Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, the disability rights movement is one of the great civil rights achievements of our time, and Chicago's Marca Bristo was that movement's Rosa Parks. Marca was a visionary and inspiring leader, who helped change Chicago and change the world when it came to the rights of the disabled, and she was my friend. Sadly, Marca died last week in her adopted hometown of Chicago at 66 years of age. In typical Marca style, she worked right on up to the few days before her death, trying to bend the arc of history just a little more toward justice before she drew her last breath. I was happy to join my colleague Senator Tammy Duckworth this week in sponsoring a resolution honoring Marca's life and work. I would like to take a few moments on the floor today to remember this amazing woman. While most Americans have never heard of Marca Bristo, few lives went untouched by her lifelong quest on behalf of people with disabilities. She was a nationally and internationally acclaimed leader in the disability rights movement. She helped to write and to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which outlawed discrimination against the estimated one in four Americans with disabilities, and she spent the rest of her life making sure the ADA was faithfully implemented. Along with leaders like Justin Dart, Marca changed the way Americans thought about disabilities. She persuaded us to view the disability experience as a civil rights issue, not just a medical issue. To Marca's mind, what kept many people with disabilities from leading full lives was not their disability but the barriers they faced. What needed to change, she said, was not the person with disabilities but those obstacles that blocked their path. The problem was not that her wheelchair was too wide for certain doors; the problem was the doors were too narrow for her wheelchair. Remove the barriers, and people with disabilities can lead rich and full lives and make enormous contributions. That is part of what Marca taught me. She was tough, smart, funny, determined, and fearless. She knew how to motivate others and how to build coalitions. Her parents actually named her Marcia, but during her freshman year in college, a classmate called her Marca. She liked it, and it stuck. She moved to Chicago and earned a nursing degree from Rush University College of Nursing in 1976. In 1977, when Marca was 23 years old, working as a labor-delivery nurse at a Chicago hospital, she and her friend were sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, when a dog grabbed her favorite pair of sandals and ran into the water with them. Marca dove in to retrieve her shoes, not realizing the water was shallow. She broke her neck and was paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life. Because of her paralysis, she lost her job, her health insurance, her home, her car, and the ability to navigate the city she loved. She thought she would never work again, but luckily the director of Northwestern University's Prentice Women's Hospital thought otherwise and convinced her to return to nursing. At one point, she attended a work conference in San Francisco and saw for the first time an abundance of curb cuts--curb cuts that enabled people with disabilities to cross the street. It was an eye-opener for Marca. As she later wrote: No longer did I see curbs or stairs or inaccessible buses and bathrooms as a problem around which I needed to navigate. Rather, I saw them as examples of societal discrimination-- and felt a responsibility to get involved to help people with disabilities, in Illinois and beyond. In 1980, Marca founded Access Living in Chicago, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people with disabilities live as independently as possible rather than warehoused in institutions. Access Living led the fight to make public transportation in Chicago more accessible. Marca was not a shrinking violet. In 1984, she joined others, chaining themselves to Chicago Transit Authority buses. She ended up getting arrested, and they ended up filing a lawsuit in reply against the transit agency. Her determination led to the installation of wheelchair lifts and critical changes to CTA buses and rail stations. Access Living became a disability leadership model for other cities around the country and around the world. In 1992, Marca cofounded the National Council on Independent Living, which she led for many years. In 1993, President Clinton named her to head the National Council on Disability. She was the first person with a disability ever to hold that post, and she held it until 2002. She was elected president of the U.S. International Council on Disabilities and traveled around the world advocating for people with disabilities and their families. She participated in the negotiation for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a global accord based on the Americans with Disabilities Act. More than 160 nations have signed that treaty, including the United States. Sadly, this Senate has failed to ratify that treaty. I worked hours and hours with Marca to try to win the votes in the Senate for this bipartisan measure to help people with disabilities. We even brought former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, a World War II hero and a father of the ADA, to sit on the floor of the Senate when we cast the votes on this treaty. Unfortunately, it did not pass. Marca called July 26, 1990, the day President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, ``Our Independence Day.'' On that day, she said: This ragtag army of people who couldn't see, hear, walk and talk did what everyone said couldn't be done. We passed the most comprehensive civil rights law since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In a 2015 video interview for Rush University Medical Center, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Marca said: ``The law for the first time enshrined in federal law that disability is a normal part of the human condition, and the world needed to change.'' In July 2017, days before another ADA anniversary, Marca was again fighting for justice. She was 1 of more than 60 who were arrested for protesting against the proposed deep cuts in the Medicaid Program that had been included in a Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As the Capitol Police wheeled her away, Marca raised a clenched fist and smiled. That is how I am going to remember her: optimistic, determined, even against long odds. Days after her arrest, another American hero with a disability, John McCain, came to this floor and in the well of this Senate, shocked his party and the Nation by becoming the deciding vote against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I like to think my colleague from Arizona, John McCain, saw in Marca Bristo and her determined friends the same courage he had witnessed so often in our military. My wife Loretta and I extend our condolences to Marca's husband of 32 years, Bob Kettlewell; their two children, Samuel and Madeline; her granddaughter, who was born in June; to Marca's sister Gail; and to her countless friends and colleagues. Marca made the lives of hundreds of millions of people better. I am going to miss her warm smile, her wise advice, her vision, and her courage.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), 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 Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Wyden) 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 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 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 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, I thank my colleague from Michigan and those who have joined together on the Democratic side to speak out on the issue of gun safety this afternoon and this evening. I guess one of the real blessings in life is to have a grandchild, and I have got six really good ones. One is a little girl who has just entered the third grade in a public school in Brooklyn, NY. She is a sweetheart, and I love her to pieces. She came home to tell her mom and dad last year, when she was in the second grade, that they just had a drill in her classroom, and they told her what to do if someone showed up in the hallway or outside with a gun: hide under the desk, stay away from the windows. To think that little 7-year-old girl had to receive that kind of warning in America today breaks my heart. Why? Does anyone really honestly believe that when the Second Amendment to the Constitution was written they envisioned the fear that would go through the minds of children who, after Connecticut, worry that some shooter will come in with a semiautomatic weapon and kill dozens of kids in one moment? That is the reality of gun violence today. That is one of the realities, and it is one that just breaks my heart as a father and grandfather. Over the past few weeks, our Nation has been rocked by mass shootings in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa, TX, that left 38 victims dead and dozens more injured. According to the Gun Violence Archive, so far this year there have been 300 mass shootings. That means shootings where more than four people were shot in one event. This is in addition to the daily toll of gun homicides, suicides, and accidents that kill nearly 40,000 Americans a year. Every week, I see the grim statistics of people killed and wounded by gunfire in my home State of Illinois. Just this past weekend--just this past weekend, in Chicago, at least 8 people were killed and 19 more injured by gunfire. Gun violence is an epidemic in America. It affects communities large and small. I have met countless people who have lost loved ones or who have been traumatized by gun violence. Millions of Americans now live in fear that when they send their kids--or grandkids--off to school, when they go to a movie theater, a concert, or to church, or even when they sit on their front porch, they could be shot. This is unacceptable. America is better than this. There are many people in this great Nation who are doing all they can to try to reduce the epidemic of shootings--parents, community leaders, teachers, faith leaders, law enforcement, the medical community, and public officials, but what are we doing in the U.S. Senate? The answer is nothing--nothing. There is no single reform that can prevent every shooting, but we know there are big gaps in our gun laws that make it easy for felons, abusers, and mentally unstable people to get their hands on guns. Closing these gaps and loopholes in our background checks system would significantly reduce shootings and save lives. It is estimated that 22 percent of gun sales nationwide currently occur without a background check. Now, I know the critics say: Oh, great, Senator. You are going to have better background checks. Let me tell you, the people who want these guns are not going to go through that process. It turns out that, last year, 100,000 of them were ignorant enough to try, and they were caught in the act. They had been disqualified from purchasing a firearm under Federal law, and yet they made that try. Why would we ever let them successfully buy a firearm? Without a real background check, they will. Gun show and internet loopholes are the problems that haunt us today. They enable unlicensed sellers to make sales without even checking on the background of the buyer. According to news reports, the gunman in the Odessa, TX, mass shooting bought his gun through a private sale with no background check because he previously failed a check. Clearly, there is a gap in the law that needs to be closed. Polling consistently shows that 90 percent of Americans support closing these gaps in the background check system. How many other issues do 90 percent of Americans agree on, to have that kind of number, for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents? The people of America are trying to tell the Senators to do something, and yet Senator McConnell refuses. Even the conservative Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has called for closing these gaps in the background check system. I hope the Senators from Lieutenant Governor Patrick's State are listening. The House of Representatives have listened, and they have done so. The bipartisan House background check bill, H.R. 8, passed the House 240 to 190, on a bipartisan rollcall on February 27. Here we are, over 200 days later. The Senate, which does virtually nothing every single day, through Senator McConnell's leadership, refuses to even consider this bill. Senate Republicans refuse to even consider the bipartisan House-passed gun safety legislation that Americans of both political parties overwhelmingly support. In fact, they are avoiding taking up any bills at all. Week after week after week, we vote on nomination after nomination after nomination. We hardly ever debate. We hardly ever vote on legislation to address the needs the American people say are the primary concerns on their minds. While Republican leadership in the Senate these days doesn't seem to like to vote, they do like to tweet. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised when one of our Republican colleagues, the junior Senator from Texas, responded to a recent mass shooting by tweeting criticism of gun laws in the city of Chicago. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding by this Senator and some other Republicans who believe that, despite what the maps show us, Chicago is actually an island. Well, it is not. They seem to think there is no way that people could actually drive 20 minutes into northwest Indiana, go to a gun show, buy a truckload of guns, and sell them in the alleyways of the city of Chicago at night. It happens. It is the reason why a State law can't solve the problem. Chicago's mayor--my friend--Lori Lightfoot, pointed out the obvious to the junior Senator from Texas. Sixty percent of illegal firearms recovered in Chicago come from out of State. That is why we need a Federal background check reform bill like the one that passed the House. Mayor Lightfoot is right. She graciously invited Senator Cruz, our colleague, to come visit Chicago, to see that it is not an island--it is connected to other States--and to see what the city is doing, trying to work to reduce the scourge of gun violence, and how Republican Senators, if they really want to help, can help by passing legislation for true background checks. I hope that the Senator from Texas accepts the invitation. It is a great town. We would like to show it to him. Another area in which this do-nothing Senate has fallen short is when it comes to public safety threats posed by violent White supremacists. I have introduced the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. It is the only legislation pending in the Senate to address White supremacist violence. The gunman in the August 3 mass shooting in El Paso posted a White supremacist manifesto before he shot and killed 22 people and injured 24 others at a Walmart. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. An unclassified May 2017 FBI-DHS joint intelligence bulletin found that ``white supremacist extremism poses [a] persistent threat of lethal violence.'' It also found that White supremacists ``were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 . . . more than any other domestic extremist movement.'' At a July hearing, FBI Director Mr. Wray told me that the majority of domestic terrorism arrests this year involved White supremacists, White nationalists--and now they call themselves White identitarians, whatever that means. It is clear that violent White supremacists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing America today. What have we done to address this? Nothing. Just like H.R. 8, just like the gun safety legislation, which we should be considering, Senator McConnell refuses to bring anything before the Senate. My bill, cosponsored by 21 Senators, including the Democratic leader, Senator Schumer, would establish offices to combat domestic terrorism at the Justice Department, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security. These offices will be required to take concrete steps to prevent domestic terrorism, including assessing and publicly reporting on domestic terrorism threats, focusing limited resources on the most significant threats, and providing information, training, and resources to assist State and local and Tribal law enforcement. This would produce a sustained and coordinated effort with significantly more resources directed towards combating White supremacist violence. It would make America safer. It is time for the Senate Republican majority leader, Senator McConnell, to let the Senate be a Senate, to actually debate. I stand tonight on the floor--and I am honored to be here, but let's face it, I am giving a speech to a largely empty Chamber in the hopes that some following the speech on C-SPAN or reading it later may take some information of value from it. I would much rather be engaged in a debate at this very moment on H.R. 8, how to pass it--if necessary, how to amend it--but to do something to respond to gun violence in Chicago, in Illinois, and across the entire United States. It is time for Senator McConnell to let the Senate be the Senate and vote on the House-passed gun background check bill. We need to take up other critical legislation as well to prevent gun violence and domestic terrorism. I hope he will consider my bill to address White supremacist violence. This legislation can make us safer and save lives if we can just bring it to a vote. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobacher), the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Schatz), 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 Delaware (Mr. Coons), 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 Delaware (Mr. Coons), 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, I rise today to pay tribute to my friend Michael Bauer, who died in late August after a battle with cancer. You couldn't miss Michael--he was the outspoken, critical ally of scores of boards and organizations in the LGBTQ community of Chicago; the first call they made when they needed an effective advocate. When the conversation turned to political friends and foes, issues of the moment and candidates in the hunt, he never had a private thought or waited his turn to share it. And when the music started, Michael was the first on the dance floor. I met Michael more than 20 years ago as a downstate Congressman running for the U.S. Senate. After an introductory dinner with Michael, his partner, Roger, and my wife Loretta, Michael gave me a passing grade, but I always knew he liked Loretta more. His name was first on the list of must-calls for political candidates. But if you only knew the public side of Michael, you might not have known the fire inside that drove his life. Over time we became friends, and that friendship led to trust between us. Michael shared with me the private stories, the journey of his life. At the center were his parents, survivors of the Holocaust who spent their whole lives facing the memories of friends and family who perished. Michael knew that they were victims of forces they did not have the power to control. He was determined to know more about the cruelty and hate they faced. This search took him to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he carefully reconstructed his family's experience. Michael believed that through these efforts, his mother, Tema, now 103, was given back the real story of her life in a war that sent her to slave labor camps. He said with this research his mother's entire memory of the horror of the Holocaust was validated. This search for the truth was personal to Michael as the Jewish son of a survivor and as a gay man who knew the Nazis targeted and murdered homosexuals as well. Personally facing the massive loss of life in the Holocaust, I think Michael felt a special pain with the AIDS crisis. I remember when he told me that fellow members of a board he served on were still not taking care to protect themselves. He was truly saddened as he feared for their fate. But if life had been cruel to his family and the world outside could be perilous, Michael had one constant, one protector. He talked to me so many times about Roger, truly the center of his life, his partner, his love, and ultimately his husband. For me, it was a personal insight into a loving relationship at a level I had never before witnessed so closely. I could not imagine Roger without Michael, as now we must. When it came to the world of politics, Michael willingly, frequently shared his opinion of every candidate and every issue. No one escaped his penetrating, outspoken scrutiny. But Michael was always ready to help his friends, often in memorable ways. In 2000, with Joe Lieberman as the first Jewish candidate for Vice President, Michael and Roger made a point of heading to Los Angeles for the convention. When they heard I had an event planned there, they insisted on giving me a ride from the hotel. When they arrived in their rented convertible, Michael and Roger were properly dressed in muscle t-shirts and ready to drive through Beverly Hills. As we cruised through Wilshire Blvd and Rodeo Drive, Michael insisted on prepping me for the upcoming Gore-Lieberman campaign--he taught me valuable Yiddish words and phrases. Michael was always there with advice for his friends. In 1996, we celebrated my first Senate election night together. I remember his trademark smile and the tears in his eyes. After I was elected to the Senate, Michael wasted no time bringing an issue to my attention. It was not an ask for a job or a contract or anything that would benefit him personally; he asked if I could find time to visit the Howard Brown Health Center on Halsted. Of course I agreed--how could you say no to Michael? The visit led to a conversation where Michael looked me in the eye and said the Howard Brown Center was critical in fighting the AIDS crisis. He told me of friends who were afraid of other health venues and afraid to face the realities of their lives. Howard Brown was their best chance and for some, their only chance. He wanted me to see firsthand the impact of the AIDS crisis in our country. Michael Bauer used his knowledge and connections to help others, to protect others, to fight a deadly crisis that was burying his friends. In his heart, Michael was a caring, loving person who used his talents and his access to help those on the outside of the halls of power. Loretta and I join Roger, Tema, Michael's extended family and so many friends in mourning the loss of Michael. Farewell, Michael. You will be missed.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Margaret Blackshere was a trailblazer as the first woman to serve as president of the nearly 1-million strong Illinois AFL-CIO. In July, she passed away at the age of 79, and I rise today to honor her memory. I share the privilege with countless others to call her a friend. Margaret and her sister were raised by their single mother, Frances, and Aunt Margie in North Venice, IL. Her mother made sure her daughters knew that they could do anything. There were no boy chores or girl chores; there were just chores. Laundry and rewiring a lamp were normal activities. She started off studying to be a nun, but she changed course and ended up studying elementary education at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Her religious convictions remained an essential part of her life, but education was her calling. After college, Margaret began teaching in a school in Madison, IL. She and her fellow teachers were making only $3,000 a year and weren't treated with respect, but they noticed that the steelworkers and mineworkers in the area were respected and doing well because they belonged to a union and worked together to secure better working conditions. Margaret and her colleagues decided they needed to form a union and demand adequate pay from the superintendent. The superintendent refused so Margaret took action and organized a 5-week strike. One small issue--because she and the other teachers were public employees, their strike was illegal. Margaret and her colleagues were jailed, but the jail only had two cells. This meant that every day, Margaret arrived at the jail with her children, ages 3 and 5, and every night, she went home because there wasn't enough space. Her fellow teachers saw her dedication and elected her president of the teachers' union in Madison. Margaret went back to Southern Illinois University to earn a master's degree in urban education. She became focused on issues about children living in poverty. Her work with the union and its attempts to earn greater pay for teachers opened the door to politics. She began working on local election campaigns. It wasn't just about money anymore; it was about having a voice. With her hard work, Margaret was elected vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, IFT, and chair of its legislative committee. Eventually, Margaret reluctantly gave up teaching, which she loved so much, and became a lobbyist for the IFT. She worked in Springfield to improve the salaries and working conditions of teachers. Margaret also began building networks and alliances. In 1993, the Illinois AFL-CIO needed a secretary-treasurer. Margaret was easily elected because she was respected by so many people from her time campaigning and working for the IFT. In 2000, Margaret became president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. When Margaret came into office, she inherited a staff of 25. None of them was a person of color. The executive board had no women on it. Illinois AFL-CIO also didn't have health insurance that covered well-baby care or mammograms. Margaret brought these benefits into place. She also transformed the executive board by making it more diverse. Before long, seven African Americans, two Latinos, and eight women had positions on the board. Under Margaret's leadership, the Illinois AFL-CIO helped lead the fight to raise the State's minimum wage--not once but twice. She led efforts to guarantee women equal pay for equal work, to expand healthcare, and to improve Illinois' workers' compensation system. Margaret excelled at bringing people of different backgrounds together to achieve goals. She used to say, ``If you've got a good cause, people will join it.'' She helped create Transportation for Illinois with the Illinois Automobile Asphalt and Pavement Association, the Chicago Transit Authority, and other businesses, organized labor, industry, governmental, and nonprofit organizations to support strong transportation investments for Illinois. The groups may have fought each other on a host of issues, but she gave them a unified voice for infrastructure. Margaret devoted much of her life as well to charitable organizations and served on many boards, including the Illinois branches of United Way and the American Red Cross, Alliance for Retired Americans, Voices for Illinois Children, Unemployment Insurance Advisory Board, and the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago. She served as an inspiration to the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership alongside my wife, Loretta, encouraging and training women to become effective leaders in Illinois. Over the years, Margaret received more awards and accolades than can be recounted here. She was delighted to be the guest of honor for Chicago's St. Patrick Day Parade in 2003. Margaret loved celebrating her Irish heritage. Loretta and I will miss her great humor and her willingness to always wish others well unless they were playing her beloved St. Louis Cardinals. Margaret is survived by her two sons, Michael and Thomas; her sister, Patricia; and four grandchildren.

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 there was a significant development when it came to public health and our children in America. By way of preface to what I am about to say, I want to make clear that I have, during the course of my service in the House and the Senate, focused a great deal of my efforts on tobacco, the addiction that people have to tobacco cigarettes, and the deadly consequences of that addiction. My family has been touched by it, as most have in America. I lost my father when I was in high school. He smoked two packs a day and was a lung cancer victim. We buried him at the age of 53. I remember it to this day. I am not alone. Literally, thousands of Americans--millions, perhaps--have a similar story to tell. So from the beginning of my service in the House of Representatives, I started looking for ways to deal with this scourge of tobacco cigarette addiction. Many years ago-- over 25 years ago--I introduced a measure that banned smoking on airplanes, and to my great surprise it managed to pass the House of Representatives. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey was on the Appropriations subcommittee with the responsibility. He took it on in the Senate, passed it, and we made it the law of the land, banning smoking in airplanes. I didn't realize--and I am sure Senator Lautenberg didn't--that we had triggered a tipping point or reaction that led to banning smoking in so many other venues. Ultimately, we have now reached a point where no one would consider walking into my office and lighting up a cigarette or even asking for permission to light a cigarette. It is just unthinkable. But 25 years ago it was common. So things have changed. But what has happened is that Big Tobacco, having lost its marketplace position and lost its profitability, has moved to a new product--e-cigarettes and vaping. This company, JUUL, which is the largest provider of e-cigarette devices in the United States, has a huge stock ownership in tobacco companies. This is their new venue, their new approach. But much as with tobacco cigarettes, the vaping industry is counting on addicting children so that they can build their ranks, addicting teenagers. Tobacco cigarettes did the same with Joe Camel and the Marlboro cowboy, and now we see the same thing occurring when it comes to e-cigarettes and vaping. The previous Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Gottlieb, characterized it properly when he called it an epidemic. We now have 3 percent of American adults who are using vaping devices, 20 percent of America's teenagers and children using vaping devices. It is a new school year, and many of these students are heading off to middle schools and high schools with new backpacks and maybe new laptops and new lockers and new teachers and new classrooms and new friends and a new addiction--the addiction of vaping. Vaping targets kids. They are introducing flavors that can be mixed with this vaping experience that appeal directly to children and teenagers in this country. How in the world can you imagine that someone who is a 50-year-old chain smoker trying to quit is going to choose a flavor pod called ``Unicorn Milk'' or ``Bubble Gum'' or ``Gummy Bears''? They are all out there. They are designed to lure children, and, sadly, they are effective. For months now I have been begging this administration and the Food and Drug Administration to do something about this epidemic, and until this week they did little or nothing. But this week was a breakthrough. The Food and Drug Administration announced early this week that they were going to stop JUUL from advertising that their vaping products were a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes. The reason is obvious. We have hundreds and hundreds of vaping victims now showing up in hospitals. As of last night, the sixth victim in America died from a vaping experience. Why? Because they are ingesting into their lungs, in these huge clouds of vapor and smoke, chemicals that are killing them, chemicals that are stopping their lungs from functioning. They don't realize it at the time; it is just another wild experience. They are told, by the way, by JUUL and others that it is safer than tobacco cigarettes. It is not safe. It is deadly, and it is an epidemic in this country. This week the American Medical Association stepped up its role, and I want to commend them. Dr. Patrice Harris, the President of the American Medical Association, released the following this week: In light of increasing reports of e-cigarette-associated lung illnesses across the country, the [American Medical Association] urges the public to avoid the use of e-cigarette products until health officials further investigate and understand the cause of these illnesses. She goes on to say: The e-cigarette-related lung illnesses currently sweeping across the country reaffirm our belief that the use of e- cigarettes and vaping is an urgent public health epidemic that must be addressed. We must not stand by while e- cigarettes continue to go unregulated. We urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speed up the regulation of e- cigarettes and remove all unregulated products from the market. We also call on the FDA to immediately ban flavors, as well as marketing practices, that enhance the appeal of e- cigarette products to youth. The Food and Drug Administration Commissioner has the authority today--before the sun sets on this 9/11 anniversary--to ban these flavor pods that are attracting children and adding to this epidemic in our high schools and middle schools across the United States. This Food and Drug Administration Administrator, Dr. Ned Sharpless, has the authority to take off the market scores, if not hundreds, of vaping devices that have been introduced to the public after the official date of deeming last year. He can do it today. It would have a dramatic effect starting tomorrow. He could start enforcing it with the retailers across America if he cared and if he were serious. Now we have an opportunity to test him and to test this administration. Will they go the next step in warning America's schools, teachers, families, and children about this epidemic and the deadly consequences of ignoring it? Will they take these products off the market this week? That is my challenge to them and to every American parent who dearly loves their child and cares about their health. I hope they will join me in this effort to urge this administration to take decisive action for children across America. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), 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 Colorado (Mr. Bennet), 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 Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), 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, let me say at the outset, I join with the sentiments expressed by the Senator from Oklahoma and our colleagues on the floor, starting with a moment of silence until this last speech, in remembering the historic American significance of September 11. The fact that both political parties came together shows there is hope that when it comes to this Nation and its values, what brings us together is a powerful force. Today it is the force of memory, the force of promise, and the force of the future of this country. I want to salute my colleagues, particularly my friend from Oklahoma for his moving statement about families in his State touched by this tragedy.

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 Delaware (Mr. Coons), 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 Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.