[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.

                          ____________________