[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.
____________________