Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Udall), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Mr. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Mr. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Masachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we find ourselves in the usual December doldrums. We are somewhere between the end of the baseball season and the beginning of spring training. It is a time to reflect and a time to dream. A familiar offseason refrain from many die-hard Chicago Cubs fans is, ``Wait `til next year'' or ``next season will be different.'' Well, next season will indeed be different as Cubs fans will not, in the immortal words of Steve Goodman, be able to ``catch it all on WGN.'' Chicago Cubs baseball is moving to the new Marquee Sports Network. I want to take a moment to honor WGN's long-standing commitment to unsurpassed sports coverage and their historic partnership with the Cubs. I think it is safe to say that, for the most part, Cubs fans are an optimistic bunch. We have endured some very tough seasons and the longest championship drought in Major League Baseball. Of course, in 2016, the Cubs rewarded their fans with a World Series championship, the first in more than a century. Throughout much of that century, fans could count on watching their favorite team on ``Chicago's Very Own,'' WGN-TV. In fact, for 72 years, WGN helped spread the thrills of Cubs baseball through player milestones, including Mr. Cub Ernie Banks' 500th homerun, pennant races, October baseball, and more than a few lean years. The Cubs game on April 23, 1948, wasn't a particularly memorable one. They lost 1-0 to the rival St. Louis Cardinals. History was made not on the field but in the broadcast booth as WGN-TV aired its first Cubs game and set in motion the longest baseball-TV relationship in baseball history. Since then, WGN-TV has aired 7,115 Cubs games, reaching fans across the country and around the globe. It was a great risk for the Cubs to start airing all their games on television. What if people stopped going to games and only watched from home? After all, WGN-TV made it feel like you were at the game. The Zoomar lens brought long shots and close-ups into focus as a television cameraman swung quickly from views of the whole diamond to close-ups of batting, pitching, and action in the bullpen. But the gamble was worth it. The Cubs drew 1.2 million fans to Wrigley Field in 1948, despite losing 90 games that season. It became a tradition for kids to come home after school to watch the Cubs on WGN. Hall of famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, and a host of Cubs stars became household names to fans across the country. Many a big leaguer today will tell stories about watching the Cubs on WGN-TV and dreaming of playing at Wrigley Field. Generations of fans grew up knowing the sights and sounds of WGN-TV's Jack Brickhouse yelling, ``Hey-hey!'' or Harry Caray's ``Holy cow!'' and his famous rendition of ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'' Both of these hall of famers informed, entertained, and thrilled us for decades with their play-by-play. They dazzled in the booth even when the action on the field fell a bit short. WGN legendary producer/director Arne Harris was behind the scenes from the 1960s through 2001, bringing us baseball history from Wrigley Field. A distinguished list of announcers also graced the WGN-TV broadcast booth including Milo Hamilton, Lou Boudreau, Vince Lloyd, and Lloyd Pettit. Today, Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies faithfully continue that tradition and are our trusted guides to Cubs baseball. They will continue, along with WGN-TV director of production and author Bob Vorwald, on the new network in 2020. I want to take this opportunity to thank WGN-TV president general manager Paul Rennie and all the good people at WGN who brought us the sights and sounds of the Cubs and the Friendly Confines for 72 years. In addition to those already mentioned, we acknowledge longtime sports editor Jack Rosenberg, who routinely pulled off the impossible in support of the telecast; directors Chris Erskine, Jack Jacobson, Bill Lotzer, Skip Ellison, and Marc Brady; and videographer Joe Pausback. My friend, Shaun Sheehan, was WGN's ambassador to Washington and to the Congress for nearly three decades. And countless assistant directors, technical directors, camera operators, audio engineers, video shaders, and sales, business, and station executives, including Jim Tianis, Frank Leone, Mike Aiello, Scott Jones, Steve Casey, Mike Clay, Mark Stencel, Marty Wilke, Errol Gerber, Marissa Rudman, Jake Fendley, Mark Boe, Jeff Shaw, Ward Quaal, Joe Loughlin, Dennis FitzSimons, Peter Walker, John Vitanovec, Tom Ehlmann, Greg Easterly, Jim Dowdle, Sheldon Cooper, Jim Zerwekh, Bob Ramsey, Tom Boyd, and Terry ``Whitey'' Pearson truly made Cubs baseball on WGN-TV special. As Bob Vorwald said just before the final games on WGN, ``We want to tip our hat to Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray and all the people that have announced and the thousands of men and women that have worked on the games. But, the best way to do that is by having a great telecast. That's always been our mission, and it's important that we uphold that to the very end.'' As WGN-TV and all the people who made Chicago Cubs baseball telecasts possible sign off, let me join the countless fans in thanking them for creating an American standard of broadcasting excellence.

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this week we are going to be voting on some appropriation bills. They are rather large. They call them minibuses. But there will be six or eight appropriations bills bunched together, and they will include things other than strictly spending measures. One of the areas that will be addressed is the age that you must reach to purchase tobacco and vaping materials in the United States. It is known euphemistically as T-21, and I have supported it for years. The notion of raising the purchasing age to 21 for these products, to me, just makes sense. We know that they are addictive. Both cigarette tobacco and vaping materials have nicotine in them, a highly addictive chemical. Raising the age of purchase across the United States to 21 makes sense. But I am disappointed as well. Although I originally sponsored this bill, there have been several revelations in the last few months, which call for us to move far beyond the idea of establishing a new age for purchasing these products, and let me be specific. One of the things we have been working on is trying to address the shocking increase in the use of vaping materials and e-cigarettes by young people across America. It has been called a public health epidemic, not by a politician but by the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. That Commissioner told us, as well as the Surgeon General of the United States, that this is an issue that cannot be ignored. Today, we estimate that nearly 30 percent of school-age children are vaping--more than 5 million kids across America. A group of young high schoolers came in to see me from New York last week and said: Senator, you are all wrong. In our schools it is a majority. A majority of the students are vaping, not only outside of the school, but even in the classroom. They have hooked up vaping devices to the clothing that they are wearing, and when the teacher turns his or her back on the class, they are puffing on their vaping materials-- their Juuls--and blowing the white vapor into the air of the classroom. It sounds incredible, but they told me it is true and it happens all over the school--in the restrooms, in the cafeteria, in the classrooms. The reason it is happening is that so many students are vaping now and it is an addiction. As these students continue to vape, their appetite for the product grows. Kids are using these products for many reasons, and I can get into the psychology of it for a minute, but let me dwell on the obvious. The flavors that are being sold on these vaping materials are designed for them--to attract children to Juul's products, to flavors like Cotton Candy, Unicorn Milk--whatever the heck that is--Cool Mint, Mom's Sugar Cookies, and, yes, Menthol. According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 80 percent of children who vape start with a flavored e-cigarette. Now, the vaping industry says: Oh, you have got it all wrong. You see, this is a non-tobacco product which people can use to get off cigarettes. Well, that sounds pretty noble; doesn't it? We want people to move away from something more dangerous, like tobacco cigarettes. But when you look at the incidence of people using this product, it is miniscule in terms of adults with a tobacco addiction moving to vaping products, and the number of children and young students moving from non-vaping to vaping is dramatic. As I mentioned, the official figures are 30 percent of high school students. According to the Food and Drug Administration, one of the things that is luring young people to this behavior is the flavoring or the flavor pods. Does anyone believe these flavors are intended for some 50-year- old chain smoker who wants to give up on tobacco cigarettes--flavors like Farley's Gnarly Sauce, Bubble Purp by Chubby Bubbles, Blue Razz by Candy King, Cotton Candy by Zonk? Some 50-year-old is attracted to Cotton Candy by Zonk? We know better. These flavor pods are made for kids--to attract kids, get them started, get them hooked, and make them lifelong customers. Together with bipartisan colleagues, I have pressed the Food and Drug Administration and the White House for years to put an end to these kid-friendly flavor pods. Well, the tobacco giant Altria--it used to be Philip Morris, if I am not mistaken--stepped in and bought the lion's share of the stock of Juul, the most prolific producer of vaping devices in the United States. Altria knows this business and how to attract kids because they used to make Marlboro cigarettes. Remember that cowboy designed to appeal across the board, particularly to young smokers? Well, now they have a new gig. It is called vaping, e-cigarettes, and Altria has bought in in a big way. They have been taking out ads to support raising the Federal age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Wait a minute. A tobacco company wants to raise the age for purchasing the products? They do. They see it as inevitable, but it is also part of their market strategy. That is the same policy I have supported, and I thank my colleagues Senator Schatz and Senator Kaine for joining in the effort, along with Senator Romney. But what we have seen is that Altria has invested $13 billion to acquire a 35-percent stake in Juul, which controls more than 70 percent of the vaping market. Tobacco is big in vaping. Altria and Juul together now believe that if the only thing we do is just raise the tobacco age to 21, they will be in the clear and they can avoid the scrutiny for their targeted efforts to hook kids on e- cigarettes. I disagree. I have made clear that any T-21, ``Tobacco to 21'' policy must be coupled with meaningful provisions to get rid of the e- cigarette flavors now addicting our kids, but they have turned to one of their allies, Senator McConnell, on this effort, who was an original sponsor on T-21. His party resisted the effort to join the banning of flavor pods for e-cigarettes as part of the T-21 bill in our appropriations bill. I fear that the spending bill will come before us and include just the T-21 policy, and that of course doesn't address what is happening with vaping among children in America. If we are serious about sparing Americans, particularly our kids, from addictions to nicotine, it has to reach beyond tobacco cigarettes to vaping. It is a mistake not to do so. The public health community agrees with me on that. Any serious solution to skyrocketing rates of youth e-cigarette use must include the removal of kid-friendly flavors--not just the tobacco industry's preferred policy--and I will continue to work with Members on both sides of the aisle in pushing to do so. Finally, let me say on this subject that on September 15, President Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office on this subject of vaping. Sitting next to him was the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump. She doesn't often stand up on political issues, but she is the mother of a teenager, and she decided to speak out against vaping. I thanked her. I praised her along with the President. They did the right thing, but now we are not sure where the President is on this subject. We are not sure if he is going to continue his effort to end the scourge of vaping and e-cigarettes. I hope the President comes back to the position he announced in September. We need his help to ban these flavor pods. The recent appointee as FDA Commissioner, Stephen Hahn, has told me personally and many of my colleagues that he thinks this is a serious issue. I believe he ought to be given the authority to exercise his legal right and power to stop these pods and stop these devices as quickly as possible. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is hard to believe that in this Nation of immigrants we have such a broken immigrant system, but it is a fact. We have addressed so many problems in this system over the years. A few years ago on the floor of the Senate, we passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which didn't survive in the House of Representatives. So it is no surprise that, on a regular basis, we face challenges when it comes to our existing immigration laws. One of the most serious challenges is the green card backlog in this country. To try to describe it in just the simplest terms, under the current law, in my estimation, there are not nearly enough immigrant visas--also known as green cards--available each year. Each year in America, there are 226,000 family green cards available and 140,000 employment green cards available. That is 140,000 each year for a nation of 350 million people. So many of those who are aspiring to get a green card and ultimately move to a permanent resident status and citizenship wait and wait and wait for the day to arrive. Children in many of these families who are from workers currently in the United States on things like the H-1B visa age out when they reach the age of 21, and they are no longer protected by their parents' presence. So they are at risk of being deported, even as they go into their teenage years. It is a horrible situation. It is really a heartbreaking situation. I have come to meet and know many of the families affected by it. We are trying to deal with this green card backlog with the reality of current politics in Washington. Under the current political environment, there are limitations on what we can do. My response is to increase the number of green cards that are available each year so we have more than 140,000 available. There are currently at least 800,000 people waiting for 140,000 green cards to come up each year. As a consequence, we are in a predicament, where we don't have nearly enough green cards for the people who are waiting for them. I would increase that number, but politically that is not going to happen. The President doesn't agree with that position, and many Republicans in the Senate and the House don't agree either. Senator Lee and I have confronted this issue, coming at it from different perspectives. Initially, we were at odds on how to approach it. I objected to a bill he brought to the floor; he objected to a bill I brought to the floor; and then we sat down to talk. The bill I brought to the floor, as I mentioned earlier, would increase the number of green cards, would make sure that the families would be protected from deportation while they are waiting and would allow them to travel and to change jobs. That is called the RELIEF Act. I have introduced it. It has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Shalala. It is a bill I still support and would like to see pass. That is my preference. It is not a bill that would pass in the Senate at this time, so Senator Lee and I sat down to try to find common ground, if we could, on an approach that might work to deal with the backlog in a humane fashion and to protect the families during the course of that. We have come up with a proposal which I think moves us in the right direction. It is an agreement between us--a bipartisan agreement--which we are now hoping to offer to the Senate for consideration as quickly as possible. I will very quickly state a summary of what it tries to achieve. It protects immigrants and their families who are stuck in the green card backlog I mentioned. Immigrant workers and their immediate family members would be eligible for what is called early filing for their green cards. Immigrant workers would not receive their green cards early, but while waiting, they would be able to switch jobs and travel without losing immigration status. The amendment includes a critical protection from the RELIEF Act that protects the children of immigrant workers from aging out of green card eligibility while the family is waiting so they will not face deportation. Green card set-asides for immigrant workers stuck in the backlog overseas are provided. The amendment reserves 4,600 green cards on an annual basis for immigrant workers stuck in the backlog overseas and not eligible for early filing. The number is based on the actual or, at best, approximate number of the actual number of people who applied for employment green cards from overseas each year. Third, it addresses abuses in H-1B temporary work visas. The first thing Senator Lee and I want to make clear is that we are committed, first and foremost, to American workers getting jobs. In those circumstances where American workers with certain skills are not available, we have what is known as the H-1B visa. Working with Senator Grassley, what we tried to do is to come up with a bipartisan way of strengthening that system. Included in the strengthening of this amendment is a 50-50 rule, which says that the amendment would prohibit a company from hiring additional H-1B workers if the company's workforce is more than 50 employees and more than 50 percent are actually temporary workers. I personally believe those companies are suspect, and this bill raises that question. The 50-50 rule, as I mentioned, is from a bill Senator Grassley and I introduced. It was part of comprehensive immigration reform. The reality is, there is abuse in the H-1B system. We don't try to solve every aspect of it, but we do address what we consider to be one of the starting points of the problem we currently face. Here is where we are. Senator Lee and I have reached a bipartisan agreement on what we think is a reasonable approach, and we want to make sure it is acceptable to our colleagues to move forward. I have been working on the Democratic side; Senator Lee has been working on the Republican side. We don't believe we can get it done at this very moment, but we are hopeful to get it done very quickly. The reason is obvious. These families affected by this backlog are really going through hardships and concerns no family should face. The sooner we resolve them, the better. As I have talked to many of these families, they have asked: Why don't you sit down with Senator Lee to see if you can reach an agreement? I did. We have. Now I hope we can move forward. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.