[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6940-S6941]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Legislative Work

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, it has been so interesting today to 
hear my colleagues talk about the things we have done this year, the 
things we have to get done before the end of the year that haven't been 
addressed yet, and then things that need to be addressed this next year 
in 2020.
  I will tell you, 2019, for me, I look at it as, I would say, 
successes and stalls and then some forward motion on some really 
important pieces of legislation. To get there, we really have had some 
fairly intense debates, which have prompted our constituents and those 
back in Tennessee to have their own discussions about what they think 
is or is not happening here in Washington, DC.
  My hope is that their debates around the kitchen table are sometimes 
less heated than ours, and certainly I hope that their Thanksgiving 
table debates were less heated than some of these that you see taking 
place here.
  Tennesseans, like a lot of Americans, when they end up talking about 
what we are or are not doing here in Congress, they revert back to 
first principles. I cannot tell you the number of times over this past 
holiday that I heard people say: Look, for me, it is all about freedom. 
It is all about defending the freedoms that we have--protecting that 
life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
  They are looking at that. It is fair to say they think in the long 
term. While many times I think the media here in DC just follows that 
shiny object story of the day, whatever is generating clicks and likes 
and headlines, that is where they are, but Tennesseans are not focused 
that way. What they would like to see is for our actions here in 
Washington to be taken in a way that are going to keep them and their 
neighborhoods and their friends safe and secure and healthy and free 
and keep them out of the reach of government overreach, if you will.
  As someone said to me last weekend, ``I just want the Federal 
Government off my back and out of my pocketbook. I want to be able to 
keep working and keep growing my business.'' A lot of people are there.
  Now, we have seen movement this week. A very good thing that has 
happened is the National Defense Authorization Act. I know that Madam 
President has worked tirelessly on this, as have I, for all of our 
military community members in Tennessee. We have been very pleased that 
we are going to see Fort Campbell and the divisions that call Fort 
Campbell home getting the funds and the equipment they need in order to 
protect themselves and to do their jobs--whether it is Chinooks or more 
training capacity or equipment and also an emphasis on making certain 
that we are keeping their homes safe so those families are safe in that 
military on-post housing, that privatized housing, while their loved 
ones are deployed.
  While we are looking at other components of the NDAA, Tennesseans 
have been very concerned and are very pleased, I will say, about what 
has transpired with Oak Ridge National Labs and Y-12. Oak Ridge is a 
treasure for our Nation, and much of the research in supercomputing and 
hypersonics is being done there.
  Also, in the Senate this year, we are paying attention to the 
implementation of legislation very important to our songwriters. I know 
you have heard me say, time and again, that Middle Tennessee, 
Nashville, is one of the most creative communities on the face of the 
Earth and home to more songwriters than anywhere else on the face of 
the Earth, and the Music Modernization Act is going to make certain 
that Nashville artists and songwriters are being paid fairly for the 
work they are creating. We are pleased that these are all things we 
have worked hard on, and we see these as priorities.
  When it comes to a legislative agenda that has taken much of my time, 
I started this term in the Senate working on some things that protect 
the unborn, much as I had done in my service in the House. The first 
bill I introduced over here was the Title X Abortion Provider 
Prohibition Act, and this is something Tennesseans wanted to see done 
to make certain that tax dollars would not be used to fund or support 
abortion providers, and it would not go to those clinics.
  What Tennesseans wanted to see was those tax dollars being put to 
work in rural healthcare and enable access to healthcare for women and 
for individuals who did not have access to basic healthcare needs. Our 
State has been hit hard by rural hospital closures, and thousands of 
Tennesseans are now forced to drive miles out of their way to seek 
basic care. I will tell you, this is concerning, especially for the 
people living in the most remote areas of the State for whom there is 
no such thing as a quick ride or a quick ambulance trip to the 
hospital. It is miles of travel sometimes, when those minutes are very 
precious and they feel that time is passing quickly and it is critical 
to get to that care.
  As part of my work this year, I have worked on and developed a rural 
health agenda, which has earned bipartisan support here. I thank 
Senator Durbin for his work with me on this. I will tell you, this is 
legislation that, yes, it has bipartisan support here, but it has a lot 
of support scattered around the country.
  What this will do is support the establishment and expansion of 
medical facilities in rural areas. It will help doctors and other 
medical practitioners set up shop outside of the more convenient and 
lucrative urban bubbles. It also will enable telemedicine so that you 
are taking healthcare out to these areas that have a difficult time 
getting in.
  Speaking of the urban bubble, a lack of access to healthcare isn't 
the only thing that is causing headaches right now in rural America. 
Here, in Washington, we don't have to worry about having a reliable 
phone signal or an internet connection. We are really fortunate in that 
regard. We know when we click on, it is just going to work, but outside 
of America's metropolitan areas, communities that lack these resources 
are falling behind. My Internet Exchange Act will ensure that rural 
areas are able to build and maintain the infrastructure needed to 
support high-speed internet connections, which will in turn support 
business growth and e-commerce and encourage investment from outside 
corporations looking to expand.
  You cannot have 21st century education, economic development,

[[Page S6941]]

healthcare, or law enforcement without access to high-speed internet. 
Continuing to close that digital divide is a priority, and I thank my 
colleagues for the good progress we have made this year.
  Of course, that connectivity comes with a price. Opening ourselves up 
to the online world means opening ourselves up to the possibilities of 
cyber attacks. This is a problem we have to approach as a matter of 
national security, as well as on the corporate side and in our homes.
  In addition to funding for military pay raises and upgraded 
equipment, this year's NDAA, or the National Defense Authorization Act, 
includes support for the assessment and expansion of our cyber 
warfighting capabilities. As I said, that is only one very important 
part of the equation. While I was serving in the House and before I 
came to the Senate, I worked on legislation that will get consumers all 
the information they need in order to make a decision about how they 
want to share their private information and to whom they want to give 
access to that information.
  Once passed, my bipartisan BROWSER Act will give consumers more 
control over how big tech uses their personal data. You, the consumer, 
should be able to own your virtual you. You should be able to protect 
your presence online, just as you are able to protect your being 
yourself in the physical space.
  In return, tech companies will be free to innovate and use that data 
to build their platforms, and that is what helps make them profitable--
new innovations. They can do that as long as they respect your wishes 
on how you want them to use your data.
  As head of the Judiciary Committee's tech task force--and I do thank 
Senator Feinstein for her leadership in leading this group at the 
Judiciary Committee--I have had the privilege of bringing both sides 
together on this debate and to the table to have productive discussions 
on how to responsibly regulate big tech. I look forward to continuing 
that in the New Year.
  As we draw to a close, I remind my colleagues that in Tennessee 
people remind me regularly that we are a government of the people, by 
the people, and for the people. As we talk about things that have been 
done this year and things that we need to do before the end of the 
year--things like getting VAWA passed--we need to remember that for all 
of the shiny-object stories that circulate around here every single 
day, the people back home are saying: Your responsibility is to care 
for the issues that are important to me. That is where they would like 
to see us spending our time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I have one very short remark that I 
want to make and then longer remarks to my colleagues.