[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 80 (Wednesday, May 8, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3567-S3575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--Resumed

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3935, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3935) to amend title 49, United States Code, 
     to reauthorize and improve the Federal Aviation 
     Administration and other civil aviation programs, and for 
     other purposes.

  Pending:

       Schumer (for Cantwell) modified amendment No. 1911, in the 
     nature of a substitute.
       Schumer amendment No. 2026 (to amendment No. 1911), to add 
     an effective date.
       Schumer motion to commit the bill to the Committee on 
     Commerce, Science, and Transportation, with instructions, 
     Schumer amendment No. 2027, to add an effective date.
       Schumer amendment No. 2028 (to (the instructions) amendment 
     No. 2027), to add an effective date.
       Schumer amendment No. 2029 (to amendment No. 2028), to add 
     an effective date.


                   Recognition of the Majority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.


                            Border Security

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, let me read a few quotes from the last 6 
months, about securing our southern border, from some of my Republican 
Senate colleagues:

       This crisis requires swift, serious, and substantive 
     action.
       It makes no sense to me for us to do nothing when we might 
     be able to make things better.
       This moment will pass. Do not let it pass.

  Yes, indeed, these are words of our Republican Senate colleagues, 
uttered at press conferences and floor speeches and interviews from 
just the last few months. There are many, many, many more quotes like 
these, going back years, from Republican Senators, from Republican 
Congress Members, from the Republican Speaker, and from the former 
Republican President.
  We kept hearing the same thing again and again and again: ``We need 
to do something about the border now,'' they shouted. ``The border is 
an emergency,'' they screamed. ``We cannot put this off until 
tomorrow''--and on and on and on.
  So 3 months ago, here on the floor, Republicans got a chance to back 
up their angry words with real action by voting on the strongest 
bipartisan border bill Congress has seen in decades. And practically 
every Republican voted no, including my Republican colleague who said: 
``It makes no sense to do nothing.'' Then he voted no. Including my 
Republican colleague who said: ``This crisis requires swift . . . 
action''--he voted no. And the Republican Speaker, Johnson, who said: 
``The time to act'' on the border ``is yesterday,'' and then told the 
whole world that our bipartisan border bill would die in the House if 
we sent it over to them.
  Donald Trump has spent years bellyaching and bemoaning the problems 
at

[[Page S3568]]

the border. But when Congress finally reached a breakthrough on a 
strong and bipartisan border bill, he told his MAGA acolytes to kill it 
so that he could exploit the chaos at the border for political gain. He 
was bold and open about that. He wanted to exploit the chaos at the 
border for his own political gain.
  That is cynical even for Republicans--even, maybe, for Donald Trump, 
whose cynicism knows no bounds. For Democrats, the situation at the 
border is utterly unacceptable. That is why we worked with our 
Republican colleagues for months to write the strongest border security 
bill Congress has seen in generations--a bill that had the support of 
the Border Patrol union and the Chamber of Commerce and the extremely 
conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board.
  But Donald Trump, desperate to exploit the border for the campaign 
trail, torpedoed this bill right in its tracks. He knew it would take 
real action to secure our border. That is why he didn't want it to 
happen.
  Republicans will go on and on about the border this year, but their 
rhetoric, their political ads, everything else, will ring hollow 
because the border bill they killed in Congress will linger over them 
like stink on garbage.


                        Artificial Intelligence

  Mr. President, now, on AI, I just returned from the Special 
Competitive Studies Project's first ever expo on artificial 
intelligence, where I spoke about the Senate's ongoing efforts to 
tackle AI. As I have said before, tackling AI must be an all-hands-on-
deck approach. AI is so complex, so rapidly evolving, so broad in its 
impact that it will take all of us working together to maximize its 
potential and minimize its harms.
  That is why I was pleased to see President Biden will announce a $3.3 
billion investment from Microsoft, later today, for a new AI center in 
Wisconsin. This investment from Microsoft will create thousands of new, 
good-paying jobs and help America keep a competitive edge on AI.
  AI will remain a top priority for this U.S. Senate. We just finished 
our bipartisan AI Insight Forums, where we learned so much about AI's 
promises and challenges. Very soon, our bipartisan AI working group 
will release our policy roadmap highlighting the findings and the areas 
of consensus from our forums, which will help our committees fine-tune 
their work on AI legislation. We look forward to moving forward on AI.


                               H.R. 3935

  Mr. President, now on FAA, last night, I filed cloture on the 
underlying bill and the Cantwell substitute amendment, with the next 
procedural vote scheduled for tomorrow. All of us need to work 
constructively and with urgency to finish the job on FAA.
  Nobody--absolutely nobody--should want us to slip past the deadline. 
That would needlessly increase risks for so many travelers and so many 
Federal workers.
  To get FAA done, we need three things: cooperation, haste, and a 
common desire to get to yes. Any single Member who insists on 
extraneous change will only increase the likelihood that we miss the 
deadline. God forbid something should happen when we do.
  I hope that we will finish this job very soon so we can send a bill 
to the House in time for them to act. I thank Chair Cantwell, the 
ranking member of the committee, Cruz, and all my colleagues who have 
worked assiduously to get FAA done.


                                Abortion

  Mr. President, now, on abortion, just when we thought Republicans' 
anti-choice rhetoric couldn't get any more extreme, Republicans keep 
stooping to new lows. In an interview yesterday, Donald Trump, the 
presumptive Republican nominee for President, was asked about claims 
that he ``would support certain states with bans monitoring a woman's 
pregnancy.'' Donald Trump's response? ``Well, that would be up to the 
States.''
  That would be up to the States?
  Let me say that again so the American people hear how extreme this 
is. Donald Trump was asked yesterday if he would support States that 
want to monitor women's pregnancies--monitor women's pregnancies. 
Instead of condemning this grotesque invasion of women's privacy, 
Donald Trump thinks that if the States decide to do so, that is 
apparently A-OK with him. It is revolting.
  In just the last few months, we have seen States like Florida enact 
some of the most extreme and cruel abortion bans in decades. So if 
Donald Trump and hard-right Republicans get back into power, should 
there be any surprise if some States pass laws allowing for women's 
pregnancies to be monitored?
  I ask my Senate colleagues: Do you agree, Senate colleagues--
Republican Senate colleagues--do you agree with Donald Trump's extreme, 
intrusive, crazy view that States should be able to monitor pregnant 
women if they want? Do my Senate Republican colleagues, who say they 
are the party of individual freedom, believe States should have the 
power to track movements of millions of women if they so choose?
  Make no mistake, Senate Republicans created the mess we are in right 
now, where the presumptive Republican nominee is seemingly open to 
States monitoring pregnant women. Senate Republicans owe the American 
people an answer on where they stand on this absurd invasion to 
Americans' privacy.


                         Chips and Science Act

  Mr. President, finally, on the Chips and Science bill. Yesterday, the 
New York Times reported a remarkable statistic from a recent study on 
the semiconductor industry. Thanks to funding provided by the Chips and 
Science Act, ``the United States will triple its domestic Chips 
manufacturing capacity by 2032, the largest increase in the world.''
  The report goes on: Had Congress not passed Chips and Science, 
American share of global chip production would have kept slipping, but, 
instead, it is expected to triple--to triple--in less than a decade.
  This report is great news for American jobs and America's economy and 
is precisely what we envisioned in the Senate as we worked on the 
bipartisan Chips and Science bill. With help from the Federal 
Government, communities in New York and Arizona and Ohio and Texas and 
Montana will become the next hubs of tech innovation.
  We are seeing growth happen right now, in front of our eyes: Micron 
is expanding, Samsung is expanding, Intel is expanding, BAE Systems is 
expanding, and more. All of these companies are expanding in the United 
States thanks to the CHIPS Act.
  When I began working on the Endless Frontier Act years ago, this was 
the hope: a new wave of tech jobs, a new wave of scientific research, 
and a revival of Federal investment in these areas. This report on the 
impact of Chips and Science shows America is on the right track, and 
our confidence in passing this legislation is vindicated.
  I yield the floor.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.


                                 Israel

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the attacks of October 7 brought the 
world face-to-face with the savage terrorists who have tried to destroy 
the Jewish State for decades. They forced us all to take a sober look 
at what our ally Israel has to defend against every single day.
  In the months since, I have insisted repeatedly that America should 
provide Israel the time, the space, and the support it needs to defeat 
Iran-backed terrorists and restore its security, and I have made it 
clear that the consensus of Israel's national unity war cabinet--that 
lasting security can only come after Hamas is defeated--ought to be our 
position here in America as well.
  Early on, there was reason to believe that President Biden shared 
this view. I was encouraged by his initial willingness to move quickly 
to transfer needed munitions to Israel, by his request for an emergency 
national security supplemental, including urgent security assistance to 
Israel, and by what he called his administration's ``ironclad'' 
commitment to Israel's security.
  Unfortunately, we have since seen that iron bend under the heat of 
domestic political pressure from his party's anti-Israel base and the 
campus communists who decided to wrap themselves in the flags of Hamas 
and Hezbollah. We have seen his administration cave in to growing 
demands to

[[Page S3569]]

condition and limit assistance to our democratic ally. We have seen 
public attempts to micromanage Israel's self-defense, to constrain 
Israel's freedom of action. A few days ago, we saw reports that the 
President was delaying weapons shipments to Israel, creating daylight 
between America and a close ally.
  As it turns out, these reports were true, and the decision to pause 
these shipments was withheld from Congress. We still don't know the key 
facts.
  I speak with some experience in the difficulties of standing up to 
extreme elements in one's own political party, but the President's 
apparent inability to keep the most radical voices on his left flank 
out of the Situation Room isn't just a shameful abdication of 
leadership; it is actually dangerous.
  Failing to pass the emergency national security supplemental would 
have been devastating to Ukraine's defense and America's credibility. 
For the administration to withhold assistance from Israel is 
devastating in its own right. At home, it will only whet the appetite 
of the anti-Israel left, and abroad, it will embolden Iran and its 
terrorist proxies.
  There is no secret shortcut to restoring peace and security. A return 
to the status quo ante doesn't solve the challenge at hand. The status 
quo before October 7 was what allowed Iran the latitude to export 
terror across the Middle East and allowed Hamas to exploit a cease-fire 
to launch the attacks.
  For those who care about the humanitarian situation in Gaza--and I 
would count myself among those who do--the most enduring way to help 
the Palestinian people is to help Israel defeat Hamas. A return to the 
status quo ante will only perpetuate the conditions that have long 
plagued the people of Gaza and threatened the people of Israel. In the 
last week, their terrorist oppressors have struck the main humanitarian 
entrance to Gaza twice with mortars.
  It is time for the President to stop letting domestic political 
demands of the far left determine his foreign policy, and it is time to 
stop doubting the will of Israel's unity government and the 
overwhelming view of the Israeli people. A future of peace for Israelis 
and Palestinians is one in which Iran-backed terrorists play no part.


                           National Security

  Now, Mr. President, on a related matter, Israel knows it cannot blink 
in the face of savages who seek to destroy it. The same cannot be said 
of the Biden administration--the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan; 
the delusion that over-the-horizon counterterrorism could fill in for 
on-the-ground operations; and, of course, an abiding fixation on 
releasing hardened killers from the terrorist detention facility at 
Guantanamo Bay so they can symbolically end the War on Terror.
  Negotiations between Federal prosecutors and representatives of the 
masterminds of the September 11 massacre have been ongoing for years. 
The terrorists' defense has tried every trick in the book to dodge 
justice--from bids for transfer to U.S. soil for medical treatment to 
plea deals that would take a capital sentence off the table. Many of 
our colleagues have followed these proceedings with great interest. 
Many of us feel strongly that a terrorist mass murderer ought to get 
his just desserts.
  The way this story is sometimes covered in the press, you might think 
there is something wrong about a U.S. Senator insisting on it. So let's 
clear up a couple of things.
  First, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed deserves nothing less than the death 
penalty, and the fact that he hasn't yet received it is a disgrace.
  Second, on President Biden's watch, the terrorist threat has grown 
significantly while our ability to combat it has actually shrunk. Law 
enforcement and intelligence officials confirm the urgency of the 
threat to our homeland. We have been kicked out of the Sahel, and we 
are blind in Afghanistan. The President's precipitous withdrawal from 
Bagram Air Base led to the emptying of the terrorist detention facility 
there and fueled ISIS-K terrorist plots against America.
  Finally, if the President and his Attorney General let the 
perpetrators of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil plead 
out or cut a secret deal for better healthcare and living conditions, 
the Biden administration will pay a steep political price.


                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. President, on one final matter, last week, the Biden 
administration rolled out the second wave of guidance in the price-
fixing scheme he calls the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, 
but, as I said the first time around, the word ``negotiation'' is doing 
a lot of work in that name. Calling administration bureaucrats' strong-
arm tactic a negotiation is like calling jury duty a paid vacation.
  What we are really talking about here is prescription drug socialism. 
The administration is dictating to America's world-leading medical 
innovators the maximum fair price for their products. In response, 
producers have three choices: Eat the fixed price, pay an exorbitant 
excise tax, or stop participating in Medicare and Medicaid drug 
programs altogether.
  Of course, we know it is not that neat and tidy. The underlying 
problem with price-fixing is that it simply doesn't work. When the 
Federal Government predetermines outcomes, it kills the incentives that 
prompt innovators to bet big on cutting-edge research and development.
  Artificially fixing the price for a lifesaving cure doesn't make it 
cheaper; it makes it less likely to exist in the first place. By one 
estimate, over the next 10 years, the sort of prescription drug 
socialism the Biden administration is driving at could snuff out 
development on nearly 140--140--new treatments before they begin. 
Needless to say, the people who stand to lose the most from state 
meddling in the market for medical treatments are the people who rely 
on them--American patients, especially seniors.
  There is a reason the United States leads the world in pharmaceutical 
development. It is precisely because we encourage innovation and 
welcome risk-taking, and it is because, until now, we have kept 
Washington from pouring cold water on the most prolific engine of 
lifesaving cures in our history.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. 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. 3935

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this week, the Senate is finally 
considering the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, 
and I am glad we are here--even if belatedly.
  Our Nation depends on a safe, efficient, and robust national aviation 
system. The bill before us today will help strengthen aviation safety, 
address the pilot shortage, and improve airport infrastructure--all of 
which will contribute to a better experience for the traveling public.
  I am particularly pleased that my proposal to create an enhanced 
qualification program for prospective airline pilots was included in 
the bill. The United States is facing a serious pilot shortage, which 
has resulted in reduced air service at airports around the country. 
This has real impacts on the flying public, particularly for those in 
rural States like South Dakota since smaller, regional airports have 
tended to see the greatest reduction in flights.
  To help address this shortage and improve the quality of pilot 
training, Senator Sinema and I introduced a proposal to create an 
enhanced qualification proposal for prospective airline pilots. Our 
proposal was a direct response to a recommendation from the Air Carrier 
Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee--a body of industry, labor, and 
safety representatives who meet regularly under the auspices of the 
FAA's Office of Aviation Safety--which recommended the implementation 
of such a program to create a structured pathway for pilots to obtain 
intensive training.
  While the United States has stringent requirements for the number of 
flight hours prospective airline pilots must complete before obtaining 
their pilot's license, the quality of that cockpit time is often less 
than optimal preparation for flying commercial jets. So, to better 
prepare pilots for airline jobs, our proposal will implement an

[[Page S3570]]

enhanced qualification program--designed and audited by the FAA and 
administered by air carriers--that will give aspiring airline pilots 
intensive training with experienced air carrier pilots and other 
experts.
  Intensive training in the kind of air carrier environment where 
prospective airline pilots will be flying is something that is largely 
missing from current training, and getting the chance to work closely 
with seasoned pilots will help turn out highly qualified pilots who are 
better prepared for flying commercial jets.
  In addition, our program's use of simulator training, whose proven 
value has resulted in its extensive use by the military, will give 
prospective airline pilots exposure to the cockpits of the jets they 
will be flying and, crucially, allow them to experience what it is like 
to handle challenging and dangerous situations in those cockpits.
  For obvious reasons, standard flight training hours don't involve 
deliberately flying into perilous weather conditions or dealing with 
things like fires or engine failure, but simulator training offers 
prospective airline pilots the chance to deal with all those situations 
and more and deal with them again and again until their responses to 
these situations are fine-tuned.
  Our proposal is a win-win. It will turn out better prepared pilots, 
and it will help address the pilot shortage by making training more 
accessible. I am very pleased it was included in the bill that is 
before us today.
  I am also very pleased that Senator Klobuchar's Aviation Workforce 
Development and Recruitment Act, which I cosponsored, was included in 
the bill. This measure will help address workforce challenges across 
the aviation industry by expanding resources to help recruit and train 
pilots, aviation manufacturing workers, and mechanics.
  Finally, with rural air service once again in mind, I am very pleased 
that my provision to allow communities to receive multiple Small 
Community Air Service Development Program grants for the same project 
was included in the legislation before us today. This will help make it 
easier to expand sorely needed air service for rural communities.
  The bill also includes language providing small airports with more 
flexibility to use AIP funding for terminal improvements, which will be 
crucial for enabling rural airports to expand access as construction 
costs continue to rise.
  On another topic, the legislation before us today includes my 
bipartisan Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act with 
Senator Warner, which will streamline the approval process for beyond 
visual line of sight drone flights and clear the way for drones to be 
used for commercial transport of goods across the country. The wider 
deployment of drones has potential to transform the economy with 
innovative opportunities for transportation and agriculture that would 
benefit rural States like South Dakota.
  And my bill will help ensure that the United States remains 
competitive in a growing industry increasingly dominated by countries 
like China.
  I am also pleased that legislation I cosponsored with Senator 
Duckworth to help improve the flying experience for individuals who use 
mobility aids was included in the final legislation that we are 
considering.
  No bill is perfect, but I believe that the legislation before us 
today will make real progress toward a safer and more reliable aviation 
system and an improved flying experience for the American public.
  I am grateful to all those who contributed to getting this bill to 
the floor today. As a former chairman of the Commerce Committee, I know 
how much work goes into the process of drafting and moving an FAA 
reauthorization bill, and I want to thank the chair and ranking member 
and all of their staff.
  I particularly want to thank Ranking Member Ted Cruz for his tireless 
efforts, both in getting this bill to the finish line and ensuring that 
we ended up with a strong piece of legislation. His work to ensure that 
we have strong staffing mandates for air traffic controllers, as well 
as his efforts to reduce backlogs and improve the FAA's efficiency, 
deserves particular recognition.
  I also want to thank Senators Moran and Duckworth for their 
leadership at the Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and 
Innovation.
  As I said, final passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act has been a 
long time coming, but the day is finally here. I look forward to seeing 
this bill enacted into law in the very near future.
  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. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


          Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today, I come to the Senate floor to 
talk about my ongoing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and 
Explosives oversight regarding the intentional misclassification of law 
enforcement positions--all of this costing the taxpayers tens of 
millions and dollars.
  As my colleagues know, I have done a lot of ATF oversight work, 
dating back more than a decade. The Obama-Biden administration coverup 
in ``Fast and Furious'' is just one example. But, today, we don't need 
to go back to 2011. Today, we will start in January 2018.
  According to emails provided to me by ATF whistleblowers, ATF 
leadership was notified in January 2018 that some non-law enforcement 
positions were misclassified as law enforcement. That misclassification 
cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars because law enforcement gets 
paid more than non-law enforcement positions.
  Specifically, in these ATF emails from January and June of 2018, 
whistleblowers alerted ATF officials that positions in the human 
resources division were misclassified. The positions were classified as 
law enforcement, but they performed no law enforcement duties. This is 
an example that I keep telling my colleagues we need to pay more 
attention to, information that comes from these patriotic people we 
call whistleblowers.
  Accordingly, these positions were misclassified in violation of law. 
That is what oversight by Congress is all about: to make sure that the 
executive branch faithfully executes the laws according to the 
Constitution.
  Emails from July 2019 show that whistleblowers contacted the Justice 
Management Division at the Department of Justice headquarters about 
these very problems. The whistleblowers informed the Justice Management 
Division that they notified ATF management of the misclassified 
positions and that ATF hadn't corrected this illegal conduct. Based on 
what whistleblowers have told my office, the Justice Department didn't 
even bother to get back to the whistleblowers.
  Then, in July 2019, one whistleblower reported the matter to the 
Office of Special Counsel, and the other whistleblowers made their 
report to that same office April of 2020.
  After the second whistleblower reported ATF's misconduct to the 
Office of Special Counsel, that office opened the claim for 
investigation in May of 2020.
  On June 9, 2020, the Office of Special Counsel determined there was a 
substantial likelihood both whistleblowers' allegations disclosed 
violations of law, of rule, or regulation; a gross waste of funds; and 
gross mismanagement--once again, emphasizing tens of millions of 
dollars wasted here. The Office of Special Counsel referred the matter 
to the Attorney General for investigation.
  Then, on November 2, 2020, the Office of Personnel Management 
partially suspended ATF's position classification authority. That 
office did so after preliminary findings from their investigation 
revealed that certain ATF non-law enforcement positions were 
misclassified in violation of statute and regulations.
  On March 1, 2021, the Office of Personnel Management issued their 
final report substantiating the whistleblowers' claims and found that 
``ATF leadership had acted outside of merit system principles and 
demonstrated disregard for the rule of law and regulations.''
  This illegal scheme came to light because of brave whistleblowers. 
The

[[Page S3571]]

ATF whistleblowers, we now know, were right. All those government 
bureaucrats should have listened to the whistleblowers from the 
beginning. Instead, ATF rudely ignored their evidence and, obviously, 
ignored whistleblowers doing what they thought was right for our 
country.
  I wrote Attorney General Garland and then-Acting ATF Director 
Richardson concerning these findings on October 6, 2021. I asked for 
copies of the final Office of Personnel Management report and an 
accounting of how much taxpayer dollars were wasted due to ATF's 
illegal misconduct. I also asked how long ATF unlawfully misclassified 
positions and the total number of misclassified positions within all of 
the ATF.
  On December 15, 2021, the Justice Department responded that it 
couldn't provide answers because of various ongoing investigations. How 
tired I am of hearing from our law enforcement Agencies in the Federal 
Government that they can't comment to oversight investigations by 
Congress because of ``ongoing investigations.'' It is an excuse to 
avoid what they promise us every time they come before Congress: that 
they will answer our questions.
  Going on now to April 7--6 months later--in 2022, the Justice 
Department provided me with a redacted copy of their investigative 
report, which they submitted to the Office of Special Counsel on March 
29 of 2022. But they still failed to fully answer all of my questions.
  Let me remind the executive branch yet again: The U.S. Congress 
maintains independent constitutional authority to investigate the 
Federal Government, irrespective of any ongoing investigation.
  After the conclusion of the investigations, which was May 2, 2023, 
the Office of Special Counsel notified President Biden that 
``whistleblowers' allegations were wholly substantiated.''
  That investigation found ``substantial waste, mismanagement, unlawful 
employment practices at the ATF.'' It also found ``for years, the 
agency intentionally misclassified jobs as law enforcement and paid 
those employees benefits to which they were not entitled.'' The Office 
of Special Counsel also found that ATF's illegal scheme wasted at least 
20 million taxpayer dollars.
  When is the government going to learn that it needs to listen to 
whistleblowers instead of treating these patriotic whistleblowers like 
skunks at a picnic? ATF could have saved the taxpayers at least $20 
million if they would have listened to these brave whistleblowers.
  Then, on November 6, 2023, the Office of Personnel Management wrote 
to ATF and the Justice Department. Incredibly, if you can believe this, 
that letter restored ATF's position classification authority effective 
immediately even though ATF was unable to provide the necessary 
evidence to support that its updated position classifications were 
proper and within the law. This restoration doesn't bring this matter 
to a close.
  On January 30 this year, my colleague from Iowa, Senator Ernst, and I 
wrote to the Justice Department and to the ATF. In that letter, we 
noted that ATF Internal Affairs Division had been investigating the 
illegal scheme. We asked for answers and for findings relating to that 
investigation. Those government employees who were notified of the 
illegal misconduct and did nothing to investigate or stop it must be 
held accountable because in this town, if heads don't roll, nothing 
changes. And that applies the same, of course, to those who 
participated in that scheme of misclassification.
  No one is above the law. But as of right now because of ATF's failure 
to give any update on the internal investigation, all Congress knows is 
that nobody has been held accountable.
  It is very clearly hypocritical of the Biden administration's ATF to 
revoke the licenses of firearm sellers for innocent clerical errors but 
at the same time refuses to hold its own employees accountable for an 
illegal misclassification scheme.
  Finally, in our January 2024 letter, we also noted that 
whistleblowers alleged to us that the ATF had been illegally 
misclassifying positions for more than the 5-year period reviewed by 
the Office of Personnel Management. The Office of Special Counsel noted 
in their letter to President Biden that the evidence suggests that ATF 
engaged in this illegal activity since at least 2003-2004.
  The whistleblowers also alleged to us that hundreds of employees 
across all ATF field divisions and offices occupied positions that were 
identified as ``misclassified.'' Accordingly, if true, the cost to 
taxpayers for these misclassifications is likely significantly higher 
than $20 million. And if true, the review done by the Office of 
Personnel Management was really, really narrow.
  Clearly, the Justice Department and the ATF have a lot of explaining 
to do. The taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money ATF 
wasted. The taxpayers deserve to know who was held accountable and how 
they were held accountable. And if nobody was held accountable, why 
not?
  The entire matter is an example of the important role whistleblowers 
play in shining light on government waste, fraud, and abuse. Without 
the continued persistence of these brave whistleblowers to report 
wrongdoing that they know about and maybe the people in the head of the 
departments don't know about, ATF's illegal misclassification scheme, 
substantial waste of taxpayers' funds, and gross mismanagement would 
have likely continued.
  I commend the grit of these whistleblowers. Senator Ernst's and my 
oversight on this issue will continue.
  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. KENNEDY. Mr. 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 Louisiana.


                         Transgender Athletics

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me today are two of my valuable 
colleagues from my office, Ms. Maddy Dibble and Mr. Christian Amy, and 
I am glad to have them today and thank them for their good work.
  From afar, being an NFL football player looks like a lot of fun, but 
if you have ever been down on the field when those guys are playing, it 
is brutal. I mean, it is brutal.
  Some NFL linemen weigh over 300 pounds, and it is all muscle. A lot 
of NFL quarterbacks, they are pretty big themselves, but they are not 
300 pounds. They probably miss their high school days when they only 
had a chubby 16-year-old lineman trying to tackle them under those 
Friday night lights.
  We have a player on the New Orleans Saints that we are all proud of 
in Louisiana, Mr. Cam Jordan. I will bet even Mr. Jordan, who is a 
starting defensive end for the Saints, one of the best in the NFL, has 
days when he wishes his competitors were only half as big as the ones 
he faces every Sunday and every day in practice.
  But think about this, if Mr. Jordan were to announce tomorrow that he 
identifies as a 16-year-old and if Mr. Jordan then tried to join the 
football team at Zachary High School, my alma mater, no one in America 
would pretend that Mr. Jordan is actually a student athlete with the 
right to take the field along with teenage boys.
  I mean, most Americans would think you are from outer space. They 
would be thinking, What planet did he just parachute in from?
  I mean, every sane person in Louisiana and on planet Earth would 
understand that a 34-year-old NFL player has no place attacking kids 
who haven't even been to the prom yet, for God's sake.
  Not only would it be unfair to allow Mr. Jordan on the Zachary High 
School football team, he would probably send a few kids to the hospital 
in the first quarter, in the first minute.
  Men and women don't take the field against one another for the same 
reasons. It is fundamentally unfair, and women could get hurt.
  Yet there are activists in our country today--I wish I didn't have to 
say this--and there is a President in our White House who think the 
laws of physics and biology don't apply to transgender athletes.
  And these activists and President Biden are happy to destroy athletic 
opportunities for every woman in America to prove their point. These 
activists

[[Page S3572]]

and President Biden are working throughout the country--you have read 
about it in the media--to force biological women and girls to compete 
against biological men and boys.
  The ACLU is one of those supporters. The ACLU, for example, says it 
is a ``fact'' that ``trans girls are girls.''
  Now, these activists and President Biden say that it is ``a myth''--
they call it a myth--that transgender female athletes have a physical 
advantage over biological girls.
  As an aside, if that is the case, if this is a myth and not a fact, 
then you have to wonder why so few transgender men who are actually 
biological women are anxious to play on male sports teams, but I 
digress.
  The fact is, you don't need a graduate degree in anatomy to know that 
these claims are specious. They just are. Both medical and the physical 
science and the data show that men have obvious and significant 
advantages over female athletes.
  I mean, unless you are the reason that your parents drink, you know 
that. It is just a fact. That is how our Creator made us. Even before 
birth, baby boys begin developing different hormones and skeletal 
structures that help them outperform women athletically.
  Testosterone exposure in the womb, before the baby is born, alters 
brain development in boys. This improves their motor skills, increases 
their aggression, two traits that benefit competitive athletes.
  Boys also experience what doctors and scientists call a ``mini 
puberty.'' They call it a mini puberty in the womb, so that shortly 
after birth baby boys will gain weight faster than baby girls.
  That is biology. That is not political ideology; that is biology. And 
that ultimately contributes to boys being taller than girls, on 
average, later in life.
  The differences between boys and girls, as I think most of us know, 
explode during puberty. They explode during puberty. Girls develop 
hearts that are 14 percent smaller than boys. Girls develop lungs, 
smaller lungs, that are 12 percent smaller than men, on average.
  That helps boys take in more oxygen--duh. It helps them pump blood 
more efficiently than girls can. That is biology, and that gives boys a 
clear edge in endurance sports, sports like running, cycling, swimming, 
rowing.
  Girls, also during puberty--again, a biological fact--develop a wider 
pelvis, on average, and this decreases the amount of force their legs 
can exert when they are lifting or kicking or pedaling. That is another 
relative disadvantage when you compare female athletes to male 
athletes.
  Boys develop broader shoulders. I think most of us know that. Common 
sense is illegal in Washington, DC, but it is not in the rest of 
America, and I think Americans know that. Boys develop broader 
shoulders to make space for more upper body muscle mass--again, a 
biological fact.
  It is hard to think of a sport--I can't think of one--in which a 
higher muscle-to-fat ratio isn't helpful.
  The average boy will also grow 5 inches taller than the average girl 
during this time. Even when women and men are the same height, men have 
higher levels of bone density, which helps them move more forcefully 
and escape more injuries in athletics--a biological fact.
  Women are at a competitive physical disadvantage against men from 
birth, and this is especially clear at the very elite levels of 
athletics. Top-ranked high school boys, for example, regularly 
outsprint female Olympians. Many high school boys--now, we are talking 
the elites in high school, I wasn't one of those, but the really, fine 
male athletes in high school, they could run faster than female 
Olympians, and they are in high school.
  In 2016, for example, American female sprinter Allyson Felix, Ms. 
Felix earned an Olympic Gold Medal in the women's 400-meter race. Ms. 
Felix is a wonderful athlete. A year later, after she won a gold medal, 
more than 285 American teenage boys logged a faster 400-meter time than 
Ms. Felix.
  Don't take my word for it, it came from a study done at Duke 
University. More than 4,300 adult male athletes across America clocked 
faster 400-meter times than Ms. Felix, and she was an Olympian.
  In many Olympic track or swimming events, the female world record 
holder wouldn't even qualify--wouldn't even qualify--to compete against 
men. In strength-based sports, such as weight lifting, men outperform 
elite women in the same weight class by as much as 30 percent.
  Activists try to distract from biological reality by claiming that 
men lose their advantages over women when the men begin taking cross-
sex hormones. That is not true. The differences between men and women 
begin in the womb, and no number, no amount of hormone treatments or 
surgeries can undo those.
  Estrogen shots don't shrink a man's heart or his lungs, nor do they 
change the structure of the pelvis or the size of a skeleton, nor do 
they change your height.
  One study revealed that men who have been taking cross-sex hormone 
treatments for 2 years can still run 12 percent faster and do 10 
percent more pushups, on average, than women. That is just a biological 
fact. If you think that is misogynistic, curse our Creator, if you have 
the courage. It is just a biological fact.
  Perhaps that is why the University of Pennsylvania swimmer--you have 
heard of her. When she first competed, her name was William Thomas. She 
was a male. She is now a transgender female, very prominent athlete. 
She now goes by Lia Thomas. She went from being the 554th ranked man in 
swimming to a top-ranked woman in the 200-yard freestyle when she was 
allowed to compete with biological women as a transgender female.

  Now, at least in swimming, each athlete gets their own lane. A 
mediocre male athlete's transition into a top-tier female athlete kills 
the dreams, and it steals the scholarships of biological women. I will 
talk more about that later. But at least the female swimmers aren't 
usually in physical danger because everybody has got their lane. 
Contact sports are a whole different--a whole different--thing.
  Transgender athletes have seriously injured female competitors on 
several occasions, as President Biden's and these activists' movement 
have been forced on many of our schools. In May 2023, for example, 
about a year ago, a high school volleyball player in North Carolina 
sued her State's high school athletics association after a transgender 
player--transgender female, born a biological male--spiked the ball in 
her face. Boom, hit her, right in the face. She got a concussion. She 
is suffering from long-term physical and mental injuries--not just 
physical injuries but mental injuries.
  Last October, a high school senior in California suffered a season-
ending concussion after a transgender--born biological male, now a 
transgender female--after a transgender volleyball player spiked the 
ball and hit this young woman in the face during a game. She couldn't 
play high school volleyball anymore.
  This February, a girls' basketball team in Massachusetts forfeited a 
game. They said ``no mas''; we quit; we can't go on. They forfeited a 
game after a transgender athlete--biological male, transgender female--
injured three female players. The other team was going to run out of 
players, so they had to quit, and the coaches were worried that more of 
their players were going to be hurt.
  Now how many women and girls are going to be rushed to the hospital 
while activists and President Biden create safe places in which 
transgender athletes can hurt female athletes as a matter of course? 
Shouldn't we be asking that question?
  Some activists say that a biological man--as I indicated, some 
activists may say that a biological man has the same physicality as a 
biological woman. Put down the ball if you believe that, but some--this 
is America. You are entitled to say what you want. And some say that a 
biological man doesn't have any advantage physically over a biological 
female, but that doesn't change the laws of nature. That doesn't change 
the laws of science. That doesn't change the laws of anatomy. The truth 
is that a woman's bone doesn't care that the person who snapped it 
identifies as a woman or a man or whatever. They just know their bone 
is broken.
  American female athletes are not lab rats. They are not lab rats we 
can subject to a social experiment. They have

[[Page S3573]]

goals and dreams, too, and they have worked hard, too, to develop their 
skills, to earn scholarships, to win championships. No girl, no woman, 
no female in America should end up on the bench with her arm in a sling 
because the Biden administration wanted a biological man to feel 
included.
  Broken bones will heal in most cases, but transgender athletes have 
also inflicted a different kind of pain on female athletes, a pain that 
is a lot harder to mend. I am thinking of the pain felt by athletes 
like the swimmer from the University of Florida who missed out on the 
chance to swim as an All American because Ms. Lia Thomas, formerly Mr. 
William Thomas, who ranked 554 as a man in swimming took her place and 
dominated the women's race. We should all worry about the swimmer from 
Virginia Tech who didn't get to compete in the final race of her 
collegiate career. That is a race she will never get back because Ms. 
Thomas stole her spot in the pool.
  How discouraging. How discouraging it must be to dedicate your life 
to a goal, only to have these activists and President Biden rip them 
away because institutions are unwilling to accept the immutable facts 
of anatomy.
  I reject the proposition. I do. I reject the proposition that it is 
OK that some young athlete is losing out--spends hours in the pool or 
in the gym each night--has to have her college championship taken away 
by a biological boy because the Biden administration says so. I reject 
that.
  Transgender athletes are not just undermining the game for female 
athletes, they are also stealing opportunities for women athletes to 
earn scholarships to get an education. This isn't just about 
competitive competition; this is about getting an education. That is 
why we call them scholar athletes. The NCAA, for example--not exactly a 
model of courage, by the way. You ever seen a catfish once you catch it 
and bring it up on the bank? It flips and flops, and it flips and it 
flops. That is the NCAA. They just go with the political winds. Their 
attitude is: We have standards. If you don't like our standards, we 
have others.

  The NCAA sets limits on the number of scholarships available for 
every sport, men and women. By definition, giving a transgender athlete 
a scholarship means a nontransgender girl will not get one. Duh. Yet 
the University of Washington recently offered the first Division I 
women's volleyball scholarship in the country to a biological male. It 
won't be the last. This is the first Division I scholarship taken away 
from a female athlete, but it won't be the last.
  Now, that makes President Biden happy. I am happy he is happy. But 
that makes most fairminded Americans sad. It makes me sad.
  Additionally, we have only just begun to see how much money is at 
stake for female athletes who could earn private sponsorships. Have you 
followed the career of Angel Reese, our star--former star at LSU now 
playing in professional basketball? Have you followed the career of Ms. 
Caitlin Clark? They make a lot more money from their sponsorships than 
they do from their salary playing their sport.
  Now, regardless of how you feel about paying college athletes, it is 
here. Name, image, and likeness sponsorships--they are here, and they 
present an enormous financial opportunity to athletes. From July of 
2021 to June of 2022, about a year, college athletes earned nearly $1 
billion in sponsorship deals. We are talking a lot of money here.
  We don't know yet how much sponsorship money female athletes can 
earn. We are sort of in the infancy of this. But we know for certain 
that they won't earn a penny if a biological male takes their spot on 
the team. I know that.
  A lot of girls are already suffering the consequences of this 
reality. Chelsea Mitchell--Ms. Chelsea Mitchell--for example, she 
missed out on several track and field championships because the State 
of Connecticut forced her to compete against biological boys. She sued 
her State high school athletic association--good for her--because she 
believes she could have earned a better scholarship if she had finished 
first. This is what she told reporters.

       When colleges looked at me, they didn't see a winner. They 
     saw a second or a third place. I wasn't a first place 
     finisher, and I think that is what really hurt me.

  The playing field--I have talked a lot about it--the playing field is 
not the only place where young women worry about facing transgender 
females. The locker room has become a nightmare. Ms. Riley Gaines, a 
female swimmer, she has been very outspoken to protect female 
athletics. You have probably seen her interview. She said: I felt and 
feel ``extreme discomfort''--her words, not mine--sharing a locker room 
with a nude biological man. She added:

       We were not forewarned. We were not asked for our consent. 
     And we did not give our consent.

  Ms. Gaines and more than a dozen other female athletes recently sued 
the NCAA--good for them--for forcing them to share a locker room with 
Ms. Lia Thomas, formerly Mr. William Thomas. The plaintiffs say that 
what the NCAA did violated their 14th Amendment right to bodily 
privacy, and it is hard not to believe them.
  If Ms. Gaines--who is a tremendous athlete, and she is very well-
educated--felt disturbed and violated by having a biological man in her 
locker room, think how horrifying it is for a teenage junior high 
school girl--a teenage junior high school girl--in her locker room 
after soccer or volleyball practice with a biological male.
  Imagine how helpless parents feel when they can't shield their 
teenage daughter from naked men and boys without killing their 
daughter's chances to play and win the sports they love. It is the 
choice parents face. You can either play the sport--their daughter can 
either play the sport they love, or they can be forced to look at a 
young boy's penis in the locker room. Are you kidding me?
  The discomfort that adults and President Biden are subjecting female 
athletes to should be enough for us to say that biological males should 
not be in the girl's locker room, let alone exposing their penises in 
front of those girls.
  Only fools would ignore the reality that some--not all, now--but some 
men would abuse misguided gender policies for their own sexual 
advantage. We have already seen some horrific instances of this. You 
have probably read about the disturbing assault in Loudoun County, VA, 
sexual abuse in girls restrooms by biological males.
  I will happily send you the media articles, President Biden, if your 
staff has not shown them to you.
  Now, look, I have great empathy. I have genuine empathy for the small 
percentage of Americans who struggle with gender dysphoria. I do. And I 
hope they can somehow find peace in their lives. But I do not think 
that we need to sacrifice the physical safety of women. I do not think 
that we need to or should sacrifice women's athletic, educational, or 
professional opportunities just because some activists and President 
Biden claim that injecting biological men into women's sports is the 
only way to make transgender Americans feel included.
  And don't let activists and President Biden try to tell you that 
protecting women is a controversial opinion. They are going to try. And 
70 percent--70 percent--of Americans polled--you will see this every 
time--70 percent of Americans think only girls should compete in 
women's sports. In fact, many transgender Americans are part of that 70 
percent. They don't believe biological men should compete in women's 
sports because it is going to destroy women's sports. Yet their stories 
by some members of the media have been co-opted by people determined to 
force boys onto girls teams and into their locker rooms.

  Now, Louisiana has already put a stop to this. In 2022, the Louisiana 
State Legislature passed a bill--it is now an act--called the Fairness 
in Women's Sports Act. It prohibits biological boys from competing 
against girls in elementary or high school sports. It sailed through 
our State legislature. It was bipartisan. Republicans voted for it, and 
a whole bunch of Democrats voted for it.
  It is just common sense that biological girls should take the field 
against biological girls and biological boys should compete only 
against biological boys. That is how we in Louisiana see it. We need a 
whole lot more of Louisiana's common sense in Washington, DC.
  Congress has done a lot. I am proud of this body. Congress has done a 
lot to protect women's sports in the 50 years

[[Page S3574]]

since title IX became law. I am very proud of title IX.
  I think President Biden is trying to turn it into something that we 
don't recognize, and I don't think he has the authority to do it. But I 
am very proud of the original title IX, and it would be a great 
disgrace to allow activists and President Biden to erase all the 
progress that we have made in elevating women and women athletes in 
order to conduct a social experiment, in order to demand inclusion.
  Let me give you the bottom line. Activists and President Biden want 
to force young female athletes to change clothes in front of biological 
boys in their locker rooms. They accept the biological man's slide 
tackle on the football field with a smile. That is what they want women 
to do--just grin and bear it. And President Biden and activists want 
young women to hide their tears when a biological male walks away with 
a trophy that those women have spent their entire lives working for. 
And it is wrong.
  Pass me the sick bucket. Pass me the sick bucket. That is what most 
fairminded Americans are thinking.
  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. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a great win 
for the American people and for America's energy future. I want to 
start by saying something that I know Vladimir Putin is going hate to 
hear, and that is that Russia's choke hold on America's uranium supply 
is coming to an end. Putin's war machine has now lost one of its cash 
cows. America is finally starting to take back our nuclear energy 
security as well as our energy future.
  Last week, this body unanimously passed legislation that I 
sponsored--bipartisan legislation--to ban the import of Russian 
uranium. It will soon become law. This victory is tremendous and 
transformative, and it is truly bipartisan.
  I am very grateful for Senator Manchin, Senator Risch, Senator 
Lummis, Senator Heinrich, Senator Coons, and Senator Marshall for their 
critical work in helping get this bill into law. I also want to thank 
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Together, we 
all worked to make America safer as well as more prosperous.
  I am especially pleased because my home State of Wyoming has world-
class uranium resources.
  For years, Russia has used its nuclear monopoly to flood the market 
with uranium. Russia's monopoly could do so only because it owned, ran, 
and manipulated the entire situation and had it done by the Russian 
Government. Putin tried to corner the global market. He used enriched 
uranium to enrich himself and to further his dangerous ambitions.
  Russia has been undermining America's nuclear industry for decades. 
As a result, Putin now controls 50 percent of the world's enrichment 
capacity.
  Today, he supplies 24 percent of America's enriched uranium. Putin's 
control is so vast that currently, today, the equivalent of 1 out of 20 
homes in America is powered by uranium enriched by Russia. My 
legislation ensures that Americans will no longer count on Russia to 
turn on our lights.
  Even worse, Putin uses the money from selling uranium to pay for his 
war efforts in Ukraine. For 2 years, America has unintentionally helped 
fund Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That is not how we stand up for 
democracy. America can't talk about stopping Vladimir Putin's march 
through Europe while also helping fund it.
  When it comes to national security, actions matter more than words, 
and our allies want to see consistency. Banning the sale of Russian 
uranium in the United States shows Putin that the world is united 
against him.
  With our legislation, Putin will lose $1 billion in revenue each and 
every year. By banning Russian uranium, we are striking a serious blow 
to Putin's war machine.
  Perhaps what is most important about this legislation is what it does 
to boost America's energy. We are helping America become the global 
leader once again in nuclear energy.
  I have spoken to leaders of many American nuclear utilities. What I 
hear constantly is that they are ready to transition away from Russian 
uranium. They point out that expanding our enrichment capacity here at 
home can be expensive. It takes time, it takes money, and it takes 
certainty. This legislation provides American uranium producers with 
the support they need. The bill also dedicates dollars for strategic 
investments to help jump-start America's nuclear supply chain.
  Of course, we are not starting over from scratch. No, we are not. 
Wyoming is ready to power American reactors with Wyoming nuclear fuel. 
My home State of Wyoming is America's energy breadbasket. We are 
America's leading uranium producer. We have large uranium resources, 
and we will keep building upon them. We have Crook County, Campbell 
County, Converse County, and Sweetwater County. They are ground zero 
for making sure America has the uranium our Nation needs. Wyoming has 
the uranium to free America from dependence on Russia, and we are ready 
to deploy it.
  I have great confidence in Wyoming's energy resources and, of course, 
in Wyoming's energy workers--remarkable individuals. Through their hard 
work, America will once again be a world leader in uranium production, 
conversion, and enrichment.
  America's nuclear supply chain must begin with American-mined uranium 
and end with American-made fuel.
  Russia's control of the world's nuclear fuel supply is coming to an 
end. It is good news for Wyoming, it is good news for America, and it 
is good news for the world.
  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.
  Ms. LUMMIS. 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. 3935

  Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, every 5 years, Congress has the 
responsibility to fully fund the Federal Aviation Administration and 
National Transportation Safety Board to ensure airports across the 
country have the resources they need to bolster security measures and 
fulfill costs associated with meeting the demands of both national and 
global travel.
  As the Cowboy State continues growing, making sure the people of 
Wyoming have reliable, safe, and affordable access to travel is 
critical to maintaining our State's economy. The FAA Reauthorization 
Act of 2024 stands to not only further boost our thriving tourism 
industry but eliminates burdensome regulations that challenge small 
airports across Wyoming and across the Nation.
  For more than a year, I have fought to ensure that millions of 
Wyoming's tax dollars sent to Washington will be put to work to improve 
air travel across Wyoming. Wyoming is home to many small airports that 
serve what would otherwise be isolated parts of our State. This bill 
reauthorizes the Essential Air Service that supports flights for Cody 
and Laramie and increases funding for the program that multiple Wyoming 
airports use for capital projects.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, Cody is the east entrance to 
Yellowstone National Park. It is home to the Buffalo Bill historical 
center, which is a world-class museum, and it is an important tourism 
and art destination. Laramie is the home of the University of Wyoming 
and many activities that improve our Nation, including efforts at 
carbon sequestration technologies. These are communities that need air 
transportation.
  The bill counters Federal overreach that has threatened to burden 
airports by slapping them with multi-million-dollar expenses following 
arbitrary changes to Federal funding criteria for airport runways and 
taxiways or plunge essential renovations into sort of a regulatory 
purgatory. But thanks to critical improvements in this FAA 
reauthorization, not only will the Rock

[[Page S3575]]

Springs Airport be spared from arbitrary, new FAA requirements to pay 
for the upkeep of runways and taxiways, but Wyoming airports can now 
move forward with projects costing less than $6 million in Federal 
funds without being subject to unnecessary redtape.
  These are the sizes of airports that we have in Wyoming, and to have 
these regulatory burdens and shackles taken off so these airports can 
improve runways and taxiways, which are essential to having an 
operational airport, is a true benefit of this bill.
  I want to thank the full committee, and I want to thank the chair and 
the ranking member for understanding the importance of our small 
airports.
  For too long, Congress has delivered FAA reauthorization bills that 
prioritize big aviation and overlook the needs of our rural airports, 
but this bill takes many of those rural airports into consideration. 
States like Wyoming rely on small airports to support entire regions of 
our State, and previous versions of this bill have reflected that 
misunderstanding. The bill we have in front of us fixes that 
misunderstanding. I am very, very pleased with how the treatment of 
small airports in this bill considers the needs of those small 
airports.
  While we work to meet the needs of the Nation's largest airports, we 
cannot forget the smallest ones that work hard to serve rural America, 
and we have a responsibility to make sure this bill creates an 
environment where they can thrive and not just struggle to survive. My 
provisions included in this legislation help airports like Casper/
Natrona County International address air traffic control staffing 
shortages and waive unrealistic rules that require EMTs to be on site 
at every airport when rural areas are already grappling with medical 
personnel shortages.
  Unfortunately, these aren't the only challenges Wyoming airports 
face. My western colleagues and I know better than anyone how critical 
these small airports are, not only for serving our rural communities 
but also in fighting wildfires.
  Wildfires continue to devastate our western habitats, and we need 
every tool readily available to mitigate the damage. Yet current 
regulatory hurdles dramatically slow response times. Every minute 
wasted trying to gain access to restricted airspace results in 
irreparable damage to wildlife, homes, and may even cost lives. My 
provision to this legislation eliminates costly hurdles to fighting 
wildfires, and establishes a reimbursement program for airport sponsors 
to replace firefighting agents and equipment that meet military 
specifications.
  This legislation is a win for the State of Wyoming that will offer 
much needed support for our small airports and bolster our economy. 
Together, we have created a bipartisan and workable reauthorization 
that improves access to our Nation's Capital for all Americans, 
eliminates onerous regulations, and creates an environment where 
smaller airports can do more than just survive.
  I want to thank the members of the Commerce Committee, including the 
Presiding Officer. I want to thank Chair Cantwell and Ranking Member 
Cruz, who worked together to create a bipartisan work product of which 
the committee can be proud, and they have prepared this FAA 
reauthorization for bipartisan passage.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________