[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 69 (Monday, April 24, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2479-S2481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Remembering Trish Vradenburg
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the wonderful life
and extraordinary work of Trish Vradenburg. It is with a heavy heart
that I note the passing of my dear friend and esteemed ally in our
national effort to defeat Alzheimer's disease.
Many of our colleagues in this Chamber not only counted Trish as a
friend but also greatly respected her as a champion in the war against
an international enemy--Alzheimer's disease. It is through our work
shedding light on this horrific disease, creating a roadmap for a cure
and strategies for prevention, that Trish and I developed an enduring
friendship. She and I shared the experience of having our beloved
mothers claimed by this cruel and merciless illness. We knew the
ravages of Alzheimer's on our loved ones firsthand and vowed that other
people should not have to experience such suffering.
The impact of her mother's illness motivated Trish and her cherished
husband George to dedicate much of the past two decades to fighting
Alzheimer's disease. Together they raised funds, founded and led the
innovative UsAgainstAlzheimer's organization, committing their time,
energy, personal resources, and passion to bring Alzheimer's disease
out of the shadows and to advocate for the policies and research needed
to stop this disease and prevent it from occurring in the future.
Trish was a multidimensional force of nature. Creative, caring, and
compassionate, she was a devoted daughter and caregiver to her mother.
She was a loving mother to her two children, Alissa and Tyler, their
spouses, and four grandchildren. And, as so many of us here know, she
was completely dedicated to her husband George, a man of enormous
talent and business acumen.
My wife Susan and I have been privileged to call Trish and George
treasured friends for more than 20 years. To say that George and Trish
were ideal partners does not fully capture their love story. They were
soulmates, complementing each other perfectly and creating a powerful,
enchanting, and dynamic duet. Many of us have tales of our interactions
with Trish and George, witnessing firsthand Trish's indefatigable
spirit, perseverance, and leadership. Simply put, you never wanted to
tell Trish ``maybe'' or ``no,'' particularly when the issue was
Alzheimer's disease.
This was compounded by the fact that Trish was a master communicator
and humorist. She did not mince words and knew how to convey a message,
often delivered with memorable one-liners. A gifted writer, she
authored novels, sitcoms, and op-eds, with many of her recent pieces
calling attention to the great threat of Alzheimer's disease. I had the
honor of playing the role of her mother's doctor on stage in Trish's
award-winning play, ``Surviving Grace,'' which shines a spotlight on
Alzheimer's impact not only on the patient but on their family members
as well.
It was right here in the Senate that Trish began her professional
career as a speechwriter to Senator Harrison Williams of her home State
of New Jersey. Therefore, it is particularly fitting that the Senate
pause to recognize this remarkable woman and her many accomplishments
across so many fields.
In closing, it is difficult for me to comprehend that Trish has
passed away and that we will no longer hear her powerful voice, her
luminous laughter, her one-liners, experience her creativity, and
benefit from her passionate conviction that we must keep fighting to
defeat Alzheimer's. The indomitable memory of Trish Vradenburg--an
amazing, creative, and pioneering woman--motivates us all to live to
the fullest and to accelerate our work so that we can soon reach the
day when Alzheimer's disease is found only in the history books. In
these ways, her inspirational legacy lives on as George continues their
important work with Trish in his heart, in her family's love, and in
her friends' and colleagues' admiration.
This was a great woman whom we have just lost, a champion for finding
a cure for Alzheimer's disease, and I am so honored to be able to speak
in the U.S. Senate to tell the Nation of the work of this great woman.
With that, I yield back the remainder of my time.
Mr. 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. Mr. 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. Mr. President, I rise to support the nomination of Gov.
Sonny Perdue for Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
As the only active farmer in the U.S. Senate, I have high
expectations of the next Ag Secretary. Over the past 2 weeks, like
millions of other farmers across this country, I have been on my farm
and out in the fields, planting peas and wheat and safflower. When you
are on the tractor day in and day out, from sunrise to sunset, you have
a lot of time to think, and over these past 2 weeks, I have been
thinking a lot about the important role Mr. Perdue will play in
strengthening rural America.
A lot has changed in the 100 years since my grandparents homesteaded
our farm. New technology and improved equipment has made us more
efficient producers, but a consolidation in the marketplace has taken
its toll on rural communities. The shrinking number of family farms has
depopulated rural communities like the one I grew up in.
Today, a combination of consolidation and low commodity prices is
taking its toll on family farmers and ranchers. Commodity prices are
low across the board. In fact, in some cases, markets are below the
cost of production. At the same time, we have seen rising input costs.
The price of fertilizer and seed is increasing at the same time that we
have seen prices decrease. To make matters worse, the big
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guys use tough times like this to sweep up the family farms and ranches
and add to their bottom lines at the expense of hardworking folks who
are trying to keep their operations in the family.
The next Ag Secretary needs to work with Senators from rural States
like Montana to identify ways to reverse this trend of consolidation
because when a family farm goes under, the ripple is felt across the
community as schools lose funding, and the local grocery stores and
hardware stores lose customers.
Yet this is not the first time rural America has stood nose to nose
with adversity. We had adversity in the dirty thirties, and we fought
through the high interest rates of the 1970s. I know folks in rural
America will overcome adversity once again, but in order to do so, we
need an Ag Secretary who will ensure that we are supporting rural
communities, not pulling the rug out from underneath them. This means
pushing back against the draconian budget cuts that have been put
forward by this administration.
The proposed budget slashes 21 percent from the USDA. That is nearly
$5 billion. These budget cuts undermine important resources in rural
America across this country and in Montana.
The proposed budget also guts the Farm Service Agency--a one-stop
shop where farmers and ranchers sign up for critical ag initiatives. If
cuts are made to the Farm Service Agency, farmers and ranchers will
likely be forced to travel greater distances to get the assistance they
rely on to create jobs in communities like Havre and that they rely on
to put food on the tables of this country.
The proposed budget also eliminates the rural Water & Wastewater Loan
& Grant Program. When communities cannot access the resources they need
to update critical water and watershed infrastructure, rural families
suffer. Quite frankly, the White House's budget will be a nail in the
coffin for rural America.
The USDA budget needs to reflect the needs of rural communities. That
means increasing resources for farmers and ranchers and improving
access to high-speed broadband for schools, businesses, and families.
It also means boosting overhead support and loans for mom-and-pop
businesses. The next Ag Secretary needs to fight for a USDA budget that
works for rural families. Once Mr. Perdue is confirmed, I urge him to
take the initiative and fight against these damaging cuts that will
hurt rural America.
In addition to the USDA budget, we are a year away from the
expiration of the farm bill. Over the past 6 months, I have traveled
across Montana and have met with folks to discuss their priorities for
the next farm bill. With wheat prices at a decade low and with ranchers
experiencing an incredible plunge in cattle prices, it is critical that
we construct a farm bill that works for family farms and ranches. I do
not believe the next farm bill will solve all of the challenges we are
facing today, but it should give certainty to farmers and ranchers who
could be a bad storm or a cold winter away from losing their
livelihoods.
Once Mr. Perdue is confirmed, I will be asking him to take an active
role in this debate to ensure that the next farm bill meets the needs
of family farmers and ranchers. I urge Mr. Perdue to help me educate
folks in this body and in the White House that the safety net is more
than a talking point.
Preserving the safety net in the next farm bill will ensure that a
bad year does not wipe out family farms and ranches across this
country. Families in rural America want a fair opportunity to succeed,
and the farm bill should be a tool that works for small-scale
producers, not just for the big guys.
Finally, I urge Mr. Perdue to work hand in hand with us westerners to
make sure we are responsibly managing our forests. Breaking through the
management gridlock in our national forests will reduce fire risks and
will put folks back to work.
I have been a long supporter of collaborative efforts to increase
active forest management, improve recreation opportunities on our
public lands, and preserve these special places for future generations.
Republicans and Democrats have worked together to propose important
reforms that end fire-borrowing and fund our response to forest fires
like we fund other natural disasters. These are the kinds of solutions
we need to increase active forest management and put folks back to work
in the woods, and I look forward to the next Ag Secretary joining our
efforts.
The USDA has a lot on its plate, and rightfully so. There are major
issues facing our farmers and ranchers in rural communities and
national forests, and it is time to tackle these issues head-on. I
think Governor Perdue is a standup man. I appreciate our open and
honest conversations about the need to work together to strengthen
rural America, and I am more than willing to give him a fair shake, but
I will be honest. These problems are too great to ignore through the
honeymoon period. I expect Governor Perdue to hit the ground running so
we can invest in rural families, improve opportunities for farmers and
ranchers, and break through the gridlock that plagues our national
forests.
I look forward to tackling these issues with Mr. Perdue, and I
encourage my colleagues to give Mr. Perdue the same fair shake.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, first of all, I have a rare opportunity
to follow Jon Tester, who is a great farmer from Montana, a great
ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and a man who knows
agriculture well.
I grew up picking up pecans off the ground on my grandfather's farm.
I know a little about it. I know the salt-of-the-earth people who grow
our food and our fiber who make our country work. I doubt if many
people have had the opportunity to be a U.S. Senator, but I know this;
that very few have had the opportunity to be a U.S. Senator and serve
with the cousin of an ag commissioner, because the Presiding Officer
who is presiding over this vote is the cousin of Sonny Perdue, the man
we are going to confirm as Secretary of Agriculture under Donald
Trump's administration. I am pleased to be the senior Senator from
Georgia to brag about all of the Perdues whom I know in my State and
all they have contributed to our State and how important Sonny Perdue
is going to be to us as the Secretary of Agriculture.
If one looked in Webster's Dictionary--and if it were a picture
dictionary and every word were described not by words but by a
picture--if one looked up ``Ag Secretary,'' you would see Sonny
Perdue's picture.
Think about this for a second. He grew up on a row crop farm in
Bonaire, GA, which is an ag community in our State. He was in the
fertilizer business and the grain business. He was a partner in a
storage and shipping business with his cousin, the junior Senator from
Georgia, David Perdue. He graduated with a doctorate degree in
veterinary medicine from the University of Georgia--one of the
preeminent veterinary medicine schools in the country. He presided as
Governor of the State of Georgia after he was speaker pro tempore of
the senate of the State of Georgia. He was the president pro tempore in
the senate when he was a Democrat. He was the Governor when he was a
Republican. He did not switch parties for any reason except that he
wanted to do right, and when one party went in the wrong direction, he
took the party in the next direction and took them to lead our State to
bigger and higher heights. He presided over a State that has 42,000
farmers and a $75 billion farm gate product. Georgia is agriculture and
knows agriculture.
I served in the legislature with him in the State senate. I served
under him when he was our Governor. I served with him as the Governor
when I was in the U.S. House, and later in the U.S. Senate. We worked
on agriculture business and port business. We worked on the Port of
Savannah. We worked on everything that was in the interests of Georgia.
Sonny Perdue knows that there is one way to do a job, and that is the
best way he knows how: Do it right the first time, and you never have
to apologize.
President Trump has made a great decision for our State. He has made
a great decision for our country. He has picked the finest person you
could find available in the United States to be the Secretary of
Agriculture for the United States of America.
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He graduated from the University of Georgia, was in the farm business
himself, served as a Governor, served as the speaker pro tempore, and
married the prettiest woman in Georgia--and I will get in trouble for
classifying her that way, but it happens to be the truth, and I never
lie on the floor of the Senate.
I am going to be proud tonight when I cast my vote for Sonny Perdue
as Secretary of Agriculture, along with the Presiding Officer and
everybody else. I commend our President on a great selection, I
congratulate our State on a great favorite son, and I commend the
Senate Committee on Agriculture for the nomination of a great
Agriculture Secretary, as well as Senator Roberts.
I commend my brother and my friend, my fellow Georgian, Sonny Perdue,
to the Senate today, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor
of his nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I wish to thank my dear friend, my
colleague from Georgia, for making such an outstanding statement in his
own inimitable fashion--sort of a Paul Harvey of the Senate, if you
will--and I know that he would never lie on the Senate floor. He might
stretch the truth a little, but just a bit. I thank him so much for his
testimony on behalf of our next Secretary of Agriculture.
The Senate will soon vote on the confirmation of Governor Sonny
Perdue, the President's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
The Department of Agriculture is made up of 29 agencies and offices,
and it employs nearly 100,000 men and women who work in all 50 States
and around the globe. The Department provides leadership on food,
agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition,
scientific research, and related issues that impact every American
every day.
Throughout our Nation's history, our farmers and ranchers and
business owners in rural America have survived drought and disease and
floods and tornadoes and whatever else Mother Nature throws at them. We
just had a big prairie fire in Kansas. Yet, year after year, they
produce the safest, most abundant and affordable food and fiber supply
in the world.
Today, however, our producers from across the country are facing
tough economic times, with multiple years of low prices. These same
producers now need a strong market for whatever they produce. During
this critical time, the importance of trade for the agriculture
industry cannot be overstated. We have to understand within the
administration, within this Senate, and with our colleagues in the
House, that, yes, it is important to export things that we make, but it
is also equally important to export things that we grow.
On top of all of this, our farmers and ranchers and rural businesses
have been burdened by regulations from agencies across the Federal
Government. I have heard time and again, as has my distinguished
colleague who is the Presiding Officer, that the costly and hard-to-
understand regulations have and are endangering the ability of our
producers to even stay in business.
Members of the Agriculture Committee have a lot of work to do over
the next 2 years, including regulatory reform and recommending to our
new Secretary what he can do in that regard but also the
reauthorization of the farm bill. We intend to do that work in the
bipartisan fashion that has served us so well in the past. I will make
the statement--I have the privilege of being chairman of the
Agriculture Committee--that we are the least partisan committee in the
Senate, and today that means a lot. It also means we work well with our
distinguished ranking member, Senator Deborah Stabenow from Michigan.
But, now, more than ever, agriculture needs a voice, an advocate, and
a champion at the highest levels of government, and Governor Perdue has
been nominated to serve in exactly that role.
As has been said, he is from Georgia. He was raised on a farm and
practiced as a veterinarian before returning to his home county to work
in the grain business. He was elected to serve in local and State
government, including two terms as the distinguished Governor of the
State of Georgia.
During his confirmation hearing--and I want to underscore that his
confirmation hearing was unique in the Senate in that there were no
attacks on the nominee--Governor Perdue knew the answers to the
questions that he was going to be asked. He didn't have to be briefed.
The Governor demonstrated a real understanding of the challenges that
now face the agriculture industry and the willingness to work together
to find solutions.
The Agriculture Committee received many letters in support of his
nomination, including support from six former U.S. Secretaries of
Agriculture, representing both Republican and Democratic Presidents,
and another from nearly 700 organizations across the agriculture and
food value chain.
Last month, the Agriculture Committee voted by voice vote to report
Governor Perdue's nomination to the full Senate--a voice vote.
Our farmers and ranchers have been long waiting for this important
role to be filled. Once Governor Perdue becomes Secretary Perdue, I
know he will put the needs of farmers, ranchers, and others in rural
America first, and lead us in both the House and Senate to implement a
productive trade policy and economic recovery in rural and smalltown
America.
So I urge my colleagues to join in bipartisan support for Sonny
Perdue's confirmation as Agriculture Secretary and for being the
champion for farmers and ranchers and growers and consumers.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, after a careful counting of the Members present on 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. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Under the previous order, the question is, Will the Senate advise and
consent to the Perdue nomination?
Mr. ISAKSON. 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. PERDUE (when his name was called). Present.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Arizona (Mr. Flake).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 87, nays 11, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 112 Ex.]
YEAS--87
Alexander
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blunt
Boozman
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Duckworth
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hassan
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
Kennedy
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Lee
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Merkley
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Peters
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Strange
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Wicker
Young
NAYS--11
Blumenthal
Booker
Gillibrand
Harris
Markey
Menendez
Reed
Sanders
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden
ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1
Perdue
NOT VOTING--1
Flake
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President will
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.