[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1660-S1665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, 
    UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF 
 EDUCATION RELATING TO BORROWER DEFENSE INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY--
                               Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I want to thank my colleague, Senator 
Durbin, for leading efforts this week to undo Betsy DeVos's harmful 
rollback protections for millions of Americans with student loans 
ripped off by for-profit colleges. This is an example where the Senate 
stood up to the President, stood up to the billionaire Secretary of 
Education whose mission in that job is to privatize public education 
and turn profits for her and her friends and her allies. This 
bipartisan Senate stood up to her and stood up to the President, stood 
up to the majority leader, and did the right thing.
  We have seen these for-profit colleges in Ohio. Schools like 
Corinthian and ITT, which make big promises with fake--and this time 
the word ``fake'' is accurate--they make big promises with fake or 
deceptive job placement rates. They spend millions on marketing, and 
they trick students into taking out huge loans, only to close up shop 
and leave them with meaningless degrees or, worse yet, just credits but 
always mountains of debt.
  These are people trying to get an education to improve their job 
prospects to build a better life for themselves and their families. Too 
often these predatory schools target Black students, Latino students, 
immigrants, low-income students, and first-generation college students. 
Many of them are veterans returning from serving our country and 
looking to start a new career.
  These for-profit colleges are willing to exploit people who have 
taken out loans to go there who are veterans. Sometimes they go to 
school. They served their country and then they go to school, and these 
for-profit colleges are willing to take advantage of them. These for-
profit schools are all about lining the pockets of their CEOs.
  We need to stand with the defrauded student borrowers and hold these 
for-profit schools accountable. Of course, we have learned not to hold 
our breath when it comes to the Trump administration holding anyone 
accountable--at least anyone rich accountable. Instead of figuring out 
how to provide relief for students, Secretary Betsy DeVos went to work 
figuring out how to let the schools that scammed them off the hook.

  Three hundred thousand people had submitted borrower defense claims 
as of last December. More than 200,000 of those requests are still 
pending. More than 7,700 Ohioans--7,700 people in my State--are waiting 
for relief.
  In 2016, the Obama administration announced a rule to help these 
students get their loans canceled, but the DeVos Department of 
Education--the Trump Department of Education--dragged its feet on 
processing borrower defense claims. They rewrote the rule to make it 
damn near impossible for defrauded students to get the relief they were 
promised. They are throwing up hurdle after hurdle: narrow time limits, 
making students gather all kinds of unnecessary paperwork, and banning 
students from appealing a decision.
  DeVos's rule opens up the doors for schools to once again use 
mandatory arbitration. I am not a lawyer, but I know from seeing this 
done to far too many of my constituents. Its legal fine print that for-
profit schools sneak into their enrollment agreements deny students 
their day in court. Students don't know they are part of these 
agreements. They are, and they lose their day in court.
  I hear from Ohioans all the time who have been scammed by these 
schools.
  Tasha Berkhalter came to Washington last month to bring attention to

[[Page S1661]]

this important issue. She is an Army veteran. She served our country 
with honor. She is a mother of four. She returned home. She wanted to 
do forensics with the FBI, so she enrolled in ITT's criminal justice 
program. She didn't think of it as a for-profit school. She didn't know 
she was about to get scammed.
  She had served our country. She wanted to serve our country. She went 
to this for-profit school. ITT told her that her GI benefits would 
cover the full tuition and that they would help her get a job after 
graduation. But when she began to suspect the program wasn't the high-
quality education that it claimed and tried to transfer, she found out 
that no other schools--no other legitimate schools--would accept her 
ITT credits. The supposedly high-tech school was using outdated books.
  Faced with a choice of continuing at ITT or starting completely over, 
she finished her degree. She ended up $100,000 in debt. Remember, ITT 
told her the GI bill would cover everything--well, except for $100,000. 
She ended up $100,000 in debt with a degree that, unfortunately, 
employers didn't take seriously.
  Those are the people whom Secretary DeVos and those are the people 
whom President Trump, with his own Trump University, want to take over 
our higher education system.
  Now she has lost her shot at using the GI benefit she earned, and she 
is drowning in debt.
  Ms. Berkhalter and other student veterans defrauded by shady schools 
deserve better than the treatment they are getting under Betsy DeVos. 
Not only is Betsy DeVos refusing to help, her new borrower defense rule 
will let other for-profit colleges continue to run the same scams on 
other students and student veterans.
  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is supposed to crack down on 
these schools and on loan-servicing companies that handle people's 
student loans. That is why we created the CFPB--to look out for people 
like Ms. Berkhalter. But under President Trump, under Betsy DeVos, they 
refuse to let the CFPB look into loan services that are scamming 
students.
  I asked the CFPB Director today about this. We have been asking her 
for a year to take this over and make it work. She continues to yield 
to her billionaire friend in the Cabinet, Secretary DeVos, who is a 
billionaire friend of the billionaire President and has no interest in 
making him accountable. President Trump's CFPB Director is rolling 
over, refusing to do her job protecting the tens of millions of 
Americans with student loans.
  It comes back always to whose side you are on. Are you going to stand 
with student veterans, or are you going to stand with these for-profit 
CEOs, these CEOs of for-profit schools who are making literally 
millions of dollars a year? Are you going to fight for defrauded 
Americans saddled with student loans or the shady schools ripping them 
off? It is pretty clear with whom President Trump and Betsy DeVos are 
standing. Over and over and over, President Trump and his 
administration betray the people he promised to fight for.
  I am glad my colleagues stood up today. It was a bipartisan victory. 
It said to President Trump and Betsy DeVos and Majority Leader 
McConnell that that kind of fraud, that kind of exploitation of our 
veterans and our students who are defrauded by these for-profit 
colleges is something we will no longer accept.


                      Remembering Nathaniel Jones

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I rise to honor a leader in the fight for 
justice, a great Ohioan whom we lost last month, Judge Nathaniel Jones.
  At a ceremony dedicating the Federal courthouse in honor of Judge 
Jones in 2003, former Congressman Louis Stokes said that the courthouse 
served as a testament to the outstanding public service by ``a local 
who made good.'' Judge Jones certainly was that.
  Born in Youngstown in 1926, he served a country that did not yet 
recognize his full legal equality. He served his country in World War 
II. He went on to become a respected lawyer. He went on first to be a 
journalist who worked for the Youngstown and Pittsburgh News. He worked 
for the Youngstown newspaper. He covered Jackie Robinson when Jackie 
Robinson played in AAA and became a friend of his. He went on to become 
a respected lawyer, a Federal judge, and an international civil and 
human rights advocate. He was a local who made good, but more 
importantly, he was a man who did good. He committed his life to the 
pursuit of justice and equality. We are all the better for it.
  He led efforts to end employment discrimination as the Executive 
Director of the Fair Employment Practices Commission. He was the first 
African-American U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. He 
served as Assistant General Counsel for President Johnson's Kerner 
Commission. That Commission issued a landmark report warning that 
racism and poverty were the root causes of violence in our Nation's 
cities during the 1960s.
  As general counsel for the NAACP, Judge Jones directed efforts to 
fight discrimination faced by African-American soldiers and worked to 
desegregate public schools in the North, stepping in personally to 
argue several cases.
  Nominated by President Carter, he was confirmed in 1979 to the Sixth 
Circuit Court of Appeals--one of only 39 African Americans to ever 
serve on the Federal Circuit. As a judge, he felt it was his duty to be 
an instrument of change in a system that too often denied justice to 
people of color. In many of the cases that came before the court, he so 
often sided with those taking on powerful interests and fighting for 
their rights--something we see far too little of in this body and in 
this government.
  As South Africa began to move beyond the dark days of apartheid and 
chart a new future of inclusion and equality, Judge Jones was called to 
help draft the country's new Constitution.
  In Cincinnati, which he called home for some 45 years, the footprints 
of his good work can be seen across the city. Some of my favorite times 
were sitting in Judge Jones's office and listening to him tell about 
his days as a reporter knowing Jackie Robinson, talking about his days 
at the NAACP, and talking about his belief in justice and his passion 
for fair play.
  He was one of the early supporters of the National Underground 
Railroad Freedom Center. He mentored numerous young lawyers who served 
as his law clerks. He offered his assistance to local leaders seeking 
to address the lingering stigma of racism still far too present in our 
society. Judge Jones was a brilliant legal thinker. He was a dogged 
advocate for civil rights.
  Judge Jones was a wonderful husband and father. I am privileged to 
know well Stephanie, his daughter, who worked in the House of 
Representatives some years ago. He was a good friend, and he was a 
mentor to so many. He was also a relentless optimist who never--never--
ceased to believe in the promise of our great country.
  The legacy of Judge Nathaniel Jones will live on through his far-
reaching work for justice and through the many, many lives he touched.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, my colleague from Ohio just spoke about 
Nathaniel R. Jones, who was a circuit judge with the Sixth Circuit 
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and had a distinguished career as a 
judge but a long, distinguished career as a true champion of civil 
rights going back to the 1960s and was also general counsel of the 
NAACP when landmark cases were decided. I also happened to have had the 
privilege of getting to know him over the years and considered him a 
dear friend.
  We have a resolution that passed the Senate last month with regard to 
Judge Jones, and I am pleased to join my colleague Sherrod Brown today 
in paying tribute again to Nathaniel R. Jones. That resolution is now 
in the Congressional Record and therefore the agent for all of us to be 
able to understand the importance of the work he did and for future 
generations to understand the importance of the march to freedom that 
he represented.

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                      Great American Outdoors Act

  Madam President, I am also here on the floor today to highlight the 
introduction of landmark new legislation called the Great American 
Outdoors Act. It is to ensure that some of our country's greatest 
resources and our greatest treasures, including our national parks, are 
taken care of for generations to come.
  I am proud to help lead the introduction of this bill along with my 
colleagues Senator Gardner, Senator Manchin, Senator Daines, Senator 
Warner, Senator Alexander, and Senator King. I also want to thank 
President Trump and his administration, first for President Trump's 
support of the Restore Our Parks Act, which is part of this 
legislation, over the past few years but also for their support of this 
broader legislation, the Great American Outdoors Act.
  In the spirit of President Teddy Roosevelt over 100 years ago, 
Federal land management agencies like the National Park Service, the 
U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and others have 
worked to designate and preserve some of the most beautiful and 
historic parks of our country. Those lands, of course, include those we 
all know of as our national parks--Yosemite, Yellowstone, some of the 
great ones, Glacier--but also more modest sites like the boyhood home 
of President Taft in my home State of Ohio.
  In all, the National Park Service and its system include more than 84 
million acres of parks and historical sites that now attract 330 
million visitors annually. Actually, that is a record. More people are 
going to the parks than ever. That is great. The concern is, when they 
get to the parks, sometimes the parks aren't working for them because 
of the huge infrastructure needs and the deferred maintenance problems.
  We have eight of these national parks in Ohio, including Cuyahoga 
Valley National Park, which is our largest single park and actually is 
the 13th most visited national park in the country. It is a great park. 
Whether it is for biking, hiking, fishing, or kayaking, I am one of 
those 2.7 million visitors to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Ohio's 
national parks every year. I want to be sure these public lands are 
preserved so more Americans can visit these incredible sites into the 
future.
  Going back to my days as the Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget in the George W. Bush administration--going back about a dozen 
years--I have taken the lead on figuring out ways to help protect our 
national park sites throughout the country. At that time, we proposed--
in the Bush administration--a centennial bill. We were coming up on the 
100th anniversary of our national parks, and the notion was to get more 
public-private partnerships involved in the parks. President Bush and 
his Secretary of the Interior at the time were very supportive of this 
effort, as was the Office of Management and Budget.
  After my time in the Bush administration, I was a member of the 
Centennial Commission on the National Parks, and here in the Senate, I 
am the author of what is called the National Park Service Centennial 
Act, which was signed into law in 2016, on the 100th anniversary, to 
establish the Centennial Challenge Fund for the national parks.
  By the way, that Centennial Challenge Fund has done pretty well--$113 
million has been appropriated, but it has been leveraged by an 
additional $147 million from the private sector. So it has worked 
exactly as we intended it to--in fact, even better; it has been even 
more than a one-to-one match--the notion being, you put a challenge 
fund out there and say, if you care about the parks, the Federal 
taxpayer will put in some money, and you hope the private sector will 
also match it, and it has been more than matched.
  We also established the centennial endowment at what is called the 
National Parks Foundation. This endowment is intended to fund projects 
to address things like deferred maintenance at our parks. Separately, 
that centennial endowment has now $31.5 million in it.

  We know there is more work to do, though, to protect our national 
lands to ensure they are going to be there to enjoy for the future. The 
Great American Outdoors Act will help us in moving forward with this 
mission through two main initiatives.
  First, it will permanently fund what is known as the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund through a provision offered by Senators Gardner and 
Manchin--a $900 million initiative. The Land and Water Conservation 
Fund provides resources to State and local governments, as well as the 
Federal Government, to acquire land and water so that they can be 
protected. Often this is your city park back home, so sometimes it is 
neighborhood land. Sometimes it is land that connects to a national 
park or a national forest. Sometimes there is a checkerboard pattern of 
private ownership and public ownership, and it helps to connect those 
together to preserve some of our existing public lands.
  In any case, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been successful 
over the years. Since its creation in 1965, over $330 million in LCF 
funding has gone to protecting land in Ohio, as an example, and 
ensuring recreational access to those lands.
  The second part of this legislation is that, along with the LWCF, the 
Great American Outdoors Act includes our bipartisan Parks Act. It is 
called the Restore Our Parks Act. I authored this along with Senator 
Warner, Senator King, and Senator Alexander.
  As I said, the parks and public lands are some of our greatest 
treasures in this country. The problem is that, over time, we have 
allowed this maintenance backlog to build up, meaning that a lot of the 
buildings and infrastructure, the roads, the bridges, and the water 
systems are deteriorating to the point that a lot of them are 
completely unusable.
  Again, it is great that a lot of folks are going to the parks now, 
but when they get there, sometimes the trail is closed, the bathroom is 
not working, and the visitor center has a leak in the roof and can't be 
used. So it is time for us to put some funding into these deferred 
maintenance expenses. Some would call them, perhaps, capital expenses.
  Why has this happened? Well, because although every year we 
appropriate funding for the parks, the funding is for the operations of 
the park--for the nature programs, for the rangers, for just the day-
to-day activities--not for these infrastructure or capital expenses or 
what we call deferred maintenance.
  I have seen this firsthand in Ohio, where there is more than a $100 
million backlog in long-delayed maintenance projects at our eight 
national park sites. Last fall I was at the Cuyahoga Valley National 
Park. I go there frequently. It is a great park, but it badly needs 
more than $15 million in repairs--renovations for shelters, for parking 
lots, for a bridge that is dangerous to cross, for railroad tracks. 
There is a scenic railroad that runs through the Cuyahoga Valley 
National Park, but the railroad track is in such bad repair that it is 
dangerous--or will be soon--to go on that scenic railway. Trails have 
been falling apart because of erosion, and they don't have enough money 
to do it.
  Let me give an example. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park has about 
an $11 million budget every year. So the taxpayers of America come to 
us here in Congress and say: Let's fund our parks. We fund the parks 
for daily operations, and $11 million goes to Cuyahoga Valley National 
Park--again, the 13th most visited national park. It is a great park. 
There are a lot of visitors. It is sort of a suburban and in some 
places almost an urban park as well as a rural park. It is exactly what 
we need more of. A lot of kids access it--a lot of schoolkids. Well, 
the deferred maintenance is over $50 million, so at $11 million a year, 
how do you pay for that deferred maintenance? That has been the 
challenge.
  Elsewhere in the State, I have toured Perry's Victory and 
International Peace Memorial, which is on the shores of Lake Erie. This 
is at Put-in-Bay, so if you know Put-in-Bay--a famous spot for 
recreation, but the historic part of it is Perry's Victory Monument. It 
was established under those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie in 
the War of 1812, as well as to celebrate the long-lasting peace between 
Britain, Canada, and the United States. So it is an important 
historical marker.
  There I saw some of the $48 million in long-delayed maintenance needs 
at the

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site, which includes millions in needed repairs to fix a concrete 
seawall that is literally crumbling. The high-water level of Lake Erie 
has been part of the problem. Part of the problem is that it is just 
old, and it is crumbling. There are sinkholes around it. You are not 
allowed to go near the seawall or therefore near the lake. The visitor 
center needs significant updates and needs to be made ADA accessible. 
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that they make it 
accessible, and they don't have the funds to do that.
  In that case, there is a $48 million price tag to do the maintenance 
repairs, and their annual budget is minuscule because it is a small 
park. It is a monument with a small visitor center. Yet they have this 
huge expense.
  I have also been to the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in 
Chillicothe to see millennia-old burial mounds from the original Native 
Americans who were there and earthworks from the area's pre-Columbian 
inhabitants. Again, I also saw there about $3.5 million in unmet 
maintenance needs, including needed repairs to the exterior of the 
visitor center and its trail system.
  Parks have a lot of issues that over time have built up, and that is 
a huge problem for us. In a way, it is kind of like being a homeowner: 
If you allow the deferred maintenance to build up, if you don't take 
care of the roof, what happens? Your drywall gets wet, and you have 
mold in the drywall, and then the floor starts to buckle. But for being 
able to fix that roof, you have all kinds of other problems. That is 
what has been happening in our parks. The costs just keep mounting. The 
total backlog at the national parks is now believed to be over $12 
billion.
  By the way, we require the parks to keep these lists: What are your 
most urgent needs, and what are the broad needs you have in terms of 
deferred maintenance? So we have good data on this one, and we know it 
is over $12 billion.
  It is a compounding problem. If you don't fix it, it gets worse and 
worse and worse, which only increases the cost to taxpayers. The longer 
we wait to address these maintenance needs--not fixing the hole in the 
roof creates a lot of other costs for taxpayers.
  I like this legislation because essentially it is saying: These are 
debts unpaid. This is work that should have been done previously. So 
let's find a funding source that is appropriate to that. I think the 
funding source we found is the right one, which is the on- and offshore 
oil and gas revenues. Instead of going into the U.S. Government, some 
of these are going to be diverted to our national parks to pay for 
expenses that have been there for years that we should have paid for 
earlier but just don't have the method and the ability to pay for those 
kinds of capital expenses or those kinds of deferred maintenance 
projects in the annual budget.
  So that is why we need to address this problem, and it is a problem 
that is growing. We don't want it to get worse. Again, it comes at a 
time when visitation is pretty good. From 2006 to 2017, annual 
visitation increased by more than 58 million people. Again, over 330 
million people visited the parks last year. That has also put, I 
believe, more pressure on the parks and on this deferred maintenance we 
talked about.
  The challenges of keeping up with it have stretched our land 
management agencies thin--not just the parks but the Forest Service, 
our fish and wildlife refuges, our other Department of Interior land. 
We have more issues now because so many of these lands have been using 
bandaids to kind of get through it, and that doesn't deal with the 
underlying issues, so the costs are mounting.
  We initially introduced this commonsense solution to just deal with 
the parks, which, again, have reached over $12 billion. Since then, I 
am pleased to say we have worked with our colleagues on the other side 
of the Capitol, who included these other lands, and also with the 
administration to include funding for other land management agencies 
that also have deferred maintenance issues--again, the Forest Service, 
the BLM over at the Department of Interior, the fish and wildlife 
refuges, and some of the Bureau of Indian Affairs lands.
  To address this, the legislation before us creates what is called the 
Legacy Restoration Fund, which will provide $1.9 billion per year for 5 
years--it is a 5-year program--from unobligated on- and offshore energy 
revenue. So these are royalties from that energy, which is actually 
increasing as we do more exploration. So it is a total over 5 years--
$1.9 billion a year--of $9.5 billion to be divided across the National 
Park Service, which gets the bulk of it, but also the Forest Service, 
wildlife refuge, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Indian 
Affairs.
  It addresses only the priority needs because that is not enough to 
take care of all the needs. But the way the parks have analyzed this, 
they have priority needs of about $6.5 billion, as an example, out of 
the $12 billion, and all of those needs can be met with this funding. 
It is not all that is needed. We know we will have to go back at this 
again. But it is a very important bill--to do this for these 5 years to 
ensure that we can indeed have these treasures continue to be places 
where visitors can come from around the world, from around the country, 
from the Cleveland city schools right next to the Cuyahoga Valley 
National Park, and enjoy the majesty of our public lands.
  I want to thank my colleagues again--Senators Gardner, Manchin, and 
Daines--for their support in helping to put this final package 
together. I want to thank our Restore Our Parks Act colleagues who have 
been at this a long time--4 or 5 years--Senator Warner, myself, and 
also Senator Alexander and Senator King.
  Finally, I would like to once again thank President Trump for his 
strong support of the Restore Our Parks Act over the past few years and 
now of this new product that has come together. He understands the need 
to protect the natural beauty of our public lands. I spoke to him about 
it today.
  To me, the Great American Outdoors Act is the next step in carrying 
out Teddy Roosevelt's legacy, Teddy Roosevelt's mission of protecting 
the environment for future generations.
  I look forward to the ability to debate this on the floor of the U.S. 
Senate week after next and to then pass it with a strong bipartisan 
vote and send it to the President for his signature to ensure that this 
landmark legislation, this historic legislation, can be enacted into 
law.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.


                   National Environmental Policy Act

  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I rise this evening to discuss the 
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which is oftentimes referred 
to as the ``Magna Carta'' of environmental laws. When I think about our 
Nation's most illustrious documents, I am reminded of the true 
expression of America and its aspirations. I am reminded of our 
Declaration of Independence and its embrace of ``Life, Liberty and the 
pursuit of Happiness.''
  I am also reminded of our Constitution. Delaware is known as the 
First State because we were the first State to ratify the Constitution, 
December 7, 1787--one week before anybody else. Our Constitution is the 
most replicated and enduring Constitution in the history of the world. 
It is not entirely unlike our more recent expressions of America's 
values and guiding principles, like the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969, or NEPA. NEPA has served as one of our bedrock 
environmental laws for a half century now.
  According to its six pages of statute, NEPA's purpose includes 
``efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and 
biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man.''
  NEPA enshrines democracy by giving the American people a voice to 
help decide the fate of Federal decisions. For 50 years, NEPA has 
sought to ensure environmental protection, public health, and the 
notion that the American people have a say in Federal decision making.
  Like our Constitution, NEPA is one of our Nation's most replicated 
laws. The same principles of democracy and citizen participation that 
are enshrined in our Constitution are also enshrined in NEPA. We have 
made changes to our Constitution over the years, but those changes were 
made rarely and with great forethought.
  However, just 60 days ago, the Trump administration proposed a rule 
that

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would fundamentally change the NEPA regulation for the first time in 
its 50-year history.
  Earlier this month, I testified at the Council on Environmental 
Quality's public hearing in Washington, DC. There, I stated that unlike 
the Ten Commandments, the NEPA regulations are not written in stone. I 
understand that.
  In 1978, there was broad consensus to finalize the NEPA regulations. 
If we had that same kind of broad consensus today to update certain 
NEPA provisions, this would be another story. After all, I have said 
oftentimes that if something isn't perfect, let's make it better. But 
there is a reason that NEPA is one of the most imitated environmental 
laws on this planet--it has had a lot of success.
  Any changes to the implementing regulations of this bedrock law--let 
alone such substantial changes proposed by the Council on Environment 
Quality to NEPA regulations--require careful thought, meticulous 
deliberations, and bipartisanship. Consequential changes should be made 
rarely and with great forethought.
  Speaking of bipartisanship, one of our nominees before the 
Environment and Public Works last year, nominated for a senior position 
in the Department of Interior, said, in these words: Bipartisan 
solutions are lasting solutions. That is what he said. He is a 
Republican, from Wyoming. He said: Bipartisan solutions are lasting 
solutions.
  NEPA was signed into law 50 years ago by a Republican President, 
Richard Nixon. NEPA was passed in this body by a bipartisan majority. 
NEPA was passed in the House by a bipartisan majority. The reason why 
it is still alive and well and functioning, protecting our environment, 
is because it is a bipartisan solution, and it has helped make it a 
lasting solution.
  Any changes--any changes to the implementing regulations of this 
bedrock law, let alone the kind of changes sought by CEQ, require a lot 
more careful thought, deliberation, and bipartisanship.
  CEQ simply has not aimed to address the needs of all the 
stakeholders. Witness the universal opposition of the environmental 
community, NEPA's most consistent constituency. Council on 
Environmental Quality has touted this proposal--their proposal now--as 
a way to ``modernize'' NEPA. However, the proposal is instead an 
anachronism, taking us back to a time when construction bulldozed and 
disconnected communities, before NEPA was enacted in 1970.
  This proposal casts aside any consideration of frontline communities, 
as well as the severe environmental consequences that come with 
eliminating the requirement to consider cumulative environmental 
impacts and indirect effects.
  Taking away that requirement is akin to creating a new NEPA mandate 
that would exclude the impact to air quality--or water quality--from a 
proposed action. Simply put, it makes no sense.
  Not only is removing these requirements a bad idea for public health 
and for our environment, but doing so will end up costing taxpayers 
more when projects aren't built to be resilient and, as a result, 
taxpayer investments are quite literally washed away by the next big 
storm or flood.
  What is more, this proposal gives the fox the keys to the henhouse by 
allowing companies to write their own environmental impact statements. 
Think about that--by allowing companies to write their own 
environmental impact statements. That is a little bit like offering 
students self-graded, take-home exams. This proposal also creates 
loopholes to avoid environmental review and public input, which is 
especially harmful to environmental justice communities that are often 
the targets of industrial investments and projects.
  I take no joy in saying this, but the proposal before us is one that 
is, sadly, myopic and ideologically driven. I have repeatedly called on 
CEQ to withdraw this proposal, and I do so again today.
  Along with the policy, I must also mention CEQ's refusal to open this 
notice to proposed rulemaking to greater public involvement that is 
commensurate with its gravity and scope.
  In rebuttal to repeated concerns from more than 160 Members of 
Congress, and literally hundreds--hundreds--of stakeholder 
organizations, CEQ stated that it is ``engaging in extensive public 
outreach, including through requests for public comments, two hearings 
and other outreach''--two hearings in the whole country.
  Just last week, with only three full business days prior to the close 
of the comment period, CEQ finally told 166 other Members of Congress 
and me that it would refuse to extend the public comment period, thus 
providing the public as little opportunity as possible to have their 
voices heard.
  Both CEQ's reply and its public statements make clear that CEQ 
believes it somehow deserves extra credit for allowing the public to 
participate in this rulemaking. Public involvement means not only an 
opportunity to comment, it means taking those comments seriously by 
CEQ.
  Let me be clear. Neither this CEQ nor any Council on Environmental 
Quality gets extra credit for the mere act of requesting public 
comments on America's bedrock environmental law.
  CEQ certainly does not deserve extra credit for allowing only 60 days 
to review and comment on this massive environmental protection 
rollback. CEQ also does not get extra credit for only two hearings in 
the entire country--two hearings--to receive public comment.
  At these hearings, the public needed a ticket and only got 3 minutes 
to speak. Think about that: 3 minutes for a law that has been around 
for a half century that is a basic bedrock environmental law, 3 
minutes; constraining comments to a couple of minutes; the idea of 
requiring tickets, as if it is some kind of prize to participate in 
something that should be a democratic norm; and the idea of CEQ failing 
to engage a single speaker in Denver or Washington, DC. Think about 
that: not engaging even one speaker in the two places where the public 
actually had the opportunity to comment. Not one. That doesn't 
constitute an open process, not where I come from. I think it probably 
doesn't for most other folks as well. It doesn't come close. What we 
have here is a clear sign that CEQ is limiting the involvement of the 
public and wants the clock to expire before the public can find out 
what is actually in the massive rewrite. That is what it is.
  To say I am disappointed with CEQ's response is an understatement. 
NEPA is a 50-year-old law, but Americans have only been given 60 days 
to defend it.
  I will go back to what I said before. No law is written in stone. The 
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of our country are not 
written in stone. Everything we do, I know we can do better. But the 
way CEQ has approached this task, this undertaking, is not just 
disappointing, I think it is shameful.
  NEPA reminds us that our government is one that is of the people, for 
the people, and by the people. But this proposal and this process 
bear--what I just described--little resemblance to those words of 
Abraham Lincoln. Sadly, they make a mockery of them.
  Let me be clear. I will continue to fight to defend NEPA and the 
democratic tools it avails to the American people.
  I yield the floor to my friend from Oklahoma.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.


                              Embrace Hope

  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I come to the floor today to 
unashamedly brag on the people of Southwest Oklahoma. It is a pretty 
remarkable group of folks. In the community around Lawton, OK, and 
surrounding communities, there are people who serve their neighbors 
every day. There is a remarkable group of churches and nonprofits, 
ministries, Federal workers, State, city, and county staff who are 
there and do a pretty amazing job of taking care of their neighbors.
  This weekend is above and beyond. This weekend, Southwest Oklahomans 
organized what they call Southwest Oklahoma Embrace Hope--so 1 day, on 
Saturday, where the whole community will be having neighbors serving 
neighbors to see what they can do to help each other.
  Serving your neighbor is not about how much money you have or a title 
you hold or a certain house you live in. Taking care of your neighbor 
is just basic honoring each other and finding a way to love your 
neighbor. The vision

[[Page S1665]]

behind the Embrace Hope event is about stepping up and saying as 
individuals that we can do more if we do it together.
  The Embrace Hope community event in Lawton will offer Oklahomans an 
opportunity to access a lot of free services and some basic help. There 
are partners from all over the State of Oklahoma who have donated their 
time, their services, their finances to help those in need all over 
Southwest Oklahoma--all in one place, all at one time. If someone needs 
housing--shelter, information, or a referral, food--there will be folks 
there who can help them.
  There will be agencies there to talk about long-term needs and people 
needing short-term needs. If someone needs a job, there will be folks 
there who will show them opportunities for hiring. If someone needs to 
get their resume together so they can get a job, there will be folks 
there who can take a picture so they can use it with their resume. In 
fact, if folks need a suit to wear to an interview, there will be folks 
there to help them get a suit so they are able to prepare themselves 
for a job.
  There will be health services there. You can schedule an appointment 
with a local health center, and there will also be ways to get dental 
services, optometry, pregnancy resources, or even a breast exam, if 
that is needed.
  There will be folks there who can give them a haircut if they need a 
haircut and haven't been able to get access to that.
  There will be folks there who are mental health professionals and 
counselors so they can interact with folks who may struggle with 
substance abuse or dealing with the stress of life. There will be folks 
there who can help them with legal assistance. These are communities 
coming together; ministries, churches, organizations, and government 
agencies are all coming to one place at one time to help.

  There are a lot of needs in the area. In fact, in Oklahoma, according 
to DHS statistics just from this last year, we had 78,000-plus 
households that needed winter heating assistance in our State. More 
than 378,000 Oklahomans receive food benefits, like the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program. These are Federal resources and Federal 
programs.
  As Members of Congress, we work together to help in whatever way we 
can to help those in greatest need to be lifted out of poverty and to 
be able to walk through some of their low points in life. But a 
government check or a check-in with a Federal entity is no substitute 
for a neighbor helping a neighbor. When you are at your low point of 
life, a check is helpful to get you through a hard time, but you need a 
person; you need a mentor; you need a friend; you need a neighbor.
  The Embrace Hope event is all about that. It is neighbors helping 
each other to be able to walk through this process, but it is also 
about opportunities for people who live in Southwest Oklahoma. It is 
not just to help someone one day, but also to understand that we could 
do this throughout the course of the year because there are lots of 
folks who say: I want to be able to help.
  They just don't know where to go to be able to help their neighbors. 
They might help the folks who are around them; they might help people 
in a small group at their church; they might have family members they 
help, but they say that they want to be able to do more.
  The Embrace Hope event allows volunteers by the hundreds who have 
signed up to serve their neighbor one day, but it also allows them to 
take a test drive with a bunch of other ministries and nonprofits in 
the area and say: What do you do that I can volunteer one day to help 
people, but maybe I can plug in and help you at other times?
  It allows those nonprofits and ministries to reach out to a whole 
pool of people, who maybe are not involved all the time, to say: If you 
enjoyed helping your neighbor that day, why don't you come work with us 
the rest of the year?
  It is a way for them to meet each other. Quite frankly, it is a way 
for us to build a stronger State, a stronger community, and stronger 
connections with our neighbors so that we don't default by saying 
``They get help from the government, so that is probably all they 
need,'' when we know in our heart it is not. They need help from 
somebody local. They need a friend, and they need somebody who can look 
them in the face and say: How can we help? That is Embrace Hope.
  There have been hundreds of people who have volunteered already, and 
as they are preparing for this Saturday, it will probably be a cold and 
wet day, which is a perfect day to help people in need.
  As we get together on this Saturday with all the volunteers and all 
the folks, there will be one person who will be in the background whom 
the whole event will circle around, but a lot of folks will not know 
it. Her name is Brenda Spencer-Ragland. She is the lead event 
coordinator for Embrace Hope. I can't even imagine how many hundreds of 
hours she has put in behind the scenes to be able to bring this to 
reality. Her title is event coordinator, but that title doesn't 
remotely do justice for the work she has done to bring Embrace Hope to 
reality.
  She is one of those incredible individuals who everyone wishes lived 
around them, but Southwest Oklahoma actually has her. She has a 
servant's heart and a servant's attitude. It is who she is, quite 
frankly, more than just what she does.
  Brenda served our Nation as a civilian with the U.S. Army for 32 
years before assuming her current role. She was Director of the Family 
and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Program at Fort Sill in Lawton. Her 
title was a fancy way of saying that she took care of military families 
in whatever way she possibly could, and she did it well. She loved 
serving those who serve us. On her retirement, she grieved because she 
loved serving those folks at the post.
  Now, after dealing with morale at Fort Sill and after serving also as 
the Housing Director at Fort Sill, she has found a new way to serve--
Embrace Hope. She has built around that same mission. She came to 
Oklahoma City, and she saw an event called Love OKC, which was similar 
to this. She brought a whole group of volunteers to come take a look at 
what was happening in Oklahoma City and the remarkable Love OKC event 
that has happened for 7 years in a row. She took that vision back to 
Southwest Oklahoma and created Embrace Hope. Meeting after meeting, 
donor after donor, long night after long night of organizing--it is 
about to happen.
  Brenda, for all of the folks in Lawton who don't know you, they 
should because, if they did, they would give you a warm hug and a very 
grateful thank-you for blessing so many people. Thank you for answering 
the call to serve your friends and neighbors and stepping up when you 
saw a need and tirelessly giving back to Southwest Oklahoma and the 
community that you love. It is an honor to call you a friend and a 
neighbor. I look forward to serving alongside you this weekend in 
Embrace Hope, doing whatever you need me to do to help you as we love 
our neighbors together.
  God bless you. I look forward to seeing you there, Brenda. I love 
getting a chance to be able to brag about what is happening in the 
great Southwest Oklahoma.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

                          ____________________