[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 93 (Wednesday, June 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3004-S3005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Bobby Kennedy

  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise to honor the life and legacy of an 
American treasure, Bobby Kennedy.
  Robert Kennedy lived his life with courage and conviction, never 
afraid to challenge a divided nation to face its moral failings. Bobby 
challenged us all to take a step back from the stale, cheap politics of 
the moment and to do better by each other. His service to this Nation 
will never be forgotten.
  Today, 50 years after he was brutally assassinated, we pause to 
acknowledge the brilliance and beauty that rested in his vision of 
America--a vision that led him to seek the highest office in this land, 
a vision of love, wisdom, compassion, and justice. Bobby believed we 
all have a shared responsibility to leave this world just a little bit 
better off than when we came.
  ``Few will have the greatness to bend history itself,'' he once 
said, ``but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, 
and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this 
generation.''

  History may not repeat, but it often rhymes. Conditions are different 
now, but a lot of the anxiety and tension that swept through this 
country in 1968, at the height of Bobby's political career, echoes the 
anxiety of today, especially the economic anxiety felt by millions of 
Americans who are working harder than ever but feel opportunity 
slipping away from themselves and their children.
  Too often our political and business leaders refuse to see this. 
Instead, they hide behind macroeconomic statistics, using them as a 
shield to dismiss the concerns of the American people as faulty, 
wrongheaded, or even nonexistent. Robert Kennedy understood that 
America's national economy is not the same as the economic well-being 
of its people. In a 1968 speech at the University of Kansas, he spoke 
eloquently about the differences between them, and here is what he 
said:

       [Our] Gross National Product counts air pollution and 
     cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways 
     of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the 
     jails for the people who break them. It counts the 
     destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder 
     in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear 
     warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots 
     in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, 
     and the television programs which glorify violence in order 
     to sell toys to our children.
       Yet the gross national product does not allow for the 
     health of our children, the quality of their education or the 
     joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our 
     poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of 
     our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. 
     It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our 
     wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our 
     devotion to our country.
       It measures everything, in short, except that which makes 
     life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America 
     except why we are proud that we are Americans.

  Consider three statistics: corporate profits, the stock market, and 
unemployment. Today, corporate profits are up--corporate profits that 
count gun sales from manufacturers whose weapons are used to massacre 
children in our schools and our streets, corporate profits that count 
revenues from drug companies when they quadruple prices for the sick 
and the desperate, corporate profits that count revenues of banks like 
Wells Fargo as they rip off millions of American consumers.
  The stock market is up as giant companies pocket trillions in 
taxpayer money stolen from middle-class families. The market is up as 
CEOs shut down plants and factories in the United States and move them 
overseas. The market is up as business leaders, flush with cash, turn 
their backs on workers while they plow millions and even billions into 
stock buybacks to goose investors' returns and CEOs' bonuses.
  Unemployment is down, but wages have barely budged in a generation. 
Unemployment is down, but for millions of people, the exploding costs 
for housing, for healthcare, for childcare mean that it now takes two 
jobs to do what one job covered a generation ago. Unemployment is down, 
but the numbers fail to count the millions living in rural and urban 
American communities alike that have given up the search for a job.
  Corporate profits, the stock market, unemployment--these statistics 
tell us everything about the American economy, but they tell us very 
little about the lived experiences of today's Americans. They do not 
speak to the citizen who fears police violence or the police officer 
who fears gang violence or the immigrant who cannot speak out about 
sexual assault at the hands of her boss or the toxic rhetoric flowing 
through our politics and seeking to turn neighbor against neighbor. 
They do not account for our devotion to our communities, to our 
churches, to our children. They tell us virtually nothing about our 
trials, our challenges, our hopes, or our principles.
  Robert Kennedy understood this. He knew we cannot simply run our 
economy for those at the top and assume it will solve America's 
problems. In the intervening years since his speech, America ran that 
experiment anyway and watched it fail miserably.
  It is time to try something different. It is time to challenge each 
of us to do better by each other, to see the dignity in one another, to 
put our values first. I believe together we can make that Robert 
Kennedy's legacy, and I am proud to fight for it.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in support of Annemarie 
Carney Axon to be U.S. district judge for the Northern District of 
Alabama.
  Annemarie Axon is exceptionally qualified to be a U.S. district 
judge. Her strong, respectful temperament and commitment to 
impartiality prove that she is well-suited for this esteemed position.
  Ms. Axon has spent her entire career devoted to the law. She is 
presently a member of Wallace, Jordan, Ratcliff, & Brandt, LLC, in 
Birmingham, AL, where she focuses on fiduciary and probate litigation. 
Prior to her current role, she served as assistant vice president at 
AmSouth Bank. She began her legal career in 2000 as an associate at the 
firm Edwards & Angell, LLP, in Rhode Island.
  Axon is a member of both the Alabama and Rhode Island State Bar 
Associations and represents a broad range of clients including 
individual and corporate fiduciaries and financial institutions in both 
State and Federal court.
  In addition to her experience in the courtroom, Axon serves as the 
president of the YWCA Junior Board, as well as the Girls on the Run 
board of directors. She is also a member of the Mountain Brook City 
Schools Foundation Board and a member of the American Cancer Society.
  Following her initial nomination in July 2017, Ms. Axon appeared 
before the Judiciary Committee for consideration. During the hearing, 
Axon stressed the importance of certain characteristics required to 
serve as a judge, including the ability to be fair, open-minded, 
courteous, and respectful to the attorneys and parties in each case. 
The committee favorably reported her nomination in October 2017.
  I believe Annemarie Axon exemplifies all of the characteristics of a 
proper judge. I am confident that she will base her decisions on the 
law above all else, despite the outcome of each case.
  Confirmation of her nomination is beyond imperative, as the swift 
confirmation of district judges plays a vital role in the functioning 
ability of the U.S. judicial system.
  By confirming Annemarie Axon to be a U.S. district judge, Congress is 
allowing the work of the U.S. judicial branch to continue in a manner 
that will best serve our Nation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). Under the previous order, all 
postcloture time has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Axon 
nomination?
  Mr. COTTON. 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. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), 
the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New Mexico 
(Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy), and the Senator 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 83, nays 11, as follows:

[[Page S3005]]

  


                      [Rollcall Vote No. 117 Ex.]

                                YEAS--83

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hatch
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Smith
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--11

     Booker
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hirono
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Peters
     Sanders
     Stabenow
     Warren
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Coons
     Duckworth
     Heinrich
     Leahy
     Markey
     McCain
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The majority leader.

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