quorum call: mr. nelson: mment, i -- madam president, i ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, hurricanes are deadly things. we are cusmed twe are accustomen florida. they are part of our lifestyles. but we know enough about hurricanes and the froashesnes froashesness -- ferociousness and strength of mother nature that when hurricanes start bearing down, you better be prepared. madam president, that is especially so with regard to being in a boat, because hurricanes are going to cause giant sized waves along with the wind that is going to make it impossible to navigate. so boats ought to get out of the way. sadly, last year the el faro, a cargo vessel that sales from jacksonville to puerto rico and back, along with its sister ship, the el faro sailed right into a hurricane off of the bahamas. as a result, the last call to shore, although the captain's voice was calm, was that they had lost power and, therefore, that they were listing, which meant that something had been breached where water was coming in, and that was the last that we heard. and we now know that that ship is five miles below the surface of the atlantic on the eastern side of the bahama islands. 33 people lost their lives, including most of them being from the jacksonville, florida, area. the national transportation safety board is investigating, and the question is whether they're going to put down another u.s. navy submersible to see if they can try to find again that recorder that would give us the complete data from the bridge of the ship. madam president, i'm bringing this up again because the very same thing almost was beginning to happen yesterday only this time, a 4,000-passenger cruise ship sailing from the new york area to port canaveral, florida, and then on to other destinations in the caribbean, it sailed right into a hurricane that had winds topping a hundred miles an hour. i wish i had a blowup of this to show the senate, but here's yesterday's storm right off the coast of north and south carolina, a very similar storm was hurricane isabelle. they look menacingly similar. the thing about this storm was that it was forecast for days. so why in the world would a cruise ship with thousands of passengers go sailing right into it? madam president, some of the passengers have made comments, including the executive editor of "the "detroit free press,"" who was on a cruise -- of the detroi"detroit free press," whon a cruise, and his words are, the "detroit free press," robert hutchka -- "i'm not going to lie," he said. "it was truly terrifying." passengers talk about how water was coming into the upper decks. the pictures speak for themselves that passengers took about some of the damage of the ship. i'm sure there was a courageous crew onboard, but the question is, why? like the el faro last year, when we asked the same questions, why did it sail into the storm or even if it was surprised by the change of the direction of the storm, as that hurricane did last year, why in the world is a ship going anywhere close to where the hurricane could be, particularly as a storm is starting to cross the warm waters of the gulf stream and, therefore, gets all the more fuel for the counterclockwise rotation of the winds from the ? and, therefore, the national transportation safety board, of which we have some jurisdictional effort in the senate commerce committee, of which i have the privilege of being the ranking member, i want the national transportation safety board to come up with a quick report. now, those passengers, thank goodness, reports are only four are injured. no one was killed. that ship is now returning to port back in the new york area. thank goodness there was not much damage and that it is seaworthy. but the question is, when there's a storm brewing, why are mistakes made, just like el faro before it left the port of jacksonville, they knew that a hurricane was coming. what is happening in this case as well? so that we can prevent these kind of accidents that could be so tragic in the future. madam president, in our oversight responsibility of the u.s. senate in the commerce committee, i want the nationa national -- i want the national safety board to come up with answers very quickly and make an admonition to mariners, when the storm is brewing, you don't go out of port. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: