[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 99 (Monday, June 12, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3383-S3385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COUNTERING IRAN'S DESTABILIZING ACTIVITIES ACT OF 2017--MOTION TO
PROCEED
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 722, which the
clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 110, S. 722, a bill to
impose sanctions with respect to Iran in relation to Iran's
ballistic missile program, support for acts of international
terrorism, and violations of human rights, and for other
purposes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip is recognized.
Healthcare Legislation
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, before he leaves the floor, I want to
say to my friend, the Democratic leader, among his other attributes, he
now claims omniscience. He knows everything--even about things that
haven't even been written yet, and I, for one, appreciate as a
Republican his concern about the Republican Party.
I would challenge his memory because I was here in 2010, when 60
Democrats in the Senate jammed through ObamaCare, a bill that we
frankly need to save the American people from as it begins to melt
down.
As the distinguished Presiding Officer from Iowa knows, there is not
a single carrier in Iowa that is willing to sell ObamaCare insurance on
the exchanges because they are simply bleeding money.
Mr. SCHUMER. Will my good friend and gym mate from Texas yield for a
question?
Mr. CORNYN. I will yield for a question.
Mr. SCHUMER. Is omniscience a comment of all-knowing, and if I don't
know what the bill is all about, then I couldn't be omniscient; isn't
that true?
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I would say to my friend from New York
that he is omniscient if he claims to know the content of a bill that
has not yet been voted on or agreed upon by Republicans in the Senate.
I would just put that in the same category as his other advice to folks
on this side of the aisle and again challenge his memory to how we got
here in the first place.
I was here on Christmas Eve when we voted. I ended up voting against,
but Democrats voted to jam ObamaCare through this body and on a
strictly party-line vote. The fact is, ObamaCare is failing millions of
people because if they have access to coverage at all, many of them
have seen their premiums go up an average of 105 percent since 2013.
That is the average in the 30-plus States that carry ObamaCare
insurance on the healthcare exchanges--a 105-percent increase. Many of
them have also seen their deductibles get so big that they cannot even
really use the insurance they have because basically they are
effectively self-insured.
So I take with a grain of salt the comments from my friend from New
York that somehow we are doing something that is so horrible when we
are trying to rescue the American people and clean up the mess our
Democratic friends created when they jammed ObamaCare through on a
party-line vote. If they were serious about it, what they would do is
accept our invitation to work with us to improve healthcare for all
Americans. It would be much better if we could do this on a bipartisan
basis. It would certainly be more durable and be sustained for much
longer than things done strictly on party-line votes. Yet, in the
absence of any real help from our Democratic friends, who just seem to
be standing idly by and not lifting a finger to help the people being
hurt by ObamaCare today, we are going to have to do the best we can
with the hand we have been dealt on behalf of the people whom we
represent.
Madam President, on another matter, as a global leader of state-
sponsored terrorism, Iran continues to threaten the very existence of
the nation of Israel and destabilize the Middle East by creating a
breeding ground for violence and hatred.
For the past several years, the United States and our allies have
attempted to contain Iran, often to no avail. For one, President
Obama's lopsided nuclear deal left a zero imprint on Iran's terrorist
activities. So last week the senior Senator from Tennessee, the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced
legislation to apply impactful and powerful sanctions on the nation of
Iran. This bill will give the President the ability to block any trade
that could benefit Iran's ballistic missile programs or support its
military buildup.
I plan to introduce a bipartisan amendment to this bill that would
target Mahan Air. This is Iran's largest commercial airline that
doubles as the preferred mode of transportation for terrorists and
their weapons. That is right. It is a civilian airline, but it is
actually used to facilitate terrorism and to transport weapons. Mahan
Air not only supports the efforts of the Quds Force, which is a special
unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
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Corps, but it supports Hezbollah as well. This terrorist airline is a
conduit for personnel, weapons, and a violent ideology throughout the
region.
Unfortunately, despite its proven transgressions, Mahan Air continues
to expand international operations by adding more international
airports to its flight patterns, including several in Europe. This is
an obvious threat to the safety and security of the people where these
planes are allowed to land. Not only are the goods they transport a
cause for concern, but their very presence is a security risk to
Americans who fly in and out of airports at which a Mahan aircraft may
land.
Through all of this, of course, Iran continues to support their
terrorist activities, indeed carrying on under the guise of commercial
civilian aircraft flights.
My amendment would require the Department of Homeland Security to
compile and make public a list of airports at which Mahan Air has
recently landed and then require the Department of Homeland Security to
assess what security measures should be added.
We have a duty to protect American citizens, and I am thankful that
Chairman Corker will bring this legislation to the floor. The fight
against terrorism is multifaceted, and it is not easy, but we can start
by targeting state sponsors of terrorism like Iran with economic
sanctions while we strengthen our military and continue the great
tradition of American leadership around the world.
Healthcare Legislation
Finally, Madam President, let me return to where I began--to the
issue of ObamaCare.
There is a lot of work to be done here at home as well. I know it is
easy for us to get mired in the ``how,'' but it is also important for
us to remember why we are repealing ObamaCare and why we are replacing
it with something far better for American families.
I want to continue to highlight one of the many stories I am hearing
from my constituents. I wonder whether the Senator from New York is
hearing some of these same stories from his constituents.
This gentleman is a small business owner in the Fort Worth area who
told me that since ObamaCare was implemented, this small business owner
has been forced to change his insurance every year. Can you imagine
going through that headache and hassle when President Obama said: If
you like your health coverage, you can keep it. He was also the one who
said: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. He also
promised that premiums would go down an average of $2,500 for a family
of four--none of which has proved to be true. In this particular
gentleman's case, as is the case for many Americans, his rates have
gone through the roof, rising from roughly $350 a month to $800 a
month. Despite the higher cost, he now receives less coverage because
his out-of-pocket maximum has risen from $3,500 to $14,000. That is
simply outrageous. Throughout the entire process, he has been fighting
a losing battle.
As is the case with many States, including Iowa, provider after
provider has pulled out of my State as well, as they are unable to
afford ObamaCare at all.
This small business owner is not only forced to literally find new
insurance every year, but he has to change providers each year and has
fewer options available. Along the way--this is the other promise
President Obama made that has been broken--this gentleman has lost
access to his doctor of 20 years. He refers to the hope he had when
President Obama looked into the camera and said: Now listen to me. You
can keep your insurance, and you can keep your doctor, and you will pay
less. That is what President Obama said when he was selling ObamaCare.
Instead, this gentleman, this small business owner from Fort Worth, did
not get to keep his insurance. He lost his doctor of 20 years, and he
now pays nearly three times more for less coverage and higher
deductibles.
He closed his letter to me with a question. He asked: Can I count on
you?
I look around the Chamber, and I ask all of us: Can the American
people count on us?
I know they can because it is our responsibility to provide something
far better than what they have had under ObamaCare. They can count on
us if we work together to find solutions that actually provide the
high-quality healthcare American families deserve at prices they can
afford. In many instances, this means getting government out of the way
and allowing the marketplace to lower costs and increase quality, which
is what markets do much better than government regulation.
Right now, every Senator on this side of the aisle is discussing with
our colleagues how best to accomplish that, and we are also discussing
this with the people whom we represent--the physicians, the healthcare
providers, and others--to try to determine the best way forward. I hope
our Democratic colleagues will join us rather than give us lectures
from the Senate floor about the way we are conducting our business,
particularly when their hands are unclean, to say the least, when it
comes to the way they jammed ObamaCare down the throats of the American
people to such bad effect. I would encourage them, rather than to just
obstruct, to actually work with us in a bipartisan fashion. We would
come up with a better product, a more durable product, if our
Democratic friends would work with us rather than just sit on their
hands or actively obstruct our efforts to get the job done.
I urge our colleagues from both sides to work together to find a
solution that repeals what is broken in ObamaCare and replace it with
patient-centered, accessible, and affordable healthcare. I hope that
eventually others will come around to join us if for no other reason
than their constituents are hurting from the status quo.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
Anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub Mass Shooting in Orlando
Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, I rise to recognize the first
anniversary of a horrific tragedy that shook this Nation. One year ago,
in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, we all witnessed an
unthinkable act of hatred and terror at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando,
FL. It was Pride Month and Latin night, and dozens of gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender people, along with friends and family, were
gathered simply to have fun in what should have been a place of
acceptance, affirmation, and safety. In a matter of moments, what
should have been a celebration turned into one of the worst mass
shootings in American history--a targeted act of terror and hate, an
attack on the freedoms we all hold dear. These 49 innocent people lost
their lives in this attack, and 53 others were wounded. Many, many
others bear the emotional scars.
This was not only a deadly act of domestic terrorism; it was a hate
crime--a crime that targeted victims because of who they were and was
designed not just to harm its victims but to terrorize everyone in the
community.
Last year, I came to the floor to read the names and tell the stories
of the victims of this massacre in Orlando, because we cannot and we
must not forget these men and women. Their stories need a voice. Today,
I rise again to remember the victims.
As I did 1 year ago, I come to the floor to ask my colleagues to find
the courage to stand up, speak out, and act to confront the rising tide
of hate crimes and discrimination in America. We must never forget the
victims of this hate crime, and we must honor them with action.
While the Pulse shooting was an unimaginable horror, it is, sadly,
far from the only act of violence that has been perpetrated out of
hatred. Even before June 12 of last year, we had seen an alarming
increase in reports of hate crimes against LGBTQ people but also
against racial and religious minorities and immigrants. In the
aftermath of a divisive election, we saw hundreds of documented
instances of discrimination, harassment, and even violence against
members of minority communities as well as increased hostility within
our Nation's schools. In this year alone, at least 11 transgender
people have been murdered, most of them women of color.
The fact is that many members of racial, ethnic, disability, and
religious minority communities, as well as LGBT people, live in very
real fear for their safety. They are scared, and it is
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incumbent upon President Trump as our Nation's leader to demonstrate to
them and to all Americans that discrimination and violence against any
individual because of who he is, whom he loves, and how he worships
will not be tolerated in this country.
When I stood here last year, I called for a greater investment in the
Federal Government's effort to both try to prevent hate crimes and
fully investigate and prosecute them whenever they happen. After
President Trump took office, I was joined by a number of my Senate
colleagues in urging him and the Attorney General to support robust
funding for the Department of Justice's programs that combat bias-
motivated crimes. I believe a documented increase in hate crimes
demands an increase in the resources that are committed to fighting
this problem. Yet the budget put forward by President Trump and
Attorney General Sessions seeks no increases. In fact, it proposes
cutting more than 100 staff from the Department of Justice's Civil
Rights Division.
This administration has failed to step up and speak out against this
disturbing trend across our country or to commit the resources
necessary to fight it.
Instead of showing the moral leadership our Nation needs in the face
of increasing hatred and division, President Trump and his
administration have taken steps to roll back our Nation's progress in
many areas, including progress for the LGBT community.
Rather than issue a proclamation recognizing Pride Month and
committing to address the many challenges still facing LGBT Americans,
President Trump recently issued an Executive order that could open the
door to discrimination with Federal taxpayer dollars.
Rather than stand up for transgender students facing bullying,
harassment, and discrimination, this administration rescinded guidance
to schools about the rights of those vulnerable young people under
Federal law.
Rather than building on the steps taken to better understand the
needs of LGBT people by simply counting us, the Trump administration
has walked back efforts to ask about LGBT Americans in Federal surveys
at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Census Bureau.
Simply put, President Trump has not lived up to his vow to be a
President for all Americans.
But where I come from, in Wisconsin, our State motto consists of one
word: ``Forward.'' I believe that no matter who is in the Oval Office,
our country must move in only one direction--forward.
Remember, while Pride Month is, of course, about celebration--of who
we are and of how far we have come--it is just as much about bravely
standing up and speaking out so that others will not feel compelled to
live in silence.
To the survivors of the Pulse shooting and the families and friends
of those who were murdered and who feel the wounds of this tragedy most
deeply, we hear your voices and we are inspired by your strength.
As a community, we have never been deterred by tragedy and will not
be now. One of the early leaders in our fight for equality was Harvey
Milk, and he was also struck down by violent hatred. Harvey Milk
famously said: ``Hope will never be silent.''
So today I rise to remind us of the power of hope in the face of
tragedy. We must continue to work to pass on to the next generation a
country that is more equal, not less. We must remain strong in fighting
any rollback of progress, large or small.
There is more work to be done to ensure that all Americans are
protected from hatred and discrimination, and the work toward full
equality for LGBTQ people and their families remains far from complete.
For myself and those who stand united this Pride Month, we are guided
by our uniquely American values. It is about freedom--the freedom to
realize our founding belief that all Americans are created equal under
the law. It is about fairness--whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender Americans deserve to be treated just like their family
members, their friends, their neighbors, their fellow workers. It is
about opportunity--about whether every American gets to dream the same
dreams, chase the same ambitions, and have the same shot at success.
This is the promise of America, and we must fight to make sure we
keep it.
I yield the floor.
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