[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 175 (Monday, November 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6642-S6645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RESPECT FOR MARRIAGE ACT--Motion to Proceed
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 449,
H.R. 8404.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 449, H.R. 8404, a bill to
repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for
State regulation of marriage, and for other purposes.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, let me say a few words about the
cloture motion we will file.
In a few moments, I am going to set up the first procedural vote on
legislation that will codify marriage equality into law. Members should
expect the first vote on Wednesday.
The Respect for Marriage Act, which my colleagues Senators Baldwin,
Sinema, Collins, and others have done a great job working on, is an
extremely important and much needed bill. No American should ever, ever
be discriminated against because of whom they love, and passing this
bill would secure these much needed safeguards into Federal law.
I want to make clear that passing this bill is not a theoretical
exercise, but it is as real as it gets. When the Supreme Court
overturned Roe, Justice Thomas argued that other rights, like the right
to marriage equality enshrined in Obergefell, could come next.
Now, the Senate had a chance to bring marriage protection to the
floor for a vote back in September, but at the urging of colleagues
from both sides of the aisle, I agreed to wait because we were given an
assurance that enough votes would materialize after the election.
Because my top priority is to get things done in a bipartisan way
whenever we can, we determined that this legislation was too important
to risk failure, so we waited to give bipartisanship a chance.
I hope, for the sake of tens of millions of Americans, that at least
10 Republicans will vote with us to protect marriage equality into law
soon. The rights and dignity of millions of Americans depend on it.
Cloture Motion
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 449, H.R. 8404, a bill to repeal the
Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State
regulation of marriage, and for other purposes.
Charles E. Schumer, Tammy Baldwin, Brian Schatz, Margaret
Wood Hassan, Patty Murray, Tammy Duckworth, Jeff
Merkley, Jacky Rosen, Richard J. Durbin, Debbie
Stabenow, Elizabeth Warren, Mazie K. Hirono, Alex
Padilla, Gary C. Peters, Jeanne Shaheen, Catherine
Cortez Masto, Benjamin L. Cardin, Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory
quorum call for the cloture motion filed today, November 14, be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, 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. YOUNG. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Indiana.
Veterans Day
Mr. YOUNG. Madam President, panel 2E, row 71. Not long ago, a young
lady visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during a visit to
Washington, DC. She walked along the wall searching the black granite
panels, and she saw the name right there in front of her. She stopped
and pressed her hand against it. It was panel 2E, row 71, Alvin C.
Forney.
Across our country, not just on our National Mall but on the
boulevards of our State capitals and in the squares of our small towns,
there are names of brave Americans etched in memorials, the names of
those who never came home. And there are those who did come home, whose
names may not be on monuments but whose example of service and
sacrifice for their country is no less inspiring.
For two and a half centuries, they have answered the calls. They have
protected our freedoms. They placed their lives in the line of fire
oceans away so that their countrymen can live lives in peace here at
home. They are the citizen soldiers who defeated the King's army, who
ended the scourge of slavery, who saved Western civilization and
liberated concentration camps, who stood down communism and stand vigil
against terrorism. They are more than just names, though. They are the
spirit of this country: strong but merciful, forever guarding our
freedoms, and devoted to our fellow citizen.
Cpl Alvin Forney lived this example out in his all-too-brief life. He
seemed destined, no matter his path, to make a difference. And he did.
Tall, handsome, with a bright smile and infectious optimism, he was an
ace athlete, a football, track, and basketball star at Shortridge and
Washington High Schools in Indianapolis.
A member of a military family, Corporal Forney enlisted in the U.S.
Marine Corps in 1961, and he went west. He graduated from Marine Corps
Recruit Depot, San Diego, and then trained in the mountains near Camp
Pendleton. He endured the forced marches and step hikes in the
tarantula- and rattlesnake-filled scrub.
San Diego-trained marines are sometimes derisively called Hollywood
marines by their Paris Island peers. You see, Tinseltown is just up the
Pacific Coast Highway. But if Hollywood did ever try to create the
ideal marine, Corporal Forney could be its muse.
You can see it in the old photos, the focus, the confident air, the
spotless uniform. He looked like a gentleman marine, a hero. And he
wasn't just courageous or strong. He was patient and decent. Slow to
anger, he seldom swore--a rarity, of course, for a U.S.
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marine. He loved his family, and he loved his country.
When he arrived in Vietnam in the summer of 1965 as part of the Third
Marine Expeditionary Force, his chief concern was not for himself. It
was for his brother. You see, Army SGT William Forney, the corporal's
brother, was departing for Vietnam. Corporal Forney wrote their mother,
Minnie:
I don't mind being over here, but I worry about Bill coming
over.
You see, his brother William had married shortly before deploying,
and Corporal Forney was concerned about his brother's separation from
his new bride.
Shortly after that letter arrived, a military car pulled into the
driveway. It was a telegraph from the Department of Defense that came.
Cpl Alvin Forney had been struck by fragments of a mine during a
patrol, and he was killed in action near Da Nang. It was September 1,
1965. He was 22 years old.
Corporal Forney was awarded the Purple Heart, and he was laid to rest
in Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery among a President and Vice
Presidents, poets, businessmen, inventors, and all the rest. And he
wasn't at all out of place.
Corporal Forney's mother visited his grave every September until the
day she died. Beneath the words on his headstone ``Beloved Son and
Brother'' and after the mention of Vietnam, his headstone read: ``The
first casualty from Indianapolis''--which he was. But a mere statistic
he was not.
It was a half century later that that young lady came to the wall in
search of Corporal Forney's name. She came because her grandfather
asked her to, because 50 years earlier, he had served with Corporal
Forney at Naval Air Engineering Station at Lakehurst, in New Jersey,
and he never forgot him. He could still see that squared-away marine.
He could still hear his soft-spoken voice. And he could still remember
the day in September 1965 when he walked into headquarters at Lakehurst
and saw the secretaries sobbing and heard the tragic news: Corporal
Forney had been killed in action in Vietnam.
The corporal's family, too, they never forgot him. He is still in
their hearts. His younger siblings and cousins, they still remember the
days before he left for Vietnam, how kind, loving, and protective he
was; the memories of the dinners he treated them to; of popping his
fingers and whistling; his enthusiasm and joy.
Just weeks ago, I met Mary Allen, Corporal Forney's younger sister,
on a flight back to Indiana. She shared her brother's story and asked
that I remember him. I will.
Of course, on Veterans Day, which just passed, we remember all of
those who wore the uniform, who pledged their lives to freedom's
cause--yes, because they are owed our grateful devotion, our eternal
gratitude every day, not just one day in November.
Beyond that, though, to forget them is to take them for granted in an
act of national self-destruction. Decades pass, generations come and
go, and values change. In many ways, that is the natural course of a
society in search of a more perfect Union. But those who have defended
that Union carry with them unbending values--values that are essential
to a democracy. Our veterans set an example. They are a monument to the
values at the heart of this experiment in liberty: service and
sacrifice, humility and honor, loyalty to country and love of
countryman, dedication to others and to causes greater than oneself.
Panel 2E, row 71. When that young woman went to the wall in search of
panel 2E, row 71, it was not just because her grandfather had served
with Alvin Forney. It was because, as her grandfather said, he set an
example that all Americans should be proud to follow.
Without citizens like Corporal Forney, there is no America. He is not
forgotten. None of our veterans or the example they set are, nor will
they ever be.
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination
of Executive Calendar No. 1130, Maria del R. Antongiorgi-
Jordan, of Puerto Rico, to be United States District Judge
for the District of Puerto Rico.
Charles E. Schumer, Raphael G. Warnock, Tim Kaine,
Sherrod Brown, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Tina Smith, Angus
S. King, Jr., John W. Hickenlooper, Cory A. Booker,
Christopher Murphy, Amy Klobuchar, Benjamin L. Cardin,
Edward J. Markey, Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Blumenthal,
Jeff Merkley, Alex Padilla, Catherine Cortez Masto,
Gary C. Peters.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
nomination of Maria del R. Antongiorgi-Jordan, of Puerto Rico, to be
United States District Judge for the District of Puerto Rico, shall be
brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin),
the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Carper), the Senator from Colorado (Mr.
Hickenlooper) and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Warnock) are
necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski) and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Sasse).
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 51, nays 43, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 353 Leg.]
YEAS--51
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Casey
Collins
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Feinstein
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hassan
Heinrich
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Lujan
Manchin
Markey
Menendez
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Romney
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Tester
Tillis
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--43
Barrasso
Blackburn
Blunt
Boozman
Braun
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
Moran
Paul
Portman
Risch
Rounds
Rubio
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Toomey
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NOT VOTING--6
Cardin
Carper
Hickenlooper
Murkowski
Sasse
Warnock
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Heinrich). On this vote, the yeas are 51,
the nays are 43.
The motion is agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Veterans Day
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I asked my colleagues to join me in
honoring and thanking the heroic individuals who have served our
country.
Every year on Veterans Day--just a couple of days ago--we come
together as Ohioans or Oregonians and New Mexicans and Americans
generally to remember with deep respect and gratitude all that our
veterans have done for our country.
Veterans and their families have sacrificed so much to keep us safe.
They put their lives on the line to protect us.
So often veterans don't speak about their service. My dad was a World
War II veteran. He rarely talked about it. It was pretty typical of
that generation; not so different from Vietnam vets, many of whom
suffered from Agent Orange, or from Iraqi or Afghan war vets. They
don't brag, they don't ask for recognition, but they have earned it.
As we pay tribute to all who serve and all who have served, we must
remember that we owe veterans and their families more than just a thank
you on Labor Day--or on Veterans Day. We owe them what they have
earned: healthcare benefits, education opportunities. Taking care of
our veterans is a cost of going to war.
Now, I have heard--I am going to talk about the PACT Act in a moment.
Senator Merkley and I were just talking about it, the long overdue step
we took to pass the PACT Act. A number
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of our more conservative colleagues said it cost too much. They never
say it costs too much to send people to war. It only costs too much to
take care of the men and women who have served us in providing
healthcare at the CBOC in Mansfield or the VA in Dayton or the VA in
Cleveland.
We took this year a long overdue step to pass the PACT Act. We
secured the most comprehensive--the single-most comprehensive benefit
expansion for veterans in our Nation's history.
Some of you in this body remember, with Agent Orange, at the
beginning, to get Agent Orange benefits you had to prove that you got
sick because of the exposure to Agent Orange, and some veterans had to
hire lawyers, and it just didn't make sense.
Well, we learned the lessons from Agent Orange in the PACT Act. When
President Biden signed this bill he delineated--we delineated--23
illnesses, mostly bronchial and cancers--bronchial illnesses and
cancers. And if you as a veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan or,
you know, in some other theaters, if you had one of those illnesses,
you could get treatment at the Zanesville CBOC or the Chillicothe VA or
the Cincinnati VA.
It means now that post-9/11 combat veterans are now eligible for this
VA care. It means we also expanded coverage for veterans exposed to
Agent Orange and for those exposed to burn pits and other toxins.
It means if you are exposed to toxins while serving your country, you
get the benefits you have earned--period, no exceptions.
We couldn't have done it without the lessons of Agent Orange and the
activism of our servicemembers and families.
I have spent much of the last 6 weeks doing roundtables of 6, 8, 10,
a dozen veterans, in rural communities and cities alike in my State,
and most of them weren't yet aware of what this bill meant. It does
mean that if they have any one of these illnesses and they were exposed
to these burn pits--these football field-size burn pits that burn
everything from industrial waste to tires to computers to human waste
to who knows what--if they were exposed, then they got the help that
they have earned.
I encourage all veterans to go to va.gov/pact--p-a-c-t--to find out
more about the law and see what benefits you may be eligible for.
This is just the start of veterans finally, finally, finally getting
the help of a grateful nation.
This bill came to my attention about 5 years ago. This problem came
to my attention. A woman from Sandusky, OH, told me about her son-in-
law, who was healthy, a distance runner, until about a year earlier,
and he was diagnosed with a bronchial illness and then a cancer--a rare
cancer, but a cancer that was recognizable to VA doctors.
He has since passed away. His name is Heath Robinson. We named this
bill that Senator Tester worked so hard on and Senator Moran, a
Republican and a Democrat--they worked so hard on it to make sure it
was enacted into law.
Again, I urge veterans to go to va.gov/pact to find out more about
the law.
Earlier this month, the VA and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development announced an 11-percent drop in veterans' homelessness over
the last 2 years, in part because of the work of this new President and
this new Senate and the work we are doing with the VA.
It is progress. We have more work to do. I will continue to travel
across Ohio and to hold roundtables with veterans to talk about the
PACT Act. I am going to keep talking to veterans around the State.
With my colleagues in the Senate and with members of the Veterans
Affairs Committee, we will continue fighting so every veteran has the
benefits they deserve.
We will never forget the debt we owe. We are humbled by their
commitment to service. And you can't talk about veterans without
thanking the military families--the families of Heath Robinson--the
family of Heath Robinson, who fought to make sure he got those
benefits. And his legacy--in spite of his tragic death, his legacy of
helping veterans will move on.
It was the county veterans service officers. Ohio is lucky. Most
States don't have this. We have a veterans service organization, a
commission in every one of the 88 counties, so that there are at least
2 employees--and in some cases 50, in the largest counties--who take
care of veterans who have all kinds of issues and problems. So for our
veterans service officers and then all the veteran service
organizations, like the VFW and the DAV and the American Legion and the
Polish-American Veterans, and so many others who work every day to
support veterans and their families, we honor their sacrifice.
This bill happened because of the activism of veterans' families,
because of the veteran service organizations, and this body recommits--
as Senator Merkley does, I know, and the Presiding Officer recommit--to
fighting for veterans, fighting for military families.
On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your service.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I couldn't agree more with the words of
my colleague from Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown.
It is unbelievable how long it took to do basic justice for our
veterans serving us in some of the most difficult conditions in Iraq
and Afghanistan to get their illnesses treated without them having to
basically solicit legal help to connect that illness to their work.
The fact that these 23 illnesses are now automatically covered for a
veteran who served near a toxin is just a terrific step forward.
And I am so pleased that we are making encouraging progress on
veterans' housing. For our veterans to come back and be in the
situation of facing the stress of return, the stress of reentering the
workforce, and not have basic housing is unacceptable, and it is one of
the ways we show that we are, in fact, a grateful nation for their
service.
Tribute to Jennifer ``J.P.'' Piorkowski
Mr. President, I am pleased to be on the floor tonight to say thank
you to one of my team members who has been part of my Senate team for
14 years and is now headed over to work with the Peace Corps, and I
want to say a little bit about the critical role that she played in my
office and on my team.
When I first came here for orientation in 2009, I heard wise words,
and that was that perhaps the most important person on your team is not
your chief of staff, it is not your legislative director, it is not the
head of your communications. It is your scheduler, the person who
monitors and controls your time, because time is what you can't make
any more of, and everyone will want a piece of it. The key person on
your team--the hub of your team--is your scheduler.
The scheduler has to figure out how to fit in meetings with
organizations, both from your home State and from national
organizations, into already busy days, and has to figure out which
policy conversations need to take place and how many are urgent today
and how many can wait until tomorrow or next week, and which networking
meetings with other legislators are essential to get onto the calendar.
The scheduler is also essential to our family lives. We have to have
a scheduler who understands that our spouses are a key partner in
serving in a legislative body, who have to understand that our time
spent with our children is a critical part of our responsibilities as a
parent. The scheduler has to ensure that the family has its appropriate
presence in a Senator's life.
So you need someone who can take all of these competing demands and
make sure that attention is paid to them and there is a balanced
strategy to address them. Otherwise, serving in the Senate can become
an absolutely miserable experience for all involved.
Well, 14 years later, I can say that this piece of advice that I
received at orientation was the best piece of advice I heard, the best
piece of advice that can be there for an incoming Member.
Over time, the person who schedules your hours, your meetings, makes
all those judgments in consultation with you becomes not just a member
of the team but a friend, a confidant, a member of your extended
family.
And my wife Mary and I, along with our two children, have been
blessed to have Jennifer Piorkowski as a member of the Merkley family,
and I am so pleased she is able to be with us here tonight.
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In fact, Jennifer, who goes by J.P., was part of Team Merkley before
there was a Team Merkley.
In 1998, J.P., who had a passing interest in international affairs,
called me out of the blue to ask for an informational interview when I
was head of World Oregon. So we got together, and I was immediately
impressed by that conversation. So I immediately recruited her for a
project that we had funded to archive 50 years' worth of World Oregon's
records.
It takes somebody with a real organizational mind and energy to
accomplish that kind of task, and once we saw her at work on our team,
I knew I would have to do everything I could to keep her with us, and
she ended up staying with us in many different roles--from bookkeeper
to office manager to programming speakers on international issues.
But we couldn't keep her forever because the international world
called to her. The Peace Corps called to her, and she started a new
chapter in her life of service when she joined the Peace Corps and
headed to Albania as part of the first group of volunteers to reenter
the country after civil unrest broke out in 1997.
During her 2 years in Albania, she worked with civil society
organizations and with children living on the streets and survivors of
human trafficking. She worked on enrichment programs to help at-risk
Roma girls, a minority population in the country. She secured $65,000
to increase participation of disabled citizens in municipal decision
making.
Her time in-country was so transformative that after her Peace Corps
stint ended, she remained in Albania for another year, working as
deputy head of mission for a transnational project to combat child
trafficking in Kosovo, Greece, and Albania. In that role, among a whole
host of great accomplishments, J.P. struck a memorandum of
understanding, or MOU, with the Albanian Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs and the Ministry of Education, which led to the opening of
child protection units--child protection units that are still in place
and operating to this day.
I can only imagine how many young children have led better lives
because J.P. helped open those centers.
So Mary and I arrived here in 2009 and started on this adventure of
serving in the Senate, and we pondered: Who can fill this key role,
this essential role of scheduling? Who would be the bridge between our
office life and our family life? Who would be the extraordinary
individual who would serve as a hub for the entire team?
And then we suddenly realized that J.P. was back from Albania and
that she was right here in Washington, DC, continuing her terrific work
on human trafficking at the Labor Department. It is pretty important
work, and we were not sure we could pry her away, steal her away, from
that to be on our Senate team, but, fortunately, we held our breath and
she said yes, and we are so lucky to have had her with us this last 14
years.
It was J.P. who initiated my ``Good Morning, Oregon'' meetings. Every
Thursday while we are in session, we open the doors of our conference
room to welcome Oregonians who happen to be here in DC for a discussion
and a good cup of Stumptown Coffee.
It was J.P. who initiated our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Committee to address unconscious bias, to work to ensure greater
inclusivity, to better integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into
all aspects of our team's work, internally and externally.
It was J.P. who organized our annual staff retreats, both in Oregon
and in DC, with unique exercises, including this last year's
Scrollathon that made us all ponder our key mission and shared
commitment to public service.
And when COVID upended life as we knew it, she stepped in, took
charge, and innovated new human resource strategies and helped our team
pretty seamlessly transition to the scary world of Zoom and Skype and
Teams and other countless tools to ensure we could continue to function
on behalf of the people of Oregon.
It was J.P. who strived, year after year, to set the atmosphere of
competence and graciousness and supportive connectedness as team
members navigated the challenges of both our work life and our home
life. She loved nurturing team members as they sought to grow and
thrive in their careers.
And I think you would be very hard-pressed to find a member of my
team over the past 14 years who did not, at some point, go to J.P. for
insight or sage advice.
Over time, J.P. grew in her career, taking on ever-newer and expanded
parts of our team work. She was no longer doing the day-to-day
scheduling, but was our deputy chief of staff, keeping our whole
operation running smoothly.
Now, life often travels in circles. J.P. was an integral part of my
team at World Oregon; and after serving in the Peace Corps and
returning from Albania, she again became an integral part of my team
here in Washington, DC.
And now, J.P.'s life is completing a circle. Seventeen years after
her Peace Corps work in Albania, she is returning to help the Peace
Corps thrive in the position of Executive Secretariat in the Office of
the Director. And I could not think of a better person to help organize
that team leading the Peace Corps. Their mission is to help build a
better world for all, and my dear friend, my family member, J.P., is
just the right person to undertake that mission.
J.P., I cannot begin to thank you enough for all you have done in
each chapter of service throughout your life: your service at World
Oregon, your service in the Peace Corps, your service following up in
that extra year in Albania, your work at the U.S. Labor Department
combating human trafficking and, of course, here in the Senate as a
founding member of our team. Thank you for all of that terrific work.
And we know that the work you are going to continue to do to contribute
to making the Peace Corps an incredibly effective organization will be
a significant way to help build a better world. Thank you.
____________________