[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3181-S3184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Job Corps

  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, everywhere I go in Montana, I hear the 
same thing from my State's business owners and job creators of the 
State; that they need more workers. They need more highly skilled 
welders, bricklayers, heavy machine operators, and laborers. The list 
goes on and on. I will tell you that I think the biggest limiting 
factor to moving our economy forward is a well-trained workforce. These 
businesses give living-wage jobs to the folks who are able to fill 
them, if they have the skills to fill them.
  That is why I was so appalled when the Trump administration 
recklessly and cluelessly moved to close so many successful Job Corps 
programs across this country.
  While we have heard there is some sort of reprieve for the Anaconda 
Job Corps, we have not received word that actually means it is going to 
stay open or any of the other Job Corps across this country--16 of 
which were scheduled for privatization and 9 of which were out-and-out 
closures--will stay open.
  In Montana's case, we have two successful Civilian Conservation Corps 
programs: the Anaconda Job Corps and the Trapper Creek Job Corps. The 
Anaconda Job Corps, of course, is in Anaconda, MT. The Trapper Creek 
Job Corps is in Darby. These two job training centers play an active 
role in our State's economy.
  We have a foundry in Butte, MT. It is called Montana Precision 
Products. Mike Robbins is a co-owner of that. This company has hired 
more than 50 Job Corps graduates in recent years alone--more than 50--
most of whom, if not all, were from the Anaconda Job Corps. He has 
promoted these folks--some of them--from entry level to mid-level 
managers.
  So when Mike and his brother Burt need high-skilled employees, the 
first place they look is the Job Corps. Why? Because these folks come 
out with a skill set that fits their needs.
  Now, you may ask: Who is going into the Job Corps? These are at-risk 
folks. These are folks who are having a hard time with life and a hard 
time getting a job, and they go in the Job Corps--young people--and 
they give them a skill, a skill they can use in the private sector, a 
skill that if the Trump administration has their way, they will no 
longer be able to receive.

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  They will be at risk. They will not be well trained. They will, in 
fact, probably end up in some sort of government program instead of 
contributing to our economy, and this is what the Job Corps allows them 
to do.
  (Mr. LANKFORD assumed the Chair.)
  Needless to say, they also provide incredible work in our forests, 
fighting fires, helping clean up our forests.
  It is just amazing to me--it is amazing the shortsightedness of this 
decision to privatize 16 and close 9 Job Corps across the country. We 
have heard from one of its graduates--I have heard from many of its 
graduates, by the way--of the Job Corps in Anaconda and down in Darby 
at Trapper Creek. One of the graduates is named Zoey Huff. Zoey told me 
the Job Corps saved her life--changed it. Before her time in the Job 
Corps, Zoey lived with her parents. She wasn't sure what direction she 
wanted to take in her life. She went through the Job Corps, and now she 
has a CDL, which is a commercial driver's license. She has that and 
certificates that make her an employee who is valued and someone whom 
businesses across this country--because I don't think Montana is any 
exception--are competing against each other to hire.
  The Job Corps gave her the training and the life tools she needs to 
succeed, but Zoey's story is not unique. My office has been flooded 
with stories like hers. I encourage folks who have been impacted by the 
Job Corps to share their story on my website.
  I recently heard from Carl in Montana. Carl's father enrolled in the 
Job Corps nearly 50 years ago. That 1-year investment in Carl's father 
provided him with a career that has lasted him for 45 years, that 
allowed him to raise 5 children and help support 11 grandchildren. It 
was a good investment because 4-year colleges are great, but they are 
not for everybody. There are some folks who would rather work with 
their hands than sit at a desk. These are the folks who shower after 
work, not before work, and I can relate to these folks. Without 
important resources like the Job Corps, we are making it harder and 
harder for young people in rural areas to access the job training they 
need to succeed in this 21st century economy.
  If the President tries again to close the Job Corps, not only will it 
immediately reduce the amount of well-trained workers in rural America, 
but it will also kill dozens of good-paying jobs in these small 
communities that don't support the Job Corps. It is a double punch in 
the gut that our rural counties have not felt in a long, long time--
decades.
  Once they are closed, by the way--the one in Anaconda has been open 
since 1966--once they are closed, it will be hard to get them back.
  So when I received the news about the Job Corps 10 days ago, I urged 
Secretary Perdue, the Secretary of Agriculture, and Labor Secretary 
Alex Acosta to reverse course.
  Senator Boozman is on board to help reverse this shortsighted and 
irresponsible decision. I am proud to work with him and Senator Merkley 
on this issue and appreciate his work to protect Job Corps in rural 
America, but we can't do this alone. That is why I, along with Senator 
Boozman, am introducing bipartisan legislation that will reverse the 
administration's action to close Job Corps not only in Montana but 
across this country. I am going to continue to fight until we get a 
firm promise from this administration that these Job Corps centers are 
going to be around for years to come. We will be introducing 
legislation to block closures and prevent these critical employment 
centers from being subject to the whim of a President who doesn't know 
what is going on in rural America.
  My bill will prohibit the use of appropriated funds in fiscal year 
2019 and 2020 to close any Civilian Conservation Centers. It will also 
prohibit any Agency Secretaries from changing the interagency agreement 
that facilitates the operation of Civilian Conservation Centers, thus 
preventing the privatization of these programs.
  Look, the administration's decision to close these, whether it is in 
Montana or Arkansas or any other place, will negatively impact those 
States in the whole country. So it is my hope--it is my hope that this 
administration will open their eyes and see what is really going on in 
this country because, quite frankly, Job Corps has worked for decades 
and decades and decades. It has produced people who are valuable assets 
to the business community and who raised families and helped support 
our economy and are part of the fabric of this great country. Yet this 
administration, through their goal to making American great again, has 
forgotten about things that make America great and have made America 
great.
  So whether it is businesses like Mike Robbins' and Burt Robbins' 
business or whether it is students who go through this program, like 
Zoey, we need everybody in this Chamber--everybody, Democrats and 
Republicans alike because we are smarter than that--to make sure we 
have Job Corps around for our next generation and generations after.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). The Senator from Iowa.


                100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I come to the floor today, on June 4, 
to take a look back at a very historic vote by the U.S. Senate. This 
vote changed the course of political history in America. It 
strengthened the social fabric and constitutional framework of our 
Republic.
  One hundred years ago today, lawmakers in this body cast a vote for 
liberty and equality under the law. The Senate approved Federal 
suffrage legislation. At the time it was passed, it was known as the 
Susan B. Anthony amendment. Today it is better known as the 19th 
Amendment to our U.S. Constitution.
  Section 1 of the 19th Amendment reads: ``The right of the citizens of 
the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United 
States or by any State on account of sex.''
  By adopting the measure, the 66th U.S. Congress paved the way for 
women's suffrage from sea to shining sea. At the time, more than a 
dozen States and Territories allowed full suffrage, led by the Western 
States of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho.
  In 1919 both Chambers of Congress were led by Republican majorities. 
The House of Representatives adopted this constitutional amendment 304 
to 89 on May 21. Two weeks later the Republican Senate voted 56 to 25 
in favor of women suffrage. That was two votes more than the necessary 
two-thirds vote required under our Constitution.
  Both U.S. Senators from my State of Iowa voted for passage. Senator 
William Kenyon, then the junior Senator from Iowa, later went on to 
serve as a Federal judge for the Eighth Circuit.
  The other aye vote from Iowa was cast by my predecessor, meaning he 
was the only other Senator from Iowa to serve in the position I now 
serve in as President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. That senior 
Republican Senator from Iowa was a former Governor of Iowa, Albert 
Baird Cummins.
  To a full Gallery packed with suffragists, Senator Cummins, as 
President pro tempore, announced final passage of the suffrage 
amendment. It was reported on June 5 in the New York Times that Iowa 
Senator Cummins, presiding over the U.S. Senate, allowed visitors in 
the Gallery to celebrate with ``deafening applause,'' and he made no 
effort to stop the celebration.
  As President pro tempore, Senator Cummins from Iowa was present at 
the enrollment ceremony, watching over the shoulder of Vice President 
Thomas Marshall, who signed this historic bill.
  After the Senate passed it, it was then sent to the States for 
ratification. In a special session of the Iowa General Assembly, my 
State became the tenth State to ratify the 19th amendment on July 2, 
1919, less than a month after the U.S. Senate had approved it.
  Suffragists and supporters continued the campaign they started in the 
Hawkeye State prior to World War I. They mobilized support among 
farmers to pave the way to the ballot box for women. The future 
Secretary of Agriculture under President Harding championed women's 
rights to vote in his widely circulated farm journal. Henry C. Wallace 
of Des Moines wrote:

       I do not know how we can have a government of the people, 
     for the people and by the people, until women have an equal 
     voice with men. They are fully as competent as men to use 
     that ballot wisely.

  Now, others invoked the patriotism, service, and sacrifice of women 
during

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World War I. Another compelling argument reminded Americans that, 
without the ballot, women suffered taxation without representation. All 
Americans will recall that the battle cry of taxation without 
representation also paved the way to America's road to independence 
from Great Britain, declared in July of 1776.
  Two days after Iowa ratified the 19th amendment, Americans celebrated 
our Nation's 143rd year of independence on the Fourth of July. One 
hundred years later, we are 1 month away from celebrating our Nation's 
243rd year of independence. Wow, what a difference a century can make.
  The historic passage of the 19th amendment pulled back the curtain to 
the voting booth and cracked open the glass ceiling for women to serve 
in public office. Today one-fourth of the U.S. Senate are women, 
including my colleague from Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst. She is also the 
first female combat veteran elected to serve in the U.S. Senate.
  In the 116th Congress, 102 women are now serving in the House of 
Representatives, including two women from Iowa, Representative Abby 
Finkenauer and Cindy Axne.
  In the last election, Iowans elected our first female Governor, Kim 
Reynolds, one of nine women now serving as chief executive of their 
respective States.
  Today I pay tribute to all those who blazed the trail to the ballot 
box and helped secure women's right to vote.
  At long last, the sacred right of franchise became a reality for all 
Americans. It had been sought by women since the American Revolution. 
Through the decades, it gained momentum through relentless advocacy at 
the grassroots.
  A lot of credit is due to organizers of a convention called the 
Seneca Falls Convention in New York State in the summer of 1848. Just 
think how long that was before the 19th amendment was finally adopted. 
In 1848 this convention lit a flame that became inextinguishable. They 
launched a civic movement for the ages with enough oxygen to become a 
grassroots prairie fire.
  For more than half a century, this organization of mostly women 
organized with petitions, parades, and protests, building momentum and 
constituencies at the State and Federal level. These early suffragists 
succeeded in laying a cornerstone of equality for generations to come. 
One of the most fundamental rights of self-government is the right to 
vote, and ratification of the 19th amendment enshrined their sacred 
civic duty into our founding charter of freedom.
  I often say that the ballot box holds elected Members of Congress to 
account for the decisions we make on behalf of those we represent. Our 
institutions of government, civic organizations, system of free 
enterprise, places of work, schools, communities, and, most 
importantly, families are stronger thanks to the suffragists of our 
history.
  The road to ratification came down to a tie-breaking vote in 
Nashville, TN. A young member of the State legislature broke a 
deadlocked vote that otherwise would have tabled the measure. His name 
was Harry Burn, a 24-year-old Republican from East Tennessee.
  The morning of the vote, he received a note from his mother. She 
invoked the name of a famous suffragist with long ties to my home State 
of Iowa. You hear it along with Susan B. Anthony, but not as often. The 
name of that Iowa woman is Carrie Chapman Catt. If you want to visit 
her historic farm home, you can go to Charles City, IA, and visit where 
she grew up and lived.
  Mrs. Burns, the mother of that young Tennessee State legislator, 
implored her son to ``be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the `rat' in 
ratification.''
  Representative Burns credited his tie-breaking vote to the influence 
of his mother, to justice, and for the legacy of the Republican Party. 
In a statement explaining his vote, Representative Burn wrote:

       I appreciated the fact that an opportunity such as seldom 
     comes to a mortal man to free seventeen million women from 
     political slavery was mine. . . . I desired that my party in 
     both State and nation might say that it was a republican from 
     the East mountains of Tennessee . . . who made national woman 
     suffrage possible. . . .

  On August 18, 1920, the Volunteer State became the 36th State to 
ratify the amendment, securing the three-fourths of the States required 
under the U.S. Constitution.
  When the U.S. Secretary of State certified the results 8 days later, 
the 19th amendment became the law of the land. It ensured men and women 
in America would share equal rights to this fundamental civic right.
  Like Harry Burn, I have a personal story about my mother. My mother 
influenced my interest in government. For as long as I can remember, 
she sowed the seeds of my quest for public office and a commitment to 
public service.
  For years, she taught students in a one-room schoolhouse about the 
three R's--reading, writing, and arithmetic--as well as lifelong 
lessons of civic responsibility. At home, she taught the Grassley kids 
around the kitchen table to stand up for our beliefs. Those teachings 
were to choose right over wrong, to waste not, want not, and to value 
hard work and the value of hard-earned money. She practiced what she 
preached, putting honesty and integrity first and foremost.
  This photo I have beside me today was published in the Des Moines 
Register on August 30, 1920. Approximately 8 or 10 days after Tennessee 
ratified it but only 1 day after the secretary of State of the State of 
Iowa said women could now vote, we have this photo of my mother voting. 
It sets the scene of a historic day near my family farm.
  A local woman named Mrs. Jens G. Theusen, of Fairfield Township, 
located in Grundy County, IA--I live just across the county line in 
Butler County--submitted her ballot in a country school in what I think 
was a school election.
  She was one of the first women to vote after the newly ratified 19th 
Amendment.
  My own mother, Ruth Corwin Grassley--referred to here as Mrs. L. A. 
Grassley, after Louis Arthur Grassley, my dad--also cast a history-
making vote that day in a local election.
  This picture says this is my mother here, but this is my mother right 
here. So the Des Moines Register was wrong in identifying this person, 
when this person is my mother. The Waterloo Courier got it right that 
this was Ruth Grassley, but instead of with two s's, the Waterloo 
Courier spelled it with one s.
  The Waterloo Times Tribune was present at this vote and reported that 
``Black Hawk and Grundy County women gained fame Friday by being the 
first in the state and probably the first in the nation to take 
advantage of the privilege of equal suffrage.'' That is from the 
Waterloo paper.
  You would think that I would have known about this while my mother 
was living. I didn't know anything about it. I have since learned that 
this photo was widely distributed in newspapers across the country, 
illustrating the historic victory of women's suffrage.
  This election in Iowa was held just 29 hours after the official 
announcement of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
  This photo of my mother also immortalized her vote for posterity. She 
did so without any fanfare. She never bragged about anything, including 
her history-making vote in the local election. In fact, it wasn't until 
after she had passed away by maybe 20 years that I learned that my 
mother, Ruth Grassley, was one of the very first women in Iowa to cast 
her vote.
  While I was growing up, I didn't realize what a trailblazer she was 
from the standpoint of women's suffrage. I knew she was a trailblazer 
in many other ways. Many suffragists wore their mission as a badge of 
honor for all to see. With 50 years of fighting to get it, I sure don't 
blame them for doing that. Others, like my mother, were equally as 
proud to carry out their newfound right and civic duty in anonymity. I 
am not surprised I never knew this story about my mother. My mother 
cast her vote to make her voice count, perhaps not even realizing she 
was making history at that moment.
  Today, at this moment, I stand here as an Iowa farm boy, a proud son 
of a very early voter in Iowa--one of the first four, according to the 
Des Moines Register--and a U.S. Senator from Iowa because I want to 
share her story on the centennial anniversary marking Senate passage of 
the 19th Amendment.
  As Americans, we celebrate the Founding Fathers who enshrined the

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principles of limited government, free enterprise, and personal 
responsibility in our Constitution. Let us also pay tribute, then, to 
our founding mothers who fought and who secured these cherished 
blessings of freedom and liberty for their daughters and granddaughters 
yet to come in the same document. Today, we remember their legacy. 
Let's respect their legacy.
  A century after the Senate voted in favor of the 19th Amendment--on 
this very day 100 years ago--I encourage all Americans to treasure 
their right to vote. The suffragists of yesterday helped shape the 
course of history to ensure all Americans today and for sure in the 
future will carry the torch of freedom, liberty, justice, and 
opportunity for all for generations to come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, first, I want to congratulate the 
senior Senator from Iowa and say what a wonderful story that is about 
his mom. And to see a picture like that--it is such an inspiring story. 
He certainly has a lot to be proud of in many, many ways.
  I say to the Senator, now I know more about you, knowing that you had 
such a smart and strong mom. That tells me a lot. Thank you for sharing 
that.
  I rise with two short topics today. First, I, too, want to 
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment 
granting women the right to vote. Even more so, I rise today to 
celebrate the brave and determined women who fought so hard and for so 
long for our right to make our voices heard.
  I remember coming into the U.S. Senate in 2000 and finding out that 
it wasn't until 2001--the first year I was here--that we actually had 
enough women in the Senate to have one woman on every committee, a 
woman's voice on every committee. It is incredible, actually, that it 
took until 2001. But this was an important milestone at the time, as 
together we have been able to achieve many different milestones for 
women's voices, and we see that continuing to happen.
  I want to speak specifically about Catharine Fish Stebbins, a woman 
from Detroit who was one of those women who fought so hard at the very 
beginning and on whose shoulders we really stand. She may not have been 
as well known, but she was a suffragist and an abolitionist. She signed 
the Declaration of Sentiments at the first women's rights convention in 
Seneca Falls in 1848.
  One of the resolutions in that document said: ``It is the duty of the 
women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to 
elective franchise,'' and she took that very seriously.
  In 1871, accompanied by her husband, Catharine tried to register to 
vote. She was told no. She tried again, this time accompanied by a 
friend who lived in another ward. That friend, Nannette B. Gardner, 
argued that she was a widow and a taxpayer and that she should be 
allowed to register. But Catharine was once again told no.
  In 1872, she tried to register again. This time, she was told no, but 
she did get election officials to admit that, in their words, ``Mrs. 
Stebbins would have all the required qualification of an elector, but 
for the fact of her being a woman.''
  Catharine never did get to cast a ballot before she died in 1904. Yet 
I believe she would be extremely proud of how far we have come as a 
country and how far we have come in Michigan.
  Last November, Michigan elected a woman Governor--our second woman to 
be elected Governor--a woman secretary of state, a woman attorney 
general, reelected a woman to the U.S. Senate, and elected three new 
women Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was 
extraordinary.
  That is progress, but in my mind, the real progress was that being 
women wasn't the story. We didn't win because of the novelty of having 
all of these women running for statewide office. We didn't win thanks 
to some ``pink wave'' that was talked about in the press. We didn't win 
because we focused on ``women's issues'' because, as we know, every 
issue is a woman's issue. Instead, each of us won because we were 
strong and qualified candidates who earned our nominations and ran 
forward-looking and positive campaigns focused on issues important to 
Michigan families. Everyone was judged on their own. People weren't 
talking about our gender and whether it was OK to have women in all of 
these top positions; instead, they were talking about our 
qualifications and who was the best candidate. To me, that is truly 
historic.
  There is no question we still have a long way to go. Women now make a 
quarter of this Chamber. We are one out of four--a historic high. I 
think Catharine would agree with me that it should be at least 50 
percent. That would be a good goal. I think we are maybe 54 percent of 
the voting population; that is good too.
  On this 100th anniversary of women's right to vote, I am celebrating 
how far we have come and the women, like Catharine, who worked so very 
hard to get us here. Even more important, I think we all should 
recommit ourselves to the fight to move forward.