[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 29, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5007-S5015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MORNING BUSINESS
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will be
in a period of morning business until 12 noon, with Senators permitted
to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, and the time equally
divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with
Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the
final half.
The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I return the compliment to Senator
McConnell from Kentucky, the Republican leader.
I have been here now since 2002. There is no better friend of the
State of Israel than Mitch McConnell. He is the former chairman and
ranking member of the foreign ops subcommittee on appropriations that
deals with aid to the world--particularly Israel--and it was his idea
to come to the floor today and have voices speak in support of Israel
at a time when they need friends.
Friends are great to have. They are wonderful in good times. They are
a necessity in bad times. Israel is going through some pretty bad times
and so are the Palestinian people.
I wish to clearly make myself known. I have nothing against the
legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people to have
their own country, to live in peace and prosperity by Israel. But they
have to want it more than I do.
The Palestinian people are suffering. Children are being killed, and
the most innocent people on the planet are children. It breaks all of
our hearts to see them as a casualty of war.
But now is the time to be clear-eyed and focused as to what the
problem really is. The problem is very simple in many ways. Hamas is a
terrorist organization in the eyes of the U.S. Government. Hamas should
be a terrorist organization in the eyes of any decent person in the
world.
What did they do? They have as their goal not a two-state solution
but a one-state solution--the complete and utter destruction of the
State of Israel. If you don't believe me, just check out their own
charter. They have as their tactics using their own people and children
as human shields to win a propaganda war.
When Israeli children are killed, it breaks Israel's heart. When
Palestinian children are killed, it breaks the heart of all decent
Palestinians, but Hamas sees it as a victory. They literally try to put
women and children in harm's way to marginalize the ability of Israel
to defend itself against two things.
The tunnels are something new in this fight. Forty-one tunnels have
been discovered that go from the Gaza Strip--some into Israel itself--
and yesterday five Israeli soldiers were killed by an attack that came
from Hamas fighters that penetrated Israel through the tunnels.
So Senator McConnell is not only speaking for Republicans when he
says the Senate stands firmly behind Israel's right to destroy the
terrorist tunnels, but I think that is the body's view and Democrats'
as well.
There is a resolution that is bipartisan in nature before the body,
and I hope we can pass it before Thursday. In the resolved clause, it
says the Senate opposes any efforts to impose a cease-fire that does
not allow the Government of Israel to protect its citizens from threats
posed by Hamas rockets and tunnels. That, I believe, is the view of the
Senate in a bipartisan fashion.
Today, Republicans take the floor to clearly state where we stand in
this conflict. We stand with Israel's right to defend itself against a
terrorist organization called Hamas. We stand with the Palestinian
people's legitimate aspirations to have a better life. But until that
day comes, we are going to be firmly in the Israeli camp to defend
themselves, because what would we do as a nation if a neighboring
nation dug tunnels under our border for the express purpose of
kidnapping and killing our citizens. What would America do if one
rocket coming from a neighboring nation fired indiscriminately to kill
American citizens? We would respond in the most aggressive fashion, and
we would have every right to do so.
As the minority leader stated, there is no moral equivalency. Israel
tells you they are going to attack. Israel calls before the attack.
Israel gives notice about an impending attack. Hamas secretly fires
rockets, caring less where they land. Their hope is that it hits a
kindergarten. That is their desire. And the only reason they have not
been successful is because of the Iron Dome program that has been a
collaboration between the United States and Israel for many years.
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There has been discussion about appropriating additional dollars for
Iron Dome. That discussion needs to turn into a reality. We don't need
to marry it with controversial topics. Israel is under siege. We are
the best friend of the State of Israel. They need this assistance.
Every Republican stands ready to work with every Democrat to pass--in
the next 5 minutes--additional money for the Iron Dome program.
In tough times, what is the smart thing and right thing for America
to do? The smart thing for America to do is pursue a lasting peace, a
peace with meaning, and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Insanity
is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Israel is beyond that moment. America needs to stand by Israel's
legitimate right to get to the heart of the problem and not face this
threat 6 months or 1 year from now.
The one thing I can tell you that is not a smart thing to do is to
give Hamas a bunch of concrete. They are not going to build schools
with it; they build tunnels. All the aid the international community
has been providing to the Gaza Strip, through the hands of Hamas, has
not gone into building hospitals, schools, and the economic improvement
of the lives of Palestinians but to create tunnels of war. The tunnels
are weapons of war. The thousands and thousands of tons of concrete and
iron that have been misappropriated to build these tunnels came from
people with a good heart.
How long does it take the international community to wake up to the
fact that Hamas has a bad heart--an evil, wicked heart. They could care
less about their own people. They want to destroy Israel.
Mr. McCONNELL. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. GRAHAM. Absolutely.
Mr. McCONNELL. We all remember that 10 or 12 years ago Israel--which
had previously occupied Gaza for the purpose of preventing these types
of devastating attacks--left. They said: We are through. They made a
solid statement and said: We are uncomfortable occupying, and all we
ask in return for the removal of our occupation is a peaceful border.
The Senator from South Carolina has just outlined that periodically
this is what they have gotten in return for basically leaving Gaza
alone and giving it a chance--if it chose to--to have a normal,
peaceful existence. Yet they choose to continue the conflict, as the
Senator from South Carolina indicated, because they are not in favor of
a two-state solution; they are in favor of a one-state solution.
Mr. GRAHAM. Senator McConnell is dead on point--land for peace. Give
the Palestinians land and in return Israel gets peace. They gave the
Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, and what have they gotten in return?
They got 2,500 rockets in the last 3 weeks and terrorist tunnels.
The idea that leaving an area will lead to peace in the Middle East
with the Palestinians has not borne fruit. What to do? No. 1, pass more
appropriations for Iron Dome because it is the right and smart thing to
do.
No. 2, pass a resolution saying we oppose any cease-fire that does
not allow Israel to get to the heart of the problem when it comes to
terrorist tunnels and dealing with the rocket threat against their
country.
No. 3, push back against the United Nations that has lost its moral
way. The Human Rights Commission--which is a subcommittee, for lack of
a better term, of the United Nations--passed a resolution 27 to 1 about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, and I will read the first
paragraph:
Deploring the massive Israeli military operations in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,
since 13 June 2014 that have involved disproportionate and
indiscriminate attacks and resulted in grave violations of
the human rights of the Palestinian civilian population,
including through the most recent Israeli military assault
on the occupied Gaza Strip, the latest in a series of
military aggressions by Israel, and through actions of
mass closures, mass arrests and the killing of civilians
in the occupied West Bank.
This resolution is 1,600-and-something words, and it has a half
sentence about rockets against Israel and nothing about the tunnels and
never mentions Hamas.
The third thing I would like this body to do, through a letter of
resolution, is let the United Nations know we condemn this one-sided
view of the conflict and that we find the Human Rights Commission
report objectionable and, quite frankly, immoral.
The vote was 27 to 1, and we were the only nation that objected to
this resolution, which I think should make every decent person in the
world feel the shame of the United Nations.
I thank our leader on the Republican side for creating this
opportunity and allowing us to speak on this issue, and I thank him for
his longstanding support for the State of Israel.
I close with this thought: In times of trouble, try to do the right
thing and the smart thing, and they both come together on this issue.
The right thing to do is to stand by your friends in Israel; the smart
thing to do is to stand by your friends in Israel. The right thing and
the smart thing to do is to oppose Hamas, which has a wicked heart, and
allow Israel, once and for all, to fix this problem by demilitarizing
Gaza and dealing with the tunnels and the rockets.
As Senator McConnell said, Israel has tried cease-fires time and time
again without dealing with the military threat they face. Not this
time. When Israel says never again, they are referring to the
Holocaust. America needs to stand with Israel and Israel should say to
Hamas: Never again will we allow a cease-fire that allows you to dig
tunnels under our borders to kidnap and kill our citizens, and never
again will we allow you to rearm and rain holy terror on our people
through thousands of rockets being fired at innocent civilians.
Now is the time for the Senate to say with Israel, never again.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, briefly before Senator Ayotte takes the
floor, I wish to commend Senator Graham for his suggestions. All three
of those suggestions should be carried out this week. Time is of the
essence.
In listening to the litany of actions by the Palestinians that he
recounted--and we all remember, going back almost to the founding of
the State of Israel--I am reminded of what one of Israel's early
Foreign Ministers once said about the Palestinians. He said the
Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Mr. GRAHAM. Sad but true.
Mr. McCONNELL. Sad but true. I recall when Prime Minister Barak was
in office at the end of the Clinton years. The administration brokered
a deal that Israel at that time was willing to offer and Palestine said
no. It was a deal they probably could not get today.
We have seen a litany of opportunities wasted over the years, and the
people who suffered as a result of it have obviously been the
Palestinian people.
Mr. GRAHAM. Absolutely. With that, I will turn over the debate to my
good friend, the Senator from New Hampshire, Ms. Ayotte, who has been
one of the leaders on our side on foreign policy and is a steadfast
ally of our friends in Israel.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Ms. AYOTTE. I thank my colleagues, the Senator from South Carolina
for his leadership and our leader, the Senator from Kentucky, for the
incredible work he has done in supporting our great friend Israel and
also leading this body in terms of the issues he has brought forward,
not only in supporting important protections, such as the Iron Dome
program, but also by ensuring America remains safe and strong. I thank
Senator McConnell very much for his leadership.
I rise because I had the privilege in March of traveling to Israel. I
went there not only to meet with the leadership in Israel but I had the
opportunity to meet with some of the Palestinian leadership as well.
I went to Sderot, which is a town in Israel. I was very much struck
by what the Israelis are facing every day and the threat they face from
Hamas, a terrorist organization. Go to a town such as Sderot and
everyone in their household has a bomb shelter. I met with mothers
there whose children feel traumatized because they never know when the
next potential rocket may be coming toward their town, and it has very
much affected their children. It has affected them so much so that when
one
[[Page S5009]]
goes to the playground where the children play, the playground itself
contains a bomb shelter. There is a caterpillar which looks like
something your kids would play in, but it is actually a bomb shelter
because this town in Israel has been facing rockets from Hamas. That is
what we need to understand in this conflict: Hamas, a terrorist
organization, has not only used its own civilians, the Palestinians, as
human shields but they have also continued to threaten the children of
Israel so much so that their playgrounds have bomb shelters.
What is happening right now in this conflict is that Israel is trying
to defend itself against the threat of rockets from Hamas which
threaten their children and the Palestinian children, who unfortunately
have been put in harm's way by this terrorist organization, Hamas.
They are facing a new threat. Can you imagine if we were faced with a
threat where terrorists could pop up through a tunnel and suddenly
terrorize the people in this country? Can you imagine what we would do
under the same circumstance? That is the threat the Israelis are facing
right now. They need to eliminate these tunnels to ensure that their
people can be protected from this threat.
How did they build these tunnels? They actually built some of these
tunnels by using concrete the Israelis let the Palestinians have for
building places such as schools, and instead Hamas has taken this
concrete and used it to build terror tunnels to allow them to either
kidnap or kill Israeli citizens.
We stand with the people of Israel and their right to defend
themselves against this terrorist organization Hamas and the terror it
has brought upon not only the country of Israel but also the terror it
has brought to the Palestinian people and how Hamas stands in the way
of peace in the region overall.
We also stand against the hypocrisy we have seen on many levels, and
that hypocrisy and double standard has been most apparent in the U.N.
Human Rights Council and the recent resolution passed by that council.
I have to wonder why that council exists in the United Nations because
they have countries such as China, Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela issuing
a resolution condemning Israel for what is happening in this conflict
but in no way even mentioning Hamas or what Hamas is doing to use
civilians as shields and basically as targets so they can try to get
support from the international community.
The opposite is happening in terms of what Israel is doing. There is
such a contrast. Israel is taking steps to notify civilians if there is
going to be a missile launched in their area. They have warned
civilians to leave areas. They have taken extraordinary steps to
protect civilian lives in contrast to what Hamas is doing; they are
using civilians as shields.
We condemn in this body very clearly what the Human Rights Council
has done. The notion that we are going to follow what China, Cuba,
Venezuela, and Russia tell the world, which is their view on human
rights--and they don't even mention the actions of a terrorist
organization that is at the root of the conflict we see right now in
Gaza--talk about the situation where the fox is watching the henhouse.
That is what has happened with this human rights council. Frankly, this
council, in my view, should be eliminated because it is the opposite of
standing for human rights; it is for standing for terrorist
organizations such as Hamas.
I stand with the recommendations of my colleague from South Carolina
and our leader that we need to absolutely condemn the human rights
council. We need to reaffirm in this body this week before we leave our
support for Israel's right to defend itself and to eliminate the threat
these tunnels present to the Israeli people, and, frankly, also to the
Palestinian people as well, and to allow them to finally address this
threat from this terrorist organization Hamas.
Until this threat is eliminated, there can be no peace in this
region. There cannot be peace for the Israeli people and there cannot
be peace for the Palestinian people. So it is my hope that we will take
this up this week and make sure we clearly send a message to Israel;
that we stand with Israel, that we clearly send a message to the U.N.
that we are not going to accept the hypocrisy of the human rights
council; that we clearly send a message to Hamas: We know who you are.
You are a terrorist organization. Stop using civilians to try to
accomplish your purpose and we stand with you.
I yield the floor for my colleague.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if I may before Senator Ayotte leaves
the floor, I commend her on her contribution to this discussion and
particularly with her stories with regard to Israel, and I would also
add that I am sure the Senator from New Hampshire agrees with me that
the last thing the American Government needs to do right now is try to
pressure Israel into a bad cease-fire that doesn't allow this terror to
be stopped.
At times it appears to me that the American administration is trying
to push the Israelis into stopping before they have finished the job.
We all know, based on past history, that unless this operation is
completed, these challenges will continue.
I wanted to see if the Senator from New Hampshire shared my view.
Ms. AYOTTE. I would fully share the Senator's view. In order to end
this threat we need to support Israel and its right to eliminate the
tunnels, to address the missiles and eliminate missiles and the stash
that Hamas has that they are targeting Israel with--which, by the way,
would have had many more civilian casualties but for the Iron Dome
system that we have supported and worked with Israel on.
Finally, we need to get to a point where Gaza is demilitarized and
they are put in a position where this threat cannot continue. That is
what we need to get to thinking about. But we need to allow Israel to
deal with the threat of these tunnels and the missiles so the children
in Sderot will not continue to be targeted, so children--not only
Israeli children but also Palestinian children--can live in peace in
the region. That cannot happen when Hamas continues to be a terrorist
organization that threatens all children in the region.
Thank you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I wish to end on what my colleagues, the
Senator from Kentucky and the leader, Senator McConnell, say. Senator
Graham, Senator Ayotte, and I appreciate Senator McConnell's leadership
in making very clear what is at stake here, pushing hard to make sure
that the Senate is doing its job in support of Israel, making sure they
are able to defend themselves and the funding for the Iron Dome which
has been so effective as a defense mechanism against these rocket
attacks is done in a way that allows them to continue to use it in that
capability.
As you look at the situation in Gaza, I want to start by taking a
step back and looking at this conflict in both the historic and
regional context. In Israel we have the only functioning democracy in
the Middle East. Israel is a nation that emphasizes human rights and
tolerance. Its population includes religious, ethnic, and cultural
diversity. In Jerusalem you can hear the Muslim call to prayer, the
bells from Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, and the prayers of the
Jews at the Wailing Wall all at the same time. There is no other place
like this on Earth.
This democracy, however, is situated in a region of intense brutality
and extremism. Historically that has meant seemingly endless conflicts
with Israel's neighbors, intentionally targeting civilians in order to
maximize casualties. One need only look across the border into Syria to
get a glimpse of this brutality. When Syrians made the first attempt at
striving for democracy, the Assad regime began systematically
slaughtering opponents, including gassing civilians with chemical
weapons. As that violence spread into Iraq, radical terrorist
organizations such as ISIS began killing not only Shia opponents but
also other Sunni clerics who would not swear allegiance to ISIS.
Communities with ancient traditions such as the Christians in Mosul,
who just 10 years ago numbered 60,000, have been forced to flee for
their lives. Mosul has been completely emptied of Christians for the
first time in 1600 years.
It is in this context the people of Israel have built their nation.
It is in this context that we now view the conflict in Gaza. The
current conflict in
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Gaza is one that Israel did not start. It started with Hamas firing
over 2300 rockets from Gaza into Israel, specifically targeting
civilian populated areas to maximize potential casualties. In response,
Israel has conducted a methodical and enforceable response, as you
would expect any nation to do. First Israel locates the source of the
rocket. Then an attempt is made to call the residents by phone to tell
them to evacuate. In many cases a flare is sent onto the roof as a
warning that the location is about to be hit, before that location is
ultimately destroyed.
In a region where neighboring leaders indiscriminately drop barrel
bombs on residential areas for the sole purpose of slaughtering
civilians, Israel goes out of its way to save lives. These are not just
civilian lives Israel is saving, because they know that by their
efforts they are giving the aggressors a chance to escape as well.
After Hamas continued to launch rockets into Israel, even when Israel
agreed on multiple occasions to cease fire, tunnels were used to insert
combatants near Israeli settlements. Israel responded with a ground
assault to destroy the tunnels and eliminate Hamas's stockpiles of
weapons. As the attacks and rocket launches continue, it is
understandable that Israel would want to seek out and destroy
stockpiles of weapons to keep the cycle from being repeated a few
months from now.
Like all of my colleagues on the floor today, I want to see peace in
the Middle East. Specifically I want to see peace in the Gaza and West
Bank. I want to see peace in such a way that the Palestinian people can
live with the prospect of a better life. But as we have seen, peace is
not possible when a terrorist organization continues to pursue its
cause of annihilating Israel. Peace cannot be achieved while Hamas
rejects cease-fire agreements and continues to fire rockets. As violent
as the current conflict in the Gaza strip is, it would be far worse--it
would be far worse--if Israel did not have the Iron Dome. In any
conflict, civilian casualties are a tragedy and if Israel did not have
the sophisticated, purely defensive weapons system that allows it to
shoot these rockets out of the sky, the number of civilian casualties
would be far greater.
Hamas does not drop leaflets telling civilians to evacuate. Hamas
does not send flares to warn residents to get out of harm's way. If not
for Israel's Iron Dome, civilian casualties in Israel would be
staggering. The United States must continue to support Israel by
ensuring that Iron Dome missile defense systems remain an effective
deterrent to even greater civilian casualties. For as long as Israeli
men, women, and children need to run to bomb shelters ahead of Hamas
rocket attacks we must support Israel's ability to defend itself.
The United Nations Council on Human Rights and other countries around
the world continue to do things that are consistently at odds with the
facts and with reality. Here in the United States we need to do as my
colleague from South Carolina said, the right thing and the smart
thing, and in this case, the right thing and the smart thing are one
and the same. So I hope my colleagues in the Senate will make a
priority providing the necessary funding for Iron Dome and in standing
united--united--behind our ally and our friend Israel as they defend
themselves from these attacks.
Mr. President, I see my colleague from Texas is on the floor, and I
would simply ask him what role he sees the United States playing in
both supporting Israel and providing support for the Iron Dome.
Mr. CRUZ. I thank my friend from South Dakota.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I am pleased and saddened to stand here in
support of my colleagues as we stand united in support of the Nation of
Israel.
In the last several weeks over 2500 rockets rained down over the
Nation of Israel. Eighty percent of the population had to flee what
they were doing and run to bomb shelters to hide--moms, dads, children.
When the alarm goes off they have sometimes 10, 15 seconds to get to a
bomb shelter.
I want you to imagine if the same situation were happening in
America. Imagine if 80 percent of this country in the last several
weeks had run to a bomb shelter. Imagine if 240 million Americans in
the last several weeks had been sitting at work or in the doctor's
office or having breakfast and had to grab their children and run in
panic toward a bomb shelter. Imagine what our country would be doing in
response.
In recent weeks we have discovered that Hamas has opened a new
chapter in the annals of terrorism. It is not just raining rockets down
from on high, but it is now attacking from below. Some 32 full-scale
terror tunnels have been discovered dug under the ground under the
border and coming up in kibbutzes inside Israel along Gaza. Some of the
tunnels come up inside kindergartens. We have discovered in recent
weeks a terrifying plot that was underway for Hamas terrorists on Rosh
Hashanah to come through those tunnels--hundreds of them--to emerge in
kindergartens to kidnap and murder vast numbers of young Jewish
children.
Imagine right now if enemies of this country had dug tunnels into
this country and were coming up into our schools. Imagine if Iran or
China or some other hostile foreign nation had tunnels from which your
children and my children were at risk of being kidnapped or murdered.
Today in Gaza we see massive civilian casualties that are the direct
consequence of the violence of Hamas.
You see, the human casualties are not an unintended side effect of
the conflicts. They are the objective that Hamas seeks--dead
Palestinian children and women and men. We know this because Hamas is
engaging in a war crime right now, not that the United Nations Human
Rights Council would ever say anything about it. But Hamas is engaging
in a war crime of using human shields--deliberately using human
shields. Where do they place their rockets with which they are raining
down death and destruction upon Israel? They place them in schools.
They place them in private homes. They place them in mosques.
Deliberately they surround their rockets and their terror tunnels with
innocent civilians.
Israel right now is engaged in something unprecedented in the annals
of modern warfare. It is undertaking more humanitarian effort to spare
civilian deaths than any military has in recorded history. Before
attacking, Israel sends out texts. When they discover a rocket battery
they need to take out because it is firing rockets targeting innocent
civilians, they send texts saying: Clear out of the area. They try to
save the Palestinian civilians. They drop from the sky pamphlets on an
area that is about to be bombed to take out the rockets that are coming
from that area. The pamphlets say to the civilians: Get out. Get out
because we are going to take out the rockets and you are in harm's
way. Not only that, they have a practice of sending an initial knock
bomb. What does that mean? It means the first bomb lands on the roof
and makes a knock. It doesn't explode; it just makes a loud knock. They
do that for a reason: So the people inside the building can look up,
can hear the knock, and can flee the building so the second missile can
take down the building and the rockets that are housed inside and being
used to try to murder innocent civilians.
A few weeks ago Prime Minister Netanyahu summed it up very powerfully
when he said: Israel uses missile defense to defend our citizens. Hamas
uses its citizens to defend its missiles.
Israel has tried to warn Palestinian civilians: Don't be located
where the missiles are because we are going to respond as any sovereign
nation will to protect our citizens.
What does Hamas say? Hamas tells the Palestinians: Stay there.
Picture that for a second. Israel is warning civilians to clear the
area because they are going to take out the rockets and they are going
to take out the tunnels. The response from Hamas is: No. Stay there.
Why? Because what they want to see is Palestinian children,
Palestinian women killed so they can put the pictures on the Sunday
night news because they know the world--many at the United Nations,
many in the media--will behave like useful idiots. They will point to
the civilian casualties that are Hamas's fault. When you put rockets on
top of children, when
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you tell the children ``do not leave,'' when you know the rockets are
going to be taken out--it is Hamas, the terrorists who are responsible
for those children's deaths. Yet the international community puts the
pictures on the evening news and blames the nation of Israel.
I am proud this week to have joined my colleague, Senator Gillibrand
from New York, in filing a bipartisan resolution in this body
condemning Hamas's use of human shields, condemning it as a war crime,
condemning it as an outrage, condemning it as the direct reason we are
seeing so many civilian deaths.
I have to note that one of the reasons civilian deaths have been
mitigated in Israel is because of the incredible success of the Iron
Dome missile defense system. Ronald Reagan's ``Star Wars'' is today's
Iron Dome.
We see unfolding in recent weeks in Israel the product of President
Reagan's vision when he proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, or
SDI, on March 23, 1983. Critics at the time dismissed it as ``Star
Wars.'' The Presiding Officer will recall--we were both teenagers at
the time, and we recall learned experts, so to speak, going on
television saying SDI was a fool's errand; it was a dream. The analogy
that was given was you cannot hit a bullet with a bullet; it can't
work. Well, run the clock forward three decades, and we see an Iron
Dome, the strategic vision of President Reagan, playing out in real-
time.
There is a wonderful video on YouTube that I encourage anyone who is
interested to Google and watch. It is a video called ``Iron Dome
Wedding.'' If people Google it, they will discover a video from a
wedding in southern Israel. It is an ordinary wedding video, just like
I suspect the Presiding Officer and I both had from our weddings. But
in the midst of it, rockets begin coming through the night sky. We see
rockets come across the sky, and then we see Iron Dome interceptors
come up and explode the rockets. One after the other is hit and
explodes, and the whole thing looks like fireworks. In the background
we hear the wedding music and the sound of celebrating, and we think,
were it not for these Iron Dome interceptors, those missiles might be
landing on that wedding and causing carnage and death and destruction.
But because of the potential, the power, the actuality of missile
defense, instead they are intercepted.
There are indisputable differences between the intercontinental
ballistic missiles that SDI was designed to target and the low-tech
missiles Hamas is firing over Israel that Iron Dome is intercepting.
That is why Iron Dome is one part of a three-tiered system that
includes David's Sling and the Arrow 2 and 3 systems, which are
designed to guard against more sophisticated weapons, such as the
longer range missiles being provided to Hamas by Syria and Iran, and
they would also defend against nuclear ballistic missiles of the sort
being developed in Iran.
It is worth underscoring, even as the fighting in Gaza grabs the
headlines, that we have to keep our eye on the far more serious danger
of a nuclear Iran. The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran would make Hamas
and their rockets seem like child's play. And our support for Iron Dome
should be understood in the context of support for the continued
development of these systems, which not only protect our friend and
ally Israel, but they protect us. There is a reason why Hamas and Iran
refer to Israel as the ``Little Satan'' and the United States as the
``Great Satan,'' because their intention with both is the same terror,
the same murder, the same death and destruction.
Israel is currently working to carry out the grinding work to
eradicate these terror tunnels that have been built under schools and
kindergartens designed to kidnap and murder young children. I would
note that it is an enormously difficult task, one that might prove
impossible were it not for the success of Iron Dome limiting the
effectiveness of those rockets.
I encourage this body to stand together, united as one, Republicans
and Democrats. There may be issues on which we disagree--there may be a
great many issues--but we ought to be able to stand together as one and
speak in unison that we support the nation of Israel and that we will
work with the nation of Israel immediately to replenish their Iron Dome
supply so they can protect the citizens there and so they can do what
is necessary to eradicate the Hamas rockets and terror tunnels being
used to commit war crimes. There should be a unified, bipartisan voice
in this body, and it is my hope that by the end of this week that is
exactly what it will be.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. What is the parliamentary situation?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in a period of morning business.
Ms. MIKULSKI. May I proceed or does the other party wish to--how much
time is remaining on our side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority has 3 minutes remaining, the
majority has 47 minutes remaining.
Ms. MIKULSKI. With the concurrence of the minority party, I wish to
proceed. I know they haven't yielded back their time. If that is
agreeable, and hearing no objection, I will proceed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today as the chair of the
Appropriations Committee to talk about several challenges facing our
country.
First, I wish to respond to the comments made by many of the Senators
this morning on the compelling need to pass supplemental appropriations
to help Israel replenish the rockets it has used in its Iron Dome
missile defense system. I am an unabashed, unrelenting supporter of
that effort.
For many years, as a U.S. Senator on the Appropriations Committee, on
the Defense Subcommittee, as well as as a member of the Intelligence
Committee, I know how important the Israeli missile defense system is,
including Iron Dome, David's Sling, and others that are absolutely
crucial. I worked hands-on with Senator Inouye--the late great Senator,
a Congressional Medal of Honor winner--to make sure we funded the
missile defense system for Israel and to work on a bipartisan basis
with Senator Stevens and Senator Cochran. We worked together, and thank
God it worked. We also implemented an agreement signed by President
Bush with the Government of Israel that we would always help Israel
maintain its qualitative edge. We have done it, and I am proud of it.
Now more than ever an antimissile defense system that has worked
needs to continue operation. We know the technology works, but they
need to make sure they have the tools to make the technology work--
these additional rockets.
We know Israel is under attack. It has always been under attack since
its very founding. This is not an existential threat; this is not an
abstract threat; it is a daily threat. We know Israel is trying to
defend itself against the grim, unrelenting attacks by Hamas--a self-
avowed terrorist organization that has sworn in its documents not to
allow Israel to continue. They absolutely oppose an independent Israeli
State.
This month we are commemorating the Warsaw uprising. The Presiding
Officer is a member of a group we affectionately call the Polish
Caucus--those of us who have a relationship with the Polish Government,
one of our greatest supporters in the NATO alliance. We recall that 70
years ago people were willing to fight back against the Nazis, rising
out of the sewers of the Warsaw ghetto to be able to fight them off
with sticks and stones and out-of-date weapons, working to liberate
Poland from Nazis oppression.
Miles away, in places such as Dachau, Auschwitz, and others, there
were the death camps. We are 1 year away from commemorating the
liberation of the death camps. We know that as those people marched out
of those death camps, they made their way into Palestine, which became
the State of Israel.
We were the first Nation to recognize the necessary and rightful
place for Israel to exist as an independent government and forever and
a day the homeland for the Jewish people so they would be safe from
terrorism and what occurred.
I am for this whole Iron Dome supplemental, and we need to do it, but
it cannot be the only thing we put in this supplemental. We have
neighbors right now hurting in our own country--our
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Western States with wildfires raging over hundreds of thousands of
acres, land being depleted, local resources for first responders being
exhausted, local funds being worn down. We have to--we have to--be able
to respond to the Western border.
Then there is the crisis at our border, and the crisis is at our
border because of the crisis in Central America.
So when we move on the supplemental, let's look out for the great
State of Israel, let's look out for our neighbors who are facing
wildfires, and let's look out for what is going on at our border.
But, Mr. President, I came to the floor, first of all, to compliment
Senator Sanders for the outstanding job he did working on a bipartisan
basis to pass the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of
2014. What a great job they did, out of a scandal--a terrible scandal--
affecting our Nation's veterans, where they had to stand in line simply
to see a doctor in the very country they fought to defend.
Now they have found they have had to defend themselves against VA
bureaucracy and in some places duplicitous action.
Well, the Sanders bill goes a long way, again, working on both sides
of the aisle and both sides of the dome. Gosh, when we do this, this is
why I wanted to be a Senator. I know this is why many others wanted to
be a Senator: coming here, working on concrete problems, shoulder to
shoulder, on a bipartisan basis, hands across the aisle, hands across
the dome. And they did it. When this bill is passed, we will reduce the
long wait times for veterans, we will increase doctors and nurses and
specialty providers. It will allow veterans to see local providers if
they have been on a wait list for an extended period of time or have to
drive 40 miles to be able to get to a VA clinic.
Boy, do I know that when I look at some of the rural areas.
We are going to pay for it with $10 billion in mandatory emergency
funds. Mandatory emergency funds, that is the way to do it.
The Sanders bill will go a long way in increasing personnel and also
in expanding a number of clinics--27 new clinics. So I think it is
great.
But as important as that bill is--and it is an important step--it
cannot be the only step we take this week. I am so excited that
shoulder to shoulder, again, if we work together, we can do a trifecta
for our veterans. We can pass the Veterans Access, Choice, and
Accountability Act--new opportunities for health care, where veterans
do not have to stand in line. Also, we are going to vote today on
Robert McDonald to give the VA a new Secretary, a new CEO, new
leadership, hopefully new energy, new vitality, and new ways of doing
business, bringing the practical know-how of the private sector to
meeting our mission. But as important as those two are, I also come as
the chair of the Appropriations Committee to say, why don't we take a
third step that really will do the job? Let's pass the VA MILCON
appropriations bill so we can actually put next year's funding in the
Federal checkbook rather than just putting VA on autopilot? We can
actually make a big difference with the new accountability, expansion
of care bill, but that will take days, weeks, months to put in
operation. Right this minute we could pass the VA MILCON bill as well
as giving new leadership.
I come here because I really do want to move the VA MILCON bill.
The Appropriations Committee works through its subcommittees. And,
wow, I have two great leaders on the VA MILCON Subcommittee, the
chairman and ranking member, two outstanding Senators: Senator Tim
Johnson of South Dakota and Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois. They have
worked so assiduously on coming up with a bill for funding our veterans
for fiscal year 2015. It is an outstanding bill. But right now we are
out there in the wilderness. We have moved it through the subcommittee.
We have moved it through the full committee. It passed unanimously. We
are out in the ethers waiting to come to the floor. Johnson and Kirk,
Mikulski and Shelby, we are like people with our noses pressed against
the glass. We see it within our grasp but we cannot get through. All we
want to do is help to complete the job we are trying to undertake
today.
As much as the bill will be that Senator Sanders worked on, without
the VA MILCON appropriations bill, the veterans will lack key tools to
expand care, important support personnel that allows the doctors and
nurses to do their job, important technology to run contemporary
institutions. By the way, the bill we are going to be working on, the
Sanders bill, is focused on health care, but we on the Appropriations
Committee dealt not only with aspects of that but also the terrible
backlog on veterans disability.
Mr. President, veterans disability--not only do you have to stand in
line to get health care, but you are standing days, weeks, months to
get your disability claim. You have lost an arm or a leg or you cannot
breathe or you have PTSD and we cannot get your disability processed.
This is unacceptable. What we do in the VA bill is come up with the
funds to really modernize the VA.
First of all, just in terms of health care, to complement the Sanders
bill, we have money in there to develop state-of-the-art technology so
the doctors can provide medical health care, to make sure we have the
modern equipment and the modern IT systems.
Right now, we need to be able to have DOD talking to the VA because
veterans come from DOD. But we have an interoperable system. We work to
fix this. We also deal with this backlog. You have no idea, Mr.
President. My State of Maryland and my office in Baltimore have not had
a good track record. I vowed to my veterans that I would try to break
that backlog. And you know what. Working together we have been able to
do this.
In the fiscal year 2015 bill, we fund an appeals process, we train
additional claims processors, we require the management at the Veterans
Benefit Administration to deal with the backlog, working with the new
Administrator. We have not only great ideas, but we actually put the
money in the Federal checkbook. Johnson-Kirk did it. Do you know how
they did it? Yes, talking to the VA, reviewing tons of GAO and
inspector general reports, and guess what else they did. They talked to
the veterans. They talked to these wonderful volunteer service
organizations.
So I am going to propose something later on today or later on this
week. I do not want to be the chair of a committee who has her face
pressed up against the glass looking longingly at the Senate floor with
a bill I know will help the Veterans' Administration with the heavy
lifting to deal with the health care and disability backlog. Because I
believe in no surprises and no stunts, later on today or later on this
week, I will ask unanimous consent to bring up the VA MILCON on third
reading to be able to compliment what we are doing here today. I want
to be able to do that and I hope no Senator will object to it.
Now, just again, in the spirit of full disclosure--because I truly
have pledged to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle I would never
be a surprise chair and I would never be one to pull gimmicks or
stunts--I am going to ask that consent. I want people to know about it
so they can discuss it, chew on it, talk at their respective luncheons.
When I ask unanimous consent, I am going to ask that it be brought up
on third reading. Why am I doing that? Because under the rules of the
Senate, if you bring up a bill on third reading, there are no
amendments. So the question would be: Senator Mikulski, are you trying
to stiff-arm again? No. I am trying to get the job done. I am not
trying to stiff-arm the opportunity to offer amendments. But we have 72
hours left before we take this really long break--really long, long,
long, very long--did I say ``long''--break. I do not think, when you
need health care for veterans, when you need to modernize technology,
when you need to crack the backlog--while we are kind of basking in the
Sun somewhere--I do not want them in line.
So either this afternoon or sometime tomorrow, I will ask unanimous
consent. I will turn to my 99 colleagues, and in the spirit of really
meeting compelling needs of our veterans, I will ask that bill come up
so that as we move through the other two aspects that we are going to
do to help veterans, we can do the VA MILCON bill.
So I wanted to come to the floor today to talk about how we support a
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treasured ally, how we look out for our neighbors in the West fighting
our wildfires, and how we deal with the crisis in Central America,
where children are being victimized and brutalized every day so they
are making the long march across that terrain and territory to come to
the United States of America.
So I hope in the short time the Senate is going to be in session this
week and this month and even this year we could use this week to meet
the needs that are confronting us, but, most of all, I would hope we do
not just do part of the job for our veterans; we do this trifecta that
I am recommending: passing the Veterans Accountability Act, the health
care act; give us a new CEO; and have a chance to pass the VA MILCON
bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to associate myself with the
remarks of the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, my
chairwoman, Senator Mikulski.
I would add perhaps one particular point; that is, this Senator will
be basking in the Sun in Illinois during the recess, and I invite the
Senator from Maryland to come join us any time she would like to. But
it will not be in ordinary vacation climes; it will be in my home
State. I am sure the Senator is going to be spending a lot of time in
hers as well.
Ms. MIKULSKI. If I could respond to the Senator from Illinois, yes, I
am staying in Maryland because I had hoped we would even be working on
conference reports and so on. But while the Senator is in Illinois and
I am in Maryland, most of all, we do not want our veterans standing in
line for their health care or their disability benefits. So shoulder to
shoulder, forward together.
Mr. DURBIN. I thank Senator Mikulski.
Mr. President, this supplemental appropriations bill is important. It
is timely. One of the provisions in it is an additional $225 million
for the Iron Dome defense. The Iron Dome defense is a joint effort by
the United States and Israel to protect Israel from rocket attacks.
Imagine you are living in your hometown and a neighboring State or
neighboring town just fired 2,000 rockets into your hometown. These are
not Fourth of July rockets; these are deadly rockets that kill. You
want some protection. The Iron Dome provides protection for Israel.
This joint effort by the United States and Israel has been
successful. Despite 2,000 rocket attacks, the casualties on the Israeli
side have been minimal, relatively minimal, and it is because of the
Iron Dome defense.
What attacks does Israel face today? Well, they face Hamas attacks
from Gaza. Hamas is an organization which the United States
characterized as a terrorist organization almost 20 years ago. We know
Hamas. We know their tactics. What they are doing is putting rocket
launchers in civilian neighborhoods near hospitals and apartments and
homes, and they are launching these missile attacks on Israel and
daring them to fire back into civilian populations.
Iron Dome protects the Israeli population from the missiles being
shot by Hamas in Gaza. Now the Israelis have invaded Gaza to go to the
source to stop these rocket attacks.
Sadly, during the course of this effort in Gaza, there have been
casualties--some on the Israeli side, of course; but hundreds, maybe a
thousand on the side of the civilian population in Gaza. This is
because the strategy of Hamas is to put their armaments smack-dab in
the middle of civilian populations. As has been said, in Israel, they
use weapons to protect civilians; and in Gaza, they are using civilians
to protect weapons. That has to come to an end. We have to have an end
to the hostilities between Gaza and Israel. No nation--no nation on
Earth--would sit still for 2,000 rocket attacks into their population.
That is what Israel has faced over the past several weeks. But the
people of Gaza also need much better than they are receiving when it
comes to Hamas.
Hamas, sadly, is engaging in tactics using human shields at the
expense of the civilian population. When they are told about the
civilians that are dying in Gaza, leaders in Hamas say: Well, they are
martyrs for the cause. I will have to tell you, it would be very
difficult for me to understand and explain to a family that has lost a
child they love that their child has just become a martyr.
This has to come to an end. The hostilities between Gaza and Israel
have to end, I hope, in some negotiation and peaceful resolution. Maybe
it is wishful thinking, but I do believe we need to make the effort. I
commend Secretary of State Kerry for his effort at trying to engage
Egypt and others in this conversation.
The supplemental bill before us today provides more money for
interceptor missiles for Iron Dome--to protect Israel--money requested
by our Secretary of Defense, money which I support. As chairman of the
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, we added some $350 million for
Iron Dome defenses in the next fiscal year which begins October 1. This
money is needed now because of the hostilities between these two
countries. I certainly support it.
A second part, the major part of this supplemental appropriation,
deals with the humanitarian refugee crisis we have on our border. It is
not often the United States faces a refugee crisis. Think back in
history. The only refugees who come to our shores are usually from
nearby countries: Haiti, Cuba. Occasionally, we have refugees coming
such as after the Vietnam War, the Hmong people who were our allies in
that war.
But we are not like most countries in the Middle East, for example,
that have a steady stream of refugees. The United States does not
engage in refugee crisis alleviation because of our location and
geography and our history. Seldom have we been challenged. But today we
are challenged. We are challenged because in the first 6 months of the
year 57,000 unaccompanied children--children--presented themselves at
the border with Mexico. They were not trying to sneak in. They
literally walked across the border and presented themselves to the
first person in uniform.
They were told to do that by their families. Why did they make the
trip to the border as kids--by themselves--to present themselves?
Because in three countries in Central America there is a state of
lawlessness: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. Eighty percent of the
children who have come to the border came from those three countries.
They are not just coming to the United States, incidentally. There has
been a 700-percent increase in refugees to adjoining Central American
countries from those three countries.
This has been going on for some time. But for the past 2 or 3 years,
it has gone from bad to dramatically worse. We met last week with the
Ambassadors from these three countries, and we talked about what
created this. A lot of it has to do with the drug gangs--drug gangs
that are transporting drugs through those countries for sale largely in
the United States. These drug gangs have become powerful and rich, well
armed and notorious for their barbaric tactics.
They recruit young people into their drug gangs at the point of a
gun. They mutilate those who even hesitate to join the drug gangs. God
forbid it is your daughter, because they have a reputation for raping
young girls. If they are not satisfied with their response, they kill
them on the spot and leave them in plastic bags by the highway. That is
why many families are sending their kids away from this deadly
violence.
Two weeks ago I went to a shelter in Chicago. This was a transitional
shelter where 70 children from the border are being held until they can
be placed with their families in the United States or with some
trusting family that takes up foster care. I saw these kids firsthand.
Your image of them may be different than what you actually see.
My wife said to me: Well, why do they not show pictures of these
kids? Well, they try to protect their identity and confidentiality by
not showing photos. But if you could see them, you would see children
of all ages. There were five women who walked into the dining hall at
this transitional shelter.
They did not seem to me to be 14 years of age. Each one was carrying
a baby. They were the victims of rape in Honduras. They were carrying
these newborn infants in their arms, as they
[[Page S5014]]
had done during the 8-day bus journey to get to the border. I asked
some of the staff at this transitional shelter--I had been told that
many of the families, before they send their young girls on this
dangerous and sometimes deadly journey, give the girls birth control
pills because they anticipate they will be attacked during the course
of this journey. They said: It is true.
What desperation would you have to reach before you turned your
daughter loose under those circumstances? These families are literally
trying to escape a burning home and sending their kids to the only safe
and secure place they can think of.
What do we need to do? First, we need to get to these countries and
tell them: Stop. Stop these deadly journeys, these journeys which,
sadly, lead to harm and even death for some of these children. Do not
let this happen any more. We have to work with the governments of those
countries to make it clear this is the wrong thing to do. It is wrong
because once these kids get into America, they are not entitled to
stay. They are not entitled to be citizens, unless, perhaps, they
qualify for asylum. They are going to be sent back.
After they are sent back to these countries, if they ever try to
reenter the United States they can be found guilty of a felony. This is
serious. So the notion that they can just come to America and stay here
if they wish is not true. That is the first thing we need to do.
The second thing we need to do is to stop the smuggling and the
coyotes that are bringing these kids into the United States. They are
charging these poor families in Central America thousands of dollars
they do not have to bring these kids to the border. We have to work
with Mexico to hold these coyotes and smugglers accountable.
Third, I want to tell you, I think this really is key to our
discussion. This is a test of who we are as a country. How many times
in our history has the United States rallied for families and children
around the world?
Do you remember just a month or two ago in Nigeria when 300 girls
were kidnapped by Islamic extremists? Members of the Senate from both
parties came to the floor to protest outrage that 300 young teenage
girls would be kidnapped by these extremists. We engaged at every level
to let the world know America cared. It was not the first time. There
is a long history of it. We have stood for families and children around
the world for humanitarian purposes throughout our history. Look back
to the refuseniks, the Russian Jews who were being discriminated
against in the Soviet Union. The United States was one of the leading
nations in the world to stand behind those families and those children,
bringing them to the United States so that they could escape
antisemitism and Communism.
When you look at the victims of the Haitian earthquake, the United
States was providing foreign aid to those families and children because
we are, in fact, a caring nation. That is who we are. Throughout our
history we have shown it. We need to show it again with these children.
Some extreme American politicians have said: It is not our problem. Put
them on a bus. Put them on a plane and dump them back wherever they
came from--not our problem.
God forbid that is the verdict of history, that the United States,
when it saw vulnerable, helpless children, did not care. I think more
highly of this country. I think we have proven over and over that we do
care. There have been some extraordinary statements made about this
crisis by many people. The one that caught my eye was from a friend who
happens to be the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Deval
Patrick was born in Chicago. Maybe that is why I am partial to him. But
Deval Patrick spoke about Massachusetts and its feelings toward these
children.
He recalled moments of history. Here is what he said: My inclination
is to remember what happened when a ship full of Jewish children tried
to come to the United States in 1939 and the United States turned them
away. Many of them went back to their deaths in Nazi concentration
camps.
He went on to say:
I think we are a bigger hearted people than that as
Americans.
I agree with Governor Patrick. President Obama has asked for
resources to care for these children, to place them, to give them the
right of seeking asylum if they can make that established legal claim
and, if not, to return them, humanely, to the countries they came from.
Two of the three Ambassadors we met with, incidentally, said they could
not guarantee the safety of those children in Honduras or El Salvador,
if they came back. Let's do the right thing and pass this supplemental
appropriation. Let's provide the resources so these children are
treated humanely, ultimately given their hearing, ultimately returned,
in most cases, to the country they came from.
How will history judge us? How will we be judged if, when these
refugee children came to our border, they were turned away and sent
back to harm, violence or even death?
We do not want that to happen. That is not who we are as Americans.
We care. We show it. Our government should show it as well. The Senate
will get an opportunity to do that very soon--we hope maybe this day or
this week--as we wind down the session.
The last point I want to make is a tribute to two of my colleagues
who have done an extraordinary job when it comes to the Veterans'
Administration. I am referring to John McCain, my friend who came to
Congress with me many years ago, the former Republican candidate for
President and a conservative from Arizona. He teamed up with--of all
people--Bernie Sanders of Vermont, self-styled independent socialist
Democrat. How about that? Sanders and McCain sat down to solve the
challenge facing the VA. God bless them. They did it. They are
reporting a bill to us which is a dramatic improvement over the current
VA system.
We are now overwhelmed with the Veterans' Administration disability
claims. Forty-five percent of the veterans coming home from Iraq and
Afghanistan have filed a claim. We have tens of thousands of these
claims pending, many of them for post-traumatic stress disorder.
We have said, incidentally, that we are going to help all veterans.
Some 400,000 veterans from other wars are making PTSD claims. In
addition, we have those who served in Vietnam, exposed to Agent Orange
and with nine different diseases being treated. We have those who were
victims of Gulf War Syndrome being treated. We have homeless veterans
who are now being brought in and counseled so they can get their lives
back on track. It is an overwhelming responsibility which the VA has
today.
The Sanders-McCain veterans bill is going to address them by
providing more resources for our veterans and more medical
professionals, which we need. Remember--we all should every single
day--that we said to the men and women who enlisted in our military and
who volunteered: If you will raise your hand, swear allegiance to this
country and risk your life, we will stand by you when you come home.
We are going to keep our word. We promised. We are going to keep our
word. This bill--this veterans bill that is going to come before us
this week--does exactly that. Sanders and McCain met with the House
conferees and worked out an agreement--an agreement which is going to
benefit the Hines VA in Chicago with an additional facility which they
need. There is an amendment which is going to help facilities all
across this country serving our veterans--an amendment which says: If
you happen to live too far away from a veterans hospital, we are going
to find a way to make sure you get timely care that is near your home.
I think it is the least we can do. We owe it to our vets.
I tip my hat to my colleagues, Republican and Democrat alike, who put
this together. I am looking forward to voting for it this week.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I agree with my distinguished colleague,
the senior Senator from Illinois. I think Senator Sanders and Senator
McCain showed that things can get done around here. I think of the
tremendous work the Senator from Illinois did last year and helped us
get an immigration bill through this body. We had a large majority of
the Senate vote for it--Republicans and Democrats alike.
[[Page S5015]]
How I wish the leadership in the House had allowed them to vote on
it. I think we would be in a far better position to deal with these
problems with the DREAMers and with those seeking to come into our
country. I applaud the Senator from Illinois for never giving up.
Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator from Vermont would yield for just one
moment. I want to thank him personally. As chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, he has made a point of making sure the DREAM Act,
a bill which I introduced 13 years ago, has had a fair hearing before
the committee on more than one occasion and has been reported by the
committee. It was part of that comprehensive immigration bill. I thank
him for bringing it up.
I just want to say for the record that one Republican Senator has
said he wants to deport all of the DREAMers. He is in for a fight
because these young men and women are proving over and over they can
make a valuable contribution to this country. I thank the Senator from
Vermont.
(The remarks of Mr. Leahy pertaining to the introduction of S. 2658
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills
and Joint Resolutions.'')
Mr. FRANKEN. I yield the floor.
____________________