 1960s and was also general counsel tow naacp when landmark cases were decided. I happened to have had privilege of getting to know him over the years and considered him a dear friend. We have a resolution that passed the United States Senate Last Month with regard to judge jones, and im pleased to join my colleague, sherrod brown, today in paying tribute again to nathaniel r. Jones. That resolution is now in the congressional record and there for the ages for all of us to be able to understand the importance of the work he did and for future generations, then to understand the importance of the march to freedom that he represented. Im also here on the floor today to highlight the introduction of landmark new legislation called the Great American outdoors act. Its to ensure that some of our countrys greatest resources and our greatest treasures, including our National Parks, are taken care of for generations to come. Im proud to help lead the introduction of this bill along with my colleagues senators gardner, manchin, daines, warner and king. I also want to thank President Trump and his Administration First for President Trumps support of the restore our parks act which is part of this legislation over the past few years, but also for their support of this broader legislation, the Great American outdoors act. In the spirit of president Teddy Roosevelt over 100 years ago, federal Land Management agencies like the National Park service, u. S. Forest service, the bureau of Land Management and others worked to designate and preserve some of the most beautiful and historic parks of our country. Those lands, of course, include what we all know about our National Parks, yosemite, yellowstone, some of the great ones, glacier; but also modest sites like the boyhood home of president taft in my home state of ohio. In all, the National Park service and its systems includes more than 84 million acres of parks and historical sites that now attract 330 million visitors annually. Thats a record, more people are going to the park than ever. Thats great. The concern is when they get to the parks, sometimes the parks arent working for them because of the huge infrastructure needs and the deferred maintenance problems. We have eight of these National Parks in ohio, including the cuyahoga valley National Park which is our largest single park, and it actually is the 13thmost visited National Park in the country. Its a great park, whether its biking or hiking or fishing or kayaking, im one of those 2. 7 million visitors to cuyahoga valley National Park and ohio National Parks every year. I want to be sure these public lands are preserved so more americans can visit these incredible sites into the future. Going back to my days as the director of the office of management and budget in the george w. Bush administration about a dozen years, ive taken the lead in figuring out ways to help our National Parks sites throughout the country. At that time we proposed in the Bush Administration a is a centennial bill. It was to get more public and private agencies involved in the park. President bush very supportive of this effort as was the office of management and budget. After my time in the Bush Administration i was a member of the Centennial Commission on the National Parks and here in the senate im the augusta of whatf whats the Service Centennial act signed into law on august 16 on the 100th anniversary to establish the Centennial Challenge Fund. That Centennial Challenge Fund has done pretty well, 113 million has been appropriated but its been leveraged by an additional 147 million from the private sector. So its worked exactly as we intended it to. In fact even better. Its more than a onetoone match, the notion being you put a challenge fund out there saying if you care about the parks, the taxpayers will put in some money but we hope the private sector will match it. We established the centennial endowment at whats called the National Parks foundation. This endowment is intended to Fund Projects to address things like deferred maintenance at our parks. Separately, that centennial endowment has now 31. 5 million in it. We know theres more work to do, though, to protect our National Lands to ensure theyre going to be there for the future to enjoy. The Great American outdoors act will help us in moving forward with this mission. First, it will fund the land and Water Conservation fund, a 900 million initiative. Land Water Conservation fund provides resources to state and local governments as well as the federal government to acquire land and water so that they can be protected. Often this is your city park back home. Sometimes its neighborhood land. Sometimes its land that connects to a National Park or national forest. Sometimes theres a checkerboard pattern of private ownership and Public Ownership that connects those together for existing public land. Land and Water Conservation fund has been successful over the years since creation in 1965. Over 330 million in l. C. F. Funding has gone to that as an example and ensuring be recreation access to those lands. The second part of this legislation is along with the lwcf, the Great American outdoors act includes our bipartisan parks act. I. D. s called the restore our its called the restore our parks act. As i said, the parks and public lands are some of our greatest treasures in this country. The problem is that over time weve allowed this maintenance backlog to build up meaning a lot of buildings infrastructure, roads, bridges, Water Systems are deteriorating to the point that a lot of them are completely unusable. Again, great a lot of folks are going to the parks. When they get there sometimes the trails are closed, bathrooms are not working. Its time for us to put funding into these expenses that are deferred maintenance. Some would call them perhaps capital expenses. Why has this happened . Well, because although every year we appropriate funding for the parks, the funding is for the operations of the park, for the nature programs, for the rangers, for just the daytoday activities. Not for these infrastructure or capital expenses or what we call deferred maintenance. Ive seen this firsthand in ohio where theres more than a 100 million backlog in long delayed maintenance project at our eight National Park sites. Last fall i was at the cuyahoga valley National Park. I go there frequently. Its a great park but it needs more than 15 million in repairs, badly. The renovations for shelters, for parking lots, for a bridge that is dangerous to cross, Railroad Tracks. There is a Scenic Railroad that runs through the park but the Railroad Track is in such bad repair that its dangerous or would be soon to go on that scenic railway. Trails have been falling apart because of erosion. And they dont have enough money to do it. Let me give you an example. The cuyahoga National Park has about a 1 1 million budget every year. The taxpayers come to us in congress and say lets fund our parks. We fund the parks for daily operations, 11 million goes to cuyahoga National Park. Its a great park, a lot of visitors. Its sort of a suburban, in some places almost an urban park. Its what we need more of. A lot of kids access it, a lot of schoolkids. Deferred maintenance is over 50 million. 11 million a year, how do you pay for that deferred maintenance . Thats been the challenge. Elsewhere in the state ive toured the peace memorial. This is on puton bay, a famous spot for recreation. The historical part of it is perrys victory monument established to honor those who fought in the battle of lake erie in the washing of 18 in the war of 1812. Its an important historical marker. There i saw some of the 48 million in long delayed maintenance needs at the site which includes millions in needed repairs to fix a concrete seawall that is literally crumbling. High water level at lake erie has been part of the problem. Part of the problem is its old. There are sink holes around it, not allowed it to go near the sink hole or near the lake. The Visitors Center needs significant updaidz and need to be made a. D. A. Accessible. They downed have the funds to do that. In that case youve got a 48 million price tag to do these maintenance repairs. Their annual budget is minuscule because its a small park. Its a monument with a small Visitors Center and yet theyve got this huge expense. Ive been to the hope well Culture National historical park in chillicothe to see mounds from the native americans who were there. Again, though i also saw there about p 3. 5 3. 5 million in unmet maintenance needs. Parks have a lot of issues. Over time they build up. Thats a huge problem for us. In a way its kind of like being a homeowner. If you allow deferred maintenance to build up, if you dont take care of the roof, what happens . Your dry wall gets wet and you have mold in the dry wall. Then the floor starts to buckle. But for being able to fix that roof, you have all kinds of other problems. Thats whats been happening in our parks. Partisan costs keep mounting up. The costs keep mounting up. The total backlog in parks is believed to be over 12 billion. We require the parks to keep these lists, what are the most urgent needs . We have good data on this one and we know its over 12 billion. Its a compounding problem. If you dont fix it, it gets worse and worse and worse which only increases the cost to taxpayers. The longer we wait to address these maintenance needs, not fixing the hole in the roof creates other costs for taxpayers. I like this legislation because essentially its saying these are debts unpaid. This is work that should have been done previously. Lets find a Funding Source thats appropriate to that. I think the Funding Source we found is the right one which is the on and offshore oil and gas revenues. Instead of going into the u. S. Government, some of these are going to be diverted to go to our National Parks, again, to pay for expenses that have been there for years that we should have paid for earlier but just dont have the method and the ability to pay for those kinds of capital expenses or those kinds of deferred maintenance projects and the annual budget. So thats why we need to address this problem and a problem that is growing. We dont want it to get worse. Again, it comes at a time when visitation is pretty good. From 2016, 2006 to 2017 annual visitation increased. Over 330 Million People visiting the parks last year. It put more pressure on the parks and deferred maintenance. The challenges of keeping of with it stretched not just the parks but the forest service, fish and wildlife refuges, other department of interior land. We have more issues now because so many of these lands have been using bandaids to kind of get through it. Again, that doesnt deal with the underlying issue. So the costs are mounting. We initially introduced this commonsense solution to just deal with the parks which again have reached over 12 billion. Since then weve worked with our colleagues on the other side of the capitol who included these other lands, and also with the administration to include funding for other Land Management agencies that also have deferred p maintenance issues. Again, the forest service, the b. L. M. Land at the department of interior, fish and wildlife and some bureau of Indian Affairs lands. The legislation before us creates the Legacy Restoration fund which will provide this 1. 9 billion per year for five years from unobligated on and offshore energy revenue. This is royalties from that energy which is actually increasing as we do more exploration. Its a total over five years, 1. 9 billion a year of 9. 5 billion to be divided across the National Park service which gets the bulk of it but also the forest service, wildlife refuge and bureau of Indian Affairs. It addresses only the priority needs because thats not enough to take care of all the needs. But the way the parks have analyzed this, they have priority needs of about 6. 5, as an example out of the 12 billion. All of those needs can be met out of this funding. Its not all thats needed but its a really important bill to do this for these five years to ensure that we can indeed have these treasures continue to be places where visitors can come from around the world, from around the country, from the Cleveland City schools right next to the cuyahoga valley National Park and enjoy the majesty of our public lands. I want to thank my colleagues again, senators gardner, manchin, daines for this work in helping to put this final package together. I want to thank the restore our parks act colleagues who have been at this for a long time, four or five years, senator warner and myself, senator alexander, senator king. Id like to once again thank President Trump for his strong support of restore our parks act over the past few years and now of this new product thats come together. He understands the need to protect the Natural Beauty of our public lands. The Great American outdoors act to me is the next step in carrying out Teddy Roosevelts legacy. Teddy roosevelts mission of protecting the environment for future generations. I look forward to the ability to debate this on the floor of the United States senate the week after next and then to pass it with a strong bipartisan vote and send it to the president for his signature to ensure that this landmark legislation, this historic legislation can be enacted into law. Thank you, madam president. The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Carper madam president , i rise this afternoon this evening, rather. I rise this evening to discuss the National Environmental policy act of 1969, which is oftentimes referred to as the magna carta of environmental laws. When i think of our nations most illustrious documents, im reminded of americans aspirations, im reminded of our declaration of independence and its embrace of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Im also reminded of our constitution. Delaware is known as the first state because we were the first state to ratify the constitution, september 7, 1877. Our constitution is the most replicated and enduring constitution in the history of the world. Its not entirely unlike a more recent expressions of americas values and Guiding Principles like the National Environmental policy act of 1969 or nepa. Nepa has served as one of our bedrock environmental laws for a half century now. According to its six pages of statute, nepas includes effort which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and stimulate the health and welfare of men. Close quote. Nepa enshrines democracy by giving the American People a voice to help decide the fate of federal decisions. For 50 years nepa has sought to ensure environmental protection, Public Health, and the notion that the American People have a say in federal decisionmaking. Like our constitution, nepa is one of our nations most enduring and replicated laws. Same principle of democracy and citizen participation that enshrines our constitution are also enshrined in nepa. We made changes to our constitution over the years but those changes were made rarely and with great forethought. However, just 60 days ago, the Trump Administration proposed a rule that would fundamentally change the nepa regulations for the first time in its 50year history. Earlier this month i testified at the council of Environmental Quality public hearing in washington, d. C. There i stated that unlike the Ten Commandments the nepa regulations are not written in stone. I understand that. In 1978 there was broad consensus to finalize the nepa regulations. We had the same concerns to update the nepa provisions. I said if something isnt perfect, lets make it better. Thats reason that nepa is one of the most imitated environmental laws on this planet. Its had a lot of success. So any changes to the implementing regulations of this bedrock law, let alone such substantial changes proposed by the council on Environmental Quality to nepa regulations require careful thought, meticulous deliberation and partisanship. Consequential changes should be made rarely and with great forethought. Speaking of a bipartisanship, one of our nominees before the environment and Public Works Committee last year nominated for a senior position in the department of interior said these words, he said Bipartisan Solutions are lasting solutions. Thats what he said. Hes a republican from wyoming. He said Bipartisan Solutions are lasting solutions. Nepa was signed into law 50 years ago by a republican president , richard nixon. Nepa was passed in this body by a bipartisan majority. Nepa was passed in the house by a bipartisan majority. And the reason why its still alive and well and functioning, protecting our environment is because its a bipartisan solution and its helped make it a lasting solution. So any changes any changes to the implementing regulations of this bedrock law, let alone the kind of changes sought by c. E. Q. , require a lot more careful thought and deliberation and bipartisanship. C. E. Q. Simply has not aimed to address the needs of all stakeholders. Witness the universal opposition of the environmental community, nepas most consistent constituency, council of environment and quality has touted that this proposal, their proposal is a way to, quote, modernize nepa. However, the proposal is instead an inbeing inacronym back toa time when it disconnected communities before nepa was enacted in 1970. This puts aside any front severe that comes with eliminating the requirement to consider Environmental Impacts. Taking away that requirement is, again, creating a new nepa mandate that would exclude the impact to air quality or Water Quality from a proposed action. Simply put, it makes no sense. Not only is removing these requirements a bad idea for Public Health and for our environment, but doing so will end up costing taxpayers more when projects arent built to be resilient and as a result taxpayer investments are quite literally washed away by the next big storm or flood. This proposal gives the fox the keys to the henhouse by allowing companies to write their own Environmental Impact statements. Think about that. By allowing companies to write their own Environmental Impact statements. Thats a little bit like offering students selfgraded takehome exams. This proposal also creates loopholes to avoid Environmental Review and public input which is especially harmful to Environmental Justice communities that are often the targets of Industrial Investments in projects. I take no joy in saying this. But the proposal before us is one that is, sadly, my ontic and mi ontic and ideologically driven. I call on c. E. Q. To withdraw this motion. Along with the policy, i must mention c. E. Q. To refuse to open this rulemaking to the public that is commensurate with its gravity and scoop. In rebuttal to repeated concerns to members of congress and literally hundreds of state holder organizations, c. E. Q. Stated that it is, and i quote again, engaging an extensive Public Outreach including through requests for Public Comments two hearings and other outreach, close quote. Two hearings in the whole country in the whole country. Just last week with only three full Business Days prior to the close of the comment period, c. E. Q. Finally told 1666 other members 166 other members of congress and me that it would refuse to extend the comment period, thus providing the public as little opportunity as possible to have their voices heard. Though c. E. Q. s reply and its Public Statement makes clear that c. E. Q. Somehow deserves extra credit for allowing the public to participate in this rulemaking. Public involvement means not only an opportunity to comment, it means taking those comments seriously by c. E. Q. Enacting them. Let me be clear. Neither this c. E. Q. Nor any Council Environmental quality gets extra celt for extra credit for the mere act of Public Comments on the bedrock of environmental law. They do not deserve extra credit for only allowing 60 days to review and comoant on this massive environmental rollback. They do not get extra credit for only two hearings in the entire country to receive public comment. At these hearing the public needed a ticket and only got three minutes to speak. Think about that. Three minutes. For a laws that been around for a half century, their basic bedrock environmental law, three minutes. Constraining comments to just a couple of minutes, the idea of requiring tibts as if tickets as if it is some kind of prize to participate in something that should be the norm. And to engage a single speaker in denver or washington, d. C. Think about that, not engaging even one speaker in the two places where the public actually had an opportunity to comment, not one. That doesnt constitute an open process, not where i come from, and i think it probably does it for most other folks as well. It doesnt come close. What we have here is a clear i sign that c. Q. Is limiting the involvement of the public and wants to before the public finds out what is in the massive we rewrite. But saying im disappointed with c. E. Q. s response is an understatement. Nepa is a 50yearold law and americans have been given only 60 days to defend it. Ill go back to what i said before. No law is written in stone, the declaration of independence and the constitution of our country is not written in stone. Everything we do, i know we can do better, but the way that c. E. Q. Has approached this tour, this task, this undertaking is not just disappointing, i think its shameful. Nepa reminds us that our government is one that is of the people, for the people, and by the people. But this proposal and this process that i just described bear little resemblance of those words of abraham lincoln. Sadly they make a mockery of it. Let me be clear. I will continue the fight to fight nepa and the democratic tools it avails to the American People. Thank you, madam president. I will yield the floor to my friend from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford madam president. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford i come to the floor today to unashamedly brag on the people of southwest oklahoma. Its a pretty Remarkable Group of folks. And the Community Around lawton, oklahoma and all the surrounding communities there are people who serve their neighbors every day. Theres a Remarkable Groups of churches, nonprofits, ministries, federal workers, state, city, county and staff workers that are there that do a Pretty Amazing job of taking care of their neighbors. But this weekend is above and beyond. This weekend southwest oklahoma organized what they call southwest oklahoma embrace hope. So one day on saturday where the whole community is having neighbors serving neighbors to see what they can do to be able to help each other. Serving your neighbor is not about how much money you or have you have or a title you hold or a certain house you live in. Taking care of your neighbor is just basic honoring each other and finding a way to be able to love your neighbor. The vision behind the embrace hope event is about stepping up and saying as individuals we can do more if we do it together. Embrace Hope Community will offer oklahomans an opportunity to access a lot of Free Services and basic help. There are partners from all over the state of oklahoma that have donated their time, services, finances to help those in need all over southwest oklahoma all in one place all in one time. If someone needs housing, shelter, information or referral, food, there will be folks there able to help them, there will be agencies to talk about longterm needs and people in meeting shortterm needs. If someone needs a job, there will be folks there that will show them opportunities for hiring. If someone needs to just get their resume together so they can get a job, there will be folks that will be able to take a picture so they can use it with their resume. In fact, if folks need a suit to wear to the interview, there will be folks to help them get a suit so they will be prepared. There will be health services. Sceld youlling an sceld youlling an appointment and pregnancy resources and even a breast exam if that is needed there. There will be folks that will be able to give them a hair cut if they need a hair cut and have them get access to that. There will be folks there that are Mental Health professionals and counselors to help folks with Substance Abuse or dealing with the stress of life. There will be folks that can help with legal assistance. See, this is communities coming together, ministries, churches, organizations, government entities, all coming into one place at one time to be able to help. There is a lot of needs in the area. In fact, in oklahoma, according to d. H. S. Statistics, just from this last year, we had 78,000plus households that needed winter heating assistance in our state. More than 378,000 oklahomans receive food benefits like the supplemental nutrition program. These are federal resources and federal programs. As a member of congress, we Work Together to be able to help in whatever way that we can to be able to help those in greatest needs to be lifted out of poverty and to be able to walk through some of the low points in life. But a government check or a check in with a federal entity is no substitute for a neighbor helping a neighbor. When youre at your low point of life, a check is helpful to be able to help you get through a hard time, but you need a person, you need a mentor, you need a friend, you need a neighbor. The embrace hope event is all about that. Its neighbors helping each other to be able to walk through this process, but its also opportunities for people that live in southwest oklahoma not just to help someone one day, but to also understand we could do this throughout the course of the year, because there are lots of folks that say i want to be able to help. They just dont know where to go to be able to help their neighbor. They might help the folks that are around them, they might help people in a small group at their church, they might have family members that they help, but they say i want to be able to do more. The embrace hope event allows volunteers by the hundreds that have signed up to be able to serve their neighbor in one day but also to kind of take a test drive a bunch of other ministries and nonprofits in the area and say what do you do . I can help you one day to be able to help people, but maybe i can plug in and help you at other times. It also allows those nonprofits and ministries to be able to reach out to a whole pool of people that maybe arent involved all the time and say if you enjoyed helping your neighbor that day, why dont you come work with us the rest of the year . Its a way for them to be able to meet each other. Quite frankly, its a way for us to be able to build a stronger state, a stronger community, stronger connections with our neighbors. That we dont just default by saying hey, they get help from the government so thats probably all they need when we know in our heart its not. They need help from somebody local. They need a friend. And they need somebody that can look them in the face and to say how can we help . Thats embrace hope. Now, there have been hundreds of people that have volunteered already, and as its preparing for this saturday, which will probably be a cold and wet day, a perfect day to help people in need. As we get together on this saturday, with all the volunteers and all the folks, there will be one person that will be in the background that the whole event will circle around, but a lot of folks wont know it. Her names Brenda Spencer ragland. She is the lead Event Coordinator for embrace hope. I cant even imagine how many hundreds of hours that she has put in behind the scenes to be able to bring this to a reality. Her title has been coordinator, but that title doesnt even remotely do justice for the work she has done for bringing embrace hope into a reality. She is one of those incredible individuals that everyone wishes lived around them but southwest oklahoma actually has her. She has a servants heart and a servants attitude. Thats who she is, quite frankly, more than just what she does. Brenda served our nation as a civilian with the United States army for 32 years before servint role. She was the director of family morale, welfare, and recreation programs at the post in fort sill in lawton. Her title was kind of a fancy way of saying that she took care of military families in whatever way she possibly can, and she did it well. Those who served us, she loved serving them, and on her retirement, she grieved because she loved serving those folks at the post. Now, after serving dealing with morale at fort sill and after serving also as the housing director there at fort sill, she has found a new way embrace hope. She has built around that same mission. She came to Oklahoma City and she saw an event called love o. K. C. Which was very similar to that. She brought a whole group of volunteers to be able to look at what was happening in Oklahoma City and the remarkable love o. K. C. Event that happened be seven years in a row. She took that vision back to southwest oklahoma and created embrace hope. Meeting after meeting, donor after donor, long night after long night of organizing, its about to happen. So brenda, to the folks in lawton that dont know you, they should. Because if they did, they would give you a warm hug and a very grateful thank you. For blessing so many people. Thanks for answering the call to serve your friends and neighbors, stepping up when you saw a need and tirelessly giving back to southwest oklahoma, the community that you love. Its an honor to call you a friend and a neighbor, and i look forward to serving alongside you this weekend at embrace hope and doing whatever you need me to do to help us as we love our neighbors together. God bless you, and i look forward to seeing you there, brenda. I love getting a chance to be able to brag about whats happening in great southwest oklahoma. With that, i yield the floor. Mr. Lankford madam president. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Lankford i ask unanimous consent that when the senate recesses today, it adjourn until 10 00 a. M. Tomorrow, march 11. That the morning business be expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. Further, following leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of s. J. Res. 56 and that all time expire at noon. Finally, that following disposition of s. J. Res. 56, the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Lankford if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. The presiding officer the Senate Stands adjourned until Senate Stands adjourned until today in the senate, we continue not a package of energy and environment policy changes british senators also voted to begin debate on overturning an Education Department role in College Student loan debt forgiveness. Senators expected to continue to work on these built tomorrow when the sun returns, watch live coverage here on cspan2. Six States Holding primaries today, both Bernie Sanders and former Vice President joe biden and scheduled events run cleveland but have canceled them for concerns about the coronavirus. We will bring you uptodate results in the primaries tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspan washington journal, live every day, with news and policy issues and impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, we will discuss the latest on coronavirus in the u. S. Response with Pennsylvania Republican congressman dan user on the economic impacts. Then democratic kim schreier, will be on to talk about coronavirus outbreak efforts in washington state. In the American Healthcare association, discusses how Nursing Homes and other assistedliving facilities are dealing with coronavirus outbreaks. Watches he spans washington journal, live at seven eastern on sand wednesday morning join the discussion read doctor robet redfield and doctor anthony along with other officials testify in the coronavirus outbreak and we go to the House Oversight committee. Also online at cspan. Org, or listen live in the free cspan radio app. Acting deputy home lindsay security secretary as a capital hill wednesday to testify in the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak. Watch that life and 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan three. Online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Rated by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. Democratic president ial candidates, joe biden on gun violence. He spoke and a event with voters and supporters at columbus ohio. This runs 35 minutes. [background sounds]. [applause]. Good afternoon everyone, it is a pleasure to be here with you all today. To support joe biden,