Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask through the Chair if the Senator will yield for 5 minutes, please.

Mrs. BOXER. Senator Murray and Senator Schumer.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. As the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I agree with the explanation provided by Senator Inhofe.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes, as Senator Inhofe stated earlier, the section was added to S. 2848 to let the Corps of Engineers know they must comply with the law, and that includes compliance with State water quality standards, and Congress is paying attention.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I yield back all time from our side.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I just wish to thank you because you and Senator Cantwell are also an example of a team that is working through the toughest of issues. If somebody from the press asked you how do you do it--and I am sure they ask Senator Inhofe all the time, how do you do it with something who is a polar opposite in so many other areas--well, you have to find that sweet spot. You never know if you are going to be able to do it, but if there is good will and there is also respect, you can find it. You have found it in your committee. We have found it in ours. I also thank you because in all of my work, you have always been there, being very helpful and supportive, so I thank you very much.

Mrs. BOXER. May I make a comment through the Chair to my friend?

Mrs. BOXER. And highways.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I want to say this to Senator Inhofe. I know he has a hectic schedule ahead of him. What a pleasure it is to work with him and his staff member Alex and our Jason and Ted and others. We had a lot of disagreements on a lot of issues, but we set those aside. It is exciting to get something done for the people. For example, in this managers' package, we have a new Chief's report in Pennsylvania, a critical restoration program in Oregon and Washington, funding for restoration of the Great Lakes, a wide variety of other policy recommendations that come from all over the country, from all of our colleagues. So I not only want to thank Senator Inhofe, who is my chairman, but also my staff and Senator Inhofe's staff--in particular, Bettina Poirier, Jason Albritton, and Ted Illston, from my staff. This has not been easy to get all of us together and to have a unanimous consent request agreed to. I also want to thank the floor staff--Trish and Gary on our side--because I made them a little crazy during this process. They actually allowed me to do that. But it does take a lot of push and pull to get a bill like this done. So what I would like to do for the next few minutes--I know Senator Murkowski will speak following me--is that I just want to talk about why we have worked so hard and why it is critical that we pass this bill this week--S. 2848, the Water Resources Development Act, which we called WRDA 2016. We need to repair our Nation's aging infrastructure. We need to grow our economy and create jobs. I think that is where the sweet spot is across the aisle. We have an infrastructure crisis in our country. It is not me saying it; it is the American Society of Civil Engineers. They are Democrats, they are Republicans, and they are Independents. They are north, south, east, and west. They came together and said: Our infrastructure is a D-plus--a D-plus. So we just have to move forward. Also, we need to make sure that the Army Corps, when they write a Chief's report, has the go-ahead from Congress. We don't have anymore the ability as Members to say this is an earmark. We don't do that. What we must do is look at the Corps report and give them the authority to move ahead if we feel that the Corps report is in the best interest of our people. We have over $14 billion for 30 Chief's reports in 19 States. These projects--you ask: What do they do? They increase navigation. They are flood risk management. They are coastal storm damage reduction. They are ecosystem restoration. As far as navigation is concerned, we know that we authorize important projects to maintain vital navigation routes for commerce and the movement of goods. Our bill builds on the reforms to the harbor maintenance trust fund. So we are just going to show a few charts. This is the Port of Charleston. If you look at these containers, they look small on this boat. Each one of those is just enormous. What we know is, if we can't move goods to and from the country, our economy stalls. So that is critical. We extend permanently prioritization for donor and energy transfer ports, emerging harbors, and Great Lakes ports. We allow additional ports to qualify for these funds, and we make clear that the Corps can maintain harbors of refuge. The bill also authorizes nine Chief's reports that I mentioned in nine States that will allow investment in central port and waterway projects, including the deepening of the Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. It does no good to have these ships try to get in--if you need to dredge the waterway, you better have authorization to do it. We widen and deepen the navigation channels at Port Everglades in Florida, to address safety issues and congestion. We construct new locks in Pennsylvania at three of the oldest locks and dams on the Ohio River System. These aging locks were built in the 1920s and the 1930s. We have to address the aging infrastructure. This is what you see the workers doing. Our ports and waterways, which are essential to the U.S. economy, moved 2.3 billion tons of goods in 2014. WRDA 2016 will provide major economic benefits that will keep us competitive in the global marketplace. We also deal with storms and floods. Now, we have seen these storms and floods just expand exponentially. We are stunned when we see our beautiful citizens looking at everything they possess being lost in a flood. It is billions of dollars of damage. It is loss of life. We have seen communities wiped out. This is the scene from Louisiana. This bill will save lives by helping to rebuild critical levee systems around the country, including levees to protect the capital of my State and surrounding communities. Sacramento is in desperate need of flood control. We have done it year after year. We are very hopeful that the work we put into it will make sure that we do not see a Katrina happening anywhere in my State or in any other place. This bill authorizes $8 billion for 17 flood control and storm damage projects in 13 States, including a project to build levees and flood control structures to reduce flood risk in San Antonio, TX. I think we have the picture of the flooding there. Look at this. We just have to rebuild our infrastructure to protect against floods. We also have a project to rebuild aging levees in Manhattan, in Kansas, which protects public and private structures valued at $1 billion, and projects to protect coastal communities in South Carolina, in Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Louisiana. WRDA also establishes a new program at FEMA to fund the repair of high-hazard dams that present a public safety threat. These hazardous dams are threatening numerous communities across the Nation, and WRDA 2016 will make those communities safer. The bill authorizes more than $3 billion for projects to restore critical ecosystems, like the Florida Everglades. WRDA 2016 updates existing programs. It creates new initiatives to advance the restoration of some of the Nation's most iconic ecosystems, such as the Great Lakes, the Long Island Sound, the Delaware River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Columbia River, and Puget Sound. WRDA responds to the serious challenges many of our communities are facing. While we have horrific flooding, we also have horrific droughts, especially in the West. This was all predicted by scientists who said: Watch out; climate change is coming. We have seen terrible fires, terrible flooding, terrible droughts, and more extreme weather all over. That was predicted. So we want to make sure that we can improve the operations of our dams and reservoirs to increase water supply and better conserve existing water resources. I have a very special excitement associated with the dealing of droughts, because the bill is on my legislation, the Water in the 21st Century Act--or, as I call it, W21--to provide essential support for the development of innovative water technologies, such as desalination and water recycling. I had the opportunity to visit a desal plant in California--the only one operating. It is pretty remarkable. It is not cheap. It is a public-private partnership. But when you need water, you need water. So, absolutely we have to look at ways to utilize energy in a smart way and move toward desal and move toward water recycling and water recharging. The bill allows States to provide additional incentives for the use of these innovative technologies, through the State revolving fund. It establishes a new, innovative water technology grant program, and it reauthorizes successful existing programs such as the Water Desalination Act. It also deals with Flint, MI. I am so grateful to everyone on both sides who allowed us to finally address Flint, MI. I want to show you what they dealt with in this corrosive piping. The State changed the way they got their water. They started to draw from highly polluted water. This is what it did to the pipes. As to the lead contamination in Flint, we know all about it. But it is not only in Flint. It is in other cities across the country that are dealing with aging lead pipes, such as Jackson, MS, Sebring, OH, and Durham, NC. The American people have some rights. They have a right to clean water. When they turn on their faucet, they should not be scared of what is going to come out. Yet the American Water Works Association estimates that as many as 22 million people live in homes that receive water from lead service lines. Now, this bill begins the much needed work to ensure safe, reliable drinking water for every American. It provides $100 million in State revolving fund loans and grants for communities that have a declared drinking water emergency. It provides more than $700 million in loans under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which we call WIFIA. We have a program in transportation that my friend in the chair, the Presiding Officer, is very familiar with, called TIFIA, and he and I worked on together to save it. WIFIA works the same way. If a local government has revenues, they can use those to pay back the Federal Government for practically interest-free loans and complete a project far faster. So this WIFIA is very exciting for me because I am leaving here. I would like to leave behind a way for communities to access help this way. It is not a giveaway. It just says to a community: If you are willing to help yourself, the Federal Government can front the money. You can rebuild your infrastructure much quicker. When it comes to crumbling infrastructure, we don't have a minute to waste. So the WRDA bill helps those communities dealing with the horrible effects of lead poisoning by investing in public health programs to help families deal with the impacts. The bill changes the law to require that communities are quickly notified if high lead levels are found in the drinking water. The worst thing is to ignore that and then have some child, all of a sudden, have learning disabilities, and you don't know why. You have done everything right, and your child is suffering. We want to say: The minute there is too much lead in the water, parents, you are going to know about it, and you can protect your child. The one way to protect a child is to get rid of their exposure to lead, whether it is in the air, whether it is in the water, or whether it is in a product. We know that for sure. Now, in closing, I am going to talk about a few things for my great State, because we have 40 million people there. We have so much congestion, and we have so many problems. We also have so many assets-- mostly our people--and we have so much beauty in that State, but I am going to talk about a few things we did. First, we authorized a critical project to revitalize the Los Angeles River. Yes, there is a river in Los Angeles. Everyone kind of looks at me and says: You have to be kidding. No, there is. The whole area has been neglected. Finally, after working with the community--and, boy, this took effort on everyone's part--the city, the county, Senator Feinstein, me, and Members of Congress. Everybody worked together--the Chamber of Commerce, the unions, everybody. We got together a great plan for how we are going to revitalize the river, make it a beautiful place to go, and stimulate economic development. Our bill also authorizes a project to restore wetlands and improve flood protection in San Francisco Bay. This is one of the most iconic photos I could show you, the Golden Gate Bridge, but we need to improve flood protection. We are going to have the rising sea levels. I will tell you one of the great ways to get hold of that issue is to restore wetlands because then when the floods come, it slows up, it slows up the flow, and takes the nutrients that would otherwise go into the bay. Whether we are dealing with Lake Tahoe, which I will talk about in a minute, or San Francisco Bay, you want to make sure you have your flood protection work so these wetlands will hold back the water and hold back the nutrients. We will rebuild levees that protect Sacramento, which is a critical area, and we have an amazing and important program to provide critical habitat and improve air quality near the Salton Sea. I don't have time to go into explaining what the Salton Sea is, but it is one of the largest manmade lakes known. It is drying up because of the drought. What happened is, the farmers would take their extra water and dump it into the Salton Sea. There are a lot of harmful toxins from the pesticides in there. As the sea dries up, the sand holds all this toxin. When the wind blows, it carries these toxins and these chemicals into the lungs of the people who live around this gorgeous area. It was once a thriving area, but it has changed. It also is the landing place for about 400 different species of beautiful waterfowl that rest on the Pacific Flyway. It has been neglected. We need to make sure that where the sea is drying out we can have pockets where there are wetlands, where there is restoration. We are working together with the State. I am excited about the fact that this bill will authorize the use of local people, nonprofit people. City councils, supervisors, State and Federal Government and water districts will now be able to work together on common projects to save the Salton Sea. This is a tough one. I am going to be leaving the Senate knowing this isn't fixed, and I don't like that; that I will not be here to fix it. I am leaving it to everybody--that includes the Presiding Officer, you will be here a while. You have to keep your eye on the Salton Sea because it is disappearing and we have to fix it. Finally, this bill invests in the restoration of the ``Jewel of the Sierra,'' Lake Tahoe. Oh, this is something. I was just out there with Senator Feinstein, Senator Reid, and Governor Brown. It is quite a special place. Actually, it is a treasure. California shares it with Nevada. It is home to more than 290 species of wildlife, and it lures 3 million visitors every year, but it has real problems, the same types of problems I talked about with the bay--nutrients flowing into the sea. The warmer temperatures of Lake Tahoe mean we have algae growing. We have problems with clarity, and it needs our attention. We have done a great job over the last 20 years when President Clinton came out. We had bipartisan support then, and we now have bipartisan support from Senators Reid, Heller, Feinstein, and myself to continue making sure Lake Tahoe thrives. The words everybody waits for when a Senator makes a speech, ``in conclusion,'' WRDA 2016 is truly a bipartisan bill which benefits every region of this great country. It will invest in our Nation's water infrastructure, create jobs in the construction industry, protect people from flooding, and enable commerce to move through our ports. It will encourage innovative financing through WIFIA, and it will begin the hard work of preparing for and responding to extreme weather. The bill is supported by 90 organizations--we will just give you a sample--representing business, labor, local government, ports, environmental conservation groups, and faith communities. As an example, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, the Congregation of Saint Joseph, association of water agencies, the Lake Carriers' Association, the Michigan Environmental Council of the States, GreenFaith, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and Franciscan Action Network. There is one more chart. Nature Abounds, Orange County Sanitation District, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Conference of Mayors, U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, and Upper Mississippi River Basin Association. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the organizations listed on the charts.

Mrs. BOXER. You can tell from just the few I read what an amazing coalition we have. We can do this. I have a fabulous committee that I am the ranking member of--fabulous on my side, wonderful on the Republican side. We really care about getting things done. I hope we will have a fabulous vote on this final passage and that the House will take up our bill, pass it, and not go back to square one and start arguing. I say to my friends in this House, through this opportunity I have on the floor, this is an example of bipartisanship. This is an example of good governance. This is an example you should follow because we avoided the fights, we worked together, and we worked it out. Let's get it done. Let's get it to the President's desk. Let's not wait for a lameduck. There is no reason. People should be able to know we did something good for them. We did something great for them. This bill, while I am sure it isn't 100-percent perfect from anybody's eyes, is very solid, very strong, very good. I hope we will pass it with the biggest vote we can and the House will take it up. Thank you so much for your patience. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I have introduced legislation that will ensure that when there is a public health emergency or the threat of a public health emergency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can respond immediately to prevent it from becoming a national or global crisis.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I say to my colleague that I will speak for 30 seconds because I said a lot yesterday, and I agree with the Senator's analysis of how important this bill is. I certainly agree that we have shown this body that we can overcome our differences and bring important bills to the floor. This one is critical. My friend has gone into it in great detail. We are talking about clean drinking water, navigation, the economy, and how we need to move products in ports and so on. It just covers the gamut of issues that are so important. I think we have done it in a way that is fiscally responsible. I am here to again associate myself with your remarks and also to call on my side if anybody has amendments. I don't think our side has any more than the few that we have already started to work on. Look, we are trying to get this done quickly and trying to accommodate everybody. I think most people agree that if Senator Inhofe and I can agree on something, then it is pretty much not controversial. I am here to lend my aye to the voice votes we are about to take, so I turn it back over to the chairman.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I have introduced legislation that will ensure that when there is a public health emergency or the threat of a public health emergency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can respond immediately to prevent it from becoming a national or global crisis.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am in full agreement with the remarks of my chairman, Senator Inhofe. Once again, I think we have proven we can get this done. We can get infrastructure done. I think the way the agreement came together with the two leaders is excellent. We are going to go to the bill and any amendments have to be looked at by the two managers, and we have to agree before those amendments go into the managers' package. With that, I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, my understanding about this amendment is that it is a jurisdictional dispute between Democratic Senators. I think the best way to go is to see if we, Jim and I, can do what we have done before when we have had conflict among our colleagues. We worked it out with Senators on the other side of the aisle last time we did WRDA. We should have a chance. I don't think that----

Mrs. BOXER. I will stop.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. If I might respond to my friend through the Chair, he speaks for me on a lot of these infrastructure issues. It does shock a lot of people because they know that the most conservative, the most progressive--how could they ever get along? What I tell people is that we respect each other's points of view. When we can't agree, we don't get personal about it; we accept each other's opinion. Where we can work together, we find the sweet spot, and we have done it several times. In terms of water infrastructure, I want to say that the people in this country have a right to have clean water. They have to have ports that work and the dredging is kept up with. They have to have ecosystem restoration where our marshlands are--we are losing them, and they are flood controlled. And many, many Corps of Engineers reports that have been done--we don't want them to sit around because, as my dear friend knows, if we don't pass WRDA, there is no authority for the Corps to move forward. We have these projects all over. So this bill is about saving lives from floods, saving lives from lead in water. It is about major economic benefits to our Nation. I would say, with my friend's support and my support back to him, we created this WIFIA program that we based on the TIFIA program-- transportation infrastructure financing. Now we have water infrastructure financing. What this does is allow communities to leverage the funds that they have, get a very low-interest loan, and move forward and make sure that they modernize their water systems. I am so pleased that we were able to have this agreement. This is another one of our usual ``Perils of Pauline'' where we think we are going to the bill, and then we are not. Everybody acted in good faith-- Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Senator Inhofe and I, and Senators from Michigan and Senators from all over the country. As I wind down my days here, I am so honored to have this opportunity to once again work with my dear friend, and what a pleasure it is. People don't get it. They don't get the fact that we actually can set aside our differences, which are great, and come together. I know he is going to be--regardless of what happens in the election, I think the Senator is going to be I think the chairman of Armed Services. Is that correct? Maybe--or maybe ranking.

Mrs. BOXER. We don't know where he is going to land. What I want to say is that wherever he does land, it is going to be a fortunate thing for the Democrat who is his partner. Working with Senator Inhofe has been so amazing and so productive, and this bill is a great symbol of the work we have done together. I am so thrilled. I hope that our colleagues will work with us because we want to help everybody, but we also want to make sure there are no poison pills and no crazy amendments that set us back. We will work together on that in good faith. Water Resources Development Act Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of S. 2848, the Water Resources Development Act of 2016--WRDA--a bill that will repair our aging infrastructure, grow the economy, and create jobs. This legislation is the latest in a long list of bipartisan infrastructure bills produced by the Environment and Public Works Committee. In April, this bill passed out of the EPW Committee with overwhelming support--19 to 1. We have a long track record of passing these infrastructure bills into law, and I am confident we can do it again with WRDA 2016. This bill is desperately needed. As I have often said in recent months, the drinking water crisis in Flint, MI, puts a spotlight on our Nation's infrastructure challenges. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates the Nation's infrastructure a D-plus--hardly a grade to be proud of. WRDA 2016 responds to our nation's infrastructure crisis. It allows additional investment to strengthen levees, dams, and navigation channels. It also addresses lead contamination in Flint and similar cities across the country that are dealing with aging lead pipes, such as Jackson, MS, Sebring, OH, and Durham, NC. The American people have a right to expect safe, clean water when they turn on their faucets, and sadly, millions of homes across America still receive their water from crumbling pipes containing toxins such as lead. The American Water Works Association estimates that as many as 22 million people live in homes that receive water from lead service lines. This bill begins the much-needed work to ensure safe, reliable drinking water for all Americans. It provides $100 million in State Revolving Fund loans and grants for communities with a declared drinking water emergency. It also provides more than $700 million in loans under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or WIFIA, for projects to replace crumbling infrastructure. The WRDA bill helps those communities dealing with the horrible effects of lead poisoning by investing in public health programs to help families deal with the impacts. The bill also changes the law to require that communities are quickly notified if high lead levels are found in their drinking water to help prevent the mistakes made in Flint from being repeated. This bill is a comprehensive response to the national infrastructure crisis that was brought to light by the disaster in Flint. This WRDA bill will also provide many other important benefits to the American people, local businesses, and the Nation's economy through the critical programs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For example, the bill authorizes over $12 billion for 29 Chief's Reports in 18 States. These projects address critical needs for navigation, flood risk management, coastal storm damage reduction, and ecosystem restoration. The bill authorizes important projects to maintain vital navigation routes for commerce and the movement of goods, and builds on the reforms to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, HMTF, in the 2014 WRDA bill. These include permanently extending prioritization for donor and energy transfer ports and emerging harbors, allowing additional ports to qualify for these funds, and making clear that the Corps can maintain harbors of refuge. Our ports and waterways--which are essential to the U.S. economy--moved 2.3 billion tons of goods in 2014. In addition to providing major economic benefits, this legislation will save lives. Storms and floods in recent years have resulted in the loss of life, caused billions of dollars of damage, and wiped out entire communities. This bill will help rebuild critical levee systems around the country, including levees to protect the capital of my State and surrounding communities. WRDA also establishes a new program at FEMA to fund the repair of high hazard dams that present a public safety threat. These hazardous dams are threatening numerous communities across the Nation. This bill authorizes and updates programs to advance the restoration of some of the nation's most iconic ecosystems, such as Lake Tahoe, the Great Lakes, Long Island Sound, the Delaware River, Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound. It will also help to revitalize the Los Angeles River, restore wetlands in San Francisco Bay, and provide critical habitat and improve air quality near the Salton Sea in California. WRDA also responds to the serious challenges many of our communities are facing from ongoing drought. It expands opportunities for local communities to work with the Corps to improve operation of dams and reservoirs to increase water supplies and better conserve existing water resources. The bill also builds on legislation I introduced called the Water in the 21st Century Act, or W21, to provide essential support for development of innovative water technologies, such as desalination and water recycling. The bill allows States to provide additional incentives for the use of innovative technologies through the State Revolving Fund programs, establishes a new innovative water technology grant program, and reauthorizes successful existing programs, such as the Water Desalination Act. WRDA 2016 will invest in our Nation's water infrastructure, create jobs in the construction industry, protect our people from flooding, enable commerce to move through our ports, encourage innovative financing, and begin the hard work of preparing for and responding to extreme weather. WRDA 2016 is a truly bipartisan bill that benefits every region of this country. Let me close by thanking my EPW chairman, Senator Inhofe, for his work on this bill. While we do not always agree on every issue, I am glad we were able to come together on this vital legislation to pass it out of our committee with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. I urge the Senate to quickly pass this critical legislation, and the House to follow suit, so that we can send this bill to the President's desk. With that, I yield the floor back to my friend. I thank him for yielding to me. I look forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting this done.

Mrs. BOXER. It sounds very fair to me actually.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object, I ask Senator Rubio if I may have 1 minute to respond to your WRDA comments before he begins. Is that all right with the Senator?

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I just want to say to the majority leader that I am pleased he put forward the WRDA bill. I think it is so important to Democrats and Republicans. I thank the Senator from Florida for yielding for just a few seconds because I am going to read the title of the bill. It will take me less than a minute, and you can see how important it is. We are talking about making navigation better. We are talking about flood control. We are talking about coastal storm damage reduction; environmental restoration; relief for Flint, MI; improved notification when high levels of lead are found in drinking water anywhere in the country; restoring critical ecosystems; investing in innovative water technologies such as desalination and water recycling. We are talking about drought assistance. We are talking about improving ports, repairing dams, and allowing States to issue permits for coal ash. This is a critical bill. It is super-bipartisan. I wish to say that working with Senator Inhofe continues to be a joy for me when it comes to infrastructure. On the environment, we are sort of from different planets, but when it comes to infrastructure, we are as one. I thank the majority leader for putting this bill out there. I ask Members on both sides to help us get to this bill. I again thank the Senator from Florida. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, before Senator Scott leaves the floor, let me say to my colleague how much I appreciate his frank discussion today. We are so blessed to have you and Cory Booker here. We don't have enough diversity here--let me just be clear. As much as all of us want to walk in each other's shoes because we each have different experiences in our lives, it really matters who is in the room, who is at the microphone, who is sharing the truth. Senator Scott has shared a truth with us today, and I want to say Senator Booker shared similar stories with us in our caucus, and it is life-changing for us. I so appreciate everything you said, and it makes us better to have you and Cory Booker here. Race Relations Having said that, Mr. President, I think it is important to discuss a very similar topic, which is the status of race relations today, because I don't think Senator Scott and Senator Booker should have to be the ones to have to carry this forward. Mr. President, when I was a little girl--I was 10--I came face-to- face with ugly, vile, stupid, and dangerous discrimination. I cheered on Jackie Robinson with all my girl power to counteract what my dad said was hatred aimed at Jackie because of the color of his skin. And how blessed was I when I worked hard with a Republican colleague to make sure Jackie Robinson got the Congressional Medal of Honor. When I was with my mother in Florida--the same age, 10 years old, 1950--I saw African Americans forced to sit in the back of the bus. I got up to offer my seat to an elderly woman. She must have been 55 at the time--I was 10--she looked old to me. I stood up and she refused me. She said no, no. I was hurt. I said to my mother: What is happening here? Why won't the woman take my seat? And my mother said: Segregation. Well, growing up in Brooklyn, this made no sense to me. My mother could have let it go; instead, she told me to follow her to the back of the bus--not that anyone noticed, but we knew exactly what we were doing. And I felt like a part of her team--part of a team against this craziness where people had to go to the back of the bus simply because of the color of their skin. The civil rights movement has made enormous progress in our laws, but the trouble remains in our hearts. There is too much hatred in our communities. But let's be clear. Whether you are a police officer-- regardless of the color of your skin--kissing your family goodbye in the morning or the parents of a young African-American teenager, no one should ever have to fear that they will not see their loved ones at night. Yet that is a truth in America--a truth that has been witnessed by a couple of our Senators. No one should have to fear that they won't see their loved ones at night because of this type of hatred. Now is not the time to paint whole groups of people with a broad brush because when you do that, that is the exact definition of prejudice. You can't broad-brush a whole community because of the color of their skin or their religion or whom they love, and you can't broad- brush all the police in the police department. What we need is a de-escalation of suspicion and an escalation of trust--a de-escalation of suspicion and an escalation of trust. It is long past time that we stood together united. It is long past time that we look inside our own hearts, look inside our own souls, and banish the hatred. We must instead embrace each other and God's creation, because we--each of us--are God's creation. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote: ``Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.'' That is what Martin Luther King said--a man who taught us love, a man who taught us compassion, a man who taught us nonviolence, a man who taught us to listen to each other, a man who taught us to walk in each other's shoes. So we need that conversation. We start it by breaking down barriers that separate us, bridging the gap between communities and law enforcement and establishing trust. Healing will begin in the streets. It should. Policing should be for the community, by the community, and with the community. When I was a county supervisor in the 1970s, there were police-versus-community issues. So I recommended, and my colleagues concurred, in a new system of community policing. What does it mean? It means you get the police out of a central precinct and you move them into the community. Relationships develop. It seems so right. It works so well that I was shocked when I got out of local government and I realized that not enough communities were following that same community policing method. Where it exists, there is cooperation and true protection of the community. It is an obvious step that should be implemented widely. Well, what can we do? We can't force people to love. We can suggest it. We can't force people to be tolerant. We can suggest it. But I think there are certain things we can do. I have introduced legislation with Senator Cory Booker. It is called the PRIDE Act. It would start us off by getting statistics that we need. How many shootings are there in our communities by the police toward the community? How many shootings by the community toward the police are there? Believe it or not, we don't really collect those numbers. We would provide funding for States for the use-of-force training for law enforcement agencies and personnel, including de- escalation and violence training and funding for tip lines and hotlines and public awareness announcements to gain information regarding the use of force against the police. So it is a very balanced piece of legislation that looks at the problems on both sides. Secondly, we need to better support law enforcement agencies who work to advance the practice of community policing. Now, we can do that by increasing funding federally for the Justice Department's Community Policing Development Program, which provides law enforcement agencies with funding to implement innovative community policing practices. But guess what; the funding for this critical program, which may well be one of our most important programs, is $8 million a year. That is it for the whole country. It is not enough. We need to do better. Number three, we should provide dedicated funding for Justice Department programs to initiate formal gatherings or summits to bring community members and police into one conversation. Anyone who looked at Dallas understands how hard they are trying, how much they have done. When I saw President Obama with Mrs. Obama and President George W. Bush with Laura Bush, I was so happy. They are starting that conversation, the building of that trust, the tearing down of that suspicion. One of the founders of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza, said: ``We have so many different experiences that are rich and complex. We need to bring all those experiences to the table in order to achieve the solutions we desire.'' To anyone listening to Senator Scott or anyone who has heard the stories or read some of the words of Senator Booker, we have a lot to learn. A U.S. Senator was stopped--he said seven times; this is what I heard Senator Scott say--in one year because of the color of his skin. What? It is just too much for these people to bear. We need to help them change policies that lead to this suspicion. Yes, we have so many different experiences that are rich and complex. We need to bring those experiences to the table. My friend the Senator from Alaska is here. We are only 20 women out of 100 Senators. I think our colleagues understand that we have brought something to the body. We have brought our experiences to the body. It transcends partisanship. When we are in the room, it is a little bit of a different conversation. Not that we are any better, but we have had different experiences. When our African-American colleagues tell us: Look at our lives. Look at what we have been through. We have the same job as you. Why are we pulled over seven times in a year? Why have we been scared? Something is wrong. We can't turn our back on it. We can't leave it up to just those two colleagues to lead us. We need to help them, work together, and have this conversation that Alicia Garza says we should have. Number four, we must formally recognize and encourage police departments that epitomize what it means to be a keeper of the peace--a keeper of the peace. That is what they want to be--those officers who attend community meetings after work, who spend their Saturdays playing basketball with the neighborhood kids, who attend church services so they can connect with the congregants, who take lower income children shopping for toys and gifts at Christmas, who stop to check in on residents just because they care. That is happening all over the country. That is why we can't paint people with a broad brush. It is wrong. In my State, in the community of Vallejo, in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should see what some of these officers do. They had a growing divide between the community and the police. The police department knew something had to change. So they invited the public to participate in those changes. They held open-door community meetings. They created a citizen advisory board to ensure residents' voices were heard. They invited residents to experience their training simulator and give them a new perspective on that police experience. See it through our eyes, they said, and we will see it through your eyes, and let's deescalate the tension and escalate the trust. They put a high importance on the hiring of officers who had a connection to Vallejo and wanted to serve the public. They even started a late-night youth program at the local high school. They started change from within that community. So I think we should have a community policing innovation fund at the Justice Department which would reward law enforcement agencies and localities that are doing the right thing. Lastly, I want to bring up that issue where everyone goes into their corners. I beg colleagues not to go into their corners. We have to address gun violence. Now, we know we can't prevent every tragedy. But we can do some smart things while protecting the Second Amendment. We don't need military weapons on the streets. They are weapons of war. The family of the gentleman who developed these weapons said to his family: I didn't develop them for people on the streets; I developed them for the military and law enforcement. We can't have the people who are protecting us outgunned. We don't need these weapons on the streets. There is only one reason--to kill as many people as you can as fast as you can without reloading. Don't tell me hunters need this. That is a bunch of baloney. The people who want to keep these weapons on the street are the ones who sell them. Let's be clear. The vast majority of people support this. We can expand background checks--90 percent of the people support that, even a majority of NRA members--so we can keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. We should prohibit the sale or possession of high-capacity magazines and end the ban preventing the Centers for Disease Control from researching gun violence. Have you talked to doctors who work in big city hospitals? I have. They say: We are prepared to go to any war zone. Those are the kinds of wounds they see. They tremble at what they see. They mourn about what they see. Somebody goes out to a nightclub. They hide in the bathroom. They call their mother. They never see their family again. My State of California has created a new research center on gun violence to understand the impact of firearm fatalities and injuries and, hopefully, reduce them in the future. It should happen at the Federal level. There are 30,000 of our people killed a year by gun violence. We lost 55,000 to 60,000 in the Vietnam War--a 10-year period. It tore the country apart. This is 300,000 of our people over 10 years. So I am going to close with this. There will always be bad people. I have lived long enough to know that. There will always be bad people. There will always be lost people. There will also be mean people. But we cannot and must not allow them to poison this Nation wherever they are. Good people--and that is most of America--must join hands across every line that divides us--race, religion, color, creed, and, yes, politics. We must call out the racists, the prejudiced, and the haters--whoever they are, wherever they are--even if they are in elected office. We have to support those who believe in community, who believe in community policing and not support those who refuse to admit that there is a problem with profiling. Just read what Senator Scott said about his life, about his fears, about what happened to him. Ask Cory Booker, a Rhodes Scholar, what it is like. We have to support those activists who bring us together, support steps to improve our institutions, and reject those who inflame fears on any side in which they are found. We must speak out and support those who believe this is the United States of America, not the ``Divided States of America,'' and we will not allow this Nation to be divided by race, color, creed, religion, or whom you love. I know America. I believe we will overcome. I want to quote John Lewis as I close. He was beaten, bloodied, and jailed, fighting for civil rights. He tells this story, and I quote: ``I saw those signs that said `white men,' `colored men,' `white women,' `colored women,' `white waiting,' `colored waiting.' I would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great grand-parents, `Why?' They would say: `That's the way it is. Don't get in the way. Don't get in trou- ble.' '' He goes on: ``In 1957, I met Rosa Parks at the age of 17. In 1958, at the age of 18, I met Martin Luther King, Jr., and these two individuals inspired me to get in the way, to get in trouble. So, I encourage you to find a way to get in the way. You must find a way to get in trouble--good trouble, necessary trouble.'' That is John Lewis. We are blessed to have this hero, John Lewis, among us in the Congress. We must listen to him because he is right. It is our job to get in the way of prejudice and hate. We may do it each in his or her own way. My way may not be your way, but our way is to fight against prejudice and hate wherever we see it. Our job is to move forward with respect and understanding, with tolerance and love. Our Founders knew we were not a perfect union. They told us we had to make a more perfect union. That is our job. I know we can do it, and we must do it. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Police Officer Michael Katherman, a beloved husband, father, son, and brother who tragically lost his life in the line of duty on June 14, 2016. Officer Katherman was born on October 18, 1981, in San Jose, CA. After graduating from Valley Christian High School in 2000, Officer Katherman played basketball at Simpson University in Redding before returning to his hometown to pursue his lifelong goal of becoming a police officer. In 2005, Officer Katherman's dream became a reality when he joined the San Jose Police Department, serving the community grew up in. After receiving the Department's Outstanding Police Duty Award in 2009, Officer Katherman became a motorcycle officer in 2015. At a memorial service on June 21, friends and colleagues fondly recalled Officer Katherman's selfless nature and passionate commitment to his fellow police officers. He was actively involved with the Keith Kelley Club, a local organization that helps the families of law enforcement officers facing hard times, and recently participated in the annual Police Unity Tour, a bicycle ride to honor fallen officers and raise funds for the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial. ``Mike means so much to me because he represents everything I've wanted to become: a good moral person,'' said his supervisor, Sergeant John Carr. Above all else, Officer Katherman was devoted to his family and his faith. On behalf of the people of California, whom Officer Katherman served so bravely, I extend my gratitude and deepest sympathies to his wife, April; sons Josh and Jason; parents Tom and Diane; and his brother, Nate.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to speak for 15 minutes.