Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, to accommodate the Senator from Utah, I will not make my remarks first, but just by way of introduction to say that tonight at midnight American national security is going to be irreversibly weakened by the actions of President Trump and his administration. That is because at midnight the administration will allow the online publication of blueprints to manufacture 3D plastic guns, and this is one example. So to accommodate the Senator from Utah, instead of making my remarks now, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3304 submitted earlier today; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, the Senator is basing that on First Amendment rights. There are many limits on our First Amendment rights of speech. You cannot say ``fire'' in a crowded theater. Why in the world would you assert First Amendment rights to publish instructions to manufacture a plastic gun that someone can take through a metal detector, into a crowded theater, and start shooting in that theater-- instead of shouting ``fire,'' which is clearly an understood limitation upon our First Amendment rights of speech. It is inexplicable that the administration is allowing this to go into effect at midnight tonight. It is dangerous. In fact, the President this morning tweeted that allowing these blueprints to go online--the President tweeted: ``It doesn't seem to make sense.'' I would say amen to that, Mr. President, but it is your administration that has allowed this to happen because after years of winning this issue in courts at every stage of litigation, the administration has surrendered to the crazed demands of a self- described anarchist who is going to put this on the internet. He wants to sow chaos--he said so--in our country and across the world by making these blueprints widely available. We can make this impossible if, No. 1, the President will do it. He can stop it before midnight, and the clock is ticking. We are only talking less than 9 hours from now because 3D-printed guns, made of plastic or resin, can't be detected by metal detectors. Because they are plastic, there is not a serial number on the metal so they are untraceable, and anyone can get their hands on them, even people who are legally barred from having a gun, such as felons or domestic abusers. So after midnight, people can walk onto airplanes with a deadly weapon because they are not caught in the metal detector, and people would not know about it. People can walk into schools. My State is the most recent for a school shooting. As a result of Parkland, people are outraged. They want to harden schools, but now are we going to render the metal detectors useless as they try to harden the schools because somebody can get through a metal detector with this or with an AK-47 or an AR-15 that can be manufactured by these 3D printers? Somebody could come into this building, somebody could be up in that Gallery right now, and if they have a plastic gun, including bullets that are plastic bullets, we wouldn't know about it. So whether you are talking about schools or this Chamber or whether we are talking about airports, any public space that we try to protect is going to be useless because these 3D-printed firearms are a direct threat to our national security, and we are going to let these go up on the internet tonight at midnight. I think some of our allies like the Israelis should be concerned about this because this is not limited to the United States. These can be printed anywhere in the world. Therefore, it can give national security apparatuses a great headache because they can't detect them. So as I stated in the unanimous consent request, I and other Senators have introduced the legislation today to block the online publication of blueprints. Now, as it turns out, since we can't do it here, and if the President can't do it in 8 hours 45 minutes, it is going online, and it is going to take us a long time--I mean, what Senator or Representative can object to this? So even if we can get the legislation passed, it is going to take a while because the legislative process is slow. We have also introduced a separate bill to require every gun to have a serial number and to have a main component made of metal so it can be detected by a metal detector. Obviously, this is all common sense. This is not a partisan issue. Everybody should be concerned about the threat posed by these deadly plastic guns. I had intended to give these remarks before asking for unanimous consent. As an accommodation to the Senator from Utah, who had to run to an appointment, I went ahead and asked that unanimous consent. But I want my fellow Senators, who have been so great and so articulate on this issue, to be heard. I ask for them to also speak--the Senator from Utah's objection was about First Amendment rights--about why those objections don't apply here. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the July 30, 2018, vote on Executive Calendar No. 1006, the motion to invoke cloture, on Britt Grant, of Georgia, to be U.S. circuit judge for the Eleventh Circuit. I would have voted no.

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, if we didn't have enough to worry about, as the Presiding Officer and this Senator have to worry about cyber security in our capacity on the Armed Services Committee; if we didn't have enough to worry about, with all that is happening where Americans are being threatened to be exchanged--some of our diplomats--for questioning, which, in effect, would be putting them outside of the United States and suddenly subjected to being scooped up and kidnapped, to be put into the Russian criminal situation; if we didn't have enough to be worried about, with everything the American people are facing every day, including a trade war that is starting to hurt the economies of hard-working American families; if we didn't have enough to worry about, wouldn't it be nice that we would only have to worry about that? But now we have to worry about 3D printing--printing hard plastic guns that cannot be detected by all the detectors at the airports that we are frequently encountering as we go through TSA. And that is not even speaking of all of the protections that are around this building, right here, in trying to keep harm from being done to otherwise hard-working Americans, a lot of them right here in this Capitol complex. But replicate this throughout all of the governmental entities, including courthouses, city halls, obviously airports, seaports, the entrances into military bases, and it goes on. How about courtrooms--it goes on and on. Now there is the capability of 3D printing, and the blueprints for putting together a 3D printed gun are now going to be allowed to go up on the internet on August 1. I don't understand why that is being allowed. It is true that there are plans that are out there, because when there is anything, it is going to get out there on the internet. But to say as a matter of governmental policy that we are not going to try to stop something that we try to stop every day in our activities, such as going into an airport or a government building, and we are going to suddenly put the plans out there so that people can go around and manufacture, with hard plastic, a gun that looks like this or some variant thereof. If you grab the handle here, you can see, there is the trigger. If you do that, you suddenly have a lethal weapon that can't be detected by a metal detector. What are we coming to? It is hard to overstate how dangerous these plastic guns can be. And you say: Well, maybe it is just like the Clint Eastwood movie about 25 years ago that depicted the Secret Service protecting the President. You say: Well, you could catch the bullet, even though that bullet got through, disguised as a keychain. Now you don't have to have metal bullets because you can create such a hard plastic that it would serve the same purpose, and we are going to put up on the internet plans on how to put this together and to manufacture it. It goes without saying that the metal detectors can't detect plastic, which means that a person concealing a deadly weapon could sail through security screenings without setting any alerts off. So with everything we have invested in TSA--we have aviation as our jurisdiction on the Commerce Committee, of which Senator Thune is the chairman--people can walk onto airplanes with deadly plastic guns. People could walk into schools. What have we been doing since there have been all of these shootings in schools? We have been talking about hardening schools. It wouldn't do any good if people could walk into schools with deadly plastic guns. We wouldn't know about it. Somebody could come into this building. Somebody could be sitting right up there in that Senate Gallery, and we wouldn't know about it. Many of us have recognized this danger for years. It was prophetic in that Clint Eastwood movie. In fact, we have a law on the books that requires all firearms to be manufactured with a metal part recognized by metal detectors. But there is a loophole in that law. Manufacturers can skirt the rules by simply attaching a removable metal piece to a plastic gun, and the consumer can remove that metal removable part. So this Senator will file a bill that would close that loophole by requiring at least one major component of the gun be made with enough metal to be detectable by a standard airport security screener. That is just common sense. But that doesn't get to the greater problem of putting the plans out on the internet. These plastic guns are a clear and present danger to the security of our communities, and the Trump administration has just acted to make it easier for people to manufacture these plastic guns in private, endangering everybody. Last week, the Justice Department and the State Department abruptly settled a 3-year-long battle to prevent a self-proclaimed anarchist from posting blueprints on how to make 3D printed guns, including an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, online for the public to access and download. Let me say what that was. The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. State Department abruptly settled a legal battle to prevent that. The administration's decision in that settlement paves the way for the man to post his blueprints online on August 1. Once those blueprints go live, we will never get them back. When the genie gets out of the bottle, you can't stuff him back in. The administration's decision is inexplicable, and it is dangerous. That is why this Senator and, I suspect, some other Senators have written to the Department of Justice demanding answers from the AG as to why his lawyers capitulated, after years of winning in the courts, to the deranged demands of plastic gun designers hell-bent on fundamentally undermining American security. I can't say it any clearer or any blunter. That is why I am speaking out today, and that is why I am speaking with the Administrator of TSA tomorrow to urge him to consider how in the world he is going to catch these at the airports. That is why I am filing a bill as soon as possible to severely restrict the publication of detailed, technical schematics for these deadly 3D- printed firearms. We already impose strict restrictions on posting bomb instructions online. If you can't post bomb instructions, why in the world should you be able to post instructions on how to manufacture that? So this Senator from Florida is here urging the Trump administration to suspend that settlement immediately. Our colleagues are going to fight tooth and nail to prevent these blueprints from getting published, but the power to stop the blueprints before August 1 rests squarely with the Trump administration. I never thought I would have to come to the Senate floor to make a speech like this, but this is no-fooling time, and the clock is ticking. This is July 25, and the deadline for when those prints will go up on the internet is August 1. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, do you remember children being separated from their families? This crisis is far from over. As a matter of fact, we found out it is not 2,000 children; it is 3,000 children. A district court judge in San Diego has ordered the administration to reunite all of the families who were separated at the border by Thursday. Yet with the deadline looming this week, the administration continues to cite the many obstacles it says that are hindering the work they are trying to do to comply with the court's order. When I went to the detention center in Homestead, FL, they said they were going to reunite families soon thereafter. That was more than a month and a half ago. As a matter of fact, of the 1,300 children that had been separated from their parents, there were 70 of them who were there. They would not let me speak to them, so I inquired about whether the children had been able to speak to their parents on the phone. I was told that of the 70, 62 of the children had spoken to their parents. It has recently been made clear why some of those families have been unable to connect for so long. A report that was just published stated that the administration--the Trump administration--has been charging detained parents--get this--as much as $8 a minute to call their children. These children were separated from their parents because the administration separated them. That is $8 a minute if you want to talk to your child. That is a new low. Charging these families an exorbitant fee such as this, just to talk--just to talk--to their children, when the cost of providing that service is minimal, that is not even a conscionable act. Many of those families have come and asked for political asylum. They are asking for what the law provides, and yet we have separated the children from their parents and have prevented those parents from simply using the telephone to contact their children. Many of those children are just terrified, and they are being held thousands of miles away. It is not only unnecessary, it is simply cruel. It also seems to fly in the face of ICE's own policy to permit calls by detainees to immediate family members in case there are family emergencies and to do so at a reasonable cost, certainly not $8 a minute for poor families who don't have $1, much less $8. A number of us in the Senate have now sent a letter urging the administration to stop this ridiculous practice and allow those parents the ability to talk to their children. The list of obstacles this administration claims it is facing in order to reunite the families seems to be never-ending. But I would suggest that the list of obstacles the administration has created for these families to overcome, just to see their children again, seems to go on and on. As a country, the United States is better than this. We should be making it easier for these families to reconnect and ultimately bring them back together, as the court has ordered. There are many in this Chamber who would certainly join with me. We are not going to turn our backs on these children. We will continue to fight to ensure that they and everyone else are being treated the way the American people want them to be treated. I urge this administration to do the same, and I urge the administration to pay attention to the letter by a couple of dozen Senators that is coming to them today. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, this Senator came to talk about trade, and I am going to do that, but I think what we have is an example of extremes in politics that is on display before us. I think, on the one hand, political points are trying to be scored about the abolition of certain law enforcement organizations. On the other hand, there are the political points that a government, especially our government, should not have a policy of separating children from their parents, unless the parents have committed a crime and need to be incarcerated for the purpose of that crime. Here we have the extremes again going to either side, when, in fact, if there were good will, if there were not such a highly polarized, highly charged, partisan atmosphere, in part, as we say in the South, egged on by various Members of the leadership in the Congress as well as the Executive--if we didn't have all of that, we could get a lot more done. The genius of American politics is for us to be able to come together, to respect each other, to understand the other fellow's point of view, and then work out our differences. It is the same thing on the international stage. That is why we see it is so difficult to reach international agreements when people have gotten hardened into positions because of race or religion or political balance. So if you note a tone of sadness in this Senator's voice, then you are correct because, again, we are seeing the polarization of American politics. Why can't we have a law enforcement organization that also doesn't have to operate under a policy of separating children from their parents? That is the commonsense point of view, but, no, we devolve into these extremes.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. NELSON. Indeed, this Senator is interested. Would you believe that a lot of those retired players who are still living happen to live in Florida?

Mr. NELSON. Further, as the Senator correctly pointed out, once Jackie Robinson was able to break into the majors in 1947, it would be another 11 years--1958--before the last team in the Major Leagues integrated. Would you believe, for all of that period of time, these great baseball players who have contributed so much had no pensions? Further, it was years later in this Senate--in the last decade--that, finally, the Commissioner of Baseball was brought in front of the Commerce Committee in order to face the music about the fact that the retired players who had not played in Major League Baseball but in the old Negro leagues in America--because they couldn't get into Major League Baseball, even while the rest of the teams were being integrated, which took 11 years--had no pensions. Would you believe that Major League Baseball, through Bud Selig, finally agreed to give them onetime pension payments? This Senator is so grateful because that has helped so many of the residents in my State who are these great players. Senator Blunt has so accurately described their considerable talents on the baseball field.

Mr. NELSON. If the Senator will yield, as a matter of fact, I am looking forward to seeing that museum. It was one of the Senator's players on the Kansas City Monarchs-- ``Peach-Head'' Bob Mitchell, retired, who was living in my State--who brought to the attention of his Senator the inequity that had occurred in their never getting pensions, even though they were certainly capable of getting into Major League Baseball but, because of segregation, could not.

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, almost everybody in the world knows by now that the President met with Vladimir Putin today. While nobody knows what the two Presidents said in their private meeting, what they said afterward certainly should alarm all of us. President Trump refused, once again, to accept the fact that Russia, at Putin's order, interfered in our elections. What the President said was alarming, it was embarrassing, and it is unacceptable. We know Putin interfered, and we know he will do it again in our upcoming elections. This is from the unanimous report of the intelligence community of this country and was reaffirmed earlier today by the Director of National Intelligence, former Senator Dan Coats, who was President Trump's appointee. In its January 2017 assessment, the IC assessed that Russian President Putin ordered an influence campaign in the 2016 election, which was aimed at the U.S. Presidential election. That assessment described the campaign as a mix of cyber operations that were conducted by Russian intelligence services in its overt use of propaganda and fake social media accounts and trolls. Take it from President Trump's own administration. Then-Director of the CIA and now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged the Russian interference. He stood by the intelligence community's assessments, and that was a year and a half ago. He even said he had every expectation that Russia would continue to try to interfere in our elections. A few days ago, Dan Coats, who is the Director of the DNI, said: The warning lights are blinking red again. . . . The digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack. Just this past Friday, the Justice Department announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking the Clinton campaign and the DNC. This is just the latest in a series of indictments. Today, though, the President, while standing right next to Vladimir Putin, said that while the men and women of the U.S. intelligence community concluded with high confidence that Putin did, indeed, interfere in our elections, President Trump said: [President Putin] said it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be. That is rather curious. Even worse, the President stood next to Putin and said the United States was to blame for the Russian aggression. Let me repeat that. The President stood next to Putin and said the United States was to blame for the Russian aggression. This Senator believes our own intelligence community, not a former KGB spy and colonel who is bent on undermining democracy and the rule of law around the world, is whom you ought to believe. What does a spy do? In order to achieve a spy's ends, the spy lies. That is what and how Vladimir Putin was trained, and it is obvious he is no friend of the United States. There has been a lot of discussion about Russia, and I know that, at times, it can be confusing to everyday folks. Yet amidst all of the talk and the disinformation, it is critically important that we don't lose sight of the threat to our democracy. That is what Russian interference in our elections is. It is an attack on the very foundation of our democratic institutions. Of course, that is what Putin is trying to do--invade our own democracy in order to divide us; it is to undermine our own faith in our own institutions, and to ultimately undermine American leadership in the world. This should not be a partisan issue in America, in our domestic politics. I hope we come together quickly, in a bipartisan way, to defend ourselves and to finally push back on Putin. I hope we insist that the White House enforces all of the economic sanctions the Congress has already pushed through but that the White House has been very slow to enact. I hope this Congress is also going to enact more economic sanctions and get them to where they will really start causing a crimp in the step of the Russian leaders. Why not start freezing the bank accounts of some of its highest leaders? First, the United States, led by our President, has to see the enemy and the threat for what they are. Now, going on 2 years into his administration, the President is unwilling to stand up to Putin--man- to-man, eyeball-to-eyeball--and to defend our country. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

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

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Nat recommended focusing on projects like bridging the Tamiami Trail, which is U.S. 41--virtually a dike across the southern peninsula of Florida. It is now being bridged, first with a mile-long bridge, and now--under construction--with a 2\1/2\-mile bridge so the water can flow under the road into the water-starved Everglades National Park. He recommended focusing on projects like restoring the Kissimmee River to its natural meandering state. Half a century ago, when all the emphasis was on flood control, getting the water off the land, they took this meandering stream called the Kissimmee River that cleansed the water as it oozed south in all of the marsh grasses, and what did they do? They dug a straight ditch. Nat was one of the leaders in advocating restoring the river to its natural meandering state so that by the time the water gets to Lake Okeechobee, it will have been cleaned up by natural processes. Both of those projects--Tamiami Trail and the Kissimmee River--are now well underway, and we are already seeing the benefits to the environment and to the wildlife. Nat also wrote about the importance of water storage and treatment projects both north and south of the lake--a refrain this Senator often repeats as well. That is why I not only respect and appreciate so much what Nat contributed to our country and to our State but also loved him as a friend. His untimely death today in an accident in Canada is a huge loss. Nat and I had been so focused on advancing this new reservoir project south of Lake Okeechobee. It saddens me so much to announce this good news at the same time that I announce the death of one of the Nation's true environmental champions. In the years to come, as we go about actually constructing that reservoir, it would be a fitting tribute to name that project in Nat Reed's honor. All we can do is try to continue his life's work protecting Florida's unique environment. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I received very good news for Florida this morning. The Army Corps of Engineers has signed off on a long-awaited report that will allow Congress to authorize a new reservoir project south of Lake Okeechobee in the upcoming Water Resources Development Act--what we refer to as the water bill. Many of us in Florida have been pushing the Army Corps and the Trump administration to approve this project for months and months. Last week I was in the area of Lake Okeechobee visiting with folks affected by the algae blooms on the west coast over in Fort Myers on the Caloosahatchee River and on the east coast in Stuart on the St. Lucie River. They are facing a problem that seems to repeat itself almost every year. The heat of summer and the excess nutrients in the water--put those together, and you get the algae blooms that suck the oxygen out of the river, making it a dead river because there is not enough oxygen in the water for the fish. There was a similarly bad algae bloom back in 2016, in 2013, and many times in years past. The pollution in Lake Okeechobee created a toxic brew of a blue-green algae that blooms and that at one point this summer covered 90 percent of Lake Okeechobee. Because the lake has risen to a 14\1/2\-foot level, the Army Corps will most likely have to resume releasing water to the east in the St. Lucie and to the west in the Caloosahatchee because of the pressure on the dike around Lake Okeechobee. Thus, here we go again--more nutrient-laden water flowing into these waterways in the heat of summer, and then the algae blooms just keep going and going. There is one of many projects that can help, which is definitely a step in the right direction. The reservoir project that the Army Corps approved today is so critical because once it is constructed, it will provide storage so that the Corps doesn't have to discharge as much water to the east and to the west. When you combine that with the fact that just last week, the Army Corps, through the White House budget office, let us know they have approved the funds to strengthen the dike and accelerate its construction--the combination of these kinds of things is going to help, so that the Army Corps of Engineers doesn't have to release that nutrient-rich water, which will cause the algae blooms. This reservoir to the south of the lake will include water treatment features so that the water can be cleaned as well as stored before it is sent farther south in the long journey that Mother Nature intended-- sending that water in a slow, gravity-drained, southward flow through the river of grass otherwise known as the Florida Everglades. Many of us were cheering the news today that this project will be ready for inclusion in the water bill, which the Senate will be taking up perhaps next week. It was interesting timing to get the Corps of Engineers' report so that we could get this project in as a part of the overall Everglades restoration project.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I would just say to my friend the majority leader, that is exactly what I intend to do--to be fair, respectful, and talk with and have a conversation with the nominee and then exercise my judgment of what is in the best interest of the country as well as my State of Florida.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Just last week, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that additional money, the $514 million in disaster supplemental funding for the Herbert Hoover Dike, and that will complete that project earlier than 2025, accelerating completion to 2022, as Senator Rubio and I had requested. This funding is on top of what we have already spent over a decade and a half--$1 billion shoring up the dike. This didn't happen just yesterday. This happened 15, 20 years ago, and we have already spent $1 billion. We are going to get it accelerated all the way to 2022. That is coming in time. While getting that additional funding to speed up work on the dike is certainly good news, it is important to remember that fixing the dike is important for public safety, to protect the communities that are living around Lake Okeechobee. It is not the solution to ending the discharges, and it is not solving the algae crisis. It is one step on the road to try to stop all of this algae bloom that occurs every year. Once that dike is fully repaired, the Army Corps then expects to be able to store about 6 more inches of water. In a big lake like that, that is a lot of water. That is good news because that flexibility helps, especially during the algae bloom breakouts, because you can hold more water back in the lake and you don't have to dump it into the St. Lucie or the Caloosahatchee. The only way to end those damaging discharges is to move ahead with Everglades restoration projects north of the lake, as well as the projects designed to take water from the lake, clean it, and send it south, as Mother Nature initially intended it to go. That is why we need to get critical projects like the Central Everglades Planning Project and the new reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area south of the lake moving as fast as we can. To do that, we need more than the small amount the President has requested for next year. In fact, we need upward of $200 million a year to really start making progress in restoring the Everglades. Voters in Florida overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment to dedicate a portion of the documentary stamp tax to land acquisition for environmental projects. Florida is sensitive to the environment, and that is why the voters voted an increase in the documentary stamp tax for themselves. What happened is that the government of the State of Florida hasn't been using that money for what the people intended when they voted in a referendum. Instead of using that money as it was intended, the State of Florida is trying to divert it to other purposes, such as filling in budget shortages or employees' salaries or other items unrelated to environmental expenses, and now we have suits that have tied all that up in litigation. It is further distracting from the overall goal of restoring the Everglades. The Federal Government should take the lead and do what is right. We should move forward and fully fund the ongoing Everglades restoration projects. We also need to get the House of Representatives to pass the harmful algal bloom reauthorization bill, which was introduced by this Senator, and the Senate passed it unanimously a year ago. This bill would reauthorize funding for the Federal task force that is studying the harmful algae blooms like the one I have been describing here. I hope every Member of the Florida delegation--especially those who are in areas where water is allowing algae to bloom--will join this Senator in calling on the Speaker of the House to take up and pass this important bill in the House. We need to do it fast while all of this algae is blooming, and that would be before the House goes out in recess for their August break. Time is critical. Again, I want to show you what this algae looks like. You can see these thick chunks on the surface of the water where it almost looks like a blue-green carpet. When that algae dies, you can't believe the smell that comes from it. We must act, and the time to act is now. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I have some remarks with which to explain the two unanimous consent requests that I am making. I understand, to accommodate the schedule of the Senator from Wisconsin, I will make the unanimous consent requests prior to my remarks. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized upon the disposition of the unanimous consent requests.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 2880, a bill to establish a pilot program for long-term rental assistance for families affected by major disasters, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I have another unanimous consent request. Let me just say, as to the unanimous consent request that the Senator from Wisconsin has just objected to, indeed, FEMA does oppose this. That is the whole purpose of the UC request, for people are about to get shut out of the temporary housing that they have in their having been evacuated from Puerto Rico to Florida. According to FEMA, this program runs out on June 30. In fact, a law on the books says that FEMA could activate that program just as it did after Hurricane Katrina for the poor people in New Orleans who had to evacuate from their homes. In that case, most of them evacuated to a different State. A lot of them went to Houston, TX. If the Presiding Officer hears emotion in this Senator's voice, indeed, it is there. I will address the remarks later. Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2066 Mr. President, my second unanimous consent request involves a matter of Medicaid assistance and housing assistance to families who have been affected by a major disaster. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Finance Committee, of which this Senator is a part, be discharged from further consideration of S. 2066, a bill to provide housing and Medicaid assistance to families affected by a major disaster; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, both of these UC requests are because there are a lot of people who are hurting in the aftermath of two hurricanes having hit Puerto Rico and because the island is still in great distress. Our fellow U.S. citizens on the island of Puerto Rico are, indeed, in great distress. It is not only because of the slow assistance by FEMA but because of the lack of electricity, as parts of Puerto Rico today are without electricity, with its going on 10 months after the hurricane. It is because of the number of people who are fleeing the island and, therefore, the jobs are not available because the economy has been so crippled. Naturally, a number of those people have fled to where they can find safety and shelter and put their children in school. By the way, there are a number of schools in Puerto Rico that are closed. Not just tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have fled the island to the States where there will be decent opportunities to get jobs, and a good number of them are in my State of Florida. In Florida, there are 600 families who have been in temporary housing. It is called TSA. It is called temporary shelter assistance. About 100 of those families have moved on to other States, and another 100 of those families have returned to the island. Yet 400 of those families are still in our State, and a good number of those 400 families are still in temporary shelter assistance. At least FEMA did not stop this assistance in March. We got them to extend it until the end of May and then pointed out that a lot of these families in that temporary assistance had children in school and that they needed to complete the academic year. The assistance was extended until 2 days from now, June 30. They have nowhere to go. By both husband and wife working two jobs, some of them have collected enough savings to be able to afford apartments. The problem is that the apartment rentals want security deposits that are three or four times the monthly rents. Many of these families do not have that much money saved as a result of their being unable to find work. It seems to me that the humane thing to do is to activate again the part of the law that is still on the books that was activated after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, of which this Senator asked for unanimous consent and to which it has been objected by the Republican side, for the purpose of there being transitional housing assistance. That bill was filed by a number of us. It was the only way to get action since we just heard the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee say that FEMA was not going to extend it and does not support it. If it were good enough for the people who fled New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, why isn't it good enough for the people in Florida, our fellow U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, who have been equally devastated after their having fled the deplorable conditions on their native island? In the wake of those hurricanes, there are thousands of displaced families who are still unable to return to their homes. This includes the hundreds of families--and we estimate its being about 400 families--who are in the State of Florida. Despite that fact, FEMA is still saying that it is ending this transitional shelter assistance. This decision to stop providing assistance to these families has many of them very scared. They are scrambling to figure out what they are going to do and to find affordable places. We have reached out to churches, and we have reached out to other charitable organizations to try to help them afford the deposits even when they have the income now from one or both spouses having worked two jobs to be able to afford the apartments. So what we have been trying to do with this legislation, now rejected by our Republican friends, is we have been trying to urge the Agency to do the right thing--use the existing law and activate it. It was done for New Orleans; why not now for Puerto Rico? The situation that many of these families find themselves in is a situation no family should have to go through. I suspect that what we are going to see come Sunday in Florida by the news organizations will be a chronicle of some who will be living in a car or going down to a homeless shelter. Some of them have lost everything because of these storms. Too many are still unable to find work or to find affordable housing and especially the security deposit. For many of them, the only thing they have is the help FEMA is providing, but that is only good for 2 more days. We have tried, but the Senator from Wisconsin, at the direction of the Republican leader, has said they are not going to let this legislation come up. These folks are not looking for a handout; they just need a little help getting back on their feet after the storms took everything from them. The fact that FEMA has put an arbitrary deadline on this aid rather than trying to work with the people defies logic. FEMA's TSA Program is critical and it has been critical to providing for them. While I recognize that the TSA Program was a temporary fix, you just can't end a temporary fix when people are being thrown out on the streets. So that was an attempt to force FEMA to act, this request to pass the legislation forcing them to act. That is why this Senator made the unanimous consent request. The second unanimous consent request this Senator asked for was to activate a housing program of additional section 8 housing. Florida has used up its meager allocation. This would have given additional section 8 housing for those among the least fortunate of us. I thank my cosponsors--Senators Blumenthal, Warren, Markey, Gillibrand, Harris, and Baldwin--for their understanding of this situation and for signing on as cosponsors with me. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments to recognize my friend and esteemed president of the University of Central Florida, John Hitt. On June 30, John will step down as president after 26 years. John was the first in his family to graduate from college, and ever since then, he has continued to work in academia through his leadership at the University of Maine, Bradley University, Texas Christian University, Tulane University, and most recently, the University of Central Florida. Since he assumed his role in 1992, UCF has seen its enrollment more than triple to over 66,000 students. It has also tripled the number of minority students at UCF, who currently make up 46 percent of the UCF student body. As the current longest serving president in Florida's State University System, John has been involved in UCF receiving $2.23 billion in research funding, creating 71 new degree programs, and launching more than $1 billion in new construction, including more than 100 new buildings. Among them is the UCF College of Medicine that anchors the Medical City at Lake Nona. His many awards and honors include being recognized as one of America's 10 most innovative college presidents by Washington Monthly magazine and twice being ranked No. 1 on Orlando Magazine's list of Orlando's 50 Most Powerful People. Most impressively, John, a first-generation college student, has awarded more than 270,000 degrees, which translates to about 83 percent of all degrees conferred in UCF history. John awarded more degrees within the State University System of Florida than any other university president in Sunshine State history. In his inaugural presidential address in 1992, John said, ``UCF is an institution founded on partnership in a city that dares to dream. We are a university founded on the principles of access to high quality education at affordable cost, of research directed to public need, and of service to the people of our state, region and nation. I fervently believe that UCF will become America's leading metropolitan university.'' His dedication to his students, university, and community will be remembered by the large UCF Knight family and the people of central Florida. I am proud to call John a friend, and we will all miss his leadership at UCF. I wish him well on his retirement.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would like to recognize and celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Tampa alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. For 90 years, the members of the Tampa alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi have provided leadership, dedication, and service to Tampa. Through their community initiatives and fundraisers, they have helped thousands in their community. The Tampa alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi was founded in 1928 on the belief of service to one another and the community, during a time when African Americans faced legal and institutional discrimination both on and off college campuses. The current members of the alumni chapter have dedicated their time to providing leadership and service in their community, most recently organizing a Martin Luther King, Jr., day of service focused on disaster preparedness. The past and present members of the Tampa Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity should inspire everyone to make their own communities better. One quality members of Kappa Alpha Psi strive for is excellence in everything they do, and over the past 90 years, the members of the Tampa alumni chapter have provided excellent leadership and service to their community in Tampa. The celebration and reflection of 90 years of service shows how far we have come in the United States and how much work is still left to do.