[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 5 (Thursday, January 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S128-S133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLOTURE MOTION
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 1, a bill to make improvements
to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to
authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, to
reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act
of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian
people, and for other purposes.
Todd Young, Mike Rounds, Richard C. Shelby, James E.
Risch, Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, John Boozman, Shelley
Moore Capito, Mike Crapo, Tim Scott, Cory Gardner, Roy
Blunt, Steve Daines, Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, John
Barrasso, Mitch McConnell.
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call
be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Civility, Fairness, and Opportunity
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Mr. President, each new year brings with
it a range of different emotions. We look back on what we have
accomplished in the last year, what we hope to achieve in the year to
come, and think of ways we can better ourselves.
Some of our objectives may include eating just a little less. For me,
that
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means eating a little less sour cream pound cake or sweet potato pie,
which is something I can completely control, and I am trying.
As a nation, though, we need to look at some goals for the new year
that will help us move forward together--goals that may be a little
tougher and require all of us to work together. While we may have some
uncomfortable conversations--and we will--we must recognize that at the
end of the day, we are family, both inside our homes and as Americans,
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
As we look to 2019, I am hopeful we can take three lessons and carry
them forward. Those who follow me know I have focused my time in the
Senate on an opportunity agenda that focuses on helping people rise
from poverty in distressed communities, helping folks who are living
paycheck to paycheck to experience the greatness that is, in fact, the
American dream, and I will continue to focus on those issues in 2019,
but you will also hear from me in 2019 what I believe are some missing
keys to American progress. Those keys are civility, fairness, and
opportunity.
So when you are having dinner and a family member tries to tell you
that the reigning Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles--lucky, of
course, to be in the playoffs at all--are in fact the best football
team in America, we all know the truth: It is America's team, the
Dallas Cowboys. You will have a discussion with your family friend who
believes otherwise, and I hope you will disagree strongly, that you
will argue with facts, history--the history of Roger Staubach or Troy
Aikman or Emmitt Smith or Tony Dorsett or ``Too Tall'' Jones--and you
argue that with history and with passion, but you know, at the end of
the day, your crazy uncle is still your crazy uncle. You will see each
other next weekend. You will hug, and you will start the same fight all
over again, but you see what you have done is you have agreed to
disagree without being disagreeable. That, at its core, is the civility
our Nation is sorely missing right now.
Too often too many seem too focused on saying whatever they want to
say and saying it more loudly, without any concern for the actual
content. We need to return to civility, where the other side isn't evil
or a traitor or trying to destroy our country, but they simply have a
different vision for how to achieve success.
Second, sometimes we struggle to make sure our loved ones, especially
our kids around Christmastime, are treated fairly. So as they open
their presents, we want to make sure everyone has a chance to play with
everything. This is what we call trying to be fair. As a parent--or in
my case as the giver of cool gifts--we want to make sure the kids are
being fair with their siblings as they play with the new toys. There is
something in each and every one of us that yearns for fairness, but too
often, when we leave the comfort of those mornings, we tend to want
more for ourselves than we want for others. We want people to treat us
in a way that gives us the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes we don't
want to give it in return. Being fair means first seeking to understand
before being understood.
Finally, opportunity. I want to look back at a Christmas tradition in
my hometown of North Charleston, a place where we see amazing things
happen around the Christmas holidays. We see police officers,
firefighters, and community volunteers coming together about 6 a.m. on
Christmas morning to go knock on doors, where they know definitively
there are kids without Christmas trees, much less Christmas presents.
These police officers, firefighters, and community volunteers join
hands and raise a ton of dollars and bring presents to the doors.
Anyone who has experienced this, as I have, cannot fully describe the
joy on a child's face, the emotion and the tears of happiness for
someone who didn't expect a single thing for the holidays, because
opportunity is just not about ourselves and our families. While we
certainly strive to be successful, the true meaning of the Christmas
and the holiday season lies in what we do for others.
For Congress, that means everything we do--everything we do--should
be with an eye toward improving the lives of all Americans. For folks
at home, remember, there are folks in your community who are less
fortunate. This became the greatest Nation on Earth because of our
hearts and our minds, the hearts and minds of the American people, the
power and endurance of the American dream, and the graciousness and
strength of the American spirit; in other words, American
exceptionalism. Civility, fairness, and opportunity are three words
that can help our Nation heal and move us forward toward a better
future.
My hope this year is that we will take some time to think about what
each of us can do to further these goals. Resolutions are good. Being
resolute in our mission to strengthen our Nation is great. Soon I will
speak about my vision for the future, my America 2030 plan.
I want to say happy new year and ask everyone to remember the true
spirit of what makes America great.
Recognizing the Clemson Tigers' 2019 NCAA Championship Victory
Mr. President, before I close, I would like to talk, just for a few
minutes, about an epic celebration in a small upstate city in the great
State of South Carolina--a celebration that is because of a game. Now,
in South Carolina, we have real division. The divisions can be seen
between those who support the Clemson Tigers and those like myself who
support the Carolina Gamecocks. After the Clemson national championship
victory, both sides of the great State of South Carolina--at least most
of us--are celebrating the absolute overwhelming success of the Clemson
Tigers. You can't help but appreciate and admire the amazing leadership
at Clemson University, the leadership of Jim Clements, the President of
Clemson University.
Clemson has been an amazing testament to the goodwill and good effort
of programs focused on character first. As Coach Swinney has created an
absolute powerhouse in Clemson, it is hard to deny that he is not one
of the best coaches in college football in America today. He has
surrounded himself with amazing players such as Deshaun Watson, DeAndre
Hopkins, Vic Beasley, and now Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, and
Christian Wilkins.
I want to extend my congratulations to Clemson University on their
second national championship in just the last 4 years and their third
overall national championship. I wish I could be in Clemson on Saturday
morning at 9 a.m. as they--they don't have to paint the streets orange
because they are already orange--but as they blow out the great city
they live in. I will say that not only am I heartened and excited about
the success of Clemson University on the field, I thought, listening to
Dabo Swinney as he talked about success in life, it reminded me of my
civility, fairness, and opportunity agenda for 2019.
He said something to this effect. When asked about his success and
the greatness of his football team and the wonders of winning a
national championship, what did he celebrate the most? He said it in
this fashion. He said: When I think about being selfless, when I think
about real success, it is in this order. First, it is about honoring
the Lord Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior; second, it is about
honoring others; and third, finally, it comes down to self. There is
something to learn about putting others before ourselves as we look
toward a more civil society, filled with fairness, brimming with
opportunity.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Senator, and if I may congratulate the
junior Senator from South Carolina on the spectacular win that Clemson
had and also congratulate him about being so true to the spirit of
civility he discussed and not trash-talking the other team involved.
It was a truly splendid victory between two extraordinarily talented
and capable teams, and I congratulate the Senator.
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Would the Senator yield for a moment?
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Gladly.
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. I will concede that while I am exuberant
and excited for the enthusiasm for Clemson's success this year, I am
aware that next year Clemson and Alabama may meet again. So the more
you celebrate this year, perhaps the more you will regret it next year.
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Thank you, Senator.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Climate Change
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Mr. President, and happy new year. The new
116th Congress brings new hope for the Senate to face up to the clear
and present danger of climate change. The House of Representatives
being in Democratic hands augments that hope.
The Senate Republican majority has failed to address climate change.
This is no accident. This is the Senate in the Citizens United era. I
was here before Citizens United, and for years we saw Senate climate
bipartisanship, before Citizens United. After Citizens United, what we
see is immensely powerful climate-denying, dark-money front groups for
the fossil fuel industry, all likely funded by fossil fuel interests,
and we see no Republican Senator willing to cross them. The spending
they do in politics--and the more silent threat of spending--is a
blockade. It reeks.
Here is a case study on how dark and unlimited money play in Senate
elections. In 2016, in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, three Democratic
Senate candidates stood a good early chance of winning Republican-held
seats in 2016. All were solid, experienced candidates who had been
Senators before. All were ahead in early polling. Then the big
influencers came in hard, launching attack ads, in some cases, well
more than 1 year before the election. It is a little like strafing the
other side's planes while they are still on the airfield.
The pile-on of so-called outside group spending against these three
candidates came to almost $70 million. All three ultimately lost their
races, and their losses meant Republicans kept majority control of this
Chamber.
Let's look at that $70 million that acquired the continued Republican
majority control of this Chamber. Of that $70 million, only about $11
million came from donors and PACs that appear unconnected to the fossil
fuel industry. At least two-thirds of that outside spending--more than
$46 million--can be directly traced to groups that received significant
funding from fossil energy, and $12 million, the remainder of that 70,
came through dark money channels. In this day and age in America,
powerful influencers can obscure their identities by running their
political spending through these dark money channels so it is
impossible for us to know whether or how much of this remaining $12
million was from polluter dollars--fossil fuel dollars. I strongly
suspect all of it was. In any event, when one industry can deliver that
kind of political artillery, the vast majority of a $70 million barrage
against three specific candidates, that gives that industry remarkable
political power with the side that is advantaged--climate action
stopping political power, it would seem.
As the mounting effects of climate change have grown ever more dire
and the scientific understanding has grown ever more clear, what has
the Senate done? Nothing. Let's look at what we learned and what we
witnessed and what we failed to do in 2018.
Mr. President, 2018 saw the release of two landmark climate science
reports--one from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the
effects of warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, and
the second, the Trump administration's own ``National Climate
Assessment.'' Together, these reports delivered the starkest warning on
climate change to date. Damage from climate change is already
occurring. Economies are now at risk, and we are almost out of time to
prevent the worst consequences.
The IPCC report told us that accounting for the costs of carbon
pollution by charging a price for carbon emissions is the ``central''
policy that will allow us to hold the global temperature increase to
1.5 degrees Celsius or less. Even this dire endorsement was not enough
to move a single Republican colleague to join a bill to establish a
carbon fee.
More telling was the spectacle of the Trump administration's
``National Climate Assessment.'' This report, written by 13 Federal
Agencies, described the monumental damage the United States is facing
from climate change, flatly contradicting the climate denial assertions
of the President and his fossil fuel-flunky Cabinet. The administration
tried to bury the report by releasing it on Black Friday during the
Thanksgiving holiday. That cynical move happily backfired, with more
than 140 newspapers around the country featuring the report's stark
findings on front pages and Google searches for ``climate change''
hitting their highest level for the year.
Tellingly, the fossil fuel industry and its bevy of stooges in the
Trump administration did not contest the science in the report--an
admission by inaction that they know their science denial campaign is
phony. They know the real science is irrefutable. It is better to hide
from it.
Unfortunately, we witnessed the irrefutable contribution of climate
change to the most devastating natural disasters of 2018.
``Irrefutable,'' by the way, is one way to describe climate science.
Another way to describe it is ``incontrovertible.'' The description of
climate science as ``incontrovertible'' was published in a New York
Times full-page advertisement in 2009 that was signed by, among others,
Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and the
Trump Organization. How things change.
Anyway, out West, wildfires in California broke records. The
Mendocino Complex Fire in July and August was the largest in the
State's recorded history. The Camp Fire--this photograph--was the
deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, killing
86 people. Scientists linked California's increasing wildfires to
climate change, estimating the area burned by wildfires across the
Western United States since 1984 at twice what would have burned
without the human-driven changes.
Michael Mann, the professor of atmospheric science at Penn State
University, told PBS recently:
It's not rocket science. . . . You warm the planet, you're
going to get more frequent and intense heat waves. You warm
the soils, you dry them out, you get worse drought. You bring
all that together, and those are all the ingredients for
unprecedented wildfires.
Mr. President, 2018 saw the east coast slammed by hurricanes that
were supercharged by warming oceans. Hurricanes gain strength from heat
energy in the oceans they pass over. Warmer oceans also evaporate more
water up into the storms, generating more storm rainfall. So stronger
and wetter storms then ride ashore on higher and warmer seas and push
larger storm surges ahead of them.
Hurricane Florence intensified over water 1 to 2 degrees Celsius
above average and dumped record rainfall and flooding on the Carolinas.
Preliminary analysis suggests that its rainfall was more than 50
percent higher due to climate change.
When Hurricane Michael hit Florida, it passed over water 2 to 3
degrees Celsius warmer than average. Passing over that heat, its winds
spun up by 80 miles per hour in just 48 hours, becoming the strongest
storm ever to make an October landfall in the United States and almost
completely flattening the town of Mexico Beach, FL.
Scientists are increasingly able to identify the role of climate
change in extreme weather. The American Meteorological Society reported
in December that 15 extreme weather events in 2017 were made more
likely due to human-caused climate change, including a devastating
marine heat wave off the coast of Australia that would have been
``virtually impossible'' without human-induced warming. The report drew
attention to the role of oceans in many of these extreme events. Jeff
Rosenfeld, the Meteorological Society's editor-in-chief, said that
``the ocean is actively playing a role in the extremes that we're
seeing'' and that ``we're seeing the oceans as a link in a chain of
causes that ultimately tie human causes to extreme weather events on
land.''
The changes occurring in the ocean are imposing an increasing threat
to our coastal communities, from gulf communities in Louisiana to
shoreline communities in Rhode Island.
The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report last year finding
that over 300,000 coastal homes, with a collective market value of over
$130 billion, are at risk of chronic flooding by 2045. By the end of
the century, 2.4 million homes, worth more than $1 trillion, are
expected to be at risk.
A 2018 report from Climate Central and Zillow found that thousands of
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homes continue to be built in risky coastal areas that are expected to
suffer annual floods by 2050.
Freddie Mac, the big U.S. housing corporation, has taken a look at
this and warned of a coastal property values crash as those houses
become uninsurable or unmortgageable to the next buyer.
A second economic crash we face is a ``carbon bubble'' in fossil fuel
companies. The ``carbon bubble'' collapse happens when fossil fuel
reserves now on the books of fossil fuel companies turn out to be
undevelopable ``stranded assets.'' Research published by economists in
the journal Nature Climate Change estimated that in a world where we
succeed in limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, $12 trillion of
financial value could vanish from balance sheets globally in the form
of stranded fossil fuel assets. That is over 15 percent of global GDP,
and that is why the Bank of England calls this a systemic risk--i.e., a
risk to the entire global economy.
Financial managers are waking up to these risks. At the recent U.N.
climate summit in December, a group of 415 global investors, managing
$32 trillion of investments--these are men and women who have been
trusted with managing $32 trillion worth of investments--came together
to warn that the world faces a financial crash worse than the 2008
crisis unless carbon emissions are urgently cut. The group called for
the end of fossil fuel subsidies and the introduction of substantial
prices on carbon emissions. They understand that to limit the worst
climate risks, including economic catastrophes, we must cut carbon
emissions immediately and substantially.
But back home, the Trump administration--clearly and completely
corrupted by the fossil fuel industry--has now taken more than 90
actions to weaken climate policies. Regrettably, after years of
decline, U.S. carbon emissions grew 3.4 percent in 2018. Global carbon
emissions also grew by 2.7 percent to reach a new carbon emissions
record.
If the Trump administration's 2018 regulatory actions read like a
fossil fuel industry wish list, it is because they are. Just one
example is the fuel economy rollback for automobiles. It is a perfect
example. The new, weaker standards were pushed by--guess who--the
largest oil refiner in the country, Marathon Petroleum. Marathon also
distinguished itself as a top donor to ethically challenged EPA
Administrator Scott Pruitt during his time in political office in
Oklahoma. Marathon worked with the creepy Koch Brothers' network and
oil industry lobby groups to run a stealth campaign, including a
Facebook ad campaign using a phony front group called Energy4US that
hid its oil industry origin.
Fossil fuel energy companies claim to be cleaning up their act. They
issue statements voicing support for carbon pricing. Look at what they
do when the prospect of getting a carbon price on the books becomes
real, as it did in Washington State's carbon fee ballot initiative. The
campaign against the carbon fee outspent the campaign supporting it by
2 to 1, dumping more money into this ballot fight than any ballot
initiative campaign in the State's history. And who funded the campaign
against the initiative? Oil companies. BP, Phillips 66, and, of course,
our friends Marathon Petroleum were the top spenders by far.
Oil companies claim to support carbon pricing, but the giant trade
associations they fund to go out and do their political work--the
American Petroleum Institute, the so-called U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
the National Association of Manufacturers--all oppose any proposals to
reduce carbon pollution. The CEOs say one thing, and their political
electioneering and lobbying apparatus is instructed to go out and do
the exact opposite.
Another telling aspect of the Washington State ballot initiative is
who did not show up. Conspicuously absent are any of the good-guy
corporations from the tech, financial, and food and beverage sectors
that talk such a good game on climate change. That is telling because
it matches what happens here in Congress. The good-guy corporations do
not lift a political finger to advance climate legislation here in the
Senate. In fact, these are the good guys. Set aside the fossil fuel
pirates and what they are all up to through their front groups and
their dark money and all the nonsense that they drive. These are the
supposed good guys. In fact, they have a net negative presence here in
the Senate on climate legislation because they do virtually nothing,
and the trade associations they help to fund, like the Chamber of
Commerce, lobby against climate action.
So you have American corporations with good climate policies taking
sustainability seriously within their corporate precincts. Then, those
companies come to the Senate, and their positions, as they appear here
in the Senate, are against the climate policies they claim to support
because they work through these intermediary groups that have been co-
opted by fossil fuel interests and because they don't show up
themselves. In 2019, let's hope the good-guy American corporations get
off the bench, clean up the acts of their trade groups, and get onto
the field on the good side of the climate policy fight.
Let me wrap up, through all of that gloom, with the good news for the
new year and beyond.
Record low prices for wind and solar projects are now cheaper than
fossil fuels in many places. Battery costs are falling rapidly. Amazing
electric vehicles keep coming to market. New carbon capture
technologies emerge. Xcel Energy, a Colorado-based utility that serves
over 3 million customers, has announced a commitment to reduce carbon
emissions 80 percent by 2030 and to have zero carbon emissions by 2050,
which shows that players in the energy industry know to make this
transition.
Out of the States, California has passed a law requiring 100-percent
zero carbon electricity by 2045--100 percent. The Governors of New York
and Washington States recently announced 100 percent zero carbon
electricity goals. Hawaii has a law requiring 100 percent renewable
electricity by 2045. On the same day in late December, the District of
Columbia passed a bill requiring 100 percent renewable electricity by
2032, and nine Northeastern States--I am proud to say it includes my
Rhode Island--committed to cap emissions from the transportation
sector.
Here in the Senate, we can expect the new Democratic House to send
climate legislation our way. Whether my Republican colleagues like it
or not and whether the fossil fuel industry likes it or not, this will
be an issue in the 116th Congress.
My new year's wish is that my Republican Senate colleagues will
finally wake up to the damage that climate change is causing, to the
looming threat that climate change presents, and will help us to pass
bills addressing the huge climate risk that we face.
This is not impossible. This is the way the Senate behaved until
January of 2010. From when I was sworn in in 2007, through the rest of
that year and through 2008 and 2009, we had bipartisan climate bills.
We had bipartisan climate hearings. We had bipartisan climate
negotiations. We had bipartisan climate discussions. It was possible to
do that because the five Republican judges on the Supreme Court had not
yet given the fossil fuel industry the massive, new political artillery
they had given them in the Citizens United decision. Once the fossil
fuel industry had that new artillery, the game changed, and it brought
it to bear on our friends on the other side, and there has not been a
single Republican Senator on a single serious carbon emissions bill
since that moment. It shows what happens when you give a big special
interest a massive, new piece of political weaponry.
It doesn't mean it has to be this way. The good guys could show up
and counterbalance the political hydraulics here of the fossil fuel
industry's power. Our colleagues could say: Guys, we gave you a heck of
a good run. For years, we did nothing, but it is time now. We have
taken a look at where voters are. We have even taken a look at where
Republican voters are. We have taken a look at where the science is,
and we are going to do something.
There are a lot of ways that we can go back to the bipartisan
legislation, the bipartisan hearings, and the bipartisan conversations
that characterized this issue before Citizens United. It has been too
long that big polluter donors have had their way around here. They pay
the fee, but our Nation pays the price. We have a responsibility here
to
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protect future generations from an avoidable disaster of our own
making. It is time for us to wake up and do our job.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Remembering Larry Weinberg
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about
Larry Weinberg, who was beloved by many Oregonians, one of the original
owners of our wonderful basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers--
the owner who won eternal gratitude from the people of my State as he
guided our Trail Blazers to their first title. He passed away last week
at the age of 92. He was a soft-spoken man who was never one to drone
on, so in that spirit, I am going to keep these remarks brief.
The first thing we want everybody to know about Larry is that he was
a wonderful family man. I met him for the first time in the early
1980s. I was a young Member of the other body, the House of
Representatives, and Larry could have made our first conversation about
politics. We were very interested, for example, in ways to promote a
strong U.S.-Israel relationship. There were plenty of things we could
have talked about with respect to politics, but he made the
conversation about basketball, which was one of the great loves of his
life, and I think people know around here that my great hope was to
play in the NBA. Larry knew that.
Because Larry was a family man, that first conversation we had was
about family, and he had an enormous family. If you look at the family
photo on the holiday cards that Larry and his wife Barbi sent each
year, you would think about half of the 320 million people in our
country were actually Weinbergs. The cards were wonderful, and they
just seemed to go on and on and on.
During that first conversation, Larry asked me about my family. I
told him about my great-uncle Max, who was one of last Jews to be
murdered in Auschwitz. I told him about my parents, who fled Nazi
Germany as refugees and settled in America before they pitched in to
the war effort during World War II.
That was one of the first bonds I had with Larry Weinberg, and I
think that was true of many of his friends. We had family who were
veterans themselves, loved ones who had wanted to make sure the United
States prevailed in World War II, and that was Larry. He served in
Europe during the war and sustained serious injuries in France.
Throughout his life, he carried that dedication to service that was so
characteristic of so many of his generation.
Larry Weinberg applied the lessons of the war to his leadership of
the American Jewish community. He worked to promote understanding
between religious groups while demonstrating a firm commitment to the
Jewish tradition of tikkun olam--improving the world. That is something
Jews feel very strongly about. Whether it is healthcare or foreign
relations, whatever, we want to be part of making the world a better
place, perfecting the world. That is what tikkun olam means.
Larry and Barbi Weinberg supported the development of concrete
scholarship on issues that face not only Israel but the entire Middle
East, understanding that the difficulties affecting one's neighbors are
really part of a shared burden, demanding a shared solution.
Portlanders like myself know Larry for another reason. If you are a
Portlander of my age and an ardent Blazer fan, you cheered on Bill
Walton's Trail Blazers because they won a championship for Rip City in
1977. If you are a young basketball fan in Portland today, you probably
root for Dame--that is Mr. Lillard--or C.J.--that is C.J. McCollum. All
of us in Portland and in Oregon owe Larry Weinberg a debt of gratitude
because he brought the NBA to our State, and had he not done that, all
of us who root for the Trail Blazers today wouldn't be able to turn out
and see Dame and C.J. and all of our wonderful players who are really
community leaders.
I remember back then seeing Larry and his wife Barbi cheering at our
home games, and they were always wearing our colors. I particularly saw
that bright-red blazer. Whether it was back in the seventies at the
Memorial Coliseum or even in their later years at Moda Center, when you
looked at Barbi and Larry Weinberg, you got a sense of what it meant
not just to be a fan, but the Weinbergs really looked at our town and
those Trail Blazers as part of their extended family.
With respect to sports and the intersection of sports and how sports
fit into the world, I want to relate something that happened in the
late 1980s when Larry approached me with a particular request,
something he wanted me to do.
I was traveling to the Soviet Union with a group of Jewish community
leaders from Portland. At that time, the Trail Blazers were very
interested in bringing a wonderfully talented center, Arvydas Sabonis,
to Portland. There was a discussion. It was a period when the United
States and the Soviet Union were still talking about the relationship
being so ambiguous. Reagan and Gorbachev were trying to sort it out.
Larry asked me to present a letter to the Soviet Sports Federation
about Arvydas Sabonis. He had actually been drafted a few years before,
and the idea was that the Trail Blazers hoped to bring Mr. Sabonis from
the Soviet Union to the United States to play for the Trail Blazers in
the NBA.
Now, as I mentioned, relations between the United States and the
Soviet Union were still somewhat ambiguous, but they were improving. A
lot of people believed that a Soviet-born player coming to play
professional basketball in my hometown in Portland would help that
along. So on this trip to the Soviet Union, Larry asked me to meet with
the Soviet Sports Federation. I was to, in effect, hand over a letter
to the Soviet Sports Federation, making it clear--and this was a
courtesy letter--that if Mr. Sabonis were permitted to come to Oregon
to play basketball for the Trail Blazers--the letter indicated--Mr.
Sabonis would be well treated. He would have comfortable
accommodations, good training facilities, and there would be people to
advise him on nutrition and get him acclimated to our country.
Well, when I walked into this meeting in Moscow, I really felt like I
was starring in Rocky IV. There I was--a young Congressman from the
United States, a former basketball player myself--trying to make the
case on behalf of my hometown and the Portland Trail Blazers to these
men, all of whom were at least 20 or 30 years older than me. I was
trying to make the case that if the Soviet Sports Federation were
willing to allow Mr. Sabonis to come, he would be well treated.
What I got from these stern looking Soviet Sports Federation
officials were essentially monosyllabic answers, much like you heard in
the Rocky movies--maybe somebody would say ``nyet.'' I didn't know
everything about the language of my host, but I got the sense that
wasn't a good thing when they said that. I could get the sense about
their skepticism as if they believed that this young American
Congressman in front of them was pulling some sly trick of geopolitical
strategy as we tried to bring Arvydas Sabonis to Portland.
I tried to make the point to these Soviet leaders that we were not
exactly talking about arms control. We were talking about playing
basketball, and we were talking about building bridges.
That, if anything, is what Larry Weinberg's life was all about. He
was about building bridges in sports. He did it in terms of housing,
when he was trying to create housing opportunities for people of modest
means, when he was creating opportunities for people to learn from each
other. There he was with this young Congressman, just wanting to offer
a guarantee that Mr. Sabonis, the best Soviet player of his time, would
be well cared for. It took a few more years. Eventually he made it to
Portland, where Larry and Trail Blazer fans got to watch him play and
play well.
I cannot find the picture, but back then there was a picture that
ensured that Oregonians across the State were
[[Page S133]]
laughing at their breakfast tables. One day it came out that Mr.
Sabonis and I were strolling along the waterfront in Portland. I am 6
feet 4 inches--not as tall as Senator Cotton, but 6 feet 4 inches--and
I was standing next to Mr. Sabonis, who was as tall as a typical
building. I mean, we thought he might have been 7 feet 5 inches, which
was much taller than was listed.
It was a wonderful experience for me, and it was a chance to see what
Larry Weinberg was all about. He always told me: It is a chance for you
to learn a little bit more about the world, Ron, a chance for you to go
to the Soviet Union--it was the Soviet Union at that time--and see the
connection between reforms and what Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev were
trying to do and the role of sports in terms of bringing people
together.
I was so honored that Larry Weinberg would give me a window into that
kind of opportunity and allow me, in a really small way, as a young
Congressman to be part of what his life was always about, which is
building bridges.
So I am going to close this way. I think some of my colleagues are
going to speak about Larry as well. When the Jewish people really want
to compliment somebody and say somebody is really special and has
exceptional character, what we say is that person is a mensch. What I
am here to tell the Senate today is my friend Larry Weinberg, whom we
lost just a few days ago, was really a super mensch, a true mensch, a
person of enormous integrity, decent at his core. I just want to say
that Larry and his wife Barbi were the essence of Rip City pride. He
was a soft spoken guy, but he was Portland's loudest fan.
Tonight, I want to say to his family and friends--all, seemingly, 100
million of them--that we are always going to remember Larry Weinberg
with great fun and appreciation for his enormous contributions to our
city and for all that he did during his lifetime to be in that bridge
building business, for working to perfect the world--tikkun olam--a
wonderful, wonderful man.
Our Larry Weinberg we Oregonians will always remember in our hearts.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will the call roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Government Funding
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, in a few moments I am going to yield the
floor to Senator Kaine to make a unanimous consent request that has
been cleared by both sides, and I am very pleased about that. This is
in regard to S. 24, legislation that I have filed with several of my
colleagues.
I particularly thank Senator Kaine, but I also want to thank my
colleagues Senator Van Hollen and Senator Mark Warner for their work,
as well as Senator Collins and others in this body who cosponsored that
legislation. It is legislation very similar to what we passed in the
last hours of the 115th Congress by unanimous consent. It does what I
think all of us have said we want to make sure is done; that is, when
we reopen government, those who have been working without pay and those
who are on furlough without pay will get their backpay. I think that is
at least some assurance to our government workforce that when we
finally reopen government, they know they will be getting their
paychecks. I think it is a very important point to give them at least
that comfort.
I don't want to minimize the risk factors that we have for the
800,000 Federal workers who are not getting their paychecks. Just
today, I found a letter from a constituent. I am going to read it very
briefly.
``Dear Senator Cardin, As an Air Traffic Controller and Maryland
constituent, I want you to know how the partial government shutdown is
affecting me and my family. Today, I received my Earnings and Leave
statement from the Department of Transportation, indicating I received
$0 for my last 2 weeks of working at the FAA-Washington Enroute Air
Traffic Control Center in Leesburg, VA. I have proudly gone to work for
this job that I love, and always maintain the highest level of safety.
My husband Brad is also a controller with me at Washington Center, and
his Earnings and Leave Statement was for $1.34. We cannot sustain our
financial obligations on a total of $1.34 for our last two weeks of
work! We recently were able to build a new house to try to start a
family, and we still have increased financial obligations because of
that and all that entails. In addition, my family, my brother and
father, has minimal income now, and we are supporting them. My father
is 69 years old and currently has an enlarged hernia that requires an
operation, he has no health insurance, and no income. He lives in NH,
and is on even more medication now. The side effects are greatly
affecting him. He needs my help, and I don't have the resources now to
help him. He is suffering so much, and I love him greatly. My brother
recently had to weather a separation from his wife, and has been unable
to find affordable housing in MD on a single income for him and my
niece and nephew--Ayden 10 years and Ava 7 years old. They have been
living in our basement since August 2018, and we have been supporting
them in every way we can until he can get back on his feet. I love them
so much, and now I can't continue to help them. This hurts so much, we
need our pay checks to support our family now!''
It ends by saying: ``Please help in any way you can to END THIS
SHUTDOWN NOW!''
I couldn't agree more. I urge our colleagues, hopefully in the next
couple of days--even before that--to end the shutdown. But at least, as
a result of the unanimous consent request that will be made very
shortly, which has cleared both sides, we can tell them that the pay is
coming.
I see the distinguished majority leader is here. We had some words
earlier. I want to thank the majority leader for accommodating this
unanimous consent. It is consistent with what the leader has said in
the past, that we will make sure our workers get paid when the
government is open.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
____________________