[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1594-S1600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. WYDEN:
S. 2706. A bill to promote innovative approaches to outdoor
recreation on Federal land and to open up opportunities for
collaboration with non-Federal partners, and for other purposes; to the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, last summer, I set out on a tour of
Oregon's Seven Wonders to hear from Oregonians in every corner of the
State about how to improve access to outdoor recreation. Recreation is
a big economic multiplier for my State, and Oregonians are the true
experts on--outdoor recreation--it is in our DNA.
Oregon's recreation and tourism economy generates an estimated $10
billion a year in direct economic impact for the state and supports
more than 101,000 jobs--enough people essentially to fill every seat in
Autzen and Reser stadiums, home to the University of Oregon Ducks and
Oregon State Beavers. Recreation supports communities and businesses
large and small throughout urban and rural Oregon and can have
astounding benefits on veterans, youth, and seniors.
Not only do you have outfitters and the crafts people who produce
recreation products, like canoes, kayaks, bikes, and fishing poles,
recreation supports the broader travel and tourism industry including
equipment retailers and gear shops. But the benefit doesn't stop when
the sun goes down. Then visitors go to the brewpubs and restaurants,
and they stay overnight at the hotels and the motels. So what we need
to do is ensure that recreation is a higher priority for the future so
it can continue to boost economies large and small.
Yet on my tour of Oregon's Seven Wonders, I consistently heard one
troubling theme that's yanking our recreation economy's potential back
down to earth. Simply put, red tape is tying down the opportunities for
Oregon recreation and tourism to lift off to even greater heights.
Outfitters and guides must navigate confusing permit processes only to
wait months or years for their permits to get approved, and outdoor
enthusiasts searching for outdoor recreation opportunities often get
lost in the paperwork before they ever hit the trails.
That is why today I am introducing the Recreation Not Red-Tape, RNR,
Act to ensure that recreation is a priority for Federal agencies and to
cut the bureaucratic red tape in the recreation permitting process to
make accessing outdoor recreation opportunities easier and much more
fun. I gathered input from Oregonians who enjoy public lands,
entrepreneurs in the outdoor travel and tourism industry, and community
leaders from Oregon and across the Nation. The bill focuses on making
sure everyone has easier access to the outdoors, recognizing and
building on recreation as an economic driver, and making the repair and
management of our recreational public lands easier. Additionally, the
bill supports improving access to outdoor recreation for veterans,
seniors, and youth.
My friend and colleague, Representative Earl Blumenauer, is today
introducing the House companion of the Recreation Not Red-Tape Act. The
bill is supported by over 50 Oregon and national organizations, from
American Alpine Club to Vet Voice.
______
By Mr. COTTON:
S. 2708. A bill to provide for the admission to the United States of
up to 10,000 Syrian religious minorities as refugees of special
humanitarian concern in each of the fiscal years 2016 through 2020; to
the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, 6 months ago, a 12-year-old boy stood
before a crowd in a Syrian village not far from Aleppo. This boy was
Christian and standing above him were Islamic State terrorists holding
knives. In the crowd was the boy's father, a Christian minister.
Methodically, the terrorists began cutting off the young boy's fingers.
Amidst his screams, they turned to the minister, his father. If he
renounced his faith and in their terms returned to Islam, his son's
suffering would stop. In the end, however, these ISIS terrorists killed
the boy, killed his father, and killed two other Christians solely over
the faith they professed. They did so by crucifixion.
In the time of Christ, the cross was not just a means of execution
but a brutal and public warning to all. Because of Christ's suffering,
the cross was transformed into a revered symbol of His sacrifice and
promise of salvation, but today it is clear ISIS seeks to turn the
cross once again into a message of dread.
Eight other Christians in the village that day were also killed. They
were executed by public beheading, but not before ISIS barbarians raped
the two women among the victims and forced the crowd to witness the
atrocity.
Today was the deadline set by law for Secretary of State Kerry to
present Congress with an evaluation of the persecution of Christians,
Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. I am
heartened Secretary Kerry this morning took the needed step of
declaring the systemic murder of religious minorities by ISIS what it
plainly is: genocide.
The nature of these horrific crimes of ISIS has not been a secret. It
is no secret that the story of the torture and death of that 12-year-
old Syrian boy, his minister father, and 10 other Christians is
repeated many times over in different villages, with different victims
of different religions throughout the region. It is no secret that
hundreds of thousands of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq have
been driven by war and violence from homes and lands they have held for
generations. It is no secret ISIS terrorists have destroyed Christian
churches, desecrated holy ancient shrines, and dug up Christian graves
and smashed their tombstones. It is no secret bishops, priests, and
other clerical leaders are being abducted and murdered. It is no secret
ISIS terrorists capture Yazidi women and girls and lock them into a
life of sexual slavery and repeated rape. Many of these victims choose
to take their own lives, seeing suicide as their only escape amidst
hopelessness and unimaginable suffering. It is no secret that thousands
of Christians and other religious minorities have been systematically
raped and tortured, beheaded, crucified, burned alive, and buried in
mass graves, if buried at all. It is no secret the word we should use
to describe the whole of these atrocities--the word we must use--is
``genocide.''
The plain reality is that the Islamic State is seeking to eradicate
Christians, Yazidis, Sabean-Mandeans, Jews, and other religious groups
it sees as apostates and infidels. This is part of its fanatical focus
on establishing a caliphate first in the Middle East and eventually
across the rest of the world.
Christians, Yazidis, and others who have managed to find refuge have
seen ISIS's genocidal campaign firsthand. They can list name after name
of missing family members--wives and daughters kidnapped into sexual
slavery,
[[Page S1595]]
sons and brothers killed, and others spirited away to unknown fates.
These victims know the truth of the genocide occurring in Syria and
Iraq, and now that truth is recognized officially by the United States
of America.
There are those who wavered on whether this was genocide. They feared
that uttering this truth would compel U.S. action to stop the genocide.
My answer is--and? A mortal enemy who wishes to commit mass terrorist
atrocities against the United States is also systematically persecuting
and exterminating Christians and other religious minorities. When will
our national security interests ever overlap more perfectly with our
moral sentiment than now? We can and we ought to stop ISIS dead, stop
them before they kill more Americans, stop them before they eliminate
Christian communities that have existed since the days of Christ
himself.
Still others argue that while a genocide may be occurring,
recognizing it may somehow play into ISIS's propaganda that it is
fighting a righteous jihad against a supposed new Crusade. I never
understood this argument. To stay silent in the face of ISIS's
propaganda is to accommodate that propaganda. To cede any power to
ISIS's narrative is to bend the light of truth to the hard darkness of
a lie. Standing up for the practitioners of religions born in the
Middle East and calling the region home since the beginning of recorded
history is not a new Crusade. It is a defense of world order
demonstrated through the periods of peaceful coexistence of the many
religions in those ancient lands--an existence that today is threatened
with extinction by ISIS's barbarism.
Today the United States rightly recognizes this genocide, but we must
also take action to relieve it. ISIS is a threat to the United States,
our allies, and to the stability of the whole Middle East. Destroying
ISIS and stopping its malignant expansion is a core national security
interest of the United States, but stopping ISIS and the depraved
ideology that enables it is also a pursuit that aligns with our highest
ideals and humanitarian principles.
I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have deep disagreements
with the President's policy to defeat ISIS. For 2 years his policy of
confusion, delay, and paralysis has failed to stop these terrorists. An
entirely new approach that has the United States in the lead of a
determined coalition is badly needed, but it is not only President
Obama's strategic approach that is ill-considered. His policy on Syrian
refugee resettlement is as well. Because the United States unwisely
relies on the United Nations for all referrals of refugees seeking
resettlement in the United States, Christians and other religious
minorities fleeing persecution are the victims of unintentional
discrimination when seeking asylum and protection in the United States.
Last year, of the 1,790 Syrian refugees resettled in the United
States, only 41 were religious minorities. Of that 41, 29 were
Christian. That means that while 13 percent of Syria's prewar
population consisted of religious minorities, only 2.3 percent of the
refugees who make it to the United States are religious minorities.
Without doubt, Syrians of all confessions are being victimized by this
savage war and are facing unimaginable suffering, but only Christians
and other religious minorities are the deliberate targets of systemic
persecution and genocide. Their ancient communities are at risk of
extermination. Their ancestral homes and religious sites are being
erased from the Middle Eastern map. Christians and other minorities
should not be shut out from the small number of refugees who find
shelter in the United States. We ought to help ensure that these faith
communities survive, but why are Christians underrepresented among the
refugees? There are a number of factors. Perhaps chief among them is
that the United States, for all intents and purposes, relies
exclusively on the U.N. refugee agency to identify candidates for
resettlement. According to the State Department, less than 1 percent of
the thousands of Syrian refugees referred by the U.N. to the United
States are religious minorities.
Let me stress that this underrepresentation is not the result of
intentional discrimination. The U.N. does praiseworthy and hard work in
relieving the suffering of refugees around the world and, as a result,
improving the security and stability of nations in and near conflict
and disaster zones, but it is well established that many religious
minorities in Syria are very reluctant to register as refugees with the
United Nations because they fear facing even more persecution. The U.N.
itself has reported that minority communities ``fear that registration
might bring retribution from other refugees'' in camps or other areas
in which they sought safe haven. The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom has reported that Christians refrain from registering
with the U.N. because they fear being marked for revenge by forces
loyal to Bashar al-Assad should he remain in power in Syria.
Whether these fears are well-founded or not, the reality is, they
exist and they deter Christians from seeking U.N. protection. While the
U.N. has sought to educate minority populations on the safety of the
registration system, the fact remains that only 1 percent of the
millions of Syrian refugees who registered with the U.N. are non-
Muslim.
The United States ought not to depend solely on the U.N. for refugee
resettlement referrals. If we are to do our part in saving ancient
faith communities from genocide, we must find alternate ways to
identify persecuted people to whom we can grant safe haven.
Today I am introducing legislation to create that alternate way. The
Religious Persecution Relief Act would grant religious minorities
fleeing persecution from groups like ISIS and other groups in Syria
priority status so they can apply directly to the U.S. resettlement
program, without going through the U.N. first. It will set aside 10,000
resettlement slots annually that must be devoted to religious
minorities.
The priority status, known as P-2 status, will allow religious
minorities to skip the U.N. referral process, and it will fast track
the process by which we confirm that they are in fact targets of
persecution and genocide. To answer in advance a most urgent and
understandable question, those who apply for P-2 status will be subject
to the exact same security vetting process as all other refugee
applicants. It is my strong position that the United States must work
with known religious leaders in the region and pursue other proven
vetting methods to ensure that those who enter this country are not
threats to the security of the American people.
Extending a hand to help persecuted people in this manner is not a
new idea. In 1989, the late Senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg,
crafted what has been called the Lautenberg amendment, which granted P-
2 priority status to Soviet Jewry, Vietnamese nationals, and other
religious minorities seeking refuge. In 2004, the late Senator from
Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, expanded the Lautenberg amendment to cover
religious minorities fleeing oppression from the Ayatollahs in Iran. In
2007 the late Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, passed a bill
that granted priority status to certain Iraqi religious minority
members.
The bill I am introducing today follows this bipartisan tradition of
the Senate and our country. Among the first Americans were Pilgrims
from religious persecution in the Old World. That is one reason we have
a long tradition of defending religious minorities here and around the
world.
In the coming weeks, I will discuss this bill with my fellow
Senators. My hope is, it will pass and pass soon because each day will
bring another Christian child who is tortured, another minister
crucified, and another girl raped. Faith communities in the Middle East
are slowly being strangled out of existence.
We are coming upon Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection. The
message of Easter is one for all of humanity; that in times of pain and
suffering, trial and tribulation, there can ultimately be salvation,
there can ultimately be triumph over death.
I try to keep this message in mind, particularly amidst these times
when religious conflict and oppression do not seem to be waning but
waxing. Today Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the
world. Other religions are not far behind in the scope and depth of the
oppression they face. While the United States cannot save all those
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who are suffering from religious persecution, when the persecutors are
rabid terrorists who want to kill Americans and we have the means not
only to defeat those terrorists but to also protect the innocent, we
ought to act. Certainly we have an obligation to stop the unintentional
discrimination in our own refugee process that unfairly blocks
Christians and other religious minorities from seeking safety in the
United States.
______
By Ms. HIRONO (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr.
Heinrich, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr.
Brown):
S. 2710. A bill to increase the participation of historically
underrepresented demographic groups in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics education and industry; to the Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, March is Women's History Month. So this
morning I would like to highlight the progress women have made in the
fields of science, technology, engineering, and math--or the STEM
fields--challenges that persist, and legislation that I will be
introducing to help overcome these challenges.
Today we rely on computers for much of our modern life. For that, we
thank pioneer RDML Grace Hopper, who was one of the first computer
programmers. Space travel is one of the most technologically
challenging endeavors that humankind has undertaken. The road to
becoming an astronaut requires intelligence and toughness, not to
mention fortitude. Astronauts like Sally Ride, the first American woman
in space, have shown that women belong in every endeavor.
Hawaii is home to women leaders in STEM fields. Dr. Isabella Aiona
Abbott was raised in rural Hana on the island of Maui. She became the
first Native Hawaiian woman to receive a Ph.D. in science and went on
to discover over 200 species of algae. She remains a leading expert on
Pacific algae. These women persevered and rose to great heights of
success in the STEM fields. However, we must do better to make sure
that many more women have the opportunity to pursue STEM careers. While
girls and boys express a similar level of interest in STEM at an early
age, studies have found that women start to lose interest in STEM as
early as in middle school. This loss of women and minorities continues
at nearly every stage of the STEM career trajectory. For example, women
are more likely to switch from a STEM to non-STEM major in their first
year of college than their male counterparts.
Girls and women report many reasons for losing interest in STEM.
These include negative stereotypes about women in STEM, perceived
gender barriers, feelings of isolation, and a lack of female role
models and mentors. Gender bias and institutional barriers still slow
the advancement of girls and women. Research shows that issues of bias
can hinder interest in STEM, influence academic performance, and
influence whether faculty encourages female students to pursue STEM
careers. Furthermore, bias--whether conscious or unconscious--can harm
the hiring, promotion, and career advancement of women in STEM. Bias
can even hurt female researchers' chances of winning competitive
science grants. Approximately half of the U.S. population and workforce
is made up of women. But women make up just over a quarter of the STEM
workforce.
As our economy becomes more global, our entire population--men and
women--must be engaged in fields that will keep America competitive on
the world stage. Expanding the number of women and minorities in STEM
fields is essential to meeting that challenge. The importance of
growing the U.S. STEM workforce is acknowledged by leaders and
businesses in all fields at all levels. For example, this recognition
was very evident in the Senate's immigration reform debate. When I
served on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2013, increasing our STEM
workforce through immigration policy drove major sections of the
bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.
In Hawaii and elsewhere, there are programs that expose students to
STEM careers through mentoring and interactive activities such as
robotics. I want to focus on one school in Hawaii that created these
opportunities for their students--Molokai Middle School. This is a
school that struggled with science and math scores, but when their
teachers established a robotics programs, students from all backgrounds
got interested in science. The year the program started, the Molokai
Middle School robotics team overcame all odds to represent Hawaii in a
national robotics tournament. This year, they will compete in an
international robotics competition in Kentucky. Molokai is an island of
only about 7,000 people. Their students have thrived and succeeded
through their STEM experience. While programs like these have a
positive impact on encouraging students to stay excited about STEM
fields, there are not enough of such programs.
That is why today I am proud to be joined by Senators Gillibrand,
Murray, Feinstein, Heinrich, Baldwin, Stabenow, and Brown to introduce
the Women and Minorities in STEM Booster ACT to improve the
recruitment, retention, and success of women and minorities at all
stages of the STEM pipeline. This bill authorizes the National Science
Foundation to award competitive grants for outreach, mentoring, and
professional development programs.
The STEM booster act also authorizes funding for STEM education
outreach programs at the elementary and secondary school levels,
funding for mentoring programs, and programs to increase the
recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty.
I am also working on another bill to address some of the cultural and
institutional barriers that I mentioned today, which impede women's and
minorities' advancement in STEM fields. In addition to increasing
mentoring and outreach programs, the second bill will improve guidance,
training, and coordination among Federal STEM agencies and universities
to proactively combat bias and discrimination.
We are on the right track to grow our STEM workforce in the United
States, but we still need to move forward faster. We must act now to
speed this process. My bill will help expose more girls, women, and
minorities to opportunities in STEM fields and accelerate their
participation.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting women and minorities in
STEM now.
______
By Mr. McCAIN:
S. 2711. A bill to expand opportunity for Native American children
through additional options in education, and for other purposes; to the
Committee on Indian Affairs.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to help
tackle the challenging problem of fixing our broken education system on
Indian reservations. The bill, known as the Native American Education
Opportunity Act, would expand the education opportunities of Native
American student living on reservations by allowing their parents to
take full advantage of Education Savings Account which would be funded
by the Bureau of Indian Education, BIE.
Under this bill, eligible students could apply for up to 90 percent
of the per pupil expenditure that BIE would spend on them at a BIE
school and use those funds to pay for private school tuition, tutors,
online curriculum courses, special needs services, and other K-12
education needs. This funding would be provided through the use of
Education Savings Accounts, or ESA's, which are established State-
administered programs in the States of Arizona, Mississippi, Florida,
Tennessee, and Nevada.
Across the Nation, there is a growing interest in State legislatures
in enacting ESA's because of the freedom and opportunity they give to
families, but in particular low-income students. My home State of
Arizona is at the forefront of this revolutionary approach of
empowering parents-To customize their child's education. I believe that
families living on Indian reservations in my state and elsewhere should
reap the benefits of ESA's too.
As my colleagues know, the need to improve Indian County is a crisis
issue. I'm of course referring to the broken Bureau of Indian Education
system which consists of 185 schools and 41,000 students. By some
estimates, the BIE's
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average per pupil spending is $15,000--higher than the national
average. Less than 7 percent of all Native American students attend a
BIE school, but the performance disparity between BIE students and
Native American students attending non-BIB schools is staggering.
Almost half of BIE students do not graduate from high school. Their
test scores trail by double digits compared to their peers. Some BIB
schools have facilities that are unsuitable as a learning environment.
A series of recent reports by the Government Accountability Office,
GAO, have focused on the disrepair of schools and bureaucratic
mismanagement. Some schools desks, school supplies, and even heat.
I wholeheartedly agree that Congress must intervene and implement
administrative reforms and maintenance improvements. But, let us
consider that market competition could be a powerful tool for improving
teacher retention, diversifying education options, and improving test
scores and graduation rates in Indian Country more so than any 5-year
BIB plan developed in Washington.
This bill is particularly useful for rural Indian reservations with
large land bases where children living on the reservation have little
choice but to attend a BIB school. Take for example the Navajo Nation
where non-BIB public schools can be over 50 miles away, and private
school options are few and far between. It is unconscionable to leave
students stranded in failing schools when we can create the option of
expanding their educational opportunities in even the most remote parts
of Indian County. We can and should do more to create a market that
attracts private schools and other education services willing to open
shop on remote Indian reservations.
School choice initiatives, while still relatively new, are building a
track record of success. One example is a Federal program set up 12
years ago to address the beleaguered public school system in our
Nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Congress established the D.C.
Opportunity Scholarship Program which at one time provided up to $20
million in scholarships to low income families to pull their children
out of a failing DC public schools and place them in a private school.
The DC program transformed the future of thousands of children in the
District. In 2011, a U.S. Department of Education study found that
graduation rates, particularly among minority students jumped by as
much as 20 percent for the kids who participated in the program.
The situation in the BIE school system is failing, and it is a
reflection of our failure in our solemn obligation to meet certain
needs of Native Americans living on Indian reservations. I believe that
opening up education opportunism beyond BIE schools for Native American
families can prove to be one of the most effective agents for change
for education in Indian Country. I encourage my colleagues to support
this legislation.
______
By Mr. REED (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Whitehouse):
S. 2716. A bill to update the oil and gas and mining industry guides
of the Securities and Exchange Commission; to the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to
require the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, to update its
industry guides for oil, gas, and mining companies.
In November 2015, Peabody Energy agreed to provide comprehensive SEC
disclosures about climate change risks facing the company when it
settled charges of misleading investors. The company executed this
settlement with the New York Attorney General after an investigation
discovered that Peabody Energy ``repeatedly denied in public financial
filings to the SEC that it had the ability to predict the impact that
potential regulation of climate change pollution would have on its
business, even though Peabody and its consultants actually made
projections that such regulation would have severe impacts on the
company.''
Unfortunately, it appears that the SEC had no role in this
settlement, in which Peabody Energy agreed to amend its SEC
disclosures, admitting that ``concerns about the environmental impacts
of coal combustion . . . could significantly affect demand for our
products or our securities.''
It is clear that the SEC needs to do more when it comes to critically
reviewing the disclosures being filed by publicly traded companies, but
it is also clear that the SEC's industry guides for oil, gas, and
mining companies should be updated to reflect the growing risk of
climate change to these companies. By so doing, the investing public
can access the material information necessary to make informed
decisions when investing in these types of companies. Indeed, it is for
this reason that the SEC has established industry guides for certain
industries with complex financial and non-financial data.
These disclosures are important to investors, such as Allianz Global
Investors, which is a global diversified active investment manager with
nearly $500 billion in assets under management. Allianz has
specifically called for ``achieving better disclosure of the effects of
carbon costs on the Oil & Gas companies.''
In updating the industry guides for oil, gas, and mining companies,
my legislation would direct the SEC to work with the SEC's Investor
Advisory Committee. This Committee was established by the Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act to advise and consult with the SEC
on regulatory priorities, the regulation of securities products,
trading strategies, fee structures, disclosure effectiveness, and on
initiatives to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the
securities marketplace.
I thank Ceres for their support, and I also thank Representative
Cartwright for introducing companion legislation in the House of
Representatives today. I urge our colleagues to join us in supporting
this legislation.
______
By Mr. BARRASSO (for himself and Mr. McCain):
S. 2717. A bill to improve the safety and address the deferred
maintenance needs of Indian dams to prevent flooding on Indian
reservations, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Indian
Affairs.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Dam
Repairs and Improvements for Tribes Act of 2016 or DRIFT Act. This
important legislation is intended to address the flood prevention and
dam safety needs in Indian Country. It would address the deferred
maintenance needs of Bureau of Indian Affairs, BIA, dams, as well as
reform tribal programs within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The BIA has 137 high-hazard dams and over 700 low-hazard dams across
the United States. Nearly all of the high-hazard dams are in Western
United States, including two high-hazard dams on the Wind River
Reservation in my home State of Wyoming--Washakie Dam and Ray Lake Dam.
According to the BIA staff, on average these dams are 70 to 80 years
old and have over $500 million in deferred maintenance needs. Funding
is simply not keeping up with the maintenance needs of these dams and
the threat to public safety in and around Indian Country is very real.
The United States has a trust obligation to maintain and operate these
dams and prevent what could be a future dam failure.
The legislation I am introducing today would require the Assistant
Secretary of Indian Affairs, in consultation with the Secretary of the
Army, to address the maintenance backlog of BIA dams by establishing a
High-Hazard Indian Dam Safety Deferred Maintenance Fund and a Low-
Hazard Indian Dam Safety Deferred Maintenance Fund. The high-hazard
fund would receive $22,750,000 each year from fiscal years 2017 through
2037. The low-hazard fund would receive $10,000,000 for the same time
period. The bill funds low-hazard dams if their needs are critical as
well and are not being addressed by available scarce resources.
Neglecting the deferred maintenance needs of these dams may result in
them becoming high hazard dams in the near future.
The DRIFT Act establishes criteria for how the money would be
prioritized, looking at criteria such as threats to public safety,
natural or cultural resources, and economic concerns. The criteria also
looks at the ability of increasing water storage capacity of BIA dams
to prevent flooding to downstream communities.
The legislation also seeks to make other important flood prevention
and
[[Page S1598]]
dam safety policy reforms for both the BIA and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. Specifically, the DRIFT Act establishes a 4-year pilot
program for a BIA flood mitigation program for tribes; establishes a
Tribal Safety of Dams Committee within the Department of the Interior
to make recommendations to Congress for modernizing the Indian Dam
Safety Act; and mandates that tribes regularly report their dam
inventory to BIA.
The bill requires the BIA to report annually on the safety status of
their dams to Congress; makes reforms to the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' Tribal Partnership Program to allow the Corps to pay for any
feasibility study of a project costing not more than $10,000,000;
allows in-kind contributions by tribes to count towards a cost-share of
a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' feasibility study; and allows tribes to
not have a cost share for studies and projects that cost up to
$200,000. This is the same cost-sharing requirements the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers allows for U.S. territories.
It is time to make sure that we make the necessary changes to ensure
that tribes and surrounding communities are protected, and that the
Federal Government collaborates with and empowers Indian tribes to
secure their communities.''
______
By Mr. KAINE (for himself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Portman, Mrs. Capito,
and Ms. Ayotte):
S. 2718. A bill to amend the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical
Education Act of 2006 to support innovative approaches to career and
technical education and redesign the high school experience for
students by providing students with equitable access to rigorous,
engaging, and relevant real world education through partnerships with
business and industry and higher education that prepare students to
graduate from high school and enroll into postsecondary education
without the need for remediation and with the ability to use knowledge
to solve complex problems, think critically, communicate effectively,
collaborate with others, and develop academic mindsets; to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, the demands of today's competitive global
market require that students have the right skills and knowledge to
succeed in postsecondary education and enter the workforce. Providing
students with an engaging experience that is relevant to the workforce
and integrates partnerships with industry and higher education is
critical to our Nation's future. Unfortunately, these opportunities are
lacking in many of today's high schools, leaving students unprepared
for 21st century careers.
Career and technical education, CTE, is often overlooked in
discussions on increasing relevancy and rigor in our Nation's schools--
despite the fact that a strong focus on academics is the cornerstone of
high-quality CTE. When the National Research Center for Career and
Technical Education conducted a 4-year longitudinal study in three
states, they found that students participating in CTE programs or
career pathways outperformed their peers on the number of credits they
earned in science, technology, engineering and math, STEM, and AP
classes, while also earning higher grade point averages in their CTE
classes.
That is why I am introducing with my colleagues, Senators Portman,
Baldwin, and Capito, the CTE Excellence and Equity Act. This bipartisan
legislation supports funding for innovation in career and technical
education to help redesign the high school experience for historically
underserved students. It would authorize grants to partnerships among
school districts, employers, and institutions of higher education in
Virginia and other states that help students earn industry recognized
credentials or credit toward a postsecondary degree or certificate. The
bill also places an emphasis on understanding the relevance of
coursework in the context of a future career by placing an emphasis on
teaching workplace skills through job shadowing, internships, and
apprenticeships.
CTE programs are critical components to every student's education. I
am pleased to be introducing this bipartisan legislation to strengthen
CTE programs in high school so that students are better prepared for
postsecondary studies and the workforce. I hope that my colleagues
consider this legislation as we move to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins
CTE Act.
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By Mrs. MURRAY (for herself, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr.
Durbin, and Ms. Warren):
S. 2719. A bill to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to
improve the protections provided to members of the uniformed services
and their families, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have often said when our nation sends
men and women to war we commit to taking care of them when they return
home. We also promise them important legal protections to allow them to
focus on their mission and in recognition that while they are deployed
or away from home servicemembers often do not have the resources to
respond to a range of financial and legal issues. Despite these
protections, too many servicemembers have been cheated on their student
loans, on their mortgages, and on their credit cards.
When our men and women in uniform are serving our country, they
should not have to worry about whether our government is going to hold
up its end of the bargain and fulfill its responsibilities to them.
So today I introduce the SCRA Enhancement and Improvement Act of
2016, which will put an end to many of these predatory practices and
give servicemembers and the government the tools they need to fight
back when banks and student loan servicers deny servicemembers their
rights.
In 2014, I learned of allegations that at least one major student
loan servicer had been overcharging men and women in uniform on their
student loans while they were on active duty. That's unacceptable. One
servicemember overcharged on their student loans is one too many.
That is why this bill will end the unfair and improper practices of
student loan servicers by requiring them to automatically apply the
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, SCRA, interest rate cap, respond
within 14 days to any request for SCRA protections, and provide a full
explanation any time they deny an SCRA protection, along with clear
instructions on how to remedy the situation so the servicemember can
receive that protection. It will also require student loan servicers to
have a designated service representative or point of contact for
servicemembers and ensure these individuals are properly trained on the
needs of servicemembers, how the military operates, and the protections
required by SCRA, the Higher Education Act, and other laws.
The bill will hold servicers accountable for their conduct and
treatment of servicemembers by requiring them to retain all
communications with servicemembers so we can conduct thorough
oversight.
The SCRA Enhancement and Improvement Act will also hold the
Department of Education accountable for enforcing standards and the law
with its student loan servicers. Following numerous allegations of
servicemembers being mistreated by student loan servicers who were not
complying with the SCRA interest rate caps, and at least 69,000
servicemembers who were overcharged by one Federal contractor, I asked
the Department to review how many servicemembers had been improperly
denied their benefits under SCRA. Shockingly, the Department told us
that the servicers were complying in the ``vast majority of cases.''
This was inconsistent with what the Department of Justice and the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had found.
I wrote to the Department of Education's Inspector General and asked
her to review the Department's findings. Two weeks ago the IG released
their report, and it showed that instead of doing a thorough
investigation to find out exactly how many servicemembers may have been
overcharged on their student loans, the Department's review was riddled
with errors and papered over mishandling of military borrowers' loans.
The bill I am introducing today will require sufficient notice to be
given when a loan is transferred or sold, and that all benefits or
protections for the servicemember are seamlessly transferred to the new
loan servicer. It will
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also forgive all Federal and private student loan debt in the event the
servicemember dies in the line of duty.
The SCRA Enhancement and Improvement Act also expands protections
beyond student loans. I was concerned when several years ago some of
the nation's largest mortgage servicers improperly overcharged and
foreclosed upon deployed servicemembers in violation of the SCRA.
Thousands of servicemembers and veterans were wronged over several
years. After those allegations came to light, and after the Department
of Justice reached a settlement with those mortgage servicers, GAO
released a report in 2014 looking at the importance of mortgage and
foreclosure protections in the SCRA. The results were concerning,
especially when they found at one mortgage servicer that 82 percent of
loans that would have benefitted from the SCRA's interest rate cap
still had rates in excess of 6 percent.
This bill would reduce the interest rate cap to three percent to
provide meaningful protection to servicemembers, including a zero
percent cap for servicemembers eligible for hostile fire or imminent
danger pay. It would expand the SCRA interest rate protection to all of
a servicemember's debt regardless of when it was incurred, in order to
cover consolidation loans and in recognition that the same challenges
exist for military borrowers regardless of when a debt was first
incurred. It would also strengthen the protections that prevent
judgements against a servicemember who cannot appear in court because
of military service.
As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I know how much our
military families sacrifice on behalf of their country. So I believe
protecting our military men and women from predatory practices is an
absolutely essential commitment we make to them. We will not allow our
servicemembers to be taken advantage of.
Finally, as we have seen too often, these protections are only as
good as our ability to enforce the law and hold people accountable. The
SCRA Enhancement and Improvement Act will give servicemembers, the
Department of Justice, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the
legal and oversight tools they need to hold entities accountable. It
would clarify that servicemembers may bring a private right of action
to enforce their rights and make arbitration clauses unenforceable
unless all parties agree after a dispute arises. The bill will give the
Attorney General the authority to issue civil investigative demands in
SCRA investigations. It would double the fines against parties found to
be violating the protections afforded by the SCRA.
With the number of Federal entities involved, it is essential the
departments and agencies work collaboratively to protect
servicemembers. The Defense Department must ensure it is providing
clear, useful information to servicemembers on their rights and how to
invoke them, and that the training stays current. I especially commend
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its dedicated work on
behalf of our men and women in uniform.
Our servicemembers deserve better than what they have gotten over the
last several years. The SCRA Enhancement and Improvement Act will go a
long way to ensuring our servicemembers are protected, putting a stop
to the predatory practices of banks and student loan servicers, and
change the apathy that has characterized the Department of Education's
oversight. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this
legislation.
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By Mr. MARKEY (for himself and Ms. Warren):
S. 2730. A bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23rd
Headquarters Special Troops, known as the ``Ghost Army'', collectively,
in recognition of its unique and incredible service during World War
II; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Ghost Army
Congressional Gold Medal Act to honor the 23rd Headquarters Special
Troops, called the ''Ghost Army,'' which was a top-secret unit of the
United States Army that served in the European Theater of Operations
during World War II. The unit was actively engaged in battlefield
operations from June of 1944 through March of 1945. The deceptive
activities of the Ghost Army were essential to several Allied victories
across Europe and are estimated to have saved thousands of lives.
I was inspired to introduce this bill after hearing the story of Jack
McGlynn of Medford, MA. I have known Jack for decades going back to my
time in the Massachusetts State Legislature, but I never knew that he
was a member of the Ghost Army. Like many World War II Veterans, Jack
returned home to Massachusetts after the War, started a family, and got
involved in local politics. Jack was a city councilor, Mayor, and State
Representative. He kept his service in the Ghost Army a secret from
everyone, even his wife and 6 children. Finally in 2008, Jack read that
it was declassified and he finally shared the story with his family and
friends.
In evaluating the performance of the Ghost Army after the War, a U.S.
Army analysis found that ``Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of
such a few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a
major military campaign.''. Many Ghost Army soldiers were specially
selected for their mission, and were recruited from art schools,
advertising agencies, communications companies, and other creative and
technical professions.
The first four members of the Ghost Army landed on D-day and two
became casualties while camouflaging early beach installations. The
Ghost Army's secret deception operations commenced in France on June
14, 1944, when Task Force Mason landed at Omaha Beach to draw enemy
fire and protect the 980th Artillery.
Task Force Mason was a prelude to full scale tactical deceptions
completed by the Ghost Army. Often operating on or near the front
lines, the Ghost Army used inflatable tanks, artillery, air planes and
other vehicles, advanced engineered soundtracks, and skillfully crafted
radio trickery to create the illusion of sizable American forces where
there were none and to draw the enemy away from Allied troops.
Ghost Army soldiers impersonated other, larger Army units by sewing
counterfeit patches onto their uniforms, painting false markings on
their vehicles, and creating phony headquarters staffed by fake
generals, all in an effort to feed false information to Axis spies.
During the Battle of the Bulge, the Ghost Army created counterfeit
radio traffic to mask the efforts of General George Patton's Third Army
as it mobilized to break through to the 101st Airborne. It also
provided assistance to elements of 10th Armored Division in the
besieged Belgian town of Bastogne.
In its final mission, Operation Viersen, the Ghost Army deployed a
tactical deception that drew German units down the Rhine River and away
from the 9th Army, allowing the 9th Army to cross the Rhine into
Germany. On this mission, the 1,100 men of the Ghost Army, with the
assistance of other units, impersonated forty thousand men, or two
complete divisions of American forces, by using fabricated radio
networks, soundtracks of construction work and artillery fire, and more
than 600 inflatable vehicles.
Three Ghost Army soldiers gave their lives and dozens were injured in
carrying out their mission. Their activities remained classified for
more than forty years after the war and I believe the extraordinary
accomplishments of this unit are deserving of belated recognition. The
United States will be eternally grateful to the Ghost Army for their
proficient use of innovative tactics throughout World War II, which
saved thousands of lives and were instrumental in the defeat of Nazi
Germany.
I ask all my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation to give a
Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Ghost Army.
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