[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3365-S3367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. KAINE (for himself, Mr. Isakson, and Mr. King):
S. 1793. A bill to establish a grant program for the purpose of
public health data system modernization; to the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, Our Nation's public health system needs
high quality, timely, and accurate data to protect the public from
health threats like opioid overdoses, influenza, measles, and more.
Effective prevention and response to health threats requires
coordinated efforts between health care providers and public health
officials across all levels of government.
Unfortunately, the public health data systems we rely on for our
health and safety are antiquated and fragmented. Systems lack the
interoperability needed to facilitate timely, secure information
exchange. Too often, public health departments are forced to rely on
systems with manual processes that are time consuming and error prone,
such as paper records, faxes, and phone calls. Only two jurisdictions
have begun the process to receive electronic case reports directly from
health records, and only for a small number of diseases. Our public
health data infrastructure lacks the automation, security,
interoperability, and skilled workforce we need to confront the public
health threats of today and tomorrow.
Today, I am pleased to introduce with my colleagues, Senator Isakson
and Senator King, the Saving Lives Through Better Data Act to assist in
building the 21st Century public health data infrastructure our Nation
needs. The Saving Lives Through Better Data Act awards grants to State,
local, Tribal, and territorial public health departments to improve
data collection and analysis, simplify provider reporting, enhance
interoperability, promote electronic case reporting, and support
earlier disease detection and response. Grant recipients must support
interoperability standards endorsed by the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology or those adopted by the HHS Secretary.
The Saving Lives Through Better Data Act also requires the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct activities to improve its
public health data systems. The CDC must also develop and utilize
public-private partnerships to support State, local, Tribal, and
territorial public health departments in modernizing and expanding
electronic case reporting and public health data systems. The
legislation calls for reporting on barriers public health authorities
may face in implementing electronic case reporting or interoperable
public health data systems as well as an assessment of the potential
public health impact of making such improvements. We make the necessary
investment to improve our public health infrastructure by authorizing
$100 million per year for each of fiscal years 2020-2024.
The Saving Lives Through Better Data Act will strengthen our public
health data systems so we can be well-equipped to identify and respond
to public health threats, which will save lives.
______
By Mr. KAINE (for himself, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Tester, Mr. Tillis,
and Ms. Sinema):
S. 1802. A bill to provide a work opportunity tax credit for military
spouses and to provide for flexible spending arrangements for childcare
services for military families; to the Committee on Finance.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Jobs and
Childcare for Military Families Act, with my colleagues Senators
Boozman and Tester. Enacting this bill would improve financial
stability for Gold Star families across the Nation.
The families of America's servicemembers make sacrifices that often
go unrecognized. Among them is packing up and moving frequently, with
military spouses regularly having to quit stable employment to move to
a new area and start over. This is compounded by the complex system of
State licensing and certification requirements, which can limit these
spouses' from taking jobs that utilize their expertise and experience.
Because of this, military spouses have unemployment rates substantially
higher than the national average, and are often underemployed when they
do have jobs. Adding to the financial struggle that frequent periods of
unemployment and underemployment cause, the rising cost of childcare
puts a substantial burden on many military families.
The Jobs and Childcare for Military Families Act would help these
families
[[Page S3366]]
in two ways. First, the bill makes military spouses an eligible
population for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. This tax credit has
been proven effective in improving the employment prospects for other
groups, and extending it to military spouses would help them find
employment easier after moving to new areas. Second, the bill instructs
the administration to implement dependent care flexible spending
accounts for all servicemembers. These accounts would allow military
families to contribute pre-tax dollars to accounts that they can then
use to pay for childcare services, helping ease the financial burden of
childcare.
I hope my colleagues will support this bill to help families who have
made the greatest sacrifice for our Nation.
______
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Capito, and Mr.
Tester):
S. 1803. A bill to modify the Federal TRIO programs; to the Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Educational
Opportunity and Success Act, a bill to strengthen the Federal TRIO
Programs and improve their administration. Across the Nation, TRIO
helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to a college
education and provide many of the supports that they need to prepare
for, succeed in, and graduate from higher education programs. I would
very much like to thank Senator Baldwin, Senator Capito, and Senator
Tester for joining me as original cosponsors.
In the State of Maine, TRIO Programs serve students from all over our
State and are focused on increasing educational opportunities for first
generation, low-income, and disabled students. From 2007 to 2017, TRIO
has expanded from 20 programs to 28 in our State and has expanded from
serving 6,690 students to nearly 7,500 students in our State. Over the
course of my Senate service, I have been so inspired by the stories of
countless TRIO students with whom I have talked. They have described to
me firsthand the positive impact of these programs on their academic
success and on their futures.
For example, Autumn Mallet from Bangor, ME, graduated from Bangor
High School in 2015, unsure about whether she even wanted to pursue
higher education. Neither she nor her parents had any experience with
higher education. That is very typical of what I found in talking with
students who are enrolled in the TRIO Programs. Autumn decided to
enroll at Eastern Maine Community College, where she connected with
TRIO's Student Support Services Program. Autumn called TRIO
``irreplaceable'' and her ``full support system.'' The academic
advisers were her ``go-to people'' when it came to signing up for
classes, finding tutors, navigating financial aid, and advocating for
herself.
Autumn graduated in May 2018 with an associate's degree in liberal
studies and secondary education, and she has gone on to the University
of Maine where she is currently earning her bachelor's degree. At the
University, she also taps into the resources of the Student Support
Services Program. And, very movingly, Autumn is giving back to TRIO.
She is a TRIO peer mentor at Eastern Maine Community College, helping
students, just like herself, successfully navigate higher education and
giving them the tools and the confidence to succeed. For Autumn, TRIO
has made all the difference as she has pursued her own goals and helped
other students achieve theirs.
Congress created the TRIO Programs because it recognized that low-
income, first-generation students often face significant financial and
societal obstacles to accessing and achieving success in higher
education. The Educational Opportunity and Success Act would better
serve those students by implementing key reforms.
First, and most important, our bipartisan bill would reauthorize the
TRIO Programs for an additional 5 years.
Second, our bill would instruct the Department of Education to
publish guidance at least 90 days before each grant competition, giving
colleges and universities adequate opportunity to prepare the
successful applications to secure the funding needed to offer the TRIO
Programs.
Third, our bill would remove the administrative burdens in the
application process for these schools, making sure that Federal funds
get out the door more efficiently and to the programs and the students
they are meant to serve. Under the current administrative process, many
colleges and universities experience delays while the Department
reviews administrative errors before making all of the grant awards.
This reform would help to expedite the grant process.
Fourth, our legislation would institute commonsense guidelines at the
Department of Education for TRIO grant applications.
Let me tell you what happened in 2017. In that year, the Department
initially rejected dozens of applications for the Upward Bound Program
based on arbitrary, nonsubstantive formatting criteria, such as line
spacing and font size irregularities. This was bureaucracy at its
worst. One of those applications was from the University of Maine at
Presque Isle, which had been a longtime recipient of funding to provide
TRIO Programs. Here is what happened with the University of Maine at
Presque Isle. It submitted a 65-page application. In that application,
the University of Maine of Presque Isle used 1\1/2\-line spacing
instead of double spacing in the text appearing in the graphics on two
of its application's 65 pages.
I am not making this up. For that reason alone, because the spacing
was 1\1/2\ lines rather than 2 on just 2 of the graphs in a 65-page
application, the Department of Education rejected it--based on that
alone.
The Department's bureaucratic decision would have denied 960
disadvantaged Maine high school students the chance to fulfill their
academic potential. Imagine that--that 960 students, who needed the
support of the TRIO Program to be successful, would not have been
served because of a tiny formatting error on 2 pages of a 65-page
application. It was nothing substantive, just a formatting error.
After months of advocacy, I was able to work with the Department of
Education and my Appropriations colleagues to reverse this ill-
conceived decision, and I am very happy to report that the University
of Maine of Presque Isle is today serving those students.
Our bill would prevent the Department of Education from rejecting
applications simply on the basis of the formatting criteria that it
suggests and instead would establish a straightforward process of
correction for applications with minor formatting or budgeting errors.
This is a commonsense reform that will prevent unnecessary bureaucratic
obstacles in the future--obstacles that have a real impact on the lives
of the students who are intended to benefit from the TRIO Programs.
Fifth, our bill would make it simpler for students who receive free
and reduced-priced lunches and Pell grants to qualify for the TRIO
Programs. Proving income eligibility can be a barrier to services, and
this bill would make it easier to identify potential participants for
the TRIO Programs.
The bill would also update TRIO eligibility criteria to reflect the
most recent requirements for Federal financial aid. This would ensure
that TRIO administrators would not have to consult multiple data
sources and can instead use a student's most recent financial aid
information to determine eligibility for the TRIO Programs rather than
having them go through an additional process.
Finally, the bill would require the Department of Education to
conduct additional virtual training sessions, better ensuring that all
areas of the country--especially our small, rural communities--have the
ability to know about and access the TRIO Programs.
As the longtime cochair of the Congressional TRIO Caucus, I have long
supported the TRIO Programs. I have worked to ensure that they are
reaching the students who most need them. So many students in Maine and
across the country have truly had their lives changed by these
wonderful programs, such as Upward Bound. They have been introduced to
the world of higher education. They have been given the support they
need to succeed. In my State, where so many families simply do not have
experience with higher education, the TRIO Programs have made all the
difference for their sons and daughters.
[[Page S3367]]
I urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan Educational
Opportunity and Success Act.
______
By Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. King, Mr. Schatz, and
Mr. Reed):
S. 1821. A bill to amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of
2007 to provide for research on, and the development and deployment of,
marine energy, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, marine energy technologies generate
electricity using the natural power found in ocean waves, tides,
currents, and temperature differences in ocean water. This
nontraditional form of hydropower has the potential to fuel American
homes and businesses with renewable electricity and address the very
real challenge of climate change. Additionally, establishing a
commercially viable marine energy industry in the United States would
support a robust manufacturing and construction supply chain and create
thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs.
The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that marine energy could
produce enough renewable energy to power millions of homes.
Furthermore, with more than half of the U.S. population living within
50 miles of a body of water, there is vast potential for marine energy
to efficiently provide clean electricity to communities across the
country--from large cities to remote coastal communities.
Because these promising marine renewable energy technologies are
still in the early stages of development, federal support is needed to
encourage private investments in marine energy projects, moving the
United States closer to large-scale deployment of these innovative
clean energy technologies.
The Marine Energy Research and Development Act advances this research
by reauthorizing DOE's marine renewable energy programs from 2020
through 2021. The bill gives priority to projects and technologies that
have the highest likelihood to lead to commercial utilization of new
marine energy systems.
The bill also directs DOE to research ways of building a stable
marine energy supply chain in the United States, as well as ways of
harmonizing marine energy development with ocean navigation, fisheries,
and critical infrastructure such as undersea cables.
The bill includes funding authorization for the National Marine
Renewable Energy Research Centers, which are located in Florida, Hawaii
and the Pacific Northwest. These three centers make use of federal
funding and the resources of five universities to test and refine
various marine energy technologies. The bill also provides DOE new
authority to establish new National Marine Energy Centers.
______
By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Reed, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr.
Brown):
S. 1823. A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to
prohibit employment of children in tobacco-related agriculture by
deeming such employment as oppressive child labor; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of
the bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1823
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as ``Children Don't Belong on Tobacco
Farms Act''.
SEC. 2. TOBACCO-RELATED AGRICULTURE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN.
Section 3(l) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29
U.S.C. 203(l)) is amended--
(1) in the first sentence--
(A) by striking ``in any occupation, or (2)'' and inserting
``in any occupation, (2)''; and
(B) by inserting before the semicolon the following: ``, or
(3) any employee under the age of eighteen years has direct
contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves''; and
(2) in the second sentence, by striking ``other than
manufacturing and mining'' and inserting ``, other than
manufacturing, mining, and tobacco-related agriculture as
described in paragraph (3) of the first sentence of this
subsection,''.
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