[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S115-S116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Issues Before the Senate

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, here we are at the start of a new year. 
Last year, the Republican majority decided to dedicate the year to 
government by and for the powerful and the privileged, but how about 
this year, 2018? We pay attention to our Constitution, which starts 
with that vision of government, not for the powerful, not for the rich, 
not for the privileged, not for the well connected, not for the wealthy 
but for the people of the United States. It is a vision where power is 
distributed, and power comes up from each individual citizen to create 
policies for their general welfare.
  Last year, we saw this complete dedication to trying to wipe out 
healthcare for 20 million to 30 million Americans in order to provide 
tax benefits for the richest. How big were those tax benefits? Well, if 
you add up the provisions that are dedicated to the powerful 
corporations and those benefits for the wealthiest 10 percent, and most 
of that goes to the wealthiest 1 percent, those provisions stack up to 
over $2 trillion--$2 trillion.
  It is very hard to get your hands around $2 trillion. Those are not 
numbers we use in ordinary conversation. Let's take that down to the 
amount of money per man, woman, and child--per citizen in America. 
Well, that is about $6,000--$6,000 taken from the community funds for 
every man, woman, and child in America to deliver to the wealthiest 
Americans. That was government by the Republican majority in 2017. It 
was not ``We the People'' but we the powerful and we the privileged.
  How about we have a new year's resolution that pays attention to the 
vision of our Constitution, to that vision of government of, by, and 
for the people?
  Ben Franklin once wrote in his ``Poor Richard's Almanac'':

       Be at war with your vices,
       At peace with your neighbors,
       And let every New Year find you a better man.

  Every new year is a chance to recreate and reenvision where we are 
headed. Certainly, it is a big vice to use this Chamber, in 
contravention of our Constitution, to pursue policies for the powerful 
and privileged rather than for the people. So let's set that vice aside 
and have a bipartisan year, dedicated to making a foundation for 
families to thrive and jobs and education and healthcare and a 
healthier planet.
  Right now, we should have an immediate new year's checklist of things 
to get done, and that checklist starts with the budget. We have just 9 
days until funding runs out for the Federal Government, and we all know 
from experience what that means--parks shut down, medical research 
stops, passports don't get processed, and businesses can't check in on 
their I-9 applications for employees. That is the type of conduct that 
happens in banana republics--basically, in countries that don't have a 
competent system of government. It should not happen in the United 
States of America.
  We are deep into the financial year, which started on October 1. 
October passed. November passed. December passed. We are well into 
January and still the majority leadership of this body is unable to put 
together a process that addresses just key, fundamental issues. Why is 
that? Because they were so distracted by delivering trillions of 
dollars to the richest of Americans and trying to destroy healthcare 
for millions of Americans that they didn't tend to the fundamentals 
that need to be tended to. Let's take care of those things now.
  The Children's Health Insurance Program. Here we are. It expired on 
September 30 of last year. Nine million children across America depend 
on this insurance. This insurance was crafted in a bipartisan manner. 
It was forged in an agreement between Senator Hatch, a Republican, and 
Senator Kennedy, a Democrat, who had very different visions of America 
but who could agree that families who didn't qualify for Medicaid and 
weren't affluent enough to buy insurance for their children could still 
have insurance for their children. These are the working poor of 
America, the struggling workers of America.
  It was forged in a bipartisan manner, but this year my Republican 
colleagues decided to make these children a bargaining chip for their 
effort to get more for the privileged and the powerful. That has to 
end.
  When children do not have insurance, they don't get that dental 
benefit to take care of those cavities. They don't get that medical 
exam. They don't get those inoculations, those vaccinations. They don't 
get treatment when they are injured because their parents can't afford 
to take them to the doctor. They don't get treatment when they are sick 
for the same reason. Let's take care of children's healthcare.
  This is not a partisan issue. It was forged in a bipartisan manner, 
and it should be so today.
  What also expired on September 30 of last year was the legislation 
authorizing support for our community health clinics. Community health 
clinics are the front door to healthcare for millions of Americans. It 
is that friendly place in your rural community, in your urban 
neighborhood, where you can go through the front door and get 
assistance.
  Talking about millions of Americans who go through those front doors, 
there are more than 1,400 clinics across the country. These are popular 
in rural areas. They are popular in urban areas. They are popular in 
red States. They are popular in blue States. There is nothing partisan 
about it, but the leadership of this body has no interest, has seen no 
urgency in reauthorizing the ability for those health centers to stay 
open.
  In Oregon we saw, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, 30 more 
health clinics established. We saw a lot more resources go into both 
mental illness and into drug abuse during a period in which the opioid 
crisis joined the meth crisis and afflicted both rural and urban areas. 
Lots of folks come to this floor and say: We have to take on opioids. 
It is not just on the left-hand side of the aisle, but it is also on 
the right-hand side of the aisle. People base virtually their entire 
campaigns on taking on opioids. Yet the Republican leadership says this 
isn't important. Let me tell you, this is important, and we need to get 
it done.
  Then let's turn to the Dream Act. Dreamers are those children raised 
in our communities, now 16 through their midtwenties. They are 
productive members of our communities. They have gone through our high 
schools or are in high school now. They are in college. They are 
working. They are contributing. They know no other country than ours.
  Across both sides of the aisle we hear folks say: We want to take 
care of them and establish a structure for this, a legal structure for 
the Dreamers.
  The President yesterday hosted a bipartisan conversation at the White 
House to say: Let's get this done. He expressed his support. In fact, 
everyone in the room expressed support for getting this done.
  Each one of these--the budget, the children's healthcare, the health 
centers, the Dream Act--are bipartisan efforts. These are things that 
should have been addressed long ago if my Republican colleagues instead 
weren't so

[[Page S116]]

obsessed with decimating healthcare for millions of Americans and 
ripping off the National Treasury to deliver benefits to the wealthiest 
Americans.
  Let's get this done for our Dreamers. More than 100 a day are losing 
their status, which means they can no longer legally work in our 
country. It matters. It is urgent. It is productive for our 
communities. It is bipartisan. Let's get it done.
  How about disaster relief? We certainly saw a powerful punch against 
our States from the raging forest fires in the West to the hurricanes 
in the South and Southeast. Hurricanes have hit Texas and Florida and 
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands--massive destruction. Fires have 
scourged States from Montana to Idaho, to Washington, to Oregon, to 
California. Those fires burned well into the winter months of November 
and December.
  These afflictions hit Democrats and Republicans, red States and blue 
States. Why don't we get this done? These are basic, bipartisan, let's-
get-it-done agendas. Let's get it done now.
  Let's make sure, when we are addressing the impact of those storms in 
the South and those hurricanes--Harvey, Irma, and Maria--we 
simultaneously recognize the destructive impact forest fires have had 
that have been scourging the West. They have destroyed a lot of the 
infrastructure in the forest that needs to be replaced. They have 
affected a lot of communities that need economic help recovering.
  Certainly, it made us recognize that we have millions of acres of 
forests that can become much more fire resilient if they are thinned, 
if we get rid of the fuel buildup on the floor of the forests. When 
they become more resilient, they stop the forest fires.
  Thinning is a win-win. It produces a steady supply of sawlogs for the 
mill and stops forest fires when they are raging. There was a forest 
fire headed right for Sisters, OR, and it hit an area that had been 
thinned. Guess what. It stopped. The trees were farther apart. The 
fuels were removed from the floor of the forest.
  Now we have created a real fire hazard with our clear-cut strategy of 
years past--the forestry grows very close together, often replanted. 
Trees are all the same height. It is very easy for the fire to get into 
the canopy, and once in the canopy, every tree is touching the next 
tree. It rages on, and there is no break.
  But a natural forest is very different. We can more effectively 
replicate the fire-resistant nature of a natural forest by thinning 
these overgrown, second-growth forests. We can then create that supply 
of saw logs, keep our mills open, keep our people working, and 
strengthen our economies in rural America. We can do it by funding this 
reduction, these thinning programs in acreage that has already gone 
through the environmental process. In Oregon, we have 1.6 million acres 
already approved for thinning, if we can pass the funds to get it done.
  So let's take this on in 2018. Let's dedicate 2018 to that vision in 
our Constitution of ``we the people.'' Let's stop passing legislation 
targeted specifically to help out the richest at the expense of 
everyone else in America. Let's turn over a new leaf from campaigns and 
policies and legislation by and for the privileged and the powerful to 
honor the vision of our Constitution, the vision of our Nation, a 
Nation of laws which distributes power that produces policies by and 
for the people of the United States of America, for making families 
stronger, for building those foundations of jobs and healthcare and 
education and a healthy planet.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.