[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6805-S6809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Healthcare
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, on September 30, the Children's Health
Insurance Program expired. It has now been 25 days since the Congress
has put our children's health and well-being on the back burner. My
colleagues and I do not think that children's health belongs on the
back burner. So we have come to the floor of the Senate to spend the
afternoon speaking up for kids.
Thank you to everyone who joins me today to say that we should not
wait any longer to make sure that children, community health centers,
and new mothers have access to the healthcare programs that they need.
Republicans control Congress. It is up to them what we vote on and
when we do it. So what was more important to the Republican leadership
than the health of little kids? Republican leaders blew through the
days before the children's healthcare deadline by trying to repeal
healthcare for millions of Americans.
Once the Children's Health Insurance Program had already expired,
Republican leaders burned through more time by holding a series of
votes on a budget with giant tax cuts for billionaires and giant
corporations that would also gut Medicare, Medicaid, and a bunch of
programs that help working families. Republicans jammed through their
terrible budget without a single Democratic vote last week, 19 days
after blowing past the deadline to fund healthcare for kids.
Last night, 24 days past the deadline to make sure the kids had
healthcare coverage, what were Republican leaders doing? Republican
leaders stayed up late into the night holding a vote to make it easier
for financial institutions to cheat people.
The days continue to tick by--24, 25. Tomorrow Members of Congress
will leave for the weekend, 26 days past the deadline, and still there
will be no vote to fund this critical program.
Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Orrin Hatch, a Democrat and
Republican, wrote this legislation together back in the late 1990s. The
Children's Health Insurance Program, also called CHIP, provides health
insurance to low-income children and to pregnant women. Senator Kennedy
and Senator Hatch created this program because they knew that providing
healthcare coverage for children would make them healthier as children
and healthier even after they grew up. They knew that some children
were slipping through the cracks, and this was their solution. The
children covered by CHIP didn't qualify for Medicaid, they weren't
covered by employers, and they couldn't afford to buy private
insurance.
In 1997, 15 percent of all the children in this country lacked any
form of health insurance coverage. Today, because of the CHIP program
and the Affordable Care Act, that number has shrunk to 5 percent of
children. CHIP works with Medicaid to provide health insurance for one
out of every three kids in this country.
States choose whether or not they want a CHIP program. Here is the
deal. Every single State has chosen one because every single State
recognizes the value of providing their children with healthcare
coverage. In Massachusetts, the percentage of children with healthcare
coverage is even higher than the national average. It is at 99 percent.
We are doing something right here.
The original program was set for 10 years, and since then, every few
years, Congress has had to act to reauthorize the program so that
children can continue to get healthcare coverage. The CHIP program has
been reauthorized four times since 1997, and not one of those times has
Congress missed the deadline--not one--until now. In fact, in past
years, Congress has made sure to reauthorize the program many months
ahead of its expiration in order to give States the time they need to
plan their budget. It sounds like a pretty sensible thing to do--but
not this year. We are 25 days past the deadline for reauthorizing
CHIP--25 days and counting. This isn't fair to States, to kids, or to
their families.
So what actually happens now?
Well, the money runs out. Eleven States are set to run out of their
CHIP funding by the end of 2017, and the others, soon after. Our
Republican Governor in Massachusetts sent me a letter on day 3 past the
CHIP deadline, and he wrote:
Parents are already afraid that their children's insurance
may be lost in the near future. With each passing week, their
fears continue to grow.
My Governor is right. States have to start making tough decisions.
They may have to decrease enrollment, turning away sick little kids who
qualify for coverage but don't make it through the door on time. They
could start kicking kids off of their insurance saying: Sorry, we just
can't help anymore. Or they could be forced to make tough calls on
benefits: We can't cover the wheelchair you need to get around. There
is no physical therapy or no prenatal care until the funding comes
through again.
That is just flat out immoral. Tax cuts for billionaires shouldn't
come before making sure that a sick kid gets the help he or she needs.
Mothers are lying awake at night. Fathers are tossing and turning,
worrying about their healthcare coverage. What is the Republican
leadership doing? Tomorrow they will be heading home for the weekend
without lifting a finger to fund a bipartisan program that has been
reauthorized four times over the past 20 years.
If that isn't bad enough, September 30 wasn't just the deadline for
Congress to reauthorize CHIP. We also blew past the deadline on several
other healthcare programs to help children, to help pregnant women, to
help older Americans, and to help the chronically ill. We blew past the
deadline to reauthorize the Community Health Center Fund and the
National Health Service Corps, which funds health centers and supports
healthcare workers that provide children with high-quality primary
care. We blew past the deadline to reauthorize the Maternal, Infant,
and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which funds home visits to
new and expectant parents to give them help keeping a new baby healthy
and safe. We blew past the deadline to reauthorize the Special Diabetes
Program, which funds diabetes research that could offer hope to many
children living with diabetes.
When a kid is sick, moms and dads move Heaven and Earth to get them
the care they need. They don't wait 25 days to go to the doctor and
check to see if something is wrong. They stay up all night to make sure
their little ones are all right. They wait outside the hospital room,
pacing until they get an answer, but Republican leaders in Congress
just don't seem to care. They don't seem to care if these families have
the health insurance coverage they need so they can get an x ray or pay
for an antibiotic or run some tests.
Twenty-five days, 26 days, 27 days--it just doesn't seem to matter to
Republican leaders, but it sure matters to moms and dads and kids in
Massachusetts and all over this country.
Senator Kennedy used to say: ``The test of greatness for a nation is
how it cares for its children.'' Right now Republican leaders in
Congress are failing that test. My colleagues have come to the floor
today to say that time is up. We are here to fight for kids.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
[[Page S6806]]
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise in support of my colleagues who have
come to the floor to urge the Senate to quickly pass funding for the
Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
CHIP provides comprehensive health insurance to 9 million low-income
children who don't qualify for Medicaid, including 18,000 children in
my home State of Delaware. Lots of other States would say that 18,000
children is a small number, but in Delaware that is a significant
population. Bluntly, whether it is 1 or 100 or 1,000 or 18,000, how can
we allow inaction in this Chamber to put at risk the healthcare of
millions of children across our country?
It has now been more than 3 weeks since funding for CHIP expired.
While some States have enough money in their accounts to carry them
through to the end of the year or just beyond, the uncertainty about
when or if CHIP funds will be reauthorized is causing chaos, concern,
and anxiety across the country. Some States will have to start issuing
notices to households that they will face the loss of CHIP coverage.
Imagine the unnecessary fear this will bring to parents and families
and struggling households across the country as they are facing other
challenges in their life.
This is totally unnecessary. We can stop this uncertainty right now
and bring needed stability for parents, children, and States and show
some kind of leadership from our Federal Government. I am a proud
cosponsor of the bipartisan KIDS Act, S. 1827, being led by Senator
Orrin Hatch of Utah and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. This KIDS Act
would extend funding for CHIP for 5 years. I urge the Senate to do
right by America's children and America's working families and swiftly
take up and pass this bill.
While we are on the topic of programs desperately in need of
reauthorization, I also want to draw attention to the expiration of the
Community Health Center Fund, which ensures access to cost-effective
primary and preventive care for 26 million patients across the country.
In my home State of Delaware, about 50,000 Delawareans benefit from
several community health centers that are widely respected, well run,
and provide affordable, accessible, and preventive healthcare in
communities up and down my State. Funding for this critical program
also lapsed more than 3 weeks ago, and now, sadly, community health
centers across my State and across the country are struggling to make
key decisions--decisions like signing new leases or signing on new
medical personnel to positions. Without certainty that the Federal
Government will authorize their funding, how can we expect health
centers to plan, to provide services, and to provide preventive
healthcare that improves health and strengthens our community?
We should do everything we can to swiftly pass a 5-year
reauthorization for funding for community health centers, such as the
bipartisan bill that Senator Blunt of Missouri and Senator Stabenow of
Michigan have introduced, the Community Health Investment,
Modernization, and Excellence Act of 2017, S. 1899, which I am proud to
support.
Folks, I urge that we work together in a bipartisan way. We should
not be using children's access to healthcare as a bargaining chip. We
should be taking up these two bills to provide reauthorization,
funding, and certainty immediately for both CHC and CHIP funding now
and without hesitation.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, as you know, the Children's Health
Insurance Program expired on September 30, in large part because we
spent much of this year and the days leading up to that date debating
the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, instead of focusing on
bipartisan priorities like the Children's Health Insurance Program. As
a result, the program known as CHIP expired and the health of 9 million
children, including some 340,000 Pennsylvania children, are now at
risk.
CHIP is not just a bipartisan program but a successful program with a
Pennsylvania history. It was modeled after a State program in
Pennsylvania that was signed into law by my father when he served as
Governor in the early 1990s. The program provides affordable health
insurance to children whose family incomes mean they don't qualify for
Medicaid but still struggle to find affordable health insurance
options. It is a program that working families rely upon and that
provides peace of mind to parents.
Many families turn to CHIP during times of economic hardship, such as
when a parent loses his or her job. At such a stressful time, I have
heard from parents over and over how they have peace of mind knowing
that their children will get the healthcare they need.
Some parents who rely upon CHIP for their children are, in fact,
students, working and going to school so they can make that leap into
stable, middle-class life. They may not have a job with health
insurance or they may not be able to afford the insurance, but they
know their children will get the healthcare they need.
Regardless of what drives families to the CHIP program, it is thanks
in large part to CHIP that the United States of America has the highest
rate of insured children in our Nation's history. According to the
Census Bureau, 95.5 percent of children had health insurance in 2016.
CHIP is also a popular program, as repeated studies have demonstrated.
Parents think CHIP is a valuable program, and they are satisfied with
the coverage and with the care their children receive.
Unless the Senate acts and acts very soon, we will have betrayed all
of those children and all of those families. There is no reason for
CHIP to have expired and no reason why we shouldn't pass the bill right
now, if not in the next couple of days--certainly, in the next 2 or 3
weeks--to ensure that not one single child loses his or her health
insurance.
We have taken important steps to extend the program. The Finance
Committee marked up the bipartisan Keep Kids' Insurance Dependable and
Secure Act of 2017, known by the acronym K-I-D-S, or KIDS. The KIDS Act
came out of the Finance Committee, which reauthorizes CHIP for 5 years,
and that happened some 3 weeks ago. I am proud to be a cosponsor of
that bill.
So it is time to act. We have a commonsense, bipartisan, successful
bill in the Senate that is ready to go. It is out of the Finance
Committee. So I would urge my colleagues to join me and to join others
who have come to the floor today and on earlier days to take swift
action to pass the KIDS Act.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BROWN. 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. BROWN. Mr. President, healthcare for our Nation's children is
something we ought to be able to all come together on, but this
Congress, which has not done much of anything, is always able to find a
way to help Wall Street. Think about the middle-of-the-night vote last
night, where the Vice President of the United States came to the rescue
of Equifax and the rescue of Wells Fargo and the rescue of Wall Street
overall. Think of the celebrations last night on Wall Street because of
that tie vote, which stripped consumers of their days in court. It
stripped consumers of their consumer rights.
This Congress, when it came to the Children's Health Insurance
Program, allowed it to expire at the end of last month. It left
millions of families afraid they will lose healthcare for their kids.
Think about what this uncertainty means for parents. Trying to make
sure your children are safe and healthy is enough to worry about.
Families shouldn't have to fear losing coverage for their kids
because of some politicians in Washington. All of us have taxpayer-
funded health insurance. Some politicians in Washington don't seem to
care much about these kids.
In my State, more than 200,000-plus children have insurance under
CHIP. So even if something happens to their parents--even if they lose
their job or their insurance--those 200,000-plus children in Ohio have
insurance because of CHIP. But it expired on September 30.
Governor Kasich is a Republican. I am a Democrat. We stand together
on
[[Page S6807]]
this, as we stand together protecting Medicaid and as we stand together
protecting the Affordable Care Act. He tells us that there is still a
little bit of money left over in Ohio to get us through these next few
weeks until Congress does its job. But that doesn't mean parents don't
worry about their children possibly losing their health insurance.
Kids on CHIP are a little more likely to have asthma or a little bit
more likely to have an illness, in part because they are low-income
kids and they may live near a bus line and the air they breathe may not
quite be so good. Or they live in Appalachia, where they might not be
able to get to the doctor quickly. Those kids are more at risk, and
those parents are worried, even though Governor Kasich assures them and
I assure them we are going to do this.
Congress worked into the middle of the night last night and debated
for hours on a giveaway to Wall Street. They debated for hours on
helping Equifax, which abused the public trust of 145 million people--5
million in my State. They bailed out Wells Fargo, which fraudulently
attacked, for want of a better term, 3.5 million customers. Congress
can bail them out, but it can't pass the Children's Health Insurance
Program?
Because of CHIP, 209,000--I said more than 200,000 before; more
precisely, 209,000 Ohio children have access to affordable healthcare
today--healthcare they may not have received otherwise. That is the
importance of this program. It used to be bipartisan until this
Congress, always in its rush to help Wall Street, forgot about these
children.
This program provides peace of mind for parents. Regardless of
income, when a parent knows that a daughter or a son has health
insurance, it provides peace of mind. They know if their child has a
sore throat or earache, they don't have to wait until the child is so
sick they take her to the emergency room. They won't have to hesitate
or wonder if they can afford the doctor visit or antibiotic. They get
the care their kids need.
Most of us in this body are parents. Most of us in this body have
insurance provided by taxpayers. Wouldn't you think that this would be
important enough to Leader McConnell and the leaders of this body and
to President Trump and to Speaker Ryan? Wouldn't you think it would be
important enough?
We all talk about loving our kids. We talk about grandchildren. Most
of us are at the age where many of us have grandchildren. We don't care
enough about these children as we get insurance from taxpayers. We
don't care enough about these kids to do this?
It has already been 3 weeks now since CHIP expired. CHIP means a
child in Cincinnati or Dayton or Portsmouth or Akron or Youngstown or
Mansfield can see a family doctor when they need it, preventing a
costly ambulance ride and emergency room visit. CHIP means getting
vaccines and shots. It means having dental coverage. We know what
happens to low-income kids who don't get good dental care.
The State of Ohio probably has enough money to help protect CHIP kids
through the end of the year, but Congress needs to act now.
I have met with CHIP families across Ohio. Let me tell you some
stories. Josh, whom I met in Cleveland--his children were covered by
CHIP when he was laid off from his job. He said, ``The ability to take
health insurance out of the equation, feeling confident that my family
will continue to get the same quality of care they had while I was
working, was a huge weight lifted.'' Think about that.
This father, knowing that he has insurance--he had plenty of things
to worry about. He lost his job. Who knows what that means about their
home and their lifestyle and their family? But at least he knew he
could rely on insurance--until now. Look what this Congress has failed
to do.
Think about Noble from Columbus, who came to my office earlier this
year with his mom to talk about how important CHIP is. Noble relies on
CHIP for coverage for the five pediatric specialists he sees at one of
America's great hospitals, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.
My colleagues need to think about Josh and his kids in Cleveland and
Noble and his mom in Columbus. We need to think about the mother of a
son with diabetes, worrying about whether her son will be able to see
the same doctor next year or about a father with a daughter with
asthma, praying she doesn't lose her inhaler on the playground because
in a few months they might not have insurance to pay for that inhaler.
My wife has asthma, and I know what that means. She had a father who
had health insurance through his union plan with the Illuminating
Company in Northeast Ohio. He worked maintenance. It was a good blue-
collar job. It didn't pay enough to send her to college, but it did pay
enough with good insurance that it gave them a decent lifestyle. They
didn't have CHIP back then. More people had union plans. More people
were protected.
We used to have CHIP until September 30, when this Congress didn't
care enough to provide it. We should not be playing politics with
families' lives.
Two years ago, I led the fight in this body to protect CHIP. Because
of that work, with the support of advocates all across Ohio--and there
are so many of them across the country--we extended funding for CHIP
for 2 years. Again, this was with bipartisan support, back when
Congress operated that way.
We have already come a long way this year. We passed a 5-year
extension of CHIP out of the Senate Finance Committee. It had every
vote in that Committee, with the exception of one. I thank Senator
Hatch and Senator Wyden and my colleague from Ohio, Senator Portman,
and so many of our colleagues for their help with that.
But this process is taking too long. Josh and Noble and the 209,000
Ohioans and 9 million children across the country are in a situation in
which their parents are unsure of whether they will have insurance
through the end of the year and next year and the year after.
It is time for us to come together to ensure that the families we
work for have the healthcare they need for their children.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. 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. Mr. President, Donald Trump and the Republican Congress
have spent most of the past year pushing their misplaced priorities, no
matter the direct and collateral damage it causes for millions of
Americans across the country.
There are many examples to choose from to illustrate this point. Just
last night, the Vice President had to come in and break a tie to
protect huge corporations from the victims of the frauds they
perpetuated. Now they are putting together a huge tax cut for the
wealthiest people in our country, and they are trying to sell it as a
raise for the middle class. In Hawaii, we call this shibai--or B.S.
But there is perhaps no issue in which Donald Trump's dangerous
agenda has caused more harm than his quest to deprive millions of
Americans the healthcare and the health insurance they need. His first
attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act would have thrown as many
as 30 million people off of their health insurance. Thanks to the
combined efforts of so many people--active people, engaged people
across the country--we defeated this proposal.
A few months later, continuing the assault on healthcare, Donald
Trump renewed his attack on our healthcare system under the so-called
Graham-Cassidy bill. But once again, the combined outrage of millions
kept the bill from coming to the floor.
In the time they spent on their single-minded, unrelenting quest to
repeal the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump and Republicans in
Congress have allowed authorization for the Children's Health Insurance
Program, or CHIP, to lapse. Nearly 30,000 children in Hawaii and more
than 9 million across the country depend on CHIP for their healthcare.
You heard just now my colleague from Ohio tell you stories about the
children in Ohio--children with asthma. In Hawaii, we have children
with asthma, children with diabetes.
[[Page S6808]]
Nearly 30,000 children in Hawaii who rely on CHIP for their
healthcare are being affected by our inaction. Primarily covering
children from low-income families who earn too much to qualify for
Medicaid, CHIP provides critical and much needed care for children with
complex medical conditions.
Although existing funding has allowed States to stretch budgets to
keep the program in place, money is quickly running out. If we don't
take action soon, as many as 4 million children could lose their health
insurance entirely--4 million children.
Congress cannot and should not be complicit in what I would call
gross negligence. It is not negligence; it is gross negligence.
CHIP has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. In fact, it
emerged from the committee with bipartisan support. I am glad Senators
Wyden and Hatch have come together to create the KIDS Act, which I have
cosponsored. This bill would extend CHIP's authorization and funding
through 2022 and provide much needed certainty to millions of families
across the country.
If we brought this bill to the floor right now, it would pass. It
would clearly have the votes to pass. The only question is, Why don't
we do it? Why don't we provide healthcare to millions of children in
our country, for Heaven's sake?
I cannot believe that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
are afraid to risk incurring the wrath of a vengeful President. I
cannot believe that is what is keeping them from doing the right thing.
I encourage the majority leader to bring this bill to the floor for a
vote as soon as possible.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MARKEY. 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. MARKEY. Mr. President, this summer the Children's Health
Insurance Program, or CHIP, turned 20 years old.
I served on the House committee that created this bill and was proud
to support providing the affordable comprehensive health insurance to
low-income children and pregnant women. It is a bipartisan program, and
it is an effective program. Last year alone, CHIP covered nearly 9
million children throughout the country. In Massachusetts, CHIP has
been instrumental in achieving near-universal coverage for our children
in the Bay State.
Yet, instead of celebrating CHIP's successes over the last two
decades, congressional Republicans have placed CHIP in programmatic
purgatory. That is because they allowed CHIP to expire at the end of
September. Instead of focusing on reauthorizing this critical
healthcare lifeline, Republican leadership chose to waste months of
time trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They let just one of
these successful programs lapse while they tried unsuccessfully to end
another. They were more interested in ripping healthcare coverage away
from millions of Americans and taking a machete to Medicaid rather than
protecting our Nation's children.
We should not forget that CHIP stands on Medicaid's shoulders. Any
fundamental changes to how Medicaid operates--whether it is block-
granting or capping the program--will hamstring CHIP's ability to serve
children as effectively and efficiently as it was intended to do, but
instead of immediately returning attention to ensuring that this lapsed
deadline is not effective, House Republicans have further delayed
action by inserting partisan policies to pay for the program. This has
not only caused an unnecessary delay in passing a bill to reauthorize
CHIP, but it has dragged CHIP onto the political game board, turning it
and our children into pawns in their ruthless game of partisan chess.
CHIP has historically been and should be above such games because
CHIP is not just an insurance program, it is a reassurance program. It
reassures States that they can provide comprehensive healthcare
coverage to some of their most vulnerable, it reassures doctors that
their patients will be able to access care and treatment, it reassures
teachers that their students can be healthy enough to learn, and it
reassures Mom and Dad that their children can still get well in the
face of financial hardship.
Continued inaction on CHIP is dangerous and damaging. Every day we
delay reauthorizing CHIP is another day parents across the United
States live in fear that their children may soon lose their health
insurance. They panic at the thought of leaving their child's asthma
untreated, skipping a trip to the dentist, or delaying a doctor's visit
because they can't afford to pay for the treatment or medication that
may be prescribed. If we don't act soon, this fear may become a
terrible reality for families. In Massachusetts, CHIP funding will
expire early next year. This could impact coverage for 160,000 children
in the Commonwealth, potentially delaying access to treatment and
services that could have ramifications into adulthood.
In Congress, we are celebrating the 20th birthday of a successful
children's insurance program by effectively threatening to end it. That
is what Congress is now doing to the State of Massachusetts. That is
what they are saying to the State of Massachusetts; that they are going
to effectively try to shut down a program that for 20 years has served
the children in our State. That makes no sense.
I urge my Republican colleagues to put their partisan games aside to
provide certainty and stability to States, to providers, and to
reassure families by reauthorizing CHIP. When President Trump says he
wants to make the healthcare system in America better, when President
Trump says he wants to make sure families are able to take care of
their children, we have a program that does that already. It is
successful, and families and the States love it. All we need is
Republicans in the Senate to work together in order to make sure that
program continues for the health of all children in our country.
I yield the floor.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, the Senate is currently considering
the nomination of Scott Palk to a lifetime appointment as a Federal
district court judge on the Western District of Oklahoma. I voted
against Mr. Palk's nomination in the Judiciary Committee, and I will
oppose his nomination on the floor.
While his nomination was pending for a lifetime appointment to be a
Federal judge, Mr. Palk changed his membership with the National Rifle
Association to take out a life membership in the organization. When I
asked Mr. Palk about this change, he asserted he expects to maintain
this ``lifetime member'' status, even if he is confirmed, and he
refused to commit to recuse himself from any cases where the National
Rifle Association has taken a legal position.
What I find disconcerting about this is Federal judges must be
impartial. Federal judges must not have any appearance of conflicts of
interest. When individuals come before a court, they need to trust that
their case will be heard fairly and on the merits.
Every American must believe that they will get a fair, unbiased
hearing no matter who their judge is. Federal judges must follow
applicable laws and regulations that severely limit the kinds of
organizations they can participate in.
For example, the code of conduct for Federal Judges says, ``[A] judge
should not participate in extrajudicial activities that detract from
the dignity of the judge's office, interfere with the performance of
the judge's official duties, reflect adversely on the judge's
impartiality, lead to frequent disqualification, or violate the
limitations set forth below.''
That is why members of the Senate Judiciary Committee often ask
judicial nominees at their hearings what steps they will take to
prepare for the bench. It is the committee's duty to determine whether
a nominee is prepared to leave their former roles and personal beliefs
at the door and instead serve in an impartial arbiter.
In fact, when nominated for lifetime appointments, most nominees try
to rid themselves of conflicts and limit their affiliations, especially
with advocacy organizations. However, Mr. Palk not only chose to
maintain his membership with the NRA, he chose to extend his membership
for life.
[[Page S6809]]
The fact that we are considering this nominee, given this issue with
his background, just 3 weeks after the Las Vegas shooting, should
really give us all a reason to pause. Las Vegas is now the deadliest
mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States. It has
only been a year since the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, which
was previously the deadliest mass shooting in our Nation's history. It
has been only 5 years since 20 6-year-olds and 6 adults were murdered
at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. What happened after
each of those shootings?
After Sandy Hook, the NRA opposed any legislation that would have
restricted high-capacity magazines or military-style assault rifles.
After the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the NRA opposed any legislation
to expand background checks on gun buyers or to prevent gun sales to
people on terrorist watch lists.
After the Las Vegas shooting, the NRA, despite initial statements to
the contrary, has come out opposed to any legislation to ban ``bump-
fire stocks,'' even though such devices allow guns to function as
machineguns, which are already banned under the law.
The NRA has never supported any commonsense gun legislation. The
NRA's views on gun control issues could not be clearer, which is why it
is so problematic that a judicial nominee chose to double-down on his
NRA membership while his nomination was pending, rather than extricate
himself from his prior commitments and then refuse to commit to
recusing himself on cases where the NRA has made its views abundantly
clear. This should trouble all of us.
Our job in evaluating judicial nominees is to ensure our Federal
courts are an independent part of our system of checks and balances. To
do that, we need confidence that judicial nominees will safeguard their
own impartiality. I think all of my colleagues feel that way.
That is not what Mr. Palk has done. Instead of taking steps to
separate himself from strong political views, he has proactively taken
steps to increase his commitment to specific views of the law.
I will vote against Mr. Palk's nomination and urge my colleagues to
do the same.
Mr. MARKEY. 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. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.