September 11, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 145 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S5419-S5433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the Bowman nomination, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of 
Michelle Bowman, of Kansas, to be a Member of the Board of Governors of 
the Federal Reserve System for a term of 14 years from February 1, 
2020. (Reappointment)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

[[Page S5420]]

  



                       Remembering September 11th

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as we all know, today we commemorate the 
solemn anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/2001.
  If you ask anybody who is old enough to remember where they were that 
day, I bet they can tell you. It is one of those rare moments that 
defines an entire generation.
  I have always said that it is etched in my memory like the only other 
event in my lifetime that might rise to that level of shock and horror, 
and that is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
  Eighteen years ago today, I was in Austin, talking on the phone to 
then-Governor Rick Perry. When I hung up the phone, my wife said, ``You 
need to see this,'' pointing to the TV set. That was just as the second 
plane hit the World Trade Center, and we all know what came after.
  It was the same image that millions of Americans struggled to 
understand on that morning and still struggle to comprehend today--how 
someone could be so evil and so determined to take innocent lives.
  September 11 serves as a dividing line in American history. For 
people like me, there is before and there is after, but for an entire 
generation of younger people, there is really only after. I believe 
this 18th anniversary carries special weight because those young people 
who have only lived in a post-9/11 world will now be able to vote in 
our elections, serve in our military, and help shape the future of our 
country.
  It is a reminder of our commitment as a nation to carry out the 
promise we made in the wake of the attack to ``never forget''--never 
forget.
  As Americans, we must remain vigilant, and we must remain with a 
strong sense of purpose and a strong moral clarity regarding 
confronting evil in all its forms. We vow to carry the memory of the 
nearly 3,000 lives lost that day in our hearts, the sense of patriotism 
that welled up inside of each of us, and the determination never to be 
intimidated, and never to back down.
  Today, we remember the families who lost loved ones that day, the 
first responders who ran not away from but toward the danger, and the 
commitment of our Armed Forces, who fight to eradicate terrorism around 
the globe each and every day.


                 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement

  Mr. President, on another matter, for a quarter of a century, the 
North American Free Trade Agreement has guided our trade relationship 
with Mexico and Canada. When NAFTA was created, it sought to remove the 
barriers that impeded free and fair trade to provide benefits to all 
three countries. While this agreement has certainly had its share of 
critics and champions, I think there is no doubt--certainly, in my 
mind--that NAFTA has been a benefit to the United States.
  Last year, U.S. goods and services trade with Mexico and Canada 
totaled nearly $1.4 trillion. Across every industry, from major 
companies to small businesses, an estimated 12 million American jobs 
rely on trade with our NAFTA partners--12 million.
  The importance of maintaining strong trade ties is certainly 
understood in my home State of Texas, and that is in large part 
because--and this will not surprise you--last year, Texas exported 
nearly $110 billion in goods to Mexico, our next-door neighbor, 35 
percent of our State's total exports.
  We also imported more than $107 billion in goods from Mexico, 
including everything from motor vehicle parts to computer equipment, to 
tractors and avocados. It is not uncommon to see certain products, like 
automobile parts, crossing the border multiple times during the 
manufacturing process before eventually making their way to the 
customer.
  NAFTA has fueled the economies of every State across the country, but 
a lot has changed since NAFTA was ratified in 1993. At that time, the 
internet was in its infancy, smartphones didn't exist, and shopping at 
brick-and-mortar stores was the norm. Countless economic advancements 
and our digitalized marketplace have fundamentally changed the global 
trade landscape. So it is clearly time to modernize NAFTA and bring it 
up to current needs.
  I was glad when the heads of all three countries signed the U.S.-
Mexico-Canada Agreement last November and took major steps just to get 
that far, but the new NAFTA--or, as we call it, the USMCA--takes into 
account businesses and practices that didn't even exist when NAFTA 
existed, things like 2-day shipping, online micro-retailers, and 
digital products like e-books and music.
  The USMCA will require Mexico and Canada to raise their de minimis 
shipment value levels, which will allow certain classes of shipments to 
enter all three countries with expedited entry procedures. That is a 
big win for small and medium-sized businesses, which often lack the 
resources to pay customs duties and taxes.
  Overall, the USMCA takes steps to advance the digital economy, which 
accounted for nearly 7 percent of our total economy in 2017.
  A few months ago, the International Trade Commission publicly 
released its analysis of the economic impact of the USMCA, which shows 
some positive indicators. The ITC concluded that, within 6 years, the 
USMCA will raise real GDP in the United States by $68.2 billion and 
lead to the creation of 176,000 new jobs.
  We can also expect a more than $33 billion increase in exports and 
more than $31 billion in imports. That is great news for North American 
workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses that will reap the benefits 
of this agreement.
  When I was traveling around the State during August, one of the most 
frequent questions I encountered from my constituents was this: When is 
Congress going to pass the USMCA? I assured them that I am just as 
eager as they are to see Congress ratify this agreement, but we are 
still waiting on the House and the administration to iron out their 
differences.
  I know that the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Lighthizer, and 
Secretary Mnuchin are having constructive conversations with the 
Speaker of the House, and she has set up a process by which the House 
can provide its necessary input into the final product, but we are all 
waiting to see the Speaker turn on the green light to allow them to 
start the process--sooner, hopefully, rather than later. We know that, 
historically speaking, the closer we get to an election, the more 
challenging it is to get things passed, particularly in a divided 
Congress, like we have now. So I hope we can get this process moving 
soon.
  Businesses, jobs, and communities in Texas rely on a strong trade 
relationship between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. While NAFTA has 
benefited all three countries, it is not able to propel our economies 
into the future. That is why the USMCA is so important.
  The USMCA increases goods' market access. It supports small 
businesses. As I said, it supports digital trade, safeguards 
intellectual property, supports our agriculture sector, and keeps jobs 
right here at home.
  Free and fair trade isn't just good news for our economy. It is good 
news for the people behind it. This is a trade agreement built for the 
21st century, and it is time for Congress to pass the USMCA and provide 
greater stability and more opportunities for North American workers.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.


                      Nomination of Dale Cabaniss

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, just a little bit earlier today, the 
Senate voted to confirm President Trump's nomination of Dale Cabaniss 
to lead the Office of Personnel Management.
  I voted against this nominee, but now that she is confirmed, it is 
more important than ever for the Senate and the House to fulfill our 
oversight duties to protect our civil servants from political 
interference. I know the Presiding Officer has a keen interest in this 
subject as well, in his capacity as chairman of the Subcommittee on 
Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, overseeing Federal civil 
service, and I appreciate his work on that front.
  In order to do their jobs for the American people, our Federal 
employees must be able to perform their duties free of politics. They 
must be judged on the merits of their work, not political favoritism or 
cronyism. They must be able to present factual information and analysis 
without fear of retribution. Yet time and again, we

[[Page S5421]]

have seen that this President, President Trump, views civil servants as 
his adversaries.
  The President has sought to silence those whose work or words 
contradict him, even when the facts are clear. We saw that most 
recently when the National Weather Service tried to calm residents in 
the State of Alabama after President Trump falsely stated that 
Hurricane Dorian would put them at severe risk. Secretary of Commerce 
Wilbur Ross reportedly threatened to fire the agency's leadership after 
they corrected the President's false statements about Hurricane Dorian 
and Alabama. Just within the last hour, the New York Times is reporting 
that the order to change the statements at NOAA came directly from the 
White House in the form of a directive from the Acting Chief of Staff 
to the President, Mick Mulvaney.
  We have also seen this pattern at other times. We saw President Trump 
standing side by side with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, while President 
Trump sided with Putin's claims about noninterference in the 2016 
Presidential elections, and where President Trump threw our own U.S. 
intelligence agency experts under the bus.
  These assaults on the Federal civil service and the efforts to 
undermine the integrity of the Federal civil service have also included 
an assault on Federal employees. This administration knows that workers 
are stronger when they are organized and have representatives who can 
speak on their behalf. Many--not all, but many--of the Trump agency 
heads have repeatedly refused to comply with the law and to bargain in 
good faith with their workers. Instead of trying to negotiate, they 
have tried to impose contracts and terms unilaterally. This has already 
happened at the Social Security Administration, where agency management 
has shown particular hostility to the unions representing their 
workforce. Some of these issues are now tied up in the courts, but I 
would hope we could work on a bipartisan basis to address these 
challenges.
  Now, President Trump is trying to abolish the Office of Personnel 
Management. That brings me to the nomination of Ms. Cabaniss, because 
she will be directed to preside over the dismantlement of the agency--
that is, if the President has his way. I know those of us in Congress 
with a different view will be weighing in as well.
  The Office of Personnel Management is an independent Federal agency 
with an absolutely vital mission--to strengthen and protect the Federal 
civil service system. Their role is to protect the integrity of our 
Federal civil service and prevent it from being hijacked by political 
forces.
  I know there has been a lot of talk that this is all about civil 
service reform. As I look at the proposals, I don't see it that way. I 
see these proposals as an attack on the institution that defends our 
civil service system.
  The Office of Personnel Management needs a strong, independent leader 
who will protect the Federal workforce from partisan interference and 
defend agencies from the administration's attacks. After looking at Ms. 
Cabaniss's record, she is not the right person to lead OPM. When she 
chaired the Federal Labor Relations Authority, morale was dead last 
among small Federal agencies. That is the agency that is supposed to 
resolve disputes between Federal workers and management, but 55 percent 
of their decisions were overturned under Ms. Cabaniss's jurisdiction.
  OPM's mission is vital to the success of our Federal civil service 
and their ability to deliver services to the American people. We need a 
leader who is going to stand up for the integrity of that system, not 
one who is going to preside over the dismantlement of that agency. So I 
hope we can work on a bipartisan basis to ensure that this country 
preserves one of its vital assets, which is a nonpartisan civil 
service.
  Presidents come and Presidents go, and Presidents, of course, give 
direction to the different agencies, but we will be doing a great 
disservice to the people of this country if we allow political cronyism 
to seep into this system and create an environment where people fear 
speaking out, telling the truth, and providing the facts.
  I want to take this opportunity today, as we discuss the nomination 
of the Office of Personnel Management, to raise that larger issue, and 
I hope we will be united in that effort because lots of countries 
around the world suffer from political cronyism. The United States has 
helped shield itself from that by establishing decades and decades ago 
a system that tries to immunize ourselves against that kind of 
political infection in terms of the day-to-day work that we ask people 
to do and carry on, on behalf of the American people. Let's work 
together to accomplish what I believe is a bipartisan goal.
  I yield the remainder of my time.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                       Remembering September 11th

  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, before I get into the substance of what I 
want to talk about, I am going to take my own personal opportunity to 
remember those whom we lost 18 years ago today. Like everyone else, I 
remember the events. I was at home with my family and young children, 
not knowing what was going to happen and seeing things happen. I can 
remember taking one of my kids to daycare when the second tower 
collapsed and the radio announcer simply saying, ``They are both 
gone,'' and the emptiness we felt.
  We remember today, we honor today, and we honor not only those whom 
we lost but honor those responders who were there and who still suffer 
the pain from having to deal with all of that.


                               Future Act

  Mr. President, I rise today almost a year ago since I first came to 
the Senate floor to discuss the state of our Nation's historically 
Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving 
institutions.
  As I did then, and many times since, I am again making an urgent call 
to colleagues to act. At the end of this month, at the end of the 
fiscal year, nearly half of all Federal funds these schools receive 
each year, and have for a long time, is going to end. That is $255 
million annually that they have had available to count on for well over 
a decade. That is going to come to a screeching halt if we don't act, 
and we need to act now.
  These historic institutions serve nearly 4 million students of color. 
Many of our Nation's brightest minds have matriculated at these 
institutions. HBCUs are the leading educators for African-American PhDs 
in science and engineering. They are foundational to building 
generational wealth in communities that have long faced headwinds in 
doing so. They are doing amazing work. They are doing incredible work 
with very limited resources and with their own individual financial 
headwinds to contend with.
  In Alabama, we are home to 14 HBCUs--more than any State in the 
country--so they are an integral part of my home State's higher 
education system. Just as important, they are integral to the economy 
of Alabama.
  Minority-serving institutions play a central role in America's higher 
education system. For example, Hispanic-Serving Institutions account 
for 13 percent of all nonprofit colleges. Yet they enroll 62 percent of 
all Hispanic students.
  More than 75 percent of students at HBCUs and nearly 80 percent of 
students at Tribal colleges and universities receive Pell grants, 
compared to only 32 percent of all students. These schools have a very 
serious purpose for these kids who otherwise might get shut out, likely 
would get shut out of our higher education system. They are so 
important, and they face such strong headwinds financially to achieve.
  Last year, we held our first HBCU summit where we brought all of our 
HBCUs in Alabama together to talk about the challenges, to talk about 
what they were facing but also to talk about opportunities to work 
together, to work with the State, to work with the Congress, to try to 
meet the challenges of our workforce of the 21st century, to try to 
meet the challenges of our educational system in general. What I saw 
was an amazing group of people--amazing group of people who were doing 
the work for their students and for their communities, people who

[[Page S5422]]

are committed from deep down in their heart. They love these kids. They 
love the purpose they are serving, and they are thinking ahead. They 
are thinking outside the box. These are not institutions that are so 
cookie cutter that they are not willing to explore new opportunities 
for their students. They are seizing every one of those opportunities.
  I have seen firsthand, though, increasing concern from our HBCU 
community. Given their significance, it is frustrating that some of 
these schools continue to struggle. Public and private HBCUs face 
extensive capital project needs but have few funding sources to rely 
on.
  On top of that, the Government Accountability Office found that 
HBCUs' average endowment is half the size of a similar sized non-HBCU. 
We have to change that. We have to make sure we provide to these 
schools because the bottom line is, they have no safety net. They 
struggle. They work. They do the things. The bottom line is, they have 
no safety net. If they have no safety net, neither do the students they 
serve.
  This time last year, I was talking about legislation I had introduced 
called the Strengthening Minority-Serving Institutions Act, which would 
have permanently extended and increased mandatory funding to all 
minority-serving institutions. That bill was supported by one-quarter 
of the Senate. Unfortunately, it was simply all Democrats. We could not 
get the bipartisan support that I hope we will get in the future. 
However, now we are here and only have 19 days left in the fiscal year, 
and these schools still have no certainty about whether these critical 
funds will continue to be available.
  We hear a lot in this body about the need to make sure we continue to 
fund government, that we continue to fund our military, and about how 
devastating even a continuing resolution might be to the Defense 
Department because it doesn't allow the military to plan. I agree with 
that. I see it. This is $255 million that all of a sudden is going to 
be cut off completely from schools that have relied on it, that have 
planned, that have done their budgets around it. We owe it to them. We 
owe it to them to make sure that we get this funding because they give 
so much back to us.
  Ensuring equal access to quality education should not be a partisan 
issue, and I worked over the last year to find a solution that I think 
should receive and could receive broad bipartisan support. I believe we 
have that in the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources 
for Education Act. It is called the FUTURE Act, which I have introduced 
with my colleague Senator Tim Scott and Representatives Alma Adams and 
Mark Walker in the House.
  The FUTURE Act reauthorizes funding for the next 2 fiscal years, 
maintaining just level funding of $255 million a year. It is the least 
we could do. Our bill checks all the boxes. It helps institutions in 43 
States. It is bipartisan, it is bicameral, and it is paid for.
  Let's not delay any longer. With this important bill, let's get this 
to the floor. Let's come up with something so we can show the American 
people how important these institutions are and just as important, we 
show the American people that, doggone it, we can get something done. 
That is the most frustrating part I heard about when I went back to 
Alabama over the recess: When are you going to get something done, 
Jones?
  Well, it is difficult. You all know it. It is difficult, but this is 
a piece of legislation that ought to receive support in this body and 
across the aisle, across the Capitol in the House.
  This week we have a lot of the HBCU presidents and administrators who 
are on Capitol Hill. They are coming up for their own benefit but also 
for the Congressional Black Caucus events that are later this week. 
They are here on the Hill. It would be the perfect time to get this to 
the floor. I don't see it on the schedule anywhere, but it would be the 
perfect time.
  As people are looking here, as they are watching us and listening to 
us, they know we support their institutions. Let's show them we support 
their institutions.
  I urge my colleagues to support the FUTURE Act. Get onboard with us. 
Sponsor this legislation and, in turn, support our Nation's minority-
serving institutions of higher education. Their graduates deserve the 
same quality education as any other student, and they deserve a fair 
shot at a successful future. Let's get this done. Let's do our job and 
get this done.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.


                           Background Checks

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I am going to be joined on the floor over 
the course of about an hour or so by Members of the Senate who are 
desperate for our colleagues to wake up and recognize that the time for 
action to quell the epidemic of gun violence in this country is now. It 
was also last week. It was also a month ago and a year ago and 6 years 
ago. It was also nearly 7 years ago, after the shooting in my State of 
Connecticut that felled 20 little 6- and 7-year-olds attending first 
grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
  We tend to pay attention to the mass shootings--the ones in Odessa, 
El Paso, Dayton, and Newtown--but every single day in this country, 93 
people die from gunshot wounds. Most of those are suicides, but many of 
them are homicides, and others are accidental shootings. When you total 
it up, we are losing about 33,000 people every year from gun violence 
and gunshot wounds.
  Those numbers may not be that meaningful to you because it is a big 
country, but how does that compare to the rest of the world or at least 
the rest of the high-income world? Well, that is about 10 times higher 
than other countries of similar income and of similar situation as the 
United States. Something different is happening here. It is not that we 
have more mental illness. It is not that we have less mental health 
treatment. It is not that we have less resources going into law 
enforcement. The difference is that we have guns spread out all over 
this Nation, many of them illegal and many of them of a caliber and 
capacity that were designed for the military in which this slaughter 
becomes predictable. We have a chance to do something about it right 
now in the U.S. Congress. We have a chance to try to find some way to 
come together over some commonsense measures.
  I just got off the phone--a 40-minute conversation with the President 
of the United States. I was glad that he was willing to take that 
amount of time with me, Senator Manchin, and Senator Toomey to talk 
about whether we can figure out a way to get Republicans and Democrats 
on board with a proposal to expand background checks to more gun sales 
in this Nation. In particular, we were talking about expanding 
background checks to commercial gun sales. That is certainly not as far 
as I would like to go, but I understand that part of my job here is to 
argue for my beliefs and my convictions but then try to find a 
compromise.
  There is no single legislative initiative that will solve all of 
these issues, but what we know is, if you want to take the biggest bite 
out of gun crime as quickly as possible, increasing the number of 
background checks done in this country is the way to go. All we are 
trying to do here is make sure that when you buy a gun, you prove that 
you aren't someone with a serious criminal history or that you aren't 
someone who has a serious history of mental illness.
  In 2017, about 170,000 people in this country went into a store, 
tried to buy a gun, and were denied that sale because they had an 
offense on their record or a period of time in an inpatient psychiatric 
unit, which prohibited them from buying a gun. Of those 170,000 sales 
that were denied, 39 percent of them were convicted felons who had 
tried to come in and buy a gun, many of them knowing they were likely 
prohibited from buying those guns.
  The problem is, that isn't a barrier to buying a weapon--being denied 
a sale at a gun store. Why do we know that? It is because just a few 
weeks ago in Texas, a gunman who went in and shot up 7 people who died 
and 23 who were injured failed a background check because he had been 
diagnosed by a clinician as mentally ill and had triggered one of those 
prohibiting clauses, but then he went and bought the gun from a private 
seller, knowing that he wouldn't have to go through a background check 
if he bought the weapon from a place in Texas that didn't have

[[Page S5423]]

a background check attached to it. He then took that weapon and turned 
it on civilians.
  This happens over and over again every single day. Estimates are that 
at least 20 percent of all gun sales in this country happen without a 
background check. These aren't gifts of guns to a relative or a loaner 
to somebody who is going to go and use it for hunting on a Saturday or 
Sunday; this is about legitimate commercial transactions, 20 percent of 
which, when they involve guns, happen without a background check.
  We also have plenty of data from States that have decided to expand 
background checks to make them universal. States requiring universal 
background checks for all gun sales have homicide rates that are 15 
percent lower than States that don't have those laws.
  In Connecticut, we have research showing that when we extended 
background checks to all gun sales through a local permitting process, 
we had a 40-percent reduction in gun homicide rates. Compare that with 
the State of Missouri, which repealed its permitting law, which was 
their way of making sure that everybody who buys a gun has to get a 
background check. They saw a 23-percent increase in firearm homicides 
immediately after they started allowing people to buy guns without a 
background check.

  There is your data. It is pretty incontrovertible. You can get pretty 
immediate and serious returns--safety returns--if you expand background 
checks to all gun purchases. But the benefit to a U.S. Senator who has 
to go back for reelection every 6 years is that not only are background 
checks as a legislative initiative impactful, they are also very 
politically popular. In fact, very few things are more popular than 
expanding background checks to more gun sales.
  Ninety percent of Americans want universal background checks. Apple 
pie is not that popular. Baseball is not that popular. Background 
checks are. You are not going to get in trouble with your constituents 
if you vote to expand background checks to all commercial sales or all 
private sales in this country. You are going to get rewarded 
politically if you do that. I don't argue that that is the reason you 
vote for background checks, but I think you should accept the plaudits 
that will come to you from your constituents if you support this 
measure.
  I don't think the President has made up his mind yet. After spending 
about 40 minutes on the phone with him this afternoon, I don't know 
that the President is convinced yet that he should support universal 
background checks.
  I was with the President right after the Parkland shooting, and he 
said he would support universal background checks, and then he didn't 
support them after speaking to representatives of the gun lobby. I am 
sure the gun lobby will come in and talk to the President this 
afternoon or tomorrow and try to explain to him why he should once 
again endorse the status quo.
  The status quo is not acceptable to Americans in this country. People 
are sick and tired of feeling unsafe when they walk into a Walmart. 
Parents are heartbroken when their children come home and tell them 
about the latest active-shooter drill they participated in. I know that 
from direct experience, having listened to my then-kindergartner tell 
me about being stuffed into a tiny bathroom with 25 of his other 
colleagues and told by his teacher to remain as quiet as possible 
because they were practicing what would happen if a stranger came into 
their school. Some of the kids knew what it was really about and some 
of them didn't, but my 7-year-old--6 years old at the time--knew enough 
to say to me: ``Daddy, I didn't like it.'' No child should have to fear 
for their safety when they walk to school.
  I am not saying that universal background checks can solve all of our 
gun violence issues in this country. I will say that beyond the lives 
that it will save, it will also send a message to our children and to 
families in this country that we are not encased in concrete, that we 
are trying our best to reach out across the aisle and come to some 
conclusion to at least save some lives.
  I will tell you that peace of mind, that moral signal of compassion 
and concern that we will send, will have a value, as well, next to and 
beside the actual lives we will save.
  Leilah Hernandez was 15 years old. She was a high school student when 
she was shot by the gunman in Odessa, TX. Her grandmother Nora 
explained how Leilah would spend a lot of her time with family and 
would drop by after school to visit her grandmother. She described 
Leilah as a happy girl who adored her parents. She was described at her 
funeral as ``a naturally shy girl who became a quiet leader on the 
basketball court.''
  Lois Oglesby was 27 when she was killed in the Dayton shooting. Her 
friend Derasha Merrett said: ``She was a wonderful mother, a wonderful 
person.'' According to the children's father, Oglesby face-timed him 
after she was shot, saying ``Babe, I just got shot in my head. I need 
to get to my kids.'' She died that day in Dayton.
  Jordan and Andre Anchondo were 25 and 23 years old when they were 
amongst the 22 who were killed in El Paso. The couple had dropped their 
5-year-old daughter at cheer practice, and then they went to Walmart to 
pick up some back-to-school supplies. Their 2-month-old son Paul was 
with them. He survived the shooting, probably because it looks like 
Jordan died shielding her baby, while Andre jumped in front of the two 
of them. The baby was found under Jordan's body and miraculously 
suffered only two broken fingers.
  On August 31 in Buffalo, NY, Norzell Aldridge saw an altercation 
happening from a distance. He went over to the altercation to try to 
defuse the situation. He was a youth league football coach. As he tried 
to deal with this altercation, he was shot and killed. One of his 
friends said: ``The guy died a hero trying to save somebody else's 
life.'' One of the folks who work in football with him said: ``His 
legacy will always be never give up, give it your all, and now his 
legacy is through his son.''
  You haven't heard of Norzell because he didn't die in a mass 
shooting. He is just one of the routine gun murders that happen every 
single day in this country. It matters just as much as those that 
occurred in El Paso and Dayton and Odessa, and we can do something 
about those right now.
  I am begging the President to come to the table and agree to a 
commonsense background checks expansion bill that will save lives. I am 
begging my colleagues here to do the same--figure out a way to get to 
yes. There is no political liability in it for you. There are thousands 
and thousands of lives to be saved.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to follow my colleague 
from Connecticut after his powerful and eloquent description of the 
lives that have been lost, the stakes of this decision, and the clear 
path we have--an opportunity and an obligation to save lives.
  Let me begin where he ended. The President of the United States has 
an obligation here to lead. If he does, we will have legislation that 
will literally save thousands of lives. He has an obligation, as we do, 
to find a way to save these lives.
  All of us have seen all too often the needless, senseless, and 
unspeakable tragedy done by gun violence. We focus on the mass 
killings, but those 90 deaths a day consist of the drive-by, one-by-one 
shootings in Hartford and New Haven and Bridgeport and cities and towns 
and communities around the country. No one is immune. No family is 
untouched, through friends and relatives and workplaces and through 
suicides, which are a major part of those 90 deaths every day in this 
country. Domestic violence is made five times more deadly when there is 
a gun in the home.
  The President must not only come to the table but lead. And if he 
will not lead, get out of the way because we have an obligation to move 
forward now and take advantage of this historic opportunity and 
obligation.
  Just weeks ago, in one 24-hour period, massacres in El Paso and 
Dayton left 31 people dead. Eleven days ago, a shooter in Odessa, TX, 
killed another seven. Communities are forever changed by these events, 
and so is our Nation. The trauma and the stress done in schools to our 
children by the drills they conduct, by the anticipation that

[[Page S5424]]

is raised, by the fear that is engendered--the sights and sounds of gun 
violence echo and reverberate across our land.
  I remember the sights and sounds of the parents at the firehouse in 
Sandy Hook on that horrible day in 2012 when 20 beautiful children and 
sixth grade educators died. The firehouse is where parents went to find 
out whether their children were OK. The way they found out was either 
their children appeared or they did not.
  For them, in the cries and sobbing they experienced, the expressions 
of anguish, the look on those faces, it was only the beginning of their 
nightmare. It transformed Connecticut. What we did in Connecticut was 
adopt commonsense measures and comprehensive steps to stop gun 
violence.
  The lesson of Connecticut is not only that those steps have reduced 
gun violence, including homicide, but also that States with the 
strongest laws are still at the mercy of the ones with the weakest 
because guns have no respect for State boundaries. They cross State 
lines, and they do damage and death in States like Connecticut with 
strong gun laws. Through the Iron Pipeline, it comes from other States 
to our south.
  Since that day at Sandy Hook, there have been 2,218 mass shootings in 
the United States, and over 2,000 times, parents have sat, as did those 
parents at Sandy Hook, and waited to know whether their children were 
OK--children who left in the morning with no inkling about the violence 
that was to unfold.
  There is no reason people have to live this way in the United States 
of America. America has no greater proportion of mental health issues 
than any other country. We have a higher rate of gun violence. We can 
prevent it through commonsense steps and comprehensive steps that will 
save as many lives as possible as quickly as possible by keeping guns 
out of the hands of dangerous people. That is the principle of the two 
main proposals likely to come before this body.
  To keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, do it through 
background checks, which have to apply universally to all States for 
them to be effective. Experts estimate that 80 percent of firearms 
acquired for criminal purposes are obtained from unlicensed sellers, 
and a recent study found that States that have universal background 
check laws experienced 52 percent fewer mass shootings. Background 
checks prevent people who are dangerous to themselves or others from 
buying firearms, and, likewise, emergency risk protection orders take 
guns away from people who are dangerous to themselves or others. These 
two concepts have a common goal, the same end. They achieve it by 
complementary means.
  The vast majority of perpetrators of mass violence exhibit clear 
signs that they are about to carry out an attack. The shooter in 
Parkland, as my colleague Senator Lindsey Graham has said, all but took 
out an ad in the newspaper saying that he was going to kill people at 
that school in Parkland. The police were repeatedly alerted to his 
violent behavior, including a call from a family member who begged the 
police to recover his weapon.
  Today, in Florida, she could ask for an extreme risk protection order 
under a Florida law signed by my colleague Senator Scott when he was 
Governor. In the 17 jurisdictions that have passed emergency risk 
protection order laws, enforcers can petition courts to temporarily 
restrict access to firearms with due process.
  At a hearing this morning in the Judiciary Committee, we learned from 
one of the judges in Broward County who enforce these laws that they 
have worked to prevent shootings, including many suicides, and they 
enable mental health help to be available as well. These laws prevent 
suicide. The majority of those gun deaths in the United States, in 
fact, are suicide, which is accounting for 60 percent of those 90 
people killed every day.
  Emergency risk protection orders are effective, but they are resource 
intensive, and that is why Senator Graham and I have worked hard and we 
are close to finalizing a measure that will provide grants and 
incentives to other States that are considering or may consider these 
kinds of laws. Together with Senator Graham, I have been working hard 
on this legislation, and we are close--after extensive discussion, not 
only between us but with the White House and with our colleagues--to a 
bill that can muster bipartisan support and pass this body.
  The Charleston loophole must be closed. I have been leading that 
fight in the Senate to fix this problem for years. The House passed 
bipartisan legislation on background checks, H.R. 8, and on the 
Charleston loophole that would fix the problem of would-be murderers 
having access to guns simply because information is unavailable within 
the time limit that is set.
  Guns should not be sold simply because a deadline for a background 
check is not met. Most are done literally within seconds or a minute, 
but some require more extensive work. There is no reason to wait to 
pass these measures.
  Neither should we wait to pass a safe storage bill that we believe 
would have prevented deaths like Ethan Song's perishing in Guilford. 
This past January, Ethan Song would have celebrated his 16th birthday, 
but a year earlier, he was accidentally killed by a gun stored in his 
friend's closet, accessible to him and a friend. Like Kristen and Mike 
Song, thousands of other families across America lose children in gun 
violence every year. It is a parent's worst nightmare, and, in many 
cases, safe storage, including possibly Sandy Hook, would have 
prevented a mountain of heartache and a river of tears.

  The Songs have been so strong and courageous, as have been the 
survivors of the victims' families in Sandy Hook. They have been the 
powerful faces and voices of this effort and the most effective 
advocates.
  The groups that have been formed in these past years, raising 
awareness and mobilizing every town--Guilford, Brady, Newtown Action 
Alliance, Sandy Hook Promise, Connecticut Against Gun Violence, Moms 
Demand Action, and Students Demand Action are only some of them. They 
are mounting a political movement, and we need to hear them.
  History will judge us harshly if we fail to heed that call for 
commonsense reform. The voters will judge harshly, as well, the 
colleagues who fail to heed that call.
  We need to keep in mind that gun violence is not one problem. There 
is no one solution. There is no panacea. We need to aim at all of these 
measures, including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity 
magazines. The House, just this week, approved a ban on high-capacity 
magazines, as well as an emergency risk protection order statute.
  Gun violence is many problems--not one. It is the loopholes in the 
background check system; it is the failure to safely store firearms; it 
is an arbitrary deadline for completing a background check; and it is 
the lack of emergency risk protection orders that take guns away from 
people who are dangerous to themselves or others with due process.
  I have worked on this issue for more than two decades--almost three 
decades since I was attorney general first elected in the State of 
Connecticut. There has been progress. The progress has achieved 
results. Now it is this body's obligation to take that next step, and I 
implore the President of the United States to state his support, which 
my colleagues across the aisle have said is necessary for them to do 
what they think is responsible. I say to them: If the President fails 
to lead, you must do so.
  We must continue to fight and never give up and never go away for the 
sake of the survivors and families who said from this Gallery when we 
failed to act in the wake of Sandy Hook: Shame.
  Shame on us, in fact, if we fail to act.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I join with many of my colleagues to make 
a pretty simple request, and that is, the issue of gun violence in this 
country requires us to take action.
  The Senate needs to do what it has historically been in place to do. 
The Presiding Officer is in his first term, and I am in my third term. 
The U.S. Senate is the place in which we debate and vote on issues, the 
greatest deliberative body in the world--at least that is what I 
thought I was running for.
  It is time for Leader McConnell to bring up gun safety legislation--
well

[[Page S5425]]

past time to bring up gun safety legislation--and for us to act and do 
something about gun violence in this country.
  Yes, we hope the President will lead, will provide that leadership 
that we hear about after every one of these mass shootings--that the 
President is engaged. We need his leadership to bring us together on 
sensible gun safety legislation, but if not, we still have the 
responsibility here in this body to act. We call upon Leader McConnell 
to bring forward sensible gun safety legislation.
  The United States is an outlier on gun violence. When you compare the 
amount of gun violence in the United States to that in the other 
developed countries of the world, in every category, multiply it times 
10, 20, or 30--more likely for gun violence episodes here in the United 
States than other developed countries of the world.
  We have far more private ownership of guns in this country than other 
industrial nations of the world. We have far more mass killings. We 
have far more gun-related suicides, and the list goes on and on and on.
  So we need to take action. This is one area where we don't want to be 
the outlier. We want safe communities, and inaction is not an answer.
  Yes, there are many things we could do. Look, the people of Maryland 
and the people throughout this country have been victims of this gun 
violence. In my own State of Maryland, we had a mass shooting in June 
of last year at the Capital Gazette--outrageous. People trying to do 
their jobs were killed. We have had, of course, school shootings. It is 
time for this Congress to take steps to reduce this risk. Inaction is 
not an option.
  What should we do? As my previous colleague said, there are a lot of 
things we should be doing. We should take a look at whether it is 
reasonable for there to be private ownership of military-style weapons. 
I think there shouldn't be. That is certainly a bill we can bring up.

  We have seen these assault weapons used in a lot of mass attacks, 
where you have multiple casualties in a matter of seconds, where there 
is no possibility for law enforcement to respond to keep people safe 
during that short period of time.
  We should get rid of the high-capacity magazines. I know the House is 
working on that. That is something that, again, is not necessary for 
the purposes of recreation.
  We should identify extreme-risk individuals and be able to put a flag 
on their ability to purchase a weapon. We need to invest in mental 
health. All of that is important.
  The bill we can pass today is a universal background check. The House 
has passed it. It has been here since February of this year. For 7 
months, that bill has been here--universal background checks. It was 
passed with a strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives 
and is consistent with the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has said 
the right is not absolute, that certain individuals are not entitled to 
have firearms because of what they have done.
  Since 1968, we have provided forms to determine whether individuals 
are entitled to own a firearm or not. Of course, in 1993, we passed the 
presale process for licensed dealers because that is where guns were 
being purchased back in 1993. So if you buy a gun from a licensed 
firearms dealer, you have to go through the National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System. As my colleague has said, it takes a matter of 
seconds. You can get cleared or not cleared, and it works. Three 
million guns have been denied a transfer as a result of this check, but 
there are loopholes in it because of the way commerce is handled today. 
It doesn't cover private sales. Internet sales weren't even available 
back when we passed these laws. We have to close those loopholes, and 
it will save lives. States that have closed these loopholes have a 
lower amount of gun violence than those States that have not.
  We need a national answer to this. A person from Maryland can go into 
Virginia or West Virginia where the laws are different. We need one 
Federal law to deal with closing this loophole.
  Today and every day in this country 100 people are killed through gun 
violence--every single day. We can't wait. We have to act. That is what 
this body is best at.
  So I encourage President Trump to lead on this issue. I know he had 
some meetings this week. I encourage our leader to allow this body to 
take up the universal background check bill that passed the House of 
Representatives by a strong bipartisan vote. Let us get that done. Let 
us tell the people of this country that we will not be silent and we 
will not be inactive in regard to the amount of gun violence in this 
country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues in 
discussing our country's horrific gun violence epidemic. I have risen 
to speak of this problem many times over the years, and to be honest it 
is exasperating to have to do it over and over again.
  El Paso, Dayton, Gilroy, Odessa, Midland, Brownsville in New York--
the list goes on and on--city after city, community after community, 
devastated by gun violence. We witness these tragedies. We watch 
heartbreaking and nightmarish footage on our televisions. We offer our 
thoughts and prayers. We have heavy hearts, deep disappointment and 
horror, and still nothing. The Senate has still not passed any 
meaningful legislation to address the problem.
  So here we are once again in this Chamber. Democrats are speaking out 
on behalf of the American people, on behalf of the citizens who are 
protesting and demanding action, and on behalf of our constituents who 
call and write and tweet to us every single day for commonsense 
legislation to help end this gun violence that plagues our communities.
  We aren't just speaking out on behalf of Democrats because gun 
violence doesn't ask what political party you support. It touches the 
lives of everyone in this country. The majority of the American 
people--Democrats, Independents, and Republicans--all want action. They 
want their schools to be safe. They want a place to go and worship and 
be safe. They want to go and buy their back-to-school supplies and be 
safe.
  Let's be really clear about the root of this inaction. It is greed. 
It is corruption. It is the rot at the heart of Washington. The NRA is 
no different. The NRA cares more about gun sales than they do about the 
people of this country. They care more about the gun manufacturers than 
they do our communities. Too many of my colleagues just don't have the 
guts to stand up to the NRA.
  There are three effective solutions sitting right in front of us, all 
of which are bipartisan, all of which have been voted on before, 
getting lots of bipartisan support. I reject the false argument that 
because these commonsense proposals may not stop every single instance 
of gun violence that it is not worth doing them. We should do these. It 
makes no sense to stop doing the commonsense things just because it 
doesn't stop every gun crime because the truth is, it is time to do 
something.
  We can and should ban assault weapons and large magazines. No 
civilian needs access to weapons of war. Those weapons are designed 
solely to kill large numbers of people very quickly, in minutes and 
seconds, and our military train heavily to be able to use those weapons 
well.
  We can and should pass my legislation to criminalize gun trafficking. 
It will help slow the tide of illegal guns into cities like New York 
and Chicago and across the country where guns that are illegal are sold 
directly out of the back of a truck to a gang member or a criminal. It 
is one of the things that law enforcement keeps asking us to do and 
have been asking for a decade.
  We can and should pass the red flag laws that are designed to make 
sure people with violent tendencies cannot have access to guns, but the 
first and most obvious solution should be a cakewalk for this Chamber, 
and that is universal background checks. This solution is supported by 
the vast majority of Americans. A great bipartisan bill has already 
passed our House, but it is not even being considered right now for a 
vote in the Senate.
  So it is really on Senator McConnell right now. It is on him. It is 
his decision whether to protect our communities or not--to just protect 
our kids.
  As a mom, when there was a shooting less than a mile from Theo and 
Henry's

[[Page S5426]]

school, all I could think about was getting there as fast as I possibly 
could just to make sure my child was safe. That is the fear every 
parent in America has today. We shouldn't accept living in an America 
where we have to worry that our kids aren't safe in school, where they 
are actually doing shelter-in-place drills instead of mathematical 
drills. We shouldn't accept that world. We shouldn't accept a world 
where you can't be at Bible study with your friends. We shouldn't 
accept a world where you can't go to a concert or go to a movie and 
know that you are safe, but that is the world we are living in.
  The truth about all of this is, right now at this moment, we have 
Americans who are fueled by hate hunting down other people with weapons 
of war. That has to change.
  We do have the will to do this. Congress can show courage. Congress 
can do the right thing, so why not do it now, when the American people 
are begging us to just have an ounce of strength in our spines, just an 
ounce of courage to stand up to special interests, to greed and 
corruption and lies that distort this debate.
  We are bigger than this. We are stronger than this. We are better 
than this. Let's protect our kids.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the same issue my 
colleague from New York just spoke to, and I know others have preceded 
her on the floor. I am grateful to be a part of this discussion today.
  What I could do--but I know I don't have to because it is so well 
known now--is go through the three or four most recent mass shootings 
which are the ones that get most attention, but I don't have to do that 
because we know so well now what happened just in the last number of 
weeks.
  One way to remember them, of course, is by the names of the 
communities: El Paso, Dayton, Midland, Odessa--names like that where 
everyone in the country knows exactly what we are talking about because 
of what happened there. What we don't talk about enough, of course, are 
the places where there is daily gun violence and horror and tragedy and 
death and grievous injury because it doesn't get the same attention.
  Tragically, another way to go through a list of tragedies that are 
connected to this awful epidemic of gun violence--this uniquely 
American problem of gun violence--is to use numbers. These numbers are 
now emblazoned on the communities that were so tragically destroyed, in 
large measure, by these events. In El Paso it was 22, in Dayton it was 
9, and in Midland and Odessa it was 7. So doing the math, that is 38. 
That is the number of people killed in just three places. Of course, 
there are a lot of other deaths between those tragic events which 
aren't getting the same attention. That is another way to measure--38 
killed between August 3 and August 31. Another number is the number of 
injured. I think the number now is just about 76, just in those three 
tragedies. So there were 38 killed and 76 injured in three American 
communities.
  One of the most disturbing realities after the fact is what happened 
in Dayton in just such a short timeframe. I know that timeframe. We 
could probably cite the other tragedies as well, but we know that in 
about 32 seconds in Dayton, 9 people were killed and 27 were injured. 
Law enforcement, the folks we often call the good guys--good guys not 
just with guns but good guys with a lot of training and a heroic 
willingness and heroic commitment to get to a place of danger to try to 
apprehend a criminal and to try to save people. In Dayton, law 
enforcement officials got there faster than Superman could get there, 
and it wasn't fast enough because in 32 seconds 9 were gone and 27 were 
injured.
  We know that in Midland and Odessa, TX, the authorities reported that 
the gunman was prohibited from purchasing a firearm at one point, but 
he was able to avoid a background check because he purchased his 
assault-style weapon through a private sale. This is further evidence 
of why we need a background check bill that is rigorous--not just a 
background check bill that makes a nice headline but is rigorous enough 
to stop the guy in Texas who brought such horror to that community, 
including, as one of the wounded, a 17-month-old child.
  We also know that through the month of August, in that same time 
period I mentioned, the 3rd to the 31st--but if you include every day 
of that month, the United States has experienced 38 mass shootings. So 
there were 38 times when four or more people were involved, which is 
the definition of a mass shooting.
  When I think about it in terms of the scale of it--and I don't think 
there is anyone who would disagree with this--this is a public health 
epidemic, and it is plaguing our cities and our communities every 
single day. What we are talking about, in terms of the perpetrators of 
this violence, they are not just criminals, they are domestic 
terrorists, and we should call them that. That is what they are. We 
shouldn't try to remember their names or, frankly, even speak their 
names, but we should remember what they are: domestic terrorists who 
are, frankly, in terms of the whole scale of the problem, causing more 
problems in America than any other terrorists are causing. These 
domestic terrorists are using high-powered, military-style assault 
weapons to kill our children and to kill our families.

  We know that last October, the most deadly active violence against 
the Jewish community in American history occurred at the Tree of Life 
synagogue in the city of Pittsburgh. Eleven were killed there and six 
were injured, including four of the six being law enforcement officers 
who, again, got there very quickly--maybe not in seconds but in 
minutes. Of course, getting there that fast, with all of their 
training, all of their courage, and all of their commitment, was not 
fast enough because even though they got there in just minutes, that 
wasn't fast enough because of the nature of the weapon and because of 
the assailant.
  How about Philadelphia? The two biggest cities in my home State are 
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Philadelphia being the largest. Days 
before the horrible weekend of El Paso and Dayton, a mass shooting 
occurred in Southwest Philadelphia that left a 21-year-old dead and 
five others injured. Because only one person was killed, it is not 
ranked as a mass shooting. That happened in that same timeframe.
  On August 14, an individual in North Philadelphia barricaded himself 
in a house and shot six police officers with an assault-style weapon. 
The shootout lasted nearly 8 hours and prompted a local childcare 
center to shelter in place for hours. I was at that childcare center 
just a few days later. Watching it on the news, I had envisioned a 
geographic distance of a lot more than it was. When I walked just to 
the side of the building where the childcare center was and looked 
across the street, it was closer than the width of this room we are in 
today. When you go out the back door of the childcare center, it was 
within feet across a very narrow street from where the shooter was 
barricaded. In this instance, you have one shooter in a house with a 
high-powered weapon who is able to hold off a number of law enforcement 
officials for hours at a time. That is just one example of the power of 
the weapon.
  The issue of gun violence is a uniquely American problem. No country 
has the same problem on this scale. America has never had a problem 
like this in its history. It is uniquely American and unique in 
American history itself.
  Some in Congress want to surrender to this problem. The argument is 
that there is nothing we can do except better enforcement of existing 
law. I don't think most Americans believe that--nor should they--
because there is certainly more we can do. To have a position that I 
would say is a surrender to the problem, you would have to argue that 
the most powerful Nation in the history of the world can do absolutely 
nothing--except maybe tighten up a law by way of enforcement--that we 
can do absolutely nothing to confront this problem.
  No one is arguing that if we passed a background check bill here or 
an extreme risk protection order bill that somehow the problem would 
magically begin to decline. No one is arguing that. But there is 
certainly something we can do to reduce the likelihood and we would 
hope substantially reduce the likelihood of more mass shootings. If we 
passed two bills in the Senate that

[[Page S5427]]

became law and 25 years from now, one mass shooting was prevented, it 
would be worth every minute of that effort and every degree of energy 
expended in furtherance of passing that legislation.
  We have been talking about this for a long time just in the recent 
past. We now know that it is more than 195 days since the House passed 
H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019.
  As I referred to earlier, in the Odessa-Midland shooting, we know 
that our Nation now needs a national background checks bill in order to 
make all Americans safer from the horrors of gun violence.
  Reports indicate that in 2018 alone, 1.2 million firearm classified 
ads were posted on armslist.com that did not require a background check 
before purchase. This is a big loophole that helps feed an illegal 
underground gun market in cities and communities across our country. If 
implemented, the universal background checks bill known as H.R. 8 would 
close this loophole, requiring background checks for all firearm sales 
between private parties. We also know that since 1994, background 
checks have prevented 3.5 million gun sales to dangerous criminals and 
others prohibited from owning a gun.
  I have to ask again, are we to surrender to this problem? I don't 
think so. I think most Americans don't want to surrender to it. What 
they want is for us to take action. They are a little bit tired of just 
speeches and debate. They may want a little more debate, but they want 
votes. They want us to be debating and voting several times at least, 
if not more so.
  This is a grave, difficult challenge to confront, but the commitment 
to confronting it is a mission that I think is worthy of a great 
country. I ask Majority Leader McConnell to give the Senate the 
opportunity to debate and vote on first the universal background checks 
bill, H.R. 8. And I am sure there will be other versions of that in the 
debate, and that is fine. We should debate all of them and vote on all 
of them and debate and vote on an extreme risk protection bill.
  I would argue we should do more than that. We should have a series of 
commonsense gun measures to be debated and voted on, even if we are 
likely to know the outcome, because the American people expect that 
this uniquely American problem and the scale of it are worthy of that 
debate and worthy of those votes.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I also rise to talk about gun violence. I 
express my appreciation for our Republican colleagues. Those of us on 
this side of the aisle feel very strongly about this issue. I 
understand we have gone a little bit past the time. I will try to be 
quick. I feel very strongly about it too.
  Let me just talk about two Virginia tragedies, and let me tell the 
story of a hero whose name we should all know. It has been interesting. 
I sat on the Senate floor and listened to a number of my colleagues' 
speeches. As they talked about gun violence and mass shooting in the 
United States, very few have mentioned that 12 people were killed in 
Virginia Beach in a mass shooting on May 31. They mentioned Odessa, 
they mentioned El Paso, and they mentioned Dayton. Why not Virginia 
Beach? Because there have been so many tragedies since May 31.
  The Virginia Beach shooting of 11 governmental employees and a 
contractor who was just there to get some permits for a building permit 
he was seeking happened barely 3 months ago, but it has already receded 
into the memory of virtually anybody outside of Virginia because the 
gun tragedies since have been the ones that have crowded into our 
minds.
  The fact that that has been allowed to happen--that we are so used to 
it now that the killing of 12 people in a mass shooting barely 3 months 
ago escaped people's memories--tells us we have become used to a 
situation we should never have been able to tolerate.
  In the Virginia Beach shooting, one of the reasons 12 people were 
killed quickly was the shooter used high-capacity magazines that would 
contain dozens and dozens of munition, which made the rescue operation 
conducted by brave first responders extremely difficult.
  We say we care about our first responders. When I talk to our first 
responders, they say: If you care about us, do something to restrict 
high-capacity magazines. Don't you want us to be able to stop a 
shooting in progress? Don't you want us to stop a murder and keep the 
homicides and carnage down? It is hard to do it when we are up against 
somebody with such a massive amount of firepower. If you care about 
first responders, if you want us to stop crimes in process, then enable 
us to put meaningful restrictions on high-capacity magazines.
  I think that was a powerful lesson from the Virginia Beach shooting, 
that had the magazines been smaller, they could have stopped the 
carnage earlier. There may have been those injured or killed, but it 
would have been less of a toll.
  I want to point this out before moving to the next issue. As a 
society, we tolerate high-capacity magazines. Many in this Chamber are 
hunters. Many in this Chamber are familiar with hunting laws. In 
Virginia, as in most States, there are rules that have been on the 
books for years. If you hunt a deer in Virginia, we limit the amount of 
rounds you can have in a rifle or shotgun. We put a limit, and that 
limit has been accepted for decades. Why do we limit the size of 
magazines in hunting animals? Because it wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't 
be sportsmanlike. It wouldn't be humane to allow an animal to be hunted 
with a magazine of near-unlimited capacity. If it is not humane to hunt 
an animal with a massive magazine, then why allow near-unlimited 
magazines to be used to hunt human beings? This is a rule we accept, 
and we should accept it for weapons designed to hurt humans as well.
  The second tragedy in Virginia occurred when I was Governor a number 
of years ago--the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. I won't go into it 
because I will segue when I talk about a hero, but the shooting at 
Virginia Tech happened because of a weakness in the background check 
system. The individual, the young man, Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 
people was prohibited from having a weapon because he had been 
adjudicated mentally ill and dangerous, but weaknesses in the 
background checks system enabled him to get a weapon anyway. We learned 
a powerful and painful lesson that day, which is that if your 
background check system has loopholes and gaps, disasters will result.
  So I join with my colleagues who say H.R. 8--that has come from the 
House and is a comprehensive background check system bill that keeps 
weapons out of the hands of people who are dangers to themselves and 
others--is something we should absolutely pass.
  Last, let me tell the story about an American hero. I have told this 
story on the floor before but not for a number of years. I want to tell 
this story because I think everybody should know this individual's 
name. The name of the hero I want to describe is a man named Liviu 
Librescu.
  Liviu Librescu was one of the 32 people who were killed at Virginia 
Tech on April 16, 2007. Let me tell you about him. He was born in 
Romania--and he was Jewish--during the Holocaust. When Germany occupied 
Romania and began to take over the country, Jews were persecuted. Liviu 
Librescu was then a young child. His family was sent to concentration 
camps, and many of them perished just because they were Jewish. Liviu, 
as a young child, was hidden by relatives and friends and miraculously 
managed to survive the Nazi campaign of anti-Semitism against Jews. 
Many Jews left Romania because they felt their neighbors and friends 
didn't protect them. Liviu Librescu decided to stay. ``I am a Romanian 
and am going to stay in Romania and make my country a peaceful place 
where Jews can live in peace with their fellow men and women.''
  He ran into a second problem. He went to the university. He was a 
talented scientist and engineer. But then the Soviet Union moved in and 
essentially occupied Romania. They punished him because he was Jewish 
and because he wouldn't join the Communist Party. He was a world-
renowned engineer published in journals around the world. First, they 
prohibited his ability to travel to academic conferences and then 
prohibited his right to publish. Over the years, the

[[Page S5428]]

Soviet-dominated Government of Romania took away virtually every right 
he had.
  He started to try to figure out a way to immigrate to Israel. In the 
early 1970s, at a time when some Eastern European Jews were allowed to 
immigrate to Israel, Liviu Librescu finally escaped Soviet-dominated 
communism after having survived the Holocaust and moved to Israel. It 
was his dream.
  Liviu Librescu was teaching at the Technion in Israel, one of the 
premier scientific engineering institutions in the world. He got an 
offer after a few years to come be a visiting professor in Blacksburg, 
VA, at Virginia Tech for 1 year. He came in 1958. This Romanian Jew, 
professor at an Israeli technical university, came to Blacksburg, VA, 
in the mountains of Appalachia, for 1 year, and he fell in love with 
Blacksburg. He stayed in Blacksburg, at Virginia Tech, for the rest of 
his career.

  On April 16, 2007, Liviu Librescu--now 22 years in Blacksburg--was 
teaching an engineering class in one of the two buildings that were the 
subject of the attack by the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho. On the morning of 
April 16, 2007, he had undergraduates and graduates in the class. When 
he heard shooting start in the classroom, he instinctively knew he 
should protect his students. Liviu Librescu was now over 70 years old, 
this Holocaust survivor.
  He stood in front of the classroom door on the second floor of this 
building and told the students: You have to jump out the window. I am 
going to do everything I can to protect your life. Jump out the window.
  He stood there in front of the classroom door and absorbed bullet 
after bullet. Every student of Liviu Librescu's was able to escape from 
that building, save one. There was one student who couldn't get out in 
time and who had let others go first. Liviu Librescu was killed, and 
one student in his class was killed, but he saved the lives of all of 
these other young people.
  April 16, 2007, was a day that was a very special day in Liviu 
Librescu's life. Most in the classroom wouldn't have known it. That day 
was Yom HaShoah, which is a day that occurs every year on the Hebrew 
calendar and is a day that is celebrated and commemorated in Israel. It 
is a day to commemorate, remember, and never forget the Holocaust. That 
is what Yom HaShoah was. Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, knew 
what that day was. He knew what it meant. He made a choice.
  The commemoration of the Holocaust is not just about remembering the 
violent perpetrators and is not just about remembering the victims; it 
is also about remembering that there wouldn't have been millions of 
victims had there not been so many bystanders. That is what Yom HaShoah 
is about. It is about victims, perpetrators, and also about bystanders 
in that the Holocaust would never have happened had there not been so 
many bystanders. What Liviu Librescu decided to do that day was not to 
be a bystander. As violence was occurring around him, he decided: I 
will not be a bystander. I will try to take an action to save someone's 
life.
  Think about it. He survived the Holocaust. Think about it. He 
survived the Soviet takeover of his country. Then he came to this 
Nation and loved it, but he could not survive the carnage of American 
gun violence. He did, at least, decide he wouldn't be a bystander.
  That is what we are called to do in the Senate of the United States--
not to be bystanders. We do not have to demonstrate the courage of a 
Liviu Librescu and place our bodies in front of a classroom door and 
absorb bullet after bullet to save somebody else's life. I don't think 
I would have the courage to do that. I don't know how many of us would 
have. We are not called to make a sacrifice of that magnitude, but I do 
think we are called to make some sacrifices, and I do think we are 
called not to be bystanders. If we are going to be true to that 
calling, we have to be willing to take up and debate and to vote on 
commonsense measures to keep Americans safe from gun violence.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.


                       Remembering September 11th

  Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, I rise to honor those who lost their lives 
tragically 18 years ago and to make sure that we never forget what 
happened then.
  I vividly remember that morning. I was in my own office in Jasper, 
IN. I didn't have a TV. Somebody there brought it up on the internet. 
The second plane flew into the building. I will never forget that image 
because we didn't know what had happened with the first one. We knew 
what had happened with the second.
  Over the summer break, Senator Rick Scott and I took a trip to Israel 
and saw all of that which goes into its preparedness against the evil 
that lurks around the world. I saw it again up close, and it always 
makes me wonder: How can they live like that? How can they be prepared 
when they know there are always individuals and countries out there 
just like in 1941 and just like in 2001? Imagine living in a country in 
which your entire border is surrounded by a fence or a wall in order to 
keep people out--where, in the tough places, there is another barrier 
and where, in the really tough places, there is a dirt berm.
  That drove home again how important it is to be prepared and to 
always be strong when it comes to defending this country and the 
liberty and freedoms we all enjoy every day. I never thought it could 
happen in 1941, and I didn't think it could happen in 2001. It can 
happen again because that is the world we live in.
  When I came here as a U.S. Senator, I always knew the most important 
thing this body should do was foster the defense and the security of 
this country. When you see it has slipped so precariously over the last 
few years--and thank goodness that we have built it back up to a level 
that makes sense--it is because we always need to be prepared. If we 
are going to truly honor all of the lives that were lost in 1941 and 
2001 and will be inevitably lost down the road, we need to be strong; 
we need to be prepared. We always need to be aware of the fact that we 
are blessed just as the State of Israel is blessed--despite all of 
that--with a thriving economy. They live with that danger every day, 
and they find a way to get through it. Let us never let our guard down 
or drop our defenses here. Our freedom and our liberty depend upon it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, as my friend from Indiana and others have 
pointed out today, this is a day that Americans remember as a day of 
unique tragedy. Earlier today, on the Senate floor, we had a moment of 
silence in the middle of a series of votes. The Senate floor was full 
of Members who paused to think about what had happened on that day.
  I think almost every American alive knows where he was that morning. 
Just like this morning, it was beautiful and clear. If you were too 
young to remember where you were that morning--and there is a real 
likelihood that your parents told you where you were--it was a seminal 
moment. It changed how we look at so many things in our country. We 
reflect today where we were and the changes that occurred after that.
  I was working on the other side of the building as a Member of the 
House 18 years ago, and I shared with the Capitol Police today my 
appreciation for what they do every day. On this day every year, I 
remember being one of the last people to leave this building. The 
Capitol Police were working hard to get people out as there was a sense 
that a plane was coming here and was going to either hit the White 
House or the Capitol. I remember walking out the door--I really was 
among the last to leave the building that day--and I remember looking 
into the eyes of a Capitol Police Officer who was still at the door and 
thinking and realizing that I was going to be out. If the building were 
a target, I was quickly going to be somewhere else, and she was still 
going to be here until those who work to protect us every day were sure 
that everybody who could possibly be found and gotten out of the 
building was already gone.
  We clearly understand the world is a dangerous place. We just had a 
foreign policy discussion this week about the country that had served 
as really the haven for al-Qaida and what would happen if we were to 
totally leave that

[[Page S5429]]

country and it were to go back to the Taliban. Would it become a haven 
again? Almost certainly, I think it would.
  We really need to think about a number of things. One is that so many 
people do so much to protect us all the time. We have thousands of 
Americans who are in uniform and in the intelligence community who 
spend their time every day being sure that we are as safe as we can be 
and that our freedoms are secure. They are deployed overseas. They are 
fighting terrorist groups like ISIS or the remnants of al-Qaida. They 
are working here to spot homegrown terrorists. They are doing what they 
can to find what somebody may be talking about or what somebody may be 
bringing across the border that would be of danger.
  Senator Capito and I were just at the border last week. Some of the 
things we talked about were not only the drugs coming over the border 
but the other things coming over the border that are designed to harm 
us--who we are and how we live.
  In St. Louis, MO, and Arnold, MO, we have the second biggest 
installation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency constantly 
looking at the information that is out there. It looks all over the 
world to see if there is activity in places in which there wouldn't be 
activity. Yet, if there were activity, it would likely be activity that 
would be designed to harm us or others in the world. We need to 
understand that.
  We also need to understand that in the society in which we live, 
there is never perfect security and perfect freedom at the same time. 
We have worked really hard not to allow ourselves to lose the freedoms 
we cherish in return for the security we would like to have.
  We also need to remember those people who responded. As for the first 
responders who ran toward the tragedy on 9/11 as others were able to 
run away from the tragedy--passing each other--many of those first 
responders were numbered among the 3,000 Americans who died on that 
day.
  Just last month, the President signed into law the National Urban 
Search and Rescue Parity Act, which allows Federal employees to be 
active participants on urban search and rescue teams whether the 
disaster is natural or man-made.
  The third thing we need to keep in mind is how important it is to 
honor and care for the victims and heroes among us--those who ran 
toward the tragedy, those they left behind, and the people who still 
suffer today because of what happened to them on that day. As likely as 
not, those people to benefit from the Victim Compensation Fund are the 
people who stayed behind to help others or who rushed forward to help 
others.
  We don't want to become afraid to be the great, diverse society we 
have become; we don't want to become a society in which we allow the 
terrorists to win by taking our freedoms away. Yet this is an important 
time for us to think of those freedoms, of those who defend those 
freedoms, of those who rush to the scenes of danger when we have 
danger, and of those who try to do everything they can to minimize 
that.
  We grieve, we pray, we remember, and we resolve today that we will 
continue to be vigilant against attack and unafraid of defending who we 
are.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                      Unanimous Consent Agreement

  Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote 
series begin following the remarks of Senators Daines, Collins, 
Lankford, and Cotton.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                       Remembering September 11th

  Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, 18 years ago, on a bright, clear-skied, 
September morning, without warning, our Nation was attacked. Many of us 
probably remember where we were on that horrible day.
  I had that morning off. I was at home with my nearly 2-year-old 
daughter. We didn't have the TV on. We had a couple of gentlemen at the 
house. I was getting a brandnew furnace on that day. What would 
normally be a couple-of-hours-long installation turned into an all-day 
event as those men would take time off from installing our new furnace 
to run into the other room so we could see what was going on on the 
television.
  I had two phone calls that morning. The first was early. It was from 
a neighbor.
  She said: Joni, do you have the TV on?
  I said: Well, no, Wanda. I don't. What's going on?
  She said: Joni, you just need to turn the TV on.
  So I did, and I saw the horrible events unfolding right in front of 
us.
  The second phone call I got was from my Iowa Army National Guard 
unit: Captain Ernst, we are doing a 100-percent accountability check. 
We need you to stay by the phone all day so we know how we can get 
ahold of you--100 percent accountability.
  It was an experience many of us had never felt before--the terrifying 
shock of knowing that the country we love and our fellow Americans were 
under attack.
  Our adversaries sought to tear us apart by their cowardly acts, but, 
instead, they brought us together as Americans, for in those terrible 
moments, we also saw the very, very best of our country--the 
firefighters, the police officers, the first responders, and the 
ordinary citizens who courageously put their lives on the line to save 
countless others.
  On that day, as individuals and as a Nation, we came together in a 
unique way, and we also made a pledge to never forget--to never forget 
the nearly 3,000 victims and the families they left behind, to never 
forget the heroism of both our first responders and those everyday men 
and women who selflessly acted to save lives, and to never forget the 
importance of defending our homeland and the great democratic 
principles that we stand for.
  It is a pledge I personally take very seriously, and it is why I have 
organized this event for my colleagues to come to the floor today and 
to share their memories and thoughts on today, this eighteenth 
anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
  It is why I work so hard to make sure our Armed Forces have the 
technology, support, and resources they need to defend our Nation from 
threats both here at home and abroad.
  It is why I cosponsored and helped to finally get signed into law a 
permanent reauthorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation 
Fund, keeping our Nation's promise to support the first responders who 
continue to sacrifice their health and even their lives from their work 
in the post-9/11 recovery efforts.
  And it is why we should never ever take our Nation and our freedoms 
for granted.
  I am one--just one--of the millions of Americans keeping that promise 
to never forget. In fact, today, back home in Iowa, there are countless 
folks who are honoring that vow in their own thoughtful way.
  Many use today's anniversary as a day of service, performing acts of 
kindness throughout Iowa. Others come together with their communities 
to honor and remember those who were lost.
  It is really wonderful to see all of the ways that folks are doing 
that, from walking in the 9/11 March to the Capitol in Des Moines to 
visiting the 9/11 Never Forget Mobile Exhibit, currently at the Clay 
County Fair, to participating in the annual 9/11 Moment of Silence 
Motorcycle Ride in Mason City.
  For some of our fellow Iowans, today will be spent remembering loved 
ones lost in the attack--folks like Newton's Jean Cleere's husband, 
Jim, a loving, good-natured, good-humored, and God-fearing giant of a 
man, who never came home from a fateful business trip to the World 
Trade Center 18 years ago.
  For nearly two decades now, Jean has been on a crusade to keep Jim's 
memory alive and well. She helped to raise funds for Newton's very own 
9/11 memorial. She speaks to local students, educating them about the 
events of that day 18 years ago, and she has given her testimony all 
over Iowa. For folks in Iowa, they have probably seen her driving 
across the State. She has a pretty special license plate, which reads 
``NVR4GT''--never forget.
  Today and every day, Iowans are keeping that sacred promise. We will 
always remember Jim Cleere and the nearly 3,000 others who lost their 
lives that tragic day. We will always honor the heroes who selflessly 
sacrificed and saved countless lives. We will always

[[Page S5430]]

rise up to defend our Nation and its citizens. We will never forget. 
That is our sacred promise.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, 18 years ago today, Americans witnessed 
what evil looks like. Eighteen years ago today, Americans witnessed the 
loss of innocent life. Eighteen years ago today, Americans witnessed 
acts of cowardice.
  Today, Montanans and Americans across our country are taking time to 
reflect upon the horrific acts of 9/11. Today, we take time to remember 
the thousands of lives lost on that horrible day. We remember the 
daughters who lost mothers, the sons who lost fathers, and the loved 
ones and friends and the communities that were broken by these 
tragedies.
  I know I speak for most of us when I say that we remember that day 
like it was yesterday. That fateful morning, I was in Bozeman, MT. I 
typically like to get an earlier start at work. We are 2 hours behind 
eastern time. So it was early in the morning.
  My wife Cindy called me. I was at my desk. I was working for a cloud-
computing software company, just starting the day, and Cindy called me. 
She said: There is really strange news. There has been a plane that hit 
one of the World Trade Center towers.
  I think many of us at that time thought it was maybe a small, private 
plane--sort of, kind of a strange bit of news coming out that morning. 
Then, as the minutes went by, we started finding out what was really 
going on, that it wasn't a small plane. It wasn't an accident. It was a 
767 loaded with fuel because it was attempting to make a journey across 
our country from Boston out to the west coast.
  The images of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers is one I will 
never forget, and it is one that will never stop hurting. I remember 
that after it was confirmed that it was a commercial aircraft, very 
quickly the speculation began that this was a premeditated terror 
attack. In moments like that you want to be with your loved ones. I 
quietly closed the door to my office, and I drove home to be with my 
wife and to be with family as we watched the rest of the horrible day 
unfold: 2,977 innocent Americans lost their lives, and 2,977 innocent 
Americans didn't return home that day.
  I think it is important to think about every single human life that 
was lost and the pain of the families who remember that day today when 
they lost their loved ones. That pain is very real yet again today.
  This was a slaughter of our fellow Americans that shook our Nation to 
its very core. Yet, in the face of extreme adversity, we are a nation 
that did come together and we carried on. I think about those moments 
when our churches and cathedrals were filled with Americans in prayer, 
reflecting upon what had happened.
  Today, we honor and remember the almost 3,000 people who died that 
September morning. We remember the survivors, those first responders, 
the firefighters, and the friends and families of those we lost. While 
we take the time to remember today, we also reflect on who we are as a 
nation. As Americans, we are strong and resilient. After the 9/11 
attacks, we responded with strength and we strengthened the homeland.
  We are most grateful to those who served and to those who are serving 
today in our Armed Forces. Just recently, last December, I flew to 
Afghanistan. In fact, we carried 50 pounds of Montana beef jerky to 
deliver to the 495th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion of the 
Montana Army National Guard, who are deployed over in Afghanistan 
protecting us. As I received the briefs that day, I was reminded yet 
again that this war that we have against terrorism exists this very 
moment, and I can tell you this because of the men and women who serve 
in our Armed Forces, in intelligence, and in law enforcement across our 
Nation. It is because of them that we are able to stand here today 
without another terror attack like we saw on 9/11.
  When I received the brief in Afghanistan in December, I was reminded 
again of the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and that 
there are plots being created and attempts to hit the homeland again. 
There are many brave men and women there, many Special Forces.
  I spent time with the four-star there, Scott Miller, who has had a 
career in Special Forces. He is overseeing the operations there. I am 
grateful that they continue to remain vigilant in this fight against 
global terrorism.
  America's enemies want us to be afraid, but the thing is, here in 
America, we don't give up. When America is strong, so are our allies 
and so is the free world. We must remain vigilant to ensure that we 
maintain that Reagan doctrine of peace through strength.
  The world will never forget what happened on this day 18 years ago, 
and despite the political differences and divisions that we have across 
our country and this city, we must always remember that we are all in 
this together, and Americans are strong when we are united.
  There is no force of evil or terror that will ever overcome the will 
and the determination of a free and united people.
  We ask that God continue to bless our fighting men and women, and may 
God continue to bless the United States of America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, September 11 is a solemn anniversary. 
Eighteen years later, we still remember the toll from that terrible 
day. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the attacks on the Twin 
Towers, the Pentagon, and United Flight 93, but every American 
experienced the pain of loss that day.
  Just as we mourn the innocent lives lost, we also remember the 
heroism of our first responders who ran toward danger and death to help 
their fellow Americans.
  Out of the ashes of that terrible tragedy arose a strength and unity 
that the whole world came to admire. September 11 altered the course of 
our Nation's history in a blaze of fire and smoke, and for so many 
Americans, it altered the course of our lives.
  Our fighting men and women deployed overseas just weeks later and 
remain in the fight today. So many Americans joined them, enlisting to 
defend our Nation. Young kids who witnessed firefighters rushing into 
the burning towers grew up and themselves joined units with old-
fashioned names like ``engine'' and ``ladder.'' A generation of 
intelligence officers dedicated themselves to preventing another 9/11, 
and they have and still do.

  Our lives continue to be altered because the consequences of 
September 11 are still with us. The attacks of 18 years ago continue to 
claim new victims, as first responders and others succumb to injuries 
and illnesses that trace back to that morning.
  The al-Qaida terrorists who attacked us are bloodied, yet undefeated, 
while the Taliban terrorists who gave safe haven threaten to regain 
control in Afghanistan.
  Most tragic of all, our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines 
continue to fall in the line of duty and defense of our country.
  Just last week, Army SFC Elis A. Barreto Ortiz was killed on the 
battlefield in Afghanistan. September 11 is his story, too--the story 
of valor and sacrifice.
  So the story of September 11 continues to unfold many years after the 
fact. May its memory strengthen our resolve to continue fighting the 
enemies of freedom, and may we never ever forget.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, 18 years ago today, in my office in 
Oklahoma City, a fellow staff member poked her head into the office and 
said to me: There is a freak accident that has happened in New York. A 
plane flew into the World Trade Center.
  She went down the hallway and pulled in a rolling cart--the younger 
generation will have no idea what that is--but a rolling cart with a TV 
on top of it, and we plugged it in and watched it. As the second plane 
flew in, both of us stood there silently, thinking: That is no 
accident. That is murder on a massive scale and terror like I have 
never witnessed with my own eyes.
  What I didn't know at that moment is how many thousands of lives 
would be affected and how much our Nation would be changed. That 
morning, 18 years ago, seven Oklahomans died, but

[[Page S5431]]

our Nation was forever changed. Common terms we think about today like 
``TSA,'' or ``terror watch list,'' or ``Department of Homeland 
Security,'' or ``Global Entry,'' or ``body scanners,'' or ``PATRIOT 
Act''--those didn't exist on September 10, 2001. They have all come 
since then as our Nation learns how to do more security, learns how to 
engage, and has learned a painful lesson that what people think in an 
isolated village in a remote country--what they think matters to us 
because what they may carry out, if left alone and ignored, could kill 
our family members and our fellow Americans.
  Almost 3,000 Americans died that day, but since that time period, we 
have pushed back not against the people of Afghanistan or the people of 
Iraq, not against Muslims or a faith but against a specific ideology 
that intensely hates the freedom of America and who intentionally plans 
to kill Americans they have never met.
  We learned a new ideology as a nation that day; that we have to not 
only take it seriously but that we must not wait until they carry out a 
fight. If they are planning it, if they are preparing it, if they have 
the capability, we should assume they are actually going to do it.
  Since that time period, American men and women have taken the fight 
to people who want to come and kill more Americans, but it has also 
been at a great cost of American blood and treasure: 4,432 Americans 
have died in Iraq; 2,353 Americans have died in Afghanistan. Fifty-one 
of those are my fellow Oklahomans in Afghanistan; 72 of those are my 
fellow Oklahomans in Iraq.
  Today, I pulled out of my closet a specific tie that I rarely wear. 
It was a tie given to me by a Gold Star Wife who never ever wanted to 
be a Gold Star Wife. She just wanted to be the wife of Chris Horton, 
whom she intensely loved, who went to Afghanistan to serve his country 
in the Oklahoma National Guard and died for our freedom. Two years 
later, she handed me this tie and said: He hated wearing ties, but you 
have to wear them all the time. Just remember him.
  We, as Americans, will not forget, and we have not forgotten. There 
are flags out all over America today just to remember. There are moms 
and dads who really hugged their kids tight this morning before they 
left for school, and the kids didn't even know why. They just did. 
There are places where people are gathering to pray for peace because 
as a nation we are a nation of peace, and we have no desire for war. In 
fact, we detest the pain and penalty and blood and loss of war, and we 
have no desire to be at war across the world, but it came to us, and we 
look forward to the day when guns are silent again and this finally 
concludes and a time of peace can be restored again.
  Today, though, we are just a nation remembering and praying for that 
time of peace that will come, and we are telling Gold Star families and 
families who have sent their loved ones around the world to places they 
had never seen before: We have not forgotten, and we are grateful that 
we serve together as a nation.
  I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me say at the outset, I join with the 
sentiments expressed by the Senator from Oklahoma and our colleagues on 
the floor, starting with a moment of silence until this last speech, in 
remembering the historic American significance of September 11.
  The fact that both political parties came together shows there is 
hope that when it comes to this Nation and its values, what brings us 
together is a powerful force. Today it is the force of memory, the 
force of promise, and the force of the future of this country. I want 
to salute my colleagues, particularly my friend from Oklahoma for his 
moving statement about families in his State touched by this tragedy.


                              E-Cigarettes

  Mr. President, I would like to change topics for just a moment to 
another important issue that has risen today and I believe is worthy of 
comment.
  Just a few hours ago, the White House, the President, the First Lady, 
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Commissioner of the 
Food and Drug Administration made a historic announcement when it comes 
to vaping and e-cigarettes.
  They just finished the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey. What they 
have found is that in a 1-year period of time, the number of our kids 
who are using these vaping products and e-cigarette products has gone 
up from 20 percent to 27.5 percent. In the previous year, it had gone 
up by 80 percent, and it is continuing to skyrocket because it is an 
addiction which is so popular with children.
  Our kids don't know any better. They are being told by JUUL and other 
companies that somehow this vaping is really a healthy alternative to 
tobacco cigarettes. That has yet to be proven, and the Food and Drug 
Administration challenged JUUL and the other companies to come up with 
clinical proof of that statement before they repeat it again and again 
and again.
  In the course of the last several years, the sale of these e-
cigarettes and vaping products has mushroomed dramatically in the 
United States. Just ask any school principal, teacher, and many 
parents, and they will tell you what is happening. Kids don't 
understand that these flavors they are buying--flavor pods like Unicorn 
Milk, Gummy Bears, Bubble Gum--sound like some sweet candy treat, but 
when you inhale it into your lungs, you run the risk of real damage.
  So far, over 450 American kids have been admitted to hospitals 
because of lung problems from vaping. Six have died. These young people 
do not understand how risky this is.
  Have you walked down the street and seen somebody with a big cloud of 
white smoke over their head as they exhale from one of these vaping 
devices? They don't realize that what they are ingesting in their lungs 
could be deadly.
  The Food and Drug Administration and the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services made an announcement today that is significant. They 
announced that the e-cigarette device and flavors that are now being 
sold are going to be taken off the market, out of retail stores, off of 
online sales. Then, come May of next year, those who want to bring 
these flavors back have to justify them as being consistent with being 
good for public health.
  I ask that the Record note that Senator Murkowski and I have joined 
in a bill we introduced last year, a bill which went after these flavor 
pods. I want to thank her. There weren't a lot of Senators who were 
willing to step up, and she did. On a bipartisan basis, we set out to 
ban any of these flavor pods that were dangerous to children and 
couldn't be proven to be harmless. I thank her for that leadership. I 
believe our legislation and our constant pressure on this 
administration came to this moment today where we are stepping forward.
  We are making it clear in the United States of America that we know 
vaping targets kids. We know these targeted kids are risking their 
health and their life by continuing to use e-cigarettes and vaping. 
With this administration today, on a bipartisan basis, we are banning 
these flavor pods once and for all. We are going to try to move 
forward.
  The last thing I will say is this: I hope the Surgeon General or one 
of the other leaders in public health in our government will step up 
now and notify every school principal in America to call an assembly, 
to gather the parents, and let them know about this danger. There are 5 
million kids in this country vaping today. Let's hope they can stop, 
and stop soon, before they harm themselves.
  I salute the administration for its leadership on this matter. I 
worked on it for quite a few years. It is a good moment in our history 
that we are moving together on a bipartisan basis.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Maine.


                       Remembering September 11th

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, earlier today we paused and commemorated 
those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
  Eighteen years have passed, but the memory of that day remains as 
vivid as if it were yesterday. We each have our own recollections of 
where we were and what we were doing as the horrifying terrorist 
attacks on our country began to unfold.
  I remember having the television on and watching a report that a 
plane--

[[Page S5432]]

originally reported as a small plane--had struck one of the Twin 
Towers. I then shortly thereafter saw the second aircraft strike the 
World Trade Center. It was then that I knew our country was under 
attack. I told my staff to stay away from the Capitol Building because 
I feared it, too, could be a target.
  Today, we all still share the powerful emotions of shock, anger, and 
grief. I was worried about not only my staff, those in the buildings, 
but also staff members who were on their way back from Portland, ME, 
which turns out to be where some of the terrorists began their journey 
of death and destruction that day.
  On the evening of that terrible day, Members of Congress gathered 
together on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. With tears in our eyes and 
sorrow in our hearts, together we sang ``God Bless America.'' The 
emotions of shock, anger, and grief were joined by unity, resolve, and 
patriotism. That sense that swept over us as we sang was a source of 
strength in the challenges that we faced in the fight against 
terrorism.
  So many were killed that horrific day. In my State of Maine, we 
remember Robert and Jackie Norton of Lubec, a devoted retired couple 
who boarded Flight 11 to celebrate a son's wedding on the west coast. 
We remember James Roux of Portland, an Army veteran and a devoted 
father, who was on his way to a business meeting in California. We 
remember Robert Schlegel of Gray, who was celebrating his recent 
promotion to the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy and was still 
settling into his new office at the Pentagon when the plane struck. We 
remember Stephen Ward of Gorham, who was working on the 101st floor of 
the North Tower that terrible morning.
  On this solemn anniversary, we join all Americans in remembering the 
nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day--lives of 
accomplishment, contribution, and promise. Each loss leaves a wound in 
the hearts of families and friends that can never be fully healed.
  We honor the heroes of that day. We are still moved by the selfless 
courage of the men and women on Flight 93 who wrestled that plane to 
the ground in Pennsylvania, sacrificing their lives so that others 
might live. We are inspired by the firefighters, EMS personnel, and 
police officers at the World Trade Center who continued to climb upward 
to rescue those who were in peril even as the Twin Towers were tumbling 
down. The New York City Fire Department alone lost 343 firefighters who 
responded to the attacks.
  We pay tribute today and every day to the first responders, the 
military personnel, and the civilians who rushed into the smoke and 
flames at the Pentagon to lead others to safety.
  We express our gratitude to those who have given so much to defend 
our Nation against terrorism, the men and women of our Armed Forces.
  While millions of Americans watched in horror as the tragedy unfolded 
on that terrible day, the thousands of courageous first responders who 
rushed to the World Trade Center, who rushed to that field in 
Pennsylvania, who rushed to the Pentagon to help search for victims and 
to help bring anyone they could to safety, still inspire us. They put 
themselves in imminent danger to save the lives of others.
  Later on, years later, we learned that the toxic dust and debris that 
many were exposed to have caused chronic illnesses. The overwhelmingly 
bipartisan vote in the Senate in July to permanently reauthorize the 9/
11 Victim Compensation Fund ensures that those first responders who 
risked their lives to save their fellow Americans will always be 
supported and their illnesses treated.
  September 11 was a day of personal tragedy for so many families. It 
was also an attack on the United States of America and an assault on 
civilization. We must never forget what was lost and what remains at 
stake. We must continue our pledge--the pledge we made that horrific 
day--to do all we can to prevent future attacks.
  The fundamental obligation of government is to protect its people. 
Since September 11, 2001, we have done much to meet that obligation, 
but more work remains. In the aftermath of those attacks, former 
Senator from Connecticut Joe Lieberman and I, as the leaders of the 
Senate Homeland Security Committee, worked in a bipartisan way with the 
leaders of the 9/11 Commission and the families of those who were lost 
to terrorist attacks on that day to pass the most sweeping reforms of 
our intelligence community since World War II. It is significant that 
the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act passed the Senate 
by a vote of 96 to 2 and that, of the hundreds of amendments that were 
considered, not a single one was decided by a party-line vote.
  In what seemed like a moment, September 11, 2001, was transformed 
from a day like any other into one that forever will stand alone. The 
loss we relive reminds us of the value of all that we must protect. The 
heroism reminds us of the unconquerable spirit of the American people. 
Our accomplishments remind us that we can meet any challenge. As long 
as we keep this day of remembrance in our hearts, we shall meet the 
challenges that lie ahead.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Michelle Bowman, of Kansas, to be a Member of the Board of 
     Governors of the Federal Reserve System for a term of 
     fourteen years from February 1, 2020 (Reappointment).
         Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Shelley Moore 
           Capito, Mike Rounds, John Boozman, Thom Tillis, Richard 
           Burr, James E. Risch, Jerry Moran, David Perdue, Roy 
           Blunt, Kevin Cramer, Roger F. Wicker, Tom Cotton, John 
           Barrasso, Steve Daines.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
nomination of Michelle Bowman, of Kansas, to be a Member of the Board 
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for a term of fourteen years 
from February 1, 2020 (Reappointment), shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Kansas (Mr. Roberts) and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Tillis).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 
Tillis) would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), 
the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota 
(Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the 
Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 62, nays 31, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 273 Ex.]

                                YEAS--62

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Carper
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Warner
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--31

     Baldwin
     Blumenthal
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Casey
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     King
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Paul
     Reed
     Rosen
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

[[Page S5433]]


  


                             NOT VOTING--7

     Booker
     Harris
     Klobuchar
     Roberts
     Sanders
     Tillis
     Warren
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas are 62, the nays are 31.
  The motion is agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the remaining 
votes in this series be 10 minutes in length.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________