[Pages S1096-S1103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following 
nomination, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Robert 
Anthony Molloy, of the Virgin Islands, to be Judge for the District 
Court of the Virgin Islands for a period of ten years.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.


                          Black History Month

  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise today to celebrate Black History 
Month and to pay tribute to Pennsylvanians whose work has made a real 
difference in our Commonwealth.
  This year we will honor three individuals who have dedicated 
themselves to uplifting the lives of others. We know that Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., once said: ``Life's most persistent and urgent 
question is: `What are you doing for others?' '' For purposes of 
today's remarks, I will substitute one word. I will substitute the word 
``children'' for the word ``others'' and ask: What are you doing for 
our children?
  It is an important question, not only for those of us who gather for 
Black History Month today and to celebrate this month, but it is also 
an important question for every Member of Congress to ask themselves.
  This year we are going to honor these three Pennsylvanians: Kathy 
Elliott, Rosemary Browne, and Ellyn Jo Waller. All three have dedicated 
their lives to answering this urgent question and to building pathways 
toward hope for children in their communities.
  I can think of no calling more important and no mission more 
essential than this one: to help our children. It is an honor for me to 
have the privilege to recognize these remarkable Pennsylvanians. They 
are beacons in their communities, and they are each, in their own way, 
an inspiration to me in my work in the Senate and, I know, to the work 
of our staff as well.
  American children face a crisis created by policy choices made by 
adults over now several decades. Despite low unemployment and overall 
economic growth, children are being left out and left behind. Almost 
half of young children in the United States of America live in poverty 
or near poverty, with infants and toddlers at greatest risk.

[[Page S1097]]

Nearly half of children live in those circumstances.
  According to the Census Bureau's ``Supplemental Poverty Measure,'' 
which takes into account many of the government programs designed to 
assist low-income families and individuals, childhood poverty 
worsened--worsened--in 2017 for the first time since the Great 
Recession.
  Poverty harms children both immediately and for a lifetime, the 
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine concluded in 
their 2019 seminal report, ``A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty.'' 
They found that poverty itself, especially when it occurs in early 
childhood or is persistent over time, is damaging to children in ways 
that last a lifetime.
  Specifically, the report finds the following--and I am quoting the 
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine: ``We find 
overwhelming evidence . . . that . . . a child growing up in a family 
whose income is below the poverty line experiences worse outcomes than 
a child from a wealthier family in virtually every dimension, from 
physical and mental health, to educational attainment and labor market 
success, to risky behaviors and delinquency.''
  This is a crisis of untapped potential opportunities. It is a crisis, 
as well, of contributions not made. When a child faces needless 
obstacles to becoming the person he or she might become, it is a 
profound tragedy that affects all of us because we are denying not just 
that child but also that family, that child's family, their community, 
and our country the contributions that child could make if we were 
investing in that child.
  Over time, corrupt forces have perverted the basic notions of freedom 
while creating a society that works for corporate interests rather than 
our children's best interests. Freedom, as we know, is not simply the 
right to be left alone. Real freedom must include the opportunity--the 
affirmative ability--to achieve one's dreams.
  A country that claims to support the freedom of its people must 
provide opportunities to its citizens. For example, in his second 
inaugural address, President Obama said the following:

       We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved 
     for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no 
     matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at 
     any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home 
     swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to 
     each other . . . these things do not sap our initiative, they 
     strengthen us. They don't make us a nation of takers; they 
     free us to take the risks that make this country great.

  President Obama was right, and he knew then that there were and are 
today extraordinary people across the country who are working to give 
our children the opportunity to achieve and grow and contribute so much 
to our Nation.
  Today I will speak about three women who are doing this work in the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: first, Rosemary Browne of Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania. For over 35 years, Rosemary Browne has been a leader in 
South Central Pennsylvania. During that time, she has held a number of 
critical roles in both the government sector and the nonprofit sector.
  She is currently the President and CEO of Alder Health Services, the 
mission of which is to improve the health and well-being of persons 
living with HIV/AIDS and members of the LGBTQ community in a culturally 
competent, affirming, and empowering environment. The agency provides 
behavioral health, primary care, case management, wellness services, 
HIV/STD testing and treatment, family planning, and a host of other 
programs.
  Critically, Alder Health provides a safe haven for LGBTQ youth, and 
we know that significant progress has been made in advancing the rights 
of LGBTQ individuals. However, the progress has been uneven, and we are 
still falling far short, for example, in serving transgender young 
people, especially transgender young people of color who face 
disproportionally higher rates of suicide and violence. Alder Health, 
under Rosemary Browne's leadership, has played an indispensable role in 
helping us better understand the challenges of LGBTQ adolescents and 
providing them with the services they need.
  In 2018 Rosemary was appointed to Governor Tom Wolf's Pennsylvania 
Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, the first-of-its-kind statewide commission 
in the Nation. Rosemary's work at Alder builds on her primary work at 
the Highmark Foundation, where she led efforts to address emerging 
community health challenges and to make sure that uninsured and 
underserved populations in South Central Pennsylvania had the attention 
and the services that they needed. In this capacity, she spearheaded 
efforts to address bullying in our schools and our communities as a 
public health problem and also provided leadership on a strategy to 
reduce childhood obesity through school and community-based 
partnerships.
  Prior to her work at Highmark Foundation, Rosemary spent a decade at 
the Foundation for Enhancing Communities as a program officer and then 
director of programs and community investment, where she oversaw tens 
of millions of investment in community services and tuition assistance, 
giving hundreds of area college-bound students the opportunity to 
pursue higher education.
  Over her career, Rosemary Browne has heeded the call of service and 
lent her considerable passion and expertise in many different 
capacities. Whatever the role, the work has been the same: putting a 
spotlight on the needs of the underserved populations--LGBTQ youth, 
girls of color, and other underserved populations who lack access to 
healthcare, higher education--and always--always--helping them to 
obtain the services they need and to remove the obstacles that stand 
between them and their full potential.
  Service has always been a part of Rosemary's work, believing, as she 
does, that we are given resources and influence not for ourselves but 
for others.
  Also, like Rosemary Browne, Dr. Kathi Elliott's career has been 
defined by her service to others and to the children and young people 
of Pennsylvania. In this case, in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Kathi came 
to this work naturally, having had those values instilled in her by her 
late mother, the former police commander of Pittsburgh, Gwen Elliott.
  We have had South Central Pennsylvania with Rosemary Browne. Now we 
are in Southwestern Pennsylvania with Dr. Kathi Elliott.
  Kathi's mom, Gwen, the late police commander, was herself a 
trailblazer and someone whose story also should be told. We don't have 
time for two stories in one family today, but I will tell part of 
Gwen's story as well.
  Gwen was one of the first African-American women officers in the 
Pittsburgh Police Department, joining the department in 1976 and 
eventually rising to the rank of commander. In 2002, Gwen founded 
Gwen's Girls, an organization dedicated to empowering girls and young 
women through holistic, gender-specific programs, education, and 
experiences through after school--school and community-based 
programming throughout the communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania. 
Gwen's Girls has grown to provide service throughout the region with 
sites in Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg, and Clarendon, PA.
  Given her mother's leadership, it is no surprise that Dr. Kathi 
Elliott has demonstrated the same commitment to and passion for 
leadership, development, and empowerment of girls.
  Prior to accepting the position of CEO of Gwen's Girls in 2015, Kathi 
spent years providing leadership in social service, community, and 
individual mental health treatment. Kathi began her career as a victim 
advocate at the Center for Victims, working mostly in the juvenile 
justice space. She also remains a practicing psychiatric nurse 
practitioner. In that capacity, she provides psychiatric evaluations, 
medication management, and clinical consultation services and treatment 
at the VA of Pittsburgh--their outpatient mental health clinic.
  Dr. Elliott completed dual master's degrees in nursing and social 
work from the University of Pittsburgh and earned a doctor of nursing 
practice degree from Chatham University in 2014.
  Through Dr. Elliott's leadership, Gwen's Girls has become recognized 
as a frontrunner in the integration of evidence-based, clinical 
prevention and intervention policies and practices that enhance the 
child and social welfare system.

[[Page S1098]]

  Gwen's Girls convenes an annual equity summit for Black girls to 
address the racial and gender biases that exist within the juvenile 
justice, health and wellness, child welfare, and education systems.
  Dr. Elliott has also remained a constant leading force and convener 
of the Black Girls Equity Alliance--a collaboration of over 75 
stakeholders committed to addressing systemic inequities in the 
juvenile justice, child welfare, education, and healthcare systems.
  Dr. Elliott currently serves on the board of trustees at Chatham 
University. In December 2017, she was appointed by Mayor Bill Peduto to 
serve as a commissioner on the newly formed Gender Equity Commission 
for the City of Pittsburgh.
  Our third honoree today, Dr. Ellyn Jo Waller, though she was born in 
Queens, NY, we are proud to call her a daughter of Pennsylvania. Many 
in Philadelphia know her as a member and a leader at Enon Tabernacle 
Baptist Church, as well as the partner, in both life and ministry, of 
Dr. Alyn Waller, senior pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Ellyn 
Jo Waller earned a bachelor of special education from Ohio University, 
a master of education in curriculum, instruction, and technology in 
education, and a doctor of education and curriculum, instruction, and 
technology in education, with an emphasis on literary education, from 
Temple University.
  Dr. Waller has devoted her passion and her time to promoting women's 
education and empowerment. She has especially devoted much of her time 
to combating human trafficking, both here in the United States and 
internationally. She is an active member of the Philadelphia Anti-Human 
Trafficking Coalition and serves as cochair of the religion 
subcommittee.
  In 2011, Dr. Waller founded She's My Sister, an anti-human 
trafficking ministry at Enon Tabernacle. She's My Sister works to 
ensure that the faith community in Greater Philadelphia is aware of the 
issue of human trafficking and also partners with the Greater 
Philadelphia Salvation Army on the issue of participating in street 
outreach, supporting and strengthening the drop-in centers, and 
advocating on behalf of victims of human trafficking and sexual 
exploitation.
  In October of 2015, under Dr. Waller's leadership, the ministry 
hosted its Inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness 5K Walk/Run to raise 
funds for a transitional residential program for young women exiting 
the life and aging out of the child welfare system.
  Internationally, Dr. Waller regularly participates in rescue and 
restoration efforts in Italy and South Africa. Dr. Waller also serves 
on a number of boards and provides community leadership in other ways. 
She is a member of the board of the City School in Philadelphia, on the 
advisory committee of the United Negro College Funds, Delaware Valley 
Women of Faith for Education annual luncheon, and is president of the 
Charitas Foundation, which is the philanthropic Waller family 
foundation established to positively impact the lives of individuals by 
sowing financial seeds into organizations that change lives through 
their missions.
  Dr. Waller has served on the Foundation Board of the Community 
College of Philadelphia since 2014 and currently serves as the 
president of the Foundation Board.

  Each of our honorees today--these three remarkable women--have worked 
tirelessly to ensure that our children can flourish and can fulfill 
their potential. When others may look the other way or even wash their 
hands of the solemn duty to help our children, our honorees have 
instead volunteered for service over and over again.
  To refer back to the first question I started with, ``What are you 
doing for our children,'' each of us has an obligation to answer that 
question. Each of our three honorees today have answered that question 
by devoting their lives to the urgent work of helping our children. 
These three remarkable women--all Pennsylvanians--have provided 
pathways to hope. For that, we owe them our deepest gratitude.
  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. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                Abortion

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, this week, the Senate will vote on two 
bills that will protect our most vulnerable citizens--literally, our 
babies. The first bill we will vote on is the Born-Alive Abortion 
Survivors Protection Act, which was introduced by our colleague from 
Nebraska, Senator Sasse.
  This legislation is simple and straightforward. It requires 
physicians and healthcare providers to treat babies who survive an 
abortion with the same lifesaving care that other infants born at the 
same stage receive. While you might be forgiven for wondering, why 
would we need such a bill; surely, that standard must already exist in 
our law--unfortunately, no. There are no Federal laws requiring 
healthcare providers to care for abortion survivors, just as they would 
for any other infant in their care.
  One of the most notorious reasons why we need this law sits in the 
Governor's mansion in Virginia. About this time last year, our country 
was shocked and outraged by comments made by Gov. Ralph Northam--a 
pediatrician, believe it or not--about what should happen when a baby 
is delivered and survives an abortion. He said:

       The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept 
     comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what 
     the mother and family desired. And then a discussion would 
     ensue between the physicians and the mother.

  Rather than immediately doing everything possible to save the baby, 
to provide the same sort of care he would to any infant, he wants to 
sit around and decide whether the baby will live or die. That is not 
healthcare; that is infanticide. Voting for the Born-Alive Abortion 
Survivors Protection Act is how each Member of this Chamber can go on 
record to say they are against killing innocent babies.
  While some are desperately trying to paint this as an anti-abortion 
bill, which would infringe on women's reproductive rights, those claims 
could not be further from the truth. There is nothing in this bill 
about limiting access to abortion, no mention of first, second, or 
third trimester abortions, nothing about overturning Roe v. Wade.
  There is one goal with this legislation and one goal only: to give 
every baby a fighting chance. In a rational world, we wouldn't be 
having this discussion but would, rather, unanimously be condemning 
this practice for the evil that it is. I am proud to be an original 
cosponsor of the bill and, once again, vote to stop the practice of 
infanticide and protect babies who survive abortions alive.
  We will be voting on a second bill, which will provide protections 
for unborn children that are practiced in almost all of the civilized 
world. This is the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that would 
make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions on unborn babies at or 
beyond 20 weeks.
  There is significant medical research that shows that unborn children 
at this stage experience pain. At 5 months into a pregnancy, these 
babies are beyond halfway to delivery.
  One of President's Trump's guests at the State of the Union a few 
weeks ago was 2-year-old Ellie Schneider--one of the youngest babies to 
survive in the United States. Ellie was born at 21 weeks and 6 days--
just 13 days beyond the point in time we are discussing. She weighed 
less than a pound at birth and is living proof of the medical 
achievements and advancements that have improved the chance of survival 
for extremely premature babies.
  Ellie and her mother Robin are an example of the impact this 
legislation would have on the lives of many Americans families. 
Unfortunately, just as our Democratic colleagues have tried to deceive 
the American people about the purpose of the Born-Alive Abortion 
Survivors Protection Act, they are trying to mislead everyone about 
what this bill would do as well.
  First, this bill would apply only to elective abortions, not those 
involving rape or incest or where the life of the mother could be in 
danger. It in no way places the mother in legal jeopardy for seeking an 
abortion. It clearly and solely places responsibility on healthcare 
providers.

[[Page S1099]]

  Passing this legislation wouldn't make the United States an extreme 
outlier when it comes to abortion practices. In fact, it would put us 
in line with international norms. Currently, only seven countries in 
the world allow elective abortions after 20 weeks. One, of course, is 
the United States. The other countries on the list should make all of 
us second-guess allowing abortions beyond 20 weeks--China, Vietnam, 
North Korea. Countries with a history of human rights violations are 
hardly the model we should aspire to.
  It is time to give every baby a chance to live and stop doctors from 
performing abortions on infants who feel pain. I am proud to be a 
cosponsor of both of these bills and stand with my colleagues in the 
fight for human life.
  Our friend from Montana, Senator Daines, established the first-ever 
Senate Pro-Life Caucus to fight for the lives of our most vulnerable 
citizens. A couple of weeks ago, he said: ``These back-to-back votes 
will present an opportunity for Senate Democrats and all of us to show 
the American people whether there are any limits at all to radical 
abortion extremism.'' We will soon learn the answer.
  I appreciate our colleagues--Senator Sasse, Senator Graham, and 
Senator Daines--for their leadership on this legislation and for 
consistently fighting for the most vulnerable among us. I will be a 
proud ``yes'' vote on both of these bills--yes to protecting newborn 
babies, yes to equal medical care for all infants, and yes to a 
fighting chance for all babies.


                              Coronavirus

  Madam President, we are returning to Washington, DC, from time spent 
in our States. I was happy, for one, to get time to spend in Texas with 
constituents. I traveled the State, as I am sure many of us did, 
traveling from Midland, to Ft. Worth, to Corpus Christi, and a number 
of spots in between. Texas is a pretty big place, so it takes a little 
time to move around, but it is really great to be able to hear from the 
folks I represent--the folks we all represent--about what they care 
about the most.
  One of the most interesting things to me is how little they talk 
about what is talked about inside the bubble here known as Washington, 
DC. In San Antonio, for example, I met with State and local officials 
to discuss their growing concerns over coronavirus. Lackland Air Force 
Base is one of the designated locations where Americans evacuated from 
overseas with suspected exposure to coronavirus are being held under 
the first Federal quarantine in more than 50 years. Folks were 
naturally concerned about the fact that these evacuees were scheduled 
to be transported to local civilian hospitals for testing rather than 
remaining on the base where they are quarantined. In our meeting, we 
were able to speak with not only the mayor and two council persons, but 
we were able to speak with officials from the Department of Health and 
Human Services and the Defense Department about these concerns, and I 
am glad we were able to come up with a better solution. The Department 
of Health and Human Services has now updated their protocol to ensure 
that testing for coronavirus will be conducted at Joint Base Lackland's 
quarantine housing, so evacuees will not be sent to hospitals in the 
area for their tests.
  I appreciate my colleagues at the city who have been working overtime 
to keep their residents there safe. I am grateful to the administration 
for addressing our concerns and being responsive to those questions.
  On the very day we met, 90 evacuees were released from quarantine, 
and I am happy they are finally headed home. I am sure I am not as 
happy as they are after being quarantined. We owe a huge thank-you to 
the medical professionals who have and will continue to care for those 
in quarantine and to the Bexar County and San Antonio officials who are 
working to safeguard public health.


                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Madam President, I traveled up I-35 and was in Ft. Worth at the 
Northside Community Health Center to hear about an entirely different 
healthcare challenge, which is high prescription drug costs.
  I met with local healthcare professionals, advocates, and patients to 
hear about their experiences with these rising costs, and I have 
introduced legislation to address them. For example, we heard from 
Randall Barker and his daughter Emma, who both have diabetes. They need 
insulin. They told me that one bottle of insulin costs upwards of $281. 
Randall continues to make sacrifices to afford the lifesaving drugs he 
and Emma need to lead healthy lives.
  As I mentioned, to address the high costs of prescription drugs, I 
introduced a bipartisan bill with our colleague, Senator Blumenthal 
from Connecticut, called the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients 
Act. The purpose of the bill is straight forward: to stop drug 
companies from gaming the patent system to keep their profits high.

  Patents, of course, are granted for scientific innovations in order 
to encourage more of them. What happens under the period of a patent is 
that whatever the item is--in this case, a drug--that company reserves 
the right to sell it exclusively, without any competition, in order to 
recoup its costs and incentivize innovation when it comes to these 
drugs. But when companies game the system by establishing patent 
thickets--multiple patents used to unfairly block competition--this 
prevents new drugs, as well as competing drugs at a lower price, from 
entering the market.
  For example, the most widely prescribed drug in America is called 
HUMIRA. It has more than 120 different patents, for no real purpose 
other than extending that period of exclusivity as long as possible to 
continue to make money. In Europe, there are five competing products, 
but in America, there is only HUMIRA. That is a patent thicket. That is 
gaming the system, and it is hurting American consumers.
  I appreciate the support from healthcare providers and advocates and 
patients I heard from in Ft. Worth. They encourage us to get our work 
done sooner rather than later.
  I have come to the floor twice and asked unanimous consent to pass 
the bill. It was voted unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee. The 
Democratic leader blocked it both times. I hope he will reconsider his 
position. I am sure his constituents in New York would like a little 
bit of a break when it comes to prescription drug costs. I happen to 
think it has to do more with the upcoming election than it does the 
merits of the legislation.


                              E-Cigarettes

  Madam President, I traveled to a couple of other Texas cities, where 
I was able to talk to people about the rise of e-cigarette use, 
particularly among teens. In Corpus Christi along the gulf coast and in 
Odessa in deep West Texas, I met with a range of local officials, 
health professionals, and community advocates about the impact of teen 
vaping.
  One study found that in the Permian Basin, in the middle of the 
Odessa area, about half of high school students used e-cigarettes and 
25 percent of them had vaped in the past month. This study found that 
in schools, the average age of first-time e-cigarette users is just 13 
years old. E-cigarettes--even the closed systems, where you can't add 
other ingredients, like the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC--
even in the closed systems that are designed to deliver only nicotine, 
nicotine is an addictive drug. When children get access to these 
addictive drugs, it may well end up being a gateway to other use--
whether it is tobacco or other drug use--later in life. It certainly 
encourages them to remain a user of this nicotine delivery device.
  I have introduced legislation called the Preventing Online Sales of 
E-Cigarettes to Children Act, which would make it difficult for 
children to get their hands on these devices, particularly when they 
buy them over the internet. All it does is apply the same safeguards 
already in place for online purchases of tobacco--it applies that to e-
cigarettes. Customers would have to verify their age at the time of 
delivery--a practice which, shockingly, does not currently exist.
  A recent survey published in the American Journal of Health Promotion 
found that 32 percent of underage e-cigarette users reported purchasing 
products online, making online sales the single largest source of 
purchases for underage users. We recently raised the age from 18 to 21 
to get access to these e-cigarettes, but still, as these studies

[[Page S1100]]

indicate, use of e-cigarettes and vaping devices is epidemic in our 
middle schools and our high schools. It is dangerous to the physical 
and mental health of our children. That is something you would think we 
would be able to address. If we are going to turn the tide on e-
cigarettes and prevent more young people from facing their deadly 
health consequences, passage of this legislation is a necessary first 
step.


                           State Work Period

  Madam President, when I was home in San Antonio, I was able to help 
celebrate the investiture of one of our newest Federal judges, Jason 
Pulliam, who filled the vacancy in the Western District of Texas. Then 
I got to spend a little time in Midland with folks and talk about the 
importance of our oil and gas industry and why innovation in that space 
and concern about conservation and the environment were not mutually 
exclusive.
  At each step along the way, I was able to hear from countless other 
Texans about changes they would like to see coming out of Washington. 
They encouraged us to try to work together and avoid some of the 
partisan gridlock we have seen that characterized so much of the recent 
impeachment proceedings. It was a great week recharging at home. I came 
back ready to get back to work.
  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. BOOZMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                Veterans

  Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam President, the Disabled American Veterans is 
celebrating 100 years of helping military veterans, and I rise to 
recognize this remarkable occasion.
  Throughout its history, the DAV has been influential in identifying 
ways to best support our veterans--from pushing for the consolidation 
of veterans programs, in its early years, to direct outreach to 
veterans in communities with the launch of the Field Service Unit 
Program, to pressing for more funding for VA healthcare and benefits.
  There has been so much progress in advancing veterans services thanks 
to the DAV's efforts. The organization's members and partners have a 
lot to be proud of. DAV members have been leading advocates for injured 
and ill veterans and their families, which has made a difference for 
countless wounded warriors. The DAV's advocacy has helped and continues 
to build better lives for disabled veterans. We are thankful for the 
more than 1 million DAV members and auxiliary members who are doing 
great work to ensure our country keeps the promise we made to the men 
and women who have served in uniform.
  This week, members of the DAV Department of Arkansas are visiting the 
Nation's Capital to share the organization's legislative priorities for 
2020. They are part of an extensive network that has been influential 
in identifying how the Department of Veterans Affairs can strengthen 
its services. They are among the DAV members from across the country 
who are in Washington, DC, to advocate on behalf of veterans.
  There is simply no substitute for coming to our Nation's Capital and 
visiting with Members of Congress to let them know of DAV's priorities. 
These include strengthening veterans mental healthcare and suicide 
prevention programs, improving benefits and services for women veterans 
and ensuring veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances receive 
full and timely benefits. The good news is we are working on these 
priorities because we all agree that our veterans deserve nothing less 
than quality care and the benefits they have earned.
  Last month, the Senate's Committee on Veterans' Affairs advanced the 
Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement 
Act. This comprehensive legislation will strengthen our ability to 
provide veterans with the mental healthcare they need. It includes 
language Senator Warner and I authored to leverage the services of 
veteran-serving nonprofits and other community networks in our overall 
strategy to reduce veteran suicides.
  VA Ranking Member Tester and I are also working to improve services 
to our women veterans. Our Deborah Sampson Act legislation would 
eliminate barriers to care and services that many women veterans face 
and would help to ensure the VA could address the needs for women, 
which is so critical because they are more likely to face homelessness, 
unemployment, and to go without needed healthcare. We are pleased to 
have the support of the DAV for this important legislation.
  I am proud to cosponsor the Veterans Burn Pit Exposure Recognition 
Act, which would allow veterans who suffer from the effects of burn 
pits to get the benefits and services they have earned.
  I encourage my colleagues to support these bills so we can provide 
the resources that have been promised to our veterans.
  For years, the DAV members have supported the passage of the Blue 
Water Navy bill. Thanks, in part, to their advocacy, Congress approved 
this critical legislation last year that extends benefits to more 
veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals during the Vietnam war.
  The DAV's attention extends beyond the Halls of Congress. Its 
National Service Program helps to direct services to veterans across 
the country.
  I applaud the efforts of the more than 11,000 DAV members in Arkansas 
whose outreach is helping veterans to understand and access their 
benefits. They have spent countless hours in advising fellow veterans 
about the assistance they qualify for and in helping them fill out the 
paperwork to secure those benefits through the VA.
  One of the well-known services provided by the DAV is the 
transportation of veterans to VA medical centers and hospitals. In 
rural States like Arkansas, the services these volunteers offer is 
critical to meeting veterans' healthcare needs. The Arkansas fleet is 
made up of 16 vans. Last year, more than 6,600 veterans were driven to 
medical appointments with the help of volunteers who logged more than 
18,000 hours behind the wheel.
  I look forward to continuing to work with DAV members as Congress 
crafts and reforms policies to improve services for veterans and their 
families.
  This country made a promise to our veterans that we must live up to, 
and I am proud to join with the DAV to ensure we follow through on that 
commitment. In working together, we can find solutions and take action 
to deliver the results veterans have earned and expect. We will 
continue looking to the DAV to understand how we can improve the lives 
of the men and women who have served in uniform.
  As a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and as 
chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees VA 
funding, I have seen the dedication of the DAV to support disabled 
veterans in Arkansas and across the country. I am proud to recognize 
the DAV on its 100 years of engaging veterans, in its advocating to 
advance benefits, services, and care, and in its making a positive 
difference in the lives of veterans and their families.


                       Remembering Charles Portis

  Madam President, on a separate subject, I also pay tribute to an 
Arkansas veteran who is one of the State's most famous sons--literary 
icon Charles Portis. Mr. Portis, the author best known for his 1968 
Western novel ``True Grit,'' passed away on February 17, 2020.
  Born in December 1933, in El Dorado, AR, Portis spent his childhood 
in southern Arkansas. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and served as an 
infantryman and, during the Korean war, reached the rank of sergeant 
before his discharge in 1955. Following his military service, he 
attended the University of Arkansas and wrote for the student 
newspaper, the Arkansas Traveler. He graduated from the university in 
1958 with a degree in journalism.
  After graduating, Portis began his career as a reporter. He first 
worked at the Arkansas Gazette and then at the New York Herald Tribune. 
Though he voluntarily ended his journalism career in 1964, he used the 
skills and tools he had acquired as a reporter when he returned home to 
Arkansas to begin writing fiction.

  His most celebrated work is the Western classic ``True Grit.'' This 
book chronicles the efforts of a Yell County

[[Page S1101]]

teenager, Mattie Ross, along with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, to 
avenge the death of Mattie's father at the hands of a drifter. The 
novel incorporates distinct references that are familiar to many 
Arkansans, and it depicts life on the frontier in what was then the 
wild, wild West. It was later adapted into film in 1969 and 2010. While 
it is his most well-known work, Mr. Portis also wrote four other novels 
and several shorter works of fiction and nonfiction.
  During his career, Portis was honored with the Oxford American's 
first Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature award and was 
presented with the Porter Prize's 30th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement 
Award. ``True Grit'' has been praised as ``one of the great American 
novels.''
  I take this opportunity to say how proud we are of Charles Portis and 
his legacy as an acclaimed writer and storyteller. My thoughts and 
prayers are with his friends and family as they remember and reflect on 
his life. I hope they find comfort in the fact that Mr. Portis has left 
a profound, lasting mark on Arkansas, as well as within our Nation's 
culture and literary traditions.
  Charles Portis had a remarkable career that will be remembered for a 
long time to come. I wish to honor him and his loved ones today and 
help to celebrate his life. On behalf of all Arkansans, we celebrate 
Charles Portis and his notable contributions to our State.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I am pleased to have arrived on the 
Senate floor just a bit early to have heard the Senator from Arkansas, 
Mr. Boozman, pay tribute to the DAV, Disabled American Veterans, and I 
very much want to join in his comments.
  I will also take a moment to thank him for his continual service for 
veterans, not only for those of Arkansas but of our Nation, and to 
recognize that he and I, since our days in the House of 
Representatives, have worked together on veterans' issues and both now 
find ourselves in positions in the hopes that we can do even more.
  To Senator Boozman, I say thank you for his continued efforts in 
making sure that all who serve our Nation have a better future and that 
the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the American people, do 
everything they can to make sure that what they are entitled to they 
will receive. So I thank the Senator from Arkansas.


                        Tribute to Kent Cornish

  Madam President, I come to the floor to congratulate and pay tribute 
to a Kansan, Kent Cornish. He is retiring as the President of the 
Kansas Association of Broadcasters.
  He has spent the last 40 years in the broadcast business and the past 
12 at the KAB in his advocating on behalf of broadcasters across our 
State. His dedication to making certain that rural communities in 
Kansas have access to quality broadcasting programming is a testament 
to his commitment to rural America at large. I, in particular, find 
that very pleasing as we know how important broadcasting is--local 
broadcasting in particular--to the future and well-being of the 
citizens of Kansas and, particularly, to those who live in our smallest 
communities.
  Kent is widely recognized as one of the most knowledgeable and 
effective advocates for broadcasting in our State and around the 
country. He has been a leading voice in Topeka and Washington, DC, and 
is someone whom I hold in high regard.
  Kent is a native of Topeka who dedicated his life to broadcasting at 
an early age. With dreams of becoming a sportscaster, Kent attended the 
University of Kansas, where he earned a degree in journalism. He later 
attended Washburn University School of Law.
  After joining his hometown station, WIBW, as an intern, Kent worked 
his way up through the ranks to become a news reporter, anchor, and, 
eventually, an assistant news director. He also spent time at WDAF in 
Kansas City and later returned to WIBW. He left the station in 1980 and 
turned his attention to sales. He served as executive director of the 
Kansas Manufactured Housing Institute, but he could not keep his 
passions in the background.
  He left that job to return to broadcasting. Four years after leaving 
WIBW, he rejoined the station at which he would ultimately be named 
program director and operations manager. He later took over as general 
manager of KTKA, in Topeka, and eventually moved to Wichita to manage 
two television stations. After having spent decades running broadcast 
stations that Kansans from all over our State have relied on for both 
local and national news, he became the president and executive director 
of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters in 2008.
  Kent has had a long and successful career. He has earned esteemed 
awards, including the Grover Cobb Award from the University of Kansas. 
He has also served in numerous leadership capacities, including as the 
former president of the National Alliance of State Broadcasters 
Associations and as the former chairman of the Greater Topeka Chamber 
of Commerce and of the Topeka Community Foundation.
  Kent has been a powerful voice in the Nation's Capital for critical 
Federal policy, all framed in the larger lens of improving communities' 
access--people's access--to quality broadcasting. Like the rest of us 
from rural States like Kansas, Kent knows how quickly these communities 
can be forgotten and has always been determined to ensure access to 
local information, news, and weather.
  I am proud to call Kent a friend, and I look forward to seeing where 
his life now takes him. We meet many people in the business that we are 
in here in the U.S. Senate and in politics in general. Kent is one of 
those whom you appreciate from the first day you become acquainted with 
him. He is straightforward and honest and tells it like it is. He is 
there to be supportive but is there to provide the necessary 
information for me and others to make the best decisions, not just on 
behalf of broadcasters but for those they serve in their communities.
  I add my voice to the well-deserved praise that he has received and 
will continue to receive. Congratulations and thank you to Kent for all 
his work.
  On behalf of Kansas broadcasters, you are highly regarded by them and 
their listeners. Your efforts have benefited Kansans and have improved 
our Nation. You will be missed at the Kansas Association of 
Broadcasters, but I have no doubt you will continue to make your 
community a better place.
  I look forward to many more years of friendship and working together 
on behalf of Kansans, and I thank you for your friendship and for all 
you have done to make our State a better place.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The Senator from Arkansas.


                                Abortion

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, this week the Senate has another chance to 
vote on basic pro-life protections for babies, both born and unborn.
  This week we have another choice to live up to our Nation's highest 
principle--that every person has the right to life--or to stoop down to 
a narrow vision of humanity peddled by the abortion industry and its 
cronies.
  The first bill we are considering--the Pain-Capable Unborn Child 
Protection Act--would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, 
when there is clear, scientific evidence that these young babies can 
feel pain in their mother's womb.
  The abortion lobby and all of its defenders will dispute this 
science, claiming that babies or fetuses--which is the euphemism they 
like to use for babies--can't feel pain at all or at least until the 
very latest stages of pregnancy. Anyone pedaling that myth must have 
never visited a neonatal intensive care unit, or the NICU, as they are 
usually called. Ask any one of those NICU nurses who cares for little 
preemies, even micro-preemies, and they will tell you how they can hold 
that small infant sometimes even in the palm of their hands, and they 
can see it grimace at a poke or a prod, maybe even slap away a tube or 
a needle as they approach--just as older kids do, just as some grownups 
do.
  The undeniable fact of fetal pain in these young babies influences 
every aspect of how we care for the young in our hospitals. We swaddle 
them with only the softest fabrics because their little bodies are so 
easily stimulated. We give them pain medicine during surgery, whether 
they are in the womb

[[Page S1102]]

or outside it. But we offer no such comfort during abortions, even in 
the latest stages of pregnancy, when abortionists crush a baby's skull 
and dismember it.
  Indeed, a scientific paper published earlier this year in the Journal 
of Medical Ethics noted a curious fact: Abortion is the only--the 
only--invasive procedure performed on unborn infants without pain 
medication. Then again, abortion is unusual in so many ways, as so few 
hospital procedures are designed to end a life, not to save a life.
  Are we comfortable with this state of affairs? Are we comfortable 
with the fact that more than 11,000 abortions were performed after 21 
weeks when, again, we have clear, scientific evidence that these babies 
feel pain and that many of them could survive outside their mother's 
womb?
  I would suggest the American people are not comfortable with this 
situation, and we can do something about it in the U.S. Senate this 
week.
  The second bill we are voting on, called the Born-Alive Abortion 
Survivors Protection Act, is even more modest but perhaps even more 
urgent. This bill would simply protect babies when they are born alive 
during an abortion.
  I know it is amazing to even hear this, but there are rare and 
horrible cases in which babies are intended to be aborted, yet they are 
born alive, and the doctors are under no obligation to provide medical 
care for that young baby with a spark of God living in its soul. So 
this bill would simply obligate abortionists to render lifesaving 
medical care to a baby struggling for life on the operating table. It 
would require abortionists to act as those babies' friends and their 
doctors, consistent with their oath--not act like the baby's mortal 
enemy.
  Of course, the abortion lobby will tell you: Oh, this never occurs. 
All of their defenders in the media will say that it never occurs. But 
if you are being honest, the facts are, they do occur.
  The implication here is clear. They simply want us to look away from 
this horror. That doesn't mean we should, though, because, in fact, we 
do know--we do know--that babies can survive abortions. We have the 
numbers to prove it from a handful of States that require abortionists 
to confess when they fail to kill a baby in the mother's womb and, 
instead, murder it on the operating table.
  In Florida, 11 babies were born alive during abortions in 2017; 
another 6 were reportedly born alive in 2018; and another 2, last year. 
There were 19 precious little babies born alive during abortions in 
just 1 State in just 3 years. Other States have reported dozens more 
cases.
  Still, the abortion industry will dismiss these lives as a mere 
rounding error: Let's not even focus on it. It is not a serious matter.
  But forgive us if most Americans see the matter differently. These 
are precious little children, made in the image of God and endowed by 
him with the same worth and dignity as you and me and all of us.
  We have a duty to these little children. We have a duty not to look 
away from them.
  These pro-life bills are modest and humane. They have the strong 
support of the American people--clear majorities. But the real reason 
we must protect these babies is not because it is popular but because 
it is right.
  Every human being is created equal and deserves recognition and 
protection under our laws. It says so right in the preamble to our 
Declaration of Independence.
  Our country doesn't always live up to that noble principle. But right 
now we have an opportunity to live up to it just a little bit more, if 
only in just a few more cases--but those cases in which life is most 
vulnerable and most innocent.
  So I urge my colleagues to seize this opportunity and protect life by 
acknowledging the humanity of these precious little children. We must 
not look away any longer.
  I yield the floor.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.


                              Coronavirus

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, the World Health Organization has 
now reported that there are 79,000 cases of coronavirus across at least 
30 countries, with at least 53 confirmed cases here in United States.
  As the virus continues to spread, the global economy is already 
beginning to suffer. All of the warning lights are flashing bright red. 
We are staring down a potential pandemic, and the administration has no 
plan. We have a crisis of coronavirus, and President Trump has no plan, 
no urgency, no understanding of the facts or how to coordinate a 
response.
  We must get a handle on the coronavirus and make sure the United 
States is fully prepared to deal with its potentially far-reaching 
consequences, but the Trump administration has been asleep at the 
wheel.
  President Trump, good morning. There is a pandemic of coronavirus. 
Where are you? Where is your plan?
  It is just amazing. As the crisis grows and grows, we hear nothing.
  Coronavirus testing kits have not been widely distributed to our 
hospitals and public health labs.
  President Trump's State Department overruled the recommendations of 
the scientists in the CDC and allowed infected passengers from a cruise 
ship to be flown back into the United States.
  Amazingly, at a time when we know that these pandemics can spread, 
this administration cut the CDC--the agency in charge of fighting these 
global viruses--with a 16-percent senseless cut to its budget.
  My fellow Americans, that is what they do on all these things. They 
just cut, and then the President tries to claim credit after we restore 
the money. He did it in his State of the Union. He was claiming, 
because of his great work with NIH, we are curing cancer. He has cut 
the NIH every budget, including this one.
  It is a disgrace how this man can say one thing and do another and 
confounding that it doesn't catch up with him with too many Americans 
and none of my colleagues on this side of the aisle, and it is 
probably, right now, most dangerous and most egregious when it comes to 
coronavirus.
  It wasn't just that the President cut CDC last year. It follows years 
of drastic cuts to the global health division at CDC by the Trump 
administration.
  In 2018, CDC was forced to reduce the numbers of countries it 
operated in from 49 to 10. That is how bad it is.
  We have crises, and we have a world that is different, and this 
administration, instead of stepping up to the plate, runs away, 
listening to the clarion call of the far right: Just cut, cut, cut, 
cut, cut, no matter how it affects people.
  In 2018, even worse, President Trump ordered the National Security 
Council to scupper its entire global health security unit and asked the 
Department of Homeland Security to do the same. We don't have epidemic 
teams in the National Security Council or DHS.
  I hope and pray to God that corona doesn't spread here, but if it 
does, we have been inadequately prepared because of President Trump's 
lack of leadership, lack of understanding science, lack of ability to 
listen to experts and do something about them instead of being 
concerned--it seems all the time--with his own ego.
  The President has not even taken the simple, sensible step of 
designating a single official to lead response efforts.
  In 2014, President Obama made the smart decision to appoint Ron Klain 
to lead an interagency response to the Ebola outbreak. But President 
Trump, in contrast, has hollowed out so many agencies that one of the 
key figures responding to coronavirus is Ken Cuccinelli, an immigrant 
hard-liner with no experience in public health. Unbelievable. A man 
totally unprepared for coronavirus, an ideologue--a rightwing, nasty 
ideologue who has spent his career kicking around immigrants--is now in 
charge of our fight against coronavirus. This is after the President 
cut CDC, eliminated the global health security units in Homeland 
Security and at the NSC, and we are in trouble.
  President Trump has not only failed to marshal a capable domestic 
response to the coronavirus; he has been slow to take action to 
confront the virus abroad. We all know that the best thing to do is to 
stop it from spreading abroad before it spreads to these United States.
  Of course, the President--ego above anything else--has been afraid to 
criticize President Xi or the Communist

[[Page S1103]]

Party of China for silencing dissent and obscuring the truth about the 
coronavirus--where it originated. When China obscures the truth, it 
puts Americans in danger. Where is President Trump's voice?
  The videos emerging from behind the Chinese Communist Party's 
internet wall show Chinese people pleading--pleading--with the 
international community to expose the scope and scale of this epidemic.
  The response so far by the Trump administration is exactly what 
happens when science skeptics with alternate facts try to run emergency 
response that requires expertise, planning, knowledge, money, 
cooperation, and science-based actions.
  But being anti-science is not just rhetoric. It hurts us. It hurts 
every American in many ways, and that is what President Trump and his 
administration do, and our Republican colleagues just blithely go 
along.
  After months of tiptoeing around the Chinese Communist Party, after 3 
years of cutting funding for our epidemic response programs, President 
Trump simply has left the United States unprepared to confront a 
possible epidemic like corona.
  I will have more to say this week about what the administration must 
do to right the ship.


                            National Defense

  Mr. President, on another front, again, the frustration of how this 
administration has conducted itself is unprecedented. I know some of my 
colleagues like to say that it is just like Obama. It isn't even close.
  Here are some more examples, unfortunately, on the trampling of the 
rule of law in this country.
  Emboldened by the refusal of Senate Republicans to hold him 
accountable in his impeachment trial, President Trump has been 
interfering with the Justice Department and retaliating against 
officials in his administration who dare testify truthfully before 
Congress.
  In the short week that we have spent in recess, the President has 
managed to plunge our country even deeper into chaos and certainly has 
shown the need for having a trial during impeachment with witnesses and 
documents, getting the truth and not rubberstamping President Trump's 
behavior.
  The President continued to purge his administration, firing officials 
who refused to pledge allegiance to the President over their allegiance 
to the Constitution. The President classified Bolton's book in another 
blatant attempt to cover up the facts. This is what dictatorships do--
dictatorships. They say something is classified; they hide the truth. 
It is a disgrace.
  The President continued to abuse the pardon power, in one instance 
commuting the sentence of a notoriously corrupt former official without 
rhyme or reason. Maybe most egregious of all, the President, angered 
that the Director of National Intelligence had the gall to conduct a 
bipartisan briefing for the House Intelligence Committee on foreign 
interference in our elections, replaced him with a political lackey--a 
yes-man as the head of DNI, where truth needs to be spoken probably 
more than any other place in the government. He has no experience in 
the intelligence community and is simply known as an acolyte to 
President Trump.
  With each of these actions--I hate to say it, but it is true; any 
objective person will know--President Trump brings our Nation closer 
and closer and closer to a banana republic, a government not of laws 
but of one man, a government where officials are asked to swear loyalty 
not to our country or the Constitution but to the President himself, a 
country where truth is obscured or covered up or deemed fake simply 
because it is not flattering to the President and is not what he wants 
to hear.
  President Trump's decision to dismiss the DNI Director, the Director 
of National Intelligence, is particularly pernicious. Our intelligence 
community is an institution that is supposed to report on threats to 
our country with accuracy, without regard to politics, to speak truth 
to power, to protect us. For the President to install a yes-man at the 
top of the intelligence community, to politicize a part of our 
government designed to be apolitical, to so debase the morale of the 
brave men and women in the CIA and the NSA, many of whom risk their 
lives for our safety, is a disgrace.
  There are media reports that our intelligence community has found 
that Putin continues to engage in activities to influence the outcome 
of our election. That is reportedly what former DNI McGuire's team was 
briefing Congress about.
  So today, along with my Democratic colleagues on the Banking and 
Foreign Relations Committees, I am sending a letter to Secretary Pompeo 
and Secretary Mnuchin urging them to impose new sanctions on Putin and 
his cronies using existing sanctions authority. They have it; they can 
do it. Let me repeat that. The Trump administration has broad authority 
to impose sanctions for meddling in our elections. It does not need new 
legislative tools or approval.
  Our message is clear: Secretary Mnuchin, impose sanctions now.
  No one on the Intelligence Committee, Democrat or Republican, has 
disputed that Russia is attempting to interfere in our elections. Most 
say Russia has already started to do so. So this should be an easy, 
bipartisan effort. We are being attacked today in real time by foreign 
adversaries. This is not about party politics. It is not about what 
Trump doesn't want to hear. The Russians wanted him to win in 2016 and 
in all likelihood will want him to win in 2020. It is about the oath we 
swear to defend our Republic. Americans--I don't care what their party, 
what their ideology--if they start believing our elections are not on 
the level, this democracy will be in big trouble.
  I hope my Republican colleagues will join us. The administration 
could impose sanctions tomorrow, and it should. A repeat performance of 
2016--another campaign of foreign influence in our elections--is 
perhaps the greatest threat to our democracy. The Founding Fathers 
thought so. Read what James Madison said.
  We demand that Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mnuchin identify and 
target all those determined to be responsible for ongoing election 
interference. Anything less would be an abdication of their 
responsibility, their sacred, solemn responsibility to protect and 
defend the United States from the serious threat to our national 
security and the integrity of our electoral process.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized.

                          ____________________