[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 134 (Thursday, September 17, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6793-S6798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I have come to make a unanimous consent 
request. I was going to tell the body why I was doing that and then 
make a unanimous consent request. But my colleague and friend from 
Texas, who is going to object to it, has a plane to catch, so I am 
going to make the unanimous consent request, let him object, let him 
explain why he objects, and then I will explain why I was for it. It 
won't change the thrust of this.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session 
to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 139, 140, and 141; 
that the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on 
the nominations in the order listed; that the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or 
debate; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; that 
any related statements be printed in the Record; and that the President 
be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then 
resume legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and on 
behalf of Senator Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I 
would just briefly point out that during President Obama's term of 
office, the Senate has confirmed more judicial nominees than it had at 
this point in 2007. Our pace simply follows the standard set by our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle established that year. In the 
Judiciary Committee, we have had more hearings and moved more nominees 
than we did last year.
  In terms of the Executive Calendar, everyone knows that at the end of 
last year, during the lameduck session, our Democratic friends rammed 
through 11 Federal judges. Under regular order, these judges should 
have been considered at the beginning of this Congress. That is what 
happened in 2006 when 13 nominations were returned to the President. 
Had we not confirmed in the lameduck 11 judicial nominees during last 
year, we would roughly be on pace for judicial nominations this year 
compared to 2007.
  So we are working at the usual pace, and on behalf of Chairman 
Grassley, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I regret my colleague's objection. I hope 
they will change their minds. But once again I must rise to address the 
growing crisis of judicial vacancies in our Federal and district 
courts.
  We all know it is the job of the Senate to responsibly keep up with 
the

[[Page S6794]]

need for confirmed judges. Unfortunately, my friends on the other side 
of the aisle slowed the judicial confirmation process to a crawl. They 
did their best to slow the pace of confirmation when the Senate was 
under Democratic leadership and now are sluggishly moving on 
nominations even more so in the Senate they control. It has resulted in 
a nearly 10 percent vacancy in judicial positions throughout the United 
States. There are 31 districts that are considered judicial 
emergencies, meaning they don't have enough judges to hear the 
caseload. The longer we wait to move judges through committee and to 
the floor, the worse the numbers will get.
  Let me take the Western District of New York as an example to talk a 
bit about these vacancies and what they mean in practice. Western New 
York has the cities of Buffalo and Rochester and the surrounding areas. 
There is not a single active Federal district judge in the Western 
Federal District--not one. The district has one of the busiest 
caseloads in the country. It handles more criminal cases than 
Washington, DC, or Boston. It is on the Canadian border, making it 
particularly busy, and yet they don't have a single active Federal 
judge. The delays for civil trials are by far the worst in the country. 
It takes 5 years for a median case to go to trial. That is denial of 
justice, just about. It is un-American. If not for the efforts of two 
judges on senior status who are volunteering to hear cases in their 
retirement, the Western District of New York would be at a full 
standstill.
  The lack of judges has real legal consequences. In the Western 
District of New York, Judge Skretny--on senior status--has admitted 
that he is encouraging all cases to settle in pretrial mediation in 
order to lower caseloads. Criminal trials are prioritized while civil 
trials languish in delay. The two retired judges, who are the only ones 
reading cases at the moment, are spending far less time on each 
individual case than they would under normal circumstances. And 
defendants may be inclined to settle, admit guilt, and take plea deals 
rather than wait out a lengthy trial process.
  As many of my colleagues have said so eloquently, the harsh truth is 
that for these petitioners, companies, and communities, justice is 
being delayed and thus denied. And the same story line is playing out 
in courtrooms throughout the country. This is not how our judicial 
system is supposed to work, and it should be an easy problem to 
rectify.
  Right now, there are 13 noncontroversial judges on the Executive 
Calendar, and 3 more were reported out of committee today. Of those, 
three are highly qualified judges from New York, including one from the 
Western District. I know these nominees. They are brilliant people, 
experienced jurists, and above all they are moderate. This Senator 
believes in moderation in the choosing of judges. Larry Vilardo and Ann 
Donnelly are two whom I have recommended, and LaShann DeArcy Hall was 
recommended by a good friend, the junior Senator from New York, Senator 
Gillibrand. They should all be confirmed, but we don't know when they 
will come up for a vote. All of these nominees exceed my standards for 
judicial nominees. In his or her own way, each brings excellence, 
moderation, and diversity to the Federal bench.
  They are not the only outstanding nominees we have. We have judges 
pending from Missouri, California, and several other States--
represented by Republican Senators as much as Democrats--which are 
experiencing the same judicial emergencies and heavy caseloads. These 
are nominees who have already moved out of committee, all with 
bipartisan support. I am not offending the traditional committee 
process by asking simply to move them off the floor and onto the bench 
where they belong.
  I came to the floor last July to request that we move to confirm 
these nominees. Unfortunately, my request was blocked by my good friend 
the Senator from Iowa. In response to my request, I was basically told: 
The nominees are moving along just fine. Be patient.
  Well, we are several months later and still we have no indication 
that these judicial nominees will ever be moved off the Executive 
Calendar for a vote.
  I was told--and I am paraphrasing--that if one would only count all 
the judges Democrats confirmed at the end of the last Congress, the 
Republican record on judges wouldn't look so bad. With all due respect 
to my friend from Iowa, I don't believe he can take credit for our work 
like that. One cannot slice and dice the numbers to make the Republican 
record on judicial confirmations any better. Listen to this. The fact 
is that the Republican leadership has scheduled votes on only six 
Federal judges this whole Congress--six--less than one a month. There 
is no reason for that.
  Even if we did give Republicans credit for the judges the Democrats 
approved at the end of last Congress, we would still be far behind the 
pace of confirmations in the past because by comparison, through the 
seventh year of President Bush's Presidency where there was a 
Republican President but Democrats controlled the Senate, 29 judges had 
been approved--6 compared to 29. How is that parity?
  When Democrats controlled the Senate during the final 2 years of 
George W. Bush's Presidency, we confirmed 68 judges. When Republicans 
controlled the Senate during the 2 final years of President Clinton's 
Presidency, we confirmed 73 judges. How many confirmations have there 
been in these last 2 years when Republicans have controlled the Senate, 
having a Democratic President? Six. The comparison numbers are 73, 68, 
6. Is that equal? Is that the same as they are always doing, as they 
say? Of course not.
  The Republican majority is confirming judges at the slowest rate in 
more than 60 years, and as a result, the number of current vacancies 
has shot up nearly 50 percent and the number of judicial emergencies 
has increased 158 percent. In no world is that a reasonable pace, as I 
have been assured by my colleagues.
  There are no values more American than the speedy application of 
justice and the right to petition the government for a redress of 
grievances. Frankly, neither of these can be achieved without judges on 
the bench. The equal and fair application of justice is necessarily 
tarnished by a courtroom without a judge. It is as simple as that.
  So today I moved that we move to New York's pending judicial 
nominations, but the request was rejected. I hope my colleagues will 
think this through. It is a blemish on this Congress. It is a blemish 
on the idea that we are getting things done. It is a blemish when our 
Republican leader says this Congress is doing things at a better pace 
than in previous years.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Tribute to Federal Employees

                Dr. Michelle Colby and Jonathan McEntee

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, literally every month of this year, I have 
come to the Senate floor to do something that one of our former 
colleagues, Ted Kaufman, who served as our Senator for 2 years after 
Joe Biden became Vice President--Ted used to come to the floor not on a 
monthly basis but even more frequently than that to talk about what was 
being done by any number of Federal employees across our country, to 
draw attention to the fact that these are not nameless, faceless 
bureaucrats, these are people who do important work for each of us in a 
variety of ways.
  What I have tried to do in the last several months--I think most of 
this year--is to come to the floor to recognize the work not of the 
Federal employees at large but the work of a few of the many exemplary 
Department of Homeland Security employees and to thank them for their 
dedication to their mission and their service to our Nation, which is 
an important one. And the reason I have particular interest in this is 
that I have been the senior Democrat on homeland security the last 
couple of years, and I worked with Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. The two of 
us were privileged to lead the committee.
  In June I spoke about several outstanding officers in the U.S. Coast

[[Page S6795]]

Guard, one of them a petty officer, a woman named Joscelyn Greenwell, 
who is stationed at Coast Guard Station Indian River Inlet in southern 
Delaware, which is just a little bit north of Bethany Beach and just 
south of Rehoboth. In July I had the opportunity to actually visit 
Petty Officer Greenwell and 30 of her colleagues to learn more about 
how she and her unit serve and how they protect the rest of us. It is 
not just Delawareans who seek recreation--fish, boat, and swim--in the 
inland bays in Delaware or in the Atlantic ocean; people from all over 
the country and actually all over the world do that, and we are 
grateful.
  But the devotion of Petty Officer Greenwell and her colleagues to 
their mission is shared by thousands of men and women serving with the 
U.S. Coast Guard and throughout the Department of Homeland Security. 
The Coast Guard used to be part of Treasury, as I recall, but today it 
is, since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, part of 
DHS.
  Well, today I want to just take just a few minutes to recognize the 
service of and say thanks to two other exemplary public servants who 
work at the Department of Homeland Security, not in the Coast Guard, 
but in this case, in the Science and Technology Directorate. While many 
at the Department of Homeland Security put their lives on the line 
along our borders, at our ports of entry, and our airports or in 
response to disasters, some are working behind the scenes to secure our 
homeland against new threats or better respond to those we face today.
  This is what happens every day at the Science and Technology 
Directorate. They give their all to provide frontline personnel the 
best tools and tactics that are available. Essentially, the role of the 
Department's Science and Technology employees is to keep our homeland 
security efforts a step ahead of the ever-evolving threats we face as a 
nation. They do this through state-of-the-art research and development 
issues performed by some of our Nation's top engineers, top scientists, 
top researchers.
  The product of their work is deployed across the Department. From 
cyber security, to biological defense, to border security, Science and 
Technology's research, development, and science work is truly vital to 
all of us. Science and Technology employees work closely with the trade 
and travel industry and with many academic groups as well. They also 
work closely with other research and scientific agencies across all 
levels of government to meet the needs of first responders, to enhance 
strategy and analysis, and to bolster operations and capability.
  Among the threats that science and technology seeks to address are 
the threats to our agricultural system. Agriculture is, of course, 
vital to our Nation's economic stability and our security. In Delaware, 
agriculture remains one of the key industries at the heart of the 
State's economic activity. I think of Delaware as a three- or four-
legged stool--at least our economy sits on a three- or four-legged 
stool.
  One of the strong legs, in Southern Delaware especially, is 
agriculture. In Sussex Country Delaware, we produce more chickens than 
any county in America. In Sussex County, Delaware--we only have three 
counties. The biggest--Sussex County is the third largest county in 
Delaware, but they produce more chickens in Sussex County than any 
county in America. We raise more soybeans in Sussex County, Delaware, 
and we feed it to the chickens, along with corn and other things. But 
biological and manmade threats to our food, whether it is poultry, 
avian influenza, and so forth, whether manmade threats to our food or 
animal agriculture system could have devastating impacts to our economy 
and to our day-to-day lives. It certainly poses a great threat to the 
Delmarva Peninsula and other places where we raise poultry--and turkeys 
for that matter. That is why the Department of Homeland Security has a 
number of employees at Science and Technology whose mission is to 
prevent and protect against threats to our agricultural infrastructure. 
In July, I held a hearing, alongside my colleague, Homeland Security 
and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. We 
held the hearing to examine the threat that avian influenza poses to 
public health and also to our poultry industry.
  In recent months, parts of the poultry industry across our country 
have been grappling with the devastating outbreak of avian influenza. 
Although the spread of this disease has slowed, and most of the areas 
that were affected were in the central part of our country, including 
Wisconsin, including Iowa, many States have lost millions of chickens 
and turkeys to this disease. As a result, the economic losses our 
farmers and businesses are dealing with in those parts of the country 
are staggering.
  The Presiding Officer probably does not know this--maybe he does--but 
there are roughly 300 chickens for every person in Delaware, as I said. 
I mentioned we raise more chickens in Sussex County than any county in 
America, but our poultry farmers create--ready for this--more than $2.7 
billion in State economic activity each year and account for about 70 
percent of our State's agricultural exports. We have cows we milk, 
dairy cattle, we have pigs, we raise a lot of lima beans and that kind 
of thing, but poultry is the 800-pound gorilla in the room in our 
economy.
  Luckily for our poultry farmers in the Delmarva Peninsula and across 
the country, public servants like Dr. Michelle Colby are working at the 
Department of Homeland Security on cutting-edge research to protect 
against potential disease outbreaks like the avian influenza, the avian 
flu.
  Here she is right now, Dr. Michelle Colby. I will talk a little bit 
about Michelle, if I may. She is the Branch Chief of Agriculture 
Defense at the Science and Technology Directorate. Her mission is to 
develop tools, including vaccines and diagnostics, to prevent livestock 
from natural and manmade disease threats. Michelle works closely with 
the Department of Agriculture to help develop and support research 
projects, track their progress, and stay ahead of existing and emerging 
threats.
  She has also the critically important responsibility of making sure 
research and development programs across our Federal Government are 
well coordinated, not duplicated, and always ready to respond to 
disease outbreaks. A primary part of this woman's job is to make sure 
Science and Technology, where she works within DHS, uses the lessons 
learned from previous disease outbreaks to inform research and prevent 
or better control future outbreaks.

  In fact, information gathered during the last few years as part of 
another project at Science and Technology is currently being used by 
Michelle's team to help the Department of Agriculture in its response 
to the avian influenza outbreak I just mentioned. Michelle and her team 
were also instrumental in helping combat another recent threat to our 
Nation's agricultural industry and to us, foot-and-mouth disease.
  In May of 2012, they secured a conditional license to a Department of 
Homeland Security foot-and-mouth disease vaccine for use in cattle. 
This was the first foot-and-mouth disease vaccine ever licensed in the 
United States--ever licensed in the United States. The conditional 
license was renewed in May of last year and is now valid through I 
think May of next year. Michelle and her team's important work did not 
go unnoticed. They were finalists for the Partnership for Public 
Service to America Medal for their efforts.
  According to her colleagues, Michelle is ``one of the most respected 
scientists in the area of Veterinary Science.'' Her colleagues tell me 
she never loses sight of her critical mission and that she is a 
dedicated public servant of the highest integrity. Michelle earned her 
bachelor of science degree in animal science from the University of 
Maryland Eastern Shore. That is on the Delmarva Peninsula. She is our 
neighbor just to the south of us. She has also a doctor of veterinary 
medicine degree from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary 
Medicine. She also has a master of science in epidemiology from the 
University of Maryland College Park.
  Interestingly enough, her graduate work focused on the Delmarva 
poultry industry. While some of the important work at--let me just say: 
Michelle, thank you for what you do, not just for Delmarva, not just 
for those who are

[[Page S6796]]

involved in the poultry industry but thank you for what you do for our 
country and all of us who, frankly, enjoy eating poultry and for all of 
us who are involved in exporting and selling poultry around the world.
  It used to be that 1 out of every 100 chickens we raised in America 
we exported, then it was 5 out of 100, 10 out of 100, and now it is 20 
out of 100. We are negotiating a new transpacific trade partnership 
with 11 other countries that will encompass about 40 percent of the 
world's markets. We want to make sure on Delmarva, and frankly in a lot 
of other places around this country, that we can use this trade 
agreement to sell that which we are really good at; that is, raising 
chickens.
  While some of the important work at Science and Technology happens in 
the lab, some scientists and engineers there team up with other 
agencies within the Department of Homeland Security to get a firsthand 
look at how to enhance capabilities and operations on the frontlines. 
For Jonathan McEntee--known as Jon--Jon's Science and Technology work 
has taken him into the field of joint missions with the Coast Guard, 
with Customs and Border Protection, and with Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement.
  Public service is nothing new to Jon. In fact, it runs in his family. 
Jon was born on a U.S. Air Force base, not in Dover, DE, but in the 
United Kingdom of all places, in a place called Lakenheath, United 
Kingdom. He is the proud son of a retired linguist and the grandson of 
a 50-year GE chemical engineer and World War II veteran. He continues 
his family's history of service to our country today through his work 
ensuring the security and economic prosperity of the United States in 
his role at Science and Technology.
  Since 2007, the last several years, Jon has worked at the Borders and 
Maritime Security Division at Science and Technology within the 
Department of Homeland Security. It is called Security Advanced 
Research Projects Agency. This component is responsible for the 
research, for the development, for the testing and evaluation needs for 
the Department's land borders, ports of entry, and maritime mission 
environments.
  Since becoming the division's Deputy Director in 2011, Jon has 
managed several projects, developing maritime, border, and cargo 
security initiatives. He is responsible for managing the congressional, 
financial, and technical oversight of operations, along with its 30 
employees. On any given day, Jon is juggling 40 projects on a wide 
range of activities all across the Department.
  According to his colleagues, Jon believes technology is the key to 
remaining competitive and relevant in an ever-changing global 
environment. So it is no surprise that he helped establish the 
technology innovation center within the Coast Guard, to help deliver 
technical capabilities for the Department's operators in a faster and 
more efficient process. Jon also helps in the efforts to build a more 
cohesive and unified Department of Homeland Security. They have a 
saying over there, ``One DHS.'' He is part of that.
  He regularly represents Science and Technology on Department-level 
projects to help improve coordination and make the best use of science 
resources. Efforts like Jon's are supporting Secretary Jeh Johnson's 
Unity of Effort Initiative, an effort to help the Department operate 
more efficiently and effectively. That is something I think we can all 
get behind.
  Colleagues say that Jon looks at solutions to problems not only from 
a security aspect but also while thinking about how they impact the 
overall economic interest of our country. He believes all solutions 
must have a positive return on investment over existing methods and 
practices. Jon is well known for his let's-find-a-way attitude and 
always encourages his colleagues to be a part of the solution rather 
than add to the problem. I like to say: ``No'' means find another way.
  The work ethic he embodies and his leadership can be credited for his 
work building partnerships to promote our Nation's economic growth. 
Specifically, he helped facilitate a partnership that included Customs 
and Border Protection, Mexican and Canadian Customs, General Motors, 
the Ford Motor Company, Honda Manufacturing, Pacific Union, and 
Ferromex Rail to successfully conduct a cargo security technology 
demonstration that operates four U.S.-bound supply chain routes 
originating from Mexico and originating from Canada.
  That achievement earned him wide praise, including the Department of 
Homeland Security and Technology Under Secretary's Award in 2014. Jon 
earned his master's in business administration from Salisbury 
University and a bachelor of science degree in finance from Frostburg 
State University. He and his wife Heather, an Air Force veteran, have 
three children: Sage, Myra, and Jack.
  I just want to say to Sage, Myra and Jack: Thank you for sharing not 
just your mom but your dad as well with the people of our country. 
Thank you.
  The efforts of Michelle and Jon provide just a glimpse into the 
important work being done by hundreds of thousands of individuals 
across the Department of Homeland Security every single day. These men 
and women are dedicated. They are exemplary public servants. They are 
unsung heroes who walk among us every day. More often than not, their 
good work goes unnoticed--not today. These are not nameless, faceless 
bureaucrats. These are people with great educations, a great desire to 
serve our country, and who every day make a difference for us in this 
country with the work they do.
  Michelle and Jon, right here--Jon, thank you. For Michelle, whose 
picture was up here just a moment ago, we want to thank you for what 
you do. We want to thank as well the 200,000 men and woman you work 
with at the Department of Homeland Security. We are a safer country 
because of your service and I think we are a better country too. As we 
say in the Navy when people do especially good work, we say two words: 
One of them is ``Bravo'' and the other is ``Zulu.'' So, Michelle and 
Jon, Bravo Zulu. God bless you.


                              Job Creation

  Mr. President, if you will bear with me, I wish to talk for a little 
bit about another important issue, if I could, and I don't see anybody 
else on the floor, so I will forge ahead.
  I actually said this earlier today when we were having a discussion 
on the Iran agreement, but it bears repeating. When I go back to the 
elections of last November, I have three messages that are takeaways 
that I continue to come back to.
  The first takeaway for me last November was this: The American people 
are sending us a message. They said they want us to work together. The 
second message is they want us to get stuff done, things that we need 
to get done for the good of our country, and they especially want us to 
get things done that will help strengthen our economic recovery.
  On the good-news side, the Department of Labor reported today that 
the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance this past 
week--this number comes out of the Department of Labor every Thursday 
that is not a Federal holiday, and they have been doing this for years. 
The week Barack Obama and Joe Biden were inaugurated as President and 
Vice President--that week in January of 2009--628,000 people filed for 
unemployment insurance. Anytime that number is over 400,000 people 
filing for unemployment insurance in a week, we are losing jobs.
  At the beginning of 2009, we were losing a lot of jobs. We lost 2.5 
million jobs in this country in the last 6 months of 2008. We lost 2.5 
million more jobs in this country in the first 6 months of 2009. And as 
we went through 2009, that number--628,000 people filing for 
unemployment insurance every week--frankly didn't come down a lot. 
After a year or so, it began to trend down. Finally, it went down to 
600,000, eventually to 500,000, and finally it dipped below 500,000 
after a couple of years. Several years ago, that number came down to 
400,000.
  The reason 400,000 is an important number in terms of people filing 
for unemployment insurance is when that number drops on a weekly basis 
below 400,000, we are starting to add jobs back--or at least our 
economy is. For the last 28 straight weeks, the number of folks filing 
for unemployment insurance in this country has been under 300,000. One 
of the reasons we are adding, in most months, 200,000 to 250,000 is

[[Page S6797]]

because not nearly as many people are losing their jobs, and that is a 
very good thing.
  Even though the economy is arguably better than it was--I think the 
unemployment rate in this country in January of 2009 was heading toward 
10 percent. The unemployment rate today is closer to 5 percent. Is that 
too high? Sure it is. Can we do better than that? We have to do better 
than that.
  So one of the things I always focus on is trying to figure out how 
we--when I was Governor of Delaware and chairman of the National 
Governors Association, I always was interested in how we could create a 
more nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation. In 
the 8 years I was privileged to be Governor of Delaware, I am told that 
more jobs were created in those 8 years than any year maybe in Delaware 
history--any 8-year period in Delaware history. I didn't create a one 
of them. Governors don't create jobs. Mayors don't create jobs. 
Senators--however good we are--don't create jobs. Presidents don't 
create job. What we do is help create a nurturing environment for job 
creation.
  What does that include? Access to capital. People starting businesses 
usually have to raise money. A world-class workforce with the kinds of 
skills that will help businesses be successful. Transportation to move 
people and business services where they need to go and when they need 
to go. Public safety. Reasonably priced energy. Reasonably priced 
health care. You name it. A lot of things go into creating a nurturing 
environment for job creation and job preservation.
  (The remarks of Mr. Carper pertaining to the introduction of S. 2051 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Still seeing no one else on the floor, I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


         Pope Francis's Address to Congress and Climate Change

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, last year I had the opportunity to travel 
to the Vatican. During my visit, I had the chance to overlook St. 
Peter's Square from a Vatican balcony. As I took in the view of that 
historic square, the Sun glinted off the future. Across the square, I 
saw the rooftop of Pope Paul VI Audience Hall on the Vatican grounds 
covered with solar panels. It was clear from that view that the Vatican 
takes climate change very seriously and had long been preparing to have 
a profound impact on this generational issue that touches every living 
creature on the planet.
  I was at the Vatican as the only U.S. representative in a group of 
high-level legislators from around the world who are all working to 
address climate change in their own countries. We met with Cardinal 
Pietro Parolin and Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Vatican leaders 
responsible for writing the initial draft of Pope Francis's historical 
environmental encyclical, and shared the impact of climate change in 
our own home countries with the two cardinals who were going to be 
writing that encyclical.
  The conversation then turned to what was happening in the countries 
of the legislators who were visiting. The lawmaker from the Philippines 
discussed the destruction that Typhoon Haiyan brought to parts of her 
country. Legislators from South Africa and Mexico shared the challenges 
their countries and regions face from drought. The representatives from 
Europe pointed to the damage from extreme heat waves and rainfall. I 
relayed my concern with the rising levels, temperature, and acidity of 
the ocean and the impacts on coastal communities. Rising sea levels are 
eroding our shores in Massachusetts and New England and across our 
country, increasing the damage in New England of nor'easters. In recent 
years, ocean temperatures in our part of the Atlantic ocean have been 
the hottest ever recorded. In one case, off of Cape Cod, it was 21 
degrees warmer than normal this January, in Massachusetts, off of our 
coastline.
  But all of us who had gathered at the Vatican were in agreement that 
the world's poorest people are suffering the worst consequences of 
climate change--extreme poverty, famine, disease, and displacement--
which is why it should be no surprise that Pope Francis, a Jesuit 
trained in chemistry who is devoted to the poor and ensuring a just and 
better future for all mankind, would be the only Pope to devote an 
entire encyclical to humanity's relationship with the environment. In 
releasing his encyclical and giving us his message to protect what he 
calls ``our common home,'' Pope Francis has also given us a common 
goal: We must act now to stop climate change. But make no mistake--this 
Pope is looking for leadership. Pope Francis is looking for results. He 
is looking for all of us to lead to solve this problem.
  Next week, we will have the honor of hosting Pope Francis here in 
Washington, DC, and hearing him address a joint meeting of the United 
States House of Representatives and the Senate--unprecedented--and the 
entire Nation will be watching the Pope as he speaks because we all 
need to hear Pope Francis's message of love, of compassion, of justice 
and action. And we need to join in the conversation he is calling the 
world to engage in about protecting people and our planet.
  The science of climate change has been clear for decades. Global 
temperatures are warming, glaciers are melting, and sea levels are 
rising. Extreme downpours and weather events are increasing. The ocean 
is becoming more dangerously acidic. Last year was the warmest year 
ever recorded. Today, NOAA announced that this summer was the hottest 
summer since 1880. Increasing temperatures increase the risk for bad 
air days, in turn increasing the risk of asthma attacks and worse for 
people who actually have lung disease. Global warming is also a public 
health crisis.
  The economic and security costs are now dangerously evident. Climate 
change is aggravating tensions around the world, especially where food 
and water security are at the heart of the conflicts. It is spawning 
new crises that are displacing millions of people and creating an era 
of refugees. This will require action by our diplomats and aid 
organizations, but every nation must do its fair share.
  Pope Francis's address to Congress next week will offer us the 
opportunity to examine our own policies, their impact on not only the 
people of our Nation but on the entire planet, and our duty as leaders 
and as human beings to take action.
  Pope Francis has brought this moral imperative to act on climate 
change just as the nations of the world are working to forge an 
international agreement in Paris this December as the world gathers to 
deal with this issue. The United States must lead this effort. The 
United States must heed the message of Pope Francis. The United States 
must be the nation in Paris in December saying to the rest of the world 
that we can and must do something to solve this problem.
  We know that clean energy will be at the heart of meeting any of the 
goals which we have to establish here and across the planet in order to 
cut pollution. We must continue to improve the fuel efficiency of the 
automobiles and trucks we drive here in the United States. We must 
deploy more wind and solar energy and renew tax breaks for those 
projects.
  By making a commitment to reduce the pollution imperiling our planet, 
we can engage in job creation that is good for all of creation. The 
United States can be the leader in the technological revolution to 
reduce the pollution imperiling our planet, and then we can partner 
with other nations to share this technology and protect the most 
vulnerable around the world.
  Pope Francis said in his encyclical, ``Today, in the view of the 
common good, there is an urgent need for politics and economics to 
enter into a frank dialogue in the service of life, especially life.'' 
We know that to agree on a course of action is no easy task in this 
Chamber, but if we harness the ambition of the Moon landing, the 
technological power of our workers, and the moral imperative of Pope 
Francis's message, we can leave the world a better place than we found 
it. We have done it before. We have the tools to do it again. Now we 
need to forge the political will in order to accomplish those goals.

[[Page S6798]]

  We need more solar, we need more wind, and we need the batteries for 
the vehicles we drive in order to reduce the amount of polluting fossil 
fuels we send up into the atmosphere. We need to invest. We need to be 
the technological giants. We need to unleash the same kind of 
revolution in the energy sector as we did in the telecommunications 
sector in the 1990s. No one on the planet except the United States had 
a device like this on their person just 15 years ago. We invented 
telecommunications. We invented the way in which people not just here 
in America but all across the planet--Africa, Asia, South America--
communicate with these wireless devices. We can do the same thing on 
energy. We can do the same thing with wind and solar. We can reinvent 
the kinds of vehicles we drive--cars, trucks, buses. We can do it. We 
have to have the will. We have to listen to the Pope. We have to play 
the role that the United States is expected to lead by the rest of the 
world in order to meet this moral imperative. And we can do it by 
creating millions of new jobs here in the United States. So that is our 
challenge.
  The Pope is arriving next week. For me, as a boy who grew up going to 
the Immaculate Conception Grammar School, Malden Catholic, Boston 
College, and Boston College Law School--Catholic school every day for 
19 years--this is just an incredible thrill, knowing that, in a way, 
when he is standing up on that podium, it is going to be a latter-day 
``Sermon on the Mount'' that he delivers to us telling us what our job 
is today: to save this beautiful planet God has created while also 
avoiding the worst consequences for the poorest people on the planet if 
we do not solve the problem.
  Let's work together in a bipartisan fashion in order to heed the 
message of Pope Francis.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________