Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that morning business be extended until 2:15 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

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 I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the tobacco control act. It has been said over and over--and I want to reassert-- that tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. It kills more than 400,000 Americans each year. That is staggering. We think of all the deaths by automobiles. Here tobacco is killing close to half a million people a year. An additional 50,000 a year are dying because of exposure to secondhand smoke. I will never forget, when I was a kid, flying on airplanes. It was back in the days that people smoked on airplanes. I would come off of the airplane, and I would smell the sleeve of my coat, and it would be total tobacco smoke. Breaking it down for my State of Florida: 28,000 people die each year in my State alone from tobacco-related illnesses. Despite the risk involved with tobacco consumption, 20 percent of Americans--that is almost 40 million people--still smoke cigarettes. It is tough to break the habit. Fortunately, I have never been a smoker, but I understand people who are. One of them is our President. It is tough to break the habit. I was with him a lot during the campaign, because he was in my State campaigning. He would break out that pack of Nicorette chewing gum. He would go to work on that chewing gum. And more power and more credit to the President for breaking this habit. It is tough. Here is what is sad. Nearly 90 percent of smokers began as children, and they got addicted by the time they were adults. It is estimated that 3,500 children try cigarettes for the first time each day, and each day 1,000 children become regular smokers. It would really be something if we could change that. Look at what it would save us in health care costs. We are getting ready to mark up in this month, in the Finance Committee and in the HELP Committee, the big health reform package. Think how much money we could save if we didn't have all of these deaths because of tobacco usage. And of course, the health care cost resulting from tobacco use amounts to $96 billion a year, more than $54 billion of which is borne by the Federal Government. We can see that would be staggering, if we had a magic wand and we could stop this health care cost to the country. No wonder our health care costs are so high, if you look at that and the addiction to alcohol and all of the health care costs. Yet tobacco products are largely an unregulated product. It basically is exempt from requirements to disclose product ingredients and exempt from undergoing product testing. On top of that, manufacturers are able to advertise and market products to youth without the necessary restrictions. At least we have stopped magazine advertisements and TV advertisements. But have my colleagues seen this new kind of candy that is being marketed that is basically to addict children to nicotine? When are we going to put an end to this? There are a bunch of us who are cosponsoring this bill to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products. This legislation would try to restrict youth smoking by restricting access to tobacco products and prohibit marketing campaigns that specifically target children. If this is such a bad thing and a consequence on the financial condition of the country, isn't that something we ought to stop, targeting children to get them hooked? What we find is, so many adults were hooked when they were children. This legislation is also going to try to put a bead on consumer safety by requiring full disclosure of the product ingredients--that would have to be disclosed to the Food and Drug Administration--and for the FDA to mandate the elimination of certain ingredients and additives that are going to be put out there for consumers. This bill is going to try to make sure we get adequate and accurate information out to the public by giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to restrict tobacco marketing, to require stronger warning labels and to regulate the manufacturers' claims about certain products having fewer health risks. Tobacco use costs us billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. When are we going to learn? Now is the time for us to step up and try to help protect the public from dangerous products and the very subtle tactics used to get young people addicted to tobacco. I sure hope we are going to be able to pass this bill and pass it fairly quickly this week. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, I wish to talk about health care reform which is just about happening. We have an unprecedented opportunity to reform our health system. It has major flaws. It is one that has left 46 million people in this country without health insurance and millions of others are struggling to afford the cost of health care. It is in need of repair, and that is what this Senate, this Congress is going to try to tackle in the next few months. As a matter of fact, the majority leader has expressed his intention to have such a bill of monumental proportions on this Senate floor for consideration by next month. It is ambitious, but it is necessary. We have no choice but to succeed. The health care costs are felt by many of our fellow Americans. There are significant economic costs associated with this broken system. Those who lack insurance have few options for care, which means they will delay and delay treatment until the condition worsens to the point that what could have been treated has turned into a full-blown emergency. Guess what happens. Where do they go? They go to the emergency room, and it is the most expensive place. As a result, the cost of that expensive care is borne by all Americans with health insurance by us paying higher premiums for those who do not have any insurance, but they still get the care. This is a phenomenal statistic. According to research done by Families USA, our families in America with health insurance paid an additional $1,000, on average, last year to cover the care for the uninsured. One very important component, therefore, of this package that the Senate Finance Committee is going to take up pretty soon and try to pass--I hope we are able to do it--is bipartisanship. We keep hearing it is going to be done in a bipartisan way. I know the chairman and the ranking member of the Finance Committee are committed to trying to do that. But at the end of the day, the proof is going to be in the pudding. Are the Republicans on the Finance Committee going to support a committee approach? Will they support universal health insurance, which is what I described? It is hard to disagree with what I described, insuring all those 46 million so the average family does not pay an additional thousand bucks on their health insurance premiums to care for those who are uninsured. That is hard to disagree with. But somehow the word ``universal'' has some taint on it. That is what it is. So until we have everyone in the system, we are going to continue to see the inefficiencies and the cost shifting I described. In this system that I think we are going to bring to the floor, those who like what they have are going to be able to keep it. If you are happy with your insurance, with your employer, and it is affordable to you, you can certainly keep it. But for those who cannot afford insurance or those who have the very sad tales we have heard, have a preexisting condition and, therefore, they cannot even get insurance coverage, this insurance reform package is going to mean they are going to have access to insurance that is going to be affordable and that is going to be quality. In this reform system that I hope we are going to be able to pass, insurers are going to have to be prohibited from denying coverage based on a preexisting condition. The needs of those individuals are often the greatest, and they deserve to be met. We are also going to try something called a health insurance exchange. It would simplify the process of purchasing insurance, and it could be simplified in purchasing it through a Web portal that would present all of the available insurance options in a comprehensive manner and in a comprehendible manner and expedite the enrollment process with a standardized application. If you are satisfied with your employer's insurance, you stay right there. But all the others who want an alternative or cannot get insurance from an insurance company, they would have this health insurance exchange, participated in by the private insurance companies that would have a series of maybe a half-dozen standardized policies, that then those insurance companies would bid--make available, in other words--competition, get the free market competition going on for those who could offer the best policy at the best price for all those millions of Americans who would want to purchase from that health insurance exchange. As we do this package, it is also important for us to focus on cost. Health care costs have skyrocketed. They have been increasing at a rate much higher than the average American's paycheck. In addition to placing a prohibitive financial burden on American families, these costs are affecting American businesses as well and their ability to compete in the global marketplace. So health care reform is going to have to be assisting individuals, families, and businesses in managing what has become an overwhelming expense. As we consider this package, we ought to provide tax credits. We can do tax credits that could help small businesses to offset the cost of providing the insurance to their employees, if that is what they choose, instead of doing it through the health insurance exchange. Tax credits could also be extended to low-income individuals to assist them in purchasing coverage from that exchange. Along with those incentives, there would also come the responsibility for insurance coverage that would be shared by individuals and, in some cases, their employers. Then we always have the question of what should be the eligibility in the Medicaid Program. Medicaid is a joint State-Federal program for the poor and for the disadvantaged. One of the things that will be taken up will be that coverage should be expanded through the Medicaid Program by increasing eligibility for parents, for children, and for pregnant women who otherwise cannot afford the health care. I also think it is important to have reform that promotes quality care by mandating coverage of the services necessary to maintain health and wellness. What do I mean? I mean primary care, a lot of what we talk about that is preventive care so you get at the root of the problem before it becomes a big problem, and then it becomes expensive to treat. Get at the root of the problem, and a lot of that is with primary care doctors and other health providers who provide that very important preventive medicine. For example, diabetes, heart disease--if you catch it early, you can prevent the big problems. But prevention requires knowledge and awareness that comes with comprehensive care, and it is critical that preventive care is available to Medicaid and Medicare recipients and, therefore, also in that health insurance exchange. We are going to have to bring these preventive services into these programs. I close by saying we have come in this country to feel, as we should, that access to a quality, affordable health insurance system is a right. We certainly do not have that now. The system is cockeyed. This is a historic opportunity to answer this need by expanding and improving coverage while cutting the wasteful spending and addressing the flaws of the system. The time for reform is now. We are going to start hashing it out, as we have been in these long roundtable sessions in the Finance Committee. I hope this can be bipartisan, but the proof is going to be in the pudding on final passage. Are there going to be votes, and how many from both sides of the aisle? If we are successful, it is going to turn around our ability to have adequate quality and affordable health care, which we need. But it is going to do one more thing: It is going to start bringing under control the exploding cost of Medicare and Medicaid that, over the next 20 to 30 years, unless we change it, the Government is not going to be able to afford. That doesn't say one thing about cutting back on access to care nor the quality of care; it simply speaks to bringing those costs under control by rooting out the inefficiencies in the system and doing a lot of the things I have just talked about. I look forward with great gusto to tackling what is one of the most enormous problems facing us. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with the Senate later in the week about GEN Charlie Bolden to be the next head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, later on this week, I will talk about the plans we have in the Space and Science Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee to do the hearings on the President's nominee for the NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator, and I will announce that timetable later, after conferring with Senator Rockefeller, the chairman of the Commerce Committee. I have a lot to say about the President's nominee, who I think is going to be one of the outstanding Administrators of NASA. GEN Charlie Bolden will take over at a critical time in NASA's history because NASA is in drift. It is right at the ending of the life of the space shuttle as we finish the next eight missions to further complete the construction of the space station and equip it to be the national laboratory it is designed to be and then to ramp up in the development and testing of the new rocket, a program called Constellation, the rocket Aries, the capsule, hearkening back to some of the similar designs of the old capsule in the Apollo days, this one being called Orion, carrying a crew of up to seven, or should I say a crew of six. All that is now under review by a specially appointed Presidential commission, headed by a very esteemed aerospace expert, former Lockheed Martin CEO, now retired, Norm Augustine. I will have more to say about this later, but let me congratulate President Obama on such an exceptional appointment. It is needed because our space program is certainly a part of the American character. GEN Charlie Bolden is the right person at the right time to lead this little agency out of the wilderness to the promised land, and that promised land is a robust space program, both human and unmanned, as we explore. That is what we are, we are explorers by nature.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

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

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the period of morning business be extended until 5:45 p.m. under the same conditions as previously ordered.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. With those very generous assurances by these esteemed Senators, I am grateful, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. The Senator is so gracious, and he always has been, I say to my colleague, Senator Inouye.

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

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, we have an emergency situation all over, in about 20 or 25 States, that I explained to the Senate yesterday, involving imported Chinese drywall which, when exposed to heat and humidity, is emitting gases that are making people sick in their homes, that is in fact corroding all of the metal, that is going after the copper tubing in the plumbing and the air conditioners--so much so that they are having to replace the air conditioners--in some homes, over the course of the last 3 or 4 years, having to replace the air conditioner three times. We had, in front of Senator Inouye's former committee, the Commerce Committee, of which he obviously is still a member but he is now the chairman of the Appropriations Committee--we had in front of the committee a panel of the people from the various agencies, and the representatives from the Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as the EPA wanted to do the next test. They did the first test and they compared Chinese drywall to American drywall and they found out that what was different is that the Chinese drywall had sulfur, it had strontium, and it had elements found in acrylic paint. But they drew no conclusions, so they want to do the next test. The next test would be under controlled conditions, to put it in a situation where they simulate heat of the United States summer, and humidity, and then see the gases that are emitted from it and determine to what degree, then, are they harmful to people who are having all these effects of respiratory problems, they can't breathe--it is exacerbating their allergies, it is exacerbating things such as asthma--and in some cases their pediatricians have said to the mom and the daddy: Get these children out of the house. Yet they still have a mortgage payment and where are they going to go? If they don't have other family to move in with, they have to rent, yet still pay on the mortgage. And oh, by the way, the bank is not working with them to give them some relief on their mortgage. So we have homeowners who, as we say in the South, are in a fix; they do not know what to do. We need to go to the second test. That second test is estimated to be $1.5 million. Senator Landrieu, Senator Vitter, and a whole bunch of us had offered an amendment that was going to say it had to come out of the CPSC's funds, no new appropriation, but we can't get this passed here since we are in gridlock over this supplemental appropriations bill and we are down to the wire. What I would like to do--and only by the gracious generosity of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee--he has offered to indicate his interest and willingness to make sure that the EPA and the CPSC are being directed by the Congress to do this test so we can get it to the next step without wasting any more time. The CPSC told us today, in the Commerce Committee, they have plenty of money to do it. The EPA said they have funds to do it. And they are both willing to do it. The problem is we don't know, since they are midlevel managers, if the head of the CPSC is going to be willing to do this, since the head is a short termer and she has not been that cooperative in the past. So I invite the very distinguished Senator from Hawaii, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, to state if he, as he indicated so graciously, would be willing to pour the full weight of the Appropriations Committee behind this effort not to waste any time and to have the EPA and CPSC do this test for the sake of the health of our people.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Yes, absolutely, to the distinguished Senator from Illinois.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

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

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, Senator Landrieu and I have filed an amendment that we hope the Appropriations Committee will accept for $2 million to be appropriated, set aside for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. You would wonder why a sum of money of that size compared to the scope of the appropriations bills out here would need to have direction to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Of course, I wonder the same thing because they have a budget that is certainly much more robust than it has been in the past as a result of the Consumer Product Safety Commission authorization bill we passed last year. Nevertheless, we have an emergency that has arisen with regard to a consumer product for which the Safety Commission Acting Chairman has said they do not have enough money. So Senator Landrieu and I are offering this amendment. Let me tell you what this consumer threat is. On or about the years 2004-2005, because of the high demand for construction in the aftermath of two very active hurricane seasons--2004 and 2005--as a matter of fact, we had four hurricanes just in my State of Florida within a 6- week period. Those four hurricanes covered up the entire State. Then, of course, you remember the active hurricane season of 2005, which ended in the debacle in New Orleans, with Hurricane Katrina and hitting the Mississippi coast. Then along came Hurricane Rita, which also hit the Texas coast as well as Louisiana. In the aftermath of that, of course, there was a lot of construction. One of the essential items in construction, even in the State of the esteemed ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, is something known as drywall because you put up the studs in a unit--let's say a home--and you put drywall on it, and that makes the walls. Drywall is usually made with gypsum, which is mined and produced in America. It is actually a byproduct of the mining of phosphate. On the outside of the gypsum they put something like a cardboard-thick paper, and that becomes a drywall sheet that actually is the facing of a wall. But because there was such a demand for this drywall in the aftermath of those hurricane years, they started importing from China something known as Chinese drywall. Well, we think Chinese drywall is in as many as 100,000 homes in this country. Just in my State, the State of Florida, it may be in 36,000 to 50,000 homes. Here is what is happening. People who live in homes with Chinese drywall are getting sick. First of all, if you enter the home--as I have, in several homes in Florida--there is a pungent kind of smell that is something like rotten eggs. For this Senator, whose respiratory system is very sensitive to any of these things, once I was in there for 5 or 10 minutes, suddenly I found my respiratory system choking up. When you talk to these people whose homes have this Chinese drywall, sure enough, that is what is happening. But that is not what is only happening. Normally, copper tubing--whether it is part of the plumbing or whether it is part of an air conditioner--as it gets old, it gets green. The bright shiny copper turns green. Not so in a home with Chinese drywall. It starts turning black and crusty, and it starts deteriorating the coils on an air conditioner. Mr. President, this is no kidding. Some of those houses I visited have had to replace the coils in the air conditioner three times. Or what about the house outside of Bradenton, FL, that I went to, where just a month before the elderly couple had gone on a trip to Cozumel, Mexico, where they had bought for the wife a silver bracelet. They brought it back. It had been in the house a month, and it had turned completely black. So, obviously, you can see that something has happened. What about going into the bathroom? You have a mirror in the bathroom and, suddenly, you start seeing the reflective part of the mirror start chunking off. What about the kids who have respiratory problems and their pediatrician is telling the parents: Get that child out of the house. Well, where do they go? I visited one single mother. She took her child and moved in with her mother. But she is still paying the mortgage payments. What about that other family down the street who did not have family close by? They had to move out and rent a place. But they are still, because their mortgage company will not work with them, having to pay the mortgage in order not to lose their house. What about the poor homebuilder? The poor homebuilder is having trouble enough as it is in the economy we are in with the sale of houses going down. The poor homeowner asks: Who is responsible for this? And maybe the homebuilder is not even around because they might have gone bust because of the economy. So who does the poor homeowner turn to? Well, I can tell you, a lot of those homeowners are turning to their elected officials. The sad thing is we have people in dire need, and all of the pleas to the Consumer Product Safety Commission--which, by the way, drug their feet 2 and 3 years ago on defective toys coming in from China--they say even though they have the legal authority--and they do--to impound this stuff, to freeze the assets of the distributing company of this stuff-- they have the authority under existing law to stop the importation of this Chinese drywall--they have refused thus far to do anything about it. Now, they did do this: They got with the EPA and the EPA did a test. The EPA is releasing that test result, I believe, today. That test result is showing that when they compared Chinese drywall to American drywall--in the first chemical composition test--the difference from American drywall is that the Chinese drywall contains sulfur; thus, the smell of rotten eggs; strontium, which is some derivative, possibly, of some kind of nuclear process; and elements found in acrylic paint. Those are the results thus far. Thus, we come to the amendment of Senator Landrieu and myself for $2 million to the Consumer Product Safety Commission to go to the next test--which will take most of that $2 million--and that is, to subject the Chinese drywall to conditions one finds in a house--and now we are finding it in about 20 States, not just in the South--subjecting it to the conditions of humidity and the heat of the summer to see what gases are emitted so that doctors can analyze this stuff as to how it is affecting the health of our people. If you are a homeowner with this Chinese drywall, this is no little emergency. The least we can do, even though the CPSC has drug its feet, is to give them the resources to go to that next step and make this additional test so we know what we are dealing with to protect the health of our people. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, today I rise on behalf of the people of Florida and all Americans, to recognize Cuban Independence Day. We stand in solidarity with the people of Cuba as they fight for democratic change and independence in their homeland, and struggle for a day when basic dignity and freedom of expression is possible without fear of persecution. Tyranny, dictatorships, and political repression have no place in this hemisphere. Now more than ever, the United States must continue to press the Cuban regime, beginning with freeing all political prisoners. We must never waiver in our support for the Cuban people, as they continue their fight for freedom and self-determination.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, next month, to mark the conclusion of its term in the presidency of the European Union, the Czech Republic will host what will be an historic gathering in Prague: the International Conference on Holocaust Era Assets. The Prague Conference will build on the important work done more than 10 years ago at the Conference on Holocaust Era Assets held here in Washington. The Washington Conference laid the foundation for important agreements entered into by countries and private companies that resulted in a number of restitution and compensation programs throughout Western Europe that have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to Holocaust victims and their heirs. The Prague Conference hopefully will serve as a catalyst for the next, and probably final, phase of restitution and compensation programs for Holocaust survivors and their heirs. One of the Prague Conference's main focuses will be how to advance restitution for real and personal property, including art and cultural property. This is especially true in Eastern Europe, where there are numerous countries that have yet to enact meaningful restitution programs, including countries in Eastern Europe. Two resolutions introduced today will address this topic. I have introduced a resolution, which Senator Cardin has cosponsored, calling on Eastern European countries to implement restitution or compensation programs for those Holocaust victims and their heirs whose property and financial assets were confiscated by the Nazis, and in many cases seized by the communist governments that later came to power. Senator Cardin has introduced a second resolution, which I have co-sponsored, supporting the goals of the Prague Conference. I first introduced my resolution calling for restitution or compensation by Eastern European countries during the 110th Congress, following a hearing I chaired in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to examine Holocaust-era insurance compensation issues. While this hearing was the first time a Senate committee had met specifically to consider this subject, I have been involved in the issue for more than a decade. As Florida's insurance commissioner in the late 1990s, I helped lead an international effort by regulators and Jewish groups that ultimately forced many European insurers to come to the table and for the first time begin paying restitution to survivors. Florida is a State with a large population of Holocaust survivors-- one of the largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors in the world. Most are in their 80s or 90s--the very youngest are in their 70s. They are valued constituents, and while I recognize that no amount of financial compensation or property restitution can ever make up from the indescribable wrong of the Holocaust, I have been and remain committed to doing what I can to assist survivors to obtain without delay meaningful compensation for assets that they lost during the war. The primary purpose of that hearing was to examine what remains to be done to compensate Holocaust survivors and their heirs for the insurance policies, now that the decade-long compensation process undertaken by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claim, ICHEIC, has ceased operations and paid out some $306 million to 48,000 Holocaust victims and their heirs for Holocaust-era insurance policies that belonged to them and never were paid. While Western European countries and insurance companies participated in and contributed to ICHEIC, there was undisputed testimony at the hearing that Eastern European countries and companies did not and should be called upon to compensate Holocaust survivors for the unpaid value of their insurance policies. Millions of Jews lived in Eastern European countries before the war. While many of them lived in rural areas and were too poor to afford insurance, there were certainly Jews who purchased insurance policies from subsidiaries of Western European companies whose assets were taken by the communist governments that came into power, or by Eastern European companies that were nationalized. Unfortunately, the Eastern European countries neither participated in ICHEIC nor contributed to any of the insurance compensation efforts that have taken place. ICHEIC nonetheless paid claims on those Eastern European policies from out of the humanitarian funds that were contributed by the ICHEIC companies, ultimately distributing $31 million on more than 2,800 such claims. Unfortunately, Eastern European countries have not taken nearly enough action on restitution for insurance and other private and communal property taken from Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution, and then seized by the communist governments that ruled Eastern Europe after the war. Poland, for example, is the sole member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe not to have enacted property restitution legislation. And Lithuania has yet to enact promised legislation to compensate communities that had communal and religious property seized. This is unacceptable. The resolution I am introducing today urges countries in Eastern Europe to enact fair and comprehensive private and communal property restitution legislation addressing the unjust taking of property by Nazi, communist, and socialist regimes, and to do so as quickly as possible. Given that the youngest Holocaust survivors are in their 70s, time is of the essence. Our resolution calls for the Secretary of State to engage in dialogue to achieve the aims of the resolution as well as for the convening of an international intergovernmental conference to focus on the remaining steps necessary to secure restitution and compensation of Holocaust-era assets. The resolution received overwhelming support from the survivor community when it was introduced last year. Following the hearing, Holocaust survivors were notified of our intent to file this resolution and asked to provide input via e-mail. Over the space of 6 weeks, we received more than 200 messages from Holocaust survivors and their children and relatives now living in nations around the world, supporting restitution. Many e-mails addressed specific claims to property in Eastern European countries including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The following message of support from one Holocaust survivor exemplifies the many heart-rending and compelling e-mails I received, recounting what was lost by survivors who had lived in Eastern Europe and their inability thus far to obtain restitution or compensation: I support your efforts to secure property restitution in Eastern Europe for Holocaust Survivors. With my family, I was expelled from our apartment in Lodz, Poland on December 11, 1939. We were allowed to take with us only 3 rucksacks and all our material belongings had to be left behind. These included a newly built apartment block with 10 luxury flats, a textile factory employing over 100 people and magazines full of finished fabrics. My mother and I survived the Warsaw ghetto, my father was killed by the Germans in December 1944 and we returned to Lodz after liberation by the Russians in early 1945. Our factory and our apartment belonged now to the Polish authorities. We left Poland soon afterwards. After the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the communist regime, I tried [to] get our possessions back without success, my appeal having been dismissed by the Polish High Court. No compensation was offered. We hope the resolution we are introducing today will spur our own government and governments in Eastern Europe into action and call attention to this important unfinished business. The Prague Conference offers what may be the last time that a foundation can be laid for significant progress. Justice and memory demand nothing less.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, the morning's newspapers chronicle the happy fact that the American journalist Roxana Saberi was released from prison in Iran. This is a happy occasion, certainly for her and for her family, as she has been in Iran since 2003. She has been a journalist for National Public Radio and the BBC. She ostensibly was arrested by virtue of having bought a bottle of wine and the charges were later elevated to working without press credentials and espionage. The fact is the U.S. Government weighed in on this. Secretary Clinton, in a meeting with one of the high Iranian officials that had been called to a conference on Afghanistan in the Hague, the United States handed the Iranian diplomats a letter calling for the release of Ms. Saberi and, along with that, in that letter, calling for the release of Bob Levinson and Esha Momeni. Bob Levinson is from Florida. He has a wife and seven children. He disappeared from the island of Kish over 2 years ago. We have reason to believe he is being held in a prison, perhaps the very same prison where Ms. Saberi was held. Each time his name is brought up to any Iranian officials, be it by me, be it by any other representative of the United States, the standard line is: We don't know anything about him, but usually that Iranian official will then change the subject to the three Iranians being held by the Americans in Irbil, Iran. If they are suggesting some kind of exchange by consistently doing this--whether it is with American officials or whether it is with the Swiss officials who represent us in Tehran; whatever it is--the release of Ms. Saberi is certainly a good first step. If the Iranians want a better relationship with the United States, clearly the new administration has offered that. Now it is up to the Iranian officials. They did the right thing by releasing Ms. Saberi yesterday. If they want to additionally show a humanitarian gesture of returning a father and a husband to his wife and seven children, what better chance than to release Bob Levinson. This Senator has met with the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations and, of course, received no information, even though the Iranian Ambassador was very gracious in his hospitality. Perhaps he did not even know, because in some of the information I expressed to him, he expressed surprise. Whoever knows about it, whatever compartmented part of the Iranian Government knows about it, it is now time. If Iran wants to have a better relationship with the United States, this would be the next humanitarian gesture: release Bob Levinson. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago, Senator Martinez and I had the privilege of introducing Craig Fugate, President Obama's nominee for the head of FEMA, before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee promptly reported him right out. It is because he is so uniquely qualified. Craig has served as the director of emergency management in our State since 2001, and he has overseen the response to 11 Presidentially declared disasters in our State. He is one of the most respected leaders in emergency management in the country, and he is the one--if you want a pro's pro--with the experience and the expertise FEMA needs at this time. Why? Look at how he came up: a former firefighter, a paramedic, a fire rescue lieutenant, an emergency manager. All of that was at the local government level, Alachua County, which is Gainesville, FL. He spent 15 years working in local emergency management before he went up to the Emergency Operations Center at the State level. Since he has become the director of emergency management, he has handled the responses to the landfall of five major hurricanes in Florida, and that was within a 2-year time period. I will never forget when Hurricane Charley came barreling up the southwest Florida coast headed straight for Tampa Bay. Suddenly, at the last minute, it took a right-hand turn and it went right up Charlotte Bay. Ground zero was Punta Gorda, FL. By the way, people had evacuated Tampa and then come down to the hotels, especially the Holiday Inn Punta Gorda, and here they are right in the middle of the storm. That storm was so intense that it blew the roof off of the Charlotte County Emergency Operation Center. They had to evacuate the CCEOC in the middle of the storm. I got there later that day, after the storm hit that morning, and I will never forget seeing Craig in the mobile emergency operation center that the State of Florida brought in as he was taking over and directing operations in the midst of that chaos. Our Florida emergency management response to disasters--with a sense of urgency and efficiency--has emerged as a role model for disaster preparation and disaster response. That, in large part, has been as a result of the leadership of Craig Fugate. It is also very interesting, when you respond to these kinds of national disasters, that you have cooperation between the civilian emergency response and the National Guard. Of course, the Florida National Guard is the best in the business because they know how to take care of business when it comes to emergency response to hurricanes. Under Craig's leadership, Florida has become the first State to receive full accreditation for its emergency management program. Craig not only has creativity but a sense of humor. He judges things after a hurricane by the ``Waffle House'' test. He says if the Waffle House is open after the hurricane, that means there is power and water in there. If the Waffle House is closed, things are pretty bad, and a lot of things have been shut down. If the Waffle House is open and they have a limited menu, then it generally means the power has been out for quite a while because everything in their freezer has melted and has spoiled. I think Craig's exemplary service speaks for itself. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a number of documents be printed in the Record, including a letter from Governor Crist, and a letter from a host of organizations, all the way from the Public Works Association, the American Red Cross--I will not list them all, but it goes through the National Wildlife Federation and the Reinsurance Association of America. Another one is by the Council of State Governments. Everybody is singing Craig Fugate's praises.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, it is my hope the hold that is on Craig for an issue unrelated to Craig--related to the question of FEMA putting a flood zone declaration on some areas of New Orleans--it is my hope that we can resolve that and get on. After all, this is now 1 week into the month of May. Remember, hurricane season officially starts June 1. We need to have Craig Fugate in place so that FEMA is ready to go at this particular time, when there is another challenge facing the gulf coast and the Atlantic coast, and potentially the Pacific coast. I hope the Senate is going to act quickly on his confirmation. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

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

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I understand that morning business will run out in 6 minutes. I ask unanimous consent that I may speak in morning business for 10 minutes.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I wish to shift gears from that sad note to a celebratory note because we are approaching the 40th anniversary of the first landing on another celestial body by human beings. A number of our colleagues have joined me to honor two major firsts from the early days of America's space program. One of those firsts is the lunar landing. We have introduced legislation to bestow the distinguished Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress, on the crew of Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first and second humans to set a footprint on the Moon, while command module pilot Mike Collins orbited above. In this legislation, which we have termed the ``New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal,'' we also honor the first American who orbited the Earth, Senator John Glenn. Today at 87 years old, John Glenn is retired from the Senate. He lives in his home State of Ohio. He retains his home in the Washington, DC, area. We get a chance to see John from time to time as he comes back and joins his colleagues on the floor of the Senate. These are pioneers. They are firsts--Glenn first to orbit the Earth as an American. Remember, we got surprised by the Soviets. They launched Yuri Gagarin for one orbit, and we did not even have a rocket with strong enough thrust to get into orbit. Shortly after Gagarin, we put Alan Shepard up only into suborbit, followed by another suborbital mission with Gus Grissom. Ten months after Gagarin--and by this time the Soviets had flown a second cosmonaut, Titof, and he had orbited several times--10 months after that fateful first human flight, we took a chance. We took that Mercury capsule that John Glenn climbed into--indeed, he had to shoehorn in to get into it, it was so small--put it on top of an Atlas rocket that we knew had a 20-percent chance of failure, and the rest is history. Of course, we remember that story. There was an indication that John's heat shield was loose which, had it been, he would have burned up on reentry. The last radio communication we had as he entered that blackout period coming through heat 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit at reentry that creates a blackout situation for radio frequency, the last thing we heard from John Glenn before he went into that blackout period was he was humming the ``Battle Hymn of the Republic.'' Oh, what words those were when suddenly we heard: ``Houston, this is Friendship 7.'' We knew he was alive. He paved the way for that extraordinary message back to Earth from Neil Armstrong in which he said: This is one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. This past weekend, I had the occasion to join with a number of our American astronauts on the induction of three more space explorers into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The inductees were space shuttle veterans-- Pinky Nelson, Bill Shepherd, and Jim Wetherbee. They joined the elite ranks of 70 other legendary astronauts, who already include John Glenn, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. I went to this particular ceremony because I had the privilege of being a crew mate of Pinky's, and Bill Shepherd, otherwise shown as ``Shep,'' was the rookie astronaut who actually strapped us in before launch. While I was there meeting with and seeing these three new astronauts honored by induction into the Hall of Fame, I thought about the amazing achievements we have made, how strong leadership and bold vision has changed not the space program but all our lives. I think about the true American character of exploration, whether it is the space program or exploration into the inner workings of the mind, the functions of the body, exploration into the climate of this planet, exploration of how we cope each day with all the problems we are facing, our space program being one part of our exploration which did not start just recently. We are a nation of explorers. We did not just start with exploration. This started way back in our history. We had a frontier then. It was westward. Now that frontier is in so many other areas, including space. The space program has given us much to improve life on Earth, from fire-resistant material to weather forecasting equipment, to scratch- resistant lenses, to new kinds of laser surgery. It has also given us selfless heroes who put their lives on the line for the benefit of all the rest of us and for the generations to come. It was Armstrong who made that first step out onto the lunar dust. It was Glenn who paved the way for the rest of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo. It is hard to believe that all these things happened after President Kennedy presented a bold challenge before a joint session of the Congress in which he said: We are going to send a man to the Moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade, and that was within a span of only 9 years. The space program became the focal point of the Nation coming together. It inspired a generation of kids to get excited about science, math, technology, and engineering. We have seen that generation fulfill President Kennedy's promise, which was science and education have greatly enriched a new knowledge of ourselves, of our universe, and our environment. Life on Earth has improved by leaps and bounds from all the spinoffs from the space program. Simply put: We all reap the harvest of gains because of exploration and the pioneering endeavors of brave Americans, such as these whom we honor with this gold medal, the highest congressional honor. They deserve this honor because of their significant contributions to planet Earth. I ask our colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution. There will be ample opportunity for cosponsorships, in addition to those of us who have submitted the resolution. I yield the floor. I do not have to suggest the absence of a quorum because the great Senator from the State of Delaware is here, and I want him to know what a delight and pleasure he is to serve with. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, this is ``A Letter to my Grandchildren'' by Jack Kemp on November 12, 2008, just a few days after the election of Senator Obama as President of these United States.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, America lost a good friend when former Congressman Jack Kemp passed away over the weekend at the age of 73. He is survived by his wife Joanne, a marriage of 50 years, his 4 children, and 17 grandchildren. Jack and Joanne have been personal friends of Grace and mine over the years. I will never forget one time; Jack was already a great celebrity when I came into the House of Representatives 30 years ago, in 1979, and on one of the tax bills I actually had the temerity to take him on on the floor. I will never forget the chairman of the Budget Committee walking up to me and saying: You better watch out because he is a fierce debater. Indeed, he was. He was passionate about what he believed in, and he was a strong advocate of what he believed in. That, of course, is a quality all of us admire. It was one of the attributes that drew me to Jack, he reciprocated, and we had a friendship over these last 30 years. Clearly, the record has been set. Jack, of course, was the star quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Before that, he was with the San Diego Chargers, and he said that his career in football prepared him well for a career in politics because he had been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigy in football. Sooner or later, those of us in politics will experience all of those. And how true a statement that is. He talked about his career in politics. Jack represented western New York in the House for 9 terms. He ran for President. He served as the Secretary of HUD. He ran for Vice President. It is a great loss. The one thing I want to call to the attention of the Senate is the letter he wrote to his grandchildren upon the election of Barack Obama as President. This letter was posted online on Jack's company Web site. I want you to listen to what he wrote: . . . just imagine that in the face of all these indignities and deprivations, Dr. Martin Luther King could say 44 years ago, ``I have an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in mankind.'' Jack continues to write this letter to his grandchildren: He described his vision for America, even as he and his people were being denied their God-given human rights guaranteed under our Constitution. You see, real leadership is not just seeing the realities of what we are temporarily faced with, but seeing the possibilities and potential that can be realized by lifting up people's vision of what they can be. That is just one snippet of that letter he wrote to his grandchildren. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the entire letter.