[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4879-S4880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Clifton 
L. Corker, of Tennessee, to be United States District Judge for the 
Eastern District of Tennessee.
  The Senator from New York.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1327

  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that as in 
legislative session, the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 153, H.R. 1327; 
that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the 
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it has long 
been my feeling that we need to address our massive debt in this 
country. We have a $22 trillion debt. We are adding debt at about $1 
trillion a year. Therefore, any new spending that we are approaching, 
any new program that is going to have the longevity of 70 or 80 years 
should be offset by cutting spending that is less valuable. At the very 
least, we need to have this debate.
  I will be offering up an amendment if this bill should come to the 
floor, but until then, I will object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I am deeply disappointed that my 
colleague has just objected to the desperately needed and urgent bill 
for our 9/11 first responders--a bipartisan bill that just earned over 
400 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives and that has 73 
cosponsors in this Chamber.
  Enough of the political games. Our 
9/11 first responders and the entire Nation are watching to see if this 
body actually cares. Do we care about the men and women who answer the 
call of duty?
  When our country was attacked on 
9/11/2001, the entire world looked on in shock as many people 
rightfully sought to get away as quickly as they could. As those towers 
began to crumble, there was one group of men and women--our heroes, the 
bravest among us--who ran the opposite way. They ran toward danger. 
They raced up the towers. They went into harm's way to answer the call 
of duty.
  Then, in the days and weeks that followed and the months and months 
that followed, life slowly began to return to normal for the rest of 
the country, but at Ground Zero, nothing was normal. The pile kept 
burning. It was smoldering. You could smell it blocks and blocks away--
10 blocks, 20 blocks, 30 blocks away. Men and women kept going to that 
pile to do the very hard work of, first, trying to find survivors and 
then, of course, just trying to find remains and doing all the hard 
work of cleaning up. They dove in. They got to work. They wanted to 
help our country heal.
  Now more than 18 years have actually passed, and thousands of those 
men and women have actually died. Thousands more are getting sick. They 
are getting grueling, painful diseases, like cancer, and they are now 
dying. Why? Because they did the work at Ground Zero that we asked them 
to do, and it made them very sick--the air they breathed, the smoke, 
the burning metal, the crushed glass, the crushed electronics, the 
toxins they breathed in that the EPA told them was safe.
  These heroes have since had to quit their jobs and doing the jobs 
they love and providing for the families they love because they are too 
sick. They have had to give up their income. They have had to give up 
their dreams. They have had to give up their future. They have had to 
face the terrifying reality that they are actually going to die because 
of what they did on 9/11 and the months thereafter.
  If that wasn't a great enough burden, they had to use their most 
precious commodity, time--time away from their families, time away from 
their friends, and time away from their children, from their loved 
ones, and from their community. To do what? To come here. To come here 
to walk the Halls of Congress, to go to office after office, to ask 
that this body and this government stand by them in their greatest time 
of need, to ask for the basic compensation that they have earned and 
deserve, to ask for the healthcare that could actually keep them alive 
maybe another year longer and not have to go through bankruptcy, and to 
have to come here week after week, spending thousands of dollars of 
their own money, sacrificing the time and energy that they have left.
  I have seen first responders in wheelchairs, attached to oxygen 
tanks, spending their last moments here in Congress just asking that we 
do the right thing.
  Almost a decade ago, 9 years after the attacks, Congress finally 
listened. We passed a healthcare and compensation fund for the people 
who got sick because of 9/11, but that compensation fund was only 
designed to last for 5 years. You know how this place works. They 
wanted to make sure it worked right. They wanted to make sure every i 
was dotted and every t was crossed. They wanted to make sure there 
could be no fraud and no corruption. Well, of course, there wasn't. So 
it was limited. These first responders--many of them sick and some 
dying--had to come back again and again and again to spend more of 
their time walking these halls.
  Eventually, we passed another compensation bill, but, again, it was 
for another 5 years. Even though thousands of 9/11 first responders are 
sick and even more will become sick, they still had to come back, even 
though some of these diseases are lifetime diseases and more will die. 
And, now, sadly, the fund is running out.
  The 5 years aren't over yet, and the Federal Government is already 
having to tell these families who have gotten cancer and died since 9/
11 that we have actually run out of money for them, that the 
compensation they have earned and the need their families have will be 
cut by up to 70 percent.
  Once again, sick and dying first responders are being forced to come 
here to knock on our office doors to remind Members of Congress of what 
they did on that day and the weeks and months since, to tell them their 
personal stories of how painful it is to lose everything you love. 
First, it is your ability to work, then your ability to play with your 
kids, then your ability to eat, and then your ability to breathe.
  I believe we have a responsibility--a sacred responsibility--so that 
anyone in this Chamber who has any sense of decency, compassion, or 
patriotism would listen to our first responders and give them what they 
need: a permanent compensation program so that these men and women will 
never have to spend another moment in these hallways again.
  We could pass this bill right now, but, instead, my colleague has 
objected, asking people to come back over and over. Everyone loves to 
point fingers in this place, but there is nowhere else to point that 
finger today than this Chamber.
  The House has already passed the bill overwhelmingly 402 to 12. It is 
about as bipartisan as it gets. Shame on those 12 Members who voted no.
  The same bipartisan bill, the one I just called on my colleagues to 
pass already, has 73 cosponsors--73. When was the last time that 
happened?
  I want to say how grateful I am to my Republican colleague from 
Colorado, Senator Gardner, for leading this bipartisan bill with me. In 
these divided times, what other bill can you imagine would have so much 
support by both parties?
  Enough is enough. We should pass this bill today. We should have 
passed this bill today, and I hope we can pass this bill with no 
further delay.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me thank my colleague and 
friend, the Senator from New York, for the amazing work she has done to 
get this bill to this point. She has worked long and hard on this for 
years and years and years with compassion, dedication, intelligence, 
and persistence. The bill wouldn't be here today without her hard work. 
I thank her for that.
  I also want to thank--I know there are police and firefighters in the 
Gallery over here. I want to thank them

[[Page S4880]]

for coming. You are the people who got this done. You are the people 
who made this happen more than any of us and more than anyone else. The 
heroes of 21st century America have names like Zadroga and Pfeifer and 
Alvarez, for whom this bill is named--three of the thousands who rushed 
to the towers bravely and lost their lives because of their bravery and 
selflessness.
  I say to my friend from Kentucky: Throughout the history of America, 
when our young men and women or older men and women volunteered in the 
armed services and risked their lives for our freedom, we came back and 
gave them healthcare, and we are still working on making it better. Why 
are these people any different? They, too, risked their lives in a time 
of war and were hurt by it--by diseases they didn't even know they 
could get. How can we, for whatever reason, stop this bill from moving 
forward?
  We are going to have a defense bill on the appropriations floor. We 
are not going to offset it. It has pay raises for our soldiers. It has 
new equipment. We are not going to ask for an offset. Why this bill--
why is it different? It is not. This fund needs to be fully funded.
  I say to Leader McConnell, the House leadership, hardly people who 
aren't careful with the dollar--sometimes too careful--when Kevin 
McCarthy and Scalise, the Freedom Caucus leader, Mark Meadows, all 
voted for it, why are we holding this bill up? If we put it on the 
floor today, we could pass it, and it would be on the President's desk 
this week, and those brave people here and the many more who came would 
not have to come again. They should not have to come again.
  It is not that it will be a joyous day when this bill passes. They 
are going to have to return to nurturing their brothers and sisters who 
are sick and to worry if they might get sick from all the gunk that was 
in the air that poisoned their systems, their lungs, their digestive 
systems, their kidneys, and their livers.
  The bottom line is very simple. You can come up with 10,000 reasons 
not to do something, but you shouldn't come up with any reason not to 
do something noble and right.
  I urge my friend from Kentucky to withdraw his objection. I urge 
Senator McConnell, the leader, to put it on the floor now, and we can 
let these folks in the Gallery and so many others do what they need to 
do--help their families, help their friends, and make sure their health 
is given the best protection possible.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I thank Senator Schumer for being 
such an extraordinary advocate for the men and women who have served 
our Nation. This bill would never have gotten this far without his 
leadership, without his dedication, and without his absolute commitment 
to the men and women in the Gallery, as well as the men and women in 
all 50 States throughout this country.
  I thank Senator Schumer for never giving up on this bill and for 
always bringing it across the finish line when we need his skills and 
his leadership and his tenacity the most. I thank him, for the record, 
for his undying commitment to the men and women who serve this Nation.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.