[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5167-S5170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I am here on the Senate floor today 
with my friend and colleague, the senior Senator from the State of 
Maryland, Mr. Cardin, and I think we both agree that we would rather 
not be here today to talk about this subject. But I feel compelled to 
come to the Senate floor today because, in my view, we have a duty to 
speak out when the President of the United States of America engages in 
conduct that brings dishonor and disgrace to the Office of the 
Presidency. That is what we witnessed, once again, over the weekend 
when President Trump unleashed a torrent of personal, nasty, and racist 
attacks on Congressman Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore, and 
President Trump has continued his poisonous barrage for days.
  Congressman Cummings can defend himself. He grew up having to 
confront racist bullies. In the face of these attacks, he has shown 
great strength and great integrity--the same strength and integrity he 
has brought to his efforts to fight for his dear city of Baltimore, his 
entire congressional district, and his constituents over many years.
  Baltimore is a great American city with great people, great spirit, 
and great heart. Yes, of course, Baltimore faces many challenges. It is 
facing those challenges with determination, with unity, and with grit. 
The President's attacks on this great American city have only served to 
rally the people of Baltimore, the people of Maryland, and, in fact, 
the people of the United States of America to support the city and the 
people of Baltimore.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
an op-ed that appeared in the Baltimore Sun today entitled ``Baltimore 
leaders: `Proud not only to be in Baltimore, but of Baltimore.' ''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Baltimore Sun, July 30, 2019]

     Baltimore Leaders: `Proud Not Only To Be in Baltimore, but of 
                               Baltimore'

                 (By Ronald J. Daniels and Kevin Plank)

       We are proud and privileged to call Baltimore home. 
     Baltimore is a city of creativity, optimism, and 
     determination. Home to leading public and private research 
     universities, world-class medical institutions, and a diverse 
     business community, Baltimore is a city where both artists 
     and start-ups thrive. From creating one of the nation's first 
     racially integrated library systems to producing today's 
     modern medical and technological breakthroughs, our city has 
     a proud legacy of leadership in improving lives and setting a 
     national example for a stronger tomorrow. It's no wonder we 
     are often named as a place where millennials are moving and 
     staying. This is a city where people not only want to live, 
     but love to live.
       That is why we, as leaders of 10 of Baltimore's anchor 
     institutions, reject the recent unfair and ungenerous 
     characterizations of our great city and its region. Like so 
     many cities across America, Baltimore is a place of paradox, 
     at once vibrant and full of promise and yet also burdened by 
     the weight of generations of racial and economic inequities, 
     deindustrialization, and disinvestment. Like other cities of 
     our size and history, we face urgent challenges with crime, 
     housing equity and our education system. But like all 
     Americans, Baltimoreans deserve respect, support and 
     steadfast partnership from elected officials at every level.
       Baltimore is not and will not be defined by our challenges. 
     What defines us is that we continually meet those challenges 
     with resilience and persistence, that we invest in innovation 
     for Baltimore and for the nation, and that we harness the 
     talent of so many exceptional individuals to create 
     opportunity not for the few, but for the many.
       Baltimore's remarkable people include icons past and 
     present like Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall; the 
     longest serving woman in Congress, Sen. Barbara Mikulski; and 
     Rep. Elijah Cummings, outspoken advocate for all his 
     constituents, from west Baltimore to Catonsville and beyond. 
     These leaders are known not only for their deep commitment to 
     our city and communities, but for their stature and public 
     service on the national stage.
       We see the promise of Baltimore because we are fortunate to 
     work, serve and live here, alongside our colleagues, 
     employees, students and neighbors. Such promise is proven 
     daily in our shared commitment to our city's growth and the 
     success of its residents. Baltimore fosters talent in its 
     strong academic institutions and has seen rising venture 
     capital investment in its businesses--a testament to the 
     dynamism and innovative spirit of our businesses large and 
     small. Our leading businesses and non-profits, called upon 
     and supported by our vibrant faith community, launched 
     BLocal, a targeted economic investment and community 
     development plan that over three years has invested more than 
     $280 million and hired more than 1,700 Baltimore residents in 
     underserved neighborhoods. BLocal expresses to the fullest 
     the deep and long-term investment of the city's anchor 
     institutions.
       We never move forward as a community--or indeed, a nation--
     by denigrating each other. Nor does it serve any of us to 
     demean a vibrant city and its citizens who exemplify those 
     most American of qualities: can-do optimism, grit and 
     creativity.
       Justice Thurgood Marshall wisely counseled that ``In 
     recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay 
     ourselves the highest tribute.'' And as this city has shown, 
     time and again, when we work together, we rise together. For 
     this and so many reasons we are proud not only to be in 
     Baltimore, but of Baltimore.

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. This is signed by many of the leaders in our 
community, including the President of Johns Hopkins University; the 
head of Under Armour, a great American company; the head of a number of 
major companies in the city of Baltimore; the Casey Foundation; Morgan 
State University, a great HBCU; Eddie Brown, one of our great civic 
leaders; and many other leaders of Baltimore--diverse leaders who have 
come together to stand up with pride for the city of Baltimore.
  I would like to read to the Senate what they say in the first 
paragraph:

       We are proud and privileged to call Baltimore home. 
     Baltimore is a city of creativity, optimism, and 
     determination. Home to leading public and private research 
     universities, world-class medical institutions, and a diverse 
     business community, Baltimore is a city where both artists 
     and start-ups thrive. From creating one of the nation's first 
     racially integrated library systems to producing today's 
     modern medical and technological breakthroughs, our city has 
     a proud legacy of leadership in improving lives and setting a 
     national example for a stronger tomorrow.

  I want to pay particular attention to these next sentences:

       It's no wonder we are often named as a place where 
     millennials are moving and staying. This is a city where 
     people not only want to live, but love to live.

  If you come to Baltimore today, you will, in fact, find lots of young 
people from other parts of the country coming to settle, work, and 
raise their families in this great American city. The President may say 
that nobody wants to live in Baltimore, but the facts show a very 
different story about young people--young people who understand that 
they have a great future in Baltimore and are moving to that great 
city.
  Of course, it is true that Baltimore faces a series of problems. In 
Baltimore we have had a legacy of racial discrimination and 
segregation.
  I would like to read from yesterday's editorial in the Baltimore Sun.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
the editorial from the Baltimore Sun, dated July 29, 2019.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S5168]]

  


                [From the Baltimore Sun, July 29, 2019]

Cummings Didn't Cause Baltimore's Woes; It Was People Who Profited From 
                   Racism. Sound Familiar, Mr. Trump?

                   (By Baltimore Sun Editorial Board)

       It's not our job to defend Rep. Elijah Cummings from 
     President Donald Trump's Twitter rants. For one thing, he's 
     quite capable of doing it on his own, and for another, our 
     role isn't to offer blind loyalty to political leaders of any 
     party but to hold them to account. Likewise, we're not in the 
     business of defending Baltimore from any and all criticism. 
     Our city has problems, big ones, and we don't shy away from 
     them, nor do we give any politicians a pass for failing to do 
     as much as humanly possible to fix them. But we are sticklers 
     for facts and perspective, and in case anybody is still 
     interested in those things, we have a few that are worth 
     mentioning.
       Mr. Cummings has not single-handedly solved Baltimore's 
     racial and class inequities, its injustices, its blight, its 
     epidemics of lead poisoning and asthma, its violence or, 
     indeed, its problems with rats. And he has been in office for 
     a long time, more than 30 years between Congress and the 
     Maryland House of Delegates. But Baltimore's problems go back 
     a lot farther than that.
       President Trump, whose early career was marred by a federal 
     housing discrimination suit, may be interested to know that 
     Baltimore was something of a pioneer in that regard. It 
     enacted the first housing segregation ordinances, which were 
     soon invalidated by the Supreme Court, leading to subtler and 
     more nefarious tactics. Racially restrictive covenants, 
     privately enforced, prevented the sale of homes in certain 
     neighborhoods to minorities. Redlining prevented minorities 
     from getting financing to buy homes in white neighborhoods. 
     And blockbusting made rich the unscrupulous men who 
     capitalized on racism and fear to drive white flight. They 
     profiteered on blacks who sought security and better 
     opportunities but instead found themselves exploited and 
     impoverished.
       Those days aren't nearly so far in the past as we might 
     like to think. Just seven years ago, Baltimore settled a 
     landmark lending discrimination suit against Wells Fargo, 
     which steered minority borrowers into subprime mortgages--the 
     sort of abuse the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which 
     Mr. Trump has eviscerated, might have prevented. Landlords in 
     Baltimore continue to take advantage of rules stacked in 
     their favor to evict low-income (and frequently minority) 
     tenants; in a particularly egregious example, the Kushner 
     Cos. (as in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner) has aggressively 
     sought to jail tenants who fall behind on their rent.
       As whites moved to the suburbs, sped along the way by 
     massive investments in new highways, water and sewer systems, 
     schools and other public amenities, Baltimore City's 
     infrastructure began to crumble. Neighborhoods like those in 
     the East and West Baltimore portions of Mr. Cummings' 
     district became increasingly isolated from economic and 
     educational opportunities. (Mr. Cummings was among the 
     Baltimore leaders who sought to address that problem through 
     the development of a new light rail line connecting those 
     neighborhoods to employment centers including the Social 
     Security Administration and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical 
     Center, but Gov. Larry Hogan, who over the weekend responded 
     to Mr. Trump's tweets by calling Baltimore ``the very heart 
     of the state'' and on Monday by asking why politicians aren't 
     ``focused on solving the problems and getting to work,'' 
     killed the project.)
       Meanwhile, back in the '90s, Democrats and Republicans both 
     discovered that espousing zero-tolerance policing was great 
     politics, so long as it was enforced disproportionately 
     against blacks and Hispanics in the nation's cities and not 
     against whites in suburban and rural communities. Plenty of 
     people share blame for that, including former Vice President 
     Joe Biden and former Maryland Gov. (and former Baltimore 
     mayor) Martin O'Malley. But not a lot of them continue to 
     espouse the notion that locking more people up for minor 
     offenses or stopping and frisking people on the streets are 
     good ideas, as the Trump administration has done.
       The Obama administration tried to do something about the 
     pockets of concentrated poverty in American cities (and 
     Baltimore specifically) by using federal housing policy to 
     affirmatively foster desegregation, something the Fair 
     Housing Act had called for 50 years before, but Mr. Trump's 
     HUD secretary, Baltimore's own Ben Carson, has been working 
     to dismantle those efforts.
       We will agree with President Trump on one thing, though. We 
     wish Mr. Cummings weren't so focused on investigating the 
     Trump administration. We wish, for example, that immigrant 
     children weren't being held in inhumane conditions at the 
     border, that the White House complied with congressional 
     subpoenas, that administration officials weren't conducting 
     public business on private email accounts or that the 
     president of the United States didn't look on the office as a 
     giant profit center for himself and his family. If not for 
     things like that, Mr. Cummings' role as chairman of the House 
     Committee on Oversight and Reform would probably take up much 
     less of his time.

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Here is what yesterday's Baltimore Sun editorial 
states:

       President Trump, whose early career was marred by a federal 
     housing discrimination suit, may be interested to know that 
     Baltimore was something of a pioneer in that regard. It 
     enacted the first housing segregation ordinances, which were 
     soon invalidated by the Supreme Court, leading to subtler and 
     more nefarious tactics. Racially restrictive covenants, 
     privately enforced, prevented the sale of homes in certain 
     neighborhoods to minorities. Redlining prevented minorities 
     from getting financing to buy homes in white neighborhoods. 
     And blockbusting made rich the unscrupulous men who 
     capitalized on racism and fear to drive white flight. They 
     profiteered on blacks who sought security and better 
     opportunities but instead found themselves exploited and 
     impoverished.

  They go on to make the point:

       Those days aren't nearly so far in the past as we might 
     like to think. Just seven years ago, Baltimore settled a 
     landmark lending discrimination suit against Wells Fargo, 
     which steered minority borrowers into subprime mortgages--the 
     sort of abuse the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which 
     Mr. Trump has eviscerated, might have prevented. Landlords in 
     Baltimore continue to take advantage of rules stacked in 
     their favor to evict low-income (and frequently minority) 
     tenants; in a particularly egregious example, the Kushner 
     Cos. (as in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner) has aggressively 
     sought to jail tenants who fall behind on their rent.

  We do have a legacy of discrimination in Baltimore City to overcome. 
The President, instead of challenging that legacy, has decided to pile 
on in the manner he did with his comments.
  I know that Baltimore will rise above this. I know the city is 
resilient, and I know this great city's greatest days are still ahead 
as we tackle that legacy and move on to the future. But I think we as a 
body--both Republicans and Democrats alike--have an obligation to also 
stand up for our country. We cannot allow these kind of remarks out of 
the Oval Office to go unanswered. We cannot allow silence when the 
President of the United States challenges the very idea of what it 
means to be American, which is a place where people of all different 
backgrounds, all different races, and all different religions can come 
together: ``E pluribus unum.'' The President wants to drive a stake in 
that idea. He wants to divide the country, and we cannot be silent 
while he soils the Oval Office.
  I ask all of us to speak out, wherever we are, when we see this kind 
of attack by the President of the United States. It is wrong for our 
country. It is bad for our country. It is a disgrace to the Oval 
Office.
  The one thing I can say is that, in the face of that disgrace, 
Baltimore has shown great dignity, incredible dignity, the dignity of a 
city of people who see a wonderful future ahead, and we should all work 
together to make that future as bright as possible.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
an article from today's Baltimore Sun editorial board.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                            [July 30, 2019]

                Better To Have a Few Rats Than To Be One

                   (By Baltimore Sun Editorial Board)

       In case anyone missed it, the president of the United 
     States had some choice words to describe Maryland's 7th 
     congressional district on Saturday morning. Here are the key 
     phrases: ``no human being would want to live there,'' it is a 
     ``very dangerous & filthy place,'' ``Worst in the USA'' and, 
     our personal favorite: It is a ``rat and rodent infested 
     mess.'' He wasn't really speaking of the 7th as a whole. He 
     failed to mention Ellicott City, for example, or Baldwin or 
     Monkton or Prettyboy, all of which are contained in the 
     sprawling yet oddly-shaped district that runs from western 
     Howard County to southern Harford County. No, Donald Trump's 
     wrath was directed at Baltimore and specifically at Rep. 
     Elijah Cummings, the 68-year-old son of a former South 
     Carolina sharecropper who has represented the district in the 
     U.S. House of Representatives since 1996.
       It's not hard to see what's going on here. The congressman 
     has been a thorn in this president's side, and Mr. Trump sees 
     attacking African American members of Congress as good 
     politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white 
     supremacists who love him and causes so many of the 
     thoughtful people who don't to scream. President Trump bad-
     mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border 
     camps are ``clean, efficient & well run,'' which, of course, 
     they are not--unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, 
     squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the 
     Department of Homeland Security's own inspector-general 
     recently called ``a ticking time bomb.''

[[Page S5169]]

       In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn't hoping his 
     supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins 
     Hospital, perhaps the nation's leading medical center. He 
     wasn't conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security 
     Administration, where they write the checks that so many 
     retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn't about 
     the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort 
     McHenry. And it surely wasn't about the economic standing of 
     a district where the median income is actually above the 
     national average. No, he was returning to an old standby of 
     attacking an African American lawmaker from a majority black 
     district on the most emotional and bigoted of arguments. It 
     was only surprising that there wasn't room for a few classic 
     phrases like ``you people'' or ``welfare queens'' or ``crime-
     ridden ghettos'' or a suggestion that the congressman ``go 
     back'' to where he came from.
       This is a president who will happily debase himself at the 
     slightest provocation. And given Mr. Cummings' criticisms of 
     U.S. border policy, the various investigations he has 
     launched as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, his 
     willingness to call Mr. Trump a racist for his recent attacks 
     on the freshmen congresswomen, and the fact that ``Fox & 
     Friends'' had recently aired a segment critical of the city, 
     slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian 
     way. Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his 
     thumbs moved across his cell phone into action.
       As heartening as it has been to witness public figures rise 
     to Charm City's defense on Saturday, from native daughter 
     House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Mayor Bernard C. ``Jack'' 
     Young, we would above all remind Mr. Trump that the 7th 
     District, Baltimore included, is part of the United States 
     that he is supposedly governing. The White House has far more 
     power to effect change in this city, for good or ill, than 
     any single member of Congress including Mr. Cummings. If 
     there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much 
     his responsibility as anyone's, perhaps more because he holds 
     the most powerful office in the land.
       Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the 
     Trumpian manner--or ruefully point out that he failed to 
     spell the congressman's name correctly (it's Cummings, not 
     Cumming)--we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy 
     the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful 
     grabber of women's private parts, the serial bankrupter of 
     businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy 
     who insisted there are ``good people'' among murderous neo-
     Nazis that he's still not fooling most Americans into 
     believing he's even slightly competent in his current post. 
     Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have 
     some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. With that, I yield to the senior Senator from 
Maryland, my friend, Ben Cardin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, first, I thank Senator Van Hollen, my 
seatmate and friend representing the State of Maryland in the U.S. 
Senate. His comments reflect the views, I hope, of the overwhelmingly 
majority of Americans. It is critically important that we speak out as 
to what the President has said.
  I have lived my entire life in Baltimore. I love Baltimore. It is a 
great city. As Senator Van Hollen has said, it has an incredible 
history. It is a vibrant city. There are so many good things happening 
there. It has a great future, and it needs our help from the point of 
view of any major urban center in America.
  On weekends, my wife and I will frequently walk areas of Baltimore 
City in order to get some exercise, to clear our heads from the 
workweek, and to see what is happening in Baltimore. I must tell you 
that it is so energizing to see the building cranes in downtown 
Baltimore building new housing for our young people coming into our 
city because they know the economic future of Baltimore. They are there 
because they want to live in an exciting place in Baltimore City.
  We see the optimism on their faces as they are doing their exercise 
in the morning and walking the streets of Baltimore. We see a great 
city that is continuing to rebuild in a modern economy. So when the 
President of the United States insults the city of Baltimore and 
Congressman Cummings, it is incumbent on all of us to speak out and 
tell the President: This is unacceptable.
  We know the Office of the President is frequently referred to as a 
bully pulpit that he can use, but the President of the United States 
cannot be a bully. Yet that is exactly what he is doing, trying to 
bully minorities and others in this country. It will not work.
  The bully is not Elijah Cummings, as President Trump called him. The 
bully is President Trump. The person who is dividing our country is 
President Trump, and he should be the one bringing us together.
  Why does he do this? I don't think any of us believe that he isn't 
doing it for political reasons. He wants to distract from what is 
happening in this country. In the Congress of the United States, 
Congressman Cummings is leading a committee that has the responsibility 
of checks and balances of our system to act as a check on the President 
of the United States.
  Does anybody in this Chamber believe there shouldn't be a check and 
balance in our system on this President? Look at how he has used his 
Executive powers and abused his Executive powers and the emergency 
declarations that he has used.
  The Mueller report spells out how the President tried to interfere in 
the investigation. The way he talks about our judiciary, saying that he 
is not going to follow the orders of our court, and the way he trashes 
our free press--all of that cries out for an aggressive check and 
balance on the independent first branch of government, and that is what 
Elijah Cummings is doing.
  So why is the President using these personal attacks against Elijah 
Cummings and the city he represents, Baltimore? To try to distract from 
the legitimate role Congress plays as a check and balance on the powers 
of President Trump.
  It won't work. I can assure you that Congressman Cummings is going to 
continue to do his work. His committee is going to continue to do its 
work. I am going to continue to do my work as a U.S. Senator, and 
Senator Van Hollen is going to continue to do what is right to make 
sure we carry out our constitutional responsibilities.
  He also does this, quite frankly, for a political appeal against 
minority communities. That is inexcusable for any American, but for the 
President of the United States, it is totally outrageous.
  As Senator Van Hollen said, we don't have to defend Elijah Cummings. 
He can defend himself.
  I have known Elijah Cummings now for about 40 years. When I was 
speaker of the house of delegates in Annapolis, there was a young, new 
legislator who came upon the scene--Elijah Cummings. I recognized from 
the beginning that he was going to be a great leader, and he showed 
that in his very early years. He rose to become speaker pro tempore of 
our house of delegates, and he was a leading voice as a member of the 
house of delegates.
  You see, we had something in common. Both Elijah Cummings and I 
graduated from the same public high school in Baltimore City, Baltimore 
City College. By the way, so did Dutch Ruppersberger and three members 
of Congress--from the same public high school in Baltimore City. We 
both attended the same law school, the University of Maryland School of 
Law.
  So I recognized from the beginning that there was a lot in common, 
and I wanted to help this young legislator. He then, of course, ran for 
Congress. He was elected to Congress, and he has done an incredible 
job. He is a gifted orator. He motivates people by his speech. He is a 
mentor for young people, and he has helped so many young people with 
their lives.
  He lives in Baltimore City in a neighborhood where he is an 
inspiration to people who otherwise would not have much hope. He has 
used his own life experiences to lift the lives of others, and, yes, I 
can tell you the record of so many accomplishments that he has.
  Just this past week, along with Senator Van Hollen, we announced a 
$125 million grant for the Howard Street tunnel for which Congressman 
Cummings played a critical role in getting those funds. That is going 
to mean thousands of jobs for Baltimore and economic opportunity for 
our region. That is just one example.
  In the revitalization of Penn Station, Amtrak is going to invest $90 
million in revitalizing that part of Baltimore. Elijah Cummings was 
instrumental in getting that done.
  In the Ellicott City flood--two floods within a 20-month period--it 
was part of his congressional district. President Trump doesn't quite 
understand how Congressman Cummings' district is redistricted, but he 
represents Ellicott City. He was on the scene immediately and helped 
bring in all of the Federal partners so that Ellicott City could beat 
the odds.

[[Page S5170]]

  When you have a major flood like that, most businesses don't return. 
In Ellicott City, they returned. Why? Because of the Federal 
partnership in which Elijah Cummings played a critical role, as well as 
other members of our congressional delegation.
  Affordable housing--Congressman Cummings has brought affordable 
housing to Baltimore.
  Public safety--after Freddie Gray, I will never forget the scene I 
was watching on the television screen. We saw the riots and the 
disruption that started in Baltimore. There was Elijah Cummings on the 
streets, calming things down and saving lives. That is what he was 
doing to represent his community. That is the type of legislator he is.
  He has provided support for public safety in Baltimore, for public 
education in Baltimore, and for STEM education in Baltimore City public 
schools.
  So, President Trump, when you say this guy hasn't done his work to 
represent the people in the Seventh Congressional District, you are 
absolutely wrong. Come to Baltimore. Let us show you exactly what we 
have been able to accomplish and how you can help us, but don't defame 
our city. You are the President of the United States. Act as President. 
Bring us together. Recognize that you are responsible for this entire 
country, and help us with the reputation of Baltimore.
  Again, I don't have to defend my city. My city is well known. It is 
one of the great cities in America, but I am going to do it anyway 
because I want my colleagues to understand how proud we are of our 
city, those of us who represent the State of Maryland and represent 
Baltimore City.
  There is the Nation's first Washington Monument, the National 
Aquarium, Oriole Park, M&T Bank, Fort McHenry. Talk about Enoch Pratt 
library, one of the great libraries in America that gave free libraries 
to the people of our city. There is Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute 
and Cultural Center.
  I could go through all the museums we have in Baltimore: the American 
Visionary Art Museum; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Baltimore Museum 
of Industry; Walters Art Gallery; the Jewish Museum of Maryland; Babe 
Ruth's birthplace--born in Baltimore; the Reginald F. Lewis Museum; and 
the B&O Railroad Museum. How many of us have been there? The great 
history of the railroads in Baltimore started there. There is the 
Maryland Science Center.
  There are great sports icons that have come out of Baltimore--from 
Johnny Unitas to Frank Robinson, to Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, and 
Ray Lewis.
  We have great healthcare institutions--Johns Hopkins. I just got an 
email as I was sitting on the floor. I know the rules of the Senate 
prohibit me from looking at my electronic device, but U.S. News & World 
Report today ranked the Johns Hopkins department of neurology No. 1 in 
the Nation. It is located in Baltimore City, MD.
  We can go over the other great institutions we have, such as the 
University of Maryland Medical Center, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, 
and the Lieber Institute for Brain Development.
  We have great colleges, from Morgan State University to the 
University of Maryland School of Law, to Loyola University, Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore Coppin State, Notre Dame of Maryland 
University.
  The list goes on and on: farmers markets and public markets; trend-
setting writers from John Waters to David Simon, Tom Clancy, and Barry 
Levinson; the unique neighborhoods from ``Lil' Itlee'' to Pigtown.
  Baltimore is well known. The Taste of Baltimore--how many of you know 
that the only place you can get a really legitimate crab cake is in 
Baltimore City? We all know that. And there are Old Bay Seasoning, 
Berger Cookies, and Goetze's Candies.
  There is the Port of Baltimore, the economic heart of our State; 
Domino Sugar; and Under Armour, which is investing hundreds of millions 
of dollars into Baltimore City because they know the future.
  There are the NGOs that are centered in Baltimore--the Annie E. Casey 
Foundation, Abell Foundation, Center for Urban Families, Catholic 
Relief Services, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
  I do this in hopes that the President might be listening so that he 
can learn a little bit about why we are so proud of Baltimore City. 
What we do ask is very simple. To the President: Come and learn about 
our urban centers and how you can help us in meeting the problems that 
we have in Baltimore and many urban cities around the Nation. We need a 
Federal partner who will help us with our economic growth and help us 
meet the challenges of the future.
  It is exciting to live in Baltimore, and it is exciting to see our 
city grow. I am proud to be a Baltimorean, and I am proud to represent 
Baltimore in the U.S. Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague, Senator Cardin, 
for talking about some of the highlights of Baltimore City and the 
storied history of Baltimore City. It is a history of much good but 
also a lot of challenges that I recounted earlier. It doesn't do 
Baltimore City or any city in this country any good when the person in 
the highest office in this country launches these nasty, personal, 
racial diatribes.
  I know the President had a history of these kinds of comments before 
he came to the Oval Office. But now that he is in the Oval Office, all 
of us have an obligation and responsibility to speak out when he fouls 
the office in that way.
  If the President really wants to help cities like Baltimore, he can 
do some of the things Senator Cardin talked about. On a bipartisan 
basis in the Appropriations Committee, we are working to make 
investments that will help that city and many other cities with things 
like the CDBG--community development block grants--things like economic 
development administration proposals, things like financing through 
CDFIs, and things like minority business enterprises. Those are four 
investments. They don't solve the problems, but they certainly help.
  Here is the thing. In President Trump's budget, zero--he zeroed out 
every single one of those programs.
  I propose a major additional investment in our schools throughout 
this country, including title I schools, which are schools in lower 
income areas. That would be a huge boost to education throughout the 
country and to the city of Baltimore.
  As Senator Cardin said, we need to make investments in our national 
infrastructure. We have a great, thriving port in Baltimore with good-
paying jobs, so we need to expand it.
  There are so many things we can and should be doing, but the 
President, apparently, according to many, has this political strategy 
where he doesn't want to talk about those things. It is a political 
strategy that seeks to divide this country, not to unite this country. 
If you think about that, that is a pretty sick political strategy. It 
is sick for the country, sick for Maryland, and sick for Baltimore.
  So I hope all of us will work to focus on the things we can do to 
make Baltimore and Maryland and this country stronger and end this kind 
of divisive rhetoric. Part of ending it means speaking out against it 
when we see it. We need everybody in this body to join us in doing it.
  Again, I think when it comes to the city of Baltimore, it is going to 
rise way above the President's comments. It understands it has 
challenges, but it also understands it has a great future. Let us--all 
together--be part of a great future for Baltimore and this country, and 
that means coming together to serve the interests of all of our 
constituents.
  I thank the Senate for the time Senator Cardin and I have had here.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.