[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 87 (Thursday, June 5, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3433-S3436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BIPARTISAN SPORTSMEN'S ACT OF 2014--MOTION TO PROCEED
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 384,
S. 2363, the Hagan sportsmen's legislation.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
The bill clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 384, S. 2363, a bill to
protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting,
fishing, and shooting, and for other purposes.
Recognition of the Majority Leader
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
Schedule
Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the
Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business
until 1:45 p.m., with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes and
the Republicans controlling the next 30 minutes.
At 1:45 p.m. the Senate will proceed to executive session for at
least one rollcall vote. First, there will be a vote on the
confirmation of Sylvia Burwell to be Secretary of Health and Human
Services and then a vote on the confirmation of Carolyn Hessler Radelet
to be Director of the Peace Corps. We hope to confirm the Radelet
nomination by voice vote.
Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 2432
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I understand S. 2432 is at the desk and due
for a second reading.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will read the bill by
title for the second time.
The bill clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2432) to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965
to provide for the refinancing of certain Federal student
loans, and for other purposes.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would object to any further proceedings
with respect to the legislation at this time.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard. The bill will
be placed on the calendar.
Invasion of Normandy
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am aware of the remarks I am about to make
in recognition of the Presiding Officer who has, prior to coming to
this body, led hundreds of troops into Iraq during some of the most
difficult combat that any soldiers faced during that conflict.
When I first came to the Senate, we had many combat veterans, but
that has changed over the years, quite remarkably.
We all look to Senator McCain as someone who certainly understands
what it means to be in a conflict in war, but things have changed since
we lost Medal of Honor winners: Dan Inouye on his passing; Bob Kerrey
as a result of his retiring; Fritz Hollings, a Silver Star winner,
combat veteran of World War II; Ted Stevens flying airplanes into the
Far East, a dedicated heroic pilot; and many other people, so there
aren't many left anymore.
That is why I focus attention on the Presiding Officer today, because
he is representative of the best of people who fight for freedom.
On June 6, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt began his national
radio address in a very unusual way, one not entirely common then or
now, because the Commander in Chief, the President of the United
States, asked the American people to join him in prayer. Why
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did he do that? His prayer was not for himself but for the 156,000
allied soldiers who, as he spoke, were fighting their way onto the
beaches of Normandy.
As he implored the American people on behalf of those soldiers, he
said:
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest
until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise
and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violence of
war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace.
They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end
conquest. They fight to liberate.
That was part of his request, that the American people pray for these
valiant soldiers. Of course, while this battle for Europe was going on
throughout the South Pacific, people were dying as he spoke. Virtually
all of the troops who stormed the beaches of France that day were not
professional soldiers. They were schoolteachers, farmers, ranchers,
mechanics, and clerks. These fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers were
pulled away from their peaceful lives and instead were sent to liberate
an entire continent. They fought courageously for liberty. They hurtled
themselves into the line of fire to defeat tyranny.
We can probably all look back at people who fought in World War II.
They were our relatives, our neighbors, and I mentioned a few whom I
served with in the Senate.
From the little town I come from in Nevada, Searchlight, there was a
man there named Junior Cree. His name was Junior Cree. That was his
given name. I grew up there as a little boy.
He had a service station, a little bar, and did a number of different
things. He was an entrepreneur, as was his dad.
Many years after I was no longer a little boy, he came to my home in
Searchlight and wanted to see my new home. Junior and I sat and talked
with his daughter Sandy. I had asked him: Junior, what did you do in
the invasion of Normandy? He proceeded to tell me. Yet at this time he
was an 80-year-old man.
He told me he had fought in the North African conflict first. He was
in the infantry. He was not in the first wave to go onto the beaches,
but he was in one of the first, in one of the amphibious vehicles.
There were about 35 or 40 people on one of those.
His job--he had his rifle of course but his job was to carry signs--
he was a big man--into the water onto the beaches, and he had
instructions on what to do with the signs, to designate who they were
and what they were supposed to do. The water was much deeper than
anyone said. Well, this man, who was well over 6 foot, went right to
the bottom and nearly drowned because these signs were so heavy. He
made it onto the beach and found security under a damaged half-track, I
think he called it. He was shot in the rear end, and that ended his
military adventures during World War II.
These people were everyplace. Junior Cree was one of 156,000 people
on those beaches. They were all heroes. They were all people just like
Junior Cree. They fought courageously for liberty. As I have indicated,
they hurtled themselves into the line of fire. Can you imagine going
onto the beach with the machine gun fire coming down on top of you.
Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of D-day. On that day 156,000 heroic
soldiers turned the tide against Adolf Hitler's savagery and unshackled
the nations of Europe. This afternoon there are about 10 or 11 Senators
who are going to go to that 70th anniversary which is being held on the
beaches of Normandy. President Obama will be there, world leaders will
be there, and I appreciate very much those Senators going and
representing the Senate, as well as the Presiding Officer.
Proof of these soldiers' bravery can be seen in faraway France today,
every day, not just for the celebration that is going to take place
recognizing the 70th anniversary of this conflict--every day--because
there are massive graves there, all over Europe. These seemingly
endless rows of white headstones testify to their valor. Crosses and
Stars of David are reminders of the debt we owe to those who refused to
balk in the face of the evil, and that was Hitler. Adolf Hitler's Nazis
were evil.
May we always honor their sacrifice and never forget the price they
paid to protect, not only this Nation but the entire world.
Honoring Veterans
One of the ways in which we honor soldiers in our democracy is to
care for our veterans. As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-day,
it is fitting that Members of this body are working on a bipartisan
basis to ensure that American veterans get the help they need and
deserve. In light of the disturbing reports of the practices of the
Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and other facilities, chairman
Bernie Sanders, of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, is leading
the effort to craft a bill to improve care at VA hospitals.
I applaud his efforts. I applaud the efforts of Senator McCain. As we
speak, they are meeting to try to come up with some bipartisan solution
to the problems of wait times at VA facilities. I am hopeful an
agreement will be reached that guarantees American veterans are
receiving the care we as a grateful nation have promised. It is the
least we can do for these gallant men and women who have fought to
protect our great country.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is
recognized.
Normandy Invasion
Mr. McCONNELL. Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of the invasion of
Normandy, a day known across the world as D-day.
On this fateful day, which proved to be such a decisive turning point
for the allied victory in Europe, thousands of allied forces were
killed or wounded in the invasion. While we are sadly losing more and
more members of the ``greatest generation'' with each passing year--
including the last of the original Navajo code talkers whom we lost
just yesterday--the heroism of these brave Americans can never be
forgotten.
I have one constituent, Bob Williams from Boone County, KY, who
jumped on D-day, jumped again 50 years later, and was on the front
cover of Time magazine. I saw him earlier this year, and he says he is
not going to jump again because his wife will not let him, but Bob
Williams is still in good shape 70 years after the day he jumped into
the night of D-day.
Tomorrow I will be honored to commemorate the most important
anniversary by meeting with a number of Kentucky heroes--veterans from
World War II and the Korean war--who will be visiting the national
monuments built here in the Nation's Capital to honor their service and
sacrifice. They will be making a trip with the help of the Bluegrass
Chapter of the Honor Flight Program, which has already brought more
than 1,000 veterans--mostly from Kentucky--to Washington for this very
purpose. The program provides transportation, lodging, and food for the
veterans.
Without Honor Flight, many would not be able to visit the World War
II Memorial--a memorial erected to honor the sacrifice of the men and
women who served on D-day and throughout that era.
I have met with groups of Honor Flight veterans before, and it is
always a moving experience. It is gratifying to see these heroes
receive the recognition they deserve. Many of them never thought they
would be able to make the trip, and for every veteran who does, I am
sure they hold cherished memories of their fellow soldiers in arms who
did not.
I look forward to greeting them tomorrow and thanking them for their
extraordinary service to our country. I am proud and honored that
Kentucky is home to so many of these brave heroes.
BURWELL NOMINATION
Today the Senate will vote on President Obama's newest choice to head
the Department of Health and Human Services--in other words, the person
he will be sticking with the impossible task of trying to make
ObamaCare work.
By most accounts Sylvia Burwell is a smart and skilled public
servant, but her embrace of ObamaCare calls her policy judgment into
question. When it comes to the task of implementing this ill-conceived
and disastrous law, the President may as well have nominated Sisyphus
because, as I indicated, Ms. Burwell is being asked to do the
impossible.
ObamaCare has already inflicted tremendous pain on the lives of
countless middle-class Americans, including
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many thousands in my own State. It is increasing costs for families all
across the country--despite endless promises to the contrary. It has
reduced access to the doctors and hospitals my constituents relied on--
despite endless promises to the contrary. It has caused Kentuckians to
lose the plans they liked and wanted to keep--despite endless promises
to the contrary.
A constituent of mine from Pulaksi County wrote to tell me that as a
result of ObamaCare he lost his insurance and that he was ``floored''
when he saw the cost of the ObamaCare-approved plan to replace it. With
a spike in his premium and a $6,300 deductible, he wrote to ask me how
``[he] or any working man [could] afford the Affordable . . . Care
Act.'' He makes an important point.
Nearly every major ObamaCare promise from several years ago is a
broken ObamaCare promise today. Even more recent promises from the
administration can't be relied on either. In January the Secretary
certified to Congress that she would verify that people were actually
eligible for ObamaCare subsidies before they were sent out. In recent
weeks we learned from media accounts and testimony that many of the
systems needed to protect taxpayers against inaccurate or fraudulent
payments still have not been built, tested, or used. Yesterday we
learned that nearly one in four applications may have an inconsistency
that could affect the accuracy of these payments from American
taxpayers. Any wasted tax dollar is a problem, but when you consider
that many of these are dollars raised from tax increases or raided from
Medicare to make payouts by mistake or through fraud, it is enough to
make your head spin.
This is just the kind of thing everyone warned about as Washington
Democrats tried to ram this law through, and it will only get worse if
we give up now and just accept the giant mess they have made of our
health care. I mean, if they can't even get a Web site fixed after
spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, how can they
possibly regulate such a huge sector of our economy in any effective
way?
How can any administration official possibly repair all the broken
ObamaCare promises? The question answers itself: They can't. The
nominee before us can't. No one can. The problem is the law itself.
ObamaCare is what prevents the successful implementation of ObamaCare.
And Americans don't want it. They want real health reforms--reforms
that can actually lower costs, increase choice, and help the middle
class. So, in my view, the Senate shouldn't be focusing on a new
captain for the Titanic; it should focus on steering away from the
iceberg.
As HHS Secretary, the nominee would oversee many important programs
aimed at protecting public health, promoting medical research, and
providing a safety net for seniors and working families, but she would
also be the chief operating officer of ObamaCare implementation--a law
that is doing incredible damage to middle-class families in our
country. Her embrace of this disastrous law is reason enough to oppose
her confirmation.
I will be voting against this nominee because I think we need to
focus on repealing and replacing this law, not trying to do the
impossible by pretending we can make it work.
Honoring Our Armed Forces
Staff Sergeant Christopher T. Stout
Mr. President, I rise to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of one
brave soldier from Kentucky who died while serving this country. SSG
Christopher T. Stout of Worthville, a chaplain's assistant, was killed
on July 13, 2010, in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered
when the enemy attacked his unit with rifles, rocket-propelled
grenades, and small-arms fire. He was 34 years old.
For his service in uniform, Sergeant Stout received several medals,
awards, and decorations, including the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple
Heart, two Army Commendation Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, three
Army Good Conduct Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, two
Afghanistan Campaign Medals with Bronze Service Stars, the Global War
on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas
Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, and the Combat Action Badge.
Staff Sergeant Stout's commanding officer, chaplain CPT Ludovic O.
Foyou, said this of his fallen comrade:
Staff Sergeant Christopher Stout was not just a chaplain
assistant; he was my friend, brother and shield of armor. His
immensely pure love for his fellow paratroopers epitomizes
the spirit of the Army Chaplain Corps. His love for his wife
Misty and three princesses, Jacqueline, Audreanna, and
Kristen, always kept a radiant smile on his face.
Christopher's hometown pastor, the Reverend Raymond Sharon of
Worthville United Pentecostal Church, added:
[Chris] was just a fantastic good boy all the way around.
Faithful to church, faithful to his family, his wife.
Chris was born on New Year's Day in 1976 in Louisville and graduated
from Carroll County High School.
His mother, Sharon Neuner, remembers Chris's childhood fondly:
We had some hard times because I was a single parent . . .
but those things just brought us closer together. Our song
name was ``You and Me Against the World.'' I remember you
used to want name-brand things that we couldn't afford, so
you went to work in an elderly woman's flower garden. You
weeded, painted, and mowed lawns to get money for those name-
brand things. In doing so, you learned that it isn't the
clothes or the shoes that make the man, but who you are as a
person that makes you a great man.
Chris was an accomplished singer and often preached the gospel at
Worthville United Pentecostal Church. He joined the Army in 1997 and
originally served as a parachute rigger with the 782nd Main Support
Battalion at Fort Bragg, NC. In September of 2006, at his request, he
was reclassified as a chaplain's assistant. From 2007 to 2008, he
deployed with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 82nd Airborne
Division, until in 2009 he was reassigned to 1st Battalion, 508th
Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne
Division, based out of Fort Bragg. It was with this unit that Chris
deployed to Afghanistan for what would be his final deployment.
In late July 2010, shortly after he was killed, his family, friends,
and those who wished to pay their respects gathered at the veterans
memorial in General Butler State Park in Carrollton, KY, to remember
Christopher Stout.
Daughter Jacqueline Stout sang ``Amazing Grace'' in his honor to a
crowd of nearly 500.
Chaplain LTC David Graetz told the crowd that Chris lived by the
chaplain's motto ``Pro Deo et Patria''--Latin for the phrase ``For God
and Country.''
The Reverend Raymond Sharon of Chris's hometown church also spoke.
``He is a hero,'' Reverend Sharon said of Chris. ``He has set an
example for all the young people here today. Nothing can stop you from
accomplishing in life a great place in society, as Chris has done.
Chris stood for the truth. He lived it. He talked it.''
With that, the crowd stood at respectful attention for the firing of
a three-volley salute by the American Legion Post No. 41, followed by a
bugler playing ``Taps.'' Then the Carroll County judge-executive
unveiled for Chris's family a brick to be placed in the veterans
memorial to honor his sacrifice.
His mother said:
Thank you, Chris. You gave your all. I hope my mind stays
healthy so that I always have my memories of your smiling
blue eyes, your warm smile, those dimples and freckles, and
our time of you and me against the world. Those will have to
do me until we meet again at Heaven's gates.
We are thinking of Chris's family today as I share his story with my
colleagues, including his wife Misty, his daughters Jacqueline,
Audreanna, and Kristen, his parents Sharon and Billy Neuner, and many
other beloved family members and friends. I wish for them to know that
this Senate is privileged to pay tribute to SSG Christopher T. Stout
for his life of service in honor of the ideals of ``Pro Deo et
Patria''--``For God and Country.'' We recognize his service, and we
honor his ultimate sacrifice. He truly was a man of God who died
defending our country. Kentucky is proud to call this good and faithful
servant one of our own, and we mourn his loss.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Reservation of Leader Time
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
leadership time is reserved.
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