[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 174 (Monday, December 5, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6697-S6699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TSUNAMI WARNING, EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH ACT OF 2015--Continued
Cloture Motion
The VICE PRESIDENT. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the
Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
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 motion to
concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.
34, an act to authorize and strengthen the tsunami detection,
forecast, warning, research, and mitigation program of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for
other purposes.
Mitch McConnell, Johnny Isakson, Bob Corker, Richard
Burr, Pat Roberts, Roy Blunt, Thom Tillis, Lindsey
Graham, Lamar Alexander, John Cornyn, Chuck Grassley,
Michael B. Enzi, John Barrasso, Shelley Moore Capito,
John McCain, Bill Cassidy.
The VICE PRESIDENT. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call
has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.
34 shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray)
and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Wyden) are necessarily absent.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 85, nays 13, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 156 Leg.]
YEAS--85
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Burr
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Moran
Murphy
Nelson
Paul
Perdue
Peters
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Vitter
Warner
Whitehouse
Wicker
NAYS--13
Boxer
Brown
Capito
Gillibrand
Lee
Manchin
Merkley
Murkowski
Portman
Sanders
Schumer
Udall
Warren
NOT VOTING--2
Murray
Wyden
The VICE PRESIDENT. On this vote, the yeas are 85, the nays are 13.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
Cloture having been invoked, the motion to refer and the amendments
thereto fall.
Mr. THUNE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
DACA
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last Friday I had a meeting in Chicago
with about 50 in attendance. It was Friday morning, and we gathered
groups of people from across the city of Chicago and the State of
Illinois who were focusing on one make-or-break issue for many of us.
It was an emotional issue, one that caused many to break down in tears
as they told me their stories. It is the reason I have come back to the
floor of the Senate today and every day since the election to talk
about one specific issue that I believe is important for this Nation to
reflect on.
Mr. President, 16 years ago a young lady contacted my office. Her
name is Tereza Lee. She had been brought to the United States from
Korea at the age of 2. She had grown up in Chicago with a family of
modest means.
During the course of her childhood, she signed up for what is known
as the Merit music program in Chicago. They offered free instruments
and free musical instruction to kids from low-income families. It is a
great program. Tereza Lee signed up, and it turned out she had an
extraordinary talent at piano. When she came to contact my office, it
was as she was leaving high school and applying to be accepted at the
best music schools in the America--Juilliard in New York and the
Conservatory of Music in Manhattan.
She went to fill out the application, and when it came to a question
of her citizenship and nationality, she wasn't certain what to put. Her
mother suggested that she call our office, and she did. We told her
that under the law she was undocumented, brought here at the age of 2
on a visitor visa. Her mother had never filed any papers for her. She
had grown up in America thinking she was an American citizen like her
brother and sister who were born here, and she came to realize at the
age of 17 or 18 that in the eyes of the law she had no legal standing
in America.
The law is pretty harsh for people like Tereza. The law says she
needs to leave the United States for 10 years and apply to return to
the United States.
Where would she go--to Korea? She had never been there. She grew up
in Brazil for a short period of time. She didn't speak the language.
She doesn't speak Portuguese.
She was caught in the middle. That is why I introduced the DREAM Act.
It said that young people brought to the United States by their parents
before the age of 16, if they finish school and have no serious
criminal issues, should be given a chance to go to school further and
have a legal status in America and, ultimately, to earn their way to
citizenship--going to the back of the line and waiting their turn but
at least setting that as their goal. I introduced that bill 15 years
ago. It has never become law, but there are 2.5 million people in that
circumstance in America.
Six years ago, the President of the United States created something
called DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, by an
Executive action. As a result of that action, President Obama allowed
these eligible DREAMers--as they have come to be known--to receive DACA
status.
In order to do it, they have to apply, come out of the shadows,
declare themselves, file a fee of about $500 with the government, go
through a criminal background check, and then be given temporary--only
temporary--legal status so they can't be deported and can
[[Page S6698]]
legally work, which is renewable every 2 years. As of today, 744,000
young people have done that. Many of them were in the room--at least
some of them were in the room in Chicago last Friday.
They are not certain what is going to happen next. The new President
has promised to end DACA. If he ends it, what happens to these young
people? For instance, there are 28 of these DACA young people who are
in medical school at Loyola University in Chicago--28 students who are
undocumented who are there without any Federal Government assistance,
and most of them have promised to give a year of service to the State
of Illinois in rural areas and poor neighborhoods when they become
doctors. If they lose their DACA status, they lose their ability to
work legally in the United States and they cannot go through the
clinical experience, which is part of becoming a doctor. They would
have to drop out of medical school. There is one thing we can say for
certain: We don't have an oversupply of doctors serving inner cities
and rural areas in my State and across the Nation. We need these
doctors.
If DACA changes, if it is eliminated, what will happen to these young
people? That is a challenge which I face, and other Members have as
well. I salute Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He is working
with me on legislation to address this, to at least give a temporary
status to these DACA-eligible young people while we debate immigration
reform in a larger context.
There are important issues at stake, but the most fundamental issue
is one of fairness and justice. These young people did nothing wrong.
They were brought to this country by their parents. They have grown up
in this country, gone to our schools, and there are some amazing
stories of what they have done with their lives. I wish to tell you one
of those stories. I have done this over 100 times now on the floor of
the Senate.
This is Barbara Olachea. In 2002, when Barbara was 5 years old, her
family brought her to the United States from Mexico. She grew up in
Phoenix, AZ, and she knew she would face challenges, being
undocumented. Her older sister had been accepted to Arizona State
University but couldn't afford to go to school there. As an
undocumented immigrant, she is not eligible for Federal financial
assistance. Arizona law specifically prohibits State financial
assistance to DREAMers such as Barbara and her sister.
During her freshman year in high school, a mentor told her that as a
DREAMer, ``You're going to have to try harder than everybody else.''
Barbara said:
Those words confirmed what I had known all along. Although
I was only starting high school, I began to dread what most
students anticipate with excitement: graduation day. What if
I got into my dream school, but I still couldn't go because I
couldn't afford it?
In high school, Barbara was a great student and was involved in many
extracurricular and volunteer activities. She was a member of the
Academic Decathlon team for 4 years and team captain when she was a
senior. She was a member of student government, yearbook, and
homecoming. She volunteered to tutor middle school students and worked
part time to save money for her education. She participated in a number
of programs at Arizona State University, including the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism. She recorded a story about her life that was
aired on National Public Radio. This experience sparked her interest in
journalism and led to an internship at KJZZ, the Phoenix affiliate for
NPR.
Last year Barbara graduated as valedictorian of her high school class
with a 4.5 grade point average. As a result of her accomplishments,
Barbara was accepted at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school, where
she is now a sophomore.
Barbara wrote a letter to me and said this about DACA:
I am very grateful for DACA, as it allowed me to work and
not be deported to a country I do not know and have not been
to since I was five. Just like thousands of other
undocumented students in the United States, I have grown up
and become accustomed to the culture here. The U.S. is where
I belong and I want to be a contributing member of society,
as I have proved in my 13 years here.
Barbara and other DREAMers have so much to give. They are young, they
are idealistic, they are energetic, and they are amazing. These young
people have overcome odds that many young people never face in their
lives. To think that in your freshman year of high school, you are
reflecting on the fact that even if accepted to college, you may not be
able to go--that was her future as she saw it then.
If DACA is eliminated, Barbara will lose her legal status and could
be deported to Mexico--a country where she hasn't lived since she was
5. Will America be a better country if Barbara is deported or if she
stays here and uses her talent, her determination, her energy, and her
inspiration, for our future? I think the answer is clear.
Now is the time for America, this Nation of immigrants, to come
together and heal the wounds that divided us in this election. I am
just hoping that this President-elect, when he reflects on Barbara and
700,000-plus other DACA eligibles, will realize that they can bring
important values and achievements to America's future. I am hoping that
in the Senate, we can overcome our differences--and there are many deep
differences, political differences--and give these young people a
chance.
Senator Graham and I are basically working on a bill that says at
least suspend their status so they won't be deported, so they can
continue to work. Do that while we do our business here on the issue of
immigration. That is only fair. It is only right. It is the right
American way to approach an issue that can affect so many innocent
American people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Miners Protection Act
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an issue of
great urgency--the fate of tens of thousands of American workers.
In just a matter of weeks, 16,000 coal miners and their dependents
will lose their health care coverage and roughly 6,000 others will join
that group in the year 2017, and here we are just days away from
Congress wrapping up its work for the year. This should be a time to
motivate us to action.
I have served in Congress a long time, and I know nothing motivates
Congress more than a deadline, being up against a deadline, as we are
today. This time should be no different, and here is why: Without some
resolution before Congress adjourns, the men and women who have powered
our Nation and spurred economic growth for generations will have the
carpet ripped out from under them. They will lose the health care
benefits they so rely on and have been promised.
It is important to recognize the risks our coal miners take to better
our lives every day. When you visit a coal mine, which I have done--I
have been underground in a coal mine--you see the rigorous and often
very dangerous working conditions where these men and women do their
job every day to provide the energy we need to light this Chamber, to
warm our homes, and to keep our classrooms lit. These miners are the
pillars of our communities, and many of them are veterans of our
Nation. For decades they have worked hard and played by the rules. Yet
the realities facing these men and women are stark. They are up against
the wall, and we are up against the wall with them. The challenges they
face will only grow if we fail to accommodate and have immediate
action.
We can talk about the realities of the War on Coal, but this is about
more than that. This is about people--tens of thousands of people,
mostly older, many suffering health issues--who rely on health care,
and many are in need. This is about tens of thousands of coal jobs that
have been lost, devastating my region of the country, forcing miners to
rely on these modest benefits more than ever before. This is about
employers who are bankrupt who can no longer fund these benefit plans.
We have a solution right here in front of us that is ready for a vote
to prevent any lapse in benefits. It is a solution that has support
from both sides of the aisle. We passed the Miners Protection Act out
of the Finance Committee in a bipartisan way, and it is a solution that
could make a difference in the livelihoods of tens of thousands of
Americans.
I had really hoped that we could offer the Miners Protection Act as
an amendment to the 21st Century Cures
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bill. The 21st Century Cures bill is all about health. The Miners
Protection Act is a lot about the health and well-being of our miners.
That is why, despite the many good things and benefits in the 21st
Century Cures Act, such as funding for the opioid epidemic that hit my
State of West Virginia and many of our States very hard, advanced
medicine, and Cancer Moonshot, I had to oppose us moving forward on the
Cures Act tonight without an amendment process. That is how important
this issue is to our miners.
Before Friday we will move forward on a bill to fund our government.
We must take action in that bill--which I consider mostly our last
chance, the continuing resolution--to protect these important benefits
for our miners. If we don't, we will be failing to act for the benefit
of thousands of American workers.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________