Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, in my explanation, I will go into it in detail. It is my hope that the White House promise that this will be taken up in November, which is the next tranche of the hurricane money, the disaster assistance. It has been well past a month since Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico and 2 months since it hit Florida, and Floridians all across our State are working as hard as ever to recover. One group of individuals who were hit especially hard by this storm is Florida's citrus growers. I will refer again to this photograph. You can see the citrus grove. You can see the branches on the citrus trees. Some of the trees have blown over, but in the meantime, you can see all of the fruit that is on the ground. Toward southwest Florida, at least 75 percent of the crops are on the ground. In more central Florida, it is upward of 50 and 60 percent. Of all the times, this was going to be a bumper crop. Lord knows, with the greening disease--its nickname is ``greening,'' but it is a bacteria-- it will kill the tree in 5 years, and it has been declining the citrus production over the course of the last 10 years. We had suffered enough through all of that, and then here had come this hurricane. When it looked as if there was going to be a good crop to turn around the lessened production that had occurred over each of the last 10 years, this is what happened. If that were not enough--all of the fruit on the ground--take a look at this. This is what has happened to citrus groves. Whole trees have been blown over. Whether you are talking about a grove that is totally demolished or a grove that has lost almost all of its crop, that is why the Florida citrus growers are in such a very difficult economic situation. Some of Florida's farmers lost nearly everything when Irma tore through the State. In fact, the statewide agricultural industry has lost more than $2.5 billion. Included in that is $760 million that Florida's citrus industry alone, just by itself, has lost, as you see in these photographs. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its first crop estimates for the 2017-2018 citrus season. They estimated that Florida's citrus growers would harvest 54 million boxes of oranges this year, but that number doesn't yet fully account for all the damage caused by Hurricane Irma. According to the folks on the ground, they believe the actual estimate is going to be only 31 million boxes this season. Now compare 31 million boxes to a decade ago when Florida harvested over 203 million boxes. Ten years before that, Florida growers harvested 244 million boxes. Now they are estimating, after the storm, a yield of only 31 million boxes. So the Florida citrus growers are really taking a hit. They have to have disaster assistance. The citrus industry is a vital part of Florida's economy, and that is why Senator Rubio is here with us. We have been pushing so hard to get our citrus growers some help. Just a couple of days after the storm, Senator Rubio and I met with a group of growers in a citrus grove in Polk County in Central Florida, where the loss is about 50 or 60 percent, unlike South Florida, where the loss is 75 to 90 percent. Unfortunately, the White House has been saying: No, we can't do it in this disaster assistance bill. As we have been working on a bipartisan amendment that would provide the growers with the help they need, the same amendment that the majority leader had to object to, President Trump has reportedly been making calls urging others in the Chamber to move forward with the overall package as is and to nix the money we need to help Florida's farmers. Florida's citrus industry may have been one of the industry's hardest hit by the storm, but it certainly wasn't the only industry that was affected in Florida. Florida's fruit and vegetable farms lost more than $180 million when their fields were flooded and their bushes were ripped straight out of the ground. Row crops, such as peanuts, cotton, sweet corn, potatoes, and sugarcane together experienced nearly $450 million in losses from the hurricane-force winds and heavy rains. Senator Rubio went to Hastings to see the potato farms. He saw how they had been ripped to shreds. Florida's nurseries lost nearly $625 million when their greenhouses were damaged by the winds. Florida's timber industry lost $261 million. Florida's cattlemen, whose ranches, barns, fences, and equipment were severely damaged, lost a total of $237 million in losses. Dairy farmers had to dump more than $2 million worth of milk because they couldn't store it properly after they lost power. Farmers are the lifeblood of this country and an important part of Florida's economy. Right now, they desperately need our help. In urging the Senate to move forward with this disaster package as it is, not amended, President Trump has told some of our colleagues that he would support adding this additional agriculture money in a later supplemental next month. To my colleagues who have farmers and ranchers in their own States, you know as well as we do that these families and businesses can't wait any longer. They need our help, and they need it now. I ask you to consider how you would react if those farmers and ranchers suffered $2.5 billion in losses from a single natural disaster, as our agriculture industry in Florida has. So, to accommodate the majority leader, I already made the unanimous consent request, which the majority leader objected to. I want to further state that to fulfill the White House promise of including the disaster aid farmers desperately need, I have placed a hold on the President's nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Getting the additional money next month could be the difference between whether Florida's farmers can replant their crops next year or not. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, before Medicare, one-half of senior citizens in this country did not have any healthcare, health insurance. Medicare changed that. So why in the world would we want to cut $473 billion from Medicare? It does not make sense. My amendment simply restores that cut and replaces it with eliminating a number of tax loopholes. It is a simple amendment. Save Medicare.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I want to talk about a matter of life and death. It is happening, as we speak, in Puerto Rico. I went there yesterday. I didn't want to have a flyover of the island, but at the invitation of Governor Rossello, I got into a helicopter so that I could get up into the mountains and into the areas that have been closed because people hadn't been able to get there on the roads. That is what I wanted to see. We have had colleagues come back and, because of a flyover in a helicopter, say that they say don't see a lot of damage. Of course not, because they are flying over parts of towns in which most of the structures are concrete blocks. But if you get down there on the ground and go into the structure, then you will see a different story. First of all, you will smell a different story because the water has accumulated, and now it is turning to mold and mildew--inhabitable conditions. But when you get up into the mountains, you see the places that were cut off. Not until a week ago did they have the roads cleared so that people could get up there. And as we speak, as of yesterday, they are still reconstructing the roads so that people can get on these narrow, winding, little dirt roads that go up through the mountains. So for 2 and a half weeks, communities have been completely cut off, like the one that I saw yesterday, Utuado, which is way up in the mountains. I want to show you some pictures, but I want you to realize that today is Monday. Next Wednesday will be 4 weeks since the hurricane hit. Can you imagine going into a State with 3.5 million people and 85 percent of the people do not have electricity? And by the way, these are our fellow American citizens; they are just in a territory. Can you imagine going into a State where a month after the hurricane, 50 percent of the people do not have potable water? It is an absolute outrage. And I don't think the American people realize what is happening. Let me be your eyes by what I saw yesterday. This is a river bottom in the little town of Utuado. This side of the river is cut off from this side of the river because the one bridge washed out. If you look at this structure, the question is, How long is this going to last? It is tilting to the left. Any major rush of water is going to take out this section. I want you to see how creative these people are. It is hard to see at this distance, but they erected a cable system going over to the other side. They took the basket of a grocery cart, took the wheels and handles off, and this is on a pulley, and these guys are pulling it over here and then they pull it back. This is how people on this side of the river are getting food and water and medicine if they can't walk across. This is how people are surviving. If this section of the bridge goes--and it is just a matter of time--they are going to try to hook up a cable over here at the top of this riverbank over to the top of this riverbank and do the same kind of pulley. Here in the States, on the mainland, if something like this happened, the Corps of Engineers would be there. We would be rebuilding. The Department of Transportation would be rebuilding that bridge. These are our fellow American citizens, and they are going without. Let me show you another picture. This is the bank of another river. Let me show you the result. This is what happened. You see this whole house right behind here. I will show you the church in a minute. I asked the pastor: Did the people survive? He said that one was trapped in the house. They were able to get that person out. The others had already fled. But you can see that with the force of the extra rain and the water coming down, houses like that are history. Here is that same section of the river with the church in the background. The church survived. I talked to the pastor of the church. Here I am having a conversation with the people who live on this side. I asked the pastor whether he lost any parishioners. He did not. On the side of his church, he has a dish, and because he has a generator, he is the only person in this town who has any kind of communication--in this case, through the satellite dish for television. Everything else is being run on generators because there is no electricity. As you know, these generators are not powerful enough to run air-conditioners; therefore, the water accumulates. Mold and mildew start to accumulate, with all the health effects as a result of that. Does this look like something we would have in this country, or does this look like a third world country? Do the images in these photographs bring to mind other Caribbean nations that we have seen that have been devastated by earthquakes and hurricanes? Think about what happened to Haiti. When people go to San Juan--by the way, 85 percent of San Juan is without power. You see these little pockets, and of course they are trying to get the generators going in the hospitals for obvious reasons. They need the generators to go to stations where people are getting their dialysis treatments. That is obvious. But what about the wear and tear on the generators and the replacements? The Governor of Puerto Rico, Governor Rossello, has a very ambitious schedule: He wants to restore 95 percent of power by the middle of December. I hope the Governor is right. It has been turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers to get the electrical grid and structures up and running. I am afraid it is going to be a lot longer. I asked for estimates on the immediate needs, especially rebuilding the grid. He said $4 billion. Are we going to be able to get that for them? What are going to be the ultimate needs of Puerto Rico? We just heard the Senator from Texas talk about his State and the estimates that you heard out of Texas being as much as $100 billion. What about the needs of Puerto Rico? What about the needs of Florida? What about the needs of the Virgin Islands? We have a supplemental coming up, but is that going to take care of the needs of all of those four areas that have been hit hard? If Texas is $100 billion, a long-term fix for Puerto Rico may well be $80 billion to $90 billion. And who knows what it is going to be for Florida and the Virgin Islands. Therefore, are we in this Congress, with or without the leadership of the White House, going to have the stomach to help our fellow American citizens? I am sure we are going to help Texas, and I certainly hope we will help my State of Florida, but are we willing to help the American citizens in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico? It is not a rosy picture, but we hear some Members of Congress come back and say they didn't see a lot of damage. It is people using a pulley they have jerry-rigged across a river to survive with daily supplies of food and fuel and water. You can't see that from the air. If you have no power, you have no water, and you have no sewer systems, then, what you have is chaos. It has been a month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. The hospitals are rationing services while they struggle to get the medicines and the fuel they need to power the generators. The dialysis centers are struggling to get the water and fuel they need to operate. Like many, I have written, in this case, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to urge the Department to do more to help these dialysis centers obtain the supplies they need. I wanted to come to the floor of the Senate, having gotten back very late last night from Puerto Rico, and tell the Senate that more needs to be done, and it is going to have to be done for a very long period of time. We have to do more to ensure that the supplies that are reaching the island are getting to those who need them. Remember, things got piled up in the ports in the first week, and they didn't get out to be distributed. Senator Rubio and I were saying at the time that it is going to take the U.S. military, which is uniquely organized and capable of distribution of long logistical lines. It wasn't until a week after the hurricane that three-star General Buchanan was put in charge. I met with him and the head of FEMA down in the Puerto Rico area. Finally, those supplies are getting out. These are supplies for survival. We need to pass a disaster relief package that fully funds Puerto Rico's recovery. We need to provide Puerto Rico with the community development block grant money that Governor Rossello has requested, just like we need the CDBGs for Texas and Florida and the Virgin Islands as well. We need to make Puerto Rico eligible for permanent work assistance so they can start to rebuild their infrastructure immediately. I want to make something fairly clear. There should be absolutely no ambiguity about what is going on in Puerto Rico. It isn't rosy. It isn't that you can sit in a comfortable seat in a helicopter looking down from 1,500 or 2,000 feet on structures that look like they are intact, when, in fact, the reality on the ground below is completely different. Certainly, they didn't go up there and see all those bridges washed out in the mountains. They didn't see people scrambling for food. They didn't see the Puerto Rican National Guard rebuilding that little narrow dirt road winding along the banks of that river. They didn't see or walk into the buildings where you would almost be overwhelmed with the smells--the smells, particularly, of mold and mildew. People have died as a result of this hurricane. People have died because of the lack of supplies and power. Our fellow Americans are dying, and they desperately need our help. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I have seen it with my own eyes on the ground, and I am here to urge this Congress and the administration that we have to act and act for a very long period of time. Our citizens in Puerto Rico need our help. We have the responsibility to help fellow citizens in need. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for today's vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 226, Callista L. Gingrich to be U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. I would have voted yea. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am the Senator from Florida, along with my colleague Marco Rubio. We, of course, have been at the forefront of this terrible tragedy that is going on in Puerto Rico, and I want to comment on that. By the way, speaking of bipartisanship, there is a good example. Senator Rubio and I, when our State was hit by Irma, spent 3 days, going around together, showing that we were shoulder to shoulder trying to help Floridians overcome the tragedy that had just befallen them. We dished out food together. We went and surveyed the floods. We went into the poor, little cities. We went and thanked university students who had rescued the elderly, the frail, when they were abandoned. We went all across the State. The day after the storm, we went first into the Keys to see the destruction there. Senator Rubio and I have been joined at the hip. When it comes to looking at what is happening in Puerto Rico, it is pretty obvious. Last week, a week had passed since the storm. In fact, the supplies were stacking up, but they were stacking up in the ports. They were not able to get out into the interior of the island. The two of us were pretty strong in our words; that you have to get the most capable organization in to do that when in fact it is almost like combat conditions, and that is the U.S. military. Finally, Wednesday night of last week, they sent me a three-star general who started to get it organized. Now we are seeing it distributed out, but it is going to take more because it is an island that is just absolutely devastated. It is going to take a long time to recover, and it is going to take a lot more money. Remember, these are our fellow American citizens. We saw the devastation in Florida. Now the continuing hardship is being tolled in Puerto Rico. It is a population where half are without drinking water, only 5 percent--and this is 2 weeks after the storm--of the electricity grid is restored, and cash is in short supply. Whereas, in Florida we saw the flooded streets, the downed trees, the crushed cars, the flipped over mobile homes, limited access to critical supplies like gasoline. Property damage was everywhere, and it was the entire State. What we are seeing is--multiply that many fold, and that is what we are seeing in Puerto Rico. We are working on a supplemental funding bill. Remember that right after the first storm in Texas, we passed a $15 billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That is going to run out within the next few days so we have to have another supplemental funding bill. As you can imagine, now it is not just Texas and Florida, but it is the Virgin Islands, it is Puerto Rico, and there are some other States as well. We are going to need to help the people cover the cost of recovery, and we are going to need to jump-start the local economy in those areas hardest hit by the storms. Today I am going to introduce a piece of legislation. I call it the National Disaster Tax Relief Act, which would give people affected by these storms some much needed tax relief. This is in the shadow of the conversations taking place, as we speak, in a hearing--which I have just come from--in the Finance Committee about future reform of the Federal Tax Code. The bill I am introducing today would do four things: One, it would let businesses and farmers immediately write off their cleanup costs, not just their replacement costs. For example, the Florida citrus growers in the central part of the State--and it was finally going to be a good news story on our citrus crop--half of the citrus buffeted by the wind is on the ground. Go further south into Southwest Florida, 75 percent of the citrus is on the ground. What this would do is allow the citrus growers to be able to, in the first year, write off the costs--expenses, in other words--of removing the downed trees, not just the cost of a new tree. That is especially important to citrus growers all over the United States because they are already hurting from a plant disease, a bacteria known as greening, which kills the citrus tree in 5 years. Therefore, there are a number of these groves that have been abandoned, but it is valuable land. We need to give an incentive to the citrus grower to be able to go in and plow under that citrus growth and replant--the immediate expensing of that plowing under, plus the replanting of what we think are hardier varieties of citrus that are more resistant to this disease, this bacteria called greening. We think that would be a huge incentive to try to save the citrus industry not only in my State but in Texas, Arizona, California. There is citrus also in Louisiana and some in other Southern States. The second thing the bill does is it gives taxpayers the ability to exempt State and local disaster mitigation payments from Federal taxes, and it lets them save for the next big storm tax-free. That would be in a catastrophe savings account. It would allow people to save tax-free $150,000 to cover things not covered by insurance. In Southwest Florida, there are a lot of seawalls that cave in, seawalls that are extremely expensive to rebuild and repair. This tax-free account would allow them to put away savings for that and other kinds of costs of remediation. They go out, and they try to save their home by getting tarps on the roof, making certain repairs until they can get the replacement, and the insurance can pay for it. Expensing of those items in the Tax Code would certainly be that incentive. The bill also includes extra infrastructure financing for areas damaged by the storms; for example, help for low-income housing needs and other infrastructure needs that are so important to economic recovery. The fourth thing the bill does is it includes tax incentives for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and extends tax benefits that are available on the mainland but not in the territories like the full child tax credit. Why should we treat our American citizens in a territory any differently taxwise on a child tax credit than we treat our citizens on the mainland, the main 50 States? It shouldn't be. It doesn't make sense. What is happening in Puerto Rico should concern every American. Governor Rossello has warned of a humanitarian crisis if we do not quickly move to alleviate this situation. The Coast Guard is working with FEMA and others to bring in drinking water and other critical supplies as well. Additional work is being done to restore power. Generators are being shipped in to help manage the load at the airport, and there are 30 flights per day now, which is projected to grow to 60 flights in the coming days. Meanwhile, as the evacuations continue, we don't want to leave Puerto Rico in tatters. We have to rebuild. That is going to be an expensive cost to pay. As we are going into a supplemental package for all of these storm- affected areas, and since the utilities in Puerto Rico were so out-of- date and so arcane, let's think creatively. In remote villages, let's supply photovoltaic cells to generate electricity as a backup because another storm is going to come and the power lines are going to go down. Let's think creatively as we help these areas rebuild. We are working on this supplemental package to get additional aid to those suffering, and I am hopeful that what I have suggested here as a tax incentive will be a part of that conversation. Our country is hurting. We should be doing everything we can to help it heal. Now, not only are we healing from coming out of some ferocious storms, but now we have another grim reminder that, in America, we are not treating each other as we would want to be treated. Something is wrong in the psyche of some, so that whatever the motivation is, there would be mass execution. I hope we will soon have a very serious conversation about the direction of this country.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am the Senator from Florida, along with my colleague Marco Rubio. We, of course, have been at the forefront of this terrible tragedy that is going on in Puerto Rico, and I want to comment on that. By the way, speaking of bipartisanship, there is a good example. Senator Rubio and I, when our State was hit by Irma, spent 3 days, going around together, showing that we were shoulder to shoulder trying to help Floridians overcome the tragedy that had just befallen them. We dished out food together. We went and surveyed the floods. We went into the poor, little cities. We went and thanked university students who had rescued the elderly, the frail, when they were abandoned. We went all across the State. The day after the storm, we went first into the Keys to see the destruction there. Senator Rubio and I have been joined at the hip. When it comes to looking at what is happening in Puerto Rico, it is pretty obvious. Last week, a week had passed since the storm. In fact, the supplies were stacking up, but they were stacking up in the ports. They were not able to get out into the interior of the island. The two of us were pretty strong in our words; that you have to get the most capable organization in to do that when in fact it is almost like combat conditions, and that is the U.S. military. Finally, Wednesday night of last week, they sent me a three-star general who started to get it organized. Now we are seeing it distributed out, but it is going to take more because it is an island that is just absolutely devastated. It is going to take a long time to recover, and it is going to take a lot more money. Remember, these are our fellow American citizens. We saw the devastation in Florida. Now the continuing hardship is being tolled in Puerto Rico. It is a population where half are without drinking water, only 5 percent--and this is 2 weeks after the storm--of the electricity grid is restored, and cash is in short supply. Whereas, in Florida we saw the flooded streets, the downed trees, the crushed cars, the flipped over mobile homes, limited access to critical supplies like gasoline. Property damage was everywhere, and it was the entire State. What we are seeing is--multiply that many fold, and that is what we are seeing in Puerto Rico. We are working on a supplemental funding bill. Remember that right after the first storm in Texas, we passed a $15 billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That is going to run out within the next few days so we have to have another supplemental funding bill. As you can imagine, now it is not just Texas and Florida, but it is the Virgin Islands, it is Puerto Rico, and there are some other States as well. We are going to need to help the people cover the cost of recovery, and we are going to need to jump-start the local economy in those areas hardest hit by the storms. Today I am going to introduce a piece of legislation. I call it the National Disaster Tax Relief Act, which would give people affected by these storms some much needed tax relief. This is in the shadow of the conversations taking place, as we speak, in a hearing--which I have just come from--in the Finance Committee about future reform of the Federal Tax Code. The bill I am introducing today would do four things: One, it would let businesses and farmers immediately write off their cleanup costs, not just their replacement costs. For example, the Florida citrus growers in the central part of the State--and it was finally going to be a good news story on our citrus crop--half of the citrus buffeted by the wind is on the ground. Go further south into Southwest Florida, 75 percent of the citrus is on the ground. What this would do is allow the citrus growers to be able to, in the first year, write off the costs--expenses, in other words--of removing the downed trees, not just the cost of a new tree. That is especially important to citrus growers all over the United States because they are already hurting from a plant disease, a bacteria known as greening, which kills the citrus tree in 5 years. Therefore, there are a number of these groves that have been abandoned, but it is valuable land. We need to give an incentive to the citrus grower to be able to go in and plow under that citrus growth and replant--the immediate expensing of that plowing under, plus the replanting of what we think are hardier varieties of citrus that are more resistant to this disease, this bacteria called greening. We think that would be a huge incentive to try to save the citrus industry not only in my State but in Texas, Arizona, California. There is citrus also in Louisiana and some in other Southern States. The second thing the bill does is it gives taxpayers the ability to exempt State and local disaster mitigation payments from Federal taxes, and it lets them save for the next big storm tax-free. That would be in a catastrophe savings account. It would allow people to save tax-free $150,000 to cover things not covered by insurance. In Southwest Florida, there are a lot of seawalls that cave in, seawalls that are extremely expensive to rebuild and repair. This tax-free account would allow them to put away savings for that and other kinds of costs of remediation. They go out, and they try to save their home by getting tarps on the roof, making certain repairs until they can get the replacement, and the insurance can pay for it. Expensing of those items in the Tax Code would certainly be that incentive. The bill also includes extra infrastructure financing for areas damaged by the storms; for example, help for low-income housing needs and other infrastructure needs that are so important to economic recovery. The fourth thing the bill does is it includes tax incentives for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and extends tax benefits that are available on the mainland but not in the territories like the full child tax credit. Why should we treat our American citizens in a territory any differently taxwise on a child tax credit than we treat our citizens on the mainland, the main 50 States? It shouldn't be. It doesn't make sense. What is happening in Puerto Rico should concern every American. Governor Rossello has warned of a humanitarian crisis if we do not quickly move to alleviate this situation. The Coast Guard is working with FEMA and others to bring in drinking water and other critical supplies as well. Additional work is being done to restore power. Generators are being shipped in to help manage the load at the airport, and there are 30 flights per day now, which is projected to grow to 60 flights in the coming days. Meanwhile, as the evacuations continue, we don't want to leave Puerto Rico in tatters. We have to rebuild. That is going to be an expensive cost to pay. As we are going into a supplemental package for all of these storm- affected areas, and since the utilities in Puerto Rico were so out-of- date and so arcane, let's think creatively. In remote villages, let's supply photovoltaic cells to generate electricity as a backup because another storm is going to come and the power lines are going to go down. Let's think creatively as we help these areas rebuild. We are working on this supplemental package to get additional aid to those suffering, and I am hopeful that what I have suggested here as a tax incentive will be a part of that conversation. Our country is hurting. We should be doing everything we can to help it heal. Now, not only are we healing from coming out of some ferocious storms, but now we have another grim reminder that, in America, we are not treating each other as we would want to be treated. Something is wrong in the psyche of some, so that whatever the motivation is, there would be mass execution. I hope we will soon have a very serious conversation about the direction of this country.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, the aftermath of Las Vegas is a time for this Senator to reflect on whether a shooting is like Mateen's, in the Orlando nightclub, where he was motivated as a terrorist, and then there was the remarkable recovery of Congressman Scalise in the attempted killing of Scalise by a shooter who was motivated by politics, and then there is the massive massacre in Las Vegas, apparently by a shooter who was mentally deranged in some form. The fact is, massive amounts of ammunition with high-caliber, rapid-fire assault weapons is making this easier for whatever the motivation of the shooter is. As a result, you get to the point of, how many more of these do we have before you say enough is enough? That leads to the subject of politics. When does humanity overtake the divisiveness of our politics so we can come together and have a commonsense discussion about what should be done? Because if we don't, and humanity does not overtake our politics, we will continue, and it will be more of the same. So I ask--I yearn for that public but also private discussion with our colleagues because going down this road over and over again is not going to be the answer, and we ought to say enough is enough. (The remarks of Mr. Nelson pertaining to the introduction of S. 1907 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would like to recognize the legacy of an extraordinary Floridian and friend who passed away this past weekend. Alto ``Bud'' Adams, Jr., owner of Adams Ranch, died this weekend at age 91. Born in Fort Pierce, FL, in 1926, Bud was known in Florida and around the Nation for developing the Braford breed, a new breed of heavy-yielding cattle, crossed between the Herefords and the Brahmans, that was better able to handle the heat of south Florida. For 75 years, Bud Adams tended the family-owned Adams Ranch, which has grown to 50,000 acres of land across St. Lucie, Madison, Okeechobee, and Osceola Counties. The family's land is home to one of the largest cow-calf ranches in the country. This land was also one of the first sets of conservation easements to be added to the Everglades. Today thousands of acres of Adams Ranch land have been placed into permanent land trust, including part of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Areas. Adams Ranch was first purchased in 1937 for $1.50 an acre by Bud's father, Florida Supreme Court Judge Alto Adams, Sr. Since then, Adams Ranch has received multiple environmental awards from Audubon Florida, the Farmers Conservation Alliance, and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association for the owners' leadership in land, water, and wildlife management. Bud was also honored with the Pete Hegener Leadership Award by the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County, an honor presented every year to a dedicated business leader who makes a significant contribution to St. Lucie County's economy and quality of life. Bud Adams was not just a cattleman and businessman; he was a devoted environmental conservationist and a philanthropist. Bud founded the United Way of St. Lucie County and supported causes like the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery and Heathcote Botanical Gardens. He also sat on the board of the Indian River State College Foundation. In Bud's own words, ``It is not enough for us to just do a good job breeding and caring for cattle. We must have a more holistic approach that keeps man, cattle, wildlife, and the land in a relationship that is profitable, productive and can be continued indefinitely.'' Bud showed us what it truly meant to be an environmental steward and a cowboy. He always took pride in his management of land, water, and wildlife, and Florida is better because of it. I extend my deepest condolences to his family, particularly his wife, Dorothy. He is also survived by his sister Elaine Harrison; his children Alto Lee Adams, III, and his wife, Cindy, Michael L. Adams and his wife, Rachael, and Robert Adams and his wife, Cindee; his grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I want to speak on the renomination of Ajit Pai to serve as Chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, to serve for a term of 5 years. Under the previous administration, the FCC always had the consumers' back. Back then, that administration's FCC strengthened consumer protections. It furthered competition, it protected public safety, and it pushed forward to ensure universal service for all Americans. Ultimately, the success or failure of the FCC rises and rests not on the fulfillment of special interest wish lists but on the treatment of those who are least able to protect themselves and whether their First Amendment rights, including those of journalists, are vigorously protected. Chairman Pai has been a vocal and excessively partisan and often hostile opponent of pro-consumer steps taken by his colleagues on the FCC. We have seen that time after time in the previous administration. Since becoming Chairman of the FCC this year, he has systematically undercut much of the work done over the past 8 years. I want to give you several examples. He has acted to prevent millions of broadband subscribers from receiving key information about rates, terms, and conditions of their service. This is called disclosure. He has threatened the expansion of broadband into the homes of low-income Americans by limiting the effectiveness of the new Lifeline Program reforms. If that is not enough, he has proposed sweeping limits on the ability of States and localities to review and improve the installation of certain types of wireless equipment. Furthermore, he has supported the moves by the GOP Congress to eliminate commonsense privacy rules for broadband services. If all of that is not enough, he has eliminated several media ownership rules, paving the way for a massive consolidation among TV and radio broadcast stations. Continuing, he has acted as if the way to improve broadband in rural America is to lower standards and saddle our most remote communities with slower speed and worse service. He has also opposed widely supported updates to the E-Rate Program, which brings broadband to schools and libraries in every State in the Nation and leaves that critical program's budget--and the American schoolchildren--in the dial-up era. That is not what we want for our students. Furthermore, he has curtailed rules designed to help small businesses, schools, libraries, and hospitals to find competitive options for high-capacity telecommunications services. What that is going to do is likely raise the cost of these services and potentially harm their quality. The list I just gave does not include the elephant in the room-- Chairman Pai's planned elimination of the FCC's net neutrality protections. This Senator has been very clear that I oppose the effort to revoke these essential consumer protections on the internet. I think Chairman Pai's proposed course is shortsighted, especially when his preferred approach seems to be the abandonment of the FCC's oversight on the action of broadband providers. These are actions that directly impact on the lives of millions of Americans. In March, I sent to Chairman Pai my deeply held concerns about some of these actions, and I expressed my sincere hope that his early moves were not a sign of things to come, but unfortunately my concerns have only been heightened by his record over the months since that conversation. At the end of the day, the FCC has a responsibility to put the public interests ahead of the powerful special interests. Just as it has been under the leadership of the past Chairmen and Chairwomen, Congress expects the current FCC to uphold the laws the Congress has passed and to enforce the regulations properly adopted by the agency. The vast majority of the actions of Chairman Pai have served to eliminate competitive protections, to threaten dangerous industry consolidation, to make the internet less free and less open, and to weaken consumer protections for those most vulnerable. Ultimately, we need an FCC Chairman who has the consumers' backs. We need an FCC Chairman who is not afraid to use the robust statutory authority Congress has given to the FCC to protect consumers. Based on his record, I have serious and longstanding concerns about whether Chairman Pai really does have the consumers' backs. As a result, I will oppose this nomination. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to express my appreciation to the fellow Senators who have come up innumerable times to express their regrets for what has happened to Florida, as we did with our colleagues from Texas with regard to the hurricane in Texas. Indeed, that was an unusual storm. The almost gold standard storm of Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago crossed the State of Florida in 4 hours. It was small in diameter compared to this present hurricane that hit Florida and traveled right up the peninsula and, therefore, covered up the entire State. For the past few weeks, in my traveling all around, there was vast devastation either by the wind or by flooding. It is really hard to believe that a State as large as ours could be virtually covered up by a storm. There was limited access to critical supplies like gasoline, and some places sustained considerable damage. I remember down in the Keys, in the part that hit the northeastern quadrant of the eye wall, in Big Pine Key, I went to a trailer park--a place of mobile homes--and there was not one mobile home that was sitting upright. They were all turned on their sides or turned over on their roofs. It was something that you just cannot believe--the force of the wind. The cost of rebuilding is going to be in the billions. We have passed a temporary measure of $15 billion, and that is running out. We are going to have to do something immediately for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, but there is going to be a continuing cost in Texas and a huge cost in Florida. Many people have been dislocated, and they are unable to move back into their homes. Take people in the Florida Keys. There is a tourism economy there, and to have a tourism economy, you have to get the service personnel back in. Well, they don't have any homes. So you have to bring in temporary housing. In the Keys, there is one way in and one way out. So that is going to take some time. Then, sadly, in the tragedy of all tragedies, 11 frail, elderly seniors died in a hot box that was a nursing home that had lost power, and the generators that were required under the existing law and existing regulations of the State of Florida were for putting the lights back on. They were not generators that were sufficient in order to run the air conditioning systems. The 11 senior citizens perished after there were a number of calls that had been made to the Governor's cell phone and calls that were made to Florida Power & Light. There is a criminal investigation that is underway that will answer some of the questions of why, as they pled for help to come and get back on the power, those calls were never answered. As a result, 11 people died. Something like that simply just shouldn't happen in America, a country that has the resources and the compassion that our people have. I want to state that, if people can't get through in an emergency like this to a Federal or State agency, I want them to call me at my office at 407-872-7161 or on the WATS line at 888-671-4091 or to visit the website at billnelson.senate.gov. We will get to the bottom of it, because in an emergency situation like that, with people's lives on the line, that should never happen again. I am so proud of the people who worked in our office so diligently. We had many of the employees here in the Washington office go to Florida as eyes and ears out there in the community before FEMA could get in to register people for individual assistance because they couldn't get through. If they had cell phones and the cell phone service was spotty, they couldn't get through. We had people out there in the field signing people up and getting it to FEMA for individual assistance. Our folks on the Florida staff as well as the Washington staff who went down there did a wonderful job. They worked their fingers to the bone, and they worked their hearts out. I want them to know how much I appreciate that, serving the people of Florida in need. It is important that those of us in public service respond with urgency and purpose when somebody calls for help. That applies to all of us in public service. I was really heartened when I saw all over Florida people helping people. I saw frail and elderly persons who had no place to go who were taken into a girl's dormitory that had air conditioning. They took care of them for 4 nights--eight frail, elderly women. I saw people helping people in Belle Glade. Senator Rubio and I went to Belle Glade together and served food. We went and thanked those students in that dorm near Immokalee. We thanked them together for people helping people. Now what we need to do is to take that same effort that we saw in Texas and that we have seen in Florida of people helping people and we have to help the people of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Over the weekend, the full scale devastation of the third hurricane became clearer. The first was in Texas, the second was in Florida and on up into the Southeast, and now the third one was not only hitting the Virgin Islands, like the former one did, but was just ripping up Puerto Rico. I have talked to the Governor, and he says the island faces a humanitarian crisis. The devastation over this past week has become a lot clearer to us as we start to see all of the devastation on our TV screens. According to one report, ``Hurricane Maria whipped Puerto Rico with Irma-level winds, drenched the island with Harvey-level flooding, crippled communications, decimated buildings and damaged the dam that puts the downstream residents at risk of catastrophe.'' That is what our fellow Americans are facing right now down in the Caribbean. We need to act with urgency and purpose to aid Puerto Rico in their time of need. I will have a chance to go down there on Sunday. I want to see it firsthand. I will continue to carry this message: The U.S. Congress has to come to the aid of our friends and our fellow citizens in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. I have talked to the Department of Defense and said: Do everything that you can do to assist. They are trying. I talked to the FAA Administrator. There is just the simple thing of being able to have instrument landings after so many of the radars got knocked out. Here is one example of just a practical problem facing the island, as if they didn't have enough practical problems to begin with. Look at the financial crisis. The Medicaid funds are going to run out. That is before the hurricane. Look at the Zika crisis in Puerto Rico. That is before the hurricane. Think what it is like now. Here is an example. One of the radars on the top of a mountain gets taken out by the storm. All right, we need to get it back up there. We need a helicopter, and can get a helicopter to take a radar up to place it there, because the roads are impassable, but now there is cloud cover up in the mountain, and they can't fly up. So one problem compounds another, just so we can get instrument landings coming into Puerto Rico instead of the visual flight rules where we have to keep so much more distance from the planes. Just think if we end up having to have an airlift in order to get food and supplies into Puerto Rico to keep them alive. Now is not the time to talk about the former financial problems or about the debt payments to bondholders. In a crisis, all that matters is saving lives and giving the people the resources they need to get back on their feet. I am hopeful that our colleagues will see the urgency of the situation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in addition to the ongoing troubles in Florida and, I expect, Texas, as well, which will continue for some time. I hope we can work together to get an aid package soon that helps all of those affected by the storms as soon as possible. Why? Because we are all Americans, and we need to act like it. We need to come together and get on the long road to recovery. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for today's vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of William Emanuel to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board. I would have voted nay. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I wish to speak about the Defense bill, but before I do, I want to give the Senate a report. Senator Rubio and I have been together quite a bit this past week, as Florida has not only encountered a hurricane, but this was quite unusual in that it basically affected almost all of the State of Florida. Florida is a big State. If you went from Key West to Pensacola, it is as far as going from Pensacola all the way to Chicago. That is how big our State is. With almost 21 million people, it is the third largest State, with 75 percent of that a population along the coast. Of course, we know what happens when hurricanes start threatening those coasts. This was an unusual one because it was first going to hit the east coast of Florida. That was the track. The National Hurricane Center has gotten quite good in their ability to project the path and the velocity of the winds. But once it took an unexpected turn, hitting the north coast of Cuba as a category 5, its velocity and forward motion were reduced, and it then took a more westerly path, making landfall in the Middle and Lower Keys of Florida, where the winds were category 3, approaching category 4. Residents were not even let back in to see their homes until Sunday morning. As of now, although FEMA is present in the Lower Keys--Key West--and in the Upper Keys--Key Largo--individual assistance and disaster teams were still trying to get into the areas that had the biggest impact, the areas around Big Pine Key and Marathon. It is a painfully slow process. FEMA is having to deal with the problems in Texas and now the enormity of the storm affecting almost all of Florida. FEMA is stretched. But FEMA is supposed to bring emergency assistance to people, organizations, and local governments in the aftermath of a natural disaster. That will be a work in progress as we go on. There are places where Senator Rubio and I have gotten personally involved in asking FEMA to come in, areas in Lee County and Collier County. Areas where FEMA had not visited, they now have come in--Lee County, east of Fort Myers, and Lehigh Acres. The little farming community of Immokalee was exceptionally torn up. There is a great story there. The university president opened up the fieldhouse so that a lot of the poor people in Immokalee had a place to go if they didn't have another shelter. Indeed, they took in some 400 people. Elderly people in an apartment complex whose caregivers had left were picked up by the sheriff and taken to the university, and the students cared for them for 4 nights. This is a great example of Floridians helping Floridians, which we have seen throughout. This Senator has been all over the State, much of it with my colleague, demonstrating that the two Senators, in a bipartisan way, actually get along and were there to try to help the people. First, right after the storm in the Florida Keys, we saw damage in Key West and Boca Chica. But that was the back side of the storm. The eye of the storm had gone farther to the east, so the damage was in the northeastern quadrant since the most severe winds were in the Big Pine Key and the Marathon area. The military, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the engineers came in immediately after the storm. Floridians helping Floridians. Americans helping Americans. Then Senator Rubio and I went to the Jacksonville area. Quite unusual was that all the extra rainfall had flowed into the St. Johns River Basin. The river had swollen, and all of that water was trying to get its normal outlet into the Atlantic Ocean at Jacksonville. But lo and behold, the winds covering up the entire peninsula moving northward, now the eye over land between Tampa and Orlando and that northeastern quadrant of those winds coming from east going west--what did it do at Jacksonville? It pushed back all of the water that needed to get out into the Atlantic. That, combined with the incoming high tide--what you had was phenomenal flooding, an overflowing of the banks of the St. Johns River in many places in the Upper St. Johns, at considerable loss of property and considerable distress to the citizens. A good part of downtown Jacksonville was flooded. The next day, Senator Rubio and I ended up in a citrus grove in Lake Wales, FL. Fifty percent of the fruit in this citrus grove was on the ground. Farther south, 75 percent of the citrus crop was on the ground. They can't salvage that. That is a huge percentage of the loss. So it made Senator Rubio and me all the more determined that we are going to try to pass an amendment to the Tax Code that would give the citrus growers of Florida--not only because of this loss but also because of every grove now infected by a bacteria called citrus greening that will kill the tree in 5 years--that would give the citrus industry a chance to start over by plowing under the grove of those diseased citrus trees and replanting new stock that has new promise to outlast the bacteria-- at least for a number of years more than the 5 years that will kill the tree--until we can find the cure, and we are working on that. But do that in the IRS Code by allowing them to expense in the first year the plowing under and replanting in order to save the citrus industry. Senator Rubio and I were in that grove and saw all of that lost crop. That was going to be a promising crop for the first time in 10 years of declines of the citrus crop because of the bacteria. This was going to be a good year, but we saw half of that crop on the ground in that grove, lost, gone. Citrus crop insurance is not going to really help them--only if it is a much greater loss. From there, the two of us went on to a poor part of Florida, east of Lake Okeechobee, called Belle Glade. A lot of the residences were torn up by the winds. This was a hurricane whose winds affected virtually all of the peninsula of Florida and even reached over into the panhandle as far as Tallahassee and even other parts west. In Belle Glade, we served a meal. Charities had come together to bring food to hungry people because they had no power and they had no refrigeration. It had been several days since the hurricane, and therefore they had no food. From there, we went to another very poor part of Florida, Immokalee, FL, which I described earlier, which had been torn up considerably. Whether it was what I just described or whether it was feeding poor people in Apopka, FL, who at that point had been without power for 5 days, and they had no food because there was no refrigeration, or whether it was going down to Lehigh Acres, where the Florida National Guard had organized the distribution of MREs, which are meals ready to eat, and gallons of fresh water because so many of those homes out in Lehigh Acres, east of Fort Myers, were on water wells, and without electricity, there were no pumps to give them water--there are so many things that we often take for granted. If power is taken away, you suffer not only because of the 90 degree-plus heat and humidity but also because you can't even get any water because you are on a water well. It was a privilege to be there with the Florida National Guard, handing out food, handing out water, and talking to those local residents who are living paycheck to paycheck--and now they have no paycheck. Where is the FEMA assistant to help them? Because there is no power, they can't go online to apply for individual assistance. In fact, they can't pick up the phone because of the intermittent cell service. Even if they could get a cell signal, they couldn't get through to the FEMA number. That is why we wanted the FEMA representatives to come in, and fortunately, just yesterday, they finally did come in. It has been quite a couple of weeks--first, anticipating the storm coming in and getting all of the emergency operation centers ready. Fortunately, people obeyed the evacuation orders. It was estimated that out of the population of almost 100,000 in the Keys, there were only 10,000 left. That was a huge evacuation. Those folks did not get in to find out what was left of their homes until yesterday. You can imagine, a week after the storm had hit--the weekend before the Keys--all of that water was in there, setting in with the heat and the humidity, the mold and the mildew. You can imagine the mess, the cleanup. All the while, FEMA has to worry about Texas, now Florida, and maybe another hurricane that is going to come up. It looks as though it is going to turn out to sea but is still going to have some of the wind effects along the northeast Atlantic Coast. Floridians helping Floridians--and then there was a great, great tragedy that occurred 4 days after the hurricane. Why there is not a requirement that every nursing home or assisted living facility, an ALF, have a generator not only for power, for lights, but have a generator capacity that will run air conditioning units--I think this is going to be the subject of great debate that I hope will change that requirement in the State of Florida because eight people died. Eight people died in a nursing home right across the street from a major hospital in Hollywood, FL--eight frail elderly, from ages 70 to 99-- eight needless deaths as a result. A criminal investigation is underway. All the phone calls that had been made that were not answered, both to the government as well as to the power company, as reported by the press, specifically a Miami television station--we don't know all the facts; they will come out in the criminal investigation. But it is inexcusable that eight frail, elderly people would die from heat exhaustion by being left so that their condition deteriorated over the course of 3 or 4 days. What is wrong with a regulatory scheme that does not have a backup generator that would kick in when, in fact, the hospital right across the street had one? What was the disconnect there? Why did it take days and days until 911 was called? We will find out in this great tragedy. I can tell you, the Miami Herald had done a series, over the last couple of years, of three investigative pieces, which pointed out that these ALFs and these nursing homes had not been properly managed or regulated by the State of Florida. That is to be determined. Hurricane Irma is just another reminder that we are going to confront huge natural occurrences and maybe, just maybe, people will realize there is something to the fact that the Earth is getting hotter. Because of that, two-thirds of the Earth is covered by oceans, with the oceans absorbing 90 percent of that heat. What happens to water when it is heated? It expands. Thus, the sea levels are rising. Mr. President, as we turn to this Defense bill, this is an issue of national security. As Secretary of Defense Mattis has said, ``Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.'' Maybe we should pay attention to issues like those I have just described in Florida or maybe in Texas. Or what about tornadoes causing damage to military depots in Georgia? Or what about the severe heat canceling military training and hail storms damaging aircraft in Texas? What about the coastal erosion, not only in Florida but also threatening early-warning radar in Alaska? What about the wildfires causing ranges to be closed and the flooding that we saw in not only Texas but also the flooding damaging military logistics rail in Louisiana and affecting warehouses containing hazardous materials in Virginia? That is why, in this version of the Defense bill that we will pass today, there is a provision that this Senator had something to do with, which calls for the Defense Department to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the threats to the training and readiness of our Armed Forces and the military infrastructure caused by climate-related events. It is critical that we recognize the threat so we will ensure that our forces and installations are resilient enough to withstand and quickly recover from all of these natural disasters that we have been talking about. Not only must we ensure that our military infrastructure is resilient, we must also ensure that it provides our warfighters with the space they need to train and the technology they need to stay ahead of our adversaries. I have opined on this subject over and over in speeches to the Senate. I have opined over and over about the Gulf Test and Training Range that the Air Force needs to make huge investments in for the precise measurements of all of our sophisticated weapons and our systems. I thank Chairman McCain and Ranking Member Reed for their good work on the bill. It begins to address some of the training and readiness shortfalls in our military. I look forward to continuing to discuss this. I yield the floor. Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for yesterday's vote on the motion to table Senate amendment No. 871 to H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act, to repeal existing authorizations for the use of military force. I would have voted yea. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for today's vote on the motion to invoke cloture on substitute amendment No. 1003 to H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act. I would have voted yea. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for today's vote on Calendar No. 109, confirmation of the nomination of Pamela Hughes Patenaude to be Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I would have voted yea. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for today's vote on Executive Calendar No. 110, Kevin Hassett to be Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. I would have voted yea. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for yesterday's vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to calendar No. 175, H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act. I would have voted yea. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am here to give a report on behalf of Florida to the Senate. Senator Rubio and I were there all day yesterday in Miami and in other parts of South Florida, and we are preparing for what will be another Andrew. Andrew was thought to be a category 4, but it actually was a category 5, with winds in excess of 155 miles per hour. Likewise, that is what we have now. I see the leader has come in. I will speak for just a few minutes, then, giving an update. There are a number of things. I believe the Federal Government is prepared, unlike we were 25 years ago with Hurricane Andrew. The Federal Government is certainly prepositioning supplies, but look at the situation with regard to FEMA. FEMA is stretched, and of all things, FEMA runs out of money unless we act by tomorrow. Thus, I left Florida in the middle of the night to come back to make sure that it has my stamp of imprimatur on this legislation. I am very glad that the majority leader has agreed to double the amount, basically $7.5 billion for FEMA and another $7.5 billion for CDBG's, or community development block grants, both of which would be for natural disasters. Because of that, it gives the flexibility to FEMA that some of the money will be used in case Irma hits Florida. But there is also the fact that Irma has already devastated our fellow U.S. citizens in the Virgin Islands, as well as Puerto Rico. So as to this package, it is essential that we pass this legislation and pass it quickly, and especially pass it before tomorrow. There are some needs that need to be called to the attention of FEMA. I have emailed yesterday to the Administrator of FEMA Brock Long. People are trying to get out, but they are stuck on the roads, and now they are running out of gasoline. Looking at the pictures on anything going north out of Florida, the roads are jammed. The interstates and the turnpike are jammed. The phenomenon that is occurring is that people need gasoline and they are running out on the road, which adds all the more to the chaos. They are going to the gasoline stations and the gas stations are running out of gasoline. So I made an urgent plea yesterday, and I would make that to FEMA again, that we get gasoline into the State of Florida and down into the peninsula, so as the evacuation orders come along the coast, as the hurricane gets closer and closer, people will be able to flee. This is an unusual one. Usually, we will see the tracks from the National Hurricane Center move around. Basically, the track of what is expected from the National Hurricane Center has stayed fairly steady for last 36 hours. We will get our next update at 11 this morning, but it will hit South Florida somewhere in the Miami area, and it will go right up the coast. It will go on up the coast of Georgia, South Carolina, and into North Carolina. That is a massive population along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Finally, I would state that, as we consider this package, which I think we will pass, I want the Senate to be forewarned that this $15 billion package is only temporary. It will probably only take us through mid-October, at the most. With the massive number of requirements in Texas, and add to that at least that much, if not more, for the eastern seaboard, particularly with not only water damage but wind damage that is being done and the destruction of the residences and people being homeless, what we have seen in Texas, unfortunately, with the terrible things that have happened there, that could almost be so overwhelmed by what could happen in Florida. I urge the Senate--I implore the Senate, and I beg the Senate--to pass this package while recognizing that there is going to have to be a lot more to come. Finally, congratulations to the minority leader, the Democratic leader. I think of him as the majority leader. My congratulations to him. He is a consummate dealmaker, and I say that in the best sense of the word because, absolutely, that is what the American people want us to do. They want us to get together in a bipartisan way to get things done--to build bipartisan consensus to get results. Senator Schumer, the Democratic leader, has done that, and he has done it with flying colors. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, on August 4, the U.S. Coast Guard will celebrate its 227th anniversary. On this special occasion, I want to commend the men and women of the Coast Guard for their valiant service on, under, and over our Nation's high seas and waters. They have a proud history. Most Americans know the Coast Guard for its orange and white helicopters, fast small boats, cutters, and rescue swimmers, but they probably don't know that the Coast Guard is one of our country's oldest institutions of the U.S. Government. On August 4, 1790, President George Washington signed the Tariff Act, authorizing construction of the first 10 cutters of what would eventually become the Coast Guard. They were known as the revenue cutters, and their original mission was to enforce tariffs and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. For more than a hundred years, the cutters and their crew operated under the names Revenue Marine Service and the Revenue Cutter Service. Not until 1915, when Congress merged the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service, did the Coast Guard gets its name. Over time, the Coast Guard has become synonymous with saving those in peril on the sea. Their wide red bar and narrow blue bar, canted at 64 degrees, will always be a sign of assistance to mariners in danger. Today, in times of peace, the Coast Guard operates as a part of the Department of Homeland Security, performing its 11 critical, statutory missions. Right now, there are courageous young men and women aboard buoy tenders and icebreakers, ensuring our waterways remain open for commerce. Fast response cutters patrol the seas, enforcing the law and conducting search-and-rescue missions. Small boat stations enforce our laws while educating the public on safe-boating practices. As a ready and capable partner to a multitude of Federal, State, and local agencies, the Coast Guard does so much more, from responding to oil spills to combating drug trafficking. In times of war or at the direction of the President, the Coast Guard valiantly serves as part of the Navy Department. As you can see, the Coast Guard is a small but mighty organization. As ranking member of the Commerce Committee, I have had the privilege to meet many of the men and women of our Coast Guard and see their valuable work firsthand. Through all the passing decades, some things about the Coast Guard have always been the same: the service's proud tradition and the skill and professionalism of its men and women whose sacrifices contribute to protecting our national security. The Coast Guard's core values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty are evident in everything it does. As the Coast Guard motto says, Semper Paratus, it is always ready for the call. I want to congratulate and express our sincere gratitude to the men and women of the Coast Guard on 227 outstanding years of exemplary service to our Nation.

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, we have chaos in Venezuela. It is a protracted crisis in Venezuela, which took yet another turn for the worse yesterday. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pushed ahead with a vote to form a constitutional assembly despite the vehement opposition of the Venezuelan people and overwhelming international criticism. It became a sham vote. Only about 10 percent of the population voted. The opposition stayed home. Plain and simple, the vote was illegal, and it was rigged. Once again, on the streets and at the ballot box, the Venezuelan people have made themselves heard loud and clear. Two weeks ago, more than 7 million Venezuelans voted against even holding this vote, and, yesterday, millions of people stayed home. Maduro wants to rewrite Venezuela's Constitution so that he can cling to power, and yesterday's vote was only the latest attempt to undermine, if not to completely undo, Venezuela's democracy. He continues to crack down on protesters, killing more than 100 and injuring and arresting thousands more. His thugs have raided homes and terrorized the opposition's families. He has tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers, undercut the Attorney General, and he has co-opted the courts. His thugs attacked the National Assembly and injured opposition lawmakers. He blocked a lawful referendum to recall his election. His cronies steal the country's money and enrich themselves. All the while, the Venezuelan people suffer. The people go hungry; children are malnourished; there are no staple products--no medicines, no medical supplies for the people. Of course, you know who gets the food and the medical treatment. It is the privileged few--the Maduro ones whom he protects. This is Venezuela's tragic reality. Maduro has made himself a dictator, and he and his cronies are bent on turning Venezuela's once vibrant democracy and once vibrant economy into a Cuban-style regime. Nevertheless, the Venezuelan people, in the face of violence, oppression, and deprivation, continue to fight for their democracy--for the little bit of freedom they have left. They are doing everything they can--at great risk to themselves and their families--to save their democracy and, thus, to save their country. The task just got a lot harder. The issue before us is what we can do to support them since Maduro has now installed himself with this fake referendum on the National Assembly. What can we do to keep Maduro from being the dictator he is? What we need to do is to condemn the National Assembly as the sham that it is. It also means the United States increasing the pressure on the Maduro regime. I just spoke this afternoon with the Treasury Department. The United States announced a little earlier this afternoon that it has frozen Maduro's assets. I expect at least two other countries to follow suit--and probably more after they do. This is an important step, and I hope that it is the first in what will be the strongest possible economic sanctions to stop Maduro. It is time that we consider cutting the imports of Venezuela's oil also. What have we done thus far? There was already a group of Maduro's cronies--some in the private sector, some in the government--on whom the sanctions have been slapped. You ask: What does that do? What good does that do? Listen, all of these cronies of Maduro's love to come to Miami. They love to have offshore bank accounts and all kinds of assets stashed overseas-- if not in the United States, perhaps in some of those other countries that are going to follow suit. We should do that with his cronies. What we have done today with the announcement by the Treasury Department is to freeze Nicholas Maduro's assets, and if other countries will follow suit, they are going to freeze his assets as well. Maybe we should take the next step. The next step is that Venezuela exports a lot of its oil to the United States. It is such a heavy, dirty crude that a good part of that has to go to the refineries in the United States because those refineries are the ones that are capable of refining that heavy, dirty crude. Maybe we just ought to stop our imports of Venezuela's oil and absorb that percentage of loss of oil that is coming into the United States from Venezuela as, clearly, on the world marketplace, oil is fungible. Maybe that is what we ought to do because we are now dealing with a Cuban-style dictator who is the head of Venezuela. I think, in going forward, that the United States must insist on the release of all political prisoners and the rule of law and that Venezuela has to go back to when it was a thriving democracy. That was back when they respected human rights and the people had some freedoms. As the United States, we ought to help rally the nations of the Organization of American States and rally the support of the world to bring about a meaningful end to this crisis because it is just going to get worse and worse. The violence that you have seen on the TV yesterday and today is going to continue. As you continue to squeeze the people, to starve them, to take away all semblance of human decency, what do you think they are going to do? They are going to revolt, and the violence is not going to stop. There is a role for Congress, and there is an opportunity for the Congress to lead. The President's budget eliminated the funding for democracy programs in Venezuela that supported the old National Assembly and civil society and those same democracy programs that promoted human rights and the encouraging of an independent media. Recently I wrote to the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with a number of other Senators, urging that the committee continue that funding for those democracy programs in Venezuela. In May, this Senator joined Senators Cardin and Rubio and seven others in introducing the Venezuela Humanitarian Assistance and Defense of Democratic Governance Act. That bill addresses the many aspects of the crisis in Venezuela. It codified targeted sanctions on regime officials--something we are now implementing--and thank goodness for this announcement today by the administration. I give them kudos for that. That act would authorize badly needed humanitarian assistance. It would back OAS efforts to bring about an end to the crisis, and it funds election observation organizations and groups working to defend democracy in Venezuela. These are bipartisan efforts, and I urge our colleagues to support them, and I urge that we bring them up as soon as possible. The situation is terrible in the country, and the situation in that chaos, especially what we have seen in Caracas, is going to get worse. Time is of the essence. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I intend to offer the following motion to commit on older Americans to H.R. 1628 and I ask that it be printed in the Record. The motion is supported by Senators Casey, Leahy, Brown, Harris, Feinstein, Hirono, Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Baldwin, Franken, Carper, Van Hollen, Menendez, Coons, Udall, Reed, Manchin, Warren, Stabenow, Durbin, Cardin, King, Klobuchar, and Warner.

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I intend to offer the following motion to commit about children with a Zika-related condition to H.R. 1628, and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

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