Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that will address an ongoing problem that adversely affects local communities and coastal areas around my home State of Florida and across coastal and Great Lakes States. Today, Senator Snowe and I, along with Senators Boxer, Cantwell, Cardin, Landrieu, Levin and Vitter. introduced a bill that would reauthorize and enhance the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act, HABHRCA, which was enacted in 1998 and reauthorized 5 years ago. This act enabled critical monitoring, forecasting, and research activities that have greatly improved our understanding and prediction of harmful algal blooms, nuisance blooms like red drift, and low-oxygen or hypoxia events that plague our estuaries and coastal waters. We have made great strides through HABHRCA to address this problem, but there is more yet to do. Reports of harmful algal blooms in U.S. waters and around the world have drastically increased over the past 3 decades. Harmful algae can produce potent toxins causing illness and death in humans, fish, seabirds, marine mammals like manatees and dolphins, and other oceanic life. Other harmful algae are non-toxic to humans, but can still cause damage to ecosystems, corals, fisheries resources, and recreational facilities. Harmful algae also have a significant economic impact. A 2006 study conservatively estimated that coastal harmful algal blooms cost more than $82 million per year on average in the U.S., with the majority of impacts in the public health and commercial fisheries sectors. Virtually every coastal state in the country is affected by harmful algal blooms. For instance, toxins from harmful algae found in razor clams along the Pacific Coast eventually shut down Washington's clam fishery in 2002. This event resulted in $10-12 million in lost revenue. In 2005, a red tide event in New England caused closures of shellfish harvesting to prevent paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. These closures resulted in approximately $18 million in lost shellfish sales in Massachusetts and $4.9 million in Maine. In Hawaii, macroalgal blooms, which impact coral reefs and local aesthetics, result in more than $20 million in lost revenue every year due to reductions in real estate value, lost hotel business, and increased clean-up costs. A particularly devastating and intense red tide struck the Gulf Coast of my home State of Florida in the summer of 2005, causing widespread animal deaths as well as public health and economic problems. The St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated upwards of $240 million in losses for the Tampa region as a result of this bloom. Scientists have told us that red tides are a lot like hurricanes-- complex but natural phenomena that can have profound impacts on our environment and society. Although we may not be able to stop this natural process, we can do more to predict it and take actions to minimize its impacts on our citizens and natural resources. In April 2008, researchers predicted a severe outbreak of New England Red Tide, Alexandrium fundyense, which produces potent neurotoxins that are filtered by shellfish. When humans consume contaminated shellfish they become extremely ill and can die without immediate medical treatment. This was the first time that researchers could issue a prediction of this kind several weeks in advance. The 2008 prediction was derived from a model based on 10 years of ecosystem research in the Gulf of Maine. The prediction was remarkably accurate, and it allowed State managers and the shellfish aquaculture industry to plan for a difficult season. By showing the news media and the public that the event was expected and that state managers were prepared, the prediction may have also reduced the ``halo'' effect in which shellfish harvesting closures in one area reduce shellfish and fish sales from areas unaffected by toxicity. This prediction was made possible from research funded under programs authorized by HABARCA. It is clear that harmful algal blooms and hypoxia events can have devastating impacts on water and air quality, aquatic species, wildlife, and beach conditions, which in turn affect public health, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and related businesses in our coastal communities. The question becomes, what can we do to stop this? If we can't stop these events, how can we better plan for them and take steps to minimize the impacts? We have learned from scientists and researchers that some harmful algal blooms and red drift events can be triggered by excess nutrients from upland areas that wash into rivers and are delivered to the coast. Because this problem often crosses political and geographic boundaries, we must pursue solutions that are regional in nature and bring together expertise from all levels of government, from academia, and from other outside groups who have a stake in keeping our coastal waters healthy, clean, and productive. Senator Snowe and I have worked together to craft a bill that will not only continue critical research on harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, but will help address some of these pressing needs that exist on every coast--from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, to the Pacific and the Great Lakes. Our bill will help to integrate and improve coordination among the government's programs that study and monitor these events. The bill also would improve how regional, state, and local needs are considered when prioritizing research grants and developing related products. Most importantly, this bill would focus new resources on translating research results into tools and products that state and local governments can use to help prevent, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of these events. Although we have made significant progress in identifying some of the causes and consequences of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia since 1998, much work remains to find solutions that minimize the occurrence of these events and enable our coastal communities to become resilient to the impacts. This legislation to amend and reauthorize the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Act represents an important step toward realizing those goals. In closing, I would like to recognize Senator Snowe for her leadership on this issue. As the sponsor of both the original legislation in 1998 and the 2004 amendments, her expertise on harmful algal blooms and the impacts of these events on her constituents has proved invaluable as we developed the measure before us today. I look forward to working with Senator Snowe, in her role as ranking member of the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, as well as with Chairman Cantwell and the other members of the subcommittee, to debate this important legislation.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that will address an ongoing problem that adversely affects local communities and coastal areas around my home State of Florida and across coastal and Great Lakes States. Today, Senator Snowe and I, along with Senators Boxer, Cantwell, Cardin, Landrieu, Levin and Vitter. introduced a bill that would reauthorize and enhance the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act, HABHRCA, which was enacted in 1998 and reauthorized 5 years ago. This act enabled critical monitoring, forecasting, and research activities that have greatly improved our understanding and prediction of harmful algal blooms, nuisance blooms like red drift, and low-oxygen or hypoxia events that plague our estuaries and coastal waters. We have made great strides through HABHRCA to address this problem, but there is more yet to do. Reports of harmful algal blooms in U.S. waters and around the world have drastically increased over the past 3 decades. Harmful algae can produce potent toxins causing illness and death in humans, fish, seabirds, marine mammals like manatees and dolphins, and other oceanic life. Other harmful algae are non-toxic to humans, but can still cause damage to ecosystems, corals, fisheries resources, and recreational facilities. Harmful algae also have a significant economic impact. A 2006 study conservatively estimated that coastal harmful algal blooms cost more than $82 million per year on average in the U.S., with the majority of impacts in the public health and commercial fisheries sectors. Virtually every coastal state in the country is affected by harmful algal blooms. For instance, toxins from harmful algae found in razor clams along the Pacific Coast eventually shut down Washington's clam fishery in 2002. This event resulted in $10-12 million in lost revenue. In 2005, a red tide event in New England caused closures of shellfish harvesting to prevent paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. These closures resulted in approximately $18 million in lost shellfish sales in Massachusetts and $4.9 million in Maine. In Hawaii, macroalgal blooms, which impact coral reefs and local aesthetics, result in more than $20 million in lost revenue every year due to reductions in real estate value, lost hotel business, and increased clean-up costs. A particularly devastating and intense red tide struck the Gulf Coast of my home State of Florida in the summer of 2005, causing widespread animal deaths as well as public health and economic problems. The St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated upwards of $240 million in losses for the Tampa region as a result of this bloom. Scientists have told us that red tides are a lot like hurricanes-- complex but natural phenomena that can have profound impacts on our environment and society. Although we may not be able to stop this natural process, we can do more to predict it and take actions to minimize its impacts on our citizens and natural resources. In April 2008, researchers predicted a severe outbreak of New England Red Tide, Alexandrium fundyense, which produces potent neurotoxins that are filtered by shellfish. When humans consume contaminated shellfish they become extremely ill and can die without immediate medical treatment. This was the first time that researchers could issue a prediction of this kind several weeks in advance. The 2008 prediction was derived from a model based on 10 years of ecosystem research in the Gulf of Maine. The prediction was remarkably accurate, and it allowed State managers and the shellfish aquaculture industry to plan for a difficult season. By showing the news media and the public that the event was expected and that state managers were prepared, the prediction may have also reduced the ``halo'' effect in which shellfish harvesting closures in one area reduce shellfish and fish sales from areas unaffected by toxicity. This prediction was made possible from research funded under programs authorized by HABARCA. It is clear that harmful algal blooms and hypoxia events can have devastating impacts on water and air quality, aquatic species, wildlife, and beach conditions, which in turn affect public health, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and related businesses in our coastal communities. The question becomes, what can we do to stop this? If we can't stop these events, how can we better plan for them and take steps to minimize the impacts? We have learned from scientists and researchers that some harmful algal blooms and red drift events can be triggered by excess nutrients from upland areas that wash into rivers and are delivered to the coast. Because this problem often crosses political and geographic boundaries, we must pursue solutions that are regional in nature and bring together expertise from all levels of government, from academia, and from other outside groups who have a stake in keeping our coastal waters healthy, clean, and productive. Senator Snowe and I have worked together to craft a bill that will not only continue critical research on harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, but will help address some of these pressing needs that exist on every coast--from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, to the Pacific and the Great Lakes. Our bill will help to integrate and improve coordination among the government's programs that study and monitor these events. The bill also would improve how regional, state, and local needs are considered when prioritizing research grants and developing related products. Most importantly, this bill would focus new resources on translating research results into tools and products that state and local governments can use to help prevent, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of these events. Although we have made significant progress in identifying some of the causes and consequences of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia since 1998, much work remains to find solutions that minimize the occurrence of these events and enable our coastal communities to become resilient to the impacts. This legislation to amend and reauthorize the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Act represents an important step toward realizing those goals. In closing, I would like to recognize Senator Snowe for her leadership on this issue. As the sponsor of both the original legislation in 1998 and the 2004 amendments, her expertise on harmful algal blooms and the impacts of these events on her constituents has proved invaluable as we developed the measure before us today. I look forward to working with Senator Snowe, in her role as ranking member of the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, as well as with Chairman Cantwell and the other members of the subcommittee, to debate this important legislation.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 2:15 p.m.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 9 a.m. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate to conduct a hearing on Tuesday, April 28, at 10 a.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate office building. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on environment and public works

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2009, at 10 a.m. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. committee on energy and natural resources

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``The Victims of Crime Act: 25 Years of Protecting and Supporting Victims'' on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate office building.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 28, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 2:30 p.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate office building.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Government 2.0: Advancing America into the 21st Century and a Digital Future.''

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Cyber Security: Developing a National Strategy.''

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet, during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Learning from the States: Individual State Experiences with Health Care Reform Coverage Initiatives in the Context of National Reform'' on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. The hearing will commence at 2:30 p.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate office building.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10:30 a.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate office building.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10 a.m. in room 406 of the Dirksen Senate office building. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Committee on Foreign Relations Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10 a.m., to hold a hearing entitled ``War Powers in the 21st Century''.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet, during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Introducing Meaningful Incentives for Safe Workplaces and Meaningful Roles for Victims and Their Families'' on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. The hearing will commence at 10:30 a.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate office building.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise in support of the nomination of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of HHS. I do so enthusiastically. I do so as a personal friend of Kathleen's. I do so as a fellow public servant who has observed her considerable public service to her State of Kansas and to the people of this country. A dozen years ago--a little more; it was actually about 14 years ago--she was elected, unusually, as a Democrat in Republican Kansas, to a statewide office known as insurance commissioner. It is a little- known and thankless job but one that has traditionally been under the thumb of the insurance industry. She came out of the Kansas Legislature, so she had a good schooling in the art of political craft. Indeed, that started long before she ever entered the Kansas Legislature because her dad was the Governor of Ohio. So it is in her genes. Her father-in-law was the longtime Republican Congressman from Kansas. In that very Republican State, they elected a Democrat as the insurance commissioner. It was not a close election, but it was one in which, once she was installed as insurance commissioner, she started showing people who was boss. The elected representative of the people of Kansas was going to administer the laws with regard to the protection of consumers, which is the purpose of having an insurance advocate for the people. Only a few States continue to elect their insurance commissioner. It is known as the office of the revolving door since most of the insurance commissioners are appointed. The revolving door starts with the insurance industry having a representative who is appointed by the appointing authority, usually the Governor, because someone who is knowledgable about insurance has to be insurance commissioner. But, indeed, the door continues to revolve, and the average time of service for an appointed insurance commissioner is less than 1 year. As a result, as you watch the door revolve, they come in from the insurance industry, become the top regulator of the insurance industry, and on the average, in less than a year, the door revolves and they are out the door and they are back in the very industry from whence they came. That is not the smartest way to have an insurance regulator. Kathleen Sebelius defied that model. As the elected insurance commissioner of Kansas, she stood up for consumer rights and she cracked the whip to get the insurance companies to offer this product that has now become a necessity, not a luxury. Why? You can't drive a car without insurance. You can't own a home, if you have a mortgage, without insurance. You better have some life insurance if you are planning for your family. By the way, we have not even talked about health insurance. A huge percentage, well over a majority of the people in this country, get their health insurance through their employer. As we approach the issue of health care reform, what to do about insurance is going to be front and center, and Governor Sebelius is uniquely qualified to address this issue. We have 47 million people in this country who do not have health insurance, but they get health care. Where do they get health care? They get it from the most expensive place, which is the emergency room, and they get it at the most expensive time, which is when their symptoms have turned into a full, raging emergency. Therefore, because they did not have health insurance, they were not seeing a doctor for preventive care, and all of this additional cost, plus the additional costs of being treated in an emergency room--guess who pays. All of us pick up that tab. That, additionally, is plowed back into the costs we pay for health care, in large part through the insurance premiums we pay. Governor Sebelius is someone who has been there, she has done that. She knows how this insurance system operates. She knows the parameters in which you have to offer health insurance to people in order to make it work. She understands the financing behind it. She is uniquely qualified for this position of Secretary of HHS. Since I have the privilege of being a personal friend, I have known her over these 14 years in our capacities as elected insurance commissioners, she from Kansas and me from Florida, and then as I have continued to see her in her public service, then having gone from insurance commissioner to Governor, she comes at a time when this Nation is begging for health care reform. The President has chosen Kathleen in this exceptionally important position to not only use her skills as a former regulator where she can crack the whip but to use her skills as a person who can bring people together, who can reconcile, who can build consensus--which she has honed over the years and I suspect honed those skills at the knee of her father as she was growing up. She honed those skills as a public servant--as a legislator, as an elected statewide official, as the Governor, and now she will be the right person at the right time whom this Nation needs-- a very good Secretary of Health and Human Services. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, it is my intent to take a very few minutes. We are speaking in morning business?

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, what do Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and California all have in common? Aside from all being Sunbelt States, each of these States is subject to a natural catastrophe event. We have certainly seen that in the case of hurricanes in Florida and Louisiana and Texas, and we know of it with the Northridge earthquake in the case of California. Each of these States approaches their homeowners insurance in a different way. But, increasingly, States are moving to a position whereby a quasi-government reinsurance company is set up--in the case of Florida, it is the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund--that, in effect, reinsures private insurance companies in order to induce them to continue to sell insurance in the marketplace. So the insurance companies, instead of going out onto the world markets to get reinsurance--that is, insurance against catastrophe-- instead, or in addition to, go to a creature, in Florida's case called the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. The problem is that each of our States--Florida and Texas and California and Louisiana--that are each facing this potential megacatastrophe event--hurricane or earthquake--find it increasingly difficult to buy reinsurance at an affordable rate. Indeed, some of the reinsurance cannot be provided for, even if you go out and try to prearrange a bond issue, given the fact of these markets that are very uncertain now about being able to obtain a bond issue, and that uncertainty is causing a great deal of turmoil for a State to know that it can cover the losses if a major catastrophe hits. What I am introducing today--and I will be joined by Senators from Texas, California, and Louisiana, and will ultimately invite all of the Senators from the States on the Atlantic seaboard and the gulf coast, as well as other earthquake-prone areas, such as Memphis, TN, which has one of the major fault lines in the country running through it and would be a potential major catastrophe because of all the gas lines that run from the Texas and Oklahoma well fields all the way to New York and to New England--it would be a major catastrophe if an earthquake hits; and that is one of the fault lines--so what this legislation will do is provide a backup for the State catastrophe funds by allowing them to have the assurance that when they go into the private marketplace--to float bonds, to pay off claims after the disaster has hit--that they will be able, even in these uncertain times of the economic markets, to sell those bond issues because they will have a U.S. Government guarantee. You might say: Well, why would we want the Federal Government to guarantee those? Well, clearly it is in the interests of the Federal Government because these are only going to be guaranteeing public organizations that are an arm of the Government and that are run by members of a board that indeed are public officials, and it will actually end up saving Federal tax dollars. You might say: Why in the world? If the Federal Government is going to guarantee a bond issue, that has a certain cost to it. It does. But this is how it saves the Federal Government money: Because at the end of the day, when the natural disaster strikes, guess who is going to pay for it. It is going to be the Federal Government. So if a large part of those payments has already been provided by private insurance, because we have enabled that through this catastrophe reinsurance fund, then that means that is an additional cost the Federal Government will not have to bear. I remind the Senate that after Katrina struck New Orleans, that total tab is somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 billion, and the Federal Government's share of that is well north of $100 billion, or over half of the total cost. When the category 4 or 5 hurricane hits an urbanized part of the coast--be it in any one of our States--it is clearly going to be a major economic loss, of which the Federal Government is going to come in. If a lot of those damages have already been paid by private insurance, enabled by these reinsurance funds set up by the State governments--enabled because they have a Federal guarantee on the loans--then it ends up being a win-win situation. Because my colleague from Tennessee is in the Chamber, I hasten to add that, of course, catastrophes are not just hurricanes, but some of the worse catastrophes that could happen are, in fact, earthquakes. An 8-point plus on the Richter scale earthquake, centered on a major metropolitan area, such as San Francisco or Memphis, TN, would be a cost well in excess of insurance losses, well in excess of between $50 and $100 billion. This is a rational way through the private sector marketplace to approach that problem, and I commend to the Senate this bill that I introduce today, the Catastrophe Obligation Guarantee Act. I ask the Senate to favorably consider it. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have a Catastrophe Obligation Guarantee Act fact sheet printed in the Record.

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, I would like to address the Senate.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. So I close by saying my plea to the Senate is to insist, if we have to, through the passage of this legislation, to address this problem head on. It is a major problem facing the people of this country. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. So as of yesterday, they did not have a conclusion. I would urge them to hurry their conclusion. They ought to be doing this in conjunction with the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control because if this thing is in what we think it is, 100,000 homes in this country--and perhaps half of those are in Florida because that is where a lot of the building was going on in the aftermath of the four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004--if this is in 100,000 homes, we have a real problem. You cannot get the home builders. Look, most of them are financially, if not bankrupt, down to their last pennies as it is. There has to be someone financially responsible, and you cannot expect the homeowner to bear this cost. But what about the effects on their health? Well, as of yesterday, they did not have an answer. So then I asked them: Well, you have done an investigation. How widespread is it? They said: We do not know. Well, we better start knowing. So I said: Well, since you do not know how harmful it is, and you do not know how widespread it is, what are you going to do about helping homeowners? They said: We do not know. Well, a number of us, Senator Landrieu, Senator Vitter, both of them from Louisiana--because a lot of this drywall came into Louisiana through the Port of New Orleans, they are getting the same kind of complaints from their State that I am getting from the State of Florida. We can file legislation that will suggest what to do. It is too bad we have to file legislation because the CPSC has the legal authority under the law to ban the import of this wallboard and to exact a recall and to freeze the assets of the companies that are attributable to that drywall that is manufactured in China. They have that authority. If they are not going to act on that authority, then the Congress is going to have to act for them. That is the bill Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter and I and others also who have joined have filed. I thank the Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Inhofe, our dear friend. I did not even know this, but the Senator must have heard some of this problem in his State of Oklahoma. This is a problem of monumental proportions. I will close by saying, because of that report yesterday from the staff of the commission to the staff of the Senate committees, there are a couple of news articles today: ``Drywall Clamor Is Intensifying.'' Another headline cries out, ``Agency Outlines Strategy To Deal With Chinese Drywall.'' Another headline cries out, ``Efforts On Chinese Drywall Fix Too Slow.'' I close with this: Put yourself in the place of the poor homeowner. They are there with their children. This is their dream home. They have put all of their assets into their home. They are current on their mortgage, and suddenly they start realizing the symptoms they and their children have had over the last several months, and in some cases years, is attributable to this. They now understand why they have replaced their air-conditioning unit three times. They now see why they cannot keep their silver polished. They now know why the refrigerator metal and the dishwater metal is constantly corroding, and their pediatrician is telling them to get their child out of that house. As a result, they have vacated their dream home.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I wish to talk about something else that is afflicting this country. A lot of people don't know about this, but we have to get it front and center. One of the exports coming from China into the United States has been drywall. Drywall is the boards that you put up on the studs when you build a house. Normally what it is is a material called gypsum. Gypsum is a byproduct in the mining and manufacturing of phosphate. A lot of that phosphate goes into fertilizer but a byproduct of that is gypsum. And gypsum, put into the form of a flat sheet with thick paper on either side, in boards about 10 feet high and about that wide, is called wallboard. In the modern construction of houses, when you build a house and you divvy up the rooms and you put up these studs to be a wall and you put insulation in there, and then on the outside of the studs you put the wallboard and then you put a finish over the wallboard and you paint that, that is the wall of a house. The problem is that wallboard that has been imported into this country from China is defective because it has contained some kind of organic compound that is having absolutely disastrous effects in people's houses. When you compare a piece of this wallboard from China with wallboard from America that is gypsum, you can actually see the difference. Gypsum is dry. It is absorbent, which is what you want for a wall if there are contaminants or vapors in a house. But this Chinese wallboard is giving off vapors. What do we find in our houses? This is not only in Florida, this is all over the southern United States. They have discovered it in Louisiana. They have discovered it in California, in Texas, they have discovered it in Georgia, and some people are now discovering it in the Atlantic coast, the north Atlantic region of the United States. What they are discovering is that, first, you walk into a house with Chinese wallboard and you notice a smell. It is a different smell. It is pungent. Some people call it like a rotten egg smell. As I have gone into these homes over the course of the Easter break back in Florida, to me the smell is not so much rotten eggs but you detect the smell of sulfur, but it starts searing the nasal passages. I am kind of like a canary in the coal mine because my respiratory system is very sensitive to these kinds of things, for example, mold and mildew. I will get congested if I walk into a home with mold and mildew and I will start coughing. When I walked into those homes a week and a half ago in Florida, the same thing happened to me. I would only be in the home 10 minutes and my nasal passages started to constrict, my voice got scratchy. I started to get what we call getting clogged up. I started hacking and wheezing, my eyes started watering. Lo and behold, that is happening to these homeowners. This is their home. This is their life investment. Now, through no fault of their own, they are finding out they have a part of their home that is now irritating their respiratory system and in some cases their family members have had to go to the hospital and in other cases their pediatricians are telling them to get their children out of those houses. The family has vacated the home, their life investment-- vacated. Hopefully they have some relatives they can go live with, and in some cases they do not. You can imagine the financial burden. What else are these homeowners telling me? They are telling me that in the homes, these vapors that are being emitted are suddenly corroding any kind of metallic substance in the home. I went into homes where I looked at the air conditioning unit and the coils on the air conditioner are completely corroded and the homeowners tell me over the course of the last 4 years they have had to change the air conditioner three times because it is not only a corrosion, it is eating through the coils. I took a screwdriver and I went over to one of the copper pipes on an air conditioner unit and I started scraping it. It was completely soot black. Copper, when it ages, turns green. Not this. I started scraping off that soot black exterior and, sure enough, there was the copper underneath. And the coils that were metallic on the air conditioner, of some other metal, had been corroded through. And here is this homeowner and that homeowner and that one over there who have had to replace the air conditioner three times in the last 5 years. It is unbelievable. I talked to a husband and wife in one of the homes. In this case I went to homes down near Fort Myers. I went to homes near Bradenton. I went to homes near West Palm Beach. The couple had been on a cruise to Mexico in January. They bought a beautiful silver bracelet. You know that silver will tarnish over time. You have to polish it up. In this case, that silver bracelet had been in the house for 1 month and it was black as soot. These vapors that are coming off whatever this organic material is in the Chinese drywall are making people sick, their houses are uninhabitable, their appliances, including the dishwashers, are corroding, and their life investment in their home is going up in smoke. That is not right. Needless to say, there is a bunch of lawsuits. But who are they going to sue? They are going to sue a Chinese wallboard manufacturer who is in China. Maybe there is a distributor here. We have a U.S. Government and there is an arm of the U.S. Government called the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This, by the way, is the same Consumer Product Safety Commission that was letting in all of those defective Chinese toys that were killing our children, 2 and 3 and 4 years ago. So last year the Congress, bipartisan, reformed the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in the reform of this legislation, has the authority, No. 1, to stop the import of this Chinese drywall and also exact a recall of this product. But has the Consumer Product Safety Commission done it? No. To their credit, they sent in an investigation team, and that investigation team reported to the staff of the Senate yesterday. I happened to go and talk to them. So I asked them three questions yesterday. I said: How harmful is this stuff? And they said: We do not know. And I said: Well, you are doing an investigation. Well, it is going to take us a while. Well, did you see the same effects? A member of that investigation team concurred with what I have just shared about how it affected his respiratory system, his eyes were watering, he was clogging up, and so forth. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for an additional 5 minutes.

Mr. NELSON of Florida

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, there are so many things I would like to talk about, not the least of which--which I will not confine my remarks to--is our space program, which is adrift. The White House continues to deliberate on who should be the administrator of NASA. The previous administration starved NASA to death by asking it to do too much with too little. The result of that is that now NASA is coming to the end of the life of the space shuttle, as we complete the construction of the International Space Station. With the remaining nine flights--and those nine flights NASA thinks it can get in during the next year and a half, but they can't--we are going to have to fly the space shuttle into 2011, and we ought to do that deliberately and slowly to make sure we don't sacrifice safety. At the end of that time, upon the completion of the space station-- the International Space Station, with components from a number of countries around the world and something that is larger than two football fields long, 200 miles into the cosmos, circling the globe at 17,500 miles an hour, with research laboratories, with habitation modules for the astronauts and cosmonauts on board--the United States, when we shut down the space shuttle, will not have a manned vehicle because we didn't have enough money for the development of the new vehicle--the new rocket, the Aries--and so we are going to have a gap and we will have to rely on the Russians. We will have to buy a ride on their spacecraft in order to get to our space station, which is a $100 billion investment. Now, that is the sad state of affairs, and that is where NASA finds itself. NASA is adrift because it doesn't have a vigorous leader, appointed by the Obama administration, to take charge; someone who understands space flight, who understands management, who understands aeronautics. By the way, aeronautics is the first ``A'' in NASA--the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA does not have a leader as yet who understands how to motivate people and capture the spirit of the American people, which is that we are explorers and adventurers by nature. There is not a heart in America that does not beat more quickly when they think of the potential we have in the cosmos and the exploration of new worlds. Look at what the Hubbell space telescope has done for us. How do you think we have been able to have the revelations from the Hubbell space telescope? It is because we have been able to send astronauts out there when it could not even see because it had an incorrectly ground lens when we launched it, over a decade and a half ago. We sent astronauts there to repair it in orbit. Lo and behold, in 2 weeks another flight with astronauts will go to the Hubbell space station, will repair it, will give it new instruments, and for the next 2 decades it will continue to peer into the universe and unlock those secrets about where did we come from and when did it happen and how are we positioned in this universe that is so vast, so infinite that our human minds cannot even grasp. That is the excitement of the future. Yet NASA is adrift. I call on the White House to please put in an administrator of NASA who is a leader, who understands space, who understands how to motivate people and who can capture the American spirit and help inspire, standing by our President who wants it, a vigorous space program. I did not come here to speak about that, but I get pretty exercised because I have been the beneficiary of being a part of this space program. I do not like what I see now and I do not like what I have seen in the last 5 years. I have said so on the floor of this Senate, over and over. The more we try to get additional funding in the budget to develop this new rocket--and we were successful in the Senate--the more we would have our legs cut out from under us by the previous White House budget office because they kept starving NASA of funds. That has led us to where we are today. I personally know our President is a space aficionado. We have talked about it hours on end. I know he wants us to have a vigorous space program. I know President Obama understands how to accomplish the very thing he wants to do with young people, in getting them educated and particularly educated in math and science and engineering. Look to history. Look at what happened in the Apollo program when young people by the thousands starting going into math and science and engineering because they were challenged by what we were doing in the cosmos. We can do that again if the President will give the full support to the space program and if he will put the right leader in NASA. I came today to speak about another subject, but I do not think there is a much more important subject at this time. With all the problems facing this country--the economy, the national security situation--you have to tend to your knitting. America's space program and America's preeminence in space--that we do not lose the high ground--is a highly important issue, high among the items on the agenda to which this country must attend.