Christopher Coons

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk for the President's counsel.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, today is about a moment of hope. Today is about a moment of genuine bipartisanship made possible by the discipline and determined leadership of Senators Alexander of Tennessee and Murray of Washington State. I rise to join my friend and colleague, the Senator from Alabama, who has just given remarks following the Senator from South Carolina. At a moment when what most Americans see on their televisions is partisan division and dysfunction in the Senate and the House, I just want to remind all of us that we can get good, important, and significant things done together, as just happened on the floor a few moments ago. For generations, American families have worked and saved and strived to send their children to college, but for a long time, our Nation's original sin--the sin of slavery and racism--has left a long shadow and a stain on access to the critical opportunity of higher education. In much of our Nation, for decades, African Americans were denied entry to most of our colleges and universities and still today face unreasonably high barriers to higher education. The establishment of historically Black colleges and universities, HBCUs, and other minority-serving institutions of higher learning has been a critical answer to that tragic history of discrimination. Men and women who founded HBCUs refused to accept a system of higher education that denied opportunity to African Americans, and over decades, HBCUs have risen to become some of our Nation's finest academic institutions. They have educated hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have gone on to do incredible things and to be some of our Nation's greatest leaders. That is why all of us who have come on the floor today, Republicans and Democrats, have acted to make a permanent commitment to supporting HBCUs and minority-serving institutions with Federal funding. We have agreed to make permanent $255 million in annual funding for HBCUs. I am particularly excited about this legislation because my home State of Delaware is home to one of the finest public HBCUs in the country, Delaware State University. Founded in 1891, it is one of the country's premier land grant universities. Over the last 125 years, it has emerged as one of our Nation's premier HBCUs, graduating some of my State's best accountants, business leaders, researchers, scientists, teachers, social workers, and much more. My friend Dr. Wilma Mishoe, the University's first female president, will end her impressive tenure this month and be succeeded by Provost Dr. Tony Allen, who will continue the upwardly rising trajectory of the Hornets of Delaware State University. Their research programs are important drivers for innovation in a State with a long history of invention. It is home to the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research, a partnership of institutions working to advance our understanding of our brains and how we form thoughts, memories, and feelings that may help unlock the key to addiction and other challenges our country faces. It is also home to OSCAR, the Optical Science Center for Applied Research, which is helping speed the detection of disease, supporting our soldiers in detecting threats, and even equipping the NASA Mars rovers with improved sensors. Delaware State has been the lead institution on grants from NASA, NSF, and NIH in just the last few years. We are very proud of Delaware State. The funding stream last year provided $880,000 in critically needed funding for STEM, faculty, research, and students. Let me last reference something that my colleagues have also spoken to: the streamlining of the free application for Federal student aid, or FAFSA, which impacts 20 million American families. I spent a long time--roughly 20 years of my life--actively involved in the national ``I Have a Dream'' Foundation, which provides college- access opportunities for young people from families with no means or experience of attending higher education. I myself sat with dozens of young Delawareans and struggled as we finished the FAFSA form for them. This long-worked-for solution that Senators Alexander and Murray have advanced streamlining this form from 108 questions to 22 is a critical first step that will make a lasting difference for access to education all over our Nation. I am so grateful for the opportunity to join this bipartisan coalition and look forward to even more progress in the months and years ahead. Thank you. With that, I yield the floor. Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as a member of the Bar Association of Delaware, and a Member of the U.S. Senate. I am concerned about the transformation of our Federal judiciary under this current administration. I am particularly concerned about rising issues around qualification and competency. Let me speak to that, if I might, for a few minutes. This Senate is doing precious little in terms of legislating, but we are moving at a breakneck pace to confirm President Trump's judicial nominees--roughly, 150 so far. During the entire 8 years of the previous administration, 55 circuit court judges were confirmed. Nearly that same number have been confirmed in just 3 years of the Trump administration--48. Nearly one in seven of all U.S. district court judges currently serving have been appointed by President Trump. I am deeply concerned about the quality of some of these nominations. Some have never taken a deposition, argued a motion, let alone tried a case in court. The American Bar Association, the professional association of lawyers, has ranked nine of President Trump's nominees as ``not qualified,'' which is an exceptionally unusual and striking step for them to take. This isn't about whether the President's nominees are conservative or not. I understand that elections have consequences and that a Republican President will more often than not nominate conservative judges. I have, in some cases, joined my Democratic colleagues in supporting qualified nominees put forward by the administration who have won support from their home State Senators and advanced through a bipartisan judicial nomination and confirmation process in our committee, but let's be clear. I will not stand by while this administration rams through nominees who are not just Republican and not just conservative but demonstrably unqualified. I can't support nominees with deeply concerning records about their commitment to justice and to advancing a commonsense juris prudence. I am not going to set a standard any lower than what has been required in previous administrations to serve on the Federal bench for many, many years. We have heard in this Chamber and around this country that the quality of the Federal bench and the capabilities and the experience and the values and the judgment of those who serve on Federal benches across this country is an absolutely essential piece of our Constitution and our ordered liberty. The cases that come before Federal courts are too important to tolerate incompetence, inexperience, or bias in the Federal judiciary. Why does this matter both in terms of the process and the substance? The President has put forward nominees who, in my view, would take us backward on civil rights and voting rights, on women's access to healthcare, on laws that protect consumers and workers, and on the environment. Their decisions impact every American. Equally concerning is that Trump's nominees don't reflect the diversity of our Nation. We want litigants to go into a court and be able to have their day in court and be confident that the judge before them represents the breadth and range of America. So far, of the 55 circuit court nominees confirmed, only 11 have been women, and they have been even less racially diverse. Of all of President Trump's nominees, 87 percent are White and 78 percent are men. I think the judiciary should reflect the diversity of the American people and have strong records and a wealth of experience. Sadly, that is not the case for several we have considered, and let me briefly speak to two. President Trump's nominee to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who was recently confirmed, Lawrence VanDyke, raised serious concerns about his work ethic and his temperament. He was rated ``not qualified'' by the ABA based on concerns about his lack of knowledge of basic procedural rules and his commitment to being truthful. Six retired justices of the Montana Supreme Court questioned his fitness when he ran for the Supreme Court in Montana and expressed concerns about his partisanship and the possibility of corporate influence. He is opposed to basic civil rights and civil liberties for the LGBTQ community and made a range of statements that I think would be disqualifying under any circumstance. Sarah Pitlyk, who this Senate just confirmed this week to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, has never tried a case, either criminal or civil, has never taken a deposition, has never examined a witness, and has never argued a motion in Federal or State court. The ABA unanimously rated her as ``unqualified'' for a lifetime seat in the Federal judiciary. We can and we should do better than this. Of the entire bar of the State of Missouri, I am certain there are qualified, capable, and seasoned conservatives who could have been nominated for that seat in the entire Ninth Circuit. In particular, the State for which Mr. VanDyke was nominated, there are certainly abundant opportunities to choose qualified nominees. We can and we should do better than this. In my State of Delaware, my senior Senator, Tom Carper, and I worked together to help form a bipartisan judicial nominating committee to fill two vacancies on our district court. We felt strongly we had to reach out to the White House and work with them to identify consensus nominees who would be the best candidates we could best support and whom the President could nominate. Ultimately, we had a very productive process, and the President nominated Maryellen Noreika and Colm Connolly, whom we both returned positive blue slips for. They ultimately have been confirmed by this Senate, seated, and now serve in our district court. This is how the process should work. We should be able to consult back and forth between the executive and legislative until we find competent, capable, and qualified judges of whom we can all be proud of. The Senate should not be a rubberstamp for this administration, regardless of the quality of nominees that get sent forward. I will continue to oppose President Trump's nominees who are undeserving of a seat on the Federal bench and unqualified to serve. It is, in my view, our responsibility to guard against the politicization of the Federal judiciary, and we should work together, not to tear down and destroy the traditions and rules of this Senate but to find ways to strengthen and sustain them. That is how we will move qualified and consensus nominees forward and protect the independent judiciary on which our very democracy rests. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, it is an honor to rise and speak in tribute to my dear friend and trusted colleague, Johnny Isakson of Georgia. To follow the junior Senator from the State of Georgia, something remarkable happened just before this session on the floor of the Senate. There was a bipartisan lunch in which virtually every currently serving Senator--nearly 100--gathered, not just because there was tasty barbecue, but because we were there to thank our friend and colleague Johnny Isakson for his decade of public service, for his dedication to this body, and for the ways in which he has been the glue that has helped hold so many of us together. You just heard it again here on the floor, his passion and his commitment to working across the aisle. Johnny Isakson has been an effective, capable, and powerful Senator because he is never worried about who gets the credit for the work he does. He has kept his word. He has a great sense of humor. He is easy to be with. He is persuasive. He is persistent, and he is principled. Let me just start by saying to Dianne, to John and Julie and Kevin and the grandkids: Thank you. Thank you for sharing Johnny with the State of Georgia and with our Nation for decades. When I first got elected to the Senate back in 2010--which was a somewhat unexpected election, I got seated right after a special election--a respected senior realtor from my hometown, Dick Christopher, came and told me I should look up a guy named Johnny Isakson from Georgia. He was someone he knew from the real estate business. He said: He is a good husband and father, a principled man. You will enjoy working with him. I never heard of him, so I looked him up online. If all you had to judge someone by was their right-left position--he succeeded Newt Gingrich--he and I, on the surface on a few positions, would have nothing in common. But as luck or providence would have it, when I got here, he was the trainer with Barbara Boxer for ethics for the new Senators. And to his misfortune, he got assigned to be my mentor. I began what has been an adventure that hasn't yet ended--and I hope never will--of a friendship and a companionship that has taken us to some pretty wild places. Early in 2011, I was made the chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Johnny was the ranking member. I could not have asked for a better companion or partner. We did dozens of hearings on foreign aid policy, on security and trade interests, and on the growing role of China in Africa. But then we also went and visited places--widely--places both easy and hard. We went to Mali and Congo, to Senegal and Benin, to South Africa and to Ghana. Over several trips, we visited AIDS orphanages and hospitals, water purification plants, and Millennium Challenge Corporation trips. On these trips, we saw the terrible impact of terrorism and grinding poverty in countries like Nigeria and Mali, but we enjoyed some pretty darn good times, too, like seeing the fruits of the best pineapple plantation I have ever been on and enjoying a beautiful vineyard in Cape Town, South Africa. But Johnny didn't just go because it was an assignment. He went because it was his passion, even his calling. The first trip we took together was to Benin, a tiny little impoverished country in West Africa that hadn't had two Senators visit in 50 years. We went because Kate Puzey, a young woman who was a Peace Corps volunteer from Georgia, had been murdered. She was tragically and senselessly murdered because she tried to report child abuse back to the capital. We had a remarkable and memorable series of meetings there that I won't go into. I will just say the thing about Johnny is not just that he persuaded me and others to join him in the quest for justice for Kate Puzey, but he worked and worked until. Ultimately, the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act was law in 2011. That was followed by so many others. Johnny is the consummate legislator. On this one small subcommittee of one of the many committees of this Senate, he and many others of us worked and passed the Electrify Africa Act, the Global Food Security Act, the BUILD Act, the Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act, and, of course, AGOA reauthorization--something we worked very hard on. The secret to Johnny's success is he doesn't focus on the two- dimensional ways that you are different. He focuses on what you have in common. In my home State, we have a county that raises more chickens than any county in America. The whole State of Georgia raises more chickens than any other State. So Johnny suggested, and I agreed, that we would form a Chicken Caucus. You may not know there is a Chicken Caucus. You may not know about the great ways in which it has made the world safe and free for America's chickens--a tasty, low-calorie, incredibly environmentally sustainable and affordable source of protein for a hungry world. That was brought to you by the National Chicken Council. At one point, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee mockingly called me the ``Senator from Chicken,'' but our work together on AGOA reauthorization and our travels together resulted in opening new markets to American exports. On this floor, in this august body, with all the things we deal with, that might seem like a small accomplishment, but I will tell you, the chicken farmers of Delaware and Georgia are grateful. Each of us comes here to represent our State. In the travels I have undertaken with Johnny, I saw a remarkable passion and commitment to his home State, which has made him such a great legislator. There are so many other things we legislated on, but I know we have literally half the Senate waiting to speak. Let me move. The other joy I have had with Johnny, which has been at the other end of our decade together--he is the chairman and I am the advocacy chairman of the Ethics Committee. It is a very tough committee. We handle difficult subjects. Johnny runs it well and will be deeply missed. We are joined here by many of the staff of the Ethics Committee, the folks who have seen his common sense, his humor, his decency, but also his focus on getting to a result. For me, it has been just another opportunity to see how Johnny Isakson lives his values. We have joined together almost every Wednesday morning at a bipartisan prayer breakfast, and Johnny has taught Sunday school for three decades at Mount Zion United Methodist. Those of us who have gotten to know the blessing of his humor, decency, and his common sense and his attitude--everyone who is a friend or future friend knows that it is rooted in his connection with the Eternal. Johnny said something important here just a few minutes ago: America, we have a problem. It is my hope that after today's good, brave, important speeches, that some of us will step forward and take up the best way to honor Johnny, which is to model and mimic his style, listening to each other, respecting each other, committing to practice a brand of politics that is a little less combative and a little more focused on results, and finding ways to trust each other and to work together. In some ways, Johnny's best work has been his tireless, relentless work on behalf of our veterans. As I heard said: The best way to honor our veterans is to be the sort of Americans for whom they fought and served. This Senate, this body needs to step forward and be worthy of the service and sacrifice of Johnny Isakson. Johnny, I can't thank you enough for all the ways you have been an amazing partner and colleague on issues large and small. Your kindness and friendship has meant the world to Annie and me. As you and Dianne go home to enjoy the blessings of family, know that I will always look forward to another visit to Georgia or Delaware, and I am always up for another trip to an obscure country that hasn't seen two American Senators in 50 years. Thank you for your service, and God bless.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I would like to thank my colleague from our home State of Delaware. I come to the floor to join a number of my colleagues who are speaking on a pressing issue, the critical lapse in funding for hundreds of colleges and universities across our Nation. On September 30, $255 million in annual Federal funding for historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions expired. Since this fund was first created, it has supported 400 HBCUs and MSIs, historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, across our country, including 97 HBCUs last year. This lapse has created real uncertainty and harm to these organizations and these universities, their students, their employees, and the public. I just wanted to join my colleagues in highlighting the importance of this funding. I want to speak specifically to the HBCU of which Delaware is so proud--Delaware State University. Delaware State is an engine for educational equity and access, for innovation and for leadership in our State, our region, and our Nation. Delaware State University is one of the country's top public HBCUs. Its graduates go on to successful careers in all sorts of industries. Graduates from Delaware State have become some of our State's best nurses, teachers, business leaders, social workers, and Senate staff. DSU's research programs are important drivers for innovation in a State with a proud history of invention and innovation. It is home to the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research, a partnership of institutions across our State working to advance our understanding of how our brains form thoughts and memories and feelings, and how they change over time as we age. It is also home to OSCAR, the Optical Science Center for Applied Research, where research that is in part federally funded is helping to speed early detection of disease, supporting our soldiers in better deterring and detecting threats, and equipping NASA missions, including the Mars Rover, with improved sensors. To put it simply, we are very proud of Delaware State, and there is a lot of which to be proud. DSU grads are so impressive that I have asked several of them to join my staff here in Washington. Their commitment to equity and excellence is why we can't allow HBCUs around the country, such as Delaware State, to lose out on vitally needed Federal funding. Last year, this program provided nearly $1 million--$887,000--to Delaware State, which is about 20 percent of their title III funding. These funds have a direct impact on students and funds critical science, math, and educator preparation programs. There is no good reason for the Senate to ignore our HBCUs and MSIs and deny them the funding they deserve. In September, the House passed a bipartisan, budget-neutral, 2-year extension of this critical funding, which is known as the FUTURE Act. While I share Senator Alexander's commitment to permanently extending this funding, we must not ask institutions to put their budgeting and planning on hold while we here in the Senate negotiate over many other pressing issues in higher education. I urge my colleagues to pass the FUTURE Act immediately, and with that, I would like to make a motion. Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 212, H.R. 2486. I ask unanimous consent that the Murray amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor as a proud Member of this Chamber of the Senate and as someone who believes earnestly in our role in our country's constitutional order. I am on the floor because a real and significant challenge to this body and each of our Members is potentially in the very near future. Right now, the House of Representatives is holding an impeachment inquiry, focused on grave and significant charges against our President related to the very threats to our democracy of foreign interference that our Founders feared the most. I am not here to argue over whether President Trump's actions deserve impeachment or perhaps even removal from office. It is, I think, inappropriate to reach that point. Instead, I am here today, as the inquiry proceeds in the House, to urge my colleagues in the Senate--Republicans, Independents, and Democrats-- to take seriously the moment we are in and the tests we may have soon ahead as a Senate when we will need to uphold and defend the role of this institution. I am on the floor to issue a challenge to all of my colleagues. If an impeachment trial does take place in the Senate, all of us must decide to approach it as Americans--less as people representing any parochial or partisan or particular interest, less as Democrats or Republicans or Independents, and instead as Senators. If we are called to serve as jurors in an impeachment trial, all of us must show our Nation and the world that this body--that this institution--has not been completely overtaken by the divisive political era in which we live. Nothing less than the Senate's very legitimacy will be at stake. Our Founders warned about the challenge of this moment. They warned specifically that foreign powers improperly influencing our American Government were, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, ``the most deadly adversaries of republican government.'' This is why our Constitution entrusts Congress with the enormous power of potential removal through impeachment. James Madison called impeachment ``indispensable . . . for defending the Community [against] the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate''--a reference to the President. Alexander Hamilton argued that the Senate was the proper body to hold an impeachment trial. The Founders entrusted us to protect our country from ``the misconduct of public men'' and ``the abuse or violation of some public trust.'' George Mason put forward the precise language that appears in our Constitution, the language of ``high crimes and misdemeanors'' and urged that impeachment must be a remedy to remove even a President, asking: ``Shall any man be above Justice?'' Our Founders insisted that no one--no one--in our Nation, in our constitutional order, not even our President, is above the law. This fundamental principle remains the very linchpin of our government. Based on what we know today from press reports about the President's actions and from notes of a conversation, I believe it is critical that the House conduct a thorough impeachment inquiry. If the House does vote impeachment articles, Members of the Senate will have to live up to the responsibilities which the Framers of our Nation entrusted to us. The eyes of history will be upon us. Let me be clear. I am not saying that if the House should vote articles of impeachment, it will be the Senate's duty to vote to remove him. It will be, instead, the responsibility of every single Senator to carry out their duty to serve as impartial jurors with their principle focus--their oath--to uphold and defend the Constitution and nothing else informing our decisions. This is a challenge to all of my colleagues. Both Republicans and Democrats must appreciate the gravity of this process as we call on our colleagues to do the same. Democrats, equally with Republicans, must not allow our vigorous disagreements with this President and our colleagues to influence our judgment and cloud it. We have to understand that this process--this likely future moment--is far more important than our own individual political fortunes. An impeachment trial of a President would be a true test of the integrity and capabilities of the Senate--our commitment to follow the facts, to consider the evidence, and to apply the rule of law. It will be a test that we, as a body, cannot afford to fail. It is important to begin the process of establishing what that process might look like as soon as there are impeachment articles, if that is the direction the House takes. The basic rules are clear as stated in the Constitution: The House is given the ``sole power of impeachment,'' and the Senate ``the sole power to try,'' as jury, ``all impeachments.'' If the House votes to impeach, the Senate must conduct a trial and either convict by two-thirds or acquit on whatever counts are presented. At that trial, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will preside; the House managers will present the case; the President's counsel presents his defense; and the Senators serve as the jury. The manner in which our leaders, Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer, direct the Senate in the event of a trial will be the most important test in a generation of whether our Senate remains capable of enforcing the law, living up to the Constitution, and upholding the responsibilities our Founders bestowed upon us. I will remind you of the opening vote in the Senate of the impeachment trial for President Clinton. The vote that set the rules under which that trial would proceed was unanimous. It was 100 to 0. An impeachment trial, should it come in the near future here, must not be gamed or politicized or subjected to brinksmanship, and any trial should be governed by rules that are passed on a broad and bipartisan basis, animated by justice over partisanship. In many ways, an impeachment trial would mean that our institution of the Senate would itself also be on trial. We as a body need to show the American people and the world that we are more than just 100 elected politicians who have been brought here by partisan whim or by a bare majority of our States but, instead, by a body whose sum is much more than its individual parts. We must act as stewards together for our democracy. History is watching us, all of us--Democrats, Independents, Republicans. How we respond will shape and impact our Senate and our Nation for years to come. In the days, weeks, or months to come, I hope my colleagues will rise to the challenges we face, deliberate with an eye toward history, an ear toward our constituents, and a heart focused on our Constitution, and prove that, in this body, we answer to the Constitution, not to any particular or partisan loyalty to our President or to any other elected official. The health of our very institutions and of democracy itself is at stake. Remembering Sonia Schorr Sloan Madam President, in my home State of Delaware, we have just lost a dear friend and a remarkable leader. Sonia Schorr Sloan was a force of nature. ``Sonny,'' as we affectionately called her, dedicated her life to confronting social injustices, and her activism, her philanthropy, her mentorship, and her public service made my home State of Delaware a better place for everyone. So I rise to celebrate and honor her work, her spirit, and her impact on so many of us. Her story began on April 1, 1928. She was born in Wilmington, DE, to parents Sigmund and Rosalia Schorr. Sigmund Schorr was a well-known Wilmingtonian haberdasher, who was elected to the Delaware General Assembly and later served for many years as president of the New Castle County Board of Elections. Rosalia, her mother, worked as a public schoolteacher and was very active with community and civic groups, like the Young Women's Hebrew Association and the Gardeners Guild of the Arden Club. Sonny credited her parents for raising her in an atmosphere of active community involvement. Throughout her life, she was exceptionally bright and gifted. As an honors graduate of Wilmington High School, she pursued a bachelor's degree in bacteriology and graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University in 1949. She was accepted to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where she earned her master's degree in microbiology. She was the very first woman to graduate from Jefferson in its 125-year history and was the first student to complete graduate work there. After teaching several years at Temple University School of Medicine, she became the very first woman hired by DuPont to work in the prestigious central research department in Wilmington, which is where many great inventions were made. While at DuPont, she got involved with the Young Democrats and met fellow scientist Gilbert Jacob Sloan of nearby Fairfax. Sonny and Gil, who were, frankly, inseparable for the rest of their lives, fell in love. A few years later, they were married at Temple Beth Emeth on Memorial Day of 1957. Together, they raised two wonderful sons, Victor and Jonathan. During this period, Sonny became more and more involved with local community groups and political organizations. Sonny's commitment to public service was a hallmark of her life. She was a skilled and forceful advocate, a tireless campaign organizer, and a relentless fundraiser for community groups and campaigns alike. Whether it seemed doable or not, when she saw a need, she would fill it. When people felt like Delaware needed a more active advocacy organization or they were concerned about civil liberties and civil justice and civil rights, Sonny and others founded and launched the Delaware Chapter of the ACLU. When she became increasingly concerned about the restrictions on access to reproductive rights, she launched and ran a capital campaign to build a brandnew facility for Planned Parenthood of Delaware. She was involved in the creation and launch of an AmeriCorps program, Public Allies of Delaware, and the Cancer Support Community of Delaware. She was involved in so many different civic and community organizations and in so many campaigns that they are more than I could relate in my time on the floor. Her legacy of service to our State, which began more than 60 years ago, steadily grew over the next 50, 60 years. She eventually formed her own fundraising firm, and according to Sonny, it raised over $100 million for various nonprofits and agencies. She was able to pick and choose the causes she championed and didn't do anything for which she lacked passion. Her work touched our whole community, from the Food Bank of Delaware and the West End Neighborhood House to the YWCA of Delaware and the Delaware College of Art and Design. Besides supporting these many causes, Sonny invested in the people in whom she believed. She was a mentor from the very first days of when a young, then-29-year-old Joe Biden launched his campaign first for county council and then for the U.S. Senate, and she played a central role in Joe Biden's first election in 1972 to this body. Sonia Sloan mentored countless other people and dozens of other elected officials, not just my predecessor and the Vice President. She was a mentor to this young candidate as well when I first ran for office. Equally, if not more importantly, she was a tireless and engaged mentor for folks no one has heard of--folks not elected but folks in need. She was a mentor for a young man who had just been released from our local juvenile detention center. Sonny helped him get a State identification card, helped him get a new job, and helped him get a new bicycle--a reliable means of transportation. She helped him, mentored him, and supported him until he was able to get back on his feet. She recorded books for the blind. At one point, she even agreed to put up the deed of her own home to bail out a Vietnam war protester from jail. These were the sorts of things Sonny did that many have never heard of. She won too many awards in our State to name, but she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women. Yet she wasn't the sort of person to hold up these accomplishments. Aside from her civic engagements, she loved to run and was often seen jogging around Rockford Park, which is near my home. She adored cooking for her family; she collected stamps; she could play the flute and piano; and she loved to read. Upon learning that Sonny had passed away at age 91, one friend remarked that Sonny still had so many stories to share and so much energy and passion to give. Another friend called her a beacon of light and a pillar of courage whose light will shine for many years to come. She never stopped taking a chance on young candidates and on first- time candidates. A friend of mine, recently elected State Senator Laura Sturgeon, said: Sonny Sloan took a chance on me, even though I had no political experience, name recognition, or resources. Once people heard she was in my corner, endorsements and support poured in. I am who I am because of my parents, but I am where I am, representing the Fourth District in the State Senate, because of Sonia Sloan. It is clear that she accomplished many firsts, broke many barriers, and paved endless paths for many people. She had strong and passionate feelings about countless issues, but the empowerment of women, the election of women to office, and the advancement of women in our society was absolutely at the forefront. As she so often said, ``Women's issues are not just women's issues; they are everybody's issues.'' One of the last times I got to see Sonny was at a dinner in her honor in March of this year. It was there that I joined hundreds of friends and neighbors to recognize her legacy of service, from her efforts to end the Vietnam war to her advocacy for women's rights. She lived her life committed to a deep belief she shared with many of us--to focus on what you can do to change just one life for the better because, as the Talmud teaches, when you change one life, you can change the world. Sonny did that thousands of times. She was tough and determined, funny and smart. She never hesitated to offer very direct input to those of us she knew needed correction or direction, but she could equally offer compelling and comforting advice. She has been and will continue to be that voice of conscience inside my head, challenging me not to settle for the easy but to push for what seems difficult or even impossible. Her dedication for fighting for justice was rivaled only by her tireless love for Gil, Victor, Jonathan, her five granddaughters, and five great-grandchildren. She was the best of what we are as Delawareans. Her sharp intelligence, her fierce resolve, and her unwavering dedication to people and causes will be impossible to replace. So, to Sonny, I wish to say: We will all miss you--family, friends, neighbors, and the thousands whose lives you have touched. You have affected the lives of countless Delawareans. I am truly grateful to have known you and to have been a part of your work to make our State and our world a better place. You will forever have my deepest thanks. Back in October of 1969, in concluding an anti-war rally, Sonia read a Jewish prayer with some touching and, I think, fitting final words: Bless our country, that it may always be a stronghold of peace, and its advocate among the nations. May contentment reign within its border, health and happiness within its homes. Strengthen the bonds of friendship among the inhabitants of all lands, and may the love of Your name hallow every home and every heart. These are touching and fitting words. Sonny, bless you and thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the service and dedication of a distinguished Delawarean with a track record of putting service before herself. She is a thoughtful friend, not just to me, but to hundreds of Delawareans up and down the State. Ronni K. Cohen of Claymont, DE, is a well-known educator and civic leader in Delaware and recently retired after 50 years of public service. She taught thousands of students--children and adults-- financial planning, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, and so much more. A Delaware school official once described Ronni as ``one of the most dedicated teachers that I have ever met.'' In total, Ronni spent 33 years in the classrooms of Delaware's Brandywine School District and in 2000 was recognized as Teacher of the Year by the Delaware Department of Education. She was an economics and entrepreneurship teacher at elementary schools like P.S. duPont, Marguerite H. Burnett, and Claymont. During her time with her third, fourth, and fifth graders, Ronni instilled in them an industrial spirit and deployed hands-on lessons about the crucial role that finances play in our everyday lives. Ronni earned many accolades during her career, including the Delaware Chamber of Commerce Superstars in Education Award, the Small Business Administration Women in Business Champion Award, the Consortium of Entrepreneurship Education Leadership and Advocacy Award, the Delaware Library Partnership Award, and a Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for private enterprise education. In 1992, Ronni and her principal opened the first bank within a Delaware public school. This innovative program, in partnership with Wilmington Trust, expanded to 20 other schools across Delaware. In 2001, when the Delaware Financial Literacy Institute--DFLI--was born, Ronni was the obvious choice to lead it. This not-for-profit organization set out to promote financial education through its Delaware Money School and help individuals gain a better understanding of the consumer marketplace while providing them with the necessary instruments to improve their financial health. For the next 17 years, Ronni served as DFLI's executive director. She taught classes while recruiting a battalion of volunteer instructors to multiply the efforts of the Delaware Money School. Under her leadership, thousands of adult students completed DFLI coursework and gained the knowledge they needed to take control of their financial futures. Ronni also served on the Governor's Task Force for Financial Independence and the Delaware General Assembly's Joint Committee on Financial Literacy. In 2016, when the State was developing its financial literacy standards for K-12, she was hand-picked as cochairperson of that committee. From ``EconoM&Mics'' to ``Purses to Portfolios'' and ``Investing for Your Future,'' Ronni's unique classes have impacted many Delawareans over the years and made our state stronger and more prosperous. ``Ronni Cohen is a remarkably effective educator. She took her prodigious skills to a different platform by helping tens of thousands of Delawareans take control of their personal finances,'' said former Governor Jack Markell. ``Ronni is beloved in the Delaware Money School community--and for a good reason. She gave fully of herself to improve other peoples' lives. Ronni leaves a remarkable legacy of achievement and contribution. I love Ronni Cohen!'' Mr. President, Ronni sees all Delawareans as lifelong students, and she always ensured that her students and mentees had the proper tools to build strong and stable financial futures. Her legacy is one of a teacher who consistently went to extraordinary lengths to make sure herlessons made ``cents.'' Ronni Cohen, from all of your schoolchildren, your adult learners, your neighbors, and your state, please accept our sincere thanks and gratitude. Thank you for dedicating 50 years to public service--and on behalf of our entire state, I wish you a happy, fulfilling retirement. Thank you.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor to recognize the critical moment that is before us as a country. We have an opportunity to make real progress on bipartisan gun reforms that will help keep our communities safer while respecting our treasured Second Amendment rights. America's epidemic of gun violence continues to devastate communities and families across our Nation. Last month, in just August alone, mass shootings in El Paso, in Dayton, and in Odessa claimed the lives of more than 50 innocent Americans. Individual Americans, meanwhile, fall victim to gun violence every single day. Whether through suicide or homicide, they take far too many lives far too early. Just this past weekend, four Delawareans in my hometown were shot, and in 2017, up and down my home State, 111 Delawareans were killed by firearms. Guns are now the third leading cause of death for Delaware's children under age 17. Folks, these are not just numbers; each gun death is a son, a daughter, a neighbor, a congregation member, or a friend. In a recent meeting with Moms Demand Action in my office in Wilmington, I listened to young parents who were confronting for the first time the reality of active shooter drills in schools as they sent their children to school for the first time and had them come home and ask questions about why we as parents could not do more to keep them safe in school. Viewing this ongoing crisis through the eyes of our children--those who are told to be quiet, to hide in a closet, to wait out a moment of sheer terror--is a reminder that our children are scared, that our families are scared, that our neighbors are scared, and that we can and must do more to address this epidemic. Some of the most crucial steps we take must be taken at the Federal level. Yet, to make progress, the party that controls this body and this floor has to join hands with those of us in my party--those willing to work across the aisle in a responsible way--and lead. Frankly, more than anything else, as has been said by the Republican majority leader, President Trump needs to take a clear and firm position and stick to it. The American people deserve no less. If this body is going to take up and pass gun control legislation, it will require our President to lead. I think bringing bipartisan bills to the floor here for a vote is a great place to start. I want to talk for a few minutes about one of those bills that I introduced with Republican Senator Pat Toomey, of the neighboring Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, called the NICS Denial Notification Act. It has a simple objective. For those who are prohibited by law from owning a weapon--those who are convicted felons or who have been adjudicated mentally ill--but who go to a firearms dealer, fill out the background check form, lie on it, and say they are able to buy a gun but get denied, get turned down once that NICS background check is run, what do you think happens with that information? Where does the information go showing that convicted felons are trying to buy weapons once they have been denied? In my home State, it goes nowhere. In 34 States, it goes nowhere. In States across the country, not just in Delaware but in New York, Kentucky, and Texas, local law enforcement may never learn about a convicted felon who is actively trying to buy a gun and who is often committing another offense by lying about it in that attempt. Our bill would fix that. It requires Federal authorities to alert State law enforcement of any background check denial so State authorities can decide whether to investigate or to prosecute or to go and pay a visit to someone given this important and imminent sign of an intention to engage in criminal activity. It also requires our Federal Department of Justice to publish an annual report with statistics about its prosecution of background check denial cases so we in Congress and so folks around the country can better enforce our existing gun laws. What I hear, time and again in townhalls back home in Delaware, is that folks want us to enforce our existing gun laws more thoroughly and more wisely, and that is exactly what this proposal would do. In Delaware, I have met with and heard from law enforcement leaders up and down our State. The chiefs of police from our State police, our county police, and our municipal police have uniformly said they would welcome the information of those convicted felons in their towns, in their counties, or in our State who are trying to get their hands on guns. At a hearing back in May in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Lindsey Graham said this proposal was a painfully obvious bipartisan bill that we should take up and pass. He has committed to me that he would like to see it pass committee. There are a lot of other Senators who agree, not just Democrats like Senators Duckworth, Jones, and Klobuchar but also friends from across the aisle. Senators Perdue, Rubio, and Collins have joined in cosponsoring this, and I know there are other Senators who are eager or who are willing to join in the days ahead. The NICS Denial Notification Act is exactly the sort of commonsense, narrowly crafted bipartisan bill that would pass the Senate tomorrow if Leader McConnell would bring it to the floor for a vote. Simply put, bills like this and bills such as we discussed at that hearing on the Committee on the Judiciary regarding extreme risk protection orders provide an appropriate way for there to be due process protections for demonstrably mentally ill individuals who threaten harm to others by having their guns removed from them for a brief period or for there to be universal background checks, such as legislation that advanced in the House 6 months ago on a bipartisan basis. These sorts of proposals can help to keep guns away from people who should not have them. It is clear to me, from poll after poll, survey after survey, and tragic story after tragic story, that the American people want us to act, and they want us to act on background checks. We should vote on the Senate companion to H.R. 8. It is long past time for our leader, the majority leader, to join with the majority of the country and put that bill on the Senate floor. Just last week, the House Committee on the Judiciary passed the Keep Americans Safe Act, which would prohibit the high-capacity magazines that have been used in so many of these recent, tragic mass shootings. If the leader were to bring this to the floor and it were to pass, it, along with all of the other bills I just referenced, would help to save lives. It is my hope that our President will see this moment as an opportunity for real leadership and will listen to the majority of Americans, the majority of Democrats, the majority of Republicans, and the majority of gun owners who would like to see us act in a responsible and bipartisan way in order to reduce the easy access criminals have to guns and will take an important step forward in making our country, our schools, our communities, and our families safe. What I hear back home in Delaware is that the overwhelming majority of Americans are sick and tired of our thoughts and prayers after every shooting. They would be so much more inspired if we actually took the risk of enacting legislation together. I think it is long past time for us to do just that, and I hope we will in the days ahead. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I wish to honor a member of our Greatest Generation, Stanley P. ``Lucky'' Lawruk, Sr., of Wilmington, DE. Stanley P. Lawruk, a lifelong Delawarean, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the Battle of Normandy and throughout World War II. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 20-year-old Technical Sergeant Stanley Lawruk was on his fourth combat mission as both the flight engineer and top turret gunner on a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress. Sergeant Lawruk and his fellow crewmen were part of the 327th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bomb Group, known as Fame's Favored Few. His squadron's mission on D-Day was to target and destroy the marshalling yards and industrial center at Thury-Harcourt in Normandy, France. As the dorsal turret gunner, Sergeant Lawruk manned twin 50- caliber machineguns located just above the cockpit of his bomber. ``I saw all the ships go across the channel,'' Stan said in a 2014 interview. ``They were so thick, you could almost walk across the channel [on them]. And you could see the troops.'' Sergeant Stan Lawruk survived D-Day and the many follow-on missions of the Normandy campaign. After more than 20 combat flights, Lucky Lawruk had earned his nickname. On his 26th mission, Stan Lawruk's luck ran out. On August 25, 1944, Stan's B-17 was on a bombing mission to destroy a V-2 rocket experimental station located along the coast of Peenemunde, Germany. There, his Flying Fortress fell victim to anti-aircraft batteries below. ``A direct hit blew off the propeller on our number four engine. That in turn tore a large hole in our right wing,'' Stan said in a 1945 newspaper interview. ``Another hit put our number three engine on fire and set another windmilling. We lost altitude rapidly.'' Stan and his fellow wingmen were instructed to bail out over Germany; however, they decided to stick with the plane if possible. ``Over the Baltic we started to toss out everything we could move or pry loose,'' Stan said in 1945, stating that he even tried to drop the ball turret. ``I didn't have a chance to finish the job before I jumped to my crash position. We came down in a slight crash near a fishing village. None of the crew was hurt.'' A declassified document, Missing Air Crew Report 8275, recently found in the National Archives, verifies that all nine crew members survived the force of the crash landing near Sovde, Sweden. Weather conditions and visibility were described as ``cloudy smooth.'' The bomber, numbered 43-37596, was last sighted at ``1322 hours'' that day. Stan and his crew were rescued by Swedish troops and Red Cross workers; however, the American airmen would remain in neutral Sweden for 6 months. The bomber crew were considered prisoners of war until repatriated back to England. Stan, who originally enlisted in January 1943, remained in the U.S. Army Air Corps until he was honorably discharged at New Castle Army Airfield in October 1945. After World War II, Stan did what many GIs did upon returning home. He picked up where he left off before the war. Stan went back to his grocery job at the American Store, now known as ACME, located at Chestnut and Franklin Streets in Wilmington. Shortly thereafter, Stan Lawruk married Pearl DeLucia in November 1946. Together Stan and Pearl raised three children: Kathy, Stan, and Tim. Stan eventually landed a delivery job with the Tasty Baking Company, the maker of Tastykake treats. He worked there for 35 years until retirement. Topping that record was the nearly 69 years of marriage shared by Stan and Pearl Lawruk. His beloved wife passed away in 2015. Stan, who just celebrated his 95th birthday, is still well known in our community and in our State. He recently moved to Wilmington VA Medical Center's Community Living Center, where he quickly became a favorite among the residents, staff, and veterans. Stan still loves Tastykake treats and is widely known to be a bit of a card sharp who enjoys a game of Blackjack. Besides his interest in playing cards, he recently discovered his talent as an artist. In the last year alone, Stan has painted more than a dozen works of art. Folk who know Stan know him to be a loving, caring, social, and extremely positive person. In summary, Stanley ``Lucky'' Lawruk is truly part of our Greatest Generation. I offer him my thanks for his sacrifices for family, for State, for country, and for humanity. Stan, on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your dedicated service.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, it is an honor and a joy for me to come to the floor today not just as the Senator representing Delaware but as the cochair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, which I am very proud to have a chance to lead with my friend and colleague Senator Blunt from Missouri. As you just heard, he recited some of the many ways in which we have been able to work together. Senator Blunt, as a seasoned senior appropriator, someone who has experience in the House of Representatives and in the private sector at home, leading an educational institution, and has worked in State and local government, along with my experience in local government and the private sector--I think that has allowed us to do really good and positive things for the men and women of law enforcement. This is National Police Week. It is an opportunity for us--not just here in the Senate but all over the country--to thank the hundreds of thousands of men and women in State and local law enforcement, as well as in Federal law enforcement agencies, who make possible the opportunity we have to enjoy our freedoms. Our basic safety, our ability to travel far and wide, to speak and live, and to praise and believe as we hope--all of this is made possible because of the ways in which our law enforcement officers guarantee those freedoms by literally putting their lives on the line for us each and every day. For that, we are eternally grateful. The Law Enforcement Caucus, which Senator Blunt and I founded, has held a number of engaging and important bipartisan sessions. You heard the Senator reference things like the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program and RISS, the Regional Intelligence Sharing System that helps to connect resources between Federal and State and local law enforcement. We also recently had a session on sharing relationship- building models where we had folks in from Delaware and Missouri to talk about how law enforcement serves as positive role models and mentors in the community through terrific programs. I look forward to continuing to work with my friend and colleague Senator Blunt on these issues in the year ahead in the Law Enforcement Caucus and to talking briefly here on the floor today about how we should not just give great speeches but actually take important actions to demonstrate to the families and to the men and women of law enforcement that we care deeply about their service and about whether they come home at the end of their shift. I serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. On a unanimous basis, we recently advanced a series of bills that will help advance officer safety, not the least of which is making permanent the Federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program that has literally saved lives across the country. The capitol police--the police who protect Delaware's capitol and our courthouse--had a dramatic and personal experience with that when two law enforcement officers' lives were saved when they were shot in the line of duty, and it was only because they were wearing vests made possible by this Federal-State partnership that they survived. I will also continue to work to support the COPS Program, which ensures that we have officers on the ground in communities large and small in Delaware, such as Cheswold, Delmar, Laurel, Ocean View, Smyrna, and my home city of Wilmington. They all have been able to hire new officers in recent years because of the COPS Program. We are also working together on reforms to the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program to ensure that families of officers who are permanently disabled or lose their lives in the line of duty receive the benefits they richly deserve. Let me conclude by thanking and honoring a few specific officers from Delaware's law enforcement community for their service this past year. We have not had any Delawareans' names added to the Wall of Honor referenced by the Senator from Missouri, but all of us who have affection for and support the law enforcement community in Delaware know that we are simply blessed this year to have not joined that terrible roll of great honor of those who have given their lives in the line of duty. Let me briefly thank Sergeant Paul Doherty of the Delaware State Police, who was awarded the Robert J. Seinsoth Memorial Award as the 2018 Delaware Crime Stoppers Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. His investigatory work following up on a robbery led to the apprehension of a serial, dangerous criminal who harmed other Delawareans. Let me honor Detective Jonathan Moyer, who led the investigation of fraud and theft at Beebee Hospital in Lewes, DE. Let me honor Detective Ryan Schmid from the Dover Police Department. He is a 6-year veteran of that department and maintained an amazing clearance rate of 84 percent in investigated burglaries, robberies, and attempted murder and solved homicide. Lastly, let me recognize Detective Brad Cordrey, who is Delaware's Child Welfare Professional of the Year and has served under Georgetown chief of police R.L. Hughes, who said that ``Brad's dedication, compassion, and tenacity to solve serious cases are unmatched.'' There is so much more I could say, but given the number of my colleagues who have also come to the floor to speak, let me conclude by simply saying how grateful all of us are to the men and women of law enforcement. During this National Police Week, let me say what a great blessing it is to be able to continue to work with my colleague Senator Blunt of Missouri in cochairing the Law Enforcement Caucus in this Congress and hopefully for many years to come. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the life and service of a distinguished Delawarean, veteran of the U.S. Army for 27 years, businessman, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and brother, Ed Scully. I got to know Ed during my time as New Castle County executive and worked with him on a variety of issues facing the aviation industry. Ed was known for his persistence during my time in the Senate when it came to bringing and keeping good, high-paying jobs in Delaware, and in particular, he was passionate about helping veterans in our State get jobs in the aviation industry. After graduating from Wilmington, Delaware's Salesianum School, Ed joined the U.S. Army in February 1961. Ed was no ordinary soldier; he joined the Special Forces and earned his Green Beret. He was promoted five times during his 27 years of service and retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel. Ed received many awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with Valor, the Purple Heart, the Joint Services Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Special Forces Tab, the Parachute Badge, the Senior Aviation Badge, the Vietnam Jump Wings, and the Special Forces Combat Patch. After attending flight school, aviation became Ed's passion, and he spent the rest of his life as a military and civilian aviation expert. After he retired from the military and returned to Delaware, he began a second career at Summit Aviation, a 500-acre airport in Middletown, DE, where he continued supporting America's men and women in uniform. Summit was an early supporter of the Delaware State Police Aviation Branch, building a hangar and providing all aircraft maintenance. To this day, Summit is a top employer of veterans in the state. Ed retired from Summit in June, 2013, after 25 years. Prior to his retirement, Summit named their new modification center after him: the Scully Modification Center. There are few people who can say that they have dedicated their lives to their country, but Ed certainly can. Sadly, Ed passed away on December 24, 2018, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, but he leaves behind an indelible legacy and one he should be most proud of: his family. Ed is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 45 years, Patricia, his brothers Robert and Thomas, his daughters, Suzanne Gubich, Corynn Ciber, Kristin Stein, his son Edward Scully IV, and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren; Danielle, Cole, Kyle, Maxwell, Julia, Connor, Ashton, and Kailani. I am grateful for Ed's service to our State and our Nation, and I hope that this tribute to his memory helps his family and friends know what an impact his life made.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to recognize a true public servant, an individual who has been by my side since my first year as a Senator, someone who will be dearly missed, not only in my office but by this institution as a whole as he moves on to his next chapter this week: my deputy chief of staff and senior policy advisor, Franz Wuerfmannsdobler. Franz has had a great impact on this institution, on the staff members who served here over the last two decades, and on me. His sage advice, his patience, his incredibly calm demeanor, his willingness to mentor and guide others, his respect for this institution, and his knowledge borne out of 20 years of experience in the Senate have contributed in countless ways to the meaningful work we have been able to do here for the people of Delaware and our country. Today, I want to recognize and thank Franz for his remarkable and his selfless career. I want to thank him for what he has done for me, for my office, for the people of Delaware, and pay tribute to the legacy he leaves. It is a remarkable legacy. He has been on the frontlines of events and policy battles that have quite literally shaped the history of our country over the last two decades--from 9/11 to the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, from energy and appropriations efforts to sustained concerns and engagement around bipartisanship. Franz's career in the Senate began in 1998 when he served as a legislative assistant for the late, great Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who was himself a giant of this body. For 8 years, Franz handled issues from energy to environment, to climate change and natural resources. It was also in Senator Byrd's office that Franz cut his teeth on the complex appropriations process, learning from the master appropriator himself. Franz's career then took him to the office of former Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, where he was a trusted senior energy policy advisor, and then on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee before finally joining my own office in March of 2011. Franz's list of legislative accomplishments is long and impressive and reflects his deep grasp of policy and the mechanics of politics. He helped to shape elements of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. He was central to establishing reformed fuel economy standards for our Nation's automobiles and played a key role in the Recovery Act, a massive effort that helped pull our Nation out of the depths of a recession. Franz is a person of ideas and vision. His vision for our country has led to policies that have made our Nation cleaner, more innovative, and more secure. Likewise, his vision in my Senate office has made our team more efficient, more effective, and more successful. Franz has played a key role in shaping my office early on, helping to create a team-based structure and the positive culture of our legislative staff. He also introduced me to the valuable concept of having an office built around and relying on expert legislative fellows, including, in particular, fellows from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, whose incredible expertise and deep knowledge in scientific matters has been invaluable in advancing technology and science policy in my last 8 years. In total, Franz has mentored more than 15 fellows during his time in the Senate--13 of them are AAAS fellows in my own office, and they have attested individually and collectively to the reach, scope, and power of his guidance and mentorship to them. Franz is also a master of appropriations--an arcane process that even the most seasoned legislative veterans should admit that they don't completely understand. He brought his wealth of experience to our team, taking the reins of the Federal budget and appropriations process and building from the ground up the complex and detailed appropriations system that we use to this day. There is no question that Franz's expertise and the time he dedicated to building this meticulous system has made me a more effective member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and led to countless wins for the State of Delaware--from funding for critical transportation improvements and investments in our first responders to support that has helped to establish and enhance the NIIMBL manufacturing institute of the University of Delaware and to fully fund science and R&D projects around the country and in my home State. Beyond Franz's technical expertise, nothing better exemplifies his character than the patience and dedication with which he has taught others about the appropriations process. Each year, Franz hosts ``Appropriations Bootcamp 101`` to teach new staff members the ins and outs of this riveting and complex process. He takes the time to explain it, to get into the weeds, and to answer question after question. Franz has also taken his show on the road in my home State of Delaware, meeting with State, local government, and community stakeholders to explain the appropriations process and help to secure more funding for our State. He has even developed a legendary method for teaching staff about appropriations by using bags of marbles to explain funding allocations for each Appropriations subcommittee. For the record, the legislative branch gets just one marble. Franz's patience extends far beyond the annual appropriations process. He always maintains his cool and has a striking and calming presence, even in the most trying of circumstances. One of those more trying circumstances occurred at a staff outing just a few years ago. Franz had driven a couple of other members of our team, and on their way home, his car broke down. The group decided to push start the car, going down a hill to get momentum, while a junior staffer manned the wheel. Unfortunately, the lack of power steering made it impossible to turn the wheel. After a good strong push, the car rolled right down the hill and into a tree. Franz very calmly said: Don't worry about it. It is not a problem; it is all going to be fine--even when the front end of his car was unrecognizable. Franz's response to that situation, his cool and calm demeanor, is characteristic of the grace he has imparted on all of us, even in some of the most tumultuous times here in the Senate. One of the unique things about Franz is that whenever you meet somebody who knows him or has worked with him, they talk about the ways in which he has gone out of his own way to help them and mentor them over the years. So many people in the Senate view Franz not just as a friend or colleague but as someone who they know has helped them in their careers and someone who has shown them the ropes and invested time in supporting them and helping them succeed. One member of my team described it this way: Franz has an uncanny ability to take the time necessary to help. He enables us to do our jobs and do them well. We get meaningful things done, and that's because of the wisdom Franz has imparted.'' In an environment here in the Senate that is at times fast paced, Franz takes the time to invest in younger people. He sees potential in staff and imparts knowledge and experience, even when there is more than enough to keep him busy just meeting his own commitments. For example, Franz took it upon himself to create a manual for the new fellows who work in my office every year. The manual, which should be required reading for every new Senate staffer, describes how to write a bill and important things about the process of working in the Senate. He also maintains the Capitol Hill Urban Dictionary, which he shares with new staff and interns to help them decode internal Senate jargon, including oft-used, but rarely explained phrases like ``en bloc'' or ``move the needle.'' It explains, for example, what to do when asked: Do you have language on that. Franz embraces the importance of teaching the next generation of Capitol Hill staff how to do their job well. I think that is truly his greatest legacy--the remarkable diaspora of younger staff members he has believed in, invested in, and helped to train who are now working everywhere from the Senate to the House, to the Department of Defense, to running a nonprofit in Kenya. Each year, Franz and his wonderful wife Lisa host an annual gathering at their home for a growing community of current and former fellows and, literally, dozens of colleagues--folks who have shared experiences, who care about policy, who like a good geeky joke, and who enjoy helping each other and developing and sustaining each other's careers. That is just the kind of person Franz is. He has impacted so many people--something that was never more evident than at his wedding to Lisa a few years ago, which I was deeply honored to have the chance to officiate. In addition to their friends and family, guests that day included former Senator Dorgan, folks who had mentored Franz early in his career, dozens of individuals he mentored himself, and people from all walks of life who support Franz and Lisa and care about them. It was a testament to the community they have created, both inside and outside the Senate. Franz cares deeply about this institution. He cares about policies, and he cares about people. He is always looking for ways to bridge the partisan divide and make this broken place work better. It hasn't always been easy. Like many of us, Franz has struggled with the slowing pace of legislative progress in the Senate in recent years and its increasingly divisive nature. It says so much about him and about his faith in us and in this institution that he is leaving his Senate career to go work on these very issues, helping to lead the Bipartisan Policy Center in advancing bipartisan policy solutions to address the challenges facing our Nation and the institution of the Senate. He has made such a mark that he is known throughout this institution by a single name. Few people are known by just one name--Bono, Noah, Cher, Franz. With Franz's leaving the Senate, I promise to continue to do my part here to bridge what divides us where we can and to do the important work required of us. That includes passage of the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act, important bipartisan legislation that will level the tax playing field for clean energy, which Franz has worked on for Congress after Congress as long as I have been here--work that I intend to finish. While I am sad today to see Franz leave my office in the Senate, he will be deeply missed by everyone on my staff and everyone who has benefited from his wisdom, but I am also excited to see the inspiring things he will accomplish in his next chapter. I want to thank Franz for his dedication, his leadership, and his expertise. I want to thank his family for sharing him with us these past 8 years in my office and these 2 decades here in the Senate. He inspires me every day to be a better and more thoughtful, more careful, and more caring legislator. He leaves a deep and positive impact on all of us that we will not soon forget. Thank you, Franz. You will be deeply missed. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, today, it is with a heavy heart that I wish to recognize the life and legacy of William ``Bill'' Murray, a tremendous advocate for kidney disease patients in my home State of Delaware. This week, advocates from across the country will travel to Washington, DC, to meet with their congressional representatives, share their stories, and ask that we remain committed to investing in kidney disease research. Like Bill, who became involved with the National Kidney Foundation and the kidney disease community in 2014, many patients, family members, and caregivers throughout the country will meet with their legislators and government officials to increase awareness of and improve policies focusing on kidney disease. I am proud to say that Bill made being involved with the National Kidney Foundation a family event, often bringing his partner Linda, daughter- in-law Danielle, grandson Emerson, sister Michelle, nieces, friends, and others to as many events as possible. Bill worked tirelessly to increase awareness about kidney disease in Delaware, spending time volunteering at local events, helping with community health screenings, and organizing support for World Kidney Day. True to character, even in his death, he helped those in need by being a deceased donor for patients waiting for organ transplants. As my family, staff, and I extend our deepest sympathies to all those who had the privilege of knowing Bill, I take comfort in knowing that his impact, passion, and determination will continue to bring hope to the kidney disease community for years to come.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I want to recognize the wisdom and insight from my friend and colleague from the great State of Georgia. We have unmet disaster needs in this country. I look forward to working with him to achieve the relief of the disaster impacts on the Southeastern United States and other States.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about climate change--to talk about something that is a pressing and real problem that affects everyone in this country, and, in fact, in our world. It is a challenge that we can't afford to ignore any longer because the health of our families, our economy, our environment, and even our national security, quite literally, depend on our ability to address it and address it promptly. After a year of recordbreaking extreme weather in 2018--when we saw rising average temperatures fuel California's deadliest wildfire season on record, when Florida was faced with the strongest hurricane ever to reach that State's panhandle, and when farmers in Delaware and across the country faced challenges due to severe flooding and drought--it is clear that we can't afford to sit back and do nothing about climate change while the American people pay the price. The costs of our inaction are real--real in human suffering, real in disaster recovery spending, real in lost economic opportunity, and real in the burden borne by our Armed Forces around the world. Yes, there is a clear link between climate change and national security. The Pentagon has consistently pointed to climate change as a real national security threat that will make the military's job around the world harder. National security leaders from across administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have warned that climate change acts as a ``threat multiplier,'' increasing global instability and weakening fragile States as climate change leads to more extreme weather events and scarcer food and water resources. In many ways, these findings echo themes about climate change that we already know--that it is already happening, that it continues to get worse, that it is going to cost us dearly, and that we can do something about it. It is that last point that I want to focus on. We can do something to stop the disastrous impacts of climate change, so long as we recognize it and work together in a bipartisan way to develop, take up, debate, and pass meaningful legislation that can make a difference. Democrats have a broad range of bold and new policy proposals and of tested and fully developed policy proposals to address climate change. Many of them are bipartisan. I wanted to come to the floor today to talk through 4 different bills that I have cosponsored--some that are relatively new and some considered across several Congresses--that are positive, constructive steps forward we can take to address climate change. The first, and probably my oldest bill in this field, is called the MLP Parity Act--a catchy name, I know. It has five Republican colleagues who have cosponsored it now over three Congresses. This bill expands to renewable forms of energy, to carbon capture and sequestration, and to renewable and so-called clean energy a popular and long-established tax tool for financing energy projects that the oil and gas and pipeline sectors have enjoyed for decades. It would level the playing field. It would stop picking winners and losers in terms of energy tax policy. It would be, literally, an ``all of the above'' energy financing strategy. If enacted, it would be the first permanent change for the financing of clean energy projects in the U.S. Tax Code--potentially, worth billions of new private investment in renewable forms of energy. It is also cosponsored by the Republican chair of the Energy Committee, Senator Murkowski, the Republican chair of the Banking Committee, Senator Crapo, and three other colleagues from across the country. We have five Democrats and five Republicans. It has had a hearing in front of the Energy Committee and a hearing in front of the Finance Committee in previous Congresses. This is the sort of solid, scored bipartisan bill that would be a meaningful step forward in addressing climate change. Senator Lindsey Graham and I have introduced the IMPACT for Energy Act to create a private foundation to support cutting-edge energy research and technology commercialization. Why would we do this? What am I talking about? Well, a guy named Bill Gates, one of the greatest inventors and innovators in American history, wants to deploy private investments and foundation investments alongside the Department of Energy, in partnership with a lot of other individuals, to significantly accelerate the cutting-edge research being done at our National Laboratories through the Department of Energy. This is a tool that several other Federal Agencies already have. It is a so-called private foundation that allows them to marry up private sector dollars--foundation dollars--with Federal dollars to leverage greater impact. This private foundation can go out and raise that additional money and add it to the energy R&D already being funded by the Federal Government. I also want to applaud the hard and bipartisan work of my colleagues, led by Senators Murkowski and Cantwell on the Energy Committee, on a comprehensive energy bill with a wide range of policy ideas that can move us forward. It has several components that I contributed and that would help to address climate change. I very much hope that in this Congress we can finally take up this bipartisan bill and see it signed into law. Last, but in some ways most importantly, I want to mention a bill I offered at the end of the last Congress with my friend and former colleague, the Senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake. Despite our very different ideological, cultural and contextual backgrounds--we are from different States, from different faiths, and from different perspectives on the role of government and society; he is a real conservative, and I am a progressive Democratic--we still managed to come together and introduce a bill that addresses the cost of ignoring climate change and the impact it will have on the people in our home States. We offered the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. It is a commonsense bill to achieve significant and sustained emissions reductions and to help to mitigate the worse impacts of climate change. Our bill would accomplish this by using a free-market approach to pricing carbon pollution that would spur economic growth and put money back in the pockets of American taxpayers. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by a bipartisan coalition. I look forward to reintroducing this bill in this Congress. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act should be the centerpiece of a robust, bipartisan climate agenda because it aggressively tackles emissions while optimizing economic growth and income for working families. We estimate that our bill would reduce emissions by 90 percent by 2050, while creating as many as 2 million net new jobs in the next decade. I believe this is an efficient way to use market forces to address the very real problem of climate change while creating jobs and opportunities for American workers. Frankly, an outright ban on nonrenewable sources would be inefficient and disruptive to workers from all sectors, but, in particular, across the building trades and other vital sectors of employment. In contrast, sending a strong market signal in favor of lower carbon or carbon-neutral energy would spur investment and growth in these technologies by the private sector and lead us toward a lower carbon future through competition. We don't need to choose between clean energy and economic growth or between combating climate change and creating jobs. These two goals are not permanently and mutually exclusive. They can go hand in hand if we craft the right policies. Still, we cannot move abruptly away from an economy that relies heavily on fossil fuels without having a real and coordinated plan for the very people--the millions of Americans--whose jobs will ultimately be impacted by that transition. Fortunately, a gradual transition to a clean energy future can also be an effective job creator. In 2017, the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors alone employed 2.8 million Americans. If we place a price on carbon and then let the market work, we will create jobs across a wide range of industries, occupations, and geographies. As we work to deal with the effects of climate change by moving to a cleaner energy and infrastructure economy--an economy that is more resilient--we will need to rely on workers who are already in place in many of these industries. We will need building trades professionals to construct and maintain our new resilient and clean energy infrastructure. We will need manufacturing workers to build these more energy-efficient products. We will also need scientists and engineers to help research, develop, design, and deploy these new technologies. These workers bring real experience and skills to the table, and we must ensure that these skills translate into new, good jobs and that the workers in these new jobs are able to organize for fair competition, for fair compensation, and for fair work conditions. We can't tackle climate change alone. The United States is the largest historic emitter of carbon dioxide, but our emissions have been declining in recent years. Meanwhile, China has whirred past us, and China and India and other countries are rapidly catching up in their carbon emissions. We need an approach that incentivizes these countries to reduce their emissions as well. The United States is a world leader in science and technology and innovation. We need to develop and advance new technologies--carbon-neutral technologies like small, modular nuclear reactors and carbon capture and sequestration--that we can export. Then we need to find ways to encourage countries like China and India to modernize and industrialize while also reducing their emissions. There is good work taking place in this area, and there are good solutions we can act on together. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a serious, thorough, deliberate, and thoughtful way. We need to be prepared to adapt to the ongoing impacts of climate change. We need to make sure American workers and families aren't left behind or are burdened by Federal climate policy. This administration, unfortunately, strikes me as taking us backward. We are voting on an EPA Administrator in this Chamber who is failing to take action on climate, even on action that is widely supported by industry. Our President just proposed a National Security Council initiative to counter the consensus around climate change and refute the idea that greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment. I shouldn't even need to say this, but that just isn't how science works. That is why, here in the Senate, we need to take the opportunity to lead and to have voices from both parties in Congress and in this country who want to take bold steps to address the climate. The hard part is going to be squaring these big, bold ideas with political reality. That is hard, but there are ways we can do it. Instead of being silent, we should bring this conversation to the forefront. Instead of debating whether climate change is real, we should be passing bipartisan bills, like the ones I have mentioned today, that can meaningfully address climate change and improve our economy. Climate change is a serious threat to our economy, to our security, and to our way of life. We need leadership from all parts of our society and government to tackle it, and we must do our part in the Senate. I look forward to having conversations across the aisle, to working together, to identifying real solutions to the challenges before us, and to creating new opportunities for America's workers. I thank the Presiding Officer. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Drew Story, a science fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 116th Congress.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I rise today to offer brief remarks on the nomination of Eric Miller to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. I have concerns about Mr. Miller's controversial record--some of his ideas and his jurisprudence--which I have spoken to on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which informed my vote against him on the committee. But today, I want to speak about my reservations about this body's moving forward with his confirmation, given that neither of his home State Senators have returned a blue slip. Let me briefly talk about what a blue slip is and why it matters. It is not in the Constitution. It was not something imagined by the Founders. It was something developed by the Members of this body to put one further bumper on the power of the President to nominate Federal judges and then for the Senate to carry out its constitutional advice and consent role. For a long time, it worked fine, and I actually had a terrific experience with the blue-slip process. Don McGahn, as the White House Counsel, and my senior Senator, Tom Carper, and I, when we had a vacancy--two vacancies, actually, in the Federal district court in Delaware--went to our local bar and asked for them to put together a committee to interview potential candidates. We went to the White House Counsel and spoke about the importance of the Delaware district court and the process we were following, and, in the end, out of a very wide pool of initial candidates and the folks who were interviewed by a broad and nonpartisan selection committee of our local bar, we advanced three names to the White House. The White House picked two, and they were ultimately nominated, and Senator Carper and I both returned the blue slips on them. They proceeded. They were both confirmed. They are now seated as district court judges. That is the way this ought to work. Why does it matter? It matters because our States are different. We are the United States, and each of our States has slightly different cultures, traditions, and communities. The point of having a Senate made up of 100 representatives of our 50 States is for each of us to come here and carry forward some of the values and traditions of our States. I am a member of the Delaware bar. It is a bar with a great and proud tradition. It is a bar with a somewhat different culture--a much more collegial culture, I would argue, than many States around us, and it was important to me to be able to advocate to the President, to the White House, for the nomination of folks who would represent the best of our bench and bar. Look, the President and I are in different parties. I understand that we will have different policy positions, but in order to get the absolute best and brightest of the American bar and to have them reflect the values and priorities of the State Senators are elected from, the blue slip was developed. We have had a difficult and divisive and partisan period here in the Senate for as long as I have been here. I don't think it is because I am here, but it has been as long as I have been here--since 2010. We have had a number of regrettable changes in the policies and the practices and the culture of this place, but proceeding with a confirmation vote of a nominee who was not supported by either home State Senator for a circuit court position is unprecedented. I think, before we proceed, this body should stop and reflect on what this means for our future. In a district as small as Delaware, it is likely the Senators actually know the nominees. In a circuit as large as the Ninth, which is the largest, geographically, in our whole country, it is almost a certainty that the Senators will not know the judges nominated by the President to represent their circuit. The blue slip has long been a procedural barrier to the President's nominating people who did not reflect the bench and bar of the States from which they are drawn. The leader is pushing this forward, even over several other nominees pending on this floor. One other piece of the process that brought us to today to a vote on Eric Miller's nomination for the Ninth Circuit that is worth commenting on is that the confirmation hearing on the Judiciary Committee was held while we were not in session. No Democrat was present to question this nominee. The questions that were raised and the comments that were made were only in writing and for the Record, and my understanding is, this questioning is very brief--just 5 minutes before just a handful of Republican Senators, I think two. This young man is going to be given a lifetime appointment to one of the most important judicial posts in our country. Frankly, my own kids have to work longer and harder and answer more questions to get a good grade in high school than this gentleman did in terms of the confirmation process of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I am very worried about the precedent this sets, about what it says--which is that we continue to push past norms and traditions in this body--and about where we are headed. It is my hope that some of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee will work with me in the months ahead to recognize that there is a long, now-bitter path of he said, she said, who shot John, who acted first, which has resulted in changes to the whole nomination process. I think we can yet pull back to a place where those who are nominated are the best and brightest of our country, where, in the process, there are protections for the minority and the majority, and where we can all end up voting proudly for those who are nominated to serve on the Federal bench of the United States. I increasingly hear commentators on cable talking about judges as if you can know how they will vote based on the President who nominated them. So-and-so is described as a Bush judge or a Reagan judge or a Clinton judge or an Obama judge, a Trump judge or a Bush judge, as if that tells you everything you need to know about a judge. It should not. In my State, it doesn't, and it is my hope that we can yet pull ourselves back from the brink of one more step to a place where our judges are seen not as the black-robed individuals dispensing independent justice but as folks wearing blue and red jerseys advancing a partisan political agenda. That way lies disaster for our constitutional Republic. Both parties have taken steps that have led us here. Both parties need to take steps that will heal this, and I intend to vote against the nomination of Mr. Miller because of my concerns about these procedural changes that I think are so destructive. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask by unanimous consent that the attached letter signed by 58 former national security officials, who served under Republican and Democratic administrations, criticizing President Trump's declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on our southern border be printed in the Record.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to offer briefly my remarks on the nomination of William Barr to serve as Attorney General of the United States. This past Thursday, when the Judiciary Committee of the Senate considered him, I was absent, being the cochair of the National Prayer Breakfast. I would like to offer my conclusions briefly here on the floor. I have weighed carefully over several weeks William Barr's nomination to serve as the next Attorney General. Initially, I have to say, I was greatly encouraged that the President nominated a nominee whose service had included leadership roles in the Justice Department, including Attorney General of the United States. However, I believe my responsibility to assess Mr. Barr's candidacy requires me to consider his entire record, including his recent writings, his statements, and his work, and to focus on his ability to actually meet the test of our current time. Having met with him in person, having questioned him during the Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing, having reviewed his record, and having reviewed his written answers to questions submitted for the record, I ultimately believe Mr. Barr does not meet this test. I am not confident that he will uphold the Attorney General's critical role in defending the Department of Justice as an institution and in ensuring that the special counsel's investigation proceeds with independence and, by so doing, restores the trust of the American people in the rule of law. In weighing his nomination, the memo Mr. Barr chose to author in June 2018--and to submit--criticizing the special counsel's investigation into obstruction of justice, I concluded was significant and could not be ignored. Mr. Barr tried to narrow or minimize the import of this memo by saying it was a specific application to a particular statute. The fact remains that his memo is rooted in and embraces an exceptionally broad theory of executive power that could threaten not only the special counsel's investigation but a lot of our current understanding of the scope and reach of Executive power. When I asked him if he had sent other lengthy, detailed legal memos he had researched and written himself to the Department of Justice as a private citizen, he could only cite that one memo from this year, dealing critically with the special counsel's investigation. At his nomination hearing in the committee, I sought simple and concrete assurances from Mr. Barr that he would give the special counsel's ongoing investigation the independence and separation from partisan politics it needs and deserves. In some instances I was genuinely encouraged by his answers. I was glad to hear a forceful answer from Mr. Barr that he would not fire the special counsel without cause and would resign rather than do so, if so ordered. On other issues, however, he failed to give the sort of simple and clear commitment that former Attorney General Elliot Richardson gave at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the period of an important investigation in the 1970s. Mr. Barr would not commit to following the guidance of career DOJ ethics officials on whether he should recuse himself. He would not commit to deferring to special counsel Mueller's investigative decisions. Finally, he would not commit to making special counsel Mueller's final report public. In essence, Mr. Barr is asking the American people and those of us who represent them to trust him to do the right thing. There are reasons to believe that he will, but there are, as I have laid out briefly, reasons to be gravely concerned that he will not. Something my predecessor here in the Senate, Senator Joe Biden, expressed in voting to confirm him back in 1991, was his grave concerns about his expansive view of Executive power, but that was a very different time in our history, with a different Court and a different context. I think we must be clear-eyed about the moment our country faces and the Attorney General's potentially pivotal role in ensuring the integrity of the rule of law and the institutions of our democracy. I believe it is my responsibility in the Senate to protect the special counsel investigation, to ensure that other ongoing Federal investigations are not interfered with because of a narrow or partisan purpose, and to safeguard the rule of law. If Mr. Barr is confirmed, I hope he will prove me wrong. I hope he will demonstrate to the American people of all parties and backgrounds that he will put the interests of our democracy above the moment and partisan priorities. I hope he will prove to be a terrific, solid, and reliable steward for the ongoing investigation Special Counsel Mueller is leading into Russian interference in the 2016 election. If so, I will gladly put aside our policy differences to work with him for the good of the American people during this critical time, but I regret I have reached the conclusion that I cannot support his nomination this week. Thank you, Mr. President. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank my colleagues from Alaska, Maryland, and other States for their willingness to spend so much time talking, listening, and trying, together, to craft a path forward. The role the Senate has historically played in our constitutional order is one where we are the body that others look to when there is either an inflexibility or an unreliability in negotiating a path forward. We have lots of folks across this country suffering from this government shutdown. It is having an impact that all of us could detail. I have to ask, what is it going to take for us to reopen this government? Is it going to take a breakdown in food security or airline security? Is it going to take an increase in crime or terrorism, an accident, or thousands more Americans struggling to feed their families, losing housing or electricity? I will not go on with the list. We all know the human cost of this shutdown. I am here to join my friends, my colleagues from both parties, in saying that we are intent on making a good-faith effort to reopen the government for 3 weeks, to promptly support good-faith negotiations, to address the President's priorities, to discuss what effective, modern investment in border security and changes in immigration policy would look like, and then reach a resolution in 3 weeks or less. We have to be able to do this. We have to show our country and the world that democracy can work. I am optimistic that with the passion and the commitment I have heard from my bipartisan colleagues who stand on the floor with me tonight, that it is possible to get this done and that whatever gets taken up and considered in regular order by this body could then be passed by the House and signed into law by the President. Let us take a first bold step together today and sign on to an amendment that my colleague from Maryland has, committing us to a clean, 3-week continuing resolution, reopening the government, and promptly negotiating in good faith to increase investment in border security. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, the remarks just concluded by my friend and colleague from Tennessee help make it clear why many of us do not look forward to his departure at the end of the upcoming Congress to the better vales of retirement. We are so grateful for the balance and the measured leadership of the Senator from Tennessee. He reminds us of the best of our history and what it is that the Senate has stood for and the role that we play in our constitutional order. I will simply briefly thank him for his remarks. I thank the Presiding Officer for her hard work to make sure this letter was presented to the leaders of both caucuses with 61 signatures. We frankly could have gotten more, but in the press of the work of that day, April 7, 2017, we thought it important to get on the record, in signature, individual Senators saying that we are committed to not change the rules of the Senate on the Senate filibuster rules regarding legislation. I am committed to never voting to change the legislative filibuster. I will simply conclude by saying to my friend, my colleague from Tennessee, that I think there is important work for us to do here to strengthen our role. A number of the retiring Members gave floor speeches in recent days where they talked about the ways in which this body--we do not listen to each other enough, we do not debate each other enough, and we do not work across the aisle enough. If we are to play the role the Founders intended, we must do more of that, not less. The agreement just reached here that will allow us to negotiate in good faith towards a resolution of the impending shutdown--the fiscal standoff between the White House, the House, and the Senate--is exactly the kind of example I would like to point to where Members listen to each other and work out the kind of resolution that allows us to skip dozens of intervening test votes and move right to the resolution. This body has a critical role to play. As my friend and colleague from Tennessee pointed out, rule of law is at the very foundation of our constitutional Republic. We are at a moment in our history where many question the stability of our commitment to the rule of law. Nobody will play a more important role in reassuring our markets, our communities, our society, and the world that democracy--the deliberative, respectful resolution of disputes, not through violence but through debate and through votes by the elected representatives of our people--is the best system for the governance of societies on Earth. No better proof of that can be given than by this body conducting itself in the sort of disciplined, reasonable, appropriate way that the rules of the Senate allow for. Thus, I will not vote and I will suggest that the signature of the Presiding Officer also reinforces that she and many others here, on a bipartisan basis, will not vote to take the rash step of changing the rules of the Senate to turn us into the House and to remove the last bulwark, as my friend and colleague said, that ensures that we have the right to talk our heads off whenever we might so choose. I yield to my friend and colleague, the Senator from Alabama.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I am proud to once again join the Senators from Arizona and New Jersey on the floor to ask for a vote on the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. We have come three times now to ask for a vote--just a vote--on this bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel and support the rule of law, a bill which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 14 to 7, including with the support of Chairman Grassley, to be considered on the floor. Each time we have come here, there has been an objection from a Republican colleague. Each time, we have heard a reason or an excuse-- something like: This legislation just isn't needed. The President is not imminently going to fire the special counsel. To those who believe this bill is still unnecessary, I could give a thorough survey of the landscape of recent days, but let me simply summarize. There have been a whole series of filings and actions and developments in the Mueller investigation that have made clear that the President or his National Security Advisor or his personal attorney lied to the FBI or lied to the American people, misrepresented the scope and depth of the President's business contacts in Russia during the campaign or misrepresented to the FBI ongoing contacts with Russians. This is an effective and ongoing Federal investigation that must be allowed to reach its conclusion. Meanwhile, the President continues to spread misinformation and undermine the investigation into Russian attacks on our election. He recently suggested, with no evidence, that the special counsel and his team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion, tweeting, the ``Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.'' I know many of us have begun to shrug our shoulders at the President's tweets, ignoring the ways in which his messages publicly undermine the rule of law or discredit and attack Federal prosecutors. I know some Members of this body have proved willing to dismiss each new piece of information the special counsel uncovers as if it is no big deal. Folks, this is not politics as usual. This is not something we should be sweeping under the rug. This is about the integrity of our democracy, our national security, and the President of the United States. It is critical that this body demonstrate our ability to come together in a mature and responsible bipartisan way to do something about it--not to sit by and watch a potential constitutional crisis barreling toward us and refuse to step up and act. Our job as Members of the Senate, sworn to uphold the Constitution, is to take reasonable, responsible, preventive action to avoid this sort of crisis that we can see coming. I am so grateful to my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats--Senators Graham, Tillis, Booker, Grassley, Feinstein, and Flake--who have worked to craft this bill, to get it a hearing, to get it a vote, and to get it to the floor. Yet I am so frustrated with those who continue to block the last step, a vote on the floor. Just last night, we saw the broadest possible coalition of Senators-- from Senator Booker and Senator Lee to Senator Durbin, Senator Graham, and Senator Grassley--come to this floor and lead a successful final vote on criminal justice reform. If we can do that, overcoming decades of divisive politics on race and criminal justice, why can't we do this? This cannot wait. The moment to act is now. The American people deserve an explanation as to why we can't act on this most important point. Mr. President, before I yield the floor to my colleague of New Jersey, I want to conclude with a few words about my colleague and my friend Jeff Flake. When we look back at the history of this time, with the hindsight of history, it is my hope and it is my belief that Senator Flake will be recognized as someone who put country over party at a moment when it mattered. He follows a long line of Republicans whose mettle has been tested by the turmoil of their times--names I was raised on, such as Wendell Willkie, the Republican's nominee for President, who agreed to support President Roosevelt's controversial plan to send aid to Britain at a turning point in World War II, even though it was the height of a Presidential campaign. Without his support, the plan would have failed. FDR called him a godsend to our country. Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, stood up to Joe McCarthy in 1950, a decade later. When she issued her ``Declaration of Conscience,'' she was just a freshman. Last, Barry Goldwater, also from Arizona, along with Republican leaders went to the White House in August of 1974 to make it clear to the President that he had lost their support and needed to resign. I am a proud Democrat, but I know that no party has a monopoly on courage or conscience. Our system only works when Members of both parties take risks for the good of us all. I have been deeply blessed to serve alongside and to work with Senator Flake. It is my hope that his example will inspire others in the Congress ahead to come together and to meet the demands of our time--protecting the rule of law, protecting the investigation of the special counsel. Taking up and passing this law is exactly one of those demands on which he has stood up and for which I am grateful for his leadership. With that, I yield to my colleague from New Jersey.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I am proud to stand before you today to honor my dear friend and colleague, Senator Flake of Arizona, and to pay tribute to his remarkable work here in the Senate as this optimistic evangelist of democracy. I have been asked a fair amount in recent weeks about my friendship with Jeff--with Senator Flake--whose political beliefs differ very widely from my own. Yes, Senator Flake is a staunch conservative, and if you took a score card of the things on which we have voted the same or believe the same, there would not be a ton of overlap. But he is also a patriot. He is a patriot who deeply loves our country and is willing to work across the aisle to stand up for the values and principles that have made our Nation the greatest on this Earth. Our friendship stems from a foundation in similar experiences and similar worldviews formed at the same time. We are almost exactly the same age. As you heard in his remarkable farewell address, time spent in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa as a young man truly shaped him and his view of the United States and our place in the world. At just about the same time, I was spending time in Kenya and South Africa having very similar experiences. This period in our young lives shaped our sense that this democracy is special, is important, is worth fighting for, and requires greater sacrifice of us than might be obvious here in the comforts of the United States. Because of these shared experiences, we understand the ways--when our democracy is dysfunctional, when the world sees gridlock, especially today, especially on the continent we have both come to know and love in Africa--that there are competing models for how to organize a society that is rising in their visibility and their confrontation and their competition with our own. We know democracy matters, and believe we have to fight for it. We respect each other and listen to each other, and over the years, I have been blessed to have the chance for us to work together. In a time marked by division and partisanship, Senator Flake rightfully recognizes that we need to get back to a time when compromise was rewarded rather than punished, when we worked together to do what is right rather than what is politically expedient. Senator Flake has spent his career doing just that, unafraid to stand up for what is right--even when it is hard, even when it is inconvenient, even when it might go against President or party. He deeply respects our rule of law and has been willing to take risks for it. He worked toward broad bipartisan immigration reform and stood up for the independence of the Federal Reserve. He has helped to pass legislation to promote free and fair elections and political and economic reforms in Zimbabwe, where we have both traveled together twice, as well as to a dozen other countries. He has come and stood on this floor time and again to demand a vote on legislation to protect the special counsel and to prevent an imminent constitutional crisis. He has taken risks and opened his heart in a way determined to help us come together rather than be torn apart, and for that, I am eternally grateful. Whether meeting personally with world leaders or fighting for the people of Arizona here on the Senate floor or advocating for new policies in committee, Senator Flake's courage and his convictions have always been evident. His service as a Senator stands as a model and a challenge for many of us in this Chamber. I look back fondly on our 6 years serving together. I was chair of the Africa Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee when he first arrived, and he succeeded me in that role. That has given us opportunities to flee from elephants in Mozambique, to dine with dictators in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, and to advance democracy on continents we have come to know and love. This year alone, we have been to nearly a dozen countries as we have tried in a bipartisan way to advance America's interests in places around the world where other models of governance are on the march. His leadership, his engagement, his deep respect and admiration for the people of Africa will be sorely missed in this Chamber and impossible to replace. For me, personally, I will miss his humor, his friendship, his kindness, and his leadership. I know him as a decent, earnest, and kind man and a great husband and father, who loves nothing more than his talented wife Cheryl and his children, Tanner, Dallin, Austin, Alexis, and Ryan. He has also been blessed with a very talented staff who have worked tirelessly and been great partners in legislation and in service. My high view of his character comes, I will remind you, in this divided context, despite differences in our States and backgrounds, divergent voting records and different specific faith backgrounds. But all of that is wrapped up in a shared commitment to evangelize for democracy. Despite our differences, I believe Senator Flake has exemplified how Washington and this Senate should work, particularly when it comes to respecting each other, holding true to our core values and principles, and defending them here and around the world, yet listening to each other and being willing to trust each other. I only wish I had the blessing of Senator Flake's partnership in this Chamber for 6 more years, but it gives me hope thinking of the impact he will undoubtedly have on our country and world in the years to come. I know he has so much more good left to do, and I look forward to supporting him in whatever path he chooses to accomplish that goal. I want to close with some words Senator Flake spoke on this floor more than 1 year ago in announcing his decision to retire rather than seek reelection. He said: [T]o have a healthy government, we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity, and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man and always look for the good. Until that day comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it because it does. Senator Flake, thank you. Thank you for being unafraid to speak out for what is right, what is true, and what is just, and to risk friendship with this junior Senator from a much smaller State on the other side of the continent. Thank you for your service and your friendship. I yield the floor.