Richard Blumenthal

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, on December 14, 2012, we saw evil, but we also saw good. We saw tragedy, but we also saw actions that should continue to inspire us. The evil was in a deranged young man who committed unspeakable and unimaginable horrific acts, but the good was exemplified by the police, the emergency responders, and the teachers who not only risked their lives but saved other ones. The good was something that came forward in the days and months and in the past 2 years. Often I visit the playgrounds that have been built throughout the State of Connecticut in memory of those children, in memory of Charlotte Bacon in West Haven and Ana Grace Marquez-Greene in Hartford, Jessica Rekos in Fairfield, and Dylon Hockley in Westfork, and Victoria Soto in Stratford. I visit them to watch children playing, children often the same age as the wonderful, beautiful children who perished on that day, and parents about the same age as the teachers who lost their lives, sixth-grade educators. On that day parents in Newtown took their children to school, kissed them goodbye and went about their days, went to work to plan play dates and snack breaks and holiday parties, and just hours into that morning many parents were standing at the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire Station where I also went that day. What I saw was through the eyes of a parent, not just a public official, the cries of grief, the faces, and voices filled with tears and longing. Those images I will never forget, and they have redoubled my own determination to try to make America safer and better, to keep faith with those 26 wonderful people whose lives were lost that day, and more than 30,000 people who perished in the United States as a result of violence simply because many of them were in the wrong place at the wrong time--on the street or in neighborhoods or in their own home. The good that is done every day by our police and firemen and emergency responders to try to stem and stop this epidemic of violence cannot overcome the flood of guns in our Nation and cannot compensate for the lack of effective measures to make America safer and better by making our laws against gun violence more effective. I will never forget that day or any of the victims or their families, and I hope America never forgets them as well. We are memorializing now their wonderful lives by acts of kindness, but the best and truest way to memorialize them in history is to approve effective, commonsense, sensible measures against gun violence. In the aftermath of those horrific events of December 14, all of Connecticut, certainly in Newtown, and our State came together to lift those who were so devastatingly impacted, and those families have shown incredible strength. They sat in the gallery, they came to visit us and our colleagues urging action. Congress's failure to act is contemptible and unconscionable and a betrayal of those individuals. The action that is ultimately truest and best as a memorial to them will be for this Congress to act. In Newtown and around the Nation, every community in some way was affected in those days and in some way came together with Newtown. So my hope is still that that spirit will be an inspiration to action, that it will be an impetus to the Congress for effective, commonsense measures that will protect countless others who are in danger and who will die if Congress does not act. More than 60,000 firearm deaths have occurred since December 14, 2012. There are 32,000 firearm deaths per year. Those families have demonstrated unrelenting resolve, and so should we, and we will. It took more than 10 years for the Brady law to be approved, even after a President of the United States was almost assassinated and his Press Secretary, Jim Brady, was severely injured and paralyzed. I hope it will not take 10 years for action to be taken by Congress, but we need the persistence and perseverance that will carry us through whatever it takes to achieve lasting reform. I have been proud to serve as a member of the Judiciary Committee and to have worked hard for this measure, helping to lead the effort to approve the ban on high-capacity magazines as well as assault weapons and background checks. But a mental health initiative and school safety initiative have also been part of what we need do. I will continue my work on those efforts--mental health and school safety bills I have introduced, including the Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act. Lori Jackson was estranged from her husband. She obtained a court order against him because of the real evidence of danger from him. Unfortunately, that court order failed to save her life because it was only temporary, and it failed to take away the guns her husband had. The Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act will fill that gap in our laws now. Women are five times as likely to die as a result of domestic violence when there is a gun in the home. One in five women are victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives. That is the reason we need to continue this fight on many fronts. Since that day or about then, on December 14, I have worn a bracelet and I still do. The writing has faded and is no longer visible, but the one thing it said was, ``Love wins.'' I truly believe that love won in Newtown, that love won when Connecticut's legislature passed a strong and effective measure. It was the next step. It is not the end of the work, but the next step. I believe that love won through the grace and courage and strength of the families of those children and the loved ones of the teachers who lost their lives. I believe love wins every day in our classrooms around the Nation when teachers work hard--and they work hard--and resolve to keep their children safe. Love wins every day when someone stands up and speaks out against gun violence. Love will win, eventually. Honor will win. We will honor those children, and we will celebrate the love they felt so deeply and unconditionally--as only children can--unqualifiedly for their parents and their community. I believe that love will win eventually as long as we keep working. I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we have recently returned from the Thanksgiving holiday, when Americans from all walks of life come together with family and friends to express gratitude for our good fortune and great blessings. The weekend following Thanksgiving was devoted by many to holiday shopping--a good opportunity to support local businesses but also too often a spectacle of commercialization that threatens to obscure the true meaning of the holiday season. Today, I would like to honor the work of two Connecticut community leaders for their laudable efforts to remind us of the holiday's true meaning. Rabbi Daniel Cohen of Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford and Pastor Greg Doll of Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien have together launched the Elijah Moment Campaign. Named after a figure in Jewish tradition who appears spontaneously to help those in need, this interfaith campaign seeks to encourage simple acts of kindness between friends and strangers alike. Each recipient of an act of generosity goes on to ``pay it forward'' by helping someone else. Even seemingly minor gifts like buying a stranger's cup of coffee, as occurred en masse during a campaign-organized kindness event at a Stamford Starbucks last week, can motivate significant acts of charity and promote a prevailing spirit of benevolence. I am grateful to Rabbi Cohen and Pastor Doll for coming together to remind us, in their words, that ``an act of generosity as simple as a kind word can transform a fleeting moment into an eternal one.'' The simplest acts of giving highlights the strong connections we all share, even as divisive rhetoric at home and violent acts abroad threaten our solidarity and safety. I honor and admire the spirit of the Elijah Moment Campaign, and I encourage all to do the same.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Feinstein amendment which is at the desk be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, there will be up to five rollcall votes at 10 a.m. on confirmation of the Orr and Hezir nominations and cloture on the Stivers, Leeson, and Griggsby nominations. Another series of up to six rollcall votes will occur at 1:45 p.m.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I certainly will pledge to do so and will think of the Senator from Iowa when we do, hopefully, consider the next such highway bill. But let me just say, in conclusion, for myself, I was not going to mention the ``R'' word--the retirement word--because it seems almost impossible to imagine this body without the Senator from Iowa not only because of his advocacy of the Prevention and Public Health Fund but also his constant reminding us and his unceasing advocacy for better public health, for championing the interests of ordinary working men and women. So I thank him for that legacy to me and for so many others.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. My impression also is--and perhaps the Senator has some views on this--that, in a way, we have a responsibility in this body to create that awareness and to spend the money on what should be regarded as an investment. It is spending, and it involves funding. But really the way to look at it is as an investment in education, in the clinics and the doctors and the services that can make Americans healthier and save us dollars over the long term--not only in the money spent on truly preventable diseases but also avoiding the suffering and the pain that is involved in many of those diseases, whether it is cancer or heart disease or diabetes, which are connected to so many preventable conditions.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Our Nation currently spends 75 cents of every $1 on health care for the treatment of preventable conditions. These diseases can be stopped and prevented in people through simple, commonsense measures. Yet a meager 3 cents of every $1 goes toward those treatments, therapies, and practices that can help prevent the diseases that are so wasteful to our economy, to individuals, and their livelihoods. Our young people are on track to be the first generation of Americans to live a shorter, unhealthier life than their parents. The responsibility to change the course of this history is in our hands. One step this body--led by Senator Harkin--has taken is to establish the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It is the only dedicated Federal fund for the prevention and improvement of our Nation's public health. Prevention is the most effective way to improve the health of Americans while reducing health care costs in the United States. This funding supports efforts to reduce our Nation's rate of infant death, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and tobacco use. They are the killers and they kill unnecessarily and avoidably. Sadly, many Connecticut residents suffer from those very same chronic diseases I mentioned. Thirty percent of Connecticut residents have high blood pressure, 9 percent have diabetes, 21,000 residents of Connecticut are diagnosed with cancer annually, and 16 percent still use tobacco. The Prevention and Public Health Fund invests in a broad range of evidence-based activities--not speculative, not abstract, conceptual, theoretical--including community and clinical prevention initiatives that can help stop all Americans from developing debilitating and chronic disease in the future. So far grants from this fund were awarded to support four Connecticut projects, including mental health and addiction, diabetes management in older and disabled adults, and the establishment of an electronic birth registration system to improve the ability to track the health and well-being of infants. It sounds pretty rudimentary--and it is--using technology to track the health and well-being of infants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a hard-hitting anti-tobacco media campaign--funded from this fund--focused on the destructive health effects of smoking. It is not only effective, but it is supported by the efforts that we have advocated on prevention in health management. Over the next 3 years this campaign is expected to save the country $170 million in nonincurred health costs and lowered productivity that results from smoking. The CDC has estimated that this campaign will assist 50,000 tobacco users to quit smoking. I know from my own work in suing the tobacco companies and establishing the fund to support exactly these kinds of efforts, that millions of Americans across the United States want to quit. They have tried repeatedly. Ninety-nine percent of all smokers want to quit and also try to quit, but quitting is hard because nicotine is one of the most powerfully addictive drugs known to man and cigarettes are a powerfully effective nicotine delivery tool. These 50,000 tobacco users who quit smoking are better off, not only in their health but their pocketbooks. They save countless dollars that they would otherwise squander on unhealthy tobacco products. They are healthier, their families are happier, and they save themselves from a lifetime of addiction and disease. The preventive efforts of the CDC as a result of this fund are preventive in stopping young people from beginning to smoke as well. It is monumental, it is historic, and it is a fund that should be fully supported by Congress. The fund accorded the CDC the ability to run another tobacco education campaign called ``Tips from Former Smokers.'' According to a recent study, this campaign led 1.64 million Americans to attempt to quit smoking. Those who have completely quit smoking as a result of the campaign added half a million quality-adjusted life years to the population of the United States. I know these numbers sound abstract and obtuse. They are real lives, and they have been saved from the evils of tobacco addiction and smoking, which in turn could cause cancer, heart disease, and all kinds of preventive diseases. This funding is essential to running the local departments of health in many areas of our Nation. Workers at those departments of public health are in the forefront of preventing infectious diseases, an issue that most recently came into focus as part of the domestic Ebola response. Without adequate funding for these departments, the people most closely tasked and most immediately responsible for providing services and information to people in the time of a crisis may be unable to respond when communities are most in need. We must change the focus of our health care from sickness and disease to wellness and prevention. We grew up, many of us, with our mothers telling us that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is not only an adage that is commonly repeated, it is commonly proved in everyday life. I strongly encourage my fellow Members to support the Prevention and Public Health Fund to help ensure the future well-being of our fellow citizens. I yield to my colleague Senator Harkin, one of the leaders in this effort.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 609, S. 2759.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 5681, which is at the desk.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

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

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its businesses today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 4, 2014; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; and that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume executive session and consideration of the Orr nomination, with the time until 10 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following measures, which are post office-naming bills, en bloc: Calendar No. 585, H.R. 43; Calendar No. 586, H.R. 451; Calendar No. 587, H.R. 1391; Calendar No. 589, H.R. 3085; Calendar No. 590, H.R. 3957; Calendar No. 591, H.R. 4189; Calendar No. 592, H.R. 4443; Calendar No. 593, H.R. 4919; Calendar No. 595, H.R. 5106; and Calendar No. 584, S. 2523.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed, en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, en bloc, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Veterans Affairs' Committee be discharged from the consideration of and the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following measures, which are VA facility-naming bills, en bloc: H.R. 3682, H.R. 3375, S. 2921, and S. 229.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed, en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, en bloc, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 576, S. Res. 540.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 585.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 593, submitted earlier today.