[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 130 (Thursday, September 11, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5524-S5530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 2199, 
which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 345, S. 2199, a bill to 
     amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more 
     effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the 
     payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Mississippi.


                            Remembering 9/11

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I wish to make some comments about the 
remarks of our distinguished leader and to join him in calling on 
Senators to remember this day and historical experience of 9/11 and to 
commit this body to our best efforts to help ensure our political 
institutions and our country remain free and safe for all Americans to 
continue to enjoy the blessings of liberty, the opportunities of an 
economic system that is the envy of the world, and to commit ourselves 
to a new sense of responsibility as representatives of our States, to 
help ensure this is a reality and not just a hope.
  We appreciate the remarks of the leader on this important occasion 
and ask all Senators to express their views as may be appropriate.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority leader is recognized.


                              9/11 Tribute

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday I joined Congressional 
leaders in awarding three Congressional Gold Medals to the memory of 
thousands of men and women who perished so tragically on this very day 
13 years ago. Every American that morning bore witness to the terrible 
tragedy and suffering. But that was not all we witnessed. We also saw 
incredible acts of bravery and compassion and heroism. We saw it in a 
great city. We saw it on the edge of the Capitol. We heard about it 
high above the clouds. The sacrifices of those heroes of 9/11 inspired 
us then and they inspire us now. The memory of every man and woman who 
perished so tragically that day continues to serve as a unifying force 
for our Nation. We will never stop honoring them.


                                  ISIL

  Mr. President, the American people have a lot on their minds these 
days. Among their greatest concerns is the threat of ISIL, the brutal 
terror group that recently beheaded two American journalists. ISIL is 
growing stronger by the day and it is lethal. Every day we wait to 
confront them is a day they grow more deadly. I and others have called 
on the President to provide us with a comprehensive plan to defeat this 
menace. Last night, he described to the Nation what our military, 
intelligence, and diplomatic corps are doing to confront this threat, 
and outlined ways he will expand on existing operations.
  Over the next week, following a series of briefings, Congress will 
work with the administration to ensure that our forces have the 
resources they need to carry out these missions. Specifically, the 
President set forth a near-

[[Page S5525]]

term concept of operations to enhance the defense of Baghdad and 
Kurdistan, a midterm plan for retaking Anbar Province and Mosul from 
ISIL, and a long-term plan to contain ISIL within Syria.
  The defense of Baghdad will require an air campaign to strike ISIL 
and target them within Iraq and extending into Syria. The midterm plan 
requires a new train-and-equip program and an increased scale to return 
the Iraqi security forces to the fight at a higher degree of combat 
readiness.
  The President also envisions an effort to regain the trust and 
cooperation of the Sunni tribes through a new territorial or national 
guard, the same tribes and friends we abandoned when we completely 
withdrew from Iraq. The President's long-term plan, which is now clear, 
will be a responsibility left to the next administration, will be an 
effort to field a viable indigenous ground combat component to defeat 
ISIL within Syria.
  Today, the President's staff will begin briefing the Senate on what 
will be required of our Armed Forces and intelligence community to 
effectuate this indefinite campaign, which we now know will include a 
multiyear air war of attrition. My expectation is that the 
administration will explain how best to build a moderate Syrian 
opposition capable of defeating ISIL. I am hoping the Congress will 
consider what this new multiyear campaign will mean for the overall 
defense program, the need to modernize our military, to retain 
dominance of the air and sea in the Asia Pacific theatre, to revitalize 
NATO in the face of Russian aggression, and how to field additional 
force structure and combat power into the U.S. Pacific Command now that 
Europe and Central Command require additional tactical units and 
capabilities. Our Nation must also rebuild a nuclear triad.
  That said, I am glad the President has brought a new focus to the 
effort against ISIL. He needs to take this responsibility head on. This 
Congress, the next Congress, and the next administration have serious 
work ahead as we consider this multiyear commitment and what it will 
take to defeat ISIL.


                           Legislative Agenda

  One more point. Given the urgency of this situation, I have to say it 
is a little disconcerting to see the Democrat-led Senate focusing on 
things such as reducing free speech protections from the American 
people. At a time when the rest of the country is worried about the 
threat of ISIL, at a time when millions wonder how they are ever going 
to find a job in this awful economy, at a time when we find out the 
crushing Federal regulations have gotten so out of control that they 
now cost the economy more than $2 trillion a year, this is what they 
choose to make their top legislative priority this week, taking 
an eraser to the First Amendment?

  Now they plan to devote almost all the remaining time between now and 
November to what Democrats like to call messaging bills. These are 
bills designed intentionally to fail so that Democrats can make 
campaign ads about them failing. Yesterday, Roll Call got hold of an 
email from a Democratic aide who let the truth slip without meaning to. 
His email said that Senate Democrats plan to either ``slam 
Republicans'' for blocking the latest designed-to-fail bill or slam 
Republicans for voting to go ahead and debate the bill. How cynical can 
that be? The email just confirmed what everybody already knew, that 
Senate Democrats have zero intention of passing the bill before us 
today. Passage of this bill would represent failure for them. All they 
want is fodder for campaign commercials. That is why they refuse to 
address the growing crisis at home and abroad. That is why they 
obstruct nearly every good bipartisan bill from the House of 
Representatives. They even bury bipartisan bills that would help create 
jobs and help struggling middle-class families.
  It is long past time for the Democrats to get serious. We were lucky 
to get serious things done for the Americans who sent us here. We need 
to let the Senate start doing that kind of thing. A good start would be 
to take up the dozens, literally dozens, of bipartisan jobs bills the 
House of Representatives has already sent us. Let's send those to the 
President's desk ASAP. Let's help make it easier to put the American 
people back to work.
  Let's take up other commonsense legislation, such as a bipartisan 
bill that just passed the House on Tuesday with the votes of dozens of 
Democrats. The bill, which is similar to legislation I have 
cosponsored, would stop the administration from implementing a so-
called ``waters of the U.S.'' proposal that would allow it to regulate 
and fine almost every pothole and ditch in the country.
  Passing this bill is critical to protecting the property rights of 
every American, especially farmers. One Kentucky farmer from Shelby 
County wrote me the other day to explain how the administration's 
heavyhanded regulation would affect him. He lamented that ``The White 
House clearly wants me to spend more time figuring out additional 
permitting requirements and less time growing food for American 
families.''
  Let's work together to fix this problem along with the many other 
serious challenges facing our country. Let's address the threat of ISIL 
together. Let's pass serious jobs bills together. Let's take Senate 
Democrats' focus off saving the jobs of Democratic politicians and 
start focusing on the needs of the American people instead.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Missouri.


                              9/11 Tribute

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, today marks 13 years since the terrorist 
attacks of September 11, 2001. At that moment, I do not think Americans 
would have been surprised that we would still be dealing with that 13 
years later. But in the 13 years that have passed, there have been 
moments when we wanted to hope this had passed from us, that somehow it 
was no longer a danger. But it is a danger today as it was a danger 
then.
  We clearly should not forget those who lost their lives on 9/11. We 
continue and should continue to be grateful to our men and women in 
uniform. I appreciate the service the Presiding Officer provided to the 
country wearing that uniform. Intelligence professionals out there are 
doing what they are supposed to do. The first responder community is 
working diligently to be ready to respond in ways that keep us safe.
  I remember well, as others do, one of the things we learned on 9/11 
was that those first responders were not properly linked in a way that 
allowed them to communicate with each other as they generally now are 
able to. The response they had was probably adequate in Washington and 
New York, might not have been adequate in terms of capability in some 
other place. But even in Washington and New York, we found the firemen 
could not talk to the policemen and the policemen could not talk to 
other first responders. We have done a lot to try to close that gap in 
a way that further protects those who protect us.
  As the President acknowledged in his speech to the country last 
night, there is no doubt that our Nation and freedom-seeking people 
everywhere still face a real threat from terrorist groups and from 
enemies who wish to do us harm, who cannot tolerate our ability to live 
together in a society where everybody does not have to be the same way, 
and everybody does not have to believe the same thing.
  We are reminded on this date that just 2 years ago four Americans 
were killed during a terrorist attack on the American consulate in 
Benghazi. There is a new book out, ``13 Hours,'' that provides some 
additional firsthand accounts of what happened there.
  It has also been surprising to me that we had that information 
available to us from the people who were there, and whether it was at 
the end of the first week or the end of the first year, we still had 
not heard much of that.
  We are beginning to hear that in a way that once again clarifies that 
that was a planned attack in the ongoing efforts to destabilize the 
world and move it toward some extremist view of the way people need to 
conduct themselves. We have seen what has happened with ISIS, sometimes 
referred to as ISIL. Whatever they are referred to as, they have 
managed to get themselves in a more powerful position than any 
terrorist group ever, a true terrorist army with natural resources that 
produces income, with looting of banks and financial institutions that 
produce income, and maybe the most terrifying, with the people from our 
country fighting alongside them.

[[Page S5526]]

  They have American passports and can return here. People in probably 
much higher numbers from European countries are fighting alongside 
these extremists and have access in ways they never had because they 
would be the homegrown terrorists--the terrorists who would have access 
to us in different ways that we have always been most concerned about.
  These terrorists are clearly not a manageable problem. The President 
must show it, and he gave real commitment last night to the 
understanding that this is a group that cannot be allowed to continue 
to exist. This is a group that we have to destroy--their capacity, 
their ability to attack us and to impact our way of life.
  I am hopeful that the President's resolve and his strategy will 
actually be sufficient in both cases to meet what was his stated 
commitment to destroy this extremist group.
  As a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, the Armed 
Services Committee, and the Appropriations Committee, I am going to do 
everything I can to be sure those who serve us, our first responders 
who protect America, have the resources they need.
  On this day we should remember--and on every day we should remember--
the innocent victims, the first responders, and the families who lost 
so much on 9/11.
  We also need to remember that it is the strength of our society that 
is what puts the biggest target on us. It is the ability of Americans 
to live together, the ability of Americans to respect other points of 
view, the ability of Americans to share those points of view with each 
other--understanding we could do that in a free society that puts that 
big target on the United States of America.
  We are not a target of these extremist groups because of what we have 
done to them. We are a target of these extremist groups because of what 
we stand for. May we continue to stand and stand strong. We should 
always remember the price to be paid by individuals and families if 
terrorism is able to achieve its objectives, which is to scare us away 
from standing for freedom and standing for the kind of society in which 
we live. That is one of the things that certainly 9/11 every year 
brings back into focus as perhaps no other date does.


                              Health Care

  I, as I am sure the Presiding Officer and others did, spent most of 
August and the early days September at home.
  I continue to hear from Missourians about their concerns about the 
impact of the direction we are headed with health care. We are now at 
the 1-year anniversary at the end of this month of the launch of the 
exchanges last October 1.
  The unpopularity of where we are headed continues to grow. Just 35 
percent of the people who were polled by the monthly poll of the Kaiser 
Foundation released on Tuesday were supportive of the Affordable Care 
Act.
  How could it possibly be that we are at year-end of this discussion 
and only have that level of support? Maybe it is not so surprising. 
Premium costs continue to go up. PricewaterhouseCoopers finds the 
average insurance premium for health care is going to rise by 8 percent 
this year. The President's goal was for families to be paying--in fact, 
his promised goal--$2,500 less. Instead of that, it seems they are 
paying $3,000 more. That is a very substantial missing of the mark; so 
no wonder they are concerned.
  Healthcare.gov was supposed to have undergone many repairs but we 
learned just last week that at some point--and it is my understanding 
they are not exactly sure how much or when--there was a major breach 
into that system to find out information that people had put there. 
People trying to verify their personal information so they could 
continue to have the coverage they have is a challenge. People are 
trying to submit all kinds of documents--citizenship, immigration 
documents--in order to be able to keep their health care. Apparently it 
would be a huge imposition to prove who you are to vote but not a huge 
imposition to have to prove who you are to have government-assisted 
health care.

  A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report offers the 
latest proof that there are problems by saying the combined effects of 
the affordable health care coverage expansion, faster economic growth, 
and an aging population are expected to fuel health spending growth 
this year and thereafter to where we are going to see 6 percent per 
year, according to the administration, from 2015 to 2023.
  This is one of the things that happens when the government believes 
it can do things that people rightly--we need to find better ways for 
people to have more choices--do for themselves. Hopefully this 
discussion will continue in a way that solves these problems, creates 
more choices for people, more opportunities for them to have people to 
have the insurance they want, the coverage they want, and what they 
believe their family needs and can afford.
  I hope we can get back to having that debate on a clear problem for 
millions of families in America today as opposed to having the debate 
we are having this week, which is, again, to do things that our friends 
in the majority know can't possibly happen.
  We are here without a budget, without a single appropriations bill 
being passed, and without dealing with the problems the country knows 
we should deal with. We are again going to spend the last 2 weeks we 
are here before the election voting day after day on things that can't 
happen. The one thing we will have to do is one more stopgap effort to 
keep the government funded after October 1, since we haven't done any 
of the other work to set our priorities and say what our government 
should be doing and what we can afford to do beginning October 1 of 
this year.
  It is a sad commentary on a Senate that is not working. I hope we all 
come back after the elections with a greater resolve to get back to the 
basics of how the Senate, the Congress, and the country are supposed to 
work.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The 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 ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                            Remembering 9/11

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we gather here today in this 
remarkable place--a symbol of freedom and democracy for the whole 
world--to remember the tragic, horrific, unspeakable attacks of 
September 11, 2001, and we remember the innocent lives that were lost, 
the people of many different ages who worked to help the injured, brave 
heroes who have fought terrorism and extremism around the globe in the 
years since 9/11, and, of course, the victims themselves, many of them 
from Connecticut. This day has special meaning in Connecticut because 
it affects so directly and sadly the loved ones and families of people 
who sacrificed their lives as a result of that unimaginably cruel and 
brutal terrorist act. We remember them with pride. We remember their 
grace, civility, humanity, dedication to the public good, and their 
love for their families.
  We have been striving since that terrible day to strengthen our 
Nation, to live proudly and unashamedly, consistently with our national 
values of peace, tolerance, and service. This effort requires 
commitment and sacrifice. It has required service at home and abroad 
from countless men and women who have served in uniform--our police, 
our firefighters, our first responders--believing that the best way we 
can honor the men and women who died on that day is to make America the 
best place it can possibly be. It is the greatest and strongest Nation 
in the history of the world, and it is so because people have always 
believed it can be made better, freer, stronger, braver. And that is 
what we have tried to do.
  Today in the Senate, in the Committee on the Judiciary, I was proud 
to cosponsor and vote for a measure that will give those victims and 
their families some additional justice. The Justice Against Sponsors of 
Terrorism Act will hold foreign sponsors of terrorism that target 
America accountable in U.S. courts.
  Obstacles have been raised in our Federal courts, obstacles on 
procedural grounds and technical issues, most recently in a Second 
Circuit case, In re Terrorist Attacks of September 11,

[[Page S5527]]

2001, which, in my view, misread Federal law to provide immunity to the 
Saudi Government and entities that claim to be associated with the 
Saudi Government against the 9/11 victims' claims alleging its support 
for those attacks.
  This new legislation will make clear that terrorism is unsupportable 
and must be held accountable in our U.S. courts. It will erase the 
immunity and the procedural obstacles that can be raised and make sure 
that sovereign immunity as a doctrine provides no safe harbor, no haven 
for terrorism when victims and their families seek to hold those 
terrorist sponsors as well as terrorist groups accountable for their 
horrific actions.
  That measure was passed with the tremendous leadership and support of 
its two main cosponsors, Senators Cornyn and Schumer. I thank them for 
their work, as well as our chairman, Senator Leahy, and ranking member, 
Senator Grassley, for their willingness to move this matter on 
September 11, and say to the victims and their loved ones: We will hold 
accountable the wrongdoers, and we will make sure the courts of the 
United States are places where justice is provided against terrorism.
  We can also make America a better place by giving more Americans a 
fair shot. A fair shot is what America promises to men and women who 
live here now and men and women who come here. A fair shot is part of 
our basic principled existence. The terrorists struck the World Trade 
Center and they hit the Pentagon, but they missed America. What makes 
America great is those principled values.
  As we gather today, we should say thank you to the brave men and 
women in uniform. The Acting President pro tempore is one of them, and 
I thank him. I thank my two sons who have served, one in the Marine 
Corps Reserve, deployed to Afghanistan, another now in the Navy. The 
fact is that the burden of this longest war in our history has been 
borne by less than 1 percent of our population. We owe all of them and 
their families our thanks, and we can best say thanks by giving them 
and all Americans a fair shot at the American dream.


                              A Fair Shot

  I have just returned from 5 weeks in Connecticut, where I had the 
opportunity to listen to concerns of my constituents. The people of 
Connecticut are proud of this country, but they are also concerned 
about the great disparities that exist. No one is looking for a free 
lunch. Nobody in Connecticut thinks there is a free lunch. But people 
believe in a fair shot and the chance to make a better life for 
themselves and their families. The present disparities are stark and 
dispiriting and daunting and, at the end of the day, unacceptable and 
deeply disturbing.

  Our country has made important strides toward recovering from the 
economic crisis of 2008, but we are far from done. We are still very 
much a work in progress economically and socially. Unfortunately, as 
the Federal Reserve noted just last week, economic burdens continue to 
fall hardest on Americans who can least afford them.
  The disparities in this country have a particularly severe effect on 
women. Today women make up 50 percent of college graduates, but in 
order to do so they take on an average $30,000 in debt, and they go on 
to work at places where they earn only 77 cents or 82 cents for every 
$1 paid to men.
  When women are treated fairly, we are all treated fairly. When women 
are treated unfairly, we all suffer. When college graduates struggle 
under crushing loads of debt, our whole economy suffers and we are all 
poorer. These problems affect real people. There are real, attainable 
solutions available to us all.
  I have participated in more than a dozen roundtables across the State 
of Connecticut, roundtables at colleges and universities where I have 
heard story after story from them--and also roundtables in high 
schools--about their struggles to stay on top of their debt. They 
understood, every one of them, that they were taking on a significant 
burden but not one that is insurmountable, not one that will cripple 
them financially for the rest of their lives.
  I heard from Gillon, an honorably discharged Army veteran who is now 
studying law. He wrote to me to say:

       Despite having done everything that society tells us while 
     growing up is the right thing to do, I'm still saddled with 
     over $132,000 in federal school loan debt. My total monthly 
     payments amount to nearly a third of my take-home salary each 
     month, with no end in sight.

  Dean, who has three children, earned a master's degree to try to move 
ahead in his career. A year after graduating, he is $55,000 in debt, 
and he is struggling to support his family even though he and his wife 
work four jobs between them--four jobs and he is struggling to make 
ends meet, to put a roof over his family's head.
  Along with my friend and colleague Senator Murphy, I met last week 
with Susan Herbst, the president of the University of Connecticut, and 
with a number of UConn students and recent graduates, on the campus. 
They shared with me how excited they are about the vast and limitless 
opportunities afforded them by this great university.
  I sensed the excitement while I was there of this great campus, 
making me envious for the time they are spending there in studying and 
exploring the tremendous reaches of human knowledge, both practical and 
theoretical, and yet the difficulty of how affording a college 
education has constrained and constricted the professional climate 
beyond that campus. As heady and glorious as the days on campus may be, 
there is an overhang of doubt and debt that restricts the reach of 
their lives. It restricts the reach of our economy because it 
constricts consumer demand, it restricts the reach of their ambitions 
to start businesses, and families to buy homes, and to move ahead with 
their lives. And that is a problem for all of us.
  There are ways for Congress to address this problem. We can pass the 
legislation I am pleased to cosponsor with Senator Warren of 
Massachusetts which would allow borrowers to refinance student loan 
debt. We can pass Senator Franken's legislation to ensure that debt 
obligations are explained in clear, comprehensible terms so students 
know what they are taking on. I am developing a proposal to improve the 
flexibility of loan forgiveness for students who pursue careers in 
public service such as teaching, public safety, or firefighting.
  The current program requires students to work a full 10 years in 
these professions for any debt forgiveness. Any debt forgiveness hinges 
on those full 10 years. I believe shorter periods of work should allow 
for loan forgiveness in proportion to the time they spend on the job. 
There are ways to make public service a quicker and easier means for 
loan forgiveness.
  There are other methods as well that we should pursue to enable 
college affordability. Paycheck fairness is basic to America. There is 
no reason that American women make only 77 cents per every dollar made 
by men. Male health care workers in Connecticut earn on average almost 
twice as much as women performing the same job. Men working in finance 
earn 61 percent more than women with the same position.
  This shocking gap persists when controlled for education, experience, 
and other job-related factors. The data demonstrates unavoidably and 
inescapably that women make less than men in 97 percent of professions.
  The event I attended in Connecticut, which was a meeting of the 
Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by 
Antonia Moran, highlighted the shameful lag in women's compensation. 
Many women with college degrees told me about their personal struggles.
  Lori Pelletier, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut 
AFL-CIO, explained how carefully crafted union contracts can often make 
a difference, but everyone agreed that better laws to address the 
problem are needed.
  Fortunately, my distinguished colleague Senator Mikulski, who is here 
on the floor today, has introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act. It will 
bring into the 21st century, more than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act 
was signed by President Kennedy, the gap of full equality. It will 
improve the remedies available to victims of discrimination. It will 
prohibit employers from punishing workers who share salary information. 
It will require any differences in pay to be determined only by job-
related factors. It will improve

[[Page S5528]]

training and education regarding how to take action against 
discrimination.
  Pay equity is good for families, it is good for the economy, it is 
good for America, and it is a matter of fundamental fairness. I thank 
my colleague Senator Mikulski for her great work on this issue. I am 
proud to stand here with her today and with so many other colleagues, 
because it is basic to a fair shot in the United States of America.
  I know American people are counting on all of us to help make America 
better, to keep faith with the great men and women who have served in 
our military around the world, who have served and sacrificed--the 
loved ones of 9/11 victims, of all the victims of terrorism who have 
perished since and before 9/11. To make America better is what we can 
do to keep faith with them. To give Americans a fair shot should be our 
mission today and every day. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The Senator from Maryland.


                            Remembering 9/11

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I first thank the Senator from 
Connecticut, Mr. Blumenthal, for his words on what the middle class is 
facing and his particular advocacy on behalf of women. It is well known 
and much appreciated.
  I come to the floor today to talk about middle-class people who are 
trying to play by the rules. But before I do, on this auspicious day, 
September 11, 2014, I wish to pay my respects once again and express my 
heartfelt sympathy to the families of people who died on September 11 
throughout this country--at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, in 
Pennsylvania--to the wonderful first responders who risked their lives 
and many themselves who perished, to those who were wounded or sick and 
bear the permanent burden of their response to that awful tragedy, and 
to the families of the loved ones who have to live with it every single 
day--who have an absent chair at Christmas or Thanksgiving, or 
Hanukkah, whatever faith holiday where families gather and remember.
  The Nation cannot forget what happened that day and it cannot forget 
why it happened, and we cannot forget the people who were there and 
paid this terrible price of terrorism.
  I express my sympathy, my condolences, to say one way we can honor 
them is to make sure we don't have another terrorist attack in the 
United States. But what they were doing that day is to believe in 
America, and that brings me to what I want to talk about today.


                            The Middle Class

  Yes, people talk about when we are out on our break we are on 
vacation. But I have been moving around Maryland, and one of the things 
I see and hear that is so clear is that, No. 1, the middle class is 
worried whether it is going to stay middle class. Those who want to be 
middle class worry if there is going to be an opportunity ladder for 
them to achieve middle-class status, where they can earn a decent 
living, raise a family, and make a contribution to their community.
  They are repeatedly told: If you work hard and go by the rules, you 
will do OK. They are becoming increasingly skeptical of that, because 
they feel the very rules of government work against them and the very 
climate of government stops any change to be able to help them. They 
either feel that we are irrelevant or we are working against them.
  That is why they say: All we want is for America to be America again, 
where if you work hard, go by the rules, you can have a pretty good 
life and make a pretty good contribution to this great country of ours.
  So when they talk about these issues and if you talk to the old-
timers--particularly those who are facing families in long-term care--
they worry about the very cruel rules of government that tell them to 
spend down their life savings until they are eligible for Medicaid; 
that if you worked hard and you saved, you are actually penalized for 
that--except for legislation I passed 25 years ago--that if they had 
gone and squandered their money, they would be better off and more 
eligible.
  Then there are the young people who want to be able to go to school 
where they can make something of themselves and make America a better 
place to live.
  I held student roundtables, along with my colleague Senator Cardin. 
People talked to us about the careers they wanted. At Bowie State, four 
of the young people who were part of the roundtable want to go into 
nursing, both men as well as women. They think: I could help people. We 
have a nursing shortage in this country. Yet the very obstacle to them 
being able to afford to pay for their education will prohibit it.
  Why is it that education is so expensive in this country when we look 
at tuition, books, fees? And then what is it that we do? First of all, 
we make sure that Pell grants aren't year-long. You can only go two 
semesters. But if you want to go during the summer to ace that class 
that you have to do for compliance purposes for graduation, or that 
especially hard class--you only want to take one class a semester--your 
government won't help you finish sooner or finish better. We won't help 
you. We can give tax break earmarks, but we can't give tax breaks or 
help there.
  Then when they look at their student debt and the interest rates they 
carry, they ask me: Senator Mikulski, why is it that you can refinance 
a yacht but I can't refinance my student loan?
  And I say: Well, you know, we are stuck on the motion to proceed, and 
we are two votes short of the filibuster; but then we will go backward 
if we do this.
  They don't want to hear this parliamentary wonky stuff. What they 
want to hear is: We believe in them and we need them and we want them, 
and we are going to help them for what they believe we are going to 
help them achieve to be able to get a student loan. But underneath it 
all is that work should be worth it and work should be rewarded.
  That brings me then to paycheck fairness. One of the other rules they 
feel is against them is: The rules are rigged against you if you want 
to fight for equal pay for equal work. If you want to fight for equal 
pay for equal work, you can be retaliated against, you can be 
humiliated, you can be harassed, you can be fired, simply because you 
are asking the person standing next to you at the water cooler or the 
computer printout machine: How much do you make? That simple question, 
how much do you make, can trigger a whole retaliatory effort against 
you. That is the rule, and all it is you want to know is what kind of 
dough the person next to you is making. This is why we once again are 
bringing up the Paycheck Fairness Act.
  The Paycheck Fairness Act is to fill and close the loopholes that 
came about in the original Equal Pay Act. We have been at this for 50 
years. When this fight started under Lyndon Johnson, women made almost 
50 cents for every dollar men made--and after 50 years, gee, we are up 
to 77 cents per every dollar. And for Latino women, African-American 
women, other women of color, it is even worse.
  People might say: Didn't you fix this when you did the Lilly 
Ledbetter bill? The Lilly Ledbetter bill that we did pass restored the 
law to where it was before the Supreme Court decision. This updates and 
strengthens it. What it does is it deals with this whole issue of 
retaliation. The Lilly Ledbetter bill did not address employers who are 
currently able to legally retaliate against workers who share salary 
information. This legislation stops employers from being able to sue or 
punish workers for comparing wages.

  It also helps restore congressional intent. It makes sure that 
employers who claim that differences in pay based on any factor other 
than sex are dealt with. This legislation limits employers' ability to 
exploit this loophole by requiring that this defense can only be used 
when it is related to job performance and is necessary for business.
  This bill creates a fair playing field, simply knowing what the next 
person earns and being able to work and to negotiate for equal pay for 
equal work. The Paycheck Fairness Act fixes the law to keep 
discrimination from happening. It would have helped keep Lilly from 
having to sue in the first place.
  This bill puts an end to the incentives that cause employers to think 
that paying women less is just a cost of doing business. It gets rid of 
the secrecy that makes it harder to uncover pay differences. Why should 
pay be such a secret unless you are ashamed to say what it is? Why 
would you want to keep it a secret? Maybe it is because

[[Page S5529]]

you don't want to brag that you pay the men more than the women. Maybe 
you are too ashamed. Maybe you think it will lead you to an EEOC 
lawsuit. We want to end secrecy at the job place, where you know what 
the person next to you makes--you have a right to ask.
  I have heard from women all over America and I have heard from men--
men who work so hard, particularly for their daughters; men who have 
jobs they hate so their girls can go to school and have jobs they love. 
Men want equal pay for equal work. They want it for their spouses, they 
want it for their widowed mothers, and they want it for their 
daughters.
  Listening to the cases--Donna Smith of Maryland's Eastern Shore 
worked as a retail clerk. She was told not to discuss her pay, but when 
she found out she was being paid less than a male cook and was doing 
the exact same job, she filed an EEOC complaint. And what happened? 
While she fought for her pay, they were fighting her with agitation and 
humiliation.
  Latoya Weaver sent a letter to me. She is a single parent with three 
children, working in guest services at a hotel. She found out her pay 
of $8 an hour was $2 less than the males doing the same job. Two 
dollars when you are at bare minimum makes a pretty big difference. She 
filed an EEOC lawsuit. Although she only received compensatory damage 
because of the discrimination, the company's policy against discussing 
pay means it could happen again.
  I could give example after example. I have been talking about this 
for a number of years. It is time. In the Senate, after all is said and 
done, more gets said than gets done. But this time, in the next 72 
hours, we could actually vote to move the bill to the floor, to 
continue the debate and discussion and actually right the wrongs in 
equal pay for equal work. This is why American women want a fair shot. 
All they want is to be paid exactly the same--equal pay--as their male 
counterparts.
  Mr. President, knowing of your own steadfast advocacy for the middle 
class in this country and an opportunity ladder in this country, we 
have to stop and make sure the rules government creates do not rig the 
game against people who are working hard and trying to play by the 
rules. The rules should work for the people and not for the government 
or for those who want to hold down wages or opportunities.
  We are not going to accept women being paid less. We have paid 
attention to this problem, we've listened to the voices of the people, 
and we have a solution in the Paycheck Fairness Act. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues to see if there are amendments, whatever we 
could do to move this process forward. I would love a unanimous vote 
out of the Senate to have paycheck fairness finally in our lawbooks and 
in women's checkbooks. It's time to end pay inequity. It's time for 
Congress to act.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican whip.


                            Remembering 9/11

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today is the 13th anniversary of 9/11, a 
day that will be burned in all of our collective memories. I remember 
two events like this in my lifetime--9/11 is one, and the other is when 
John F. Kennedy, our President, was assassinated. I remember where I 
was, what I was doing, and I remember the feeling of horror as the 
reality of both of those events became more clear. And I bet I am not 
alone. I bet there are Americans all around the country who remember 
where they were and what they were doing and what their first thoughts 
were when those planes hit the World Trade Center in New York, the 
first and then the second, only to learn there were other planes that 
were flying with terrorists who had other targets. Of course there was 
the Pentagon, where many Americans lost their lives, and then there was 
the plane that was brought down in Pennsylvania that I will talk about 
a little more.
  This is one of the defining moments in our Nation's history, a day 
that proved that our love of country and our fellow Americans will 
always prevail. I remember the overwhelming sense of unity the American 
people felt when this tragedy unfolded, and it is entirely right that 
we did so.
  Nearly 3000 Americans lost their lives on that day, many in an 
attempt to save others from harm. As usually happens in moments of 
tragedy, there were sparks or hints or bright lights of the triumph of 
the human spirit, people rising to the challenge, showing some of the 
very best qualities we exhibit as human beings.
  Today we pause with heavy hearts to remember those we lost and pray 
to God that He will continue to comfort the families of those who still 
mourn. Thirteen years may seem like a long time to many of us who did 
not have the personal tragedy of losing somebody we were close to or a 
family member, but I am confident that for many who did lose family 
members and loved ones and friends, that 13 years seems like just 
yesterday.
  We also continue to keep our military, our intelligence 
professionals, our law enforcement officials, first responders, and 
others who dedicated their lives to that fateful day in our thoughts 
and prayers because it is they who help keep us safe and who have 
helped us avoid a similar attack on our homeland over the last 13 
years. None of them should ever for a moment doubt our gratitude.
  I wasn't serving in this body when those attacks came on September 
11, but, as I said, I remember exactly where I was. Like other 
Americans, I was at home in Austin, TX, preparing for work when I heard 
the terrible news. I remember my wife called my attention to it after 
the first plane hit the World Trade Center. I didn't actually see it. 
Of course I saw it time and time again as it was replayed. But I turned 
to the television set, as my wife called my attention to it just as the 
second plane hit, and we all wondered what in the world was happening. 
Then when the towers actually fell and as people jumped out of the 
towers to avoid, they hoped, their death--but, in fact, they did jump 
to their death--it was all too vivid and is still today.
  We should never forget, and that is perhaps the most important lesson 
we should learn. We should never forget what happened on that terrible 
day. It is said that those who forget history are condemned to relive 
it, and I believe that to be true.
  September 11 is a solemn reminder of what can be taken from us in the 
blink of an eye and why we must never waiver in our efforts to protect 
this great Nation and the freedom it embodies.
  Two simple words were spoken that will be remembered in history as 
one of the most courageous and powerful phrases ever uttered, and of 
course I am referring to the words spoken by Todd Beamer aboard Flight 
93. When they heard terrorists were in command of the controls of the 
airplane and perhaps heading to the Nation's Capital, perhaps to attack 
either the White House or Congress and to knock out large portions of 
the U.S. Government, Todd Beamer's response, along with other brave 
patriots, was ``Let's roll.'' They then attempted to overpower the 
terrorists in the cockpit. Those brave passengers on that flight did 
more than just save the lives of innocent Americans here in the 
Nation's Capital; absent their sacrifice, it is likely that flight 
would have claimed even more lives than just those on board.
  The passengers on Flight 93, along with every American who died 13 
years ago on September 11, were men and women with jobs, with families, 
and with dreams. I am sure that, like all of us, many of them made 
promises to their loved ones before they boarded that plane or left for 
work that day--promises to be home in time for dinner, to make a 
child's soccer game or birthday party. Some promises don't come cheap. 
Others cost us absolutely nothing. Others require that we risk 
everything we have and everything we are, even our very lives, to 
fulfill those promises. Their acts of courage offer us comfort even 
today and inspire every American as we have rebuilt from that terrible 
day 13 years ago.
  The acts of courage displayed on 9/11 mark their last promise in a 
sense--a promise carried on to the Nation, to their children and other 
loved ones left behind; a promise that says the story of freedom will 
not end in the vile acts of evil men. It will endure and it will not be 
destroyed.
  Early this morning I had the privilege of joining my colleagues on 
the Senate Judiciary Committee in approving an important piece of 
legislation called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which 
will now be eligible for movement across the floor. It is

[[Page S5530]]

appropriate that we pass that piece of legislation on the anniversary 
of 9/11.
  By amending the current law to hold foreign sponsors of terrorism 
potentially liable in U.S. courts for acts that injure or kill 
Americans, this bill will allow the families of the victims of the 
attacks on 9/11 and others to proceed to court against those 
responsible for those horrific attacks that took place 13 years ago.
  Part of the attack against international terrorism has to be to go 
against the money that finances it, and this will provide another tool 
for those families to attack those who fund and finance international 
terrorism.
  This bill, not surprisingly, is strongly supported by the 9/11 family 
victims, and it would allow their litigation to proceed on its merits. 
I am hopeful it will receive the prompt consideration here on the 
Senate floor that it deserves.
  Americans have always been deeply concerned about the kind of country 
and the kind of world we leave our children. As parents, that is what 
keeps us going some days. Of course, grandparents have other reasons to 
keep going and to keep fighting for a better world. This remains true 
both abroad and here at home in our own communities and in our schools 
and at work. We must continue to push on undeterred, always confident 
in the pursuit of our ultimate goal: a just, free, and peaceful world 
not just for ourselves but for our allies and for future generations. 
Part of that mission involves stopping evil at its source, running it 
down, and eliminating it for good because we learned another thing on 
9/11: We can either take the fight to the source of the evil where it 
exists or we can defend here on the homeland. Speaking for myself and I 
am sure others, I want to go fight it at its source and not just defend 
on the homeland.
  The minions of terror have shown their capacity for inhumanity. We 
have seen recent reminders of that with the beheading of two American 
journalists by ISIS. We must never underestimate the capacity and 
desire of these evil people to do so again and again.
  We have recently been reminded of this, and last night the President 
spoke to the Nation's commitment to deal with this sort of horrific 
activity and dangerous and extreme ideology. As we adapt to new threats 
and new challenges, Americans must maintain a sense of vigilance, a 
sense of purpose, and a sense of moral clarity.
  We must never forget why we fight, and we must always make sure that 
our brave men and women in uniform have what they need in order to take 
the fight to our Nation's enemies. The greatest honor we can give to 
those we lost is to live our lives worthy of their sacrifice, relish 
the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, and ensure the promise 
that those freedoms shall not perish for future generations.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate very much the distinguished 
Senator from Texas for yielding the floor.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all postcloture time on 
the motion to proceed to S. 2199 be considered expired.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered. All postcloture time has expired 
and the question occurs on agreeing to the motion to proceed.
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________