[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 106 (Thursday, September 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9020-S9023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GARRETT LEE SMITH MEMORIAL ACT

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair now 
lay before the Senate the House measure to accompany S. 2634, the 
Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act.
  There being no objection, the Presiding Officer (Mr. Chambliss) laid 
before the Senate the following message from the House of 
Representatives:
  (The bill will be printed in a future edition of the Record.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I ask whether there be objection to 
proceeding to the measure at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The message is before the Senate.
  Mr. SMITH. I ask, then, unanimous consent that the Senate concur in 
the House amendment, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, this is a much happier day for me than it 
was 1 year ago. A year ago yesterday, my son, Garrett Lee Smith, took 
his life. Today it is his birthday, and today my heart is not filled 
with sadness but with joy because the Congress of the United States has 
acted with near unanimity, an overwhelming vote in the House of 
Representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, and for a second time 
now the Senate, without objection, 100 strong, Republican and Democrat 
alike, has acted not as partisans but as Americans on an issue that 
afflicts families all over our land, the issue of mental health, of 
depression among our youth that often, too often, even at epidemic 
levels, can lead to suicide.
  This has been for me a very long and difficult year. I am grateful 
for the support of family and friends and, especially here now, my 
colleagues. I had many thoughts in mind when this occurred because I 
was raised to believe that no success can compensate for failure in 
one's home. And when my son took his life, I felt the ultimate failure. 
Yet I have come to learn from colleagues, some of them, like the 
leader, medical experts, others like Mike DeWine, who has suffered much 
in his family through the loss of a daughter; Pete Domenici, who has 
helped me to understand the lethal nature of mental illnesses, and so 
many more.
  I have been buoyed up and strengthened sufficient to carry on my 
public responsibility and try to find from the loss of my son some new 
meaning in his life. Today the Congress has acted on his birthday. My 
wife Sharon and I are profoundly thankful to all of you. What we have 
done today is to pass a bill that will enable the States, encourage the 
States, incentivize the States to have youth suicide prevention 
programs to, with parental permission, give testing to identify, under 
the strictest of privacy, those children who may have a predisposition 
toward depression and suicide.

  We have given the incentive to the States to set up college 
backstops, counseling, intervention measures, to help where this 
epidemic is most acutely felt, and that is on American college 
campuses. We are setting up a national repository of information 
through SAMSHA, where the best ideas from the 50 laboratories that are 
the 50 United States can be brought together and shared so intervention 
can be more effectively made to save more of America's sons and 
daughters.
  When this bill left the Senate, I thought it was in perfect form. But 
I learned something about a bicameral legislature in working with my 
colleagues in the House. They made it better. They had many good 
suggestions. And I feel it appropriate to say that while some I am 
entirely in agreement with and others I would have preferred not be 
there, I support the bill as it has come from the House of 
Representatives.
  I owe a great deal of thanks to some specific individuals. If you 
will bear with me, Mr. President, I would like to thank some of them 
and also note for those colleagues who may be concerned about parental 
notification precedence that the House was willing to put in there 
provisions that this tougher parental notification is applicable just 
to this bill and in no way affects No Child Left Behind legislation.
  I need to say thank you to some very significant people without whom 
this bill would not have passed. First, I want to thank Chairman Joe 
Barton, the Congressman from Texas, who chairs the House Commerce 
Committee. I say to all the world, and particularly his constituents, 
he is a man of his word. He had tremendous pressure on him not to 
proceed with this, but he gave me his word. He is good for it. He 
worked with me. He demanded much of me. We gave much. But under 
considerable pressure he stood up against it and made this to pass.
  To Speaker Hastert and Leader DeLay, thank you for your permission, 
thank you for making this happen, allowing it to happen, and also being 
good to the commitments that were made to me and other colleagues and 
to the White House.
  I thank my House sponsors, Congressman Bart Gordon of Tennessee, 
Coach Tom Osborne of Nebraska. Coach Osborne knows something of young 
people and their struggles. He was wonderful to work with. Danny Davis, 
of Illinois, spoke eloquently about this bill on the Senate floor last 
evening. My own Congressman, Greg Walden, who helped to shuttle this 
through the House, I am profoundly thankful to him. I also note Earl 
Blumenauer and Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island were particularly 
helpful to me in passing this legislation. I am grateful to them.
  Senator Santorum--they call him a Pope over there--is regarded in 
very exalted terms and a term of affection. He was unusually helpful in 
helping me to make my way through the House membership and to get this 
passed.
  Leader Frist, this would not happen without you. At every turn you 
have been there for me and helped me to get through this year. Judd 
Gregg, the chairman of our committee, with jurisdiction, was wonderful 
to make this possible and happen in the Senate. Mitch McConnell, your 
staff, Leader Frist's staff, were very helpful. They went the extra 
mile back and forth from the House to Senate Chambers time and again 
for me. I thank the staffs of all of these people who worked so hard.

  Senator Dodd and Senator Kennedy have been unusual champions of this 
issue, and issues of mental health. They have been wonderful guides. 
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island helped to author a major provision.
  Harry Reid, the Democratic whip, has been a stalwart and counseled me 
to take this and do that. I say to him, thank you, sir, for your help 
and your understanding of the issue of suicide.
  I thank Leader Daschle as well because without his understanding that 
this was not partisan this would not have happened. I am grateful to 
Leader Daschle.
  I mentioned Mike DeWine. Mike is behind me and will speak to this 
issue. If you could package goodness in human form, it would look like 
Mike DeWine.
  I think most significantly for me has been the woman who sits to my 
right, Catherine Finley, who is a person of talent, tenacity, and 
temperament sufficient to take a stand-alone bill, in a very short 
period of time, pass it through the Senate, the House, and back through 
the Senate again. I am

[[Page S9021]]

eternally in her debt. And my wife joins me in those sentiments.
  Finally, I thank George W. Bush, the President of the United States, 
and his staff at the White House, who have been with me from the 
beginning and who have urged me on time and again to get this done and 
to get it to him. He has understood that this issue is part and parcel 
about being compassionate and being conservative. I thank the President 
of the United States.
  In closing, Mr. President, I would like to read a letter that I think 
says more eloquently than I can why this legislation is so necessary 
and why it has the prospect of doing so much good. I received this 
letter from a student at George Washington University in Washington, 
DC. She urged passage of this bill. Her name is Miss Meredith Jessup of 
Sturgis, MI. She wrote this:

       This past year I arrived in Washington, DC with a new 
     educational landscape set before me, convinced that I was 
     equipped with the essential skills I would need to survive 
     college. But I was in no way prepared when my close friend 
     and neighbor committed suicide by jumping to his death from 
     his dorm window.
       The story that unfolded was his personal narrative of his 
     fight with depression and his constant feelings of 
     worthlessness. He openly wrote about how he had planned his 
     own suicide and about the frightened ideas of acting out his 
     plans. This young, brilliant person, never seen without a 
     smile on his face, had been secretly battling severe 
     depression for a year. None of his friends had had a clue and 
     he had never shared this with his family.
       He was depressed and confused and I was scared and utterly 
     unprepared to know how to keep my friend alive. I was never 
     sure why he had chosen to confide this to me, but he made me 
     promise to keep his confidence. In the following days I 
     convinced him to accompany me to the university counseling 
     service.
       Two weeks later I received another desperate call from him, 
     he was contemplating death at the dorm. I convinced him to 
     begin walking to meet me and we went to the hospital 
     emergency room. As I sat in the hospital waiting room, tears 
     streaming down my face, I prayed that the hospital would 
     admit my shattered friend for emergency counseling and 
     intervention. I was not a professional; friendship was the 
     only tool I could use to try to help him and as I sat at 
     his bedside I grabbed his hand and told him how I was 
     proud of his courage.
       On Sunday, April 18, 2004, a week after his discharge from 
     the hospital, he called my cell phone once again. This time 
     his voice was barely recognizable, laden with sadness. He 
     called from his dorm room, four doors down from mine. ``I 
     don't want anyone to worry about me,'' he said. ``When you 
     wake up tomorrow, I want you to forget about anything that 
     happened today.'' As he kept repeating these lines over and 
     over again, it hit me like a load of bricks. He was going to 
     commit suicide. ``Good-bye . . . '' rang in my ears as he 
     hung up his phone.
       I repeatedly tried to call his phone and pounded on his 
     door. Then the sound of emergency sirens flooded in from open 
     windows, and a harsh reality set in. He had jumped from the 
     balcony of his fourth floor window. My friend was dead at 19 
     and I hadn't been able to save him.
       Perhaps his condition was beyond anyone's help--friend, 
     family or trained professional. Perhaps there was more that 
     could have been done. In his case, however, we will never 
     know. The only thing for us to do after a tragedy like this 
     is to work to ensure others who are struggling do not face 
     the seemingly hopeless situation he had found.
       On this, the three-month anniversary of my friend's death, 
     I am writing to thank you for championing the issue of youth 
     suicide prevention. I am writing to thank you for your 
     courageous efforts to help people struggling like my friend. 
     I applaud the courage it took for you to stand before your 
     Senate colleagues and reopen the emotional wounds that are 
     just below the surface from the suicide of your own son.
       These wounds are all too familiar to me in the death of my 
     friend. He was one of five students of The George Washington 
     University to die this last school year in suicides or 
     preventable acts. Perhaps the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act 
     is a way that I can help others who are struggling on my 
     campus. This piece of legislation and the opportunities it 
     presents provide a way to create something good out of so 
     many tragedies. What I could not do for my friend perhaps can 
     be accomplished in an educational outreach and counseling 
     protocol program I plan to propose for GW, seeking funding 
     through your legislation.
       I would like to personally thank you and other members of 
     the United States Senate for taking up this initiative to 
     help prevent suicide among America's youth. I would also like 
     to encourage members of the House of Representatives to pass 
     the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. By instituting the grant 
     program for America's universities, I hope to be a part of 
     alleviating the nation's third leading cause of death among 
     young people. It's the least I can do to honor the memory of 
     my friend. Our country cannot afford to lose to depression 
     the character and the substantial talents of young people 
     like him.

  With that, I thank my colleagues for supporting this historic act.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, let me congratulate but mostly thank my 
friend and colleague from Oregon. We would not be here tonight without 
him. It is true many people worked on this bill, but he is the one who 
got us here. No one but my friend knows how many people he talked to 
and what he had to go through to get us to this point. I think everyone 
on this floor knows it could not have been done without our colleague. 
He did it. He did something that no one else could have done.
  Our friend, my friend, suffered the worst tragedy--he and his wife 
Sharon--that any couple, any family can suffer; that is, to lose a 
child. They took that tragedy and resolved that they would do something 
so other families would not suffer as they have suffered.
  I say to my friend that neither he nor anyone else in this Chamber 
will ever know what families will be spared because of the action taken 
by the House and Senate and because of his hard work.
  But the one thing we do know is, there will be many families who will 
be spared what he and Sharon fought through. For that, we all should 
say thank you. There will be many children out there who will not lose 
their lives, many families who will not suffer.
  This bill is a wonderful, living tribute to their son Garrett Smith. 
If we do our job, not only this year, not only this moment, but in the 
years ahead in properly funding this, it will remain year after year 
after year a wonderful living tribute to him. It will remain also a 
living tribute to all the young children who have lost their lives over 
the years.
  I thank my colleague. On behalf of all the people and families who 
will be spared and all the children whose lives will be saved--and we 
will never know who they are--he has done something that is very 
wonderful. He has taken his sorrow and grief, taken the position God 
has given him and the people of his State have given him and has made 
something wonderful out of it. It is, in fact, a wonderful tribute to 
his son, a tribute to the love he has for his son.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am proud to join my colleagues Senators 
Gordon Smith, Chris Dodd, Mike DeWine and Jack Reed in support of the 
Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. I thank them all for their tireless 
efforts to see this legislation enacted.
  I especially thank Senator Smith for his courage in helping us 
understand this rising problem that for so long has been misunderstood. 
The legislation we are passing today is an important first step we must 
take--we know we must take--to help our troubled young people 
contemplating suicide.
  Youth suicide affects us all. And while we also understand that no 
words can heal the deep pain or replace the great loss of an anguished 
child we love, we know we can do better. We can work to prevent the 
kind of debilitating despair that leads young person to end their lives 
and to let them know that there are other options. There are people out 
there who care. You are not alone.
  Make no mistake, we are truly in the middle of an epidemic of teen 
suicide. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among 
adolescents. And while the years of lost potential and productive 
living are never really captured in the statistics, we know the death 
of a young person has a devastating and long-lasting effect on family, 
friends, and the whole community.
  To the youth of America this bill has a simple message--help is on 
the way. We have heard your pleas for help and we are acting. And it is 
particularly important at a time when cash-strapped States are cutting 
funds for many vital services.
  This legislation will give grants to States to develop youth suicide 
prevention programs in settings ranging from schools to foster care 
homes to juvenile justice settings, to substance abuse and mental 
health treatment and prevention centers. It gives States the 
flexibility to target resources and set goals. It gives priority to 
funding entities with experience delivering these kinds of services and 
ensures that 85 percent of every dollar spent goes toward direct

[[Page S9022]]

prevention efforts--toward saving lives.
  It is appropriate that we are passing this legislation just as 
millions of our young people are headed off to college for another 
semester. We know that college is a place where young people can expand 
their horizons and learn so much about themselves and the world around 
them. It is a time of great opportunity, but also a time of great 
challenge for many young people. Away from home for the first time, 
with new and enormous pressures to succeed, many struggle with feelings 
of depression, which in the most extreme cases lead to thoughts of 
suicide.
  Thanks to the efforts of Senator Dodd, this legislation will increase 
the presence of counseling programs on college campuses across the 
country. It will allow colleges to conduct education seminars, operate 
life-saving hotlines, train other students to recognize and counsel 
their struggling peers, and link colleges and universities that do not 
have mental health services with health care providers that can help.
  The program authorized under this bill recognizes that colleges and 
universities have a role to play in funding prevention efforts, and so 
does the Federal Government. For every dollar a school contributes to 
the health and well-being of their students, we contribute the same. It 
is the right thing to do, and it will save lives at campuses across the 
country.
  This legislation will also create a new national center to monitor, 
coordinate and assist our national suicide prevention efforts. This 
national coordinating mechanism is long overdue and it will make a 
world of difference.
  This bill will not solve the issue of youth suicide, but it 
represents real progress. We still have so much more to do to see that 
no child falls through the cracks, and that mental illnesses receive 
the same insurance coverage and quality of care as physical illnesses.
  But today we move forward with the Garrett Lee Smith Act, knowing 
that we will have made a brighter tomorrow for many of our young 
people.
  Mrs. DODD. Mr. President, I believe that the legislation before us 
tonight--the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act--represents a positive step 
towards finding concrete, comprehensive and effective remedies to the 
epidemic of suicide in our Nation's young people. I intend to support 
this legislation, and I would like to thank my friend and colleague, 
Gordon Smith, for all his tireless work and commitment in seeing this 
legislation through.
  By authorizing $82 million over 3 years, this bill seeks further to 
support the good work being done on the community level, the State 
level, and the Federal level with regards to youth suicide early 
intervention and prevention in four principal ways.
  First, it establishes a new grant initiative for the further 
development and expansion of youth suicide early intervention and 
prevention strategies and the community-based services they seek to 
coordinate in schools, mental health programs, substance abuse 
programs, foster care systems, juvenile justice systems, and other 
youth support organizations.
  Second, it authorizes a dedicated technical assistance center to 
assist States, localities, tribes, and community service providers with 
the planning, implementation, and evaluation of these strategies and 
services.
  Third, it establishes a new grant initiative to enhance and improve 
early intervention and prevention services specifically designed for 
college-aged students.
  And fourth, it creates a new inter-agency collaboration to focus on 
policy development and the dissemination of data specifically 
pertaining to youth suicide.
  In July, the Senate took up this important bill and showed its 
commitment to reduce the public and mental health tragedy of youth 
suicide by passing it unanimously. I hoped at that time that the House 
would see this strong example of bipartisanship and follow suit.
  Regrettably, the House sent back the legislation containing a 
controversial provision authored by a small group of House Members with 
rather extreme views that has the potential actually to harm, rather 
than help, suicide prevention and suicide awareness efforts.
  Simply put, this provision sets a new precedent by erecting and 
mandating broad and ambiguous parental consent measures across all 
``school-based programs'' and non-medical services in our nation's 
schools--the very places where most children who are prone to suicidal 
tendencies first seek help. These measures are stigmatizing, untried, 
unproven, and arguably most importantly--undefined.
  I am afraid that because of the ambiguity of this provision, we 
cannot know what ``prior written, informed consent'' really means, what 
``school-based programs'' will require this consent, or what emotional 
state a child must be in to be considered for ``emergency'' care.
  I am also afraid that because of this provision, we may not be able 
to guarantee that the services this bill funds will be made available 
to all children who need them. We may not be able to guarantee that a 
child who is being abused by parents or guardians--an unfortunate 
occurrence that's unacceptably common in our country--will be able to 
obtain the appropriate mental health services he or she might 
desperately need without the consent of that very same parent or 
guardian.
  Nevertheless, the strengths of this bill outweigh its weaknesses. The 
Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act is an important first step towards 
recognizing the causes of this public and mental health tragedy and 
supporting innovative and effective public and mental health 
initiatives that reach every child and young adult in this country--
compassionate initiatives that given them encouragement, hope, and 
above all, life.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in this body, occasionally we have such 
moments we share as colleagues, and they are probably more rare than 
any of us would like. The rarity is really centering around what we 
have heard, and that is a juxtaposition, a coming together of probably 
the deepest pain and sorrow and sadness with a real celebration, 
manifested in part by the birthday of Garrett Lee Smith, but also the 
celebration and accomplishment that can only be accomplished on the 
floor of the Senate, working with the House, working with the President 
of the United States, where a piece of legislation is passed and you 
know it is going to affect scores of lives, hundreds of lives, and 
directly and indirectly thousands of lives of people we will never see, 
faces we will never see, but who will be touched in a way that is most 
powerful, and that is allowing them to lead fulfilling lives and not be 
captured by tragedy which, without this legislation, unfortunately 
today, where we are, would occur.
  It is that oneness of humanity, of the ups and the downs, but the 
goodness that comes out of it that this bill represents. The comments 
by both Senator Smith and Senator DeWine reflect it so well.
  Senator Smith thanked so many of the people. I think it is very 
useful to do because it allows them to be thanked, but more importantly 
for others to see how hard it is, even with legislation that we know 
will save lives and do good, to pass legislation in this body and in 
the House. It takes a lot of people working together, unselfishly, to 
produce a beautiful product such as has been passed minutes ago.
  The act itself reaches out to a population we know is going through 
the most dynamic changes at any stage in life, as the population 
travels through adolescence, meeting changes and challenges, leaving 
certain securities and insecurities of their past and being struck day 
in and day out. And up until passage of this bill, there was simply not 
help there, or it was not there when somebody reached out. The 
wonderful thing this bill does, through referral networks, through 
programs to raise awareness of teen suicide and youth suicide, until we 
have a program that trains faculty and others to respond when a student 
does reach out, things will simply not change. That is what this bill 
does.
  I want to in particular say thank you to our colleague Senator Gordon 
Smith. This is painful. This is a real triumph, which is the 
celebratory part, but it is a difficult moment for him, for Sharon, for 
his family. As he mentioned, it has been a year and a day ago since the 
death of his son Garrett. But

[[Page S9023]]

since that time, working through the grief and the sorrow and the 
sadness and the loss that can't even be described in words, he and 
Sharon have consistently and eloquently and passionately spoken about 
not their own needs but the needs for others, others who they don't 
know but who they know exist, both today and tomorrow, those who suffer 
in some shape or form from some type of mental illness. No one can 
bring back a life that has been lost, but as those of us who have 
worked with our colleague Senator Smith and who have watched and who 
have observed, he has helped teach us that through this process lives 
can be saved.
  It touches home to many of us. This particular bill addresses this 
sort of youth suicide, teen suicide. And those of us who have kids that 
age--my three boys are 18, 19, and 21 years of age--as Senator Smith 
mentioned, in that age group, suicide is the third leading cause of 
death. Thirty thousand people die each year as a result of suicide. 
That is one person every 17 minutes. Suicide has touched Senator Smith 
and his family personally, other Members of this body. You don't 
realize how many people it touches, as we have discussed before, until 
something tragic like this happens. But it touches people throughout 
this body, indeed throughout the country.

  This legislation helps turn those tragedies into direct assistance to 
the benefit of others. This bill addresses suicide when it occurs at 
the most tragic time of one's life. That is in those years where one is 
leaving, going through the teen years and adolescence and moving on to 
those years of the prime of their life. We know, though, that with help 
and response, prevention occurs and lives are saved. There are early 
detection, early prevention strategies, all of which this bill allows 
for the first time in legislation to come alive. That is what the 
legislation is all about. It is about helping those who are at risk, 
who may or may not show symptoms or signs, but it helps bring those to 
the surface with an appropriate response that will change the course 
that has been so tragic in so many people's lives.
  In closing, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act is a fitting tribute 
to Garrett Smith and the love his family has for him. Senator Smith has 
fought for its passage not only as a Senator but as a caring father. It 
has passed this body unanimously, exactly as it should have.
  I yield the floor, celebrating and in closing saying, happy birthday, 
Garrett Lee Smith.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I say to my friend and colleague from 
Oregon, congratulations on turning a tragedy into a triumph. Garrett 
would have been indeed proud of his father.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this is a kind of celebration. I 
congratulate Senator Smith for his devotion to a cause. I also want 
Senator Smith to know how much Landra and I--and I say this without 
reservation--benefited from the funeral of their son. It is something 
Landra and I talked about because Gordon and Sharon, from the very 
beginning, didn't hide the fact their son had taken his own life. I 
have been to funerals where there have been suicides involved and that 
is something you don't talk about. They did it openly. Every speaker 
there talked about Garrett, what a fine young man he was, and what a 
shame it was he took his own life. Our going to that funeral has 
benefited us in so many different ways, because we grew spiritually as 
a result of going to that funeral. There is nothing else we could have 
done that day that was more important.
  Let me say to my friend Gordon Smith, this is a time for celebration. 
But I say that we have to continue to work on this issue. This is an 
authorization bill. We need the appropriators to feel as we do and put 
money into this project. As good as this is--and we could never 
appropriate money unless we authorize it--this will be relatively 
meaningless unless we can get the appropriators to put money into this 
program, so there can be grants and moneys to work for this dread 
disease.
  So, Mr. President, I ask that the Senate here assembled have a moment 
of silence, not only for Garrett Smith, which is the purpose of our 
being here tonight, but for the 31,000 people who during the last 12 
months in America have taken their own lives. Garrett is the person who 
is a focal point of this calamity that is facing our country today. But 
because of the work of Gordon Smith, we are going to be able to move 
beyond this. Hopefully, in the years to come, this will be a number 
that won't be increasing but decreasing.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate take a moment of silence at 
this time on behalf of Garrett Smith and the thousands of people who 
have died as a result of the taking of their own lives.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will observe a moment of silence.
  [Moment of silence.]
  Mr. REID. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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