Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, last night I was off the floor when Senator McCain of Arizona offered an amendment regarding the Veterans Choice bill. Before the decision is made, I wish to memorialize my support for the McCain amendment. As chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, we waived jurisdiction so it could be offered on the VA component of this bill. I wish to add one further comment. The cost associated with extending the eligibility of Veterans Choice by 3 years, which is the McCain amendment, scores at a cost. But to recognize that cost, you have to assume we would not have treated an eligible veteran under any other program if Choice expired. We are never going to abandon our veterans. We have a commitment to the veterans for the health care they have signed up for. What Senator McCain is doing is trying to improve access to health care and to maintain access through the choice of a private sector provider or through a VA provider. There is no additional cost, unless you assume that you want to take away a benefit that we gave 2 years ago in the omnibus that we passed. I commend Senator McCain for extending the eligibility for Choice for 3 more years. I will support the amendment when it comes before the Senate, and I encourage all other Members to do the same. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise to address the subject before the Senate with regard to the HUD proposed rule, the Lee amendment, and the amendment proposed by the Senator from Maine, Ms. Collins. I do so as one who has 35 years of experience in the housing business affected by the Civil Rights Act, affected by the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and one who has a good deal of working knowledge about what that accomplished. What that accomplished was the end of prejudice against African Americans in the South and ethnic minorities in the Northeast and around the country to ensure that everybody had an equal opportunity-- underline the word ``opportunity''--to have safe, affordable housing. That took place in 1968. It has been a long time since 1968. Prejudice in America, although never eradicated, is almost gone. Housing access is almost universal, but there is one group of people in America who had very little access to housing because there is none available to them. We can identify them not by their name, not by their region but by their ZIP Codes. They are the neighborhoods of America that have contributed to the decline of many families and much hope and opportunity for individuals. Show me a school system or a school that is not performing, and I will show you rough neighborhoods. Show me an individual community that doesn't have the tax base it needs, and I will show you a community that doesn't have neighborhoods that are employed. I want to bring to the attention of the Senate what I spoke on a year ago on this floor--a gentleman by the name of Thomas G. Cousins from Atlanta, GA, who founded Cousins Properties, the most successful developer in the history of Atlanta, GA; one of the leading developers in the United States of America and a man who gives back more than he ever takes. He created the Cousins Foundation and set out in the early 1990s to find a way to address the problems of poverty, ignorance, and crime in inner-city neighborhoods. He bought something called East Lake Meadows. Some of you have watched the Fed-Ex Championship on TV and seen $10 million prizes won by professional golfers. That is on a golf course that 25 years ago had trees growing up in the fairway, dilapidated houses around it, and was described as Little Vietnam. But it is an area that Tom Cousins changed by changing minds, by changing attitudes, and by talking about the things that could be done, rather than what could not be done. He knew that the best way to bring those people out of poverty was to provide them with a good education. So he came to the State Board of Education, which I chaired, and asked for a waiver to create the first charter school in the Atlanta, GA, public school system's history in East Lake. He leased the school for $1 a year for 25 years and then built for that neighborhood its own elementary school, called Drew Elementary. Twenty-five years ago, Drew Elementary was the poorest testing school in the State of Georgia. This year, it is one of the top 10 in the State of Georgia out of 1,400. He changed the minds and attitudes of people--not their race. But he changed their minds and their attitudes about opportunity and about hope. He went into the community of dilapidated houses, crack houses, and meth houses, and bought those houses up and raised housing prices. He fixed them up and began to create a market for those houses. The kids that formed gangs on the streets became caddies at the new country club named East Lake Country Club. They went to Georgia State University on Panther grants, granted to kids who are in need to get an education. Many of the kids in Atlanta, GA, who are getting MBAs today were educated in East Lake Meadows at Drew Elementary and had their job at the East Lake Country Club. People do not associate golf courses, golf tournaments, and country clubs with areas of poverty and no housing, but East Lake is such a place. Because they built a blend of all types of housing--section 8 housing, rental housing, low- and moderate-income housing, midlevel housing, upper level housing, and shopping centers and the like--they took all of the things that the community did not have and then created a market for them to come. They created a movement with Warren Buffett called Purpose Built Communities. Now, the HUD rule, which I have read, which is the issue of discussion today on the floor, is a rule that portends gathering more information to try and find ways we can end the lack of housing availability for certain Americans by bringing in data and trying to create new ways to do that. Tom Cousins did it with private sector money. He did it in cooperation with the banking industry. He created an idea and a dream and an investment. He began to bring down the barriers of discrimination and a lack of hope and brought prosperity to a community that had not seen it--better educated kids, better developed communities, better schools, and the like. I ask unanimous consent to have this article from the Wall Street Journal about Thomas G. Cousins and Purpose Built Communities printed in the Record.

Mr. ISAKSON. Now, the current amendment before us deals with the rule that is being promulgated by HUD dealing with the Civil Rights Act of 1968. But I want to caution everybody. It is not about discrimination because of prejudice. It is about discrimination because of lack of access. You read the testimony that went into a lot of the rule, and that is quite clear. There are a number of paralyzed veterans groups and handicapped groups that have sent letters against this amendment. Let me tell you why are they against it. They don't think anybody discriminates against them because they are handicapped. They just think they have no choice of housing because there is nothing that fits their wheelchairs or the walls in the bathroom are not reinforced or the kitchen countertops are too high. What has happened in East Lake Meadows and in Atlanta, GA, where Purpose Built Communities set standards, is that 5 percent of all apartment buildings are built with convertible units. So up to 5 percent of the units can be converted to handicapped access: 36-inch doors, not 30-inch doors; wainscoting on the side walls in the bathroom that allow reinforcement rods to be put in and for handles to be put on the walls; kitchen countertops that can be lowered by 8 inches so that somebody in a wheelchair can work their kitchen. That is the type of access they want. Through the changes in code, in terms of construction code, and changes in attitude like Mr. Cousins did, we now have handicapped people that have access to affordable housing in Atlanta, GA, that is built to meet their specific needs. It is not discrimination of prejudice. It was discrimination of lack of opportunity. The way I read the proposed rule, they are looking to take a chance to take advantage of things like Promise Built Communities and try and have private developers use Federal access to funds to create ways to create new housing that will have more accessibility and affordability for people in those type of situations. Now, I understand that Senator Collins and Senator Reed have an amendment they are going to offer, either as a side-by-side or as a part of the bill, which will clarify one important point: Nothing in here contains anything that portends to promulgate a rule or regulation or any zoning at a local land use authority by the Federal Government. None of us ever wants the Federal Government to do that. But we have provided a lot of programs that have passed this Congress, this Senate, and this U.S. Government that promotes housing, such as section 8 housing, FHA housing, and VA housing. I can go on and on. We want to make sure that those finances that are available to finance purchases have houses to be purchased that meet the needs of all Americans, giving them a public accommodation and access that some of them never had before. So with the amendment adopted by Senator Collins, I think you are protected against any nefarious activity that could ever be taken on by HUD, and you are doing a good thing for the State, a good thing for the United States, and a good thing for the Senate. I commend Senators Reed and Collins on what they are doing. I rise in support of the Collins-Reed amendment, and I will vote for it on the floor. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Maine for the recognition. Amendment No. 3900, as Modified I want to commend Senator Collins and Senator Reed for their hard work and great leadership on this amendment, Senator Murray and Senator Blunt for bringing this issue before us, and the Senate for having the good sense to invoke cloture on it this afternoon. If anybody in the audience or in this room doesn't think this is an emergency, they should have been with Senator Collins and me 2 weeks ago at the CDC in Atlanta. We spent 4 hours looking at the depiction of what a Zika outbreak is going to look like if it doesn't stop and if we don't abate it. There have already been 1 million cases in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America and 500 cases in the United States of America, and it is going to grow. The faster we get our arms around it, the better off the American people are going to be. This is a lot of money, but it is only a pittance compared to what it would cost if the epidemic got out of control and we didn't stop it and defeat it. This money will go to Labor, Health and Human Services, the State Department, the CDC, and other entities to provide the education, training, and information necessary to get control of this disease. Remember what happened with Ebola. When it broke out and we finally got involved, only through CDC's ability to educate and also to contain and control the disease did we finally get our arms around it and stop the epidemic. The same thing is going to be true with Zika. We need to contain, control, and get the necessary education to the countries to see to it that we stop it. I commend the Senate for invoking cloture on the amendment today. I commend these two Senators for their hard work, and I am glad we are on the leading point of the spear. I want everybody to be clear--this is an emergency. Had we not invoked cloture on this amendment today, in months we would have had a greater emergency because Zika would have spread unabated in the Southern United States. Lastly, I want to give great credit to Senator Collins for all the hard work she has done on health and human services for so many years and for her hard work for the CDC. On behalf of Dr. Frieden, we are glad you finally came and visited. God bless you. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, this morning at 11 a.m., a big event happened in Washington, DC, on the third floor of this building when all members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Republican and Democrat alike, introduced what we call the Veterans First Act--a comprehensive overhaul of the Veterans' Administration to bring about accountability in services to our veterans by the Veterans' Administration. Every member of the committee, Republican and Democrat alike, came to that press conference. I want to start by thanking Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who is my ranking member on the committee, for his efforts and his work over the last 10 months to help make this a reality, and each and every member of the committee for the work they did. In the end, we adopted 148 provisions of the Senate to amend, reconstruct, and hold accountable the Veterans' Administration. I don't know about the Presiding Officer, but every morning when I wake up in Washington, DC, and turn on the TV, whether it is CNN, FOX, or a local station, one of the lead stories is about a tragedy in the Veterans' Administration. This morning, in preparing for this press conference I didn't turn on the TV until after I read my notes. After I read my notes, I turned on the TV, and what, to my dismay, did I see? In Chicago, IL, at the Veterans' Administration hospital, they found cockroaches in the food of our veterans. What kind of accountability is that in the Veterans' Administration? For our veterans to be fed food with vermin in it is ridiculous and crazy. We all know what happened in Arizona a few years ago when appointments were manipulated, so veterans missed their appointments, and three veterans died. We know what happened in Atlanta, where we had an outbreak of suicide by people who couldn't get to mental health services in time. We know what happened when cost overruns went awry in Denver, CO. When the costs of the hospital got out of line, the Veterans' Administration didn't know how to control it. Every time we turn around, there is no accountability in the Veterans' Administration, so our committee decided it is our job to see to it that our veterans get what they deserve and what they fought for for us; that is, a Veterans' Administration that delivers on the promise of good health care, good benefits, and the appreciation of a grateful country for the sacrifice each of them made. To begin with, we want to make sure the Secretary of the VA can fire somebody and make it stick. A few months ago, the Merit Systems Protection Board overruled the firing of two Philadelphia employees of the Veterans' Administration and reinstated them with pay with no reason except they didn't like the way in which they were fired. If we go around the country, we find out that the Veterans' Administration's best way to discipline somebody is to move them from one city to another, from one hospital to another, or from one location to another. Moving problems around doesn't solve problems. They just give the problem to somebody else. It is time that if somebody deserves to be fired for their lack of performance or their poor performance, we put our veterans first and make sure they are getting the attention they should get. If somebody is not willing to do their job or cannot do their job, then they are terminated. We don't want to go through and take the rank-and-file, good employees of the Veterans' Administration and tell them ``We don't like you, we don't appreciate you, and we don't trust you,'' but we want to tell those who don't want to be held accountable, those who are not doing their job, that we are watching. We are going to encourage whistleblowers to tell us where the problems are. We created an independent office in this act for whistleblower status within the VA, so the VA itself is soliciting input within its own organization to point out those who may not be doing a good job. We need the VA to have a culture of support for our veterans, not a corruption of our veterans. It is critical that we do that. We took a lot of other issues that have been big problems in the United States of America for our veterans and we addressed them. Opioids. We have a major section on opioids to try to get medicines to our veterans that counteract the addiction of opioids and don't treat pain with opioids but instead treat it with the appropriate type of medicine. We did a great job in terms of caregivers. I don't know about the Presiding Officer, but I am a Vietnam-era guy. I remember Vietnam. I remember the sacrifice of our troops there and the 58,000 men whom we lost in Vietnam. A lot of our Vietnam veterans came home with multiple disabilities. In fact, 22,000 of them are living with disabilities today, but they have never been covered by caregivers. Our post-9/11 veterans have been covered by caregivers but not our Vietnam-era or Grenada veterans or our Panama veterans. This bill makes them eligible as well, so a family member--a loved one who is giving care at home to a veteran who fought and was injured for our country--can get the same type of stipend and benefit that someone who has fought in Iraq or Afghanistan gets. It is only fair to see to it that they get the same benefit and the same treatment. It is also only fair to see to it that Secretary McDonald himself can be held accountable. Bob McDonald is a good Secretary. He has done a good job. He has tried his best, but he hasn't had the tools he needs. Well, we want to give him those tools. We want to give him the chance to have discipline. We want to give him the chance to find the people he needs to put in place. One of the provisions in this bill allows the Secretary to hire physicians, directors, and hospital administrators who are capable of doing the job and pay them what the market will bear. Why not have good people who can do the job rather than temporary people who don't want to do the job? Right now in the Veterans' Administration, fully a third of its leadership is temporary, not permanent. We need a permanent commitment to our veterans that they are going to get the services they deserve and the services they need. I could go on and on about this legislation, but the important thing to understand is that we are finally putting our veterans first. We are telling the Veterans' Administration: We appreciate the good job you do, but we want to make sure it is 100 percent of the time, not just 85 or 90 or 95 percent of the time. We want to make sure they are putting our veterans first. We want to make sure that somebody who makes a mental health call to a veterans hospital doesn't get a busy signal or a wrong number. We want to make sure that when somebody makes an appointment and then shows up, there is somebody there to meet them for that appointment. We want to make sure that the services veterans earned, fought for, and in many cases sacrificed for, are available to them. I thank the members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. I thank this Senate in advance for what I am sure it will do later this year: put our veterans first. When we return from our break next week, I am going to do everything I can to get this bill before the Senate before Memorial Day, to see to it that we get it to the House of Representatives so we can conference. The House has passed their bill. They have passed a good bill, and we have passed a good bill. We need to find common ground to put those two together because one thing is for sure: What has happened in the VA for the last few years is inexcusable and indefensible, and I, for one, am not going to be a chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee who did not try to make it right. I am going to use every strength that I have, every power that I have, and every ability that I have to bring people together to say: We owe our veterans everything. The Presiding Officer wouldn't have his job, I wouldn't have mine, and our families wouldn't live in peace and security today in this country had millions of Americans not volunteered to fight and risk their lives so that we could be free, so that I could speak freely on the floor of the Senate about what I believe and the Presiding Officer could speak freely about what he believes and we could go home and assemble and gather together. All of those are guaranteed by our Constitution--a document which is preserved and memorialized not by the paper it is written on but by the veterans who sacrificed and risked their lives to see to it that it was preserved. I am very proud to be chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. I am proud to have served with Richard Blumenthal as ranking member and all the members of the committee whose contributions to this legislation have made it a great piece of legislation--one that we should pass. I hope we do so before Memorial Day, so on the day we honor those who have fought for us and sacrificed, we send them the signal: We have got your back and we are putting you first. We are putting America's veterans first. I want to pause for a second at the end of my remarks and thank some people for all the efforts they have made over the past 10 months to make this a reality. As the Presiding Officer knows, legislation doesn't just happen. We Senators make a lot of speeches. We are full of a lot of hot air. But the hard work that goes on is done in the back rooms of the Capitol, in the committees, by the people who do the research to find the pay-fors, to make the decisions that have to be made to see to it that a piece of legislation works and is not just a hollow promise. I thank Tom Bowman, my chief of staff on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, for the work he has done. I thank Amanda Meredith, Maureen O'Neill, Adam Reece, David Shearman, Gretchen Blum, Jillian Workman, Leslie Campbell, Lauren Gaydos, Tucker Zrebiec, Tommy Reynolds, and Chris Bennett. I thank the members of my staff: Jay Sulzmann, my chief of staff Joan Kirchner, Ryan Evans, and Amanda Maddox. I also thank everybody on Richard Blumenthal's staff for all the contributions they made to make this happen. Today we opened up a new day for the Veterans' Administration in America and a new day for America's veterans. We put America's veterans first today, and we are going to keep them first. They put us first when they sacrificed for us; it is time we did the same for them. I urge each Member of the Senate during this break to get the information we send to your offices about the Veterans First Act, read and study it, and then come back and let's pass a bill that tells our veterans: We love you. We appreciate you. And never again will you have an appointment broken or not receive the services you need from the Veterans' Administration of the United States of America. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 9 a.m., in room SD-406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 2:15 p.m., in room SD-215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Mental Health in America: Where Are We Now?''

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 10 a.m.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 2 p.m., in room SH-219 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate to do something I periodically like to do when a citizen of my State deserves recognition for the contributions they have made to my State and the citizens of my State. Today is such a day. Dr. Emily Lembeck is the superintendent of the Marietta City Public School System. Recently, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Education, and her palm print is embedded in the walk around Glover Park Square in Marietta, GA. I am close to Emily in more ways than one. When I chaired the State board of education in 1996, she was an elementary school principal at Dunleith Elementary in Marietta, GA. She had been at West Side, she moved on to Marietta Middle School, and later became superintendent of the Marietta Public Schools--8,900 students, 1,200 employees--a challenge but a wonderful community. Throughout her career, she has gifted more to children in our community than any person I know of. In particular, she has taught those who didn't know how to read to read. She has made reading a passion in our community. She has made children's ability to read and comprehend and understand and move forward in life a reality, in a place where at one time it was no reality at all. In fact, let me tell you, when I was chairman of the State board of education we were working hard to make Reading First a movement in this country. She came forward with this idea about adopting something called Marietta Reads. It was a very simple program but a program where leaders in the community, such as I, would come to elementary schools in Marietta, GA, sit down ``Indian style'' on the floor with first graders and teach them to read, read with them, and help them identify with the joy of reading and the understanding of reading. From that day, I gained a greater appreciation for the challenge every teacher faces as they teach our children in classrooms. Emily Lembeck has been awarded almost every award you can possibly get, from the chamber of commerce to the Kiwanis Club, to the Rotary. She has received the Living the Dream Award from the NAACP during King Week a few years ago, she received the Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Award from the Boy Scouts for her leadership. Time and again, Emily Lembeck has been represented to be the great person she is--a leader in education, a leader of children, somebody our community is proud of. So on this day in Washington, DC, on the floor of the Senate, I want the name of Emily Lembeck to ring from one corner to the other for all she has contributed and all she has done to make our community a better, more wholesome, and more meaningful community, and for what she has done to make the lives of our community's children just a little bit better. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 19, 2016, at 10 a.m., in room SD-406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Examining the President's FY 2017 budget request for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.''

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 19, 2016, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Central America and the Alliance for Prosperity: Identifying U.S. Priorities and Assessing Progress.''

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 19, 2016, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Preventing Drug Trafficking through International Mail.''

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 19, 2016, at 2:30 p.m., in room SH-2196 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 19, 2016, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask to call up the Isakson-Bennet amendment.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I thank Senator Bennet for his support, and I urge each Member of the Senate today to vote favorably for the SAVE Act and favorably for the end legislation. I yield the floor.