Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. The net result of this has been the announcement by the administration that, come Sunday, we will see mass arrests and deportations in this country. Reports from the New York Times are that thousands will be rounded up, arrested, and deported. When possible, they say, family members will be arrested together and will be held in family detention centers. Have these people committed crimes since they have been in the United States? There is no evidence of it. It is simply the fact that they are undocumented at this moment, and many of them may have lived here for years. These arrests and mass deportations are going to create fear in communities across the United States, including in the city of Chicago, which I am honored to represent. For what? It will not make America safer for us if we deport these people. Sadly, it is going to mean that their families will be torn apart and that there will be more children and families in detention. We were told there was a humanitarian crisis and that we needed to apply ourselves and make certain that we had billions of dollars to deal with it, and we did. Now the administration has turned around and announced a new wave of splitting up families and deporting them from the United States. This is not what America is all about. There is a way for us to deal with immigration in a sensible, thoughtful, rational way. Cruelty has no place in the history of this country, and it has no place when it comes to the treatment of those who are in the United States today. 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 New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), 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 New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for votes Nos. 202 and 203. Had I been present, I would have voted nay on the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Peter C. Wright to be Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid Waste, Environmental Protection Agency. I would have also voted nay on confirmation of the Wright nomination.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) 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 New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, just a few minutes ago, four young people from the State of Illinois visited my office. They were a variety of different ages, from 10 years of age to the age of 17. They all came because they had a similar life experience, and they wanted to share it with me. Each one of them had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Ten-year-old Owen from Deerfield told a story--the cutest little kid; great reader; read me a presentation that he put together--and the young women who were with him all talked about how their lives changed when they learned at the age of 7 or 8 that they had type 1 diabetes. For each one of them, from that point forward, insulin became a lifeline. They had to have access to insulin, and they had to have it sometimes many times a day, in the middle of the night. It reached a point where, through technology, they had continuous glucose monitoring devices and pumps that were keeping them alive, but every minute of every day was a test to them as to whether they were going to get sick and need help. It was a great presentation by these young people, whose lives were transformed, and their parents, who were hanging on every word as they told me their life stories. They brought up two points that I want to share on the floor this afternoon. The first is the importance of medical research. As one young woman said--she is about 17 now. She has lived with this for 8 or 9 years. She said she is a twin, and her brother told her when she was diagnosed that he hated the thought that, as an old woman, she would still be worried about her insulin every single day. She said: I told my brother ``We are going to find a cure before I am an old woman.'' Well, I certainly hope that young girl is right, but she will be right only if we do our part here on the floor of the Senate and not just give speeches. What we have to do is appropriate money to the National Institutes of Health. It is the premier medical research agency in the world. We have had good luck in the last 4 years. I want to salute two of my Republican colleagues and one of my Democratic colleagues for their special efforts. For the last 4 years, Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri; Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee; and Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, have joined forces--I have been part of that team too--to encourage an increase in medical research funding every single year, and we have done it. The increase that Dr. Collins at NIH asked for was 5 percent real growth a year. That is 5 percent over inflation. Do you know what we have done in 4 years? NIH has gone up from $30 billion to $39 billion. Dramatic. A 30-percent increase in NIH research funding. We are going to have a tough time with this coming budget, as we have in the past, but I hope we really reach a bottom line, as Democrats and Republicans, that we are committed to 5 percent real growth in medical research every single year so that we can answer these young people who come in dealing with diabetes, those who are suffering from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's--the list goes on and on--that we are doing our part here in the Senate; that despite all the political battles and differences, there are things that bring us together, and that should be one. The second point they raised--one of the young girls there, Morgan of Jerseyville, started telling me a story about the cost of insulin. As she was telling the story about the sacrifices being made by her family to keep her alive, she broke down and cried. What she was telling me-- her personal experience, her family experience--was something that every family with diabetes knows: The cost of insulin--charged by the pharmaceutical companies--has gone up dramatically, without justification, over the last 20 years. In 1999, one of the major insulin drugs--called Humalog, made by Eli Lilly--was selling for $21 a vial. That was 20 years ago. In 1999, it was $21 a vial. The price today is $329 a vial. What has caused this dramatic increase? There is nothing that has happened with this drug. It is the same drug. And, I might add, Eli Lilly of Indianapolis, IN, is selling the same insulin product--Humalog--in Canada for $39. So it costs $329 in the United States and $39 in Canada. These families told me they were lucky to have health insurance that covered prescription drugs. That sounds good, except they each had large copays--$8,000 a year. And what it meant was that for this young girl, this beautiful little girl who was in my office and who has juvenile diabetes, they would spend $8,000 a year at the beginning of the year for 3 months of insulin before the health insurance kicked in and started paying for it. Of course, there are families who aren't so lucky--they don't have health insurance to pay for their drugs. So what are we going to do about it? It happens to be something the Senate is supposed to take up. We are supposed to debate these things and decide the policy for this country. We will see. Very soon, we will have a chance. A bill is coming out of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and we will have a chance to amend it on the floor and to deal with the cost of prescription drugs. I will have an amendment ready if my colleagues want to join me--I hope they will--on the cost of insulin, and we will have a chance if Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, will allow us--it is his decision. We will have a chance to decide whether these kids and their families are going to get ripped off by these pharmaceutical companies for years to come. It isn't just insulin; it is so many other products. It is time for us to stand up for these families and their kids, to put money into medical research, and to tell pharma once and for all: Enough is enough. Insulin was discovered almost 100 years ago. What you are doing in terms of increasing the cost of it for these families is unacceptable and unconscionable.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, if you are a baseball fan, and many of us are, this is a big day--the day of the All-Star game. I would like to spend just a few moments reflecting on an important issue for the fans of baseball across America. Thirty-five million people every year enjoy one of America's great summer experiences--seeing a game at a Major League Baseball park. Fans join their friends and family to eat hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, and so much more. We sing the national anthem together at the start of the game and ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game'' at the seventh inning stretch, a tradition started by a man named Harry Caray in a place called Wrigley Field. Some--the more dedicated fans--keep scorecards of home runs, RBIs, and earned run averages. Sadly, there is another statistic that has been seeing more and more attention lately--injuries to fans. A Bloomberg report from 2014 estimated 1,750 fans suffer injuries in Major League Baseball parks every season. Some are hit by balls; others are injured trying to escape being hit by a ball. This is far too many. On May 29, a 2-year-old girl was hit by a foul ball at Houston's Minute Maid Park. She suffered bleeding, bruises, and brain contusions from the ball's impact. Her skull was fractured. She continues to suffer seizures. What makes her injuries even more disturbing is that they likely could have been prevented had the safety netting behind homeplate been extended. Cubs outfielder Albert Almora, who hit the ball, was so devastated by the little girl's injuries that he could barely speak. One will never forget the image of his head bowed, crying, when he saw the damage that was done to this innocent little 2-year-old girl by a foul ball that he hit. What did he say afterward? ``I want to put a net around the whole stadium.'' In the weeks following, we have seen more injuries in the stands. On June 10, a woman was struck by a line drive at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago. Two weeks later, a young woman was hit by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. A survey by the polling organization FiveThirtyEight found that 14,000 more foul balls were hit in 2018 than 1998, and there is just no way--no way--for fans to entirely protect themselves. Here come these baseballs at 105 miles an hour off the bat. Even if you are watching it intently, you just can't protect yourself or the people you love who are watching the game with you. Bryant Gumbel made that point on his cable TV show on this very subject. If fans can't do more, baseball teams can. In 2017, after a child was hit by a line drive at Yankee Stadium in New York, I wrote a letter to Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. I urged the league to extend safety netting at all Major League Baseball stadiums past the home plate to the far edge of each dugout. To their credit, the league did exactly that. It is now clear, however, that is not enough. The little girl at Minute Maid Park was 10 feet beyond current netting. In June, the Chicago White Sox became the first Major League Baseball team to announce it is going to extend netting to the foul poles. Let me tip my hat to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, for leading the way with this safety measure. The Washington Nationals, the Texas Rangers, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are all planning to do the same, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are conducting a study before making a protective strategy permanent. I commend all these clubs for their leadership and commitment to fan safety, but I think we need more. We need a leaguewide standard. Last month, my colleague from Illinois, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and I wrote to Commissioner Manfred calling on all 30 Major League Baseball teams to extend the protective netting to the right- and left-field corners. Folks who complain that extending the safety netting to the foul poles will create an obstructed view ignore the obvious--right now, the most expensive seats in baseball are behind the nets, and people don't complain. It is something you get used to, and you can get used to the safety of it as well. We should be reminded that the most expensive and popular seats have been behind netting for decades. In 2002, a 13-year-old girl named Brittanie Cecil died after being struck in the head by a hockey puck at a National Hockey League game in Columbus, OH. The National Hockey League responded quickly, ordering protective netting behind the goal. Major League Baseball should show equal concern for its fans. Ensuring the safety of fans at baseball stadiums is a tradition that stretches back to 1879, when the Providence Grays put up a screen behind homeplate to shield fans from the area that was called ``the slaughter pen'' at that time. The increasing number of fans hit by balls makes it clear that new safety standards are needed at ballparks. Today, we will see Major League Baseball's finest players at the All- Star game. Baseball fans deserve the best too. I urge Commissioner Manfred and all baseball teams to extend safety netting at Major League Baseball parks to the foul poles. Let's not wait until next season. Increasing fan safety is a win for everyone.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this week, the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, has scheduled a vote on a nominee to fill a Ninth Circuit seat based in California. But the nominee, Daniel Bress, is a Washington, DC, lawyer who has only lived in California for 1 year since high school. Mr. Bress checks many of the usual boxes that we see for Republican judicial nominees: He is very young--only 40 years old--he has a track record of representing big corporate interests, and he is a longtime member of the Federalist Society. But what is new and different about this nominee is that, by any reasonable standard, he is not a member of the legal community of the State in which he would sit if confirmed. Mr. Bress is listed by the California bar as an out-of-State attorney. He belongs to no legal societies or organizations in California. He has only worked on a handful of matters in California courts. He doesn't own property in California or even have a California driver's license. Mr. Bress's nomination is opposed by California's two Senators, neither of whom have provided a blue slip. He was reported out of the Judiciary Committee with opposition from all committee Democrats. To my Republicans colleagues, I say this: The vote on the Bress nomination will set a precedent that could come back to haunt your State. Any Senator who votes to confirm Mr. Bress is giving their blessing to a process that could cause an out-of-state attorney to be seated in a circuit court judgeship in your own State, over the objection of your State's Senators. There are thousands of well-qualified attorneys living and practicing in California whom the Trump administration could have selected for this California-based Ninth Circuit seat. They bypassed all of them in favor of a Washington, DC, attorney with minimal California ties. There have been many breakdowns in the Senate's process for confirming judicial nominees under this Republican majority. If the Senate votes to confirm Mr. Bress, it would represent yet another new precedent that diminishes the Senate's advice and consent process. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy), 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 Delaware (Mr. Coons) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.