Congressional Record, Volume 160 Issue 151 (Thursday, December 11, 2014)

[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 151 (Thursday, December 11, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6649-S6657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

PROTECTING VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS AND EMERGENCY RESPONDERS ACT OF
2014--Continued

Tributes to Mary Landrieu

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I will just say a couple words before I
turn it over to the Chair and to my colleague from West Virginia.
When I think of Mary Landrieu, I think of the most tenacious person
in the Senate standing here, holding court, fighting for her cause,
fighting for her values, fighting for her State. I think particularly
of the hard work she did on flood insurance, on this issue that was so
critical to the State of Louisiana and very important to my State of
Oregon and to our other States but particularly Louisiana. She was
determined. Every time I was on the floor, she would say: Jeff, have
you done this and Jeff, have you done that. She would grab someone
else, and she would say: And now we have to do this. That is how
legislation gets done.
Senator Landrieu really drives things through the Senate. It is one
thing to be here and express your ideas in kind of a social manner--
well, wouldn't this be nice or wouldn't that be nice; it is another to
stand here and say: I am going to make this happen because it is
important to my constituents and important to our Nation. I have seen
Mary Landrieu do that on issue after issue, and certainly for all who
came in with my class 6 years ago, it has been a wonderful education on
how to make maximum use and effectiveness from this privilege of
serving in the Senate.
Thank you for everything you have done, Mary Landrieu. It is an honor
to serve with you, and we are going to miss you greatly.NOTICE

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CHARLES E. SCHUMER, Chairman.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. All of us came here at one time or another, and the
first impression you have is how they kind of ingratiate you and bring
you into the

[[Page S6650]]

fold. I am often asked--I am sure most of our colleagues are asked the
same question--whom do you consider your best and closest friend and
whom do you associate with and whom do you feel comfortable with? In
any category, without a doubt, it is always Mary Landrieu. We come from
a similar background--rural States. We come from the same culture--
hard-working people who basically don't ask for an awful lot and give a
lot more back. Both of us come from large Catholic families, and we
have an awful lot in common. We and our spouses have bonded, and we
have done things together. That was the way I heard the place used to
work, that you build relationships and there is camaraderie and you
share dinners at people's homes. It is such a different atmosphere when
that happens because you really do forge a bond that is so much missing
in this body.
Let me say one other thing. The great losers in this whole election
process we just had were the great people of Louisiana. They lost a
champion. They lost a fighter. That is what Senator Merkley said. There
is nobody who said: I think you ought to be careful about that because
I think Mary is interested. We knew there could be problems.
With that being said, the best thing to do is to go talk to Mary on
this subject or issue, and we would work through it. How do we
compromise and bring everybody together? And Mary would say: We will
work through it.
Coming from an energy State and Mary having an energy State and the
two of us being Democrats, on our side sometimes our individual caucus
is not as large as we would like for it to be--let's put it that way--
but we talk an awful lot about how we are moving an energy policy. As
Mary said, we need it all in this country. We should be totally energy
independent. We shouldn't be looking to other countries and buying
their products and giving them the resources to be used against us, and
we don't have to do that. We can do it in a sensible and balanced way
with the economy and the environment. Mary has always had the economy
and environment first and foremost. That type of balance is hard to
find, and it is definitely hard to find in Washington.
So I just want her to know that there is nobody who is going to miss
Mary Landrieu more than I, being in this body, going shoulder to
shoulder with her and trying to bring an even keel to this whole
process.
Mary, I feel for the people of Louisiana. I truly do. I am hoping
somebody can come along and have the same spirit and fight that you
have, but no one is going to be able to replace you and what you have
been able to do and what you have been able to make us aware of.
My little State was involved in helping Katrina, helping the State of
Louisiana. The State of West Virginia came immediately. When that
happened, we were so proud to be part of that, and we now have a lot of
people from Louisiana living in West Virginia today because of that
effort.
There has been a wonderful relationship and a wonderful friendship,
but more importantly, there has been a wonderful person who has graced
the Halls in this tremendous body for 18 years who will not be replaced
in this Senate and this body. Again, the people of Louisiana should be
extremely proud to have someone who is a fighter, who gave every drop
she had of public service for her State and never forgot where she come
from. So with that, that is a tremendous tribute in itself.
I say to my dear friend, thank you for your service on behalf of the
great State of Louisiana. Thank you for all the important work you have
done for our country. God bless you, and I love you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, you can see that Mary Landrieu has a
lot of friends on both sides of the aisle, and that is because Mary has
stood up and been a mentor to so many of us. She taught us how to fight
for our own States because that is what she has done every day for
Louisiana.
I was thinking about our States earlier. Mary mentioned in her talk
about how Minnesota is at the top of the Mississippi and Louisiana is
at the bottom and how hard we fought for river issues and barges and
locks and dams. We will actually have success at the end of the year
with the ABLE Act, which is really important for other reasons, but we
are going to finally start the funding for lock and dam improvements,
and that kind of work would not have happened without Mary and the work
and support she has provided with the RIVER Act. So a river doesn't
divide us, it unites us, and Mary is a uniter and brings people
together on so many issues.
She said before that she was going to put some things on the Record
about adoption, but I thought I would take the opportunity to fill
people in.
First of all, Mary established the Congressional Coalition on
Adoption Institute. If you have not gone to some of the events where
she literally brings the angels--people who have adopted children in
the most dire circumstances--to Washington to celebrate these adoptions
and talk about the policy changes that need to be made.
Anyone who has adopted one of the foster kids or brought them into an
office and adopted them--the reason you can do that is because Mary
Landrieu started that program so that foster children, who otherwise
would not have the connections and wherewithal to be able to get a job
for the summer, spring, or fall in Washington, DC, would be able to
work, and then she has all of these kids to her house every single
year.
Mary doesn't just fight for adopted kids at home, she fights for them
all over the world. I would hate to be the bureaucrat in Guatemala when
Mary Landrieu shows up to fight them off. I see her staff, and some of
them were probably with her on that trip. I think she knew the name of
every child who was waiting to be adopted in Guatemala.
How can we forget the meeting with the Russians when they started to
use these poor little children as pawns in a political game? Mary stood
up to them. As a result, as many of us know, she has now been banned
from the country of Russia. I don't think everybody knows that the
reason she was banned was because she was fighting for these kids who
were waiting to be adopted. Many of the parents are in my State, and
they actually have siblings and they are trying to adopt the other
sibling. That is a very sad story and Mary stood up for them. In the
words of her dad, Putin didn't like it, and so Mary was banned. I guess
that is not where she is going on vacation after we are done here.
The other thing about Mary I will never forget--how kind and sweet
and fun she is for her friends in the Senate--is the time when we had a
bet on the Saints-Vikings game in the playoffs. We bet some food from
our States. If anybody remembers that amazing playoff game, the Vikings
lost, and I had to wear a Drew Brees jersey and walk over to Mary's
office with a pot of gumbo, which is really hard to make. When I got to
her office, all of her New Orleans press was there, and when she tried
that gumbo, she said, this is Minnesota gumbo. This gumbo just needs
something special. She got out an enormous bottle of hot sauce from her
desk drawer--as only a Louisiana Senator would have--and dumped it in
my Minnesota gumbo. That is the spice that Mary has added to all of our
lives.
What we have learned from her we will never forget. As I said, she is
a role model for so many of us on how to fight for our States.
We see it in the eyes of those little adopted children and the great
success we are starting to see on the coast because of all the recovery
you brought to your State. We know you will never be forgotten and we
want you to keep fighting.
Thank you, Mary.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I can't leave the floor without speaking
to Mary. Mary has been such an incredible inspiration to me. I have
been in the Senate now for 13 months, and I have had a number of
conversations with her, but the best way to teach somebody is to show
somebody.
Senator Landrieu is prodigiously persuasive, tirelessly tenacious,
doggedly determined. Just to watch Senator Landrieu is to watch what
every American should hope for in a Senator--someone who is unyielding
in their work and service to them.

[[Page S6651]]

If you look at the myriad of interests in the State of Louisiana, I
was amazed by what I saw firsthand. Mary stood up and fought for the
people who were loud and ornery but still had a good cause as well as
the people who were voiceless and humble. Mary stood up for them. Mary
stood up for people in her community who were from every different
background and from every different race. Mary stood up to them in a
way that is a model to my State.
I heard my senior Senator mention you by name about how essential you
were when my State had its back against the wall and crushed by a
superstorm. When there were battles to get my State's funding, and Mary
had no skin in that game, my senior Senator mentioned you as a champion
for New Jersey and that is what blows me away about you.
I yearn for a government that has moral courage, more than we have
now, people who will risk popularity for purpose and will risk
substance for some kind of celebrity. Senator Landrieu has done things
against her political interests, but that were for the people. That is
why I have a great deal of reverence for you and why I travel down to
your State.
Now the Senator knows this because I must have said it hundreds of
times when I was down in Louisiana, that that is my ancestral State. I
will end by saying this: My grandaddy was born in Monroe. He was born
poor. As my family likes to say, he was so poor he couldn't afford to
be poor, he was po, P-O. He was born to a single mama. He was born
Black at a time of immense segregation, when people who walked the
hallways of power couldn't give a damn about him. He taught me love for
your State, and more importantly, the urgency to stand up and fight for
those people that most folks won't fight for.
I am telling you right now, my grandaddy died during my first big
election, but if he knew you, he would be so proud of your service.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. BEGICH. I wish to echo all the comments people said today, but I
have to be honest. When I was elected, I was scared of Mary. People
said very politely that you should check with Mary to see if she has an
issue with something. I was terrified of what people told me she would
do if I was not on her side.
If you remember, when I came in, we doubled the oil and gas caucus in
the Democratic caucus by me just joining, and so we had an immediate
connection, which was unique in itself. Our connection was not just
that, but also, as Mary mentioned, her mentor, Lindy Boggs, and our
family knows the Boggses very well.
I can still remember a call I got when I won my mayor's race in 2003
from this woman in Louisiana. My staff came in and said some woman from
Louisiana is calling, and we don't know who she is, but she wants to
talk to you, and so I said, OK. I took the phone call, and it was Lindy
Boggs. You know how she would start a conversation with ``Hi, darlin',
I just want to check in with you and see how you are doing, and
congratulations.'' Then she said, ``One moment, someone is at my
door.'' She came back and said, ``The exterminator is here,'' and that
is classic Lindy Boggs.
What was so real about her--and I can see it in Mary's style--and
that is she is real. The work Mary has done--and I didn't know it until
I came to the Senate--for foster kids and adoption is remarkable. Amy
Klobuchar went into great detail about that, and it shows that it is
not always about the policy and fights on the floor here, but there is
so much that individuals do outside this Chamber. What Mary has done
outside of the Chamber is to use this position to make a difference for
young people, and that is powerful. As Mary has said, we fight over
policies and issues, but every one of those young people has been
touched in some way. I guarantee--and I am sure you have seen it over
the years where someone might come up to you and say, I don't know if
you remember me, and then they tell you the story of how you met them
when they were a foster kid and just getting adopted or when you were
at one of the ceremonies or one of the events they were at. Those are
the things I will remember about you.
The tenacity that people talked about--there is no question about it.
I was glad when I got on the Appropriations Committee because I
thought, finally, I will be on there with someone who will chew it up
with me, and I just had to hang on to your coattails when you were
fighting on issues.
When we sat in on those leadership meetings on Tuesday morning, I was
always thankful when you came in. You were right across from me. I
don't know if they all figured it out--maybe, again, as I said, it is a
little bit of confession--we had our signals, or maybe eye contact, and
then we went to work. You were really incredible.
When you were in caucus--and many people don't see those, except as
Members--you were always passionate about what was important to
Louisiana. You never forgot what was important to Louisiana.
People made the comment that you are tenacious. I would say that any
time something did move in the Congress, you were a part of it in some
way. When we were trying to figure out how to fix the health care bill,
you were right there. You didn't hesitate. You knew it was a hot
potato, but it was also something that we knew we had to make better,
not just for people but for decades to come. You were not afraid of
that even though you said you knew it could cost you your election
because you knew generationally it would have an impact.
It wasn't about the moment, it was about 10, 15, 20 years, you could
look back and say you helped make that happen, and you did, every time
you tried to move in and push an item or idea. Even though we will not
be serving here, you will have an impact.
I could tell, as we were shaking hands here, it was amazing to watch
you, you never stop. You were already talking to each person about the
work they need to be doing. When I shook your hand, you were talking
about fisheries. I am like, Mary, just relax. But you are already
working it, and that is what is so unique about you. You will not be in
this body, but you will be in this body because of the way you do your
work. It is not about being in this office, it is about caring about
Louisiana, and as I said, I saw it just in this last moment here. It is
unbelievable. You will never give up on the people of Louisiana because
you care so deeply.
It has been an honor to know you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. COATS. I wish to make some remarks about the Senator from
Louisiana. I had the pleasure of serving as ranking member of the
Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, and Mary Landrieu was the
chairman. I wasn't sure about what to expect when I joined that
committee. I knew of Mary's passion and her persuasion, which is given
in a gentle but effective way. She reaches out. I thought, she is going
to convince me out of just about everything. I will not be able to hold
my own with her, but she was so gracious in terms of working together
with me as we worked through some very tough issues.
She was a knowledgeable and effective leader. She couldn't ask enough
questions, couldn't gain enough information, making wise decisions,
given the limitations that we had relative to appropriations and given
the process that, unfortunately, was not the way the Appropriations
Committee should go forward. Nevertheless, working together on that and
on a whole number of issues turned out to be a very pleasant experience
because of the nature of the leader of the committee and their
willingness to work together.
You get to learn something about someone when you spend 3 days
trekking along the southern border on the immigration issue. We climbed
into tunnels, driving along fences, talking to Border Patrol agents,
looking at the enormous channels that exist relative to that border and
our Border Patrol people and immigration control people. Both of us
were right there in blue jeans and tennis shoes in hot weather, and
learning firsthand the challenges this country faces relative to
dealing with immigration.
Her passion for children and her State has been talked about. I think
the word that best describes Mary is passion. She has passion for the
engagement in anything that she engages

[[Page S6652]]

in and doing it in a way that is relentless and reaches results. I
think it is a great tribute to her character and to the kind of person
she is.
One thing we will not be able to do is meet together somewhere in
Russia. I have been banned from Russia and Mary has been banned from
Russia. I was banned because I took significant exception to the
Russian takeover of Crimea and its activities in Ukraine. I was
surprised by that. Mary was banned for an unnecessary reason, and that
was trying to help Russian children who were trying to find adoptive
parents. Obviously she was successful, and obviously she was as
relentless there as she was on all the other issues because Russia saw
that as a threat. Here is someone reaching out for all the right
reasons and doing something for all the right reasons--passion for
children and finding them a home.
I wish Mary the very best going forward in her next chapter of life.
I can testify to you from personal experience that there is life after
Congress, and it can be a pleasant life. Knowing you, you will be
engaged in something very significant--whether for your State or your
country. Your life of service, and your family's life of service, is
well recognized. So I wish the Senator from Louisiana the very best as
she goes forward. It has been a pleasure working with her.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to follow the comments of my
friend, the Senator from Indiana, although I do think the Record should
be corrected. I would say to my colleague I have also dealt with the
Senator from Louisiana a number of times on a number of issues, and I
have thought of lots of words to describe her style, but ``gentle''
would not be one to come to mind.
I know this is a day to pay tribute, so I wish to echo some of the
comments of the Senator from Indiana.
I first met part of the Landrieu family when I had a chance to meet
Mary's dad when he was serving as the Secretary of HUD and I was a
young staff person. Mary talks a lot about her family. Her family was
kind enough to host me a variety of times when I was in Louisiana. She
has a great family, a great tradition.
So many folks have spoken about specific issues regarding Mary's
service in the Senate. I am not going to talk about her focus on issues
and the relentlessness she brings, but I wish to acknowledge her
generosity and heart and spirit. She and Frank would always open their
home for whatever cause. Again, I heard the comments about her enormous
heart and commitment for adoption. I think about so many events that we
go to, but those Angels of Adoption events at her house touched all of
us in a way that is not often the case. I also can acknowledge now that
she has a great love for the Commonwealth of Virginia and has spent
some time there due to her love of horses and her daughter's riding and
her own riding. As has been mentioned by so many--and I know from our
own conversations--this is not somebody who wants to look backward but
is clearly already looking forward. I know life holds for you and Frank
a number of extraordinarily exciting additional chapters. I hope I have
the opportunity to be a part of those chapters and to be subject to
that gentle persuasion on whatever issue comes to mind as you go
forward.
I know I speak for so many of our colleagues when I say we all have a
lot of unique characteristics, but with Mary Landrieu they broke the
mold.
I yield the floor to my good friend the Senator from Maryland.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, one of the truly nice things about serving
in the Senate is the people we meet. Myrna and I consider Frank and
Mary to be our friends. She is an incredible person and has given
incredible service. I am sorry the people of Louisiana could not see
Mary in our caucuses as she fought on different issues for the people
of Louisiana and what she did as an advocate on behalf of people who
otherwise would not have had their voices heard. She did it in a very
effective way.
I heard some of the conversations about what happened with Katrina
and the people of New Orleans. Mary Landrieu brought us down to
Louisiana for us to see firsthand. It was incredible for me, not to
just see the physical devastation, but thanks to Mary Landrieu, we saw
the people. We saw the spirit in the people, but we saw people who
needed help. It is that type of emotional involvement that Mary gives
to every cause she believes in.
So I want the Senator from Louisiana to know how much I deeply
respect your model of public service and the people you stood up for.
Senator Landrieu spoke about the adoption issue. She got into it
because she has such a big family. I think I got into it because of
her. She is pretty persuasive. We all feel better because of that.
Senator Landrieu is the one who really led us in those efforts. What an
incredible legacy.
I want to speak a minute about small business issues. Senator
Landrieu chaired that committee during a particularly important time. I
want to relate a couple of stories to my colleagues. There are many
times I was in the Democratic caucus and we would be talking about an
issue and Senator Landrieu would stand and say, Well, how about small
businesses? Under her leadership we brought some major initiatives to
the floor to help small businesses because of Mary Landrieu and her
ability to put together a commonsense package. She understood small
businesses are the growth engine of America. That is how jobs are
created and that is where innovation takes place. I can tell my
colleagues--I worked with her. I know what we got done. I know how we
took on our own governmental agencies to make sure they did right for
small businesses and how we fought the bundling. Contract officers love
to take small contracts and make them into big ones because it is less
headache for them but less opportunity for small businesses. Mary
Landrieu stopped that practice and put a spotlight on it. It was an
incredible experience for me because it showed me that each of us can
make a difference.
I knew what I was trying to do. One of the issues I got involved with
was to raise the surety bond issues and I didn't see much chance of
getting it done and Mary gave me the opportunity to get it done. She
coached me on how to get it done, and that is now a permanent law of
the land.
She made us all relevant on the committee, individually and
collectively. We have a great legacy to help small businesses in this
country, thanks to the leadership of Senator Landrieu.
To the people of Louisiana, they could not have had a stronger
advocate, a stronger friend, a person who accomplished more for that
State during some extremely challenging times. To the people of this
country and the work Mary Landrieu did on the Appropriations Committee
for our national security and standing up for and protecting and
defending our own country, the record of Senator Landrieu is
incredible. To those who are voiceless but had Mary Landrieu to speak
for them, the disadvantaged; to small businesses--and the list goes on
and on and on--this is one incredible legislator. She is a model to
many of us. I thank her so much for her service and her commitment to
public life. It will always be an inspiration to me, the fact that I
was given the honor to serve with you in the Senate of the United
States.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Walsh). The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise to add my words of admiration for
this great person, for this great legislator. Just to tell a brief
story, it was back in 2006, in a lameduck session just like this. The
Democrats had won and were about to take over the Senate. The Democrats
had just won and were about to take over the House--a different passage
in time. But throughout all of 2006, even in the minority, Mary
Landrieu was moving a bill to open up a vast new area in the Gulf of
Mexico for drilling for oil and natural gas.
I was over in the House. I was from Massachusetts. I did not want
this bill to pass. I wanted to actually save it for 2007 when the
Democrats were in control. We could pass it in an energy bill by the
end of 2007, which would have included this provision. Mary passed it
through the Senate--bipartisan, as usual. If we look up bipartisan, if
we Google it, Mary's picture actually comes up.

[[Page S6653]]

Over in the House, because of all of her momentum, I lost and that
bill passed. Again, tens of thousands of new jobs fell to Louisiana
through Mary Landrieu.
It was about a week later when I was out shopping and here comes Mary
right toward me with her daughter in her riding outfit.
Mary said: I want to introduce you to Congressman Markey.
I said to her daughter: Well, you have to add a few additional words
because your mother just defeated me quite badly just last week and
passed a big bill for Louisiana, for whom your mother always calls her
people, the people of Louisiana.
There isn't anybody who understands better the spirit of legislating,
about protecting your home State and respecting those who are maybe not
in agreement with you but are not your enemy but somebody whom you try
to work with.
After the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico I was the lead Democrat in
the House on the Natural Resources Committee with jurisdiction over
that, and Mary again was outraged that such damage could be done to her
fishermen, to her tourism industry, to her people in Louisiana. She
worked hard to make sure billions of dollars would ultimately go back
into the gulf to ensure that her fishermen, her tourism industry, and
her people were protected.
Then, after having served in the House for 37 years, I arrived in the
Senate with a great concern that a bill I had been working on in
Massachusetts, which was the dramatic rise in the insurance rates for
homeowners and businesses right along the coastline of Massachusetts,
and I had to introduce legislation not only to work on the issue, but
when I arrived in the Senate, Mary Landrieu was already here, already
working on that bill, all ready to protect her homeowners, her small
business people from outrageous increases in insurance rates that would
have basically made their homes unaffordable.
Throughout my career, all I can tell my colleagues is one constant is
this great, legendary legislator, somebody who embodies all the best of
what this institution stands for. I just want to let her know how proud
I have been to be able to serve with her here and how proud I am to be
able to tell a story of the time when she just beat me flat-out because
that is just how she plays. She plays it for her State every time, and
no waiting if it is Louisiana. I know all the people of Louisiana know
that about her.
So congratulations on your great career.
I yield the floor.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, as I start my comments on the land title
legislation before us, I would be remiss if I did not mention the
incredible work our chair Mary Landrieu has done on this legislation.
As we just heard from the tribute to her service over the last few
minutes, as the Presiding Officer said in his comments, if you Google
``bipartisan,'' there will be a picture of Mary Landrieu. I think this
title sort of embodies that. We owe great gratitude to Chairman
Landrieu and to Ranking Member Murkowski for the incredible negotiation
and work they have put into this package.
We stand on the cusp of passing one of the most significant pieces of
public land legislation since the omnibus bill of 2009. I stand here to
speak on behalf of this well-balanced package which is absolutely
critical for jobs across the Western United States and particularly
from the perspective of my home State of New Mexico.
I want to say that absolutely none of this would be possible were it
not for the years of effort and support from the local communities that
helped to craft this legislation. Thanks to their work, New Mexico's
critical public land-based economic engine will continue to grow and
the energy, tourism, and sporting and recreation sectors. New
wilderness and National Park Service units will continue to make New
Mexico an unmatched destination for world travelers as well as to the
local families who have known for centuries that New Mexico truly is
the land of enchantment.
I wish to start by talking a little bit about a place that is located
in the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico.
This is a picture of Lobo Peak, which is part of this area called
Columbine Hondo. Lobo Peak is 12,000 feet and change. It is quite a
spectacular view--the kind of view most people associate with Montana
or Colorado or Wyoming. The Sangre de Cristo mountains in northern New
Mexico are unmatched or could match any of those mountain ranges in
States found farther north in the Rockies.
Columbine Hondo has been managed as a wilderness study area since
1980. It is an area that is cherished by all who know it and is a key
attraction for the local tourism and outdoor recreation economy.
When I was a young outfitter guide and the executive director of the
Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, Columbine Hondo was one of the spectacular
destinations where our students backpacked and slept under the stars
and learned to navigate in the backcountry. This area has some of the
best elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep habitat in New Mexico. People
come from across the Nation to experience a true wilderness elk hunt in
its aspen and fir forests.
Fishermen will tell you that it is home to some of the last, best
habitat for our native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, which is,
coincidentally, New Mexico's State fish as well.
Columbine Hondo is home to the headwaters of the Red River and the
Rio Hondo. There is nothing more precious in a State such as New Mexico
than our water. Those are major tributaries of the Rio Grande. The
snowmelt from Lobo Peak, seen here, and from Gold Hill provide critical
irrigation water to local acequia associations that carry on centuries-
old agricultural traditions.
For millennia now, these mountains, rivers, and wildlife have
supported New Mexico's traditional communities. The first evidence of
human habitation here stretches back 11,000 years. Nearby Taos Pueblo
has been continuously inhabited for more than 1,000 years. Spanish
settlers first came to the area in the 16th century. Hispanic families
have relied on these mountains and their bounty for their way of life
ever since.
Today Columbine Hondo is a central attraction to visitors to Taos
County, where outdoor recreation and tourism drive the local economy
and contribute to a 68,000-job-strong public land recreation industry
in our State.
In addition to finally designating Columbine Hondo as a full-fledged
wilderness area, this package would also expand the Wheeler Peak
Wilderness by approximately 650 additional acres while modifying a
boundary in order to create a loop trail accessible by mountain bikes
along the Lost Lake Trail from Taos Ski Valley, to the East Fork Trail,
to Red River.
This proposal has broad community support, including Taos Pueblo,
many local government leaders, hunters, fishermen, business owners,
land grant heirs, ranchers, acequia parcientes, conservationists,
mountain bikers, veterans, and literally the list could go on and on.
In October, on my birthday--I could not have asked for a better
birthday gift--I was able to join the Columbine Hondo Wilderness
Coalition as well as regional stakeholders and local elected officials
for a hike into the area to highlight the conservation and water
initiatives they support. Local residents discussed why they support
permanently protecting Columbine Hondo and what the area means to them
and their livelihoods and their lives.
Esther Garcia, an acequia commissioner and the former mayor of
Questa, expressed her support well when she said:

Columbine Hondo is very important to all of us. To preserve
this beautiful wilderness area, we preserve our hunting, our
pinon picking, our herb gathering.

I thank all of the residents of Taos County who have worked hard for
decades--literally decades--to make this wilderness area a reality.
Also included in this public land package is a provision to
transition the

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Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico to new management to
increase public access. This proposal was developed after extensive
input from local residents, sportsmen, business owners, elected
officials, and is supported by a number of local chambers of commerce.
Together they decided that a national preserve, managed by the Park
Service, with a mandate for hunting and fishing to remain central to
the management of the area, was the best way to ensure expanded public
access while preserving the incredible landscape for future
generations.

As you can see from this photo, Valles Caldera is often called New
Mexico's Yellowstone for a reason. It is literally an area that was
created as a collapsed supervolcano, where cinder cones rise up out of
the high-elevation grassland and where the cinder cones and the
mountains that encircle this collapsed crater are covered in Douglas-
fir and fir and aspen forests. It is a spectacular landscape. The
Caldera is home to crystal-clear trout streams and some of the best elk
habitat in the country.
Since this area was transitioned to public ownership, the preserve
has been managed by a board of trustees charged with generating enough
revenue from user fees and other sources to make the preserve
financially self-sustaining--literally the same model used for the
Presidio in San Francisco, but, as you can see, this is not San
Francisco. This management regime has led to drastically limited public
access, with relatively high entrance and permit fees, blocking many
New Mexicans and other Americans out of this public land. By shifting
to Park Service management, we can open the Valles Caldera to the
public while conserving the incredible, really one-of-a-kind unique
resources that are found here.
As someone who has been lucky enough to draw an elk tag in the
Caldera, expanding hunting opportunities for the public is one of the
primary reasons I am supporting this proposal. The preserve model
ensures that hunting and fishing remain a central activity for the
public to enjoy. National Park Service management will help balance
expanded public access with conserving both the natural and the
incredible cultural resources that are found in this area.
Park Service management will also help bring more visitors and will
raise the national profile of the preserve for visitors from outside
New Mexico. The increase in visitors at the preserve is expected to
bring more than 200 jobs and $8 million in wages to the local
communities in the region. That is great news for places such as Los
Alamos, Espanola, and Jemez Springs.
We have seen elsewhere how protecting public lands spurs economic
development. According to Headwaters Economics, rural counties with
protected Federal lands such as national parks and preserves saw a 345-
percent increase in jobs over the last four decades, whereas rural
counties without commensurate protected public lands saw job increases
of only 83 percent in the same period.
I thank the local communities and all the elected officials who have
worked so hard for decades to make this proposal possible. I thank
Senator Tom Udall and former Senator Jeff Bingaman for their leadership
on this issue.
We all literally stand on the shoulders of giants in this community
effort, as it was Senator Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico who helped
pass the Wilderness Act and who first proposed National Park Service
management of the Valles Caldera in the early 1960s.
Additionally, as the son of a Navy sailor who literally saw the last
of the aboveground atom bomb explosions and the first of the hydrogen
bomb explosions firsthand, I am especially pleased to see that the
Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act, which was introduced by
Senator Maria Cantwell, is also included in this title. It will
establish three different educational sites--one in Los Alamos, NM, one
at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, and one at Hanford in Washington. Los
Alamos, NM, has made incredible contributions to our Nation's nuclear
history. These parks will conserve historic sites and artifacts that
played a key role in the dawn of the nuclear era, while telling the
story of the creation of the world's first atomic bomb and exploring
its consequences for our society and our world.
Finally, I would like to mention the provision in this package that
will benefit New Mexico's energy economy. It is one that I know Senator
Landrieu was very supportive and excited about. It is a bill that I
cosponsored, but it was authored by my colleague Senator Tom Udall, who
championed this effort to ensure that the Bureau of Land Management has
the staff it needs to streamline the oil and gas drilling permit
process, while at the same time strengthening the review system that
helps them meet important environmental and safety standards.
Thousands of jobs and a sizable portion of our State's economy are
supported in New Mexico by the oil and gas industry. Increasing
cooperation among Federal agencies and business is an important way to
boost job creation, while at the same time expanding domestic energy
production.
Like other Americans who value our shared lands as assets to be
utilized, to be enjoyed, and to be passed along to future generations,
these are all things worth fighting for. I am committed to carry on my
State's rich conservation history, and this legislation makes an
enormous contribution to that ever-evolving story.

I yield the floor to my colleague the Senator from Montana.
Mr. TESTER. I thank the Senator from New Mexico for his comments on
the land portion of the national defense authorization. I very much
appreciate the work he has done and his hard work fighting for the
people of New Mexico since his time in the Senate.
We thank you very much for your leadership, Senator Heinrich.
Mr. President, 1 million people live in the great State of Montana.
We are home to farmers, ranchers, working families, small business
owners, and to bold sports men and women who explore until they are too
exhausted to take another step.
Our lands are famous worldwide, from Glacier National Park and
Yellowstone National Park to wild and scenic rivers such as the North
Fork of the Flathead River. We attract the best explorers, the best
hunters and anglers, and all those who simply want to get away from it
all.
But our outdoors just aren't for out-of-staters. Montanans deeply
value our land. Many Montanans remember their first hunting trip. Many
recall where they landed their first trout. I remember riding horses
with my father in the Bear Paw Mountains.
Montanans come with a lot of opinions, but one issue that unites us
is taking care of our public lands and keeping our public lands in
public hands. We want to make sure our kids and grandkids can hike in
the Bob Marshall Wilderness, that they can catch their first fish in
the clean waters of the Madison River, and that our outdoor traditions
remain strong for generations to come.
As a Senator from Montana, it is my responsibility to make sure we
preserve these treasured places, that we responsibly use our lands to
advance the interests of our State and of our country. That is why I am
proud to support the Montana lands bills that will probably be voted on
tomorrow.
These bills are a product of years of negotiations. Ranchers and
conservationists started working on the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage
Act before I became Senator. These bills are a product of compromise
led by folks on the ground--the folks who live and breathe Montana's
outdoors every day--and these bills are a product of Montana's
congressional delegation working together to move Montana forward.
We all know Congress fails to agree on much these days. Gridlock and
roadblocks are common. Few people are willing to compromise, but when
you give a little, you get a lot. That is how Montana's lands bills
became a part of this legislation.
These bills have been vetted on the ground by Montana ranchers such
as Dusty Crary, Karl Rappold, and many others. They have been approved
by committees and negotiated for many years. They not only deliver on
our promises to Montana's ranchers but also to the outdoors men and
women, business owners, and Native American tribes. They are Montana-
made bills.
Take the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act for example. This bill
protects public access along the Rocky Mountain Front for hunters,
anglers,

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outdoors men and women. The Front is a special place in Montana lore.
It is where the Rocky Mountains shoot straight out from the plains into
the sky. It is a breathtaking, magnificent sight.
It is an ecosystem like none other in the lower 48 States. The
heritage act designates 208,000 Front acres as a conservation
management area, adds another 67,000 acres to the Bob Marshall
Wilderness, and supports a noxious weed management plan.
At the same time, it allows for continued grazing access for Montana
ranchers, follows BLM recommendations on approximately 14,000 acres of
wilderness study areas, and requires new assessments of oil and gas
potential in two others.
Some will question the details of this bill and others in the
package, but Montanans know how to responsibly manage our lands. We
know what irresponsible development looks like.
More than 100 years ago mining corporations pillaged our lands in
their search for copper, silver, and other minerals. Not only did they
turn our mountains inside out and pollute our waters, they ignored
workers' rights and bought influence over Montana's elected leaders.
In response, Montana passed legislation to limit corporate influence
in elections in 1912. We followed that in the 1970s with one of the
most progressive State constitutions to date, enshrining protections
for a clean and healthy environment into law.
A fellow by the name of Max Baucus got his first taste of politics
during that Constitutional Convention, the same Max Baucus who worked
on and introduced the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act in 2011.
Passing this land bill helps fulfill Max's legacy in Montana and honors
the hard work of his staff and the bill's many supporters.
Before Max introduced this bill, he received a letter from a rancher
along the Front. Ben Pierce was his name. Ben told Max he wanted to see
the Front remain a place with both well-managed working ranches and
vibrant wildlife values.
Ben supported the bill because he knew that preserving the ranching
culture was critical to Montana's economy and our way of life, but he
also supported the bill because he knows we must preserve Montana's
most special places.
That is because Montana's outdoor treasures are not only symbols of
our heritage, they are also incredible economic drivers. Montana's
outdoor economy, thanks to places such as Glacier and Yellowstone,
creates or sustains some 64,000 jobs and contributes nearly $6 billion
to the State's economy every year. That is impressive in a State of
just 1 million people.
From outdoor stores to park cafes, Montana's economy thrives when
Montana's outdoors are preserved and accessible. Preservation and
access are also the cornerstones of the North Fork Protection Act,
another legacy of Senator Baucus. The bill permanently protects the
American side of the North Fork of the Flathead River watershed by
barring future mining or drilling.

The land is adjacent to Glacier National Park. It is bound by snow-
capped mountains, ringed by awe-inspiring valleys, and bisected by
beautiful blue-green waters that are home to some of the Nation's best
whitewater rafting.
Its Canadian cousin across the border is already protected. Thanks to
this bill, the American side of the watershed will be protected from
oil and gas development forever.
Preserving the North Fork is not only good for the wildlife or the
hiker who enjoys it, it is also good for our economy and our nearby
communities.
That is why this bipartisan bill is supported by the local chamber of
commerce and by the mayor of nearby Whitefish, who said this bill's
passage ``means permanent protection of our community's water supply,''
and we all know how important water is.
These two measures are not the only bills that will benefit Montana
in this lands package.
My Cabin Fee Act provides economic certainty for folks who have seen
their fees skyrocket on Forest Service cabins. Many of these cabins
pass from generation to generation, and this bill makes sure family
cabins can be enjoyed by those who cherish them.
This package also does right by our Native American friends. The
Northern Cheyenne Lands Act restores the tribe's mineral rights to
5,000 acres within its boundaries, strengthening the tribe's control
over its lands, resources, and trust funds.
It corrects an error that was made by the Federal Government more
than 100 years ago. That, in and of itself, makes it a worthy endeavor.
But there are other areas where we can work together. Just as these
bills are Montana-made solutions, we can--and I believe we will--come
together over Montana-made solutions to better manage our forests.
For decades folks in Montana have argued over our lands, battled over
access, and we have fought over resource development. We have sued and
countersued over logging, but in Montana we haven't had a new
wilderness designation in 31 years. Why? Because we haven't been able
to compromise, but now we have. It means progress for Montana.
This agreement is bipartisan, and I was proud to work with Senator
Walsh and Senator-elect Daines to bring it to reality. I hope we can
find more ways to compromise over lands issues and other legislation
moving forward because, after all, it is the future that matters most.
Whether this body is debating immigration reform or an education
system, how to rebuild infrastructure, we must always look to the
future.
We want the best for ourselves and for our communities. We want to
leave this world in better shape than we inherited it, and we want to
pass down our treasured lands and outdoor traditions to our kids and
our grandkids wherever they may live. Places such as the Rocky Mountain
Front and the North Fork are living legacies to Montana's greatness.
There are many reasons to preserve these places, but the best I have
heard comes from Gene Sentz, who hails from Choteau, MT. Gene wrote a
book about the Rocky Mountain Front. In it he quoted another Montanan
who said: ``Some places on Earth should be left alone, even if solid
gold lies beneath it them.''
I couldn't agree more. Montana is home to sky-touching mountains and
beautiful plains that roll on as far as the eye can see. It is home to
many hard-working men and women and to Native Americans with deep
connections to the land.
But it is the last best place because we are all of these things and
because we are willing to work together to preserve and strengthen
them.
I am very proud of this historic agreement, and today I am
particularly proud to be a Montanan.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HEITKAMP. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Vietnam Veterans

Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I was struck by the last two great
speakers, Senator Heinrich and Senator Tester, showing us amazing
pictures of the beauty of the Western part of our wonderful country. I
thought, well, those are really beautiful pictures--not quite as
beautiful as North Dakota, but we will acknowledge that these are areas
that will open your soul, open your eyes, and make it possible for you
to see the beauty that is this great country and the resilience of the
people who settled in the areas of the West.
It made me think--and I think, more importantly, understand--that all
of what we are in this country is only possible because men and women,
for centuries, have stepped up to serve our country and to serve our
country in the Armed Forces.
I rise to talk about an issue that hasn't gotten a lot of attention
in this country, this quiet thing that is going on in the VFW halls,
the AMVETS, the DAVs, and the American Legion halls in my State.
I am talking about not only that kind of sacrifice but recognizing
and moving to a special recognition this year. So I want to talk about
North Dakotans because we are all extraordinarily proud of our States,
but we

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know in North Dakota that North Dakotans have always answered the call
to serve, in particular, my friends within the Native American
community, who have answered that call to service in record numbers.
I have made it a priority during my time in the Senate to meet as
many of my State veterans as I can. I want to hear their stories and I
want to learn about the challenges of their everyday lives and what we
need to do to fulfill our obligation and our sacred trust to live up to
the commitments we made, as they lived up to the commitments they made
to serve our country and to protect our freedoms on the battlefields
around the world.
Through these trips I have met a lot of wonderful veterans--World War
II veterans and their proud stories of their service in the Pacific and
Europe. I have met Korean war veterans with memories of what is often
referred to as the forgotten war. It may be forgotten by others, but it
is not forgotten by me or the people in my great State of North Dakota.
Then there are our newest veterans, with new challenges, from the
conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the overall war against terror.
These young veterans, men and women, face difficult challenges, and I
think many different challenges than perhaps their counterparts from
previous service relationships. But I think they are helping change the
way our Nation sees our veterans.
All of these veterans, without a doubt, deserve a place of honor in
our society. All of them served and deserve our thanks for their
service and their sacrifice. Together, they have protected our freedoms
and allowed our Nation to flourish. But today--today--I want to talk
and focus on America's Vietnam veterans--North Dakota's Vietnam
veterans.
We are in the midst--and I am not sure a lot of people know this--of
a remembrance of the 50-year anniversary of the Vietnam war. On May 25,
2012, President Obama issued a proclamation. I have the proclamation
here. This proclamation was issued to honor our Vietnam vets--those
brave servicemen who gave their lives--and their families. It is to
honor all the veterans' service, but particularly to recognize those
who lost their lives. I want to quote from this proclamation:

As a grateful Nation, we honor more than 58,000 patriots--
their names etched in black granite--

That monument is not too far from this symbol of American democracy,
our Nation's Capitol.

--who sacrificed all they had and all they would ever know.
We draw inspiration from the heroes who suffered unspeakably
as prisoners of war, yet who returned home with their heads
held high. We pledge to keep faith with those who were
wounded and still carry the scars of war, seen and unseen.

This special period of honoring our Vietnam veterans runs through
2025, since our involvement in the war stretched through 1975. That is
the period which we are going to recognize as the 50-year commemoration
and anniversary as this period continues.
It remains important to talk about the Vietnam war and its veterans
as much as possible. The Vietnam war represents a difficult time in our
Nation's history. By taking time to thank our Vietnam vets and honor
their service, our Nation makes another great attempt to bind up the
unhealed wounds left behind.
In North Dakota, there have already been a number of veterans events
related to the 50th anniversary of Vietnam. I am sure such events are
happening in many other States. In fact, there is a Web site--if you
want to check it out--where you can look at what is happening in every
State across the Union honoring Vietnam veterans in ceremonies being
prepared and mainly driven by veterans groups. Hopefully--and one of
the purposes in coming here is to urge my colleagues to participate in
those events--to participate as they do every day in saying thank you
to our Iraqi war vets and our Afghanistan war vets--participate in any
event that you can to say thank you to our Vietnam veterans and to the
families of those people in your State who lost their loved ones in
service to their country.
For myself, I plan to host an event to honor all Vietnam veterans
throughout North Dakota next year. Through this effort I hope to help
make our Nation remember and never forget the needs of our Vietnam
veterans. The Congress needs to make policy decisions so the VA can
meet the needs of the next generation of veterans, but we can't forget
the unique needs of our Vietnam era veterans.
I have spent hours talking to Vietnam veterans who tell me
repeatedly: When I got out of the service, the last thing I wanted to
do was go to the VA. And there are a lot of reasons for that. In the
1970s, the VA wasn't a place where people thought they could go for
quality health care, where they thought they could go for help. They
wanted to forget that part of their service. So a lot of those unseen
wounds of servicemen from the Vietnam war went unhealed, and it
manifests itself in a high rate of homelessness, a high rate of
poverty, a high rate of substance abuse, and a high rate of despair.
We are seeing now that our Vietnam veterans--in both those who have
lived incredibly fruitful lives and are now aging into the system--
coming back to our VAs across the country, coming back to our
community-based outreach clinics, coming back to our VA hospitals, and
for the first time asking for access to service. They are finding they
do not always see the level of service they are entitled to.
I recently worked to restore and provide the appropriate paperwork so
a Vietnam veteran who had clearly earned a Purple Heart actually
received the benefits of a recipient of the Purple Heart in the VA. All
of these issues will now begin to work their way through the VA. They
will continue to work their way through our veterans service
organizations.

It is time, I think, to take a pause, as the President did in this
proclamation. And to understand the basis of this, it was required by a
bill similar to the one we are debating today--NDAA--to begin this
commemoration. It was a mandate from this Congress--not this particular
Congress, but from the U.S. Congress--to begin to have this ceremony.
I was struck by the fact that when our veterans have lost their lives
in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of us have pictures in our offices. We
have a poster or some kind of commemoration in our office of that
sacrifice. Yet we have never seen that kind of commemoration or that
kind of depiction for our Vietnam veterans. So along with the AMVETS in
the great city of Bismarck, which has done tons of research in
collecting pictures and collecting images of the 198 veterans, the 198
servicemen from North Dakota who lost their lives in Vietnam, I thought
it an appropriate commemoration for my office to have something that we
walk by every day and, therefore, say to the families of all these
young men who are on this poster that every day we honor their
sacrifice, we honor your loss, and we honor the fact that we will never
know what these 198 young men could have been had they survived this
war. We don't know if they could have been standing here giving a
speech instead of me. We don't know if they would have been mayors of
our small towns or the industrial leaders who invented a product as
lucrative and as innovative as the Bobcat, which originated in North
Dakota. It was invented in North Dakota and it is manufactured in North
Dakota. We will never know.
But one thing we do know--the one thing we do know--about all of
these men is they lost their lives and sacrificed to the greatest
extent that one can sacrifice in honor and service of this country, and
they deserve to have this period of remembrance. They deserve to have a
recognition, and their families deserve to have the United States of
America pause--pause for a period of time to say thank you--thank you
from a grateful nation.
So posters like this will be in every one of my offices across North
Dakota and certainly here in the Nation's Capitol. I know for States
such as that of the Presiding Officer's State of Massachusetts, just
looking at the numbers, it is probably not possible to have a
photographic image of every Vietnam veteran or every person who served
in Vietnam and who, unfortunately, lost their life, but it is possible
to have their name. It is possible to have a place of remembrance where
they can be honored during this time period mandated by this body and
approved

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and proclaimed by the President of the United States. It is possible to
have a place of honor and remembrance.
So I intend, over the next year, to come and talk a little bit about
the lives of each one of these young men, to talk about the challenges
of Vietnam veterans, to talk about what it is we need to do today to
make up for past sins of this country in not recognizing this service.
I challenge the other Members of this body to do the same thing during
this period of remembrance and recognition and honor, and to think
about not just the past but to think about the future; think about the
amazing sacrifice of 198 North Dakotans who gave their lives in service
to our State and in service to our country and for the betterment of
all humankind.
With that, Mr. President, the challenge is issued.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp). Without objection, it is so
ordered.

____________________