[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5469-S5472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, FINANCIAL SERVICES, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Cloture having been invoked, the clerk will 
report the bill.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 6147) making appropriations for the Department 
     of the Interior, environment, and related agencies for the 
     fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other 
     purposes.

  Pending:

       Shelby amendment No. 3399, in the nature of a substitute.
       Murkowski amendment No. 3400 (to Amendment No. 3399), of a 
     perfecting nature.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3304

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, to accommodate the Senator from Utah, I 
will not make my remarks first, but just by way of introduction to say 
that tonight at midnight American national security is going to be 
irreversibly weakened by the actions of President Trump and his 
administration. That is because at midnight the administration will 
allow the online publication of blueprints to manufacture 3D plastic 
guns, and this is one example.
  So to accommodate the Senator from Utah, instead of making my remarks 
now, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of S. 3304 submitted earlier today; that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider 
be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action 
or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Utah.

[[Page S5470]]

  

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I first saw 
this legislation literally moments ago; therefore, I haven't had 
adequate time to review it, but I will say this: Any legislation that 
comes from this body that begins with the following words will attract 
my attention and should attract the attention of anyone who is 
concerned about our First Amendment and other constitutional rights. It 
begins with the words: ``It shall be unlawful for any person to 
intentionally publish. . . . '' That ought to be concerning to us--to 
each and every one of us--Democrats and Republicans alike.
  On that basis, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, the Senator is basing that on First 
Amendment rights. There are many limits on our First Amendment rights 
of speech. You cannot say ``fire'' in a crowded theater. Why in the 
world would you assert First Amendment rights to publish instructions 
to manufacture a plastic gun that someone can take through a metal 
detector, into a crowded theater, and start shooting in that theater--
instead of shouting ``fire,'' which is clearly an understood limitation 
upon our First Amendment rights of speech.
  It is inexplicable that the administration is allowing this to go 
into effect at midnight tonight. It is dangerous. In fact, the 
President this morning tweeted that allowing these blueprints to go 
online--the President tweeted: ``It doesn't seem to make sense.''
  I would say amen to that, Mr. President, but it is your 
administration that has allowed this to happen because after years of 
winning this issue in courts at every stage of litigation, the 
administration has surrendered to the crazed demands of a self-
described anarchist who is going to put this on the internet. He wants 
to sow chaos--he said so--in our country and across the world by making 
these blueprints widely available.
  We can make this impossible if, No. 1, the President will do it. He 
can stop it before midnight, and the clock is ticking. We are only 
talking less than 9 hours from now because 3D-printed guns, made of 
plastic or resin, can't be detected by metal detectors. Because they 
are plastic, there is not a serial number on the metal so they are 
untraceable, and anyone can get their hands on them, even people who 
are legally barred from having a gun, such as felons or domestic 
abusers. So after midnight, people can walk onto airplanes with a 
deadly weapon because they are not caught in the metal detector, and 
people would not know about it.
  People can walk into schools. My State is the most recent for a 
school shooting. As a result of Parkland, people are outraged. They 
want to harden schools, but now are we going to render the metal 
detectors useless as they try to harden the schools because somebody 
can get through a metal detector with this or with an AK-47 or an AR-15 
that can be manufactured by these 3D printers?
  Somebody could come into this building, somebody could be up in that 
Gallery right now, and if they have a plastic gun, including bullets 
that are plastic bullets, we wouldn't know about it.
  So whether you are talking about schools or this Chamber or whether 
we are talking about airports, any public space that we try to protect 
is going to be useless because these 3D-printed firearms are a direct 
threat to our national security, and we are going to let these go up on 
the internet tonight at midnight.
  I think some of our allies like the Israelis should be concerned 
about this because this is not limited to the United States. These can 
be printed anywhere in the world. Therefore, it can give national 
security apparatuses a great headache because they can't detect them.
  So as I stated in the unanimous consent request, I and other Senators 
have introduced the legislation today to block the online publication 
of blueprints.
  Now, as it turns out, since we can't do it here, and if the President 
can't do it in 8 hours 45 minutes, it is going online, and it is going 
to take us a long time--I mean, what Senator or Representative can 
object to this? So even if we can get the legislation passed, it is 
going to take a while because the legislative process is slow.
  We have also introduced a separate bill to require every gun to have 
a serial number and to have a main component made of metal so it can be 
detected by a metal detector.
  Obviously, this is all common sense. This is not a partisan issue. 
Everybody should be concerned about the threat posed by these deadly 
plastic guns.
  I had intended to give these remarks before asking for unanimous 
consent. As an accommodation to the Senator from Utah, who had to run 
to an appointment, I went ahead and asked that unanimous consent. But I 
want my fellow Senators, who have been so great and so articulate on 
this issue, to be heard. I ask for them to also speak--the Senator from 
Utah's objection was about First Amendment rights--about why those 
objections don't apply here.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank my colleague and friend from 
Florida for his leadership on this profoundly important and imminently 
threatening issue of safety, as well my colleague from New Jersey for 
his very important leadership and also Senator Markey from 
Massachusetts. We have joined together in this cause to prevent a new 
wave of lethal gun violence in our streets and communities resulting 
from these plastic, undetectable, and untraceable, weapons. We are 
talking about assault rifles, pistols, and shotguns--all of them 
homemade. They are ghost guns. They are the new frontier and new face 
of gun violence in this country.
  Our colleague from Utah raised a First Amendment objection. The fact 
is that the courts are dealing with that objection. It is the basis of 
a challenge brought by a group who so far has failed in the courts to 
stop this public health regulation.
  No right is absolute. The First Amendment is not absolute. The idea 
of crying fire in a movie house is one example that is given time and 
again. Likewise, in the course of our history, we have found that the 
First Amendment has to yield to public safety when there is an imminent 
and urgent threat. Clearly, there is here.
  I have supported companion legislation that would, in fact, stop the 
actual making of these kinds of weapons. It involves none of the First 
Amendment difficulties the Senator from Utah has raised, and I will be 
pursuing it perhaps through the same kind of unanimous consent effort 
in the days to come.
  Today, the Senator from Florida is absolutely right to seek this 
body's unanimous consent in the face of this threat that is self-
inflicted by the Trump administration. It has caved to the rightwing 
fringe group and the NRA, which are challenging this public safety 
regulation, and it has, in effect, snatched defeat from the jaws of 
victory because the litigation was on a path to prevailing against 
those objections. This litigation should have been permitted to run its 
course. It was on a path to success. But now the administration has 
created this emergency, beginning at midnight tonight. On August 1, 
plans, designs, blueprints can be published without limit on the 
internet, making possible the mass homemade manufacture of these ghost 
guns. They are a scourge, a potential source of death and injury on our 
streets.
  Any idea that plastic is less durable or strong as a source of 
material for these guns is completely outmoded because we make planes 
from plastic. Plastic in some forms is as durable and strong as metal.
  The threat here is real and urgent, and I join my colleague from 
Florida in asking that there be unanimous consent. I hope we will 
pursue this legislative effort together and that we will have 
bipartisan support. I stress that we must have bipartisan support. 
Senators who fail to step up, speak out, and act in the face of this 
emergency should be held accountable.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor to our colleague from New Jersey.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I join my colleagues on the floor, and I 
salute both Senator Nelson and Senator Blumenthal, who represent

[[Page S5471]]

States whose citizens have felt the scourge of gun violence--in 
Newtown, in Parkland, and in the Pulse nightclub. I don't know how many 
more Parklands we need, but I certainly know that my colleague from 
Utah, who only read a part about what alarms him--that it shall not be 
possible to publish what? To publish the information to create a gun--a 
gun that is undetectable and untraceable.
  Why are we spending billions to secure ourselves as we go through the 
airports of our country? We saw it after September 11. Now we are going 
to undermine all of those billions and all of that security by allowing 
anyone here or in the world to get access to the IP address. You 
download it, and all of a sudden, you can create a three-dimensional 
plastic gun that is as deadly as any other gun.
  What draws us to the floor to ask the unusual effort of unanimous 
consent to ultimately bring this legislation to the floor is the 
failure of the administration to not allow this to happen in the first 
place. We won't need legislation if the President turns back the 
decisions of his Secretary of State and others in his administration 
and says: Wait. This is not in our national security interests. It is 
not in the national interests of the United States to allow our 
citizens to be exposed to an undetectable, untraceable gun that is as 
deadly as any other. It is not in the national interests and security 
interests of the United States to have our soldiers halfway around the 
world face terrorists who have access to a new design that will be 
cheaper for them and at the end of the day will allow them to attack 
our soldiers.
  It is unconscionable. But since the administration, if anything, has 
acted the opposite way, we come to the floor. If the government has any 
specific role that rises above all others, it is to protect its 
citizens. That is what we are trying to do here. It should be a 
bipartisan request.
  What is so difficult about the legislation? Nothing much. One of the 
two pieces of legislation simply says that you cannot permit an IP 
address to be published on the internet because, globally, anybody can 
get that, download it, and create a gun. That is the simple part of it. 
The other one is that any gun has to be traceable and identifiable and 
therefore has to have a number on it.
  Even when our colleagues who are the most ardent advocates of the 
Second Amendment say they want to keep guns out of the hands of 
criminals--well, how do you keep a gun out of the hands of criminals 
when it isn't detectable and isn't traceable? It is pretty amazing. I 
have been in the Congress 26 years between the House and the Senate, 
and it is one of the most amazing moments for me.
  Look, this country has a gun violence problem. It has a mass-shooting 
problem. But a do-it-yourself, downloadable gun will supercharge this 
crisis, leading to more senseless tragedies. It is already too easy for 
criminals, extremists, and terrorists to get their hands on a gun. Now 
we are going to add a new concern: terrorists packing the plans for 
new, plastic, printable firearms. I don't care if a gun is made out of 
metal or plastic--if it can fire a bullet and take someone's life, then 
it should be regulated.
  It is beyond irresponsible for the Trump administration to roll over 
and allow a self-described anarchist to post directions for do-it-
yourself guns on a website available to anyone with an internet 
connection. That is what we are saying. Already, according to some news 
reports, the blueprints for an AR-15--the weapon used in the massacre 
at Parkland--were downloaded more than 2,500 times. That is 2,500 
unknown individuals in an unregulated space.
  As the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I 
was appalled to find out that the State Department carried this out 
without notifying Congress. Last Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike 
Pompeo was before our committee, and he looked us in the eye and said 
that he was unaware of the issue and that he would look into it. That 
was on Wednesday. On Friday, the State Department had suspended arms 
export regulations specifically to allow these 3D gun blueprints to be 
posted on the internet--so much for looking into it.
  This is a case that was proceeding through the courts where the 
government had won at every round. In this morning's tweet, the 
President made it pretty clear that instead of listening to the 
concerns of the American people when he has a gun question--which I 
would submit is not even a gun question; it is a national security 
question--he listens to the NRA.
  The NRA may be concerned in this particular case. Why? Because 
plastic guns don't get built by the gun manufacturers and dealers that 
they represent and that fund their causes.
  The posting of a 3D gun shows just how dangerous the Trump 
administration's regulatory effort to loosen export controls on 
firearms--including assault-style rifles and even sniper rifles--
actually is to the safety of Americans at home, abroad, and innocent 
civilians across the globe.
  All you have to do is go to this company's website to see it for 
yourself. They are proclaiming that ``the era of the downloadable gun'' 
is here. That is what they say on the website. ``The era of the 
downloadable gun'' is here. Well, we should make sure that era doesn't 
happen.
  These are two simple but powerful commonsense pieces of legislation 
that can protect us. I call upon the President to stop it dead in its 
tracks so we don't have to wait for the legislation, but if not, we 
call upon this institution to protect the American people.
  I hope my colleagues will consider coming back later in the day and 
making another unanimous consent request so that we can actually 
protect the American people against the ability of anyone--anyone--with 
a 3D printer to create a gun that can kill a human being and ultimately 
defy all of our security procedures at airports and elsewhere. And it 
lets any terrorist in the world who wishes us harm to manufacture it in 
quantity. That is pretty outrageous. That is what we are talking about. 
I hope the administration will see the light and change their course.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Florida, Mr. 
Nelson, for introducing this legislation and also my other colleagues 
who have been on the Senate floor today.
  This is emergency legislation, which is why there was a request for 
unanimous consent to move forward today. It is very disturbing that 
consent was not provided because we know that as a result of the Trump 
administration's actions, starting tomorrow, people all over the 
country--in fact, all over the world--are going to be able to download 
on their computers instructions and a whole manual on how to 
manufacture plastic guns with 3D printing.
  This is something that has been before previous administrations. The 
Obama administration fought hard against this ability for people to be 
able to send those instructions to make 3D guns at the speed of light 
around the world. In fact, this administration early on opposed 
allowing this to happen.
  Somehow, when this whole lawsuit was resolved the other day, the 
folks who want to send these instructions around the world were allowed 
to do so. In fact, Alan Gottlieb, who is with the Second Amendment 
Foundation that was part of this case, said:

       We asked for the Moon and we figured the government would 
     reject it, but they didn't want to go to trial. The 
     government fought us all the way and then all of the sudden 
     folded their tent.

  Secretary Pompeo and the Trump administration folded their tent. As a 
consequence, Americans will be placed at much higher risk starting 
tomorrow. We have already seen over 1,000 people sign up to begin to 
receive the instructions to make AR-15s using 3D printing.
  Why is this going to pose a big danger? No. 1, it is a total end-run 
around criminal background checks for the purchase of a handgun or any 
kind of weapon. We should be closing the loopholes in the existing 
background check system, closing things like the gun show loophole. 
Instead, this allows for a total runaround. If you can just download 
instructions and use a 3D printer to make a gun at home, you obviously 
aren't going to go through any kind of criminal background check.
  No. 2, we have spent a lot of time and effort giving the ATF the 
authority to track guns used in crimes. I would have

[[Page S5472]]

thought all of us want to make sure we can track people down who are 
using guns to commit crimes and catch them. If you print a gun at home 
using a 3D printer, there is no traceable number, there is no serial 
number. We are not going to be able to easily track down the people who 
are using these guns to commit crimes.
  No. 3, with plastic 3D printing, the technology we have at airports 
to detect metal will become ineffective.
  Folks around the world, if you are a terrorist wanting to do harm, 
now you are going to get instructions over the internet. You are going 
to be able to download it as easy as you can download an iTune. With a 
3D printer in your basement or around the corner in some space, you are 
going to be able to manufacture guns; No. 1, evading metal detectors at 
airports, putting the entire flying public at risk; No. 2, it is a 
public end-run around the criminal background check system, which is 
already flawed; and, No. 3, it will not allow us to trace guns used in 
crimes.
  I thought there was a consensus in this body that we should get after 
people who use guns to commit crimes, whether crimes in the United 
States or crimes around the world. Yet what this body is doing by not 
allowing a vote today on the Nelson bill is saying it is OK for people 
to be using this technology in their basements to make guns that can 
evade all these systems and commit crimes and make it impossible to 
trace who did it.
  This is a really bad day for the U.S. Senate. This is a moment where 
people should be acting in emergency fashion to stop this danger and 
risk to the American public. Instead, people are folding up their tent 
and allowing this to happen, starting tomorrow. It is a shameful 
moment.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

                          ____________________