Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are about to have a voice vote on the substitute amendment, and I would not object to a voice vote, since I know we have all been here a long time, but I would just like to point out to everyone that the substitute amendment is a major bill that has just been introduced that we are now voting on. I assume everyone has read every word of it. We have been debating 20 hours and just got a major amendment a few hours ago that doubles down on all of the deep and harmful bill that is in front of us, and it is really objectionable to those on our side that after 20 hours of debate on a number of amendments we get a major substitute amendment that we are voting on. I would not object to it being a voice vote, but I urge my colleagues to vote no.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as I have said before, I am very proud of the progress we have made over the last few years toward a health care system that actually works for our families and puts their needs first. Today more than 16 million people have gained the peace of mind and security that comes with health care coverage. Tens of millions of people with preexisting conditions no longer have to worry about insurance companies turning them away, and young adults in this country are able to stay covered as they start out their lives, but the work didn't end when the Affordable Care Act was passed--far from it. So I am ready, and I know our colleagues on this side of the aisle are also, to work with anyone who has good ideas about how we continue making health care more affordable, expanding coverage, and improving the quality of care. The legislation we have now spent the last few days debating, which has no chance for becoming law, will do the exact opposite. This will undo the progress we have made. It is not what our families and communities want. I hope that once this partisan bill reaches the dead-end it has always been headed for, Republicans will finally drop the politics and work with us to deliver results for the families and communities we serve.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, today with my colleague Senator Cantwell, I wish to commemorate Mayor Jim Haggerton for his 30 years of public service. Mr. Haggerton first served the people of Tukwila, WA as a member of the planning commission from 1985 to 1994 and thereafter as a member of the city council from 1994 to 2007. Since 2008, Mr. Haggerton has served as mayor of Tukwila. On December 31, Mr. Haggerton will retire after 30 years of service to Tukwila. During his tenure, Mr. Haggerton has consistently provided outstanding leadership, kept the interests of the public at the forefront of his work, celebrated the city's diversity, and supported its neighborhoods, businesses, and residents. Mr. Haggerton successfully spearheaded dozens of major development and public infrastructure projects including the new Klickitat interchange, the Tukwila South Development Agreement, opening the LINK Light Rail Station in Tukwila, the South Park Bridge, a permanent Tukwila Commuter Rail and Amtrak Station, the Southcenter Parkway, and the redevelopment of Interurban Avenue. Mayor Haggerton fought to redevelop neglected and crime-ridden property along Tukwila International Boulevard, which culminated in the Tukwila Village Development Agreement. Additionally, Mr. Haggerton fiercely advocated to fund new crimefighting initiatives and led efforts to build sports and recreational facilities in Tukwila. Throughout his career, I was consistently impressed with Mayor Haggerton's commitment and contributions to the local community.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, together Senator Cantwell and I commend Mayor Haggerton for his long-standing dedication to public service. Over the past 30 years, Mayor Haggerton has always been an unwavering partner for the citizens of Tukwila, available with a friendly smile and positive attitude. We express our sincere gratitude, respect, and appreciation to Mr. Jim Haggerton for his service to the city and residents of Tukwila, South King County, and the State of Washington and for his friendship and partnership as we have worked with him in Washington, DC, on behalf of the people of the great State of Washington.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I think we can all agree there is a lot of work that needs to be done in this Congress--priorities such as continuing to improve health care for our families, creating jobs, boosting wages, expanding economic security for workers, and making higher education more affordable and accessible, just to name a few. Unfortunately, instead of working with Democrats to focus on those challenges--the ones that families face every day--far too many Republicans have doubled down on a favorite pastime--attacking women's health and rights in order to pander to their extreme base. I am very proud to be on the floor today with many of my Democratic colleagues to say enough is enough and to make clear that even as Republicans try to take women's health backwards, we are going to push harder in the other direction for continued progress on women's access to health care and constitutionally protected reproductive rights. This year alone, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, more than 40 bills have been introduced in this Congress that would undermine a woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own choices about her own body. The House and Senate have voted a total of 17 times--17 times--on legislation to undermine women's health care and rights. That is right. In the year 2015--in the year 2015 alone--Republicans in Congress have introduced over 40 bills and held 17 votes on whether Congress should roll back women's rights. That is completely unacceptable. The bill we are debating here on the floor today would defund Planned Parenthood, and that is just more of the same. It is another effort to force through extreme policies under a fast-track process. A vote on the bill before us today is a vote on whether a young woman should be able to go to the provider she trusts to get birth control, whether cancer screenings should be more or less available to women across the country, and whether the 2.7 million men and women who visit Planned Parenthood each year should continue to get health care services they rely on. Over the last few months of Republican political attacks on Planned Parenthood and women's health, I have been proud to stand with women nationwide who are making their voices heard and fighting for their right to make their own health care decisions--women such as Shannon, who lives in Tumwater, WA, and says the care she received at Planned Parenthood as a young woman protected her ability to have children and that today she has Planned Parenthood to thank for her little girl; women such as Breanne from Seattle, who went to Planned Parenthood as an uninsured student, where providers caught abnormal cell growth on her cervix wall before--before--it could turn into cancer; and the women and advocates at the Planned Parenthood Center in Pullman, WA, who, after their building was damaged in an arson attack, came together as a community and established a pop-up clinic to make sure that women and families could continue to get the care they needed. I know many of us here today are thinking of those who are suffering and who lost loved ones as a result of the tragic violence in Colorado Springs last week. People across the country--men and women--have had enough of extremism and violence, including at Planned Parenthood health care centers. When a woman seeks health care--constitutionally protected health care--she should not have to feel threatened in any way. A doctor in a women's health clinic should not have to worry about wearing a bulletproof vest under her lab coat. Women's health care should not be controversial, much less a cause for violence in the 21st century. Women and their families have had enough. I have heard from so many women and men who are tired of women's health being undermined, being threatened, and being used as a political football here in Washington, DC. Who can believe that in the 21st century a Presidential candidate would claim that expanding access to birth control is as easy as setting up a few more vending machines in men's bathrooms? These women and men across the country are speaking up and saying ``not on our watch'' to those who want to turn back the clock on women's health and women's rights. I am going to continue, along with my colleagues, to bring their voices and their stories and their fight to the Senate floor. As we all know, this is a tired political effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and take Planned Parenthood down with it. It is at a dead end. But if Republicans are going to try to cut off women's access to health care, I am going to make sure they hear about it and that people across this country know exactly where Democrats stand-- with women. That is why I am very proud to be introducing this amendment today that would strike the harmful language defunding Planned Parenthood from this legislation and replace it--replace it-- with a new fund to support women's health care and clinic safety. There is so much more we need to do to improve women's health care in this country today, from strengthening the women's health care workforce to expanding access to constitutionally protected reproductive health care to raising awareness about violence against women--so much more. This fund that is part of this amendment would offer an opportunity to make progress on goals such as these and more to support women's health providers and clinics at a time when they need it most. Critically, it would show women and families that their constitutional rights, that their safety and their health care should come before tea party political pandering, not the other way around. By the way, this amendment is fully paid for by the Buffett rule. Democrats are going to keep standing up for women and encouraging Republicans to focus on the real challenges that families face, rather than their political attacks that their tea party base is so focused on. I urge my colleagues to join me in standing against this harmful effort to defund Planned Parenthood and delivering a clear message, again, to Republicans in Congress who want to play politics with women's health--not on our watch. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 2876.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, like many of my colleagues I am deeply disappointed that Republican leaders have dedicated this week to partisan, political attacks rather than working with us to deliver results to the families we represent. So I wish to take a few minutes today to talk about the work we could and should be doing and make clear again that Republican efforts to undermine families' health care are nothing but a dead end. I am pleased that over the last few months Democrats and Republicans have been able to work together on some very important issues. We passed another bipartisan budget deal. We have worked on a bill together to fix the No Child Left Behind law that is broken, and Republicans and Democrats are now working to pass a transportation bill that would do a lot to help fix our crumbling infrastructure. But there is certainly a lot more that we should be doing to boost wages, to expand opportunity, and to make sure our economy is growing from the middle out, not from the top down. I would hope that we would be working on a way to raise the minimum wage or ensure that working parents can earn paid sick days or make higher education more affordable and accessible for our students. With the holidays just around the corner, we should be focused on what struggling families need to make ends meet. Those are the kinds of issues I would like to be working on and many more, but instead Republican leaders are insisting on tilting at tea party windmills by trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act for the umpteenth time. This bill is not going to be signed into law. As we all know, this is just a political gesture here. But I want to be very clear about what it would mean for millions of men, women, and children across the country if this were to be signed into law. The policies that are being put forward could cause millions of people to lose their health care coverage, make premiums skyrocket, increase costs for our hospitals and for our providers, cut off support for important public health programs by repealing the prevention fund, and take us back to the bad old days when insurance companies, not patients, had all of the power. Democrats believe strongly that while the Affordable Care Act was an historic step forward, the work did not end when the law passed--far from it. We are willing to work with anyone on either side of the aisle who has good ideas about how to build on the progress that has been made so far and continue making health care more affordable, expanding coverage, and improving quality of care for our families. So it is very disappointing that Republicans instead continue to insist that when it comes to health care, politics--not families--comes first. This is especially because--again to be very clear--this legislation has no chance of becoming law. The very same is true when it comes to this latest attempt to cut off women's access to health care. After years of trying to turn back the clock on women's constitutionally protected rights and to undermine Planned Parenthood, Republicans should have gotten their fill of political attacks on women's health. Clearly, they have not. In the wake of the tragedy in Colorado Springs last week, I have thought a lot about how important it is that we do more to insure communities are protected from that kind of violence and that we continue to stand with Planned Parenthood as it helps so many people-- women and men--get the care they need. So it is very frustrating that my Republican colleagues are doubling down this week on their efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and get in between women and their health care. If Republicans were to succeed in the bill they have before us in defunding Planned Parenthood--our Nation's largest women's health care provider--with the legislation we are debating today, they would undermine a critical source of health care that one in five women have relied on for cancer screenings, for HIV tests, and for so much more. They would make it harder for women to exercise their constitutionally protected right to make their own choices about their own bodies and their own doctors. By dismantling critical health care reforms, this proposal would cause millions of women to lose their health care coverage and access to everything from birth control to prenatal care. That is simply not going to happen--not on my watch, not on Democrats' watch, and not on President Obama's watch. Republicans may want to go back to the days when being a woman was a preexisting condition. They may see this entire bizarre effort as nothing more than a great opportunity to pander to their extreme tea party base by attacking health care and Planned Parenthood. But for millions of women and families, the policies we are debating today are no political exercise; instead, if enacted, they would represent a deeply harmful step backward--a step away from building a health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality, one that contributes to economic security and opportunity. Women and families have seen these extreme Republican attempts many times before, and, frankly, I think they have had enough. They don't want Congress fighting over whether to roll back a law that has helped millions of people get health care coverage and bolstered our Nation's health care system, a law that has been upheld time and time again by the Supreme Court, and they believe firmly that politicians in Congress should have better things to do than interfere with women's constitutionally protected health care choices. I am sure they would rather see us working to actually improve health care and the many other challenges our country faces. Democrats agree with that. We want to move health care forward, not backward, for women and families, and we want to do the other important work across the aisle to strengthen our economy and grow our middle class. So today, as my Republican colleagues double down on their partisan political pandering, we on this side are going to continue to stand up for family health care and stand up for women and their rights every step of the way. I hope my Republican colleagues will finally drop the politics and join us. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are all in agreement that Congress absolutely needs to work together to finally fix the broken No Child Left Behind law for our students, our teachers, our parents, and the communities in my home State of Washington and across the country. Today we will have the chance to take another step forward toward that goal. As the Presiding Officer heard from our chairman, Senator Alexander, since February of this year, he and I have worked together on a bipartisan education bill that would remove the harmful one-size-fits- all mandates of No Child Left Behind, while also including Federal guardrails to make sure all of our students have access to a quality education. We improved on our bipartisan bill in the HELP Committee with the help of our colleagues and a number of amendments that were agreed to, and in July the Senate voted to pass that bipartisan bill with a vote of 81 to 17. The House also passed their bill in July. Since then, Chairman Alexander and I--as he just mentioned--have been working with House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott. The four of us have had very good conversations about making sure the conference is successful, and I hope we will be able to continue our bipartisan work in the conference, continue to bring in the priorities and ideas of our fellow Senators and Members of the House, and make sure that the final product we will bring forward is something that can pass both Chambers and that President Obama can sign into law. But first we need to take the next step in the legislative process by approving this compound motion to name conferees and allow the Senate to proceed to conference with the House. In the Senate, we want to appoint every member of the HELP Committee. Our committee members have worked very hard to craft the Senate bill, and we want to make sure their voices are heard in the conference meeting. I urge our Members to support this compound motion in a few minutes so we can continue this incredibly important work to finally fix No Child Left Behind. I once again thank Chairman Alexander for the tremendous job he has done in moving the legislation to this point. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield back all time on the Democratic side.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, this Veterans Day we pause to honor the men and women in our military who stepped up to fight for our freedom and to protect our families. In my home State of Washington, we have a lot to be thankful for. More than 600,000 of our friends, our neighbors, and our family members have bravely served their country. As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I know the sacrifice it takes to keep our country safe and protect our values. Thanks to my father and the countless other veterans I have had the honor of meeting, I believe that when brave individuals sign up to serve our country, we must fulfill our promise to support them when they come home. We should honor our veterans by showing them we have their backs long after the war is over. While I would like to stand here and say that our country is doing everything we can for the people we owe the most to and that we are fulfilling the promise we made to them when we sent them off to fight for us, I believe our work is far from over. Though Congress passed a sweeping bill last year to provide new resources and add more accountability to the VA, I continue to hear from veterans across my home State of Washington about care that is falling short. Despite structural changes at the VA, veterans are still waiting on surgeries and MRIs and oncology appointments, mental health screenings, you name it. Our veterans have already fought for our country. They should not have to fight to get their health care or the benefits they were promised, so we have to fight on their behalf. As the senior member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am committed to making this country work better for our veterans. Even though there are challenges, there is hope. Just 2 weeks ago, we successfully passed the Homeless Veterans Services Protection Act out of the Senate to make sure a VA policy change doesn't cut off services and force veterans onto the street. That bill cleared one hurdle; now I call on my colleagues in the House to get this done. I am also fighting to end the VA's outdated ban on fertility services for veterans so they can start families. There is absolutely no reason to deny this service for members of our military, especially when they are injured while fighting for our country. And I believe we must extend the critically important military caregiver support services program to veterans of all eras--a program that enables injured veterans to recover and stay in their homes with their families instead of being in a hospital or a nursing home. Madam President, these aren't the only things I am working on. Because our veterans kept their end of the bargain, we have to keep ours. That means they should have access to mental health care to help deal with the often invisible wounds of war. That means a solid path to a college degree. That means job training programs and transitional services so that veterans have a path to good careers after their military service is complete. These things aren't about going above and beyond; they are the bare minimum of what our country should be doing to fulfill its promise to care for our veterans. So as our country recommits to that promise this Veterans Day, I want to let veterans know in my home State of Washington and across the country that I will not stop fighting for them. I again want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the veterans around the country who have served and for all who are still serving today. I call on all of my colleagues and fellow citizens to honor our veterans every day of the year with the kind of action that shows them we are grateful for their service. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I would ask the Senator to modify his request and offer a resolution that actually helps to move women's health and rights forward. Simply put, the resolution that the Senator has offered is more of the same. It is another effort to pander to the extreme Republican base by using women's health and constitutionally protected rights as a political football. Unfortunately, it makes it clear for the umpteenth time that when it comes to improving access to affordable health care for women, some Republicans are determined to stand in the way of progress. I expect that some of my Republican colleagues will say this resolution shows how much they care about women's health. The truth is it shows the opposite. It shows once again that the Republican Party wants to interfere in a woman's medical decision. Strengthening women's health care doesn't start with telling women what they should and should not do with their own bodies, but that is exactly what that resolution does. If my Republican colleagues really want to support women's reproductive care, they would work with Democrats on improving access to affordable birth control under the Affordable Care Act, including emergency contraceptives, ensuring women and families make their own decisions about their health care--not their bosses--and fighting back against efforts across the country to undermine women's constitutionally protected health care rights. It is time for Republicans to drop the political attacks on women's health and instead join Democrats to focus on these priorities and more like them, so that women--not politicians, not insurance companies, not CFOs or CEOs--are in control of their health care, as it should be. Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 37 That is why I ask the Senator to modify his request and instead ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 37, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I object to the original request.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes to talk about an issue that is very important to me, and that is the care of our Nation's veterans. As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I realize what it means for a family member to be willing to sacrifice their life for their country. We promise our men and women in uniform that the country will be there for them after they leave service, and sometimes that means long after the war is over. But I am concerned our country is about to turn its back on thousands of veterans, and I am here today to say we have to fix it. Last year, the VA told homeless service providers they needed to cut off services to certain veterans who had other than honorable discharges or had not served a certain length of time. If that policy had been enacted, it would have been a major setback for veterans across the country. It would have set us back on our goal of ending veteran homelessness, a goal that the administration has set for itself and hundreds of mayors across the country have committed to. It would have been simply unacceptable. These are veterans who need our support. Many of them struggle with mental illness and substance abuse or simply finding employment. According to some of our leading veterans and homeless groups-- including the American Legion, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans--if the policy had been enacted, the VA would have had to stop serving about 15 percent of the homeless veteran population. In some urban areas, up to 30 percent of homeless veterans would be turned away. Thankfully, after hearing concern from around the country, including from my home State of Washington, the VA was able to put off that terrible policy change. But, unfortunately, the VA is now expected to announce their final decision any day that the reprieve is over, and they are going to have to go ahead with this change and force homeless providers to turn away veterans who have nowhere else to go--veterans whose providers have been serving them for decades. That is wrong. This policy change would be heartless. It is a bureaucratic move that would put thousands of veterans on the streets practically overnight, and it has to be stopped. The VA is going to enact this policy when the final decision is made. So Congress needs to act now to stop this from happening. Earlier this year, I introduced the Homeless Veterans Services Protection Act. That is a bill that would ensure our most vulnerable veterans would be assured continued access to critical homeless service programs, regardless of their discharge status or length of service. In other words, it fixes the problem the VA says it has and makes sure they do not have to cut off homeless veterans from care. My bill will make it clear that our country takes care of those who served and that we do not allow bureaucracy to dictate who gets a roof over their head and who does not. But it is critical that we act now. The VA has said it would issue this legal position in November, which could put thousands of veterans on the street. We are running out of time. But the solution to this crisis is now before us, and we can do it by passing the Homeless Veterans Services Protection Act. I don't believe there is any Member of this body who would deny our obligation to ensure that veterans are taken care of and have a roof over their head. While our country has made great strides in recent years providing homeless services to the men and women who so bravely served our country, I believe that even one veteran sleeping on our streets in the United States is one too many. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us. Veterans are at a greater risk of becoming homeless than nonveterans. On any given night, as many as 50,000 veterans are homeless here in this country. With an influx of veterans now returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers of veterans seeking care will continue to go up. In short, this problem is not going away. Our veterans have made great sacrifices serving our country. We cannot turn our backs on them when they come home. That commitment includes providing benefits, medical care, support, and assistance to prevent homelessness. It is a commitment that shouldn't stop simply because we have run into a policy roadblock. I am very pleased to call this up now with the Heller amendment which is the text of S. 1105. It is a bill that I strongly support. The provision will increase the availability of care for homeless veterans with children by reimbursing facilities funded by the VA Grant and Per Diem Program. I want to thank Senator Heller for his leadership on this issue. I want to thank Senator Isakson and Senator Blumenthal for their leadership, as the heads of the Veterans Affairs' Committee, and for their support in being here today. I am hoping Democrats and Republicans join us today to right this wrong and prevent this problem from happening. It shouldn't be a partisan issue. It is not a political issue. This is a veterans issue. It is one that should bring us all together. With that, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 1731 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Heller amendment be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Heller, Senator Isakson, and the other Members who worked so hard for this. I would like to yield some time to the Senator from Nevada.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield back.

Mrs. MURRAY

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

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

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it is not always easy to get a majority of Congress to agree on something. But when it comes to the Export- Import Bank, the numbers are now clear. Three days ago, the House easily passed a bill to reauthorize this critically important program, 313 to 118. Months before that, here in the Senate, we approved reauthorization 64 to 29. That is a supermajority in both Chambers, so no one should think we should not be able to pass this. But right now, the will of a bipartisan supermajority is being blocked by Senate Republican leaders who have so far refused us the opportunity to act. This lack of movement on this critical issue is unacceptable, and people across the country are not going to stand for it. Every single day that passes without this program in operation, America's businesses--most of them small businesses--are at a disadvantage. That is because one of the main goals of the Export- Import Bank is to level the playing field for American companies to sell their goods overseas. There are 60 other export credit agencies worldwide, including several in China. While companies around the world are enjoying the support of their own lending programs, this Congress allowed one of its best tools to grow the economy to go dark. That is now hurting our economy at a time when we should be continuing to work to build and grow and create jobs. For months, I have heard from businesses in my home State of Washington that they are being held back by partisan grandstanding nearly 3,000 miles away. Businesses in Washington State make great products, and they want to ship what they make overseas and continue to build their business at home, and Congress ought to be a good partner in that effort. This isn't a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is about supporting American companies that are creating local jobs, adding to our economy, and helping our economy grow from the middle out. It is why the Export-Import Bank has had the support of this body now for more than 80 years. I urge Republican leaders to stop allowing extreme members of their party--a minority of their party--to hold our economy hostage. It is time to renew the Export-Import Bank on behalf of American businesses, American workers, and American families. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am delighted to be here with my colleague, and I thank the Senator from North Dakota for her exhilaration we all share because of the vote last night in the House overwhelmingly in support of Ex-Im. I am here to reiterate my strong support for reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, and I applaud the Members of the House who easily passed the reauthorization bill last night. It is actually easy to see why the bill got so much support. It is good for American jobs, it is good for small businesses, and it reduces our national debt. The fact that Republican leadership has let this program go dark for so long, held hostage by political pandering, is outrageous. The longer Ex-Im is shuttered, the more it hurts American competitiveness. In my home State of Washington, nearly 100 businesses--the majority of them medium or small businesses--used the Bank services last year to help sell their products overseas. We are talking about everything from Apple and airplane parts to beer and wine, to software and medical training supplies. In fact, I actually recently visited one of these small businesses--a brewery in Seattle. In 2011, Hilliard's Brewery started with three employees dedicated to making good beer. Thanks to a loan from the Ex-Im Bank, Hilliard's tapped into foreign markets and developed a following. Fast forward to 2015. They have dramatically increased their production, they continue to grow, and they built a business that thrives today. The reality is that people in other countries want American-made products. That is great because these businesses support tens of thousands of jobs around the country and they keep our economy moving. The Export-Import Bank is the right investment because it expands American businesses' access to emerging foreign markets, creating jobs right here at home. Do you know what it costs taxpayers? Not a single penny. In fact, the Export-Import Bank puts money back into our country. Here is the bottom line: Republican leaders allowed partisan pandering to put the brakes on a program that creates jobs, strengthens our small businesses, and helps our economy grow. I believe--and I am joining my colleagues today--it is time to put this ideology aside. Let's restart this proven program. It is critical the Ex-Im Bank continues to receive the strong bipartisan support we have seen in the past as we work to reauthorize this bill that is a success. I am proud to join my colleagues to say let's get this done. Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, next month our Nation will pause to honor the millions of men and women who have fought for our freedom and worked to advance peace around the world. Veterans Day is our annual way to say thank you and to honor those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf. While I would like to stand on the floor and say our country is doing everything we can for the people we owe the most to, that we are fulfilling the promise we made to them when we sent them off to fight for us, unfortunately that is not currently the case because our Nation is falling far short of its goal of honoring our veterans when it comes to VA care. Despite a sweeping bill intended to tackle some of the most pressing problems and give the VA new tools and a change at the top of the VA more than a year ago, I continue to hear from veterans across my home State of Washington about care that is inconsistent, outdated, and often downright dismissive of individual needs. I have heard from a number of veterans in my home State of Washington who are waiting on surgeries, MRIs, oncology appointments, mental health screenings--you name it--and far too often they say they are told it will be months to see a doctor or a specialist. I bring their stories today, to this ``other Washington,'' to continue to make clear this kind of outdated, inefficient care is unacceptable. This is a pivotal time for our VA, and the demands on the system will only go up as wars continue to wind down and the Vietnam-era veterans continue to seek more care for the injuries and illnesses they suffer from. As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I refuse to let substandard care be the status quo. I won't accept long wait times, redtape, and understaffed hospitals as a reality for our veterans. I am not going to stop fighting to make sure we have a system that works no matter how long it takes, no matter how many obstacles we face, and no matter who is in charge at the VA. The law we passed to give veterans more options for care has now had an opportunity to go into effect. We can see what is working, what is not, what we can build on, and what we need to tear apart. Last year I supported the inclusion of an independent assessment of the VA health system in the Choice Act, and recently that assessment validated what we have been telling the VA for years: There is growing bureaucracy, and there are problems with leadership and staffing, and massive capital costs. While the independent assessment identified some bright spots in the VA system, it also found that care and patient experiences differ widely across the system and that best practices and important policies are not instituted across the country. That means we all have more work to do because we have a responsibility to our veterans. Here is what we are up against. The VA still has multiple non-VA care programs, none of which talk to each other, none of which are coordinated. They all have different eligibility criteria, different procedures for patients and providers, and different reimbursement rates. I hear frequently from veterans in my home State of Washington about how difficult the Choice Program has been. From VA staff who don't understand the program, to confusion about eligibility, to getting the runaround from contractors, veterans are sick and tired of having to fight just to get an appointment. I hear how frustrating some of the bizarre rules and restrictions on Choice are. For example, an authorization for care only lasts 60 days. Well, if you are a woman veteran and you are pregnant, you are going to need more than 60 days of care. At the VA, we are still hearing that the wait times are far too high. But with long wait times in the private sector and the burdensome process to even get into the Choice Program, veterans are finding they actually would have gotten care sooner if they had stuck with the VA. If the solution to the wait time problem takes longer than going to the VA, it is not working. It is no wonder that veterans and providers alike turn their backs on the VA. The system is so complicated, it is impossible to get good health care. It is time for the VA to implement one--one--non-VA care program for the future. As we now approach the end of this trial period for the 2- year Choice Program, the VA has to use this opportunity to finally get it right on non-VA care. It needs to design a new system that truly meets the needs of our veterans. I believe that system must have five fundamental characteristics: First of all, it has to be veteran-centered, with clear eligibility rules so veterans know what they can do and what they can expect and where they can go for what care and how that system works. It also means the experience for veterans trying to use the system has to improve. For example, veterans should never be turned away with a dismissive ``We are not taking new patients.'' Secondly, it has to be easy for our providers, with simple and consistent procedures for them to deliver care, report back to the VA, and get reimbursed quickly. The contracting system needs to be simple and clear so that private providers can step in where the VA cannot. Third, a new system must provide high-quality care that includes effective care coordination, and that requires that electronic medical records be returned to the VA. That includes oversight of the quality of care being delivered in the private sector. We have to know our veterans are being appropriately cared for. Fourth, the new system has to be flexible enough to compensate for local needs, types of care where VA is deficient, or locations where the VA does not have a presence. Whether working with community providers to increase certain specialty appointments or seeing where the VA needs to move resources to hire more VA staff, the system has to maintain flexibility to adjust to new trends and new needs. Finally, it has to be cost-effective for the VA and not shift the cost of care onto our veterans. Earlier this year, the VA nearly ran out of money, and they threatened to shut down the health care system. Well, we should invest whatever we need to to make sure our veterans are getting care. The new non-VA care system must be more efficient, and the VA needs to be clear with Congress about what it needs. Without a change, I would not be surprised if next year we don't find ourselves in the same position where we have underfunded the VA and need to come in and transfer funding to keep the VA operating. I will work with anyone and stand behind no one when it comes to getting veterans the funding they need. Perhaps most important, when implementation begins, it simply must be better than what we saw with the Choice Program. VA staff have to be trained and proficient, and third-party administrators in charge of the networks of private providers have to be efficient and responsive. Veterans deserve a system that works, not one that is torn apart and weakened over time. So the answer isn't just to dismantle the VA and leave veterans to fend for themselves, as some proposals would do; the solution starts, finally, with a real conversation about what is going on at the VA, what the problems are, and then pursues an ``all of the above'' approach that finally strengthens the VA system, uses community providers to fill in the gaps where the VA cannot get the job done, and continues to make the best use of other Federal help programs, such as DOD and federally qualified health centers--all in an effort to truly build a veteran-centered VA health care system. I stand ready to work with anyone to do this, and I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me and not make this a Democratic or Republican issue. Veterans issues have never been partisan, and, in my mind, there is no place for that when we sit at the table to solve a complicated problem. I hope the administration is ready to fundamentally reshape this program. I hope bureaucrats who spend more time defending the broken system are ready to get to work implementing solutions built around the needs of our veterans. And I hope providers--those who work with the VA and DOD and TRICARE, as well as those who currently do not provide care to veterans--play a role to improve veteran care. The wars may no longer lead the nightly news, but that doesn't mean the cost of these wars is gone too. Our veterans are still there, they still need health care and services, and we will not forget them. I expect the VA to do better. Our veterans have already sacrificed so much. They should not have to come back and fight the VA to get the care they have earned. Let's act and let's do something that truly honors our Nation's heroes. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. I thank the Senator very much.

Mrs. MURRAY

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