Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of our time.

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I want to thank my partner, Senator Perdue, for arranging this colloquy today. I want to join him in expressing sympathy to the families of those who were lost in Georgia and to the thousands and thousands of Georgians who have been injured or hurt and who lost valuable property. My wife Dianne sends her wishes as well. This part of Georgia is very close to me. I grew up as a young boy working on a farm in Fitzgerald, GA, not far from Albany. I know what these people are like, and they are salt-of-the-earth folks. They don't deserve something like this happening, but they do deserve and they do merit everything we can do to get them aid. I am so happy Secretary Kelly called yesterday to offer the services of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Governor Deal has done a great job of arranging the disaster area, and the Georgia emergency management people are already in place. So my heart goes out to the injured. My heart goes out to my State. My prayers go out to the families of those who were injured and are in the hospital and those who have passed away and perished from the terrible tornadoes.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has adopted rules governing its procedures for the 115th Congress. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, on behalf of myself and Senator Tester, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the committee rules be printed in the Record.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about my friend, Dr. Tom Price. In a way, I am glad the minority leader brought up Representative Price and brought up specific allegations that have been made against him so I can hopefully put some light on the misperception that those allegations made and, in fact, shine some positive light on a great nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. I have known Tom Price for 30 years of my life. He and his wife Betty are dear friends. Their son Robert is the age of one of my sons. He is a fine young man. Tom is a leader in our community, a leader in the Roswell United Methodist Church, the first-ever elected Republican majority leader of the State of Georgia Senate, the chairman of the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, former president of the study committee in the House of Representatives, and an all- around terrific individual who has a litany and liturgy of recommended approvals and improvements that have made the United States of America legislatively and legally much better. Tom is a family man. I mentioned Betty and his son Robert. He is an accomplished professional. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He and his wife Betty met during their residencies at Grady Memorial Hospital. She is an anesthesiologist. Tom is an accomplished orthopedic surgeon. Tom is one of those orthopedists who came together with a number of other orthopedists to form what is known as Resurgens Orthopaedics, the largest orthopedic practice in the Southeastern United States--one of the finest anywhere in the country. Tom has worked tirelessly in the Republican Party, tirelessly on the Democratic-Republican bipartisan agreements that have been made, and tirelessly on behalf of his community. He is a fine individual and is uniquely qualified to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is an agency that will spend $1 trillion of the taxpayers' money on an annual basis. You want a man who has been chairman of the Budget Committee. You want a man who understands finances. You want a former legislator who knows how to get the job done. Tom Price is that man. In fact, I am particularly well qualified to introduce Tom to this body and recommend him as Secretary of HHS because he replaced me when I left the House when I was elected to the Senate. He has been reelected six times. He served 6\1/2\ terms in the House of Representatives, and he has an extensive legal background, an extensive legislative background, and an accomplished background of conservative leadership for the United States of America. Most importantly, he has done so on many issues dealing with medicine, and why not? He is an expert in medicine. I know a little bit about real estate. I authored legislation on real estate. That is what you do when you are in a profession and know a little about something Congress is looking at. But the allegations made by Senator Schumer--and being echoed in some of the media and papers around town--are just another example of taking disparate impact. I want to talk to you a little about what Senator Schumer was talking about. He was talking about the purchase of Zimmer Biomet stock, 26 shares, worth $2,674. That is what he was talking about. The two disparate facts that he put together to make a wrong were this: The purchase was made without Tom's knowledge because his account is managed by Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. They manage his account. They make the decisions about what to buy. Tom doesn't make them. Tom found out about it and documented it on April 4, even though the purchase was made in March. He didn't even know the purchase had been made on his behalf until it was disclosed, which he did as he is required to do by the STOCK Act. Every single fact brought up by the distinguished minority leader is a fact that is a required disclosure of the rules of the U.S. Senate to the Ethics Committee under the STOCK Act. So don't make this look like some sinister thing, and let's take it at face value. If you take it at face value, it was a purchase Tom didn't make; it was made on his behalf. It was a purchase we documented that he didn't know about until the 4th of April; the purchase was made in March. The purchase did not work to his benefit because the decision was not made by him. He is like every other Member of the Senate and House who makes required disclosures of their activity because of the STOCK Act. Tom obeyed the law. Tom did what was right. What was done is right and is being made to look wrong only because of appearance but not because of fact. That is the wrong way to take on the consideration of any nominee of a President of the United States to be a Secretary of any part of the Cabinet. I reiterate: Who else would be better to oversee $1 trillion in spending than Tom Price, chairman of the Budget Committee, former member of Ways and Means, an accomplished legislator who put together the largest orthopedic practice in Atlanta, GA, and the State of Georgia? He is well qualified and eminently qualified. This body should overwhelmingly confirm his nomination to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the United States of America. I am proud as his friend, I am proud as a former associate and legislator, I am proud as the person he succeeded in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I am proud as an American citizen to know that our President has picked someone who is eminently qualified, who has an impeccable record of success in his legislative jobs, who is a fine family man, a member of his church, a disciplined member of his political party and, most importantly, a man who loves his country and is volunteering to sacrifice his time and his knowledge to make America's Department of Health and Human Services better. Lastly, there is a little rumor going around that he is not for extending Social Security. That is ironic to me. Let me tell you what he and I did in November and December. We traveled throughout Georgia on behalf of AARP, presenting ways to save Social Security. Day in and day out, Tom Price is on the record of the State of Georgia, fighting to preserve Social Security for those who have it and for those who will get it in the future. So don't take this disparate impact of extraneous facts someone put together to try to make a wrong out of a right. Instead, look at the record of an impeccable legislator, a dedicated family man, a great American, and the next Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States of America, Dr. Tom Price. I commend him to every Member of this Senate and hope you will confirm him when his vote comes before the Senate. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am delighted to follow the distinguished minority leader, who is a gifted orator, a brilliant legislator, and an expert in something called disparate impact. Disparate impact is where you take two facts that are extraneous and put them together for an appearance of an irregularity or an impropriety without any fact being true. The statements made about the CBO estimate were accurate in what he said but wrong in the implication. He is accurate that CBO did say it would cost money if we didn't have a replacement for ObamaCare, which is the replacement being worked on as we speak right here today. Both are facts, but when put together the way he put them together, it makes it look as though we are spending money that we are not, in fact, spending at all. The CBO estimate also does not include the impact of legislative and administrative action to stabilize individual markets. In the absence of making that consideration, of course it is going to be more costly. Those are both extraneous facts that, when put together, make the appearance of a crime, which just isn't there.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, first of all, I want to acknowledge the great intellect that the Senator from Louisiana brings to the debate, the experience he has in the health care field, how much I personally have learned from him on the committee in the work we do, and I thank him for the contribution he makes to the Senate. I rise to talk a little bit about how we got to where we are today, what we are about to do, and where we need to end up. It will be short, and it will be sweet, but it will be to the point. I was here in 2009 when we passed ObamaCare. In fact, as the Presiding Officer will remember, it was at 9 o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve in 2009. I opposed it at that time for a particular reason. The reason was that I saw it driving us toward a single-payer health care system, which I personally opposed. But the votes were there. It passed, and it passed on the promise that if you liked your doctor, you could keep him; if you liked your insurance, you could keep it. And because everybody is going to be insured, rates will go down and everything is going to be wonderful. What has happened over the last 8 years has been pretty incredible. Rates have gone up tremendously. People have not been able to keep their insurance. We find ourselves on the cusp of being forced to a government single-payer health care system because the private markets are collapsing. In my State of Georgia, where we have 159 counties, up until this year every county had at least two or more providers providing health insurance. Today in 2017, 96 of our 159 counties have one carrier. Next year half of them will be down to no carrier, and we will be forced into a system that we don't know what it will look like. Prices have gone up not just by a little bit, but they have gone up by an awful lot. The end-user market in Georgia is approaching the breaking point. I will give you a couple of examples. Two parents in Georgia picked the least expensive plan available this year to their family of four. It comes out to be a $6,500 deductible and $2,400 a month for premium-- unsustainable. A couple in their sixties had a similar plan but were just outside the subsidy limit of $96,000 for their family. So they are paying over 50 percent of their income for health insurance. Hard-working families deserve better. Although President Obama promised this law would reduce premiums and make health care more available, it has done the opposite. ObamaCare is unsustainable. Now, that is the practical answer, and that is exactly what got us to where we are today. We are in the process of attempting to get the budget reconciliation act before us so that we can repeal ObamaCare, but we must also talk about what we replace it with because repealing it without a replacement is not an acceptable solution. It is not a solution. It is a conundrum. We must prioritize returning the oversight of individual markets to the States and provide them with the flexibility to design their Medicaid programs in ways that enable them to cover most people and tailor benefits to meet the needs of the unique populations in their States. We have proven in the past that regulation by the State insurance commissioners work. We need to return association health plans to be competitive in the United States. We need to allow the sale of interstate insurance across State lines and stop the prohibition against that. We need to open the opportunity for entrepreneurship in the private sector to fill the void that is being filled by the vacuum that has been created by the mandates of ObamaCare. We need to also preserve those things in ObamaCare that made sense-- preexisting condition, absolutely; insurance coverage up to the age of 26 while staying at home with a parent, absolutely. Those things can be done, and we ought to do them because they were the right thing to do when we did them, and they are the right thing to preserve now. But it is absolutely essential that we see to it that we return insurance to the private sector and regulation to the States. If we fail to do so, we will have higher premiums or no premiums at all and no plans at all. So as we talk about repealing, we must also end up landing on a replacement. It is unsustainable and impractical, and it is wrong for us to say we are going to repeal ObamaCare without replacing it with a plan that we know works and has the opportunity. Let's address that which caused ObamaCare to happen. Let's fix the breaks that have taken place. Let's bring back competition, State regulation and authority, and let's see to it that health care in America is accessible and is affordable. It is important for us to do it. It is essential for us to do it, and I plan to commit myself to seeing to it to do my part to repeal ObamaCare. We replace it with a sustainable program, we return the program to the States, wherever possible, and we see to it that Americans have health insurance coverage at a competitive and fair price. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the Joint Explanatory Statement in relation to H.R. 6416, the Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Ryan Bodge, my militarily liaison, be granted floor privileges for the rest of this weekend.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a person who has had a tremendous impact on my life and my career in the Senate and also a tremendous impact on my country, the United States of America. I still remember to this day the date and time Mitch McConnell called me in 2007 and said: Hey, we have an opening for a Republican on Foreign Relations and nobody will take it. Will you take it? I did not know if that was a benefit--a perk or whoever--but I said: Anytime you are offered a gift, don't look a gift horse in the face. So I did it. Two days later, Joe Biden saw me at the committee and said: I am glad you joined our committee. I am glad to have you. I have an opening on the Africa Subcommittee. I can't get a Republican to take it. Will you do it? I said: Mr. Biden, I have never been to Africa. He said: Well, you will soon. How about taking it? I did. I have been to Africa 12 times since. It has become a passion in my career, and I give Vice President Biden a lot of credit for the influence he had on that. I also remember the day when the mock swearing-in took place down on the second floor, and I had my nine grandchildren here to watch me being sworn into the Senate. At the mock signing ceremony, Joe stood there, and we all raised our hand, and we repeated the ceremony that we had done on the floor. Then Joe greeted each one of my grandchildren one by one as they walked by. When little Jack, who was then 7 years old, stopped, Joe Biden said: Jack, what do you like about the Capitol? Jack said: Well, Mr. Vice President, there is no Lego store. Joe Biden said: The next time you come here, there will be one. I want to tell the Vice President that he is coming on January 2 to see me sworn in again. I have already bought the Lego box. It is on the desk in my hideaway, and I am going to tell him that Vice President Joe made sure he had Legos when he came back to the Capitol. You know the real character of a man and the real credit to a man is what influence he has on children. I can tell you from that story, it is just one of many that Joe Biden has had. On me, personally, I will never forget the day Joe Biden called me as Vice President of the United States and said: Johnny, I have got the mayor of Baltimore and the mayor of Philadelphia going with me to Panama City next week to look at the deepening of the Panama Canal. I know Savannah's port is important to you. I know you have been fighting with us to get the authorization you need to deepen the Port of Savannah. How about flying with me down there and let's take a look at it and let's do a press conference together. And I did and he did and we did, and today the Port of Savannah is being deepened to 47 feet. Panamax ships will be sailing through it in 4 more years. I am convinced it would not have happened at the level of the administration had it not been for Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States but more importantly my friend. Joe, I don't have the words to adequately tell you how much I appreciate you as a person and as a leader, but there is a little poem I know that says more about what you really are than anything I could say. I'd rather see a sermon Than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me Than merely tell the way. The eye's a better pupil And more willing than the ear, Fine counsel is confusing But example's always clear; And the best of all preachers Are the men who live their creeds, For to see good put in action Is what everybody needs. I soon can learn to do it If you'll let me see it done; I can watch your hands in action, But your tongue too fast may run. And the lecture you deliver May be very wise and true, But I'd rather get my lessons By observing what you do; For I might misunderstand you And the high advice you give, But there's no misunderstanding How you act and how you live. Joe, you have lived the life of a patriot and you act like a gentleman. You are my friend, and may God bless you and your family and thank you for your service to the country and your friendship to me. I yield back.

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

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, this is one of those weeks where, every 6 years or 4 years or 2 years, we pause and pay tribute to those who have been elected to the Senate and have served with us and will be retiring or were possibly defeated in the last election. Kelly Ayotte The first Senator I wish to talk about is Kelly Ayotte, from the great State of New Hampshire. Kelly's departure from the Senate is a great loss for all of us. I remember the day Kelly Ayotte became a rising star, not only on the horizon of Republican politics but more importantly on the horizon of the Senate. During her campaign 6 years ago, we would get phone calls asking: Have you heard about Kelly? Everybody knew who Kelly was. She was the attorney general of the State of New Hampshire, running for the U.S. Senate, and she was catching fire. She did catch fire and won in convincing fashion. She is a great lady with a great family and has done a phenomenal job. Our U.S. Armed Forces are better today because of her efforts and hard work. We passed the agreement to go to the final passage on the authorization of the military appropriations today, and in large measure, Kelly Ayotte was behind that. When we were debating our policy on interrogation and torture, Kelly Ayotte was on top of that. Every significant decision we have made in the last 6 months, whether it was our military, policies, or process, she has been at the forefront of those decisions and has done a phenomenal job. I wish her the very best in her career and future, and I thank her for the service she has given to our country. As a son of the South, in Georgia we love New Hampshirites anytime we can get one, and Kelly is the best. They have the best lobsters, the best clams, and the best attorney general and Senator in Kelly Ayotte. God bless you, Kelly, and best of luck to you. Barbara Boxer At this point, I wish to pause and pay attention to Barbara Boxer from California. A lot of my colleagues will say: Wait a minute. Why are you talking about Barbara Boxer? You are a Republican. She is an icon in the Democratic Party. She is a liberal, and you are a conservative. She is a great Senator, and I will tell you why. Barbara and I served on the Ethics Committee for the last 9 years. When I was asked to go on the committee, she was the chairman. Later on, I succeeded her as the chairman. I am the chairman today, and she is still a member until she retires. The Ethics Committee is the one assignment nobody wants to get. But when you get it, you want to have somebody who will do what is right. Regardless of their party, you need somebody who will do what is right for the Member, the institution, and will carry out their responsibilities under the Constitution, which all of us are obligated to do in the Senate. In the last 9 years, I worked with Barbara Boxer on any number of complaints, allegations, and cases against Members of the Senate for unethical conduct or conduct unbecoming of a Senator. We have admonished some, cleared some, and recommended the expulsion of some, and some have resigned because of our investigation. I take no pride in anyone leaving the Senate because of the actions of the committee, but I take great pride in the fact that no one in 9 years has questioned the integrity of the Senate Ethics Committee, the job it has done, or the final decision it has made, and I give most of the credit for that to Barbara Boxer. She is a liberal Democrat, and I am a conservative Republican, but when it comes to calling balls and strikes in terms of ethics, we call them down the middle. That is a credit to the institution, a credit to her, and a credit to the Ethics Committee. At this moment, I want to pause and say to my retiring friend Barbara Boxer: Thank you for your service to the country, thank you for what you have meant to the State of California, and thank you for what you have meant to the institution of the Senate and the commitment to ethical behavior by our Members. Thank you for making it a standard that you and I stood for. It was a pleasure for me to serve with you and be called one of the members of the odd couple. Isakson and Boxer, the two Senate chairs that love our country, are committed to ethics and will always try to do what is exactly right. God bless you, Barbara. Best of luck to you. I yield the floor. Hurricane Matthew Recovery

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, it was my understanding that I was going to follow the Senator from Connecticut on the VA bill, and I am happy to accommodate the Senator from West Virginia or the Senator from Pennsylvania or the Senator from Connecticut, whomever knows what order we should be in.

Mr. ISAKSON. Will I yield to the Senator from West Virginia?

Mr. ISAKSON. And then would you yield to the Senator from Connecticut?

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to recognize the Senator from Connecticut, the Senator from Georgia, and then the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Connecticut for his recognition. I want to take this moment on the floor to praise him for the contribution he has made to the committee over the last 2 years. I want to tell you a story. Richard became ranking member in the same year and at the same time that I became chairman. We met, we made a commitment to one another that we were going to move forward as a united Veterans' Affairs Committee, address the problems of our veterans, and do it in a bipartisan fashion. To set the tone for that, we introduced the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, which Richard Blumenthal introduced, and passed it unanimously in the committee and 99 to zero on the floor of the Senate in the first weeks of this Congress. We did so to set the table that whatever the problems are, we should never let our pettiness, our politics, and our partisanship stop us from helping a veteran. Because of Richard Blumenthal on suicide prevention and our commitment to make it bipartisan, we passed that unanimously early on in the session and since that time have addressed other issues as well. The bill we discussed today, which is named in part for Richard Blumenthal, is, as he said a minute ago, a down payment on the continuing debt we owe to our veterans who have served us well. On the first day in the committee when I took over as chairman, I said: You know, there are no Republican veterans and no Democratic veterans; there are only American veterans. They are the Americans who fought for our flag, fought for our Constitution, fought for our liberty, and fought for each of us. I am proud to have fought with Richard for our veterans in the foxhole of the Senate. There is much left to be done. With the passage of this act today, which is named after Senator Blumenthal and Congressman Jeff Miller, who is retiring from the House, we are making another down payment on what we owe our veterans. There are other payments soon to come. I met earlier today with John McCain. We have made a commitment to make sure Veterans Choice is made permanent for our veterans and work to see that veterans have the best choice they can have, not to privatize the VA but to optimize the exposure of veterans to health care services wherever they need them. Last night I met with Jon Tester, our colleague from Montana, who will replace Richard as the new ranking member of the committee. He is equally committed with us to see to it that we move beyond the current sunset of the Veterans Choice Program, to solve the Veterans Choice Program as well as the other problems that confront our veterans. We are a team of Americans, not Republican Americans or Democratic Americans but Americans committed to see our veterans get what they were promised. As Senator Blumenthal said, this bill addresses homelessness, it addresses women's health care issues, it addresses the possible passage of exposure to toxic waste in a hereditary fashion to the surviving children and grandchildren of our veterans, an obligation we owe to see to it that if there is any transfer of the exposure of those toxic substances, the VA benefits that go to the veteran also can be passed down to the child who is a victim of heredity through no fault of their own. We do a lot on the court and the appeals. As Senator Blumenthal said, we have a backlog of 450,000 appeals. We are adding two judges in the appeals process. We need to do more to expedite the appeals process. This year I was personally disappointed that as close as we got to dealing with the administration and finding a solution, we still failed to say to our veterans: We are going to solve your problem of waiting in line. Two weeks ago, I had the sad duty of breaking into tears in the living room of a home of a veteran in Marietta, GA. This is a veteran who has been trying for 3 years to get an appeal responded to and can't get it. He is a veteran whose life is about to end without ever getting an answer as to whether his appeal is justified. That is just not right. We can find a way in this country to get the manpower and womanpower necessary, make the moral commitment that is imperative, and see that our veterans who have an appeal get an expeditious answer. Our veterans need to cooperate in that process by giving us all the backup data as fast as possible for every appeal they ask for. But it is not right for an appeal to last as long as the one that is before us in the U.S. Veterans Administration today, which is 25 years old. That's right, the oldest appeal in the Veterans Administration is 25 years old. I am committed--and I make the commitment on the floor of the Senate today--to work with Richard, Jon Tester, the members of our committee, and everybody in this body to see to it that we say to the 450,000 veterans who are waiting on an appeal: We are going to get you an answer, and we are going to get it faster. To those sons and daughters today who are signing up for the U.S. military, if you have a need for an appeal, we will see you get an expeditious answer. They deserve the very best. They deserve no less than a thorough answer in response to the appeal they have made. The last 2 years, it has been a privilege and a pleasure for me for to work as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. It has been a pleasure to work with Richard Blumenthal, and I commend him on the contributions he has made. It has been equally great to work with his staff, who have worked closely with us to see that we brought the best legislation possible to the floor of the Senate. I particularly thank Tom Bowman, my chief of staff, who has made a lot of magic things happen during these last 2 years. But things have just begun in the Veterans' Committee of the Senate. We are going to work together to reach the dreams we all have to see to it that our veterans have seamless services and that we pay back to them what we owe them, equally what they have sacrificed and pledged for us--their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. I thank Senator Blumenthal for his support and ask each of our Members in the Senate today to help us pass this downpayment on the promise and the debt we owe to the veterans of the United States of America. I yield to the Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, first of all, I commend the Senator from North Dakota who is a Member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee for his diligent efforts, his thoughtful words, and all he does for veterans on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and I appreciate what he said and support his efforts. As a 71-year-old citizen of this country, one who has been in business, has been fortunate to be married 49 years to a wonderful woman and raised a family, one who has been in public life for 40 years, you learn that there are three kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what the hell is happening. We have the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Lamar Alexander, who is one of those people who makes things happen. What we are going to do on the Cures bill in this body next week is nothing short of remarkable, but it is an example of somebody who cares and is ready to do the hard work that legislating can bring about. It is a bill that incorporates many of the provisions of this administration and Members of this Senate, things that have been worked on for years and things that will save and improve lives in America. For me, it is personal for two or three reasons. One reason is the pediatric rare disease provision. In 2005 I met a young lady named Alexa Rohrbach. Alexa was 5 years old when I met her. She came to lobby me about finding cures for incurable diseases and incurable cancers. She had a cancer called neuroblastoma. She won my heart over. I have her picture in my office. I had dinner with her parents 2 weeks ago in Atlanta at the Rally Foundation annual dinner. Alexa got her angel wings 2 years ago and is in Heaven looking down today, but I am testifying on Alexa's behalf that the more we can do to accelerate research and development for cures of rare diseases, the more we can make the lives of people happy and long, rather than short and sad. Alexa Rohrbach was an inspiration to me, and I speak today for the 21st Century Cures bill, in part, because of Alexa Rohrbach because if this bill had been in place before I met her in person, she would have been saved from the rare disease she had. We would not have to talk about her in the past tense but only in the present. The second reason is, there are things I worked on for a long time that are coming to full fruition. One of the measures is home infusion. I have a wonderful son named Kevin, who was almost killed in an automobile accident when he was 18 years old in 1989. Kevin got a bad leg infection. He had the bottom part of his leg blown off and lost a lot of the bone, and they had to put a lot of replacements in, a lot of metal rods. He had to lie in a hospital bed with antibiotics running through his system to keep his bone marrow from getting infected. When he came home, for the next 6 months he had to be administered antibiotics daily. My wife and I administered those through home infusion. He was able to recover from this disease at home, in his own bed, with his own parents attending to him. Under the law today, for home infusion to be reimbursable, it is only reimbursable if you are in the doctor's office or if you are in the hospital. If you are doing it at home with visiting nurses or any other way, you can't do it. What costs more, a hospital or home visit? Obviously, a hospital. This bill provides a way for us to find a way forward to reimburse home infusions at home. It is the safest, best, most efficient, and least expensive way to deliver home infusions, incentivized by the 21st Century Cures bill. We also know that neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, MS, and Alzheimer's are more prevalent than ever before. They are the No. 1 disease for people my age and the generations to follow. This bill creates a neurological disease registry of all these diseases which have common characteristics to help the CDC in early diagnosis and early treatment. I, as one who suffers from one of those diseases, can tell you the more you learn from one you can tell about another. I commend Senator Alexander in his efforts to bring that forward so we have a neurological disease registry that works, that we have an expedited review process for drugs of rare cancers in children, and so we do the things we need to do to cure the bad diseases of the 20th century so the lives of the people in the 21st century are better. Chairman Alexander is a unique individual. He is a former college president, a U.S. Senator, candidate for president of a university, and a great chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. If we pass this bill as a trademark to him next week, it will be, in large measure, because of his belief that if you give everybody a chance to be a part of the same thing, whether Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, northerner or southerner, they will work together to do the right thing for the American people. Senator Lamar Alexander deserves our credit, deserves our appreciation, and I thank him for allowing me as a member of the committee to have the chance to work on the 21st Century Cures legislation.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to a great American and a great Georgian who passed away last week in Atlanta, GA. The cities of Wilson, WY, and Atlanta, GA, lost a great citizen last week, America lost a great patriot, and philanthropy lost one of its greatest contributors. Carl Knobloch passed away last Friday. Carl was a personal friend of mine and a unique individual and a unique inspiration to me and many others. He was a gentleman who went to the Hill School, then went to Harvard, and then went to Yale. He was a leading intercollegiate fencer and won an international medal for his intercollegiate fencing ability. He went into business using everything he learned as a Baker Scholar at Yale University. He went into business. His first business was a drive-in theater in Zimbabwe. His second business was an oil and gas business in Africa. He then went on to build businesses all over the United States of America dealing with natural resources, dealing with gas and oil. He was a specialist in taking companies that were failing and turning them around and making them profitable. Do you know how he did it? He believed that everybody who had helped him succeed ought to have equity in the projects he succeeded in, so he made people who owned failing companies that he took over equity partners so that when he turned the company around, they profited from the work they put in to save the company. That is a great leader of business. He also was a great subscriber to Theodore Roosevelt's great statement, which he made as President of the United States, which I want to read verbatim: The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets, which it must turn over to the next generation. Therefore, a great American businessman, Carl Knobloch, formed the Knobloch Family Foundation to take much of his wealth and much of the wealth he gained and direct it toward saving the natural resources of the United States of America. Whether it was our wildlife, whether it was our land, whether it was our oceans, whether it was our plains, or whether it was our beach fronts, whatever it was, where he could save and conserve our assets, he did. He put most of his lifelong earnings into that. He and his beautiful wife Emily were great friends of my family. Emily will miss him dearly, as I will miss him. I know America is a better country today because of Carl Knobloch. The environment is safer in America because of Carl Knobloch. The United States of America has lost a great patriot and a great friend. I pay tribute to my friend Carl Knobloch of Wilson, WY, and Atlanta, GA. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I wish to thank and congratulate my defense fellow, Air Force Lt. Col. Ryan Bodge, on a successful year serving in my office. The expertise and experience that Ryan brought to my team was invaluable, and he will certainly be missed after he leaves. Prior to his assignment as a defense fellow, Ryan served as the commander of the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron at Bagram Air Field, BAF, in Afghanistan. He led a blend of more than 500 coalition and contract personnel responsible for the defense of 36,000 personnel, a 27-kilometer perimeter, and the Air Force Central Command's busiest airfield with more than $3.5 billion in combat assets to include two specialized teams: Fly Away Security and Tactical Security Element personnel. His squadron was Tactical Control to Task Force Solid, responsible for the Bagram Ground Defense Area. Ryan was born and raised in Cold Spring, NY, and he enlisted in the Air Force in 1992. He served as an F-16 and A-10 aircraft weapons load crew team chief and then in a special duty as a professional military education instructor. In 2003, Ryan commissioned to become an officer after successfully completing officer training school. He has served as a flight commander, convoy commander, officer in charge of training and resources, operations officer, high-risk response leader, major command, USAF, staff officer and two-time squadron commander. Ryan has deployed in support of the following missions: Southwest Asia, Operation Iraqi, and Enduring Freedom, as well as Resolute Support and now Freedom's Sentinel. He has served on the Air Education and Training Command Security Forces staff as an executive officer and chief of force protection programs and technology. Ryan's humble character rarely does justice to his accomplishments and accolades. However, he does speak very proudly of his wife, Tiffany, from Valdosta, GA, and their son, Garrett. Military families are true testaments of both strength and pride. They are constantly challenged by deployments, changes in duty stations, and uncertainties. These hurdles create resiliency which the Bodge family patriotically embodies. Ryan's family are his pride and joy and will equally be missed by our office team. While we will miss having Ryan in our Capitol Hill office, I know that he will be moving on to greater things. I want to again thank Ryan and his family for their service to our great Nation and congratulate him on his promotion.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize MGySgt Julius D. Spain, Sr., U.S. Marine Corps, on the occasion of his retirement following 26 years of service in the Marine Corps. A native of Conway, SC, Julius entered the Marine Corps in August 1990 as a recruit at Parris Island, SC. In the years after completing school there, Julius received several promotions, as well as orders to many assignments within the Marine Corps, including being deployed to combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2002 and reporting to the U.S. delegation to the North Military Committee, Joint Staff, NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, in 2004, where Julius provided administrative and operational support for the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States. In 2010, Julius was selected as one of two staff noncommissioned officers in the Marine Corps to participate in the 2011 Congressional Fellowship Program on Capitol Hill. I met Julius in January 2011, when he began a 12-month stint in my Senate office as my defense fellow. During that year, he assisted on numerous military issues and was an excellent representative of the Marine Corps. Julius also was selected for promotion to the rank of master gunnery sergeant during his time in my office. Since leaving my Senate office, Julius has served as the senior enlisted legislative adviser for the Marine Corps Office of Legislative Affairs and later as a special senior enlisted detailee with the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General. He will retire from this detailee position this month. MGySgt Julius Spain is married to the former Adriana Contreras of Houston, TX, and she is a Marine Corps veteran herself. They have three children: Monique, 22; Julius, Jr., 21; and Leana, 17. I wish the entire Spain family fair winds and following seas as they enter this new phase of their lives together. Thank you all for your commitment to our Nation.