Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. I rise to pay tribute to my friend, Saxby Chambliss. I will admit to you this is a speech I never wanted to make. I never wanted to make it because we have had a wonderful relationship in this body for the past 10 years. We have done everything together. He has had my back, and I have had his back. He is a great friend, and I will miss him. But I am not a selfish guy. He married one of the finest women I have ever known, Julianne Chambliss, who is one of the best friends my wife has. Although he is leaving us and I will miss the crutch I have used for so long, Julianne is getting her Saxby back. For Julianne, her family, and those grandkids he loves so much, that is exactly what Saxby wants to do. Georgia has had some great Senators: Richard Russell, who was really the master of the Senate; Zell Miller, a former Governor of Georgia, a great friend of mine and a great mentor of our State; and Sam Nunn, one of the finest in national defense and foreign policy our State ever offered. Saxby will be the fourth on the Mount Rushmore of Georgia Senators who have served Georgia with distinction and with class. I want to tell Saxby this in person. For 10 years we have done joint conferences. We have messed up twice. When I messed up he covered my back and when he messed up I covered his. In 2008 when he almost lost a race and got into a runoff in December in Georgia, I rode a bus for 21 straight days introducing him three times a day and eating barbecue every single day for dinner and for lunch. That is a price to pay that only friendship will bring out. He is a dear friend, a trusted person. I love him very much and I love his family very much. I could talk all day, but I wanted to open and close by saying, Saxby, I love you. The State is going to love having you back. This country is going to miss you, but my grandchildren are safer, my State is better, and our relationship has never been stronger. May God bless you and your family in every endeavor you undertake, and may God bless the United States of America. (Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I join the Senator from Arizona and the Senator from Georgia--my senior Senator, Mr. Chambliss--to rise for a minute and talk about Mike Johanns. I want to amend that. I don't want to just talk about Mike Johanns, I want to talk about him and Stephanie Johanns. In the South what we have is what we call a two-for. Mike and Stephanie are a two-for. They are a great pair for America, and they are a great pair for the State of Nebraska. As a Senator from an agricultural State, I know the value that Mike brought to the Cabinet of the United States when he was Secretary of Agriculture. I know from his serving the State of Nebraska when he was Governor what a great job they did. I know the past 6 years, working side-by- side with Mike Johanns has been a real treat. He is a gentleman, and he is a scholar. He doesn't do anything where he doesn't know what he is doing, and if he is not always right, he is almost always right because he always has Stephanie there to guide him in the right direction. I pay tribute to a great Senator, and a great personal friend, Mike Johanns, and his lovely wife Stephanie. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, on Saturday night of last week, Georgia, Atlanta, and America lost a great citizen. Herman J. Russell was one of the greatest African-American business leaders and civil rights leaders the world has ever known. He passed peacefully in his home after a short illness, but his legacy and his life will last forever--not just in the history books but indelibly on the skyline of our city. In 1952 Herman J. Russell started a small plastering company called H.J. Russell & Company. He had just graduated from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and he came to Georgia to make his fortune and his fame. He started out plastering walls and ceilings, and he finished his career building the Georgia Dome and the Georgia Pacific Building, the 1996 Olympic Stadium, and buildings throughout the Atlanta skyline. While doing so he made a lot of money which he reinvested back not into his investments but into his community. In 1999 Herman Russell by himself gave $4 million to Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, and Georgia State University, and last December gave $1 million to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to rebuild and help renovate the facility in downtown Atlanta for a hospital for children. He was always giving back more than he asked, but his greatest gift may have been the fact that he enabled Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It is well known that Dr. King would go to Herman's house to take refuge, take a swim and relax between the arduous times of the civil rights movement. Herman Russell would finance the movement and finance the movement's efforts so they could continue to move forward to bring about equality in the South. That is an indelible mark he left in history, not just for our State but for our country. Herman and his wife had three wonderful children. They are involved in the business today. Today the business is still flourishing, as it always has. In fact, the new Atlanta Dome Stadium, which will house the Falcons, is a $1.3 billion stadium in which the company was integrally involved. Our city has lost a great friend, a great African American, and a great entrepreneur--so great, he was recognized by the Atlanta Chamber as its first African-American member and its second African-American president. He has been recognized by the Butler Street YMCA, the Atlanta and Georgia Business Council, and almost every entrepreneur group there is for his contributions to business and his contributions to investments in the State of Georgia. It is with great sad tomorrow night that I will go to Ebenezer Baptist Church and be a part of the wake ceremony for Mr. Russell. But it is with great pride that I rise today on the Senate floor to make sure the Record indelibly recognizes the life, the times, and the contributions of Herman J. Russell.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, on Sunday night a great Georgian and a personal friend of mine passed away from this life. At the age of 89, former Governor Carl Sanders died in Atlanta, GA, at Piedmont Hospital. Governor Sanders was Governor of Georgia from 1963 to 1967. I was at the University of Georgia as a student from 1962 to 1966, so my college years paralleled his gubernatorial years, where he made a remarkable change in the politics and lives of the people of Georgia. Everyone remembers what the 1960s were like in the South in terms of segregation. Most of the Governors in the South--like Governor Wallace from Alabama--were segregationists. But Carl Sanders came forward as a Governor who wanted to help bring people together, who wanted to help bring Georgia and the South through a turbulent time, to see to it that African Americans rose to equality not just in the way they were recognized but in the ways the laws were created. In fact, it was Carl Sanders who came to Washington in 1964 to meet with Lyndon Johnson and help form the foundation for the civil rights laws that passed later in the 1960s. Carl Sanders was born in Augusta, GA. He went to the University of Georgia on a scholarship and played football, and he left the university to go fight in World War II and was a fighter pilot. He came back from World War II, graduated from the University of Georgia, and then graduated from Georgia Law School. He practiced law and was elected to the State legislature and then to the State senate and then Governor of the State of Georgia. He was Governor from 1963 to 1967. Back then, Georgia Governors could not succeed one another, so he had to wait 4 years to run for a second term. He did wait 4 years and he ran for a second term, and he lost ultimately to the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. But he was never a loser; he was a winner. And in everything he did, whether it was government or business or family life, whatever it might be, Carl Sanders excelled. He was such a wonderful man to share his wisdom and knowledge. About once every 6 or 8 months he would have three or four of us over to his office, at the age of 89, treating us to lunch and talking about the good old days but also talking about the future. Carl Sanders was not about the past, except for memories; he was about the future for its hope and its prosperity for people. Carl Sanders will be remembered for a lot of things, but in Georgia, most importantly, he will be remembered for what became at first a junior college system but is now a 4-year college system which has every Georgia citizen within a 45-minute drive of a State university system facility. His passion as Governor was education. His legacy in Georgia will be education. He contributed greatly to our State and greatly to the future and the prosperity of the people of the State of Georgia. It is with a great sense of sadness but a great sense of pride that I pay tribute today on the floor of the Senate to a great Governor of Georgia, a great citizen of our country, and a great American--the Honorable Carl Sanders, former Governor of the State of Georgia. I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. On behalf of the people of Georgia, the next three votes will be three judges for the State of Georgia. Senator Chambliss, the senior Senator from Georgia, has done an outstanding job of leading our Judiciary Committee to negotiate with the President and White House on six nominations, three of which we have approved and the final three are tonight. I heartily recommend to each Member of the Chamber a vote for Leslie Abrams for the Middle District of Georgia, Eleanor Ross for the Northern District of Georgia, and Mark Cohen for the Northern District of Georgia. All are extremely competent, talented individuals. I thank the Obama administration and all those who worked with us to come up with a package of judges to fill the vacancies in the State of Georgia. I yield to Senator Chambliss.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, my oldest son graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans with a master's degree in economics. He wrote a paper for his master's thesis called ``The Dutch Disease.'' I had never heard of the Dutch disease, but, him being my son, I read the thesis because I thought it would be important. What is the Dutch disease about? The Dutch disease is about a country that has an infinite supply of wealth--i.e., resources--but doesn't ever use that money to reinvest in its people. They buy what they need. It was about the Middle East, and if you look at the Middle East, every country over there that has a tremendous supply of oil and petroleum--what do they do? They buy their doctors and bring them over. They don't build universities. They don't make investments in themselves, and they give money to their people. The country's people suffer from the Dutch disease because the money is not reinvested to expand the wealth of the country. There is another disease called the dumb disease. The dumb disease is when you don't have a natural resource and have the opportunity to get some of it, but you turn it away for reasons that don't make any sense. I have tremendous respect for the gentleman from Rhode Island and the distinguished lady from California. In fact, I traveled with the distinguished lady from California to go to Disko Bay in Greenland to listen to Dr. Alley talk about climate change and climatology. While I completely realize that carbon is something we need to reduce in the atmosphere, I don't completely buy into the fact that it is the be-all and end-all destructor of the environment. I think it is good politics for all of us to reduce carbon everywhere we can but not by stopping progression, not by stopping jobs and not developing. On the Keystone XL Pipeline, let's be realistic. You are going to have up to 500,000 barrels of oil a day traveling from the tar sands in Canada to Houston, TX, and the South of the United States to be refined, and it is not going to generate one single isotope of carbon because it is going to be underground. It is not going to be burned. It is not going to be carried in a tanker truck that is going to be burning diesel in transport. So you have less generation of carbon by building the pipeline than you would have otherwise. Secondly, as another alternative, that oil is going to go somewhere. If we don't allow the TransCanada pipeline to be built by the Keystone people in the United States, they are going to build a pipeline to Vancouver, and they are going to ship, on ships, the oil from the tar sands to China. In other words, it is going to get somewhere where there are not good standards and more carbon will go into the atmosphere. Just because you burn it in America doesn't mean it is not going to get to China and vice versa. We have estimates from the people of expertise that this would generate 42,000 jobs. That is a lot of jobs. I think that is important. That is No. 1. No. 2, it will give us a diversified supply of petroleum in the United States and help continue the United States on the track of being an energy-independent country--the most important thing we can possibly do for our national security. The only reason the Russians went into Ukraine and Crimea was simply because they held the gasoline and petroleum to hold those countries hostage and there wasn't another source from which to take it. Every time we improve our access to petroleum, every time we improve our access to energy, we are improving our national defense and the national security of our country, and we maintain ourselves as a superpower not just by name but by economic force as well. So I am all for reducing carbon isotopes in the atmosphere, and I think running that pipeline does exactly that because it moves it without burning it. And I am for jobs. I am for 42,000 jobs in America anytime we can get them. I am for expanding our access. Sure, some of the petroleum that is refined will be sold in the world market. It will be refined in the United States. If we had a shortage somewhere else, we could help make up that shortage. We could take that money and raise the supply and reduce the price of petroleum in the world marketplace. The Keystone XL Pipeline just makes good sense. Let's not do something dumb and reject an asset our country has sitting there. We would be sitting on a ham sandwich and starving to death. Looking at our food and not eating it would be crazy, and we have the access to do it. The State Department on five separate occasions--five separate occasions--has approved it. We have tried for 6 years to get this vote. Regardless of how we get it, I hope we get it and I hope we get 60 or more votes here. I hope the President will rethink his position on vetoing the bill because the American people are for it, the petroleum industry is for it, the automobile industry is for it, it generates revenues and jobs in the United States of America, it diversifies our energy supply, and it makes us more energy independent than we would otherwise be. Just as the Dutch disease afflicts countries that don't take advantage of the wealth they have in terms of natural resources, the dumb disease is when you have access to natural resources and you pass them up because of reasons that are political and not practical. I am going to cast my vote in favor of the Keystone XL Pipeline. I will cast my vote for jobs in America, for common sense, and for not succumbing to the dumb disease in the United States of America and instead investing in our petroleum and our ability to refine and our ability to use it. I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I wish to join the senior Senator from Georgia, who was kind enough to invite our guest Chaplain today. George Dillard is a great chaplain in our State, a great civic leader, a great Christian leader, and a great leader in our State for many other things. He has been a dynamic chaplain in his church, a dynamic minister, and has his doctorate in biblical studies. We are delighted to welcome him to Washington, DC, where we need all the biblical help we can get. We appreciate George Dillard for his prayer, his devotion, and his faith. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

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 be recognized for up to 5 minutes.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and Senator Chambliss, we ask the Members of the Senate to move favorably on this vote of cloture. We appreciate the consideration of Members and ask for their ``yes'' vote. I yield back.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, one of the great honors of being a Member of the Senate is the participation and the confirmation process the Constitution dictates to us on Federal judges and other critical appointees, such as Cabinet members of the President. I have today a distinct honor and privilege to recommend to all of my colleagues in the Senate a Georgia lawyer who has been nominated by the President of the United States, with the approval of Senator Chambliss and myself, to the Northern District Court of Georgia. Her name is Leigh May. She is an unbelievably exciting, unbelievably knowledgeable, unbelievably accomplished individual. She graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the top three engineering schools in the United States of America, with honors, in 1993. Then, in 1998, she graduated from the University of Georgia Law School with a juris doctorate degree, magna cum laude in her class. From 1998 to 2000, she served as a law clerk to Judge Dudley H. Bowen, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. She is a partner in the Atlanta office of Butler, Wooten & Fryhofer, LLP, one of the leading law firms in our State. Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation in both the State and Federal courts, and she is currently vice chair of the litigation section of the Atlanta Bar Association. Her ABA rating is unanimously very ``qualified.'' She is a very talented, very deserving person. I thank the President for his nomination. I thank Kathy Ruemmler, who was his leading advisor at the time, for her cooperation in this nomination. I close my recommendation to my colleagues by telling them this: Please vote for the cloture motion today so we can vote for confirmation tomorrow. This May, I was asked to address the University of Georgia's graduation ceremony in Athens, GA. After the speech I made, I went back to the dressing room in the green room, and the dean of the law school came up to me and said: I just want you to know, Mr. Isakson, you nominated one of the smartest people to ever graduate from the law school of the University of Georgia when you nominated Leigh May. I can't think of a higher or a better recommendation, and I commend Leigh May to my colleagues of the Senate with my highest recommendation in the hopes that folks will vote today to go to cloture and vote for the confirmation tomorrow to confirm Leigh May to the Northern District of Georgia. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. I am pleased to join with the distinguished Senator from the State of North Dakota, and I am pleased to join with the Senator of Oklahoma. I am pleased to speak as an American from a State that is a net consumer, not producer, of energy. The Senator's State is a great producer of energy. Senator Inhofe's State is a great producer of energy. Georgia is a great consumer. We don't have a lot of oil or natural gas or coal, but I am here because I have a lot of experience in my lifetime--a lot of it with national security issues and with economic issues. Our ability or our failure to approve the Keystone Pipeline and fracking is, very simply, professional malpractice. I wish to refresh everybody's memory. This is the sixth anniversary of a letter to the President of the United States. Do we know what it is the 35th anniversary of? The Arab oil embargo. I was a real estate salesman in 1970 when something called the misery index was developed. Does the Senator know what the misery index was? We had double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, and double- digit interest rates. Why? Because the Arab oil embargo in the middle 1970s brought America to its knees. This real estate agent salesman used to have to wait for 2 hours in a line at an ExxonMobil station with a $10 bill to get my ration of gasoline in the 1970s. Why? Because we depended on the Middle East and OPEC to supply us with energy. We sit here on the cusp of being a net producer of energy. We can use it in our national defense, we can use it in our national security, and we can use it in our economy. If we produced the energy that we know we have available to us, and if we bring in the energy safely and environmentally soundly, as we know we have available to us, we can rule our foreign policy and our economy based on our own strength and not as dependents on anybody else. Thirty-five years ago is not just a time of the misery index, but it was a time of failed U.S. foreign policy. Remember, it was the late 1970s when the Iranians took the American Embassy hostage in Iran and for 445 days held the strongest military power in the world hostage. Why? In large measure because they controlled petroleum to our country. So it is a national security threat. When the President of the Ukraine spoke today, he didn't say this, but I will say it: If America was producing the oil and energy it could with the Keystone Pipeline and with fracking, if we were exporting to foreign countries, we could replace Russia in a heartbeat and be the net supplier of energy to the Ukraine and to Germany. So it is important to the national security of our country and the employment of our people and the soundness of our economy that we do hydraulic fracking for our natural gas in Haynesville and Marcellus, and that we bring the pipeline oil from Canada-Keystone XL Pipeline in to Houston and refine that petroleum with gasoline and energy for our people. The pipeline, to the Senator from North Dakota, is very interesting. I ran the State Board of Education in Georgia for years. By law we couldn't build a public school in Georgia if it was within 2,000 feet of an underground pipeline. It is hard in Atlanta, GA, to find a piece of land that isn't within 2,000 feet of an underground pipeline. Today America's energy and petroleum flows rapidly and safely and environmentally soundly in pipelines. If we weren't using pipelines and we were bringing it on railcars or trucks, we would be producing carbon out the kazoo because those engines would burn petroleum to get the petroleum to Houston. By using the pipeline, it is safe, it is sound, and it is secure. I think it is basically professional malpractice for this country to fail to approve the Keystone Pipeline or fracking because it hurts our national defense, it makes us dependent on people we shouldn't be dependent on, it hurts our economy, and one day the misery index could come back. If it comes back, it will be because we are held hostage by our own failed policy, not because somebody held us hostage because they were strong. I want a strong America. I want an America that has strong leadership. I don't want to be a part of any professional malpractice. I want to be a part of seeking the best for our American people-- bringing energy to our American people, and being the most competitive economy in the world today. I appreciate the distinguished Senator from North Dakota for yielding me the time.

Mr. ISAKSON. If, before we left today and had a final vote on the CR, the majority leader would let a vote come to the floor to get 60 votes to go ahead and move forward on the Keystone Pipeline, in my belief it would happen. For all the reasons I stated and what the American people want and all the reasons the Senator stated, I quite frankly do not understand why one single person in this administration would hold back the Keystone Pipeline. Correct me if I am wrong, but the State Department has five times approved it; is that not correct?

Mr. ISAKSON. Then I think, knowing the quality and the intellect of the 100 Members of the Senate, there is no doubt that if the leader would bring that vote to the floor today, we would get more than 60 votes to move America forward and say: This Congress is ready to act. We are not in professional malpractice; we in fact are doing good for the American people. We want energy and we want it now.

Mr. ISAKSON. So that is No. 1. No. 2, there is no question that being independent in energy makes us a stronger country in terms of our national defense and our foreign policy; is that not correct?

Mr. ISAKSON. No. 3, we will have more jobs, more employment, less inflation, and a more vibrant economy if we were developing this petroleum; is that not correct?

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, in about 19 minutes the Senate will exercise one of its constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent to President Obama on the appointment of Jill A. Pryor to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit of Georgia. I urge all of my colleagues to vote favorably for Ms. Pryor, a lawyer from the city of Atlanta and the State of Georgia, a great nominee and a great appointee. As I make this recommendation, I want the Chamber to know loudly and clearly that I praise the President and his staff--particularly Kathy Ruemmler--for the job they did in coordinating with Senator Chambliss and myself in seeking advice and consent to come up with a series of appointees to the district and circuit courts of Georgia. Jill Pryor is an outstanding lawyer and an outstanding attorney. She is a graduate of William & Mary and Yale University, and was editor of the Yale Law Review. An outstanding jurist and an outstanding person, she has practiced and specialized in business law, representing plaintiffs and defendants--not in the same case, I might add--in the areas of business torts, corporate governance, and shareholder disputes, class actions, trade secrets, fraud, intellectual property fraud, and the Georgia and Federal RICO statutes. She is an outstanding member of the firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, and clerked for an Eleventh Circuit judge when she got out of Yale University Law School. She is an outstanding individual of impeccable credentials, impeccable integrity, and will be a great credit to the Federal bench of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. I commend her to each of my colleagues here today with my highest recommendation, and I again thank the President of the United States and his staff for their cooperation in nominating a superior judge to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. President, I yield the floor and I ask unanimous consent that the time be equally divided.

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today the State of Georgia lost a great citizen and America lost a great patriot. Truett Cathy, 93 years old, the founder of Chick-fil-A restaurants, passed away this morning. One of the great entrepreneurs of all time, Truett Cathy started a restaurant called the Dwarf House in College Park, GA, years and years ago. He turned it into the Chick-fil-A restaurant, which now has over 1,800 restaurants in 40 States and the District of Columbia. It is a family-owned business. It is not a public corporation. It is a business that is built on the principles that Truett Cathy believed in and believed in to this day. Truett Cathy's stores are never open on Sunday. He is a devout Christian and believes Sunday is a day of rest. So he operates 6 out of the 7 days. Everybody who competes with Truett Cathy operates for 7 days. But everybody who competes with Truett Cathy finishes second in gross sales, second in quality, and second in the line. Truett Cathy was an extra-special man whose life has been a great tribute to all the right things in life that all of us believe in. Truett Cathy also gave back to his community probably more than any other person I know of. He founded WinShape Homes, WinShape to build boys, WinShape to take children who could not find a foster parent, put them in a home and turned their life around. He was a prolific writer of book after book after book about his belief in life. His greatest book is one I gave to each Member of the Senate about 5 years ago: ``It's Better to Build Boys than Mend Men.'' Because he knew the citizens of our country would be better if we had good foundations from the beginning. So he tried to make sure all those who were less fortunate, who did not have the advantages he or others had, had a chance to grow up in a home with a warm and nurturing environment, a Christian environment, an environment that was dedicated to the principles of this country, and freedom and democracy. Atlanta and Georgia will miss Truett Cathy. He is irreplaceable. It is said that nobody is irreplaceable. Truett Cathy is. But the legacy and the legend he built and his restaurants will go on as a flagship for everything that is right about free enterprise and about the United States of America. On this day on the floor of the Senate, to his family and to his legion of friends and to all he stood for and stands for, I mourn the loss of Truett Cathy, a great American and a great citizen. I urge everybody, when they get the chance, to read the story of his life, because it is the story of the American way of life. It is the story of principles you are committed to, vision you hope for, taking a risk to try and create a reward, and giving back to the community when you earn the money from that reward, to see to it you leave this world a better place than you found it. For America and Georgia today, Truett Cathy has left us. He has gone to a much better place. But he has left our city, our State, and our country a better place than what he found. May God bless the life of Truett Cathy.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I want to commend Chairman Sanders for his leadership. Last night at 9:30 p.m., I came back to the Capitol and executed a conference agreement that he has worked very hard on, and ranking member Senator Burr worked very hard on, and pulled together disparate factions to address the needs of our veterans in a bill that is going to be a toolkit for Robert McDonald, who I hope will be unanimously approved as the next Secretary of the VA in the President's Cabinet. I rise to talk about Mr. McDonald, but before I do, I want to talk about that conference report. Our veterans have been abused in the last 10 to 12 years because of a veterans' medical service that has not performed the services they need to perform for our veterans in America. One of the reasons they did this is, Admiral Shinseki, who was the former Secretary, was actually insulated from a lot of the information that was going on in his own Department by the senior leadership at the VA who had become comfortable and passive and not active in terms of the operation of VA medical services. The bill we signed last night that the Senate will vote on in the next few days is the bill that gives Mr. McDonald and the next Secretary to come the tools they need to enhance the VA and to make it a responsive organization to the 22 million veterans, 6.5 million of whom use veteran medical services, and to the 774,000 veterans in my home State of Georgia who deserve and demand, if you will, the services they were promised when they went into the U.S. military. Bob McDonald is an outstanding American. He was president, CEO, and chairman of the board of one of the most respected companies in America, Procter & Gamble. He is the father of two, grandfather of two additional children. He is an outstanding American and his wife Diane is an outstanding lady in support of him and his job at Procter & Gamble. He is going to need that support now as he heads to the VA. He was a captain in the U.S. military. He graduated from West Point, was trained in airborne warfare, desert warfare, and subtemperature warfare, and he is going to need those talents at the VA in each and every case because it is a mess. The conference committee report we have passed gives him two tools that are essential. It gives him the authority to hire and fire title 38 and title 5 employees. Title 5 employs the senior leadership and title 38 the next step in leadership down, which is what the VA needs. The VA is an organization of 340,000 people which in the last 3 years has averaged 3,000 disciplinary actions a year. Each of those disciplinary actions meant people were moved from one job to another within the VA and did not lose pay. There is no accountability in the VA and there really has not been. That is why the systemic problems on appointments and veterans services and everything else going on in the VA has not happened. By giving him the opportunity to hire and fire, he will have the respect and attention of those who work in the VA to understand full well they are going to have to carry out the game plan of this leader. He understands metrics. He understands accountability. He understands leadership. He has taken a job he didn't have to accept, a job he didn't need to have to do at this time in his life, but a job he wants to do to give back to the country he loves and the country he served in the military. I am confident Bob McDonald will be an outstanding Secretary of the Veterans' Administration, and I commend him to my fellow Senators with my highest recommendation in the hopes that he will be approved unanimously. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate for up to 5 minutes.