[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 48 (Thursday, April 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2581-S2583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED--
                               Continued

  Mr. MURPHY. I come down to the floor for the second time today and 
maybe the fifth time over the last 2 days to talk again about the real 
reason we are here on the floor of the Senate this week and next week--
to talk about the scourge of gun violence across the country and its 
victims.
  We have had a good week this week on the floor of the Senate--a 
breakthrough on the matter of background checks, an agreement that we 
hope can forge the basis of a bill next week, an agreement that maybe 
doesn't move us as far as some of us would like in terms of making sure 
criminals in this country don't have guns but that moves us very far 
down the line toward a day when no criminals can go onto the streets of 
this country with guns, and then a very positive vote today in which 
Democrats and Republicans joined to break a threatened filibuster.
  But these are the kids we are really here to talk about, and I wanted 
to come down before the week was over to talk about a few more victims 
just to make sure we are really clear about whom and what we are 
talking about.
  Let me tell you about Chase Kowalski, one of the 7-year-olds killed 
by the gunman's bullets in Sandy Hook Elementary School. He was an 
amazing little kid. He was an athlete. Much like Jack Pinto, whom I 
talked about yesterday, Chase was a young jock. He was 6 years old when 
he actually completed and won a kids triathlon in Mansfield, CT. He was 
so inspired from watching the Olympics last summer, seeing his heroes 
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte do so well, that he went out and decided 
to learn how to swim and do it competitively. So with a little bit of 
help, he became a swimmer as well. His parents and surviving two older 
sisters, with a lot of his friends and family, ran together in honor of 
Chase's love for sports in a Sandy Hook 5K run that attracted thousands 
of people to the streets of Hartford.
  Chase Kowalski could have done a lot of things. He clearly had this 
drive and initiative you don't find in a lot of kids who are only 7 
years old. We will never really know who Chase was going to grow up to 
be, but he was a pretty remarkable young boy.
  Jesse Lewis is here on this poster. His father, Neil Heslin, is here 
this week arguing and pleading for us to do something.
  Jesse was a pretty amazing kid in his own right. He was 6 years old. 
The evening before the tragedy, he and his father had been out shopping 
for Christmas presents for his friends and family. One of the gifts 
they were going out to get was for his teacher Vicki Soto, who was 
killed the next morning along with him. Jesse was spending his own 
money on all these presents. He had $37 to spend, which he had earned 
by helping his father with a variety of odd jobs.
  That was Jesse. He wanted to do nice things for people, but he wanted 
to earn the right to do it, so it wasn't the first time he had gone out 
and basically earned the money at 6 years old in order to buy things. 
But he was still a kid. He grew up on a farm, so he loved horses and 
dogs and chicks, and he liked to go out and fish and play soccer. His 
dad was always outside working on projects, and he always wanted to be 
with his dad Neil.
  He was a pretty amazing kid with a lot of initiative and drive for a 
6-year-old. We will never really know who he was going to grow up to be 
either.
  As I have talked about on this floor over the last 2 days, although 
so much of the attention is on those 20 kids, the reality is that 3,300 
people have died since Newtown. That is where our focus should be as 
well, on people such as Brian Herrera, 16 years old, a straight-A 
student at Miami Jackson Senior High School. Three days before 
Christmas of last year, only about a week after the Newtown shootings, 
Brian was riding his bike to his best friend's house. He was doing 
exactly what he should have done--going to a friend's house to work on 
a school project--and he was gunned down in broad daylight in the 
middle of the pavement. He was still carrying his red backpack--a story 
we heard earlier today about someone else. This was a totally random 
shooting. I am not sure if this has

[[Page S2582]]

been solved at this point, but at the time the police had absolutely no 
idea why this happened. But there are so many guns out on the streets 
today--many of them illegal guns because we don't have a gun 
trafficking law and we don't have a good background checks law--that 
these things happen.
  Jeremy Lee Khaoone, 25 years old, was shot in California about 1 
month ago. He was one of five brothers. His father had just lost his 
wife. He was a native of Stockton, CA, an ironworker. He was always 
cheerful and smiling. Jeremy was killed by gun violence, and he left 
behind a 3-year-old son in February of this year.
  Every single day 30 people in this country die from gun violence. You 
can't even see the differentiation between the little figurines on this 
chart because it happens so often. So I have been coming down to the 
floor not to hold time but just to remind my colleagues of whom we are 
really talking and the fact that what we are proposing to do next week 
really will make a difference.
  If we want to get all these illegal guns off the street, then we 
can't just accept the status quo. We have to do something about it. It 
is ridiculous that we don't have a Federal law that bans gun 
trafficking. It is not OK that perhaps 4 out of every 10 guns in this 
country are sold without background checks. A person shouldn't be able 
to walk into a school or a movie theater or a church with a 100-round 
drum of ammunition. There is no reason for it.
  We are not going to wipe gun violence off the face of this Earth, but 
we have to remember these victims. We have to remember the Jeremies, we 
have to remember the Jesses, we have to remember the Brians and the 
Charlottes and the Madeleines and all of these people who have lost 
their lives. We can't bring them back, but we can certainly make sure 
that 3 or 4 months from now this chart is a little bit smaller. We have 
the ability to do that.
  I will be back next week with other stories of victims--from 
Connecticut, to Colorado, to Tucson, to New York City, to Chicago, to 
Miami--so that as we move into maybe the most critical week on the 
floor of this body with respect to the debate on gun violence in 
decades, we are really sure about whom we are talking about and the 
difference we can make.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Warren). The Senator from Nebraska.


                               The Budget

  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, I rise today to speak on the budget 
proposal released at long last yesterday by President Obama. Tardy 
though this budget may be, and despite our differences in opinion, I 
welcome the President's ideas to begin addressing our Nation's fiscal 
crisis and runaway spending. Unfortunately, though, I am disappointed 
that this budget amounts to more taxes, more spending, and more debt. 
The President's budget calls for $1.1 trillion more in taxes, on top of 
the $660 billion in tax hikes the President already demanded and won as 
part of the fiscal cliff deal enacted at the beginning of the year, 
before I arrived in Washington. That is a grand total of $1.8 trillion 
in tax hikes--before we add in another trillion dollar tax from 
ObamaCare. Yet, despite all of this new so-called ``revenue,'' the 
President's budget would never balance. No amount of taxes will ever 
begin to address our Nation's $17 trillion debt.
  But taxes aren't the only problem with the President's budget. There 
is also a trillion dollars in new spending. We tried that in 2009. It 
didn't work then and it won't work now. To spend more, we have to 
borrow more. The President's budget would add $8.2 trillion in new debt 
over the next 10 years.
  Of particular concern to farmers, ranchers, and small businesses in 
Nebraska is a proposed hike in the death tax. Under the fiscal cliff 
deal reached at the beginning of this year, the death tax was set at 40 
percent, with an exemption per estate of $5 million, indexed for 
inflation. This is already an increase from 2011 and 2012, when the 
death tax rate was 35 percent. The President's budget, however, would 
hike the rate further, to 45 percent, while also diminishing the 
exemption per estate to $3.5 million.
  This disregards the bipartisan will of Congress. The Senate has 
repeatedly supported a lower death tax rate and higher exemption. Just 
3 weeks ago, 80 senators--myself included--supported an amendment 
seeking to repeal, or at least reduce, the death tax. Instead, the 
President's death tax proposal would result in a $72 billion tax hike. 
This would be particularly harmful to family farmers and ranchers in my 
State of Nebraska and across our Nation. On average, more than 80 
percent of the value of a family-owned farm or ranch is derived from 
land, buildings, and equipment. Following the death of a loved one, 
families often must sell part or even all of their land and property to 
pay the death tax bill. Yet these are illiquid assets which rarely 
receive their assessed value on the open market, leaving families to 
take cents on the dollar in order for them to keep that farm or ranch.
  Each day, farmers and ranchers across Nebraska and the United States 
rise well before dawn only to retire well after dark. After building a 
successful enterprise, family farmers and ranchers should be able to 
pass along the fruits of their labor to their children. Instead, the 
President's budget proposal would reward this lifetime of hard work 
with a higher tax bill.
  I will proudly cosponsor legislation to be introduced soon by Senator 
John Thune to permanently repeal the death tax. Absent a full repeal, I 
will continue fighting to ensure that family farmers, ranchers, and 
other small businesses escape as much of the brunt of the death tax as 
possible. This is not to say that I disagree with every aspect of the 
President's budget. Medicare and Social Security are both on the path 
to insolvency. I appreciate that the President sees this unsustainable 
path and has offered concrete proposals to reform these programs.
  Without action, seniors and other beneficiaries will see steep cuts 
in benefits from Medicare by 2024 and Social Security by 2033. While 
these cuts will not come overnight, neither will the solutions we need 
to keep the promises we have made to our seniors and those nearing 
retirement.
  This is the first step in what will be--and quite frankly needs to 
be--a prolonged, well-reasoned debate. I look forward to working with 
the President in good faith to reform and save these critical programs. 
I also appreciate the President's desire for revenue-neutral corporate 
tax reform. The devil, of course, is in the details. I have great 
reservations that the President's proposal would basically redistribute 
tax preferences instead of doing more to bring down what is the highest 
corporate income tax rate in the world. And I believe that we should 
not merely do this on the corporate side but reform our entire tax code 
on a revenue-neutral basis in order to unleash the economic growth of 
our Nation.
  There are areas where we can work together--and I am eager to do so. 
But higher taxes, higher spending, and higher debt are not the answer 
to the fiscal challenges our Nation faces.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I join my other colleagues in 
thanking the Senators who joined us in the vote earlier today. My 
profound thanks go to all who voted among the 68 to enable this debate 
to go forward, to provide and permit debate and votes in coming days, 
and to enable the families of Newtown to have a vote; to enable the 
victims of Tucson and Virginia Tech and Aurora and Oak Ridge to have a 
vote.
  Voting is what we are sent here to do. The American people hold us 
accountable when we have votes. Votes enable us to be held accountable 
and those votes will take place. The vote today is exciting and 
encouraging and energizing, but it is only a first step. The critical 
test and profoundly significant steps will be next week when we vote on 
the bipartisan compromise that our colleagues have fashioned, that 
Senators Manchin and Toomey have together forged on national criminal 
background checks.
  That is not necessarily as strong as many of us might have preferred. 
That is not a final or ultimate result on this issue for all time. But 
it is a solid foundation and a path forward to enable more bipartisan 
compromise, more momentum and impetus.
  The brave families from Newtown who were part of this discussion this 
week deserve our thanks as well. They turned the tide. They faced our 
colleagues in meetings, visit after visit,

[[Page S2583]]

conversation after conversation--painful, demanding, grief-stricken in 
recalling those hours after that horrific, unspeakable tragedy. As one 
who arrived there within hours of the shooting, I saw, firsthand, their 
unimaginable pain and grief as they came out of the Sandy Hook 
firehouse after learning for the first time that their babies would not 
return; loved ones, teachers, educators perishing while trying to save 
their children in their care.
  Those families came to Washington to tell their stories and advocate 
for change so that others would be spared that same experience, so that 
others would be spared the same fate as the 3,300 who have died since 
Newtown and the horror they and their families experienced.
  Just 4 months ago the conventional wisdom was that gun violence 
legislation would never go anywhere in the Congress. In fact, gun 
violence was politically untouchable. Just days ago, 60 votes was 
thought to be unreachable as a goal. The fact is the political 
landscape is changing seismically as we speak. As we deliberate, minds 
are changing. Voices are piercing that conventional wisdom. The courage 
and compassion of the Newtown families have disproved and completely 
defeated the pundits, the conventional wisdom, the prognosticators who 
said it could not be done.
  The world watched that tragedy on December 14 at Newtown. I said on 
that evening at the vigil at St. Rose of Lima Church: The world is 
watching Newtown.
  Indeed, the world watched Newtown, and today the world watched the 
Senate as it took this historic, and for many of our colleagues a 
courageous, brave step.
  Today we kept faith with those families and the victims of that 
tragedy in a first step to finally do something about gun violence. Now 
we must continue working, taking nothing for granted, avoiding 
complacency and overconfidence because every step is uphill when it 
comes to gun violence.
  I thank particularly two of my colleagues, Joe Manchin and Pat 
Toomey, because they stepped forward from States that may not be as 
receptive to what they have done as others, but they deserve the thanks 
and gratitude of their States in their statesmanship in supporting and 
forging this compromise.
  I will continue to support and work for a truly universal background 
check system, but this bipartisan compromise represents significant 
progress. It is a vast improvement over current law. It will make sure 
that a lot fewer criminals get their hands on guns. It will make our 
streets and schools safer.

  On the morning of December 14, I--along with Senator Murphy--pledged 
to do everything I could to make sure more parents will not have to 
bury their children because of preventable gun violence. Expanded 
background checks are part of that pledge, and we are helping to 
fulfill it by supporting it. This is only part of a bigger and more 
comprehensive solution to this problem, but this compromise is a good 
starting point for next week's debate on gun violence.
  We have talked a lot about Newtown and the victims who have evoked 
our most powerful grief, breaking our hearts, and evoking memories of 
our own children at that age. As I said, I went to Newtown as a public 
official, but what I saw was through the eyes of a parent. Other 
victims of loved ones evoke the same memories.
  Today, I wish to evoke the memory of another tragedy that many of us 
in Connecticut remember well. It happened at Hartford Distributors, 
which is just outside Hartford.
  On a beautiful morning, August 2, 2010--and a lot of what I am going 
to summarize comes from this great newspaper account which appeared in 
the Hartford Courant shortly thereafter.
  As the Courant reported:

       In three minutes on that bright summer morning, Thornton 
     executed eight men, shooting them all from behind and 
     laughing at one point as he chased down a wounded victim.
       Thornton went into a kitchenette near the office, saying 
     that he wanted a drink of water. He pulled a pistol from his 
     lunch pail and shot operations director Louis Felder. 
     Hollander said he heard Felder yell: ``Omar, you can't!'' 
     followed by loud bangs.
       Hollander was hit by one of the bullets that passed through 
     Felder. As he crawled into his father's office--

  Hartford Distributors is owned by the Hollander family.

       Hollander heard Cirigliano yell--``Omar, no! Omar, no!'' 
     Thornton shot Cirigliano twice, once in the back of the head 
     and once in the forehead.

  He systematically executed another six people after those two, and 
then he killed himself.
  The victims that day were men who came to work every day and had 
families. They came to work expecting to come home at the end of the 
day. Their families expected them to come home. They were men who had 
worked in that place for many years by dint of their sweat and 
backbreaking labor. They had come to a place in their lives where they 
could enjoy it. They had enough financial security that they expected 
to enjoy it for some time. That day the killer deprived them of their 
future and their families' future as well.
  Gun violence affects all of us in different ways. I have visited the 
memorial that was established for the brave men who died that day at 
Hartford Distributors. It is a quiet, peaceful place that is 
exquisitely and beautifully done. It evokes the memories of men who 
died while they were on the job because of a deranged individual who 
was, in fact, about to be fired.
  Connecticut's experience with this kind of death extends to its own 
facility. The State lottery experienced a similar horrific and brutal 
slaying. The scene played out in seconds, which seemed to take an 
eternity, on a Friday morning.
  It was a routine morning for dozens of State lottery office workers, 
and it turned into a nightmare of blood, fear, and betrayal. The 
shooter was named Matthew Beck, and he summarily executed men and women 
there that day. Connecticut remembers those State employees who 
provided public service day in and day out and were killed while they 
were at work. Again, they were working men and women who wanted nothing 
more than to go home safely that night.
  My colleague, Chris Murphy, has recounted many stories. Many of the 
stories were about children. All of them had their future ahead of 
them. Their future ended brutally and horrifically because of gun 
violence.
  We have taken a step today--a first step--hopefully followed by more 
steps next week.
  I wish to end by thanking Members of this Chamber for giving us the 
opportunity to debate and vote and say to the American people we are 
willing to be held accountable.
  The majority of American people want commonsense and sensible 
measures to end the violence on the streets, in our neighborhoods, and 
in our place of work, such as Hartford Distributors and the State 
lottery. We want to make sure the hard-working men and women who go to 
their jobs, play by the rules, and expect fairness have the opportunity 
to go home that night.
  I thank this Chamber and the Members who voted today, and I hope 
those Members will join us in the future so we can make sure fewer 
victims perish as a result of this horrific epidemic in our country, 
gun violence.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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