[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5889-S5890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

      CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2021 AND OTHER EXTENSIONS ACT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of H.R. 8337, which the clerk will report.
  The senior legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 8337) making continuing appropriations for 
     fiscal year 2021, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       McConnell amendment No. 2663, to change the enactment date.
       McConnell amendment No. 2664, of a perfecting nature.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for a few 
minutes as if in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Tribute to John David Arnold

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thought I would deliver a little good 
news. It is a little hard to get good news these days, but I ran across 
some.
  I want to tell you about a man named Dr. John David Arnold, who, many 
years ago, started out teaching school. He taught school in Arizona. He 
had a little blue bus from which he had ripped out the seats and put in 
desks. He used that blue bus to follow the migrant workers from Arizona 
clear to the northern border as they worked, teaching the migrant kids.
  He came up with an idea. As technology advanced, he said: You know, 
if I give the kids a computer, I can handle a whole lot more kids. They 
could use the phone to send their assignments in. He did that. So 
remote learning has been around for a long time--probably 40 years.
  One of the benefits he found was that the parents benefited from it 
too. The parents of these migrant workers learned along with their 
kids. That program grew.
  Then he came up with another problem that he saw a solution for, and 
that is that, in Phoenix, there were a lot of high school dropouts and 
some kids being expelled. There weren't good results from that. So he 
thought maybe he could start a school for these kids, and he would only 
take a student who had dropped out or been expelled if they would sign 
a contract. They and their parents had to sign a contract before they 
could become students. That contract had to say, of course, that they 
would behave, they would do their work, and what their goal was for a 
job after they got out of high school. Then he trained them for that.
  That was also a successful educational endeavor that goes on today. 
There have been a lot of graduates from that, and, today, there are 
students helping students.
  A lot of people who graduated from that want to work with their hands 
and do things. He has turned out a lot of mechanics, and he has helped 
some mechanics get their own garages. Those mechanics have contributed 
money so that other kids who graduate can go into competition with 
them, but so that they will have the same kind of a start that they 
had.
  Now the students in the school and the graduates are working on 
inventions to fight against COVID. This isn't their first crisis. They 
were there after Katrina, and they are still there doing

[[Page S5890]]

work. On COVID, they have been providing food, clothing, and medical 
supplies. They are still doing the job training. They have been working 
on some mental health problems. They have helped with utilities. They 
have helped with rent, and they have helped with group homes.
  Where is this happening? It is not just in Arizona, not just in 
Phoenix where it all started. It is happening in much of Arizona and in 
a lot of New Mexico. They are working with the Apaches and the Navajos. 
They are working against COVID in Mexico and in Africa. Yes, his school 
has expanded to Africa. They are in Ghana. They are in Cameroon. They 
are in Nigeria and in Liberia.
  There are some good things happening in this world--people watching 
out for other people. It isn't government that has all the solutions. 
It is people caring about people.
  I congratulate Dr. John David Arnold and his efforts following the 
blue bus and through these other iterations of education. I hope he is 
helping others with more on remote learning because that is where 
America is at the moment.
  I thank you for the time.
  I yield the floor.
  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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________