[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 163 (Tuesday, November 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6324-S6326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GOLD STAR FAMILIES VOICES ACT

  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I ask that the Gold Star Families Voices 
Act be reported.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Committee on 
Rules and Administration is discharged from and the Senate will proceed 
to the consideration of H.R. 4511, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 4511) to amend the Veterans' Oral History 
     Project Act to allow the collection of video and audio 
     recordings of biographical histories by immediate family 
     members of members of the Armed Forces who died as a result 
     of their service during a period of war.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 30 
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
  The Senator from Missouri.


                              Opioid Abuse

  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I am pleased to be here to talk about 
this bill. First of all, following up on what my friend just talked 
about on opioid abuse, I want to particularly thank the Chair for her 
leadership on this issue. Really, as the chairman of the appropriating 
committee that looked at this before we had any legislation, it was 
largely the Chair's effort that made us triple the amount of money we 
were committing to this cause over a year ago. I thank her for 
understanding this and advocating for it as one of the two or three 
earliest Members to bring to the attention of the Senate that this is a 
problem that affects rural America, urban America, small States, and 
big States. I thank her for her leadership.
  Because of that, last year we had a 284-percent increase in the money 
committed to that. We doubled that amount again this year. Assuming we 
are able to move forward with the Labor, Health and Human Services bill 
this year, it will be virtually a 600-percent increase. We are already 
halfway there, and that first half was largely because of the Presiding 
Officer's understanding of this issue, and I am grateful for that.
  Madam President, on the bill before the body today, I ask my 
colleagues to join me in supporting the Gold Star Families Voices Act. 
The legislation passed the House unanimously in September. I hope the 
Senate will do the same today.
  In 2000, Congress created the Veterans History Project at the Library 
of Congress. That project was designed to collect and catalog the 
stories of American war veterans. The purpose of the project was ``to 
preserve the memories of this Nation's war veterans so that Americans 
of all current and future generations may hear directly from veterans 
and better appreciate the realities of war and the sacrifices made by 
those who served in uniform during wartime.''
  To date, the Veterans History Project has collected the oral history 
records of over 100,000 veterans who have served in the military since 
World War I--100,000 stories preserved that wouldn't have been 
otherwise.
  As important and extensive as that project is, as important as those 
100,000 memories are, today the project only includes firsthand 
narratives. Now, what does that mean? That means that only people who 
are telling their own story are included in the stories we have created 
and have been able to secure because of the Veterans History Project, 
which effectively excludes the stories of veterans who didn't return 
from the battlefield--the men and women who lost their lives defending

[[Page S6325]]

this country. This legislation would ensure the stories of veterans who 
made the ultimate sacrifice would now be included in the archives.
  How would this work? This bill would allow the family members of 
veterans who are missing in action or who have died as a result of 
their service to participate in the project and tell the stories of 
their loved ones. Immediate family members who can participate include 
parents, spouses, siblings, and children of veterans who were not able 
to tell their own story. We wouldn't be who we are today if it wasn't 
for the acts of courage and selflessness of our fallen heroes. We owe 
it to them, but we also owe it to their families to know of their 
names, their deeds, the honorable service they gave the country, and we 
need to preserve those memories. The families of these fallen heroes 
are in the best position to share their stories so future generations 
of Americans may never forget the people we owe our freedom to and have 
not been able to have their story told up until now. I think this 
legislation will make a great program even better and hope my 
colleagues will agree.
  I thank the American Gold Star mothers for fighting to make this bill 
a priority. I thank Congressman Chris Smith, who introduced this 
legislation in the House and who has been its ultimate champion. I was 
happy to be able to lead this bill through the Rules Committee.
  I urge all my colleagues to join me today in helping to honor those 
who made the ultimate sacrifice and make sure their stories and those 
of their loved ones become part of this historic record.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I rise to bring up two key priorities--
two important unmet needs--which I hope this body and the U.S. House 
will act on immediately and certainly by the end of the year.
  The first is the Steve Gleason Act, legislation I drafted which 
passed last year but for a limited period of time. We need to make that 
permanent for reasons I will explain.
  The second even broader need is to ensure that victims of the recent 
flooding in Louisiana--many families whose lives were devastated in 
incalculable terms--get the aid they need. We made an important 
downpayment on that before we wrapped up business before the elections, 
with the understanding that we would clearly revisit the issue between 
now and the end of the year.
  Madam President, first, the Steve Gleason Act. As I said, I am very 
happy that last year the Senate and the House passed my legislation, 
the bipartisan Steve Gleason Act of 2015. It provided immediate relief 
to ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and other similar patients who needed 
the help to make sure they had access to important, life-changing 
medical equipment.
  I first heard about this need in 2014, when thousands of patients, 
patient advocates, and others came to Congress in order to bring 
attention to the devastating consequences of what was then a brandnew 
Medicare policy. The devices they were concerned with are critical for 
patients who have lost their ability to speak, to communicate with 
friends and family and doctors, to call 911 in case of emergency, ALS 
patients and others with similar debilitating diseases. These patients 
are locked in, unable to communicate, and it is only because of 
miraculous, relatively new devices that they can communicate with 
caregivers and the outside world. In most cases, this involves their 
using a computer screen and keypad, where they literally make eye 
contact with the keyboard on a computer screen, type out a message, and 
then the computer through a computer voice articulates that message to 
caregivers, family, doctors, and the outside world.
  Because of a Medicare change--an unprovoked, unnecessary change in 
Medicare policy--many of these patients were denied access to these 
life-changing devices. The devices were literally confiscated in 
thousands of cases. They were not allowed to use this technological 
miracle to make them more fully independent.
  Thank goodness, entered Steve Gleason, a superadvocate for the ALS 
community, an ALS patient himself. Steve is a former player for the New 
Orleans Saints. He famously blocked a punt during the first game in 
which the Saints reopened the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina; then, 
a few years after that, he was diagnosed with ALS himself.
  Just as he gave the city of New Orleans a rallying point around which 
to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, through his 
organization Team Gleason, Steve also gives the ALS community and their 
families hope and a rallying point with his motto: ``No White Flags.''
  I believe Steve's wife Michel summed up the cause of ALS patients 
like Steve and their loved ones succinctly when she said:

       What causes me the most pain is the loss of his voice, I 
     love hearing his voice. I want him to talk to me, and to our 
     son Rivers. This disease takes his body; to take his voice 
     just seems unfair.

  Of course, this is where this life-changing device and this similar 
medical equipment helps plug the gap. This is why the horrible reversal 
in Medicare policy caused so many problems.
  Steve and I worked together on legislation that would reverse that 
policy change and would give folks with ALS their voices back. Steve 
was my guest at the State of the Union speech in 2015. That day, we met 
with Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and were 
able to build major momentum, resulting in Members on both sides of the 
aisle and both houses of Congress coming together and eventually 
passing my Steve Gleason Act of 2015, which became law on July 30 of 
last year. Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota and Senator King from Maine 
were especially supportive and aggressive in getting this bill to the 
finish line, and I thank them again for their partnership and their 
support.
  The act reinstated the longstanding Medicare policy to offer 
immediate relief for patients experiencing incredible difficulty 
accessing the important life-changing equipment I described. The Steve 
Gleason Act of 2015 was a huge win for thousands of ALS patients, their 
families, caregivers, and others, but we need to make this act 
permanent. It is of limited duration as it was passed last year. We 
need to make it permanent. It is as simple as that. We need to do it 
between now and the end of the year.
  So I encourage all of my colleagues to come together, as we did last 
year, to take this commonsense step to empower these patients to be in 
touch with the outside world and their family and their caregivers--
literally give them voice, literally empower them, as Steve has 
inspired and empowered so many others with ALS.


                  Funding for Louisiana Flood Victims

  Madam President, I also rise to talk about another key unmet need 
that is even of broader scope. As I said a few minutes ago, that is the 
urgent need between now and the end of the year to pass emergency help 
for the recent flood victims of Louisiana who were devastated by the 
consequences of that enormous flood.
  Unfortunately, because there were lots of other things in the news at 
the time when that flooding happened in Greater Baton Rouge and 
Acadiana, a lot of Members and folks around the Nation don't fully 
appreciate and understand the gravity of that flooding. It was way 
underreported in the national media. It was way underappreciated and 
not fully understood by us in the Congress. We have solved some of that 
in the months since then, but still, to this day, so many Americans 
don't understand the gravity of that flooding.
  The flooding I am describing a few months ago in Greater Baton Rouge 
and Acadiana in Louisiana is the fourth worst natural disaster we have 
experienced in a decade or more, only behind Hurricane Katrina, 
Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricane Ike--the fourth worst natural disaster 
by any reasonable metric, such as FEMA individual assistance. Louisiana 
had over 114,000 homes--114,000 homes--with a verified loss. Let's do a 
comparison to understand the scope of that.
  In 2016, Missouri had horrendous flooding, very serious flooding, and 
I certainly supported an appropriate response there. That was about 
2,500 individual registrations. South Carolina had even greater 
flooding in 2015. That was 26,000 individual registrations. Northern 
and Central Louisiana in March of this year had major flooding. That 
was 40,000 individual registrations. We are talking 114,000 homes

[[Page S6326]]

with verified loss. That is comparable to the loss in New York State 
from Superstorm Sandy. In Superstorm Sandy, there were 124,000 homes 
with verified loss in New York--about the same number. Again, we are 
talking about 114,000 homes in Louisiana. Now, that was not all of 
Superstorm Sandy, just New York. I am not counting New Jersey. That was 
another significant number, but that gives us a sense of the magnitude 
we are talking about.
  I thank all of our colleagues and our colleagues in the House and 
President Obama for proposing the beginning of an appropriate response. 
Before we broke for the elections, we did pass significant emergency 
funding to go beyond the normal help in the Stafford Act and other 
statutes that pertain to FEMA and related agencies. About $400 million 
was sent to the flood victims in Louisiana, but by any metric, that can 
only be the beginning. In fact, President Obama at the time and 
Congressional leaders at the time pledged that this would be the 
beginning and that we would come back now and, between now and the end 
of the year, finish an appropriate response.

  I mentioned losses in New York caused by Superstorm Sandy. It was 
just a little more losses on homes flooded than we are talking about in 
Louisiana, and yet New York received $8.6 billion related to that in 
emergency CDBG funds. We are not asking for near that amount, but that 
gives you a sense of the magnitude of the need. Certainly, the request 
the Governor and others--including myself and Senator Cassidy--have put 
forward is fully justified by the numbers, by the metrics.
  I would simply ask all of our colleagues in the Senate and all of our 
colleagues in the House to do the right thing--to look at the facts, to 
look at the figures, to look at the numbers, and to make the 
appropriate response, as we have in every other previous disaster, as 
we did in the lesser flooding in South Carolina, as we did in Missouri, 
as we did, certainly, with Superstorm Sandy, with Ike, Katrina, and 
Rita, et cetera--no special treatment. Just look at the numbers and 
look at the metrics. Do the right thing.
  Our request from Louisiana is fully in line with that and fully 
justified by that precedent. It is a serious natural disaster. It was 
woefully underreported. So it is important that we all learn more about 
it, focus on it, understand the magnitude of the loss, and ensure that 
we respond properly and adequately before the end of the year.
  I look forward to continuing to work with all of my colleagues, 
starting with Senator Cassidy, to do just that.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the bill having been 
read the third time, the question is, Shall the bill pass?
  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Perdue), 
and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions).
  The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 152 Leg.]

                                YEAS--97

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Vitter
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Cruz
     Perdue
     Sessions
  The bill (H.R. 4511) was passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). The Senator from South Dakota.

                          ____________________