Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, just to remind the Senate, Senator Rubio and I have the nonpartisan process of the Judicial Nomination Commission for our Federal district judges. Robin Rosenberg is a product of that. So I commend to the Senate this bipartisan nominee from the two of us. Judge Robin Rosenberg is from West Palm Beach, FL. She is a circuit judge for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida where she has served since 2007. Prior to her service on the bench, she was a partner at the law firm Rosenberg & McAuliffe from 2001 to 2006. She worked as an attorney in many capacities including private practice at Holland and Knight, an assistant city attorney for the City of West Palm Beach and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. Judge Rosenberg began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge James C. Paine of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She received her juris doctor and a master's degree in 1989 from Duke University and her B.A. in 1983 from Princeton University. Judge Robin Rosenberg has the support of Senator Rubio and myself, and was found to be unanimously qualified by the American Bar Association.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, 45 years ago yesterday the entire world was riveted to their television sets--often a television image that was grainy, black and white, and flickering--as we heard the report, ``The eagle has landed.'' Then we saw Neil Armstrong come down the ladder of the lunar lander, and that is when he made the famous statement, ``That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'' In the context of that day 45 years ago, unless one was of sufficient youth to not have a memory, anyone will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing, because that was an extraordinary time for the entire planet. This Senator at the time was an Army lieutenant. At the lift-off 4 days earlier, I had been in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and had gone to the embassy asking if they had a television so I could watch the lift-off in my hometown area of Brevard County where, from this launch pad, my family had homesteaded under the old Homestead Act in 1913, working the land for years, eking out a living which, under the Homestead Act, was a way of populating the country--particularly the westward expansion but that was also the southward expansion, into unsettled lands like Florida. I have a copy of that deed of 160 acres of land, signed by Woodrow Wilson to my grandparents in 1917. That land sits today at the north end of the space shuttle runway at the Kennedy Space Center. It is only a few miles from the launch pad where Apollo 11 launched, and years later in the early part of the Space Shuttle Program I had the privilege of launching with the crew of STS-61C. But at that moment 45 years ago, I had gone into the embassy in Belgrade, and they did not have a television set that would show the lift-off. I asked if there was any way of getting a communication. They said: Go outside of the city on those high hills and stick up your shortwave radio antenna and get the BBC from London. My friends and I did exactly that. When that rocket, the Saturn V, lifted off, there were three young Americans screaming at the top of our lungs: ``Go, baby, go.'' Four days later, I was on my way back to the United States and was staying overnight in a London hotel. I got the desk to call me in the middle of the night, somewhere around 3:00, and turned on that flickering black-and-white television set to see Neil Armstrong come down the ladder and issue that famous statement. Today at the Kennedy Space Center is a ceremony commemorating that event 45 years ago yesterday. I happened to bump into Buzz Aldrin yesterday at the Orlando airport as he was on his way to join with Mike Collins, who was the third of the three Apollo astronauts. They are there today to dedicate the operations and checkout building at the Kennedy Space Center to be named for the commander of that mission and the first one to set foot on the Moon--Neil Armstrong. It is that very same building where those astronauts were in quarantine before they went to the launch pad, it is that very same building where so many of the space missions have been prepared, and it is that very same building, now named for Neil Armstrong, which is preparing the spacecraft that will be the forerunner of taking us in our next journey to another celestial body--this time the planet Mars. That spacecraft, Orion, will be tested at the end of this year in a ballistic reentry, going out some 30,000 miles, to come back in at a very steep descent to test the new protective materials on the heat shield. In the old days we had an ablative material on the blunt end of the capsule that would burn up on reentry coming through the fiery heat of reentry, 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Part of the heat shield would burn up. Today, they have much more high-technology techniques that will repel the heat in order to save the crew, and that test will come at the end of the year. When we shut down the Space Shuttle Program, most Americans felt as though the human space program was shut down. That is not the case. We have an orbiting national laboratory that is part of the International Space Station, with two American astronauts and an international crew-- a total of six astronauts onboard, doing research right now, as they have been. As a matter of fact, to give a visual mind's-eye idea of how big this International Space Station is, it is 120 yards long. Visualize from one goalpost and one end zone to the other goalpost, and that is how big the International Space Station is, and six humans are on board right now. We are already developing the rockets that are delivering cargo-- American rockets--and those rockets are now in a competition in NASA as to which ones will be selected to carry humans, and then all of the redesign, the redundancies of systems, the escape mechanisms, will be incorporated in order to make it safe for humans. We are expecting that first American launch of Americans onboard American rockets to be in 2017. Then the American people will realize that we have been in space all along. We can speak of the wonders of our space program--the Hubble space telescope that has been on orbit carried by a human crew that has now unlocked the secrets of the universe. The follow-on telescope named after the first NASA Administrator James Webb will peer back in time to the very beginning of the universe and will bring us additional knowledge about how we got here and how it all started in this incredibly infinite thing called the universe, of which the cosmos as we look out is so large we can't comprehend it. Our space program is vigorous, and now we will move into a new era starting right there in the building that is being dedicated today in memory of Neil Armstrong, a building that will assemble the spacecraft called Orion which will launch with Americans in 2021 for the beginning of a mission that will capture a distant object--an asteroid--fly to it, rendezvous, explore it, as we start the systems, the methods, building and creating the new technologies that will then allow us to take a human crew all the way to the planet Mars, land them, and bring them back safely to planet Earth. So this is a day that we remember, and we remember an astronaut who was taken way too early from us, because Neil was only 82 years old. Although of the original seven, which Neil was not a part of, we only have one left; that is, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, a former Senator of this body in his nineties. He looks terrific. After the Mercury Program came the Gemini Program and then came the Apollo Program, and that is the celebration that has just occurred, celebrating 45 years. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Yet that was a day the world stopped as they gazed, fixed on their television sets, as a human from planet Earth set foot on another celestial body. That was quite an accomplishment, but there is a lot more to come. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Mrs. DaMara Belson, a NASA fellow, be granted floor privileges.

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, today I commend my colleagues for a strong bipartisan vote in favor of S. 2244, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA, helped stabilize the commercial property market. This has allowed for continued commercial property development and real estate lending for office buildings, hotels, malls, and tourist attractions across the United States. In Florida, TRIA has been particularly important for continued development in the tourism sector--which is a critical part of the economy. The passage of S. 2244 today illustrates the widespread, continued support for TRIA and the need for a backstop to guarantee sufficient capacity for businesses to insure against catastrophic terrorist events, including coverage for events involving a nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological element. At the same time, S. 2244 also ensures that taxpayers are a top priority and includes a recoupment mechanism to guarantee that taxpayers are made whole if the backstop is triggered. I now hope that the House of Representatives will take quick action on S. 2244 so that the President can sign this legislation and assure continued stability in the commercial property and insurance market.

Mr. NELSON. I ask to speak for 3 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. The administration sent several Cabinet Secretaries and high-ranking appointees to brief all Senators last evening on the crisis of the children on the border, and it appears they are getting their arms around addressing the problem of the children and the humanitarian crisis on the border. However, it is the opinion of this Senator that they do not recognize the root cause of the problem. If the administration would listen to their four-star general, the head of the United States Southern Command, General Kelly, and the testimony he has already given to the Armed Services Committee of what is the problem, then we could get to the root cause of the problem and stop these future humanitarian crises. The problem simply is that we are not devoting the time and the resources--the money--to the interdiction of the big drug shipments coming out of South America into Central America. They come in big shipments from Colombia through Venezuela by air or sea on the eastern side, from Colombia through Ecuador or originating in Ecuador out on the western side, coming into three Central American countries-- Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. As a result, their drug lords have completely taken over those countries. As a result, the violence is the highest. Honduras is now the murder capital of the world. As a result of that drug violence--and there is very little law and order-- the whole system is corrupted. For parents with children, it is logical that they would want to send their children to a safer environment. The administration has to address this issue with regard to going back to what we did so successfully in Plan Colombia--interdict the drug traffic before it gets to those Central American countries because once it does in the big shipments, they then break it down into smaller packages and it goes north.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I am just busting out with ideas I wish to discuss with the Senate. Since we don't have any other Senators standing in line, I will share where I have been today and what is of urgency for the environmental community and particularly the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Government. We have been spending hundreds of billions of dollars to restore the Florida Everglades. This is a natural resource that is unique in all of the world, and its environmental effects are felt far beyond Florida and the United States--indeed, on the entire planet. It is a source of water that starts southwest of Orlando in a little creek called Shingle Creek and flows south through the Kissimmee chain of lakes, into the Kissimmee River, into Lake Okeechobee, the big lake in southern Florida. From there the water then flows further to the south in what is termed the River of Grass--the Florida Everglades. From there it moves very slowly through all of that grass, and it eventually ends up on the southern tip of the peninsula in Florida Bay by the Florida Keys or to the southwest of Florida, coming out through what is an area known as the Shark River Slough into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a unique natural resource. I once had Senator Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the environment committee, down there. We travel in the Everglades in an airboat since there is little depth to the water. Of course, it is all watered grass. You skim across the top of the water in an airboat propelled by a big airplane propeller. As we took Senator Boxer across this River of Grass, in the midst of what looked like a meadow in front of the airboat, suddenly she saw a doe and her fawn going through the meadow. Only this time they were obviously not in a meadow; they were in water, and they were splashing in the water as they leapt away from the airboat. It is a unique environmental, ecological treasure with so many endangered species there, and it is a discussion for another day, how invasive species are upsetting the ecological balance, such as the imported Burmese python, which can get up to 20 feet long. Indeed, one that was 18 feet 8 inches was caught 6 months ago. Of course, they are at the top of the food chain. They attack alligators. The fur-bearing animals in the Everglades have diminished in population because they are being consumed by these beasts that have a ravenous appetite. But that is a subject for another day. Hundreds of billions of dollars has been spent to restore it, restoring it to correct a mistake of mankind over the course of the last century when, after the huge hurricane in the 1920s that drowned 2,000 people in the Lake Okeechobee area, the whole idea was flood control: When it floods, get the water off the land. Send it to tidewater--the Atlantic in the east, the Gulf of Mexico in the west. But that messed around with Mother Nature, and as a result the whole of the Everglades started to dry up. Fortunately, a lot of forward-thinking people--and I am merely a steward who has come along at the right time, at the right place--have continued this effort--the Corps of Engineers, the EPA, so many of the agencies of government, Cabinet Secretaries, such as Ken Salazar at the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture Secretary. It goes on and on. The effort as a 50/50 partnership in funding this restoration has been partnered by the State of Florida and the U.S. Government, and it continues. Alas, there is now oil drilling in the Everglades. The subject of today's meeting in Fort Myers, FL, was to gather a very courageous county commission from Collier County, their chairman, and representatives of the community, to come in to educate me on the aspects of drilling and the recent brouhaha between the State environmental agency and the Texas wildcatter, the Dan A. Hughes Company; they started fracking without the proper permits and without revealing the mechanism and the material they were using to frack. Of course, most people have heard of fracking, but we hear of it in terms of North Dakota or Oklahoma or Texas or Pennsylvania. But Florida is not built on that kind of substrate where they are going in and breaking up that rock in the fracking to release oil and natural gas, which has now made us such a tremendous producer of both of those in the United States. No, Florida is on a different type of substrate. It is built on a honeycomb of limestone that supports the surface by it being filled with freshwater. It is not those solid rocks where the fracking for oil and gas is being done and with the high jets with chemicals breaking up that rock to release the natural gas. No, this is porous limestone formed millions of years ago by the shelled critters that ultimately fossilized. It is this honeycomb being supported by freshwater that is the substructure of the State of Florida. So we don't have any idea what this fracking is going to do not only to the quality of the water but also to the very support structure for the State. Now, lo and behold, there are attempts for permits to drill in the 250,000-acre Big Cypress Federal preserve, which is part of the Everglades but is adjacent to the Everglades National Park. Therefore, it is time for the EPA of the Federal Government to get involved. It is time to question their authority in law as to what, after this kind of drilling is done to inject all of that stuff that is left over back down into this substrate of freshwater--what is that going to do under the Clean Water Act? What is it that could contaminate the source of drinking water? What is it going to do to the structure that upholds the surface of the State of Florida? And very importantly, since it is colocated right next to Everglades National Park and since it is a part of the area generally known as the Everglades, what is it going to do to the flora and fauna--in other words, all of that delicate ecosystem balance of the critters and the plants? What is it going to do to the very area that we are spending hundreds of billions of State taxpayer and Federal taxpayer money to restore? These are very legitimate questions. Years ago the Collier family was very generous. They gave, fee simple to the U.S. Government, what is today the Big Cypress preserve. They retained the mineral rights. It was clearly their right to do so, and it was very generous of them to donate the property. We have a national park ranger manager who manages that preserve. Now we have to look at what are the serious consequences of trying to convert those mineral rights that were reserved into drilling. The most immediate is that instead of seismic testing, another kind of vibration testing is expected to be done with thousands of tests in the Big Cypress Preserve. It is called thumping. A vehicle comes in and apparently drops things onto the surface to create something--instead of seismic testing where an explosion is let off, to send down vibrations--and these triangulations, since they are doing thousands of these, would determine if there is oil there. Thus, another question that arises is, What is the environmental effect? We definitely have a reason for the EPA, as an independent agency, for the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over things such as U.S. Fish & Wildlife, U.S. Park Service, to get involved in this process and make some determinations, and if the answer is that there is not sufficient authority in law, to address it so that we can address it here as a matter of legislating law. I wanted to make the Senate aware of this particular potential threat to the Florida Everglades. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I wish to show us these innocent-looking small bottles with an eye dropper of three types of liquid. This is liquid nicotine. The eye droppers are used to put that into the cartridges for electronic cigarettes, otherwise known as e-cigarettes. There are some versions that look the size of a cigarette that already have the liquid nicotine contained in them, but there are many flavors that are otherwise contained in these kinds of dispensers. When our commerce committee had a hearing on e-cigarettes, I asked the question: Are these childproof? The answer was: No. I asked the question: If these are not childproof, is the concentration of nicotine in these sufficient that it could harm a child? The answer was: Yes. As a matter of fact, there are varying degrees of concentration of liquid nicotine in these bottles, but some of them are as concentrated as 540 milligrams of liquid nicotine. If a small child got into these bottles, which are not childproof, and ingested this, that child would either be deathly ill or dead. If that child gets into it and it spills on that child, it will be absorbed through the skin and likewise, according to the concentration of the nicotine, the child will be very ill. Obviously, when we had the commerce committee hearing on e- cigarettes, I asked the question--once they said these are not childproof--of the e-cigarette industry, which was represented at the witness panel: Do you have any objection? They said: No. So last Thursday a group of Senators filed a bill that will require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to start and adopt a rule that will cause these to be sold in childproof containers. This is a no- brainer. This is common sense. Why hasn't it been addressed before? It defies common sense because of the danger to children. Already, in this year 2014, between January and the end of May, there were almost 2,000 calls for liquid nicotine poisoning to the poison centers around the country--just in that 5- month period. We already have a recorded incident 1 year ago or so of one child having been killed. This ought to be not only a no-brainer, it ought to fly through this Congress and get the CPSC to get on with regulating it administratively. What is another reason? Well, look what this one is called, with a picture, Banana; this one is Naked Peach; this one is Juice E Juice. Appealing to kids? How about Banana Split or Cotton Candy or Kool-Laid Grape or Skittles or Sweet Tart or Gummi Bear or Fruity Loops or Rocket Pop or Hawaiian Punch? That is what is going on. There happens to be a part of government that is supposed to try to protect the public from danger. This is obviously something that ought to be done. There is a larger question, and that is the question of e-cigarettes. That is not the subject of this legislation. With all due haste, the CPSC--and, oh, by the way, why the CPSC instead of the Food and Drug Administration? Because the Consumer Product Safety Commission is vested with the authority to create container packaging and safety packaging. So if Tylenol is childproof in its packaging, if Drano is, if any other obvious item that you want to childproof is, then we best have this done and done fast. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the way to do it. I hope by the attention this received in the hearing 2 or 3 weeks ago, plus the fact of a group of Senators now coming together and filing this legislation, the CPSC isn't going to wait around until we pass it, but it will get on with the problem. There is a larger question. This is on an additional but related issue, and that is the advisability of e-cigarettes and the way they are being marketed. As a matter of fact, on e-cigarettes there is some packaging where it looks like a white cigarette. Guess what is happening. It is now like we have seen this movie before. This is a rerun of what went on 20 years ago when, finally, because of tobacco products, the advertising on television and radio was banned by law because it was geared at getting young people hooked on tobacco. There were very attractive young models who were shown smoking cigarettes, wonderfully beautiful backgrounds on the television and the beautiful music on radio, and, indeed, there were advertisements with cartoons aimed at what? It came out in all of the tobacco wars that these were aimed at young people, getting them hooked on tobacco so they would be lifelong tobacco smokers and it would be tough to kick the habit. So a couple of decades ago we went through that fight and we banned the television and radio advertising of tobacco. Well, guess what is happening now--beautiful and handsome models with the e-cigarette, cartoons aimed at young people with e-cigarettes. So another question this Senate should consider is banning the advertising that is obviously directed at young people to try to get them hooked on this nicotine product so that it is so hard for them to get off of the nicotine addiction over the course of time. I can tell you that the commerce committee is going to stay on this, and the first thing we can do is give a little sweet talk to the CPSC to get moving on the regulatory process of a rule to require the childproof packaging of this liquid nicotine. The next thing down the road is to stop the advertising that is being aimed directly at young people on the whole issue of electronic cigarettes. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON. I ask unanimous consent that I be able to display in the course of my speech some small bottles of liquid that will demonstrate what I am talking about today.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I wish to draw attention to a study by the University of Florida on diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects the body's blood glucose levels. Diabetic Americans have too much glucose in their blood, which can lead to serious health problems. In addition to the large number of Americans who suffer from diabetes, the disease is one of the costliest chronic diseases and, currently, about 1-in-3 Medicare dollars is spent on people with diabetes. This study, led by Dr. Todd Manini of the University of Florida's Institute on Aging, suggests a correlation between the amount of time people spend sitting and their risk of developing diabetes later in life. The findings from this study are alarming, particularly given the statistics about diabetes in our Nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2012, 29.1 million Americans--9.3 percent of the population--had diabetes. Diabetes was the country's seventh leading cause of death and Americans with diabetes spend an average of 2.3 times more on medical expenses. The disease is also highly pervasive amongst our older Americans--11.8 million seniors age 65 or older, 25.9 percent of all Americans over 65, have diabetes and 51 percent of seniors are pre-diabetic. As Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, I am well aware of the challenges diabetes poses to seniors. Last July, the Aging Committee held a hearing to discuss the growing impact of diabetes with advancing age. Diabetes impacts millions of Americans across all ages and even though seniors are particularly vulnerable to problems created by the disease, diabetes needs to be fought across the age spectrum. Researchers tracked the weights and sitting times of nearly 90,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79 who were not initially taking diabetes medications. Women who sat more than sixteen hours during their waking day had the highest risk of developing diabetes, and even if they introduced an exercise regimen, this high risk remained. Obese women have a 23 percent risk of developing diabetes and were more likely to develop diabetes than overweight and normal-weight women even if they were both sedentary for the same amount of time. The study found that the diabetes risk can be reduced by standing or walking for 5 minutes for every hour spent sitting. This new University of Florida study enhances our understanding of the disease and emphasizes the importance of healthy behavior and habits throughout our lives. Though much progress has been made in diabetes research, we still have a long way to go in combatting this disease that affects millions of Americans. We must continue funding groundbreaking research like that at the University of Florida and promoting the kinds of lifestyle changes that will reduce the risks of diseases like diabetes in old age.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Monday, July 14, 2014, at 3 p.m. in order to conduct a hearing to consider the nomination of Hon. James C. Miller III, Stephen Crawford, David M. Bennett, and Victoria Reggie Kennedy to be Governors, U.S. Postal Service.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, we all recognize the danger that many hazardous chemicals and over-the-counter drugs pose to children. That's why we require child-resistant packaging for these substances to prevent accidental poisonings that could result in serious injury or death. Unfortunately, there is no child-resistant packaging required for concentrated liquid nicotine, which can be toxic if ingested or even absorbed through skin in large amounts. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP, some small 15 mL bottles of liquid nicotine contain as much as 540 mg of nicotine. At the estimated lethal dose range of nicotine, AAP notes that this small bottle contains enough nicotine to kill 4 small children. And even a very small amount of the liquid splashed on a child's skin can make the child very ill. The American Association of Poison Control Centers, AAPCC, reports that local poison control centers had already received 1,571 calls between January 1 and May 31 of this year related to liquid nicotine exposure. According to some experts who study nicotine exposure, it's only a matter of time before an accidental nicotine ingestion results in death. Today I am introducing the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act with Senators Pryor, Bennet, Blumenthal, Boxer, Brown, Durbin, Harkin, Markey, Merkley, and Schumer to prevent these unnecessary tragedies. This common-sense legislation gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, authority and direction to issue rules requiring safer, child-resistant packaging for liquid nicotine products within 1 year of passage. The CPSC already requires child-resistant packaging for many household products, including over-the-counter medicines and cleaning agents. These rules have prevented countless injuries and deaths to children. There is no reason that bottles of liquid nicotine should not also be required to have child-resistant packaging as well. I invite my colleagues to join us to support the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act. Working together, we can take simple steps to prevent accidental child nicotine poisonings. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, we all recognize the danger that many hazardous chemicals and over-the-counter drugs pose to children. That's why we require child-resistant packaging for these substances to prevent accidental poisonings that could result in serious injury or death. Unfortunately, there is no child-resistant packaging required for concentrated liquid nicotine, which can be toxic if ingested or even absorbed through skin in large amounts. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP, some small 15 mL bottles of liquid nicotine contain as much as 540 mg of nicotine. At the estimated lethal dose range of nicotine, AAP notes that this small bottle contains enough nicotine to kill 4 small children. And even a very small amount of the liquid splashed on a child's skin can make the child very ill. The American Association of Poison Control Centers, AAPCC, reports that local poison control centers had already received 1,571 calls between January 1 and May 31 of this year related to liquid nicotine exposure. According to some experts who study nicotine exposure, it's only a matter of time before an accidental nicotine ingestion results in death. Today I am introducing the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act with Senators Pryor, Bennet, Blumenthal, Boxer, Brown, Durbin, Harkin, Markey, Merkley, and Schumer to prevent these unnecessary tragedies. This common-sense legislation gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, authority and direction to issue rules requiring safer, child-resistant packaging for liquid nicotine products within 1 year of passage. The CPSC already requires child-resistant packaging for many household products, including over-the-counter medicines and cleaning agents. These rules have prevented countless injuries and deaths to children. There is no reason that bottles of liquid nicotine should not also be required to have child-resistant packaging as well. I invite my colleagues to join us to support the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act. Working together, we can take simple steps to prevent accidental child nicotine poisonings. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I wish to recognize two exceptional Floridians who have sacrificed to serve as caregivers for Alzheimer's patients. Their stories were recently published in the latest edition of ``Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living with Alzheimer's & Other Dementias.'' The book, a compilation of 101 short stories, has previously discussed a range of other medical issues and diseases. For this latest publication, ``Chicken Soup'' partnered with the national Alzheimer's Association to tackle the difficult topic of Alzheimer's disease and dementias and to share the stories of the families who face the challenges of this disease. The heartbreaking stories that Laura Suihkonen Jones, of Lighthouse Point, and Jean Salisbury Campbell, of Fort Lauderdale, shared of their families' experience with Alzheimer's were chosen for inclusion from nearly 4,000 entries. Today, Laura serves the Alzheimer's Association's Southeast Florida Chapter as its liaison to Congresswoman Lois Frankel, and coordinates an Alzheimer's support group at Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale. She wrote her story, ``Fear and Self-Pity Are My Mortal Enemies,'' to share both the pain and joy of caring for her husband, Jay, who received his diagnosis 7 years ago at age 50 when their daughter was just 3 years old. Laura strives every day to be a message of hope, particularly for those families who receive Alzheimer's diagnoses at younger ages. Alzheimer's disease is growing rapidly, and recently 5.2 million people age 65 and older, as well as 200,000 individuals under age 65 were diagnosed. Jean, a retired Broward County school psychologist, shares her personal testimony of caring for her elderly mother, the late Elizabeth Salisbury. Her essay, ``The Bird,'' recounts an experience in an early stage of her mother's disease. In the middle of the night, her mother frantically woke up her family insisting that a bird had flown into the house. Those caring for her insisted there was no bird and that she was suffering from a hallucination common of the disease until they escorted her back to her room, where they found a large black bird in the room. This particular incident serves to remind of the importance of treating Alzheimer's patients with dignity and listening to what they have to say regardless of their disease. As chairman of the Aging Committee, I want to recognize these two exceptional caregivers, whose heart-wrenching stories will become all too common among American families in the coming decades. This new edition of ``Chicken Soup'' is particularly timely as our Nation grapples with a significant increase in Alzheimer's disease, with the number of diagnoses expected to rise to 16 million by 2050. In Florida today, nearly half a million Floridians over the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease, and this number is projected to continue rising in the coming years. As we recall our recent observance of Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month in June and recognize the stories of these two Florida women, it is important that we take the time to focus our resources to address this disease and remember that an Alzheimer's diagnosis impacts not only the patient, but the whole family. As the number of American families facing similar and equally difficult circumstances increases, we must ensure that those living with the disease are guaranteed the best quality care and their loved ones, like Laura and Jean, are supported as much as possible.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I inform the Senate that the three judges from Florida we are about to vote on have the support of Senator Rubio and I. It is as a result of a bipartisan process. It is actually a nonpartisan process as to how we select our judges in Florida. Senator Rubio and I appoint a judicial nominating commission in the three judicial districts in Florida. They then, when there is a vacancy of a judge or U.S. attorney or U.S. marshal, receive the applications, do the interviews, and make--for one vacancy--three recommendations. Senator Rubio and I then take these three recommendations, the two of us together interview the applicants. The arrangement we have with the White House--and of course we know the President could select whomever he wants, but the White House has graciously agreed, and this has been a longstanding practice with the Federal judge selections from Florida, the White House has agreed they will pick from among the three we send. Senator Rubio and I send comments to the White House about the three, even though what we primarily do is tell the White House if we have an objection to any one of the three who come through the judicial nominating commission process. Therefore, what we do is we take politics out of the selection of judges. I highly recommend to the Senate Paul Byron and Carlos Eduardo Mendoza, both of the Middle District, and Beth Bloom of the Southern District. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, just to remind the Senate, this judge and the next one--as was the previous one--were done by the Judicial Nominating Commission process that Senator Rubio and I use in order to take any kind of politics out of the selection of judges. It has worked very well for years, and this judge and the next one are part of that process. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I yield back all time.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I find there are a number of things I agree with the Senator from Arizona on. One of the things I agree with the senior Senator from Arizona on is that Maliki needs to go. Otherwise, I think Iraq is going to blow apart, and it is going to end up in three parts, just like the Vice President, when he was a Member of the Senate, as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said was going to happen. I will address this subject later on. I came to thank Senator Shelby, who is here, and Senator Mikulski, who I hope is within earshot of my remarks, for the bill they have come forth with and specifically with regard to the part that has to do with a little agency that I have some familiarity with and to which I have a great deal of emotional attachment; that is, NASA. What they have done is continue to flush out in Appropriations the direction that was laid out--when there was no direction--4 years ago in the 2010 NASA authorization bill, for which I constantly give credit to our former colleague, Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas. I had the opportunity to help draw up a balanced plan for the space program-- balanced in all aspects: human, nonhuman space exploration, aeronautics, science, education, the whole works. Earlier this month the National Academies came out with a report that was required by that act 4 years ago that reaffirmed the need for a robust U.S. space program aimed at the goal. The goal is way down the line. We are going on a human mission to Mars. The Academies' study was cochaired by a former Republican Governor, a former head of the Office of Management and Budget, Gov. Mitch Daniels. What they concluded was that human space exploration remains vital to the national interest but it is only going to succeed if it is properly funded. So the increase in funding provided in this bill for human exploration is going to keep us on track in the coming year. We know that the Space Launch System and its spacecraft, a capsule called Orion--which is being built as we speak, assembled at the O&C building at the Kennedy Space Center--we know these are critical to human exploration. NASA has a very boring term for that. They call it ``foundational capabilities.'' That is the capability of putting humans into deep space and eventually on Mars. While other countries are talking about a heavy lift rocket, we are actually building it, and it is being built today with its spacecraft. Now we are going to look to the first test of this spacecraft. It is going to come in just a few months. It is the Orion spacecraft on top of another rocket to do the deep space penetration and high-velocity reentry, pulling lots of Gs, to see how the instrumented spacecraft performs. It is on track and the space launch system is on track. However, the funding increases are going to have to be maintained in future years. If we go back to this, shall I say--I have other adjectives for it, but shall I say not the best idea of taking a meat ax to the budget called the sequester--if we go back to the sequester levels, NASA is not going to be able to achieve its exploration goals. So this funding bill that Senators Mikulski and Shelby have produced also reiterates the need to engage our international partners in science and exploration. It supports the international collaboration that is so important in our space program. There is another new NASA partnership with the German space agency for astronomy research. This same bill also continues the investment in NASA's Commercial Crew Program. It would allow the largest NASA investment in the program to date. The President requested $849 million to do a competition to make these rockets that are already proven to be safe for humans--put in all the redundancies and the escape systems. The President requested $849 million. That was NASA's request. This bill gets it close. It gets it to $805 million. But we are going to need to work, to continue to work, with Senator Shelby and Senator Mikulski, as the bill goes to the conference committee, to make sure we have the right mix of oversight and innovation in how NASA contracts for this competition with the competitors--the private industry--as we are letting commercial companies provide this service not only of cargo to and from the International Space Station, but now we are going to provide this service of crew going to and from the ISS. I cannot overstate the importance of the commercial crew in the long- term viability of the space station because, look, we are going to extend the ISS; that is, the International Space Station, to 2024. It ought to be extended beyond that. Certainly there is all the research that is being produced. We spent $100 billion putting it up there. We ought to keep it to the end of the decade of the 2020s at least, and we need to make sure there is sufficient funding to support the research on this orbiting outpost. It is a fantastic asset in low-Earth orbit. It is not only for research to improve life on Earth, but it is also a technology test bed and a stepping-stone for exploration. There is another reason. Because we have had the aggressiveness of Mr. Putin, and suddenly all the reverberations coming out of Ukraine, it is just another reminder that we want American rockets for Americans to fly on to get to our own space station. The commercial crew, if we can pour the juice into it, as to their target of 2017, they can actually move it back to 2016. So we have a geopolitical reason to keep this going. It is interesting that as of this day, with this bill on the floor of the Senate, scientists and engineers have gathered in Chicago for the third annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference. Research investments will help ensure the maximum scientific return for this one-of-a-kind laboratory. By the way, because of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, it is designated as a national laboratory--a part of the ISS. I thank Senator Shelby and Senator Mikulski for their hard work in supporting the Nation's space program. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with them. At the end of the day, what we want to do is to get this bill out of conference and to the President's desk for signature. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I wish to share with the Senate that this judge has come through the process Senator Rubio and I have in Florida where we have a judicial nomination commission specifically to try to take the politics out of the selection of judges. He has been through many different iterations. So I encourage the Senate to support him.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. I yield back time.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the need to protect the safety and health of older Americans from hazards posed by consumer products. Since its inception in 1972, the Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC has been tasked with protecting the public from unreasonable hazards posed by consumer products. Historically, the CPSC has not focused explicitly on seniors despite the aging population's vulnerability to these hazards. For example, a 2012 CPSC report found that Americans age 65 and older are nearly three times more likely to suffer a product-related injury that results in a visit to the emergency room than Americans between the ages of 25 and 64. On May 19, 2014, the CPSC introduced the Senior Safety Initiative. I commend the CPSC for taking on this important and timely project. The Senior Safety Initiative aims to reduce both the incidences of product- related deaths, nearly 65 percent of which are suffered by seniors and the estimated 5 million injuries suffered by older adults. This initiative includes the creation of a mechanical and senior hazards team to monitor hazards associated with products intended for seniors, publication of a hazard screening report focused exclusively on seniors, and continues the CPSC's partnership with other agencies to reduce the death and injury associated with consumer products. In addition, the CPSC will join the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging- Related Statistics to work with other Federal agencies to improve the availability of aging-related data. In particular, the initiative aims to reduce hazards associated with adult portable bed rails. Between 2003 and 2012, the CPSC received reports of 174 deaths, 80 percent of which involved seniors over age 60, and nearly 110,000 medically attended injuries involving adult portable bed rails. The collective costs associated with these injuries totaled around $250 million annually. The CPSC recently partnered with manufacturers, the Food and Drug Administration, and the voluntary standards community to develop the first-ever standard for adult portable bed rails. As the senior Senator of the State with the largest proportion of people above the age of 65, I welcome the CPSC's efforts to reduce injuries and deaths involving consumer products, particularly adult portable bed rails. Last month, in conjunction with the publication of the Senior Safety Initiative, the CPSC participated in Older Americans Month by partnering with the Administration for Community Living and other participating organizations to promote educational resources for seniors and their families about preventing hazards associated with household products often used by seniors and their caregivers. As chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, I know how important it is to protect the well-being of older Americans from unreasonable risks in their retirement years. As our aging population grows exponentially over the coming decades, it is imperative that we support initiatives like the CPSC's to enhance the safety, independence, and well-being of our older Americans.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to speak on behalf of Sylvia Mathews Burwell. We have had a lot of commentary out here that she has shown her capability in her time as the head of the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, and she is going to have a similar success now in the Department of Health and Human Services. We are going to be voting on her just before 2:00 this afternoon, and I am certainly looking forward to what is going to be a resounding vote. I think it is because most people feel she has done an excellent job at OMB. In this Senator's experience with her, discussing with her one of the smaller agencies of government, where this Senator felt as though OMB had targeted that little agency, instead of allowing the experts who were driving that agency--and specifically I am talking about NASA-- purely from a finance and budgetary standpoint, instead of what we wanted to accomplish in the Nation's space program, Ms. Burwell understood that, and she tried to help out from an agency that is more concerned just with budgetary aspects of government, and she understood you have got to get into what you want the agency to accomplish instead of just looking at the budgetary aspects. I appreciated that very much. I think we are going to have a similar kind of experience at HHS with Ms. Burwell. Now, goodness gracious, she takes over an agency that certainly has its hands full, as we are, for example, just trying to continue to expand Medicaid and expand it to all of the people in the States that have denied the expansion of Medicaid. So what we asked during the confirmation hearings is that she consider working with the States to find some types of compromises on a way to do that--to expand Medicaid--when the States are balking. Twenty-four States have not taken the Federal Government up on the offer to pay the full cost of expansion for the first 3 years, and then after the year 2020 the Federal Government will pay 90 percent of the cost of expansion. I offer an example in my own State of Florida. The State of Florida, ostensibly because they did not want to incur the 10-percent cost of Medicaid expansion after the year 2020--that was the reason they gave, but it really wasn't the real reason they didn't want to expand; they just didn't want to have anything to do with the Affordable Care Act. Many of them labeled it ``ObamaCare.'' As a result, what they have done in Florida is denied a population of over 1 million people-- specifically 1.2 million people in Florida--the availability of health care by expanding the eligibility for all Medicaid up to the level of 138 percent of poverty. That level is for a family of four--$32,500 a year. A person thinks of a million people--over a million who otherwise could get health care--and they are making $32,000 or less, we can't expect them to buy health insurance if they are only bringing in $32,000 for a family of four. That is not reasonable. That is why we expanded Medicaid in the Affordable Care Act. But politics has a way of getting in the way, and there are 24 States that did not expand. In Florida's case, this means over this period of time there is $51 billion of Floridians' Federal taxpayer money that would be brought to Florida to pay for those additional 1.2 million people who would get health care. Well, first of all, it is an issue of quality of life. Why don't we want people to have health care who can't afford it? That is the whole idea of increasing the percentage of the poverty level in order to make people eligible for Medicaid. But aside from that, if the Federal money is available for providing that health care--in this case, $51 billion--why wouldn't we want to take the Federal money to pay for the health care of the people--and ``the people'' being a substantial number of people--over 1 million. In addition, if we care about the creation of jobs, we are talking about 125,000 jobs additionally created because of this expansion of providing health care. So all the way around, it is a win-win-win. It provides jobs, it certainly provides quality of life by providing health care, and the Federal money is already dedicated. Again, politics gets in the way, and politics got in the way in the State of Florida and 23 other States. Now, what to do about it. OK. The stated reason was that we don't want our State to have the obligation of additional spending--10 percent--after the year 2020. What we have shown is a program that is already in place in State law to provide for poor people's health care through the low-income pool and other assistance to hospitals that serve that poor population, a tax base that already pays for that, taxes at the local level. We suggested this: We don't have to raise any new taxes to pay the State's share of the 10 percent. Those taxes are already being paid. We shift the money that is there because we are going to expand Medicaid and take care of all the poor people--some of whom are being taken care of now--and just use that tax base in place of the State of Florida share of 10 percent. The Legislature of Florida would not buy it in the closing days and weeks of the session. It is my hope they will in the future. But that is the kind of example that the new Secretary of HHS will be dealing with, as the previous Secretary of HHS has already dealt with in iterations of how to cover additional Medicaid populations. States such as Arkansas and Michigan have worked with HHS to find ways, some of them using the private marketplace to expand coverage. So it is my hope that with the new Secretary, with the obvious need of additional health care for people who cannot afford it in the private insurance market, we will see this turned around in the next session of the legislature; otherwise, every day the State of Florida loses $7 million that would be coming to the State for health care for people of low income. I want to say I am very proud of our State. During the open enrollment period, nearly 1 million people in Florida signed up for health insurance coverage in the State exchange that is run under the Federal rules. Of the 8 million people nationwide who signed up on the State exchanges, almost 1 million of that 8 million were in our State of Florida. So it shows us the hunger of folks there, knowing that if they can get health insurance or health care through Medicaid, they certainly want that very much. I hope that under the leadership of Ms. Burwell, we are going to be able to make that a reality in the coming year. I know she is going to do a great job as Secretary of HHS. Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I recognize this June as the inaugural Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. Alzheimer's remains one of our Nation's leading causes of death, and the number of diagnoses is expected to triple by 2050--resulting in 16 million Americans over the age of 65 living with Alzheimer's. Today, one in three seniors will die with Alzheimer's disease. Currently, in my home of State of Florida, 480,000 residents over the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's, and the number is project to rise to 720,000 by 2050. Given these staggering numbers, it is important we focus our resources to address this disease as outlined in the National Alzheimer's Plan, a roadmap for confronting Alzheimer's and dementia. The National Alzheimer's Plan is released annually and outlines steps the government should pursue in the fight against Alzheimer's. Last year, the Special Committee on Aging, for which I am privileged to serve as chairman, held a hearing to assess the progress made in combatting Alzheimer's disease and examined the first year of the National Alzheimer's Plan as it continues its ongoing efforts to find an effective treatment by 2025. This June, the first Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, we must initiate a global conversation about Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Despite the prevalence of the disease, it is still widely misunderstood. The Alzheimer's Association, the world's leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support, and research, is working to reduce stigma surrounding the illness, promote education on the realities of the disease, and help promote research to end Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's Association is also encouraging Americans to ``Go Purple''--the color of the Alzheimer's movement to fight Alzheimer's disease and promote public awareness of this month's mission. Recently, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, AFA, released a cost analysis report of the caregiver provisions in the 2012 National Alzheimer's Plan. The AFA works to ensure the best care and services are available to improve quality of life for individuals confronting Alzheimer's disease. I believe that the work of the AFA and other Alzheimer's advocacy organizations is increasingly important as we continually work to improve the care and well-being for those living with Alzheimer's disease while also improving the quality of life for caregivers and family members as they care for their loved ones. AFA's recent report, ``Cost of Care: Quantifying Care-Centered Provisions of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease,'' evaluates the costs and benefits associated with implementation of coordinated care delivery models, transitional care programs, and expanded caregiver supports in the 2012 National Alzheimer's Plan. AFA found that implementation of these caregiver provisions provide significant cost savings while promoting better health outcomes for those living with Alzheimer's disease by reducing hospital readmissions and emergency room visits and delaying nursing home placement. The enactment of these provisions could result in Federal savings that exceed $110 billion over 10 years. I am well aware of the hardships for those living with this disease and their loved ones. I hear frequently from my constituents about the importance of continuing to appropriate research dollars for Alzheimer's research and the necessity of making Alzheimer's a national priority. For example, Jeff from Palm Beach Gardens has been caring for his mother for the last 5 years as her disease slowly progresses. And Heather of Winter Park, who wrote to me last October, shared the heartbreaking ``loss and grief that comes slowly and constantly'' with her mother's illness and the mourning for the person her mother was before her diagnosis. The work to improve care services for those living with Alzheimer's as well as support services for their loved ones is a growing necessity as our Nation's population ages and the number of individuals confronting the disease dramatically increases over the coming decades.