[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 146 (Thursday, September 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5457-S5459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Ohio

  Mr. President, in the Senate, this is the first week back in session 
after what is called the August work period. Today, I want to talk a 
little bit about my travels around the State of Ohio over the August 
district work period and talk about what I learned that can help inform 
us here as to what we can do better in the Congress to help on issues 
that are important to people I represent in Ohio.
  One that was striking for me, and it has been for the last several 
years, is workforce needs. There aren't enough workers to fill the jobs 
that are out there. What a great opportunity it is for people to come 
in out of the shadows and get to work, but also what a necessity it is 
now for our economy to have these workers. I learned a lot about that 
and heard a lot about that.
  The changing drug crisis. We in Ohio have been hit hard with the 
opioid crisis, but it is evolving, as always. There is fentanyl, which 
is a synthetic form of opioids, but now crystal meth is much more 
powerful and cheaper than ever and is coming in from Mexico, and we 
need to be responsive to that change.
  Challenges in Ag country. Our farmers are hurting. Low prices the 
last few years have been compounded by terrible weather this year. It 
was the worst planting in my memory in Ohio. A lot of crops didn't get 
in at all. Of those that did, about half of them are not in good shape. 
This is tough on our farmers.
  Ways to do a better job in protecting Lake Erie. This is a huge issue 
for us in Ohio. It is our No. 1 tourist attraction, and it is an 
incredible source of income in jobs. We have about a $6 billion fishing 
industry now in the Great Lakes. The most important lake of all is Lake 
Erie. As an example, several million people get their drinking water 
from Lake Erie. I learned a lot about that over the break.
  Then, also, there is the importance of our military having the 
support they need. I went to our military bases around the State and 
learned about what we can do to help them more, and also I got the 
opportunity to visit two of our NASA centers in Ohio. One of the 10 
NASA research centers is in Cleveland, OH, NASA Glenn. There is Plum 
Brook Station, where we test equipment heading to the Moon soon. That 
was very helpful to understand better about how we can be providing 
steady funding in the Congress so that we can indeed fulfill our 
missions that we have always had here in this country, which is to push 
beyond the bounds and, in this case, to go back to the Moon and have 
the first woman on the Moon and, then, eventually, to go to Mars and 
the benefits of that.
  It was a busy month. I traveled to 39 different counties in Ohio over 
the last several weeks and more than 4,000 miles in my pickup truck, 
which now has over 180,000 miles on it, traveling around our State and 
to 75 different events.
  When I began my second term representing Ohio in 2017, I made it a 
goal of mine to visit all 88 counties in Ohio during this term. I am 
happy to report that just during August we achieved that goal. A few 
years early, we hit all 88 counties. We will continue to go around our 
State and to see people in every part of our State, hear them out, and, 
again, to know what the best thing is to do in Congress to be able to 
help them and their families and to help our State.
  I also traveled by train and by ferry in Lake Erie, by bike on 
charity bike rides, and even by kayak on the Cuyahoga River, to meet 
with constituents about how Washington can be a better partner for them 
and their families. I met with a lot of small businesses, and I talked 
to them about how they are doing. The tax reform and the regulatory 
relief has really helped, and this is why we have a stronger economy 
now than anybody projected. It is why we have more jobs being created. 
It is why we have wages going up for the first time in a decade in 
Ohio.
  Last month, we actually had nationally wage increases of 3.5 percent 
year to year, well above inflation. That is a welcomed change. Really, 
in Ohio, after about a decade and half of flat wages and not keeping up 
with inflation and people feeling like they are working hard and 
playing by the rules but they couldn't get ahead, now you finally see 
wages going up. The biggest increases are among lower income and 
middle-income workers. That is exactly what you want.
  I am happy to report that, and I am happy to report that small 
business owners in Ohio are happy that it is working for them because 
they expanded their plants and their operations and they hired more 
people.
  What I did hear consistently from employers at every level--and for 
that matter, from hospitals and nonprofits and from State and local 
government--is one thing: workforce. They don't have enough qualified 
workers to fill the jobs they have. Again, it is a great opportunity to 
bring people off the sidelines--people who are not applying for work, 
not looking for work--and to raise labor force participation, which 
economists say is relatively low, and bring them off the sidelines. We 
also need these people to be able to meet our economic needs.
  If you go on OhioMeansJobs.com, this morning, in that website you 
will see about 150,000 jobs being advertised--150,000 open jobs. When 
you look at those jobs, a lot of them require skills. They are not the 
kind of skills you get from a college degree but the kind of skills you 
achieve somewhere between high school and college--things like welding, 
machining, coding, other IT jobs, techs for hospitals, and 
truckdrivers. These jobs are open right now in Ohio. Economists call 
these jobs ``skilled jobs'' but, again, they are the kind of jobs that 
you can get the skills from in short-term training programs.
  I have been a big fan of improving those skills, and we have made 
some progress here. We started a caucus called the Career and Technical 
Caucus. I am the cochair and cofounder of that. It is to focus on these 
practical, hands-on, skills-training for jobs that can help us to be 
able to fill this need.
  The openings we have in Ohio are also all around the country. I was 
pleased that recently the President signed my Educating Tomorrow's 
Workforce Act into law, which allows States and localities to use 
Perkins grant funding to establish these career and technical education 
academies at the high school level, but we need to do more.
  One that would really help is if we could pass what is called the 
JOBS Act. It is legislation I have introduced consistently with Senator 
Tim Kaine from Virginia. It is really very simple. It says we ought to 
be able to use Pell grants not just for college but also for these 
shorter term training programs. In fact, they are much more relevant to 
what we need right now.
  Sadly, most people who get a Pell grant to go to college don't end up 
with a college degree. I support Pell grants in colleges and 
universities. It is an important way for lower income students to get 
access to education. But why not allow those same students to get a 
shorter term training program under their belt? Right now they can't 
afford it. If you want to get a welding degree to get an industry-
recognized credential to become a welder in Ohio, you can get a job 
right away--a good-paying job with good benefits. Yet it is costly to 
go through that program. They are less than 15 weeks. So they don't 
qualify for Pell.
  A student is told: You can go to college and get a history degree, 
but you can't get a welding certificate and use a Pell grant. That is 
just wrong. It is unfair. I heard the same thing again and again at 
visits I made to community colleges around Ohio over August and visits 
I made to career and technical schools around Ohio, which is why they 
want the JOBS Act, and they want it now because they know it will help 
them.
  I heard from one student at a welding program at a CTE school who 
told me she wanted to get an advanced welding certificate so she could 
get a great job. She knows exactly what she wants to

[[Page S5458]]

do, but she can't afford it. This is an 18-year-old in her last year of 
high school. She is working three jobs right now, but she can't afford 
the cost. So she is probably going to take a Pell and go to college 
when she would prefer to take a Pell and get this advanced certificate 
that is internationally recognized so she can get a good welding job. 
Again, that is something we should pass here and do it soon.
  The Higher Education Act may well be passed this year. It is a 
perfect vehicle for it. I want to thank Senator Lamar Alexander, who 
has been supportive of this commonsense change to be able to get our 
young people and others the training they need to be able to access the 
jobs that are out there.
  Elsewhere around the State, I did meet with our farmers in several 
counties. The heavy flooding has led to the worst planting season in 
our modern history in Ohio. We have helped a little bit because the 
Department of Agriculture, at our urging, has included Ohio in disaster 
declarations. So some of these farmers who have not been able to plant 
are getting low interest loans right now and eventually will get some 
grant money. That is good.
  These farmers also want to have the access to more markets around the 
world because they know that is going to increase their prices and 
enable them to get back on their feet after these tough times with the 
weather.
  They are particularly concerned about what is happening with regard 
to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Remember, we have this existing 
agreement called NAFTA, which is with Mexico and Canada, our two 
largest trading partners. For Ohio, they are by far our two largest 
trading partners. But right now, the NAFTA agreement is 25 years old, 
outdated, not keeping up with the times, and not opening up markets 
enough. So we have this new agreement that has been signed by Mexico 
and signed by Canada. We are ready to go with it, but it has to be 
confirmed in the U.S. Congress. Right now, unbelievably, it is being 
held up, even though our farmers desperately want it. You know who else 
wants it? Our workers, because it is going to help manufacturing.
  The people who are involved in trade understand the importance of 
Canada and Mexico because they are our largest markets, and it is going 
to be so helpful for our country and for my State of Ohio if we can get 
it done. The International Trade Commission, which is an independent 
body, studied this and said: Yes, it is going to create over 150,000 
new jobs in the auto industry. It is great for Michigan, Ohio, and 
other States. Again, all we have to do is have a vote here in the U.S. 
Congress to be able to confirm this, and we can put it in place. It 
will help our economy. It will help create more jobs. It will help 
create some certainty going forward. We need to get this done.

  Many of the things in the agreement are things that Democrats have 
been calling for for years--tougher labor standards that are 
enforceable, as an example. It actually has a minimum wage--40 to 45 
percent of vehicles made under USMCA must be produced by workers 
earning an average of $16 an hour. It has a 70-percent requirement to 
use North American steel. It has a number of things that the Democrats 
have called upon us to do for years.
  If we don't pass USMCA, the alternative is the status quo, which is 
NAFTA. In effect, if you don't support USMCA, it must mean that you 
support the status quo, which is NAFTA, which, again, so many Democrats 
have been criticizing over the years. Let's get this done. The 25-year-
old NAFTA is not the status quo that anybody should want when we have 
this better agreement in front of us.
  Specifically, if the House of Representatives were to bring the bill 
to the floor, I believe they could pass it just because of the logic, 
the fact that this agreement is so much better than the status quo. 
Then, over here in the Senate, we would have no trouble passing it, in 
my view.
  During my tour over the August break, I also spent time visiting with 
a lot of groups and organizations that are combating the drug epidemic 
that has gripped my State of Ohio and our country. As you know, we now 
have more people in Ohio dying from overdoses than from any other cause 
of death. It is unbelievable. In 2017, 72,000 people died of overdoses 
in this country, more than we lost in the entire Vietnam war, just in 
one year--72,000 Americans.
  We have made some progress recently. We should be proud of that. Last 
year, for the first time in 8 years, we saw a reduction in overdose 
deaths. It is partly because Congress has stepped up--over $4 billion 
in new funding for prevention, longer term treatment programs, recovery 
programs, and more Narcan for our first responders. This is important, 
but we also have to realize that the threat is evolving and changing.
  One thing I learned when I was home and talking to groups all over 
the State about this issue is that, yes, the legislation we passed is 
helping. I got to see how it is helping and to see how my legislation, 
the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, is being put to work in 
Ohio.
  The new threat in Ohio is these new drugs that are coming in, 
particularly crystal meth. The crystal meth coming in from Mexico is 
more powerful and less expensive than ever. We used to have meth labs 
in Ohio. You may have had them in your communities as well. You 
probably will not hear much about meth labs anymore. Why? Because the 
stuff on the street is even more powerful than you can make in a meth 
lab, in someone's home, and it is less expensive.
  In fact, the law enforcement folks in Ohio are telling me that the 
meth on the street in Ohio is less expensive than marijuana, and it has 
a much more corrosive effect on our communities and a devastating 
impact on families and individuals, increasing crime. This is the 
psychostimulant, like cocaine, that is causing more aggressive crimes, 
in fact.
  With regard to the opioid crisis, we need to keep our eye on the 
ball. We need to continue what we are doing. Congress deserves credit 
for expanding the treatment, longer term recovery programs, some of the 
prevention money, the use of Narcan, but at the same time, we have to 
be more flexible.
  The legislation I have introduced--and I hope we will be able to 
pass--will provide more flexibility to our communities to take that 
money for opioids and use it for whatever the community needs to 
address substance abuse.
  When I was home, I also heard a lot about Lake Erie, which is our 
treasure in Ohio. It is the No. 1 tourist attraction in the State. It 
is the place where Ohioans have come for generations and generations 
for recreation, for fishing, for swimming. Also, so many Ohioans depend 
on it for their drinking water.
  There are several million Ohioans who require us to have clean 
drinking water out of Lake Erie, and those individuals are worried. 
Why? Because in Toledo a few years ago, we actually had a 
recommendation that we shut down the water system because of the toxic 
algal blooms that are in Lake Erie. This year was another tough year 
for the toxic algal blooms, cutting off fishing opportunities and 
swimming opportunities. We need to do more to address it.
  Again, Congress has made progress in this area. We have passed 
legislation that is helping. We have added more money that is helping. 
My legislation to deal with harmful algal blooms is giving the Federal 
Government a bigger role. That is important.
  Clearly, we need to do more, and one is to ensure that the Great 
Lakes Restoration Initiative, Federal legislation, continues to be 
funded. That is the fight we are having now in the appropriations 
process. Senator Stabenow and I have introduced legislation to 
authorize that program going forward and to increase the funding 
slightly. Why? Because it is working. These are public-private 
partnerships all around the Great Lakes to deal with the harmful algal 
blooms, to deal with the pollution, and to deal with the invasive 
species coming in. It is one of those Federal programs that works well.
  We also had the opportunity to go to all of our military bases around 
the State of Ohio and to go to our two NASA facilities. Again, I am so 
proud of the individuals in Ohio who are standing up for our troops in 
their own way--whether it is the Lima tank plant, where I got to visit 
individuals making our M1 Abrams tanks and our Stryker vehicles, or 
whether it is at NASA, where we are preparing for the next mission to 
the moon.
  NASA Administrator James Bridenstine came with us to the Glenn

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Research Center in Cleveland and the Plum Brook testing facility. We 
got to see how those scientists and engineers--the best in the world--
are working to complete the Artemis Program. Again, this is an 
ambitious effort to put a woman on the moon and the next man on the 
moon within the next 5 years, laying the groundwork for our mission to 
Mars.
  It was great to be home. It was great to have the opportunity to 
visit with folks all over the State of Ohio. We were busy, but it is 
also great now to have the opportunity to come back refreshed and to 
talk about how we can make a bigger difference for them here in the 
U.S. Congress with some of the legislative initiatives I have talked 
about today.
  There is so much we can and should do this fall. I am eager to roll 
up my sleeves and have a productive session here, working on a 
bipartisan basis to get things done for the people I represent and for 
all Americans.
  Thank you.
  I yield back my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.