[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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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