EXECUTIVE CALENDAR; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 120
(Senate - July 17, 2019)

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[Pages S4887-S4901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Donald R. Tapia, of 
Arizona, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 
United States of America to Jamaica.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                   50th Anniversary of ``Apollo 11''

  Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, July 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the 
first step man took on the Moon. For that brief moment, all mankind 
stood united, watching an awesome spectacle transpire few would have 
imagined possible just years earlier. It stands as one of the greatest 
achievements in the history of mankind, and it cemented the United 
States as the world leader in science, technology, and discovery.
  In 1961, when President Kennedy boldly challenged the Nation to land 
a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the 
decade, the technology needed to do so, for the most part, didn't even 
exist.
  That we accomplished this monumental goal is a testament to American 
ingenuity and innovation. In fact, some of the very technology 
developed for the Apollo missions is still having a positive impact on 
the lives of Iowans nearly half a century later. Our first responders 
wear fire-resistant textiles developed for the use in Apollo space 
suits. Our communities rely on water purification technology designed 
for the Apollo spacecraft. Our soldiers in the field depend on the 
MREs, Meals Ready to Eat, created to safely feed Neil Armstrong, Buzz 
Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their half-million-mile journey to the 
Moon and back. My daughter Libby, who is a cadet at West Point, was 
recently sharing some very strong opinions about these MREs, but maybe 
she will feel differently after I tell her this was actually food for 
astronauts.
  Yet, in all seriousness, when the government makes wise and sound 
investments in the development of emerging technology, the benefits can 
be tremendous.
  GPS is a great example of this, especially in Iowa. GPS has its roots 
in the military and has a strong Air Force stewardship, and its 
significance only continues to grow with the advancements of satellites 
and the development of drones. Yet GPS has evolved beyond just military 
use; it impacts the everyday lives of Iowans. From driving directions 
in rideshare services to the electric power grid, GPS is utilized by 
businesses and consumers across the country. This important technology 
supports new and emerging applications, including water quality, 
driverless vehicles, and precision agriculture. It is estimated that 
civilian and commercial access to GPS added $90 billion in annual value 
to the U.S. economy in 2013.
  Examples like these demonstrate why it is so important this body and 
our Nation as a whole continue to push the envelope when it comes to 
science, technology, and discovery, and that is exactly what Senate 
Republicans have been doing.
  As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging 
Threats and Capabilities, I have made it a priority to ensure that the 
United States remains the world's leader in the development of 
artificial intelligence, or AI. From novel defensive capabilities and 
data analysis to the predictive maintenance of military hardware, there 
is no overstating the value of AI to our national security.
  I also fought to ensure the recent Defense bill prioritized the 
continued development of advanced manufacturing techniques, otherwise 
known as 3D printing. Look no further than Rock Island Arsenal, which 
employs so many of my fellow Iowans. They are doing some truly 
innovative work in this arena--work that has the potential to transform 
the way we supply our men and women in uniform. As a former company 
commander who oversaw supply convoys into a war zone, I know personally 
how important this is.
  Of course, there is a consensus on both sides of the aisle that we 
can do more to get our students--especially young girls--excited about 
futures in STEM and STEAM. I hope we can work together to advance that 
effort in the near future. After all, the Moon landing could have never 
happened without the contributions of thousands of women from across 
the Nation. These unsung heroes did everything from developing Apollo's 
onboard software to weaving the copper wire for the spacecraft's 
guidance system.
  As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, there 
will be countless commemorations and tributes to this monumental event. 
We will look back on President Kennedy's bold call to action, the 
hundreds of thousands of hard-working American men and women who 
answered that call, and the three heroes who rode Apollo 11 to the Moon 
and back. Then, in that same spirit, we will turn our gaze to the 
future--to the innovation, to the

[[Page S4888]]

technology, and to discovery. Be it here on Earth or out amongst the 
stars, the United States will continue to lead the way as we look to 
take that next great step for mankind.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues in 
commemorating the 50th anniversary of American astronauts becoming the 
first humans to walk on the Moon.
  It was 50 years ago that the United States met one of the biggest 
challenges it had ever set for itself. Through determination, hard 
work, invention, and innovation, the United States fulfilled President 
Kennedy's vision of reaching the Moon before the end of the 1960s.
  I remember that time very well, for July 16, 1969, was my dad's 37th 
birthday. We were vacationing in Florida, at the Spyglass Inn on the 
beach. We were so excited to be close to Merritt Island, FL, where 
Apollo 11 was being launched. We were in our hotel room, watching the 
television. That is one vacation I will never forget. As a young girl, 
I remember watching those first astronauts step foot on the Moon. It 
was with great awe that I watched Apollo 11 lift off from the Earth and 
watched the lunar module land safely on the surface of the Moon. With a 
lot of amazement, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they 
announced ``the Eagle has landed'' and then as they took those first 
brave steps on the Moon. It was with great pride that I watched them 
plant the American flag on the Moon.
  Those brave NASA astronauts of the Apollo program today continue to 
serve as an inspiration that we are capable of anything we set our 
minds to. Equally important is the reminder that those astronauts could 
not have reached the Moon without their having the support of the 
thousands of men and women who were both in NASA and in the aerospace 
industry. It is a reminder that we are at our best when we work 
together.
  While NASA's mission has changed and evolved over the last 60 years, 
the aerospace industry continues to play a vital role in our quest for 
knowledge and America's national security mission.
  In my home State of Mississippi, we are very proud of the conspicuous 
roles our citizens play in our Nation's space exploration and 
endeavors. Since the earliest days of America's space program, 
Mississippi has played an important role in the quest to explore the 
stars.

  For more than 50 years, the John C. Stennis Space Center, in Hancock 
County, MS, has dutifully tested and approved NASA's largest rocket 
engines, including the Saturn V rockets that took our astronauts to the 
Moon and, later, the engines for the space shuttle program. Stennis is 
today testing engines and rocket stages for NASA's Space Launch System, 
which will again take humans beyond low-Earth orbit. I am pleased, much 
like in the Apollo days, that Mississippi has an important role in the 
SLS program. As we are fond of reminding everyone, ``The road to space 
goes through Mississippi.''
  However, Stennis isn't only known for its rocket testing to support 
NASA missions; it also proudly bears the title of the ``Federal City'' 
and is one of the Federal Government's best places to work. With a 
13,800-acre area that is surrounded by a 125,000-acre buffer zone, it 
has allowed dozens of our Federal and private sector tenants to take 
advantage of its unique isolation and security to serve our Nation's 
interest across many sectors, perhaps most notably in the field of 
oceanography and meteorology.
  The meteorological and oceanographic modeling and forecasting 
capabilities at Stennis provide naval commanders with the information 
they need to make good decisions that affect the safety of ships and 
sailors around the world every single day. The Navy's largest 
supercomputer is located at Stennis.
  The unique Federal city of Stennis Space Center covers exploration 
from the bottom of the ocean to the far reaches of the universe. It is 
America's largest rocket test complex--an impressive tsunami and 
weather buoy production site--and is a place where elite Naval Special 
Warfare personnel conduct highly advanced riverine and jungle training 
by using cutting-edge unmanned systems technology. Stennis also houses 
several private initiatives, such as Aerojet Rocketdyne's engine 
assembly facility, Lockheed Martin's Mississippi Space & Technology 
Center, a Rolls Royce test facility, and Relativity Space. The national 
and international scope of work that takes place at Stennis every day 
creates a local, direct economic impact of nearly $600 million and has 
nearly $1 billion in its global impact.
  As we mark this 50th anniversary, I am pleased that Stennis Space 
Center is helping to inspire, encourage, and prepare students to pursue 
science, technology, engineering, and math-related careers--the talents 
we will need to get to Mars and beyond.
  Since its inception more than 60 years ago, NASA has pioneered 
scientific discovery and captivated the Nation. These capabilities are 
especially important in today's world, where innovation and fostering 
an interest among our youth in the science, technology, mathematics, 
and engineering fields are vital to the United States' continuing to be 
a success in this world.
  I am proud that Mississippi plays a vital role in our Nation's work 
to meet the technological challenges of today and tomorrow. This work 
occurs not only at Stennis Space Center but also at so many other 
related businesses across the State of Mississippi.
  The people of Mississippi look with pride at our role in the United 
States' having reached the Moon 50 years ago, and we look forward to 
the decades ahead when the testing, technology, and innovation taking 
place in our State helps the American space program reach new, 
monumental achievements. I believe the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 
11 Moon landing can and should inspire generations of people around the 
world to explore and push the boundaries of what they believe to be 
possible.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, I am honored to join my colleagues today 
to commemorate this anniversary of an incredible event.
  Fifty-eight years ago in May of 1961--the year in which I was born--
President John F. Kennedy appeared before Congress and boldly declared 
the United States would send an American to the Moon before the end of 
the decade. This was no small task, obviously, as programs had to be 
funded, as scientific advancements had to be made, and as foreign 
adversaries had to be kept at bay. As the head of NASA's Space Task 
Group said, ``Flying a man to the Moon required an enormous advance in 
the science of flight in a very short time.'' Yet President Kennedy was 
not deterred. In his ignoring conventional wisdom and the ever-present 
naysayers, he pressed on, and so did the patriotic Americans who were 
charged with making this happen.
  A few years later, NASA began its Apollo missions, and the necessary 
scientific advancements became a reality. In October of 1968, Apollo 7 
was the first Apollo mission in space, and it conducted the very first 
live TV program of a U.S. spacecraft. Apollo 8 launched 2 months later 
and successfully orbited the Moon. Apollo 9 carried the first lunar 
module into orbit in March of 1969. We were getting closer. Apollo 10 
launched in May. It was a full dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 
mission. It was successful. We were ready.
  Fifty years ago yesterday, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael 
Collins launched the Apollo 11 mission to fulfill President Kennedy's 
promise of landing on the Moon. That week, my 8-year-old self and an 
estimated 650 million of my closest friends from around the world 
watched Neil Armstrong land on the Moon and plant our Nation's flag. He 
offered the famous phrase: ``That's one small step for man, one giant 
leap for mankind.''
  That giant leap was a monumental moment in history, for sure, and it 
didn't happen in the abstract. It was really the result of hundreds of 
years of scientific discovery and decades of work from countless public 
servants who devoted their lives to this cause. Apollo 10 gave Apollo 
11 the confidence that the operation would be successful. Apollo 7 gave 
us the opportunity to see its success with our own eyes. The astronauts 
of Apollo 1, in a fatal 1967 tragedy, gave their lives to this mission. 
That giant leap happened because

[[Page S4889]]

of the small steps that had been taken before it, and those who took 
that giant leap are pressing on even today.
  The scientific discovery and space exploration that were made 
possible because of those missions continue to this day, including in 
my great State of North Dakota. Just a few years after the Moon 
landing, the University of North Dakota's John Odegard asked Buzz 
Aldrin to come to our State to help him start a space education program 
within the University of North Dakota, and Buzz Aldrin said yes.
  He left the State, of course, ultimately, but the program stayed, and 
it grew.
  Today, students from across the globe enroll in the University of 
North Dakota to learn about the cutting-edge technologies and 
scientific breakthroughs in space exploration. Some of their recent 
endeavors provide vital insights for future space exploration, 
including for a mission to Mars.
  North Dakotans don't just learn; they get involved. Some even become 
astronauts. New Rockford's own James Buchli joined NASA in 1979 and 6 
years later became the first North Dakotan to go to space, and he is 
now in the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
  Shortly after Buchli's space flight came West Fargo's Tony England, 
who launched into space 6 months later. England's career is marked by 
his work 15 years earlier at Mission Control, where he and others heard 
the chilling words, ``Houston, we have a problem.'' England's team 
helped save the lives of those on the Apollo 13 mission that day.
  Then Jamestown's Rick Hieb launched into space three times starting 
in 1991. The University of North Dakota's 1994 graduate Karen Nyberg 
was the 50th woman ever to launch into space. She did it first in 2008. 
She also spent 6 months on the International Space Station in 2013 and 
now serves on the board of the University of North Dakota School of 
Aerospace Sciences' foundation, giving back to her alma mater.
  North Dakotans leave an outsized mark in the world of space 
exploration, and they are just getting started. The University of North 
Dakota touts over 100 students taking graduate classes in the 
Department of Space Studies, and they have handed out nearly 800 master 
of science degrees in space studies since the program began.
  I am optimistic about the roles these leaders will play in the 
future, following the leads of giants like Buzz Aldrin and Karen 
Nyberg.
  I was only 8 years old during the Apollo 11 mission. Like most 
Americans, I found it to be an exhilarating experience, even watching 
it on my parents' black and white television. But I know I didn't fully 
grasp the importance of what I was watching that day. I worry sometimes 
that many people still don't. Space was, is, and will be integral to 
our way of life, and we must continue to maintain our commercial, 
technological, and military edge in this important domain.
  I hope we will use this anniversary as an opportunity to reaffirm our 
commitment to space exploration and to remind ourselves of the impact 
investments made today can have on our future, and along the way, 
perhaps we can renew that unifying American spirit that was so 
prevalent on that day 50 years ago and perhaps even give inspiration to 
aspiration once again.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, if the Senator from North Dakota was here 
to speak about Apollo 11 and got here a moment or two before me, I am 
happy to yield.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I thank the good Senator from Mississippi.
  This weekend, our Nation will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 
11 Moon landing. This was a tremendous feat for our country.
  In recognition of this true American triumph, I am cosponsoring a 
Senate resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. 
Our resolution recognizes the vision of President Kennedy and the hard 
work and the ingenuity of the men and women of NASA who made it 
possible for our Nation to achieve what seemed to be an impossible goal 
at the time.
  Like many Americans, I can still remember the excitement of seeing 
the American flag planted on the Moon and hearing Neil Armstrong say 
the famous line, ``That's one small step for man, one giant leap for 
mankind.''
  Truly it was a giant leap. NASA not only helped develop technologies 
to put astronauts on the Moon, but these technologies have benefited 
industries, including our military, the medical field, energy, and many 
others.
  We all know NASA is a premiere center for scientific research and 
technological advancement, but it is important to remember that NASA's 
mission includes not only space but also aeronautics.
  As our Nation did during the space race, we are now working to stay 
at the forefront of new technologies, including unmanned aerial 
systems. In particular, I want to highlight the research NASA is doing 
right now in support of unmanned aviation. NASA is designing an 
unmanned air traffic management system that will provide air traffic 
control for unmanned aircraft operations. This traffic management 
project is critical to unlocking the potential of unmanned aviation, 
from package delivery to pipeline inspections.
  NASA is at the forefront of this effort to make unmanned flights safe 
and efficient for a multitude of operators. North Dakota works right 
along with NASA toward this goal, with a UAS test site that is helping 
advance all aspects of unmanned aviation. In fact, they were recently 
selected by the FAA to host an unmanned traffic pilot program and have 
developed a strong partnership with NASA to research, develop, and 
demonstrate this technology.

  I continue to support funding for unmanned traffic management 
research because I am confident that NASA, with the help of its 
industry partners, as well as our test site in North Dakota, will meet 
this complex technological challenge. By making a relatively small 
investment in unmanned traffic management research today, NASA is going 
to help unlock billions of dollars in economic activity in the not-too-
distant future.
  We have worked hard to ensure that North Dakota is an important part 
of exploring this new NASA frontier, and we are thrilled to help 
realize the wide variety of benefits that unmanned aviation will bring, 
making our Nation more prosperous and secure, and we can only imagine 
where we will be 50 years from today.
  I yield the floor to the great Senator from the great State of 
Mississippi.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I thank my friend from North Dakota, and I 
thank all of the people who have arranged for this special recognition.
  Mr. INHOFE. Will the Senator yield for a unanimous consent request?
  Mr. WICKER. I am delighted to yield to my friend from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of the remarks of the Senator from Mississippi, I be 
recognized for such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, it is really hard to believe that the 
first Moon landing was 50 years ago, but, in fact, 50 years ago today, 
three Americans were on their way to the Moon--Neil Armstrong, Buzz 
Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
  I had the honor of actually meeting with Buzz Aldrin just the other 
day, shaking his hand, and being able to listen to his perspectives 
about what has happened in the last 50 years. What a great American.
  At this moment, I would also honor the names of Neil Armstrong and 
Michael Collins. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got to step foot 
on the Moon, Michael Collins' assignment was to stay in the vehicle and 
orbit solo above. It was not at all guaranteed that his two colleagues 
would get back. We certainly thought we had the technology; we thought 
we could do it, and indeed we did, but it was not a given.
  Michael Collins wrote during that lonely flight while his two 
colleagues were walking on the face of the Moon:

       I am . . . absolutely isolated from any known life. I am 
     it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion 
     plus two over on the other side of the Moon, and one plus God 
     knows what on this side.


[[Page S4890]]


  Those are the words of American hero Michael Collins.
  These three men were separated from the rest of humanity, but they 
certainly were not alone. Hundreds of millions of people watched and 
prayed and gave them their best wishes.
  It is hard to believe--and I still have to pinch myself--that I was a 
freshman in college for this Moon walk, and that was 50 years ago. How 
could 50 years have passed by so quickly?
  Men and women have always looked up at the night sky and seen their 
heroes in the constellations. Now we still look up at the sky, and we 
see our heroes, but among them are astronauts who go to the stars and 
return and will go to the Moon and to Mars and return.
  I want to salute the people who have done it before and the people 
who are making plans to put a man and woman on the face of the Moon 
within 5 years.
  I was so honored to chair a hearing just this morning featuring NASA 
Administrator Bridenstine, who has put forward a bold proposal from the 
Trump administration, which has moved the deadline up from 10 years to 
5 years. Indeed, I can tell you, it is the goal of NASA and it is the 
goal of this Member of the U.S. Senate and the committee that I chair 
to facilitate making this go and actually putting a man and a woman 
back on the face of the Moon in 5 years and then, beyond that, on Mars.
  These are ambitious goals, which match and rival the ambition of 
President Kennedy, who announced this plan in 1961. Credit goes to 
President Johnson, who took up the cause after the assassination of 
President Kennedy, and President Nixon, a Republican succeeding two 
Democrats, who saw it to fruition in 1969.
  I am proud to salute all of the people--some nameless, faceless 
people who are not famous--for their role in this magnificent 
accomplishment.
  I am proud to say that Mississippians were among the first to answer 
President Kennedy's call. After all, the Saturn V rocket used for the 
Apollo Program was tested at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County in 
Mississippi, where we still do almost all of the rocket testing in the 
United States of America.
  As Wernher von Braun, one of the leaders of U.S. early space efforts 
once said, ``I don't know yet what method we will use to get to the 
Moon, but I do know that we [will] have to go through Mississippi to 
get there.'' That was true back in the sixties, and it is true today as 
we approach the one-fifth mark of the 21st century.
  We owe so much to the pioneers. Humankind owes so much to the people 
who answered President Kennedy's charge not only to win the space 
race--our country against those cosmonauts of the Soviet Union--but 
also for all of the peaceful results that have come from this.
  Technologies behind CT scans came from the space program. Intensive 
care monitoring equipment, which saves lives every day around the 
globe, came from the scientific discoveries that were accomplished 
during our race to the Moon. GPS and smart phones all have their 
origins in Apollo.
  The commercial space sector is now valued at more than $400 billion, 
and it is reminding us all of the power of free enterprise to open up 
new frontiers. Clearly, that $400 billion will grow over the next 
decade, perhaps to trillions and trillions of dollars.
  Certainly the writers of Newsweek were correct when they called the 
Moonshot ``the best return on investment since Leonardo da Vinci bought 
himself a sketch pad.'' They were exactly right, and this next shot 
should give us an opportunity also to get our money's worth.
  We will go back to the Moon; we will go on to Mars. So as we 
celebrate the 50th anniversary, we look toward the future to all the 
missions that will come and go, and we remind ourselves of this 
country's common purpose and potential. The Moon landing was not the 
end of an age of discovery; it was only the beginning.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Oklahoma.


                          Trump Administration

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I am looking forward to joining in on this 
discussion that is taking place right now on what is happening with 
these people and Oklahoma's role in this. Jim Bridenstine is a fairly 
recent Director of NASA, and he is committed to reestablishing our 
position of leadership. We haven't really lost it, but it hasn't been 
as prominent as it has been in the past.
  We have people like Tom Stafford. I talk to Tom Stafford almost on a 
daily basis. He is still around. He is still active. He still rejoices 
in the fact that we are reestablishing our position, and I am very 
excited about that.
  I wasn't going to talk about that today. I think that is going to be 
tomorrow.
  There is another area in which President Trump and the Republican 
Senate have had great success, and that is in remaking the Federal 
judiciary. As of this week, we have confirmed 43 appellate judges. That 
is more at this 2\1/2\-year point than in any other President's term in 
the history of this country. That is what is going on, and it goes 
unnoticed. These judicial confirmations have real impact.
  Here is a great example. This week, the Ninth Circuit--the 
notoriously liberal appellate court in California--ruled that portions 
of President Trump's ``Project Life'' rule can--not can't, can--go into 
effect. This is a commonsense rule.
  All it says is that in States that receive title X funding, it cannot 
be used by clinics to provide abortions. We calculate that this would 
have the result of defunding Planned Parenthood by about an initial $60 
million annually. It is a great start to defunding the abortion-on-
demand culture, and it is possible only because President Trump and 
Leader McConnell have rightly made remaking the Federal judiciary a top 
priority.
  What I want to talk about is something we need to talk about now 
because it has not been called to the attention of the American people, 
and that is about the great work being done in this administration to 
better our environment.
  When you say that perhaps it can be argued the Trump administration 
may go down as one of the truly great environmental administrations, 
nobody will believe that. In my lifetime and in my history, I have 
never seen a President so detested by members of the media. So people, 
consequently, don't know, with the exception of a few tweets. I admit 
that I cringe a little bit when I hear a new tweet coming out. But, 
look, if that is the only way you can get the truth out, it is 
something that has worked, and it has been very effective.
  We have a White House dedicated to clean air, land, and water by 
cutting excessive, duplicative regulations. Based on what you see in 
the media, you would think this President turned his back on the 
environment, but it has been just the opposite. We are seeing 
significant progress in environmental protection that we have not seen 
in any other administration. Americans should know the truth about how 
this administration is leading the world in environmental gains, all 
the while growing the economy.
  People say: Well, you can't do that. That can't be done. You can't 
increase economic activity at the same time as making environmental 
gains.
  But that is actually happening.
  Look at the chart behind me. There are a couple facts most Americans 
really don't know. They had no way of knowing, until now. Since 1970, 
combined emissions of the six common pollutants--we are talking about 
the recognized six common pollutants out there--dropped by 74 percent 
while the U.S. economy grew by 275 percent.
  Is it possible that could happen? It did happen because there it is 
right there--all this economic activity, all this growth. The bottom 
line is the aggregate emissions of the six common pollutants. There 
they are, going down. That is because this administration knows what it 
is doing and has the commitment that other people are not aware of.

  Now look at CO2. We have had debates over the years about 
whether or not CO2 is one of the pollutants. It is not one 
of the six common pollutants, but nonetheless it is one that people 
seem to be looking at.
  Since 2005 the United States' energy-related CO2 emissions 
fell by 14 percent, while global energy-related CO2 
emissions increased by over 20 percent. We are talking about all the 
emissions increased, and still we had a reduction.

[[Page S4891]]

  Despite this drop in emissions, in 2018 the United States became the 
world's leading producer of oil and natural gas and a net exporter of 
oil and natural gas fossil fuels for the first time in 75 years. I am 
particularly proud of this. I am from an oil State, the State of 
Oklahoma. I know how many jobs are tied to it. I know what has happened 
to our economy, and a lot of that can be attributed to using the proper 
energy sources that we have available to us.
  This administration has proven that we don't have to impose massive 
tax increases or regulatory burdens on American families in order to 
reduce pollution. We are reducing pollution, clearly. Democrats often 
say the United States is failing to properly reduce carbon emissions, 
and this just isn't true.
  Look at chart No. 2. The reality is our CO2 emissions have 
been falling. In 2017 the United States led the world in CO2 
emission reductions while, notably, China led in emissions.
  You have to look at this. The top line is the United States. That is 
reduction. We are leading the world in reductions of CO2 
emissions. All the way across, at the very bottom of the page, China 
has the largest increase of CO2 emissions. What a contrast 
that is. It defies everything else we read about, and yet there it is. 
That is the truth.
  A lot of people are not aware that there is a big party which takes 
place every December. It has happened now for about 21 or maybe 22 
years. That is where 180 countries get together and talk about what 
they are going to do to reduce CO2 emissions. We see who is 
and who is not reducing CO2 emissions with this chart.
  They talk about the great Paris accord, which this President wisely 
took us out of. What that did was to have these countries line up, and 
between India and China, they are responsible for one-fourth of all 
CO2 emissions. At that time, their obligation was to 
continue doing what they were doing with coal-fired plants until 2025. 
Then, they will consider reducing their emissions. What kind of a 
commitment is that?
  Meanwhile, our President at that time was President Obama, and 
President Obama made commitments that could not be kept by our country. 
Yet, stop to think. We don't need to. We are already doing it. Just 
look at what we are doing right now. People don't know that. China and 
India represent almost half of all the global carbon emissions. We just 
don't hear this in the news, and that is why we need to be talking 
about it.
  Another thing I bet most people don't know is that in the early 
1970s, more than 40 percent of America's drinking water systems failed 
basic health standards, but today 93 percent of the systems meet all 
health standards all the time. In fact, the United States is ranked No. 
1 in the world for clean drinking water.
  Clearly, this President's environmental policies are working. We 
would think environmentalists and Democrats would be praising our 
President, given these undeniable successes, but instead they are 
pushing for the Green New Deal. We have all heard about the Green New 
Deal and what it is going to be doing. It is about a $93 trillion 
program being promoted by a lot of the liberals around this environment 
here in Washington. The authors of this Green New Deal spent four pages 
painting the scary and inaccurate picture of our environment. Then, 
they spent the next nine pages outlining their socialist agenda, aimed 
at ensuring the government dictates life in America--from the car you 
drive to the energy you consume.
  In the Green New Deal, they talk about eliminating air traffic. That 
is very nice. I don't know how people will get around.
  They also want to eliminate beef. I happen to be from a beef State. 
We like beef, but, apparently, there are things that cows do. They make 
noise and don't smell good. So they want to eliminate beef.
  They want to eliminate oil and gas altogether. You can't eliminate 
oil and gas. Right now, 80 percent of our energy that we use to enjoy 
life in America comes from oil and gas, and that is going to continue. 
I don't see it changing in the near future.
  Scientists like MIT's Richard Lindzen have been calling out climate 
alarmists for years on this conspiracy to control our lives. This 
flawed plan doesn't take into account that over 80 percent of the 
United States' energy comes from fossil fuels--80 percent. If you 
eliminate fossil fuels, how do you run this machine called America? The 
answer is, you can't. Our Nation runs on American coal, oil, and gas, 
and that isn't going to change any time soon.
  We had a vote in the Senate on this radical Green New Deal plan, but 
not a single Democrat was willing to vote for it. A lot of them voted 
present. They didn't want to get on record voting for it, and yet that 
is what they are promoting over in the House. They know their plan will 
not work and is extremely unpopular. So they weren't going to join it. 
Anytime you don't want to vote for or against something, what do you 
do? You vote present.
  I didn't think Democrats could be more radical than they were under 
the Obama administration, but I was wrong. At least I give the Obama 
administration credit for being honest about its radical war on fossil 
fuels. For 8 years, President Obama targeted oil and gas producers in 
States like my State of Oklahoma, but President Obama lost that fight, 
and Oklahoma energy producers continue to create thousands of jobs to 
fuel this machine called America.
  I think back to 1990. I was here in 1990, and that is when we passed 
a landmark piece of legislation called the Clean Air Act. I cosponsored 
that act, and that succeeded in reducing acid rain, air pollution, and 
harm to our ozone layer. It has gone down in history as one of the true 
great successes that has happened in this country in terms of the 
environment. We are all a part of this, and we have been successful.
  Many of today's Democrats are virtually unrecognizable compared to 
those back in 1990. I urge my Democratic colleagues to reject radical 
socialist environmental policies, come back to reality, and support our 
President's very effective approach.
  I am proud of President Trump and his administration's record on 
improving our Nation's environment while streamlining government 
overreach. It is possible to have a thriving economy while safeguarding 
our air and water.
  Again, I ask you to look at this chart. Just look and see what we 
have done and where we are. In spite of what you hear, we are leading 
the country, under this administration, which is going to go down and 
be recognized as one of the truly great environmental administrations. 
I am very proud of that. I think it is time that people know it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                          American Miners Act

  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, once again I am here to announce a 
looming deadline hanging over the heads of our hard-working and 
patriotic coal miners. It is a shame that we have to do this again, and 
the reason is that we didn't fix it the first time.
  If we don't pass the American Miners Act, there will be 1,200 retired 
coal miners who will lose their healthcare by the end of this year. 
Those 1,200 coal miners spent a lifetime underground, in part, digging 
the coal that we needed to become the strongest and greatest Nation the 
world has ever seen. They have always done the heavy lifting. They gave 
up raises and bonuses year after year in exchange for the promise of 
economic security when they retired. So they paid for this. They held 
up their end of the bargain, and it is time that we held up ours.
  Why is the healthcare of retired coal miners once again on the 
chopping block? We have gone through this before. It is because of the 
courts. Our court system has again allowed coal companies to break 
their promises to their workers. Through bankruptcy, they were able to 
shed their obligations to pay for these hard-earned healthcare and 
pension benefits, and then they were able to reemerge from bankruptcy 
as a profitable company once all the money was basically taken

[[Page S4892]]

from them. This time around, it was Westmoreland Coal Company and 
Mission Coal Company that both declared bankruptcy approximately at the 
same time in 2018.
  For those of you who think this is another big government program, 
let me share a little history with you.
  In 1946, due to the horrendous working conditions our miners faced 
every day, there was a nationwide strike. It brought our Nation's 
economy to its knees. President Truman dispatched the Secretary of the 
Interior, Julius Krug, to meet with the president of the United Mine 
Workers of America, John L. Lewis. They ended that strike by signing 
the Krug-Lewis Agreement, which created a retirement fund and 
healthcare benefits for our Nation's miners and their families that had 
the full backing of the U.S. Government.
  It was not coming from government tax dollars. It did not come from 
the people of the United States paying for this retirement and pension 
plan and healthcare. It came from every ton of coal that was sold. From 
that time forward, there would be a certain amount of that set aside. 
So they worked for it, and they paid for it. It was part of their 
compensation. Unfortunately, over 70 years later, we are still fighting 
to make good on that promise.
  Then, in the 1980s, with the bankruptcy laws changing the way they 
did, people were basically walking away. This money was there. Somebody 
got it. Usually, through the bankruptcy, it was dispersed to the 
creditors and not to the miners who had earned it. That is what we are 
really talking about.
  We have the chance today to pass my bill, the American Miners Act, 
along with all of my colleagues who worked so hard with us on that, to 
ensure that once and for all these coal miners and their wives and 
children will not lose their healthcare and pension benefits and will 
get them back. It is fully offset and will not cost the taxpayers a 
dime. We are using money that we are not only borrowing, but basically 
it is from abandoned mine land money, of which we have excesses, which 
can still take care of the obligations we have to use it for those who 
mine the coal.
  The entire Democratic caucus cosponsored this bill when it was filed 
on the National Defense Authorization Act last month. Everybody signed 
off. If our colleague here, the Senator from Kentucky, would just put 
it on the agenda, it would pass. It came out of the Finance Committee 
last year in a bipartisan vote--a very strong bipartisan vote. We all 
know we have made a commitment to the people who work so hard.
  I am asking all of us to keep our promise the way we did when we 
passed the Miners Protection Act, which saved the healthcare of 22,600 
miners. We need to finish the job, but guess what. We still have 87,000 
miners who are going to lose their pensions by no later than 2022 if we 
don't do something. This adds another 1,200 who are going to lose their 
healthcare by the end of the year. So the crunch time is here. These 
people have worked hard.
  Let me tell you about the pensions. The people who would receive the 
pensions are mostly widows. Do you know what the average pension is? 
Less than $600 a month--less than $600 a month for the people who have 
worked for 20, 30, 40 years underground and have provided the energy to 
keep the lights on in the country and have kept our country strong 
enough to help us win every war.
  I am happy that my colleagues have joined me here today. I am happy 
that my neighboring Senator from the great State of Virginia is right 
here beside me.
  Senator Kaine has been a champion working very hard for the coal 
miners in Southwest Virginia who have contributed so much to our 
country and basically worked very closely with the miners in West 
Virginia. We are proud to have him here.
  So without further conversation from me, I am going to now turn it 
over to my good friend and colleague Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I thank my colleague from West Virginia 
because this is a matter of the heart for him. He has worked so hard on 
this as a Governor of West Virginia and as a U.S. Senator. It has been 
my honor to work together with him on this and so many other issues.
  I will begin with a little bit of history. We are right in the midst 
of Virginia's 30th anniversary of the Pittston Coal strike. It began on 
April 5, 1989, in Southwest Virginia. The Pittston Coal Company, which 
was headquartered in Pennsylvania, terminated all healthcare benefits 
for approximately 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners. That 
anniversary is being celebrated right now. When these healthcare 
benefits were terminated, it led to a strike. It lasted from April of 
1989 until February 20 of 1990--nearly 10 months.
  Then-president of the United Mine Workers Union, Rich Trumka, who is 
now the president of AFL-CIO, was asked during this time period as the 
miners and their families and the retirees made great sacrifices for 
striking: How long can you hold out? They were seeing the benefits they 
were getting as strikers--instead of a $600-a-week strike benefit, 
which was the original plan, the funds had dwindled down, and they were 
getting $200 a week. That was all they were getting during the strike, 
and when Rich Trumka was asked ``How long can the miners hold out?'' he 
said: We can hold out one day longer than the Pittston Coal Company.
  That is, in fact, what happened. In February, they reached an 
agreement. It was a historic labor strike that was because of 
healthcare benefits and because of the need of the people who do one of 
the toughest jobs in this country--a job that will rack its pain on 
your body in a physical way, unlike any other kind of work. Losing 
healthcare is tough for anybody, but for somebody working underground 
in a mine, it is absolutely catastrophic.
  As my colleague mentioned, we are here to talk about the American 
Miners Act, which he is leading and I am proud to cosponsor. The UMWA 
Pension Plan is projected, right now, to become insolvent by 2022, and 
this could be advanced and come even sooner if there is another major 
bankruptcy.
  My colleague talked about the history of this pension plan. During 
the Presidency of President Truman and in the aftermath of that strike, 
there was an agreement that there would be employer contributions into 
the pension plan based on every ton of coal that was sold.
  The employer contributions have declined significantly in recent 
years as coal companies have gone out of business and other companies 
have creatively used the bankruptcy laws, as my colleague indicated, to 
skate out of their obligations to these hard-working miners and their 
families and retirees.
  If we do not intervene, if we do not pass the American Miners Act or 
something essentially identical, 87,000--87,000--current beneficiaries 
and an additional 20,000 vested retirees could lose all or part of 
their pension benefits.
  The insolvency of the mine workers' pension would put further 
pressure on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is already 
facing other shortfalls. And it is not just pensions; it is also 
healthcare. Because of a recent bankruptcy of the Westmoreland Coal 
Company, as my colleague mentioned, 1,200 miners and their families, 
largely widows and others, are slated to potentially lose healthcare 
coverage very soon. That would include 800 Virginians who could lose 
health coverage by the end of the year.
  I remember when my colleague was leading the successful effort in 
2017. To fix one of the issues with healthcare benefits for these 
families, I attended a roundtable session with many of them in 
Castlewood, VA, at the UMWA field office there. I went in at a midweek, 
midafternoon time when you wouldn't normally expect a lot of people to 
attend a meeting, and the room was absolutely packed with people who 
were so very, very frightened. They were slated, at that point, to lose 
health coverage.
  Remember, this was at the end of April. It was about April 20 when I 
was there with them. They were looking at me with fear in their eyes, 
asking what they should do: Should I go out and buy insurance on my 
own? But who is going to cover me? Look at my age. Look at my physical 
condition. Look at the conditions my wife is dealing with.
  It wasn't uncommon to be dealing with a working or recently retired

[[Page S4893]]

miner with a spouse who had cancer, and the threat of losing health 
insurance in that circumstance was existential. I could look him in the 
eye, and I couldn't really promise him anything except that we would 
try.
  We were able to get a fix at that point that saved healthcare for 
thousands and thousands of miners, and we did that with our colleagues 
in this body--Democratic and Republican--and in the House as well. 
Well, it is time for us to step up again.
  Here is what the American Miners Act would do. It would shore up the 
pension plan to ensure that workers receive the benefits they have 
earned. The bill would also safeguard healthcare coverage for workers 
who are projected to lose their coverage because of the Westmoreland 
Coal Bankruptcy. It builds on the bill that we passed in a bipartisan 
way in 2017.
  Lastly--and this is really important. I am so happy that in working 
on the bill, Senator Manchin and I decided to do this. The bill is 
going to ensure financing for medical treatment and basic expenses for 
workers suffering from black lung because we are extending the Black 
Lung Disability Trust Fund. Right now, that is also--because of a 
revenue source that was sort of sunset--scheduled to be stopped, and 
then the trust fund will dwindle down, and those suffering from black 
lung will also lose the protections that they have. This American 
Miners Act not only protects pensions and not only protects folks who 
are having their healthcare bankrupted by Westmoreland but would extend 
the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund that is so very, very important.
  The best news is that the bill is fully paid for. We are not asking 
to increase the deficit. We are not asking to increase tax rates. The 
bill is fully paid for. We would simply extend an existing tax to 
protect the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, and then we would utilize 
an existing source of revenue that we used before--mine reclamation 
funds that are currently oversubscribed and are not being used to help 
backstop healthcare needs.
  So this is a bill that would do an awful lot of good for an awful lot 
of people, and we are not coming here just asking without paying for 
it. We have a solution on the table so that we can pay for it.
  My hope is that the body will come together the same way we did in 
2017 to protect these hard-working people and their families and their 
widows who have done the hardest work that just about anybody does in 
this country and whose bodies have suffered as a result, and they need 
to have us having their back.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, if I could, first of all, thank my 
colleague from Virginia, my dear friend Senator Kaine. I just want to 
touch on one thing before we have Senator Casey speak on behalf of all 
the coal miners he represents in the State of Pennsylvania.
  On the Black Lung Fund, a lot of people don't know, the House of 
Representatives basically, 2 years ago, passed a bill reducing the fund 
from $1.10 to 55 cents. I called over to my friends and colleagues in 
the House, and I said: You would think we don't need the money anymore 
because we have cured black lung--but it is just the contrary. We have 
more diseases and more younger people getting black lung, and I will 
tell you the reason why.
  When mining coal, you are cutting through a lot of rock, and you get 
silica coming out from that. We are cutting into more rock than ever 
before. We have even more younger miners contracting black lung. We 
need to fund more now than ever before, and this is not the time to cut 
it. That 55 cents a ton makes a difference between solvency or not, 
curing people or the Federal Government having to step in.
  The coal miners have been proud to pay their own way. They paid for 
their pension. They paid for their healthcare. They didn't take money 
home because when they negotiated, this is how much stayed in the fund. 
Basically, somebody received that money, the benefit, but not the 
people who worked for it. Now they are willing to try to fix that with 
the coal they mined from the abandoned mine land money. That is all we 
are asking for. We will take care of our own problems.
  We are begging the majority leader of this respected body to please 
put this bill on the floor and let the body vote on it because we have 
had good bipartisan support. Everybody respects the person providing 
the energy who protected this country, and that is all we are asking 
for.
  There is no one who has fought harder and worked harder on this than 
Senator Casey from Pennsylvania, and that is another State that borders 
West Virginia that we are proud of and are very close with, and they 
have given so much.
  With that, I yield the floor to Senator Casey.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise to discuss this urgent issue of 
pensions and our legislative proposal to address this looming crisis.
  I commend and salute the work of Senator Manchin, my colleague from 
West Virginia, for his indefatigable work on this. There are probably a 
few other words I could use for his determination over time, and not 
just over months but literally now over years, as well as Senator 
Kaine's, from Virginia, and Senator Brown's, who will follow me. We are 
grateful for this combination of States coming together to stand up for 
workers.
  We know this discussion on the floor of the Senate takes place at a 
significant time. The House Ways and Means Committee just passed the 
bipartisan Butch Lewis Act, H.R. 397, on the 10th of July. The House is 
taking much needed action, and it is long past time that the U.S. 
Senate does the same.
  In my home State, there is a whole group of workers. Obviously, 
miners are a big part of this, the Teamsters, Bakery and Confectionery 
Workers, all of whom, through no fault of their own, are seeing their 
hard-earned pensions threatened. Failure to act could result in 
devastating economic consequences to communities across both the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as well as throughout the Nation. Tens of 
thousands of pensions of Pennsylvanians could be at risk, including--
and these are just some of the numbers--11,831 coal miners and 21,460 
Teamsters.
  Despite the challenges ahead, the good news is, we have bipartisan 
legislation to deal with this pension crisis through the legislation 
known as the Butch Lewis Act. The bill creates a loan program for 
troubled pensions. It is a commonsense solution that brings the public 
and private sectors together to address this crisis.
  We must also pass legislation so we can address coal miner health and 
pension benefits. Senator Manchin, as I referred to earlier, has shown 
great leadership throughout this process. We want to thank all the 
Senators who are with us today and others who are not with us on the 
floor, necessarily, but are with us by way of supporting this 
legislation.
  We have a long way to go and a mountain to climb for several reasons. 
There are a number of Senators around this Chamber who, on a regular 
basis, when a multinational corporation needs help, will pull out all 
the stops. They will overturn any stone. They will surmount any 
barrier. They will fight through any wall of opposition or resistance. 
That is the same kind of persistence and determination and resolve we 
need for workers--in my case, whether it is a coal miner or a teamster 
or a bakery and confectionery worker.
  It is long past due that we bring the same sense of urgency to the 
issues that involve workers as some here brought to corporate taxes. 
Just by way of one example, we were debating the 2017--November 2017 
and December 2017 tax bill. My God, there were lobbyists all over town 
and people scurrying back and forth to make sure the corporate tax rate 
came down, to make sure the rate a corporation was paying was lowered 
substantially. In the end, they got more than they asked for, in my 
judgment. What was supposed to flow from that was an abundance of jobs, 
a rushing current of jobs, and wage growth was supposed to come from 
that legislation. Of course, it didn't. Some of us are right about our 
prediction--a prediction that we would not want to be right about, but 
we were.
  So if that kind of determination and concerted action and then the 
legislative result that flowed from that can

[[Page S4894]]

be undertaken to help huge, multinational corporations, I think the 
same effort should be undertaken on behalf of workers who earned these 
pension benefits.
  This isn't something extra. This isn't something new. This isn't 
something other than an earned benefit, and for some of them, they 
earned it in the most difficult way possible, by going underneath the 
ground to mine coal year after year and, in some cases, decade after 
decade.
  Stephen Crane, the great novelist, wrote an essay in the early 1900s 
or just around the turn of the century, I should say, about a coal mine 
in my hometown of Scranton. He described all of the horrors, all of the 
darkness. He described the ways a miner could die. He referred to it as 
the ``hundred perils''--life-threatening. He described the mine in a 
very moving way. He talked about the mine being a place of inscrutable 
darkness, a soundless place of tangible loneliness--loneliness because 
you can't see your hand in front of your face and loneliness, of 
course, if you were injured on the job, or if you had an injury that 
debilitated you, or if you, in fact, lost your life. Tens of thousands 
of people lost their lives in mines.

  I know that is a long time ago. I know we have made advancements, but 
it is still hard work just as it is to do the other jobs I mentioned, 
whether you are a teamster or a bakery and confectionery worker. Just 
pick your particular work area or union.
  So we have some work to do here, and we are going to have to fight 
through a lot, but we are grateful we have some momentum and some sense 
of urgency that may not have been there only weeks ago.
  With that, I will yield the floor to my colleague from the State of 
Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. I thank Senator Casey for his work on behalf of workers 
during his whole 13 years in the Senate and his work especially for 
mine workers and teamsters with the Butch Lewis Act and with pension 
and healthcare. That is so important.
  Senator Kaine has been stalwart for these retirees and particularly 
in southwest Virginia, where he has worked as Governor, and also 
Senator Manchin who was speaking earlier.
  We need to remind this body that 86,000 miners are facing a looming 
threat of massive cuts to the pension they have earned. What people in 
this body don't often understand is these miners and their widows 
aren't getting rich from these pensions. These pensions are $500 or 
$600 a month. Also 1,200 miners and their families can lose their 
healthcare by the end of the year because of the Westmoreland and 
Mission Coal bankruptcies.
  The bankruptcy court can allow these corporations to shed their 
liabilities. That sounds familiar. So often big companies go to court, 
and these lawyers and judges don't really understand what collective 
bargaining is and don't understand the sacrifices these workers made to 
earn these pensions. Shedding their liabilities is a fancy way of 
saying walk away from paying miners the healthcare benefits they 
earned.
  Two years ago, we worked to save the miners' healthcare. We have to 
do it again. We can't leave these workers behind just because of the 
date their company filed for bankruptcy. We have to make sure they 
don't lose retirement security on top of that.
  All 86,000 UMW union mine workers are facing crippling pension cuts. 
They aren't alone. The retirement security of hundreds of thousands of 
teamsters in Virginia and Ohio and Pennsylvania and ironworkers in 
Cleveland and carpenters in Dayton and Cincinnati--so many retirees and 
so many workers' pensions are at risk.
  Congress tried to ignore these retirees, but they fought back. 
Workers rallied. They called, they wrote letters, and they rallied 
outside the Capitol on 90-degree days in July. They rallied outside the 
Capitol in 15-degree days in February.
  We have seen those Camo UMW T-shirts around the Capitol. They are 
persistent. They don't give up. Many of them are veterans. They left 
the mines to serve their country. They went back into the mines. Now, 
as they fought for us, we need to fight for them.
  It comes back to the dignity of work. When work has dignity, we honor 
the retirement and security people earn. We honor work. We respect 
work. The dignity of work is about their wages, about their retirement, 
about their healthcare. It is about safety in the workplace. This is 
why I wear this pin. It is a depiction of a canary in a birdcage. The 
mineworker took the canary into the mines. The mineworker did not 
always have a government that stood with them to protect their safety. 
That is what the union did so many times.
  People in this town too often don't understand the collective 
bargaining process. This town is overrun with lobbyists up and down the 
hall and in Senator McConnell's office. Lobbyists line up and get 
favors from the Republican leader. Never ever does organized labor, 
never do workers get these same kinds of favors when it comes to 
support like this.
  With regard to collective bargaining, what people don't understand is 
that the people give up their wages today to put money aside for their 
future pensions. We made progress with the bipartisan pensions 
committee. I thank Senators Portman and Manchin and all the Members--
Senator Kaine and Casey--all the Members of both parties who put in 
months of work in good faith on this.
  I am committed to these miners. I know my friend Tim Kaine is 
committed to these miners, to these workers, to these small businesses. 
For their success and their livelihood, they depend on getting these 
pensions they have earned.
  We will continue to work for a bipartisan solution. If you love this 
country, you will fight for the people who make it work--people like 
these mineworkers.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                        Facebook Cryptocurrency

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, yesterday the Banking Committee heard from 
one of Facebook's executives about, if we can believe this--it almost 
doesn't seem possible--how Facebook wants to create its own monopoly 
money. That is right, after scandal after scandal with Facebook, where 
they betrayed the public trust, with the damage they have done to 
journalism and the damage they have done to democracy, the compromising 
and betrayal of people's privacy.
  Again, believe it or not, even the United Nations said what Facebook 
did to contribute to the humanitarian disaster in what we know as 
Burma, Myanmar, where literally hundreds of people died--the United 
Nations said Facebook contributed to the genocide. That almost doesn't 
sound believable, but they contributed to the genocide, a U.N. report 
said, in that part of the world.
  Now, after scandal after scandal, Facebook expects Americans to trust 
them with their hard-earned paychecks. It is pretty breathtaking.
  When you think about it, in this body, you know what happens when 
corporations want something. They always get it. With the leadership in 
this body and with the White House looking like a retreat for Wall 
Street executives and the big banks, they always get what they want.
  When have big corporations ever been held accountable? Look how the 
majority leader and President Trump treated Wall Street banks. Of 
course Facebook thinks they can make mess after mess, they can refuse 
to clean it up, and they face no consequences.
  We know that big banks scam customers and break laws. Not only do 
they get away with it, they get rewarded. Last year, as we know, this 
Congress passed and President Trump signed legislation rolling back 
laws protecting working families from Wall Street greed, as if Wall 
Street weren't doing well enough. They had record profit and record 
executive compensation.
  Remembering 10 years ago and what happened with Wall Street--there is 
a collective amnesia in this body. My

[[Page S4895]]

colleagues seem to forget what Wall Street did to our country 10 years 
ago.
  I have said this on the floor before, and I will say it again: My ZIP 
Code in Cleveland where Connie and I live is 44105. That ZIP Code had 
more foreclosures in 2007 than any other ZIP Code in the United States 
of America. I still see the remnants of those foreclosures--high levels 
of lead-based paint, homes abandoned, property values going down. Yet 
this Congress and President Trump want to do more for Wall Street.
  The big banks ask for weaker rules, even though it put millions of 
families at risk--job losses, the evisceration of retirement plans, 
people losing their jobs, people losing their homes. President Trump 
said: OK. Let's do what the banks want.
  The year before that, Congress passed and President Trump signed a 
$1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations, big banks, and the richest 
Americans. Since the Republican tax bill passed, corporations have 
moved jobs overseas. They spent hundreds of billions of dollars on 
stock buybacks because the executives apparently weren't making enough 
money with their record compensation. Corporations have spent $1 
trillion in these stock buybacks. Of the eight companies with the most 
stock buybacks last year, half of them were on Wall Street.
  The big banks and the big investment houses have done very well with 
this Trump economy. They have done very well because of the goodies 
this body continues to bestow on them.
  One thing we also know is that Wall Street can never get enough 
handouts. They always want one more. Not too long ago, a bank lobbyist 
said: ``We don't want just a seat at the table, we want the whole 
table.'' That is so brazen and arrogant. Unfortunately, this Congress 
and this President seem to want to give it to them.
  They let banks haggle over their stress test results. We require 
these banks to take a stress test, but before they take the test--
imagine getting to do this in high school or college. Before you take 
the test, we will tell you a little more about what will be on the 
test.
  They take away consumers' right to have their day in court when banks 
scam them.
  They go easy on foreign megabanks. You could name them. So many of 
the foreign banks have gotten their way so often in this body and done 
damage to our economy.
  We gave them breaks in the rulings that the Federal Reserve made. 
Last month, we saw the Fed once again go easy on Wall Street banks 
during their annual stress test. They basically gave them extra credit 
for even submitting to these tests at all. What does that mean for the 
giant banks? The Fed will let them do even more stock buybacks. The Fed 
ought to understand that megabank CEOs are not playing T-ball, where 
everyone gets a participation trophy just for showing up; they are 
playing with family's lives.
  We know all over the country what happened to people's retirement, 
what happened to their jobs, what happened to their homes. People in 
this town may have collective amnesia and have forgotten the financial 
crisis and housing crisis, but families who lost their homes and jobs 
and retirement savings and their college funds haven't forgotten what 
happened. This town has forgotten what happened 10 years ago, and it 
could happen again.
  The more we roll back these rules and look the other way when 
corporations want to take big risks--not with their money but with 
other people's money--the higher the chance one of these big risks 
doesn't pay off. You know who pays the price. You remember who paid the 
price 10 years ago when the economy tanked because of Wall Street greed 
and Wall Street overreach. When Wall Street bets don't pay off, it is 
workers, families, taxpayers, and people in my neighborhood who pay the 
price. It is your money they are gambling with.
  Hard-working Americans face real consequences when they break the 
law, and so should Wall Street executives.


                            Border Security

  Mr. President, this past weekend, my wife Connie and I went to El 
Paso, to the U.S.-Mexico border, to bear witness to this humanitarian 
crisis. We met with children and families coming to our country to flee 
violence and persecution. These are families just like our own who only 
want a safe place for their kids to lay their heads at night. It 
underscored the inhumanity and coldness of President Trump's family 
separation policy--something I still can't believe our country is 
doing. In fact, the leader of our country is almost gleeful and 
bragging about this family separation policy of taking their children 
away from their parents.
  We talked to one mother from Honduras. She and her teenage son and 6-
year-old daughter were fleeing violent gangs who already murdered her 
brother. She choked back tears as she told her story. She arrived in 
the United States and was sent back to Juarez, Mexico, where she and 
her children slept outdoors on rocks and were given no access to even 
basic hygiene. She told us how hard it was to see her daughter cry, 
that ``it was very hard for me seeing her treated as if she was a 
criminal.'' We are talking about a 6-year-old little girl. That is 
something no Member of this body would stand for if it were their 
child, but it happens to be a child from somewhere else who wants to be 
able to live a decent, safe life.
  This story is a reminder of why the policy the Trump administration 
announced yesterday makes no sense for the American people and is so 
dangerous for those families. The President wants to require refugees 
to apply for asylum in the first country they pass through. For 
refugees like this mother, that country would be Guatemala, but people 
are fleeing Guatemala too.
  I talked to one volunteer at Annunciation House, the shelter we 
visited that takes in refugees after they are released from CBP 
custody. She said their numbers at the shelter were down recently. That 
has her worried because she knows that when families make it to the 
Annunciation House, they will be safe and well cared for. The staff are 
overwhelmingly volunteers, people in their churches and neighborhoods 
who want to help their fellow human beings. Now she is terrified that 
even more families are trapped in Juarez and other dangerous cities.

  It is despicable how little compassion the President and his 
administration have. It is mind-boggling. It is not who we are as a 
country. It is not what people in Ohio think we should do. Yet this 
government thinks it is proper to separate children from their 
families.
  As we were in El Paso, throughout the day, what went over and over in 
my mind was Matthew 25: When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was 
thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was sick, you visited me. When I was 
a stranger, you welcomed me.
  I have read a lot of translations of that, and some translations say: 
When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was hungry, you fed me. 
What you did for the least of these, you did for me.
  There are other translations that I like more than that: When I was 
hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was a 
stranger, you visited me. What you did for those less important, you 
did for me.
  I have read many translations, but do you know what translation I 
have never read? When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you 
gave me drink. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was a 
stranger, you welcomed me but only if I had the proper paperwork.
  That is not in Matthew 25. Only this administration that splits up 
families will say: When I was a stranger, you welcomed me but only if I 
had the proper paperwork.
  These are families whose lives are in danger. They are victims of 
drug violence and sexual violence. They are people who came hundreds of 
miles--not because they want so much to come to America, but they want 
to get away from the violence and the chances of death.
  As I said, I met a mother and her son and her daughter. Her brother 
was murdered by these gangs. She came north. And President Trump, 
having no empathy, not caring about other human beings--especially if 
they look like they might be from Honduras or Guatemala or El 
Salvador--calls them names. He says: Go back to the countries you live 
in. Whether you call it racist or not, it is simply inhumane.
  Despite seeing the inhumanity of this administration's policies--when 
we

[[Page S4896]]

were there, we weren't even allowed to see the worst. Frankly, 
government employees who were there were mostly doing their best. But 
the people who make these decisions--the people in the White House, the 
people at Mar-a-Lago, the people who don't have any idea of what people 
can see--they didn't want us to see the worst of the worst. They were 
denying me, as a representative of 12 million people in my State--they 
don't want people to see what they are doing to these kids. It is 
troubling because Ohio tax dollars are supporting them. It makes you 
wonder what else the administration is hiding.
  Despite all that, so many parts of this trip were inspiring. We saw 
the passion and dedication of advocacy groups. So many people in Texas, 
in Ohio, in Iowa, in Minnesota, and in Wyoming had traveled on their 
vacation time to these border communities to try to help these 
refugees, people whose lives are in danger. They were trying to help 
feed them and clothe them and visit with them and heal them. They were 
trying to help because they know our government hasn't. They know our 
government--President Trump and the people around him--have abandoned 
them.
  I saw the Border Network for Human Rights shining a light on 
migrants' mistreatment and abuse to hold our government accountable. We 
saw the generosity and kindness of the volunteers at Annunciation 
House. All of those advocates and volunteers represent the best of 
American values.
  I remember seeing a bus of refugees who arrived at Annunciation House 
holding babies and children, smiling and waving at us. You could see 
the relief on their faces because they saw people who remembered: When 
I was a stranger, you welcomed me. They saw American citizens who love 
this country, Americans who understand our values, Americans who know 
we are a nation of immigrants. Those children knew they were welcomed. 
Their families knew their children were safe.
  We saw the innocence of those children who find joy through play even 
at the darkest times, after witnessing horrors many of us can only 
imagine.
  Connie held a smiling baby. I picked up a Wiffle Ball bat and handed 
it to one of the children, and then I picked up a ball. I was told this 
little boy had probably never held a baseball bat because in Guatemala 
and Honduras and El Salvador, they mostly play soccer. I pitched to 
him, and he was kind of a natural. It is a reminder of our common 
humanity--something I hope my colleagues will keep in mind as we think 
about and actually fix our immigration system.
  One place where we ought to be able to start is on something so many 
of us in both parties agree on--that we have to find a solution for the 
Dreamers who are American in every sense but the paperwork.
  Let me tell you a story. I was in Toledo, OH, 2 months ago. I met a 
young woman who is probably in her midtwenties. She is married with a 
small child. She works full time. She has been in this country since 
she was 4. Her parents brought her from Central America. She doesn't 
remember Central America; she was 4. She is from Toledo, not from 
Guatemala anymore. Her parents speak Spanish. She speaks Spanish at 
home, but in every other way, she is as American as just about anybody 
else in Toledo. She said that she and her husband have one car. She 
goes to work. She drops him off, and she takes the car to work and then 
picks him up at the end of the day. She said: Senator, when I go to 
work every day, I go outside and I check my turn signal and I check my 
brake lights. When I stop at a stop sign, I count to three because I am 
terrified I am going to get picked up for a traffic violation and 
deported.
  She works hard. She pays her taxes. She does what we ask her to do. 
She is active in her church. She does all the things that Italian and 
French immigrants coming to the United States have done.
  In fact, I was talking to a gentleman who works downstairs in this 
body. He works in the Senate. He has worked here for 40 years. He came 
from Italy when he was 10. He said he was discouraged and unhappy about 
President Trump's comments about sending them back to where they came 
from. He said: When I was a kid, my parents were Italian. Their English 
isn't as good as mine. I was 10 years old. People told us to go back 
where we came from.
  That is just wrong.
  I hope my colleagues will keep in mind the comments from a young 
activist in El Paso, Senaida Navar. She is a Dreamer. She was raised in 
El Paso. She is a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso. 
She has dedicated her life to fighting for immigrant families. She has 
been a Dreamer for years. She said: ``I don't know what it means to be 
without anxiety. That is not a dignified way to live.'' She is always 
worried. She is worried like that young woman in Toledo.

  We share a common human dignity. It is despicable that this 
administration tries to rob people of that. I hope my colleagues think 
about that. We know the way we solve our complex immigration problem 
isn't by locking up families and children in cages. It is not by 
tearing apart families or by throwing out hard-working, law-abiding 
teachers and workers and students and families of servicemembers. Many 
of these Dreamers end up in the military. They have known no other home 
but America. We can't abandon our values--the same values that have 
made the United States a beacon of hope around the world for 
generations.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Climate Change

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon with 
a number of my colleagues because we are very concerned about the lack 
of legislating that is happening here in the Senate, particularly on 
the issue of climate change.
  As this poster shows, it has been 76 days since the House passed H.R. 
9, which is the Climate Action Now Act. It is legislation that would 
prevent the President from using funds to withdraw the United States 
from the Paris climate agreement. We also have a Senate proposal, which 
is bipartisan legislation that I have sponsored, called the 
International Climate Accountability Act. It has been cosponsored by 46 
Senators. Yet the majority leader has refused to bring these bills to 
the floor for a debate.
  It didn't used to be this way. Even in my time in the Senate, it 
didn't used to be this way. The Senate used to take up important 
issues, put them on the floor for substantive debate, and at the end of 
the day, work to pass legislation to improve the lives of Americans. 
Sadly, what we see now is that the Senate is turning into a legislative 
graveyard. Unfortunately, the International Climate Accountability Act 
is one of several proposals that the majority leader wishes to bury. 
Yet, without a doubt, climate change is the greatest environmental 
challenge the world has ever faced.
  At the end of last year, the U.S. Global Change Research Program 
released its ``Fourth National Climate Assessment.'' This report makes 
it abundantly clear that every American is affected by climate change 
and that the threat it poses will get worse over time unless we take 
action.
  I want to be clear that climate change is not just an environmental 
issue; it affects our public health, and it affects our economy. In New 
Hampshire, we understand this all too well. Rising temperatures are 
shortening our fall foliage season. They are disrupting maple syrup 
production. They are affecting our ski industry and snowmobiling 
industry. We are seeing stresses on our fisheries. Our trout is moving 
farther north in streams. We see an increase in insect-borne diseases. 
Lyme disease is on the rise in New Hampshire and throughout New 
England. Our moose population is down 40 percent, and other wildlife is 
being affected. All of these changes are tied to the effects of climate 
change.
  A few months ago, I met with members of the New England Water 
Environment Association to discuss the enormous effect climate change 
is having on our water infrastructure. Rising temperatures and 
increased rainfall brought on by climate change make flooding more 
frequent and rainstorms

[[Page S4897]]

more intense. We are seeing that now on our gulf coast, where we have 
seen 20 inches of rain in parts of Louisiana.
  Americans are witnessing this firsthand across the country with the 
historic flooding and with the tornadoes that have swept across the 
South and the Midwest. These extreme weather events not only endanger 
families and homes and businesses, but they increase the strain on our 
Nation's overburdened water systems. They take water treatment plants 
offline. This means debris is discharged into our rivers and streams, 
which affects our water quality.

  These extreme weather events are particularly dangerous for coastal 
communities. I see my colleague from Maine is here, Senator King. They 
face this in Maine with its long coastline. In New Hampshire, we have 
18 miles of coastline, but we still see it at our coastline.
  Accelerated sea level rise, which is primarily driven by climate 
change, is worsening tidal flooding conditions and imperiling coastal 
homes and businesses.
  According to a 2018 study from the Union of Concerned Scientists, 
projected tidal flooding in the United States will put as many as 
311,000 coastal homes that are collectively valued at $117 billion at 
risk of chronic flooding within the next 30 years. That is the lifespan 
of a typical mortgage. By the end of the century, the report estimates 
that 2.4 million homes and 107,000 commercial properties that are 
currently worth more than $1 trillion will be at risk for chronic 
flooding. This includes properties in towns like Hampton Beach, which 
is located in New Hampshire's Seacoast Region.
  For those who haven't had a chance to visit Hampton Beach, it is 
beautiful. It is a perfect vacation destination. It is a barrier island 
town with the Hampton River on one side of the city and the ocean on 
the other. Unfortunately, this makes Hampton Beach one of the State's 
most at-risk towns from rising sea levels.
  In this photograph, we can see the impact of rising sea levels. This 
was taken in November of 2017. We see what is happening. All of these 
homes should not be underwater here. Yet that is what we are seeing.
  A 2019 report from Columbia University and the First Street 
Foundation found that Hampton Beach lost $7.9 million in home value due 
to tidal flooding between 2005 and 2017. In total, increased tidal 
flooding has cost New Hampshire homeowners $15 million in lost property 
value. This is just in recent years, and the problem is only going to 
get worse.
  The impact of climate change will get worse if we don't act now to 
reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. I am proud that in New 
Hampshire, we understand the need for climate action. We have 
implemented policies that reduce carbon emissions, that help us 
transition to a more energy-efficient, clean economy, but New Hampshire 
can't do this alone, and the United States can't do this alone. 
International cooperation is key to reducing global greenhouse gas 
emissions. That is why the Paris Agreement is so critical in mitigating 
the worst effects of climate change.
  With a delegation from the Senate, I had the opportunity to attend 
the 2015 U.N. climate summit, and we participated in discussions that 
led to the Paris climate accord. During the summit, we were impressed 
by the leadership and the determination that was shown by the United 
States to encourage other nations to reach ambitious emissions 
reduction goals. Unfortunately, when President Trump announced his 
intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the United States 
forfeited this leadership to other countries.
  In the absence of leadership from the White House, the majority 
leader should allow the Senate to consider the International Climate 
Accountability Act, which would keep the United States in the Paris 
Agreement. Let's take up the bill that has been sent over by the House. 
Let's take up the Senate bill. Let's bring this bill to the floor, and 
let's have a debate. If people don't support it, they can debate it, 
but we should be talking about this. The threat to New Hampshire and to 
this country is in doubt, and until we act, it is only going to get 
worse.
  We have a number of our colleagues who would like to come to the 
floor and speak to this issue, and I am pleased that Senator King from 
Maine, my colleague, is here to talk about these impacts.
  Yet, before my colleagues speak, I ask unanimous consent to show a 
banner that was delivered to my office by the Moms Clean Air Force.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Let me just show everyone this. This was made by the 
mothers who came to our office. What they have written is: ``Please 
protect the families of New Hampshire from air pollution and climate 
change. Moms Clean Air Force.'' You are able to see all of the folks 
who were with the delegation and who visited my office to sign this 
because everyone is concerned about what the impact is going to be on 
their families and on their communities if we don't address climate 
change.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Mr. KING. Mr. President, I am happy to join my colleague from New 
Hampshire and other colleagues tonight to talk about one of the most 
serious threats to ever face this Nation or, in fact, this world.
  A few years ago, Tom Brokaw, the television news anchor, wrote a 
wonderful book called ``The Greatest Generation.'' He was writing about 
the generation of our parents and grandparents who fought in World War 
II, who paid off the debt from World War II, who built the Interstate 
Highway System--who, by the way, paid for it--and who built the 
greatest economy the world has ever seen. That was the ``greatest 
generation.''
  The characteristic of that generation was that of meeting their 
responsibilities. It was not of avoiding problems but of meeting them 
head-on and establishing for the world and for this country an example 
of governance and of the responsible dealing with issues and problems 
the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetimes.
  If Tom Brokaw were writing another book today about us, it would be 
called ``The Lousiest Generation.'' We are the ones who have built up 
an unconscionable debt for our children. We cut taxes in the middle of 
a war in 2005. It was the first time I had been able to find in world 
history when that had ever happened. We have given ourselves tax cuts 
and not paid the bill, and we are passing on this enormous $22 trillion 
debt to our children.
  None of us on our deathbed, when our children are standing around, 
would lean up and say: Here is the credit card, kids. I have run it up 
to the max. You can now pay for it. Yet that is exactly what we are 
doing collectively--the lousiest generation, the one that hasn't paid 
its bills.
  Infrastructure. We have allowed our infrastructure to fall to pieces. 
It is the infrastructure that was given to us by our parents, that was 
paid for--the bridges, the roads, the railroads, and the airports. Now 
we have one of the poorest infrastructure situations in the world. It 
is embarrassing to go to a small country somewhere else in the world 
and walk into an airport that makes ours look old and falling apart.
  So we haven't kept up with the infrastructure, and that is a debt 
that we are passing on to our children, just as real as the national 
debt.
  Finally, we are facing a known, real, unquestionable crisis in terms 
of the effect on the climate, and this is something that we are 
shamefully passing on to our children. They are the ones who are going 
to have to deal with the consequences that we will not face. They are 
the ones who are going to have to pay the bills, who are going to have 
to shore up the infrastructure, who are going to have to respond to the 
drastic changes in the climate not only here but around the world, and 
we are doing nothing.
  What will it take? What will it take for us to meet this 
responsibility? What is it going to take?
  Well, OK, let's go down a list. Maybe it will take scientific data 
that demonstrates the level of CO2 that we have put into the 
atmosphere.
  I don't seem to have a chart. I don't need a chart. For millions of 
years, CO2 has varied between 180 and 280 parts per million. 
People say: Well, it varies over time. This is nothing new. No, between 
180 and 280 is the variation until the

[[Page S4898]]

last 50 to 75 years, when it has become a hockey stick. We are now at 
over 400 parts per million, the highest it has been in 3 million years, 
and, by the way, the last time it was at 400 parts per million, the 
oceans were 60 feet higher.
  CO2 in the atmosphere is our responsibility. It didn't 
come from volcanoes. It came from the consumption of fossil fuel, which 
developed and built the wonderful economy that we have and the economy 
around the world. Nobody can gainsay that.
  The question is, Now that we are seeing the consequences, don't we 
have a responsibility to do something about it? Has there been a 
gigantic increase in CO2 in the atmosphere? Check. Yes. 
Unquestionably.
  No. 2, how about Arctic ice? Here we are. In the last 30 years, two-
thirds of the Arctic ice has disappeared--two-thirds.
  I was at a conference this morning on the Arctic. The Arctic Ocean is 
open for the first time in human history. The conference was about 
shipping and mineral exploration and Native peoples losing their 
habitat and their way of life. Two-thirds of the Arctic ice is gone in 
25 years. This is a place that has been covered with ice for thousands 
of years--as long as we have any memory, but now the Arctic ice is 
going.
  Every time I see a prediction of where it is going to be in 10 years, 
lo and behold, it is there in 2 or 3 years. It is opening up. That is 
telling us something.
  Is there an indication from the Arctic ice that something drastic is 
happening to our climate? Yes. Check that box.
  No. 3 is the increased intensity of fires. We have seen the most 
intense wildfires in this country in the last 10 years that we have 
ever seen--more acreage, more intensity, more lives lost, more property 
lost. This is caused by drought and by changes in the climate, all 
wrought by our activity.
  Increase in fires and wildfires? Check.
  Sea level rise. Here is the background on the sea level. We tend to 
think of the sea level as being a fixed quantity. We walk out in the 
ocean, and it always looks pretty much the way it is, whether it is off 
the Maine coast or the New Hampshire coast.
  Well, it turns out that back here, 24,000 years ago, when the 
glaciers were covering most of North America, the sea was 390 feet 
shallower than it is today. Chesapeake Bay was dry land. It was 390 
feet shallower than it is today.
  Then, the glaciers melted, and the sea level started to rise. This is 
an interesting period about 14,000 years ago called the meltwater pulse 
1A.
  This drastic rise in sea level is about a foot a decade. That is what 
is predicted for the next century.
  Oh, it could never happen. A foot a decade? You must be crazy.
  It happened. We know that it happened.
  Now, here is why we aren't paying attention. The last 6,000 years, it 
has been pretty flat. It has been pretty level. The sea level has 
plateaued, in effect, and, therefore, that happens to be recorded human 
history, that 6,000 years. So we think that is just where the ocean has 
always been.
  But do you know what? The last remnant of the glaciers are in 
Greenland and Antarctica, and they are going. They are going. There is 
20 feet of sea level rise in the Greenland ice sheet and 212 feet of 
sea level rise stored in the Antarctic ice sheet, and they are going.
  I have been to Greenland. You can see it. The Jakobshavn Glacier has 
retreated as much in the last 10 years as it retreated in the prior 100 
years.
  The only thing slower than a glacier, by the way, is the U.S. 
Congress. We make glaciers look like they are moving fast, and, in 
fact, the Jakobshavn Glacier is moving fast.
  Sea level rise is happening. In Norfolk, VA, they have seen a foot 
and a half in the last decade. They are having sunny day floods. They 
are having sunny day floods in Miami. They are spending millions of 
dollars to build up their roads.
  People say dealing with climate change is too expensive. Not dealing 
with it is too expensive. In not dealing with it, the expense is going 
to be astronomical.
  By the way, if you talk about sea level in Norfolk, VA, it is a 
national security risk. With the number of bases that we have around 
the world that are at or near sea level, it is going to be an enormous 
task and a very expensive one to protect those assets.
  There is another national security issue involved in this that we are 
ignoring, and that is the displacement of peoples. During the Syrian 
civil war, there were 4 to 6 million Syrian refugees. A few came here, 
not many. Most went to Western Europe, and, as we know, that refugee 
flow turned the politics of Western Europe upside-down. Call it 5 
million people.
  The estimates for refugees from climate change over the next 100 
years is between 200 and 400 million people. Imagine what that is going 
to do to the geopolitics of this world--200 million people on the 
march, looking for water, looking for a place that is habitable, 
looking for relief from drought, from fires. This is a national 
security threat.
  Is it a national security threat? Yes. Check that box.
  What is it going to take? What is it going to take?
  Intense storms. We don't need to tell people about the intensity of 
storms. We have seen them. We have lived through them. I once made a 
joke in Maine that I am 300 years old, and somebody said: Why? I said: 
Because according to the news, I have lived through three storms of the 
century.
  We keep having storms of the century or 500-year storms, and they are 
happening more and more frequently.
  The heat. Nine out of 10 of the hottest years on record occurred in 
the last 15 years. This past June was the hottest June since records 
were kept--the hottest June since records were kept.
  Now, there is a difference between weather and climate. I understand 
that, and I am not going to say that the heat wave that the Midwest is 
suffering this weekend is a reflection of climate change. It may or may 
not be. Weather is what happens day-to-day. Climate is what happens in 
the long term, and we know that we have already increased global 
climate by about 1.5 degrees Celsius. In many cases, it is causing 
irreversible damage.
  When we get to 2 degrees Celsius, which we are headed for, it is 
going to be catastrophic for coral, for farms, for animals, and for 
people.
  Species are already on the move. Senator Shaheen mentioned the ocean. 
There are the lobsters in Maine. There used to be a vigorous lobster 
fishery in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is essentially gone now, 
and the lobsters are in Maine, which is a mainstay of our economy. It 
is a $1.5 billion a year business. The lobsters are moving north and 
east. Why? Because the Gulf of Maine is heating faster than 99 percent 
of the areas of the world. The only place heating faster than the Gulf 
of Maine is the Arctic, and those lobsters are doing what any animal 
does. They seek out more hospitable climate.
  Climate. This isn't academic. These aren't predictions. This is 
something you can see. The people on the water in Maine know it is 
happening. The woodsmen know it is happening because they are seeing 
different species of trees. Bugs are moving farther north. Ticks are a 
huge problem in Northern New England and places where they weren't 
before. This isn't something that is academic.
  What is it going to take?
  One of the things that the Senator from New Hampshire talked about 
is--and I think it is important to emphasize because I hear this 
sometimes--why should we do this? It is happening everywhere in the 
world.
  Yes, that is why the Paris climate accord was so important. It wasn't 
mandatory, but it was a set of goals, and the entire world was engaged. 
Now there is the entire world but one--us. We are out. We are outliers. 
We have lost our voice. We have lost our influence. We have lost our 
leadership position on one of the most important challenges faced by 
this or any generation. Yes, we haven't met our responsibilities as our 
parents and our grandparents did.
  On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln came to the House Chamber and 
spoke about the crisis of the Civil War. The Congress didn't get it. 
They were doing politics as usual, and President Lincoln was trying to 
move them from the lethargy of the legislative process into the 
emergency and the urgency of the Civil War.

[[Page S4899]]

  He said two things toward the end of that speech that I think are 
profoundly instructive for us today. The first is how to deal with this 
change. And this is a change. This is new. I understand that, and 
dealing with change is difficult.
  Abraham Lincoln uttered what I think are the most profound words 
about change that I have ever encountered. Here is what Abraham Lincoln 
said:

       The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy 
     present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we 
     must rise--with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must 
     think anew, and act anew.

  And here is the punch line:

       We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our 
     country.

  ``We must disenthrall ourselves,'' and that means to think in new and 
different ways, to see reality as it is, ``and then we shall save our 
country'' and, in this in case, the world.
  The other admonition from Lincoln that day, which I think is very 
important for us, puts the responsibility directly on us right here. He 
was talking to Members of Congress.
  He said:

       Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this 
     Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite 
     of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, 
     can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which 
     we pass----

  Of course he was talking about the Civil War, and we are talking 
about a fiery trial of our generation.

       The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, 
     in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
       The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, 
     in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

  I want to meet this responsibility. I want this Congress to be 
remembered, as we will be, either way, but I want this Congress to be 
remembered as people who met the fiery trial, who met our 
responsibility, who thought about others more than ourselves and made a 
difference in the life of this country and the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I rise with my colleagues to talk about 
this urgent issue that faces us: climate change.
  Climate disruption is an existential threat to our planet--an 
existential threat. Scientists recognize this, so do the American 
people, and so does the international community. One hundred ninety-
four countries and the European Union have signed the Paris Agreement, 
and so did the United States.
  Quite frankly, we shouldn't even have to argue this anymore, but for 
those who still don't see the evidence of climate change, it is all 
around us: a warming climate; recordbreaking hurricanes off the 
Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean; unprecedented 
flooding in the Midwest; Native villages in Alaska actually falling 
into the sea; and drought and the most severe wildfires in the West we 
have ever seen.
  This is from a 2003 fire near the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. We in 
New Mexico are on pins and needles every fire season now. We don't know 
what disaster will hit us. We know this climate catastrophe is caused 
by human activity. Report after report tells us we don't have any time 
to waste; that we need to act now.
  Even this administration's most recent climate analysis finds that 
global warming ``is transforming where and how we live and presents 
growing challenges to human health and the quality of life, the 
economy, and the natural systems that support us.'' The report 
concludes we must act now ``to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. 
economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming 
decades.''
  That is coming from an administration of a climate change-denying 
President. Yet this administration has slashed and burned every 
protection, program, and agreement aimed at combating climate change it 
can find, from the Clean Power Plan to methane control regulations, to 
the Paris Agreement. I can tell you who in this Congress is the 
administration's No. 1 accomplice: the majority leader of the Senate. 
The leader's legislative graveyard is littered with legislation the 
American people want and deserve, from improving healthcare to 
reforming our democracy, to commonsense measures to prevent gun 
violence.
  Climate change threatens the land, the lives, and the livelihoods of 
homeowners, small businesses, farmers, ranchers, fishers, and so many 
others all across the Nation. The majority leader's refusal to take up 
climate action is about as bad as congressional malfeasance gets.
  In May, the House of Representatives passed the first major climate 
legislation in nearly a decade--the Climate Action Now Act. H.R. 9 aims 
to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by about one-quarter by 2025. The 
bill ensures the United States stays in the Paris Agreement.
  This bill is not extreme, but it does respond to the dire situation 
we face. The Senate should debate this bill and pass it, but we will 
not. We all know the majority leader will continue to stand in its way.
  Due to this negligence and inaction, States are filling the void and 
taking it upon themselves to act. My home State of New Mexico passed 
legislation this year aimed at transitioning to 100 percent carbon-free 
electricity. Our largest utility says they can do this by 2040. It is 
an approach that is consistent with the renewable electricity standard 
bill I introduced last month. That legislation is designed to achieve 
at least 50 percent renewable electricity nationwide in 15 years, 
putting the United States on a path for a zero carbon power sector by 
2050.
  The fact is, no American is immune from the threats of climate 
change, and many of our most underrepresented and vulnerable 
communities are at the greatest risk. For example, the most recent 
National Climate Assessment finds that Tribes and indigenous peoples 
are impacted disproportionately and uniquely. Many Native people's way 
of life is intimately tied to the land and water. These natural 
resources--that they have depended on for hundreds or even thousands of 
years--are being disrupted in ways that upend their communities. Their 
subsistence, their cultural practices, their sacred sites are all being 
threatened.
  Look at the proximity of this fire to the Taos Pueblo. It is not only 
sacred to the Taos people, but it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  Last week, Senator Schatz and I wrote to American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian leaders seeking their input on how climate 
change is affecting their communities. We want to foster a dialogue 
about what actions Congress and Federal agencies should take to 
mitigate the impacts.
  I am the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. Senator 
Schatz is the chair of the Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, and 
we were joined by all Democratic Senators on the Indian Affairs 
Committee. This effort should have been bipartisan--climate change is 
blind to political party--but it wasn't because too many Republican 
members just follow President Trump and the majority leader, killing 
anything aimed at progress.
  The majority leader jokes that he is the grim reaper, sounding the 
death knell on legislation, but climate change is no laughing matter 
and neither is access to healthcare for millions of Americans, or our 
broken campaign finance system, or the safety of American 
schoolchildren.
  The Senate must do its duty to the American people and tackle these 
most pressing problems. This does not mean rubberstamping legislation 
sent to us by the House. The Senate has a storied tradition of debate 
and compromise. Let's return to that tradition, have a real climate 
debate, and pass some real bipartisan solutions.
  We all came to the Senate to solve problems--problems like climate 
change. We didn't come here to spend time in a legislative graveyard. 
We don't want to be a place where good ideas come to die.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, Leader McConnell may, in fact, be proud 
that he has turned the Senate floor into a legislative graveyard, but 
that doesn't mean we Senators have abandoned our effort to make this 
body work for the American people.
  Today the special committee on the climate crisis held its very first 
hearing, where we heard from five mayors from cities across the United 
States.

[[Page S4900]]

They told our committee that the average temperature in Atlanta has 
already increased 2 degrees since 1980; that 3 of St. Paul's 10 biggest 
floods ever recorded have happened in the last 10 years. So it is clear 
to them that climate change is not something that will happen 
eventually, in 5 or 10 or 20 years. It is happening now. It is 
happening in realtime.
  That is why these mayors are not waiting for Leader McConnell, or for 
the Trump administration, or anyone else to start doing something about 
it. Honolulu, St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Portland and cities and 
towns across the Nation are working to transition to 100 percent clean 
energy.
  Atlanta is converting an abandoned quarry into a reservoir to 
increase the city's emergency drinking water supply. Portland, OR, has 
designated more than $50 million for a green jobs and healthy homes 
initiative.
  The experience of these mayors stands in contrast to some of the 
rhetoric we hear on the Senate floor and elsewhere about how climate 
action is somehow economically unwise.
  The Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler, pointed out that his city's 
investments in reducing carbon emissions are the very things that make 
people want to live in Portland. He said in his testimony that 
``failing to take meaningful action to address climate change is bad 
for the economy.''
  That is why Senate Democrats are not going to wait for Republican 
colleagues--because the cost of climate inaction is so much higher than 
the cost of action. The damage that is being done to our cities, our 
farmers, our fisheries--and the risks that are threatening our workers, 
our small businesses, our financial industry, and our taxpayers--are 
too high for us to wait any longer. The benefits of action are way 
higher than the cost of inaction.
  The Pittsburgh mayor, William Peduto, said today that if you want to 
turn a coal miner into an environmentalist, then give them a paycheck. 
If you want to turn a coal miner into an environmentalist, then give 
them a paycheck.
  Hawaii isn't a coal mining State, but his words rang true to me 
because they illustrate the basic point, which is that climate action 
can, should, and will work for everybody.
  So we are not going to let Majority Leader McConnell stop us from 
taking action. He is certainly slowing us down, but he is not going to 
stop us.
  Over the coming months, the Senate Democrats' special committee on 
the climate crisis will establish the predicate for climate action. 
Through hearings both in Congress and out in the field, we are going to 
build the record and the coalitions needed to move forward.
  We are also going to keep an open door for our Republican colleagues 
to join us. There is a way to address the climate crisis that is 
consistent with conservative principles. Senator Whitehouse and I have 
introduced a carbon pricing bill that aligns with traditional 
conservative principles and has the support of Republicans outside of 
the U.S. Senate, but as long as Leader McConnell keeps standing in the 
way of the Senate doing anything, as long as he has turned this body 
into a legislative graveyard--not just on climate but on healthcare, on 
prescription drug costs, on the cruelty shown to children and families 
on the southern border of the United States--then we are going to have 
to find other ways to act without it.
  All of this stuff should be bipartisan, and one day it again will be, 
but right now we cannot wait. We will not wait. The severity of the 
climate crisis and the urgency for action are just too great.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in bringing up the 
challenges of climate change and our responsibility to do something 
about it.
  Climate change is real. It is putting our communities at risk. Our 
activities here on Earth are affecting climate change, and we can do 
something about it. By reducing carbon emissions, we can make a real 
difference in the trajectory of the catastrophic impact of climate 
change. I just want to give a couple examples.
  Last Monday, we had record flash flooding in this region. In less 
than 1 hour, we had 1 month's worth of rain. That is becoming typical 
as a result of climate change. In our region, we saw streets that were 
flooded, sinkholes that developed, water pouring into our Metro 
stations, and roads that were literally ripped apart.
  This shows one major road in Potomac, MD--not very far from here--
that is critically important for a community to be connected. The road 
was destroyed by the record rainfall during that period of time.
  We had CSX and Amtrak put high-speed restrictions on the rail 
service. In Baltimore, we had 1.3 million gallons of sewage from the 
Jones Falls river flow into the Inner Harbor, which produced a sight in 
the Inner Harbor of Baltimore that is truly regrettable.
  This photo I think shows beautiful downtown Baltimore. It doesn't 
look very beautiful. That was just this past Monday and was as a result 
of the high amount of water flow and the inability of our sewage 
treatment facilities to treat that amount of runoff. We are just not 
prepared for it. It is another example of why we need to act.
  We need to act now. Climate change is here. The catastrophic impacts 
are here, and we can do something about it.
  Let me just make a couple of suggestions. We need to upgrade our 
stormwater systems in this country. We have a 21st-century problem with 
20th-century infrastructure. It can't handle it. We need to invest in 
adaptation and deal with the realities of the new weather systems we 
are confronting every day.
  Yes, we have to act on climate change. As I said, it is real. Our 
activities are impacting it, and we could do something about it. There 
are many examples I could give that are affecting our lives. I have 
already shared some about some water. We have wildfires in the West. We 
have extreme weather conditions throughout. We have unprecedented 
concentration and frequency of rainfall in the mid-Atlantic, driven by 
climate change.
  Studies have shown that tropical storms move more slowly, with much 
more precipitation. We saw that with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 
and Florence in 2018. All those were slower moving hurricanes, dropping 
a lot more water, saturating our inlands, and making it more difficult 
to deal with the next weather condition. We have warmer ocean 
temperatures that are making these storms more costly to our 
communities. We have what is known as compound flooding as a result of 
climate change--storm surges that hit our shorelines, which are already 
saturated by inland precipitation.
  After Tropical Storm Barry, FEMA said: ``Given [the] unprecedented 
magnitude of natural disasters over the past two years and the current 
projected path of the storm, a hurricane making landfall is likely to 
impact communities still working to recover from the previous event.'' 
That is how frequent we are going through flooding.
  I will give another example of how much flooding we have had. In my 
region, in Baltimore, if you use the period from 1957 to 1963, that 6-
year period, we had an average of 1.3 floods per year. If you use 2007 
through 2013, we have had 13.1 floods per year. In Annapolis, those 
numbers are 3.8 floods in the 1957 through 1963 period, compared to 39 
floods from 2007 to 2013. That is a tenfold increase in the number of 
flooding events.
  This is an issue that is with us today. Thanks to climate change, 
Baltimore may feel more like the Mississippi Delta than Chesapeake Bay 
country.
  Professor Matt Fitzpatrick at the University of Maryland Center for 
Environmental Science published a study in February in the journal 
Nature Communications with Robert Dunn, an ecologist at North Carolina 
State University, to match cities with their climate counterparts in 
2080. If we continue this trajectory, they predict that the average 
city will come to resemble climates more than 500 miles away, often to 
the south or west. Each one of our communities is going to be impacted 
by climate change if we do not take action to change the trajectory.
  Like all States, Maryland has a very important agricultural 
community. As a farmer, it is difficult to make ends meet today, but 
with these extreme weather conditions, it becomes even more difficult.

[[Page S4901]]

  It is in our economic interest, our environmental interest, as well 
as our security interest for us to deal with the climate issues. 
Unchecked, the sea level in Maryland coasts will rise. If we don't do 
anything about it in the next century, it is projected to be at least 
16 inches and could be as high as 4 feet. We know the catastrophic 
impact to our coastal communities if we do not take action to prevent 
that from happening.
  Our activities of reducing carbon emissions can make a difference, 
and we should do that now to reduce our use of fossil fuels.
  Our States have acted. I am very proud of the actions we have seen 
from local governments and from the private sector. Nine Northeastern 
and Mid-Atlantic States, including Maryland, announced an intent of a 
new, regional, low-carbon transportation policy proposal. All are 
members of the Transportation and Climate Initiative. This is great. 
Our States are doing what we need to do.
  But I just want to underscore what many of my colleagues have said. 
President Trump made the egregious decision to withdraw us from the 
Paris climate agreement. I was there when U.S. leadership was 
indispensable in bringing the world community together to take action. 
Every country in the world joined us in making commitments to reduce 
our carbon emissions. It was U.S. leadership. The President has 
withdrawn us from that agreement--or is attempting to do that. We can 
act. We are an independent branch.
  I applaud the action of the House in passing H.R. 9, the Climate 
Action Now Act, but it has been 76 days since the House has taken 
action on this very important climate issue.
  Senator Shaheen was on the floor earlier and has introduced S. 1743, 
the International Climate Accountability Act. The United States should 
meet its nationally determined contributions. We determine our own 
contributions. We should meet those contributions and join the 
international community in doing something about climate change.
  So, yes, I do ask the majority leader to let the Senate do what we 
should do. Let us consider climate legislation. Let us debate and act 
on climate legislation. We shouldn't be the graveyard on these 
important issues. The Senate must stop denying action on important 
issues and do the right thing to meet the threat of climate change. It 
is real here today. I urge my colleagues to bring this issue up so that 
we can, in fact, do the responsible thing.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.


                           Order of Procedure

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:30 
a.m. on Thursday, July 18, the Senate vote on the Corker and Blanchard 
nominations and that if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table and the President be 
immediately notified of the Senate's action; further, that following 
disposition of the Blanchard nomination, the Senate resume 
consideration of the Tapia nomination; finally, that at 1:45 p.m., the 
Senate vote on the Tapia nomination and that if confirmed, the motion 
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the 
President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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