Johnny Isakson

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today, I am honored to recognize in the Record Mr. Tom Lewis of Atlanta, GA, the senior adviser to the president of Georgia State University. Tom has announced he will retire in June after 28 years of service to the school. Tom Lewis has built a strong legacy in our State and Federal Government, as well as in higher education. Early on, he learned the value of public service from his parents, Eleanor and Carlton Lewis. While he was a student at Georgia Southern University, he spent time here in the Senate as an intern for the venerable Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia. Upon his graduation from the university, he worked on the campaign of then-Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter of Plains, GA, who was subsequently elected to the office of U.S. President. Next, Tom set out to make a difference in our State government as executive director of the Georgia Franchise Practices Commission from 1974 to 1978. Later, while he was executive vice president of the Bartow County Chamber of Commerce, Tom met and befriended State legislator Joe Frank Harris of Cartersville, GA, and his wife Elizabeth. That friendship turned into a trusted bond, and when Joe Frank Harris set out to become Governor of Georgia, Tom joined his campaign as an adviser and served in several roles in Harris's administration, including as chief of staff from 1986 to 1991. I got to know Tom while I was also serving in the Georgia General Assembly, and he was always someone who you could count on and trust. When he went on to Georgia State University, he left his mark there, advancing the school's interests, creating new opportunities, and helping Georgia State University grow in the early years and then absolutely take off. The Washington Post has called Georgia State University a ``hotbed of growth and innovation.'' This and many of its other well-earned accolades are due not only to a serious and active student body, but also thanks to the long-term planning and constant efforts of great leaders like Tom Lewis. In addition to his accomplishments spanning decades and touching countless lives, Tom and his wife Patty are the parents of three children, Wes, Ellen, and Shannon. His five grandchildren, Wesley Claire, Leighton, Will, Nate, and Jacks will surely benefit from Tom's retirement. I have a strong suspicion that his home community of Cartersville, GA, will benefit from the additional time he is able to spend in town, too. As Tom and Patty prepare for this new chapter, I wish them and their families all the best. I offer my deepest gratitude for their friendship and work on behalf of our State.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, we are called upon many times to do many things in this Chamber, and in 21 years I have been called to do a lot of different things, but today may be the most different of all. In a way, it is something that is a joy to do. It is about a place in Bartow County, GA, in White, GA, a small rural town that is being caught by the urban growth of the city of Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the United States of America. White, GA, is a great town. The first Sunday of every month, there is a breakfast at 7 a.m. for the guys in town, where we all go and talk politics, talk about the future of the county, talk about what is happening, share good and bad ideas, tell jokes for the week, and come back a month later to see how things are going. It is something I relish doing. It is something I started doing because I am a politician. You go where two or more are gathered, and you go to talk to them and to try to get them to know you and to make sure they know you are on the ballot the next time. I have been in politics a long time--41 years. I have learned a lot of things. I have learned that in politics the best thing to know is your next-door neighbor and people. The best thing for them to know is to know you. But I also learned some interesting things about our economy and about business. The No. 2 producer of revenue to our governments around the country is revenue off of tourism. Tourism is the No. 2 industry in the country in terms of revenue at the local level--for sales and use taxes, for bed taxes, for hotel-motel taxes, for entertainment taxes, and for all kinds of taxes. They generate money to help our cities and counties buy and build facilities that attract tourism to come in the future, whether it is convocation centers, educational centers, or whatever. I am always paying close attention everywhere I go to see what somebody new is doing around the country that we might not have done in Georgia before. But I have been sitting on a ham sandwich, starving to death, because every first Sunday of every month, when I go to the breakfast in White County, GA, I am going to something that is exactly that, unique to the country. So I thought I would bring it to the floor of the Senate today and tell you a little bit about it. It is about a guy named Dean Lewis and Dean's family's home place. Dean's family's home place is in Bartow County, GA. Dean grew up on a piece of property that in 2009 was a junkyard. It was just a junkyard of old cars--in fact, 40 years' worth of old cars. There was kudzu. I don't know if the Presiding Officer knows what kudzu is. The South is full of it. It was a great idea to stop erosion, but it was a horrible idea because you can't kill it. It just gets bigger and bigger. We have 40 years' worth of kudzu that has grown through these cars, wrecked tractors, buses, and everything. They are almost canopy hidden by the kudzu. Dean Lewis was sitting on the front porch of his house, looking across the street at what he has now named Old Car City, and said: You know, that would be an interesting place for people to come and visit, because people are always looking for parts on old cars that they might get to help restore the old cars they have. It started out as just a place where people who wanted to come and tear some old parts off of an old car to fix their jalopy or their old car would come and get them from Dean. One day Dean had somebody come from the Atlanta Ballet and said: You know, this would be a big, great background for our ballerinas in a photo contest to talk about how agile they are. So the Atlanta Ballet used the backdrop of Old Car City for photos for their calendar a few years ago. The Atlanta Falcons have used it. All kinds of businesses have used it. Businesses from around the world have used it. It has become a famous place. It is not a famous place because it is handsome or beautiful. It is not famous because it is famous but because it is unique. Dean Lewis and his family took something of theirs that was unique to them and molded it into something people would come and see. It is one of those ``if you build it, they will come'' deals. You saw the end of that movie, where all the taillights and headlights were weaving through the town to go see the field that was finally built. That was the same thing with Old Car City. They took a useless, rusted-out old junkyard and turned it into something people would want to come to see, someplace where they would want to come to get old parts for cars or come to get their pictures taken with the cars. International companies want to come to do business there, to where it is now one of the most attractive places we have in North Georgia. I thought I would come to the well for no other reason but to pay tribute to Dean Lewis in White, GA, because he has taken an old car in a junkyard--a jalopy--and turned it into something that raises money for the community, that memorializes our heritage and our past, that takes the use of something everybody thought was wasted and turns it into something good. If we can always try to do that, as well as make something new good, then we would all be doing well as business people, as tourist promoters, and as builders of local government. I rise tonight to commend Dean Lewis on what he and his family have done, to commend Old Car City on what has turned into a great money- making project for the State and for our local property--the tourist attraction they have created there--and to tell them to keep on doing the work and making chicken salad out of good fried chicken. Georgia chicken is the best that you can have, and there is no better chicken than a junkyard in Georgia called Old Car City. God bless you. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, today, I am honored to recognize in the Record a gentleman from whom I have had the opportunity to learn and to work with through a great company located in my great home State of Georgia. Mark Alagna is the vice president of UPS global public affairs and has announced he will retire in June after having served the company for 35 years. The world headquarters for United Parcel Service, called UPS, has been based in Georgia since 1991. It is the second-largest company in Georgia, and in 2018, UPS earned $72 billion in revenue with locations worldwide. This company means a lot to my State. In addition to that, UPS is a leader in delivering workforce training and mentorship programs that emphasize the development of professional skills, safety, and efficiency. As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Employment and the Workplace, I am always looking out for Georgia companies and workers, especially the ones that set the bar high. Mark Alagna has been an important member of that company who has provided me and my staff with needed information and assistance for many years. Mark's service to UPS is long and distinguished, rising through the ranks as a loyal employee serving a company that reciprocated that sense of loyalty and development for a good staff member. He has been with the company since 1984 when he was hired as a package car driver, delivering packages directly to customers who depended upon this service. For the last 24 years, he has worked in the company's public affairs department, looking out for the company's interests by working effectively with Members of Congress in Washington, with a particular policy focus on labor issues. Mark also serves as liaison to the board of the National Coalition of Multiemployer Pension Plans, is vice chair of the Labor Policy Coalition, and sits on the labor and pension advisory committee. Prior to joining the global public affairs team, Mark also managed several staff and operational assignments in the mid-Atlantic area for UPS. I will miss the opportunity to work with Mark, who has been a trusted associate, and his absence will be felt at UPS and by all those who have had the opportunity to work alongside him. We all wish Mark and his family the very best in a long and happy retirement.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, first of all, I thank the Senator from Missouri for his comments about the disaster. We are having a disaster in the U.S. Senate because we haven't been able to solve our emergency problem yet. It is not because of Senator Blunt. He has done a great job, as have many Members of the Senate. We are close now, and there is a meeting this afternoon with important Senators. We are close on Hawaii, on Alaska, on Georgia, on South Carolina, on Tennessee, on Alabama, on Florida, and on the other States that have had disasters in the past year to which we have still been late on getting disaster emergency funds. In fact, in Georgia, this is the 222nd day, in the case of one emergency, that those funds have been held up. In the agricultural season, 222 days is 1\1/2\ plants. It is one planting, one picking, and a second planting. So it is a significant part of the agriculture year. We are getting killed in Georgia. Our farmers are getting hurt badly because of the ineptitude, in part and sometimes in whole, of the U.S. Senate. Finally, cool heads are coming together. We are getting over some arguments, and we are getting some things solved. Thanks to the help of Senator Blunt and others in the U.S. Senate, we are going to get help to our farmers in Georgia, to those in Alabama, and to those in Alaska from the earthquake and to those in Hawaii from the lava flow and the eruptions they have had there and from all of the other disasters we have had. Finally, that money is going to start flowing.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I appreciate the remarks of the majority leader. If he would wait 1 minute, I just want to make a little offer to him. I am not going to get into an argument with him, but he brought up more things than I like to bring up in one speech, anyway. I did want to remind him that I was one of the six that voted in the shutdown, and a day later we solved the problem that you couldn't have done unless the six of us who did vote for it in the Republican Conference voted for it. I just want everybody that listens to this and watches it on TV to know that everything he said is not always true. He did speak to us obliquely on recognizing the fact that we did that. I just want you to know I was one of them. I am only telling him that now because I want a chip tomorrow on his vote, and I am going to try to impress that on him.

Mr. ISAKSON. Absolutely.

Mr. ISAKSON. Thank you. I appreciate that, I think. Madam President, I am not going to talk about judges and appointments and things of that nature. I could talk about them. That is a big issue for us coming up. I want to talk about people--American citizens, farmers, ranchers, people who make our food supply happen, people who make our country happen and our economy happen, et cetera. Georgia is one of a number of States that supposedly had gotten some kind of disaster benefit some time back. We have had hurricanes, floods, and storms. California has had great fires. We had an earthquake in Alaska. We had volcanoes in Hawaii. This has been one of the most devastating years--and the past couple of years now--we have ever had, and, historically, we have always passed disaster bills to help our citizens who are put out of business, basically, by disaster to at least get their feet back under them. We have helped people get healthcare. We have helped people get housing benefits. We have helped people do a lot of things just to get their families put back together--people like these folks right here. I just want to remind myself from this picture here that we have the Moss family. We have others who are here who raise cotton, raise peanuts, and raise pecans. Georgia is now No. 1 in the U.S. of pecans. Pecans are a huge cash crop for us. Of course, Savannah, in my State, ships ton after ton all year long. A pecan is an interesting nut, so to speak, because the tree has a lifecycle of about 12 years before it can make or produce pecans. When you invest in a pecan farmer, you are not investing like in a watermelon farmer. You get a watermelon the first year you plant them. You are investing in something that is going to take 12 years to mature and begin production. We had 50 percent of our pecan crop completely destroyed a few months ago now in southeast Georgia, and you can't reclaim it. It is difficult to finance. It is an unusual tree, and it is unusual wood because it is not as strong as you would like to have it. Therefore, when it gets really mature and really produces, it produces so much weight on itself. Unless you are really doing a good job, you are going to lose some of them just because of the weight it produces on its own limbs. Peanuts, everybody knows, because we serve those peanuts back in the cloakroom all the time to curb your appetite--Georgia peanuts. They are all laughing and looking at me. They know how good they are. That helps all of us make it for another day, until we get to another meal. We do all kinds of things in here about this. Agriculture is 21 percent of my State's economy, but it is all of America's economy--a lot of it. Most importantly, it is what we all have to do--to eat three times a day. There is only 90 days' worth of food supply available at any one given point in time in the world. I mean, as food grows, you consume it, and you replant and you grow again. We have a number of people from east coast to west and from north of the northern border and west of the west border who are in pineapples or pecans or peanuts or whatever--cotton--and who need some relief that they have earned and need. What is happening is that we have had multiple attempts in the last 5 months to pass a disaster relief package. It will be offered as an amendment that basically Senator Perdue and I have offered as well in the past. It just takes those people in our country who have been hurt, who are eligible for programs that exist in the law, and gets that money out the door. For some of us, if we don't get it done in the next 2 weeks, it is just not going to get done. We have farmers who will go out of business. You know, everybody says all farmers are all rich. Well, they are dirt poor. That is what they are. I was a real estate guy. I know how you do that. You make a great balance sheet on the value of the real estate, but all of a sudden, if you lose the value of the real estate and you don't have anything to offset the liability that you created to buy the real estate, you get in trouble. We have a lot of that in Georgia, a lot of it in Alabama, a lot of it in California because of the fire, and a lot of other places. We need to get it straight, and the best thing we can do is to get these farmers in a position where they know this year, if they get their money in time to plant, they can make the money they need to pay the bank back rather than tell the government to give them a check for a disaster. So we are not only talking about helping the farmer. We are talking about helping us. Every time we get the farmer back on his or her feet in order to go back into production, planting, and doing their job, then, they will produce income for that, and they will pay these loans off. Yes, they are not going to be as rich as they were before, but they will not be out of business. Some of these farms are 200 years or more in the family--post-Civil War farms. There are lots of people in our State who are just dying because of what happened. Our cotton crop was killed. It was probably the best. We think it was going to be the best crop we ever had because the week before the storm started hitting, we did some picking, but then the storms came through, and in 1 day, one hurricane wiped out the cotton in Georgia. It took out about 70 percent of the pecan trees in Georgia. It took out our blueberries--yes, blueberries. Everybody says Michigan produces the most blueberries, or Maine does. No, they don't. Georgia does. Agriculture is an entrepreneurial business in our State, but it takes the ability to raise the money to plant it, produce it, sell it, take the crop to market, and reinvest it. We are not talking about people getting rich. We are talking about people taking the risk of doing business like you have always done business. So I am going to talk about this amendment for just a second. It is so important. There is some misinformation out there. Leader Schumer obliquely referred to a whole lot of misinformation. I am going to correct one of them that he said in just a minute. It is important to know what we are doing tomorrow. We are going to tell Renee Moss, Greg Mims, and Casey Cox--these families right here-- that help is on the way for their cotton, their pecans, their peanuts, and their farms. It is help not to give them a handout but to give them a hand up and tell their bankers that we are going to stick with them so they can work overtime to make the money back to pay the bank back and also pay us back. That is what we ought to do, and that is what we should do, but if we don't do it before the month is over, we are dead. As many of you know in here, the SNAP money ends this month. The SNAP money fix is in this. You are not going to have student nutrition programs if you don't get it added into the legislation and get it passed. They run out, technically, on March 31, and we have 14 days until that is passed, which will be April 14, to finally restore it. We have to restore it as fast as we can. We have to get it done. This bill does that. Let me tell you what the bill does. You heard about Puerto Rico. I love Puerto Rico. When I was in the Air Force, we did field trainings at Ramey Air Force Base. I was a load master. We did runs down there to the east coast all the time. I love the people down there. I love the food down there. I love the beaches down here and the great folks. They have already gotten a number of millions of dollars that they talked about in a speech today. They want $600 million that were now approved in this bill. Now, $600 million is a lot of money. They already got $40 billion and haven't spent all of that. We need to make sure everybody gets their fair share for the disasters that took place and does not take the disaster money and use it as a payoff somewhere down the line. Puerto Rico should be helped, but the rest of the country shouldn't be held hostage because of Puerto Rico. We have Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina with hurricane damage, California with the wildfires, Alaska with the earthquake, Hawaii with the volcanoes, and also include $600 million for Puerto Rico. There is no money for CDBG, like some of them wanted, but the rest of the money for the SNAP program. That is what their votes are going to be about. The Democrats are going to say, just as Mr. Schumer did--he was for this a while back. I don't know what happened. I guess he got upset about something; I don't know what it is. This says we are going to take care of people who had disasters that they didn't want and lost lots of money they couldn't afford to lose. They are going to go out of business, which we don't want them to do. It is going to compound their problems in their States. I know the Senator from Arkansas, the Presiding Officer, knows exactly what I am talking about. Rice is the main product in Arkansas, as well as other agricultural products. It is key to their economy. So we have to get them safe while we can. It is about those crops. It is about their insurance. It is also about their economy. I wanted to bring this up. It is about global warming. It is about climate change. It is about a lot of things we don't ever brag about around this place. I am going to brag about it simply because people think these things are about one simple subject. This is a report out of the Appropriations subcommittee that does a number of things to fix things that are broken, things that people around here talk a lot about wanting to do, things like $20 million for the CDC to continue its research on epidemics, which saved us with Ebola when it hit us a couple of years ago, and it will save us again with measles. We are on the cusp of an outbreak of measles--an outbreak like we have never seen before. It is not there yet, and I don't want somebody to run out and say: He said it is there. But it is coming if we don't react to it or respond to it. It is critical that we do and see to it that we do it as fast as possible. It is about $600 million for Puerto Rico. It is about emergency forest restoration programs where our forests have been destroyed by storms. It is about nutrition assistance for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a province of the United States of America where people are starving right now and going into malnutrition. It is about American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and market facilitation programs for AGI waivers. It is about the economic development assistance programs that are not working right now because they are not funded, and if we don't get them funded, they are not going to work for the betterment of our economy. It is about $200 million to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Florence to Marine Corps installations at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. I think you and I agree that the Marine Corps is very important. You might say, what emergency do they have? They were wiped out by the storm. If we don't rebuild these things as quickly as possible, we will have our marines without a place to bivouac, a place to sleep or a place to eat. We don't want that to happen. That is what this is about. It is not about giving out perk money; it is about absolute essentials to the defense of our country, the food of our country, et cetera. So I want to appeal to Senator Schumer. I listened to his remarks. Now, unfortunately, the Senator from Vermont has come. He didn't know I was talking, I guess. I will talk about him a little bit too. Mr. Leahy is a fine gentleman and a great friend of mine, but he has kind of let me down on this one. I want to talk about that. I am hoping maybe I can change his mind and maybe yours as well, Mr. President. We don't have a second chance at this. We had two chances that didn't make it. We voluntarily got off the other bills because we didn't have enough money to get on them, so we had to get something else passed. One of them was restoring the cuts before the shutdown--which, by the way, we got off of the shutdown vote to allow this to pass so we could cut out one of the arguments. I wanted to throw that in as well. I see he is leaving already. He didn't want to hear what I had to say. He told me--and I will try to phrase this correctly--he told me: I have always voted for emergency money. I have always voted for emergency money, too, for Yankees, for southerners, westerners, and northerners, because when we have an emergency in this country, it is America's emergency; it is not just an emergency for one region. We don't want to bleed ourselves to death or wastefully spend this money, but by golly, if we become a country where we cannot depend on ourselves to help ourselves when times are tough--I don't know. Senator Romney and I talked before this a little bit ago about how we really ought to have a sinking fund and create a funding source that over time can accumulate money as a hedge against future disasters. We know we are going to have them; we always do. We know they are going to come; they always do. At least have more money in the bank to be prepared for them so we don't get into political battles like we are in now where we have tangential issues that we are debating all because of the amendment, et cetera. So with the senior Senator from Vermont on the floor, I am going to cut some of my remarks short so he will have plenty of time to say whatever he has to say, but I want him to hear what I have to say. This is about Puerto Rico. They are getting $600 million, and they have already gotten some money. They aren't going to get everything they want, but they are getting everything they should get out of this particular bill, including SNAP. The farmers in the South are going to get a chance to replant, a chance to borrow, and a chance to make the money to pay back over time. Otherwise, it is going to be on our backs anyway, so if we don't help them, we are going to be stuck. It is about doing the right thing at the right time for the right people. The right thing is to restore the commonsense bills we have passed that will allow them to farm or whatever it is they do. That is No. 1. No. 2, we need to do it without arguing about regions or people or what they do. We ought to do it as American citizens supporting other American citizens and what they do for their livelihood, and they pay their taxes because of that. Lastly, there are times when we have great debates over things that are political in nature or funny in nature. I am serious as a heart attack about this. I told Mitch McConnell, who was mentioned by Senator Schumer a minute ago, I told Mitch--I said: I can't go home this weekend and tell them the same thing I told them the last four weekends. I have to tell them we got the job done for them, or we are going to fail them. I don't want to fail them. I want to vote for the amendment tomorrow that Senator Shelby offered. If it loses, I am going to vote for the one the Democrats will offer, which will give us a chance to get something back in the conference committee. If both of those lose, we may as well go home. We will wake up one day in the next few months and say: What did we do? Why did we do that? We lost our perspective. It is not just about Georgia; it is about America. It is not just about farming; it is about a lot of things. It is time for us to do what is right, what we should have done on the two bills before--that we approved. Let's make it happen the way we have always done, and let's do the right thing at the right time for the right people, for the citizens of the United States for America. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON. Reserving the right to object and I will yield to the Senator from Alabama. I want everybody to listen closely. Senator, please listen to me closely. You are a great friend. I love you to death. But do you know what you just did? When you read off the States that deserved money and ought to get it, and you read them one by one, you left out one-- Georgia. That is why I am down here.

Mr. ISAKSON. I am not saying it to be ugly. Facts are facts, and I am scared that a Freudian slip--which I am sure that probably was or something like that--might be something that causes us to get lost again. No. 1, I want to point out that in your own remarks, from your own memory or from your own notes, that is exactly what was said.

Mr. ISAKSON. Absolutely.

Mr. ISAKSON. I don't want to cut anybody out, but I want to make that point. I yield to Senator Shelby.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, 4 years ago, about this time of the night on a Monday, I made a speech about Woody Woodside. Four years later, I make another speech about Woody Woodside. Four years ago, I acknowledged his 30 years of service to the people of Brunswick, GA, Glynn County, the Chamber of Commerce, and two Members of Congress for whom he worked over the years. Tonight, I praise him for 34 years of service and for the fact that he is going to retire later this year. It is time for me to say that Woody Woodside is one of the most unique individuals who all of us know in our State. He is someone who is always there when there is a problem to be worked on. He is always there with a positive attitude. He is somebody who always thinks of a way to fix a problem. He is somebody who doesn't call to complain but calls to be a help. Woody is a great man. He is a great friend. I have known him and his beautiful wife, Ellen, for a long time. They have a beautiful family. Their daughter, Mary Gould, is a wonderful lady. They lost their young son, Jay, a few years ago when he passed away. He was one of the finest kids I ever met. He worked here in Washington a couple of times. Once, he worked a short time for me. He had the spirit that his father has and his mother has--the spirit of can-do, the spirit of loving his community, the spirit of being a good human being. Woody is interesting, and he is unique. He went to the Citadel and served in the U.S. Army and Georgia Army National Guard. Woody did a lot of work in Congress. He worked for 11 years for ``Bo'' Ginn, a Congressman from Georgia, who later ran for the Governor of Georgia. For 3 years, he also worked for Lindsay Thomas, another former Congressman. So he had 14 years of work in the Congress of the United States before he went home to Brunswick and Golden Isles. The Brunswick Golden Isles is a very unique place. You have the Sea Island Company that developed Sea Island, which is one of the finest four-star resorts anywhere. You have fishing, which is an industry that serves our State so well. We only have 123 miles of shoreline, but we have lots of fish, we have lots of crabs, and we have lots of shrimp. It is a great industry for our State and a great, prosperous industry for that part of our State. The Golden Isles is a very unique place, for it is the estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It is where the food chain starts. If there were no Brunswick and if there were no marshes or glens, there would be no food chain; there would be no fish or wildlife. This is a pristine area that we have worked for years to preserve and maintain by passing wetlands bills, by passing clean water bills, by doing all of the things you need to do to make sure you are doing everything you can to keep the water clean and to keep that industry viable. Woody was not just a chamber leader because he had to do it, but as a citizen, he wanted to do it. Woody is a leader and has been a leader for clean water and for the coastline to be clean and for the industries that depend on the ocean and the sea and for that part of our State. We have a lot of chamber presidents in our State. We have 159 counties, so I imagine we have 159 chamber presidents. That is a lot. We have no one who is more active or more involved in his State activities or his local activities than Woody Woodside. Of our State chamber of commerce, he has been an officer and adviser for years. He has been on more economic development councils than have most Governors. He is outspoken, not to a fault but to a critical need when we need him to say what he needs to say for all of the right reasons. For years, he has been selected as one of the most outstanding Georgians by Georgia Trend magazine. All in all, he is the whole package. He is outstanding; he is smart; he is likable; he loves government and what government can do as a partner with the private sector. I love him as a friend. So, in knowing that Woody is going to retire this year, I take this time to say: Woody, you have been special for lots of reasons. I do lots of these at the requests of chambers of commerce for people I know, in some cases, but for whom, most of the time, I don't know. They are hard to do. It is hard to find something that is the right thing to say about somebody you don't know. I know Woody Woodside. I know his heart and I know his record and I know what he has done. Woody, you have been everything a person could ask for. You and your wife are everything we could ask for as leaders. You are a wonderful human being, a great American, and a great Georgian. May God bless you and your family in your retirement. Thank you for your service to our State for many, many years. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Thank you, Mr. President. I rise for a moment to talk about a vote we will have tomorrow in this Chamber on a motion to adopt an amendment to the supplemental appropriations passed by the House, and it is a disaster amendment dealing with the States that have been afflicted by disasters over the last 2 years--most of them southern States, but not all. Some include the Territory of Puerto Rico. I am going to go over the details in a second, but first of all, some of you may see floating around this memorandum from the chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the House and the vice chairman in the Senate. It talks about an agreement that was on the disaster money and refers to Puerto Rico being shortchanged and the fact that we need to make sure that that doesn't happen. I want to give you the facts. Georgia, which I represent, is one of a number of States that includes Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, California, and Hawaii, which have experienced significant disasters in the past 2 years. We saw the fires in California on our TVs. We saw the volcanos in Hawaii. We saw the blueberries in Georgia fall off the vines and be destroyed. We saw what happened to these crops and Alaska's earthquake. All of these States have received nothing yet. Puerto Rico has received $40 billion--$40 billion for what happened in Maria, and $21 billion has not been spent. They have gotten a lot of money, $40 billion, and the amendment I want to talk about in a second gives them $600 million more. There are a lot of places in this country that are States that we represent that have gotten nothing and have had big disasters in the last 2 years. These disasters are hurting our economy, our people, and our States. So I want to--any of you to see this email or this flyer tomorrow or hear the debate tomorrow. What it says, the flyer says that the vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Leahy, is going to object to the substitute that will be offered by Senator Perdue and myself tomorrow to the bill that will be debated unless Puerto Rico gets a better shake. The point, Puerto Rico has gotten 40, only spent 19, they have got $21 billion left to spend. We have $600 million to see to it that they don't run out of SNAP money at the end of this month, which they will with everything that stands currently. Puerto Rico is being treated great. Is there CDBG money they want? No, it is not in there. ``Fair'' is an interesting word. Fair is when you and I are treated fairly. We both get equal proportions, for money and things of that nature. Unfair is when somebody weights the formula--or someone takes undue advantage of a special situation. Well, this is a special situation. A lot of people are going to go without help by the end of next month. Farm bills are going to come due, and banks are going to foreclose on them. A lot of people in agriculture will be hurt badly. People who have been hurt by the fires in California will not be helped. Those who expressed help for earthquake damage in Alaska will not be helped. A lot of people will not be helped. We need to put off this guise of fairness and be really fair. Let's see that we put in the $600 million, which the amendment does and see to it that people on SNAP in Puerto Rico get their money. Let's see to it that those people in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and other States damaged by floods, hurricanes, or fires get their money. There will be more emergencies, and we all know that. We all hate emergencies for a lot of reasons--appropriators, especially. Nobody wants to have to do that, but when our State, your State or mine, is injured dramatically in a disastrous hurricane or tornado or whatever, we as a country have always passionately dealt with the results of those storms, the losses those States have felt, and helped those States get back on their feet and those people be served. We are not asking for a handout; we are asking for a hand up in each of those States, and they have been waiting for a long time. Those who know what I am talking about, who is from Georgia, we have farmers who have gone through a cycle and their farm financing was done through banks that, at the end of this month, will have to act on those loans and call them for payment or have a refinance schedule knowing that they got some money coming down the line. If this passes and is agreed to by the House and the banks get the message that we are trying to help them like we have always had in the past, they will have a chance to make the negotiations, pay the money back that they borrowed, and do it over time and give people jobs in the field rather than go back and tell them we can't give them money and help them and lose the farm and business and us lose a lot of jobs. It is just not right, and it is not fair. I used the word ``fair'' just then because I think fair is the definition of seeing to it that Puerto Rico, Georgia, and South Carolina get help. If you get this argument, read it. It sounds like we agreed to something 3 weeks ago, and now, all of a sudden, we are not agreeing to the same thing. That is not true. We agreed last week when we left what this vote would be tomorrow, what the supplemental will look like, what would be included in it, and as I understood it and my sense of understanding, we agreed to all the things. Was there enough money for Puerto Rico for what they wanted? No, they wanted more. Would Florida like more? Would Georgia like more? North Carolina like more? Yes. But in fairness of equity, it is fair and equitable to those people. I would urge you to listen to the debate and what everybody tells you what happened before you make a decision and everyone gets hurt. Instead what you are going to do, if you fall for this scenario, you are going to really hurt some people who will otherwise be helped through deliberations that have taken over the part of the last 2 or 3 months. Mr. President, I appreciate the time and the time to come here. I wish I could talk about something other than disasters, but I can't. A lot of people lost their lives and farms and their future. I want to see that we help in an equitable fashion in those States and those Territories that we do so. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I will be very brief for the Senator from Delaware so I am not taking up too much time. I am here to do something very special. One of the great things we get to do is to pay tribute to people who do great things in our State. We don't brag about journalists as much as we should. They think we are saying bad things about them, but they are great. They make the country better. The fact that we have an accountable media makes us all great. There are superstars within the media who deserve acknowledgment, particularly when they retire from the job. In Georgia, that has been the case. Dick Williams, in Atlanta, GA, announced on Sunday that after 53 years in print, television, and radio journalism, he is going to retire. Dick has covered me over many years. He has been known as a conservative columnist, but he has gone after me as many times as he has been for me. He plays it straight down the middle unless it has to do with basketball--and he loves basketball. He has been chosen to referee in the conference championship for the State's high schools and has been a great sportsman for Georgetown University, for which he recruits athletes. He himself went to Georgetown. Rebecca, his wife, was in the Georgia House as a reporter when I was in the Georgia House years ago. She is a talented house person who went on to ABC. She and Dick got married, and they have two children. They live in Brookhaven, GA, which is a new city that was created by the Georgia Legislature to allow independence for a lot of our cities that had been trapped inside the metro area. His wife has been a reporter of journalism, and Dick has been a reporter of journalism. Then Dick bought the Dunwoody Crier. The Dunwoody Crier is one of those weekly publications--neighborhood newspapers--that everybody loves because it has their kids' pictures in it, because you can get a story about your wedding in there, and because Dick also writes in there some poignant columns that one would never read anywhere else. When he wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he wrote for a newspaper that was owned by Eugene Patterson, by Ralph McGill, and by many talented writers. He was in the same category of spokesman and writer as those two gentlemen, who were giants, with McGill's having won a Pulitzer Prize. Dick is one of the most favorite people I have ever known who reported on politics because he was always doing it for the right reasons. There are projects that have happened in our State today because Dick Williams took the power of the press not to trash something but to build up the facts that allowed it to pass. A lot of times, that doesn't happen, but when Dick saw a good deal, he would go for it, and when he saw a bad deal, he would go for it. Either way, you could take his word for it all the time because he was what is known in the profession as a straight shooter. Dick Williams is a very special individual to me and my family. He did 1,700 shows called ``The Georgia Gang.'' Every Sunday, at 8:30 in the morning, for 30 minutes, every politician in Georgia watches channel 5 in Atlanta because that is ``The Georgia Gang.'' If you make it by that, your week is going to be pretty good because they haven't skewered you for something stupid that you did, but if you don't make it by that, you are going to have a tough week. Dick Williams is the kind of journalist all of us love--accurate, articulate, smart, and caring about what he does and the effect it may have. It is a real pleasure for me to stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate and say, Dick, thank you for the 1,700 great 30-minute shows you have done in your past. Thank you for all of the straight calls you made on the basketball court. Thank you for marrying Rebecca, who is a wonderful woman. Thank you for welcoming Lori Geary as your replacement every Sunday morning at 8:30. I now know, when I get up on Sundays, I will be going to church not with Dick Williams but with Lori Geary. God bless you, Dick. Thanks for your contribution to Georgia. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON

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

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 60 seconds.

Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I just want to say to the gentleman from Ohio that I have been to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I went there with John Lewis. John Lewis is a great American. I supported title V and the Civil Rights Act. So I appreciate your remarks and your candidness, but all of us should not castigate all the rest of us and throw us in groups because all of us are free thinkers, independent thinkers, and are committed to the betterment of the United States of America and seeing to it that everybody has a vote who deserves a vote, and I will always fight for that. I yield the floor.

Mr. ISAKSON. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I am proud to recognize in the Record the American Legion's director of the national legislative division, Matthew Shuman, who has a long record of service to our Nation's veterans. Mr. Shuman has not only dedicated his career to serving veterans, he is a veteran himself. He served in the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2012, most notably as a military police officer. Mr. Shuman concluded his military career serving on the Arizona Army National Guard Honor Guard, providing military funeral honors for our Nation's fallen soldiers. Mr. Shuman began serving veterans with the American Legion in 2015, starting as an assistant legislative director with the veterans employment and education portfolio in Washington, DC. In his current role as director of the national legislative division, Mr. Shuman is the chief advocate for the 2-million-member organization, working with Federal agencies, the White House, and the media to share what the American Legion is doing in Congress on behalf of the 20 million American veterans. During his time with the American Legion, Mr. Shuman had a role in the creation and passage of significant legislation impacting America's veterans. These include the VA MISSION Act, the VA Appeals Modernization Act, the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, and The American Legion 100th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act. These efforts have contributed to improving the quality of life and strengthening healthcare and benefits for servicemembers, veterans, and their families. Today I am honored to pay tribute to Mr. Shuman for his service to our country and his steadfast commitment to advocating on behalf of veterans throughout his career. Congratulations to Mr. Shuman on his lasting legacy of advocacy for veterans, and I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized for 2 minutes.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am from Georgia. Last night in Georgia, Alabama, and throughout the Southeast, one of the worst tornadoes went through that has ever gone through in history. Twenty-three Alabamians were killed last night; a number of homes in Georgia were wiped out and ruined. I don't think we had a death, but they had 23 in Alabama. The tragedies we are having in the Southeast continue to rise. In a few weeks, we are going to ask the Senate to pass a disaster bill to reinstate some of the agricultural money for the last 2 years for our pecan crop, our blueberry crop, and others. On behalf of the people of Georgia, I just want to say that we are having a tough time. Our agricultural community is in the most difficult time it could possibly be. We are going to ask the Senate to work with us to find appropriations that would make sense to bring back those pecan and blueberry farmers in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina and to deal with the agricultural emergency we have had. We also say a prayer of thanksgiving for the great opportunity we have to live in the Southeast but also recognize that we are now ground zero for tornadoes and those types of death-defying acts that are taking place. We want all of the people in Georgia and Alabama to know that our prayers go out to them. We will do everything we can to make them right. Thank you. I yield back my time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of our time and call the previous question.

Mr. ISAKSON

Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, to the Democratic leader and Bruce, who is on the floor, congratulations on behalf of all the Republicans in the room. Come down to Atlanta and watch the Braves play the Mets. We would be happy to have you anytime. Thank you for your time here.