[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2841-S2852]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
______
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--MOTION TO PROCEED--Resumed
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 1957, which the
clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 75, H.R. 1957, a bill to
amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modernize and
improve the Internal Revenue Service, and for other purposes.
Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized
Justice in Policing Act
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, yesterday at the Fountain of Praise
Church in Houston, TX, a funeral service was held in honor of the life
of George Floyd, whose death has moved hundreds of thousands of people
across America and around the world to peacefully march against police
violence. Today, his brother Philonise Floyd will testify in front of
the House Judiciary Committee.
It is hard to imagine the courage it takes, so soon after the tragic,
awful, and brutal loss of a family member, to not only grieve in the
national spotlight but to turn that pain into action. There have been
many reasons for Americans to be shocked and outraged, angry and
frustrated with the injustice they have seen in their country, but the
entire Floyd family has given the Nation reason to hope.
Now, Democrats in the House and Senate have proposed legislation that
would directly respond to the issues of racial bias and excessive force
in our police departments. The Justice in Policing Act would ban the
use of choke holds, limit the transfer of military equipment to local
departments, make it easier to hold police misconduct accountable, and
institute a whole lot of reforms to help prevent that misconduct in the
first place. It is a comprehensive proposal, and many of the experts on
racism, discrimination, and inequality in police departments have had
large input into the bill.
We need action on the Justice in Policing Act as soon as possible,
and we Democrats in the Senate will work like hell to make it happen.
The moment calls for bold and broad-scale change. We need wholesale
reform, not piecemeal reform. We cannot approach this debate by cherry-
picking one or two reforms and calling the job complete. It is my worry
that is what our Republican colleagues intend to do. We need a strong
bill. The Justice in Policing Act is where we should begin.
The Senate is a collaborative institution, at least by design, but
there is one person alone who decides what legislation reaches the
floor, and that is Leader McConnell. For 2 weeks I have asked him to
commit to a debate and a vote on a police reform bill by July 4--an
open debate and certainly an ability to vote on the Justice in Policing
Act. I still have not received an answer.
Is it too much to ask that, as hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, are in the streets, when the vast majority of Americans think
we need reform, that the leader spend some floor time here so we can
debate this issue and maybe move forward for the first time in a long
time? I don't think so. But our leader is silent, missing in action, as
he is on so many different major issues that face America.
After House and Senate Democrats released the draft legislation on
Monday, yesterday, Senate Republicans announced they would put together
``a working group'' to prepare their own set of proposals. Working
groups are all fine and well, but it is critical that we pursue
comprehensive reform, not seek the lowest common denominator, and it is
critical that we get a real commitment to consider strong legislation
on the floor.
Unfortunately, in the aftermath of other recent moments of national
strife, particularly the mass shootings, President Trump, Leader
McConnell, and Senate Republicans make the right noises--let's study
it; let's consider it--but never follow through.
Leader McConnell once promised that a debate on expanding background
checks would be ``front and center'' on the Senate floor after
shootings in Dayton and El Paso. ``What we can't do is fail to pass
something,'' he said. Yet there was no debate on expanding background
checks, and the Republican majority in the Senate did exactly what
Leader McConnell said that it could not--it failed to pass anything on
gun safety.
So while I welcome ideas from our Republican colleagues, we need a
hard and fast commitment from the Republican leader to put real, broad-
scale police reform on the Senate floor before July 4.
Americans, please, be watching the Senate. Watch the leader. Watch
the Republicans.
Is this going to be another situation just like with gun control,
just like with background checks, where they talked a good game, tried
to let the issue fade away, and did nothing? The Nation--the Nation--
will not let this issue fade away, I assure my Republican friends.
Coronavirus
There is another major crisis in the country at the moment as well.
COVID-19 continues to kill and infect Americans. Case numbers are
rising in Western States--Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Oregon.
The massive disruption to economic activity initially left more than 40
million--40 million--Americans without work.
This week it became official: The United States has been in
recession--the first one in many years--since February.
In truth, the issues of racial justice and COVID-19 are not
unrelated. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately kills Black
Americans. Communities of color have less access to quality healthcare,
greater food insecurity, greater percentages of poverty, and a
disproportionate number of our frontline essential workers--41.2
percent--are African American and Latino. Yet you are starting to hear
my friends on the other side strum sunny chords because one jobs report
wasn't quite as awful as it might have been, awful as it was.
The President made a revolting comment that the recent jobs report
was a great day for George Floyd and equality, even though it showed
African-American unemployment continuing to rise. What a horrible
comment.
Everyone is rooting for our country to return to normal as quickly
and as safely as possible and for our economy to rebound with similar
speed, but unemployment sits at 13 percent--higher than any point since
the great recession--and the President and my Republican colleagues are
ready to declare victory.
After saying that another COVID relief bill was likely in June,
Leader McConnell has told the Republican caucus not to expect another
relief bill until late July at the earliest--late July at the earliest,
as millions are out of work, millions risk being removed from their
homes, millions can't feed their families
Racial justice, civil rights, a global pandemic, an economic
disaster--this is truly a time of historic challenge, and Leader
McConnell and the Senate Republicans are missing in action. No
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commitment to consider comprehensive police reform. No urgency to
provide our country the desperately needed relief from COVID-19.
Instead, Leader McConnell is likely to schedule votes next week on two
circuit court nominees--Justin Walker and Cory Wilson--both of whom
have expressed deep-seated antipathy toward our healthcare law. And I
am not aware of either of them embracing civil rights, voting rights so
desperately needed in this country.
That is right--in the middle of a public health crisis, the
Republican majority is planning to confirm rightwing judges who have
spoken out against our healthcare law. Watch what they do, not what
they say. And what they are doing is regressiveness--it is not even a
lack of moving us forward; they attempt to move us backward with
rightwing judges who want to turn the clock back.
FBI Misconduct Investigation
Even more shocking--do you think it can get worse? It does with this
Republican majority. The Judiciary Committee tomorrow will hold a
hearing. The Republican chairman will continue his pursuit of President
Trump's wild conspiracy theories about the 2016 election, asking for
scores of subpoenas to chase down alleged misconduct by the FBI.
Let me get this straight: The Republican Party will eagerly focus on
law enforcement that affects President Trump, but they aren't ready to
commit a focus on law enforcement, on racial equality when Americans
demand it? I don't hear anyone other than the President and his
acolytes demanding a reinvestigation as it affects President Trump on a
largely discredited conspiracy theory. But that is what our Republican
Senate friends are doing, showing how removed they are from the
national needs and the national sentiment.
Senate Republicans are ready to issue nearly 100 subpoenas to trash
the FBI to protect President Trump, but they can't commit to debate on
one bill to reform police departments to protect African Americans.
Instead of addressing the real challenges African Americans face, the
Republican conspiracy caucus is obsessed with visciously attacking the
FBI for protecting our national security while Putin interfered in our
democracy. What a bizarre and outrageous inversion of our Nation's
priorities.
Now I am glad my friend from Illinois is here because it was his
leadership that will cause, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate
Democrats to request subpoenas for Trump administration officials like
Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Flynn, among others. These
officials at one time or another have pled guilty to offenses related
to Putin's interference in the election. If the Republican conspiracy
caucus wants to waste the Senate's time dredging up old conspiracy
theories, we are at least going to try to show and get the story
straight and not just call a list of witnesses that they want. It is
just crazy. Kangaroo court, kangaroo hearing.
Let's see if the Republicans have any--any--strength of conviction
about what they are doing. If they did, they would allow the witnesses
that Senator Durbin and the other members of the Judiciary Committee
have proposed to come forward and tell their side of the story--quite
contradictory to the witnesses that the Republican majority and the
Republican chairman are calling
Protests
That is one crazy conspiracy theory, but yesterday the country was
treated to another one. We seem, in Trump land, in the Trump world, to
live in a world of conspiracy theories. Some crazy, discredited,
rightwing blogger--sometimes with Russian information--tweets or writes
something, and then President Trump goes right ahead and tweets it and
talks about it.
I am not in the habit of responding to every Presidential tweet--
something I am sure my Republican colleagues are familiar with--but
yesterday morning, the President tweeted a vicious attack on a 75-year-
old constituent of mine who was seriously injured in Buffalo, NY. The
President said he might have belonged to a radical group and that the
event might have been a setup because the man ``fell harder than was
pushed.''
It was disgusting, even for a President known for disgusting attacks.
How small a man do you have to be to slander a 75-year-old protester
recovering in a hospital? This is the President of the United States,
you have to remind yourself from time to time. This is what the
President of the United States is doing--acting like a little 12-year-
old schoolyard bully.
Apparently, the conspiracy theory the President repeated on Twitter
was originally posted on an anonymous blog and then amplified by a
reporter who used to work for a Russian state media organization.
It feels like it shouldn't need to be said, but it has to be in a
democracy where we believe in facts and truth: The President has an
obligation to check out information before giving a platform to crazy
conspiracy theories. He is the President, not just some guy. He can't
shrug his shoulders and say: Hey, I am just asking questions. He has
access to national intelligence.
I call on the President to apologize. I don't expect he will. He
never does. So I will just say to my Republican colleagues: You know
how wrong his behavior is. You know it. Say so. Say so. Say something.
How much do you let this President get away with? How long will you
grimace inside or whisper to each other how crazy he is but not say a
thing? You, my Republican Senate colleagues, may be the one check left
on this President. Where are you? Where are you?
I applaud the few Republicans who have spoken out, but just far too
many have danced the familiar ``hear no evil, see no evil'' routine.
Leader McConnell was directly asked and couldn't conjure a word of
criticism for the President.
If Republicans can't call out the President on this instance, then
what the heck are they doing here? If we can't do legislation on the
floor, even during one of the greatest national crises this country has
faced, then what the heck are our Republican friends doing here?
On COVID, on police reform, and all too often when the time comes to
place a check on the President, the Republican majority is simply
missing in action.
Georgia Primary
Madam President, one final word on the Georgia primary--yesterday,
the State of Georgia held its primary election. Across numerous
counties and dozens of polling locations, Georgians waited 3, 4, and in
some cases up to 7 hours to cast a ballot. I saw the pictures of the
long lines. Numerous polling places failed to open on time; new voting
machines may have malfunctioned. Most disgracefully, many of the
problems we saw yesterday occurred in precincts with high populations
of people of color.
Of course, in past years, the Voting Rights Act would have empowered
the Federal Government to oversee and approve the changes that the
State of Georgia made to its election process--changes that may well
have caused this election disaster. But the Roberts Court, in one of
the most misguided decisions in recent Supreme Court history, gutted
the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County decision and opened the door
for the confusion we saw yesterday.
The idea that seems to be in the Court's mind--at least the majority
of the Court--that the need for section 5 preclearance had passed is
clearly refuted by what happened in Georgia yesterday. We have
legislation passed by the House that would fix this problem and protect
voters against racial discrimination and disenfranchisement, but it has
been gathering dust here in the Senate, condemned to Leader McConnell's
all too full legislative graveyard. Once again--once again--the
Republican majority is missing in action, and this time it is on voting
rights.
The right to vote in a free and fair election is sacrosanct in this
country. Yesterday, Georgia failed miserably for the second election in
a row. There ought to be an immediate investigation, and the errors
ought to be corrected before the general election. The Senate should
take up H.R. 4 and at the very least deliver the necessary resources to
election officials in the next COVID relief bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip is recognized.
Healthcare
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, one of the things that we have really
seen
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during the COVID-19 pandemic is the value of telehealth. As a resident
of a rural State, I have long been a proponent of telehealth for the
access it gives to rural communities.
If you live in a major city, you usually don't have to think too much
about where you will find a doctor if you need one. If you need a
cardiologist, for example, you don't spend a lot of time worrying
whether you will be able to find one within driving distance. In fact,
there is a good chance you will have a choice--a wide range of choices
for cardiologists. If you have a heart attack, you know you are in
reach of at least one hospital and maybe several.
That is not always the case for Americans in rural areas. In the
smallest towns in America, access to specialty care can be a challenge.
The only providers may be a primary care provider, a nurse, or a
pharmacist. These providers are essential to rural families, but
sometimes specialty care is needed. When there isn't a specialist close
by, telehealth can help get these rural providers and their patients
the medical care they need from a remote location through the use of
technology.
The coronavirus has highlighted the fact that telehealth is a
valuable resource for every American. During the pandemic, we have seen
healthcare providers of all types turn to telehealth to continue
serving their patients without running the risk of spreading the virus.
Telehealth has always allowed patients to access a variety of services
that might have been risky to obtain at an office or hospital during
the height of the pandemic.
Telehealth's usefulness will extend long beyond the coronavirus
crisis. While telehealth has particular value for rural areas, rural,
urban, and suburban areas alike experience provider shortages and a
lack of access to care. The Association of American Medical Colleges
estimates that there will be a shortage of up to 122,000 doctors in the
United States by the year 2032. Even in areas without shortages,
telehealth can make life easier for patients by reducing the number of
times that they have to visit a doctor's office for care.
While there will always be a need to see a doctor in person, for many
patients, some office visits can be replaced with telehealth
appointments. That can make a big difference for individuals whose
health requires them to see a doctor frequently. It is also a
convenience for patients in the workforce or caring for children or
other family members who may need to be able to access services quickly
and easily.
I was very pleased when Congress expanded access to telehealth in the
coronavirus relief bills that we passed.
We advanced the principles of value-based insurance design by
allowing high-deductible health plans to cover telehealth services
prior to a beneficiary's reaching his or her deductible.
We also permitted the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services to waive certain Medicare restrictions on telehealth during a
public health emergency, which has been hugely helpful to both seniors
and the providers who care for them. With this waiver authority,
providers can be paid for seeing patients in their homes, regardless of
whether the patient lives in a rural area.
We also expanded the types of services that are reimbursable via
telehealth under Medicare. In addition to video, providers are able to
offer telehealth appointments using audio-only technology, which is
helpful for patients who don't have access to internet or to a smart
device.
Congress's coronavirus legislation also increased telehealth access
for community health centers, rural health clinics, home health
hospice, and home dialysis for the duration of the pandemic.
I would like to see us make many of these measures permanent. I will
be pushing for that in the Senate over the coming months, along with
the CONNECT for Health Act, which I have cosponsored with Senators
Schatz, Wicker, Cardin, Warner, and Hyde-Smith for the last several
Congresses.
This legislation, which influenced many of the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security Act telehealth provisions, addresses
restrictions that limit the use of telehealth in Medicare, including by
providing waiver authority for the Secretary of Health and Human
Services. In addition, the legislation would remove restrictions that
affect Medicare reimbursement for Indian Health Service and facilitate
the use of telehealth for emergency medical services and mental health
care.
I will also continue to urge passage of the bill I introduced in
March to increase telehealth services in nursing facilities. My
Reducing Unnecessary Senior Hospitalizations Act, or what we call the
RUSH Act, would allow Medicare to establish agreements with a medical
group to provide care to nursing home patients remotely, with the goal
of reducing instances of avoidable trips to the emergency department.
Access to on-demand support from providers equipped to treat seniors
would enable a nursing home's onsite staff to immediately address a
patient's needs without waiting for emergency room transport or for a
doctor to arrive. As a result, patients would be more likely to receive
early intervention and avoid hospital visits, which can pose
significant risk to the elderly, especially, of course, during the
current pandemic.
Reducing the costs that come from untreated medical complications or
expensive emergency room visits would also be a win for taxpayers and
for the Medicare Program. One healthcare provider in my home State of
South Dakota conducted a telehealth pilot program to provide
specialized care to nursing home patients and ended up saving Medicare
more than $342 per beneficiary per month. That is a significant
savings. It is a savings that came from providing nursing home patients
with better and faster care.
One of the many reasons I push so hard to expand access to high-speed
internet in rural areas and to ensure that rural communities have
access to 5G is because of the opportunities this provides for the
expanded use of telehealth, which translates into greater access to
care for rural Americans.
I will continue to do everything I can to make telehealth more
available to underserved patients in rural communities and to the
country as a whole. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted just how
valuable a resource telehealth can be for literally every American, and
we should ensure that all Americans can access its benefits.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority whip
DACA
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I would like to follow up on the speech
just made on the floor by my colleague from South Dakota because his
observations about shortages when it comes to healthcare across America
affect not just his State, South Dakota, but certainly affect Illinois
and many other States as well.
We are in desperate need of additional doctors and nurses and
dentists and medical professionals. We are in need of more technology--
telehealth, of course, is one of those technologies--to make sure we
expand the reach of Medicare in the United States. In the midst of this
coronavirus pandemic, we understand that now more than ever. That is
why I have introduced legislation called the Health Heroes 2020 Act
with specific design to dramatically expand the number of healthcare
professionals.
There is one way to reach that goal, I believe, and that is to
incentivize medical students and dental students in America to make a
commitment to serve in areas of greatest need in this country for at
least 2 years and to remain in a reserve, if needed, for medical
emergency. What would they receive in return? Forgiveness of the cost
of their medical education.
Do you know that most doctors and dentists who graduate have a
minimum of $240,000 in additional student debt over and above the
undergraduate experience--$240,000 in debt when they become licensed
doctors and dentists? Some have even more. Imagine if those young men
and women with all this talent and all this determination want to serve
in the areas of greatest need but throw up their hands and say: I have
to pay off this loan. I have no choice but to go to a different place.
If we had the National Health Service Corps expanded to provide loans
for the cost of medical education, with the incentive that those new
medical professionals would serve in areas of great need, it would
certainly help to solve a major problem in America. We feel it in the
inner cities, but we feel it as intensely, if not more so, in the rural
and
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smalltown areas of the Senator from South Dakota's State and my State
of Illinois. Could we work together to do this? Could we work to come
up with the money to make sure these medical professionals are there?
When we talk about doctors and nurses, don't overlook the need for
dentists. There are millions of people in my great State of Illinois
who do not have ready access to dental care. The Illinois Dental
Society once or twice each year has a free dental service weekend, and
they--usually on a Saturday--will allow any patient to come in and have
dental care given to them for nothing. People wait in a queue, in a
line overnight for this opportunity.
Can you imagine having a problem with your teeth, some pain or
discomfort or perhaps a disfigurement, and being unable to afford the
care you need? For many of these people, this is their last chance, to
wait in line all night to get in for free dental services from the
Illinois Dental Society. I have seen it. It is remarkable, and my hat
is off to the dental society and the dentists who provide these
services. What an eye-opener to see all of these people who are in
desperate need of dental care.
We need more dentists. We need to make certain that they are
accessible and affordable for Americans wherever they may live. I
support the suggestion of the Senator from South Dakota when it comes
to telehealth, but let's make sure we have the men and women on the
front end of the process who are still an important and critical and
essential part of the kind of professional medical service and dental
service we all need.
There is another way to help make sure we have enough dentists and
doctors. It is to make sure that those who are currently in the United
States in dental school or medical school, who are protected by DACA,
have a chance to remain in this country.
By way of background, 20 years ago, I introduced a bill called the
DREAM Act. The DREAM Act was designed for those brought to the United
States as children, infants, and toddlers, who were brought into this
country perhaps on a visitor's visa and overstayed their visa and
didn't file the necessary documents and soon became undocumented in
America. They didn't leave. They grew up here. They were little kids
who grew up in this country going to our schools, being part of
America, and believing America was their future.
Usually, sometime in their adolescence, their parents would sit down
and tell them the grim reality that they have no legal right to be in
this country. Despite the fact that they knew no other country, spoke
no other language, pledged allegiance to the same flag we do, they were
technically not legally in America.
We introduced the DREAM Act to give them a chance. If they completed
school and had no serious criminal issues, they would be given a chance
to become American citizens. The bill went back and forth. It would
pass the House one year and pass the Senate the next year. It would
come up the majority of the Senate but not 60 votes.
It languished until I appealed to the President of the United
States--then Barack Obama--and asked him if he would consider creating
by Executive order some protection for these young people, and he did.
This was the DACA Program, and under DACA, these same Dreamers I
mentioned earlier would pay a substantial filing fee, go through a
criminal background check, and be given, for 2 years, the--be spared of
any threat of deportation and be given the right to legally work in
this country.
How many young people showed up for this Obama DACA Program and went
through it successfully? There were 800,000. There were 800,000 from
all around the country just to get a chance to go to school, to
complete their dream, and to even serve in America's military. They
just want to be part of this country--800,000.
What was going to happen to this program when a new President named
Donald Trump came to office? The very first time I met President Trump
was just minutes after he had been sworn in as President. There was a
lunch for him--an inaugural lunch--in Statuary Hall, and I went up to
him and introduced himself.
I said: Mr. President, I am begging you, do what you can to extend
the protection of DACA to these 800,000 young people. They are counting
on it.
He leaned over, and he looked at me, and he said: Oh, Senator Durbin,
don't worry. We are going to take care of these young people.
Well, that was the President's assurance, but unfortunately he didn't
keep his word. He decided, unfortunately, to abolish the DACA Program,
saying that President Obama had no authority by Executive order to give
this kind of protection.
Then a number of people filed a case in court saying that the
Executive order of the President should or should not be sustained. It
had to be contested in court. Luckily, for the DACA recipients--800,000
of them--while the court case has been pending, they have been
protected by court order from being deported. But the decision is going
to be made by the Supreme Court, and it could be made next week or in
the 2 weeks that follow. So in the month of June, the fate of 800,000
of these young people will be decided across the street in the Supreme
Court.
These are the young people who have become an important part of
America. When the Republican Senator from South Dakota talks about
shortages in medical personnel, I hope he knows that 41,000 of those
DACA recipients are currently providing vital healthcare services in
this pandemic that we are facing as a nation, and if they are judged to
be deported and illegal to work in this country and leave, it will
leave a gap in the medical services that this country desperately,
desperately needs.
Some of these young people are incredible. Their stories are nothing
short of amazing. I would like to tell you of one here at this moment--
Mariana Galati. This is her photograph. Today, I want to tell you that
she is the 122nd Dreamer whose story I have told on the Senate floor.
Mariana came to the United States from Mexico when she was 5 years
old. She grew up in Camden, NJ. It wasn't an easy life. She grew up in
a single-parent household, and her mother did not speak English. Here
is what she told me about it:
I had to fend for myself at a young age. I feel like I
never got to have a childhood. I tried to never let that
backdrop define me or stop me from my dreams.
What was her dream? To become a nurse. While working at a bakery, she
went to a technical school to become a medical assistant, and then in
2012 President Obama created DACA. Mariana was able to work as a
medical assistant. Here is what she said about DACA:
Before DACA, I had no future, purpose, or chance of a
better life. The fear with DACA is that it can go away--an
expiration date approaching that means that I would have to
go back to the way things were. Now I understand why we are
called Dreamers--it is because before DACA all we could do
was dream of the life we wanted to have--a dream about being
``someone.''
While working as a medical assistant, Mariana is studying to become a
nurse. She is now a junior at Rutgers University Nursing School. Here
is what she said about that experience:
To be a nurse is a way of living. I do not look at it as a
job, it is beyond that for me--it's a calling. Advocating for
and giving people a voice is a reward within itself. Helping
people in their time of need where they are most vulnerable
is a privilege.
Mariana is currently on the frontlines of fighting the COVID-19
pandemic. She is a registered medical assistant at the Jefferson Cherry
Hill Hospital COVID-19 testing center. She faces exposure to that virus
every day that she goes to work. She takes every shift that she is
offered. She said:
I have to be there. I want to be there. I am not scared,
but I am scared at the same time. I know what the risks are.
I want to thank Mariana Galati for her service. She is an immigrant
health hero. She is putting herself and her family at risk to save
American lives. She shouldn't have to worry about whether she is going
to be deported next week.
We can do better for Mariana and for thousands of other DACA
recipients just like her. They are counting on those of us who serve in
the Senate to solve this crisis that President Trump created.
I cannot imagine, as I tell the 122nd story of a Dreamer on the floor
of the Senate, that anyone listening believes we would be a better
country if Mariana were deported. That is the option that the President
has created. He has
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failed and refused to consider any solution or any effort to rescue
people like Mariana and to give them a chance to be part of America's
future.
When we look at those in essential services, medical and social
services, it turns out that one in six of them are immigrants to this
country. I know it is not a popular thing to say to this
administration, but I have to remind him that we are a nation of
immigrants. My mother was an immigrant to this country, and her son has
been fortunate enough to be elected Senator and represent the great
State of Illinois. That is my story. That is my family's story, but it
is also America's story.
We are in this together. People from across the world have come to
this country to be part of its future. Mariana is an example--a young
woman who could have thrown up her hands and said: I am undocumented. I
am not going to have any way of legally being part of America. My
dreams are just going to be put on hold.
But she didn't. She was determined to make the best of her life. Then
when President Obama created DACA, a door opened for her that she
couldn't have imagined. She had the opportunity to move from medical
assistant to become a nurse. She is studying at Rutgers for that
purpose.
Really, Mr. President, do you think New Jersey or America would be
better if Mariana is deported out of this country?
As soon as next week, maybe even next Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court
is about to rule on the future of DACA. The President of the United
States can solve this problem if they decide that DACA is to be
abolished. He can fix this himself.
There is another person who has a critical role, too, and that is
Senator McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. He has the
power to bring this issue to the floor of the Senate for a debate and a
vote.
The House of Representatives has already passed the Dream and Promise
Act, which would solve the challenge that would be created if the
Supreme Court abolishes the DACA Program. Are we overwhelmed with
business in the U.S. Senate, as I peer at an empty Chamber with my
wonderful speech being the only thing as an item of business at this
moment? We have time. We have more than enough time to deal with this
issue. For 800,000 protected by DACA, it is literally a life-and-death
issue.
I would appeal to Senator McConnell to use his power as the
Republican leader to solve this problem, to address this issue, to say
that, if you qualify for the DACA Program, you are going to be
protected until the end of the year or, beyond that, given an
opportunity to become citizens of the United States, a goal which I
have been seeking for the 20 years that I have worked on the Dream Act.
We know that we need the help of wonderful young people like Mariana
Galati to make this a better nation. The question is whether the
President ever will realize that or whether Senator McConnell would
make room in our schedule for us to debate this issue.
Let's get this right. Let's make sure that we have sensible
immigration policies in America. The notion of abolishing DACA and
saying to Mariana, ``you will now be deported back to a country you
cannot even remember,'' is not the answer.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
H.R. 1957
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the Senate has taken up and will be voting
soon--I hope successfully--on watershed environmental legislation that
will provide for municipal, county, State, and national parks and
public spaces in America for generations to come.
This is legislation I have been working on for years--legislation
that I pushed hard to advance as chairman of the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee and legislation for which I am now a
cosponsor.
The bill is going to repair public spaces, making them usable by all,
while creating new public spaces that reflect the continuing story that
is our great country.
In my view, when the Senate debates this kind of legislation, the
debate also has to include a discussion about a particularly important
topic, and that is jobs.
A major component of this bill is, of course, the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, which puts funding into natural wonders all over the
country, in cities and in rural areas. Today, I want to speak for a
moment specifically about those rural areas and rural economies.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit so many of our
rural communities like a wrecking ball. These are communities that have
been struggling going back a long time, and building back up after
COVID-19 is going to be enormously challenging. So the Senate ought to
be looking at every good idea that can help get these rural economies
moving again.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund isn't just about opening up the
country's treasured areas for everyone to enjoy and to help people get
outdoors. It has a proven track record of boosting the economy in
communities near those lands. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is
the ultimate win-win approach because with this program you focus on
recreation that involves protecting our natural wonders and jobs. That
is a big step forward. So what I wanted to do was just spend a few
minutes talking about how we could do even more.
For some time now, I have been working with my colleagues from the
Pacific Northwest--Senator Crapo, Senator Merkley, and Senator Risch--
trying to help secure two economic lifelines for the rural communities
of the Northwest and for much of our Nation. I am talking about Secure
Rural Schools and Payments in Lieu of Taxes Programs. They are known as
SRS and PILT.
In the West, there are a lot of areas that have long depended on
resource extraction and a lot of areas made up of Federal lands. So we
went through a lot of boom-and-bust cycles that defined those economies
for generations, and nearly always those boom-and-bust cycles proved to
be harmful and unsustainable. So some time ago--a number of years ago--
former Senator Larry Craig and I wrote the bill that created the Secure
Rural Schools Program. It provided years and years of reliable revenue
for rural counties so they could plan budgets and provide services for
people who live in their borders.
But after a while, Secure Rural Schools got caught up in the
knockdown, back-and-forth fiscal battles that happen in Congress too
often. So once in a while, the program would lapse. It then meant that
from all over the country, county leaders from rural communities came
to Washington and had to plead for extensions of the Secure Rural
Schools Program that has always been successful and a model.
It involves local input. Extending this program should have been a
no-brainer all along. It expired just last year before Congress stepped
up at the last minute to reauthorize the program, but these start-and-
stop authorizations do nothing for certainty.
I remember one year that to keep the Secure Rural Schools Program up,
the distinguished Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, and I were
involved in selling off the helium reserves. That gave us some money--
some key money--for the Secure Rural Schools Program in the West. I
remember when we sold off the helium reserves to get money for Secure
Rural Schools, a number of editorial writers out West had a lot of fun
with it and basically said: Well, we always knew Ron Wyden was full of
a lot of hot air.
The point is, we have got to end that cycle, that boom-and-bust
cycle, instead of going through these routines at the end of the
period, when Secure Rural Schools was helping the roads and schools.
I worked with Senator Crapo to propose reforms that would upgrade the
Secure Rural Schools Program into a stable, predictable source of
funding for rural counties. Our bill would establish a permanent
endowment fund, like funding for county economic development and roads
and schools. That is where the money goes. It goes into
[[Page S2846]]
economic development. It goes into roads and schools.
By the way, when you are helping those rural communities with their
budget, when they have those funds secure, it frees up money for them
for important things like mental health. We have certainly seen a
demand for mental health increase dramatically in the last few months.
After Congress makes an initial investment into the fund under our
proposal, which would establish a permanent endowment to provide
funding for county economic development into roads and schools--
Congress makes that initial investment into the fund--the principle
will be invested, and the interest will be used to make SRS payments to
counties. So you have Senator Crapo, Senator Merkley, Senator Risch,
and I proposing a way to move away from this roller coaster in the West
to upgrade Secure Rural Schools into a stable, predictable source of
funding. You have a permanent endowment fund that provides money for
the roads and the schools and the counties, and the principles are
invested, and the interest will be used to make SRS payments to
counties.
The proposal is backed by 100 percent of Oregon's U.S. Senators and
100 percent of Idaho's U.S. Senators--four U.S. Senators, two Democrats
and two Republicans, having worked closely with rural groups, the
National Associations of Counties, and others to advance this idea.
Our proposal also directs revenue-sharing payments from forest
management to be deposited into the endowment each year. That way, the
payments to the counties will grow, and the safety net they provide for
their constituents can expand.
In my view, these are the basics of an economic toolkit for rural
areas. If you focus on roads, if you focus on schools, if you make sure
that counties have the money for services so they can, for example,
take care of mental health needs, that is the key to building up rural
economies and helping to create good-paying jobs for residents.
Now, payments in lieu of taxes is a program that exists for similar
reasons. People who live in these rural counties dominated by public
lands also deserve support. They, too, rely on local governmental
services and deserve a safety net like everyone else. They ought to be
able to budget and plan and create jobs like bigger cities can. Our
amendment to really promote Secure Rural Schools and PILT would extend
PILT for 10 years to give these counties the certainty and
predictablity they need.
I am going to wrap up here in a moment, but I just hope that the
majority leader is going to set up a process for real debate on these
ideas and these amendments.
This is a bipartisan proposal. When we have offered in the past--
Senator Crapo, Senator Merkley, Senator Risch, and I and others--to
extend this program, we nearly always get at least 70 votes here in the
U.S. Senate because there is an awareness of how important it is that
these rural communities have certainty for schools and roads and basic
kinds of services that our efforts support.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing enormous pain everywhere, but we
have seen big corporations--we talked about this yesterday in the
Finance Committee. Some colleagues think: Well, we ought to cut the
unemployment benefits in half, but it is fine to make available
trillions of dollars to the biggest corporations in America.
So the COVID pandemic is causing pain everywhere, but it seems to me,
with so many resources going to big corporations and powerful interests
in intensely populated areas, the U.S. Senate has an obligation to make
sure rural economies and rural workers and rural businesses aren't just
left behind. Upgrading Secure Rural Schools and extending PILT is a
targeted way to advocate for rural communities.
We are going to be home for several weeks in July, and my hope is to
be able to have conversations with folks in person in those areas. I
haven't been able to do as much of that. I have had 970 townhall
meetings in person, just there to be able to respond and answer
questions. So I really hope that we are going to be able to do that
again soon.
When we have those discussions, you can be very sure that, in those
rural communities, front and center will be Secure Rural Schools, and
front and center will be Payments in Lieu of Taxes. Folks will zero in
on those areas because they will say, as they have to me since Larry
Craig, our former colleague from Idaho, and I wrote this program: Ron,
what Secure Rural Schools is doing is giving us a chance to make sure
we have a real education program.
Before we got that program going, people thought they would have
school 3 days a week. So people will say: Ron, we need Secure Rural
Schools. We need it for education. It is a key to our roads program.
The roads program for these smaller counties is an absolute key to
being able to have rural life. Without those rural roads and without
rural schools, the heart of Secure Rural Schools, you can't have rural
life. So these two programs are a solution based on providing certainty
and predictability to help build thriving economies and good jobs in
rural areas.
I am going to keep pushing for support here in the Senate. I know my
colleagues Senator Crapo, Senator Merkley, and Senator Risch are going
to continue to do so as well.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for
up to 20 minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, this week we consider a measure for
permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and for our
national parks.
I would support this measure joyously if there were a similar program
for America's coasts and bays and oceans. As it is, I support this
measure but with a heavy and frustrated heart as, once again, the
urgent needs of coastal communities go unaddressed. Put bluntly, the
Land and Water Conservation Fund massively favors inland and upland
States and projects, as indicated by the prevalence of advocates for it
here on the floor from landlocked States. It fails to meet the needs of
coastal communities.
Over the past decade, for every dollar the fund sent to inland
States, per capita, coastal States just got 40 cents. The imbalance
against coasts gets worse if you factor in that there is greater
coastal than inland economic activity, and the imbalance against coasts
worsens further when you factor in that much of the Land and Water
Conservation Fund's spending in coastal States is for upland, inland
projects. Coasts and saltwater are not treated fairly. The upland
freshwater imbalance is not justified, and we ought to make it right.
Look at Rhode Island. People from around the Nation and around the
globe visit our wonderful beaches and beautiful Narragansett Bay, and
they drive a huge amount of our economic activity. In 2018, Rhode
Island's Commerce Corporation reckons 25 million people visited our
State, supporting $100 million in State and local tax revenue and over
86,000 jobs. In total, travelers to Rhode Island generated $6.8 billion
in our economy. Our coast attracts that economic activity. It is a big
deal for us.
Rhode Island isn't alone. Over half of Americans live in a coastal
county. Nearly 60 percent of the Nation's gross domestic product
derives from coastal counties. According to the American Shore and
Beach Preservation Association, ``more than twice as many people
visited America's coasts as visit State and national parks combined;
consequently 85 percent of all tourism related revenue in the U.S. is
generated in coastal States where beaches are the leading attraction.
Beach tourism supports 2.5 million jobs, $285 billion in direct revenue
and . . . $45 billion in taxes annually.''
For all that, the Land and Water Conservation Fund gives 40 cents to
coastal States for every dollar that it sends to inland States. That 40
cents is per capita, not adjusted for the great coastal economic
activity and greater
[[Page S2847]]
coastal tax revenue, and it doesn't adjust for upland uses in coastal
States. Coasts are overlooked.
I wish it were just the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Look at the
inland-to-coastal disparity in the Army Corps' Flood and Coastal Storm
Damage Reduction Fund. Over the past 10 years, the Corps has spent out
of that fund, in various years, between 19 and 120 times more on inland
work than it has spent on coastal work. Let me repeat that: $19 to 1
coastal dollar was our coast's best year and 120 inland dollars to 1
coastal dollar was our worst.
Coastal communities are exposed to storms, to sea level rise, to
shifting fisheries, to all manner of other conservation and
infrastructure challenges, but across the decade, they received less
than 3 pennies out of each dollar spent from an Army Corps program that
has ``coastal'' in its name.
This persistent and unfair imbalance against coasts ignores the
massive and unique risks that coastal communities, coastal features,
coastal infrastructure, and coastal economies now face. Look at the
dire warnings of coastal property value crash. Freddie Mac, which is
not an environmental group, has estimated that somewhere between $238
and $507 billion worth of coastal real estate will be gone, below sea
level, by 2100. Freddie Mac warns about that: ``The economic losses and
social disruption [of that] . . . are likely to be greater in coastal
than those experienced in the housing crisis and Great Recession.''
Are we listening?
Along the east coast, the First Street Foundation estimates property
values already took a $15 billion hit due to sea level rise. The
Providence Journal, using First Street and Columbia University data,
reported that Rhode Island lost over $44 million in relative coastal
property value from 2005 to 2017. First Street data show that Maine,
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island lost a combined $403
million during that stretch. Hundreds of millions of dollars are gone
already, and the worst is yet to come.
Look elsewhere along the coast. Do you want to know why Senator
Cassidy is so motivated? His entire Louisiana coast is in a declared
state of emergency. A recent headline from the Times Picayune said: ``
`We're screwed': The only question is how quickly Louisiana wetlands
will vanish, study says.''
That Tulane University study says sea level rise will flood 5,800
square miles of Louisiana coastal wetlands. The report concludes:
``This is a major threat not only to one of the ecologically richest
environments of the United States but also for the 1.2 million
inhabitants and associated economic assets that are surrounded by
Mississippi Delta marshland.''
That is obvious, but are we listening to Senator Cassidy?
In Florida, coastal communities already see flooded streets on sunny
days. Researchers project over 2\1/2\ feet of sea level rise in the
next 40 years affecting 120,000 Florida coastal properties in or near
rising seas. Some studies say Miami Beach's iconic South Beach has 2
decades left. Communities in southern Florida are considering
abandoning public infrastructure to the sea because of the sticker
shock of protecting it.
Fish, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, and other sea creatures have
washed up dead on Florida beaches due to toxic algae as the oceans
there warm. The iconic Everglades are imperiled
Who is listening?
In North Carolina, the Outer Banks face erosion and sea level rise
such that the National Parks Service warns that swathes of the area
will be inundated. As the Outer Banks wash into the sea, there go
millions of annual visitors, thousands of local jobs, and a local
economy worth over $250 million.
Over 5,500 homes in coastal Texas are projected to flood in the next
decade. These homes are worth $1.2 billion.
Coastal South Carolina, just since 2017, has been hit by four
different billion-dollar hurricanes.
The list of what our coasts are facing goes on and on, and the
projected losses are enormous. Here is Moody's Investor Service's
warning for coastal communities issuing bonds:
The growing effects of climate change, including climbing
global temperatures, and rising sea levels, are forecast to
have an increasing economic impact on U.S. State and local
issuers. This will be a growing negative credit factor for
issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation
strategies.
I would like to ask my colleagues, if you are a small community on
the coast, where are you going to go to get sufficient adaptation and
mitigation strategies for Moody's? Where are we in helping those
communities?
Here is the Union of Concerned Scientists: ``By the end of the 21st
century, nearly 2.5 million residential and commercial properties,
collectively valued today at $1.07 trillion today, will be at risk of
chronic flooding.''
Chronic flooding makes those properties uninsurable and
unmortgageable, which is one of the reasons for Freddie Mac's warning
about a coastal property value crash. The Land and Water Conservation
Fund is not listening.
Our coastal public lands and resources, like coastal private
property, face enormous peril, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund
virtually ignores that peril. That is why I am offering a commonsense,
bipartisan amendment--not a spoiler amendment, not a partisan
amendment, not a ``gotcha'' amendment, not a poison pill. It is a
commonsense, bipartisan amendment. My amendment takes nothing away from
the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It leaves the Land and Water
Conservation Fund and its upland bias intact. It separately provides
coastal revenues dedicated from offshore wind and renewable energy
development to support coastal States, coastal resiliency, coastal
infrastructure, and coastal adaptation.
Unless we do this, millions of dollars in offshore wind energy
revenues will bypass coasts and go straight to the Federal Treasury,
unlike offshore oil and gas energy revenues, which go in significant
part both to Gulf Coast States and, ironically, to the predominantly
upland and inland projects of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge our landlocked colleagues their
funding. I do begrudge them refusing me the opportunity to add
something for coasts. There should be a coastal and saltwater program
to balance the upland and freshwater bias of the Land and Water
Conservation Fund.
Our landlocked colleagues are wrong to stop this amendment. It does
them no harm. The situation along our coasts is dangerous and
worsening. Let me repeat that. The situation along our coasts is
dangerous and worsening. I am going to vote for this bill, but I will
do so, as I said, with a heavy and frustrated heart.
I will continue pushing as hard as I can for the day when we get
parity for coastal communities because what we are doing here by
refusing this amendment is both shortsighted and unfair.
This is not my first rodeo on this subject. I have to tell you that I
am sick to death of people telling me: You are right; we need to do
something for coasts. And then, as soon as the Land and Water
Conservation Fund passes, they are gone--``zippo,'' vanished.
My environmental friends say: You are right, Sheldon. Just help us on
this, and we will help you with coasts.
And then you don't.
My colleagues say: You are right, Sheldon. Just help us on this, and
we will help you with coasts.
And then you don't.
And now, by making the Land and Water Conservation Fund permanent, we
are permanently baking in its inland and its upland bias, and there is
nothing added for coasts, and everyone is saying: Yes, you are right,
Sheldon, but just help us on this, and we will help you with coasts.
Well, my friends, bitter experience tells me otherwise. But you will
have my vote, and you will have my help to protect your inland and
fresh water resources, as we should, and we from coasts and saltwater
States will, again, have to await our day. Today is not our day in
coastal States. Today is not our day, but maybe one day--and one day
soon, I pray--all this talk will finally turn into action for our
coasts. A sense of decency and a sense of urgency would both seem to
demand that.
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. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
[[Page S2848]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, the Senate is considering landmark
legislation. I call it that because it is indeed landmark legislation,
but also it is about the great landmarks of our Nation.
We have a chance to lead this country this week with a historic
package of bills. The Great American Outdoors Act combines the Land and
Water Conservation Fund--our crown jewel of conservation programs--with
the Restore Our Parks Act, legislation which would help to make a
dent--help to catch up on our deferred maintenance backlog throughout
our National Park System. It is more than just our national parks,
though; it addresses the needs of our National Forest System, our
Bureau of Land Management lands, Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as
the Bureau of Indian Education.
This legislation affects all four corners of Colorado, but it also
affects every part of this country. In fact, this chart shows a map of
the States that get support from the Great American Outdoors Act, shown
in green. The States that don't get support from the Great American
Outdoors Act are highlighted in orange. It may be hard to see because
there are no orange-highlighted States. Every State in the Union
receives support through the Great American Outdoors Act, from sea to
shining sea.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Restore Our Parks Act, and
the Great American Outdoors Act will provide billions of dollars in
opportunities for recreation, hiking, fishing, camping, conservation,
and access to lands that the public already held but didn't have access
to until the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Ninety-nine percent of
the land and water conservation funds go to lands the American people
already hold, inholdings within a national park. In fact, one of the
most recent purchases the Land and Water Conservation Fund performed in
Colorado was in Rocky Mountain National Park, acquiring one of the land
holdings within the national park, helping to complete the great Rocky
Mountain National Park, the third most visited national park in the
country.
This legislation gives this Congress a chance to lead on a bill that
affects everyone, from Maine to California, from Texas to Alaska, from
Maine to Hawaii, Hawaii to Utah, Utah to Alaska, and beyond.
I know there are some who believe this is a Federal land grab. That
simply is not true. As I mentioned, 99 percent of the dollars in the
Land and Water Conservation Fund go to purchasing inholdings.
There are some who believe this is mandatory spending. Remember how
this bill was passed. In 1965, the Land and Water Conservation Fund was
authorized at $900 million a year. It was authorized to take certain
dollars over time, and it became $900 million, but it only reached that
level twice in the history of the program.
Throughout the past 55 years, though, dollars had been diverted away
from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. What this legislation does
through its permanent funding is make sure the dollars we authorized
beginning in 1965 and reaffirmed by this Congress in the permanent
authorization in the John Dingell Conservation, Management, and
Recreation Act by a vote of 92 to 8--to make sure those funds would not
get diverted and to stop funds from being syphoned off and instead go
to what they were intended to go to in the Land and Water Conversation
Fund beginning in 1965. We have an opportunity to stop that diversion.
This is not new. This is paid for--not by the taxpayers but by oil
and gas revenues. These dollars are generated from the revenues that
come from offshore. Those energy revenues--the boat excise tax, the
boat fuel excise tax, and a couple of other allocations--it is not
coming from the taxpayers.
It is an opportunity to protect our land, our most precious spaces,
to catch up on our deferred maintenance of national parks, and to make
sure we are doing that across the country without costing the taxpayers
money.
This land is purchased. There is no Federal land grab. There is no
eminent domain. They don't use eminent domain for this. There is no
premium that the Federal Government gets to buy land to crowd out other
people. There is a formula that is used that doesn't allow for
premiums. So this, indeed, is another stick in the bundle of property
rights for landowners.
We also know the positive impact this bill has right now on our
economy. You know, when we started working on this legislation, we were
talking about its economic impact and what it would mean, but we were
talking about it in terms of the overall outdoor recreation economy,
which in Colorado is $28 billion and growing. There are 5.2 million
Americans employed in the recreation economy.
When COVID hit, we saw what happened in western Colorado as ski
slopes shut down 2 months early and as hotels and restaurants emptied.
This bill will create over 100,000 jobs, restoring our national parks,
repairing trails and forest systems. It does so at a time when we have
high unemployment rates in those communities surrounded by public lands
because of the shutdown as a result of the coronavirus.
This is an economic and jobs package as much as it is a conservation
package. For every $1 million we spend in the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, it supports between 16 and 30 jobs. It is our chance
to not only protect our environment, to catch up on deferred
maintenance, but also to grow our economy when our economy needs the
growth.
After spending the last several months in the great indoors, it is
time to get out to the great outdoors, and this bill accomplishes both
of those goals.
It is historic in another way. We received support from over 850
groups across the country representing significant spectrums of
purposes and ideologies, from sportsmen, to The Nature Conservancy, to
all the groups who touted this effort. This is a list of over 850
groups strongly supporting this legislation.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter from these
850-plus organizations be printed in the Record
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[May 11, 2020]
Support for the Great American Outdoors Act
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Minority
Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McCarthy: Our
organizations, and the members we represent, strongly support
passage and subsequent enactment of the Great American
Outdoors Act (S. 3422) as quickly as possible. This bill is
necessary to support the public lands we all rely upon by
achieving the twin goals of protecting America's special
places and repairing deteriorating infrastructure. We urge
you to vote in favor of this crucial legislation and to
oppose any amendments to it.
The bill will help address priority repairs in our national
parks and on other public lands by directing up to $9.5
billion over five years to address maintenance needs within
the National Park System, other public land agencies, and
Bureau of Indian Education schools. It will also fully and,
permanently dedicate $900 million per year already being
deposited into the Land and Water Conservation Fund, our
nation's most important conservation program, to ensure
protection of and access to irreplaceable lands and local
recreation opportunities.
This legislation was introduced on March 9 and has the
strong bipartisan support of a majority of the Senate. It is
consistent with legislation supported by a surpassing
bipartisan majority in the House, and the President has
specifically requested this bill for his signature, creating
an unprecedented opportunity for a historic win for the
American public and the places they care about.
The Great American Outdoors Act will ensure a future for
nature to thrive, kids to play, and hunters and anglers to
enjoy. National parks and public lands provide access to the
outdoors for hundreds of millions of people every year and
habitat for some of our country's most iconic wildlife. These
treasured places also tell the stories that define and unite
us as a nation. Funds provided in this bill will secure these
vital resources while preserving water quantity and quality,
sustaining working landscapes and rural economies, increasing
access for recreation for all Americans no matter where they
live, and fueling the juggernaut of our outdoor economy.
In 2018, over 318 million national park visits led to $20.2
billion in direct spending at hotels, restaurants,
outfitters, and other amenities in gateway communities,
supporting over 329,000 jobs and generating over $40.1
billion in total economic output. Nationally, outdoor
recreation contributes $778 billion in consumer spending and
supports 5.2 million jobs.
The Great American Outdoors Act will ensure that our parks
and other public lands continue to preserve our nation's
heritage and recreation opportunities, and that local
communities and economies in these areas will continue to
flourish.
[[Page S2849]]
We urge you to support our parks and public lands by voting
for the Great American Outdoors Act (S. 3422) as a clean bill
with no amendments. Thank you for considering this request.
Sincerely,
National
American Battlefield Trust; American Conservation
Coalition; American Endurance Ride Conference; American
Forests; American Hiking Society; American Horse Council;
American Littoral Society; American Mountain Guides
Association; American Rivers; American Society of Civil
Engineers; American Sportfishing Association; American
Trails; American Woodcock Society; Appalachian Mountain Club;
Appalachian Trail Conservancy; Archery Trade Association;
Audubon Naturalist Society; Back Country Horsemen of America;
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers; Bonefish & Tarpon Trust; Boone
and Crockett Club; City Parks Alliance; Clean Water Action;
Cliff Garten and Associates Inc.; Coalition for American
Heritage; Coalition to Protect America's National Parks;
Coalitions & Collaboratives.
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation; Continental Divide
Trail Coalition; Defenders of Wildlife; Diving Equipment &
Marketing Association; Docomomo US; Environment America; Fly
Fishers International; GreenLatinos; Heart of the Rockies
Initiative; HECHO (Hispanics enjoying Camping Hunting and the
Outdoors); Hipcamp; Hispanic Access Foundation; Hispanic
Federation; Izaak Walton League of America; Just Get
Outdoors; Land Trust Alliance; League of Conservation Voters;
Marine Retailers Association of the Americas; Moonshot
Missions; Motorcycle Industry Council; National Association
of RV Parks and Campgrounds; National Coast Trail
Association; National Deer Alliance; National Forest
Recreation Association; National Marine Manufacturers
Association; National Park Foundation; National Park
Hospitality Association.
National Parks Conservation Association; National
Recreation and Park Association; National Shooting Sports
Foundation; National Trust for Historic Preservation;
National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary; Route
Association; National Wildlife Federation; National Wildlife
Refuge Association; Natural Gear Camouflage; Natural
Resources Defense Council; Outdoor Alliance; Outdoor Industry
Association; Outdoor Recreation Roundtable; Pacific Crest
Trail Association; Partnership for the National Trails
System; Patagonia; PeopleForBikes; Piragis Northwoods Co;
Public Lands Alliance; Quality Deer Management Association;
Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association; REI Co-op;
Ruffed Grouse Society; RV Industry Association; Scenic
America; Sierra Club; Society of Outdoor Recreation
Professionals; Specialty Equipment Marketing Association.
Specialty Vehicle Institute of America; Student
Conservation Association; Surfrider Foundation; The
Archaeological Conservancy; The Brice Institute; The
Conservation Alliance; The Conservation Fund; The Corps
Network; The Cougar Fund; The Evangelical Environmental
Network; The Garden Club of America, Inc.; The Lyme Timber
Company; The Nature Conservancy; The Pew Charitable Trusts;
The Trumpeter Swan Society; The Trust for Public Land; The
Trust for the National Mall; The Wilderness Land Trust; The
Wilderness Society; The Wildlife Society; Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation Partnership; United States Tour Operators
Association; UrbanPromise Ministries; US Water Alliance;
Wildlands Network; Winter Wildlands Alliance.
Regional
Accokeek Foundation; American Farmland Trust--Pacific
Northwest; Assateague Coastal Trust; Blue Mountain Land
Trust; Chesapeake Conservancy; Damascus Citizens For
Sustainability; Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine;
Reclamation; Great Divide Pictures; Great Smoky Mountains
Association; Kaniksu Land Trust; MassConn Sustainable Forest
Partnership; Montana Conservation Corps; Natchez Trace
Parkway Association; National Bobwhite Conservation
Initiative; New England Forestry Foundation; Nez Perce Trail
Foundation; Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness; Northern
Forest Center; Northwest Youth Corps; Northwoods Alliance
Inc.; Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project; Old Spanish Trail
Association.
Opacum Land Trust; Open Space Institute; Openlands;
Partners in Forestry Coop; Partnership for the Delaware
Estuary; Potomac Chapter, American Society of Landscape
Architects; Potomac Riverkeeper Network; Potomac Valley
Audubon Society; Rock Creek Conservancy; San Juan Citizens
Alliance; Santa Fe Trail Assoc; Singletrack Trails Inc.;
Southeast Tourism Society; Southeastern Climbers Coalition;
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy; Sustainable
Northwest; The Anza Trail Foundation; The Lands Council; The
Mountain Pact; Upper Saco Valley Land Trust; Western National
Parks Association; Western Rivers Conservancy; Wild Salmon
Center.
State and Local
10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania; 15 Minute Field Trips; 1785
Inn; 350 Maine; 508 Main St; A Walk in the Woods;
AdventureKEEN; Adventures on the Gorge; Ala Kahakai Trail
Association; Alachua Conservation Trust; Alamosa Convention &
Visitors Bureau; Alaska Alpine Adventures, LLC; Alaska State
Parks; Alaska Trails; Alice Austen House; Alice Ferguson
Foundation; All Good; Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance; Alliance
for the Shenandoah Valley; Amazing Earthfest; American
Anthropological Association; American Society of Landscape
Architects; American Society of Landscape Architects--Prairie
Gateway Chapter; American Society of Landscape Architects--
Alabama Chapter; American Society of Landscape Architects--
Kentucky Chapter; Anacostia Watershed Society; Andy Laub
Films.
Angler Action Foundation; Animaashi Sailing Company; Anza-
Borrego Foundation; Aquanauts Adaptive Aquatics, Inc.;
AQuashicola/Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy; Arboretum
Foundation; Archaeological Society of New Jersey; Archaeology
Southwest; Arizona Heritage Alliance; Arizona Land and Water
Trust; Arizona Trail Association; Arkansas Hospitality
Association; Arkansas Wildlife Federation; Arroyos and
Foothills Conservancy; Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce;
Ashford Conservation Commission; Aspen Valley Land Trust;
Atlantic Salmon Federation; Audubon Everglades; Audubon
Society of Rhode Island; Audubon South Carolina; Back Country
Horsemen of Colorado; Back Country Horsemen of Uwharrie, NC;
Backcountry Horsemen of California; Baltimore Tree Trust; Bar
Harbor Chamber of Commerce; Bass Anglers Sportsman Society
(B.A.S.S.); Bay Area Ridge Trail Council; Bay County
Conservancy, Inc.; Bayou Land Conservancy; Bear Warriors
United; Bicycle Coalition of Maine.
Big Hole River Foundation; Big Sur Land Trust; Big Thicket
Natural Heritage Trust; Bighorn River Alliance; Bird
Conservation Fund; Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce; Blue
Bike Burrito; Blue Goose Alliance; Blue Ridge Conservancy;
Blue Scholars Initiative; Blue Water Baltimore; Bold Archery
Design; Boone Area Chamber of Commerce; Boston Harbor Now;
Boulder County; Boulder County Parks & Open Space; Bowling
Green Area Convention and Visitor Bureau; Brandywine
Conservancy; Bryson City Outdoors Inc.; Bucks County Audubon
Society; Building Bridges Across the River; Burney Chamber of
Commerce.
Business for Montana's Outdoors; California Habitat
Conservation Planning Coalition; California League of
Conservation Voters; California Mountain Biking Alliance;
California Native Plant Society; California Waterfowl
Association; California Wilderness Coalition; Californians
for Western Wilderness; Camp Denali; Cape Coral Friends of
Wildlife; Capital Region Land Conservancy; Carefree of
Colorado; Catawba Lands Conservancy; Catawba Lands
Conservancy and Carolina Thread Trail; Catskill Center for
Conservation and Development, Inc.; Central Arizona Land
Trust; Charleston Audubon; Charlevoix Main Street DDA;
Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy; Chelan-Douglas Land Trust;
Cherry Republic; Chesapeake Legal Alliance; Chesapeake
Wildlife Heritage; Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce; Chicago
Neighborhood Initiatives; Chickasaw Nation.
Chispa Arizona; Chuck Robbins Chapter 656 of Trout
Unlimited; Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture);
Citizens For Water; Citizens United to Protect the Maurice
River; City of Michigan City Indiana Department of Parks and
Recreation; City of Roseburg; Clean Ocean Access; Coalition
of Oregon Land Trusts; College Republicans at Belmont
University; Collette Travel; Colorado Mountain Club; Colorado
Youth Corps Association; Columbia Land Trust; Community
Training Works Inc.; Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists
Association; Concrete Safaris Inc.; Congaree Land Trust;
Connecticut Audubon Society; Connecticut Forest & Park
Association; Connecticut Land Conservation Council;
Connecticut Ornithology Association; Conservancy for Cuyahoga
Valley National Park; Conservation Alabama; Conservation
Council For Hawaii; Conservation Legacy; Conservation
Minnesota; Conservation Northwest; Conservation Trust for NC;
Conservation Voters of South Carolina; Conserving Carolina;
Contour Design Studio LLC.
Cornerstone Studios; Cowboy Trail Rides; Cradle of Texas
Conservancy, Inc.; Cycle for One Planet; Cypress Chapter,
Izaak Walton League; Dade Heritage Trust, Inc.; Dana Bronfman
LLC; Darby Communications; Davidson Lands Conservancy;
Delaware Center for the Inland Bays; Delaware Electric
Vehicle Association (DEEVA); Delaware Greenways; Delaware
Nature Society; Delaware Wild Lands, Inc.; Delta Waterfowl;
Denali Citizens Council; Denali Mountain Works; Deschutes
Land Trust; Dishman Hills Conservancy; Dolores River Boating
Advocates; Door County Kayak Tours, llc.; Downeast Salmon
Federation; Dry Creek Trial Riders; E Mau Na Ala Hele; Eagle
Valley Land Trust; EarthCorps.
East Bay Regional Park District; East Bay Regional Parks
Association; East Coast Greenway Alliance; East Cooper Land
Trust; Eastern RI Conservation District; Eastern Sierra Land
Trust; Eastham Chamber of Commerce; Ecological Connections;
Edward Hopper House; Elks Run Watershed Group; Empire Chamber
of Commerce; Enchanted Circle Trails Association; Endangered
Habitats League; Eno River Association; Environment
California; Environment Colorado; Environment Connecticut;
Environment Florida; Environment for the Americas;
Environment Georgia; Environment Maine; Environment Maryland;
Environment Massachusetts; Environment Michigan; Environment
Minnesota; Environment Missouri; Environment Montana;
Environment NC; Environment Nevada; Environment New Jersey;
Environment New Mexico; Environment Oregon; Environment
Texas; Environment Virginia; Environmental Justice Center at
Chestnut Hill.
[[Page S2850]]
United Church; Estes Park ATV rentals; Evergreen Mountain
Bike Alliance; Excelsior Sewing LLC.; Experience Learning;
Explore Asheville; Flathead Lakers; Flathead Land Trust;
Florida Bay Forever; Florida Chapter of the American Society
of Landscape Architects; Florida Keys Environmental Fund,
Inc.; Florida Trail Association; Florida Trust for Historic
Preservation; Florida Wildlife Federation; Foothills
Conservancy of North Carolina; Footloose Montana; Forest
issues Group; Forests Forever; ForeverGreen Trails; Forterra;
Four Corners Back Country Horsemen; Frankfort-Elberta Area
Chamber of Commerce; Friends of Acadia; Friends of Apostle
Islands National Lakeshore; Friends of Arthur R. Marshall
Loxahatchee; National Wildlife Refuge.
Friends of Blackwater, Inc.; Friends of Friendship of
Salem; Friends of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park; Friends of
Ironwood Forest; Friends of Johnston, Inc.; Friends of
Katahdin Woods and Waters; Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic
Gardens; Friends of Lafitte Greenway; Friends of Lower Haw
River State Natural Area; Friends of Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge; Friends of Metro Parks; Friends of Nevada
Wilderness; Friends of Nulhegan Basin Fish and Wildlife
Refuge, Inc.; Friends of Quincy Run Watershed; Friends of
Shiloh National Park; Friends of the A.R.M. Loxahatchee
National Wildlife Refuge; Friends of the Big Sioux River;
Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands Inc.; Friends of the
Cheat; Friends of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area;
Friends of the Desert Mountains; Friends of the Heinz Refuge;
Friends of the Inyo; Friends of the Mariana Trench; Friends
of the Mississippi River; Friends of the Moshassuck; Friends
of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail; Friends of the Oregon Caves
and Chateau; Friends of the Rappahannock; Friends of the San
Pedro River, Inc.; Friends of the Sonoran Desert.
Friends of the Upper Delaware River; Friends of Valle de
Oro National Wildlife Refuge; Friends of Women's Rights
National Historical Park, Inc.; Gaia Graphics Associates;
Gallatin Valley Land Trust; Gathering Waters: Wisconsin's
Alliance for Land Trusts; Genesee Valley Audubon Society;
George Grant Chapter Trout Unlimited; Georges River Land
Trust; Georgia Chapter--American Society of Landscape
Architects (ASLA); Georgia Conservation Voters; Georgia River
Network; GERRY Outdoors; Gilroy Growing Smarter, Gilroy
Historical Society; Golden Properties; Goulding's Lodge;
Grand Canyon Conservancy; Great Basin Institute; Great Egg
Harbor Watershed Association; Great Outdoor Store; Great Pond
Mountain Conservation Trust; Greater Hells Canyon Council;
Greater Lovell Land Trust.
Greater Munising Bay Partnership/Alger County Chamber;
Greater New Jersey Motorcoach Association; Greater
Philadelphia Cultural Alliance; Greater Yellowstone
Coalition; Green Horizon Land Trust, Inc.; Green Valleys
Watershed Association; Greens N Grains; Greensboro Land
Trust; Greenwood SC Chamber of Commerce; Groundwork Lawrence;
Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust; Guam Preservation Trust;
Guardians of the Brandywine; Harriet Tubman Boosters, Inc.;
Hawaii Audubon Society; Hawaii Department of Land and Natural
Resources; Henderson County Tourism Development Authority;
Hendry-Glades Audubon Society; Henrys Fork Wildlife Alliance;
Hill Country Conservancy; Hill Country Land Trust; Historic
Atlanta; Historic Boston Inc.; Historic Madison, Inc;
Historic Pullman Foundation; History Nebraska; Hoosier
Environmental Council; HospitalityMaine; Hudson Highlands
Land Trust.
Idaho--Montana Chapter of American Society of Landscape
Architects; Idaho Coalition of Land Trusts; Illinois Division
of the Izaak Walton League; Illinois Environmental Council;
Indiana Chapter ASLA; Indiana Dunes Tourism; Indiana Forest
Alliance; Indiana Parks Alliance; Indigo Bluffs RV Park &
Resort; Institute for Ecological Health; Interfaith Partners
for the Chesapeake; International Inbound Travel Association;
Izaak Walton League--Cypress Chapter; Jackson Hole
Conservation Alliance; James River Association; Jefferson
County Convention & Visitors Bureau; Jefferson County
Democratic Party; Jefferson County Open Space; John Burroughs
Association; Joshua's Tract Conservation & Historic Trust,
Inc.; Kalmiopsis Audubon Society; Kansas Land Trust; Katmai
Conservancy; Kennebec Land Trust; Kentucky Association of
Convention and Visitors Bureaus; Kentucky Travel Industry
Association; Kern Audubon Society; Kestrel Land Trust;
Kingsport Chamber; Kingston Greenways Association; LA
Conservation Corps.
Lafayette Flats Boutique Vacation Rentals; Lafayette Inn;
Lake Charles/SWLA CVB; Lake Hopatcong Foundation; Land Trust
of Napa County; Landmarks Illinois; LANL Foundation; League
of Women Voters Iowa; Lemhi Regional Land Trust; Leominster
Trail Stewards; Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation,
Inc.; Lewis and Clark Trust, Inc.; Linn County Conservation
Board; Littleton Conservation Trust; Loon Echo Land Trust;
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust; Los Angeles River State
Park Partners; Los Padres ForestWatch; Loudoun Wildlife
Conservancy; Louisiana Hypoxia Working Group; Louisville
Tourism; Lowcountry Land Trust; Lowelifes Respectable
Citizens Club; Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust; Lower
Nehalem Community Trust; Lummi Island Heritage Trust.
LuvTrails Inc; LWV Mid-Hudson Region; MA Association of
Conservation Commissions; Magic City Fly Fishers Trout
Unlimited 582; Mahoosuc Land Trust; Mahoosuc Pathways, Inc.;
Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust; Maine Audubon; Maine
Conservation Voters; Maine Outdoor Brands; Maine Outdoor
Coalition; Maine Outdoors; Maine Recreation and Parks
Association; Maine Tourism Association; Mainspring
Conservation Trust, Inc.; Manassas Battlefield Trust; Maple
Street Bed and Breakfast; Maryland League of Conservation
Voters; Maryland Native Plant Society; Massachusetts
Historical Society; Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition;
Mayfly Outdoors; Mayo Civic Association, Inc.; McKenzie River
Trust; MCM Company, Inc.; Mendocino Land Trust; Miami
Waterkeeper; Michigan Bed & Breakfast Assoc; Michigan League
of Conservation Voters; Midpeninsula Regional Open Space
District; Mile High Youth Corps; Miles Partnership; Mill
Basin Civic Association; Millennium Development; Milwaukee
Preservation Alliance; Milwaukee Riverkeeper; Minnechaug Land
Trust; Minnesota Chapter of The Wildlife Society; Minnesota
Office of School Trust Lands.
Minnesota School Trust Lands Commission; Miriam's Inspired
Skin Care; Missouri Life magazine; Missouri Parks
Association; Missouri Prairie Foundation; MN House District
10B; Mojave Desert Land Trust; Molokai Land Trust; Monmouth
Conservation Foundation; Monocacy National Battlefield
Foundation; Monson Conservation Commission; Montachusett
Regional Trails Coalition; Montana Association of Land
Trusts; Montana Outdoors Foundation; Montana Trout Unlimited;
Montana Wilderness Association; Montana Wildlife Federation;
Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area; Mormon Trails
Association; Morris County Tourism Bureau; Mountain Mamas;
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust; MS Tourism Association;
Musconetcong Watershed Association; Mystery Ranch;
Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau; National
Aquarium; National Aviation Heritage Alliance; National Pony
Express Assoc.; Native Fish Society; Native Prairies
Association of Texas; Natural Lands; Natural Resources
Council of Maine.
Nature for All; Naturesource Communications; NEMO
Equipment, Inc.; Nevada Outdoor School; New Hampshire
Audubon; New Hampshire Rivers Council; New Jersey Audubon;
New Jersey Campground Owners and Outdoor Lodging Association;
New Jersey Conservation Foundation; New Jersey Highlands
Coalition; New Jersey Recreation & Park Association; New
Jersey Sustainable Business Council; New Mexico
Archaeological Council; New Mexico Horse Council; New Mexico
Wild; New River Conservancy; New York League of Conservation
Voters; New York-New Jersey Trail Conference; Nisqually Land
Trust; No Barriers USA; Norcross Wildlife Foundation; North
American Grouse Partnership; North Carolina Coastal Land
Trust; North Carolina Friends of State Parks; North Carolina
Outdoor Recreation Coalition; North Carolina Wildlife
Federation; North Cascades Institute.
North Country Trail Association; North Florida Land Trust;
North Shore Community Land Trust; North Shore Land Alliance;
Northern Forest Canoe Trail; Northern Prairies Land Trust;
Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative; Northern Virginia
Conservation Trust; Northstar Canoes; Northwest Rafting
Company; Northwest Watershed Institute; Norwell Conservation
Commission; NW WI Equestrian Friends Network; NY/NJ
Baykeeper; NYH2o; Ocmulgee Mounds Association; Ocmulgee
National Park & Preserve Initiative; Ocmulgee Outdoor
Expeditions, LLC; Ohio Mayors Alliance; Ohio Veterans
Outdoors, Inc.; Opossum Creek Retreat LLC; Oregon Chapter of
American Society of Landscape Architects; Oregon Desert Land
Trust; Oregon Equestrian Trails; Oregon Outdoors Coalition;
Otsego County Conservation Association; Our Montana, Inc;
Outdoor Afro; Outdoor Alliance California; Outdoor Gear
Builders of WNC; Outer Banks Visitors Bureau; Over Mountain
Victory Trail Association; Pacific Forest Trust; Pacific
Northwest Trail Association; Pajarito Environmental Education
Center; Park Rx America; Park Watershed; Parks & Trails New
York; Parks California; Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN);
Pawtuxet River Authority; Peace River Audubon Society.
Pee Dee Land Trust; Peninsula Open Space Trust;
PennEnvironment; Pennsylvania Council of Churches;
Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation; Pennsylvania
Recreation and Park Society; Peoria Audubon Society;
Petersburg Battlefields Foundation; Pheasants Forever and
Quail Forever; Pie Ranch; Piedmont Land Conservancy; Pikes
Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance; Pinelands Preservation
Alliance; Platte Land Trust; Pocono Heritage Land Trust;
Prairie Rivers of Iowa; Preservation New Jersey; Preserve
Arkansas; Presumpscot Regional Land Trust; Public Land
Solutions; Quimby Family Foundation; R&R Fly Fishing Guide
Service; Rangeley Area Chamber of Commerce; Rappahannock
League for Environmental Protection; Rappahannock Tribe; Red
Rooster Coffee House; Revolution House Media; Rhode Island
Bicycle Coalition; Rio Grande Valley Broadband of the Great
Old Broads for Wilderness.
River Through Atlanta Guide Service; RiverLink; Rocky
Mountain Conservancy; Rocky Mountain Field Institute; Rocky
Mountain Youth Corps; Ruffwear; Rutabaga Paddlesports;
Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust; San Bernardino Mountains Land
Trust; San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society; San
[[Page S2851]]
Diego Audubon Society; San Diego Mountain Biking Association;
San Juan Back Country Horsemen; San Luis Valley Great
Outdoors; Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation; Santa
Clara Valley Open Space Authority; Santosha on the Ridge;
Save Historic Antietam Foundation, Inc.; Save Our Heritage
Organization (SOHO); Save The Lakes Rhode Island; Save the
Redwoods League; Scenic Galveston, Inc.; Scenic Rivers Land
Trust; Scenic Virginia; Schuylkill Headwaters Association;
Scottsbluff/Gering United Chamber; Sea and Sage Audubon
Society; See Plymouth; Sequoia Riverlands Trust; Sereia
Films; Sevier County.
Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition; Sheridan Community
Land Trust; Shine Beer Sanctuary & Bottleshop; Shirley Heinze
Land Trust; Sierra Foothills Audubon Society; Siskiyou
Outdoor Recreation Alliance; Skagit Audubon Society; Sleepy
Creek Watershed Association; Smith River Alliance; Snake
River Fund; Snowy Mountain Chapter Trout Unlimited #610; Soap
Creek Outfitters LLC; Society for Historical Archaeology;
Society for the Protection of NH Forests; Sonoma Land Trust;
Soul River Inc.; South Carolina Wildlife Federation; South
Coast Tours; South Dakota Hotel & Lodging Association; South
Florida Wildlands Association; Southern Maine Conservation
Collaborative; Southern Nevada Conservancy; Southern Off-Road
Bicycle Association; Speak Up Wekiva, Inc.; Spice Acres in
the CVNP; St. Croix River Association; St. Mary's River
Watershed Association; Studio ray; Superior Hiking Trail
Association; Susquehanna National Heritage Area; Tangled Up
In Hue; Teens to Trails; Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness
Planning; Tennessee College Democrats; Tennessee College
Republican Committee; Tennessee Conservation Voters; Texas
Land Conservancy; Texas Land Trust Council; The Carpenters'
Company; The Cultural Landscape Foundation; The Custer
Beacon.
The Friends of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge; The
Good Talk, LLC; The Jersey Shore Partnership; The Land
Conservancy for Southern Chester County (TLC); The Land
Conservancy of New Jersey; The Land Trust for Santa Barbara
County; The Mountaineers; The Oblong Land Conservancy; The
Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund; The Open Space
Council for the St. Louis Region; The Otos Group, LLC; The
Piedmont Environmental Council; The Star-Spangled Banner Flag
House; The Trustees; The UNPavement; The Vital Ground
Foundation; The Wetlands Conservancy; The Wetlands
Initiative; The Wilderness Society--Wyoming; The Wildlands
Conservancy; The ZaneRay Group; Three Rivers Land Trust;
Tishomingo County Tourism Council; TOGETHER Bay Area;
Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed; Partnership; Town of
Athol, Massachusetts, Open Space And Recreation Committee;
Town of Littleton Parks and Rec; Town of Lyme Open Space
Commission; Town of Palmer Conservation Commission; Trail
Angels; Trails Inspire, LLC; Trails Utah.
Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority;
Travelers' Rest Connection; Traverse City Tourism; Treeline
Coffee Roasters; TreePeople; Triangle Greenways Council;
Triangle Land Conservancy; TripHero; Tropical Audubon
Society; Trout Unlimited, Pat Barnes Chapter, Helena, MT;
Troyer Group; Upstate Forever; Urbana Park District; Utah
Restaurant Association; Valley Creek Restoration Partnership;
Valley Forge Park Alliance; Valley Forge Trout Unlimited;
Vancouver Audubon Society; Vast Horizons Music, Inc.; Ventana
Wilderness Alliance; Vermilionville Living History Museum;
Vermont Conservation Voters; Vermont River Conservancy;
Vinalhaven Land Trust; Virginia Conservation Network;
Virginia Eastern Shore Land Trust; Virginia League of
Conservation Voters; Visit Moffat County / Moffat County
Tourism Association; Visit Southern WV; VisitLEX; Volunteers
for Outdoor Colorado; Voyageurs National Park Association;
Walker Basin Conservancy; Wallowa Land Trust.
Ward 8 Woods Conservancy; Ward Walker 7 Oaks Ranch; Warm
Springs Watershed Association; Washington Association of Land
Trusts; Washington Conservation Voters; Washington
Environmental Council; Washington Trails Association;
Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition; Washington
Wildlife Federation; Washington's National Park Fund; Water
Stone Outdoors; West Sound Cycling Club; West Virginia
Environmental Council; West Virginia Highlands Conservancy;
West Virginia Land Trust; West Virginia Rivers Coalition;
West Virginia Wilderness Coalition; Western Foothills Land
Trust; Western Pocono Trout Unlimited; WestSlope Chapter
Trout Unlimited; Wetland Strategies and Solutions, LLC;
Whatcom Land Trust; Whitted Bowers Farm; Wilbarger Creek
Conservation Alliance; Wildlife Management Institute;
Willington Conservation Commission; Willistown Conservation
Trust; Wilmington Rowing Center; Wimberley Valley Watershed
Association; Windham Regional Commission; Wisconsin
Environment; Wissahickon Trails; Wolf Trap Foundation for the
Performing Arts; Wood River Land Trust; Wood-Pawcatuck
Watershed Association; Woonasquatucket River Watershed
Council; WV Citizen Action Group; Wyoming Outdoor Council;
Wyoming Pathways; Wyoming Untrapped; Wyoming Wilderness
Association; Wyoming Wildlife Advocates; Yellowstone River
Parks Association Inc; Yellowstone Safari Company; YMCA of
the Rockies; York Land Trust.
Mr. GARDNER. There is another historic feature I am particularly
grateful for, and that is, the previous Secretaries of the Interior
have signed a letter to Congress urging the passage of the Great
American Outdoors Act. This letter includes two Secretaries of Interior
from Colorado--Senator Ken Salazar, who was Secretary of the Interior
under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, and Secretary Gale Norton, who
was the Interior Secretary under President George W. Bush from 2001 to
2006. This letter was sent to us on June 3, 2020. It is a historic
letter with six previous Secretaries of the Interior signing on to it,
including Secretaries Zinke, Jewell, Kempthorne, Norton, and Babbitt.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter from the
Secretaries of the Interior be printed in the Record
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
June 3, 2020.
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Majority
Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer: During our time
as Secretaries of the Interior, we had the privilege and
responsibility of stewarding some of America's most
incredible landscapes and natural and cultural treasures.
Now, more than ever, we are all cognizant of the critical
role of public lands in our lives, as places to recreate, to
recharge and to seek solace in the midst of great
uncertainty--and, also, to create jobs.
Together, we write to strongly urge swift passage and
enactment of the Great American Outdoors Act (S. 3422)
without any amendments. This bill (and its expected House
companion) is critically needed to support the public lands
upon which all Americans rely. The Great American Outdoors
Act will advance the protection of America's special places
and invest in the repair and restoration of deteriorating
infrastructure. The bill will help address priority repairs
in our National Parks and on other public lands by directing
up to $9.5 billion over five years to address maintenance
needs within the National Park System, other public land
agencies, and Bureau of Indian Education schools. It will
also fully and permanently fund the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, our nation's most important conservation
program, as authorized at $900 million every year to ensure
protection of and access to our public lands.
The Great American Outdoors Act will help ensure a better,
brighter future for nature and for all of us. As Secretaries,
we have all experienced how public lands managed by the
Department provide vital functions like wildlife habit while
preserving water quantity and quality, sustaining working
landscapes and rural economies, increasing access for
recreation opportunities, and stimulating the outdoor
economy. Nationally, outdoor recreation contributes roughly
$778 billion in consumer spending and supports 5.2 million
jobs. The Great American Outdoors Act will ensure that our
parks and other public lands are maintained and enhanced so
that they can continue to provide these critical benefits for
generations to come.
We are pleased to see strong bipartisan support from the
House and Senate--and from the President--for the Great
American Outdoors Act. Americans need these public lands. And
Americans need your continued leadership to deliver this
historic legislation into law.
Sincerely,
Ryan Zinke,
Secretary of the Interior 2017-2019.
Ken Salazar,
Secretary of the Interior 2009-2013.
Gale Norton,
Secretary of the Interior 2001-2006.
Sally Jewell,
Secretary of the Interior 2013-2017.
Dirk Kempthorne,
Secretary of the Interior 2006-2009.
Bruce Babbitt,
Secretary of the Interior 1993-2001.
Mr. GARDNER. We have a chance to lead. We have a chance to show the
American people that Congress can work together. We have a chance to
show the American people that indeed Republicans and Democrats can come
together for the good of their country to provide great things for
future generations. Despite the bickering seen on nightly talk shows,
this Congress can come together and pass the Great American Outdoors
Act, which can restore faith in our government to do what people hope
we will do, and that is to come together and to work together and to
inspire each other with those dreams of previous generations who
protected our lands and had the idea and forethought to create national
parks, to create national forests, to say that there are places in our
great land
[[Page S2852]]
that can and should be enjoyed for generations to come.
It is also about ballparks and swimming pools because not all of
these dollars go to purchase land. In fact, here is a photo of a
ballpark in Pueblo, CO. Runyon Park was funded through the Land and
Water Conservation Fund. We have swimming pools across Utah and Alaska
that were funded through it as well. States determine a great portion
of it.
Listed here is Paradise Sports Park in Paradise, UT. It sounds like a
great place. In 2015, $80,000 was used for that park in Paradise.
In Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, there is the Kenai soccer park in the
city of Kenai, which received $321,000 from the Land and Water
Conservation Fund.
Let's lead. Let's inspire. Let's show the American people that,
indeed, from sea to shining sea, across America, the beautiful, the
Great American Outdoors Act can stand as a testament to a Congress that
realizes generations ahead of us need for us to work for them as well.
I will end this with a quote from the Father of Rocky Mountain
National Park, who said: ``Within National Parks is room--glorious
room--room in which to find ourselves, in which to think and hope, to
dream and plan, to rest and resolve.''
I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the motion to
proceed, the rollcall vote we are about to take. I would encourage my
colleagues to vote yes
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). All time has expired.
The question is on agreeing to the motion.
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs.
Hyde-Smith).
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr.
Markey) is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 79, nays 18, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 116 Leg.]
YEAS--79
Alexander
Baldwin
Bennet
Blackburn
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Braun
Brown
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Collins
Coons
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Cramer
Daines
Duckworth
Durbin
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Harris
Hassan
Hawley
Heinrich
Hirono
Hoeven
Jones
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Loeffler
Manchin
McConnell
McSally
Menendez
Merkley
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Roberts
Rosen
Rubio
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
Young
NAYS--18
Barrasso
Cassidy
Crapo
Cruz
Enzi
Inhofe
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Moran
Paul
Risch
Romney
Rounds
Sasse
Shelby
Toomey
NOT VOTING--3
Burr
Hyde-Smith
Markey
The motion was agreed to.
____________________