[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 23, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4523-S4525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TRADE FACILITATION AND TRADE ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 2015

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the 
Senate the House message accompanying H.R. 644.
  The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message 
from the House of Representatives:

       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate to the title of the bill (H.R. 644) entitled ``An Act 
     to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently 
     extend and expand the charitable deduction for contributions 
     of food inventory,'' and further
       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate, with an amendment.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to insist upon the Senate 
amendment, agree to the request by the House for a conference, and 
authorize the Presiding Officer to appoint conferees.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is pending.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     insist upon the Senate amendment, agree to the request by the 
     House for a conference, and authorize the Presiding Officer 
     to appoint conferees with respect to H.R. 644.
         Mitch McConnell, Johnny Isakson, David Perdue, Chuck 
           Grassley, Thom Tillis, Marco Rubio, Daniel Coats, John 
           Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Michael B. Enzi, Kelly Ayotte, 
           Orrin G. Hatch, Roger F. Wicker, Deb Fischer, Rob 
           Portman, Cory Gardner, Richard Burr.


                           Order of Procedure

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following 
leader remarks, the time until 11 a.m. this morning be equally divided 
between the leaders or their designees, and that the second-degree 
filing deadline for H.R. 2146 and H.R. 1295 be 10:30 a.m. this morning.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                 Trade

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, the Senate's top Democrat on 
trade announced his support for the bipartisan trade legislation we 
will vote on today.
  It adds to the renewed momentum we are seeing for America's workers. 
It is showing that Democrats can join Republicans to knock down unfair 
international barriers that discriminate against America's middle 
class--barriers that for too long have prevented American workers from 
selling more of what they make and American farmers from selling more 
of what they grow. It is demonstrating that both parties can work 
together to strengthen America's national security at home and 
America's leadership abroad, instead of simply ceding the future and 
one of the world's fastest growing regions to Chinese aggression.
  It is proving that our friends can rally with us and support 1.4 
million

[[Page S4524]]

additional jobs in our country--including over 18,000 in Kentucky 
alone--as one study estimates new trade agreements with Europe and the 
Pacific could well support. These are the reasons a bill is gaining 
steam that would help advance all of these objectives--a bill that 
would enhance Congress's role in the trade process while ensuring 
Presidents of either party have the tools to secure strong and 
enforceable trade agreements.
  That is the bipartisan trade bill before us today. It passed the 
Finance Committee with strong bipartisan support in April. It passed 
the full Senate with strong bipartisan support in May. It just passed 
the House with backing from across the political spectrum as well, 
gaining the support of everyone from Chairman Ryan and Representative 
Hensarling on one side to Representative Kind on the other.
  Now it is time for the next step.
  I urge all of our colleagues to vote for cloture on this bipartisan 
trade bill today. That will open the way for final passage of TPA 
tomorrow. It will open the way for final passage of TAA and the AGOA 
and preferences measure the following day, too.
  Earlier this morning, Speaker Boehner reaffirmed his commitment to 
taking up TAA once it passes the Senate. He stated his desire to see 
both TAA and TPA on the President's desk by the end of this week, and 
he underlined the House's readiness to go to conference on the Customs 
bill. Speaker Boehner is clearly committed to building trust across the 
aisle on this issue, and I am as well. That is why I just moved to go 
to conference on the Customs bill.
  So this is where we are. Let's vote today. Let's vote today to move 
ahead on TPA, an important accomplishment for the country. Then we can 
vote to move ahead on TAA, AGOA, and preferences, and then we can vote 
to move ahead on Customs.
  If we all keep working together and trusting each other, then by the 
end of the week the President will have TPA, TAA, and AGOA and 
preferences on his desk, with Customs in the process of heading his way 
as well.
  Today is a very big vote. It is an important moment for the country. 
It sets in motion the completion of a project we set out on literally 
months ago, completing work on all four of the bills reported by the 
Finance Committee. That is what my friends on the other side have said 
they wanted, and that is what can be achieved by continuing to work 
together.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.


                           Racism In America

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, our Nation's heart remains broken over the 
senseless tragedy last week in Charleston, SC. A young man full of hate 
took the lives of nine worshippers after they welcomed him into their 
Bible study.
  Once again, someone motivated by ignorance and hatred got his hands 
on a gun and inflicted pain on innocent Americans. Once again, we must 
witness the people of a community as they struggle to reconnect and put 
the pieces of their lives back together. Once again, we are looking at 
our newspapers, watching our TV screens, and talking at our dinner 
tables about why--why did this happen?
  As the painful details emerge, we cannot turn away from the hard 
truth this tragedy lays bare: Racism still exists in our society.
  We have to accept that reality. If we ever hope to change it, we have 
to accept that reality. I watched this weekend as pundits and the 
Nation's thought leaders attempted to address this issue by 
sidestepping the truth. This violent attack was racially motivated, 
plain and simple. It was intended to terrorize the African-American 
community both in Charleston and around this Nation.
  Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King led a March in Washington, 
50 years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, 50 years after the 
march for voting rights in Selma, 50 years after Congress passed the 
Voting Rights Act, we must still face the hard truth about race in 
America. The truth is that we still have much to do. We must overcome. 
We have no choice. One cannot ignore this underlying issue.
  It deeply troubles our Nation that hatred and bigotry exist. The 
harsh reality of hatred and bigotry in this country, in addition to the 
consistent lack of opportunities in communities of color, have left far 
too many men and women of color feel that their lives really don't 
matter. It is easy to feel that your life doesn't matter when the odds 
are stacked against you every place you look, on every hand.
  Here are some of the facts African Americans face on a daily basis. 
Nearly half of all African-American families have lived in poor 
neighborhoods for at least two generations--50 percent compared to 7 
percent of White families. An African-American man is far more likely 
to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and 
sentenced to longer prison terms than a White male--10 percent longer 
for the same crimes in the Federal system. In the State system, the 
numbers are even more skewed than that.
  These facts alone illustrate that countless men and women face 
unprecedented challenges and are still judged by the color of their 
skin, not the content of their character.
  We have a moral obligation to change these realities. We must do 
everything within our power to ensure that all Americans know that 
their lives matter. This means standing for what is right, calling out 
bigotry and hatred when it is seen and felt, and then taking action to 
address the bigotry.
  It is hard to fathom that even as the community of Charleston 
grapples with the devastation of this hateful act, African-American men 
and women have to walk under a Confederate flag when they step on the 
grounds of the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia, SC.
  The Confederate flag is a symbol of the dark past from which our 
country has come. It does not and should not represent our values or 
the way we treat our fellow Americans. It is a symbol of slavery. It is 
a symbol of White supremacy. There is no other way to explain it. It 
often flew high as vile organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan torched 
African-American churches.
  This symbol of the past has no place atop buildings that govern 
Americans. It is just not who we are, and certainly it shouldn't be who 
we want to be. The flag should be removed and now.
  Yesterday, Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina said that in the 
Capitol of South Carolina the flag should not be flown. She said: We 
will do this in spite of what the State legislature feels.
  We have tried this in the past, and the State legislatures have said: 
No, we are keeping the flag flying.
  So I applaud her. I appreciate her courageous act so that the 
Confederate flag has no future in the future of South Carolina. It 
belongs in the past in every place in America, not just South Carolina. 
Anyone who desires to fly that flag on private property can do so, of 
course, but no State in our great Nation should allow this flag to soar 
above its capitol. It shouldn't soar in public places.
  We must always stand for what is right. We must stand for equality 
and justice and act to defend them. We must preserve and protect the 
rights of every American, not because it is the safe thing to do, not 
because it is popular or because it has political benefit. We must 
stand and defend equality and justice because that is the right thing 
to do.
  We must take meaningful action to ensure the safety of our citizens.
  Once again, our hearts are broken as another community struggles to 
recover from a mass shooting. I am going to mention now just a few of 
them: Fort Hood, 13 Americans killed, and this was on a military base; 
Tucson, AZ, 6 Americans killed; Carson City, NV, 4 Americans killed; 
Newtown, CT, 27 Americans dead, and 22 of them were innocent little 
children; Aurora, CO, in a movie theater, 12 killed; the Navy Yard, 
maybe a mile from here at the most, in the District of Columbia, 12 
killed; Charleston, SC--of course we know 9 were killed while in a 
Bible study class. And these are not all of the violent acts; these are 
but a handful. All of these violent events occurred within the past few 
years.

  Our country, the United States, is the only advanced country where 
this type of mass violence occurs--the only country. Per capita, in 
America we kill each other with guns at a rate 297 times higher than 
Japan, 49 times higher than France, 33 times higher than Israel, and we 
outdistance every other country by far too much.

[[Page S4525]]

  We can do something about this sad, violent reality. Let's do 
something. We can expand, for example, background checks for people who 
want to buy guns to prevent the mentally ill and criminals from buying 
guns. Is that asking too much--the mentally ill and criminals? More 
than 80 percent of the American people support this. Why can't we in 
Congress support it? The American people support it. It has bipartisan 
support. I say it over and over again. The American community is 
overwhelmingly in support of not giving guns to people who are mentally 
ill or felons. They shouldn't be able to buy guns. We should act to 
save lives by expanding these background checks. Isn't that the least 
we can do?
  I know people will come and say: Well, he wasn't a felon. Maybe so. 
But couldn't we do something? Couldn't we at least do this minimal 
thing to stop people who are sick in the head and people who are 
criminals from purchasing guns? Couldn't we at least do that?
  Einstein's definition of insanity is continuing the same thing over 
and over while expecting a different result, and that is what we are 
doing. For the future of our country, we have to change. In the face of 
racism and bigotry, we must act. We can't do nothing. We must prevent 
felons and the mentally ill from gunning down even more Americans in 
broad daylight. If we do not, we will be here again. Our hearts will be 
broken again. Again we will have to ask ourselves how we allowed 
another senseless tragedy to take place while we stood by doing nothing 
to prevent other deaths.
  Mr. President, what is the business before the Senate today?


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

                          ____________________