[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 111 (Monday, July 11, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4926-S4929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMPREHENSIVE ADDICTION AND RECOVERY ACT OF 2016--CONFERENCE REPORT
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask the Chair to lay before the
Senate the conference report accompanying S. 524.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair lays before the Senate the
conference report to accompany S. 524, which will be stated by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the
two Houses on the amendments of the House to the bill (S.
524), having met, have agreed that the Senate recede from its
disagreement to the amendment of the House to the text of the
bill and agree to the same with an amendment and the House
agree to the same, signed by a majority of the conferees on
the part of both Houses.
Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to consider the conference report.
(The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the
Record of July 6, 2016.)
Cloture Motion
Mr. McCONNELL. I send a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference
report to accompany S. 524, a bill to authorize the Attorney
General to award grants to address the national epidemics of
prescription opioid abuse and heroin use.
Mitch McConnell, James M. Inhofe, Pat Roberts, John
Boozman, Johnny Isakson, Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn,
Thom Tillis, John Hoeven, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain,
Rob Portman, John Barrasso, Lamar Alexander, Richard
Burr, John Thune, Orrin G. Hatch.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
mandatory quorum call be waived with respect to the cloture motion.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The Democratic leader.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R.
2577 and the conference report be agreed to with no intervening action
or debate.
That must be the wrong one. Sorry about that. Madam President, it is
sure good we have staff around; isn't it?
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 5243
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
the consideration of H.R. 5243, which is at the desk; that all after
the enacting clause be stricken; that the substitute amendment, which
is the text of the Blunt-Murray amendment to provide $1.1 billion in
funding for Zika, be agreed to; that there be up to 1 hour of debate,
equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon
the use or yielding back of time, the bill, as amended, be read a third
time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, reserving the right to object,
Republican Senators are prepared to pass the conference report and send
it to the President's desk for signature today.
[[Page S4927]]
The Democratic leader has asked for the Senate to pass legislation
providing $1.1 billion in immediate funding to combat Zika. In fact,
the conference report before us provides exactly that--$1.1 billion in
immediate funding to combat Zika. Passing the House-passed conference
report is the only way to get this critical funding before September.
This is a conference report. The House has already passed it. It is
not amendable. The Senate should act now. Therefore, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Unanimous Consent Request--Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 2577
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Senate proceed to the consideration of the conference report to
accompany H.R. 2577 and the conference report be agreed to with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. REID. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I will give
a longer presentation in just a minute or two, but I do want to say
this: The consent I ask has the approval of 89 Senators here in the
Senate, Democrats and Republicans. Only 11 have not voted in the
affirmative. It doesn't seem too outrageous to suggest that the House
send this back to us as it is.
What the Republican leader is asking has very little support over
here that is not partisan in nature. He is proposing a completely
partisan conference report riddled with poison pill riders. It is one
of the worst conference reports I have ever seen in this body. The
report is truly nonsensical. It restricts funding for Planned
Parenthood--the very place women rely on for care to prevent the spread
of Zika and get contraceptives.
It is ridiculous to try to pass a conference report that runs counter
to common sense, so I object to the Republican leader's request.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Democratic leader.
MILCON-VA and Zika Virus Funding Bill
Mr. REID. Madam President, carrying on, this week the Republican
leader will continue with the pointless approach that has been a
hallmark of his time as leader--bringing another failed partisan bill
back before the Senate for a revote. The Republican leader will force
yet another failed vote on this cynical Zika conference report.
The Republican agreement on the MILCON-VA-Zika conference report is a
disgrace. It is a mockery of how Congress should treat an emergency.
Remember, we passed a bill out of here--89 votes. It wasn't everything
we wanted. It was a compromise. Instead of $1.9 billion, it was $1.1
billion. But we agreed to that. Democrats and Republicans agreed to
that. It went to the House, and we thought we were home free, but
little did we realize we were dealing with the same problems Speaker
Boehner dealt with for a long time until he was forced to leave. It
seems that Ryan, who was going to bring a new voice to the House, has
not been able to do so. I know he has tried.
I repeat, it is a mockery of how Congress should treat an emergency.
What does it do? It restricts funding for birth control provided by
Planned Parenthood. It exempts pesticide spraying from the Clean Water
Act. It cuts veterans funding by $500 million below the Senate bill. It
cuts Ebola funding by $107 million. It rescinds $543 million from
ObamaCare that simply would fall, like that, with raising a point of
order. It strikes a prohibition on displaying the Confederate flag that
was in the House bill. Why would the Republican leader waste his time
on this? The conference report is going nowhere. The Senate will not
pass this Republican conference report and President Obama will not
sign it into law.
Democrats were willing to negotiate, willing to compromise. I told
the Republican leader to give us something to work with. I feel we have
given him something to work with. I feel it is reasonable.
Instead of wasting time, we should be responding to the real Zika
emergency that is now in the United States. It is not just in Puerto
Rico; it is on the mainland. I know the number of people affected with
Zika is increasing every day. According to the Centers for Disease
Control, nearly 3,700 people in the United States and territories have
Zika. As of right now, 599 pregnant women have shown evidence of the
infection. Seven babies have been born with birth defects caused by
Zika. These babies were born in the United States. There is a path
toward a bipartisan solution to combating this terrible virus if
Republicans are willing to take it.
Two months ago, the Senate passed a bipartisan compromise to address
the Zika crisis. As I have indicated previously, we didn't like that.
We believed, as we still do, that $1.1 billion is not enough and will
shortchange what scientists, doctors, and public health officials need
to fight Zika. But we still voted for the bill because it was a step in
the right direction. And, as I have indicated now for the third time,
it passed with 89 votes.
The Senate bill, while imperfect, was not riddled with the vexatious
provisions in the Republican conference report that I have enumerated.
The Senate Zika legislation would save lives. We need to get to this
soon. We need to send it to the President. The only way to do that is
to pass the Senate compromise as a stand-alone bill. That is precisely
what we Democrats are proposing. It is too bad that the House says we
can't do that unless we have a Confederate flag flying over veterans
cemeteries, stop people from going to Planned Parenthood, adversely
affect EPA with the Clean Water Act, take money from Ebola, which
everyone says we need to stay on top of that, and take $500 million
away from veterans for processing claims.
The Senate should take up and pass the Zika compromise as a stand-
alone bill. If we send it to the House, if the Speaker would bring up
the legislation today, if he would let the Democrats vote, it would
pass overwhelmingly. But he doesn't do that. He is still following the
disgraced Hastert rule, and we need not say more about that other than
to remind everybody that he is now in prison--the man whose name is
affixed to that.
Tragedy in Dallas
Madam President, a couple of other things. Last Thursday night, a
peaceful protest for justice in Dallas, TX, erupted into violence as a
sniper ambushed law enforcement officers. Five police officers and two
civilians were killed, murdered, and nine were wounded--seven police
officers and two civilians. We grieve with the victims, their families,
and the brave men and women who serve the people of Dallas, TX. We
thank the police and first responders whose timely action prevented
further loss of life.
It is insufficient to say that we as a nation are saddened by this
attack. It is more than that. We are devastated. We are aghast at this
sickening violence perpetrated on innocent police officers who were on
duty to protect and to serve. There is no justification for this
senseless, evil act.
This shooting rampage ran counter to the message conveyed by the
peaceful demonstrators in Dallas. The people at the Dallas march were
demonstrating for an end to violence. They were calling for no more of
the brutality and hostility that have taken the lives of Americans of
all backgrounds but disproportionately people of color. That message
should not be lost, particulately in the aftermath of the two fatal
shootings last week in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Last Tuesday, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man from Baton
Rouge, LA, was pinned down by two police officers and then shot and
killed. The next day, on the outskirts of St. Paul, MN, a 32-year-old
school cafeteria supervisor named Philando Castile was pulled over for
a broken taillight. The police officer killed Castile when he reached
for his license as his fiancee and her 4-year-old daughter sat in the
car and watched.
We are saddened by this loss of life, but our condolences mean
nothing if this epidemic of violence persists. Our words are worthless
if we don't do something to stop this violence.
The Black community is grieving over the disproportionate number of
deaths of their young men. How would you explain all these deaths? How
would you explain this violence to your children--Tamir Rice, a 12-
year-old boy in Cleveland killed by police for holding a BB gun, or
Freddie Gray in Baltimore, or Eric Garner in New York, or
[[Page S4928]]
the other unarmed Black men who died in confrontations with law
enforcement.
Some 512 people have been shot and killed by police this year so far.
Black Americans are killed at a rate 2\1/2\ times greater than that of
Whites. According to the Washington Post, the number of fatal shootings
by police officers increased during the first 6 months of this year.
Twenty-six more people have been killed this year than during the first
half of last year.
The evidence is indisputable. We have, as President Obama called it
last year, a slow-rolling crisis of troubling police interactions with
people of color, and because we are not addressing the problem, people
are rightly outraged. We all should be outraged. In America, police
brutality is not a new issue.
I echo the pleas from the Congressional Black Caucus leaders who are
calling for more funds and more training for our police departments. We
must help ensure that those who police our neighborhoods have proper
training in community-oriented policing and deescalation tactics. The
Black Caucus has said that. I agree.
The Dallas Police Department is exemplary in their effectiveness of
community policing. Long before this tragedy in Dallas, long, glowing
articles have rightfully been written about the Dallas Police
Department. America looks to Dallas and other police chiefs look to
Dallas not only to grieve for the fallen officers but to learn from the
department's improvements under the leadership of Police Chief David
Brown. But, as Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said in the aftermath of
these attacks, we must get to the root cause.
From Baton Rouge, to St. Paul, to Dallas, intolerance and hate are
breeding division and violence. As a nation, we must work to bridge the
gaps between police and the communities they serve and unite against
prejudice and brutality.
I apologize to everyone for taking a little extra time, but it is
necessary because of the exchange the Republican leader and I had.
Climate Change
Madam President, over the next 2 days, Senate Democrats, led by
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, will speak about how the world is being
distracted and misled on climate change. The Senator from Rhode Island
has been the champion of this frightening issue--climate change. He has
spoken 143 times on the Senate floor calling for action.
Dozens of shadowy organizations are waging a campaign to mislead the
public and undermine American leadership on climate change, the Paris
climate agreement, and clean air initiatives across the country. Every
day that is going on. All of these shadowy, dark entities--such as the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Heartland Institute, and the Cato
Institute--are all fronts for the Koch brothers. Clearly, these groups
all have one thing in common: They are bankrolled by the
multibillionaire Koch brothers.
Charles and David Koch and the shadowy groups they fund have a simple
agenda--to promote their own interests at everyone else's expense.
These two brothers own Koch Industries, one of the largest privately
held corporations in the entire world. Together, Charles and David Koch
are worth, some say, up to $100 billion but at least $80 billion.
Why would the Koch brothers mastermind a plot to convince America
that climate change doesn't exist? Because denying climate change is
fundamental to the Koch business model. That is why it is done. The
volume of pollution the Koch Industries emit into our environment is
staggering. The company is among the worst in toxic air pollution in
the entire United States. Koch Industries churns out more climate-
changing greenhouse gases than oil giants Chevron, Shell, and Valero.
To acknowledge that climate change exists is to acknowledge that the
Koch brothers' empire contributes to it, but the Kochs will not take
that responsibility because they don't care. The Kochs don't care about
climate change. They don't care that it is making wildfires more
frequent and intense and that they are endangering the lives and
property of millions of Americans, especially in the West.
As I speak, there are fires raging all over the western part of the
United States--Arizona, California, and other States. They are very
vicious in those States. The Koch brothers, as wealthy as they are,
don't care about Nevada. They don't care that Nevada is enduring the
15th year of a terribly difficult drought. The Kochs don't worry about
the water levels in Lake Mead. They don't worry that they have dropped
to the lowest level since the Great Depression, when the lake was first
filled.
The Kochs have ignored the underlying cause of the California and
Nevada droughts--the unsustainable amounts of carbon being dumped into
our atmosphere because of fossil fuels. One of the chief contributors,
of course, is the Koch brothers. Those who ignore the climate crisis or
deny it exists do not have a valid point of view. They are wrong. They
are out of touch with reality.
These wealthy moguls, the Kochs, aren't just on the other side of
this debate. They are on the other side of reality. Their flagship
organization, Americans for Prosperity, is carrying the Kochs' toxic
agenda into statehouses and city halls across America. They are
involved at every level of government, trying to buy government. They
are doing pretty well. They buy their own scientists to publish
misleading reports to confuse the public about the overwhelming
scientific consensus on climate change.
This isn't my theory. This is fact. A Drexel University Professor
found that in 7 years half a billion dollars was spent by the Koch
network on a ``campaign to manipulate and mislead the public about the
threat posed by climate change.''
Consider the example of one of their front groups, the Nevada Policy
Research Institute. The Kochs use this institute to fight efforts to
increase my State's use of clean energy, even though to date $6 billion
has been invested in clean energy projects in Nevada, including tens of
thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.
This is in spite of the Kochs' bankrolling of more coal and more oil.
I can remember when I came out against more coal-fired plants in
Nevada. I didn't know where all this opposition was coming from. I know
now. It is the Koch brothers. The Kochs don't appreciate Nevada's
renewable energy acceleration. So they fund the Nevada Policy Research
Institute to bash clean energy solutions.
The Kochs are heavily involved in the Nevada State Legislature. This
Koch front group recently hired an academic to write a report saying
that renewable energy was raising Nevada's energy costs. How about that
one? The report, of course, was false and, of course, it is misleading.
When experts studied the report, it was found to be without basic
facts. The Nevada Policy Research Institute went so far as to oppose
the Tesla Gigafactory that is being constructed just outside of Reno,
which will use clean energy and employ thousands of Nevadans. This is a
project that every State wanted to have in their State. Nevada was
fortunate to get it there. The footprint of that facility is so large
that the only standing building that would be any larger is the Boeing
factory in Seattle.
Listen to what I said. All the energy will be with renewable energy.
The Kochs don't like that. Even though they oppose something as basic
as bringing thousands and thousands of jobs to Nevada through the Tesla
Gigafactory, this kind of deceitful activity from large corporations
has occurred before. But the Kochs deserve to be in the hall of fame.
They have done so much deceitful activity that other corporations are
on the sidelines. They are in the minor leagues.
For more than 40 years, Big Tobacco confused scientific consensus
about the effects tobacco had on our health, leading to millions of
premature deaths. Just like the tobacco companies, Big Oil has known
about the harm it is causing. As early as 1981, Exxon's in-house
climate expert knew that climate change was an issue, but they bought
off enough scientists so they could stall for a while longer. In spite
of knowing, Exxon provided over $30 million to 69 organizations to cast
doubt on the science of climate change. This is what a clean
environment confronts--lots of Koch money and lots of falsehoods.
[[Page S4929]]
The Koch brothers and their shadowy organization know the truth.
Science has long been proven, but they don't care. They will sacrifice
the future of our planet for bigger Koch profits. I join my colleagues
today and tomorrow, calling attention to the web of denial financed by
the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel interests. The Kochs' money and
power amplified the climate deniers' voices.
The government belongs to the people. Our planet belongs to the
people--not the Koch brothers, these multibillionaires. It belongs to
the people. The public deserves to know who is behind these deceitful
efforts, to allow better informed decisions about understanding climate
change, and we are going to continue doing everything we can to show
the evil nature of the Koch brothers.
RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time
is reserved.
____________________