Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I rise to honor a member of my staff, Jonathan Miller, who has dedicated his life to serving his country and his State. Not only does Jonathan serve the people of Ohio each day on our staff, helping Ohio servicemembers and veterans, but he also wears the uniform himself, first as a member of the National Guard and now as a member of the Army Reserve. Earlier this month was his last day in the office for a year as his unit is deploying to fight for our country. Jonathan grew up in Macedonia, OH, and graduated from Nordonia High School and Ohio University. In 2011, while working toward his master's degree, he enlisted in the National Guard. Jon told me he enlisted, in part, because he was ``inspired by the debate and repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the stories of veterans in my family,'' like so many who join the armed services because of patriotism, family values, and family precedent. He said: ``The Army seemed like the place for me to help my community and my country and to experience new people, places, and ideas.'' Jonathan went through officer candidate school in 2013 and now serves with the 300th Chemical Company, Army Reserve, out of Morgantown, WV. He has worked in our office since 2015 and has impressed all of us with his dedication to both of his jobs. In the Senate, he handles veterans and military issues along with energy and environmental policy. He has read, literally, thousands of letters from Ohio servicemembers and veterans over the years and has always worked to make sure their views and concerns have been heard and that our office has helped them whenever we have been able to. He has often called the families directly to follow up and listen to their stories. In 2016, during a meeting with the Gold Star Wives of America, Jon learned that education benefits for some spouses who had lost their loved ones in the earliest days following 9/11 would expire before they could make full use of this benefit their families had earned. He immediately brought this issue to my attention, and we worked to introduce the Military Spouses Achieving College Education for Survivors Act. We passed this bipartisan legislation as part of a larger veterans package that will directly affect veterans and their families in my State, in Nebraska, and other States across the country. Jonathan has played a critical role in ensuring that our military installations in my State have the support they need to perform critical national security missions--from the 180th in Toledo and the 910 in Youngstown, to Camp Ravenna, to the base in my hometown of Mansfield, to Springfield, and of course to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He often attends visiting Ohio Honor Flight ceremonies, representing our office and supporting Ohio veterans who visit the memorials that have been built in their honor. His love for the outdoors and for Ohio has also shone through in his work on issues like protecting the Great Lakes, including the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and in preserving the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is near his childhood home. I would add that Ohio is one of the lucky States east of the Mississippi in that it is one of the few States that has a national park, and it is not far from the population centers of Cleveland and Akron. Even though the Trump administration tried to zero out--the way we talk about it--or dramatically cut funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, I and Senator Portman, a Republican, worked together to restore that funding. We know keeping Lake Erie clean is an ongoing challenge. Right off the city of Toledo, Lake Erie is only 30 feet deep, contrasted with Lake Superior, which is 600 feet deep, on the average. That means, whether it is Ashtabula and Cleveland in Lake County to the east or it is Toledo to the west, Lake Erie is much more vulnerable to pollutants than are the other Great Lakes. This is why the work Jonathan does is so important in keeping that Great Lake clean. At the end of the week, while others might look forward to a relaxing weekend with family and friends, so often, Jonathan heads out for drill with his unit. He used to drive from Washington to Illinois and, later, to West Virginia for the weekend as part of his service. Now his unit is deploying. While we will miss his expertise, his enthusiasm, and his unique perspective in this office this year, we are also so grateful for his service to Ohio and to our country. One final note, before his deployment, last month, Jon got engaged to his partner Kevin. Jon and Kevin will join so many of Ohio's military families who understand the unique challenges of having a family member serving far from home. One of the things that is so important that we as Members of the Senate must do is recognize the service of our men and women in uniform. We should also recognize the importance of the service and sacrifice of those family members who are left behind and who often live in the margins financially. On behalf of my whole office, we congratulate Jon and Kevin on their engagement. We wish Jon well on his tour overseas, and we thank him for his sacrifice and his service.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today, we consider the nomination of Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell to be Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, one of the most important jobs in our government. The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It is responsible for monetary policy, ensuring the stability of the financial system and the safety and soundness of our banks. The Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, also has 12 regions or districts around the country. One of them is located in my hometown of Cleveland. Governor Powell has been a member of the Federal Reserve Board since 2012. He supported important principles of monetary policy and critical elements of financial regulation. His track record over the past 6 years shows that he is a thoughtful policymaker. As the Chair of the Board of Governors, he would lead the Federal Open Market Committee within the Federal Reserve. Governor Powell supports the statutory dual monetary policy goals of maximum employment and price stability--the cornerstones of a well-functioning economy. Senator Crapo, who is joining me today, is chairman of the committee. We listened to testimony today about the nomination of another Fed Governor--not the highest position, as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but a Federal Reserve Governor--Mr. Goodfriend. The answers we elicited from him seemed to be, from my interpretation, that it was not clear that he has the same belief and respect for the dual mandate. The dual mandate, unlike what the Europeans do, is especially important for workers in this country. In Europe, the only charge of the central bank is to keep inflation down. In our country, the Federal Reserve, what we call our central bank, has two jobs equally balanced--the dual policy-- and that is to keep inflation down and to keep employment up. They are maximum employment and price stability, the cornerstones of a well- functioning economy. To advance those policy goals, Governor Powell supports the Federal Reserve's current path of gradual increases in interest rates. He believes they should continue. At the same time, Governor Powell recognizes the importance of an independent Federal Reserve. That is very important. I don't want Members of Congress--with our prejudices, biases, and political ideologies--to influence or to compromise the independence of the Federal Reserve. Governor Powell recognizes that independence. He is committed to following an example of prior Federal Reserve Chairs by doing the job without a view to political outcomes. Governor Powell played a significant role in implementing crucial reforms under Dodd-Frank. He understands the importance of the rules for stress tests, capital standards, and resolution planning. We need the Federal Reserve to make sure that those rules are applied thoroughly and consistently so that gaps or failures don't create larger risks through the financial system. We know that too many people in this body seem to have a collective amnesia about what happened 10 years ago. It is up to us to remind Governor Powell, and it is up to him to remember what happened 10 years ago and to learn from it. As Chair, Governor Powell is responsible for making sure the Fed fulfills its consumer protection role. Americans work hard to make ends meet. They shouldn't have to struggle with unfair and abusive practices by financial institutions. The Trump administration is engaged in an effort to undermine important financial system protections and reforms put in place in the wake of the great recession. Governor Powell has seen the developments in the safety and stability of our banks during his time at the Fed. I expect him to maintain and to improve those standards. Ohioans, still recovering from the last financial crisis, can't afford the consequences of another financial crisis. I know Governor Powell wants the Fed to play a part in the success of the economy and American families. I call on him to continue the Federal Reserve's measured path for monetary policy and to support the strong regulations he helped put in place. For some people, it is easy to forget how much damage was done by this lack of strong oversight of our financial system, especially during the last 4 years of the Bush administration, where millions lost their homes. I know Chairman Crapo and I have talked about this. The 44105 ZIP Code that my wife Connie and I live in, in Cleveland, in the first half of 2007, we had more foreclosures in that ZIP Code than any ZIP Code in the United States. Think of what it does to people's lives. Think of what it does to our families. Millions of people lost homes, millions lost jobs, millions lost much of their life savings. For the wealthiest Americans, the nearly 9 years of gains in the stock market makes the crash of a decade ago a distant memory, but for the vast majority of Americans who have little in direct holdings in the stock market and not too much in other areas either, their wages have been flat, and many still have not recovered from the crisis. The Fed's latest survey of household wealth indicates--get this--44 percent of Americans can't cover an emergency expense of $400. Forty- four percent of Americans can't cover an emergency expense of $400 without selling something or borrowing. For some, if their car breaks down, and they need $400 to fix their car to get to work, they have to go to a payday lender, and then their trouble starts. Then they have to go get a second payday loan and then a third payday loan. Income inequality is the worst since the 1920s. The racial wealth gap is enormous. The median Black household has only $11,000 to its name, one-twelfth of its White counterpart. The Fed can't solve all of our problems, but it can make them worse. Right now, the Fed seems puzzled by why low unemployment is not producing more inflation. Perhaps it is because more Americans are struggling paycheck to paycheck. They can't bid up the price of goods until they get out of debt. Yet even in the face of continued low inflation, there are those pushing for rate increases to give bondholders better returns. Others want to go back to some of the same banking practices that brought about the financial crisis. The independence of the Fed is critical but only if it is used to make decisions based on data and experience, not ideology. That is exactly what Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen did over the past decade in helping to guide the Nation to one of the longest lasting recoveries in our history. Go back to the year 2010. We know when President Obama took office, we were losing 800,000 jobs per month in this country--700,000 the second month--hundreds of thousands, millions of jobs at the beginning of his administration. Starting in 2010, in large part because of the auto rescue and other things, our economy began to turn around. Since 2010, we have had job growth in every single quarter--every single quarter--since the auto rescue. President Trump loves to take credit for the job growth month after month. The fact is, it was launched early in the Obama years, and we have been able to sustain it--not economic growth to the level we want, not job growth to the level we want, certainly not pay increases to the level we want but something. I hope Governor Powell will uphold that tradition that Chairman Bernanke and Chairwoman Yellen began. I plan to support Governor Powell's nomination. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, the news is good today. It looks as though we are close to a resolution, and what makes that resolution attractive to me is not just that we are going to see the government run, which is the job of this Congress--this is the first time, as we know, that Congress, the House, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court were controlled by one party--it is the first time that that has been the case in a government shutdown, so we know where responsibility lies. But that is the past. I want to look at the future. The future is, this should make it easier because of the discussions so many of us had over the weekend with Senators in our own party and the other party. Regardless of the party of any of us, I think we are reaching a place where we can get serious about negotiations on a whole lot of issues. Once this is behind us, after this vote later today, once the House passes the continuing resolution and once the President signs it, I am hopeful that we can get serious about a whole host of other issues. In Ohio in the last 2 weeks, two hospitals have closed down--one for- profit in Massillon, a small, industrial city not far from Canton, OH, and a not-for-profit hospital in Dayton, OH. Both announced the closure of those hospitals, and we know what that means to people in the neighborhoods, people in the region. It means slower response time, lost jobs--the loss of all the things that a good hospital means in a community. Part of the reason for those hospital closings, frankly, is that we haven't done our jobs here--the attacks on the Affordable Care Act, the unrelenting attacks from the President and from the majority party here. I stood with my Governor, a Republican Governor--I am a Democrat--Governor Kasich and I--against these Medicaid cuts, against the attacks on the Affordable Care Act, against the shrinking of the signup period, the undercutting of the marketing campaigns, and all the things that have caused more volatility and instability in the healthcare market. I am hopeful that after this bill is signed by the President later today and the government reopens, we can then get serious about what we do about not just CHIP--I thank people of both parties here for finally--although it took 4 months--giving CHIP not just new life but 6 years of life. I am thrilled about that. But to make CHIP work, we need community health centers because in a working family, each making $10 an hour--if they don't have enough money to buy insurance or if they don't have a job, perhaps, that has insurance, they rely on CHIP. Well, if their child gets sick and wants to go to a health center, if the community health centers are closed or underfunded or underoperating, there is no place to go. So you don't need just CHIP; you need the community health centers too. We need to pay attention to rural hospitals. A lot of my State is rural. I have been, for instance, to the Bryan Hospital. Phil Ennen is the president of that hospital and does a very good job with a difficult task, because in small towns--it is a county in the northwest corner of the State. The county borders Indiana to the west and Michigan to the north. Small towns like that have more challenges running their hospitals, and I am hopeful we can focus on that. We can focus on 340B, which is a Medicaid prescription drug cost provision. I am hopeful that we can focus on the disproportionate share of payments. I am hopeful that we can focus on some of the Medicare extenders so that we can, in fact, bring some stability to this healthcare system. These two hospitals in Dayton and Massillon that have announced their closure--we are working to try to keep both open. It is a real challenge. I hope the closure of those hospitals isn't just the harbinger of more to come because of the volatility created in the healthcare market by this administration and this Congress's attack on the healthcare market and the healthcare laws over the last year, but that is why we need serious, long-term negotiations here. The other issue that is so important is pensions. In the Presiding Officer's home State of Indiana, in my State of Ohio, in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, there are literally hundreds of thousands of teamsters, coal miners, ironworkers, carpenters, and confectionary workers who, even though they paid into a pension for 30 years, even though they gave up dollars today at the bargaining table so they could put dollars aside for the future, often matched by their employer--because of Wall Street greed and Wall Street malfeasance and misfeasance, in part, these pensions are going to face huge cuts. Senator Young, Senator Donnelly, Senator Portman, Senator Johnson, and a number of us are working out some--I hope working toward some agreement on pensions so we can make sure that if you didn't work 40 years you wouldn't see a 40-percent cut in your pension. I start with the Butch Lewis Act legislation that I have introduced with a number of cosponsors. We want to work with both parties to make sure this works. I am hopeful this deal today helps to clear a path so that the two Senators from Indiana and I and Senator Portman and others can work together to make this happen. It is so important. In my State alone, it is 50,000 teamsters. It is another 5,000, more or less, coal miners. It is another 7,000, 8,000, or 10,000 other workers. The last thing I want to say, again, is that every one of these cases is a union plan. These union members gave up wages today. They understood: I don't take as much pay today, but that money will be set aside so I have healthcare and my pension is there when I retire in 30 years. They did it right. They played by the rules. Their government needs to back them up. That is the importance of this pension bill. That is why I appreciate the work of the Presiding Officer and others in coming to some agreement and making this work. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Senator Murphy is right. It is not just what is in the resolution that concerns a number of us, including funding for the Affordable Care Act. We remember debates here in this body--there are a whole lot of Members of Congress, who have insurance paid for by taxpayers, who are willing--by cuts in Medicaid and other repeals as far as the Affordable Care Act--who are willing to take insurance away from so many of our constituents. Constituents who make $8, $10, and $12 an hour aren't lucky enough to have the health insurance we have, but we have provided for it through this bill. I am a Democrat, and I stood for months with my Republican Governor, John Kasich, in fighting for that. As a number of people have pointed out, there is not what there ought to be for community health centers in this bill. I know that in North Carolina, as in my State, there are a number of rural hospitals. We have had two major hospitals announce their closure--one in Massillon and one in Dayton. The one in Massillon is a hospital that serves a town of slightly under 40,000 people. The closest hospital is 15, 20, 25 minutes away for emergency care in Canton. The hospital in the middle of Dayton has announced its closure, partly because of what this body has done--the unevenness and the attacks on health insurance, what was in the tax reform law and what that will mean for insurance prices. We know it has made our healthcare system less stable. And we know how this bill has been written. Down the hall about 100 feet, is the office of Senator McConnell, the majority leader. The Affordable Care Act repeal was written in that office, behind closed doors, by insurance companies and Wall Street lobbyists. The tax reform bill, where 80 percent of the tax cuts went to the richest 1 percent of the people--that was written in Senator McConnell's office by a bunch of Wall Street and tax lawyers. Now this resolution to ``keep the government open'' again was written down the hall in Senator McConnell's office. There was no input from Democrats. There are 49 Democrats in this body. I believe we represent more than half of the population of this country. Yet we were not even included in this discussion. This is the first time ever where one party controls the White House, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court, and yet they have not even included--one, they are not competent enough to run the government. They just do this ``limp along one month at a time'' resolution. This is the fourth resolution, the fourth temporary budget, the fourth continuing resolution just since September.

Mr. BROWN. Does that mean that what I said--that Senator McConnell didn't have lobbyists in his office writing legislation, is that what the rule XIX means and what the Presiding Officer is now discussing with the Parliamentarian or that my friend from North Carolina is alleging?

Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. President. I am not impugning anybody's motive. I am just stating what I read in newspapers and what seems to be fact, but I am not impugning motives here. I would add one other thing before making a motion, Mr. President. I appreciate the reminder from the Senator from North Carolina. Secretary Mattis, the Secretary of Defense--I don't know if Secretary Mattis is a Democrat or Republican; I don't really care; he obviously was confirmed by the Senate and nominated by this President--came to the caucus and talked to our Democratic meeting and talked to us about the importance of giving us some permanence and predictability in the budget process. For us to continue to limp along one month at a time is not the way we should be governing this country. The Air Force Under Secretary, Matt Donovan, said: What we are really concerned about is that the further along we go into the fiscal year with these short-term CRs, the more likely a full-year CR becomes. That is not a good thing for any of us. It will have damaging impacts on readiness and modernization. The former Air Force Secretary, with whom I was having breakfast at the Pentagon a couple of years ago, explained all the costs, all the expenses every time the far rightwing of the tea party--the Republican Party in the House--threatened a government shutdown, every time we get close to it, the Air Force, the military has to spend money--taxpayer dollars--to prepare for what if, in fact, they shut the government down. We can't run our government, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks at a time, and we don't have to. My Republican colleague, my friend from Kansas, just joined again the Banking Committee. He said this week that people want to make sure we don't have a shutdown. People who want to resolve differences should know there are other options besides doing another short-term CR. I was speaking to some people in Dayton today. Dayton is the home of the largest single-site employer in Ohio, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The reason I am cochair of the Air Force Caucus is because of Wright-Patterson, in Springfield, Mansfield, and Youngstown and their Air Force employees in my State. I don't want people to go to work tomorrow morning--whether they are inside the fence, civilians or military, or whether they work outside the fence, outside the gate--and find out the government is closed. That is why we have another option. I am asking the Republican leader to reopen the government right now. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1301; that the amendment that would provide for a continuing resolution to fund the government through Wednesday, January 24--3 days--which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I agree with the senior Senator from Hawaii. Give us just a day. Go back to the Murphy continuing resolution. You don't need to have 3 days. Give us 1 day so we can reel in the government, so that if we don't finish by 6 or 7 or 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, the government is closed right now. We know that. I would like to ask Senator Tillis and the Presiding Officer and the Republican leadership if they would just give us that day or two to negotiate in earnest and fix this. All of us are willing to stay here all night. We stayed the weekend, and we will stay as long as we need to because I don't want the public to see ``closed'' signs on all of these government offices. I don't want to see Federal employees show up to work and be turned away. I don't want to see workers inside and outside the gate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base find out that their lives have changed. We can fix that by asking unanimous consent to open up the government now and give us a few days to do this.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I have heard my colleagues talk about CHIP and take credit for CHIP and it is so great what they did. Of course, I am glad they now are actually for it, but I have worked on CHIP for a long time, for more than a decade. I am on the Finance Committee--I think the only one in this room right now who is on the committee that worked on this. We have been asking--CHIP expired September 30. Early September, we asked Chairman Hatch to move on CHIP. October, November, December, in the middle of the tax bill, we asked Chairman Hatch to move on CHIP. Finally, he did. It was a bipartisan vote. I will give both parties credit. The other Senator from Ohio, Mr. Portman, voted for it. Only Senator Toomey opposed it in the whole committee, but then it sat there. It hasn't had a floor vote. So it expired September 30. We went October, didn't do anything; November, didn't do anything; December, didn't do anything. Now, January 21, more than a year after President Trump was inaugurated, they seem to want to do something on CHIP. I appreciate that they do. Don't get me wrong. I care so much about this.

Mr. BROWN. Of course.

Mr. BROWN. I thank the Senator from New Jersey, who has been a real leader on this issue too. The bill would have come to the floor before the clock started because it would have come to the floor in September, likely, before it even expired. Think about it. We talk a lot about issues and talk a lot about numbers in this body, but think about this for a moment. You are a parent in the State of Virginia, 10 miles from here, and you are making $9 an hour and your wife is making $11 an hour and you qualify for CHIP because neither you nor your spouse has insurance. You qualify for CHIP--209,000 in my State, 100-and-some thousand in Virginia. Do you know what happened to you in the last month? You got a letter from the State of Virginia probably around Christmas. I am not sure when the letters were sent. You got a letter saying: Sorry, your health insurance is about to expire for your children. Imagine. You go out to the mailbox, you pick up the mail, you tear an envelope open, you open this letter, and you see you are going to lose your health insurance. Why? Because the people in this body, who get government insurance, insurance paid by taxpayers--the 100 privileged Senators, the 435 privileged House Members. We have insurance, but we don't care enough to do this? Again, we had September, October, November, December, January. Now it is in this bill as a political thing instead of really genuinely caring about CHIP. So say a lot of things on the other side of the aisle, but don't try to tell us they genuinely care about the 209,000 CHIP beneficiaries in my State, the 100-and-some thousand and another couple hundred thousand in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Hawaii because it just ain't so.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Casey and Senator Stabenow for their leadership. They are exactly right about this. They are right about maternal health, CHIP, rural hospitals, and community health centers that so many people depend upon, and I thank them very much for their work. I thank the ranking member of the Finance Committee, Mr. Wyden, for joining us. Mr. Carper, I believe, will be joining us too. It has now been 112 days since funding expired for the Children's Health Insurance Program. It has been 112 days of uncertainty for families, 112 days of mothers worrying about being able to afford their child's checkups, 112 days of fathers who will have to choose between the heating bill and medicine for their kids, and for every one of those 112 days, the Republican leaders in Congress have made a choice about extending CHIP, and we know it is something that has been bipartisan for two decades. The chairman of the Finance Committee loves to brag about the fact that he was there at its inception. He invented it with Senator Kennedy or he invented it and Senator Kennedy came along afterward or whatever actually happened 20 years ago, he loves to brag about it. In the Finance Committee, with Senators Casey, Carper, Wyden, Stabenow and others, we asked him about it repeatedly during the tax bill. Again, they were willing to pass a tax cut in December, where 81 percent of the benefits in that tax bill went to the richest 1 percent. That bill will encourage more companies to shut down in Erie, PA, and Ashtabula, OH, or in Pittsburgh or in Cleveland and move overseas. They were willing to do that. We asked them over and over--Senator Hatch and others in the Finance Committee--let's pass CHIP. They just couldn't get around to it. They made a choice. They made a choice to do tax cuts for the rich. They made a choice to let CHIP expire. They made a choice not to bring a bipartisan bill passed out of the Finance Committee to the floor. They made a choice to spend their time and energy on other things. They have a choice today. I am calling on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--and I think Senator Stabenow will make a motion to do this--to pass a permanent extension of CHIP, with no strings attached, the policy we agree on, protecting health insurance for 9 million children, with an added bonus of saving $6 million in savings for the Federal Government because CHIP frankly doesn't cost very much. Children don't get sick very often and don't require a lot of medical care. Some children do, and that is the whole point of CHIP, so healthy children can stay healthy and get regular checkups and, with an occasional ear infection, go to the family doctor with an ear infection on the first day, rather than the emergency room after the child might experience intense pain or even, later in life, hearing loss, in some cases. It is there for those like Crystal's child in Columbus, OH, whom we talked about. It is a policy that doesn't just make moral sense, it makes financial sense. It is time for Republican leaders to stop holding CHIP hostage and families hostage to their failed budget process. I know they broke out a plan the other day, as their political talking point, to try to use it to pass a bill that really wasn't all that good a bill. These are not bargaining chips, these are kids. In my State--the State where the Presiding Officer grew up--209,000 Ohio kids, and 9 million kids nationwide, roughly a number not much higher than that in Pennsylvania and lower than that in Michigan, in the 3 of our States, there are 600,000 kids who right now are getting insurance from CHIP. Remember, these are kids whose parents generally work making $8 to $10 to $12 an hour. They are not kids whose parents have jobs that pay insurance. They are not Congressmen and Congresswomen and Senators who have really good health insurance but for some reason think it is OK to deny it from others, from working families. These are working families. These are children whose parents have jobs but don't have insurance. Think about the families and the stress they are facing. Think about the letters I get and Senator Casey gets about the stories we get from Ohio and Pennsylvania families. Josh from Cleveland said CHIP ``helped me arrange for my family to get the health coverage they needed while I looked for a new job. As a parent . . . that peace of mind, knowing that my family is secure getting the medical help they need should something God forbid arise, is priceless.'' The letter he sent to us underscores the fact that all kinds of parents over the Christmas season, over the holiday season--low-income, hard-working parents, in most cases, $8 to $12 an hour--they are not buying a lot of stuff for their kids at Christmas anyway. They are trying to figure out how this is going to work over the Christmas season, but they are anxious. They have to worry about whether they are going to have insurance in the new year while Congress passes the tax cuts. Tiffany from Cleveland wrote: My son relied on CHIP. . . . Without CHIP, we would not have been able to afford to get him intensive speech therapy for his severe . . . diagnosis. Without this speech therapy, he would not be able to speak today. CHIP gave him a voice. Now I want to use my own voice to give other kids like him a chance. Linda from Johnstown wrote to me about her daughter and grandchild. The CHIP Program is vital to my daughter and grandchild. My daughter is a hard-working, tax-paying, 26-year-old, single mother with a 4-year-old son. She works over 40 hours each week as a chef. They do qualify for CHIP and it is a tremendous help. . . . Without the CHIP program, she would be forced to find other ways to make ends meet, or perhaps even to quit working, so that she would qualify for full public assistance. So I remind my colleagues, all of whom have insurance paid for by taxpayers, if we don't pass CHIP, people like this young woman--people like Linda's daughter, who has a child--she might have to quit her job as a chef, her more than 40-hour-a-week job, so she can then go on Medicaid and get insurance for her child. Does that make any sense to anybody? Another grandmother--it is always the grandmothers; never underestimate them--Suzanne from Columbus wrote to me: As a pediatric nurse for 40 years, I have seen firsthand how . . . CHIP . . . has provided essential healthcare and saved lives. As a grandmother, my grandchildren . . . benefited. Their father is deceased and my daughter can't afford the high cost of her company insurance but makes too much to qualify for Medicaid. Without this program, my grandchildren would not have had adequate healthcare. So many of these families--think about them. As Pope Francis admonished his priests: Go out and smell like the flock. Go out and listen to your constituents around the country, I beg my colleagues. I think, if you had, that we would have seen CHIP reauthorized months ago, but that is the past. So many of these families are just like Linda's and Suzanne's daughters. They work full time. They just aren't lucky enough to work for employers that offer health insurance. All of us are that lucky. Again, I don't know how we can stand here with insurance paid by taxpayers and not do anything about it. Make no mistake, that is what Republican leaders did for 112 days. I know that most of my colleagues wanted to pass CHIP in September before it expired, then in October, then in November when we begged the Finance chair to do it, then in December during the tax reform. I know my colleagues wanted to that, but for whatever reason, Senator McConnell, whose office, as we know, is down the hall and has lobbyists running in and out--CHIP families didn't really have very good lobbyists. I don't know why it works that way, but insurance companies did, and I guess that is how this town works. I asked Leader McConnell and Senator Hatch time and again to bring this bill to the floor and allow a vote. Senator Casey asked them; Senator Stabenow and all of us did. It was September, October, November, and December, but they chose to do other things. They have a chance to make a different choice today, a chance to stop using children and families as bargaining chips, a chance to choose making policy over playing politics. If this is really about children's healthcare, I challenge Leader McConnell to bring a clean, permanent CHIP bill to the floor right away. There is no reason to hold this up while we continue to fight over the budget process. Pretending that the two must pass together, of course, is a fallacy. A permanent CHIP extension that provides certainty to families and $6 billion in savings to the Federal Government will pass overwhelmingly. We will be the first enthusiastic votes cast. Thank you.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks to Senator Schumer and my colleagues, who will join us in the course of the evening, for coming to the floor tonight to shine a light on the more than 1 million workers and retirees all over this country who are on the verge of facing massive cuts to the pensions they have earned. This crisis affects thousands of Ohioans--perhaps more than 60,000 is our count. It affects the massive Central States Teamsters Pension Plan, the United Mine Workers Pension Plan, the Ironworkers Local 17 Pension Plan, the Ohio Southwest Carpenters Pension Plan, the Bakers and Confectioners Pension Plan, and others. It has an impact on workers, retirees, and businesses in every single State in the United States. It is bad enough that Wall Street squandered workers' money; it is worse that the government--that this body, that the House--hasn't yet stepped up. The government is supposed to look out for these folks and is so far turning a blind eye to the promise made to these workers. The Senate found the time to pass a massive tax giveaway for corporations that shipped jobs overseas. We know that the tax bill made it even more likely for manufacturing companies to shut down in Mansfield or Limerick or Chillicothe or Portsmouth or Springfield, OH, and move overseas. They shut down production here and move overseas, set up production there, and sell their products back into the United States. The Senate's bill does that, but it did nothing for hard- working Americans who worked their whole lives to earn their retirement. It is disgraceful, and time is running short to make these pensions whole. I urge my colleagues in this body--colleagues with healthcare and retirement plans paid for by taxpayers--to remember that. My colleagues--all of us have our healthcare and pensions paid by taxpayers. I urge my colleagues of this body to think about these retired workers and the stress they are facing. It is an expensive time of year for people with fixed incomes. Their heating bills go up. They try to scrape together what they can for the holidays for grandkids. They have loved ones who are sick, and some of them are sick themselves. Remember, this is about more than just these retirees and their families; hundreds of thousands of workers give up money from each and every paycheck to fund a pension they expect to be there when they retire. Think about that. Those who haven't really looked at what happens in union negotiations, where workers sit at the bargaining table, and they give up income today to put money aside for the future for their pensions--that is what they did. They gave up income 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, even 40 years ago, put it aside--often matched by employers. That money then comes back to them in the form of a pension when they retire. If we don't protect those pensions, how do any workers know their retirement is safe? How do you plan for your kids? How do you plan for your family's future? How do you do that when this kind of uncertainty hangs over your head? These Americans have done everything right. They have worked their whole lives to earn these pensions. They have put in long hours to support their families. They did it so they would be able to spend their retirement years enjoying time with their grandchildren, not worrying every day about how to make ends meet. The reason they thought it wasn't just blind hope was because of the legally binding contracts they negotiated in good faith. When I first started in public service, when the legislature wasn't in session, I used to spend hours at the United Steelworkers Local 169 in Mansfield, OH, listening to workers talk about their dreams. We talked about a lot of things. I would talk about their kids, whom I had gone to high school with at Mansfield Junior High or Johnny Appleseed Junior High or Brinkerhoff Grade School. But one thing I heard over and over is how workers, as I said earlier, gave up pay today at the bargaining table for the promise of a pension to be there when they retired. It is pretty simple. They sat at the negotiating table. They earned their pensions. They gave up pay raises to do it. But now their government has allowed Wall Street to blow it, and tough luck for them. Not on our watch, Mr. President. Before the holidays, I stood in this building with many of my colleagues and with Rita Lewis, the widow of Butch Lewis, who had worked 40 years as an Ohio teamster. Butch died of a heart attack on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago. If he were here today, Butch would tell you that he didn't work those 40 years to get just 40 percent of his pension. Sadly, Butch passed away far too soon after fighting for the retirement he and these workers earned. It is my honor to name our Senate bill the ``Butch Lewis Act'' after him. This isn't a partisan issue. It affects communities we all represent. It affects Teamsters in Michigan and in Ohio. It affects workers in Montana, the Presiding Officer's State. It affects mine workers in the majority leader's State. It affects teamsters, truckdrivers, in the Democratic leader's State. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle have voiced support and the desire to work together in good faith to keep this promise. Now we just need to sit down together, put politics aside, and get it done. A number of Republican Senators have been in negotiations with Democratic Senators that we have led to make sure this can get done. But fundamentally it is about whose side you are on. It is about who we work for. Many of my colleagues made it pretty clear in December with their tax vote that they work for Wall Street and the corporations that send job overseas, but I say we work for these truckdrivers, ironworkers, carpenters, confectionary workers, and teamsters. They are not asking for a handout; they are asking for what they earned over a lifetime of work. It is time for us to do the job the taxpayers sent us here to do and save those pensions before it is too late. I am joined on the Senate floor today by the senior Senator from Michigan and the senior Senator from Indiana, Senator Stabenow and Senator Donnelly, who have been very active on this issue. I know Senator Casey is going to join us, and others who have been very active, standing up for these retirees, understanding that the teamster retirees and mine workers and ironworkers and others gave up money today, gave up raises at the bargaining table, to put money aside for retirement. We owe that to them. It is time the Senate does its job. I yield the floor to Senator Stabenow.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Senators Whitehouse and Blumenthal for their remarks.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, I yield the floor to Senators Johnson and Markey.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I wish to thank my colleagues Senator Warner and Senator Blumenthal for their words on the Senate floor-- Senator Warner's words yesterday especially, defending Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his leadership on the Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Senator Warner is absolutely right that we must protect the integrity of the Justice Department's independent investigation. Congress needs to make clear that there are redlines. Any attempt to fire Robert Mueller, to shut down the investigation, or to presumptively pardon key witnesses essential to the investigation would be an abuse of power and a direct threat to the rule of law and to our constitutional system. Ohio's Ukrainian community knows the impact of unchecked Russian aggression in Russia's effort to undermine democracy around the world. Getting to the bottom of Russian interference and protecting our future elections from that interference are critical. My priority is getting to the bottom of what happened so that our democratic process is upheld and so we can move forward with the business we were sent here to do--creating jobs, combatting the opioid crisis, as Senators Johnson, Markey, and I will speak about in a moment, and helping middle-class families. Any efforts to delay that conclusion or interfere in the investigation, I believe, will not be tolerated by Senators in either party. Thanks to Senator Warner for making that clear. Thanks to my colleagues in both parties who take this seriously. All of us have had serious conversations with Members of both parties to discuss what all this means, and thank you for all of us working together to complete the independent Senate investigation. It is important that we make clear to the American people that this is not a partisan issue. It is about the integrity of our elections, about protecting our country from foreign powers. Any attempt to discredit Robert Mueller and his investigation and to turn it into a partisan issue makes us less safe as a nation. Let's allow the Justice Department and the special counsel to do their jobs. Let's get back to doing ours.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, as we await Senator Markey's and Senator Johnson's remarks, I wish to set the stage. The CDC released a new report last night showing a massive increase in the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses. My State is second to the Presiding Officer's State. It has the second highest rate of deaths per capita in the country. In my State of Ohio, unfortunately, far too many people die from opioid overdoses than any other State in country. Families are torn apart. Children lose parents. Parents lose sons and daughters. The CDC pins much of the blame of this epidemic on this relatively new deadly synthetic fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin. Senator Capito knows that, as do Senators Johnson and Markey. All of us in the Senate are aware of that. This drug is being illegally trafficked into this country from Mexico and China. We have a bill to stop this today. The INTERDICT Act. I want to thank Senator Markey for his leadership on this bill and also my colleague Senator Portman for his support. Senator Portman and I have been working on a number of issues across party lines for months and months. It would provide more funds for Customs and Border Protection to screen packages effectively and safely, to stop fentanyl whenever possible before it reaches Akron, Toledo, Dayton, or the smaller cities of Chillicothe, Mansfield, and Zanesville. This passed the House with only two or three negative votes. It has the support of major law enforcement organizations, including sheriffs and police officers. Our law enforcement officials, better than anybody, see the devastation that fentanyl causes our communities. They know the risk our officers face dealing with this deadly substance. That is why this bill needs to pass into law. Just this week, the National FOP, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative--a recent phenomenon, unfortunately--all publicly asked us to pass the bill. Americans are dying in record numbers. Life expectancy in our country--I believe, for the first time in the lifetimes of any of us-- actually dropped last year. Think about that. We have made progress, as I mentioned, in this body. I wear a pin on my lapel of a canary in a bird cage. The mine workers in West Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere would take this canary down to the mines. If the canary died, the mine worker was on his own. He didn't have a union strong enough or a government that cared enough to help him. In those days, people lived 45 years on average--for a person born in the United States in 1900. Today we live 30 years longer for a whole host of public health reasons--from Medicare to Medicaid, to safe drinking laws, to clean air, to minimum wage--all the things that we do. For the first time, I believe, in our lifetime, life expectancy actually has dropped because of drug overdoses for the second year in a row, and it is in large part because of these overdose deaths. Why shouldn't we take steps today to stop this? We can do this by putting the INTERDICT Act on the President's desk, immediately giving law enforcement the tools they need to keep fentanyl out of the country and off our streets.

Mr. BROWN. Of course.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank Senator Markey for his leadership on this issue. This has gotten this far because of his efforts in so many ways. I want to enter into the Record three letters that are dated yesterday and today. Actually, one is from the National Fraternal Order of Police, signed by Chuck Canterbury, their national president, in support of this bill, with a very persuasive, passionate laying out of reasons it matters. The second is a letter from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, signed by Dominick Stokes. Mr. Stokes is a longtime friend of mine. The third letter is from the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative group, signed by Frederick Ryan, all making endorsements for this bill. I ask unanimous consent those three letters be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWN. I think it is pretty clear how important this is. This bill got, I believe, 2 or maybe 3 negative votes out of 400-some in the House of Representatives. There is no organization I know of that opposes it. I hear from people in my State consistently about how important this is, from police organizations to parents, to individual police officers and county sheriffs and all, and deputy sheriffs. There is just no reason we shouldn't be able to do this before we go home for Christmas. There are a lot of things we should do before we go home for Christmas, including the Children's Health Insurance Program, but this is one we know we can do. There seems to be no substantive disagreement from any large number of groups or individuals that I can see, so I am hopeful we can move forward with this in the next few minutes.