Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I rise to speak in opposition to the confirmation of Rex Tillerson, the President's nominee to be Secretary of State, and I will tell you why in two words: Vladimir Putin. Rex Tillerson's ties to Russia have been widely reported. The Senator from Massachusetts has outlined a number of them, specifically his ties to President Putin, who awarded him the Order of Friendship after signing deals with the state-owned oil company, Rosneft. Now isn't the time to cozy up to Russia. Now is the time to stand up to Russian aggression in Crimea, in eastern Ukraine, and Syria. Just yesterday, we heard reports of another outbreak of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in war-torn eastern Ukraine. And all you have to do is speak to a Ukrainian and let them tell you--as I met with the former Prime Minister yesterday, and I will be meeting with a former Member of their Parliament, let them tell you what it is like to have the Russian Army march on your country and take part of it away, as they did with Crimea, and then come in under the disguise of little green men, as if they did not have ties to the Russian Army. That is going on in eastern Ukraine right now. Our own intelligence community has told us that the Russian President personally ordered a campaign to influence the 2016 Presidential election right here in the United States. That campaign--a mix of covert Russian operations, cyber attacks, cyber operations, and propaganda--was only the latest in a series of efforts to undermine American leadership and democracies around the world and what is coming next for the elections in Europe in the next few months. Russia is testing us, and I am concerned that Mr. Tillerson cannot stand up to the Russian President who, I am afraid, thinks of himself as the next Russian czar. In Mr. Tillerson's past, as Exxon's CEO, he lobbied against sanctions on Russia for invading and seizing Crimea--the very sanctions that we and our allies have put on Russia for taking over sovereign territory of another independent country. And now it is not clear, as our Nation's top diplomat, that Mr. Tillerson would fight to keep the sanctions in place, even as President Trump is now considering lifting them, despite the clear evidence of Russia's continued aggression. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Tillerson refused to condemn the Russian and Syrian bombings in Aleppo as war crimes, a question that was proffered to him by the Senator, my colleague from Florida, who happens to sit in the Chair right now. I also have serious concerns that Mr. Tillerson doesn't understand the urgent need to combat climate change. You don't have to remind us about climate change in Florida. South Florida is ground zero for climate change. Miami Beach is awash at the seasonal high tides as the water flows over the curbs and over the streets, causing Miami Beach to spend hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to install pump stations, raise the roads, and address all kinds of flooding and saltwater intrusion. Other South Florida communities have had to move their water well locations farther west because of the intrusion of South Florida into the freshwater aquifer. Climate change is not a problem that we are going to face some day in the future; it is a daily struggle for communities along our coasts all over America. The U.S. State Department is responsible for engaging with other countries to confront both the cause of climate change and the devastating impact of drought, sea level rise, and severe weather. By the way, speaking of sea level rise, this Senator convened a meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee in Miami Beach a couple of years ago. We had testimony from a NASA scientist that measurements-- not forecasts, not projections, but measurements--in the last 40 years of sea level rise in South Florida were 5 to 8 inches higher. That is sea level rise. That is why even the Department of Defense is concerned. Climate change has the potential to destabilize nations. How about Bangladesh? It has the potential to drastically reduce potable water supplies and result in crop loss and food shortage and to create climate refugees. We simply cannot play fast and loose with the science that will help save our planet. The top diplomat of our country has to confront the reality of climate change today and to work on it immediately. Mr. Tillerson has not adequately laid out a plan to address that global climate crisis. For all the reasons I have outlined, including many more, I will vote no. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, we yield back our time as well.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Commander Dan Hurd, U.S. Coast Guard, a fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the week.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, fraudulent and abusive phone scams plague thousands of Americans each year. These deceitful practices cause serious financial harm to victims, and have even led to tragedy in a few cases. Both the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where I serve as Ranking Member, and the Special Committee on Aging, where I previously served as Chairman, have explored the continuing severe impact of these scams. Consumers continue to lose millions of dollars each year to fraudulent phone scams, many of which originate from other countries. And the impacts of these scams are very real to the consumers who suffer. According to an October 2015 press report from CNN, one poor soul took his life earlier that year after being tricked into spending thousands of dollars in a vain attempt to collect on his winnings in the Jamaican lottery--winnings that were non- existent because it was all a scam perpetrated by phone-based fraudsters. Nearly all of us have trained ourselves to ignore phone calls and text messages from numbers that are not familiar to us. But these sophisticated scammers know that--and have changed their tactics. Scammers today impersonate government institutions, promote fraudulent lottery schemes, and tailor their calls to individuals in order to coerce victims into paying large sums of money. Many scammers use spoofing technology to manipulate caller ID information and trick consumers into believing that these calls are local or come from trusted institutions. In 2009, I introduced the Truth in Caller ID Act to prohibit caller ID spoofing when it is used to defraud or harm consumers. That law provided important tools for law enforcement and the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, to go after fraudsters and crack down on these phone scams. I was pleased when my Congressional colleagues joined with me to pass that legislation and the President signed it into law. This was a huge win for consumers and the first step toward ending these abusive practices. Recognizing the pace at which phone scam technologies evolve, the law directed the FCC to prepare a report to Congress outlining what additional tools were needed to curb other forms of spoofing. In 2011, the agency provided its recommendations to Congress on how to update the law to keep pace with new spoofing practices, such as text messaging scams. The bill Senators Fischer, Klobuchar, Blunt and I have introduced today responds to the FCC's recommendations and builds on the 2010 Act to ensure the law keeps up with these spoofing scams. As these scams become increasingly sophisticated, we need to make sure that consumer protections and tools for law enforcement keep up. That is why this legislation is so important. The Spoofing Prevention Act of 2017 would extend the current prohibition on caller ID spoofing to text messages, calls coming from outside the United States, and calls from all forms of Voice over Internet Protocol services. Additionally, for the first time, this bill would ensure consumers have access to information on a centralized FCC website about current technologies and other tools available to protect themselves against spoofing scams. Finally, the Act directs the Government Accountability Office, GAO, to conduct a study to assess government and private sector work being done to curb spoofing scams, as well as what new measures, including technological solutions, could be taken to prevent spoofed calls from the start. I know industry, in cooperation with the FCC through its Robocall Strike Force, already is making great strides in this area, and I would expect the GAO to review that work closely. I urge my colleagues to join Senators Fischer, Klobuchar, Blunt, and me in supporting the Spoofing Prevention Act of 2016 to ensure that law enforcement and consumers have the updated tools they need to protect against this fraudulent activity. And make no mistake, I will press the FCC to continue to use its full authority under the Truth in Caller ID Act to stop these scams, including consideration of technical solutions--like call authentication--to protect consumers. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, fraudulent and abusive phone scams plague thousands of Americans each year. These deceitful practices cause serious financial harm to victims, and have even led to tragedy in a few cases. Both the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where I serve as Ranking Member, and the Special Committee on Aging, where I previously served as Chairman, have explored the continuing severe impact of these scams. Consumers continue to lose millions of dollars each year to fraudulent phone scams, many of which originate from other countries. And the impacts of these scams are very real to the consumers who suffer. According to an October 2015 press report from CNN, one poor soul took his life earlier that year after being tricked into spending thousands of dollars in a vain attempt to collect on his winnings in the Jamaican lottery--winnings that were non- existent because it was all a scam perpetrated by phone-based fraudsters. Nearly all of us have trained ourselves to ignore phone calls and text messages from numbers that are not familiar to us. But these sophisticated scammers know that--and have changed their tactics. Scammers today impersonate government institutions, promote fraudulent lottery schemes, and tailor their calls to individuals in order to coerce victims into paying large sums of money. Many scammers use spoofing technology to manipulate caller ID information and trick consumers into believing that these calls are local or come from trusted institutions. In 2009, I introduced the Truth in Caller ID Act to prohibit caller ID spoofing when it is used to defraud or harm consumers. That law provided important tools for law enforcement and the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, to go after fraudsters and crack down on these phone scams. I was pleased when my Congressional colleagues joined with me to pass that legislation and the President signed it into law. This was a huge win for consumers and the first step toward ending these abusive practices. Recognizing the pace at which phone scam technologies evolve, the law directed the FCC to prepare a report to Congress outlining what additional tools were needed to curb other forms of spoofing. In 2011, the agency provided its recommendations to Congress on how to update the law to keep pace with new spoofing practices, such as text messaging scams. The bill Senators Fischer, Klobuchar, Blunt and I have introduced today responds to the FCC's recommendations and builds on the 2010 Act to ensure the law keeps up with these spoofing scams. As these scams become increasingly sophisticated, we need to make sure that consumer protections and tools for law enforcement keep up. That is why this legislation is so important. The Spoofing Prevention Act of 2017 would extend the current prohibition on caller ID spoofing to text messages, calls coming from outside the United States, and calls from all forms of Voice over Internet Protocol services. Additionally, for the first time, this bill would ensure consumers have access to information on a centralized FCC website about current technologies and other tools available to protect themselves against spoofing scams. Finally, the Act directs the Government Accountability Office, GAO, to conduct a study to assess government and private sector work being done to curb spoofing scams, as well as what new measures, including technological solutions, could be taken to prevent spoofed calls from the start. I know industry, in cooperation with the FCC through its Robocall Strike Force, already is making great strides in this area, and I would expect the GAO to review that work closely. I urge my colleagues to join Senators Fischer, Klobuchar, Blunt, and me in supporting the Spoofing Prevention Act of 2016 to ensure that law enforcement and consumers have the updated tools they need to protect against this fraudulent activity. And make no mistake, I will press the FCC to continue to use its full authority under the Truth in Caller ID Act to stop these scams, including consideration of technical solutions--like call authentication--to protect consumers. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. I vote no.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, if you really want to rile up the senior citizens of this country, then you start taking away their prescription drugs. If that is what you want to do, then you better vote against my amendment. If you take away the ACA, they are going to end up paying $1,000 per year, out of pocket per senior citizen, on their prescription drug benefits. So if you want to support the seniors, you better support this amendment.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, on December 23, 2016, the world lost a true hero. Dr. Piers Sellers was a scientist and an astronaut, having flown three times on the space shuttle. On his first mission, he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station, where he completed nearly 20 hours of space walks outfitting and assembling the orbiting outpost. Several years later, following the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, Piers returned to space and to the International Space Station aboard Discovery, carrying out the second of two test flights NASA needed to test critical on-orbit inspection and repair procedures resulting from the Columbia accident investigation. On his third and final mission, he once more flew aboard Atlantis to the ISS. On this mission, he served as the robotics officer, again playing a key role in assembling and outfitting the space station. His career as an astronaut exploring the frontier of space is by itself sufficient to justify Piers' status as a national hero; yet his service as an astronaut and explorer is a small subset of the contributions Piers made to our country and to our entire civilization. Piers was a renowned climate scientist, specializing in using computer modeling and space-based observations to understand and predict the dynamics of our changing planet. He was also a brilliant communicator, whether testifying at a Commerce Committee field hearing in Miami about the impending dangers of sea level rise or standing in front of NASA's ``hyperwall'' video system narrating stunning and informative visualizations of the massive data sets that embody the ``vital signs'' of planet Earth. Countless policymakers, industry leaders, and even other scientists owe much of their understanding of the complex interactions of Earth's systems and of the alarming and undeniable signs that our civilization's carbon emissions are warming the planet to Piers. Yet Piers' most heroic deed may be the decision he made shortly after being diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He simply decided to keep going to work. To those that knew Piers, this was no surprise. A three-time shuttle astronaut and very capable manager, scientist, and engineer, Piers no doubt had many lucrative offers for employment following his final shuttle flight in 2010. Instead he chose to remain a civil servant scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center because he felt that was where he could contribute most to the future of our home planet. A few years later, when Piers received the devastating news that he had not long to live, he chose to spend his remaining time continuing his work at NASA and communicating climate science to the public in the calm and charming manner that was uniquely his. In a short video Piers recorded shortly before his death, despite his body having been ravaged by cancer and surely knowing that he had very little time left, he appeared as cheerful and hopeful as ever. In the video, he said ``to reach a safer future, we will need the resources of everybody here. The scientists, the policy makers, and the industrialists, all working together towards a common goal. And that goal is a planet that can continue to support life, including all of us.'' These words are even more powerful knowing that they came from a man who contributed the most precious resource available to him--the small number of days he had remaining in his life--toward the common goal he speaks of. We would do well to follow the advice of Piers and to follow his heroic example.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the late Richard Salisbury Johnson, Sr., and his wife, Patsy Ann Seaton Johnson, for their contributions to the betterment of Palm Beach County, FL. Richard, Pat, and their families have been a part of the Palm Beach County community for decades. Both Pat and Richard were born in West Palm Beach. Richard's great-grandfather arrived on Lake Worth in the early 1880s, and his father worked in the historic 1916 Palm Beach County Court House. Pat's family moved to the area in 1928. Today, the family still owns the Johnson Farm in Pahokee. Through the years, the philanthropy of Richard and Pat Johnson has benefited healthcare and education through many organizations, including the Rehabilitation Center for Children and Adults and the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins University. At Duke University Medical Center, they established the Richard and Pat Johnson University Professorship in Cardiovascular Genomics and both sat on the board. In addition, Pat has chaired many events for St. Mary's Medical Center, where Richard served as board chair for over a decade. Palm Beach Atlantic College honored Richard with the American Free Enterprise Medal in 1995 and recognized Pat with its Women of Distinction Award in 2001. With a shared vision and extraordinary generosity, Richard and Pat committed to opening a museum to share their local history. They turned a long, grassroots effort into reality with their generous support of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. These efforts led to the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum, which found its home in the now-restored 1916 courthouse, where Richard's father worked so many years ago. Since its opening, the Historical Society has engaged over 420,000 Palm Beach County school children by funding education programs, as well as providing transportation for guided tours of the museum. The Johnsons' leadership has allowed the historical society to better fulfill its mission ``to collect, preserve, and share the rich history and cultural heritage of Palm Beach County.'' Richard and Pat Johnson serve as role models through their hard work, dedication, and selflessness, not only to their five children, but also to the people of their community and State. I am honored to represent the Johnson family in the U.S. Senate, and to recognize their lives of public service.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, it is my sad duty to announce the passing of John Glenn. John Glenn was one of the original seven astronauts of this country. All of them were characterized as having the right stuff, and if you knew any of them, that was certainly true. John Glenn was not only a pioneering astronaut and a great Senator, he was a first-class gentleman as well as a devoted husband and father. He leaves behind Annie, his beloved, who always stood with him as he ventured into the unknown cosmos, and it was unknown because John was the first to go into orbit as an American. He paved the way for all the rest of us. At his passing, America is in the planning and the developing of the rockets that will take us, a human species, all the way to Mars. John Glenn was the pioneer. He was the one who paved the way. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I have had the honor and privilege of serving with Harry Reid for all of my 16 years in the Senate. He has been a resolute leader for our Caucus, a fearless legislator who has brought landmark legislation to the floor and a tireless advocate for Nevadans and all Americans. More importantly, I am proud to call Harry a friend. We all know the story of Harry's journey to elected office from that small mining town in Nevada. The humble way he grew up inspired him to help others who faced similar hardships his family had faced. He carried that perspective with him from Searchlight, NV, to the halls of the Capitol, where he became a champion for causes meant to improve the lives of all Americans. Harry is a fighter. That has been said by so many of his friends and colleagues over the years, and it is truer of him than almost anyone I have ever worked with. That title, of course, has more than one meaning for Harry. His years of amateur boxing taught him strategy and relentless willpower in the face of his opponents. His years in the Senate have been no different. He has had to fight for historical legislation in an increasingly vitriolic political climate, things like the Affordable Care Act and the stimulus bill, legislation that gave millions of Americans hope for their futures. Harry has also been a very powerful ally for me and my fellow Floridians, specifically in the fight to protect the State's fragile environment. He has always been right there with me in pushing for Everglades funding and vigorously defended our coastline from drilling proposals that threatened Florida's economy and unique environment. His leadership has been a source of guidance and great strength for me during my time in the Senate. I am honored to have served with him and wish him and his family well in his retirement.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to the public service of Tim Sanders, a longtime clerk of the Courts for Madison County, FL. Tim has served admirably as county clerk and comptroller for six consecutive terms and will retire after 24 years, which is an incredible achievement. His contributions to Madison County and Florida long predate the start of his tenure as county clerk. He began his career at Madison County Memorial Hospital, where he worked on the floor, in the emergency room, and in the x-ray department. After earning a second degree from the University of Florida, Tim spent time surveying in Madison and nearby counties for a business that he later acquired himself. Tim accomplished all of this before starting his career in public service as county clerk. A true man of the community, Tim currently serves on the board of trustees at the Madison First United Methodist Church, as well as on the boards of directors at Big Bend Hospice, the Madison County Foundation for Excellence in Education, and the Treasures of Madison County Museum. Tim was born, raised, and attended public schools in Madison. In fact, he has devoted a great deal of time supporting public education and children in Madison County. To give a sense of this man's character, Tim has performed as the American folk hero Johnny Appleseed for elementary school children in Madison and surrounding counties each fall for 20 years. Dedicated and selfless in his approach to public service, this son of Madison County has surely left a lasting mark on the people of his community and his State. I am honored to acknowledge his retirement from public service and recognize this great Floridian.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, these speeches were just supposed to go on for 1 hour, and we are already at the 2-hour mark, but perhaps, since we are honoring you, this is most appropriate. I would say to our colleagues and our guests, you say the name among us of Joe Biden, and a smile automatically comes to our lips, and that is because the Vice President is a lover of people. That is true. We know it is true. And that is why today we have this genuine affection being expressed. Since the hour is late, my remarks are going to be very short, but I just want to highlight that it is very true and it is very characteristic. I can even tell all of the stories of the Biden family because I have heard them so much. It is also very true that if you are talking to Joe and suddenly your wife comes up or your daughter comes up, all of a sudden, Joe is not focusing on you, he is giving his total attention to the ladies present, and that is most appreciated. That, of course, is why he is such a big fan of the Nelson household, not only of Grace and Nan Ellen but also of Bill Junior. He always treats our children with respect and goes out of his way. In Florida, fortunately we had the good fortune of seeing him a lot in his two campaigns as Vice President and then the campaign for the ticket in this last campaign. I can remember those days. It was so cold in a horse pasture west of Ocala. And I can remember recently just absolutely cooking in North Palm Beach on the stage in the hot sun, and Joe was always there making the case for whoever it was he was standing up for. Of course, he always made you feel that you were welcome. I remember one time we got off an airplane, and he was going to his limousine and I am going back to the guest van in the back. He motions, I am to come with him. I said, ``Mr. Vice President, I never presumed that I should come here.'' He says, ``I always want you here with me when we are traveling together.'' That is what makes him so special. Finally, I want to comment about Moonshot. Why is the effort at cancer research called the Moonshot? It is because we achieved what was almost the impossible when the President said we are going to the moon and return safely within the decade, and America marshaled the will and in fact did that incredible accomplishment. That is why we are going to have the Moonshot for cancer. We have already made so much progress; but now, with the former Vice President of the United States heading up all the efforts where we can keep the attention on NIH, so it doesn't go from a level rocking along about $24 billion, $25 billion a year, and the stimulus shoots it in the first 2 years of the Vice President's office up to $30 billion a year, then it drops down to $24 billion, $25 billion, and Dr. Francis Collins has to cancel 700 of the medical research grants that he has already issued. Because we have the Moonshot headed by Joe Biden, we are going to find the cure for all those kinds of cancer. That is the great legacy that the Vice President of the United States will have. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to speak about DREAMers. These are children who are brought to this country in an illegal status because they are brought by their parents who are undocumented. These children often do not know that in fact they are undocumented. There are threats in the new administration to completely reverse President Obama's Executive order that allows these children to stay in the United States and continue their education. I want to tell you about one such DREAMer. This is Elisha Dawkins. Elisha came from the Bahamas in an undocumented status with his mother at the age of 6 months. Elisha's mother was deported shortly thereafter, and he was raised by family in Florida. He always thought he was an American citizen. After high school, he joined the Army. This photo shows when he served a tour in Iraq. He came back and was mustered out of the Army with an honorable discharge after having been awarded the Iraqi Service Medal. He was assigned to a very sensitive position as a photographer. Promptly after coming back and starting his studies, he decided to join the Navy Reserves and was given a top secret clearance. He performed photography at a very sensitive location, Guantanamo, with all of the detainees. So Elisha, coming off his Reserve duty, resumed his studies at the University of North Florida. At one point, he had started to fill out a passport application but did not go through with that application and never turned it in. Later on, filling out a passport application, he was asked if he had ever applied for a passport and he checked the box ``no'' because he hadn't. The U.S. attorney's office came in and arrested him, threw him in the clink, and in the process, found out he was undocumented because of the circumstances I just told you. A veteran of Iraq and Guantanamo--Army in Iraq, Navy in Guantanamo--is in a detention center awaiting trial. Fortunately, Elisha Dawkins' situation came to my attention and I started raising some cain about this. As a matter of fact, in a further hearing in front of a Federal judge, the Federal judge, in essence, dressed down in court the assistant U.S. attorney who had pursued this case and, fortunately, the charges were dropped. That enabled Elisha to go on and to continue his studies. In the process, since he had no conviction, he was allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship. His military service justified him to do that. This past week, he is now graduating from the University of North Florida. Because a child came here in an undocumented status through no fault of their own, it is not right that children, such as Elisha Dawkins, who grow up to be great assets for the United States would be penalized and threatened with deportation. Obviously, we have to attend to the national security implications, in his case of potential passport fraud, which was not the case, but this was a man who had not committed that fraud and who had served his country honorably. As this case has resolved itself into a happy ending, just think of all the other stories of DREAMers who are out there and who share Elisha's commitment to and love of country, commitment to the ideals that all these DREAMers share of growing up in the only country they have ever known, and they had always thought they were a member of that country. I have said it before, and I will say it again. The DREAMers are our neighbors, they are our friends, they are our high school valedictorians, and they are our veterans. They were brought to this country before they ever even knew of the significance of their trip, and they have benefited our communities greatly. It is clear that America is stronger for a person like Elisha Dawkins. As this Congress comes to a close, I remind all of us and urge us to remember--next year, when there is an attempt to turn around that White House Executive order, I want us to remember the faces of people such as Elisha Dawkins. I want us to come together and acknowledge their many contributions to this great country. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to talk about something we all hear about and generally support--that the National Institutes of Health needs help. It was founded in 1887. Its work and investments in the work of others have led to countless discoveries, including in Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and so many other chronic illnesses. I visited this 300-acre campus in Bethesda, and it is jam-packed with buildings that are teeming with scientists and physicians. Yet that is just the tip of the iceberg because research is being conducted all over the country--indeed, all over the world--by the medical research grants that are given by NIH. This funded research has led to many discoveries and treatments that not only are allowing us to live healthier lives but also contribute to our knowledge and understanding of how diseases and the human body work. Take, for example, the BRAIN Initiative. NIH seeks to unravel the mysteries of the vastly complex human brain, which could allow us to understand an array of conditions affecting the brain. When I visited yesterday, I met with Dr. Francis Collins, the head of NIH, and a plethora of his brilliant scientists who are working on neurodegenerative diseases--diseases such as concussions, ALS, Parkinson's, and all the many complicated things that come from this complicated organ called the brain. Well, they are on the verge of some real breakthroughs, but that comes at a cost. Dr. Collins stressed the need for consistent, robust funding for NIH. In 2003, funding for NIH peaked and has since failed to keep up with inflation. In 2009 we came along with a stimulus bill that increased funding for NIH for only 2 years by approximately $4 or $5 billion a year over its base funding of $24 to $25 billion a year. I will never forget when Dr. Collins told us--after the effect of that second year of the stimulus bill--that he had to cease 700 medical research grants sent out to the medical schools and research institutions all across the country because he simply did not have the money they had planned for, and thus there is the call for consistent and robust funding. Dr. Collins mentioned that the agency's biggest concern was a loss of young researchers. As the next generation of researchers are increasingly facing being denied research grants, they are leaving the research field. I don't think that is what this Nation wants. We need to ensure that NIH maintains a strong pipeline of researchers so that the critical work toward scientific discovery can continue. This is not a partisan issue. Health and disease research is a bipartisan issue, and so we need to come together to support this consistent and robust funding. Even now, NIH is engaged in developing a prevention tool against the disease that was the dominant conversation last summer--the Zika virus. They are going into their first trials on a vaccine. Zika has affected more than 1,000 people in my State of Florida alone and more than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico. We need a vaccine, but the process of FDA trials takes time. Now, just to prove that it is not confined to Puerto Rico and Florida, just yesterday the State of Texas reported the first case of locally transmitted Zika virus, which now makes it the second State to officially have local transmission after the State of Florida. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Frieden, said that Zika could become endemic within our U.S. border, making it more important now than ever to have the Zika vaccine. That is just one other little example of what has been going on at NIH. We are just about to consider a Cures bill, which has some more robust funding. The whole impetus for the Cures bill was NIH funding. A lot of other things had been attached. There is some controversy, but it would begin to authorize funding that would be stable over a 10-year period. If the United States is going to continue to be looked at as the leader of medical research around the world, we are going to have to provide for the funds for this great institution. We have already seen major breakthroughs in our lifetime, and this funding will help us to see some new incredible breakthroughs accomplished. You have heard of the Moonshot for cancer research. Look at the existing victories that have already been had in cancer research. We are now just on the cusp. What about diseases where we don't have a cure, such as ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis? A big reason for my making this speech is for my friend Evan in Jacksonville. He is afflicted with this disease that affects the body's motor nerves. There is something that happens in the brain that does not send the signals all the way through the neurological system to the motor nerves. We first identified that in a famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig. There are 20,000 to 30,000 people in the country afflicted with this disease. We still don't know the reason for it nor have a cure, but yesterday I talked to three different physician scientists who have very promising leads for identifying a gene that has a direct connection to what happens in the brain when someone has ALS. They are trying to determine whether we could go in and clip out that gene so that our progeny would not have this concern. We have seen what has happened in Alzheimer's. Did you see the 60 Minutes segment last Sunday in which there is this incredible space in Colombia, near Medellin, within a 100-mile diameter, where so many families get the onset of Alzheimer's during their forties, which is quite unusual. They have now identified a protein in the brain where, if you now know the gene that causes that protein, you could go ahead and alert people of the disease, and even though the effects of Alzheimer's has not come on, that person could start a therapy that would work against that protein in the brain. They are right on the cusp of these kinds of exciting discoveries that can help us to live healthier, longer lives. I implore my colleagues in the Senate not to short-sheet the NIH and the funding that it so desperately needs. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, are we in a parliamentary procedure to proceed with commentary on the Senate floor?

Mr. NELSON. May I be recognized?

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, this Senator, who has a great stake in this legislation, is certainly not opposed to drilling off the shore, unless it happens to threaten the interests of the United States. In many places on the Atlantic coast and certainly the gulf coast, such as the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida, it is the largest testing and training area for the U.S. military in the world. Two Republican Secretaries of Defense have said: You cannot have drilling activity off the coast where this restricted military area is. You looked at a map of what the military has suggested off of Virginia. It is the same thing. It is no oil and gas activity at all, and then no permanent oil and gas activity in a remaining portion off the State of Virginia. In the State of Florida, of course, we have all the other considerations, the economic ones, a $50-billion-a-year tourism industry that depends on our beaches being clean. This Senator certainly does not have an objection to oil drilling off of the coast of Louisiana. The last time I checked, they did not have a lot of beaches. But that is what this bill does. It gives the incentives for States because they get additional Federal revenue. By the way, CBO says that is $7 billion over a 10-year period that would otherwise go to the Federal Treasury that would go to the States. It gives them that incentive to have drilling off their coasts. For those reasons alone, I would suggest that the right vote is to vote no on this legislation. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Major-- Lieutenant Colonel-select--Chivis, our defense fellow, be granted the privileges of the floor for the rest of this session.

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 speak on the bill. We are going to have a vote somewhere around midday tomorrow on this bill. This Senator comes to this issue with a long history of drilling for oil off our coast. Ever since I was a young Congressman, I have been fighting to keep oil rigs off Florida's coast. It is especially important at this time, as we have a new administration coming in that took a public position in the election declaring the intent of the President-elect to open up additional areas off the coast to oil drilling. The package that we are going to consider tomorrow is an enhancement of exactly that goal. I want to point out to the Senate why this is not in the interest of our country now. First of all, we are dealing with a law that we passed about 5 or 6 years ago with an acronym of GOMESA, which opened up for the first time oil revenues that came from Federal waters to be shared with the Gulf States. We were doing this primarily in the interests of Louisiana because Louisiana had been hit so hard by Hurricane Katrina, and there was a need to restore a lot of those marshes. This was another way of getting revenue to the State of Louisiana. At the same time that bill was passed, it enhanced a law that we had passed with my former colleague Senator Mel Martinez back in the 2006 timeframe that kept the oil drilling off Florida in the gulf--and kept it off, and it is in law. It is the only place of the Outer Continental Shelf where it is in law that you cannot drill up through the year 2022. I want to point out for the historical record why that is so and why this bill we are considering tomorrow is not in the interest of the country. This area in yellow is the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida. This is Florida, the peninsula, the Keys. This is the gulf coast of Florida. Over here is Pensacola. All of that area in yellow is off limits to drilling until the year 2022. Why? Well, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize what happened to Florida's economy after the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The oil got as far as Pensacola. The spill was over here off of Louisiana. It got to the beaches of Pensacola, some to Destin, some tar balls to Panama City, until the wind started sending it back the other way. But what happened to Florida's tourism industry on its gulf coast for an entire season? The tourists thought there was oil on our beaches, and tourists did not come for an entire season all the way down to Marco Island, Naples--all of those beautiful sugary white sand beaches, including the beaches of Northwest Florida. They did not come because they thought there was oil there. That did not just affect the airlines and the hotels. It affected the dry cleaners and the restaurants and all of the largest industry in Florida, which is the tourism industry. That is one reason. Another reason is that there are so many of the bays and estuaries along this gulf coast where the critters are hatched that supply the fish stocks for the entire gulf. Of course, there are stocks that are hatched here that migrate out into the other oceans. But there is a third reason. That reason is that all of this area to the east of this line--in other words, 125 miles off Panama City, 235 miles off Tampa Bay, even further off Naples--all of that is the largest testing and training area in the world for the U.S. military. The Department of Defense has issued two letters under the signatures of two Republican Secretaries of Defense saying that any oil-related activities here would be incompatible with our testing and training mission, this being the largest one in the United States. That is why we do not have drilling there. You will hear the proponents of the bill say: Well, we have exempted this part. We have exempted it not only because it is off limits in law, but what they are doing to the rest of the gulf coast is almost doubling the revenue sharing that would go to the States, the Gulf States, thereby giving even more incentive for the State governments to want to have drilling off of their coasts regardless of the U.S. military, regardless of the economic engine of Florida, regardless of the very delicate environment. But there is more. As a matter of fact, the bill before us would offer revenue sharing to States. Mind you, this is drilling in Federal waters. Any revenue would typically go to the Federal Government. As a matter of fact, it is estimated by CBO that it would be a loss of $7 billion to the U.S. Treasury. That would also be available for the States on the Atlantic. Here is Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and on up on the Atlantic coast. I brought this chart to show not only the gulf area off of Florida and the military testing and training ranges, but to look at the military testing and training ranges off the Atlantic coast. If it is incompatible here, are we not going to hear, as we have heard from some in the Department of Defense, that it is going to be incompatible in the Atlantic region? I want to urge that not only have we been battling to keep our coastal environments and beaches clean and unpolluted--that is not the only argument. The argument is also one of keeping our national security tested and trained in the most sophisticated weapons and training for the best military in the world. This Senator is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. There is a reason that we do not have oil rigs out here. First of all, in the State of Florida, we have Tyndall Air Force Base at Panama City. That is where they are training our pilots on F-22s. At Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, that is where about half of the U.S. Air Force training and the other services--the Navy as well as the Air Force--are training their pilots for the F-35 that is now being cycled in to be the workhorse of our fighters. The U.S. Navy, which will have F-35s but presently has F-18s, will fly a squadron to Key West Naval Air Station. They will be there for a week or two. When they lift off from the runway at Boca Chica Key, in 2 minutes they could be over restricted airspace, not having spent a lot of time and fuel to get to the area of restriction for their testing and training. So the Department of Defense has said: You simply cannot have oil rigs operating in an area where we are testing these very sophisticated weapons systems--and they need a lot of space; from this location down here, this is some 300 miles--as well as the training that goes on. It is not just for the benefit of our military, it is key to our national defense. We have watched the tar balls wash up on the beaches. We have seen the sugary white sands of Pensacola Beach completely black, covered in oil. We saw the harm that was done to not only the local businesses that cater to tourists, such as the hotels, restaurants, and attractions, but to all the ancillary businesses, such as the drycleaners and the real estate firms. To put it into perspective, for our State of Florida, this is a $50 billion industry that oils the engine of our economy. We are talking about generating some $700 million in sales tax revenue for the State, and it helps support more than 450,000 jobs throughout the State. Why would you risk destroying a State's economy as well as our military preparation? It is not as if we don't have other places that we want to produce oil. Think of the oil shale that has been tapped in the Dakotas, in Oklahoma, and in Texas that is not producing at maximum capacity. As Floridians, the images of the hazmat crews in those hazmat suits and the Coast Guard vessels skimming off the water just 6 years ago are emblazoned on our memories. Our fishermen and our businesses certainly haven't forgotten their own losses that amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. So if the new administration and the oil industry want to have a fight on in issue, well, they certainly have one. This Senator is going to continue to try to keep the oil rigs off the State of Florida with everything I have, for all of the reasons I have stated. When we vote tomorrow, I would commend to our colleagues to beware of all of the effects of almost doubling the revenue for the Gulf Coast States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, which is at the heart of what is behind this particular bill we are going to vote on, but also beware there are hidden messages in this revenue sharing, and it strikes at the heart of what we have been trying to protect here-- the environment, our economy, and our U.S. military preparedness. I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, as long as no other Senator is asking to be recognized, let me just say that from the perspective of the senior Senator from Florida, I think it is the obligation of those of us who were backing the candidate who did not win the Presidency--as President Obama has said, the President-elect will be the President. It is incumbent upon the rest of us, regardless of party, to reach out and to try to help the new President on behalf of and for the sake of our country. This Senator, who in four decades of public service has always tried to reach out in a bipartisan way and bring people together, to build consensus in order to govern, will continue to do so, and this Senator greets the new administration with that statement. It is important that a statement like that be made, especially in this time where we are so rent asunder, where we are so divided, and where we have come through an election that has been--the only word I can think of is ``ugly.'' Things were said in the ordinary course of conversation in this election that should not have been said. Particularly as we try to heal the wounds of both sides and take back the awful things that were said and create an atmosphere where we can come together for the sake of our country, that is especially important, and this Senator is going to contribute to that. It is my hope that it will be received on all sides and that we will reach out and try to bring people together. I think it is important to say that, particularly at a time where feelings have been hurt and feelings have been so high and so tense. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, what is the business before the Senate?

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I express my appreciation to the Senate that in the funding bill it includes the money for Zika, $1.1 billion that has been so desperately needed, not only assisting local governments and State governments with things such as mosquito control but also starting the trial on the Zika vaccine. The first trial is necessary. There will be a second and larger trial, and, hopefully, at the end of that, we will have a Zika vaccine. This has gotten to the level of being quite uncomfortable. Over 2,000 pregnant women in the continental United States and our territories have the Zika virus. We know from the CDC that for up to 12 percent, it is likely there will be a birth defect. So I want the Senate to know how much I appreciate this. In my own State of Florida, we have been so severely hit now, with 91 of our fellow citizens who are pregnant and have the virus. We say Godspeed to them and hope they will not have babies with birth defects. But now at least the cavalry has arrived and we have the money to proceed with trying to stamp out this Zika virus. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be given 1 minute so I can give a short speech.