[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 19 (Friday, February 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S670-S675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Nominations of Jeff Sessions and Scott Pruitt

  Madam President, we have a couple of others I want to mention, as 
well. Jeff Sessions, who is coming out of this body, will be the next 
Attorney General. He will be a great Attorney General because Jeff 
Sessions has proved over the years that he is passionate about the law. 
He did it when he was in Alabama. He has done it here in the Senate. He 
has been an individual who is very focused: What does the law say? 
Let's do that.
  He has been a person who is a lover of all people but also a person 
who is not opposed to confronting people when they need to be 
confronted. It is a good role for an Attorney General. I look forward 
to seeing him in that spot.
  We have a favorite son in this fight as well. His name is Scott 
Pruitt. Scott Pruitt has been beat up a lot by the special interest 
lobbyists and environmental lobby. They put out all kinds of stuff 
about him. I encourage them to actually meet Scott Pruitt and to hear 
from him. Scott Pruitt has been passionate about the environment. Scott 
Pruitt actually likes breathing clean air. I know that may be shocking 
to people, but he actually likes clean air. In fact, he likes clean 
water as well. I don't know if you knew that or not.
  Scott Pruitt has been a very good attorney general for us and has 
also been very focused on doing this one thing: What does the law say? 
Let's do that.
  Some of the pushback that Scott Pruitt has had is not that he is 
opposed to the law; it is that he is not willing to push beyond the 
law, to be more creative with the Clean Water Act, and to be more 
creative with the Clean Air Act. It is not the job of the executive 
branch to be creative with an old law; it is to implement the law and 
to do it well.
  I fully expect Scott Pruitt to hold every person and every company 
that are polluters to account because we as a nation all want clean air 
and clean water. But I also fully expect him to push back when someone 
says to him ``You ought to do this,'' and for him to respond ``That may 
be nice, but that has to pass Congress because the Environmental 
Protection Agency can't make up the rules; they can only implement the 
rules that have been given to them by Congress.'' I am looking forward 
to Scott Pruitt serving in that role.
  In the weeks ahead, as he has advanced out of committee, he will come 
to the floor, and we will have a full vote here. I am willing to tell 
all of my colleagues that when Scott Pruitt is at the Environmental 
Protection Agency, you will be pleasantly surprised with how fair he 
is, how responsive he is, and how passionate he is about actually 
implementing the law.
  These are long days for us because there are an awful lot of stall 
tactics going on. President Trump is trying to put his Cabinet 
together. By this point, 2 weeks in, President Obama had almost all of 
his Cabinet done already. Over 20 individuals were already in place in 
President Obama's first term. The other party has blocked as many as 
they possibly can so that President Trump can't get to work. You may 
think that is a nice political thing to do, but the Nation had an 
election. And as President Obama said, elections do have consequences.
  President Trump should be allowed to put together his Cabinet just as 
Republicans allowed President Obama to put together his Cabinet before. 
It is a fair thing, and it is the right thing to be able to do. We all 
need to be able to get our work done, President Trump included. Let's 
let him put his team together and get to work as the American people 
have asked him to do.
  Madam President, with that, I yield back.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I come to talk about a topic that is 
near and dear to my heart. Although I don't serve on the committee of 
jurisdiction, I will tell some stories today that will demonstrate to 
you about why I feel so strongly about this nominee and so strongly 
about this position.
  I want to start with my dad's story. My dad grew up on a small family 
farm outside the town of Barney, ND, not that you would know where that 
is. When he became an eighth grader--when he graduated with an eighth-
grade education, he wanted to go to high school in Wyndmere, but as was 
the custom at the time, the oldest son was expected to stay on the farm 
and not get an education beyond the eighth grade and help support the 
family. That is not unusual. There is probably a number of people in 
this body whose parents have a similar experience, but this story 
really came home to me when my dad was diagnosed with melanoma.
  Unfortunately, with part of that disease, the cancer moved to his 
brain and something remarkable happened for all of us, and that was 
that he would relive parts of his life. He would believe--as the cancer 
took over his brain, that part would activate his memory, and he would 
be doing things like calling bingo in the middle of the night during 
this time when he was in hospice care. It would alarm us, and maybe 
sometimes even amuse us, but he would

[[Page S671]]

truly believe he was calling bingo at the Mandan VFW Hall.
  I remember taking care of him one night, when he started reliving the 
experience of not going to high school and started really talking about 
how that affected his life, begging his father. I would never have 
known that without the cancer, but that education experience was so 
critical to his future and the future of his children. That experience 
that he had taught us and informed us and mandated that we appreciate 
public school education and the opportunity that came with it.
  That leads to our story, the seven children of Ray Heitkamp who had a 
great public school education in Mantador, went to high school in 
Hankinson. Some of my siblings were fortunate enough to go to parochial 
school before St. Francis closed down, but we all graduated from 
Hankinson High School. Then something truly remarkable happened in this 
country--truly remarkable because we had a chance to go to college. 
From the time we were just children, my mother would tell us we were 
going to college. We would wonder, back in the sixties, how that was 
ever possible.
  Then the Federal Government did something truly remarkable. It said 
our most important asset and our greatest future lies in the education 
of our children, and we want to help our children advance with that 
education. We saw what happened with the GI bill when GIs came home 
from World War II and went to college and became doctors and lawyers, 
became bankers, became businessmen, and worked to build their 
communities. We saw that.
  We said: Wouldn't it be great if every kid had that opportunity, not 
just returning veterans but every kid.
  So I remember coming here, my first day that I presided in the U.S. 
Senate after I was elected in 2012, and I was so busy getting ready to 
serve that I hadn't really gotten to that spot where I realized: Wow. I 
am standing in the most deliberative body in the world, and I am a U.S. 
Senator. I remember gaveling in, asking Pastor Black to come forward 
and give the prayer, and then we turned--as the pages know, we turned 
to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It was at that moment when I asked 
myself, ``In what country can the daughter of a school cook and a 
construction worker serve in the U.S. Senate?''
  We are blessed in this country to have opportunity, but that 
opportunity is diminished if we don't support public school education. 
That opportunity will not be available to future generations. We will 
continue to divide this country in ways that will destroy our 
democracy.
  So where do we go today and how does this have anything to do with 
today?
  This is our Nation's story. Public school education, which began in 
Massachusetts, and every step and every development of public school 
education has expanded the opportunity for children with disabilities 
to achieve their highest calling through public school education. 
Children of a school cook and a construction worker can become a U.S. 
Senator. Any achievement we all have is because someone cared about our 
education and cared about our opportunities.
  I was fortunate, I had parents who believed in education. Way too 
many children today are in homes where education isn't a priority. 
Maybe that home is racked with poverty, addiction, huge challenges. 
Even homeless children deserve a public school education, deserve 
access to education.
  We are the envy of the world. Children in other countries die for the 
opportunity for public school education. This is foundational, not just 
to the individual development but to the future of our country.
  So where are we today? Sure, we have challenges in education. No one 
is denying that. No one is saying our public school education, our 
entire education system is perfect. The challenge I have in North 
Dakota is achieving quality education in a rural setting. How do we do 
that when maybe there are only two high school seniors, and if they are 
going to go to the next school, they are going to drive at least an 
hour and a half a day. That is not unheard of. I can only imagine what 
that looks like in Alaska.
  There are parts in our State where we are challenged every day to 
deliver high-quality education. We have a technology barrier. 
Fortunately, in North Dakota, we have technology and broadband in many 
of our schools. That is not true across this country. We need to do 
more in broadband, bringing high-quality education tools to schools. We 
need to recruit the best teachers for our rural schools, the best 
teachers for our urban schools--the best people.
  During my time as Attorney General, I did a project involving 
juvenile justice. We went around to all of the schools, mainly talking 
to junior high kids because we believed that was the point at which 
they were making choices that may change the trajectory of their life. 
We were going around high schools talking to junior high kids. One of 
the things that kids told us over and over again is, they did not want 
their teachers to know when they had done something illegal. Why is 
that? It is not because they didn't trust their teachers with that 
information. The other group they didn't want to know was their parents 
because they didn't want to disappoint the heroes in their lives. 
Contrary to what people think--because they think children's heroes are 
some sports hero or some rapper or some performer, and that is 
absolutely not true. Do you know who kids' heroes are? First, they will 
say their grandparents or parents or a sister or a brother, one of 
their family members. Next what we hear is their third grade teacher, 
their seventh grade math teacher, their high school coach who maybe 
made their life a little bit easier when they were in school. Those are 
their heroes. These are the people who are doing the critical work all 
too often of helping to raise our kids in very challenging 
circumstances.
  So when we do not support public school education with highly 
qualified nominees for the highest education job in the country, what 
does that say to people who may choose an opportunity in education? It 
says we don't think very much of them because we are just willing to go 
ahead with a D-minus applicant because maybe that applicant had a big 
checkbook.
  I want to talk a little bit about my colleague who is on the floor 
today, Patty Murray, and a colleague who is not, and that is Senator 
Alexander. I can state that I was in State office when No Child Left 
Behind was passed. It was so apparent to me and everyone at that level 
that this was not a public policy that was going to achieve the 
intended results, but yet we maintained that public policy for 
decades--through gridlock, through the inability to sit down and 
compromise, through the inability to put politics aside and put 
children first.
  Then something remarkable happened in the last Congress. In a highly 
contentious partisan environment, two great leaders, Senator Murray and 
Senator Alexander, sat down, and they knew the time had come to reverse 
the No Child Left Behind Act and replace it with something that was 
going to be much more successful so the Every Student Succeeds Act was 
passed, and we are now on the path of implementation. We set a new 
policy for public school education.
  We need a leader in the Department of Education who believes in 
public school education and who can administer that policy, who can 
leave policy to the local and State school boards, to parents, to PTAs, 
and to local folks. We want policy. We need someone who can collaborate 
and implement and work with schools across our country to make this 
policy work and then report fairly back to us when something is not 
working to tell us that wasn't a good idea. We need more afterschool 
programs. We need a hot lunch program that actually serves more kids in 
the morning so kids are ready to learn. That is what we need.
  So what did we get with this nominee? In my opinion, we got a highly 
unqualified nominee for one of the most significant positions in 
government for our most precious resource, our children. That is what 
we got.
  So I am standing today, explaining my belief that we need to do 
something different than approve this nominee. We need to send the 
right message to all of those educators, all of those State officials, 
and all of those parents who came together and worked with Senator 
Murray and Senator Alexander to form a policy. Dissent was hardly 
anywhere. If it was, it was whispered on the edges. We need somebody

[[Page S672]]

who appreciates that work, who understands that work, and who would 
never say public schools are a dead end.

  Public schools are not a dead end. They are the beginning of 
opportunity. We have to work hard to make sure that happens, but we 
have to start from a foundational belief that public school education 
is critically important and needs to be protected, supported, and 
advocated for. We have to start there, and I think we are not there 
with this nominee.
  I wish to say it is not just my judgment that I bring to the floor of 
the Senate today. I bring to the floor the judgment of thousands of 
North Dakotans who have called me.
  Hopefully, I did something to give people greater access to my 
advocacy in the Senate for them. I opened a portal on my Web page and 
asked people to tell us what they wanted to have done with these 
nominees. I have received thousands--in fact, 4,600. It may not sound 
like a lot to other offices, but that is a lot from a State of only 
730,000 or 740,000 people. Of those 4,600, over half were on this 
nomination. Of those who called this office or sent a message to the 
portal, 92 percent of them said: Please, do not vote to approve Betsy 
DeVos. These are incredible statistics, very telling statistics.
  I wish to read some of the comments I received from North Dakotans. I 
received a comment from Amber of Burleigh County, who said:

       My husband and I are both public educators and we know how 
     critical a good public school education is for students all 
     across North Dakota, including our two daughters. We need a 
     leader at the U.S. Department of Education who supports 
     students, teachers, and public schools. Unfortunately, Betsy 
     DeVos wants to dismantle public schools.

  Judith from Cass County said:

       DeVos has no public education experience or training of any 
     kind; she has never been a teacher or school administrator, 
     served on any public board of education, or even attended a 
     public school. It is clear DeVos is not qualified to be the 
     head of the U.S. Department of Education.

  Patricia from Bottineau County told me:

       As a former public school teacher and grandmother of 6, I 
     do not support Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. She 
     should not get this job with no experience in education other 
     than trying to get rid of public schools.

  An editorial today in the Fargo Forum, a very conservative newspaper 
in my State--I might say, it is not known for its liberal bias--said:

       Of Trump's Cabinet nominees, DeVos is among the least 
     qualified for the intended job because of her uninformed and 
     ideologically skewed views of public education. Her ignorance 
     was on display during her Senate committee hearing during 
     which she was unable to answer even softball questions about 
     long-standing education policies.

  If we were inclined to support Ms. DeVos, I felt it was my job to 
watch the hearings. By anyone's measure, I think the hearings were 
clearly a disaster for this nominee. But I think it also represented--
more than the lack of knowledge and qualifications--an attitude. That 
attitude is that it is clear she doesn't understand the importance of 
public schools and refused to rule out taking Federal investments away 
from public schools. In fact, I think it was very clever in not 
revealing the true agenda, which is to privatize--not just charter 
schools. In fact, some of the greatest charter school advocates in this 
country do not support her nomination.
  She doesn't understand basic education policy, yet she wants to lead 
the Federal agency overseeing education in our country. She doesn't 
understand or know of current Federal laws that support and protect 
students with disabilities. She has shown her severe lack of knowledge 
about rural schools, which represent about one-third of the public 
schools nationwide. She never attended or taught in a public school or 
had any of her children in a public school.
  Students, parents, and teachers across North Dakota have stood up to 
say no to Betsy DeVos. In the Senate, only one more vote is needed to 
stop this nomination from proceeding.
  I ask my colleagues who have not made up their mind, my colleagues 
whom I know care deeply about children to think about the great history 
of our country and think about the enormous privilege we had as 
children and as young adults to access that public school education. I 
ask them to think about how else someone who is the daughter of a 
school cook and a janitor and a seasonal construction worker could be 
in the Senate if it weren't for public school education.
  Please, we can find someone so much better--someone who understands 
the new Federal policy, who has the ability to collaborate with public 
officials and not criticize, someone who hasn't said the work of these 
people who have dedicated their lives is a dead end, and someone who 
has respect for public school education.
  We can do so much better. Our kids need it and deserve it. Children 
in the most precarious and difficult situations need a champion, 
whether it is because they have disabilities or whether they come from 
poverty and don't have a parent who really cares about their education 
or is too busy trying to put food on the table to worry about whether 
the homework gets done. We can make a difference here. We can send a 
message out to all of those school teachers who have dedicated their 
lives, who are our kids' heroes, that their life work matters. We are 
going to send them the best this country has to offer to be their 
leader.
  Madam President, with that, I yield the floor, and I yield my time to 
Senator Murray.
  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.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I yield the remainder of my 
postcloture debate time to Senator Murray.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, 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. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I rise today to address the potential 
confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. I rise today not 
just as a Senator from Montana; I am a former public school teacher, a 
former public school board member. I have a mother who was a teacher 
and an aunt who was a teacher. I have a daughter who is a teacher. I 
have a sister-in-law who is a teacher. I have a number of teachers in 
my family. They all have either taught at or currently teach at public 
schools. When I was growing up, education was a critical part of what 
we developed into. Public education was something that my parents 
thought was very important. That was instilled in them by my 
grandmother, who over 100 years ago immigrated to this country from 
Sweden, due in part to the public education system we have in this 
country today.
  When I came home from school every day, my mother would quiz me on 
what went on in public education. By the way, I went to the same school 
she did. She would find out what had transpired, both the interactions 
with the kids and what went on academically in the school, and also 
offer me a hand if I needed help with the academic portion. We would 
talk about my experiences in the public school because it was 
important. She knew it was important.
  She was the daughter of a homesteader. When she was a child, 
homesteading wasn't exactly looked upon kindly by the ranchers of the 
community. They thought homesteaders were taking away their right to 
make a living--breaking up that good grass and putting wheat on it, 
making it so cattle couldn't continue to graze there. There was a lot 
of friction between ranchers' and farmers' kids. They all went to the 
same public school. In my particular case, it was Big Sandy Public 
Schools. In the environment of that public school, those kids learned 
to get along. What resulted from that was the ``greatest generation.'' 
We live in a world today due in much part to their figuring out a way 
to get along, figuring out a way to communicate, figuring out a way to 
make the world a

[[Page S673]]

better place. That was due I think entirely because of the public 
education system we have in this country today.
  Our public education system is--and this cannot be argued--the 
foundation of our democracy. When I was growing up and the Vietnam 
conflict was going on and there were conflicts around the world, 
everybody said: You know, these countries need to have a democracy. And 
then there was a realization that without an educated population, 
democracies really don't work.
  We have had a democracy in this country for nearly 250 years because 
of the success of our public education system. We have had a middle 
class in this country that has been the envy of the world because of 
our--listen to me--public education system. It is the foundation of our 
democracy, it is the foundation of our economy, and it is a place where 
we learn to live together peacefully.
  What is troubling about the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education 
Secretary is that she wants to privatize this public education system 
we have. I had her in my office. We talked about vouchers, and we 
talked about privatizing education. We talked about accountability. Her 
response to the public education system was that it was failing. Her 
response to that was, pull a few kids out. Pull the kids out who don't 
have any disabilities, pull the kids out who are a little smarter, and 
put them into a classroom, and that will be what makes this country 
great again. This country is already great, and if we do that, I am 
here to tell the people of the Senate today that we will destroy the 
foundation of this country and we will destroy--it may take a few 
years--we will destroy our democracy.
  It would be different if Betsy DeVos had spent 1 hour, 1 minute, 1 
second in a public education classroom. She was not educated in public 
schools. She has not dealt with public schools. I dealt with it as a 
teacher. I dealt with it as a school board member for 9 years. In fact, 
my second public service job was on the Big Sandy School Board. It is 
important because my first one dealt with soil and soil conservation, 
and my second one dealt with education. She has been in neither of 
those positions. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter that she wasn't in 
those--except it does because if you don't touch base with what is 
going on and see the successes that are happening in public education, 
you can have a warped view of what is going on in this country right 
now, and that warped view will cause you to do things like say ``You 
know what, we are going to put up charter schools, we are going to have 
vouchers, and ultimately we are going to take away public education as 
we know it today.'' Instead of saying ``You know what, we are going to 
invest in accountability, we are going to invest in teachers' salaries, 
and we are going to invest in a 21st-century education system so our 
kids can compete,'' the answer is ``No, we are going to pull kids out 
of the school.''
  I am going to tell you a secret. I taught in the late seventies. I am 
far from a master teacher; I taught for a couple of years. I quit 
teaching because I could do anything else in society and make more 
money. I could cut meat for a day and make as much money as I made 
teaching school for a week.
  Wouldn't it be a little bit smarter, instead of privatizing the 
schools, as Betsy DeVos wants to do, to invest in those schools? Let's 
give the kids the maximum opportunity we can give them. Let's value 
public education, and let's value education.
  I am going to tell you what happens in a rural State like mine with 
privatization. My school system in my hometown of Big Sandy has about 
175 kids. That is not an exception for Montana; there are a lot of 
schools that have 175 kids or fewer. By the way, that is not high 
school; that is K-12. Let's say that for whatever reason, somebody 
wants to set up a charter school a few miles down the road and suck a 
few kids out of Big Sandy and maybe suck a few kids out of the Fort 
Benton school system and a few more out of the Chester system. Pretty 
soon, they have their little charter school, and there is less money to 
teach the kids who are left in those public schools. What do you think 
is going to happen to those kids who are left there? That is going to 
take away from our public education system. Ultimately, it will cause 
those schools to close because the money that funds our education is at 
a bare minimum right now.
  The other thing that has happened in our public education system is 
that Congress--people here--has made the promise to local schools to 
fund kids with disabilities, the IDEA Program, things we can do to help 
fix public education. Let's fund what we promised--40 percent. It is 
funded at 16 percent right now. So if we had a person who was going to 
go in as Secretary of Education and said: You know what, this is a 
problem, and we are going to fight to make sure that folks have the 
money from the Federal level to be able to teach the kids; and we are 
going to live up to our promise; and, by the way, IDEA is a good 
program that needs to be fully funded, and the Federal Government needs 
to do their part at 40 percent, I may have a different opinion. But 
that is not what she wants to do. She, in fact, wants to do something 
far worse than that.

  She told me she wanted to block grant the money for IDEA, which would 
further put another nail in the coffin of schools around the country, 
and then put three or four in the rural schools.
  It has been documented here earlier this morning that the phones have 
been ringing off the hook. They have been ringing off the hook opposed 
to Betsy DeVos. There are 1 million people who live in Montana. Over 
3,000 people have contacted me opposing her. I have had 20 contact me 
to support her. Phones are ringing off the hook. In fact, the phones 
are ringing to the tune of 1,200 to 1,500 calls a day. The phone system 
has shut down. There are some Senators who aren't even answering their 
phone because they don't want to hear it. But the truth is that public 
education is important in this country. People know what is at risk 
here. To have somebody who has never spent any time in the classroom of 
a public education system is asking for catastrophic results.
  I am going to read a few comments from people in my great State who 
have sent me emails and letters about Betsy DeVos. Here is one from 
Melee in Missoula:

       Mrs. DeVos has no place in our national education system. 
     She is clearly not prepared nor does she even have the most 
     basic experience to do this job well. Our students, teachers, 
     and parents, deserve an excellent candidate, and she is not 
     it.

  Kelly from Laurel:

       As a mother of an 11-year-old daughter, the thought of this 
     woman in charge of our Nation's school system scares me.

  Sandy from Billings:

       It would be nice to have an Educational Secretary who has 
     actually worked, I say WORKED, in education instead of some 
     rich woman who has never spent a day in public schools.

  Kim in Kalispell:

       We need an Education Secretary that knows what the I-D-E-A 
     Act actually is and the needs of rural school districts. We 
     can do better and our kids deserve better.

  Jenessa from Froid wrote me quite a long letter. I think it is 
particularly poignant, so I want to read this to you. It is a little 
bit long, but I think it is very clear. I want to back up a little bit 
and tell you that Froid is a very small town, not unlike Big Sandy. It 
doesn't have a lot of kids, but it has great people. Here is what 
Jenessa says:

       After marrying my husband, a local farmer, in August 2010, 
     I put down my roots with plans to spend my entire teaching 
     career in Froid. With Mrs. DeVos pushing for private school 
     funding, our small school will be one of the first to suffer.
       Having two small boys that will be soon entering into their 
     school years, they will be the third generation to walk the 
     halls of Froid Public School. I want them to be able to spend 
     all 13 of their public school years in the same school.
       As an educator, I have seen what a small rural school can 
     do for a student. While we may not get the same opportunities 
     as large schools, when the opportunities knock on our door, 
     we have a large percentage of students take advantage.
       They have pride in their school and their community. 
     Montana is currently suffering from teacher shortage. With a 
     lack of funding, this shortage will only get worse.
       I am currently in the process of earning my Masters degree 
     in Educational Leadership. With this degree, I have been 
     given the opportunity to become the principal of our small 
     school. A school my family attends, my roots are dug, and I 
     do not want a woman like Betsy DeVos having control over [our 
     school].
       Please vote no. A vote for Betsy is a vote for private 
     control. A vote for Betsy is against the community of Froid.

[[Page S674]]

       A vote for Betsy is against Froid Public School. A vote for 
     Betsy is a vote against public school teachers across this 
     country and against the great State you represent. A vote for 
     Betsy is a vote against my family. A vote for Betsy is a vote 
     against me.

  Mary from Red Lodge:

       As a 32-year veteran educator in a rural public school, I 
     am deeply concerned about the appointment of Betsy DeVos as 
     Education Secretary. I'm inclined to say that her loyalty and 
     financial backing of Mr. Trump were the reasons for the 
     misguided appointment and not her experience and knowledge in 
     education issues.
       To be in such an esteemed position as Education Secretary, 
     one would expect years of experience and an advanced degree 
     to understand the ongoing issues we face in U.S. 
     education.

  Sara from Billings:

       As a first grade teacher in a low-income school, I believe 
     wholeheartedly in Montana's public schools.
       Betsy DeVos believes in school privatization and vouchers. 
     She has worked to undermine efforts to regulate Michigan 
     charters, even when they clearly fail.
       The marketplace solution of DeVos will destroy our 
     democratically governed community schools. Her hostility 
     towards public schools disqualifies her.
       She will not work to provide a free and fair education to 
     my students who struggle every day with hunger, with 
     homelessness, and more. I am asking you to vote against the 
     confirmation of Betsy DeVos.

  But I have heard from far more than that--from parents to 
grandparents, to doctors, to average Joes who oppose this nomination. 
Education is something that affects everybody's life. In my opening 
remarks, I talked about the need for public education for democracy to 
work and exist. As a former school teacher and as a former board 
member, I can tell you that there are a lot of things we can do to make 
public education better, and we ought to do it.
  There are hard things to do. It is much easier to say: Let's just 
destroy the program and privatize it, and then see what we end up with. 
That would be a bad decision, and that is why we should not vote for 
Betsy DeVos.
  The impacts are huge. They are huge on our economy, they are huge on 
our form of government, and they are huge for us being a leader in this 
free world we live in.
  In closing, I want Montanans to know that we have heard you. You 
called, you wrote, and you contacted me on Facebook and Twitter. Your 
message has been loud and clear. It is a message that we are hearing 
all across this country. It is a message that, quite frankly, if we 
confirm this lady, will not make America great again. In fact, it will, 
over time, destroy this very country that we love.
  As to people who I talk to who say: The Secretary of Education 
doesn't matter; it is not going to affect me--I don't know whom you are 
kidding. The fact of the matter is, this will affect every school in 
every community in this country.
  We can say President Trump got elected, and he needs to have the team 
that he wants. I am not going to vote for a team that destroys the 
public education system in this country. I would not be doing a service 
to the people who came before me--the previous generations--and I 
certainly would not be doing a service to my kids and my grandkids and 
the generations to come after. This is a very important decision. If we 
want to do the tough work of debating our public education system and 
determining how we can make it better, get the best people in the 
classrooms, and get the best academic material in there for them to 
work off of, let's do that. But let's not destroy the public education 
system that has made this country great for generation after generation 
after generation.
  I urge my colleagues to stand with the thousands of Montanans and the 
millions of Americans who have told us to vote no on Betsy DeVos.
  Madam President, I yield my remaining postcloture debate time to the 
Senator from Washington, Mrs. Patty Murray.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  Mr. TESTER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, why are we even debating the nomination 
of a person who clearly does not believe in our Nation's public 
schools? No matter whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, 
no matter what part of the country you live in, whether rural or city, 
whether you have children or not, who would say that education is not 
important or valuable? Who would say that education is not foundational 
to success in life?
  Nine of every 10 students in the United States attend a public 
school. Who among us would say those students should be led by a person 
who does not believe in public schools? Who among us would say that we 
should have an Education Secretary who does not commit to making public 
schools better for the sake of all of our children?
  Then we should ask ourselves: Is Betsy DeVos the best that we can do 
for our children and young people? Does Betsy DeVos believe in public 
schools? No. Has Betsy DeVos ever been a teacher, a principal, or even 
attended public school? No. Does Betsy DeVos believe that we should 
hold charter schools--which are public schools, by the way--equally as 
accountable as other public schools? No. Does Betsy DeVos understand 
educational civil rights laws that provide all children with 
disabilities the opportunity to pursue a free and appropriate public 
education? No. Did Betsy DeVos commit to holding schools accountable 
for campus sexual assault? No. Again, I ask: Is Betsy DeVos the best 
that we can do for our children and young people? No.
  Again, why are we even here to debate whether such a person should 
lead the Department of Education? I feel as though we are going down a 
rabbit hole where up is down and down is up. It should not be asking 
too much to have an Education Secretary who will stand up for public 
schools and the millions of our children and young people who attend 
our public schools all across our country.
  Education is foundational. I think we all acknowledge that. I speak 
from experience. When I came to this country at almost 8 years old, I 
did not speak a word of English. I attended public schools where I 
learned how to speak English, developed my love of reading, and 
ultimately prepared for college. Public schools really helped prepare 
me for life.
  I had a great sixth grade teacher. His name is Yoshinobu Oshiro. 
Before he was a teacher, Mr. Oshiro served in the military intelligence 
service during World War II, one of the segregated Japanese-American 
units that went on to earn the Congressional Gold Medal. He really 
cared about his students, and he encouraged me to study hard.
  I have stayed in touch with Mr. Oshiro for decades. When I was last 
home in Hawaii about a month ago, I invited him to the historic meeting 
of President Obama and Prime Minister Abe of Japan at Pearl Harbor. I 
wanted to make sure that Mr. Oshiro met both Prime Minister Abe and 
President Obama. This happened. Today, I have a photo of Mr. Oshiro. 
There he is, meeting President Obama on that historic day in Hawaii.
  Mr. Oshiro was a very important part of my life. In public schools 
across the country, there are many more Mr. Oshiros, teachers who go 
out of their way to support and encourage their students. They deserve 
a leader who will fight for them, who understands the challenges our 
public schools face, and who is committed to meeting those challenges. 
They deserve a leader who wants all of our children in public schools 
to succeed. If you can truly say that Betsy DeVos is that leader, that 
she is the best we can do for the millions of children attending public 
schools in our country, then vote for her. But I cannot. Thousands of 
my constituents agree.
  I yield the remainder of my postcloture debate time to Senator 
Murray.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator may receive up to 40 minutes.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page S675]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.