[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 199 (Thursday, December 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7019-S7023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020--CONFERENCE 
                                 REPORT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the 
Senate the conference report accompanying S. 1790.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair lays before the Senate the 
conference report, which will be stated by title.
  The senior assistant bill clerk read as follows:

       The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendment of the House to the bill (S. 
     1790) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for 
     military activities of the Department of Defense, for 
     military construction, and for defense activities of the 
     Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel 
     strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes, 
     having met, have agreed that the Senate recede from its 
     disagreement to the amendment of the House and agree to the 
     same with an amendment and the House agree to the same, 
     signed by a majority of the conferees on the part of both 
     Houses.

  Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to consider the conference report.
  (The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the 
Record of December 9, 2019.)


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The senior assistant bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference 
     report to accompany S. 1790, an original bill to authorize 
     appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities 
     of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and 
     for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to 
     prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, 
     and for other purposes.
         Mitch McConnell, John Boozman, Kevin Cramer, John Cornyn, 
           Mike Crapo, Shelley Moore Capito, Pat Roberts, John 
           Thune, James Lankford, James E. Risch, Deb Fischer, 
           Lamar Alexander, Richard Burr, John Barrasso, James M. 
           Inhofe, Johnny Isakson, Steve Daines.

  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum 
called be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.


     Authorization for Use of Military Force and National Defense 
                           Authorization Act

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I rise to discuss Congress's ongoing 
failure to assert our constitutional war powers. This failure is the 
root cause of two pressing concerns that we currently face: first, the 
seemingly endless U.S. involvement in Middle East wars; and, second, 
the very real possibility that the Trump administration will involve us 
in more of them.
  The Founders were clear in their intent. The Constitution squarely 
places the authority to ``declare war''--that is the phrase in the 
Constitution--and places it clearly with Congress and Congress alone. 
The Founders did this for good reason. For centuries, European monarchs 
had drained royal coffers, levied heavy taxes, and lost countless lives 
in wars that benefited themselves and not the people.
  As Elbridge Gerry from Massachusetts said during the Constitutional 
Convention, after another delegate suggested giving this war power to 
the President: ``[I] never expected to hear in a republic a motion to 
empower the Executive alone to declare war.''
  The Founders vested this most consequential power in the legislative 
branch so that any decision to go to war would have broad public 
support. Since the Republic's beginning, there has been a tension 
between the Congress and the executive branch regarding the use of this 
power.
  In the modern era, the balance has been upended. Our ability and 
willingness to effectively check the Executive on war powers is 
dangerously diminished. Congress has not declared war for any of our 
major conflicts since World War II. But after the bloody, prolonged, 
and politically divisive Vietnam War, Congress passed a War Powers 
Resolution of 1973, overriding the veto of President Nixon. That 
resolution requires Congress to issue an authorization for use of 
military force, or an AUMF.
  Immediately after 9/11, a nearly unanimous Congress--myself 
included--authorized force against the perpetrators, al-Qaida and those 
who harbored them, by which we meant the Taliban government in 
Afghanistan. The 2001 AUMF authorized the United States' entering 
conflict in Afghanistan to root out al-Qaida.
  The Taliban was then expelled from power. Al-Qaida in Afghanistan has 
been defeated. Osama Bin Laden is dead. And the now 18-year-old AUMF 
has outlived its purpose, as a stunning Washington Post expose on the 
Afghan war has now made clear.
  The war in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. history, but it no 
longer has a clear purpose. The Washington Post successfully sued for 
access to previously undisclosed government documents, dubbed the 
``Afghanistan Papers.'' These 2,000 pages of interviews and memos from 
senior military, diplomatic, and White House officials tell a shocking 
and tragic story. Three separate administrations have had no well-
formed mission for the war but fought on anyway and repeatedly misled 
the American people.
  According to the head of the NATO command in Afghanistan in 2006, 
``there was no coherent long-term strategy there.'' The next NATO 
commander, Army LTG Dan McNeill said:

       I tried to get someone to define for me what winning meant, 
     even before I went over, and nobody could. Nobody would give 
     me a good definition of what it meant. . . . There was no 
     NATO campaign plan--a lot of verbiage and talk, but no plan.

  A senior diplomat under President Obama said:

       If I were to write a book, its [cover] would be: ``America 
     goes to war without knowing why it does.''

  Over and over, senior officials describe the lack of strategic goals. 
All the while, the government lied to the American people, claiming 
success when there was none.
  This war has cost 157,000 lives, more than 775,000 American troops 
have been deployed, 2,300 American military personnel have been killed, 
and more than 20,000 have been wounded. It has cost the American people 
over $2 trillion--$2 trillion. These costs are tragic, inexcusable, and 
it is time for this war to end.
  The executive branch isn't the only branch at fault. Congress has sat 
back and let the Executives stretch the AUMF to the point of breaking. 
We have ducked the debates. We have ducked the hard votes. We need to 
change that, and we can start with Afghanistan.
  In March, Senator Paul and I introduced the American Forces Going 
Home After Noble Service Act. This act would responsibly pull our 
troops out of Afghanistan. The act declares victory in Afghanistan, 
acknowledging that the original objectives have largely been met. It 
sets guidelines for the safe and orderly withdrawal of troops, and it 
repeals the 2001 AUMF once and for all. We should have a vote on this.
  Afghanistan is just the largest of our ongoing Middle Eastern wars. 
The 9/11 AUMF has been used to justify military ventures all around the 
world--41 times to justify military action in 14 countries. I voted for 
this authorization, and I know full well that Congress did not intend 
that. More unauthorized conflicts are looming on the horizon.
  I was encouraged earlier this year when the House passed--and a 
majority

[[Page S7020]]

of the Senate supported--my amendment to prohibit war with Iran absent 
congressional authorization.
  Tensions with Iran have grown since the President withdrew from the 
international agreement preventing Iran from developing nuclear 
weapons. It has been a year and a half since the President dropped out 
of the agreement, claiming he could get a ``better deal'' and mounting 
his ``maximum pressure'' strategy. Since then, we haven't gotten 
anywhere close to a better deal, but we have gotten much closer to war.
  This June we were 10 minutes away from the President's calling a 
strike on Iran, 10 minutes away from military escalation in the Gulf. 
While the President's maximum pressure campaign has not succeeded in 
forcing Iran into a better deal, it has succeeded in pushing Iran to 
breach the nuclear agreement, and it has led to a cycle of violence in 
the region and from Iran, attacking commercial ships in the Gulf of 
Oman, moving short-range ballistic missiles into Iraq, and threatening 
U.S. troops in Israel.
  Since May, the President has increased troop presence by 14,000 in 
the Middle East, and after initially denying it, the Pentagon is 
considering sending an additional 14,000 troops. The risk of war with 
Iran is very real, whether intentionally or by mistake, miscalculation, 
or misjudgment. And the President claims he can go to war against Iran 
without congressional approval.
  In September, this body held a historic vote, voting 50 to 40 to 
include the Udall-Kaine-Paul amendment to the National Defense 
Authorization Act to prohibit funding for war with Iran without 
congressional authorization. We took a giant step forward to assert our 
constitutional authority.
  This amendment was germane and by rule it should have been included 
in the final Senate NDAA, but the majority leader forced a 60-vote 
threshold that should not have been applied. Nevertheless, the House 
version did include the prohibition, and with Senate majority support, 
it should have been included in the conference.
  This week, the Senate and the House conference committee just 
released their NDAA conference report. I am deeply disappointed that 
they did not include our amendment. This is a major missed opportunity 
to take back our authority and a missed opportunity to stop expansion 
of war and U.S. interventionism in the Middle East. Another terribly 
missed opportunity is the NDAA's failure to include a provision to 
eliminate U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's disastrous war in Yemen.
  Under the authority of the 2001 AUMF, our troops are supporting Saudi 
Arabia in its war against the insurgent Houthi, but the Houthi are also 
fighting al-Qaida, the actual target of the AUMF. We are fighting a 
group fighting against al-Qaida. This is a prime example of the misuse 
of this authorization.

  The human cost is horrific. Since 2015, more than 100,000 people have 
been killed in Yemen, including more than 12,000 Yemeni citizens. More 
than 20 million Yemenis need humanitarian aid. There is no compelling 
U.S. national security interest in aiding the Saudis in this war. We 
should not be lending support to a war that the international community 
recognizes as a humanitarian disaster.
  In April, both Houses voted on a bipartisan basis to remove our 
troops from this conflict unless Congress authorized force. The 
President vetoed that bipartisan bill. The NDAA conference committee 
missed an opportunity to step up and direct the President to take us 
out of the Saudi-Yemen conflict. Again, Congress is ducking its duties. 
For too long, Congress has hidden from making the hard decisions, from 
taking the tough votes. We have deferred to the Executive under 
Republican and Democratic administrations alike. The Founders placed 
this power in our hands for a good reason. Those reasons are as sound 
today as they were two centuries ago.
  This is not a political issue. It is not a red or blue issue. It is 
not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is a constitutional issue. It 
goes to the core of our Constitution and our war powers in the 
legislative branch in Congress. Everyone here has sworn to uphold the 
Constitution. We can do so by upholding, not running from, our 
constitutional responsibilities.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                       Tribute to Johnny Isakson

  Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, Johnny Isakson will be a legend in the 
Senate. His life is marked with such tremendous service. From his time 
in the Georgia Air National Guard to his service in the Georgia house 
and senate, and on to the U.S. House and the Senate, Johnny has been 
making his home State proud every single step of the way.
  As a fellow veteran, I can't tell you how much I especially 
appreciate Senator Isakson's relentless and dedicated focus on 
veterans' issues. As chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs 
Committee, he has worked tirelessly to put our veterans first.
  One of the most important pieces of legislation we worked on together 
was the VA MISSION Act. Veterans in Iowa and in Georgia are oftentimes 
living in rural areas or are simply homebound. So with the VA MISSION 
Act, I knew that Johnny would be a great ally and partner to make sure 
that we prioritized telehealth and ensure that veterans could receive 
necessary care closer to home, and we did just that.
  Folks, the MISSION Act is truly landmark legislation that is making a 
difference in the lives of countless veterans across our Nation. It 
would not have been possible without the hard work and the diligent 
efforts of our colleague Senator Johnny Isakson. He understands the 
importance of building relationships and working across the aisle, 
putting our veterans ahead of politics, and getting his job done. His 
determination and commitment to veterans is remarkable, and I will 
forever be grateful for his leadership in this particular area.
  I have been asked many times what I am going to miss about Johnny 
Isakson. Well, there is quite a lot that I will miss about Johnny, but 
if I had to narrow it down to just a few things, I would say, first, 
his joy. Johnny always--always--has a smile on his face. His joy truly 
is contagious, and it is genuine. He loves serving the people of 
Georgia, and you can't help but smile when you see Johnny Isakson.
  Second is his passion. There is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind 
around here that Senator Johnny Isakson loves his country. You can see 
it when he speaks on the floor of the Senate and in the way he works 
with colleagues to fulfill his duties as a Senator. Georgians really 
should be very proud of him.
  Finally, for me, I would have to say his encouragement. When I see 
Johnny in the halls or in the cloakroom, always--no matter how quickly 
I seem to be walking--he smiles. He will stop me, and he will always 
speak an encouraging and a very kind word. I know he does this not just 
with his Republican colleagues but also with our Democratic friends. 
While you will not see that on TV or in the headlines, it is real, and 
it is Johnny Isakson.
  That leads me to what I will miss most of all. I will miss Johnny, 
plain and simple. He has never taken his eye off the ball. He has been 
committed and he has been focused on serving the people of his home 
State that he loves so dearly. We will miss Johnny. He has been a 
tremendous colleague and a friend to all of us.
  Johnny, you will be missed on this floor and in these halls. From one 
veteran to another, thank you for all you have done for our great 
veterans, not just in Georgia, not just in Iowa, but all across our 
Nation. May God bless you, Johnny Isakson, and may God bless your 
family. Thank you for your service.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.


                         Honoring Stephen Carr

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, Stephen Carr has been described by friends 
as a ``gentle giant'' and ``all-American boy.'' He enjoyed hunting and 
fishing. He played on the offensive line at Southwest Baptist 
University.
  He came from a law enforcement family. He always knew he wanted to be 
a police officer, so it was little surprise when Stephen joined the 
Fayetteville Police Department 2\1/2\ years ago. He served with 
professionalism and valor in those 2\1/2\ years as a patrol officer in 
the Dickson Street entertainment district.

[[Page S7021]]

  Sadly, Officer Carr was in his patrol car Saturday night when he was 
ambushed by a gunman looking for an officer to kill. Carr's fellow 
police heard the gunshots and responded to the scene within seconds. 
With little regard for their own safety, they pursued the gunman down 
an alley. When confronted, they met force with force and took him down. 
The whole incident took just minutes from start to finish.
  Emergency services were on the scene within an instant, but despite 
their best efforts, they couldn't save Officer Carr. He succumbed to 
his wounds on the scene, as did his killer. Officer Carr was only 27 
years old.
  This tragedy reminds us of the terrible risks officers face every day 
when they put on the uniform and the badge, not knowing whether they 
will be alive to take it off that night. Already this year, 118 
officers across America have been killed in the line of duty. Some were 
the victims of random tragedies. Others, like Officer Carr, were 
targeted by a criminal class that hates what the police represent: law 
and order.
  Since Officer Carr's killing, two more officers have fallen in the 
line of duty. Detective Joseph Seals, a 15-year veteran of the Jersey 
City Police Department, was shot to death while approaching two 
suspected killers. Sergeant Kaila Sullivan, a 16-year veteran of the 
Nassau Bay Police Department, was struck and killed by a fleeing 
suspect in a vehicle. All of these fallen officers will be remembered 
as heroes.
  In Arkansas, especially, we will remember Officer Carr, whose watch 
ended on December 7, 2019. May he rest in peace.


           Honoring Storekeeper 1st Class John William Craig

  Mr. President, Navy Storekeeper 1st Class John William Craig of 
Monroe, AR, perished aboard the USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941, a 
date which will live in infamy. On that day, Imperial Japanese bombers 
shattered the morning calm at Pearl Harbor, killing Petty Officer Craig 
and more than 2,000 of his brothers in arms.
  Nearly eight decades later, however, his remains were listed as 
unknown and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific 
in Honolulu. He was reported as missing in action, but Petty Officer 
Craig is missing no more. Thanks to the outstanding work of the Defense 
POW/MIA Accounting Agency, his remains were accounted for in 2017, and 
just last weekend, on the 78th anniversary of the attack on Pearl 
Harbor, he arrived home in Arkansas to his final resting place.
  Petty Officer Craig's burial is a long-overdue moment of honor for a 
brave sailor. It is also a moment of hope for our many military 
families whose loved ones haven't yet been found--a reminder that our 
Nation will not rest until every one of our missing heroes is back in 
our arms or laid to rest with honor.
  We have now fulfilled this solemn pledge to Petty Officer Craig. 
Nearly 80 years after his disappearance, we have affirmed once again 
that the United States leaves no man behind on the battlefield.


                         Fentanyl Sanctions Act

  Mr. President, synthetic opioids like fentanyl kill tens of thousands 
of Americans each year. They are a terrible accelerant that has fueled 
the worst drug crisis in our Nation's history, killing more people 
every year than died in the entire Vietnam war.
  These drugs aren't made here in the United States. No, they are 
flooding across our borders from overseas, trafficked by cartels, and, 
even unwittingly, sometimes by the U.S. Postal Service.
  Synthetic opioids are often produced in superlabs by the drug cartels 
that are terrorizing our border communities. But the ingredients for 
those drugs--and sometimes the drugs themselves--can be traced back to 
a different source: China, whose vast pharmaceutical and chemical 
industries frequently have been abused to poison our fellow citizens.
  The Chinese Communist Party has been waging an opium war in reverse 
against the United States for far too long. As tens of thousands of 
Americans have perished from overdoses, Chinese officials have turned a 
blind eye to the drug criminals who have profited off of our pain. But 
now, desperate for a trade deal to save its sputtering economy, Beijing 
has finally promised to crack down on fentanyl and other synthetic 
opioids. But we would be naive to trust any promise from Chinese 
Communists, especially this one.
  It is time that we take matters into our own hands. That is exactly 
what we will do in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which 
includes my bill introduced with Senator Schumer to sanction foreign 
drug dealers in China, Mexico, and elsewhere. The bill also urges the 
President to work with our allies to impose even tougher multilateral 
sanctions against foreign drug dealers. It authorizes new funding for 
law enforcement and the intelligence community for counternarcotics 
activities. It establishes a commission to find new ways to stop the 
flow of drugs from overseas.
  This bill will soon be signed by the President and become law. This 
is welcome news for law enforcement and for families who are battling 
the crisis of opioid addiction, and it is bad news for the Chinese 
Communist Party and foreign drug dealers around the world who are 
responsible for the poisoning of so many Americans.


            Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act of 2019

  Mr. President, 70 years after the creation of NATO, the biggest 
external threats to the alliance are our revisionist adversaries--China 
and Russia. Unfortunately, however, the alliance faces some internal 
threats, too, among the allies themselves, who too often fail to take 
these adversaries seriously. Instead, they strike dangerous deals with 
the very powers that threaten to destroy all of us.
  Consider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Germany and 
Russia. Germany touts the pipeline's commercial benefits, but Russia 
sees it differently--as a strategic tool to divide Europe and thus to 
strengthen its fictional claim to dominion over parts of Eastern 
Europe.
  The Nord Stream 2 pipeline would effectively double the amount of 
natural gas Russia could export to Europe along a route that bypasses 
the alliance's eastern frontier. This would deepen the NATO members' 
reliance on Russian gas while it would enhance Putin's ability to 
engage in energy blackmail, just as he has done in the past. For 
example, in 2009, Russia shut off the flow of natural gas to Europe 
during a dispute with Ukraine, causing energy shortages across the 
entire continent in the dead of winter. Putin's opportunities for such 
blackmail will only increase if Nord Stream 2 is completed because he 
will be able to ship his gas to Western Europe without its transiting 
Eastern Europe. Therefore, he will be able to blackmail Eastern Europe 
while the Germans will sit warm and toasty in their living rooms--
indifferent to the plight of their NATO allies to the east.
  This pipeline is almost complete, so the timeline for action is 
short. Thankfully, the National Defense Authorization Act includes our 
bill to impose mandatory sanctions on companies that are constructing, 
insuring, or financing Vladimir Putin's pipeline to Europe. These 
sanctions are a demonstration of our commitment to the strength and 
security of the whole NATO alliance.
  I urge the German Government and all companies involved in this 
dangerous endeavor to pull back before it is too late and to consider 
the serious consequences that Nord Stream 2 could have for their 
security as well as for the security of the NATO alliance as a whole.


           Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Homeschool

  Mr. President, homeschooling parents sacrifice a lot when they make 
the legitimate and indeed very admirable choice to personally educate 
their children. In effect, these parents are making the choice to go 
back to school themselves so that their kids may receive well-rounded 
and faithful educations.
  Their sacrifices pay off in spades. Homeschooled students 
consistently prove to be outstanding citizens because they are taught 
the importance of patriotism, faith, hard work, and sacrifice--virtues 
exemplified by their parents and their teachers.
  Homeschooled students, therefore, ought to be prime candidates for 
our Armed Forces for this very reason, but until now, in some places, 
it hasn't been clear as to whether homeschooled

[[Page S7022]]

students have been eligible to join their local Junior Reserve 
Officers' Training Corps Programs. Now that is going to change.
  The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act includes my bill--also 
sponsored by Senator Jones--which clarifies that homeschooled students 
may indeed enroll in their local JROTC Programs. Our bill will ensure 
that the Nation's 2.5 million homeschooled students will have the 
opportunity to sharpen and deploy their skills in service of our 
country. This will move us closer to being a society that fully accepts 
and indeed celebrates homeschooling families for the noble paths they 
have chosen.


                                PCS Act

  Mr. President, the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act includes 
many valuable reforms. One such reform is the PCS Act, which is 
legislation I introduced with Senator Shaheen, that helps military 
spouses keep their occupational licenses even when they are on the move 
across State lines.
  One in three military spouses works in a field that requires one to 
have an occupational license, and too many spouses are forced to 
recertify every time they move between States. That can be very often. 
Most military families move every 2 to 3 years, and when each move 
requires an expensive, time-consuming recertification process, many 
military spouses might as well kiss their jobs goodbye. These 
occupational licenses are a costly burden for military families, who 
have already sacrificed so much for our country.
  Our PCS Act will alleviate this burden by empowering the Department 
of Defense and the States to negotiate interstate compacts for 
occupational licenses in fields in which military spouses often work. 
These compacts, which are made possible by our bill, will ensure that 
military spouses will be able to pursue their careers uninterrupted 
even while they are moving their families from State to State and base 
to base. Most importantly, the PCS Act will allow military families to 
focus on their mission, which is to protect and serve our country with 
honor.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.


                      Tribute to Hugh ``Bud'' Fate

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is that time of week in which I get 
to come down to the floor of the U.S. Senate--a great privilege--and 
talk about a special person in Alaska, somebody who helps to make my 
State the greatest State in the country, in my opinion. We call this 
person our Alaskan of the Week. It is one of the best things I get to 
do all week. I know that the pages really enjoy it as well because they 
get to hear about Alaska and all of the things that are happening.
  Before I recognize our special Alaskan, let me tell you a little bit 
about what is going on in Alaska right now.
  We have had some strange weather in Southcentral Alaska--warm by our 
standards--that being wet and windy, with gusts over 100 miles per hour 
in some places. In Fairbanks, which is in the interior--I was just up 
there last week and am going to talk about that, for it is where our 
special Alaskan of the Week is from--it feels a lot more like winter. 
It got down to 27 below zero last week, and now it is in the single 
digits.
  When it comes to Alaska's interior weather, there is some debate as 
to what the lowest recordbreaking temperature was in Fairbanks. Some 
say it was 66 below zero in 1934, and others say it was in the negative 
70 and 70-below-zero territory.
  The numbers do matter. Take it from Dr. Hugh ``Bud'' Fate, who is our 
Alaskan of the Week--we call him Bud--who, during the time he was 
working construction on the North Slope in the early 1950s, once had to 
walk a mile for shelter after a tractor he was operating froze up.
  ``When I got to the station, they told me the official temperature 
was 70 degrees below zero,'' he said. ``I was dressed for it''--Bud is 
a tough guy--``but my fingers and my toes were getting cold. I don't 
think I could have made another mile,'' Bud said.
  Bud, we know you could have. We know you could have.
  That is just one of many stories that Bud tells about his 70 years of 
living in the great State of Alaska.
  So let me talk about Bud Fate--a legend across our State. He just 
turned 90 years old last week. He has been a rodeo cowboy, a college 
football player, a roughneck, a soldier, a gold miner, a carpenter, a 
hunter, a commercial and subsistence fisherman, a dog musher, a bush 
pilot, a dentist, a businessman, a State representative, an author, an 
artist, an all-around rabble-rouser, and an Alaskan renaissance man 
through and through.
  But most importantly, he is a dedicated father, grandfather, husband 
to his wife, Mary Jane, for 65 years, and a man who has lived his life 
in service to his country, his State, and his community--very worthy of 
being our Alaskan of the Week.
  So Bud Fate was born on December 4, 1929--90 years ago last week--and 
raised in Eastern Oregon--Cowtown, he called it. He began riding a 
horse when he was just 6 years old, eventually riding on the rodeo 
circuit, getting bucked off horses all across the American West.
  He went to college at the University of Washington, where he 
initially played football. After he got hurt, he enrolled in a drama 
class and had dreams, when he made his way to California, to Hollywood, 
to work as an actor or as a stuntman in cowboy movies and films.
  As it turned out, it wasn't California that called him; it was Alaska 
that called him--specifically, a good job in the far north of Alaska, a 
place called Umiat, working on oil rigs not too far away from what 
would become the biggest oil find ever in North America, the mammoth 
field at Prudhoe Bay. Bud was 20 years old, working 12 hours a day, 7 
days a week. Even though it was a barren and cold, cold place--this was 
in the winter--he fell in love with it. Alaska grabbed him, as it does 
to certain types of adventuresome, intelligent, and fiercely 
independent individuals.
  It grabbed Bud, and it didn't let go--never let go. He was one of the 
drillers working on the shift which brought the first oil to the 
surface that came out of this rig in Umiat. Bud likes to describe it as 
this almost beautiful orange color, some of the first oil in Alaska in 
the fifties, early fifties--pretty exciting.
  He was working on the slope when, in 1950, a radio message came in 
where they were working that the United States was at war in Korea.
  Bud said:

       I remember thinking it wouldn't affect me way up here on 
     the North Slope of Alaska. Nobody is going to find me, a 20-
     year-old, but 2 weeks later, I got my first draft notice.

  That is what Bud said. I guess it goes to show you Uncle Sam can find 
you anywhere if he wants you.
  As a U.S. Army corporal, Bud was attached to the 11th Airborne 
Division when he got deployed not to Korea but actually back to Alaska. 
He was charged with riding the lead Jeep to conduct the combat survey 
on all the twists and turns of the newly constructed, 1,700-mile-long 
Alcan Highway, advising the mission commanders about the Arctic, cold 
weather, and Alaska.
  A couple of years later, he was out of the Army, back in Alaska, and 
he was having a drink one night at the famous Rendezvous Club in 
Fairbanks, a tongue-tied veteran, he was, and in walks a Miss Alaska 
contestant--or should I say, from Bud's perspective, in walks destiny.
  Whom am I talking about? Who was the destiny?
  Well, it is Mary Jane Evans, a young, smart--according to Bud--
``Hollywood beautiful'' Athabaskan woman from the small Yukon River 
village of Rampart. She took his breath away. As a matter of fact, she 
took everybody's breath away.
  Now, Bud, at this event, was wearing moccasins. Mary Jane was wearing 
stilettos, and she promptly stepped on his toes, but it was still love 
at first sight for both of them, and according to Bud, it still is, 65 
years later. For 65 years, they forged a life together, Bud and Mary 
Jane, the theme of which centered around public service.
  Always working together, they raised three beautiful, kind and keenly 
intelligent daughters--keenly intelligent--and they worked to 
fundamentally change Alaska for the better, both through institutions 
and volunteering at organizations and through individual actions that 
profoundly impacted so many Alaskans over the years.

[[Page S7023]]

  Eventually Bud, using the GI bill, went back to college, and then he 
went to get his degree in dentistry. He was a beloved dentist not only 
in Fairbanks but all across the region.
  Now, he was a bush pilot, and he had a plane, so he and Mary Jane, 
who was a trained dental assistant, traveled all around the small 
villages in the interior.
  Trust me, these villages do not and certainly back then did not have 
any dental care, so they provided dental care throughout the interior 
to tiny, little communities for free, for anybody who needed it.
  As their three daughters were growing up--Janine, Jennifer, and 
Julie--it was a big time, a momentous time, in Alaska.
  The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was being debated. One of the 
biggest land settlements in American or all history took place right 
here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  Bud and Mary Jane were both highly involved in this monumentally 
important bill for Alaska and in the overarching efforts to attain 
rights and lands for the Alaska Native people.
  One of Bud's best friends was Ralph Perdue, a strong Alaska Native 
leader, who, along with Mary Jane and Bud, founded the Fairbanks Native 
Association. Working together, they focused heavily on education for 
Alaska Natives, particularly high school education, something most 
Americans take for granted. Until 1970, rural Alaska--a huge swath of 
America--by and large did not have any high schools. The small 
communities, small villages, did not have any high schools. To get a 
high school education, young students and even children had to leave 
their homes and their villages and travel to boarding schools in very 
faraway places in Alaska and in the lower 48.
  Now, that was an injustice--one, among others, that the Fairbanks 
Native Association decided to tackle. They produced studies. They gave 
lectures. They talked to State officials. They talked to Federal 
officials. They and so many others across the State helped lay the 
groundwork for the seminal lawsuit brought by a group of Alaskans that 
resulted in a State-signed consent decree to provide high schools in 
communities throughout the State--communities with at least 15 
students--rather than sending their children all across Alaska, 
hundreds of miles away, or to the lower 48, thousands of miles away.
  At the time, this education settlement was the largest education 
settlement in American history, but Bud's commitment to education 
didn't stop there--not even close. He was on the Board of Regents for 
the University of Alaska, eventually serving as president of the 
university. It should be noted that later, Mary Jane, his wife, also 
served on this very important board.
  With a combined 24 years of service together, Bud and Mary Jane were 
on the University of Alaska Board of Regents. Bud helped run the 
university when the president abruptly resigned.
  He and Mary Jane also opened their home to villagers all across the 
State who came to Fairbanks and just needed a place to stay. They knew 
that Bud and Mary Jane would take them in. ``Our house was always 
full,'' their lovely daughter Julie said.

       There were always people living with us who were empowering 
     themselves through education. To this day, I still have 
     Alaskans stop to tell me how they were helped and given a 
     second chance by my parents.

  As Julie also noted, there was always a huge amount of smoked salmon 
strips on the table for all to share--the best smoked salmon in Alaska, 
I might add.
  There is so much more to Bud Fate's life. For instance, at the young, 
tender age of 70, he decided he was going to run for office. He ran for 
the State legislature, and he won in a landslide. He served two terms. 
He was immediately elected chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, 
which is a huge, important committee in Alaska, and was highly 
respected on both sides of the aisle.
  The list of boards and commissions that he sat on is way too long to 
go into here, as is the list of service organizations he has 
volunteered for and led.
  He has known Presidents of countries and dignitaries from all over 
the globe. He is as comfortable at his fish camp on the Yukon River as 
he is in the board room.
  As I mentioned, he is a rabble rouser with very strong opinions--I 
have heard them for many years, but at heart all of his opinions are 
focused on a commitment to treat everybody with respect and kindness 
and provide every Alaskan--every American--an opportunity to better 
themselves.
  He is a good man--Bud Fate--one of the best. The measure of Bud and 
the impact of his life is probably best reflected in his family and his 
friends, so many of whom gathered in Fairbanks on December 4 for his 
90th birthday, where people from all walks of life all across the State 
came together--well over 100--talked about his generosity, how it 
impacted them, how it impacted families, and how it impacted people all 
around him.
  People gave speeches about how he and Mary Jane took in people from 
all walks of life--veterans coming back from Vietnam who needed comfort 
and respect, people who needed a helping hand, food, warmth, just love. 
He lifted people up, so did Mary Jane, and they saved lives.
  I was actually one of those people giving a speech in Fairbanks at 
Bud's 90th birthday party, and I talked about the profound impact Bud 
has had on my own life--after all, Bud Fate is my father-in-law, and I 
can't imagine a better one.
  He has taught me so much. Bud and Mary Jane, along with my own mom 
and dad, have provided me a model--actually, for me and Julie, my wife, 
of what a true partnership looks like. He is a model for how fulfilling 
a life of service can be, especially a life in the great State of 
Alaska.
  As I mentioned, he is not just a model for me but for the whole State 
of a life well lived and a life lived in full.
  So, Bud, thanks for all you have done for Alaska, for America, for 
Fairbanks, for our family, for our great State, and all you continue to 
do. Thanks for being a great father-in-law and a friend, and, Bud, 
congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________