Congressional Record, Volume 161 Issue 33 (Thursday, February 26, 2015)

[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 33 (Thursday, February 26, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1128-S1129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2015--MOTION TO
PROCEED

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 240, which the
clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 5, H.R. 240, a bill
making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other
purposes.

Mr. REID. 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. RUBIO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Without objection, it is so
ordered.

Order of Procedure

Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
recess from 12:45 p.m. until 1:45 p.m.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. RUBIO. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Are we in morning business?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are on the motion to proceed.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. I will be speaking on the bill before us.
Madam President, we are just days away from an unthinkable government
shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. A government shutdown
of the Department whose mission is to protect the citizens of this
country is reckless and dangerous while we are under threat of attack
by terrorist groups.
What kind of message does it send to ISIS, to cyber criminals, and to
criminal drug gangs if Congress can't keep the Department of Homeland
Security open?
This weekend we learned that a terror group from Somalia, al-Shabaab,
released an online video calling for attacks on the Mall of America in
Minnesota, as well as malls in Canada and England.
Just yesterday we learned that three Brooklyn, NY, men were arrested
for plotting to travel to Syria to join ISIS. If they weren't
successful in getting to Syria, they allegedly planned to commit an act
of terrorism in the United States, and one even offered to kill
President Obama if ordered to do so.
The role of the Department of Homeland Security in protecting our
country from these threats and from so many others cannot be
overstated. It is DHS that is working with State and local officials in
Minnesota to coordinate a response to the Mall of America threat, and
it is DHS and the Secret Service that help provide the counterterrorism
and intelligence-gathering efforts that led to the arrests of the
Brooklyn men who wanted to do harm in this country.
Referencing yesterday's arrests in Brooklyn, New York City Police
Commissioner Bill Bratton said that this is not the time to engage in
activities that would threaten our counterterrorism capabilities and
effectively hold our counterterrorism agencies hostage to political
machinations. This is not the time to be engaging in political rhetoric
and political grandstanding.
I think Commissioner Bratton is right. Our Nation is already on high
alert for terror threats after attacks in Sydney, Australia, and
Ottawa, Canada, and in Paris. The Mall of America threat and the
Brooklyn arrests reinforce the fact that we need our law enforcement
community operating on all cylinders. Sadly, these aren't isolated
threats.
A few weeks ago I spoke with the deputy commissioner of the New York
City Police Department. He told me about the many terror attacks that
have been thwarted in New York City since 9/11. He credited DHS, the
funding, and programs that are coordinated through DHS and the
personnel there for helping New York to prevent attacks from happening.
I have heard the same thing at home in New Hampshire from our law
enforcement and first responders. I was in the town of Hampton, which
is a coastal community, on Monday of this week. They talked about the
importance of DHS support in developing a unified command for all of
law enforcement in New Hampshire. They talked about the importance of
the fusion center that is funded through the Department of Homeland
Security because of the intelligence-gathering they do there and how
they share that information with law enforcement agencies all across
New Hampshire. Then they took me in and showed me a diagram of a human
trafficking case that they are working on with the help of the
Department of Homeland Security.

So this is not just about the big cities in the United States, it is
about our rural communities, and it is about States across this country
that rely on the Department of Homeland Security to help with their
internal security. Yet here we are, less than 2 days away from shutting
down the Department of Homeland Security because of unrelated
ideological disagreements.
I am, however, very encouraged by recent developments here in the
Senate, with yesterday's 98-to-2 vote to allow the Senate at some point
in the future--hopefully sometime today--to pass a clean, full-year
funding bill for DHS. I again applaud Senators McConnell and Reid for
their efforts to get us to this point. I think we need leaders who are
willing to work together, who are willing to encourage us here in the
Senate. We saw that in the last few days with Senators McConnell and
Reid.
Once the Senate acts, however, we will need the House of
Representatives to join us in putting aside our ideological and
political differences and passing a bill without controversial riders,
a bill that will fund the Department of Homeland Security.
As we have discussed in this Chamber, there are disagreements about
immigration and about the President's Executive action. I am certainly
happy to have debate about that. I know there are others who are happy
to have a debate. But first we need to fund the Department of Homeland
Security. We need to put safety and security ahead of our ideological
differences. We are just 2 days away from a devastating shutdown of
DHS. We do not have time to waste. I certainly hope that we will act
quickly here and that the House will also act quickly.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

Net Neutrality

Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, a battle has been raging online in the
past year. Millions of citizens, companies, innovators, and
entrepreneurs have been sounding an alarm calling us to electronic
arms. These 21st-century Netizens took to the street and they took to
the Net. They raised their voices and demanded that the FCC protect the
world's greatest platform for communications and commerce.
Today we declare victory. Today we say the economy and the free
expression of ideas depend on Net neutrality. Today we say an open and
free Internet is as important as keeping our air and water clean and
our roads and highways safe. Today we say Net neutrality is here to
stay. Today is Internet freedom and innovation day.
Just today the Federal Communications Commission is making historic
decisions to enshrine Net neutrality protections. The Commission is
voting to use its power to protect the tremendous power of the
Internet. This battle for Net neutrality means that the Internet is
protected for decades to come. It is protected for all the students and
startups, for all the businesses and online buyers, for all of the
inventors, the innovators, and the Internet users.
By banning paid prioritization, blocking, and throttling, the FCC is
applying the principles of nondiscrimination--which is what Net
neutrality really is--nondiscrimination to the

[[Page S1129]]

broadband world. This is the next chapter in the history of American
innovation. It is our country's declaration of innovation. Chairman
Wheeler and the FCC are on the right side of history.
This battle for Net neutrality was not fought without opposition. The
deep-pocketed broadband barons want to turn the Internet into a set of
gated communities. They say it will raise taxes. They say it is an
overreach. They say it will not stand up in court. Some claim it will
harm investment. But then companies such as Sprint and Verizon say it
will not, in fact, influence how they invest. So I say to the critics:
Do you want to return to the days when a few telecommunications
giants--which today we would call big broadband barons--control the
vital wires and spectrum we use to communicate or do we want a free,
dynamic, open market where the best in ideas survives and thrives? The
choice is clear.
The FCC Commissioners supporting the open Internet order have made
the right choice. Today the people won. I applaud the FCC and Chairman
Wheeler for standing up for students in their dorm rooms, engineers in
their basements, and innovators in their garages. I applaud the FCC for
standing up for the best ideas, not merely the best funded ideas. The
FCC has chosen the right path forward. I commend the Commission for
that action.
Reclassifying broadband under title II is a major victory for
consumers, for our democracy, and for our economy. Consider that in
2013, 62 percent of the venture capital funds invested in this country
went toward Internet-specific and software companies. The free flow of
ideas supported by the Internet are creating the companies launching
the global revolution and supporting the communications that we rely on
every day. We want a free, dynamic, open market where the best in ideas
survives and thrives.
Today is a historic, revolutionary day for consumers, innovators,
entrepreneurs--anyone who counts on the Internet to connect to the
world. I applaud and I thank the millions of American revolutionaries
who stood up and fought for Net neutrality. The fight is not over.
There is much more work to be done. But today is a historic victory. It
is Internet freedom and innovation day.
Let's celebrate this transformative power of the Internet today and
for generations to come. We are going to ensure that the architecture
of the Internet remains one where the smallest entrepreneurs who can go
to the capital markets and raise the funding for the new ideas, for the
follow-on ideas to Google and eBay and Amazon and Hulu and YouTube, are
able to be joined by new companies like Dwolla, like Etsy, like Vimeo,
and like hundreds and thousands of others whose names we do not yet
know, because now they are going to have the capacity to be able to say
to their investors: We now have the capacity to reach a market. With
our ideas, we can transform some part of the way in which people
communicate in this country and on this planet.
That is what we are celebrating today--the power of the Net, the
power of individuals to come up with the capital so they can then
transform some part of the way in which we communicate in this life.
So just remember that when the 1996 Telecommunications Act passed,
there were no companies like the ones I just mentioned. That was
because it was an old world. But in the blink of an eye, a
technological eye, we have moved to this new world where each of us is
carrying a device in our pockets. Each of us is wondering how we ever
got along without the capacity to be able to tap into all of these
wonderful new companies and the products they provide. That is what
today is all about--Net neutrality day. It will not impact the
investments of the big companies, but it will ensure that the small
companies--those that received 62 percent of all venture capital in
America in the last year--will be able to provide their new products,
their new innovations, their new challenges to the way in which we
communicate. I think that is the whole key. We need to maintain the
Darwinian paranoia-inducing competition that the Net has introduced. If
we do that, then I think America will be No. 1, looking over its
shoulder at Nos. 2, 3, and 4 in the world in terms of our innovation in
the communications sector.
Congratulations to the Federal Communications Commission, and
congratulations to all entrepreneurs across America. Today is a day
when you should be celebrating.

____________________