[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 169 (Thursday, October 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6794-S6798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I rise to talk about the economy; 
that is, what is going on out there in terms of jobs and wage growth. 
It is a positive story. I have seen it firsthand back home in Ohio. 
Every weekend I go back to Ohio, and I meet with small business owners, 
and they tell me the same thing, which is that things are good. Their 
biggest concern is finding workers. They are growing and expanding. We 
see this in the national numbers as well.
  These small businesses tell me it is primarily because of the tax 
reform and tax cuts legislation and, second, because of the regulatory 
environment that makes it easier for them to be able to create more 
jobs.
  I want to start by talking about tax reform. We remember that before 
this legislation was passed, going back really for several years, our 
economy had been relatively weak. We had seen economic growth of 
between 1.5 and 2.5 percent, and a lot of people were saying that 2 
percent growth is kind of the new normal.
  In fact, the Congressional Budget Office, which is the nonpartisan 
group here that tells us what our growth numbers are likely to look 
like and then tells us what they actually are, said last year that they 
believed economic growth this year--the calendar year 2018--would be 2 
percent. That is pretty discouraging, really. With 2 percent growth, we 
are not going to see the kind of growth in wages we all want to see, 
and we are not going to see the job expansion we all want. That 2 
percent growth was before the tax legislation was passed.
  They also predicted that employment would increase by an average of 
107,000 jobs per month; again, that is not bad, but not something to 
write home about.
  Now our economy is up and going, and it is moving toward its full 
potential.
  Shortly after tax reform passed, CBO changed its estimate. They said: 
OK, with tax reform, this is our new estimate. We are going to say that 
the growth is going to be, instead of 2 percent, 3.1 percent. That is 
more than a 50-percent increase in growth. That is incredible. They 
were pretty optimistic about what would happen. They said that it was 
attributable to tax reform,

[[Page S6795]]

which was a big part of this upward revision, as they called it.
  They also changed their projection on monthly unemployment. They said 
that instead of 107,000 jobs, we are likely to see 210,000 jobs per 
month.
  Well, what has happened? It turns out the Congressional Budget 
Office, despite their optimistic projections, was wrong. We have seen 
numbers even better than their optimistic projections. Economic growth 
for the second quarter of 2018 was 4.2 percent, and a record 876,000 
new businesses were created. The Federal Reserve now estimates that 
growth in this quarter we are in is likely to be 4.1 percent. Wow. We 
will see what the final numbers are, but if it is anywhere close to 
that, that is extraordinary.
  So we have gone from 2 percent to 3 percent to 4 percent. And with 
4.2 percent, 4.1 percent growth, what else is happening? Unemployment 
is going down. The unemployment rate was 3.7 percent last month. That 
is the lowest it has been since December of 1969, so it is a big deal.
  The pro-growth policies that some of us have been promoting here on 
this side of the aisle, including tax reform and regulatory relief, 
have made a difference. Small business optimism is at an all-time high, 
according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses--NFIB. 
Most important to me, wages are finally going up. Over the last 10 
years, it isn't just that the economy has been relatively flat, it is 
that wages have not increased.
  In fact, if you take inflation into account, wages have been flat or 
even declining, on average. That is why a lot of people feel the 
middle-class squeeze: higher expenses, particularly healthcare costs, 
but also everyday costs. Healthcare costs are driving it but also 
housing costs, the cost of food, the cost of education.
  By the same token, we had wages that were flat. That is a squeeze. So 
your take-home pay is not going up, but your expenses are going up. 
There was a lot of frustration around the country over the last several 
years about that.
  Now we see wages going up. So 2.8 percent was the wage growth last 
month. That is the highest wage growth since mid-2009. So since mid-
2009, which is, remember, before the recession, we have not seen wage 
growth like this.
  This is great news. I hope we continue to see that solid wage growth 
because that, ultimately, is what we ought to be looking for.
  Since the first of last year, I have held over a dozen small business 
roundtables around Ohio, where you bring small businesses in to talk 
about the tax reform bill regulations and other issues they care about. 
Every single one of the small businesses that comes to these 
roundtables has a story to tell about how the tax reform helped them.
  These companies are passthroughs, meaning they pay taxes 
individually, which is the case for the vast majority of small 
businesses. So they are seeing lower rates, but they are also seeing an 
advantage to the new laws on investment. If you invest money in your 
company, you can deduct it from your taxes now. You had bonus 
depreciation before; now you have 100 percent depreciation, and you can 
write things off immediately. That makes a huge difference, and it is 
exciting.
  The Presiding Officer was talking today at lunch about being at one 
of the small businesses in Louisiana. It is the same story I have heard 
all over our States. This was a distillery, as I recall. In Ohio, our 
breweries and our distilleries are taking advantage of a specific part 
of the new tax bill that helps them on their excise taxes but also just 
the overall lowering of the rate, investing in their business, 
investing in technology, increasing the productivity of their workers 
as a result, which all economists say is the key to getting wages up. 
We are beginning to see that, and it is exciting.
  This is the first year I have also visited 22 businesses directly--
not a roundtable discussion as I have done with small businesses. But I 
go to these businesses and talk to them about how they are using this 
tax bill. Again, everyone has good stories to tell. Some have added 
more jobs; some have increased wages and gone public about that. Fifth 
Third Bank would be an example or the Kroger Company in my hometown of 
Cincinnati--big businesses.
  A lot of smaller businesses have done that as well, but they have 
done other things too. Some have delivered bonuses, some have expanded 
retirement benefits, and some have bought new equipment.
  For a lot of small businesses, I will talk to them and say: What are 
you doing with this?
  They say: We are actually taking these older pieces of equipment we 
have, these machines, and we are upgrading them, which, again, makes 
workers more productive, makes the company more successful, and allows 
wages to go up.
  One small business I visited had a machine that was roughly 31 years 
old. They got the machine in 1986. I thought it was an amazing 
coincidence that this Tax Code, which hadn't been updated since 1986, 
was updated, and they were using the tax savings they got from that to 
take a machine that was bought that same year and upgrading it, 
modernizing it. It was about a $1 million investment for them, which 
they never could have made in a small business without the tax reform 
and tax cuts legislation. So it is working.
  Sometimes companies are doing a combination of these various things. 
They might be increasing the 401(k) match and also adding more to their 
entry-level pay. So it is doing what was intended.
  In the first quarter, we have numbers already for the amount of money 
that came back to our country--over $300 billion. Over $300 billion 
came back to the United States from overseas. That is what they call 
repatriation, money earned overseas that companies were keeping 
overseas before because they had no incentive to bring it back. Now 
they have an incentive to bring it back. What does that mean? It means 
it gets invested here, sometimes in new equipment and new plants, 
sometimes in people's wallets and pocketbooks back here. That money is 
being used to help create this better economy we are talking about.
  By the way, that $300 billion, when compared to last year in the 
first quarter, is about 10 times more. This is because of the tax bill.
  The lower tax rates for individuals mean that 90 percent of the 
people in America got a statement from their employer saying: Guess 
what. Uncle Sam is going to take less out of your paycheck. Their 
withholding changed. So 90 percent of workers in America have gotten 
something saying: You are going to have more of your hard-earned money 
staying in your pocket. You are going to be able to take it home, 
rather than have Uncle Sam take it out as part of your taxes.
  As I said during the tax reform debate, when we had very spirited 
debates, some on the other side were saying that there was no middle-
class tax relief in this legislation. I said that the proof is in the 
paycheck. Lower rates, doubling the standard deduction, doubling the 
child tax credit--those are tax cuts. They are real. Sure enough, 90 
percent of Americans saw that in their paychecks. The proof is in their 
paycheck.
  It is not really a political debate; it is a real life situation for 
people who are living paycheck to paycheck--most of the people I 
represent. So it is a big deal. For the median-income family in Ohio, 
that is $2,000 a year on average. That $2,000 a year means a vacation 
they otherwise couldn't take. It means investing more in their 
healthcare, investing more in their retirement, investing more in their 
kids. So it is working.
  I noted earlier that wages are rising at the fastest year-over-year 
rate since mid-2009 and that wage growth is accelerating. Along with 
these lower tax rates--along with the changes we talked about in terms 
of doubling the standard deduction and doubling the child tax credit--
people are feeling more hope and opportunity and, due in part to this 
lower business rate and more competitive international tax system, 
companies are looking to hire more.
  I mentioned that what I hear back in Ohio mostly now is this: We are 
looking for more workers. We are willing to hire people. We need the 
skills.
  There was a Gallup Poll taken in May, and a record number of 
Americans said, ``Now is the time to find a quality job''--a record 
number of Americans because they see the help

[[Page S6796]]

wanted signs. In fact, the number of Americans who are employed part-
time for economic reasons--who want to work full-time but can only find 
part-time work--is now the lowest it has been since December of 2007. 
So you have to go back more than 10 years to find the number of people 
employed part-time who want full-time work. That is the lowest it has 
been since December of 2007. That is good. We want people to work full-
time, not part-time.
  I believe we are going to continue to see this rising tide in our 
economy. I think there are some newer provisions in the Tax Code that 
are yet to be implemented that will help even more.
  There is a provision in the tax bill called opportunity zones where, 
if you invest in some of the neighborhoods in Ohio that have had the 
highest, persistent, stubborn rates of poverty, then you get a tax 
break. That is going to help increase investment in some of the poor 
neighborhoods. Those opportunity zones are just getting started now, 
and that is going to help ensure that people who have fallen behind 
have a chance to catch up.
  John F. Kennedy once famously said that a rising tide lifts all 
boats. It can. But you have to be sure that you are going into those 
kinds of neighborhoods and ensuring they have the opportunity to be 
lifted too. I think opportunity zones will help there.
  Despite the strong and growing economy, there does remain a weakness 
in our workforce that will continue to hold us back; that is, a lot of 
Americans are not looking for work. They are literally on the 
sidelines. Labor economists call that a low labor force participation 
rate. It means that the percentage of people in the workforce looking 
for a job is relatively low.
  So we have this strong economy, the lowest unemployment numbers we 
have had in years, going back to 1969; yet we have a lot of people in 
the shadows, on the sidelines, who aren't even looking for work, so 
they don't show up in the unemployment numbers.
  If you took the labor force participation rate--again, the percentage 
of people in the workforce--and go back 10 years ago to just before the 
great recession and compare it to today, use the same labor force 
participation rate, what would you guess the unemployment rate would be 
today? It is not 3.7 percent. It is more like 8.5 percent.
  As strong as this economy is, as good as things are, as optimistic as 
people are, the fact that wages are going up--all good things, and the 
tax bill is hugely responsible for that. It is helpful. It has pulled a 
lot of people back into work who had part-time work or were 
underemployed. It hasn't pulled people back into work altogether; there 
is still a big group of Americans, historically high numbers--probably 
8 million men, as an example, between the ages of 25 and 55, able-
bodied men who aren't working. That is wrong, and it is wrong for them 
because they are not getting the dignity and self-respect that comes 
from work, helping them to be productive members of society. The 
numbers for women are perhaps not quite as high--but also at relatively 
high levels.
  It is also bad for our economy. We need these workers. We want these 
people in the workforce.
  Why has that happened? I think there are a few reasons. I think one 
reason is that Americans don't have the skills we would hope they would 
have in order to meet the job requirements of today. What do I mean by 
that? Today, if you don't have a technical skill--whether you are in 
healthcare, whether you are in manufacturing, or whether you are in one 
of the service industries--it is hard to find a job. So to our young 
people here today: Get that skills training.
  If you look at the unemployment in Ohio right now--OhioMeansJobs is a 
website you can go on and see that there are a lot of jobs being 
offered online right now, yet there are a lot of people unemployed. Why 
is that? You see that a lot of these jobs being offered are for things 
like a machinist or a welder or someone with IT skills--information 
technology skills. Coding is an example. If you have coding skills, you 
can get a job in Ohio. In healthcare, there are a lot of people who are 
being hired who have those technical skills, including coding skills, 
to provide for digitized healthcare records, as an example.
  If you look at the jobs that are being offered and you look at this 
high unemployment, you say it doesn't make sense. Part of it is because 
the job skills aren't there.
  There is a lot of exciting stuff going on in my State and in other 
States where there are colleges--particularly some of our community 
colleges--that are working closely with some of our businesses and also 
with some of our high schools. High schools have career and technical 
education now that is expanding in Ohio. I think we are doing a good 
job of getting more and more young people interested in career and 
technical education.
  Senator Kaine, on the other side of the aisle, and I started a caucus 
to promote CTE. We passed legislation recently to expand Federal 
incentives for career and technical education and to improve the 
standards. That is good. We are making progress, but we are not there 
yet. There is still a lot of skills training that should and can go on 
in order to provide people with the tools they need to ultimately be 
successful in today's economy. So that is part of it.
  Part of it I think is the dependency trap. What do I mean by that? 
There is an issue when you are on government support, when you are 
dependent on government, and you want to go to work. It is both the 
fact that there is a cliff in terms of losing the benefits, and also 
there is a mountain in terms of higher taxes.
  One thing that some of us have worked on here--and we need to do 
more--is to say: How do you work with the States to provide for that 
transition? If someone wants to go to work and leave a government 
program, how do you have some way to transition so that you don't have 
this big cliff and this mountain ahead of you? That creates a 
disincentive.
  I do think there is work to be done there, but I will tell you, I 
think the biggest single issue in terms of these relatively high 
numbers of people who are out of work altogether--the people who are on 
the sidelines--is actually the opioid crisis and the drug issue. Why do 
I say that? One, I see it back home. I go around my State; I spend a 
lot of time talking to people at treatment centers. I talk to people 
who are in recovery. I talk to people who are addicted. I talk to 
people who are experts in providing treatment for that longer term 
recovery. I talk to first responders. There are a lot of people in my 
State; we are probably in the top five in the country in terms of the 
percentage of people addicted, the number of overdoses per capita, the 
number of deaths per capita.
  In America as a whole, we lost 72,000 people last year to drug 
overdoses. These are historically high numbers. These are record 
numbers, grim statistics. More people died last year of drug overdoses 
than we lost in the entire Vietnam conflict. Think about that.
  A lot of these people are addicted, but they aren't part of the 
statistics you read about--the overdoses and deaths, as tragic as they 
are. There is another part of the statistic, which is the people who 
are not productive in life because they are not engaged anymore with 
their friends, their family, or their work. The drugs have become 
everything.
  I can give you a couple of statistics that I think are shocking. One 
is from the U.S. Department of Labor. They did a study of men between 
25 and 55 who are out of the workforce, asking: How could this be--over 
8 million men out of the workforce altogether--particularly with low 
unemployment, the opportunities out there, the jobs that are being 
offered? They found that almost half of those men acknowledged taking 
pain medication on a daily basis--on a daily basis.
  What does that mean? There was another study by the Brookings 
Institute. Brookings said that almost half of the people they surveyed 
said that they were taking pain medication on a regular basis. One said 
the day before; one said on a daily basis.
  They also asked another question: How many of you are taking 
prescription drugs? Two-thirds of the people acknowledged taking 
prescription drugs, pain medication.
  These are shocking statistics. By the way, I do not believe this is 
overreported; I believe it is underreported. Who is going to say that 
they are addicted to pain medication? That is one

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reason within the legal system not to do that, but there are also other 
reasons not to do it. A lot of people still feel it is something they 
can't talk about. We have changed that to a certain extent. The stigma 
has been removed to a certain extent. In this body, I think we have 
helped by talking about drug addiction as a disease, which I believe it 
is. You need to treat a disease as you would other diseases. It is not 
a moral failing; it is a disease that has to be medically treated. But 
there are people who are not coming forward who feel that stigma, there 
is no question about it. Probably 8 out of the 10 people in my State 
who are addicted are not getting any kind of treatment.

  I think this is another issue we have to face for all the right 
reasons--to help these people get their lives back on track, to help 
these people be able to achieve what God's purpose is for them, which 
certainly is not to be an addict and not to be actively using and not 
to be causing all the pain and destruction it causes all through our 
society.
  The No. 1 cause of crime in my State of Ohio, in pretty much every 
county I represent, is this issue. It is not necessarily the drug use; 
it is the crime that goes along with it--the property crimes, theft, 
fraud, and so forth--to pay for the drug habit.
  If you go to the emergency room in Ohio, it is a normal issue they 
talk about. In our neonatal units--sad but true--more and more babies 
are being born with what is called neonatal abstinence syndrome, which 
means their moms were addicted. These kids have to be taken through 
withdrawal as babies, provided morphine and other drugs just to get 
them through withdrawal. It is incredibly sad. We don't know what the 
long-term impact will be on these kids, but it is a huge problem. It is 
the No. 1 problem I see back home in our hospitals in taking care of 
our babies.
  If you go to our prisons, our jails, go to our courtrooms, what is 
the No. 1 issue? Drugs, primarily opioids. Of the 72,000 people who 
died of overdoses last year, the biggest single killer was not just 
opioids, it was fentanyl--this new synthetic opioid that has come in 
mostly from China, mostly through the Postal Service. It is outrageous 
that that continues to happen. We are taking steps to address it.
  My point is, all of us are affected by this. You may not think you 
are, although more and more people see it directly because their 
friends or family or they themselves are caught up in this, but all of 
us are affected, including our economy.
  As good as the economic numbers are, I am so glad we passed the tax 
reform legislation because I really think it has helped spur this 
economic growth, and there is opportunity for so many people. It is 
increasing wages. It is doing so many good things.
  The next step is, as I see it, to say: OK, how do we take these 
people who are not in a position to get on that first rung of the 
economic ladder, much less the second and third, and climb up because 
of their addiction--how do we get them back on track, get them to face 
up to their addiction and get into treatment, get them into that longer 
term recovery, which we know works better to get them off of their 
addiction and get them back into a productive life where they can 
reconnect not just with work but with their families, friends, their 
community, and their faith? The drugs become everything, as I have 
heard from so many addicts and recovering addicts.
  The American Action Forum released a report earlier this month that 
found that Ohio lost about 86,000 workers and about $72 billion in 
economic growth from 1999 to 2015 due to opioid addiction. This affects 
all of us, and it certainly affects our economy. That is the next step 
we must make.
  In 2016, Congress started to get much more engaged in this issue. We 
passed two great bills, one called the Comprehensive Addiction and 
Recovery Act. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and I were the coauthors. This 
is broad, comprehensive legislation. Today, we were able to announce a 
number of grants to Ohio that are working to expand treatment to ensure 
that some of these gaps are filled where people get addicted, overdose, 
Narcan is supplied--the miracle drug that reverses the effects of that 
overdose--and yet they go right back into the community. We don't want 
that. We want to get them back into treatment. These grants will help.
  We also passed legislation called the 21st Century Cures Act, which 
provides funding directly back to the States. CARA goes to these 
nonprofits and other programs that are working, evidence-based programs 
to help with treatment and recovery and prevention. Cures goes to the 
States directly and allows the States to spread out that funding where 
it will help. Every State is a little different and has different kinds 
of needs.
  We started to see progress on the ground. Again, the fentanyl has 
come in and overwhelmed a lot of the progress I have seen. On the 
fentanyl side, we passed legislation just last week that finally says 
to our post office: You must screen these packages coming in from 
overseas because we know this poison is the No. 1 killer. There has 
been a 4,000-percent increase in fentanyl overdose deaths in my State 
of Ohio in the last 5 years. It is the No. 1 killer now. We know it is 
coming from the post office. It is coming to your P.O. box. It is 
coming to an abandoned warehouse from our post office. We finally said 
to them: You have to close this loophole because if there is a 
loophole, they don't have to provide law enforcement the data on these 
packages that they need to find the needle in the haystack, which is 
too hard to find without that data. Private carriers have to provide 
that data to law enforcement; the post office does not. That is all 
going to change when the President signs this legislation next week. We 
are going to start to push back to keep some poison out of our 
communities, but we need to do much more.
  The legislation we passed this week also provides more funding for 
treatment. It gets rid of an outdated rule that says there can be only 
16 beds in a treatment center if it gets Medicaid reimbursement. That 
is a vestige of years past during the deinstitutionalization of folks 
who had mental health issues, behavioral health issues, but it doesn't 
work today because we want these good treatment centers that are doing 
a good job to be able to expand the number of beds they have for 
residential treatment because that is what works for some people.
  Unbelievably, today they have to turn people away, even though they 
are there, they are ready, and they can take these people, because 
there is a 16-bed limit. There are too many cases. I know of people in 
Ohio who have told me that when they were ready--in one case, a father 
told me that when his daughter was finally ready to go to a treatment 
center, he walked her down there. They went to the treatment center. 
She was ready to enter. She had come to that point in her life where 
she realized she needed to do this. They told her there was no room--no 
room at the inn--because of the 16-bed limit. In the next 2 weeks, 
while she was waiting to get into that treatment center, you know what 
happened--she used again. She was addicted. She overdosed, and she died 
in her parents' home. That father is very happy about this legislation.
  It also includes language to help with regard to these moms and kids 
we talked about earlier. That is important as well. It helps to ensure 
that there is a safe plan for these mothers who are addicted to taper 
off from their use of drugs so that their babies are born in a healthy 
state and don't have to go through what I talked about earlier, which 
is incredibly sad to see, tragically, where literally these babies born 
with neonatal abstinence syndrome have to be taken through withdrawal.
  It also includes the CRIB Act legislation, which is bipartisan, as 
were all these bills I am talking about. Senator Dick Durbin and I have 
worked on the IMD exclusion--the issue with the 16 beds--for many 
years. We finally got it done. The CRIB Act is one that provides 
support for these babies we talked about because often the babies can't 
go back to their folks. Their parents are addicted. Where are they 
going to go?

  There are nonprofits that have sprung up that provide help for these 
babies, help to get them into the right foster care, perhaps to get 
them with a grandparent or a great-grandparent, which is happening more 
and more in my State because the parents are not

[[Page S6798]]

capable or able to take care of these kids. The parents need to focus, 
one would hope, on their own treatment and recovery. Sometimes they do, 
and sometimes they don't. The point is, the baby can't be with them, 
and these organizations are in a position to help. These organizations, 
like Brigid's Path in Dayton, OH, have volunteers who come in just to 
hold the babies, just to show the babies the love they need so 
desperately. They couldn't get reimbursement from the Federal 
Government. Now they can under the CRIB Act that we just passed. This 
will help the babies, the moms, with treatment, and keeping the poison 
out. It is helpful.
  As we discussed this afternoon, in combination with a stronger 
economy that comes from the kinds of fiscal and economic policies we 
have pursued here, especially the tax reform and regulatory relief--
that combination can lead to great things because it can provide an 
opportunity, if people are ready to get on that next rung of the 
ladder, for them to find an opportunity for themselves and their family 
because they have dealt with their addiction. A rising tide can lift 
all boats, and this growing economy gives us an opportunity to bring 
people out of the shadows and into a productive life of work, family, 
and faith.
  In the midst of the opioid epidemic, we have to do more to catch 
those who fall through the cracks and help those who are gripped by 
addiction find more meaning and purpose in their lives, and we now have 
that opportunity. That is what is exciting about it.
  I am pleased that our new opioid legislation is going to be signed 
into law by the President next week. I am pleased to see the progress 
with the economy based on the policies we have passed here, to provide 
people with a little more take-home pay, to be able to give companies 
more incentive to invest, and to level the playing field 
internationally for American workers who are being disadvantaged. It is 
coming together, and it is working. Let's combine that with an equal 
focus on dealing with the opioid crisis, and we will see so many other 
people take advantage of their American dream.
  I yield back my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.


                        Ohio Blue Ribbon Schools

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, each year the Department of Education 
honors schools around the country that have a clear record of serving 
students of all backgrounds and helping all students excel.
  This year, 16 Ohio schools were among 349 National Blue Ribbon 
Schools, honoring the hard work of students, teachers, parents, and 
everyone in the community who works to make these schools a success--
from cafeteria workers to principals, to students, to parents, to 
neighbors.
  These schools represent the great diversity in our State--rural and 
small-town schools, urban and suburban schools, all designated as 
``exemplary high performing schools.''
  I would like to read the names of these 16 schools in Ohio: Bath 
Elementary School, Bluffton Elementary School, Brecksville-Broadview 
Heights Middle School, Central Elementary School, Hazel Harvey 
Elementary School, Indian Riffle Elementary School, John Foster Dulles 
Elementary School, Maplewood Elementary School, Mariemont Elementary 
School, Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School, Notre Dame-Cathedral 
Latin School, Oakwood Elementary School, Saint Andrew-Saint Elizabeth 
Ann Seton Catholic School, Stadium Drive Elementary School, and Twin 
Oak Elementary School.
  The other school, in addition to these 16, is particularly close to 
my heart. It is called the Mansfield Spanish Immersion School. It sits 
on Euclid Avenue. It is the new school in the building where I went to 
elementary school, then called Brinkerhoff Elementary. It has since 
become a Spanish immersion school. Brinkerhoff was built, I believe, in 
the 1950s. I attended there and both of my brothers attended there from 
kindergarten through the sixth grade.
  The school reopened as a public magnet school a decade ago, with a 
class of 11 kindergartners, under the leadership of our neighbor Jody 
Nash.
  Over the past 10 years, under Principal Nash, and now under the 
current principal, Gabe Costa, the school has grown to more than 250 
students across 9 grades.
  Last year the school expanded to add seventh and eighth grade for the 
first time and had a third section of kindergartners.
  Core subjects are taught in Spanish, helping Richland County students 
learn a second language from a young age. These students don't just 
excel in Spanish. The school is consistently ranked a top school in the 
State and has gotten high marks for serving students from diverse 
backgrounds.
  I would add that there are not a huge number of people in Mansfield, 
OH, my hometown, whose parents are speaking Spanish at home. Most of 
these students are learning Spanish for the first time in their 
families.
  Two years ago, the Brinkerhoff School, or the Mansfield Spanish 
Immersion School, was 1 of 2 schools in Ohio and 100 across the Nation 
to receive a National Title I Distinguished Schools Award for making 
progress in closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged students 
and their peers.
  Awards like this mean so much to a community. They are a reminder 
that academic excellence isn't limited to exclusive private schools or 
wealthy communities on the coasts.
  Too many people in this town of Washington want to refer to us as the 
Rust Belt--that outdated, offensive term that demeans our workers and 
devalues who we are. It devalues the incredible work schools like this 
are doing in our State, preparing our students for the global economy 
of the future. These schools are not rusty. They are thriving.
  Congratulations to all 16 of this year's Ohio Blue Ribbon Schools--
all examples to our State and to our country and why we are so proud of 
them.
  I yield the floor.
  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. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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