[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 100 (Monday, June 22, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4338-S4340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       Tragedy in South Carolina

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, before I speak about the two nominees who 
are before us this afternoon, I feel compelled to make a couple of 
brief comments about the tragedy that occurred in South Carolina. 
Sometimes it is difficult to understand why there still seems to be so 
much hatred in the world.
  I remember the President and First Lady of Rwanda telling my wife and 
me what had happened that led up to that genocide back years ago in 
which 1 million people were hacked to death with machetes because of 
the enmity and hatred between two tribes, where people didn't think of 
themselves as Rwandan, they thought of themselves as Hutu or Tutsi. And 
that enmity, that rivalry turned into hatred, and the hatred was 
spurred on by hate-talk over the airwaves. So we know about that sad 
chapter of two peoples who did unimaginable things, and here we see 
this continues.
  I am reminded--because it is emblazoned in my mind's eye--of three 
decades ago and looking out the window of our spacecraft back at Earth. 
From that perspective, when you look back at Earth, which is so 
beautiful and so colorful, so creative as it is suspended in the middle 
of nothing, you don't see racial divisions, you don't see religious 
divisions, and you don't see ethnic divisions. What you see is this 
beautiful creation. My mind's eye carries that view constantly and that 
reminder that we are all in this together. Yet, on the face of the 
Earth, we always want to divide; we always want to separate; we want to 
say: You are different than I, and, as a result, I am going to take it 
out on you. The great genius of America is that we have overcome a lot 
of that by assimilating people of different colors and different races 
and different creeds and different backgrounds and different religions 
all together so that we think of ourselves as Americans first. In the 
world in which the Presiding Officer and I live--the world of 
politics--we have had a lot of that divisiveness, and we ought to be 
thinking of ourselves as Americans instead of as Republicans or 
Democrats.
  This tragedy has riveted the Nation. It has riveted the Nation also 
on the question of the battle flag of the Confederacy.
  This Senator's great-great grandfather, at the time of the Battle of 
Marianna, was well past 50 years. So he had not fought in the Civil 
War, but he was conscripted by the Home Guards to go into the Battle of 
Marianna, where he was taken prisoner and ended up in the northern 
prisoner-of-war camp, where so many of the prisoners died, in Elmira, 
NY. He probably survived because that winter that killed so many--the 
winter of 1864-1865--because he was past 50 years old, they probably 
did not put him in one of those cotton tents on the hillside where 
disease and cold took over.
  But why should we attach our allegiance to a flag that represents 
separation instead of embracing ``out of many, one''; ``In God We 
Trust''; ``e pluribus unum''--``out of many, one''?
  It was announced in the press this afternoon that the Governor of 
South Carolina said: Let's take that battle flag down from the capitol 
grounds in Columbia, SC, and put it in a museum.
  We will see the ensuing fight that occurs with regard to the 
legislature and changing the law. It was a few years ago that a very 
courageous Republican Governor led the effort to take that battle flag 
off the top of the capitol in South Carolina and put it at that 
Confederate monument still on the capitol grounds. That courageous 
Republican Governor lost his next election as a result of that.
  So it is time for us to move on. It is time for us to start thinking 
about unity and coming together. As the Good Book says, come, let us 
reason together.
  Those are the remarks I wanted to make.
  I wish to speak about our two nominees.
  The nominee for TSA whom the Senator from Delaware just spoke about, 
Coast Guard VADM Peter Neffenger, has obviously had a distinguished 
career. His reputation precedes him, with 34 years in a variety of 
capacities. He has expertise in critical areas of crisis management and 
port security, which will serve him well as the head of TSA, and I 
believe the Senate will confirm him today. He was involved in that 
disastrous oilspill in the gulf. He was the national incident commander 
and he helped lead that emergency response. We are still seeing the 
results of that spill, those of us on the gulf coast, and that disaster 
required coordination between all levels of government and all of its 
agencies, as well as the management of people and technology.

[[Page S4340]]

  Recently, it has been pointed out, as we receive new information 
about the status and condition of that ruptured well, the incident 
command had to weigh the risk and make difficult choices with a lot of 
incomplete information. Well, he exhibited strong leadership then, and 
I believe he will give that leadership to an agency which needs that 
strong leadership now.
  The next nominee we will consider is Daniel Elliott to be a member of 
the Surface Transportation Board. That is an important agency which 
helps ensure we have a strong and efficient rail network to move goods 
throughout the United States.
  We know how vital the railroad industry is to our economy and getting 
goods to market. We have to do that, and we can't do it with just 
trucks. We need the bulk of the materials to be carried on the rails. 
Decisions made by the Surface Transportation Board have long-lasting 
impacts on our Nation's economic competitiveness, and that is why last 
week the Senate passed the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization 
Act of 2015--to make the agency more efficient and effective.
  We need individuals who are qualified to serve, and Daniel Elliott is 
such an individual. Earlier this year, he was nominated to be 
reappointed as a member of the Board. He previously served as Chairman. 
He also has had a great deal of experience as an attorney, including 
close to two decades litigating in the transportation sector. I ask the 
Senate to join in and support Mr. Elliott's nomination.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
Senate as in morning business for 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.