Joe Manchin

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I rise today to honor the legacy of a member of our greatest generation, the founder and first commander of the West Virginia Air National Guard, a World War II veteran, an American hero, and a friend of both of ours, retired Brig. Gen. James Kemp McLaughlin. He was born on December 7, 1918, in Braxton County, to James and Almira McLaughlin. Kemp was a staunch leader with unparalleled patriotism, and his devotion to God, State, and country was unmatched. Gayle and I were honored to call him a friend, and I know I join so many when I say that West Virginia has lost a shining star. He is dearly missed. Ever since the historic beginning of our State, we have never failed to answer our country's call. No demand has been too great, no danger too daunting, and no trial too threatening. Kemp took part in some of the most important battles of World War II. Following his education at West Virginia University, Kemp joined the U.S. Air Corps at age 23, shortly before the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the day of his birthday. He flew nearly 40 B-17 Flying Fortress bomber missions during the war, including support for the troops on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. In 1934, Kemp led a 350-plane attack on a factory in Germany, a raid that became known as Black Thursday. On too many occasions, Kent's planes would be so damaged that it was a miracle he made it back safe. His actions were instrumental in not only destroying Nazi efforts, but as one of the ``Mighty'' 8th Air Force in Europe, he was also instrumental in developing what is known as air superiority, a vital factor in deciding the outcome of a modern conventional war. He paved the way for all citizen airmen who strive to follow in his footsteps. Kemp completed 39 combat missions during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross four times. His vast experience aided him years later when he was asked to lead the Air National Guard's 167th Fighter Squadron in Charleston, WV. When that squadron moved to Martinsburg, Charleston's Guard unit became the 130th Airlift Wing. Throughout the rest of his extraordinary life, Kemp continued to pay homage to his fallen comrades and serve his community. He served as Kanawha County commissioner and as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He is a legend here in West Virginia and was one of the most selfless people that I have ever had the pleasure of calling a dear friend. As Governor, my most honored titled was that of commander-in-chief of the Guard. I have seen firsthand how the Air National Guard protects the citizens of West Virginia when we are in our most desperate hour of need and how they protect our country when called upon to serve at the command of the President of the United States. The integrity of our Guard is due in large part to Kemp's legacy of excellence and his commitment to seeing our Guard and our home State flourish. When visitors come to West Virginia, I jump at the chance to tell them we are home to the most hard-working and patriotic people in the Nation. We have fought in more wars, shed more blood, and lost more lives for the cause of freedom than most any other State. We have always done the heavy lifting and never complained. We have mined the coal and forged the steel that built the guns, ships, and factories that have protected and continue to protect our country to this day. I am so deeply proud of what West Virginians like Kemp have accomplished and what they will continue to accomplish to protect the freedoms we hold dear. We have every reason to be proud and to stand tall knowing that West Virginia is the reason Americans sleep peacefully at night. Kemp is survived by his children, Laura, Mary, and Kemp, Jr., and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I know he and Constance, his lovely wife of nearly 50 years, are looking down on each of you and all of us with a smile. West Virginia is great because our people are great--Mountaineers who will always be free. We are tough, independent, inventive, and honest, our character shaped by the wilderness of our State--its rushing streams, its boundless blue skies, its divine forests, and its majestic mountains. We are West Virginians. Like the brave, loyal patriots who made our State the 35th star on Old Glory, our love of God and country and family and State is unshakeable. I know that 20, 50, or another 156 years from now, that will always remain the same. That legacy laid the groundwork for heroes like Kemp McLaughlin, and now, he serves as an inspiration to all who wish to follow in his footsteps and live a life filled with patriotism, service, faith, and family. There are so few of our American heroes left from Kemp's generation. It is our responsibility and privilege to ensure that their service and sacrifice is never forgotten. The sun will never set on Kemp's legacy of service, his generosity, his love for his family, and his devotion to God, our home State, and our beautiful country. I know with the condolences of myself and you, Madam President, that we will always remember and keep Kemp in our prayers. Thank you, and God bless. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

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

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to reflect on the accomplishments that Chairman Murkowski, my colleague and friend on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and I have been able to make this year. Today, I will focus on my remarks on the energy agenda we have put in place to address climate change, as well as a path forward for a bipartisan energy bill. The year began with my appointment to ranking member of the committee. There were some expressions of uncertainty about where Chairman Murkowski and I might lead that committee, and there was a great deal of skepticism about my ability and interest in addressing climate change, but I can assure you it is strong. On March 5, 2019, we held the first hearing on climate in the committee in 7 years. Just this morning, we passed an additional five Energy bills, making the total count for this year 52 Energy bills reported out of committee. We have endlessly examined our Nation's work on innovation in the energy and manufacturing sectors, and we have been reminded that the United States must lead in this space in order to ensure we can address climate change effectively. As discussions about large climate bills move forward, it is important that Congress is doing the work to ensure we have the technology necessary to meet the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a comprehensive and timely way. In the midst of all the political noise, our committee has been quietly leading this effort over the last year. The strong bipartisan nature of our committee has enabled us to move dozens of pieces of legislation that will push the Department of Energy and the private sector into their next phase of research and development as we seek technological emissions-reducing solutions. In reflecting on this year's progress, I want to highlight that bipartisanship because I believe it is absolutely the reason we are delivering solutions worthy of the people of West Virginia, Alaska, and the entire country. It is simple--the chairman and I talk to each other, we talk to one another's colleagues on either side of the aisle, and sometimes we disagree, but we never disrespectfully disagree because we are friends. We must come together in this Chamber to solve this crisis and also ensure that no community is left behind. From even before the founding of our country, my home State of West Virginia has poured its natural resources and its human resources into every one of our Nation's ambitions. It is well known that West Virginia has produced the coal that has powered our grid and built our steel skyscrapers for decades. We have literally done the heavy lifting. What you may not know is that our salt deposits were used to make gun powder in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. Our deeply ingrained culture of hard work and entrepreneurship led to James Rumsey's steamboat innovation in 1787, just as it is leading to the National Energy Technology Laboratory's inventions today. West Virginians have applied all of our resources--coal, hydropower, natural gas, geothermal, wind, solar, and human ingenuity--to achieve our common goals. But these natural and human resources have been tested significantly in the past decade. The decline in coal production and use has gone beyond rising unemployment to unravel the tax revenues needed for our schools and communities. These economic and workforce downturns have occurred alongside the opioid crisis, the doubling of energy costs in our State, and historic flooding due to climate change in West Virginia--flooding that resulted in the tragic death of 23 of our friends, families, and neighbors. None of these obstacles have or will get the best of West Virginia. Nothing ever has. Just as the innovators of my home State have sought to use all the resources at their disposal to seize opportunities and overcome challenges, we must reflect that resolve here in the Halls of Congress. We cannot turn the American energy system on its head because the costs will fall too heavily on people in rural areas and energy- producing regions like West Virginia. At the same time, we cannot disregard what the science tells us about the reality and severity of climate change. Across the country, we can clearly see that the costs of climate change are mounting, but we need to refocus our attention on the incredible opportunities presented by the solutions to it. Whether that is the upstart solar company hiring former coal miners in Jefferson and Cabell Counties; the collaboration between oil, gas, and geothermal on new ways to access hot rocks in Monongalia County; or the insulation installer who retrofits our homes, the opportunities and the needs exist in each and every community, not just on the coasts. I have said time and again that the miners who built our country are the best workers we can employ to build our future economy. It is our responsibility as their representatives to include them and their communities in the economy of the future by passing the laws and making the investments needed to shape that future, creating those jobs and guiding the private sector and others toward new, ambitious climate solutions. That is why I have pursued bills that will build new energy and natural resource jobs in rural communities. The Advanced Geothermal Innovation Leadership Act would significantly invest in new geothermal projects to unlock new and potentially vast resources in the Eastern United States--bringing proven renewable technologies to fossil fuel-producing regions. The Enhancing Fossil Fuel Energy Carbon Technology Act would make the first Federal investments in direct air capture and firm up our commitment to carbon capture, utilization, and storage--necessary climate solutions and ones that can be built in the valleys of West Virginia. The Clean Industrial Technology Act would incentivize new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in industrial and heavy transport fuel sectors--solutions that reenergize the manufacturing heartland of the United States. These bills and the many others we have reported out will lay the foundation for meeting our climate goals while creating the innovation jobs needed in our rural communities, all while leading the world. That brings me back to the bipartisan nature of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The legislation we have passed in our committee reflects the diversity of our Members and our constituents who have sent us here on their behalf. These bills invest in the programs necessary to bring climate solutions to bear, and they will create jobs and opportunities. Our bipartisan work on energy innovation is evidence of the good work that can be done in Congress and stands in contrast to the skeptical and cynical narrative that dominates our politics today. Our work is far from done. We will continue to work in a bipartisan fashion with our colleagues in this Chamber and in the House to take those 52 bills and turn them into an impactful energy package, one that can easily and readily move the needle on reducing emissions and one that can be signed into law. I congratulate my dear friend and colleague Chairman Murkowski and the members of the committee for their work, and I look forward to this Chamber taking up our energy innovation package in the new year. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today, and I want to make it very clear--it is going to be very short and succinct--that time is running out on our coal miners. We need to fix this now--not in 2020 but now. I will explain why. We have over 13,000 coal miners who will lose their healthcare and 82,000 coal miners who will lose their pensions next year if we do not do something now. That is why I am standing here before you. That is why I am putting a hold on all legislative business coming through the Senate until we get assurances. This is not who I am. Anybody who knows me, knows I don't do this, but I am so committed to the people who built this country and to a commitment we had in a 1946 agreement with the Federal Government that they would be able to have a pension and retirement for the very difficult and very dangerous hard work that they do. They weren't asking taxpayers or anyone else to bail them out. It was coming from the sale of the product, the coal that they mine for the energy for this country. Only my bill, which is the Bipartisan American Miners Act, has bipartisan support on both sides in the Senate and over in the House. I know if Congress passed it, President Trump would sign it. I know that. Can you imagine being one of the coal miners trying to enjoy your holidays this year knowing that you might wake up January 1 with no healthcare coverage and a reduction in your pension? Let me explain to you the pensions. The average pension of a coal miner--most of these are widows now because the miners might have passed away--is $600 or less, so we are not talking about thousands of dollars. We are not talking about that whatsoever. This is all the means of sustaining a quality of life or helping them through a quality of life. These coal miners and their families deserve the peace of mind of knowing that the healthcare they have earned and the pensions they have paid-- these are things they have paid into and earned. They didn't take home this money. It stayed right there in their investments. We can give them that peace of mind today, and no legislative business will pass without coal miners first. I reluctantly say that we might be here through Christmas or we might be here through New Year's, but I will do and make whatever sacrifice I can for the people who made the sacrifice for us, and that is the coal miners who provide the energy for us to be the greatest Nation on Earth, for us basically to be the superpower of the world and the leader of the free world. It is because of the energy they have produced. If we can't honor that, then what do we honor, whom do we honor, and what is our purpose for being here? I ask each one of my colleagues to please talk to all of our leaders. Let's come together sensibly. Let's make sure this is in the package we put together, and we will continue business and be able to go home and enjoy the holidays the same as they should be able to enjoy the holidays. Our going home and their not being able to enjoy it is not who we are; it is not the American dream; and it is not who we are as Americans. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, Gayle and I would like to extend our warmest congratulations and very best wishes to our very dear friend Andy Pradella on his 70th birthday. What I have always admired about Andy is his unparalleled work ethic and determination to learn and serve, and to inspire those around him. I can't tell him how much his and Joanie's friendship has meant to me and Gayle throughout the years. They are like family to us. Together, they are both a match made in ``Almost Heaven.'' While Andy wasn't born in West Virginia, he certainly is a West Virginian in his heart and soul. In West Virginia, if you are hungry, you will be fed. If you are lost, someone will not only give you directions but will offer to drive you to your destination. I am so deeply proud of the people of my home State and the values that make us stand out from the rest of the Nation. It is in that same spirit that I proudly recognize Andy Pradella as an honorary West Virginian. No one fits this title better. He is one of the most generous, kindest, selfless people I have had the privilege of calling my very dear friend. He has provided so much happiness and wisdom to the lives of those around him throughout the years, and it is my wish that the memory of this special day remains with him just as his guidance and influence will remain in all the lives he has touched. Again, it is with the greatest admiration that I send to him my best wishes on his special day. Andy, please always remember that no matter where you are, you have a home here in ``Almost Heaven.''

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the service of my defense fellow, Maj. Jordan Kahn, who is approaching the end of his assignment with my office as part of his experience in the U.S. Air Force Legislative Fellowship Program. Major Kahn joined my office in January and his dedication, work ethic, and intelligence quickly made him a trusted voice on my legislative team. A proud member of the U.S. Air Force, as well as being a graduate of both the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, Jordan has deployed to defend our country multiple times, and because of his service, our Nation is safer. Most importantly, Jordan is a devoted husband and father, and I have had the pleasure of watching his family grow over the last year. In November, his wife Becky gave birth to their second son Haden, and his firstborn son Harrison has now dutifully taken on the responsibility of big brother. As Major Kahn moves on to his next assignment, I have full faith that he will continue to excel as a leader in the Air Force and would trust him in the most demanding and sensitive positions within our Armed Forces. I extend my sincere thanks for his service to our Nation and our office and wish him and his family continued success in his future endeavors.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about our nominee and the vote for Secretary of Energy. Mr. Brouillette came before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee 2 weeks ago. I found him to be up to this enormous task. He is a good man, and he has the credentials. He came out of our committee 16 to 4, and that is pretty impressive in today's toxic world that we live in, sorry to say. He has a long history with energy issues and with the Department of Energy, so he is no stranger to this agency or to the workings of this agency. He has served as the staff director of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, so he understands the proceedings of this body and of the House. At the Department of Energy, he served as an Assistant Secretary of Energy during the Bush administration and, of course, as the Deputy Secretary for the past 2 years under Secretary Perry. He knows the Department; he knows Congress; and he knows the energy issues facing our Nation. He has also demonstrated his managerial skills. He has been vice president of Ford Motor Company, and he has been a senior vice president of USAA, which I think we all know is the large insurance and financial services giant that serves the members of our military and their families. This Senate has confirmed him twice before, and we have gone indepth in looking into him, and he has been forthcoming. He has not held anything back. I asked him every question I possibly could. I know some of my dear colleagues on my side of the aisle have some concerns on some questions they want answered. I did get into those with him. He assured me that his answers were accurate and correct, and I found them to be very substantial. I basically come before you to say that we have a gentleman who I think is well qualified. He is ready for the job; he is up to the job; and he understands the job. That is what we should be looking at. So if we could put politics aside--truly put politics aside--and look at the qualifications of a person who is willing to serve and his family, who is behind him 100 percent, wanting him to give that service--he and his wife are both former military people. I found him to be quite charming, quite delightful to work with and talk to but, more than that, most professional in his approach and how he has handled himself and in the way we have worked with him in our committee. Being the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I have worked with him, and we have worked with him throughout the last 2 years. He has been very forthcoming and good to work with. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to please consider voting for this gentleman because I think he is really the right person at the right time for this job. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I want to first say thank you to my colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senators Capito, Portman, Jones, Kaine, Duckworth, Brown, Casey, Durbin, Warner, Sinema, Van Hollen, and Reed, who have cosponsored this legislation with me, for standing with me to protect coal miners' pensions and healthcare, and specifically Senator Capito, who will be joining me here on the floor today. Yesterday marked the 51st anniversary of the Farmington No. 9 disaster, where 78 coal miners lost their lives in the Consolidation Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, WV, which is my hometown. I lost my uncle John Gouzd in that mine explosion, I lost my neighbor John Sopuch, and I lost several of my classmates in that tragedy that rocked my hometown. It seems like only yesterday. I have always said that one life lost while on the job is one too many. It shouldn't happen. This tragedy shows the risk our coal miners take every day to provide our country with the energy we need, which is why I am here today. When coal companies go bankrupt, coal miners' benefits are at the bottom of the priority list, which is how we have ended up in this situation today, and that is unacceptable. It should be unacceptable to all of us. The person who earns the wage should be on the front end of the line when a bankruptcy happens, and whatever happens, they are taken care of first. Time is running out for our coal miners. We need it fixed now-- not in a few weeks, not in 2020, but now. Year after year, our coal miners risk their lives to bring America the energy needed to become the world leader that we are today. Our coal miners made a commitment to our country, and now, it is our turn to uphold the commitment we made to them in 1946 by securing their hard-earned pensions in healthcare. Let me tell you about the coal that we have in our country and has been mined by our hard-working coal miners since the beginning of the 20th century. That coal basically has fueled every war that we have been in, helped us win every war, helped propel us to the industrial might that we are today, built our factories. It has done everything for us, and all we are doing now is trying to make sure that the people that sacrificed all these years are taken care of. We have 1,000 coal miners who will lose their healthcare coverage on December 31 of this year, a little over a month from now. We also have 12,000 more coal miners who will lose their healthcare in March of next year, and that is only 4 months away. This is an issue that must be dealt with immediately, and time is running out. If you are one of those 1,000 coal miners and one of your family members is depending on their healthcare--probably life-supporting healthcare--and they are thinking they are going to lose it at the end of this month, it is unconscionable for us to walk out of here and not get this piece of legislation down. With it being so bipartisan--having the majority leader from Kentucky representing the coal miners of Kentucky--this is something that needs to be done immediately, and I know that we can. But if we don't pass this legislation to protect our miners, the UMWA pension fund will be insolvent by this time next year. With the largest privately owned coal company, Murray Energy, filing for bankruptcy 2 weeks ago, the timeline for the UMWA pension fund moved up 2 years. It accelerated a basically exacerbating position that we were in to begin with. Murray Energy, to date, has contributed over 97 percent of the money going into the UMWA pension fund annually because of the size of their company, which is why its bankruptcy has accelerated the situation we are in today with the pension fund insolvency. Once the UMWA pension fund would become insolvent if we don't do something, this crisis will snowball and impact every other multi- employer pension fund in America. They will all start tumbling, along with the PBGC, which is a federally funded pension guarantee. That is why it is essential that we protect our coal miners' pensions now--not next year or the year after that--which is why my colleagues and I introduced the Bipartisan American Miners Act. The Bipartisan American Miners Act would amend the current Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to transfer funds in excess of the amounts needed to be meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan to prevent its looming insolvency. It also raises the cap on these funds from $490 million to $750 million to ensure that there is sufficient funding for those pension funds. It also guarantees lifetime healthcare for the 13,000 individuals, including the 1,000 scheduled to lose their healthcare on December 31 of this year, by amending the Coal Act to include 2018 and 2019 bankruptcies in the miners' healthcare fix that passed in 2017. The funding for coal miners' pensions is already there. It just needs to be reallocated. These actions will secure the pensions of 92,000 coal miners and their families and protect healthcare benefits for 13,000 miners. That is our goal, and I am proud to be here fighting for these miners today because they surely have fought for me and given me the great country that I live in today. These miners took home less pay every day from their paycheck with the expectations that they will be able to retire and provide for their families after working for decades for our country. They have paid what they are trying to receive. It is not something they are asking for, a handout. They are not asking for a Government handout or taxpayer handout. They are just wanting the money that they invested and paid into all of these years. It is money they did not take out. Workers expect the wages they have contributed to be there when they retire, as they were promised. If we pass the Bipartisan American Miners Act as an amendment to the continuing resolution, we will protect coal miners' pensions and healthcare now before it is too late. The Bipartisan American Miners Act is ready to be voted on and has the support from both sides of the aisles. I just read off a list of our sponsors. The Bipartisan American Miners Act is basically a piece of legislation that needs to be done immediately. If we don't pass it now, 1,000 miners, as I said before, will lose their healthcare on December 31. Healthcare benefits will be terminated, as we talked about, and then by early September 2020, the pension benefits of 82,000 current pensioners and 10,000 future pensioners could be drastically reduced because of the plan's insolvency. I want to remind you also that the average pension of a coal miner is less than $600 a month. Most of these are widows. Their husbands have passed on, and they are living on this as a subsistence basically for their income. It would be tremendously harmful for them not to be able to receive this. I believe that we can and will pass this legislation before it is too late for these miners as an amendment to the CR. That is all we are asking for. It must be done before and no later than December 20. I am trying to get this on now so that we can move forward. Can you imagine being one of the 1,000 coal miners, maybe having one of your loved ones--your wife or one of your children--who has a serious illness and needs attention and knowing they are not going to be able to get attention basically to any healthcare after December 31, so put yourself in their shoes. These are the families that deserve the peace of mind knowing that their pensions are going to be paid and their paycheck--that they did not take the money home--is going to be secure. We can give them peace of mind today. I look forward to passing this legislation with all of my colleagues. It is bipartisan. This is the first time we have had something of this magnitude being done in a bipartisan way. The good Lord knows we need more bipartisan efforts to work for the people. If we are going to stand for the working men and women that made America, what is our purpose of being here, and who do we stand for? So I am asking all of you, please, with the urgency that is needed, please take up this piece of legislation. Please take up this amendment to the CR, and let's take care of the people that helped make America as great as we are today, the coal miners of the United Mine Workers of America. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Peter Stahley and Jordan Kahn, two legislative fellows of my staff, are granted privileges of the floor for the 116th Congress.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I rise today to talk about a resolution that I have introduced with my fellow Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, and 11 other fellow Senators from both sides of the aisle-- truly bipartisan--to designate November 2019 as National Homeless Children and Youth Awareness Month. Specifically, this resolution highlights the issue of children and youth homelessness and supports the efforts of businesses, organizations, educators, and volunteers who are dedicated to meeting the needs of homeless children and youth. In the 2016-to-2017 school year, there were 1.3 million children and youth--I repeat, 1.3 million children and youth--who experienced homelessness in the United States. In West Virginia alone, our schools have identified more than 10,500 students experiencing homelessness. This is simply unacceptable, and we must do more to support our future generations. That is why I am a firm believer that there are five promises--five promises--we, as adults, should make to every child. No. 1 is every child must have an unconditionally loving and caring adult in their life. That is the first. Every child must know that someone loves them unconditionally. No matter what you do and no matter what mistakes you make, at the end of the day, that person loves you. It could be your mom or dad; it could be a grandma or grandpa; it could be an aunt or uncle; or it could be a neighbor, someone who knows they have your back no matter what. No. 2 is every child must have a safe place to call home where harm cannot enter. I would hope it is the home they live in. Sometimes it is not always the case. Sometimes it might be a school. It might be an after-school program. It could be a church. It could be a neighbor's home. Every child growing up has to have somewhere safe in their life where harm cannot enter and they are protected. No. 3 is every child must have a healthy start and access to a nutritious diet. I think that is why you have seen in our school systems that we have expanded our nutrition programs from breakfasts to lunches. When I went to school way back when in rural areas, we had no cafeterias and no lunches, but for some reason, I could always tell when my mom or other parents had put an extra sandwich in the lunch pail knowing that we couldn't eat it but somebody could. There were always those who kind of stepped in and helped others. Now we have that. Every child has to have a healthy start and access to a nutritious diet if they are going to grow and be engaged and, basically, be productive. No. 4 is every child should be taught a livable skill so that they can make their own way through life. Primary and secondary education is free in America. It makes us different from every other country in the world. We commit to every child that they can get an education to be literate--every child. That is why education should be held to a higher standard to make sure that they have a skill set. There should be no child graduating from high school who is not ready to work or ready to learn more. We should be able to identify in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade what their interests are going to be, whether they are going to be skill-set driven or whether they are going to be academically driven. Both are needed, and we should not make them feel like failures if they don't go to college because a lot of people aren't desiring to go to college. A lot of them want to work with their hands. They want the skill sets; they have that ability, and we should identify that very early. No. 5 is the hardest promise because you cannot teach it. You can't teach this promise that you should keep to every child--that that child should grow to be a loving, caring adult and give something back. They can learn that fifth one only by how you conduct your life, how that special adult in their life--mom, dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, neighbor, after-hours group, school--someone in their life has given them hope: Hey, I can be that person; I can give something back; and I can help somebody like me. Those are the five promises. If we can't keep those, then God help us all. We owe that to every generation. To have one child homeless in this country is wrong. Homelessness means you have no stability; you have no functional family; and you have no biological mom or dad to go home to. You are either couch surfing or basically living with another relative--whatever it may be--and this is something we have to intervene in and make sure we can correct. We must keep these promises to our children so that our future generations will grow up to be the best they possibly can and meet all their expectations. We expect our children and youth to care about their education, but if they don't have a roof over their head or a place to sleep, if they don't have adequate nutrition and meals, they can't focus on learning as they should be able to. I heard one child say: I am just trying to survive. I am just trying to make it through the day and survive. I would love to get the education you want me to get, but when it becomes basically survival tactics or educational tactics, survival will kick in first. That is what they are dealing with. This crisis is affecting not just these students in their homes, but it affects their school life, too, and we must do better to ensure that they can learn and give back to their communities. Speaking of doing more, there is a lot of great work being done in my State of West Virginia and nationally and, I am sure, in all the States. One wonderful example is the Children's Home Society in West Virginia. I know they are watching and are gathered for their annual conference today. I want to thank them for the incredible work they have been doing. They have been strong leaders in helping children and families who experience homelessness in West Virginia. We truly appreciate their leadership on this issue in our State and hope that their work can be used as a standard for the other States to combat this issue. Recently, I visited South Charleston Middle School to see the work they are doing to address the child and youth homelessness crisis facing our State from the perspective of a student's life, much of which is spent at school. They use Federal funding to help correctly identify students who are homeless so that they can provide services to those who need them. I hope my resolution will help raise awareness on this issue so that more schools can use the funds available to support the students who are experiencing homelessness. In West Virginia, the child and youth homelessness crisis is intensified by the opioid crisis that has ravaged our State. The lasting effects of the epidemic on our children and future generations are terrible, from the increase in children and youth homelessness to a rise in youth substance use disorder. This crisis will continue to affect communities like those all across West Virginia for decades to come, which is why we must begin to combat and address issues like child and youth homelessness now. In the middle of this crisis, there are success stories, too, like Hannah's. Hannah's parents could not care for her because of substance use issues, so she went to live with a family friend, who subsequently removed all support. A high school counselor referred Hannah to the Youth Services System Transitional Living Program, which helped her finish high school and go on to college. She is a recipient of the YSS Ronald Mulholland Futures Scholarship and attends West Virginia University, where she is now a junior studying chemistry. Last summer, she completed an internship in Tennessee. The Youth Services System is a wonderful national organization that works to provide shelter for children and youth across America. Organizations like the Youth Services System and the Children's Home Society deserve recognition for their incredible work because, without them, success stories like Hannah's and so many others wouldn't even exist. This is why we must raise awareness of this issue so that we can support the wonderful work being done across the United States every day. I am so proud to be here today to advocate for those 1.3 million children and youth across our Nation who need our help and deserve our help. We must do better for them, and I believe strongly that this resolution is the beginning to work toward solving this major crisis our Nation has with broad bipartisan support. If there is one thing that brings us together, it is the children. It is not a Democrat or Republican problem. It is a problem for all of us. It is an American problem, and we have to face it. With the support of 23 national organizations, I hope this resolution will pass quickly. I look forward to working with my colleagues who have signed on to this resolution and those on both sides of the aisle to bring us back together to combat child and youth homelessness. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I come again to speak about what I think of the inequities and unfairness in the system that we have to American workers. American workers, businesses, and the economy here in the United States are the envy of the world and have been for quite some time. Throughout the history of our country, our citizens have believed that through hard work and dedication, they could achieve the American dream. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, as we know. Millions of Americans worked hard, played by the rules, and trusted the companies they worked for to keep their end of the bargain. That bargain is their pension. These pensions are modest and what millions of Americans plan to use when they retire in the twilight of their lives. But for 1.5 million Americans, that security has been pulled out from under them. Why, after working hard for years and forgoing a portion of their paychecks, which they have invested--this is their money matching their employers' for their pension--have they either lost or gotten their pensions cut in half? The answer is the current state of bankruptcy laws. How does this happen? Every payday, 10.6 million Americans put a portion of their paycheck into a pension account with a promise and trust that it will be there when they retire. These same people forgo pay raises, bonuses, and personal retirement accounts because they believe their pensions will be there until needed. Unfortunately, that trust is often broken when investment firms swoop in during the bankruptcy process. They cherry-pick at the remains of a company, cannibalizing its most lucrative assets, therefore putting profits before the people. Through no fault of the workers in America, companies are able to use their pension money for whatever they want when they declare bankruptcy. Just think about that. All your life, you have been working--20, 30 years or more--and you thought it was always secure. All of a sudden, through the bankruptcy laws, they are able to take your money and use it for whatever they want to now because they declared bankruptcy and went through a procedure. Under current law, when companies declare bankruptcy, they have the ability to use their workers' pension fund to give their executives bonuses and pay legal costs and debt. I am going to repeat that one. They have the ability to use the workers' pension--your money, workers' money--to give bonuses to the executives, who should be held responsible for the company doing as poorly as it has done to go into bankruptcy, and pay legal costs and debt out of money you put in there for 20 years or more. For the last few decades, investment firms have manipulated chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to destroy union contracts, reduce health benefits, and skirt pension obligations to maximize profits. Under current law, investment firms can target companies through chapter 11 bankruptcy, sell off all the company's valuable assets, and leave the pension plan in a worthless corporate shell, while paying handsome bonuses to their executives. While Congress has sat back and allowed the exploitation that occurs through bankruptcy, millions of workers and retirees have lost their retirement security. Workers and retirees did not set the amount each company contributes to their pension plans, the terms of the plans, or the loopholes in the bankruptcy laws. Those actions were all done right here in the Halls of Congress. As such, it is now the responsibility and duty of Congress to stop the financial engineering and close the loopholes of our Bankruptcy Code. Let me just talk about one company that affects my State vastly. Last week, the largest private coal company in the United States, Murray Energy, filed for bankruptcy, making it the eighth coal company in the past 12 months to do so. Like so many coal companies before them, they plan to skirt their pension obligations and use coal miners' money to pay off their debts, give their executives bonuses, and pay off legal fees. In the bankruptcy filing, they even labeled coal miners as liabilities. I don't know about you, but I don't know how any company in good conscience could ever label their employees as liabilities. They are the ones who make the company, but now they are liabilities. That is why they had to go into bankruptcy. Murray Energy has contributed 97 percent of the money going into the UMWA pension fund annually. With Murray's bankruptcy filing, the UMWA pension fund will become insolvent even faster. Once the UMWA pension fund becomes insolvent, this crisis will snowball and impact every other multiemployer pension fund in America. I am going to talk about a couple of cases here to put it in perspective. I think everybody will be able to follow this much easier. I am going to talk about Sears and Roebuck, which we all knew growing up. My mother used to get the catalog way back when, and we used to do most of our shopping there. This information that I am giving you and I am going to explain comes from a complaint filed by Sears itself in the Southern District of New York in January 2019. This is the old Sears filing against the new Sears--the takeover Sears. This type of financial engineering and exploitation occurred at Sears over the past several years. After merging with Kmart and being taken over by Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund, ESL Investments, Sears started to buy back its own shares instead of investing in its already rundown stores. Lampert also transferred 235 parcels of Sears' most valuable real estate to an investment trust led by Lampert himself and then leased the properties back to Sears. In 2017, Sears paid the investment trust owned by Mr. Lampert $117 million in rent for the use of its former property. Under Lampert and ESL, Sears closed over 3,500 stores, slashed roughly 250,000 jobs, and saw its share price fall from $193 a share in 2007 to less than $1. I repeat--$193 a share in 2007 to less than $1 a share. After filing bankruptcy in 2018, Sears no longer possessed enough assets to pay off its creditors--especially its pension obligation. Now those pensions are in the hands of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is Sears' largest unsecured creditor, and it owes the PBGC more than $1.5 billion. Recently, Sears Holdings Corporation filed a lawsuit against former CEO Lampert, alleging that he transferred more than $2 billion of cash and real estate to himself and other shareholders in the years leading up to the retailer's bankruptcy. That has all been done under what they consider legal. I am going to tell you about one more. This is Friendly's. Friendly's is an ice cream corporation, and this information comes from the PBGC's complaint opposing Friendly's plan for restructuring. I am telling you, this comes from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which we run in this country--the Federal Government--and they put this complaint against their restructuring. The same scheme played out with them in early 2000. In 2007, Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a private equity fund, purchased Friendly's for $337 million. Trying to weather the great recession, Sun forced Friendly's to close 63 stores and take a loan from one of the firm's affiliate entities. At that point, Sun Capital was both the owner and major creditor of Friendly's. That relationship gave the firm leverage in its bankruptcy to quickly sell much of Friendly's assets free and clear of any pension obligations to one Sun Capital's affiliate. At the end of the bankruptcy, most of Friendly's assets were owned by Sun Capital affiliate free and clear of any pension plans. Those unfunded pension obligations totaled $115 million and are being assumed by you and I, the taxpayers, through the PBGC. There is nothing fair about any of this that I just explained, no matter how large or how small. We are talking about righting a wrong that we have allowed to happen. Back in the 1980s, when the bankruptcy laws were changed, I don't think there was a Member here who intended for these type of shenanigans-- this type of robbery and thievery to go on in America. It has happened for far too long, and we have a chance to change it. As the bankruptcy laws continue to allow this type of exploitation to remain, there is a low-profile government agency that is pivotal to the Federal Government's efforts to protect the pension benefits for thousands of American workers and retirees. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation collects insurance premiums from companies that offer pensions and provides a portion of the lost benefit to protect retirees when a pension fund runs out of money. That is an insurance program that the Federal Government has backed up, and the companies have paid into that thinking they are going to be in good standing. Overall, the PBGC covers benefits for about 44 million people--44 million workers. However, the PBGC has come under tremendous financial pressure as more and more companies have shed their pension debts through the Bankruptcy Code. According to PBGC, there is a 90-percent chance that the union insurance program will run out of money by 2025, leaving it unable to protect pensioners in need. If the exploitation continues and the PBGC is left holding the check for bankrupt companies, taxpayers will, for the first time in history--we taxpayers will, for the first time in history--be on the hook for pensions that were evasively disregarded in exchange for investment company profit-- or robbery, actually. If the PBGC becomes insolvent, taxpayers will be on the hook--listen to this figure. We, as taxpayers, will be on the hook for $479 billion over the next 30 years, if we allow this to continue. That is why I have introduced legislation that will reform our bankruptcy laws. It is called the SLAP Act--Stop Looting American Pensions Act. That is exactly what we have allowed to happen for so long. It would ensure companies can no longer exploit loopholes in the Bankruptcy Code to skirt their pension obligations to workers and retirees. My bill would change bankruptcy laws to increase the priority of workers going into bankruptcy proceedings so the workers are the first priority, not the executive bonuses and legal fees. What we are doing for the first time is making sure the wage earner, the worker, is in the front of the line, not the back of the line. Right now if a bankruptcy occurs, I guarantee, all of the different reorganization groups that come in, all the different financial groups will be in the front of the line, and the workers are left with nothing. This reverses that procedure. It is a sad day when American workers across the country pour decades of their life into a company and are denied their pensions due to corporate greed. I keep hearing CEOs talk about corporate responsibility. Well, I am so thankful to hear those words, ``corporate responsibility.'' This is a step toward putting those words into action. I would like to see the responsible corporate heads of American industry step forward and help us with this needed change. We have to put our workers at the front of the line, and I would like to see that done sooner than later. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I want to thank my good friend Senator Romney for taking this initiative and, basically, all of us working together. Let me say this. We were Governors together--the Governor from Massachusetts and the Governor from West Virginia. The bottom line is, we had the same balanced budget amendment we had to work with. We had to work on a daily basis, a weekly basis--whatever it took--to balance our States' budgets. We had to stay within our means. We couldn't spend more than what we had coming in, and we couldn't put our people in debt. That was something I thought was pretty simple because it is the same thing you do in your personal life, the same thing you do in your small business or large corporation: You live within your means. If you are going to grow, then you grow, basically, in a balanced way. As Senator Romney has said, our debt is almost $23 trillion. You can look back through history when we have hit these numbers, but then if you look back, during the war, we weren't worried about balancing the budget during the war. We were worrying about whether we would survive as nation, and we did. Coming out of that war, we had over 100 percent debt to GDP. We were able to bring that back down and work in a prudent manner. Then it ballooned up. Let me tell you how I signed on to Bowles-Simpson. If you look at recent history, the last time--and the only time for 40 years--we balanced the budget was in 1997, up to 2001. That was with Erskine Bowles and John Casey working together--a Democrat working for President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congressman from Ohio. They sat down and worked out a plan and a tax system that worked for America. It worked so well that we were spinning out, basically, surpluses. We were told that by 2006 we would be debt-free on the path we were going. We had 9/11 come up. We had two wars we never paid for--the first time. I tell people, if you are a Democrat and you want to blame Republicans, go ahead. They are guilty. If you are a Republican and you want to blame Democrats, go ahead. They are just as guilty. There is basically blame for both sides. But sooner or later, you have to do something. When Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson came together, Democrats and Republicans said: We have to get our financial house in order. It made sense to me. I had just been elected. It was in early 2011. I was elected in November 2010. I started looking, and it made sense. We came so close that it would have been forced to a vote, as Senator Romney has just explained the TRUST Act. We think that someone has to have their eye on the ball here because when these interest rates balloon--and they will--and when people lose confidence and faith and will not put their money in and buy our paper, basically, for the low return we are giving them--or no return at times--and demand more, then we are going to have to outbid, and it is going to cost a lot more to do business in our country. Sooner or later, we are basically writing checks our kids can't cash. That is about it in a nutshell. If we are responsible to leave our children and the next generation in better shape than how we received it, we have done a very poor job. We truly have. Again, I thank the good Senator from Utah for basically bringing this fiscal plan we have worked together on and looking at where we are. The roadmap is pretty clear. If you haven't learned from history, you will make history. And it is not going to be a good kind of history you are going to make. Let me tell you who these recessions hit the most. In my State, I have a very hard-working State, a very rural State, and a State that is not of the highest per capita income in the country by any means. With that, they are the first ones who get hurt. If we don't really care about Social Security, if we don't care about the highway trust fund, infrastructure, if we don't care about Medicare--this is a life- sustaining influx of money they have because very few people who work from paycheck to paycheck are able to put money aside so that they don't need Social Security and they can pay their own medical bills. I have seen the effect of this. I can tell you, it is not pleasant. I have people on my side of the aisle who talk about Medicare for All. That is aspirational. We can't even pay for Medicare for Some--the ``some'' who have already earned it and paid into it. By 2026, we are going to be in default. We are going to be out of funds. By 2032, Social Security could be out of funds. These are things that are fixable now. They will not be fixable in 2026 for Medicare. It will be too late. For Social Security, in 2030, 2032, it will be too late, and that is just around the corner. For the highway trust fund, look at the infrastructure. Everyone who has run for President within the last decade or so basically has talked about a big infrastructure package. It will be the first thing they have done. They get elected, and guess what happens. Nothing. We don't see an infrastructure package. It is the most politically right thing you can do. A pothole doesn't have an R's or a D's name on it. It is not partisan. It will bust your tire, and it will break your rim. It doesn't care who you are. These are things we can fix, and they are things we can do to gain the trust of the public. Yet we fail to do them. We continue to divide this country and push us apart. This TRUST Act is what will bring us back together. It will put our priorities where they should be. All of us have run for public office. We have put our names out there. We can go out there and explain: We are protecting your Social Security. If you want to protect Social Security, then do something. The TRUST Act does that. We are going to take care of your Medicare. Do you want to take care of Medicare? Support the TRUST Act. It will do that. These are things we can do, and we can do them now. We shouldn't wait. We should bring this back to the floor, and you should go on record to vote. Are you really going to support Social Security? Are you really going to support Medicare? Then vote. If you don't have the guts to vote, that means you don't support Social Security, and you don't support Medicare, and quit being a hypocrite going out there campaigning and saying you do. That is really what it comes down to. We are just trying to fix something in an orderly fashion, where everybody has it--bipartisan, bicameral. If we can't do this bipartisan, bicameral, we can't do anything in a bipartisan, bicameral way. This is where we are today. I thank my dear friend. I really do. I thank my friend Senator Romney for saying: Let's do this, Joe. I said: Absolutely, Mitt, I am onboard. Count me in. We have other Senators. Not surprisingly, we have former Governors. This is how we had to operate. These were our day-to-day operations. During the crisis of 2007, 2008, I used to meet once a week in West Virginia with my finance people. They would give me the projections, and we had to make adjustments. In 2007 and 2008, with the recession coming on as hard it was, we were meeting twice a day, trying to stay ahead of it and figure out how we could keep from getting in the hole. But we made it. I have never seen that type of attention here. I have not seen one Presidential candidate--right now with all of them out there--talking about the finances of our country, talking about what the children of the next generation will inherit, how they are going to be able to manage, how their mothers and their fathers and all of them are going to have Social Security secured and Medicare taken care of. I haven't heard that at all. Maybe we can get the dialogue started now. With that, I yield floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I want to first say thank you to my colleagues Senator Warner and Senator Casey for joining me on the floor today and also to Senator Jones, Senator Brown, Senator Kaine, and the Presiding Officer for standing with all of us to protect the coal miners. When coal companies go bankrupt, coal miners' benefits are the bottom of the priority list, which is why we are here today to introduce the American Miners Act amendment to the appropriations minibus to protect coal miners' pensions and healthcare. At this time, I yield my time to my good friend from Virginia, Senator Warner, and I will come back later. Senator Warner.

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I thank Senator Warner. I appreciate very much the hard fight to get in the middle of this with me and everybody else that is in this room right now that is in this fight because we have a lot of people's lives at stake. I came to the floor and warned that, without passing this bill, the American Miners Act, the UMWA pension fund would be insolvent by 2022, and that timeline could be accelerated to within a year if one of the major coal companies declared bankruptcy. Last night, that happened. Murray Energy, the largest coal company in the United States, filed for bankruptcy, making it the eighth coal company in the past 12 months to do so. Murray Energy has contributed 97 percent of the money going into the UMWA pension fund annually. With Murray's bankruptcy filing, the UMWA pension fund will become insolvent even faster. They are telling me, by this time next year, there will have to be drastic cuts into people's pension checks and, if not, eliminated. Most of those checks, I would remind everybody watching and listening, are $600 or less, and most of them are for widows from their husbands that have passed away. They still depend on them for their basic necessities of life. Once the United Mine Workers Pension fund becomes insolvent, this is going to start the snowballing effect. The crisis will truly go into a snowball effect and impact every other multiemployer and pension fund for America. To say that this does not affect all of America is wrong because anybody that goes to work and pays into a benefit package, with their employer matching it, is in this same condition and in this same vulnerability. That is going to be another day that I am going to be speaking about this and what we can do to prohibit that from happening also. That is why it is essential that we protect the coal miners' pensions now--not next year, not the year after, but now--and the reason for that is it is going to be too late if we do it any later than now. The only problem is that we have a little bit of a stumbling block with the majority leader, Senator McConnell. I know he is concerned about other pensions. We are all concerned about other pensions, but this is on the front burner now. When this happens, everything else will tumble and snowball with it. The American Miners Act would amend the current Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to transfer the funds. These are funds that are in excess of the amounts needed to meet the existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund. So you know what AML is--the Abandoned Mine Land fund--for every ton of coal that is mined, there is a certain percentage of that put aside to take care of the reclamation that is going to be done if it is abandoned so we don't leave the environment in a horrible shape, and that is what we work towards. This fund has some excess funds. We are still meeting those obligations. We are using those excess funds to try to prevent this insolvency. It also raises the cap on these fund transfers from $490 million a year to $750 million to make sure that the pension plan has sufficient future funding also. The funding for coal miners' pensions is already there. It is already there. This is the product that they have worked and developed and basically extracted. So we are working in the same realm of what their livelihood has been--and it is exactly what our amendment will do--it will reallocate those funds that they worked for. Everybody that receives a paycheck, which is over 10.6 million hard- working men and women, they take home less wages and instead invest their pensions. As I was telling you, they invest into these multiemployer pension funds, and they take money out, and they expect it to be there. When it is not and the bankruptcy courts allow them to walk away, the miners and the workers are put on the back burner, and that has got to change. When workers expect the wages that they have contributed to be there when they retire as they were promised and it evaporates, there is no answer. It is all in bankruptcy. Because of the bankruptcy, they are told that they are sorry they lost all the money they have invested. It is not their fault. They gave the company everything they had. Under the current law, workers' pensions are not protected, and executive and investment firms exploit the code to benefit from filing for bankruptcy. If you have never read anything about bankruptcy, read one case, Sears & Roebuck. If you want to find out the unraveling of America and what happens to 250,000 workers that gave their life to this company and how basically investors came in and raiders came in and took advantage of every person's pension plan, that is the one case you want to read, Sears & Roebuck. That is why I am here today to introduce the American Miners Act as an amendment to the appropriations minibus the Senate is voting on this week because it is imperative that we do it now. We cannot wait. Since the majority leader won't allow the American Miners Act to come to the floor for a vote, which is his prerogative, my colleagues and I are here today to introduce the American Miners Act as an amendment to the appropriations minibus that the Senate is planning to pass this week. If we include the American Miners Act in the minibus, we would protect coal miners' pensions now before it is too late, and we will protect other pensions from starting to unravel and the snowball effect. We will also protect the PBGC, which is a guarantee from the Federal Government. If not, all of this is going to come into fruition, which will be horrible for the workers of America, the most important of the economy in this country, and a lot of people will be hurt by that. These coal miners and their families deserve peace of mind knowing that the pension they paid into paycheck after paycheck is secure. There are so many. Less than $600 is the average check of a miner's retirement. Most of that is retired miners' widows. They have passed on from the hard work they did. The widows are still there trying to manage what they have, which is very small at times. This is just a stifling of what they need, and to take this away will be very detrimental to their lives, the quality of their lives, and the family. We can give them that peace of mind today if we can agree, in a bipartisan way, to do the right thing for the people that made America, the working men and women, and especially the coal miners. They get up every day, they go to work, and they produce the energy. And I will say this: When you think about a coal miner and what they have given and the families that committed and dedicated to live their lives in these coal communities, they basically never complained. They have done the heavy lifting. They mined the coal. They made these buildings and built the guns and ships. They built the factories that built the middle class. They have been there every step of the way from this great country of the United States of America to become the super power of the world, and we owe them at least to give them the money back they paid into it. It is not your taxpayer money but the money they paid into it. Don't let somebody steal it. Wall Street doesn't have a right to that money, but they have taken it as if it was their own little treasure chest. It is just wrong. We are introducing this amendment, and we hope that we have bipartisan support. I would appreciate it very much. I appreciate my dear friend from Pennsylvania, who has the same hard-working people. It doesn't matter where your State is. If you have good, hard-working coal miners and they and their families have sacrificed for this country, they need a Senator such as Senator Casey. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, first of all, I thank Senator Casey because he comes from the same coal mining regions that I come from and the hard-working families and communities they have there. It is unbelievable the commitment and dedication these people have had their entire life and the patriotism they have. Most of them have served. Most of them have been there. Most of them will always be there. In 1946, this promise was consummated by Congress and the President of the United States, and all they have said, up until that time there--my grandfather and all my family members working the mines--they had nothing. So if you ever heard that song, ``I owe my soul to the company store,'' they really did. There was never any money that transferred. They had scrip, and by the time they buy everything from the company store, their pay basically was eaten up. There was nothing left. In 1946, they said there has got to be more, and that is when it came in. Truman was determined not to let this country fall into a recession or a depression after the war by keeping the mines working because we needed the energy for that. They have produced this energy in a patriotic way every time. If we can't even keep our promise to them through an act of Congress, then God help us all. That is what we are here to ask for. We implore all of our friends--the Senator from Wyoming is here now, and he comes from a coal mining region. We are asking everyone just to help us do the right thing for the working people who built this country. That is what our request is, and it has to be done this week; if not, I guarantee you this problem is going to grow much larger much quicker and more than anybody wants to bite off and chew. I ask all my colleagues to please help us get this miners act to the floor. We can take care of this pension and keep other pensions from tumbling behind. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I am here to recognize an unbelievable individual who contributed so much to my home State and to our country. My home State of West Virginia has lost a beloved family man, a noble veteran, a legendary businessman, a very proud West Virginian, and a very dear friend. President John Kennedy, when visiting our State during our centennial in 1963, said: ``The sun does not always shine in West Virginia, but the people always do.'' Charles T. Jones, whom we called ``Captain Charlie,'' exemplified this, and his light will forever shine through the many people who knew and loved him best. He was truly one of a kind. He was one of the most warm, kind people I ever had the privilege of knowing. Last year, I had the privilege of submitting a Congressional Record statement for Charlie's 100th birthday. He credited his longevity to good genes, good luck, a great wife, and very supportive family, colleagues, and friends. Charlie was an innovator. He always had ideas for how to make something better or run more smoothly, making him a joy to work with and to work for. There is no greater reward in life than to be in a position to give back to the place that made you who you are. While he grew up on the banks of the Kanawha River in West Virginia, Charlie attended school in New Jersey, later earning a degree in business from Babson Institute in Massachusetts. Charlie then served his country in the U.S. Navy during World War II with the Navy Seabees in Guadalcanal and on a minesweeper as an engineering officer off the coast of Japan and the Philippines. After the war's end, Charlie came home to West Virginia and went to work for his family's coking coal business--Star Coal and Coke Company--which later became Amherst Coal Company in 1946. That was the company his grandfather started in 1893. Due to the downturn in production of and demand for coking coal, out of necessity, the company ventured into river transportation. In 1951, the family bought the Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company, a business that operated steamboats, barges, and river terminals along the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. He took over the river operations of the company and renamed them Amherst Barge Company. Along the way, the company became Madison Coal & Supply Company and is now known as Amherst Madison and still specializes in marine services like towing, construction, shipping, and equipment repairs. Amherst and its affiliated companies have proudly employed thousands of Virginians over the past 70 years. Charlie was one of the most hard-working, humble, and giving people the Mountain State has ever known and was a longtime supporter of many business, charitable, and community organizations throughout the Kanawha Valley. Over the years, he served on numerous boards and committees, including the Yeager Airport Authority Board, Board of Trustees for the University of Charleston, Chairman Emeritus of the Inland Waterways Users Board, Trustee Emeritus of the West Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Director Emeritus of the Mariners' Museum, past Chairman of the West Virginia Mining and Reclamation Association, former Director of the Charleston Area Medical Center Foundation, One Valley Bancorp, the Western Pocahontas Corporation, Ohio Valley Improvement Association, and so many more. In recent years, Charlie was honored as a Distinguished West Virginian by the Governor, entered into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels by the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, inducted into the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics Business Hall of Fame, and recognized as a West Virginia ``Who's Who'' by the State Journal. Additionally, he received previous honors, such as the Charleston YMCA's Spirit of the Valley Award, induction into the Coal Mining Hall of Fame, Charleston Gazette-Mail's West Virginian of the Year, Seamen's Church Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Rivers Hall of Fame Achievement Award, to name only a few. Put simply, Charlie was a regular Renaissance man. What stands out about Charlie's character was he that he was beloved by those who worked with him and knew him. He was compassionate and considerate and was also a strong leader and motivator with an unparalleled work ethic. It was an honor to call him a friend. Once again, Gayle and I send our deepest condolences to his children, Laura Jones Pray, C. Tandy Jones, and Jennifer Jones. I am honored to join each of you in remembering Charlie's legacy, as well as the unwavering love he had for his loved ones, community, and, most importantly, our home State. I know he and Mary Ellen and their son Nelson are looking down on each of them fondly today. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

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

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the nomination of Frank W. Volk to be the U.S. district court judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. I want to thank my colleagues in the Senate for putting partisanship aside and recognizing the importance of confirming qualified judges to our Federal courts. Frank Volk's cloture vote earlier today cleared this body by a 90-to- 0 vote without a single dissenting vote. Let me repeat that--90 to 0. How many times have we seen that happen in this body? That is a testament to Judge Volk's judicial experience, stellar record, and his qualifications to become a U.S. district court judge. I would also like to acknowledge Frank's work in West Virginia as a tireless public servant to both our State and the Nation. He has conveyed time and again his love and desire to serve our Nation and particularly our great State of West Virginia. He has served with honor throughout his career and is willing to step up to the plate one more time. He shows the country how West Virginians act and serve. I would also like to thank his family, including his wife, Angie, and his two children, Garrett and Lauren, for their tremendous support of Frank and his continued work as a public servant. He is a proud Italian person, like myself. He is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, where he has worked since he was appointed in October of 2015. As a WVU College of Law graduate and editor-in-chief of the West Virginia Law Review, Frank's resume is extremely impressive. He continues to give back to his education. He has taught part time at WVU College of Law for almost 15 years. He has taught courses in Federal civil rights, advanced torts, bankruptcy, and advanced bankruptcy. It is great to see a fellow Mountaineer succeed in their profession, and I look forward to seeing his career continue. He has also authored a number of bankruptcy articles and spoken at national and regional conferences on bankruptcy matters, along with being a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center. Judge Volk is admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of West Virginia, the West Virginia bar, and the Pennsylvania bar. During his career, Frank has worked with a number of esteemed judges: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge M. Blane Michael, district judges Charles H. Haden II and previously John T. Copenhaver, Jr. Frank is also a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Frank has contributed volunteer service to the American Bankruptcy Institute for many years. He served most recently as the coordinating editor for the ABI Journal, focusing on the ``Problems in the Code'' column. Even with all of those accolades, Frank knows and understands the value of hard work because he is a West Virginian through and through, and that is just what we do. The Federal bench that serves West Virginia needs judges who are thoughtful, hard-working, and have good judgment. Frank fits that role. Frank brings such a great level of experience to the bench. I can safely say I am pleased that President Trump has nominated him to be a U.S. district court judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. I think we all will be served well by Frank's service. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from Ohio, Senator Brown, and also Senator Stabenow, Senator Casey, and all those who feel as strongly as we do and have constituents in our States who really helped build this country and deserve the respect we give them and also the hard fight to make sure we do the right thing for them. We are here today to bring attention to the issue of American workers' pensions. I thank you for allowing me to speak to the ever- present issue that our retired workers face, which is the security of their pensions. My colleagues and I have come to the floor to speak on behalf of some of America's hardest workers. It has been 285 days since I introduced the American Miners Act, which would protect miners' pensions from becoming collateral during coal mine bankruptcies. This is something that should have been done. It has been on Leader McConnell's desk for quite some time. We could have taken care of this a few years ago. We got the healthcare part done, but they split it apart, and we weren't able to get the pensions. Miners rely on their hard-earned pensions in retirement. They should be secured even if the coal companies file bankruptcy. We must act, and this cannot happen without bipartisan support. The coal miners, autoworkers, Teamsters, steelworkers, and every other worker that invest in their pension funds deserve to have stability and security in their retirement. The multiemployer pension system in the United States is in crisis. Approximately 130 multiemployer pension plans, including the United Mine Workers of America 1974 Pension Fund, are expected to become insolvent in the next few years. The miners' pension fund alone, a critical plan that covers 82,000 retired miners--25,000 of those in West Virginia and 20,000 fully vested current workers--is projected to become insolvent by 2022. Remember that date, 2022. But there is a catch to that. We have one major coal company in the United States on the fringe of bankruptcy as I speak to you today. If they fall into bankruptcy, this whole pension plan for the miners goes into turmoil. By September 2020--within a year from now--the coal miners could see drastic cuts to their benefits if we don't act. If the UMWA Pension Fund becomes insolvent, there will be a snowball effect for the central pensions. It has been said that the recession of 2007 and 2008 will be a blip on the radar screen compared to what this will do to our economy nationwide. The companies are going to walk away scot-free. It is unacceptable that some of our hardest workers have to beg for the money that they put into the pension fund over years and years of hard work. Yet this is not only coal miners' pensions. It is bringing attention to all the pension plans in America. Everyone deserves to have stability in their retirement, especially those who have paid into pension plans for decades. This fight is for each and every one of them. To be clear, a pension is not just given to these employees. You don't just go to work and they say: We are going to give you a pension. It is going to be figured into your pay, and it will be deducted from your pay for you as the employee to pay part and an employer is supposed to match it. Someone is putting in money, someone is taking money from someone's paycheck, and they are hopefully putting it into a safe place or safe investment. How can it be that when they go bankrupt they lose everything? Who gets it? Who walks away with their money? That is what we are talking about. This funding is set aside from the employee's paycheck throughout their career and matched by their employer. Workers invest in their pensions. They take a cut in pay over time to ensure that they have security in retirement. Rather than taking money home to their family, they say: This will be fine. In 20 years from now, 25 years from now, 30 years from now, I will have something I can rely on that will basically provide stability for my family. It is truly their money that we are talking about. The law of the land--the law of this great country--allows companies to not pay their former employees' hard-earned pensions when they go bankrupt. They don't say: Okay, if you are going to declare bankruptcy, the first thing you have to do is pay the employees. You must pay the people who put their money in. Make sure they get their money. That is all. And then we can work out the rest. But, no, we don't do it that way. Their CEOs receive bonuses. At the bankruptcy hearing, they will get a bonus. All the financial institutions get taken care of first. There is nothing left for the employee. The person's money is gone. Somebody else got it. It just doesn't make any sense at all. It is not who we are as a great country. It makes no sense, whatsoever, how the laws evolved into that, unless there is pure, unadulterated American greed that allowed this to happen. We have to reverse it. It is the law of the land. Guess what? We are the lawmakers of the land. We are the ones who can change this. This is permitted because the courts and our bankruptcy laws continue to allow the companies to break their promises to the workers and shed their obligations to pay the hard-earned pension benefits. They are able to reemerge from bankruptcy in good financial shape. They are able to shirk all their responsibilities and take all of somebody else's money and come out of this OK. They are ready to do business again. I am sorry. The same old-same old is not going to happen. Then the Federal Government is left with the burden to provide a percentage of the pensions owed to these employees. This comes because we have Federal guarantees. That is about ready to go bankrupt, too. We are going to break it because of people not taking care of the people who did the work. It comes straight out of the pockets of everyday Americans from their taxes instead of from the companies who walk away without managing their obligations to their employees and families. That is why my colleagues and I have come together today to bring to light these issues that affects 10.6 million Americans. In West Virginia, every time a mine closes, the miners get the rug pulled out from under them. It has been happening far too long. Many lose their jobs and livelihoods, and many others lost their healthcare and pensions. This year alone, 1,200 coal miners, their widows, and family members could also lose their healthcare coverage. For those of you who think this is just another Big Government program, let me share a little history with you. In 1946, due to the horrendous working conditions our miners faced every day, there was a nationwide strike coming right out of World War II. It brought our Nation's economy to its knees. President Truman knew this could not continue. He dispatched the Secretary of Interior Julius Krug to meet with the president of the United Mine Workers of America, John L. Lewis. They ended that strike by signing the Krug-Lewis agreement which created a retirement fund and healthcare benefits for our Nation's coal miners and their families that had the full backing of the United States Government. What we are saying is it was so important that we continue to work and produce the energy this country needed--basically, it wasn't the government giving them anything. They were saying that, for every ton of coal that was sold, a portion of that revenue from the coal that was sold would have to go towards the miners' pension and the miners' retirement. Over 70 years ago, President Harry Truman recognized the importance of coal that our miners produced for this country and promised that the government would guarantee our coal miners' benefits in return of their services. He was guaranteeing that money would be there for them. In turn, our coal miners propelled the American economy, ushered in decades of economic growth, started an energy boom that made the U.S. a superpower, and helped our Nation to victory in two world wars. This agreement was a sacred promise between workers and our country, and it captured the very best of America. Unfortunately, over 70 years later, we are still fighting to make good on that promise. After securing healthcare benefits for retired coal miners, we proved that Congress can work together and put partisan politics aside. It is a philosophy that I have followed throughout my life in public service--in the West Virginia State Legislature, as a former Governor of the State of West Virginia, and now as a Senator representing the State of West Virginia. I know that my fellow colleagues here today are fighting for solutions with me. I am asking all of our colleagues here in the Senate and in the House to join us in this fight. To be successful, we must address this in a bipartisan way. It is not who we are to be divided as we have been. It is not who we are as a country to have this toxic atmosphere that we come to. I tell people that I go to work in a hostile work environment every day. People don't want to work together. They are not expected to work together anymore. It is the norm to fight. That is not true where I come from. We never got anything accomplished by fighting in West Virginia. I hope that, together, we can work out a solution to this terrible issue facing our Nation and our workers so that they can retire peacefully without a constant worry of losing their hard-earned pensions. Let me tell you what the average pension paid to a miner is when they retire--and most of this goes to the widows because the miners have passed away. It is around $600 a month. They worked 20 and 30 years in the mines. This is not a windfall for anybody. It is a sustenance that just absolutely keeps them alive so that they can retire and live peacefully. That is all they are asking for. I am proud to stand here today with my fellow colleagues, and we are going to fight to keep our commitment to our citizens of our respective States in this great country. I am glad to yield to my dear friend and my colleague from Michigan, Senator Stabenow.

Mr. MANCHIN

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from the further consideration of S. 27, the American Miners Act of 2019; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, if I could respond briefly to the Senator from Iowa, the reason for my request, as far as its being urgent, is that we are on the cusp of having one major coal company go bankrupt. As we speak right now, it is out there trying to restructure, but if it declares bankruptcy, our timetable on our miners' pensions moves from 2022 to 2020. If the miners go down first, it will create a whole tumbling effect with the others. This one can keep us from going into insolvency with the PBGC. All we are trying to do is to prevent that from happening because this is going to move very quickly, unfortunately, if this one large coal company goes bankrupt. That is why I brought it to the floor today, sir, with all due respect. I hope the Senator and I will talk some more about this and that he will understand the gravity of what we are dealing with because it is really concerning to me right now. I thank the Senator.

Mr. MANCHIN. I respect that, sir. I look forward to working with the Senator.

Mr. MANCHIN

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