[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2853-S2859]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to move to 
legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The motion was agreed to.
  The Senator from Maryland.


                        Justice in Policing Act

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the 
Justice in Policing Act, introduced yesterday by my colleagues Senator 
Harris from California and Senator Booker from New Jersey.
  I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation. This 
legislation is urgently needed after the death of George Floyd in 
police custody in Minnesota, which has sent shock waves through the 
Nation and the world. I am pleased that the protests have been largely 
peaceful, and that where the Senate sits in Washington, our local 
leaders have moved to deescalate tensions.
  I was pleased on Monday to hold a Facebook Live session with Hillary 
Shelton, the director of the NAACP's Washington bureau and senior vice 
president for advocacy and policy, as well as Marc Morial, the 
president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League and 
the former mayor of New Orleans. We talked about this legislation in 
some detail.
  I received feedback from several of my constituents at my Facebook 
Live event on how to improve relations between police and the 
communities they serve and how to rebuild trust between them.
  Before they first put on a badge, a police officer takes an oath to 
uphold the law. Most do so with the best intentions and carry out their 
duties with a willingness to help communities. But in far too many 
communities around the country, the system in which they work has been 
failing. People are dying at the hands of police, predominantly people 
of color. Accountability has been tied to public videos rather than 
doing the right thing. Incremental reform is no longer an option when 
it comes to police reform. We have been patient, but we must do better 
to protect the civil rights, human rights, and lives of men, women, and 
children of this country.
  Congress must finally pass a comprehensive plan to improve training 
and community relations, hold police

[[Page S2854]]

accountable, and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the 
communities they serve. To that end, I have been proud to work with my 
colleagues Senator Booker and Senator Harris in creating a package of 
reforms and accountability measures that shows where we need to be as a 
nation with a fair and just system of laws.
  The package focuses on three major pillars: accountability, data 
collection, and training policies. I was proud that two major pieces 
included in the Justice in Policing Act are from bills that I have 
introduced for many Congresses: the End Racial and Religious Profiling 
Act and the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act.

  The End Racial and Religious Profiling Act is designed to enforce the 
constitutional right to equal protection under the law by eliminating 
racial- and religious-based discriminatory profiling at all levels of 
law enforcement by changing the policies and procedures. It allows 
police to focus their work more accurately rather than wasting 
resources on blanket stereotypes. It requires enhanced data collection 
for DOJ to track and monitor discriminatory profiling. It holds State 
and local enforcement agencies accountable by conditioning Federal 
funds on their adoption of policies and best practices to combat 
profiling by officers.
  The Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act takes a comprehensive 
approach on how local police organizations can adopt performance-based 
standards to ensure that instances of misconduct will be minimized 
through training and oversight. The bill provides that, if such 
instances do occur, they be properly investigated. It requires the 
creation of law enforcement accreditation standards and recommendations 
based on President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
  This bill also enhances funding for so-called pattern and practice 
discrimination cases. In Baltimore City, for example, the police 
department voluntarily entered into a consent decree in 2017 with the 
U.S. Department of Justice to overhaul the police department after the 
tragic death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015, which led to 
civil unrest in Baltimore.
  I might add, I am very pleased that we have seen progress in 
Baltimore, as evidenced by the types of protests after the Floyd 
tragedy. They have been almost all peaceful.
  In Baltimore, the Department of Justice report had found a widespread 
pattern and practice of illegal and unconstitutional conduct by the 
Baltimore Police Department through targeting African-American 
residents for disproportionate and disparate treatment. The U.S. 
District Court for the District of Maryland is now overseeing a 
complete overhaul of the Baltimore Police Department.
  We have made progress.
  Other important provisions of the Justice in Policing Act will save 
lives. The bill bans choke holds at the Federal level and conditions 
law enforcement funding on State and local governments banning choke 
holds. It bans no-knock warrants in drug cases at the Federal level and 
conditions law enforcement funding on State and local governments 
banning no-knock warrants. It requires that deadly force be used only 
as a last resort and requires officers to employ deescalation 
techniques first. It requires better data collection on how and under 
what circumstances police officers use force. We need these standards. 
We have seen too many tragedies on the misuse of power and force by law 
enforcement.
  The bill takes important steps to demilitarize our police forces--we 
are a civilian society; we are not run as a military state--and 
encourage more professionalism, consistent with changing our police 
officers' mentality from a warrior mindset to a guardian mindset.
  The legislation limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to 
State and local law enforcement. It requires Federal uniformed police 
officers to wear body cameras and requires State and local law 
enforcement to use existing Federal funds to ensure the use of police 
body cameras.
  This comprehensive legislation takes several important steps to hold 
police accountable in courts. It makes it consistent with standard 
practice to prosecute offending officers and enables individuals to 
recover damages in civil courts when law enforcement officers violate 
their constitutional rights by changing qualified immunity for law 
enforcement.
  Finally, the legislation gives better tools to the Department of 
Justice and State attorneys general to investigate and prosecute police 
misconduct. It reinvests in our communities by supporting critical 
community-based programs to change the culture of law enforcement and 
empower our communities to reimagine public safety in an equitable and 
just way.
  As I mentioned earlier, in Baltimore, after the Freddie Gray tragedy, 
we recognized that we needed to do a better job in working with 
communities and police, and we reached out. Part of our consent decree 
is to improve that relationship, that direct relationship between 
police and community.
  The legislation that I have mentioned on the floor here establishes 
public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to 
create local commissions and task forces to help communities to 
reimagine and develop concrete, just, and equitable public safety 
approaches.
  Let me share with you two stories. I do this because there are so 
many people who have come forward and shared their experiences growing 
up and living in a society of discrimination.
  I remember very vividly, after the Freddie Gray episode in Baltimore, 
I met with a group of community leaders in Sandtown, where the tragedy 
occurred, and listened to their accounts of how they grew up with the 
fear of police and the stories of how they were singled out or 
discriminated against by traffic stops and by other harassment just 
because of the color of their skin.
  So let me share with you two stories that were reported recently in 
the paper. One is the story of Michael Turner, his encounter years ago 
with the Montgomery County police. Turner was only 18 years of age when 
this encounter occurred.

       Officers had come to break up a party in the suburban 
     county and quickly focused on Turner and his fellow African 
     American friends. They checked IDs. No one was drunk. The 
     cops asked them to move along. ``One officer looks at us,'' 
     Turner recounted, ``and says, `Now go back to your 
     projects.' ''
       The broader context of the email, written eight days ago, 
     was Turner's effort to explain why he wanted a protest in 
     downtown Silver Spring. ``We come in peace, commander,'' 
     wrote Turner, 36. ``March with us. It's time for a change. 
     I'm ready to help, are you?''
       The email set off six days of written and phone dialogue 
     between Turner and Captain Darren Francke, who commands the 
     Silver Spring police district for the Montgomery County 
     department. It culminated Sunday afternoon when Turner, 
     Francke and three other Montgomery County police officers 
     took a knee in front of more than 200 protesters facing them 
     and stretching half a block down Georgia Avenue.
       Everyone sat still for 2 minutes 53 seconds, the estimated 
     time George Floyd lay unconscious with his neck pinned below 
     the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
       . . . . Turner's protest in the sprawling suburb just miles 
     north of the District had a different twist: It was a 
     demonstration put together with the active help of the 
     police.
       To Captain Francke, it all made sense. He had served in the 
     Pennsylvania Army National Guard and joined the Montgomery 
     police in 1996. A father of three, including a daughter who 
     also came to the protest, he previously commanded the 
     department's major crimes division--supervising murder 
     investigations throughout the county.
       ``Thank you for sharing your story,'' Francke wrote. ``I 
     don't blame you for having a chip on your shoulder. I am not 
     proud of some things that a few officers did before and now. 
     . . . I am saddened and angered by what happened to George 
     Floyd, and a number of other events over many years that were 
     clearly violations of the values that the vast majority of 
     officers have. My officers and I will march with you. With 
     your assistance, we will also help to keep the event safe 
     from those that would want to turn your message into 
     something else. We want your message to be heard.''
       By 1 p.m. Sunday, more than 200 people had gathered at 
     Veterans Plaza in downtown Silver Spring. They marched 3 
     blocks to the corner of Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue, 
     halted, and waited for Turner to lead everyone to one knee. 
     He swayed back and forth, his head buried in a towel weeping 
     as he thought of Floyd's family. Francke stood next to him, 
     clapping. Next a quick prayer. Then the kneel. The crowd 
     erupted with applause at the 2 minute 53 seconds mark as the 
     group marched back to Veterans Plaza.
       A series of speakers addressed the crowd. . . . About 3:30 
     p.m., Turner handed the microphone back to Francke. The 
     commander told the crowd about Turner's encounter with the 
     police 18 years earlier. And then the captain turned toward 
     him. ``I'm sorry,'' he said.


[[Page S2855]]


  That sorry, I think, underscores the importance that what happened in 
Minneapolis affects everybody in our country, not just the African-
American community.
  Let me close with one additional story that was also reported and 
brings out a very familiar challenge for African-American families.
  As the day drew to a close, DeShawn Rasberry, age 6, and his younger 
brother, Davian, age 4, were already tired. They had been at 
Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street since noon with their mother, 
Janessa Smith, age 28, handing out water, Gatorade, and granola bars as 
people were passing. The brothers had never seen so many people before, 
and neither had Ms. Smith. It was the family's first protest.
  ``Do you know why all these people are here?'' the mother asked her 
younger son. He stared at the crowd, munching on his granola bar that 
had crumbled to pieces in his hands. The mother said, ``They're out 
here for you.''
  Davian was dressed in a Superman cap and a matching T-shirt and 
smiled and nodded. Ms. Smith had explained to her sons that they were 
here to ``protest,'' which means standing up for something, she said, 
and to help others. She hadn't told them that the protest was against 
police brutality, spurred by the killing of a man with their same skin 
color in police custody.
  ``They're so young now, still so young,'' Ms. Smith said. ``And right 
now they're in love with law enforcement. . . . I don't want to spoil 
that. Not yet.''
  She pointed out that neither of her children were afraid of police. 
Ms. Smith looked at her sons, both just barely coming up to her waist, 
gripping cold water bottles. One day she will have to give them ``the 
talk'' about police officers, she thought to herself, but not today.
  Let's rise to the occasion so that Janessa Smith never has to give 
that heartbreaking talk to her boys in Prince George's County, MD. I 
urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to focus on our common 
humanity and respect for the rule of law.
  There are examples of best practices in community policing that 
should be a guide nationwide. Let us work together to guarantee equal 
justice under the law and fulfill the promise of our Constitution in 
order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, and ensure 
domestic tranquility.
  Let this Nation finally guarantee ``Equal Justice Under Law,'' which 
is carved in the marble of the entrance to the Supreme Court, which is 
just across the street from our Senate Chamber.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Loeffler). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                        Criminal Justice System

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, since the death of George Floyd, the 
American people have once again been engaged in a passionate discussion 
about racial injustice, which has sadly existed throughout our Nation's 
history.
  In many ways, the killing of George Floyd was the match in the powder 
barrel. It ignited long-overdue conversations about prejudice and 
discrimination that still exists in homes, workplaces, and in 
particular, institutions charged with keeping us safe.
  There is no question that what happened to George Floyd was a failure 
of the Minneapolis Police Department. He was killed by police officers 
as one applied pressure to his neck and three others stood by and did 
nothing. We are going to leave that to the criminal justice system to 
make sure that the appropriate people are held accountable, but we are 
not off the hook. We have a responsibility, and we have experienced 
enough of these tragedies to know that it is not an isolated event.
  Black men and women and other minorities across the country have died 
in custody for doing things that do not warrant the use of deadly 
force. In the case of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in March, she was 
asleep in her home when plainclothes officers with a no-knock warrant 
used a battering ram to enter her apartment shortly after midnight. She 
was asleep in her apartment, and shortly after midnight--no knock--just 
a battering ram, and her door is knocked open. Thinking somebody had 
broken into her home, which was a reasonable reaction, Breonna's 
boyfriend, a licensed gun owner, fired at them. He thought they were 
under assault. The officers returned at least 20 shots, killing the 26-
year-old emergency room technician.
  Unfortunately, as in too many of these cases, the officers who were 
responsible were never held responsible, and that needs to change.
  We are engaged in a discussion about how we can root out the 
injustices that exist in our criminal justice system. One terrible idea 
that has been floated is to defund or even disband the police. I can't 
even believe we have to talk about it, but we do because it has been 
proposed by a majority of the Minneapolis City Council members. Over 
the weekend, nine of them said they will begin the process of ending 
the Minneapolis Police Department. Well, I am amazed that we have to 
say it, but apparently we must. This is an extraordinarily reckless and 
dangerous path to go down. I was glad to see a number of our Democratic 
colleagues here in the Senate and over in the House reject such a crazy 
idea. I don't know how you can call it anything else.
  While it is clear that bold action is required, disbanding 
institutions charged with keeping us safe would do more harm than good. 
You would think that would be self-evident. If you have a leak in your 
roof that suddenly causes your ceiling in your kitchen to crash down, 
the solution isn't to eliminate your roof. Sure, it would guarantee you 
are never going to have a leak again, but it is going to open you up to 
a whole new host of problems that would do far more damage. Our job 
here is to fix the leak and figure out how to move forward. The process 
in this case isn't going to be quite so straightforward.
  Nationwide, we have some 18,000 Federal, State, county, and local law 
enforcement agencies. Some have 1 officer, while some have more than 
30,000, so they are not all the same. The policies and procedures 
governing how the officers in each of these agencies interact with 
their community vary widely from one department to the next. By and 
large, that makes sense.
  If you are in Mayberry with Andy Taylor, it may be a two-police-
officer town. Obviously, you can handle things a little differently 
than you can in a major metropolitan city like New York, Dallas, or 
Houston. That is why I believe that a one-size-fits-all approach does 
not make sense. We simply don't have the expertise, nor do we have the 
skill to try to write legislation that will treat 330 million people 
the same way.
  Yet there are policies and practices that we can promote as best 
practices, and that is actually where I think the Federal Government's 
role is irreplaceable. It is very important. We can do that and provide 
good guidance to the States and local authorities.
  One example is the chokehold. Chokeholds are already banned from a 
number of law enforcement agencies across the country but not all. In 
the past few weeks, State legislatures and city councils have taken 
action to ban this dangerous and controversial practice. I have no 
doubt more will follow suit. This is a great example of the type of 
action we can and should take in Washington to ensure America's law 
enforcement officers are helping, not hurting, the very people they are 
sworn to protect.
  In the Republican caucus, Senator Tim Scott is leading the charge to 
develop a package of bills that will make much needed and long-overdue 
reforms to our criminal justice system. We have done this before. We 
did it with the FIRST STEP Act, bringing State-proven remedies to 
prison reform and rehabilitation and safe reentry into society to the 
national scale. So we have done this before.

  I have been in close discussions with Senator Scott and Leader 
McConnell and a handful of other Senators who are interested in trying 
to come up with the most effective ways to create tangible change. This 
is not going to be a matter of political grandstanding; this is about 
practical problem-solving. It is certainly not going to be an effort 
just to serve as a political marker. I think there is actually enough 
common

[[Page S2856]]

ground where we can do something constructive on a bipartisan, 
bicameral basis and get a Presidential signature on it.
  One provision in the list of provisions that Senator Scott is putting 
together involves legislation that has already received broad 
bipartisan support. This provision, which I recommended, included a 
bill that Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, and Senator 
Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and I 
introduced and passed last year to create a National Criminal Justice 
Commission.
  I know sometimes people will say ``Well, creating another committee 
or another commission doesn't solve the problem,'' but this is not 
mutually exclusive. I think this is to supplement the other things we 
do here in the near term to come up with a comprehensive view of what 
we need to do in our criminal justice system to make it more fair and 
to make sure our law enforcement officers receive the best training and 
understand the best practices when it comes to community policing.
  This is based largely on the same model as the 9/11 Commission. You 
recall that after the 9/11 Commission--there were roughly 14 people 
appointed by the White House in both political parties here. They 
studied the vulnerabilities we had that led to the 9/11 terrorist 
attacks and made concrete recommendations to Congress that we took up 
and passed. I think that is a sensible way for us to approach the 
problems with our criminal justice system writ large. It could include 
things like policing reform. That is an obvious one given the concerns 
of the day, but it doesn't have to be limited to just that.
  We haven't done this sort of top-to-bottom review of our criminal 
justice system in America since 1965. This is the legislative version 
of finding the leak in your roof. This is the critical first step to 
figuring out the full range of problems that exist so we can begin the 
repair process.
  A similar version of this bill passed the Senate unanimously late in 
2018. I hope it can be a part of the conversation we have in the coming 
days and weeks about how to respond.
  I know minorities across America are hurting right now, and there is 
a deficit of trust between many of their communities and the police 
departments. That is because too many families had to bury their sons 
or daughters who were killed without justification. While we can't turn 
time back, we can take action to prevent history from repeating itself.
  A couple of days ago, I had the honor of talking to George Floyd's 
family as they were preparing for his funeral yesterday in Houston. I 
told them that at times like these, I know how inadequate words can be, 
but if there was some comfort that I could offer, it is that his death 
is not in vain, that something good will come out of this. I think that 
is true.
  This repair process isn't going to be quick or easy. It is not 
something we can turn to next week and take off our plate and forget 
about it. This has been a long march since America was founded when we 
committed the original sin of treating part of our population--our 
African-American population--as something less than fully human. We 
fought a civil war over slavery, and in the 1960s, we had pretty 
controversial and chaotic times, which led to legislative work that 
protected the vote of minorities and protected civil rights writ large.
  This is going to require a long-term, bipartisan commitment, not just 
from us in Washington but folks in the State capitals, city halls, and 
police departments across the country.
  Because ultimately it is the local officials who have the 
responsibility to hire and fire the police chief, to make sure that bad 
police officers are removed from the force, and that is where the near-
term responsibility needs to lie because we don't have that capability 
here.
  But we do believe--I do believe there are concrete steps we can take 
right now to address the racial injustices that were exposed once again 
with the death of Mr. Floyd. I appreciate Senator Scott and Leader 
McConnell for responding to this crisis with the urgency that it 
deserves, and I am proud to be part of this effort in the Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUNT. 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. BLUNT. Mr. President, this week we are considering the bipartisan 
Great American Outdoors Act. I think it is fair to say that this is one 
of the most important packages of conservation legislation that we have 
seen in a long time. It might be fair to say that it is the most 
important piece of legislation since President Theodore Roosevelt 
dramatically made additions to the National Park System just a little 
more than 100 years ago.
  The bill essentially combines two important provisions--the Restore 
Our Parks Act and the Land and Water Conservation full funding act. I 
am a cosponsor of both of those. We have been trying to do the things 
that those two bills both do for a long time, and here we are.
  During World War II--we are just within a few days of D-day--
President Eisenhower--at that time General Eisenhower--had a view that 
sometimes if a problem is too big to solve or seems to be too hard to 
solve, you solve it by making it bigger.
  Interestingly, what we have done here with two things that we have 
been trying to do for a long time--to have full access to the reason 
the Land and Water Conservation Act was created and to do a better job 
maintaining our parks--that has all been combined into the Great 
American Outdoors Act.
  The first thing this act does is, frankly, make a significant 
investment for the deferred maintenance we have on all kinds of Federal 
land. It is one of our challenges as a government generally. It has 
been specifically one of our challenges as it relates to the National 
Park System, to the Forest Service, to the Fish and Wildlife Service, 
to the Bureau of Land Management--every one of those has deferred 
maintenance issues that have been there for a long time. In fact, some 
of them have been there for decades.
  I mentioned earlier that the Park System as we now know it is a 
little more than 100 years old. Some of these maintenance issues are 
decades old, maybe 50 years old. Maybe half of the life of the entire 
Park Service we have had these issues on a list of something that needs 
to be done.
  In Yellowstone, the high bridge that thousands of cars go over every 
summer--that bridge needs to be repaired. The water maintenance systems 
in our parks where particularly they have overnight accommodations and 
other things--many of those systems are almost as old as the parks 
themselves. There are buildings we have in all those locations where 
the access is no longer appropriate and hasn't been for a long time. 
Sometimes that meant you just closed the visitor center. You closed 
that part of the park that people previously had a way to get into and 
see a display, look at an exhibit, but because of disability issues 
that should have been fixed long ago, they haven't been able to.
  We have been saying--I have been saying certainly for several years 
now that the second century of the Park System needs to be different 
from the first century of the Park System.
  We need more private-public relationships. We saw a great example of 
that at the renewal of the arch and the museum and the area in St. 
Louis that just had a significant effort made, almost all by either 
local or private funds--very few Federal dollars there. But if you are 
going to have a private-public partnership, the public needs to do its 
part, and we are talking today about how the public would do its part 
in maintaining the parks, expanding the parks, building a new facility, 
repairing a facility, changing access to a facility.
  But a lot of this deferred maintenance will not be all that obvious. 
It is just something that has to be done. And because it is not all 
that obvious--the bridge hasn't collapsed yet, and the water system 
still appears to be producing water that people can use, so let's worry 
about that at some future time. Well, the future time is here.

[[Page S2857]]

  This act will work to help improve the visitor experience at the 
park--certainty at the units in my State and, Mr. President, your 
State. I have been to a number of the facilities in Georgia that will 
be impacted by this.
  In Missouri, there is the westward expansion that is celebrated at 
the arch, and we just made a significant investment in that facility. 
The Truman home in Independence will be a National Park Service 
facility. The first park in America dedicated to an African American, a 
national park, the George Washington Carver park at Diamond, would be a 
place that would potentially benefit from this. The new park that we 
have established in Ste. Genevieve, MO, that has more of the original 
French architecture left--vertical log architecture and big porches 
that would have looked like a farmhouse in Normandy with a Caribbean 
porch put on it--numbers of those are going to create one of the best 
walking historic parks in America. That park would benefit.
  So the Federal Park System benefits, but this legislation also 
includes permanent annual funding for the Land and Water Conservation 
Fund.
  When you think of the title of the fund, why would you have to do 
permanent funding to be sure that the Land and Water Conservation Fund 
got spent on land and water? It doesn't seem to be a genius move to do 
what we are doing here. What we are doing here with this fund is taking 
about $900 million a year that has been going in many cases for other 
purposes and saying: No. We collect the fund for this purpose. Let's 
use it for this purpose. It is not like we ran out of things to do with 
the money, and so we decided to put it somewhere else. But this does 
what the fund is supposed to do with the fund.

  In our State, again, in Missouri, over the past 50 years we spent 
about $150 million out of that fund. The fund is being used to protect 
historically significant sites like the Mark Twain National Forest, the 
Ozark National Scenic River, and the Big Muddy National Fish and 
Wildlife Refuge. They have all been beneficiaries of that fund to some 
extent. The Wilson's Creek National Battlefield has been a beneficiary 
of that fund. The fund was created for the purpose that this 
legislation will ensure it largely serves.
  We know that we have to build important relationships between local 
communities, between the Park Service, and between the American public 
to ensure that these sites are managed in the right way, that they are 
preserved for the future, and that they are safe to use for the 
millions of Americans who are going to use them this summer and next 
summer and the summer after that, and this winter and next winter and 
the winter after that.
  In addition to the preservation and conservation efforts, the bill 
will help, frankly, bolster Missouri's outdoor recreation industry, and 
it is significant. The Outdoor Recreation Industry Association says 
that we generate about $14 billion--almost $15 billion--in our State in 
consumer spending, and about 133,000 jobs are created in Missouri 
because of outdoor recreation. About 5 million American jobs are 
created and around $800 billion of economic activity are created 
because of the ability to use these and other outdoor resources.
  This is obviously not a normal year. So anything we can do to 
encourage people to use these facilities in a better way is important, 
as is anything we can do, as we look to the future, to maintain them 
and hand them over. And we have a chance here on all of these areas, 
whether it is the bureau of public lands or the national forests or the 
national parks, we have a chance to hand them to the next generation in 
better shape than we got them. We have a chance to look at projects 
that have been on the ``we need to do this'' list for 40 and 50 years 
and do what is needed to be done for 40 or 50 years.
  I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill. I am proud of 
the leadership, particularly of Senator Gardner and Senator Daines, on 
our side on this effort, and the best bipartisan support that this bill 
will have. I look forward to voting for it. I urge my colleagues to 
vote for it, and, even more importantly, I look forward to seeing this 
bill have the impact that it absolutely will have and has to have on 
the important resources that we need to make the right kind of 
investment in.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont


                         Issues Facing America

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, as everybody knows, our country today 
faces an extraordinary set of crises--unprecedented, in fact--in the 
modern history of this country. Over the last several weeks, hundreds 
of thousands of Americans from one end of this country to the other, 
from big cities and small towns, have rightly taken to the streets to 
demand an end to police murder and brutality and, in fact, to rethink 
the nature of policing in America.
  In the midst of that--that rising up for police department rethinking 
and police department murder and brutality--our country continues to 
suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic, which, in a number of locations in 
this country, is actually getting worse and which has, up to this 
point, killed over 110,000 people and infected over 2 million 
Americans.
  Then, on top of all of that--the struggle for racial justice and 
dealing with a pandemic in the midst of all of that--we have the worse 
economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the last 
number of months, as you know, over 32 million Americans have lost 
their jobs.
  In the midst of the struggle for racial justice, in the midst of this 
horrific healthcare crisis, and in the midst of this economic meltdown, 
the American people are demanding to know what their government is 
doing in response to these crises. We were elected as Senators and 
Members of the House to respond to the needs of the American people. 
All over this country the American people are looking around them. They 
see the struggle for racial justice. They see a pandemic. They see an 
economic meltdown. And many of them are asking what the Republican 
leadership here in the Senate is doing. There is crisis after crisis 
after crisis, and what is the leadership here in the Senate doing? 
Tragically, the answer is nothing--nothing.
  Historians have suggested that in the year 64 AD, while Rome was 
burning, the Emperor Nero played his fiddle. At least he did something. 
He provided entertainment to his court. But here, in the U.S. Senate, 
Republican Leader McConnell and his leadership team are doing nothing. 
Sadly, tragically, this is the worst do-nothing Senate in modern 
American history, and every Member of this body should be deeply 
ashamed at the degree to which we are failing our constituents.
  Enough is enough. The U.S. Senate must respond to the pain and the 
suffering of the American people. Let us quickly wrap up debate over 
the Land and Water Conservation Fund act, which is on the floor right 
now. Let us wrap up debate, and let us vote on this bill. It is a good 
bill. Let's pass it. Then, let us begin to work on the unprecedented 
crises that are facing our country.
  If there is anything that the torture and murder of George Floyd by 
Minneapolis police has taught us is that we have to rethink the nature 
of policing in America and reform our broken and racist criminal 
justice system.
  Let us be clear. The murder of George Floyd is not just an isolated 
incident. It is the latest in an endless series of police killings of 
African Americans--including Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Laquan 
McDonald, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, 
Rekia Boyd, Walter Scott, and many, many, many others. If anyone thinks 
that these police murders have just begun to take place in recent years 
when people had cell phone cameras, you would obviously have been 
mistaken. This has gone on forever.
  The American people are rightly demanding justice and an end to 
police brutality and murder. The U.S. Senate has got to act now. We 
have to hear the cries for justice that are coming from the streets of 
this country, that are coming from the African-American community, from 
the White community, from the Latino community, and from all of our 
people. We must act and we must act now.
  Let me just suggest some of the items that must be in the legislation 
that we pass. This is a limited number. We can do more.

[[Page S2858]]

  In my view, every police officer involved in a killing must be held 
accountable, and those found guilty must be punished with the full 
force of law. That includes officers who stand by while these brutal 
acts take place. Every single killing of a person by police or while in 
police custody must be investigated by the Department of Justice. We 
must create a process by which police departments look like the 
communities that they serve and not look like invading armies.
  We need to abolish qualified immunity so police officers are held 
civilly liable for abuses. We need to prohibit the transfer of 
offensive military equipment to police departments. We need to strip 
Federal funds from departments that violate civil rights. We need to 
provide funding to States and municipalities to create a civilian corps 
of unarmed first responders to supplement law enforcement.
  For too long we have asked police departments to do things which they 
are not trained or prepared to do and have criminalized societal 
problems like addiction, homelessness, and mental illness. These are 
not problems solved by incarceration.
  We need to make records of police misconduct publicly available so 
that an officer with a record of misconduct cannot simply move two 
towns over and start again.
  We need to require all jurisdictions that receive grant funding to 
establish independent police conduct review boards that are broadly 
representative of the community and that have the authority to refer 
deaths that occur at the hands of police or in police custody to 
Federal authorities for investigation.
  We need to ban the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray 
on protesters. We need to make certain that when people go to the 
street to protest, they are not treated like criminals and their basic 
constitutional rights are not denied. The struggle for racial justice 
is just one of the crises that we have to address.
  Today, we are looking at a pandemic unprecedented in the last 100 
years, and I would tell you that New Zealand, a very small country of 
about 5 million people, did something rather interesting--not 
surprising but interesting. They listened to their scientists. They 
acted boldly at the start of the pandemic, and they had political 
leadership trusted by their citizens. The result is that just the other 
day, New Zealand was able to announce that the COVID-19 virus was 
virtually eliminated in their country and they could reopen their 
economy safely--safely.
  On the other hand, in the United States, under President Trump, we 
have a President who downplayed the crisis from the very beginning, who 
ignored or attacked scientists, and who most people recognize is a 
pathological liar, not to be trusted.
  In New Zealand and in many other countries, bold and intelligent 
action saved lives, and in our country, incompetent leadership cost us 
lives.
  Well, we cannot bring back those who unnecessarily died or who have 
become ill, but what we can do is take action now to do everything 
possible to minimize unnecessary deaths and illness in the future. 
First and foremost, we need a national protocol based on science to 
address this pandemic and not have 50 States and hundreds of 
communities going forward in different directions. There is a way to 
effectively deal with this crisis, and that leadership should be coming 
from the Federal Government. What we are talking about is the need, 
among other things, for increased testing and how to best utilize that 
testing as we talk about opening businesses and schools. We need, 
through the Defense Production Act and any other approach, to make 
certain that all medical personnel have the necessary personal 
protective equipment that they need.
  Even today, months after the pandemic erupted, doctors and nurses 
still lack the equipment they need to protect themselves. I was on the 
phone just a couple of weeks ago with people in Vermont who work in 
clinics. They still do not have the protective equipment they need.
  We need to produce hundreds of millions of the most effective masks 
that we can so as to protect all Americans, above and beyond medical 
personnel. Masks are an important part of fighting this pandemic, and 
every American should be able to have the best quality masks possible.
  Working with the international community, we need to make certain 
that a safe vaccine is produced as quickly as possible and that it is 
distributed to every American for free. I have asked the Trump 
administration on several occasions. God willing, that vaccine will be 
produced soon--as soon as possible. We all want that.
  As you know, the Federal Government is spending billions of dollars 
to help develop that vaccine, giving money to the drug companies. That 
is fine, but after that vaccine is developed, it must be distributed to 
every man, woman, and child in this country at no cost. I don't want to 
see people dying because they can't afford to pay for a vaccine. I 
don't want to see the drug companies profiteering from this Federal 
investment.
  When we are talking about responding to the pandemic, we are talking 
about workers who are on the frontlines, whether they are medical 
professionals, workers in transportation, grocery stores, drug stores, 
meatpacking plants, or whatever. They must receive hazard pay for the 
dangerous work that they do. I get a little bit tired of seeing these 
TV ads from big corporations thanking the heroes who are out on the 
frontlines. Well, that is great. Thank them, but pay them. Pay them 
hazardous pay for the dangerous work that they are doing. We can no 
longer allow multi-billion dollar corporations like Amazon, Walmart, 
and Tyson Foods to treat essential workers like expendable workers--
like sacrificial workers. We can no longer allow multi-billion dollar 
corporations to run advertising calling their workers ``heroes'' while 
paying them starvation wages and treating them disrespectfully.
  It is not just the racial justice crisis we face, not just the 
pandemic we face, but we are in the midst of an unprecedented economic 
crisis, and we must act boldly and aggressively to protect the American 
people in the midst of this crisis. As we speak, tens of millions of 
people have lost their jobs. They are worried about being evicted from 
their apartments. They are worried about losing their homes. They are 
worried about putting food on the table. In Vermont--and, I suspect, in 
every State in this country--there are people lining up at emergency 
food banks to get the food they need to feed their kids. Anyone who 
thinks that this is not a moment of urgency does not understand what 
the word urgency means. When people in America go hungry, we have to 
act. When people are being evicted from their apartments or losing 
their homes, we have to act, and we have to act now, not a month from 
now, not 2 months from now.
  No, President Trump, this is not a time to take a victory lap. The 
real unemployment rate remains over 20 percent, the highest it has been 
since the Great Depression. Unless we get our act together boldly, over 
half of small business owners in America will be forced to close their 
doors for good within the next 6 months. We need to respond vigorously 
to the economic crisis that we face and the pain and suffering of the 
American people.
  Now, what does that mean? Again, these are just a few of the 
provisions that have to be passed. We need to pass a paycheck security 
act which does what many European countries do, and that is to provide 
workers with 100 percent of the paychecks and benefits they previously 
received. According to a recent study from the University of California 
Berkeley, if we had adopted a paycheck guarantee program similar to the 
one in Germany, 24 million Americans would have a job today. Instead, 
we are seeing President Trump and Senator McConnell taking a victory 
lap because we created some 2 million jobs last month. That is good, 
but when we have 32 million people who have lost their jobs in recent 
months, we have to act, and we have to act boldly.

  In my view, during this crisis, we must make sure that every American 
gets the healthcare they need by expanding Medicare to cover the 
underinsured, the uninsured, and the needs of people who have private 
insurance but inadequate private insurance. In my view, in the midst of 
this crisis with so much economic suffering, we need to provide every 
working-class

[[Page S2859]]

person in this country with a $2,000 emergency payment each and every 
month until the crisis is over, so that they can pay the rent, feed 
their families, and deal with their basic needs.
  Furthermore, as a top priority, we have to make sure that nobody in 
America goes hungry, and that means substantially expanding the Meals 
on Wheels program, the school meals programs, and SNAP benefits.
  Here we are. All over this country people are demanding an end to 
police killings and brutality and demanding racial justice in this 
country. All over this country, people are being infected with a virus 
and continue to die, and all over this country, people are wondering 
how they are going to pay their bills because they have lost their jobs 
and have, in some cases, no food in the cupboard. If there was ever a 
time in the modern history of this country that the Senate and the 
House are called upon to stand up for families, for the working 
families of this country, who are struggling, who are living in 
emotional anxiety, who are scared to death about what is going to 
happen in the future, and if we are to reaffirm faith in government in 
this country to know that we are seeing and hearing that pain, now is 
the time. So today, I just call upon my colleagues. I know we have 
disagreements, but let us understand the urgency of the moment. Let's 
deal with the pandemic. Let's save lives. Let's deal with the economic 
crisis. Let's put people back to work. Let's deal with the issue of 
racial justice. Let's fight to end racism in this country. There is an 
enormous amount of work to be done. Let's do it. Thank you.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.


                              Coronavirus

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today having just 
heard the Senator from Vermont talking about the Nation in its effort 
to recover from the coronavirus crisis and the economic crisis as a 
result, and other important issues affecting our country. I heard him 
say that we have not done enough and need to do more, specifically with 
an economic recovery, with a coronavirus recovery, and it sounded like 
almost a liberal wish list of government providing for food, clothing, 
shelter, and income for every American.
  I come to the floor today to tell you what we have done, in a 
historic way, because we passed the largest economic rescue package in 
the history of this country--trillions and trillions of dollars. This 
Senate, the House, and the White House went all-in to respond to and 
help us as a nation to recover from the coronavirus crisis.
  Last week, the Senate passed and the President signed another 
bipartisan bill to help small businesses across our country. It is the 
Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act. That is what the people of 
Wyoming were asking for--this very successful Paycheck Protection 
Program, with flexibility, so it would be easier for our small 
businesses to use the relief funds. And 1,000 businesses in Wyoming 
took over $1 billion in loans, and it is keeping our economy alive, 
breathing life into the economy, and allowing paychecks to continue to 
be paid as our businesses reopen.
  All across the country, this jobs-saving effort is working, because 
last month the U.S. economy added 2.5 million jobs. It smashed all 
expectations. It was the largest single month of job growth in this 
Nation in the history of our great country. Americans literally ran out 
the front door and back to work. Unemployment was down in May. It 
defied all of the forecasts and defied what we just heard the Senator 
from Vermont talking about and what his expectations have been.
  We are headed for a faster economic rebound than anyone has imagined. 
Across the country, the State lockdowns have been ended. States have 
started to safely reopen. Small businesses are reopening. People are 
going back to work. I thought I heard the Senator from Vermont say that 
he was thinking that half of all the small businesses in America 
wouldn't be able to reopen again ever.
  Young people are going back to school. K-12 schools and colleges are 
planning to reopen this fall. Of course, I don't think any of us were 
surprised to see the University of California system say that they are 
going to stay closed until 2021--until next year, all 10 campuses--
because in California, one size fits all. But for the rest of our 
Nation, the schools and the colleges are reopening and students will be 
heading back to campus.
  There is a return-to-normal routine that is going to boost our 
communities. As the American recovery begins, we are going all in to 
keep people safe. That is a big part of it. That means more virus 
testing, more treatment, and better treatment and vaccines.
  Innovations are rapidly expanding testing. The country has now 
performed more than 22 million coronavirus tests. Nearly a half million 
tests are done every day, including today. Our researchers, our 
scientists, and our doctors are making record progress on a vaccine. We 
are calling this effort Operation Warp Speed. It is a public-private 
partnership with companies producing a vaccine for the American people 
that will then be used around the world. The private sector finalists 
will soon be announced. The government will support their vaccine work, 
will assist with clinical trials, and will prioritize review of the 
most promising vaccines.
  One of the companies, called Moderna, is in phase 2 trials and plans 
to start phase 3 in July. The Food and Drug Administration approval is 
then the final step. Another company, AstraZeneca, plans to end phase 2 
and phase 3 trials over the next few months.
  AstraZeneca just announced a new partnership with the Biomedical 
Research Authority and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 
So our military is joining in this public/private partnership. This 
project may deliver emergency vaccines as early as October, which would 
certainly be record-breaking. The pharmaceutical company Merck will 
conduct trials in July. Johnson & Johnson plans phase 1 and phase 2 
trials for July as well. Pfizer hopes to have a vaccine ready by 
October. The goal is to make a safe, effective vaccine and make it 
available to all Americans by January of 2021.
  Operation Warp Speed partners want to beat this, and they want to 
make that their most ambitious goal--beating timelines that have never 
been beaten before, breaking the records. At the same time a number of 
other companies are pursuing a vaccine independently. America's 
researchers, scientists, and doctors have dropped everything and are 
working in overdrive. They have gone all in.

  One major drug company CEO said yesterday that there will be no big 
price for the coronavirus vaccine. Every company should make that same 
pledge. Every company should make that same pledge. This is a 
tremendous opportunity for companies to do the right thing, to make the 
vaccine as accessible as any vaccine in the history of our Nation.
  As we begin to recover from this crisis, the goal is clear, and it 
has been clear: We want to keep Americans safe and get them back to 
work. Together, that is what we must all endeavor to do.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The Senator from Louisiana.

                          ____________________