Bob Casey

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. 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.

Mr. CASEY. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 501.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the Kirk amendment to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble, as amended, be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. CASEY

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

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise tonight to ask unanimous consent, first of all, to speak as if in morning business.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CASEY. Thank you, Mr. President. I rise to highlight an important piece of legislation that was just voted out of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions--known by the acronym HELP. We voted out of committee today S. 2539, the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2014. Senator Hatch and I introduced S. 2539 to reauthorize existing programs to support States' efforts to help individuals live with traumatic brain injury and of course to help their families. TBIs range from mild concussions to devastating life-altering injuries that collectively represent a significant public health challenge. It is the signature injury, unfortunately, of the conflicts of the last decade, whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan. It is also an injury that occurs approximately 2.5 million times in the United States each year. Over 50,000 people die of traumatic brain injuries every year. Traumatic brain injury is implicated in nearly one-third of all injury-related deaths. Children--just imagine this number--ages 0 to 4 and teens ages 15 to 19 are at the greatest risk for traumatic brain injury. Among all children in an average year, 62,000 will sustain brain injuries that require hospitalization and 564,000 will be seen in hospital emergency rooms. Clearly, we must continue to improve our response to traumatic brain injury, which includes prevention, timely and accurate diagnosis, and treatment. The bill passed today out of the HELP Committee would make modest but important improvements to the TBI Act that is in place already. We ask that the Department of Health and Human Services develop a traumatic brain injury coordination plan to ensure that Federal activities at HHS and other Federal agencies are being coordinated for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. We also ask for a review of the scientific evidence on brain injury and in particular brain injury management in children, with a special emphasis on evaluating scientific evidence behind the ``return to school'' and ``return to play'' policies. This of course is very important. As public awareness of the seriousness of traumatic brain injuries increases, parents, schools, and coaches are struggling to develop appropriate responses. A lot of attention thus far has been focused on the ``return to play'' policies, trying to ensure that children don't return to sports until they have healed from a previous concussion, but there is much less attention on the so-called return to school policies and how we can take steps to ensure that children with a concussion or a more serious brain injury can return to the classroom and continue learning safely and effectively. It is my hope that this bill, S. 2539, will help focus future research efforts and guide Federal and State agencies looking to develop policies in this area. Along with a lot of the members of the HELP Committee, I am pleased the committee voted today to move forward S. 2539, and I hope the rest of the Senate will join Senator Hatch and me in passing this legislation as quickly as possible. In conclusion, it has been a great honor to work with Senator Hatch on this legislation as it is when we work together on a whole series of important matters in the Senate. 2014 Kids Count Data Book Mr. President, I have brief comments on an important set of data that has just been released. I will highlight very briefly the 2014 Kids Count Data Book, something a lot of child advocates and families are aware of. This is an annual report, and I want to highlight the fact that the 2014 report is now on the record. This Kids Count Data Book was just published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for this year. The Kids Count Data Book looks at every State to measure child well-being in States and across the country considering factors such as economic well-being, health, education, family, and community. Within each of these categories the report highlights four important metrics and notes whether we have improved from the year 2008 to 2012. Nationally, 10 of the 16 metrics showed improvement. That is good news. Five metrics worsened. Of course we don't like hearing that, but it is important to measure when we are going in the wrong direction. And one of the metrics remained unchanged. So we are happy the improvement number is 16 metrics and the worsening metric number is 5, but we still have a long way to go to improve in each of these areas. The report also ranks States based upon their overall results. Pennsylvania is ranked 16th in the Nation. I wish we were in the top 10. I wish we were in the top five and even No. 1. So we have some work to do in Pennsylvania. In some areas Pennsylvania is doing well compared to the national average. For example, we have a lower rate of children without health insurance. That is certainly good news, with still more to do on that. Teen birth rates in Pennsylvania continue to be below the national average. Pennsylvania has a slightly higher percentage of children attending preschool. That is good news. We have a lot more to do on that, both in Pennsylvania and across the Nation. Finally, Pennsylvania students continue to have higher proficiency rates in reading and math skills when compared to the national rate, but there is still more work to do there as well. The report also highlights areas where we need to improve both in Pennsylvania and nationally. Far too many children in the United States of America are living in poverty with parents who often lack secure employment. Too many teens are not in school and also not working, which dramatically worsens their ability to grow into economically self-sufficient adults. I would encourage my colleagues to review the 2014 Kids Count Data Book which is available on the Web site of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. We should all consider what we can do in the Senate and in the other body to improve our children's lives and our future.

Mr. CASEY

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

Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to talk about the challenge we have to make sure every child in America who is eligible for one of the programs that help children have enough to eat and have nutritious food is getting served. The problem across the country is we have a number of children who are receiving meals during the school year, either school breakfast as part of the School Breakfast Program, or the School Lunch Program. So at some point in time they are getting a meal at school, and maybe more than one meal. Then they go home for the summer, and even though they are eligible for the summer programs, which tend to be in different locations, may not be at one school or one central location, a lot of children do not get the benefit of those programs. The program name is the Summer Food Service Program. Many Americans may have heard of the School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, probably have heard less about the Summer Food Service Program. We know that even though children are taking a summer vacation from school, hunger does not take a summer vacation. Hunger is always a clear and present danger, a reality for children, especially children in low-income communities from low-income families. This is a reality for so many children, millions of them across the country and their families. But it is also preventable. It is a tragedy when a child does not have enough to eat. But this is preventable if we do the right thing. We know that during the school year, when you add up all of the children who receive a meal at school, it amounts to about 21 million. That is the good news, that that many children are being served. The bad news is when they go home for their summer vacation, by one count, the last count we have, only 3 million children are getting a summer meal, even though as high as 21 million are eligible--or 21 million receive that kind of help during the school year. In my home State of Pennsylvania, the dropoff, the last number we have, is during the course of the year, just about 777,000 children received a meal, about three-quarters of a million children. The problem, though, is the summer number goes way down to, at last count, 105,000, just a little more than 105,000, so there is a little more than a 7-to-1 difference between the school year and the summer program. One of the things we have to do is to get the word out. That is why I brought along this poster that highlights this. To find a site in your State, in your community--there are many sites, tens of thousands of them across the country--you may need to inquire about it. You may need to make a phone call to find out about the sites--1-866-3-HUNGRY, and then a different one, 1-877-8-HAMBRE. We want to make sure that in addition to knowing the 800 numbers, you have a Web site. It is pasummermeals.com. That, of course, applies to Pennsylvania, pasummermeals.com. So if you live in Pennsylvania, that is your Web site. These numbers are national numbers, the 1-866-3-HUNGRY, and then 1- 877-8-HAMBRE. That is one way to find out, for families to find out, for advocates, anyone who is concerned about this or wants to know more about what their community has available for them, because, as I said before, it is different than the circumstances during the year. During the year, children go to a school and that school has a School Breakfast Program and/or a School Lunch Program. In the summer, you have the same services available, the same opportunities, same eligibility for children, but the sites are--there are more sites. And sometimes, when people do not know, when they cannot be served by a school, they may have to go to another place in their community. This is a major issue. Because we know that all the science tells us if we want children to learn more now and earn more later, that is what we all hope is not just the right thing to do, but if you have enough to eat you probably learn better. Obviously if you can learn more, you are going to earn more, literally, in your lifetime. This is not just a rhyme, it has a scientific foundation. We want to make sure that in addition to having the best possible educational programs for children to learn, we want to also create the best circumstances for them to learn. I do not know about people here, but in the course of my day, if I do not eat breakfast and then it gets to noontime or 1:00 and I have not had something to eat, it is pretty hard for me to be as functional and as effective as I want to be. I can only imagine what it is like for a child who does not have enough to eat, not just on one particular day of the week but maybe more than one day or a couple of days in a row. I do not know how they can function, let alone learn and study, take tests and achieve and be successful over time. They need the same kind of help in the summer as they have during the year. So if we are making it possible, if our government and communities around the country are making it possible for a child to have a school breakfast and/or a school lunch, why would we not make sure they have meals during the summer as well, especially when there is a program in place they are eligible for? We have to call attention to it. I know this is a challenge in all of our States. We want to make sure we are highlighting, getting information out so our children can have opportunities not only to have enough to eat but to eat meals that are nutritious. I was at a site in Philadelphia yesterday, the Gesu School, which is in north Philadelphia. I taught there as a volunteer 31 years ago. I actually not only handed out the lunches to the children at that site, but I was able to see what was in them. They were good meals, but they were also very nutritious, something that can help a child grow and learn and move into the future. We are grateful we have these programs. But if we do not tell people enough about them, we are going to continue to have that terrible dropoff from the number of children served during the year--again, as I said, 21 million children, dropping off to only 3 million children served in the summer. There is no reason why we should allow that to happen. There is no reason why we should say that is anything other than unacceptable. I am grateful to have this opportunity and grateful for the support this program has across the country. We need to get the word out. We need to get these 800 numbers out as much as we can. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I ask to speak on the nomination that is pending.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise this afternoon to speak just for a couple moments--because we are limited in time to speak--about Cheryl Ann Krause who is the nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. I want to review her credentials, some of which the Members of the Senate are familiar with in preparing for the vote. Cheryl Ann Krause is a graduate of the Stanford Law School. She got her juris doctorate degree with distinction in 1993. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude. Of course, I am especially proud of that as a Pennsylvanian. She has an extensive career both as a member of law firms in the private sector as well as a prosecutor. Before I get to that, I want to mention her clerkships. She clerked in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge Alex Kozinski. That was followed by a clerkship in the Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Later she became a prosecutor, as I mentioned, in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where she worked for 5 years. In that capacity as a prosecutor, she handled the investigation, prosecution, and appeals of domestic and international bank fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and public corruption cases. She has a broad and deep experience in the law, both on the civil and criminal side of it. She is an excellent student, as you can tell from her academic credentials and her educational background. She has been a member of so many organizations which would be directly relevant and connected to her work as a judge. I will not read all of those today. But I also want to say that Cheryl is someone I know. I know her to be a person of character and integrity, someone who has not just broad experience but the kind of integrity and judicial temperament that we will want from a member of any Federal district court or, in this case, an appeals court. Finally, I will mention something about her own family background. Her husband is Col. Bradford R. Everman, who currently serves as the Operations Group commander of the 177th Fighter Wing with the New Jersey National Guard. He served, as well, as a fighter pilot in tours of duty the world over. So she has both her own credentials but also has as a member of her family a real commitment to our country above and beyond her excellent work as a lawyer, as a scholar, as a lecturer, and, of course, as a prosecutor. So I could not say anything more today to recommend her to Members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle when we have the vote to move her forward so she can become a circuit court judge on the U.S. Circuit Court for the Third Circuit, which, of course, includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware as States in that circuit. With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I wish to speak about encouraging news from Pennsylvania. A June 17 article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette details how Pennsylvania's health insurance marketplace, established through the Affordable Care Act, is working as intended for enrollees. I would like to enter this article into the Record as evidence of how the Affordable Care Act is expanding access to health insurance, in Pennsylvania and throughout our Nation. I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the article be printed in the Record.

Mr. CASEY

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

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

Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise to speak about children's health insurance, an issue we hear about periodically but not nearly enough and an issue that will fast become a critically important question before both bodies, the Senate especially, because of what could happen to the Children's Health Insurance Program, which we call at the State level the CHIP program, known more commonly in Washington as S-CHIP, one of the great advancements in health care in recent American history. We can go back 25 or 50 years, and other than Medicare and Medicaid and maybe a few other examples, VA health care, children's health care has been a great success and I would say forthrightly a bipartisan success, but we need to keep it that way. I have a particular interest in this program because of the experience we have in Pennsylvania, as tens of thousands of families have benefited from the Children's Health Insurance Program that was signed into law and advocated strongly by my father when he served as the Governor of Pennsylvania. At the time Pennsylvania was a model for the country. This was the early 1990s I am talking about. When he signed that bill into law, Pennsylvania became one of the largest States with a new Children's Health Insurance Program which then became a model for the Nation. Here is how that happened. In 1997, Congress passed the bipartisan Children's Health Insurance Program signed into law in August of 1997 by President Clinton. The original bill was cosponsored by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, from Massachusetts of course, and the Senator from Utah, still serving, Mr. Hatch. They worked together, along with many others in a bipartisan fashion to produce important legislation for our children. Since that time this program has worked as a remarkable public-private partnership to deliver critical health care to children. So in addition to being bipartisan, it was public and private together. Care such as well child visits, immunizations, physical and occupational therapy, home health care and medical equipment and more were all available for the first time for many families. So it helps children not only have health insurance and health coverage, but it helps them be well and to stay well over a long period of time, providing them with care they need and giving their parents something government does not do enough; it provides a measure of peace of mind to parents and to families. In 2009, the President signed into law a bipartisan reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program. The most recent year of data indicates that CHIP covered over 8.1 million children over the course of a year. Consider that. With this program more than 8.1 million children have health care that would not have it any other way in the absence of this program. Even with the progress we have made in providing new health insurance options in the last couple of years as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the rate of uninsured Americans overall is still over 13 percent. That is the lowest rate since 2008 but still too high. The rate of uninsured children is 9 percent, a much lower rate obviously than the overall rate but still too high. CHIP has played an important role in increasing access to insurance for children. The Web site for the Pennsylvania program, which is www.chipcoverspakids.com, discusses several stories from Pennsylvania parents about how this Children's Health Insurance Program in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has helped one particular family, in this case, and many others. As you read the stories--here is one story. I will sum it up briefly. The CHIP program has been great. So said one family member: We know that this is quality insurance and we are finally able to sleep at night knowing that our kids can be seen by excellent pediatricians. I do not know what we would have done without CHIP. Now my children can play sports and go away to camp like other kids and if they get hurt, CHIP is there for them. So said a parent. That is probably the best summation or the best recitation of all of the reasons it is so important to make sure we preserve the Children's Health Insurance Program and preserve the funding for it and preserve any strategy that will ensure that children have the health care they need. So CHIP is always going to be there for those kids. That is what we need to make sure that we hold on to. I, similar to so many here and many in both parties, have consistently advocated for the Children's Health Insurance Program. I am pleased it has been authorized through fiscal year 2019. However--this is why I am standing here today. However, we were able only to secure funding through 2015. So the program is reauthorized to 2019 but funded only through fiscal year 2015. That deadline is approaching. Now is the time to act, again in the right bipartisan way, to preserve the Children's Health Insurance Program. It is time to make sure we ensure that CHIP will continue to be funded through the authorization, at a minimum, through fiscal year 2019. Senator Rockefeller, one of the great champions of this program over many years now, decades literally, introduced legislation last week that I wholeheartedly support. That is an understatement. There is not a Senator in this Chamber who should not support his legislation, the CHIP Extension Act of 2014, S. 2461. The legislation extends funding for CHIP through fiscal year 2019, bringing the funding in line with the authorization. I cannot stress enough the need to pass this legislation this year, pass this 2014 legislation that deals with this 2015 problem. State budget cycles are such that if we wait until next year, when the funding is about to expire, we will be jeopardizing health insurance for millions of American children. States need time to plan their budgets and cannot operate under the uncertainty of a funding threat to such an important program. I thank Senator Rockefeller for his tireless commitment to the Children's Health Insurance Program over many years--as I said, over several decades. I thank him for his work in introducing this legislation. I urge all of my colleagues in both parties to support Senator Rockefeller's legislation, the CHIP Extension Act of 2014, S. 2461, to make sure children's health insurance will always be there for the children who are covered by that program. In conclusion, this is very simple. We have people in both parties who have spent a lot of their careers saying how much they care about children. They give speeches, they campaign, they talk about kids. We all talk about kids in very positive ways. That is wonderful. But the test is how we act and what actions we take. That usually means how we vote. So if someone votes for this bill, they can stand and say they have taken a substantial step in the direction of ensuring that children will have the health care they need. If they do not, and they vote against it, I do not think they can say that. If someone votes against it, I think they have to have a substitute for it, some measure that will provide the same coverage for the same number of children by a different method. If they cannot come up with that, they cannot stand and say they are for kids. They cannot stand and say they care about our children and their future. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. I rise to talk about the issue that my colleague from Nevada just raised. We had a vote yesterday--which, to say it was overwhelming is probably an understatement--for the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act. That act will create transparency in the VA system, it will result in the hiring of more doctors and nurses, and it will provide resources for veterans and their spouses to obtain a quality education. We are grateful that happened. We are grateful for the overwhelming vote, and we are certainly optimistic about the results that will flow from that legislation. We have more to do in addition to that. We need to continue to look for ways to address the claims backlog that my colleague from Nevada just outlined, as well as other issues that will come before us. I thank the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Chairman Sanders, who is with us today on floor, and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs for their work on behalf of veterans. The claims backlog, which my colleague just talked about, is a critically important issue for veterans and their families in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and all the other States as well. I commend the work of Senator Heller and his staff. My staff worked very hard on these issues. I want to commend especially Gillian Mueller in addition to John Richter for their work on the issue itself and the working group collaboration that resulted in this report that Senator Heller cited. This is a substantial report on a very difficult problem. Here is what the problem is--the problem that the working group addressed, but also our legislation addressed, which I will talk about in a moment. Here is the problem in terms of days. The backlog is especially high across the country. The average backlog in days is 241. Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, it is even longer. In about half of our State, in the western part of our State, it is 316 days, and it is 294 days in Philadelphia in the eastern part of our State. To have a veteran and his or her family wait that long for the processing claims, is, in a word, unacceptable and should be addressed. That is why we introduced the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, which was developed from the findings of the working group and the report that was produced. This is a commonsense approach, a bill that focuses on three areas that will ensure a faster and more accurate delivery system. The bill will help ensure that veterans, the VA, Congress, and all levels of government are working together to bring down the backlog and to get veterans the benefits they deserve in a timely manner. It does basically three things: one, update the claims submission process; two, improve the VA regional office practices; three, demand more from other VA agencies. This backlog problem is a VA problem, but it is also a problem of other agencies not doing their job to help the VA. As Senator Heller noted, we had great support in the working group, as well as 17 bipartisan cosponsors of the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act. I respectfully asked Chairman Sanders to help us schedule a hearing on the legislation, and we are grateful for his willingness not only to work with us but to help advance this very important legislation. Let me conclude with one thought. I have often said that one of the obligations of every Member of Congress is to prove ourselves worthy of the valor of our veterans, to make sure that we are keeping the promise to our veterans. You can't prove yourself worthy of their valor by thanking them for their service or patting them on the back and going to public ceremonies. We have to act as we did yesterday. The next problem we should act upon is the claims backlog so that we can truly say that we are worthy of the valor of our veterans and keep our promise to them, to their families, and to our country. I yield the floor.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I wish to remember and honor Lewis Katz, a business and civic leader, who passed away tragically on May 29, 2014. Mr. Katz was a man of great integrity and ambition, and his contributions to the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the entire Nation leave a lasting legacy. I was honored to join his family, friends, colleagues, and admirers in celebrating his extraordinary life last week at his memorial service. Throughout his remarkable career, Lewis Katz ventured in to the fields of law, business, sports, education and media. After graduating from Temple University and the Dickinson School of Law, Mr. Katz established the New Jersey based law firm Katz, Ettin, and Levine. He found further success by investing in and leading a number of enterprises, including Kinney Parking Systems, the YES Network, the New Jersey Nets, the New Jersey Devils, and most recently Interstate General Media, which owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. In pursuing these endeavors, his ingenuity and proficiency was without equal. Yet this professional career was only a segment of the larger work Lewis Katz embarked on in his life. A dedicated family man and a deeply charitable patron, Mr. Katz's most important contributions came through his boundless interest in helping others. He gave generously to a number of causes and institutions, notably Temple University and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He also directed the Katz Foundation, which continues to support a number of charitable, educational, and medical causes. To these efforts, Lewis offered not only money, but a great portion of his energy and spirit. Mr. Katz came from humble roots, yet he was grateful for all that he had been given. He honored his own life and the life of those around him by living with passion and purpose. Although we mourn his passing, I find solace in knowing that Lewis leaves behind a substantial legacy that will allow us to honor him back for many years to come. My thoughts and prayers are with his son Drew, and his daughter Melissa during this difficult time.

Mr. CASEY

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

Mr. CASEY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. 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. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 100, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

Mr. CASEY

Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, there will be a rollcall vote at 10 a.m. tomorrow.