[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 25, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1720-S1724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PROTECTING VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS AND EMERGENCY RESPONDERS ACT OF 
                        2014--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 333, 
H.R. 3979.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 333, H.R. 3979, a bill to 
     amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that 
     emergency services volunteers are not taken into account as 
     employees under the shared responsibility requirements 
     contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam 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order for the quorum call be rescinded.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

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am now here for the 62nd weekly 
effort to have my colleagues wake up to the threats of climate change. 
Congress continues to remain sound asleep, I suspect anesthetized by 
the narcotic drip of polluter money into our veins. But the signs of 
change around us continue.
  These are the Mau Loa monthly carbon dioxide concentrations. We have 
just passed, again, 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the 
atmosphere. This is the second year in a row this has happened. This 
year it happened 2 months earlier than last year. So why does it matter 
that we are at 400 parts per million? What does that mean to anybody?
  We have actually gone back and measured where the carbon 
concentration in the atmosphere has been going way back. We can measure 
back in ancient ice so we know that for at least 800,000 years, our 
carbon concentration is between 170 and 300 parts per million. That is 
a long run for a species that has only been homo sapien for about 
250,000 years. That has been a long and hospitable window, during which 
our species has developed from very primitive hunter-gatherers into the 
complex people that we are now.
  So when you take something like that, the carbon concentration, and 
you bust out of a range that has sheltered us for 800,000 years, that 
is not nothing. It is particularly not nothing when you know that 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere raises the temperature of the Earth. 
We have known that since Abraham Lincoln was President. This is not 
something that is debatable. This is not new news. This is established 
science for 150-plus years.
  We also know--because you can replicate it in the laboratory--that 
when you put higher concentrations of carbon in the air over seawater, 
it acidifies the seawater. If you doubt any of that, you can go out and 
measure that it is actually happening--the known provable theories, the 
known principles, I should say. In fact, laws of science are actually 
manifest in sea level rise from the warming oceans, in warming ocean 
temperatures, in increased acidification. These are measurements.
  As this continues, we continue to do nothing about it, but we let the 
big polluters continue to spew carbon pollution into our atmosphere. 
Some of us in Congress are tired of waiting for folks to wake up. This 
month 31 Senators from every part of the country held the Senate floor 
through the night to sharpen this Chamber's focus on the threats of 
climate change. I thank Senator Schatz of Hawaii for leading us through 
this wake-up call, and to Senator Boxer for her leadership of the 
Senate Climate Action Task Force, and to the Presiding Officer, the 
senior Senator from Massachusetts, for her enthusiastic participation 
and support in that effort.
  The American people tuned in, tweeting over 54,000 times at the 
hashtag up4climate in the 24-hour period of this effort. Also, 
Americans added more than 200,000 signatures to online petitions urging 
Congress to get with it and do something about this climate problem. 
The public knows it is a problem and has been pushing us to act now for 
years.
  I have heard it from Rhode Island fishermen who now have to chase 
their catch further offshore into cooler waters because our coastal 
waters have warmed. The Presiding Officer has heard it from her 
Massachusetts fishermen as well. I have heard it from homeowners in 
South Kingston, RI, whose houses are falling into the ocean as the sea 
level rises and they encroach further inland into what had for 
generations been family homes.
  Rhode Island does its part to try to address climate change. We are 
participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and we are 
everywhere readying our coastlines for worse storms and higher seas. 
But the Ocean State cannot do this alone. The health, the safety, the 
prosperity of the people I represent in Rhode Island's communities 
depend on national action. We need a national groundswell of citizens 
and elected officials from every State.
  So last week I went to Iowa to share with that State Rhode Island's 
climate change stories and to listen to Iowans tell me their climate 
change stories and how it is affecting their communities. I was invited 
to Iowa by Senator Rob Hogg, who is a passionate defender of the Iowan 
environment and way of life and a very knowledgeable expert on climate 
change.
  I want to thank him and I also want to thank the Iowa legislature, 
particularly house minority leader Mark Smith and senate majority 
leader Michael Gronstal for their warm welcome. I also want to thank my 
colleague Senator Harkin and his staff for

[[Page S1721]]

their assistance in planning and coordinating my visit.
  Farming is not a big deal in Rhode Island. We are not known as an 
agricultural State. We have farms and we love them. But it is not quite 
the same as Iowa. Farming is the cornerstone of Iowa's economy. 
Disruption of agricultural productivity is one of the great climate 
risks in Iowa. The recent National Climate Assessment draft finds this:

       In the long term, combined stresses associated with climate 
     change are expected to decrease agricultural productivity, 
     especially without significant advances in genetic and 
     agronomic technology.

  But we do not have to wait for the long term. Iowans are already 
being hit by extreme weather. In 2013, just last year, 155 science 
faculty and research staff from 36 Iowa colleges and universities--home 
State Iowa teachers from their colleges and universities, 155 of them--
signed the Iowa Climate Statement, concerning the losses that farmers 
across the State are already experiencing due to climate change.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Iowa Climate Statement be printed in 
the Record following my statement.
  Iowa has had 20 Presidential Disaster Declarations since 1990 due to 
flooding. Damage has been more than $20 billion. Although no one 
particular flood can be directly connected to climate change, we know 
that carbon pollution loads the dice for the extreme downpours that 
provoke these floods in Iowa and in the Midwest.
  I call it the Barry Bonds rule. You do not know which home run was 
caused by the steroids, but you know for sure he was hitting extra home 
runs because of the steroids and you can measure that. In 1993 in Iowa, 
a flood exceeding once-in-500-year flood levels hit Des Moines. Ted 
Corrigan of Des Moines Water Works told me during my visit that the 
city's infrastructure was overwhelmed, leaving Des Moines without clean 
water for more than 2 weeks.
  The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa has endured at least 10 so-
called 500-year floods since 1993--10 500-year floods since 1993. That 
includes the big 2008 flood that cost $10 billion statewide in Iowa.
  Doug Newman, the executive vice president at the Cedar Rapids 
Economic Alliance, told me what it was like to live through that 
unprecedented flood. Doug explained that in Cedar Rapids, flood levels 
had never, for as long as they have measured it, exceeded 21 feet. This 
flood maxed out at 31 feet, 10 feet above the all time previous ever 
recorded record.
  A thousand businesses were flooded. One-fifth of them were lost. More 
than 1,000 people lost their jobs. So it was tough. But what I saw was 
Iowans taking action--from college students to business leaders, from 
activists of the Iowa Citizens Climate Lobby to the conservationists to 
the Izaak Walton League. Iowans are preparing for the effects of 
climate change, and they want to see Federal action.
  Like Rhode Islanders, they are tired of trying to carry this 
themselves. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie is one of over 1,000 mayors 
represented on this map all across the country who have signed the U.S. 
Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, pledging to meet or 
beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own cities and to press their 
State governments and the Federal Government--us--to enact meaningful 
greenhouse gas reductions.
  I visited with TPI Composites. TPI Composites has a development and 
manufacturing facility in my home State, in Warren, RI. They are part 
of our composites cluster in Rhode Island. But they are also a leading 
Iowa manufacturer of wind turbine blades. In 10 years, TPI has 
manufactured more than 10,000 wind turbine blades. So when the Maytag 
headquarters closed, leaving as many as 4,000 workers jobless in 
Newton, IA, this helped the town get back on its feet.
  If we allow the production tax credit or the PTC to lapse, loss of 
that tax incentive for wind energy producers will jeopardize the 
business that TPI has built. So the Iowa State Senate unanimously 
passed a resolution in January supporting the extension of the 
production tax credit--unanimously, bipartisan.
  There is bipartisan support for the extension of both the production 
tax credit and the investment tax credit, and we should get that done 
in this Congress. I also heard in Iowa from Warren McKenna, the manager 
at the Farmer Electric Cooperative in Kalona, IA. Kalona is a town of 
about 2,400 people. It has Iowa's first community solar garden, with 25 
kilowatts of capacity. For the co-op's 800 owner-members, that 25 
kilowatts of energy helps reduce their monthly bills. And for members 
who have their own solar panels, they also get paid for the energy they 
add into the co-op's system. And this year, off of those successes, the 
co-op is breaking ground on an 800,000-kilowatt solar installation, 
taking advantage of a State solar tax credit that was passed by a 
Democratic senate and a Republican house and signed into law by a 
Republican Governor.

  This body could learn a thing or two from the Iowa State legislature. 
It shows what can happen when the polluter money doesn't have a 
Democratic institution locked down the way Congress has been.
  I also visited BioProcess Algae. This is a Rhode Island-based 
company. The CEO, Timmy Burns, is right here--a Quidnick Islander like 
myself. They design, build, and operate commercial-scale algae 
bioreactors. The commercial demonstration project shown here is located 
down in the southwest corner of Iowa in Shenandoah.
  BioProcess Algae uses the wastewater and the waste heat and the 
carbon dioxide emissions from the nearby ethanol refinery to grow 
algae. The algae can then be used for animal feed, can be used for 
biofuels, and, while it is growing, it eats up the carbon dioxide that 
would otherwise be emitted to pollute the atmosphere. Here in 
Shenandoah, American ingenuity is turning carbon pollution into 
economic opportunity.
  I also visited this wind turbine. This is the base of a wind turbine. 
This is the stairway up into where you can go inside to serve it. You 
can see it is pretty big. There is the arc of the round steel base, and 
it towers up hundreds of feet. I think the blade diameter was 160 
meters. It is a pretty serious-sized wind turbine. It is located in one 
of five wind parks which have a combined 500 wind turbines that are 
operated by a company called MidAmerican Energy.
  Thanks to pioneering companies such as MidAmerican, and to the State 
tax incentives that encourage these projects, more than a quarter of 
Iowa's electricity is generated by wind. They are leading the country. 
More than a quarter of their electricity is generated by wind. It 
measures in the gigawatts. That is a lot of wind power. And they love 
it. The farmers get paid for having the wind turbine on their farm. If 
you look--I don't know how well the camera can see this--this is the 
turbine itself, the stand that it rises up on, the column. That is the 
doorway into it. We are standing on a gravel sort of service road ring 
around it so that equipment can be pulled up to it for maintenance 
purposes. But look right here. That is not too far away. That is maybe 
25 feet. They are farming right up to 25 feet away from this thing. So 
you farm and you get paid for having the wind turbine located on your 
farm. It is a wonderful two-fer.
  The conclusion I drew from all of this--from the exciting new types 
of energy being grown from algae, from the huge commitment to wind, 
from the audiences that came out and expressed their support for 
getting stuff done on climate, for the bipartisan support from so much 
of this clean energy stuff--is that Iowans have awoken to the threat of 
climate change. And that is important. Because Iowa plays a key role in 
our politics. Iowa helps determine which issues our Presidential 
candidates will be judged on. In 2016, I will bet that Iowans are going 
to insist they all address carbon pollution and they are not going to 
accept a lot of nonsense denial out of those candidates.
  In fact, I believe if the Republican Party tries to nominate a 
climate denier for President, they are in big trouble. Of course, the 
carbon fuel-funded denial machine will do its best to change the 
subject, to muddy the waters, to create doubt, to use its anonymous 
dark political money to keep candidates quiet. But all the money in the 
world can't change the fact that Iowans know, just like Rhode Islanders 
do, that climate change is real. And those Iowans are going to put 
those Presidential candidates on

[[Page S1722]]

record. If you are a denier, good luck in Iowa. Iowans see the changes 
taking place and they are speaking up. Farmers in Iowa and fishermen in 
Rhode Island may be miles from each other geographically, but they both 
see in their lives around them the facts of the changes that are 
already happening.
  The time to sit on the sidelines is over. If we fight hard, if we are 
willing to have this fight, I am confident we can do a strong climate 
bill in Congress and soon--a climate bill that will strengthen our 
economy, because it will; a climate bill that will redirect our future, 
as it must; a climate bill that will protect our democracy, because the 
pollution of our atmosphere and oceans that the carbon polluters are 
doing is matched by the pollution of our democracy that they are doing 
with their dirty and anonymous money; and finally, a bill that will 
honor our duty to the generations that will follow us, because each 
American generation takes that duty as a very high duty. Right now we 
are dishonoring that duty and we are not leaving for future generations 
the kind of country we should.
  I went recently to Ukraine. I met with one of the leaders of the 
Ukrainian freedom movement. His name is Vitali Klitschko. If you are a 
boxing fan, you know who Vitali Klitschko is because he is a huge guy 
who was the world heavyweight boxing champion for years, and he has now 
thrown himself into the struggle of Ukraine for freedom; first of all, 
freedom from Russian influence and control, and more recently freedom 
from the oligarchs who basically robbed the country blind but were 
finally run out after that long bloody siege at the square in Kiev, the 
Maidan.
  Vitali has an interesting phrase that he uses. Because when he 
started this fight, it wasn't the least bit clear that anybody could 
win this thing. The oligarchs are billionaires. They have immense 
resources at their disposal. And they keep stealing, so there is always 
more. And, of course, the Russians are right there with their baleful 
influence, trying to make sure there is as little freedom and 
opportunity as possible and to keep Ukraine under their thrall. Those 
are some powerful forces. So people would ask him: Can you win? And he 
had a very simple answer. I can't imitate the good Slavic accent, and I 
can't imitate the basso profundo voice of a man that big, but his 
phrase was memorable: No fight, no win.
  Well, we have had no fight in us for too long on climate. It is time 
to put some more fight into this thing, because I think on climate the 
opposite is true. This isn't a no-fight, no-win situation. This is a 
``if we fight, we will win'' situation. The facts are there. The public 
is ready. There is nothing between us and doing our duty other than the 
barricade of lies, the polluter-funded denial beast that is out there 
shopping their nonsense, and we can outdo them. It doesn't take much. 
Because, among other things, it is always easier for the truth to win 
over a lie. You just have to be willing to go out there and have that 
fight. So we have to wake up. When we do, we will win. I am more 
confident than ever, having been back from Iowa.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

  Iowa Climate Statement 2013: A Rising Challenge to Iowa Agriculture

       Our state has long held a proud tradition of helping to 
     ``feed the world.'' Our ability to do so is now increasingly 
     threatened by rising greenhouse gas emissions and resulting 
     climate change. Our climate has disrupted agricultural 
     production profoundly during the past two years and is 
     projected to become even more harmful in coming decades as 
     our climate continues to warm and change.
       Swings from one extreme to another have characterized 
     Iowa's 2013 weather patterns. Iowa started the year under the 
     widespread drought that began in 2011 and persisted 
     throughout 2012. But the spring of 2013 (March-May) was the 
     wettest in the 140 years of record-keeping, creating 
     conditions that hampered the timely planting of corn and 
     soybean fields. During those months, sixty-two Iowa counties 
     experienced storms and flooding severe enough to result in 
     federal disaster declarations.
       By mid-August, very dry conditions had returned to Iowa, 
     subjecting many of the state's croplands to moderate drought. 
     These types of weather extremes, which are highly detrimental 
     to Iowa's crops, were discussed in our 2012 Iowa Climate 
     Statement, where we also noted that globally over the past 30 
     years extreme high temperatures are becoming increasingly 
     more common than extreme low temperatures. In a warming 
     climate, wet years get wetter and dry years get dryer and 
     hotter. The climate likely will continue to warm due to 
     increasing emissions of heat-trapping gases.
       Climate change damages agriculture in additional ways. 
     Intense rain events, the most notable evidence of climate 
     change in Iowa, dramatically increase soil erosion, which 
     degrades the future of agricultural production.
       As Iowa farmers continue to adjust to more intense rain 
     events, they must also manage the negative effects of hot and 
     dry weather. The increase in hot nights that accompanies hot, 
     dry periods reduces dairy and egg production, weight gain of 
     meat animals, and conception rates in breeding stock. Warmer 
     winters and earlier springs allow disease-causing agents and 
     parasites to proliferate, and these then require greater use 
     of agricultural pesticides.
       Local food producers, fruit producers, plant-nursery 
     owners, and even gardeners have also felt the stresses of 
     recent weather extremes. Following on the heels of the 
     disastrous 2012 loss of 90% of Iowa's apple crop, the 2013 
     cool March and record-breaking March-through-May rainfall set 
     most ornamental and garden plants back well behind seasonal 
     norms. Events such as these are bringing climate change home 
     to the many Iowans who work the land on a small scale, visit 
     the Farmer's Market, or simply love Iowa's sweet corn and 
     tomatoes.
       Iowa's soils and agriculture remain our most important 
     economic resources, but these resources are threatened by 
     climate change. It is time for all Iowans to work together to 
     limit future climate change and make Iowa more resilient to 
     extreme weather. Doing so will allow us to pass on to future 
     generations our proud tradition of helping to feed the world.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I yield the floor, and 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. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I am here to express my support for 
S. 2124, which expresses the American people's support for the 
sovereignty, integrity, democracy, and economic stability of Ukraine. I 
also support the Senate taking up a modified version of H.R. 4152 so we 
can get this measure to the President's desk--something we should have 
done weeks ago.
  I thank and praise Majority Leader Reid for his commitment to this 
issue, his fortitude, and his patience--as well as our colleagues 
Senator Murphy, the head of the subcommittee of the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and my colleague from Connecticut and Senator Menendez, 
along with Senator McCain, whose leadership in spearheading this 
measure has been so instrumental.
  I believe the people of Ukraine need and deserve the opportunity to 
determine their own future. This goal is not an exceedingly ambitious 
one. It is hardly novel. It is the universally accepted principle that 
forms the basis for the sovereignty of all nations.
  Together with our European allies, the United States has encouraged 
Ukrainians to stabilize their country and hold elections this spring. 
We have taken these actions not to bring Ukraine closer to the European 
fold or separate it from its historic ties to any of its neighbors but 
to affirm the principle of human rights, freedom, and sovereignty, 
which is the bedrock of our own national security and ultimately the 
security of our global order and the rule of law.
  Russia's territorial expansion into Crimea destabilizes and calls 
into question the security of Russia's neighbors from Finland to China. 
Who will be next? What pretext and implausible denials will Russia use 
next time? Who knows, other than Putin and his inner circle.
  The United States needs a productive working relationship with 
Russia, and the world relies on us to be the one nation that can always 
be counted on to speak clearly and honestly about world events. 
Ukraine's deep internal division and chronic economic challenges are 
exacerbated by Russia's less than neighborly interests.
  I support targeted individual sanctions already put in place by the 
President. I thank him for his leadership. We will vote on those this 
week. But we and our European allies must do more. These measures must 
be the beginning, not the end. What we do on this measure is a start, a 
good step in the right direction, but it must be accompanied by 
additional action--not

[[Page S1723]]

just words or rhetoric on the floor of the Senate but action that 
speaks louder than words, sanctions that bite, just as the sanctions on 
Iran had their effect and brought Iran to the table.
  Two years ago I worked successfully with my Senate colleagues on the 
Helsinki Commission to impose sanctions on government officials in 
Russia who were complicit in the murder and coverup of Sergei 
Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer and auditor who died in a Moscow prison 
after investigating fraud. This law serves as good groundwork and a 
framework for expanding these types of individually targeted sanctions, 
which should include travel and banking restrictions on anybody 
inciting violence and anyone who profits from the theft of state 
assets.
  I believe the legislation before us is an important matter of 
national security, and we should delay it no further. We have taken a 
week with extraneous amendments, and delay and time do not strengthen 
our hand.
  The fact is, as we have seen with Iran, we will need strong and 
strengthening sanctions on Russia to have real effect. This first step 
must be followed by more, and maybe equally important we need close 
cooperation with our regional allies to create a really effective 
deterrent so the Russians know their unilateral seizure of Crimea is 
condemned by all law-abiding nations and we are taking positive steps 
to isolate Russia.
  Russia's attack ought to be an alarm to the harm of Russian arms 
exports and military expansion that have brought effects globally and 
should be a focus of ours and international efforts countering Russian 
expansion. That expansion takes place at the expense of its neighbors, 
also sovereign nations, and at the expense of more than 140,000 
civilian casualties.
  To my dismay and to the sadness of much of the international 
community, Russia remains the largest arms supplier to the Syrian 
Government. Russia is a chief obstacle in achieving meaningful progress 
toward a peaceful resolution in Syria, and they have undermined 
progress in Geneva, obstructing or watering down efforts at the U.N. 
Security Council and a variety of international forums to bring 
humanitarian relief so desperately needed within Syria and in the 
refugee camps.
  The Senate should take meaningful action to sanction Russia's arms 
exporters. These companies and individuals who benefit from contracts, 
both for the fuel they provide to the civil war in Syria and the 
takeover of Crimea, truly deserve not only our condemnation but action. 
That is why I am cosponsoring an amendment with my colleagues, Senator 
Cornyn and Senator Coats, to take exactly such action and why I 
introduced the Syria Sanctions Enhancement Act of 2013, which would 
create comprehensive sanctions against anyone who finances the 
murderous actions of Bashar al-Assad or sustains his military.
  I have also written the U.S. Department of Treasury urging them to 
take action against Russian banks that have undermined U.S. sanctions 
by facilitating transactions with the Syrian Government. That is 
right--Russian banks facilitating actions with the Syrian Government. 
Sanctions on them can have an effect because their activities have 
reportedly included facilitating payments for S-300 missile batteries, 
Assad's personal offshore funds, as well as payments for crude oil. In 
my view, these institutions--Russian banks, the financial structure of 
Russia--are complicit in prolonging the brutal conflict in Syria and 
should be barred from the U.S. financial system.
  Secretary Kerry said in February:

       Russia needs to be part of the solution, not contributing 
     so many more weapons and so much more aid that they are 
     really enabling Assad to double down.

  As the majority leader has said, we need to act quickly on the 
legislation before us. But let's begin and let this action be the 
beginning of the Senate working together on a bipartisan basis to push 
back against Russian adventurism and aggression in all its forms, 
whether it is in Crimea or Syria, and the institutions--financial, 
energy, and otherwise--that support those efforts. I look forward to 
joining with my colleagues in those efforts and approving this 
important measure.


                           GM Call for Action

  Madam President, there is no question at this hour on the Senate 
floor that serious and severe defects in the ignition switches in 
General Motors vehicles have caused at least 31 crashes and 12 deaths. 
That tragic loss of life--not even counting the damage to cars, 
resulting in economic loss, and the injuries to people, resulting in 
suffering and emotional pain--is part of a situation that calls for 
action. These defects meant that in a car going full speed down the 
highway, simply bumping or weighing down the key in the ignition could 
cause the engine to shut down--as well as disabling the airbags.
  That situation has prompted leadership on the part of a number of my 
colleagues, and I want to thank Senator Markey for his legislative 
proposal on NHTSA, Senator McCaskill for her convening a hearing of our 
consumer protection subcommittee of the commerce committee, as well as 
others who have taken action to criticize General Motors.
  There is also no question, as the New York Times reported this past 
Saturday, that GM was aware of that situation--those problems with the 
switches--as early as 2001. That was 8 years before GM went into 
bankruptcy. The old GM and the new GM were separated. Now the 
Department of Justice is investigating whether GM committed fraud when 
it did not disclose those defects in the context of its 2009 
bankruptcy.
  I have been a Federal prosecutor, and I can tell you about people who 
have been prosecuted very severely for lying to banks or lying to the 
Federal Government--lying to banks when they got a loan sometimes for 
as little as a couple of thousand dollars and false statements to the 
Federal Government in connection with a seemingly small matter.
  At the time it went into bankruptcy and then emerged, GM signed a 
document--section 6.12--entitled ``True and Complete Disclosure,'' and 
it said to the Federal Government that in return for not a couple of 
thousand dollars, not even a couple million dollars, not a couple of 
billion dollars, but tens of billions of dollars, more than $40 
billion--I am quoting:

       There is no fact known to a Responsible Person of any Loan 
     Party that, after due inquiry, could reasonably be expected 
     to have a Material Adverse Effect that has not been disclosed 
     herein.

  It also said that the documents that were submitted to the U.S. 
Government at that time ``do not contain any untrue statement of 
material fact or omit to state any material fact necessary to make the 
statements herein or therein.''
  And that section is replete with other representations that now 
pretty clearly were false because those defects and the role of those 
defects in causing the crashes were known to GM. It knew also that 
those defects and the death, injury, and damage seem almost certainly 
then and now to be a material fact and have a material adverse effect 
on that agreement.
  Well, when GM was restructured in 2009, it was split into an old GM, 
which took most of the bad assets, such as GM's closed-down plants, and 
the new GM, which took the good assets. Old GM took the liability for 
accidents that occurred before the bankruptcy, effectively granting the 
new GM a shield from responsibility but not a shield from criminal 
liability. That is why the Department of Justice investigation is so 
critically important in holding GM officials and GM itself responsible.
  Although some prebankruptcy claims have been settled, they have a 
greatly reduced pool of money to draw upon so that the potential claims 
on the part of those 12 families whose loved ones perished, not to 
mention the injured parties who are due money for their suffering as 
well as economic loss and others who may have claims--all those claims 
will be without recourse unless something is done.
  Let's be clear about the 2009 bankruptcy. It was not the kind of 
reorganization that involved Manville, where a fund was created with a 
trustee. That kind of reorganization is a way that bankruptcies are 
often pursued. This was a sale of assets. It was fast and easy because 
the government wanted it so. And, of course, the old GM and the new 
GM--GM officials, shareholders, everyone interested--wanted it to be 
so.
  I was serving as attorney general of Connecticut at the time, and I 
warned

[[Page S1724]]

that this bankruptcy agreement would leave many injured victims without 
recourse. I led a group of eight State attorneys general in warning the 
Federal Government--which supported and sponsored the bankruptcy plan--
that the situation we see now would come to pass. I don't take a lot of 
satisfaction in knowing that now we have learned the real facts GM 
concealed then. I don't take any satisfaction in the potential denial 
of what is due to the victims of GM's concealment, not to mention its 
reprehensible and potentially illegal failure to repair those defects 
rather than conceal them. But, unfortunately, that is what has 
happened.
  Due to GM's failure to disclose that known defect in its vehicles and 
facts that will continue to come to light in this investigation, 
everything suggests that this failure to disclose was, in fact, 
deliberate, fraudulent concealment of information from consumers and 
from government officials. That is criminal, and that is why the 
Department of Justice is investigating.
  As we stand here, we may be too early to reach conclusions but not 
too early for the Department of Justice to make things right and for GM 
to do the right thing.
  Yesterday I sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. I told 
General Holder respectfully that I believe the Federal Government has a 
moral if not a legal obligation to take certain steps to protect 
innocent consumers, and I requested that he give it his personal 
attention. I do that again today--make that request--and urge his 
personal attention.
  Although consumer victims may be barred from seeking relief before 
the bankruptcy court, the Department of Justice can take steps now in 
the context of this criminal investigation that could greatly help 
people who have been injured--innocent victims who were driving that 
car down the freeway or on a country road when the ignition was bumped, 
when the key ring had too many keys and their car stopped, the airbag 
failed to operate, and some died.
  I requested the DOJ to have GM establish a fund to compensate injured 
consumers. It is a civil remedy that can be done as an interim step in 
a criminal prosecution. The Department of Justice has the authority to 
request many kinds of relief, and in light of the continuity of 
personnel between the old GM and the new GM, this kind of remedy would 
be absolutely appropriate for the new GM and it could simply allocate 
some of its assets. And fortunately it is doing well. No one begrudges 
GM its success. We welcome its profitability. But it can do what is 
right and use some of those profits to correct this wrong.
  If necessary, the Department of Justice also could enter into a 
deferred prosecution agreement, as it did recently with Toyota, and it 
reached a settlement there of $1.2 billion.
  There is also a precedent for criminal investigations of this nature 
being resolved by settlements in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of 
Mexico. A $4 billion criminal settlement was distributed among groups 
working to mitigate the spill's effects and prevent future problems, 
including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which has done 
great work, and the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
  If such a settlement were reached here, there should be priority on 
ensuring that funds compensate consumers who suffered the worst 
losses--the loved ones of people killed as well as the innocent victims 
who were injured or suffered economic loss.
  In addition to the fund, I also requested that the Department of 
Justice intervene in pending civil actions to oppose GM's effort to 
deny knowledge or responsibility for damage. What GM has done is to 
remove State court cases to Federal court and then asked for a transfer 
to the bankruptcy court, all the while knowing that the bankruptcy 
proceeding cannot be reopened, and in any event the old GM has vastly 
insufficient assets to satisfy any real judgment.
  I believe there are answers here that will satisfy fairness and 
justice and enable GM to live up to the integrity and image that befits 
them. I believe that the Department of Justice, or another consumer 
protection agency, must ensure that consumers are aware of the 
potential dangers in this continuing defective series of vehicles, 
including the Cobalt, the Saturn, and other models over those same 
years.
  I would never let one of my children behind the wheel of one of those 
cars without a major repair. I don't know that anyone else should--or 
anyone driving themselves--be behind the wheel of these cars.
  When a large national company such as GM markets a product, they have 
a responsibility. They have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure 
that the product is safe. When one of those companies--any company--
becomes aware of safety issues, it has a responsibility to disclose 
them.
  I joined a bill--with the leadership of Senator Markey--that would 
require better, faster disclosure by NHTSA, and I will speak on another 
occasion about the lapses in responsibility on the part of Federal 
watchdogs who failed to protect the public, failed to detect a pattern 
of problems in these cars, and failed to blow the whistle.
  GM has its own responsibility, and I know that a new era of 
leadership at GM under a new leader may mean a new day in its 
acknowledging its moral and legal responsibility, and I hope for that 
new day.
  The innocent victims of defective cars suffered life-ending and life-
changing injuries. Many of them could have been avoided but for the 
purposefully misleading and deceptive conduct by GM. Our responsibility 
now is to see that justice is done either through ensuring that 
compensation is made available or through appropriate criminal 
enforcement or both. The criminal law, as we know in this body, is a 
means of seeking justice, and it can provide a good outcome if it is 
properly framed and enforced.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  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. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________