Well this teacher took that letter of recommendation and brought it to the school he applied to work at in West Virginia, got hired and over time became the principal. Well these kinds of pedophiles, they dont change their ways and he didnt change his ways in West Virginia. He continued to prey on kids. Eventually he raped and then murdered a 12yearold boy named jeremy bell. Well justice eventually caught up with the killer and hes now serving a life sentence for that murder. But for little jeremy bell, that justice came too late and sadly, jeremy bell is not alone. Last year, mr. President we had 459 School Employees across america arrested for Sexual Misconduct with the very children theyre supposed to be protecting and teaching and caring for. Thats more than one per day. And those are just the ones where there was enough evidence to actually prosecute to make an arrest and to pursue charges. How many others are getting away with this . And, frankly 2015 is not off to a much better start. So far were 69 days into the new year and there have already been 82 School Employees arrested across the country for Sexual Misconduct with the children in their care. Mr. President , every one of these stories these are not statistics, these are not numbers on a page. These are childrens lives every one of them. Like it is little girl whose sexual abuse began at age 10 and only ended when at age 17 she found herself pregnant with the teachers child. A teachers aide who raped a young mentally disabled boy in his care. A Kindergarten Teacher who kept a child during recess and forced her to perform sexual acts on him. Its hard to even talk about these things but theyre happening. One School Employee after another caught with child pornography. Sometimes these images are of kids who are just one year old. This is unbelievable. Its outrageous. But its happening. And we in congress have to do what we can to stop this and we can do something. The toomeymanchin protecting students bill takes an important step in the direction of stopping these outrageous acts. And it does so, it relies on two mechanisms to accomplish this. The first mechanism is to require schools to do appropriate criminal background checks so that were not knowingly hiring pedophiles in our schools. And the second is to ban this terrible practice by which schools knowingly send a letter of recommendation on for one of these creeps to go somewhere else because theyre recommending them so that they become someone elses problem. Now, mr. President , neither of these mechanisms should be controversial. The house of representatives unanimously passed a bill that has both of these mechanisms in just the last congress. Unanimously. Im proud of the fact that we have three former house members who voted for this bill last year who are now cosponsors of our legislation including the junior senators from West Virginia from colorado and from arkansas. And i appreciate their support for this commonsense legislation. And furthermore, just a few months ago every member of the house and senate except one voted for even more expansive background checks when we all voted in favor of the Child Care Development block grant bill. The combined vote in the house and the senate was 5231. This is not controversial stuff. So what would we actually do, what does the legislation accomplish . Number one criminal background checks. It requires now every state has some kind of criminal background check now. Thats true. But its pretty obvious that many of them are not adequate. Well, for instance, too often there are whole categories of School Employees who are not covered by the background check and too often states dont check all of the criminal databases that are available to them. And so these pedophiles are slipping through the cracks. The protecting students act requires that if a School District wants to take federal funds to pay its teachers salaries, its got to perform background checks on all the workers who have unsupervised contact with the children. That would include new hires and existing hires. So another reality is that many states have only recently adopted these background checks and so theyve hired employees prior to the legislation requiring the background checks and some of these employees have this kind of criminal background. Take the case of William Vahey. 64 years old. He taught for decades at some of the worlds most elite schools. Started in california and then started working his way across the country. And you know what he used to do . Used to give his Young Students oreo cookies laced with sleeping pills. And when the boys fell asleep he molested them and he photographed it. Scores of children were sexually abused. This teacher had been convicted for sexual abuse of children when he was in his 20s but these School Districts werent doing a thorough background check so they werent discovering this. Well the protecting students act ensures that sex offenders like William Vahey will not fall through the cracks, they will be discovered by a more thorough and rigorous background check system that our bill requires. I should also point out that our bill the protecting students bill requires the schools to do the criminal background checks not just for teachers but for contractors as well so School Bus Drivers coaches substitute teachers anyone who comes in unsupervised contact with the kids. There are currently 12 states that have no such requirement at all. They dont check on the backgrounds of their contractors despite the fact that these folks come in regular contact with kids and case in point in montana, parents got a very rude awakening recently. An audit of montanas School Bus Drivers found that 123 drivers had criminal historyies, including one driver whose conviction landed him on the sexual and Violent Offender registry and one with an outstanding arrest warrant. Now, running these background checks on School Workers only going to be helpful if its thorough, if its adequate. And so what the toomeymanchin bill does is it requires that the background check check all four of the major crime databases that are available. Theres the f. B. I. Finger printed database, theres the National Sex Offender registry theres the state criminal registry in each state and the state child abuse and neglect registries. This past august, parents in alaska learned that alaska has an inadequate background check system and it resulted in a known child rapist teaching in alaska schools for four years. This is unbelievable but this is whats happening. August 29, Alaska State Troopers arrested a middle schoolteacher in kyona alaska. The teacher had fled missouri four years earlier in order to escape an arrest warrant. Multiple witnesses accused the teacher over a decade of sexual and physical abuse of his own adopted children. He raped and starved these children, his own children. Its unbelievable. The children literally had to borrow a hole in the wall and steal frozen food and warm it up on a heater, on a furnace just to survive. This monster was able to leave the state and obtain a teaching job in alaska for four years. And when asked how in the world could this happen . The department of education of alaska explained well, the alaska background check checks the state criminal registry but not the federal registry so they had no idea that he was a wanton if despicable criminal and had such a record in other states. Now, had our bill been in force alaska would have been required to check the federal registry. They would have discovered this before ever hiring this monster. So this is the first part of our bill, this requirement that we have these background checks. And, again theres nothing controversial here. The house of representatives passed more expansive language unanimously in the last congress and just a few months ago as i mentioned, we had a 520 im sorry, just a few months ago yeah we had combined house and senate 523 votes in favor one vote in opposition to the Child Care Development block grant which imposes appropriate and rigorous background checks on kids in our day cares. That makes perfect sense. We should be screening out pedophiles from our day cares but we also should be providing the same level of protection to kids who are a little bit older and theyre in grade school or middle school or high school. Mr. President , theres a second part of our legislation and it addresses this outrageous practice of whats known as passing the trash. This is the that unbelievable act that resulted in the death of jeremy bell when the a letter of recommendation allowed a known pedophile to be employed in West Virginia. So our bill simply says if a school if a state wants to receive federal taxpayer money it cant knowingly help a child molester get a job somewhere else. How can this even be controversial . But the fact is, this is an alltooprevalent practice and its long past time that we do something about this. Two weeks ago wusa news 9 reported some shocking news on the Public School system of Montgomery County, maryland. Since 2011, 21 Montgomery County public School Employees or contractor workers have been investigated for child sex abuse or exploitation. The news station learned that the Montgomery CountyPublic School system quote keeps a confidential database of personnel who demonstrate inappropriate or suspicious behavior towards children. Theyve got this watch list of suspected abusers who are working in area schools. And wusa9 learned that the School System has a record a known record, of passing the trash. For example Elementary Schoolteacher daniel pica, he was abusing children for 17 years. The School System knew about it. And what did they do . The teachers punishment was to move him from one Elementary School to another. Again and again and again. 17 years of passing a known child molester from one school to another. How many kids did he victimize . This has to stop, mr. President. Its long overdue that we do something about this. And theres a way that we can. We can make it illegal to knowingly recommend a pedophile for employment somewhere else and thats what our bill does. Another example recently las vegas, nevada, a Kindergarten Teacher arrested for kidnapping a 16yearold girl and infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease. This same teacher had molested six children all fourth and fifth graders several years before, but he did it in the los angeles School District. Well, the los angeles School District knew about the allegations. In 2009, the School District recommended settling a lawsuit that alleged that the teacher had molested these children. The nevada School District specifically asked have there been any criminal concerns regarding this teacher . The los angeles School District didnt only hide the truth they provided three letters of recommendation, three references for this teacher. Now, for those people who say well, you know, the states can fix this problem all on their own. Well, im going to ask you what could nevada do to protect themselves from what teachers or School Districts are doing in los angeles . What could West Virginia have done about a pennsylvania School District that sent a student a teacher across the state line with a letter of recommendation . There is nothing one state can do to bind another state. This requires a federal solution. So, mr. President , let me just sum this up. The toomeymanchin bill offers a very simple proposition. If a School District wants to use federal tax dollars to hire School Employees it has to make sure that theyre not hiring pedophiles in the process. I think thats pretty reasonable reasonable. And specifically, they need to perform background checks on any worker who comes in unsupervised contact with children and they need to stop passing the trash. Now, i cant believe this is even controversial. Theres nobody that can stand here and say that protections against child sex predators are not urgently needed, not in light of the daily revelations were discovering. And, again, this legislation has overwhelming bipartisan support. It passed the house unanimously. How many bills pass the house unanimously these days . But this did. And every member of the house and senate except one voted for even more extensive background checks to protect our youngest kids in child care. Cant we provide the same protection to slightly older kids . And the legislations been endorsed by just enumerable child advocate and Law Enforcement groups, including the National Childrens alliance, which accredits and represents the nations 777 Child Advocacy centers. And yet im afraid were probably going to have some opposition voiced about this legislation when we offer the amendment. Mr. President , let me be clear. First, were not imposing a mandate on the states. We dont have the Legal Authority to do that. What were simply saying is if you want to take federal funds you need to protect children from violent and sexual predators. And if you dont want to take those measures, you can choose not to take federal funds. If a state has no interest in having a rigorous system for protecting kids, thats their decision but we dont have to send federal tax dollars to pay the salaries of pedophiles. Let me just conclude, mr. President. This is a commonsense bill. Its long overdue. It has very broad bipartisan support. It passed the house unanimously. As i said, in this body all but one member voted for it, and even more expansive background check. Several senators voiced specific concerns and im working with some of them and im willing to work with senators who want to find weighs to constructively improves this bill but im not going to support a bill that waters down a way to protect our kids. I hope this body will pass legislation that passed the house unanimously and we can begin to have a more thorough process of protecting our kids. I yield the floor. Mr. Nelson mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from florida. Mr. Nelson is it my understanding it is time for the minority . The presiding officer the senator is correct. There are 24 minutes remaining. Mr. Nelson thank you mr. President. Mr. President , when 47 senators, republican senators signed a letter sent to the ayatollah khomeini, it was a letter that although supposedly instructive of the constitutional provisions of the separation of government and the United States, in effect it was a letter to erode the negotiating position of the president of the United States and his administration in trying to reach an agreement to not have a Nuclear Weapon capability of building a bomb in iran. The strength of American Foreign policy, i think history will show mr. President that we have always been bipartisan when it comes to the interest of america as we look out and have to defend ourselves against our enemies. And indeed, iran with a nuclear bomb would be one of the gravest threats to our National Security as well as to those of our allies. Mr. President , it saddens me that we have come to the point that we are so divided that nearly half of the senators on a partisan basis in this Great Institution of the United States senate would in effect try to cut the legs off from underneath the president and his administration in trying to reach an agreement to avert a nuclear bomb. So much has been said about this issue, but one common theme runs throughout and it is that people seem to know what the agreement is as it is being negotiated in secret. This senator will reserve judgment. This senator is also an original cosponsor when we filed the bill to have Congress Weigh in on any future lifting of economic sanctions that have been imposed by the congress. And this senator feels that that is an appropriate role in the separation of powers, our job as congress. But when we see a major part on a partisan basis of our government try to undercut and kill the negotiations while they are going on at this very moment in geneva then that goes a step too far. I am saddened. I think about what would this senator have done when the president was not barack obama but george bush, and i cannot imagine that i would have tried to undercut the president of the United States representing this country in trying on matters of war and peace to keep peace. We can disagree about the specifics, but we still have to honor the institution of the presidency. And when it becomes matters of war and peace then wev