Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am delighted to rise in favor of the Isakson-Bennet amendment, the SAVE Act, and glad to acknowledge my hard work with Michael Bennet, who has been a great partner in this effort. I particularly want to acknowledge the patience of Senators Cantwell and Murkowski in allowing this bill and amendment to come forward. They have exemplified the type of patience that is necessary to do legislative work and do it well. Very simply, this bill allows the Federal Housing Administration, in the underwriting of a mortgage loan for a family applying for that loan, to consider in the value of the appraisal, the enhanced over- minimum standards that are put in for insulation and the enhanced over- minimum standard savings that come to the consumer from those energy standards being put in. So the borrower gets credit as if it is income from the savings that comes from putting in the insulation for the higher standards. The value of the property is enhanced in order for the borrower to be able to pay for the enhancements, and they are permanent. It is a win-win-win proposition. Why are we doing this? It already worked in the United States. It worked in the 1980s when the savings and loan industry made most of the mortgage loans. In Georgia, we had a program called Good Sense Housing. If you put in enhanced energy savings, you were given credit toward qualification on your loan. When we put them in, we had better thermal windowpanes, better results, and less consumption. This a good amendment that allows consumers to get what they want and allows Americans to enjoy more energy-efficient housing. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I don't know who wrote what my friend from Alabama is reading, but the truth and the fact is that this is a recommendation that allows the installation of more energy efficiency and the funding of that in terms of housing. Homebuilders have endorsed it. Most energy efficiency organizations have endorsed it. It is good practice. It is good procedure. It is not ruining underwriting in any way whatsoever. It is good for America. It is good for energy efficiency. It is good for the housing industry. I would appreciate the vote of each and every Member. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I just want all Members of the Senate to consider this amendment favorably. It is an amendment that allows for consideration, in the qualification of the underwriting of a loan for the purchase of a single-family dwelling, of those enhanced standards for energy efficiency to go in over and above the minimum standard. It is permissive, and it is FHA only. I appreciate every Member's vote. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Coast Guard Fellow, John Ariail, in Senator Cochran's office, be granted floor privileges through the remainder of the 114th Congress.

Mr. ISAKSON

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 19, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I am honored to recognize in the Record James W. Wagner, a leader at the helm of one of Georgia's great institutions of higher education, Emory University. After 13 years as president of Emory University, Mr. Wagner will soon be stepping down from his position. I feel I would be remiss if I did not mark some of his achievements at Emory here in the Record, as the success of Emory University and its students has made a difference to our Nation. Emory University's reputation as a private research university that has led in academic, research, and health care eminence extends far beyond its beautiful campus, which is headquartered in the beautiful Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. President Wagner has enhanced the school's reputation, recruiting a world-class and diverse community of scholars and researchers who have secured an increased number of appointments to national academies and an increased amount of external research funding that added up to more than $570 million in 2015. President Wagner guided the Emory community in developing the university's first vision statement, which established the foundation for a 10-year strategic plan focused on strengthening faculty distinction, ensuring the highest student quality, enhancing the student experience, and exploring new frontiers in science and technology. President Wagner also led a fundraising campaign that resulted in the investment of $1.7 billion in support of the university's initiatives in teaching, research, scholarship, patient care, and social action. In short, President Wagner has advanced all aspects of the university's mission through the innovative design and construction of a number of new facilities to support health sciences research, science education, residential life, library resources, and patient care. I hope that President Wagner and I will remain in touch wherever his next step takes him, and I wish him and his wife, Debbie, the very best.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to LTC John Walden for his 29 years of exemplary dedication to duty while serving as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. I am grateful that he will continue to serve his family and the local community of Oxford after concluding his career with the Army. We wish him well in his retirement. A native of Georgia, LTC John Walden was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps from Georgia Military College in 1988. He completed a bachelor of science in criminal justice from Georgia State University in 1995 and his masters of arts in leadership from Luther Rice University in 2013. His military education includes the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course; Military Intelligence Officer Advance Course; Psychological Operations Officer Course; Counterintelligence Officer Course; Combined Arms Exercise; Command and General Staff College, Intermediate Level Education; and airborne school. As an Army Reserve officer, Lieutenant Colonel Walden has served with military intelligence, psychological operations, and special operations units at the platoon, detachment, company, battalion, group, and major command level. Assignments have included: tactical intelligence officer, counterintelligence officer, HUMINT team chief, counter terrorism analyst, Iraq Threat Finance Cell OIC, deputy chief, counter terrorism analyst, intelligence training officer, and deputy commander. As with all our citizen soldiers, it is important that we acknowledge his service in the civilian sector. Lieutenant Colonel Walden has extensive law enforcement experience, serving as both a deputy sheriff in the Rockdale County sheriff's office and as a detective and special investigator with the Valdosta Police Department. As an ordained minister, he was able to continue serving the community and provide mentorship to those in need. He has also worked at Ford Motor Company and the Maxell Corporation. It is because of all of their cooperation and understanding during his many tours of duty that he was able to make such a positive impact on the Army Reserve. Considering his many positions and service in both the Army and civilian sector, we must acknowledge the tireless support of John's wife, Shelley, and his children, Johnathon, Lucy, and Samuel. I thank them for their sacrifices and wish them all the best for continued success in the future. Throughout his 29-year career, LTC John Walden has made positive impacts on the careers and lives of his soldiers, peers, and superiors. I am grateful for his service to our country, his community, and that he chose to serve as an Army leader. I join my colleagues today in honoring his dedication to the United States of America.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate as in morning business.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am not a lawyer. I am a politician. I was a businessman before I was elected to the Senate. I watched with interest the debates since the death of Antonin Scalia about what the Senate and country should do in terms of filling its vacancy, in terms of its timing. The Constitution tells us what to do. The Constitution tells us that the President shall make an appointment, or a nomination, to fill that vacancy and the Senate shall offer its advice and consent. There is no deadline or trigger date. There are no other rules or guidelines. There have been a lot of historic debates on both sides of the aisle over whether or not a nomination for a Supreme Court justice should be named in the last year of a Presidency. Interestingly enough, if you read the history, sometimes it is the Republicans saying they shouldn't do it and sometimes it is the Democrats. In fact, if you really go back and look, we have all said the same thing. It would just depend on whose ox was getting gored in the politics of a particular day. I love Joe Biden. He is a personal friend of mine and a great Vice President of the United States. I served with him in the Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee, which the Presiding Officer serves on today. I did a little research on what Joe had to say because I appreciate his wisdom. In the last year of the Bush administration--H. W. Bush--in 1992 on June 25, then-Senator Biden made two statements, and I would like to share those statements. The first is the following: [I]t would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. That is what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me, we will be in deep trouble as an institution. Let's take that quote and apply it to the current contemporary time we are in today. We are in a politically unknown territory. Yesterday was Super Tuesday, and 15 States went to the polls. We had newcomers getting the most votes, and we had old-timers getting the most in one primary. We have women getting votes. We have men getting votes. We have conservatives and we have liberals. We don't know who our President is going to be or what party he or she will be from. But we do know that when they are elected and sworn in January of next year, they will be the President of the United States most contemporarily appointed and elected by the people of the United States of America. The Supreme Court is the ultimate arbitrator of what the executive and legislative branches do. It is only appropriate that the Supreme Court majority, as it is cast, be made up of nine people, five of whom are in the majority, who were appointed freely and without political influence, judged for their best political and legal acumen and in the best interest of the country. I don't think going to the current President, Mr. Obama, who is in the last year of his term, and getting him to make an appointment that will only last a few months of his last year in office is the right way to go. I think we need to say the following: The President of the United States who is elected this November and sworn in next January will be the President of all the people most contemporarily voted by the people of America. That is the President who should make the nomination, and that is the Senate that should make the confirmation. I urge my colleagues who argued about going ahead and moving forthrightly and quickly on filling Antonin Scalia's seat to think about this. Next year the Senate will be a new Senate. It won't be this Senate. Many of us are up for reelection. I may not be here. I don't know who will be here. I am trying. I don't know who will be here. I want to get here, but I don't know if I will be here. We don't know who the President will be. Each of us, Republicans and Democrats, have our pick. We hope it is our President. We hope it is the man or woman we want, but we don't know that. But we do know that on the first Tuesday in November, we will elect a new President. In January, that President will be sworn in, and it will be his or her opportunity, if we wait, to make the nomination for whomever will fill Antonin Scalia's place. It will be the new Senate's place to confirm that nomination. The Senators who are elected will be the ones most recently elected to the Senate, and the President who is elected will be the most recently elected President of the United States. That is the person who should make that appointment, and that Senate should make that confirmation. Think about this. Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia in 1986. Antonin Scalia served on the Court for 30 years until 2016. The next person appointed to take his place may serve 30 years as well. That takes us to 2046. That is a long time from now. Shouldn't we take the most contemporarily elected President to make that appointment rather than one who is going away and will be in the history books? I think it is right to allow the President who has been most recently elected to make that nomination and allow the newest Senate to make the confirmation and do what is right for the American people. This is not a Republican or Democratic thing. I respect my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have all made the same statements. It would just depend on whether it was our President or the other guy's President, whether it was our Senate or the other guy's Senate. In fact, I will close my remarks by again quoting my friend Joe Biden from the same speech he made on June 25, 1992. He said: ``Others may fret that this approach would leave the court with only eight members for some time, but as I see it, the cost of such a result . . . [is] quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the President, the Senate, and the Nation would have to pay for what would assuredly be a bitter fight, no matter how good a person is nominated by the President.'' Vice President Biden made that statement when he was a Senator and faced the same situation that we face today. He was smart and wise beyond his years. He said: It is best to look to the future for the appointment, the next President for the nomination, and the next Senate for the confirmation and look to the future of the of the Court, because it is the Supreme Court--many times on a vote of 5 to 4--that will decide the fate of legislative and executive action. It is only right that we have the best and most contemporarily appointed Court that we could possibly have, and the only way to do that is to make sure that the next President makes the appointment. I underscore what I said at the beginning. It is not a Republican or Democratic thing. It is a political thing. We are all politicians and creatures to our politics. All of us have said the same thing. It would just depend on who was in charge at the time as to whether we spoke like Joe Biden as a Republican or spoke like Joe Biden as a Democrat. I commend Antonin Scalia for being a great servant to the American people. He was a great jurist, a great writer, and a great judge. He will be missed. Somewhere out there in America today, there is another Antonin Scalia just waiting to be nominated and confirmed by the Senate. I don't know who it is, but I know this: I want them to be found by the next President of the United States elected this November and confirmed next January by this Senate. That is the right person. That is the right way, and I submit that is the way I recommend we do it. I yield back the remainder of my time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I am honored to recognize a great leader in Georgia politics, a leader that studies hard, presents ideas, and analyzes State public policy issues to educate citizens and enhance economic opportunity. This leader is not a person but an organization that is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2016: the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. Established in 1991, the foundation is an independent, State-focused think tank that proposes market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. Whether they are aware of it or not, Georgians have benefitted from the positive line of influential leaders of this organization, including my good friend Rogers Wade. It was founded by a great Georgian, Hank McCamish, and today is led by a Georgian who will leave another great legacy of his own, Kelly McCutcheon. Through dozens of events each year, facilitating discussions between State members and political, education, media, and business leaders, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation has lived up to its motto: ``Changing Georgia Policy, Changing Georgians' Lives since 1991.'' The Georgia Public Policy Foundation performs scholarly research and analysis of State public policy issues and works to educate citizens, policymakers, and the media. It maintains a State-focused, independent, nonpartisan, and market-oriented approach to improve the lives of Georgians, and it affords opportunities for advocacy membership and volunteering. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation helps shape meaningful policy on education, the environment, criminal justice, government reform, health care, legal reform, regulation, spending, taxes, transportation, and welfare reform. And it walks the walk on education, too--its members donate to the Student Outreach Scholarship Program, providing assistance for lower-income students to attend college and learn about public policy issues. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has forged over the years many positive changes in Georgia in its nonpartisan but very specific way. It raises issues of importance above political rhetoric to a point where politicians focus on the true merits and ultimately make quality decisions. For all the Georgia Public Policy Foundation has done on behalf of my home State over the last 25 years, I honor the foundation today.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

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, on Friday of last week as I was getting ready to leave to go home to the State of Georgia, the United States of America, and the aviation industry received notice that Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Airlines, will retire after a career of over 25 years in the aviation industry, but in particular a great career at Delta Airlines over the last decade. I rise to memorialize on the floor of the Senate how much my State and the aviation industry owes to Richard Anderson. Richard took over Delta at a very critical time. In fact, Delta was in desperate straits. Because of his work at Delta, he revitalized the culture of the company, he revitalized the aviation industry in Georgia, and he made it a market for all of us to be proud of. In fact, in 1 year, 2 years ago, Delta was one of the 50 most admired companies in the United States of America and led the world in terms of aviation as stated by Aviation Magazine, but most importantly Richard Anderson came to Washington, DC, when all the aviation industry was in trouble. He was then with Northwest. Delta was having difficulties. He worked with the U.S. Senate, worked with the Finance Committee, worked with me, Mike Enzi, and others to reform the pension performance act of 2005, and change the way pensions were calculated in order to save the pensions of Delta Airlines and many other airlines in the United States of America. His hands-on effort to revitalize that company led to the most prosperous year in its history in 2016, and the most prosperous decade it had in the last 10 years. So as he announces he is leaving Delta Airlines and the aviation industry for other things to do, I want to, on the floor of the Senate, commend him for all he has done to make Delta Airlines in the State of Georgia great, all he has done for the aviation industry, and all he has done for the economy of the greatest country on the face of this Earth--the United States of America. I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise to recognize another organization that is meaningful to all of us and in particular the Presiding Officer. It is called the USO--the United Service Organization--a private organization chartered federally in 1941 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Congress of the United States. America was on the verge of world war, and the President knew it. We had fragmented volunteer organizations to serve our troops but no organization to really give them the services they needed. The Congress passed a resolution creating and chartering the USO, consolidating those organizations into one. Since that charter 75 years ago, that organization has served over 10 million American soldiers in uniform from the time they put it on until the time they take it off. One need only go to their local airport, which, for me, is the Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. Last year 100 million passengers went through that airport. Many of them were soldiers, a lot of them on the way to deployment in Afghanistan or the Middle East. When they go through the Atlanta airport, the first thing they see is the USO booth, and the first thing they get is services from the USO to help them in their trip, their endeavors, and help them with their families. The USO provides invaluable help to the men and women who provide all of us the security we relish in this great Nation of ours called the United States of America. On this 75th anniversary of the USO, I commend the volunteers--900 of them in Georgia--who provide services to 150,000 Georgia soldiers a year, for all they do on behalf of our country and on behalf of our services. The USO is a great organization for a great country, serving the greatest of all military in the United States of America and throughout the world. I yield back the remainder of my time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, first of all, I am privileged and honored to commend Zippy Duvall, a great Georgian who just a few weeks ago was elected, in the 97th year of the American Farm Bureau, as its 12th president. Zippy has been the president of the Georgia Farm Bureau since 2006. He has been a leader in our State for decades, and I am so proud he will now represent agriculture throughout our country. He himself is a cattleman. He raises hay. He raises broilers. He has run the Farm Bureau and been a great advocate for agriculture and farming in our State. He and his wife Bonnie have four children and three grandchildren. He serves on the Farmers Bank board. He serves as the president of the Georgia Farm Bureau. He serves on the local electric membership corporation board. He serves on the soil and water conservation board. He is a total public servant, and he is an outstanding advocate for agriculture and an outstanding representative of our State. The best example of Zippy Duvall that I know is, if you ride through South Georgia--the heart of agriculture country in my State--and you look at all the bumper stickers on all the pickup trucks, you will see a unique bumper sticker--not mine, not a Member of Congress's, not the Governor's, but a bumper sticker that says very simply ``Ditch the Rule.'' Zippy Duvall was one of the leaders in our country who took on the EPA to stop from going into place the waters of the U.S.A. regulations that would hurt agriculture so desperately in our State. That bumper sticker became a slogan for agriculture all over the country, and farmers worked together to advocate on behalf of better agriculture without an overly oppressive EPA effect. I am proud to come to the floor today and recognize a member of my State, a great farmer in Georgia, and a great citizen of our country. He will be the 12th president of the American Farm Bureau, and he will be the best president of the American Farm Bureau. I commend him and his family for all their sacrifice and effort. I wish him the very best of luck in his endeavors as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, for myself as chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics and for Senator Boxer as vice chairman of the committee, that the Annual Report of the Select Committee on Ethics for calendar year 2015 be printed in the Record. The Committee issues this report today, January 28, 2016, as required by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007.

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 praise the ranking member and the chairman of the committee on the great job they have done on this legislation. I have worked for years with Senator Murkowski. She is a real trooper and has done a great job for our country and for her State of Alaska. Senator Cantwell of Washington is the same. I am pleased to work with them on this particular legislation, which I support today. I am rising to talk for a minute about an amendment Senator Bennet of Colorado and I will be offering to the bill at the appropriate time called the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act is a way to encourage people to finance and include in the purchase of a new home the right types of energy efficiency additions to that home, which will lower the cost of energy to the home, improve the rate of consumption of energy in the home, and make it easier for people to afford energy-saving R-factors for insulation, Thermopane for doors and windows, and other treatments they need to reduce costs. I spent 33 years in residential real estate. I don't know much about anything, but I know a lot about people buying houses and about housing laws and about financing, and I know this: For the entry-level borrower--and this addresses only FHA loans--the most important thing to have the right type of energy efficiency is to be able to afford it, and the best way to be able to afford it is to be able to finance it. If you don't allow the incorporation of the value of the additional cost of the additional R-factor for insulation or Thermopane factor for windows and doors, then people don't end up choosing energy efficiency; they choose less efficient houses which last for 30 or 40 years and burn more energy in their lifetime than they would have if we had not had a way to incentivize people to incorporate energy efficiency into the purchase of their new home. So my story is very simple. We are here today to encourage energy efficiency, encourage savings on energy, and encourage people to focus on energy, to be a more energy-independent country. The best way to do that is to make sure we take the mechanisms of purchase--being the FHA loan in this case--and incorporate and consider for financial value purposes, for the appraisal and for the loan-to-value ratio and for qualification purposes, the savings of the R-factor improvements, Thermopane improvements, and other energy efficiency improvements put in. At the appropriate time--sometime today--I will ask the chairman to recognize me to set aside the pending amendment and make this amendment pending, but until that time, I wanted to come to the floor to let Members know we have an outstanding piece of legislation which scores at zero in terms of costs, applies only to FHA loans, encourages energy efficiency, and allows people to afford to build it into the financing of the purchase of a house. It is a win-win-win. I am proud to work with Senator Bennet on this legislation. I appreciate being recognized by the Chair. Mr. President, I yield to the minority whip.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to COL John Novak for his past year of exemplary dedication to duty and service as an Army congressional liaison for the Chief of Army Reserve. In that role, he managed the operations and readiness portfolio for the Army Reserve. I am grateful that he will continue to serve the Army and Congress in his new assignment as commander, 361st Civil Affairs Brigade, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. We wish him well in his new position. A native of Ohio, Colonel Novak enlisted in the Army as a psychological operations specialist in the 21st Psychological Operations Company, Cleveland, OH. He graduated with honors from John Carroll University, magna cum laude, and the Reserve Officer Training Corps Program, distinguished military graduate, in 1991 and was commissioned into the infantry. Throughout his career, he also earned a master's degree in business and organizational security management from Webster University; a master's degree in legislative affairs from the George Washington University; a master's degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University, Defense Intelligence Agency; a master's degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College; and associate of arts degrees in Russian studies and law enforcement. As an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Colonel Novak served with military intelligence, logistics, psychological operations, and civil affairs units at the platoon, detachment, company, battalion, group, and major command level as an executive officer, platoon leader, detachment commander, psychological operations officer, Product Development Center chief, logistics officer, assistant operations officer, S3, company commander, plans officer, operations officer, aide-de-camp, assistant chief of staff, and battalion commander. His service in the Army Reserve is highlighted by his selection in 2009 to serve as an Army congressional fellow. While assigned to the Office, Chief of the Army Reserve from 2010 to 2012, Colonel Novak spent a year representing the Army to the Congress by working in the office of Senator Saxby Chambliss. Following the completion of battalion command, he returned once again to the Office, Chief Army Reserve to serve as a legislative liaison officer. As with all our citizen soldiers, it is important that we acknowledge his service in the civilian sector. Colonel Novak has extensive law enforcement experience, serving as both a municipal police officer in Ohio and as a Federal civilian special agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. It is because of their cooperation and understanding during his many tours on Active Duty that he is able to make such a positive impact on the Army Reserve. John is accustomed to working long hours in all of his positions in the Army and civilian sector, so it is only fair and proper to acknowledge the tireless support of his wife Stacey and his children-- Patrick John Novak and Caitlin Lynn Novak. I thank them for their sacrifices and wish them all the best for continued success in the future. Throughout his 30-year career, COL John Novak has made positive impacts on the careers and lives of his soldiers, peers, and superiors; and I am grateful that he has chosen to serve as an Army leader. I join my colleagues today in honoring his dedication to our Nation and invaluable service to the U.S. Congress as an Army congressional liaison.

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 rise on January 20, 2016, on the floor of the Senate to acknowledge this day as the 35th anniversary of the return of 53 Americans by the Iranian Government to the shores of the United States of America after captivity for 444 days in Iran. As the Members of the Senate will remember, they were employees of the U.S. Embassy in Iran who were brutally attacked, sent through mock executions, subjected to beatings, subjected to brainwashing, subjected to torture, and for 444 days were out of communication with their loved ones and our country. Fortunately, we successfully negotiated their release, and on January 20, 1981, they were released back to the United States. But that release included the execution of the Algerian Accords between the United States and the Iranians, which prohibited any hostage from suing the nation of Iran for compensation for their captivity. Since that release, many Americans in the House of Representatives and the Senate, including myself, have worked hard to try to right that wrong. I am very pleased to acknowledge that under the passage of the omnibus in December, we were able to secure funding to be able to compensate those hostages as they should have been compensated 35 years ago. We were able to take money from the Paribas bank forfeiture of Iranian funds to the U.S. Government to see to it that they were compensated in some measure for the sacrifice they made for our country. A lot of people have written: Why would you compensate people for their captivity? Why would you go to the effort for 35 years to see to it these people got some amount of money to compensate them for their captivity? Why would we not do it? There are Americans all over the world serving in very dangerous places, serving as ambassadors and diplomats through the State Department. They should know we have their backs, not just on the days they are serving but 35 years later if they were tortured, beaten or if they were held captive. We all rejoiced to see the Americans that were released by the Iranians. We know there were Americans taken hostage in Iraq and Baghdad 2 days later. Taking Americans hostage and using them as tools of war is something that has been happening for years and years, and the Iranian Government is at the head of it. These Americans deserve fair treatment, compensation, and recompense for all they suffered, and I am proud to say that because of a bipartisan effort in the House and Senate, we were able to do so. I want to thank Senator Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Senator Cardin, the former chairman; Senator Menendez from New Jersey; Senator Reid from Nevada, who was instrumental in helping; and Senator Blumenthal, my ranking member on the Veterans' Affairs Committee of the Senate, for help on this bill and for all the help they brought. I want to thank the entire body of the Senate, who in December voted unanimously to see to it that the Paribas money was made available to the survivors of the people who were taken hostage in 1979. You might remember the show ``Nightline'' that we see on television started with the original report in 1979 by Ted Koppel about the hostage taking. It became a television show when they were held that long. I am glad now that the ending of that show is a successful ending, because we brought them home and we saw to it they were compensated. Some of them have passed away. Some of them had taken their own life. Some of them had difficulties. Some were never able to rid themselves of the scars of the torture and brainwashing. But this Senate and this Congress did what it was supposed to do, stood up for Americans and sent a signal to everybody who works in the State Department, who is a diplomat for our country, and who works overseas that if you are taken, we will stand behind you and we will never ever forget--whether it is 444 days or 35 years--once an American serving our country, always an American serving our country. We will always be there for you, and we will go to every effort and every length, even if it does take 35 years. On the anniversary of their release in 1981 when they came back to the United States, we pay tribute to those great Americans who served our country and were held hostage in Iran. We give thanks that we have the kind of men and women who are willing, day in and day out, to sacrifice on behalf of our great country. May God bless each and every one of them, and may God bless the United States of America. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I think it is important that we pause for a moment at the end of 2015, look back upon the past 12 months and, in particular, look at the Veterans Administration and the veterans who have served our country, looking at the problems that we have solved and the things we have done to better improve those services. When the year dawned, we had a scandal in Arizona at a Phoenix hospital. We had bonuses being paid to employees who had not performed. We had medical services that weren't available to veterans who had earned them and deserved them. As a Senate, we came together in the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, which I chair. We had a bipartisan effort to see to it we addressed those problems. So for just a second I want everyone to pause and realize what we have done bipartisanly and collectively for those who have served our country and the veterans today. No. 1, by the end of January, we had passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act to deal with the growing problem of suicide with our veterans. It is already working with more psychiatric help available to our veterans, quicker responses for those who seek mental help, better diagnosis of PTSD and TBI, and a reduction in the rate of the suicides that take place in the veterans community. That was affirmative action. It passed 99 to 0--Republicans and Democrats--in the Senate of the United States. We took the veterans choice bill, which had passed in August of last year, and made it work better for the veterans of our country. In the first 9 months of this year, the Veterans Administration fulfilled 7.5 million more individual appointments for veterans and benefits than they had in the preceding year, all because we made the private sector a part of the VA and allowed veterans to go to the doctor of their choice under certain qualified situations. We made access easier, we made access better, and because of that, we made health care better. Then we addressed the Denver crisis, and this is the most important thing of all. In January we got this little note from the VA that they had a $1.3 billion cost overrun on a $1.7 billion hospital, a 328- percent increase in cost with no promise that it would go down. Ranking Member Blumenthal, myself, and the Colorado delegation flew to Denver and brought in the contractors and the VA. We made significant changes. First we took the VA out of the construction business. They had proven they didn't deserve the ability to manage that much money or to build things. Their job was to deliver health care. We took the construction and put it in the hands of the Corps of Engineers, where construction and engineering was responsible. We told the VA: You may have a $1.385 billion cost overrun, but if you are going to pay for it, we are not going to borrow from China. You are going to find it internally in the $71 billion budget of the Veterans Administration. And they did. By unanimous consent this Senate and the House of Representatives approved the completion of that hospital, the funding of the shortfall, and the management takeover by the Corps of Engineers. Today it is on progress to be there for the veterans of the Midwest and the West in Denver, CO. Then we dealt with many other programs, such as homelessness and caregiver benefits to our veterans' caregivers, to see to it we have the very best care possible available. Then we changed the paradigm. The VA had so many acting appointees and so many unfilled positions that they couldn't function as well as they should. So we went in, and we approved Dr. David Shulkin to be the under secretary for medicine. We took LaVerne Council and approved her to be the head of information technology. We took former Congressman Michael Michaud and made him the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training. We put highly qualified people who knew what they were doing in positions where we had vacancies. We are already seeing a benefit in health delivery services, planning for IT coordination, and, hopefully, interoperability between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense in terms of medical records, which is so important. But we also did something else. We said we are no longer going to tolerate scandals in the VA or look the other way, and we are not going to pay rewards and bonuses to people who aren't doing the job. As you heard earlier today with Senator Cassidy from Louisiana and Senator Ayotte from New Hampshire, with the help of Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, we are going to pass legislation that is going to hold VA employees accountable, have a record if they are not performing, and in the future prevent any Veterans Administration employee who is not doing a job from getting a bonus for a job that is not well done. That is the way it works in the private sector. It ought to be the way it works in the government. Then we took another problem. We took the problem of the scandal in the VA relocation benefits, which cost hundreds of thousands of lost revenue to the VA--funds that were given to VA people for transferring, some of them within the same geographic area where they originally were working. We told Secretary McDonald: You need to go in there, and you need to clean this thing up. To his credit, the Secretary did, and to his credit, the former brigadier general who was the head of that department retired. He resigned from the VA rather than face the music in terms of the investigation. But we took affirmative action to see to it we would have no more scandals. We want zero tolerance for poor performance, and we want to reward good performance, but that is the way it needs to be. It is very important also to understand that we have goals for the future. We are going to continue as a committee with the VA leadership on a quarterly basis. Senator Blumenthal and I go to meet with the leadership of the VA to see what they are doing and to share with them the frustration we have in the House and the Senate about things that aren't going right, but to share with them the joy we have with the things that they are doing to improve. Then we have set goals for next year, a full implementation of the Veterans Choice Program and a consolidation of all veterans' benefits and VA benefits to see to it that veterans get timely appointments and good-quality services from the physicians in the VA or physicians in their communities. We are going to improve the experience of our servicemembers in transitioning from Active Duty to Veterans Affairs. Quite frankly, today that is the biggest problem we have in the country. Active-Duty servicemembers who leave service and go to veteran status fall into a black hole. There is no interoperability of VA and DOD health care records and electronic records. There is no transition in the handoff. We are going to see that change. We are going to improve the experience of women veterans, including protecting victims of military sexual trauma. We are going to combat veteran homelessness and meet the goal of the President to get it to zero. We have already reduced it by a third. We are going to ensure access to mental health so no veteran who finds himself in trouble doesn't have immediate access to counsel. On that point, I commend the Veterans Administration for the hotline. The suicide prevention hotline that they established has helped to save lives in this country this year, and we are going to continue to see to it that we have more and more access for our veterans. Simply put, we are going to make the Veterans Administration work for the veterans and work for the American people. We are going to have accountability of the employees. We are going to reward good behavior, and we are not going to accept bad behavior. In the end, we are going to take the veteran of America, who served his or her country, and make sure that they get every benefit that is promised to them and that it is delivered in a high-quality fashion. We are going to do it working together as Republicans and Democrats and as Members of the Senate to do so. As we close this year, I wish to pause and thank the Members of the Senate for their unanimous bipartisan support for the significant changes we have made to address the problems of the Veterans Administration and to remember this season of the year in Christmas the great gift we have had to all of us of our veterans who have served us, many of whom have sacrificed and some of whom have died to see that America remains the strongest, most peaceful, and freest country on the face of this Earth. With that, I pause and yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, as the last surviving person who served on the committee who wrote the original No Child Left Behind Act for the Congress, I am delighted to be here on this day. I think this Senator speaks for every superintendent, every Governor, every parent, and every child to say thank you to Senator Alexander and Senator Murray. We knew when we wrote No Child Left Behind that if it worked, by the time the sixth year came, we would have to reauthorize it or else it would go from a net positive to a negative. We didn't reauthorize it, and AYP became a problem, good schools became needs- improvement schools, and the law worked backward. In fact, we have run education by waivers the last 6 years. The leadership of these two great Members of Congress. Seeing this bill through in the committee is a great testimony to working together, to finding common ground, and to our collective purpose of seeing to it that our children are the best educated children in the world. Senator Alexander, thank you. Senator Murray, thank you for what you have done. To the Members of Congress, the Senate will vote in a few minutes. We need a vote for cloture and a vote for final passage to see to it that we end a chapter in education and open a new chapter--a chapter that focuses on student improvement, student achievement, leaves No Child Left Behind but also sees that every child can succeed and makes sure we disaggregate so we can focus on children as they perform within their own group and we can focus on every child in every school in America. I am honored to have been a member of the committee that worked hard on this bill, and I am honored to serve with Senators Alexander and Murray. I appreciate the time to speak on behalf of not just myself but for every student, teacher, and parent in America. Thank you.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. I want to thank the Senator from South Carolina and the Senator from Vermont for their important work in improving United States foreign assistance. I thank Senator Leahy for bringing this issue to our attention today. The Senator from Delaware and I have worked for years on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, and I look forward to continuing that work. Throughout our travels on the African continent, we have seen the beneficial effects of increased agriculture productivity and better access to markets, facilitated by U.S. economic development and trade preference programs. I am proud of our work to reauthorize the African Growth and Opportunity Act. We made it stronger, more accountable, and hopefully more accessible to sub-Saharan African countries and their people. Unfortunately, Congo's ineligibility makes export opportunities more difficult for Congolese businessmen and farmers. I echo my colleagues' call on the Congolese Government to become more transparent and responsive to the needs of its people.