Christopher Coons

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to speak tonight in support of the omnibus appropriations package that Senator Mikulski, the Chair of our Appropriations Committee, has spoken at great length about, and that Senator Cochran has also dedicated so much of his time and effort and energy to, and that so many Members of this Chamber have contributed to. There are questions on the minds of my constituents from the home State of Delaware and questions on the minds of colleagues of mine who have spoken earlier this evening about this very large package--this $1.014 trillion spending bill--appropriations package. There have been questions raised about some specific provisions--an issue here about pensions, an issue there about Dodd-Frank and swaps, an issue about an environmental concern. There are a few issues that have Members--particularly of my caucus--who are very concerned. I have messages coming in to me in my office from social media and email saying: Why on Earth would you support this? My Senator, Chris Coons from Delaware, why would you support this? We are going into the holiday season and I want us to take a few minutes and look at what is actually in this package, to unwrap it a little bit and to better understand why on Earth I would stand on this floor and speak in favor of this package. You have heard of the hard work of our Appropriations Committee Chair. What you don't know is the tireless and determined and dedicated work of all of the Appropriations Committee members and staff who, across 12 different subcommittees, held more than 60 different hearings to hammer out provision after provision, department after department, and it is difficult sometimes to know what that means. Let me put this in some context. First, in terms of bad avoided and good invested. In terms of bad avoided, the version of this that came over from the House--11 full appropriations bills out of 12 that had within it all sorts of provisions. We call them riders because they are provisions that ride on top of the underlying appropriations bill. You have heard about some of these riders that have been defeated and beaten back. It is not one or two or three. They cover all the same areas where concerns have been raised by colleagues in my caucus--the environment, protections for organized labor and labor concerns, protections for the safety of our communities related to firearms, protections for the safety and soundness and transparency of our financial system through preserving the Dodd-Frank act, preserving a woman's right to choose and protecting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Dozens and dozens of riders came over in the bill from the House, which our committee Chair and her dedicated staff worked tirelessly to remove from this bill, and you have heard about some of them in the speech just concluded by Chair Mikulski. There was everything from fish and wildlife rules to fiduciary rulemaking, from issues around union elections to concerns about the strength and ability of the ATF to keep our community safe, strengthening and supporting the CFPB and SEC and their ability to enforce Dodd-Frank or ensuring a woman's right to choose. The actions of our committee Chair ensure that these dozens and dozens of bad--from our perspective--riders were removed from the bill. Now we stand here on the verge of the end of the authority of the government to continue to function, and we have a package in front of us, and we have two choices. The choices are simple and clear. If we do not pass this omnibus, we will continue government by crisis, government by continuing resolution, government by chip shot down the lane, and we will fund the government for a temporary 3-month extension, and then this entire package will be put back together, not by a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, but by Republicans on both sides of this Capitol. We won't have one or two or three riders from the perspective of my caucus to be concerned about, we will have dozens and dozens. All of this that has been removed and taken out of the package by the hard work of our committee Chair and her staff will be right back in the mix. If we turn away from enacting this package, we will do two things: We will fail to give the certainty and clarity and predictability to our government agencies and entities that they will have authorization and funding through next September, and we will face a package toxic--far more difficult for us to accept. It will have dozens and dozens of problems riddled throughout it, and frankly, everyone in my caucus, I expect, will vote against it and perhaps the President will even veto it. We cannot let the perfect or the ideal be the enemy of the good. I will take a few minutes and talk about what there is in this package that is good because you only heard speeches tonight that have highlighted concerns and focused in on the three or four provisions that cause great alarm or concern to all of us who are on my side of the aisle. I don't think there has been quite as much exposition as there should be about what there is in this package that I hope to unwrap for you that is actually good. Why would I be standing here, as the Senator from Delaware, defending this hard-crafted, hard-wrought, hard-won package if it were not full of things that are important for the working families of Delaware, for our community and our country, and that didn't advance our core values? Well, I will take a few minutes and touch on a couple of things that I think bear your consideration. Infrastructure. The bridges, the roads, the rails, the ports that from the very founding of our Nation have been the work of the Federal Government and that are woefully behind to the point where we are not competitive globally and where we could put people to work right away by infusing more responsible investment and upgrading our infrastructure. As far as rebuilding American infrastructure, this package includes $54 billion for transportation and housing programs that communities and States such as Delaware care deeply about. It is $1.8 billion more than what passed in the House package. This covers things from the TIGER grants program that encourages and incentivizes and leverages cutting-edge investments in infrastructure to funding for Amtrak. For the east coast of the United States, Amtrak is such a vital means of transportation. It also includes funds for harbor maintenance and dredging, which are so vital to our maritime industries. This is just one of dozens of areas we could talk about this evening. It will put Americans back to work, it will make our country more competitive, and it will give us more resources in these areas than we would ever get from renegotiating this package from the ground up. Second, there was an unfortunate story about my hometown of Wilmington in the past week that drew real alarms about the murder rate and violent crime rate. This is a pressing issue in my hometown of Wilmington. There is real concern because we have a record murder rate and a record gun violence rate in my town. This omnibus package includes financial resources that will help communities large and small all over this country keep themselves safe with these sorts of targeted and wise Federal investments in State and local law enforcement that we have come to rely on and that we need. There is something called the Byrne Justice Assistance grant. When I was a county executive, my county police department relied on that critical program. There is $2.3 billion, which is $55 million more than last year, for the Byrne Justice Assistance grants and will affect States and localities all over the country. Something that I fought hard for on this floor and I care about--the bulletproof vest program that has saved the lives of law enforcement officers in the small towns of Delaware and in our biggest cities. That grant made it possible to fund for state-of-the-art vests that are correct and appropriate and current and save officers' lives. There is a regional information system called RISK that provides current intelligence and data so that law enforcement can be more effective regionally. There is the implementation of Violence Against Women Act programs-- all of these are at least sustained or increased over previous years and make the sort of investments that are vital for our communities and their safety. There is $1.1 billion in this omnibus package to help the ATF, FBI, and DOJ fight gun violence, and that matters to my hometown. That matters to the families who wonder whether what we are doing here is relevant to them. To turn back from this omnibus and turn away from those investments in keeping our community safe, I think is unwise. There is more money for criminal enforcement by the ATF to fund straw gun purchases and their investigation and their prosecution, to fund keeping guns away from traffickers and criminals, to improve interstate background checks, to train law enforcement for the responsible carrying out of their public responsibility, to intervene and stop active shooter situations in schools or in public facilities, and, last, the sort of resources we need for the victims of crime. There is $2.3 billion in this omnibus for helping the victims of violent crime and their families to get access to badly needed services. I could go on, but in the area of law enforcement and criminal justice, there are investments that matter to me and that matter to my hometown as we work together to fight violent crime. Let me lastly take on two other areas. No. 1, I am on the Foreign Relations Committee. I am concerned that if we turn away from this package, the vital investment in our central ally, Israel, and in the Iron Dome program, which has been shown to keep Israel safe, will not be made; and the multibillion dollar investment in fighting the scourge of Ebola in West Africa, at this moment when the tide is turning and we have a chance to heal three nations and contain this plague, which otherwise may get out, get loose, and become a global pandemic, will not be made. We need to make these investments. To not do so now is to put our children's future at risk. Imagine if we could go back in time to where HIV/AIDS was just beginning to spread around the globe and for a modest investment, with an international effort, we could have contained it to just two or three countries, instead of the hundreds-- the thousands of communities across dozens of countries that have suffered through HIV/AIDS now for nearly 25 years. If we fail to invest in turning the tide in the fight against Ebola now, we put at risk the future public safety of not just a continent, but the world. We also have to be mindful of what this omnibus makes possible for our health and our safety and our future. Entities most Americans don't think about or haven't heard of that perform basic science research or advanced research, from the National Science Foundation to the National Institutes of Health--institutions that are doing cutting-edge, world- class science and developing the cures and the treatments for everything from Alzheimer's to cancer--we continue to sustain and support investment with billions of dollars in these areas in this bill. Again, to walk away from this package means to wrap back up and put away the potential for enormous progress. There is $172 million more for basic science research programs in this bill over last year. It raises up to $7.3 billion the level of NSF funding. That may sound abstract and disconnected from our lives at home, but in my State of Delaware, that funds education, training, and research at the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and in public schools across our State. At a time when we need science education and when we need the outcomes, the fruits of our labors and research more than ever, I think that is vital funding. Last, there is an area that I have spoken about on this floor many times in this Congress and that I am passionate about because it is how I came up. I spent years in the manufacturing sector. As a young man working in the private sector for a family manufacturing business, I saw its power to create good, high-wage, high-skill jobs. Manufacturing is an area where most of the research and development in this country that is privately funded is done, and manufacturing is an area that many mistakenly think we have lost our edge in and can never regain. But the truth is quite different. Over the last 3 years, we have grown more than 750,000 new manufacturing jobs in this economy, and those are great jobs--jobs people can raise their families on, jobs that provide a renewed growth back to the middle class. If we fail to invest in the things that will make manufacturing grow in this country, we miss a vital opportunity. There is an entity called the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. In the scope of all of this, it is a tiny little program. But for the dozens of small and medium manufacturers in Delaware that I have visited and that the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership has helped, it makes an amazing difference. It helps them understand how to compete internationally. It helps them with upgrading the skills of their workforce. It helps them with deciding what capital equipment to buy. I have stood on manufacturing floors from Bridgeville to Lewes, from Dover to Claymont, and heard stories of companies transformed by this powerful investment of Federal services--a public-private partnership that really, genuinely makes a difference. Lastly, in this provision of the bill, there isn't just renewed funding for the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, or NIST--a provision that includes the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Program--there is also renewed opportunity for the funding and sustainment of manufacturing hubs, a strategy that our competitor, Germany, has used very well and very wisely to have doubled their GDP in manufacturing--a strategy that this administration has led on and that we hope to emulate, and where I think the investments made in this bill are wise and lay the foundation for middle-class job growth and prosperity. There are a dozen other areas I could speak to this evening, where throughout this bill the investments made have been cut in some areas that needed to be reduced and increased in others that are wise for our States and our communities. Some from my home State, watching the speeches on this floor earlier this evening, have contacted me and said, Why on Earth would you vote for a bill with this or this or this provision that concerns me? It is a fair question. I hope in these few minutes I have helped my people hear that our choice is not between a perfect bill from the perspective of Democrats in the Senate or the country and a terrible bill, but a choice between a great bill and no bill at all--a choice between returning to regular order and ending what has been a nearly 4-year pattern of government by crisis, by short-term extension, by chip shot, and by near default, and instead respect and honor the very hard work of the dozen subcommittees of this great Appropriations Committee, and move forward a package that strengthens our country, that honors our veterans, that invests in our future, that lifts manufacturing, that makes us safer and healthier, and that does the job of bringing America into the future. That is why I will be voting for this package, and that is why I hope all of my colleagues will consider doing the same. Thank you, Mr. President. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, as we come to the close of the 113th Congress, I wish to speak for a few minutes about why I think we should be optimistic about the future and what we can and must do to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. Despite economic slowdowns throughout much of the world among developing and developed Nations alike, America's economy continues to steadily grow. Just last Friday we got great news that our economy created more than 300,000 jobs in the month of November. That marks 57 straight months, or nearly 5 years, of positive job growth numbers. For the first time since Bill Clinton was President of this Nation, we have averaged more than 200,000 new jobs per month for 10 straight months. Particularly in the economy is an area of growth and opportunity that I have focused on in my time before coming into public service and in my 4 years here. That is American manufacturing, an industry about which I have spoken at length here on the Senate floor and have worked with my colleagues to craft and assemble a group of bipartisan bills that can help move American manufacturing forward. The news this last month was good, as it has been for months, for years now, about American manufacturing, which continues to grow as well. There were 28,000 new American manufacturing jobs last month, which continued this steady climb. It has now created more than 750,000 new jobs over the last 4 years. Manufacturing jobs are great jobs. They typically are higher wage and higher skill and have higher benefits than jobs in any other sector. They are good, middle-class jobs you can raise a family on. They deal with one of the biggest ongoing remnants of the great recession, which is the lack of real wage growth in our economy. So I am excited to see that manufacturing jobs continue to grow in our economy and to talk about the things we can and should do to help sustain this growth in manufacturing. We have reason to be optimistic, but we cannot be complacent. As much as we built momentum over the last year since the recession, and especially this year, there is, of course, no natural law, no economic fundamental principle that says it will not turn back around. We need to sustain our positive direction, particularly in this sector, particularly as we move toward the 114th Congress. I am proud that Congress last year passed a 2-year budget to create some stability and some certainty for our country and economy. We have gotten out of the way and allowed our businesses and workers to do what they do best, to move our economy forward. In the next few days we will have chances to do the same when we vote on a number of bills, one that, most importantly, will keep our government running, not for a few days or weeks or months, but the overwhelming majority of this government will be authorized and funded through next September. The funding bills that are included in this omnibus continue investments in innovation and continue to move our country forward. There is a whole rash of bills that I have been interested in and engaged in as a member of the Appropriations Committee that are valuable programs, that will strengthen manufacturing--for example, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which has done amazing work on the ground in Delaware, helping small and medium manufacturers to be competitive, to train their workforce in current skills, to grow into the spaces of the world economy where we have real opportunity. This bill will help sustain the funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership nationally. There are several other programs related to innovation in the Department of Energy. For example, sustained funding for the ARPA-E, for an innovative model that helps fund cutting-edge, category- redefining research and investment in energy and in clean energy manufacturing and in technology deployment. There are also opportunities for us to continue to put Americans to work through investments in infrastructure. As someone who lives on Amtrak 16 hours a week, I am thrilled with the outcomes for both the Amtrak budget and for the TIGER grant programs, a tool used by the Department of Transportation to help incentivize innovative transportation projects that break through bottlenecks and help put Americans back to work. There are so many different ways that the work of this bipartisan committee, the Appropriations Committee, helped move our economy forward that at times are not focused on here on the floor or in the general press coverage. It is such a large and comprehensive bill, the omnibus. But I wanted to take a moment and highlight a few ways in which the omnibus invests in innovation, in competitiveness, and in moving our economy forward. I am also grateful, in some ways most importantly, that it includes emergency funding to respond to Ebola, both at home and abroad, which will be critical to helping stamp out this deadly virus at its origin in West Africa and in protecting Americans here at home and others around the world. The appropriations bills that were shepherded through the dozen subcommittees give us reason to be optimistic about the future because the Chair, Senator Mikulski, and the Vice Chair, Senator Shelby, have done a laudable job of listening to each other, of working together, and of crafting a bipartisan bill here in the Senate, which I hope the Members of this body will study, consider, and move forward and adopt. As we move to complete the business of funding the government, we would be remiss if we did not also take stock of the opportunities in front of us we have not yet grasped. There is unfinished work to be done. This week we will also almost certainly pass a 1-year tax extenders bill, which will carry forward certain temporary tax credits and deductions, but for just the 1 year. Although the extension for many businesses and many sectors is better than nothing, it signifies a missed opportunity on our part. Much of what has made me optimistic over the last year is how much our economy has begun to thrive in a stable fiscal environment, in a more predictable regulatory environment. Yet, this 1-year extension does not do much to give businesses the certainty they need to predict and plan for the future. I have worked hard with Democrats and Republicans alike to expand and make permanent the research and development tax credit, which is particularly relevant to manufacturing, because manufacturing is the most R&D-intensive sector in the American economy. Manufacturers invest more in R&D than any other part of the American landscape. This 1-year extension misses an opportunity to either make the R&D tax credit permanent, or to make it more accessible. I was excited to have the opportunity early on here to team up with two Republican Senators, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Pat Roberts of Kansas, to find ways to make the R&D tax credit more accessible to early-stage and startup companies, companies with high growth potential, but because of the way the R&D tax credit has been structured and used for decades, do not have the opportunity to access it. The Startup Innovation Credit Act, which I introduced with Senator Enzi, would have further expanded the access to the R&D credit for startups. The bipartisan Innovators Job Creation Act, which I introduced with Senator Roberts, would have expanded the credit to innovative small businesses as well. Both of those bills passed on a bipartisan basis out of the Finance Committee and were part of a package being advanced here in the Senate but will not be part of the ultimate 1-year extenders considered later this week. I wanted to highlight that as we look forward there are opportunities still in front of us for us to tackle the challenges and to seize the opportunities, to take things that are important to manufacturing and to move them forward. There are lots of other bills in the mix that will be adopted this week, either by unanimous consent or as part of larger packages, and a number of them relate to manufacturing. I am optimistic that we will adopt a national manufacturing strategy bill that I have worked hard on with Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois. I am optimistic that a bipartisan manufacturing hubs bill that Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri have worked hard together to craft and to hone and to get to a place where it is ready to be passed--that they both will make it across the finish line to the President's desk. But just this past week, I stood on this floor with Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and we spoke about a bill that is not yet ready for adoption, but we will take up next year, the Manufacturing Skills Act, which helps to focus and prioritize the investments in manufacturing skills training at the State and municipal level all over the country in partnership with the Federal Government. What I wanted to do today was to simply highlight a few perhaps underappreciated, underrecognized areas of legislative action on a bipartisan basis in this Chamber that helped put some lift under the steady forward progress of the manufacturing sector in our country and to express my hope that we can find ways to continue to work together on a bipartisan basis to keep our economic momentum going in the year and the Congress ahead. Tribute to Departing Senators As I close, I would also like to thank those of our colleagues who will be leaving the Senate after the New Year. It is an incredible privilege to work in this Chamber and to represent the people. Every day I am awed by the dedication and talent of many of my colleagues, public servants who come to work to fight for their States and their government. To those who are ending their service in the Senate, know that I value your friendship and partnership. It has been an honor to work with you, and I thank you for all you have done for our Nation. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my colleague, the Senator from New Hampshire.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 4, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SR-418 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 4, 2014, at 10:30 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 4, 2014, at 10 a.m.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 4, 2014, at 10:15 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``The FANS Act: Are Sports Blackouts and Antitrust Exemptions Harming Fans, Consumers, and the Games Themselves?'' The witness list is not yet available.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 4, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I would like to thank my colleague from New Hampshire. We are both from small States that are not nationally thought of as being leaders in manufacturing, but both New Hampshire and Delaware have deep, rich, broad manufacturing histories. Manufacturing is commonly thought of by America as being associated with Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan or Indiana, but there are dozens of companies I have visited in Delaware that are small or medium-sized, with 50 or 100 or 150 employees. Many companies are family owned, many working in particular niches of processing or manufacturing. They are profitable, growing, and looking to hire. Having visited New Hampshire as well, it also has a proud and strong history of manufacturing. Given the regional experience and the base of knowledge and expertise of Members of this body, it is my hope that we can come together with other bipartisan cosponsors to strengthen and build this bill going forward. Before I got into public service, I spent 8 years working for a manufacturing company in Delaware, a materials-based science company that manufactures over 1,000 different products, all off the same chemical platform. One of the things I did in my work area was I visited the dozens of manufacturing facilities that either the company for which I worked directly operated or many of our partner companies that were licensees or distributors or part of our supply chain. The plant of today, the shop floor of today bears very little resemblance to that of previous generations. They are the location of rich innovation, an amazing amount of collaboration and teamwork where world-class, cutting-edge quality control and continuous innovation are expected, needed from our workforce, and thus investment in wages and in skills is also a critical part of our continuing to be globally competitive, as Senator Ayotte has explained. As the skills needed for workers vary depending on the product and market segment in the region, we also need training programs that are flexible and meet the exact needs of the region. I will give two examples. I have visited SPI Pharma in Lewes, DE, which manufactures the key component of Maalox and many other antacids, and BASF in Newport, which manufactures pigments. I hear similar challenges even though they are in different areas of manufacturing. Their specific needs are for process operators who are skilled at working at a factory where large amounts of complex suspensions--liquids--are being mixed, moved around, and fashioned into finished products. They need workers who understand programmable logic control systems and can ensure that continuous improvement in quality control is in place. They know that in order to continue to grow, to export and be globally competitive, they need to stay at the top of their game, which means investing in workers and their skills. They are struggling to find young people to replace those who are aging out of their workforces. Our community college, Delaware Technical Community College, a national leader, is helping and is actively engaged. But as the equipment and processes of today's manufacturing plants become more advanced and computerized, they will need help in keeping up with changing technologies so the skills they train for today are the actual skills that companies, such as SPI Pharma and BASF in Delaware, need in this century. The Manufacturing Skills Act could be a real help in Delaware to many of the manufacturers I visited, and it will allow local and State officials partnering with our schools, our Chamber leadership, and our manufacturers to build a system that fits our real needs at the local level. I think it is exciting--whether someone is from New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Delaware or Indiana--to know we are willing to come together in a strong and bipartisan way to lay a pathway forward for America's manufacturing workforce. It gives me some reason for optimism as we begin to conclude this session of Congress and as we look forward. I wish to close by specifically thanking Senator Ayotte for being such a positive, forward-looking partner, not only on this bill but on many other issues we have worked on together in the years we have served so far in this body. I would love to hear more from my colleague from New Hampshire about the manufacturing challenges New Hampshire faces and how this bill might address them and what our path forward is for this piece of legislation.

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor this morning with my colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Kelly Ayotte, to talk about what we can do together to invest in America's 21st-century manufacturing workforce. As the Presiding Officer well knows, manufacturing is one of the great areas of opportunity for meaningful bipartisan cooperation that will move our country, our economy, and our working families forward. Although so many issues here these days seem to fall on partisan lines, Senator Ayotte and I are here today because we have come together on a bipartisan bill called the Manufacturing Skills Act. The bill has one simple goal, which we share: to spur reforms in manufacturing skills training across our country. That is it. Our bill would create a competitive grant program to help local and State governments design and implement manufacturing job-training reforms that fit their own unique local economic needs. Once proposals come in, a Federal interagency partnership would award the five strongest State proposals and the five strongest local government proposals with funding for 3 years to implement their targeted reforms to improve their manufacturing skills training. The funding doesn't all come from the Federal Government, either. Something Senator Ayotte and I share enthusiasm for is getting leverage for Federal investment. The local and State government must match Federal support one-to-one. We are focusing on manufacturing specifically because it plays such a vital role in building communities and strengthening our middle class. Last year, in fact, manufacturing contributed more than $2 trillion to our Nation's economy. In many ways manufacturing has long been the foundation of our economy. As we know, manufacturing jobs are high- quality jobs. They pay more in wages and benefits. Manufacturing is highly innovative. It is the area that invests the most in R&D of any private sector component. Over the last 3 years manufacturing has started coming back steadily and rapidly, with more than 700,000 new manufacturing jobs created in our country. This is all good news, and I am convinced the United States is poised to really compete in the manufacturing economy of this century. But we still face key challenges in the job market for manufacturing. There are manufacturers whom I have visited with up and down my State and whom we have heard from across the country who are ready to hire but cannot fill open positions. The problem is only expected to get worse. By 2020, by some estimates, there may be more than 875,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs. Yet there remains no focused, targeted Federal workforce development program specifically designed to strengthen manufacturing skills. I think part of the reason is we often have an outdated view of manufacturing. It conjures up outdated images of dirty factories and unsafe working conditions and lower skilled labor. That is not the manufacturing workplace of today at all. I would be curious to hear the thoughts of my colleague from New Hampshire on how manufacturing has changed and how we can work together to strengthen the skills of manufacturing workers in Delaware, New Hampshire, and across our country.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor today my heart heavy with a challenging task, which is to convey the remarkable, the special, the powerful spirit of a friend who passed 3 weeks ago in a tragic accident in India. Matt Haley was a remarkable Delawarean. Matt Haley was a gifted and accomplished chef and entrepreneur. Matt Haley was someone who touched so many lives in my home State of Delaware. In 2012 Matt won the Delaware Restaurant Association's Cornerstone Award, a lifetime achievement award recognizing restaurateurs who dedicate their lives to humanitarian efforts. Matt owned eight different restaurants all across the beach region so well known to folks here in Washington. Matt owned restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, Ocean View, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, and was involved in dozens of other business enterprises in other States. In 2014 Matt had the best year he ever had in terms of the reach and scope of his potential and his vision and his recognition by his profession. He won the National Restaurant Association Cornerstone Humanitarian Award. I was thrilled to be able to join in that celebration here in Washington. He won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Humanitarian Award. He won the James Beard Humanitarian Award in a remarkable celebration in New York. He won all three major recognitions, major awards from the restaurant and culinary industry--the triple crown, as it were. Having never met him, you might think this man, having been so successful as an entrepreneur and a businessman and so recognized and celebrated in all these different ways, would have been puffed up and filled with himself and with pride and with a sense of accomplishment and success. Matt did have a sense of accomplishment and success, but it came from a very different place. His spirit, his personality was profoundly different than that brief resume might suggest because Matt was someone who had a second and a third chance at life, so he embraced it with a passion and an openheartedness I have never seen anywhere else. Matt was 53 years old and had been sober for 24 years. Not many years before this remarkable year of success he had this year, Matt had been riding the bus to work as a minimum-wage dishwasher as he was reinventing himself. Matt spent 4 years in prison on a 13-year prison sentence. As he memorably remarked in a talk he gave days before he left on this trip to India, Matt had life-altering, terrible experiences as a child. Matt had managed to grow up in an environment of circumstances and have experiences that would cripple any human person, any spirit, and had become someone who was violent and addicted, and inevitably, as a consequence of a lot of his actions, he ended up in jail. He was exactly the sort of person so many would be willing to write off. Yet Matt found an opportunity through the culinary arts, through the simple and powerful skill of cooking for others. He found a pathway back and a roadway up. Matt was someone who cooked not just well but was gifted at pulling together completely unrelated items and making something simple, tasty, and powerful. Matt understood what a remarkable pathway toward success and independence restaurants can be for those who start working at the very lowest end of the scale in our country in terms of pay scale and yet can steadily grow to be successful managers or even restaurant owners. Matt was someone who also had just gotten a positive diagnosis after struggling with a nearly life-ending bout with cancer. Matt had nearly died to this world once as a young man in prison and then had nearly died to us a second time through cancer. I was blessed to have gotten to know him just in the last few years and to have been touched by the power of his energy. Matt had a hunger to connect with and touch and help love others in the world who hadn't yet seen the possibilities of this world. Matt would go anywhere, anytime to help someone in need in Delaware. The stories are legend of what Matt did spontaneously and powerfully to reach out and touch folks in our home State and around the world who needed his special gift--not just his resources but his energy and his kindness. Matt's business partner Scott shared with me a story that he was literally driving down the road and came across a van from the Delaware Adolescent Program, Inc., DAPI, a van for a program that helps young moms complete school and be healthy and successful mothers. Their van was broken down by the side of the road, and, after learning more about the program and its impact and its importance and seeing their dilapidated and outdated van, he literally bought them a new one on the spot. Matt was someone who, having never traveled before until recent years when he first became successful, found himself challenged and then enlivened and then aflamed with a passion for traveling around the world and for hearing from and connecting with young people and their needs. He tells much more powerfully than I can the story of his becoming connected to young women, to girls, in Nepal, victims of trafficking, victims of sexual abuse, who were hungry and lonely and to whom he was able to help provide food and shelter and hope. He later also connected with a whole community in Central America, and he traveled regularly to India and Nepal and to Central America as well as up and down my State. He volunteered in our prisons. He worked with our food bank. He spent time and gave resources in India and Nepal and in Central America. Literally the last time I spoke to Matt, I had just had an opportunity to meet a young woman who was truly struggling to find opportunity in our home State. She was a recovering drug addict and came up to me at an event in Dover and frankly said she never believed someone in my position would care and would work and take any risk to help someone like her find employment. She was interested in possibly working in a restaurant. As we talked at greater length, I told her Matt's story. I told her how this young man, full of anger and abuse and difficulty in his young life, had ended up an addict and in prison and yet, through his own determination and through the kindness and partnership of others, had managed to go on to be an incredible success, an employer to hundreds, even thousands, and a contributor and a leader to groups such as La Esperanza and the food bank, and to support public school teachers and to support folks coming out of prison. I asked if she would be interested in hearing from him. In my last conversation with Matt--a man who was incredibly busy, as he was finishing up several business projects and about to get on a plane to meet a long commitment with a group of girls in need--he said: Absolutely. I would love to talk to her. Get her on the phone with me. He made time the next day to meet her, encourage her, and invite her to come to the food bank presentation he was making. To his very last breath, Matt was passionate about touching and changing the lives of others. His very last initiative was to fund teachers and schools in southern Delaware and help provide supplies for them in their classrooms, and his very last day was spent riding a motorcycle on one of the highest and most dangerous roads in the world in the Himalaya to personally deliver supplies and engagement and support to girls in a remote village in a difficult and distant part of the world. Matt Haley's compassion, his spirit, and his energy touched deeply me and so many others. His determination to do everything he could with every day he had and to make every difference he could in the world should inspire and challenge all of us. He has left a significant amount of his accumulated resources to his Global Delaware Fund, which will continue his great work in these many places. It is my hope and my prayer that all of us who have had our lives touched by Matt and by his unique and infectious humor and spirit will continue his remarkable lifetime of work and that all of us will remember that in this Nation, every person has value and every person has potential no matter where they are from or where they are today. Their path forward can be lifted if we just continue to carry forward the remarkable passion and spirit of Matt Haley. I thank the Chair.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the privileges of the floor be granted to Chikulupi Kasaka.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 11, 2014, at 3:15 p.m.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 11, 2014.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 11, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 11, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 11, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct an executive business meeting.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, this is an uneasy time in our world. There is no shortage of crises that demand our attention and our action. The President called on us last night to step up to the very real challenge posed by the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Russian aggression against Ukraine demands our attention. A fragile cease-fire continues between Hamas and Gaza. There is the Central American exodus to our southern border that riveted the attention of many this summer; and there is continuing negotiations to seek an end to Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program. Behind all of this there is another and equally important challenge I wanted to draw this body's attention to for a few minutes today--the spread of a quiet and vicious virus throughout West Africa. While the Nation's attention today for good reason is on remembering the tragic events of 9/11, and the President's strategy for combating ISIS today, I would like to speak to another urgent challenge to our country and world, and that is the need to dramatically increase our support as communities across West Africa struggle to confront and combat Ebola. I met and have spoken with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She is a Nobel Prize winner and impressive leader who has brought her country back from a terrible civil war and was making huge progress toward the development of Liberia. I had the honor of meeting with her here and visiting her country. In my role as the chair of the African Affairs Subcommittee, I have met few others who have impressed me as much as President Johnson-Sirleaf. Leaders throughout this region are doing everything they can to save lives, but in my most recent communications with President Johnson- Sirleaf it is clear that Ebola is rapidly getting beyond the capacity and ability of these communities and countries to contain it and to recover from it. They need our action. Individuals on the ground from groups such as Doctors Without Borders and Samaritan's Purse have done remarkable, heroic, and extraordinary work by putting their own lives on the line to help others, and they have borne the overwhelming majority of the risks, service, and sacrifice so far. The news has just been announced that the Gates Foundation will contribute $50 million to this fight, which is critical, as public funds alone will not be enough to end this crisis. Our own people, through the U.S. Government, can and must do more. It need not be the role of the United States alone to resolve this problem, but it is our responsibility to stand side by side with those working tirelessly to stop it. It is our responsibility to not just lend a hand but to help lead in ways that only we can and to use our unique capabilities to address this crisis. If Ebola's spread reveals one thing it is that we are more interconnected today than we have ever been in our human history and that disease truly knows and respects no borders. We need to continue to act, not only because we are morally compelled to help the tens of thousands who are facing an immediate threat, but also because we have a direct stake in the resolution of this crisis. This is a manageable public health crisis that we know how to solve, but doing so requires our focus, our attention, our resolve, and our resources, tools that only the United States has. Let me briefly outline five specific steps I believe we should take now. First, I think it is critical the United States has one leadership point--that the White House designate a coordinator to oversee the U.S. whole-of-government emergency response. There are many ways the United States is currently helping across many agencies from the Department of Defense to the Centers for Disease Control to the State Department and USAID. Those agencies are doing great work as part of the disaster assistance response team on the ground. At a time when the U.S. Government is also facing and addressing crises in Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere, I think we need one organizer, one coordinator, one responsible figure addressing this crisis who is appointed by the White House to coordinate all of our resources and all the people necessary from the U.S. Government for this growing effort. President Obama should designate an official to manage our country's response both overseas and here in the United States, including preparing us for the remote chance this virus might reach American soil. Our ambassadors on the ground in the three most affected countries are playing the primary role in coordination right now, and they are doing remarkable work, but I will remind my colleagues in this body that in Sierra Leone there is no currently confirmed U.S. Ambassador. The nominee, John Hoover, has been waiting almost 8 months to be confirmed. This is just one painful reminder that the dysfunction of this body has prevented us from confirming nominated ambassadors to dozens of countries around the world. To be effective we need to coordinate our U.S.-based and our field-based efforts through ambassadors on the ground. Second, we must begin to deploy U.S. military support to the maximum extent possible. Let me be clear: I don't mean combat capabilities, I mean the unique logistical capabilities of the U.S. military, their ability to deploy through their logistical capabilities. We have resources that no other country can bring to bear as quickly and as successfully as we can. I was encouraged to hear an announcement this past week from the administration that they plan to use our military to establish a new hospital facility in Liberia to distribute equipment, to provide infrastructure and transportation support. I will admit I am concerned it will take weeks to deploy. On my visit to Liberia last August, I was struck at how poor and underdeveloped this nation of brave and inspiring people currently is and how paved roads and the ability to move at any speed rapidly ends just a few miles from the capital, and how strained the infrastructure and the public health systems are by this rapidly growing crisis. This is not everything we can and should be doing. We need to build more field hospitals for civilians in Liberia and beyond so there are facilities for health workers and civilians fighting the disease. We also can and should provide airlift of supplies from private donors. I have heard from organizations that have worked at the transportation facility and have donated supplies that can fill cargo plane after cargo plane, but they are having difficulty getting it from here to West Africa. We need to deepen our coordination with foreign militaries. Other Nations possess similar advance capabilities, as we do, and we will be able to combat this crisis more effectively if we all work together. I appreciate Ghana's efforts and partnership as it allows us to use some of their facilities as an air bridge for logistics. As more air resources are poured into this fight against Ebola, we need other countries in the region to lend a similarly open hand. My third point is directed to our private sector, to international organizations, to the American people, and to citizens of other developed nations. We need your support and your generosity and we need it now. This is a letter that Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf sent to President Obama this week, and I wish to read from it briefly. Mr. President, as you know, the outbreak has overwhelmed the containment and treatment measures we have attempted thus far. Our already limited resources have been stretched to the breaking point and, up to now, only a private charity, Medecins Sans Frontiers, has responded robustly in all the affected countries. But they, too, have reached their limits. My friend President Sirleaf is right: It is time for the rest of us to step up. The World Health Organization has issued an Ebola Response Roadmap that calls for $490 million and more than 10,000 additional health workers, and we are far short of reaching those goals today. So far the U.S. Government has contributed more than $100 million and has announced a commitment of another $88 million that we in this body will hopefully approve before we end this session. The Gates Foundation, as I mentioned, has also made an impressive and incredible addition of $50 million, but the fact remains we need more. I have heard from many in my State and across the country eager to give support. If you have the means, I urge you to go to usaid.gov/ ebola for links to some of the impressive nongovernmental organizations that are doing what they can on the ground to stem this humanitarian crisis. As much as this crisis needs money and equipment and supplies, it most importantly needs nurses and doctors, paramedics, and other medical professionals--literally thousands of them. The health systems of these countries, which were already among the least well resourced in the world, are overwhelmed, and so I am asking today for your help. We are asking for you to save lives. If you are a trained medical professional and willing to help, I urge you to please go to usaid.gov/ ebola and consider how you might serve to help in this crisis. Fourth, we need to develop and deploy a treatment and vaccine as rapidly as possible. Here is where in some ways America's unique gifts, our talents, and our strength in terms of the development and discovery of new pharmaceuticals, of new treatments, and of a new vaccine are a unique contribution we can make. American scientists are making progress on both fronts, but the reality is it will be hard to confront and ultimately end this disease in the long term without either. Much of the $88 million President Obama has requested from Congress will go toward this most important goal. It is critical we support that funding in this Chamber on a bipartisan basis and prepare for the reality that this is only the first investment we will need to make to quickly develop and deploy these lifesaving drugs and these critically preventive vaccines. Lastly, we need to invest in the governing and economic institutions in the countries that have been so devastated by this disease. It is not a coincidence that this outbreak has emerged in countries with some of the weakest health care systems on Earth--countries that face severe shortages of health care workers, labs essential for testing and diagnosis, clinics and hospitals required for treatment, and the medical supplies and protective gear such as latex gloves and face masks that are commonly available in the United States but are now completely exhausted in the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. We know how to combat this disease with practices such as isolation, meticulous infection control, good public health and burial practices, case investigation, and contact training. But all of these things require trained personnel and many more resources than are currently available. In the short term we absolutely can fill many of these gaps with the additional resources I have just outlined but we need to act quickly. In the long term we need to think more deeply about why investing in local health care systems and institutions in the developing world is so critical, why a little preventive investment can go a long way toward making the country more resilient in a crisis such as this. As we act now to do what we must to stop Ebola, we also must consider the actions we can and should take together to prevent the next public health crisis. To that end, yesterday I introduced a resolution in the Senate with my colleagues Senators Menendez, Flake, Durbin, and Corker, outlining some of these very steps and recognizing the severe and real threat the Ebola outbreak poses to West Africa and, if not properly contained, to other regions across the globe. Here is the bottom line: We have what it takes to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa and to save tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of lives in the process. Unlike other foreign interventions, doing so will take neither bullets nor bombs but rather our willingness, our compassion, our generosity, and our determination to act. The lives of thousands and the stability of entire countries is at stake. It is my hope and prayer that we will rise to this occasion with everything we have. ISIS Strategy Mr. President, I have come to the floor this morning to speak about our military's critical mission to defeat and degrade the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist organization that threatens the stability and security of tens of thousands across these two nations. As we consider more deeply involving the U.S. military into a new combat mission, I am reminded of the brave young men and women who will carry out that mission with unparalleled courage and professionalism. This past Saturday I had the opportunity to join hundreds of fellow Delawareans to welcome home and celebrate 70 men and women of the 3rd Battalion of the 238th Army National Guard Aviation Regiment who were returning from 1 year of service in Kuwait. Many of them were returning not just from one tour of duty but from what was their second or third deployment, having previously served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet these volunteer citizen soldiers were and remain willing to continue serving. I have had the honor of knowing several current and former members of this unit, and my heart was heavy this weekend, thinking about how many more units such as these, how many soldiers and airmen and their families will be asked to continue serving in combat or in distant and difficult places supporting combat missions in the years ahead. After more than a decade of conflict in the exactly 13 years since September 11, 2001, I know Americans are tired of war. I know we are weary of war. As the President spoke last night, it was clear he is as well, as am I. But I would challenge my colleagues and my friends, as I challenge myself, that though we are weary, we cannot ignore the very real threats we face today. We cannot ignore the brutal events that have taken place in northwestern Iraq and in eastern Syria. We cannot ignore the threat that brutality poses to America and our allies. ISIS is a brutal terrorist organization. It has killed innocent Americans, such as the two brave journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, whom they beheaded. Thousands of innocent Iraqis and Syrians have perished at their hands, and it will continue to do so unless the world comes together to stop it. Let us not forget, one of the biggest reasons we first acted against ISIS militarily in Iraq this summer was to prevent the imminent genocide of a religious minority, the Yazidi people in Iraq. Images of tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians who were being hounded and persecuted and threatened by ISIS and who then ultimately retreated to the top of a mountain I think transfixed the American people this August, and the action our President took and our military executed, to allow them to safely flee, encouraged all of us to know there are times and places when American military might can and should be used for good. Just as the ISIS terrorists threaten the Yazidis, they too threaten the very survival of Christians, Kurds, Turkmen, and other ethnic and religious minorities in the region. Last night, with my Republican colleague Senator Kirk, I cochaired the first meeting of the Senate Human Rights Caucus. We heard from representatives from Iraq's minority communities in a conversation that focused on ISIS's atrocities against innocent civilians simply because of who they are or how they worship. As we expand our campaign against ISIS, we must continue to engage with the people of Iraq and Syria and the region to learn from the past and continue to prevent massacres of innocent men, women, and children. ISIS is a group bent on the destruction of all people, of whatever background or religion, who do not subscribe to their hateful ideology. Our President is right. What makes the United States a global force for good is that we are still willing to do what is hard because we know it is right. That is the responsibility that comes from being a nation uniquely founded on principles of freedom, of liberty, of justice, and of having built one of the most capable and powerful militaries in the world, of being a nation and a people born of immigrants who came from all over this world and who remain connected to it and touched by the things that happen in the far reaches of our globe. Last night President Obama addressed our Nation to make the case for expanding military action against ISIS. Already, sadly, today there are critics of his strategy, just as there have been over the past few weeks. In fact, in the 4 years I have served here, I have rarely seen a day in the Senate when the President isn't challenged, criticized, blocked, and harried by his opponents. There is always some way he could have acted more quickly or with more strength. Critics claim we would be better served by a sterner tone or a more eager finger on the trigger. I must say I was struck when former Vice President Cheney this past week criticized President Obama's restraint, as he has throughout President Obama's tenure. I remind my friends we can do better--we could do better--than to listen to the voices of those who misled this country into war in Iraq a decade ago, especially when it is clear they have learned none of the lessons of that tragic strategic blunder. Surely, as we consider carefully taking expanded military action now, we should applaud our President for proceeding with caution and humility. Critical to our current strategy and what sets it apart from some past actions is this fact: We are not going alone. Seeking to lead a multilateral coalition is not leading from behind. It is not weakness. A muscular multilateralism is recognizing we are an indispensable nation, we are a leading nation, but we are not the only Nation that should take on and tackle the challenge ISIS presents. Much of the allure of ISIS is the illusion they have created that the Muslim world is at war with the West, when the truth is ISIS does not reflect or represent Islam and ISIS has killed more Muslims than any other people. The President's strategy of building a broad coalition of support, including across the Arab and Muslim world, is crucial to our success. This is not just an American problem, it is a regional and global problem, and it will not be solved without the hard work of those living in the communities and countries most at risk, most affected, most harmed by ISIS. We cannot and should not do this alone. That is the only way this works. It is a critical reason I support the President's strategy for expanded action. Central to this strategy's success is our military action as well as diplomatic resources and pressure. Let's remember one of the reasons this has even happened is because of the abject failure of Prime Minister Maliki and his Iraqi Government to act in a pluralistic, inclusive way, as he had pledged he would, and has instead acted more as a Shia warlord over the last few years, sewing the seeds of dissent and of disconnection with his Sunni citizens that created the very vacuum into which ISIS has charged. That is why this administration's diplomatic efforts to build an inclusive Iraqi Government--to demand an inclusive Iraqi Government-- have been so important. We cannot defeat ISIS without Iraqis working hand in hand on the ground, and that requires a united Iraq whose future every Iraqi has a stake in preserving. As we deepen our involvement, it is also necessary that we broaden our strategy. The fact is we cannot defeat ISIS by attacking it in Iraq alone. As we hit ISIS from the air, we also need to be cognizant of the fact that most of its strength and support is in Syria and that the boundary line dividing Iraq from Syria is today on the ground largely a fiction. So we need in Syria a strong and a moderate and an armed and a trained Syrian opposition ready, willing, and able to fight ISIS on the ground. The President referred last night to our successful counterterrorism strategy in several places in the world. Let me, as the cochair of the African Affairs Subcommittee, briefly mention ways in which this strategy in Syria is similar to what our strategy has been in Somalia in combating al-Shabaab, a deadly Al Qaeda affiliate, which has governed, ruled, and terrorized much of Somalia over the past decade. There has been a similar strategy to the one articulated last night, where the United States has combined training, equipment, logistics, and tactical support with an African ground force drawn from Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia, where those troops have done the hard work of retaking and holding territory while the Somali Government and security forces get reestablished. In the case of Syria, Saudi Arabia has just stepped up and agreed to provide the facilities, the funding, and the space to train and equip Syrian coalition fighters. In Congress, we must act swiftly and decisively to support that training and equipment mission that the President has asked us to support by granting our President the authority and funding he needs. Air strikes could happen soon, and we cannot make the mistake of taking out ISIS while giving Bashar al-Assad, the dictator who still terrorizes Syria, the opportunity to rush in. By helping build a cohesive, trained, and equipped moderate Syrian opposition, we can help prevent the expansion of ISIS and the Assad regime. In the long run, in Syria and in Iraq, it is Syrians--moderate Syrians--who must retake their country from ISIS and undertake the very difficult and daunting challenge of rebuilding a stable and inclusive and hopefully someday peaceful society, after decades of dictatorship and more than 3 years of a withering civil war. The United States and Syria's neighbors and the entire international community need to be invested and engaged to help them along this difficult path. We need to be direct with the American people. This is not going to be easy and it is not going to be swift. We must ensure our military has the resources it needs to carry out this mission. As President Obama said last night, the lives of brave American pilots and servicemembers will be put at risk. But we must also be clear. In their courage and service, they will be part of an important effort to eradicate from this Earth one of the greatest threats currently walking the planet. Last night President Obama asked for the support of the American people as our Armed Forces and our partners begin in combination to carry out this mission. Let me say, he has mine. I am committed to working with my colleagues as later today all Senators attend a classified briefing, an update on ISIS, and as next week committees in this Senate hear testimony from Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel. I am committed to working with my colleagues and with Chairman Menendez on the Foreign Relations Committee to review, consider, draft, and approve an authorization for the use of military force when submitted to us by the President that gives Congress an appropriate role in oversight and the President the authorization he needs. We need to do everything we can together to ensure that ISIS will be stopped. It has already shown itself, demonstrating its capability to commit unspeakable crimes. If left unchecked, these terrorists will spread their reach beyond our ability to stop them. We cannot let that happen. As my colleagues discuss and debate this mission, I only ask that we leave the politics of the moment out of it. With an election soon upon us, the temptation is strong to use every opportunity to achieve any short-term partisan advantage. But this is too important. Too much is at stake. Today all over this country we call to mind and honor the sacrifices of Americans who served and those who lost their lives 13 years ago today. We must consider this new mission with the utmost gravity, humility, and caution. I am eager then to work with my colleagues here in the Senate and with the administration in a bipartisan way as we move forward to take on the difficult task of defeating ISIS and strengthening the forces of inclusion and moderation in Iraq and Syria. I urge my colleagues to work together to support this mission every step of the way. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin.) The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for a pro forma session only, with no business conducted, on Friday, August 8, at 9:15 a.m.; that when the Senate adjourns on Friday, it adjourn under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 112 until Monday, September 8, 2014 at 2 p.m.; that on Monday, September 8, 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; that following any leader remarks, there be a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; further, that at 5:30 p.m. the Senate proceed to executive session, resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 848, and immediately proceed to vote on confirmation of the Pryor nomination, as provided under the previous order.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to H. Con. Res. 112, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Sessions for up to 40 minutes.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, on Monday, September 8, 2014, at 5:30 p.m., there will be at least three rollcall votes on confirmation of the Pryor nomination to be U.S. circuit judge for the Eleventh Circuit; confirmation of the Aaron nomination to be a member of the Social Security Advisory Board; and a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 19, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States on campaign finance reform. There will be voice votes on the Cohen and Chen nominations for the Social Security Advisory Board.