Cory Gardner

Mr. GARDNER

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I just want to make sure that people understand we are tracking a 1 a.m. vote before I get into some of these bills. Again, we are tracking a 1 a.m. vote.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 467, S. Res. 454.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the committee-reported amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 474, S. Res. 567.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 470, S. Res. 523.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. GARDNER

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, the Senate is considering landmark legislation. I call it that because it is indeed landmark legislation, but also it is about the great landmarks of our Nation. We have a chance to lead this country this week with a historic package of bills. The Great American Outdoors Act combines the Land and Water Conservation Fund--our crown jewel of conservation programs--with the Restore Our Parks Act, legislation which would help to make a dent--help to catch up on our deferred maintenance backlog throughout our National Park System. It is more than just our national parks, though; it addresses the needs of our National Forest System, our Bureau of Land Management lands, Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Bureau of Indian Education. This legislation affects all four corners of Colorado, but it also affects every part of this country. In fact, this chart shows a map of the States that get support from the Great American Outdoors Act, shown in green. The States that don't get support from the Great American Outdoors Act are highlighted in orange. It may be hard to see because there are no orange-highlighted States. Every State in the Union receives support through the Great American Outdoors Act, from sea to shining sea. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Restore Our Parks Act, and the Great American Outdoors Act will provide billions of dollars in opportunities for recreation, hiking, fishing, camping, conservation, and access to lands that the public already held but didn't have access to until the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Ninety-nine percent of the land and water conservation funds go to lands the American people already hold, inholdings within a national park. In fact, one of the most recent purchases the Land and Water Conservation Fund performed in Colorado was in Rocky Mountain National Park, acquiring one of the land holdings within the national park, helping to complete the great Rocky Mountain National Park, the third most visited national park in the country. This legislation gives this Congress a chance to lead on a bill that affects everyone, from Maine to California, from Texas to Alaska, from Maine to Hawaii, Hawaii to Utah, Utah to Alaska, and beyond. I know there are some who believe this is a Federal land grab. That simply is not true. As I mentioned, 99 percent of the dollars in the Land and Water Conservation Fund go to purchasing inholdings. There are some who believe this is mandatory spending. Remember how this bill was passed. In 1965, the Land and Water Conservation Fund was authorized at $900 million a year. It was authorized to take certain dollars over time, and it became $900 million, but it only reached that level twice in the history of the program. Throughout the past 55 years, though, dollars had been diverted away from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. What this legislation does through its permanent funding is make sure the dollars we authorized beginning in 1965 and reaffirmed by this Congress in the permanent authorization in the John Dingell Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act by a vote of 92 to 8--to make sure those funds would not get diverted and to stop funds from being syphoned off and instead go to what they were intended to go to in the Land and Water Conversation Fund beginning in 1965. We have an opportunity to stop that diversion. This is not new. This is paid for--not by the taxpayers but by oil and gas revenues. These dollars are generated from the revenues that come from offshore. Those energy revenues--the boat excise tax, the boat fuel excise tax, and a couple of other allocations--it is not coming from the taxpayers. It is an opportunity to protect our land, our most precious spaces, to catch up on our deferred maintenance of national parks, and to make sure we are doing that across the country without costing the taxpayers money. This land is purchased. There is no Federal land grab. There is no eminent domain. They don't use eminent domain for this. There is no premium that the Federal Government gets to buy land to crowd out other people. There is a formula that is used that doesn't allow for premiums. So this, indeed, is another stick in the bundle of property rights for landowners. We also know the positive impact this bill has right now on our economy. You know, when we started working on this legislation, we were talking about its economic impact and what it would mean, but we were talking about it in terms of the overall outdoor recreation economy, which in Colorado is $28 billion and growing. There are 5.2 million Americans employed in the recreation economy. When COVID hit, we saw what happened in western Colorado as ski slopes shut down 2 months early and as hotels and restaurants emptied. This bill will create over 100,000 jobs, restoring our national parks, repairing trails and forest systems. It does so at a time when we have high unemployment rates in those communities surrounded by public lands because of the shutdown as a result of the coronavirus. This is an economic and jobs package as much as it is a conservation package. For every $1 million we spend in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, it supports between 16 and 30 jobs. It is our chance to not only protect our environment, to catch up on deferred maintenance, but also to grow our economy when our economy needs the growth. After spending the last several months in the great indoors, it is time to get out to the great outdoors, and this bill accomplishes both of those goals. It is historic in another way. We received support from over 850 groups across the country representing significant spectrums of purposes and ideologies, from sportsmen, to The Nature Conservancy, to all the groups who touted this effort. This is a list of over 850 groups strongly supporting this legislation. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter from these 850-plus organizations be printed in the Record

Mr. GARDNER. There is another historic feature I am particularly grateful for, and that is, the previous Secretaries of the Interior have signed a letter to Congress urging the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. This letter includes two Secretaries of Interior from Colorado--Senator Ken Salazar, who was Secretary of the Interior under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, and Secretary Gale Norton, who was the Interior Secretary under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. This letter was sent to us on June 3, 2020. It is a historic letter with six previous Secretaries of the Interior signing on to it, including Secretaries Zinke, Jewell, Kempthorne, Norton, and Babbitt. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter from the Secretaries of the Interior be printed in the Record

Mr. GARDNER. We have a chance to lead. We have a chance to show the American people that Congress can work together. We have a chance to show the American people that indeed Republicans and Democrats can come together for the good of their country to provide great things for future generations. Despite the bickering seen on nightly talk shows, this Congress can come together and pass the Great American Outdoors Act, which can restore faith in our government to do what people hope we will do, and that is to come together and to work together and to inspire each other with those dreams of previous generations who protected our lands and had the idea and forethought to create national parks, to create national forests, to say that there are places in our great land that can and should be enjoyed for generations to come. It is also about ballparks and swimming pools because not all of these dollars go to purchase land. In fact, here is a photo of a ballpark in Pueblo, CO. Runyon Park was funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We have swimming pools across Utah and Alaska that were funded through it as well. States determine a great portion of it. Listed here is Paradise Sports Park in Paradise, UT. It sounds like a great place. In 2015, $80,000 was used for that park in Paradise. In Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, there is the Kenai soccer park in the city of Kenai, which received $321,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Let's lead. Let's inspire. Let's show the American people that, indeed, from sea to shining sea, across America, the beautiful, the Great American Outdoors Act can stand as a testament to a Congress that realizes generations ahead of us need for us to work for them as well. I will end this with a quote from the Father of Rocky Mountain National Park, who said: ``Within National Parks is room--glorious room--room in which to find ourselves, in which to think and hope, to dream and plan, to rest and resolve.'' I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the motion to proceed, the rollcall vote we are about to take. I would encourage my colleagues to vote yes I yield the floor.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. GARDNER

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

Mr. GARDNER. Madam President, thank you to my colleagues last night for an incredibly strong vote, 80 to 17, on the motion to proceed to this debate on the Great American Outdoors Act. We have a lot of work ahead of us this week and obviously a lot more debate to take place. But one thing is certain, we have taken the first step toward a historic bill that protects our public lands, that enhances the incredible work that our national parks do and the policies and goals and ideas they represent around this great Nation. The Great American Outdoors Act combines two long-held values of both our national parks and the Nation's crown jewel conservation program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Restore Our Parks Act, of course, establishes a fund to set aside dollars to catch up with our backlog of projects that needs to be done, the deferred maintenance backlog in our national parks. It sets up about a $1.9 billion a year fund to work on roads and visitor centers and the resources that are being loved to death at parks across the country. It is beyond just parks, of course. It also funds our Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, now headquartered in Grand Junction, CO, and our Fish and Wildlife Service properties, as well as the Bureau of Indian Education. This act will create jobs; it will create opportunities; but most importantly, it will enhance the resources that this country loves for generations to come. The second part, of course, of the Great American Outdoors Act is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. You can see here, the monument, the Great Sand Dunes National Park. This one right here shows the Land and Water Conservation Fund along the scenic San Juan Byway. This is an incredible opportunity for us to preserve the Land and Water Conservation Fund, make it permanently authorized, as we have done through the John D. Dingell Conservation Act, but also permanently fund it through the Great American Outdoors Act. This is a great opportunity for us to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. That bill that permanently authorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund passed 92 to 8. Last night, the cloture on the motion to proceed passed 80 to 17. This is not a red or blue issue. This is not a left or right issue. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is an American people issue, an idea the American people instituted in this country centuries ago and, in the case of our Forest Service, a century ago--over a century ago. The opportunities to protect our public lands is significant this week, historic this week, one of the greatest conservation achievements that this Congress will have had in decades. I want to turn to a little bit of the work that we have done in Colorado with the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This is an incredibly important opportunity for us because not only will it help with our most precious places, but it also helps provide access to land that we already have, owned by the American people, public lands that are already held by the American people, but we have no way to access them. In fact, it is estimated that we have an area the size of Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky Mountain National Park is the third most heavily visited park in the country. We have an area of land the size of Rocky Mountain National Park that is held by the public. It is owned by the public, but they can't get to it. They have no access to it. So the Land and Water Conservation Fund is a tool that can be used to provide access to those lands for hunting, for fishing, for hiking, for recreating. And if you look at that economy, if you look at what it means to our State, it is billions and billions of dollars in economic activity. It is hundreds of thousands of jobs in the great State of Colorado. Across this Nation, it is over 5 million jobs. That is the importance of having new access to places to hunt, to fish, to hike, to recreate--those opportunities. If you go back to the picture of the sand dunes here--I talked a little bit about it last night--we were able to purchase the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, which is a key part of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It preserved an ecosystem that helps keep the sand dunes in place. It is important to recognize that this isn't just about protecting the sand dunes. This isn't just about saying ``All right, the sand dunes go from point A to point B, and we are going to protect everything in between'' because the entire ecosystem in the San Luis Valley plays a role in the formation of the Great Sand Dunes in this particular area, and the way the water is underground creates a charge, basically, that gives into the sand the particulates, and it is what holds the sand in place. Without that water that is underneath the sand dunes, the sand dunes simply blow away because they don't have the static charge, basically, to keep them in place. So we are able to use the Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve areas around the sand dunes that preserve that precious resource for the San Luis Valley that keeps the sand from blowing away. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people visit this area of Colorado. They spend money at hotels; they spend money at restaurants; they spend money at the sporting goods shops; and it helps grow the economy. While it has been closed for a while, it is back open again. People are starting to get back out and to travel and to spend those dollars. Colorado has benefited from 38 LWCF projects totaling $281.2 million over the last 50 years at the Great Sand Dunes, the Uncompahgre, over at the Arapaho and Roosevelt, the Gunnison, the Rio Grande, Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, and beyond. If you look at the list of LWCF projects that have benefited our local communities, it is page after page of ballfields and parks and water projects and recreation opportunities in counties from corner to corner across our great State. If you dial in a little bit closer to Rocky Mountain National Park-- as I mentioned, the third busiest park in the country--Rocky Mountain National Park has about $84 million--a little over $84 million--in deferred maintenance backlog. This bill will help overcome that. We need to rehabilitate the Alpine Visitor Center developed area. The highest paved road in North America is Trail Ridge Road, going through Rocky Mountain National Park and up to the Alpine Visitor Center, where you have an amazing, expansive opportunity to learn and to recreate. We need to resurface Beaver Meadows Road, to improve the visitor safety and visitor access at several trail heads, to rehabilitate the East Water System and Moraine Park Campground, to construct an emergency operations center--those are the kinds of things that we continue to work on at Rocky Mountain National Park. At Mesa Verde--now, not everybody has been to Mesa Verde National Park, but think about this: It was established in 1906, well over 100 years ago, to preserve and interpret the archeological heritage of the ancestral Pueblo people, who made it their home for over 700 years-- from 600 to 1,300 current events. Today, the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites-- 5,000 archeological sites--and 600 cliff dwellings, some of the most notable and best preserved dwellings in the United States. We have to continue our work. There is $76 million in backlog at Mesa Verde Park alone; Black Canyon of the Gunnison, nearly $8 million in backlog; Great Sand Dunes National Park, over $8 million in backlog. We know we have additional Land and Water Conservation Fund efforts that we could protect, preserve, and promote with the passage of this bill. I am just going to--and I know we are going to have more conversations today--talk about the economic benefit of this. In March, as the first waves of coronavirus started to pose the economic impact that we are dealing with today, some of the very first places hit in terms of economic impact were the Western Slope areas of Colorado-- areas that had their ski season shut down months early, areas that had hotels empty and restaurants closed months earlier than they otherwise would have. Of course, now we are into the summer season, and the summer recreation season has expanded dramatically, thanks to the bipartisan work the Congress has done over the past several years. Now those restaurants see fewer numbers and hotels see fewer numbers because it is now affecting the summer recreation season. This bill--the Great American Outdoors Act--comes at a time to provide new jobs to those communities that have lost jobs. In fact, it is estimated that we will create over 100,000 jobs in just the parks part of this legislation alone; that for every $1 million we spend in Land and Water Conservation Fund and outdoor recreation, we are going to create between 16 and 30 jobs; that it supports the creation of between 16 and 30 jobs for every $1 million spent, at a time when America needs it most. We have a chance to pass a bill--the Great American Outdoors Act--to create jobs, to create economic opportunity, to create the hope we need in communities across this country that have spent the last 3 months not in the great outdoors but in the great indoors, and they are ready to get back to life. There is no greater life than the opportunity to get out and enjoy the blessings of God's labor. I want to thank my colleague Joe Manchin of West Virginia, my colleague Steve Daines from Montana for the great work they have done to get this bill to the floor this week. Obviously, Senator Portman and Senator Warner and Senators Alexander and King and Senators Heinrich and Cantwell have played an incredible role. We have a lot more votes this week, and I hope my colleagues will continue to support this opportunity to grow our economy, protect the outdoors, and make this beautiful part of our country last for generations more I yield the floor.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Washington for her leadership on our great public lands and the bill, the Great American Outdoors Act, that we will be voting on this week and debating into next week. What an historic occasion for the U.S. Senate. We don't often have the chance to make history. This week, we do. So thank you to the Senator from Washington. June is, of course, the Great Outdoors Month. Since 1998, when President Clinton started with 1 week of the Great Outdoors Week, it has since expanded and has been observed every year, beginning with those Great American Outdoors Weeks in 1998 to the entire month of June celebrating that we do today. This week, we are debating landmark legislation, the Great American Outdoors Act, that brings two ideas together that have been worked on by so many of my colleagues in this Chamber for so long. I introduced this legislation with Senator Manchin, along with so many other bipartisan champions for the outdoors and our great public lands and spaces. The Great American Outdoors Act combines $1.9 billion a year for 5 years for deferred maintenance at the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, which is now headquartered in Grand Junction, CO, and the Bureau of Indian Education schools, and permanent annual funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the crown jewel of our conservation programs, at $900 million per year. Let's revisit how we arrived at this historic moment. Last year, the Senate came together, in bipartisan fashion, and passed the most significant conservation measure in over a decade. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, among other things, included the permanent authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Congress had established the LWCF in 1965, with the idea of using revenue generated from offshore energy development to fund improvements on public lands at no cost to the taxpayer. I repeat that again--at no cost to the taxpayer. The LWCF has increased access for Americans everywhere to hunt, fish, camp, and enjoy recreation activities on their public lands, the lands we own and hold as a country. It has protected and expanded access for conservation in all 50 States, the territories, and in nearly every county. LWCF is the crown jewel, as I said, of our Nation's conservation programs, and it has broad bipartisan support. Yet, for decades, short-term authorizations and uncertain funding levels hampered the ability of the conservation community to come up with the long-term plans that we need to protect our most cherished landscapes. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act took care of one of those problems. We actually managed to solve a problem, but it was just half of the picture. The permanent reauthorization of the program guaranteed the full $900 million authorization would be set aside every year going forward. We won that fight. Together, we passed that legislation. However, the fight for fully funding the program continued. While I am appreciative of the ever-increasing levels of funding we have successfully fought to secure--in fact, we have seen some of the highest funding over the last year or 2 years than we have seen in over 15 years that we have successfully fought to secure in the Senate--it is still not what was agreed to. It is still not what was agreed to when this program was created in 1965. The Great American Outdoors Act fixes this issue. It guarantees that the full $900 million that is sent in to the LWCF trust fund are spent every year and not diverted for other purposes. I would like to share some of the landscapes in my home State that LWCF has preserved for the public and for generations to come. You can see this picture, this incredible, awesome, majestic landscape of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. It is located in the approximately 122-mile-long San Luis Valley in Southeast Colorado. The dunes in the park are the tallest found anywhere in North America, and right now people are visiting to experience the seasonal flow of Medano Creek, which forms in front of the dunes as snow melts in the spring and early summer. It is the closest thing that we see to beachfront property every spring at the sand dunes. As you can imagine, the ecosystem in this area is incredibly delicate. You see, the sand dunes are here because of basically the hydrostatic charge that is created from the groundwater when it comes to the sand particles. It is that water that forms around the sand that holds the sand dunes in place. Without the water underneath it, the sand dunes just blow away, and they are not there. The sand dunes sit next to what are some of the most important wetlands in the State of Colorado. LWCF funds were used to protect those wetlands and to facilitate a transfer to an existing refuge, while also helping to protect the dunes. LWCF was able to protect the land that protected the water that keeps the dunes in place. In northwestern Colorado--we go to the next picture--a ranch sits along the banks of the Yampa River, which flows into Cross Mountain Canyon, then downstream to Dinosaur National Monument. If you have ever been to Dinosaur National Monument, you know what an incredible treasure that is. It straddles the States of Colorado and Utah. The Cross Mountain Canyon run is one of the best white-water rafting trips in the State, and if it is one of the best white-water rafting trips in the State, you can guarantee that it makes it one of the best in the country because of what we have to offer in Colorado. There is also a very healthy elk population that facilitates seasonal hunting, and obviously the fishing is great as well. Throughout this area of public land--through both the monument and lands under the Bureau of Land Management--and private land, access to our public lands is difficult for those who travel to this area of Colorado from all over the world to hunt, to fish, to raft, and more. With a small amount of LWCF funding through the Forest Legacy Program, which we also fund through LWCF, the ranch on the banks of the Yampa River was able to enter a conservation easement. This protected and enhanced access to tens of thousands of surrounding acres of Federal lands. You see, we not only have the opportunity to continue protecting our public lands, but there are public lands that we don't have access to because you can't get to it. So utilizing a program like the Land and Water Conservation Fund helps the American people have access to what they already hold. In southwest Colorado, we go to another successful Forest Legacy Program project that protects vital wildlife habitat and a watershed that provides water to thousands of people. The Sawtooth Ranch is visible from the San Juan Skyway, one of the most spectacular places on God's Earth--one of 31 designated scenic All-American roads. It is also visible from Mount Sneffels, one of Colorado's famous fourteeners. Outdoor recreation of every kind takes place in the area next to the ranch to support the local economy, and the protection of the ranch has helped facilitate even greater opportunities. Federal lands like the ones I have shown you are incredibly popular destinations for tourists from all over the world, as well as recreational enthusiasts. In 2018, Rocky Mountain National Park was the third most visited national park in the country. There were 4.9 million people that visited the park last year, setting a new record. Just decades prior to 2009--think about this-- that was 4.9 million people in just the last year. In 2009, that visitation number was only 2.8 million a year. The explosion of visitation numbers is not contained just to the lands maintained by the National Park Service. The entire Federal land system is supporting a recreation economy that has become a major economic powerhouse because as more people go to places like Sawtooth Ranch and as more people go to places like Rocky National Park, they are pushed out to other areas of Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. They are pushed out to the north sand dune, the BLM land, and more use and more use and more opportunity. But the Federal investment and infrastructure that supports these great landscapes and the recreation economies they facilitate has not kept pace, and we know that it has not kept pace with the use of the lands. In Colorado, that translates to the third most visited national park in the country, which saw 4.9 million visitors last year, having an $84 million maintenance backlog. In total, Colorado's units managed by the National Park System have a $247 million backlog of deferred maintenance needs. The Forest Service in Colorado has an astonishing $325 million maintenance backlog. When you think about that pattern repeated on Federal lands and in our parks across 49 other States, you begin to understand how we arrived at a systemwide $20 billion backlog. The Great American Outdoors Act will provide an annual funding level of $1.9 billion over the next 5 years to a restoration fund, for which money can be used solely for those deferred maintenance projects, and this is all paid for. It is all paid for by revenues associated with onshore and offshore energy development. This will allow the land management agencies to address the highest priority projects to bring our outdoor recreation economy into the 21st century for the enjoyment of the 22nd, the 23rd, and the 24th centuries of this great Nation. And the 21st century, of course, is where it needs to be and where we start. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, paddling, and other outdoor recreation activities contribute to a total of $778 billion annually to the economy and support 5.2 million American jobs. This sector accounts for 2.2 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Each year our Federal public lands contribute nearly $60 billion to the American economy and support more than 400,000 jobs. Now is the time to invest in our recreation infrastructure. Now is the time to invest in this job opportunity. You know, prior to the pandemic, we were living in the midst of one of the greatest economies the world has ever seen. Unemployment was at record lows, wages were growing, and people were spending their hard- earned dollars in our communities supporting local economies, fishing, hiking, enjoying the great outdoors after spending 3 months in the great indoors. Our mountain towns and gateway communities were hit hard by COVID-19. That first wave decimated economies in our Western Slope of Colorado. The ski season ended early. Restaurants closed and hotels emptied. The jobs that are created and sustained by this bill, as we recover from the pandemic, will be a vital component of our overall economic recovery as Americans get back to work and back to playing after they have worked so hard--working hard and playing hard--two great American values. As we have this vote tonight on cloture, I hope my colleagues will support this motion to support our public lands and the communities that sustain them by supporting the Great American Outdoors Act. I will leave it with this. Enos Mills, one of the fathers of Rocky Mountain National Park, once said this about our public lands: The trail compels you to know yourself and to be yourself, and puts you in harmony with the universe. It makes you glad to be living. It gives health, hope, and courage, and it extends that touch of nature which tends to make you kind. I can think of no better piece of legislation on our public lands than to work our way to find a little bit more kindness, a little bit more hope, a little bit more strength, and a great deal of opportunity I yield the floor.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, we find ourselves celebrating National Police Week this year in a very unique and troubling time in our country's history. This is a week for our Nation to recognize the valiant service of police officers in every community and the sacrifices they make day in and day out. Particularly now, in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, such service has taken on new significance. Local police officers regularly put their personal safety at risk to protect our friends and families. Whether they are stopping armed robberies or helping someone change a tire, these officers go above and beyond in their duties each and every day. Today, police officers face a new risk in the line of duty, an infectious novel coronavirus that is unpredictable and deadly. Despite the unseen danger of this new threat, police officers and law enforcement officers around the country continue to go into our communities and perform their duties to protect and to serve. Sadly, too many have already seen their watches end because of this disease. In Colorado, one El Paso County sheriff's deputy made such a sacrifice. Deputy Jeff Hopkins contracted COVID-19 serving his community as he had done since 2001. Ultimately, the disease would take his life on April 1 of this year, merely 1 day after he was diagnosed. This tragedy was determined to be a death in the line of duty. It is a poignant reminder of the increased risk that our local police officers face during this global pandemic. It is a stark new reality for law enforcement that we must remember, as so many of us shelter in our homes free from such danger. Normally, thousands of police officers and their families would travel to Washington, DC, this week to participate in the annual police officers memorial service, a gathering to commemorate and honor the officers who made the ultimate sacrifice. I enjoyed attending many of these events and memorials to visit with the police officers from Denver, Weld County, Douglas County, and Jefferson County--officers, sheriff officers, and law enforcement from around the State of Colorado love them. While this memorial service is meant to honor more than 21,000 names engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, it is a solemn event to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty in the previous year. Currently, more than 320 of the names engraved on that memorial are from Colorado. This year, they will be joined by three more: Colorado State Patrol Corporal Daniel Groves, Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper William Moden, and Colorado Department of Corrections Sergeant Joshua Voth. We will not have an opportunity to participate in the usual ceremonies to honor these fallen heroes this year. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the 39th annual memorial service had to be canceled. It is an unfortunate development to be sure, but I know that none of us are waiting for an annual gathering to honor these fallen officers. These are men and women who deserve to be honored each and every day. National Police Week is intended to serve as an important reminder. It reminds the Nation that police officers and law enforcement are an important part of our communities who give so much of themselves to keep us safe, and their families also give so much to all of us to keep us safe. It reminds law enforcement officers that they have not been forgotten and that we indeed have their backs. Throughout this week we have heard and will continue to hear about the brave men and women and their families who sacrificed not just their lives but also their physical and mental health, their personal safety, and their time and energy to keep all of us safe and secure. Needless to say, as the current pandemic lingers, such stories will become ever more startling and take on renewed importance. We must not forget these stories. Instead, we must use them as stark reminders to provide our law enforcement officers with immediate and long-term support to do their jobs safely and effectively. This is especially true as police officers play an ever more critical role in the fight against COVID-19. Examples of such support include better body armor to defend against ever-evolving weapons on the street; bolstering mental health care for the officers and their families, because it is not just the officer who goes through the mental anguish of service; and now the training and equipment they need to protect their physical health from deadly diseases like COVID-19. As we continue to design policies that address the pandemic, we must not forget these essential workers. Our cities, our neighborhoods, and our families depend on the dedicated work of their local police officers and police force--a work that is too often taken for granted, that is too often thankless. This week should encourage all of us to think about the sacrifices made by those who have sworn to protect us. It should give us renewed motivation to support them and help them return safely to home every night. Additionally, I hope this week will encourage all of us to reach out to those officers and to their families to ensure they are getting the support they need from Congress. To all of those who defend that thin blue line, thank you. Thank you and God bless. You have my enduring support and that of a grateful nation. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate my colleague from Utah for his extraordinary work to continue to protect the civil liberties of the people of this country.

Mr. GARDNER

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, in a Chamber that has seen more than its fair share of life-or-death matters, especially the last several months, this bill that I am about to ask for unanimous consent to pass before the Senate, the creation of the 988 National Suicide Hotline bill, is a bill that gives hope to life. This bill will save lives. It has been an honor to work on this legislation so we can come together as a Chamber, as a Congress, as a nation, to do all we can to save those precious lives, those precious voices, that we lose too often. In Colorado, we lose someone to suicide every 7 hours. The bill that we are about to pass can change that. We can all change that with responsible actions, more funding, more efforts, and this is our start to continue the great work that has been done, to build on the work that we know needs to be done, to create a 3-digit 988 national hotline to prevent suicide. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2661.

Mr. GARDNER. I ask unanimous consent that the Gardner substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. GARDNER. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, this is a big deal for the lives of so many people across the country, and I am grateful to our colleagues that we were able to get this passed today. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. GARDNER. I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.