Dan Sullivan

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the vote for Ambassador Barrett.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, a few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to come to the floor and talk about the outstanding public service of some senior U.S. marines: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security General Kelly, and the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joseph Dunford. The service these gentlemen have given to their Nation includes almost 140 years of combined Active-Duty military service in the Marine Corps but also at the highest levels of government at a critical time in our Nation's history. Men and women who are committed to the service of our Nation are continuing to follow in the footsteps of these three very impressive U.S. Marine generals who brought the Marine Corps ethos of honor, courage, and commitment to our Nation's military and to their work in government. We should all be thankful for that. At the end of September, I had the privilege of attending the swearing-in of a member of the new team that President Trump is putting together in terms of national security, GEN Mark Milley, as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now in the position succeeding General Dunford. At the Department of Defense, we have Secretary Esper, Secretary McCarthy, the Secretary of the Army, and General Milley who have all served their country with honor and will continue to do so. Now we are considering the nomination of Ambassador Barbara Barrett to be the next Secretary of the Air Force. In fact, we are going to be voting on her nomination in a few moments. I want to talk about her experience and her qualifications, which are diverse and very impressive. I think she is extremely well qualified to be the next Secretary of the U.S. Air Force. Let me provide just a bit about her background and exceptional experience. She is a private pilot, astronaut, Deputy Federal Aviation Administrator, past CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, past member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and Defense Business Board. Importantly, she is a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland. That is a very impressive resume, a very impressive background. I first met Ambassador Barrett in 2015 when I had the opportunity to share dinner with her and the late Senator John McCain. Prior to that dinner, I was talking to Senator John McCain, and he told me how highly he thought of Ambassador Barrett. I can state--and I think many of my Senate colleagues will agree--that there can be no better an endorsement than that from Senator McCain. Ambassador Barrett will be taking over from Dr. Heather Wilson, who did an outstanding job as Secretary of the Air Force. Secretary Wilson's leadership was critical in rebuilding the U.S. Air Force, which had shrunk to its smallest level ever just a few years ago since the Air Force was created in the late 1940s. We had to start bringing it back. She did a great job on that, and I know Ambassador Barrett is committed to continuing that rebuilding of this critically important branch of our military. Another important element of Ambassador Barrett's experience is that as a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland, she understands the strategic importance of the Arctic and what is happening in terms of great power competition in the Arctic. I want to spend a few minutes talking about that critically important part of the world and the role of my State, the great State of Alaska. Dating back to Gen. Billy Mitchell, who is the father of the U.S. Air Force, Alaska has been recognized as what General Mitchell said in an Armed Services Committee hearing; that it is ``the most strategic place in the world.'' Former Secretary Wilson and our current Chief of the Staff of the Air Force, General Goldfein, have been leaders at the Department of Defense, raising awareness of the critical importance of the Arctic in defending America's national security interests. Additionally, Congress has been playing a role in highlighting this in our national security priorities in the National Defense Authorization Act over the last 3 years and so, too, has the Trump administration. Secretary Pompeo, our Secretary of State, was recently in Finland for the Arctic Council, all the nations of the Arctic, and he had this to say: We are entering a new age of strategic engagement in the Arctic, complete with new threats to the Arctic and its real estate. . . . This is America's moment to stand up as an Arctic nation and for the Arctic's future. That was our Secretary of State a few months ago in Finland. America is an Arctic nation because of Alaska. I like to say that my State constitutes three pillars of America's military might. We are the cornerstone of missile defense for the entire Nation--the missile fields and the radar sites that protect Washington, DC, New York, Miami, Rhode Island, L.A. They are all based in the great State of Alaska. We are the hub of air combat power for the Arctic in the Asia- Pacific. In the next 2 years, we are going to have over 100 fifth-generation fighters, F-35s and F-22s, stationed in Alaska. No place on Earth will have that kind of combat power with those critical fifth-generation supersonic stealth fighters. We have a platform for expeditionary forces--some of our best trained military units--to be able to deploy on a moment's notice because we are so strategically located to other countries. Because of Alaska's strategic role in defending America's interests in the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific, the Congress and this administration, together in a bipartisan way, have been building up each of these three critical pillars of our Nation's military might and defenses. Let me give just one example. The Senate has been pushing lately to ensure that the air combat capability we have in Alaska is matched by air refueling capacity. The last three National Defense Authorization Acts passed by this body and signed by the President have established criteria that the Air Force needs to use when deciding where to base the next modern aerial refueling tanker platform, the KC-46. Ambassador Barrett and I have discussed this issue and what the Air Force is going to do with regard to stationing of the KC-46 outside of the continental United States, and I look forward to working with her on the advice already provided to the administration from the Congress on where those military assets need to be based. As the current Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, said in his confirmation hearing, having KC-46s colocated with 100 fifth-generation fighters would give America ``extreme strategic reach'' anywhere in the world. I believe Ambassador Barrett also understands this, and she clearly understands the importance of the Arctic as a former ambassador to Finland. So, as I mentioned at the outset, we need good people and highly qualified people to serve at the highest levels of our military, civilian and uniformed, and I believe Ambassador Barrett is certainly one of those individuals. I was heartened to see that my colleagues in the Senate gave a very strong bipartisan cloture vote, 84 to 7, which shows very strong support for her nomination. I know we are going to vote in a couple of minutes. I encourage my colleagues to vote yes for her nomination to be the next U.S. Secretary of the Air Force. I yield the floor.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, this afternoon I would like to honor and recognize the important service of three men, three Marine generals who have served their country in uniform and who have served their country in the civilian world as well, who have served with honor and dignity in ways that I think deserve recognition on the floor of the U.S. Senate. They have done this service in a manner that is befitting of marines, with dignity, class, and honor. I am talking about former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Homeland Security and the President's Chief of Staff at the White House, Gen. John Kelly, and, lastly, I would like to recognize Gen. Joe Dunford, who, on Monday, will be stepping down as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I intend to be there to honor him and to witness another remarkable transition of authority and power when U.S. Army General Milley takes over in what is the most important position for a military officer in the United States of America. It will be the end of an era, a remarkable era, for the Marine Corps--the smallest of the military services, where these three Marine generals--Kelly, Mattis, and Dunford--served with distinction, not only in the Corps as four star generals but at the highest levels of government at a critical time in our country's history. It is a remarkable story. It is a story of service, sacrifice, and friendship. These extraordinary men rose through the levels of command together and the ranks of the Marine Corps together. They served together all over the world, including in combat in places like Fallujah, Al Kut, and Baghdad. They fought together, and they sacrificed together for our great Nation as Marine Corps officers. They then went on to serve in other ways. The three of them have spent their whole lives in service to our country, and they have left an indelible mark, certainly, on the Marine Corps but, I believe, other institutions. Between the three of them, they have 130 years of Active-Duty military service to America--130 years. Think about that: 130 years of Active military service to the United States of America and the Marine Corps. They have given their all for us in a way that I think makes most Americans proud, emphasizing the ethos of the Marine Corps, which is honor, courage, and commitment, and I know they have inspired countless numbers of young men and young women across the globe in the Marines and beyond. I am going to talk a little bit about them today. Gen. John Kelly is a straight-talking, blunt, and fierce warrior. Before he was 16, he hitchhiked to the west coast and rode the rails back. He is then said to have joined the Merchant Marine for a year, where he is quoted as saying: ``My first time overseas was taking 10,000 tons of beer to Vietnam.'' In 1970, he enlisted in the Marines, where he found purpose and found a home. Gen. Jim Mattis is a warrior, scholar, appreciator of mavericks, known for the reading lists he expects his marines to follow, who as a teenager was ``a mediocre student with a partying attitude''--an attitude that landed him in jail a few times. But learning called, and then the marines called, teaching him and others how to ``think like men of action, and to act like men of thought.'' He is a legend in the Marine Corps. His motto in Iraq, when he led the forces there, was: ``No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy than a U.S. Marine.'' He is the first and only marine to ever be Secretary of Defense. Then there is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joe Dunford, who has had the Marine Corps flowing through his veins his whole life. His father served as a marine in Korea, and three of his uncles were marines in World War II. General Dunford had no doubt that he would continue that tradition. While earning a degree from Saint Michael's College in Vermont, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. During his career, from infantry commander to Commandant of the Marine Corps and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he has been known for inspiring respect in combat and on the field of battle and in the corridors of Washington. I had a brief opportunity to meet General Dunford a few times as a marine when I was in Afghanistan and he was the ISAF commander. The respect that not only marines and American servicemembers but all the allied forces there had for him was very, very apparent. All three, as I mentioned, served in Iraq. In 2003, General Kelly was promoted to brigadier general and was the first known promotion of a Marine Corps colonel to brigadier general in an active combat zone since Chesty Puller in January of 1951. General Dunford, serving under General Mattis during the invasion, earned his own nickname of ``Fighting Joe,'' which continued to serve him well in Washington. So as you just saw from my colleague, the Senator from Ohio--there has been much talk today on the floor of the Senate from both sides of the aisle about character, integrity, patriotism, or, unfortunately, the lack thereof in Washington, DC, in the House and the Senate, throwing bombs at each other. But I think sometimes it is important to come down and talk about the other things--character, honor, integrity, service--because we have a lot of that as well. These three men have served our country with great distinction. They have all been succeeded by strong leaders who I am sure will carry out a similar tradition of service and dignity. Last year, I had the great honor of being promoted to colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves. I love being in this job. It is a huge privilege to serve the people of Alaska as a U.S. Senator. But I have no doubt that the biggest honor in my life is earning the title of U.S. marine. I knew that I joined a force for good, with cords of memory and valor that stretch back to before the founding of our country. The battles that the Corps has fought in live in the heart of every marine: Montezuma, Tripoli, Belleau Wood, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir, Inchon, Khe Sanh, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The list is very long. The greatest lesson I have learned as a marine is what true leadership looks like, and we have seen that true leadership in the trio of officers of Kelly, Mattis, and Dunford, and I have seen it in their lives after the Marine Corps in Washington, DC. Let me talk briefly about each of them. From his early days commanding a rifle company and serving on two aircraft carriers to commanding Task Force Tripoli during the Iraq war and leading U.S. Southern Command, General Kelly exemplified the warrior ethos of the Marine Corps. During the early days of Task Force Tripoli, then-Major General Kelly was asked about the ability of his force to handle the Iraqi military. His response was, ``Hell, these are marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima.'' He had confidence, and he was right. General Kelly is a fighter, but he also understands sacrifice. He lost troops in the field, and tragically, in 2010, he lost his own son, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, when he stepped on an IED while leading a platoon in Afghanistan. General Kelly knows sacrifice. He became the highest ranking military officer to lose his son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan. After he finished his military service with distinction, he took on two of the most challenging jobs here in DC: Secretary of Homeland Security and then the Chief of Staff at the White House. He didn't seek these jobs; he was asked to serve by the President, and he did. That is something unusual in a time where so many are crawling or scheming to climb up the ladder. It is refreshing to have leaders who are sought out or chosen to lead. It should be noted that the jobs that General Kelly took on demanded a different skill set after he took off the uniform. However, on a daily basis, in these jobs, you still take incoming; it is just not with bullets and artillery. In my view, he did an outstanding job in these two very important positions at a critical time. Then there is General Mattis, who became our Secretary of Defense. He also did not seek that job; that job sought him. I know this for a fact because, before the election, I had the privilege of sitting down with General Mattis when he was a scholar at the Hoover Institution. I talked to him about leadership and strategy. It was a big honor for me to be able to do that in October 2016. After the election in November of 2016, when the rumors began swirling about his being the Secretary of Defense, my first phone call to the President-elect to congratulate him also mentioned how I thought it would be a great pick to pick General Mattis as Secretary of Defense. I believe he did an excellent job. General Mattis, as the first and only marine to ever be Secretary of Defense, played a pivotal role in redefining our national security objectives and rebuilding our military. General Mattis played a leading role in crafting the National Security Strategy with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster in 2017 and then literally wrote almost entirely on his own the Pentagon's 2018 National Defense Strategy. Together, these two documents have shifted our Nation's strategic focus from countering violent extremism, as we needed to do after the September 11 terrorist attacks, to recognizing the return of great power competition as the leading national security challenge for the United States, with China as the pacing threat. It is rarely recognized by the media, but these are very bipartisan documents in that Senators--Democrats and Republicans--all believe these are very, very important. They are almost universally applauded and supported in terms of American strategy for the next several decades. General Mattis recently published a memoir, ``Call Sign Chaos,'' that centers on leadership and the need to sharpen the mind and the body. I think this book, which I am reading right now, is a great service to our country. ``You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force,'' he tells his marines. ``Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.'' Indeed, much has been written about General Mattis's keen intellect, but, as he makes clear, reading and intellectual pursuits are not an end to themselves. They are part of the mission. They are at the heart of shaping the world's most fearsome fighting force. In his book, he says: ``If you haven't read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate--you can't coach and you can't lead.'' I also believe that General Mattis/Secretary Mattis did an outstanding job as Secretary of Defense. He rebuilt our military readiness, which had plummeted when defense spending was cut 25 percent from 2010 to 2015. I have walked with General Mattis/Secretary Mattis in Alaska with our military forces there, and I can tell you the troops loved him and respected him. Finally, I want to talk about General Dunford. As I mentioned, Monday will be the last day we get to call Dunford America's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He is the second marine to hold this highest leadership position in the armed services. Also a student of history, he is known to be fearless and an unflappable commander. General Mattis told a great story about how when they were serving together in Iraq--Dunford and Mattis--General Mattis watched a rocket- propelled grenade fly over Dunford's humvee and blow up about 100 yards behind him. Mattis wrote: ``He [Dunford] barely glanced up and then went right back to writing his orders.'' In his book, General Mattis talks more about General Dunford. He said: He had a gift of synthesis; he could coolly evaluate the larger picture. Joe reminded me of Emperor Justinian, consistently reaching fair conclusions and able to summarize a complex situation in a few words. It has been precisely this ability that has allowed General Dunford to so effectively navigate the tricky, political, and military worlds in both this administration and the last one. He was nominated to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by President Obama and did such an outstanding job that President Trump renominated him. These are the kinds of men and leaders I am talking about, and these are not easy times. Our country and our military are facing unprecedented challenges, and wise counsel from those in these positions is paramount--those who understand what it means to fight, what it means to be on the frontlines of conflict, and what it means to have the wisdom sometimes not to fight. General Dunford has provided that wisdom. Harlan Ullman, a combat veteran and a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was recently quoted in an article about General Dunford where he said: He has been one of the best Joint Chiefs of Staff America has ever had. According to Ullman, Dunford has been able to successfully navigate difficult times with regard to national security and challenges to our Nation in civil and military relations. With all the other challenges this country has to face, it is important to recognize these kinds of leaders. I also want to mention how General Dunford is known not only for his keen intellect but also for his compassion. He was known to personally write letters to the parents of his marines who were killed in action. He was the person who went to General Kelly's home to tell him that his own son had been killed in battle in Afghanistan, and later, he wore a Team Kelly shirt when he ran the Boston Marathon. I have seen that personal compassion in my own life. It is a story I will end with with regard to all three of these men, and it involves a young lance corporal from Alaska named Grant Fraser. Who is Grant Fraser? In high school in Anchorage, he was an actor who loved the works of Homer and Shakespeare. He was a mountain biker, a skier, a pianist, a scuba diver, a rock climber, a tennis player, a lighthearted, mischievous young man, and then he surprised family and friends when he joined the Marines. While still in college, because he wanted challenges and he knew he would thrive in the Marine Corps--and he did thrive in the Marine Corps--he planned on coming back home to work as a paramedic with the Anchorage Fire Department. On August 3, 2005, in Anbar Province, Iraq, Grant Fraser was on a mission--Operation Quick Strike--to avenge the killing of his fellow marines when his vehicle was hit by a massive improvised explosive device. He was 22 years old when he made the ultimate sacrifice. I love our military, but sometimes it can be bureaucratic and very boneheaded. It took 11 long years and the tenacious, beautiful spirit of Grant Fraser's mom, Sharon Long, for this young marine to get a proper burial at Arlington Cemetery. Two days before the funeral in 2016, I was sitting next to General Dunford at a dinner. I told him about Grant's heroism and Sharon Long's heroic perseverance to get her son buried at Arlington. On an overcast day, September 30, 2016, as friends, family, and fellow marines were gathering to put Grant Fraser to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, a marine four-star general in his dress blues appeared solemnly on the sidelines. The most important member of the U.S. military decided to move his schedule and come to the funeral of this lance corporal. I had the opportunity to introduce him to Sharon Long. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told me that he couldn't sleep the night before, thinking about how long it took for her to bury her son, and he felt that he just had to attend to pay his respects to this marine. I have been to a lot of funerals in my Marine Corps career, but this was the most moving funeral I ever attended. It was moving because on that day, rank didn't matter and medals didn't matter; we were all just Americans--with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--grieving the loss of one of our own. General Mattis wrote, ``No Marine is ever alone--he carries with him the spirit passed on from generations before him. Group spirit--that electric force field of emotion--infuses and binds warriors together.'' These three men--Mattis, Kelly, and Dunford--have brought that spirit, that higher calling, not just to the Marine Corps but to America and the highest levels of government, and we should all be thankful. We in the Senate confirm these men and women on a regular basis-- people willing to serve their country--but we rarely thank them on the floor. So from one U.S. Senator who has watched the careers of these remarkable three men closely and appreciates what they have done, not just in uniform but after they have taken off the uniform, I want to thank them for their honor, courage, commitment, sacrifice, and example to thousands if not millions of Americans and marines and for keeping us safe. So to Generals Mattis, Kelly, and Dunford, thank you. Semper Fidelis. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Ariel Hasse, an intern in my office, be granted floor privileges through September 27, 2019.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is that time of the week--the end of the week in the Senate--when I come to the floor and recognize someone special in the great State of Alaska, someone who is doing something important for their community, for the State, for the country. It is the highlight of my week, and I know it is for our pages. We have some new pages here. It is commonly recognized as the favorite speech of the week for the pages because they get to hear stories about real people, particularly people in Alaska. You will hear a lot of these speeches as you are here working hard in the Senate. We are glad the new pages are here. As you know, my State is certainly one of the most interesting, imagined States in the whole country. By the way, people watching in the Gallery--my friend Scott Lee is up there--watching on TV, come up to Alaska. You will love it. I guarantee you, it will be the trip of a lifetime. No one comes to Alaska and is disappointed. I like to talk about Alaska on the Senate floor. People see a lot of what is going on in the State on the nature channels and the adventure channels. There is a story about Alaska on cable TV, it seems like, daily, almost hourly. Not nearly enough of these stories focus on the people who live there--independent, patriotic, generous men, women, and, yes, kids, children, who call Alaska home. Today, I want to recognize 13-year-old Alaina Vik, who lives in Eagle River, AK. That is a beautiful community, about 15 miles north of Anchorage. Alaina is a young woman with a big heart. She lives with her mother, Amy, who owns her own real estate company, and her father, Curtis, who is an Alaska State trooper. He is someone I know well because he and I served together with the very outstanding Marine Corps Reserve unit based in Alaska, Echo Company, 4th Recon Battalion. Trooper Vik, semper fi. To you and Amy, great job on raising such an exceptional daughter. Why is she so exceptional? Let's get into what Alaina has done for us. But, first, let me talk a little bit about what is going on in Alaska because I always like to update what is happening in this speech. I was home for the whole month of August--actually, almost 5 weeks. I did a week of my own on Marine Corps Reserve duty. It was great to be home. I got to travel all over the State. When I say ``travel all over,'' we are talking hundreds, if not thousands, of miles, literally, between communities. There was a lot going on. Unfortunately, as it happens in so many summers in Alaska, fires were taking their toll, but the weather was amazing, with beautiful blue skies. For the most part, the sun was out. It was perfect for fishing, hiking, and camping--all the things that so many people in Alaska who come to visit and live here do in the summer. Now we are heading into the fall. Leaves are starting to turn. It is moose hunting season. The snow isn't far away for most of the State. In some parts of the State, it is actually already on the ground. Some might say that winter is coming, but I think it is too soon. Winter is coming, but not just yet. I will let you know when that happens. School has started, and Alaina Vik has entered eighth grade. Her favorite subject is art. Like so many Alaskans, she has been busy. What has she been busy doing? Why are we honoring this young Alaskan who is doing a lot for our State? First, as a Girl Scout in Troop 690, under the amazing leadership of the troop leader, Mrs. Melissa Jones, Alaina sold more cookies than any other Girl Scout in the entire State of Alaska--more than 5,000 boxes. That is amazing; isn't it? I love Girl Scout cookies. I think they are the best in the country, but 5,000 boxes in one State is pretty darn impressive. What is her secret? She said: ``My mom told me to go out almost every day to sell cookies, to talk to people and to interest them in buying the cookies.'' Her older brother, Kyle, who, by the way, is an Eagle Scout--you could see what a high-achieving family this is--also helped coach his sister and helped take her out to sell cookies. Alaina said: ``I'm a really hard worker when it comes to Girl Scout cookies.'' Obviously, she is--5,000 boxes. Selling cookies just wasn't good enough for her. She wanted to do more for her Girl Scout project. So she took her passion to the next level, using her selling skills to help others and focusing on the men and women in our military, particularly those who are deployed. In Alaska, we proudly boast of having the record of more vets per capita than any State in the country. So this is something that a lot of our communities can get behind. She and her fellow Girl Scouts began to send our deployed military members Girl Scout cookies. She got the idea when the father of one of the members of her Girl Scout troop was deployed. Her troop wanted to make sure he felt remembered on his deployment. All told, in 2017, she was able to donate 800 boxes to our troops, some of whom are deployed in Kuwait and Qatar. She didn't stop there. As I have often said, we live in one of the most patriotic States in the country. Alaina Vik is just one more bit of proof of that. She wanted to do more for the men and women in uniform. She said: They're fighting for us. They're protecting us. They deserved to be appreciated [and remembered] and honored. This is a 13-year-old girl. Remember, she is also the daughter of a recon marine. With the help of her mother, Amy, and her father, Curtis, and her two younger brothers, she expanded her effort into what is now called Operation Sweet Support. You could find that on Facebook. In addition to just cookies, she is also sending snacks, pencils, duct tape, and toys. Who doesn't need a toy or duct tape when they are deployed? You can use it for everything. When the news got out about this project, she started to receive donations from all over the community in Eagle River and all over Alaska. So far this year, through this project, she has sent out over 98 care packages to Alaskan troops who are deployed overseas, particularly in Kosovo and Kuwait. She is aiming to send out 75 more by the end of the year--one 13-year-old girl in the great State of Alaska. She puts a personalized handwritten note into each of the boxes thanking them. ``This is my way of saying thank you,'' one of her notes reads. Here is another one: You are amazing and appreciated and loved. Thank you for your service. That is another note from Alaina to our service men and women deployed overseas. She gets notes back, of course. One wrote: Thank you for everything you've done for us. Please keep supporting the troops [and sending cookies]. Our military members love cookies. They say it makes a big difference. Someone also sent her an American flag that was flown overseas in appreciation of the cookies, as well as a unit coin, a military coin, sent to Alaina by our appreciative troops. ``It was amazing,'' she said, when she got this. As someone who has been deployed myself, away from family and friends, I know what it means to get such care packages. It means the world. It means that people back home are remembering what you are doing. Alaina, thank you for your great work supporting our troops, for the example you are setting for all the young men and women, not just in Alaska but America. Amy and Curtis, thanks for raising such a wonderful daughter. Alaina, keep up the great work. Congratulations, once again, on being our Alaskan of the Week. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the remaining votes in this series be 10 minutes in length.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is the time of week again when I come to the floor to recognize a very special person in my State--someone who I believe helps to make Alaska the best State in the country. We refer to this person as our Alaskan of the Week. It is one of my favorite times of the week because I get to brag about my State and brag about my fellow Alaskans and constituents. I think the pages enjoy these stories about Alaska and what we are doing up there. This week, that person is Cheryl Venechuk. She is our Alaskan of the Week. She is a wife, a mom, a grandmother, an active member of her community in Healy, AK, which is in the interior of Alaska, and a woman who is very active not just in her community but in her chosen profession. She is a proud member of Laborers Union Local 942 in Fairbanks. That is part of the construction union, Laborers' International Union, LIUNA. Many people know it for its great men and women across our country-- one of the biggest construction building trades in North America. These are men and women who like to go out and build stuff--roads, pipelines, mines, build things. These are the type of Americans who made our country great. Let me talk about Cheryl's life--about raising her five children in Healy, about her job, and about all she does for her community, which is a lot. I certainly think she personifies the kind of self- sufficiency, toughness, kindness, and independent spirit that Alaska and Alaskans are known for, not just in Alaska but really throughout the country and the world. She personifies it. Let me tell you a little bit about Cheryl's life. She was originally from the Midwest--Michigan. When she was about 23 years old, a friend of hers, Tom Bodett--who was a high school friend and eventually became the voice of Motel 6's motto, ``We'll leave the lights on for you''-- told her that Alaska was a good place to make a living and raise a family. So Cheryl and her husband Tim, with a child on the way, moved to a beautiful part of Southeast Alaska, a community called Petersburg, which is a beautiful fishing community in the southeast part of our State. They settled there. They made friends. They began to raise a family. She worked at the local cannery, at the daycare, at the grocery store. She loved Petersburg. We all love Petersburg. I encourage people watching or watching on TV, when you visit Alaska, make sure to make that part of your stops. Eventually, three kids later, Cheryl and her husband Tim moved north for Tim's work as a surveyor for Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy, AK. That is about 100 miles southwest of Fairbanks in the interior. Usibelli is another great story in Alaska. Several generations of Usibelli family members have been producing coal for Alaska and the world, and they are still doing it--a great company, great families. What did Cheryl find in Healy? Certainly another welcoming community, but a lot smaller, with a lot fewer amenities than she found in Petersburg. So as she does, Cheryl rolled up her sleeves, and along with other young mothers in the area, she got to work to create a community that her children--eventually five children--and all the other children and families could enjoy in interior Alaska. ``We made stuff happen,'' Cheryl said. They started a daycare. They started Boy Scout and Brownie troops. They made sure hungry children got a hot lunch. They went around town picking up cans and started a recycling effort before recycling was even the rage. They helped build an ice rink for the kids to play hockey on. They even went so far as to haul the water for the rink in a truck and then spread it out to form ice. She mentored countless kids and always had time for her five kids. This is what one of her children said about her: You have a hockey team that needs a hot meal? Call Cheryl. You need food for a wedding? Call Cheryl. Your kid is in trouble? Call Cheryl. You need something built? Call Cheryl. Every community has a Cheryl--the backbone, the go-to person--who is usually unsung. We all know someone like that, and they make our communities so strong and caring, and in many ways these kind of people are exactly what my ``Alaskan of the Week'' series of speeches is all about. So it is very appropriate we are talking about her right now. When Cheryl was in her mid-forties, with her kids settled and in college, like a modern-day homesteader, she yearned for the next challenge. One day, she saw a group of workers doing road construction--hard, but very important work--and she thought, I can do that. Soon, she became a proud member of Alaska Laborers Local 942. That was almost 20 years ago. Her hard work, along with fellow laborers, is seen all across the State of Alaska, wind farms, trails, roads, bridges, and pipelines. Many people talk about the great natural wonders in Alaska, and we have so many, but the manmade wonders are also remarkable--bridges, roads slicing into giant mountains, oil rigs, mines--and she and her fellow laborers have done so much to build up that part of the State. She is a strong advocate for anybody who decides to work in the building trades, and she is particularly focused on women in the construction and building trades and recruiting them for these good jobs. She said: These are good jobs. They are good-paying jobs, and they build confidence. It is a great way to make money and to learn how to use your hands and of course to give back to your community. To that end, she and her daughter Halle created, at their own expense, an Alaska ``Women in the Trades'' promotional calendar. The calendar features women of all ages who are employed as heavy equipment operators, welders, truckdrivers, tree trimmers, and on and on and on. With her own money, she put this calendar together. She drops these calendars off at laundromats, schools, cafes, union halls, churches, and always keeps a few on hand to give to women who might need a new way of thinking about a career, who might need hope. She also gives them to people she just runs into--people like me. I was out in Fairbanks, AK, a couple weeks ago in the O'Reilly Auto Parts parking lot, and bumped into Cheryl and her daughter Halle, and I got one of these. This calendar, Alaska Women in the Trades, is a great calendar with a couple of inspirational quotes: Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, ``I'm possible.'' Get it? Pretty clever. How about another one: Do something today that your future self will thank you for. Think about that, pages. It is good advice, even for Senators. This is the kind of work she does, on her own dime, giving this kind of inspiration to her fellow Alaskans. My team and I have gotten many emails from Cheryl's five children over the past few days, all of them talking about what a great mother she is, how giving, caring, hard-working she is, how she is a hero to all of them, and how she is an inspiring example. Let me quote from one of the emails. Her daughter Emmaline Hill, who, by the way, signed up for the U.S. Marine Corps when she was 18, then went on to graduate from Notre Dame, got her commission in the Marine Corps, and now is stationed in Japan as a major in the U.S. Marines--here is what she said about her mom: My mom believes in people, especially those who have a hard time believing in themselves or don't think they are worthy of it. She is a rugged champion for the underdog and a tireless advocate for employing Alaskans and building our communities through volunteerism and action. That is a beautiful testament to her mom from her daughter who is a major in the Marine Corps in Japan. We are going to be going into our August work session. I am going to be back home in Alaska the whole time. We are going to be coming up on Labor Day, a very important holiday. I think it is important, when we are thinking about Labor Day, to think about people like Cheryl, her fellow laborers, and particularly the women who are doing this kind of hard work. You don't always think about that in terms of the construction and building trades, but they do great work. So, Cheryl, thank you for all you have done. Thank you for your hard work, your inspiration, your dedication and faith, your indomitable spirit, and your example to your kids, to your fellow Alaskans, and now to Americans, as we congratulate you for being our Alaskan of the Week. I yield the floor.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, this week, I have the opportunity to introduce the U.S. Senate Small Business of the Week. Small businesses provide essential services to our Nation's communities. In my home State of Alaska, I have seen firsthand small businesses that contribute to the local economy and step in when a community is in need. It is my honor to name ChemTrack Alaska of Anchorage, AK, as the Senate Small Business of the Week. ChemTrack was founded as a construction company by Sig Jokiel in 1973. Shortly after its inception, the company shifted focus and rebranded itself into an environmental services and engineering company when Chuck Ronan joined the team in 1985. After studying business at the University of New Hampshire, Sig's daughter, Carrie, joined the company in 2002. Carrie, who became the company's majority partner in 2010, brought business expertise and project management skills to ChemTrack. Throughout the company's 46-year history, it has contracted with the U.S. Air Force, Alaska Railroad Corporation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, BP, Exxon, and many other government institutions and businesses. In 2019, ChemTrack was awarded the Women-Owned Small Business of the Year Award by the SBA in recognition of its outstanding achievements. ChemTrack's commitment to developing creative environmental engineering solutions enables the company to contribute to local projects in Alaska's great outdoors. As a successful contractor and a certified 8(a) economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business, ChemTrack has completed projects for both private businesses and government clients. ChemTrack helped clean up Alaska's shorelines after the Exxon Valdez oilspill in 1989 by developing innovative, barge- mounted sweeps to clean sea water. As a testament to ChemTrack's environmental stewardship, the company was awarded a basic ordering agreement by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2012, enabling them to provide containment cleanup and mitigate the harmful effects of oil spills and hazardous substance incidents all over the state of Alaska. Carrie is renowned as an advocate for small businesses at both the Federal and State level. During her testimony in front of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in June 2018, Carrie discussed the SBA's contracting programs and provided insight on her experience operating a woman-owned small business. As a graduate of the SBA Emerging Leaders program, Carrie is very active in her community and even mentors other Alaskan businesses through the Women's Power League of Alaska. Carrie's distinction as a local leader is evidenced by her inclusion in the Alaska Journal of Commerce's Top 40 Under 40 list of 2014 and her selection as the 2018 Enterprising Women of the Year Award. Back home in Alaska, Carrie serves on the Associated General Contractors board of directors, as well as the Boards for Women Impacting Public Policy and the Alaska State Hockey Association. She also completed a 6-year term with YWCA, where she served as president for 2 years, and is a member of the Society of American Military Engineers and National Contracting Management Association. Carrie's abilities as an athlete complement her business skills. She was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at the University of New Hampshire in 2014 and served as an Ambassador for Women's Ice Hockey in Fast and Female International Program. ChemTrack has successfully pursued a two-pronged mission of profit and stewardship. By employing its engineering proficiency to aid in disaster recovery, ChemTrack has shown us what can be achieved when individuals and businesses apply their specific skills to help better their community. ChemTrack has grown from a small construction company to a successful environmental engineering contractor with a clear track record of community involvement. I am honored to recognize Carrie and the entire team at ChemTrack Alaska as the Senate Small Business of the Week, and I look forward to watching your continued growth and success.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Abigail Brown, an intern in my office, be granted floor privileges through August 2, 2019.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is that time of week again. It is the time when I get to recognize a special person from a special place--the great State of Alaska--in what we call our ``Alaskan of the Week.'' It is one of the best times of the week for me because I get to talk about Alaska's community and its individuals. I think we have new pages here, but I think the pages unanimously agree every year that this is the most exciting speech of the week. I will not disappoint because you get to learn about Alaska, and whether it is summer--right now--or winter, you get to learn about what people are doing in Alaska. I recognize Mr. Aves Thompson today. He is one of the many people in my State who has worked diligently to ensure that Alaska runs well and that goods get properly transported from one place in Alaska to another place. We are a big State. He ensures that when delivering things, the systems that make a functional State and a functional society are in working order in Alaska. Now, I will get to what Aves has done in a minute here and will talk about him. What I always like to do is talk a little bit about what is going on in Alaska right now. The weather is gorgeous, and the fishing is great. A couple of weeks ago, I was up on the mighty Yukon River, which is way up north. I was with my wife and three daughters and a bunch of family members. We were fishing for one of the most iconic fish on the planet--the Yukon River king. It is a time of festivals and parades all across the State. Last week, I was at Eagle River, which is about 15 minutes north of Anchorage, for the Bear Paw Festival. Among other things, many Alaskans--myself included--partook in the Slippery Salmon Olympics. I am not going to describe exactly what happened, but as you can imagine, it involved running and obstacles with salmon. It was a lot of fun. So it is a great time to be in Alaska, and I encourage everybody who is watching on TV to come on up. You will love it. I guarantee it will be the trip of a lifetime. As you know, events like these reflect something larger about a place. They reflect ties and commitment and, importantly, people and community. They reflect people who help each other and spend their lives working to make things better. So let me introduce you to Aves Thompson, our Alaskan of the Week. He is someone who has definitely spent his life making Alaska better and, more fundamentally, making Alaska work well and efficiently. I will admit it. Alaska is not the easiest place in which to live. For one, it is really far away from the rest of the lower 48. I am going to get on a plane. I try to get home every weekend, so I will go home tomorrow afternoon. It will be about 11\1/2\ hours door-to-door, one way, to get to my home in Anchorage. That is pretty far. The winter weather, of course, can be brutal. Our mountains and our tundra are beautiful, but it can be challenging, to say the least, to build on that terrain. Getting goods in and out of Alaska is particularly vexing in a State the size of Alaska. Now, my colleagues from Texas don't always like to hear about it, but I like to say, if you were to split Alaska in half, then Texas would be the third largest State in the country because we are 2\1/2\ times the size of the State of Texas. More than that, we are a continental-wide, expansive State. When you look at communities like Ketchikan, which is down in the southeast, at communities like Barrow, which is in the north, and all the way out west to the end of the Aleutian Islands chain, you will literally cover Florida, North Dakota, and San Francisco. That is the size of Alaska. So it is a challenge to move things. Aves Thompson is currently the head of the Alaska Trucking Association. He has spent his entire career working to make sure Alaskans get the goods they need not only to survive but to thrive. He has also worked to ensure that the goods are measured properly and that people aren't overpaying for them. This is very important. Aves and Phyllis, his wife, came to Alaska in 1970. First, it was to visit friends, then to build a life. They love the State. They love the weather. They love the people. They love the community. Phyllis taught elementary school, and eventually Aves worked for a small trucking company. Then he worked for the State as, first, the division director of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Program and then as the director and the chief of the Alaska State Division of Measurement Standards. Now, that is a mouthful, but it is a really important job. What does it mean? It means that he was in charge of all of the scales in Alaska-- everything from the scales to weigh your fruit at the grocery store and your gas at the pump to the scales that weigh huge shipments of goods that come into our State. When she was a little girl, Kristin, who is Aves' daughter, remembers how her father used to always check the scales at the grocery store. So she told her friends that her father weighed cheese for a living. That is a family joke; that he weighed cheese for a living. Aves became the chairman of the 3,500-member National Conference on Weights and Measures, and he was given a lifetime achievement award for his work, particularly around his work in setting the standards for international weights and measurements, which is incredibly important for the global economy, much of which runs through Alaska. In 2006, Aves became the head of the Alaska Trucking Association. Why? Well, his daughter said he wasn't a trucker himself but that he was always one at heart. He loves the music of Waylon Jennings and Kenny Rogers. He loves the culture. Most of all, he loves the truckers themselves. They are great, hard-working Americans who drive our trucks. Aves said: The thing I like most about this industry is that it is made up of hard-working, tough people who want to make a living. We are not looking for a handout; we are looking to pay our fair share. Our drivers work hard. They make a good living throughout Alaska. Kristin, his daughter, said that as she was growing up, a trucker was always calling, and her dad was always offering to help. Let me tell you a little bit about the trucking industry in Alaska. Trucking employs over 13,700 people in Alaska--almost 1 out of every 19 workers. They are good-paying jobs with benefits, and they are sorely needed in my State. With the exception of communities in Southeast Alaska, almost everything that we get in Alaska comes into the Port of Alaska and is delivered by truck. The rides themselves are unlike any rides in the country. We actually had a reality show--one of the first of many reality shows about Alaska--called ``Ice Road Truckers.'' These were the guys--the men and the women--who drove the haul road, as we call it. I was just on it going up to our fish camp on the Yukon. In the winter and on ice, they drive these trucks hundreds of miles up the haul road to Prudhoe Bay. That show ran for 10 years. Americans loved it. Those were our truckers. As Aves puts it, ``in Alaska, if you got it, a truck brought it. It's absolutely essential to our economy. If trucking in Alaska stopped,'' the entire Alaskan economy ``would stop.'' Now, Aves is going to be retiring from the Alaska Trucking Association at the end of this month, but he sits on so many other boards and associations and he is involved in so many other elements of his community, his State, and his country, that I guarantee you there is not going to be much time for him to rest during his well-deserved retirement. He is the kind of guy--and we all know him--who when people call on him to do things, he gets things done. But one project he is passionate about, as am I, and it is still ongoing, and he is still leading on it and he is absolutely determined to finish--let me explain what this is. Like so many Alaskans, Aves is a veteran. I like to brag about Alaska. We have more veterans per capita than any State in the United States of America. He is one of them. He served in the Army from 1964 to 1966, in the 2nd Infantry Division. He was stationed at the DMZ in Korea. Like so many of our veterans in America and Alaska, these experiences never left him. In 2002 he read about a 2nd Infantry Division reunion, and he thought he would go. He found kinship among his fellow veterans and got talked into becoming an officer, eventually becoming the chair of the 2nd Indianhead Division Association and chair of the association's Memorial Foundation Board of Trustees. As I said, this guy is a doer and a leader. Among other things, he has led and raised money for two trips for veterans from the Korean conflict and who have served in Korea to go to Korea, and he has been working diligently to update the U.S. Army 2nd Division Memorial, which is located here at 17th and Constitution in Washington, DC. The memorial was first erected in 1936 to honor the 2nd Division fallen soldiers in World War I. It was then modified to honor the 2nd Division fallen soldiers in both World War II and Korea. This is a very highly decorated Army division. Aves and other veterans of the 2nd Division thought that the memorial should be expanded even further to honor even more of the members of the 2nd Division who have lost their lives and to leave space for future modifications of this important memorial for soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like so much of what happens here, none of this was easy. When he first started to work on the memorial, he went to the Park Service, which gave him a firm ``No, we are not going to help you. We are not going to let you move it. We are not going to let you expand it.'' Eventually, he came to us, his congressional delegation from Alaska, and we gave him a firm ``Yes, we will help.'' We were able last year to include a provision in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act to allow for the expansion of the 2nd Division Infantry Memorial. Aves has been working hard at this ever since--working with agencies, raising private money for this memorial, and getting design approval. Aves has been married to Phyllis for almost 51 years. Kristin is a wonderful daughter who has two sons of her own. Aves is proud of his grandsons, Logan and Aaron Michael, and we are all very grateful for his work on the economy of Alaska, on the logistics, on the supply, and for his work for veterans. He is someone who cares so much and so deeply about his State, about his community, about his industry, about his country. So, Aves, happy retirement, although we know you are going to continue to work hard. Thanks for all you have done for Alaska, for America, and thank you for being our Alaskan of the Week. I yield the floor.

Mr. SULLIVAN

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

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Wednesday. Now, normally it is Thursday when I come down here to talk about somebody who is making a huge difference in my State, somebody we refer to as the Alaskan of the Week, someone who is doing something for the community or the State or the country or maybe all of the above. I know we have a new set of pages, but I think it is commonly known that this is the most anticipated speech of the week by the pages. I see the heads nodding, so that is great. You guys are learning well, early, so that is wonderful, and I know that the Presiding Officer really enjoys it as well. I am going to talk today about Calvin Williams, whom everybody in Alaska knows as Cal, who is our Alaskan of the Week, who lives in Anchorage via Louisiana. I am going to talk a lot about Cal here and why he certainly deserves this great honor, but also when I give these remarks, I like to talk just a little bit about what is going on in Alaska at the time. We have just celebrated the summer solstice, which in a lot of States isn't a big deal, but in Alaska, it is actually a huge deal. It is the longest day of the year, which was last week, and that really means something. You get the 12 midnight Sun energy, and everybody is out. There are celebrations throughout the State. Friends and neighbors gather at parties and community events well past 12 midnight. I had the opportunity to spend last weekend in Fairbanks, AK, where there was a 12 midnight Sun baseball game and a 12 midnight Sun 10K run. I got to participate in some of that. There was just great energy and a great feeling and a lot of sunlight all night. Across the country and in Alaska, we also just celebrated Juneteenth, which marks the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Anchorage celebrated the weekend before last, and Cal Williams, our Alaskan of the Week, was there, as he has been there nearly every year since the first celebration in the 1980s. Cal is a staple at that event and has been at so many other events in Alaska over the decades where people get together, where he has been a community leader and has tried to do good things for our communities throughout the State. So let me tell you a little bit about Cal and how lucky we are to have him in the great State of Alaska. He was born in 1941 in Monroe, LA. I know we have some Louisianans as pages here. That was the segregated South, and he was born 7 days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He is from a very patriotic family. His parents immediately joined the cause of fighting and supporting our Nation during World War II. His mother worked in the factories to help out the war effort, and his father joined the Army and was sent to the Pacific theater to defend America. Basically, Cal was raised by his grandmother, who happened to live across the street from church and a K-12 Catholic school, built and run by the Franciscans to serve the African-American Catholic community in the area. Nobody in his family was Catholic, but it was the best school in the area, so that was where he went. The lessons he was taught at this school, the Little Flower Academy--to serve the less fortunate, to feed the hungry, to help all in need--have stayed with Cal forever and have really driven his sense of service. The much beloved Sister Consuela, who was the longtime principal and homeroom teacher, made sure that he learned all this. Sister Consuela was feared and respected. If you did anything bad, if the Sister didn't see you [do something bad], you knew that God did. I carry that with me today. After high school, he attended Grambling State University--another all-Black school--where he pursued theater and singing. Anybody who knows Cal knows this is another thing that has stayed with him throughout his life. Then, like his patriotic mom and dad, he decided to enlist in the Air Force. He was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where he worked on the Titan II Missile System--an elite position, something that he credits to the schooling he received at Little Flower. When he got out of the Air Force, he made it back to Louisiana to take care of his father, who had gotten sick. This was during the height of the movement for civil rights--one of the greatest movements, of course, in our Nation's history, a lot of which took place here on this Senate floor. As he often does, Cal jumped in. He jumped in with both feet. He began working with CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality--one of the leading civil rights organizations in the early years of the civil rights movement. He and six other students were the first Black students to proudly integrate what was then called Northeast Louisiana State College. Eventually, a friend who had moved to Alaska talked him into coming up to our great State. This was in 1965. Cal brought all of his intelligence, his theatrical and musical talents, his abiding deep faith, his fun, and his deep commitment to civil rights and community service to our State in 1965. In some ways, it was a good time to be an activist in Alaska. Our State certainly isn't perfect. It is a State, though, that is very committed to equal rights and justice for all. Yet, just like everywhere in the country, we had our problems, and we had our challenges. As I mentioned, we certainly were not perfect in that realm, so Cal had work to do. Initially, he was a dishwasher in the hospital by day and was a community activist by night. He helped to lobby the mayor's office in Anchorage to get paved roads and to bring electricity to predominantly African-American neighborhoods. He also helped bring people into the voting booths, which was so important. The same friend who brought him to Alaska, Charles LeViege, started a newspaper that focused on the African-American community. He joined with the Alaska Native leadership to lobby for the landmark legislation that, again, took place on the Senate floor, here, in 1971--the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. He became the president of the Anchorage chapter of the NAACP, of which he is still a vice president to this very day. I have only gotten to 1971, and you can see how much he has done. In the 1970s, he had a little sojourn in Hollywood to fulfill a lifelong dream of being in the movies. He was. He got some gigs--a spot in a film with Angie Dickinson. The pages don't know who she is, but she was a great actress. But like some people who leave Alaska, he missed it too much, so he decided to come back, and he did. So over the years since he has been back, he has helped raise funds for an African-American economic development venture. The group built a building in the Fairview community of Anchorage, which is still there today. They had a social club on the top sponsored by the Alaska Black Caucus--a place to meet with executives and bank officers in a nice setting, community leaders. He worked in television. He worked for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which has been key to helping people get home ownership. All through these years, he clung to his roots and his faith. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and a faithful parishioner at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Anchorage, where he is the director of the church's Filipino gospel choir, which sounds like angels. ``When we sing,'' he said, ``we sing for the Lord.'' And no doubt, when they sing, the Lord is listening. He visits prisons to read the Bible with inmates, sings every week to the patients at Providence Extended Care and every other week to our senior home, which we call the Pioneer Home in Alaska. The residents there love Cal's Elvis impersonations. If you are in Alaska and happen to be there for Christmas, you should stop by Bean's Cafe, a place where the hungry go for a meal, and Cal will be there every Christmas wearing a Santa cap, singing for hours for everybody who comes in the door. This is a gentleman who has done so much for his community and my State, and what is he most proud of? When asked, ``My greatest achievement was in 2017 when I received the St. Francis Stewardship Award from the Archdiocese of Anchorage,'' Cal said. St. Francis was the patron saint of the Little Flower Academy. ``I have come full circle,'' he said. ``Sister Consuela would be proud of me.'' Then he adds: ``But nothing was ever enough for her.'' It is enough for all of us, though, Cal. I thank him for all he has done for Anchorage, for so many different communities, for Alaska, and as an example for our country--for his generosity, kindness, enthusiasm, faith, and faith-filled service throughout his life. Congratulations to Cal for being our Alaskan of the Week. Tribute to Thomas Mansour Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that my office is saying goodbye to my very first Coast Guard fellow, recently promoted-- actually, promoted yesterday--to lieutenant commander, Thomas Mansour. Thomas happens to be sitting right next to me here on the Senate floor. Tom is from Montgomery County, MD. He graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. We were lucky to have him join my office as a Coast Guard fellow for the last 2 years, and he has done great work. I am going to brag about him a little bit here on the floor. I will probably embarrass him. Among other things, he was instrumental in the 2018 Coast Guard Authorization Act. The subcommittee that I chair on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is in charge of the Coast Guard. We were the ones drafting that. It had many provisions in it for the whole Coast Guard, certainly many for Alaska and other parts of the country. He also brought his expertise to the 2017 and 2018 Homeland Security budgets. His efforts helped secure landmark appropriations for the first Polar Security Cutter, an icebreaker for the Coast Guard, the first one in 40 years, and for critical infrastructure projects for the Coast Guard around Alaska and around the rest of the country. Probably his signature initiative--and very, very hard work--was on a bill that we affectionately know in my office as the Save Our Seas Act, both the first one, which our offices worked closely on with Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island and was signed by the President last fall to much fanfare in the Oval Office, and our Save Our Seas Act 2.0, which Senator Whitehouse and Senator Menendez and I rolled out in a press conference just this morning. SOS 2.0, as we call it, is an innovative piece of legislation that really sets us on a promising path as a nation to tackle the serious problem of plastics, ocean debris, and trash that enter our oceans and harm fisheries, marine life, and possibly human life. This litter ends up on the shores of Alaska, all around America, and threatens the livelihoods of coastal communities throughout America. Tom did yeoman's work to ensure that we introduced in the Senate today a comprehensive, substantive bill that all stakeholders-- Democrats, Republicans, the Trump administration, environmental groups, industry--are all working on together. Literally, all of the key stakeholders on this critical issue are pulling on the same oar. He did incredible work on this bill. He is a great team player, someone I am proud of and we are going to miss. Tom is getting married this summer to his fiance Meg, and they will be entering a whole new chapter in their lives. It will be an exciting one, I am sure. We wish them all the best. I can't thank Tom enough for all of the work he has done for my State, for our country, and I ask that all of my colleagues in the Senate recognize the great work that he did. Just here on the spot, I might even make him an honorary Alaskan of the Week for the great job he has done. Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words about Tom. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my Coast Guard fellow, Thomas Mansour, be granted Senate floor privileges until the end of the week.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I thank my good friend and colleague from Georgia, not just for the great lunch that he put on today but for his leadership and statesmanship. I serve with him on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Talk about a committee that is actually getting things done--bipartisan things done for American veterans. He is chairman of that committee. He does a phenomenal job. He is a great leader in the Senate, and I thank him not just for the barbecue today but for his wonderful work for America and Georgia.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Thursday, and it is one of my favorite times of the week because it is the time that I take to come down to the floor. The new pages are on the floor, and I think you are going to start to see this as probably one of your favorite times as well because it is when I talk about what we call the Alaskan of the Week. It is an opportunity to highlight somebody in my State who has done something great for their community, the State, and the country, and to brag a little bit about Alaska. Today I am going to talk about Jacob Adams from Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, AK. He has been a hero to so many in our State, including me--a giant of an individual who has spent his whole life in public service for his culture, for his community, for his State, and for his country. Before I get started about Jake Adams, let me talk a little bit about what is going on in Alaska right now. I know we all think we live in the best States. Each of us likes to come down and brag. That is a good thing. But in Alaska, we certainly have a lot of bragging rights on a whole host of issues and a whole host of areas in which we are very unique. Right now, it is a beautiful time to be in Alaska. We want tourists and everyone watching on TV to come to our great State. Flowers are blooming, and salmon are running up our rivers. Hundreds of thousands-- soon, literally millions--of salmon will be running. According to our Alaska Department of Fish and Game, it is going to be a great season for our reds. Of course, the sun is our familiar friend this time of year. In the northern part of my State, in Utqiagvik, the northernmost city in the entire United States, it is not setting at all. The sun is not setting at all. Midnight sun, pure energy--it is amazing to experience. We experience it, but we want everyone else to come up and experience it. Something else is going on in Alaska in villages in the northern part of the State around this time of year, a very unique and special cultural tradition. The spring whaling season in 11 communities on the North Slope is wrapping up. This spring, those 11 North Slope communities were able to land 24 whales, equaling somewhere between 300 and 400 tons of highly nutritious food for these wonderful communities. That whale meat is then shared in villages throughout the whaling communities. It is an incredible Alaska Native tradition that we are all in awe of. We are now heading into Nalukataq season. This is when communities get together to celebrate this incredible bounty and harvest. It is a special day, a time of celebration and sharing. On this day, successful whaling crews share and feed the communities from morning until night-- whale, caribou soup, goose and duck soup, and fish is served to anyone and everyone who comes. It is really, really special. The community also celebrates with a blanket toss, where people are tossed high into the air. The seal skins sewed together from the successful whale hunts are used for the blanket. It is another beautiful Alaska Native tradition that Natives and non-Natives in our State cherish. There is a long list of people to thank for keeping this incredible whaling and Inupiaq culture and heritage alive in Alaska, but Jake Adams is certainly on the top of that list. He is a proud whaling captain himself and a founding member of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, which has been the primary force in making sure that our whaling communities continue to get the quotas they need from the International Whaling Commission to continue the practice and to feed their people and keep this amazing cultural heritage practice going. It has not been easy, but they have fought for self-determination, and they have won repeatedly, including at a big IWC meeting in Brazil last year. It is because of Jake Adams' incredible leadership that this tradition is so far advanced and revered in Alaska, and, I would say, around the world. Jake has done that and so much more for his community and for people all across the great State of Alaska. In one word, he is a legend--a true legend--for Alaska, and I am proud to have him as a friend. Jake's accomplishments are too long to list here, but let me spend a few minutes highlighting just a few of those accomplishments. Let me start with his background. He was born to Baxter and Rebecca Adams in Utqiagvik in 1946. He was raised in the tradition of the Inupiaq people--respecting their elders and revering the land and resources for his spiritual, physical, and emotional sustenance. Like so many Alaska Natives, as a boy he was sent away to school--far away--to a school in Alaska called Mt. Edgecumbe. It is thousands of miles away, and it is a boarding school that was run by BIA. Then, he went to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, until he got his first job with BIA. All of this was at a time of great change for the whole State of Alaska and, particularly, for the Alaska Native people. While Jake was still a young man, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or what we call ANCSA, was being debated in the halls of Congress and right here on the floor of the Senate. This ended up being one of the largest lands settlements anywhere in the world--literally, in the history of the world. It was right here in the U.S. Senate. The story around the passage of ANCSA in 1971, after decades of struggle, is certainly one for the ages. Jake Adams, among so many others, was highly involved in the passage of this landmark legislation for Alaska, and he was even more involved in the implementation of ANCSA, which set up shareholder-owned businesses with land for the Alaska Native people, what we call regional and village corporations, throughout the State. Stories abound of him and other Native leaders knocking on doors throughout the region, making sure that people were signed up as shareholders of these new corporations. When he was only 21, Jake was elected to the Barrow City Council, and he began his long decades of public service for Alaska and for his people. He then served as mayor of the city from 1971 through 1977. Then, the North Slope Borough was incorporated, the borough on the north part of Alaska--bigger than California. That was established, and he was a leader for the North Slope Borough in our State. The Alaska Native corporation on the North Slope, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation--or, as we call it in Alaska, ASRC--is one of the great business success stories in our State and, I would say, in America. Many people credit the work that Jake did at ASRC for making it so successful. He worked closely with many other great leaders at ASRC and on the North Slope. Oliver Leavitt certainly is another great leader. In fact, the North Slope Borough and the ASRC are organizations that have produced really wonderful leaders for Alaska: Crawford Patkotak, Rex Rock, Tara Sweeney, and Richard Glenn. But I am digressing here a little bit. Let's get back to Jake. He was on the board of ASRC from the very beginning and is still on the board today, over 40 years. He was involved in the selection of nearly 5 million acres of land for that corporation under the law passed by the Senate and the House, with limited time and limited funds to do this. But he is a wise man, and ASRC selected well. ASRC land is rich in natural resources and abundant in wildlife. Jake has always been a strong proponent of making sure those resources and that wildlife form the basis for economic development and a sustainable way of life. ``Our lands are the basis for all of our culture and all our wealth,'' he likes to say. Eventually, Jake became the president and CEO of ASRC. Under his leadership, ASRC has grown and diversified in terms of one of the top corporations, certainly in Alaska and, I would say, in the country, with thousands of employees, not just in Alaska, but all over. He was able to do all of this while still doing subsistence hunting and raising a family of six with his wonderful wife Lucille. He often conducted business on his boat, in the North Slope and overseas, while whaling. Not many business leaders in America can say that. Jake once told a reporter: The land and a sense of place remain extremely important to our people. We truly do exist in two worlds. . . . Our culture and the value of traditions are part of our life every day, even as we pursue more Western business type of activities. He has done so much more for Alaska, for his people, for our people: supporting the Native sobriety movement and working to eradicate illegal drugs from Native villages. He has been involved with the volunteer search and rescue organization and is a huge advocate for education. In honor of Jake's commitment to education, the ASRC's Alaska Educational Foundation created a scholarship award in his name. The ``Anagi Leadership Award'' is given each year to a student, providing up to $24,000 for tuition, fees, and college expenses. At his retirement ceremony from executive leadership of ASRC in 2006, the people of the North Slope Borough literally cried. He is that well respected. For his many accomplishments last year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Jake Adams is a man of wisdom. I have a story. When I was attorney general, 10 years ago, I was dealing with a particularly difficult situation. When I worked out what I thought was a good resolution, I flew to Utqiagvik to meet with Jake to ask him if he agreed and, importantly, if the community agreed. I explained the situation. Importantly, when I asked him what he thought, he said he thought it would be a just resolution and he would be supportive of it. That meant so much to me, as Alaska's attorney general, getting his advice and his wisdom. Jake Adams is a man of few words, but when he speaks, it is powerful and people listen. He is a man of deep, deep wisdom. Ask anyone who knows him, and they will talk about his wisdom, his natural leadership, his humility, and his abiding love of the land, the people, Alaska, and his family, which now includes 13 grandchildren. A few years ago at a celebration in his honor, John Hopson, Jr., another great Alaska Native leader from the North Slope, talked about how much Jake had contributed to his community and Alaska. He said: Jake has also bridged the world between traditional whaling captain and corporate leader. A highly successful whaling captain, he has also provided guidance to our North Slope Borough and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation as they matured as institutions. He has filled these roles with deep resolve, wisdom, and great foresight. And always, he has acted with the highest honor toward his family and his community. Well said, John Hopson, Jr., about Jake Adam. Jake, thank you for all you have done for us, for your community, and for all Alaskans. Thank you for your decades of service to Alaska and your leadership. Thank you, Lucille, for sharing him with us. Congratulations, again, on being our Alaskan of the Week. I yield the floor.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, this week we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics Alaska, an organization that has done so much for so many Alaskans living with intellectual disabilities in my State and across the globe. The rise of the Special Olympics is one of the world's great stories. It demonstrates both on the political and personal fronts what can happen when a group of people get together to ensure that everyone has the ability to participate in sports and, furthermore, develop skills and friendships that will last them a lifetime. The story of Special Olympics dates back to the 1960s, when one woman, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, decided to make a difference. Mrs. Shriver had a sister, Rosemary, who had an intellectual disability and with whom she was very close. She knew that Rosemary's disability shouldn't hold her or anybody else back from competing in sports and fulfilling her dreams. In the summer of 1968 in Chicago, Eunice Shriver opened the first national games for Special Olympics. One thousand athletes from 26 States and Canada competed in track & field and swimming. Jump forward to today. Because of Mrs. Shriver's vision and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities, there are now nearly 5 million Special Olympics' athletes around the world, and as many as 80,000 competitions are held every year, including in the great State of Alaska. In 2001, Alaska hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Mrs. Shriver said it was the best World Winter Games in Special Olympics history. That success was only possible because of the hard working staff, board, volunteers, and athletes from the Special Olympics Alaska organization and the complete support of a caring, engaged community. Special Olympics Alaska will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend in conjunction with the Special Olympics Alaska Summer Games. Hundreds of athletes and unified partners from across the State will gather in Anchorage for 3 days of competition. They have been dedicated to their training in aquatics, basketball, gymnastics, powerlifting, and track & field, and this weekend will strive for their personal best and, no doubt, have a lot of fun. There is no better place to see the joy of competition and pure sportsmanship than at a Special Olympics event. My family is proud to be part of a community that supports our Special Olympics athletes and, to brag a little, part of a State with a world-class training center and program that is the envy of many other States and nations. Special Olympics Alaska's success would not be possible without the dedicated support of so many Alaska families and the passion our athletes have for sports and this organization. Our athletes inspire all of us. They show us the true meaning of grit, determination, and perseverance. Our athletes know, more than any of us, what Vince Lombardi meant when he said, ``It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get up.'' Congratulations again to all the athletes, staff, board, and volunteers of Special Olympics Alaska for an incredible 50 years of serving the community.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Lt. Gen. Samuel A. Greaves, Director of the Missile Defense Agency, on the advent of his retirement from the U.S. Air Force after 37 years of military service to this great country. General Greaves' long and storied career began when he was commissioned in 1982 through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Program after he graduated from Cornell University. Throughout his service, he has held a variety of assignments in operational, acquisition, and staff units, including assignments at Headquarters Air Combat Command; the National Reconnaissance Office; and on the Air Staff. He commanded the 45th Launch Group at Patrick AFB, Florida, the Launch and Range Systems Wing, the Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing, also served as vice commander, Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB. He later served as the director, strategic plans, programs and analyses, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colorado, and then was assigned as the deputy director, Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Prior to his current assignment, he was the commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. His operational experience is exceptional and includes work on the space shuttle, Titan, Atlas and Delta space-launch systems. He currently wears the Command Space Badge, a joint Air Force and Army award for training, experience, and assignments in space warning, satellite command and control, missile operations, space surveillance, and/or space lift. During his tour, the Agency and the Department of Defense made significant progress in addressing current and emerging ballistic missile threats by fielding, upgrading, and improving missile defenses to provide U.S. military commanders a highly effective ballistic missile defense capability to defend the United States and its deployed troops, U.S. allies, and friends around the world. He also laid the groundwork for the Agency's pursuit of technologies and systems to track and defeat hypersonic glide vehicle threats. General Greaves implemented a clear strategy focusing on maintaining the reliability of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, BMDS, to build warfighter confidence, increasing capability and capacity of fielded missile defense systems, and making measured investments to address the advanced threat. While serving as the director, Missile Defense Agency, General Greaves demonstrated superior leadership, extraordinary dedication, and exceptional professionalism as the key interface between MDA and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, Combatant Commands, Services and Military Departments, the Department of State, and international partners. He also worked very closely with the administration and Congress to support significant improvements to the Nation's missile defense programs and plans in 2017, known as the missile defeat and defense enhancements, that resulted in Congress increasing the Missile Defense Agency's budget request for fiscal year 2018 from $7.8 billion to over $11.5 billion, which represents both the largest single year increase and total budget in MDA's history. General Greaves placed a high priority on increasing the ground-based midcourse defense's, GMD, fleet reliability and confidence by upgrading fielded GBIs, implementing improvements in new production GBIs, and incorporating reliability, producibility and sustainability improvements in future GBI designs. General Greaves oversaw GMD ground system modernization, to include delivery of Ground System 7A, which removed obsolete equipment from the kill chain, eliminated cyber defense vulnerabilities, and improved redundancy for the warfighter. He also pressed forward with key reliability improvements, including the development of the redesigned kill vehicle, RKV, and upgrading of the GMD Communications Network, and launch support equipment. General Greaves also successfully completed the expansion of the Nation's deployed GBI fleet to 44 interceptors in 2017, known as 44 by 17, which resulted in a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of deployed interceptors available for use by the warfighter. Moreover, in response to the growing North Korean ICBM threat, in December 2017, General Greaves began executing Department and congressional guidance in the missile defeat and defense enhancements plan to further expand the GBI fleet to a total of 64 deployed GBIs by 2023 through the rapid and efficient construction of a new, fourth missile field at Fort Greely, AK, which will add 20 additional operational silos to the GMD system. If this were not enough, he oversaw multiple successful flight tests. This includes flight test ground-based midcourse test 11, FTG-11, a GBI salvo test against a complex, threat representative ICBM-class target. This intercept flight test was so successful that the director for the Department Operational Test and Evaluation, DOT&E, Agency directed DOT&E staff to refer to FTG-11 as the first operational flight test of the ground-based midcourse defense system. FTM-45, also conducted under his direction, demonstrated an Aegis BMD organic engagement using a SM- 3 Blk IIA against a MRBM, a key milestone for the SM-3 Block IIA return to flight. In addition, he directed the flight test integrated 3, FTI- 03, an operational live fire test demonstrating the engage-on-remote capability of the Aegis Weapon System to track and intercept an IRBM target with an Aegis Ashore-launched SM-3 Block IIA interceptor. This test demonstrated the effectiveness of the European phased adaptive approach phase 3 architecture and supports a critical acquisition milestone for the SM-3 Block IIA missile program. General Greaves also laid the foundation for the Long Range Discrimination Radar, Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, Pacific Radar, and other discrimination improvements to improve homeland defense against emerging threats. He further advanced the development of two-stage booster capability to provide additional homeland defense battle-space capability by enabling shorter engagement times without the expense of a separate development program. He also continued improvements in the command and control, battle management and communication infrastructure, which provides persistent acquisition, tracking, cueing, discrimination, and fire-control quality data to Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), GMD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, THAAD, Patriot, and coalition partners to support homeland and regional missile defense. General Greaves was further responsible for major BMDS capability enhancements and asset deployments around the globe. He guided program plans to strengthen regional defenses by continuing deliveries of Standard Missile-3, SM-3, Block IBs, for use on Aegis BMD ships and at Aegis Ashore-Romania, and THAAD interceptors. After fielding the THAAD Battery to South Korea, in late 2017, the commander of United States Forces Korea requested tighter coupling between THAAD and Patriot units in theater. General Greaves worked with Army PEO Missiles and Space on proposed solutions to address the request and improve regional ballistic missile defense. He also pushed for the development of a future THAAD system, including development of a remote launcher capability, integration of Patriot MSE interceptor and launcher into the THAAD Weapon System, and improved interoperability by enabling Patriot Launch-on-Remote (THAAD). He also continued advancement of the Aegis BMD system in collaboration with the Navy to counter growing and more complex threats, including improvements in system and missile reliability as well as increases in Aegis BMD engagement capacity and lethality, including work on the Aegis Weapon System, Aegis Ashore-Poland, the SM- 3 IIA program, and Sea Based Terminal defense. General Greaves kept the Agency on track to deliver the initial SM-3 Block IIA missiles developed in cooperation with Japan to support European phased adaptive approach, EPAA, phase 3. He oversaw the construction of the Aegis Ashore system in Poland in support of EPAA Phase 3 to improve European NATO defenses against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which is expected to be delivered in 2020. General Greaves has been a tireless advocate for the development and deployment of a critically needed space sensor layer for hypersonic and missile defense, the need for which can be best summed by the general himself when he said: ``If you can't see it, you can't shoot it.'' As a result of his efforts, the Congress continually funded the MDA to develop such a capability. In 2019, the general partnered with DARPA and the Air Force on the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Program, which is now working with industry to reduce the key risks for this space sensor layer. He also successfully completed the development and deployment of a network of sensor payloads hosted on commercial satellites, called Space-based Kill Assessment, or SKA. This program will collect data on missile intercepts, and inform the post-intercept assessment by the warfighter. This capability will provide the warfighter the option to adjust their shot doctrine to more efficiently manage interceptor inventory, thereby dramatically increasing the number of threats the system can engage for the defense of the homeland. In fact, when warfighters took part in simulations involving SKA they were so highly impressed by this new capability they requested it be made operational sooner than MDA had planned. The SKA program has been so impressive that the Department recently recognized MDA, under General Greaves leadership, for its acquisition success by presenting it with the Packard Award for Acquisition Excellence for the development of SKA. General Greaves demonstrated his commitment to expand work with U.S. international partners, to include conducting joint analyses to support partner missile defense acquisition decisions, cooperative research and development projects, deploying BMD assets, foreign military sales, FMS, and coproduction efforts. Under General Greave's leadership, the Agency executed an historic FMS case with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for seven THAAD batteries and accompanying launchers, radars, and interceptors. In addition, he continued work on the co-development with Japan of the SM-3 Block IIA missile that will be deployed to the operational Aegis Ashore missile defense sites in Romania and Poland. His exceptional leadership style influenced an organization of over 10,000 personnel across 13 time zones. These distinctive accomplishments of General Greaves are monumental. As he and his wife Patricia prepare for retirement, I want to thank them for their service to the United States of America--General Greaves and Patricia--Bravo Zulu.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am down here on the floor to do what I typically do on Thursday, which is talk about an Alaskan who is making a big difference in my State, somebody I refer to as the Alaskan of the Week. But, you know, this is the Senate and we have debates, and we are respectful in our debates, and there is no one in the Senate I respect more than my friend from Delaware, Senator Carper--his service in Vietnam and as a captain in the Navy. When he speaks, I listen, and I have respect. But I actually thought, very briefly--it wasn't what I was planning on doing, but I was just listening to someone I respect--I thought I would offer a bit of a counter view for those watching in the Gallery or on TV on what he just talked about. It is a really important issue, but I just happen to respectfully disagree with most--not everything, but most--of what my colleague just mentioned. So I am just going to touch on that before I talk about an Alaskan who is doing great work. Just listening to my colleague talk about President Trump's turning his back on Iran, the sanctions that we placed on Iran, which we all voted for here in the Senate, are antagonizing Iran. Foreign Minister Zarif is a moderate. Well, let me just touch on that. I think there is this new narrative that is starting to come out from my colleagues, and, again, I have a lot of respect for my good friend from Delaware, but about this kind of blame America first, blame Trump, as if the generals and admirals weren't advising him, and that Iran is some kind of this new innocent moderate that we are turning our back on and we are sanctioning them and antagonizing them. With all due respect to my colleague on the other of the aisle, this couldn't be further from the truth. Iran is no innocent. Iran is no innocent at all. Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and has been for decades. As for the JCPOA, which my colleague is lamenting, I read that. I certainly dug into that. I have been involved in our broader Iran isolation policy for many years. That was the first major foreign policy national security agreement in U.S. history that had a bipartisan majority of Senators and a bipartisan majority of House Members who were against it--against it, not for it. That did not have support in this body--certainly not in the Senate, not in the House, and not from the American people. So as for this myth that somehow this was this great agreement, it wasn't. It was a giveaway--billions to the largest state sponsor of terrorism, where in 10 years they are free to go develop nuclear weapons. This was not a good agreement, and this body said so. A bipartisan majority in the House and the Senate disagreed with President Obama. A partisan minority in the House and Senate, for the first time in U.S. history, on a national security agreement of this magnitude, somehow passed it. So there is this myth that this was supported by Congress. It wasn't. Democrats and Republicans opposed it--the majority in both Houses. And by the American people, it certainly wasn't. Remember, this is the country that, after the deal and during the deal, continued to say what? We want to wipe Israel off the map. It is not a really nice, innocent nation saying that: We want to wipe Israel off the map. They continue to say that. Here is the final thing. In my 4 years in the Senate, I have only heard one other U.S. Senator--Senator Cotton from Arkansas--even talk about this issue. Starting in 2004, 2005, I was a staff officer, as a marine, to the commander of U.S. Central Command, and there was top-secret information that started to show in the region--and we were out there a lot, the Middle East--that the Iranians were supplying the Iraqi Shia militia with very sophisticated improvised explosive devices that were killing our soldiers and our marines and our sailors. The Iranians, of course, denied it. They were lying. It all came out to be true. These were infrared tripwires, explosively formed projectiles that could punch through anything-- Abrams tanks, humvees--and if you were an American soldier and you got hit by one of these, you were pretty much dead. I asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an open Armed Services Committee hearing how many American military members were killed by these Iranian IEDs, and over 2,000 was his answer--2,000. I have never heard any of my colleagues talk about that. So the notion that Foreign Minister Zarif was a moderate when he was negotiating with Secretary Kerry is belied by the facts. This Foreign minister literally had the blood of American soldiers on his hands. So I take these issues very seriously, like my colleague from Delaware does. There is this notion that our allies were all for the JCPOA. They weren't. Some of our most important allies--Israel, the Gulf Arab States, which we have been allies with for decades--were adamantly opposed, and they are the closest to Iran. So this notion that we are going to blame the administration--by the way, we keep talking about President Trump. He is getting advice from seasoned generals and admirals to reinforce our military presence in the region because they see threats. In the media right now, there is this narrative that the President is trying to drum up a war. What about the generals? What about General Dunford, a very well respected marine and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? Are they doing this? I just came from reading some of the intel in the SCIF that is prompting this discussion. Of course, I can't talk about it, but I support what the administration is doing with regard to reinforcing our military capabilities in the region, and this is the reason: It sends a message to Iran that if they are going to try to do what they did in 2004, 2005, and 2006, which is kill and wound thousands of our military members, we are going to have the capability to make them pay. I don't like seeing anyone coming through Dover Air Force Base, either, but over 2,000 of our troops were killed and wounded by these leaders of the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. The notion that somehow they are some kind of innocent country that we are antagonizing or ``turning our back on'' is not accurate. So watch out for the new narrative that the Iranians are the innocents and that somehow we are being provocative. What is provocative is killing our troops, which they have a long history of doing--in Lebanon, the marines--and we need to send a signal that if they are going to look at doing this again or trying to or trying to kill our diplomats, it is not going to be so easy this time. I support what is happening there, and I hope my colleagues will. We are going to get a briefing by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the CIA next week on this, which I think is appropriate. Let's remember who the real bad guys are. We are Americans. Yes, we have political differences, but somehow, if we start to make this narrative that Iran is the innocent and somehow the Trump guys--John Bolton, for example--are some kind of evil people--come on. Come on, really? The largest state sponsor of terrorism, responsible for killing and maiming and wounding thousands of American soldiers, the best and brightest in our country, and we are the bad guys? I don't think so. So watch out for that narrative. I certainly hope it is not going to be something my colleagues on the other side of the aisle start getting out there. It is already in the media. You have the former negotiator for President Obama making these statements that, somehow, poor Iran; all-bad America. I am not a big ``blame America first'' member, and I think we need to be really careful when we talk about trying to demonize our generals, admirals, and national security advisers and make the Iranians look like they are some kind of innocents when they are not. I wish more of my colleagues would talk about the number of dead military members killed and wounded by the Quds Force in Iran, because they never do. No one here ever talks about it. Amnesia. (Thereupon, Mr. Scott of Florida assumed the Chair.)

Mr. SULLIVAN

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

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am going to be on the floor with some of my colleagues in the next hour. I thank my colleague from Iowa, Senator Ernst--Lieutenant Colonel Ernst, by the way, of the Iowa National Guard--for organizing the series of discussions we are going to have in the next couple of minutes on the Senate floor that will focus on Military Appreciation Month. I think we are all going to talk about how wonderful our military is, and we will probably do a little bit of bragging about our different States and how we support and appreciate our military so much. I like to come down on the floor and talk in superlatives about my State, the great State of Alaska. It is true that most Senators love to talk about their States in all of their superlatives, which is good. We are proud States. We each think we live in the best State in the country. We all believe that. I happen to think my State is the best State in the country. In talking about our military and its support and Military Appreciation Month, we certainly have a large military presence in Alaska. We have about 32 military facilities and 5 major installations. Roughly, 10 percent of the population is either in the military or is a family member of someone who is in the military. I like to say that Alaska actually constitutes three pillars of our Nation's military might. Whether the attacks be from Kim Jong Un or the Iranians, we are the cornerstone of missile defense, which are the missiles and the radar that protect the entire country from attacks. This all resides in Alaska. We are the hub air combat power for the Asia-Pacific and the Arctic, and we will have over 100 fifth-generation fighters--F-22s, F-35s--by the end of next year. We are also a vital platform for some of America's best trained troops to be deployed anywhere around the world because of our strategic location. Alaska also boasts the largest number of veterans per capita of any State in the country. These are the facts, and they are all good. What is so unique about Alaska--and, I would say, as in most States-- is how proud we are of our military and how much the communities of Alaska--big communities, small communities--support the men and women who serve in the military. It is almost a part of our DNA in Alaska. Let me just give you one example. I was in a group of community leaders in Delta Junction, which is in Alaska's interior. It is actually near Fort Greely, where we have our missile defense fields. It is right on the outskirts of what is called the JPARC, which is the biggest air training range in the entire United States. The airspace is actually the size of Florida. There is great training, and we have Red Flag exercises. Our men and women in the Air Force, in particular, do some wonderful training there. We were in this community meeting, and some Air Force pilot was flying low and fast. He probably broke the sound barrier because there was a giant sonic boom. It shook the whole building. It shook the whole meeting room. Now, I would say, in most States, that would probably result in having people complain and call their Congressmen and Senators in their being mad about what the military would be doing-- shaking the buildings with sonic booms because they would be breaking the speed of sound as they would be training. Yet the mayor of Delta just looked at me and said, ``The sound of freedom.'' There were no complaints, just support. Let me give another example. In so many of our smaller Native communities--Native villages--across Alaska, one sees what I refer to as special patriotism. Alaska Natives and the lower 48 American Indians serve in the military at higher rates than any ethnic group in the country. That is a special patriotism because--let's face it--these great American patriots weren't always supported by their government when they came home after fighting in World War II or in Vietnam. As a matter of fact, there was a documentary that was produced about the community of Hoonah, AK, which is in Southeast Alaska. The film was called ``Hunting and Wartime.'' It was about the fact that almost every single male high school senior in the late 1960s in these small communities went off to fight in Vietnam--almost every one of them. That is special patriotism. This support for the military isn't a recent phenomenon in Alaska. In 1942, during World War II, Alaskans oversubscribed their war bond quota by 300 percent, which surpassed that of every State in the Union. So many Senators--Democratic and Republican--are going to come down to the floor and talk about our Military Appreciation Month, as they should. There is some talk in the country about the 1 percent and the less than 1 percent. Well, the 1 percent I really care about is the less than 1 percent of young men and women who still, today, raise their right hands to support and defend the Constitution and to defend our liberty, knowing it could even cost them their lives by their joining the U.S. military. We all have wonderful veterans and wonderful men and women in the military whom we support in the U.S. Senate. I tell my constituents that the one thing we are focused on doing is making sure, when you send your son or daughter to join the military, that it is the top military in the world, the most ready military in the world, and the most capable military in the world. One thing we are doing is reversing a dangerous trend. From 2010 to 2015, defense spending for the U.S. military was cut by almost 25 percent during the second term of the Obama administration--25 percent--and readiness plummeted. We are changing that because no man or woman in this country who volunteers to support and defend the Constitution by joining the military should be joining a military that is not at the highest level of readiness and lethal in terms of its getting the job done. So I am going to pass this on to some of my colleagues here. As the Senator from a State where communities support our military so much, I just want to thank all the members, regardless of where you live, for the great work you do and to let you know that the Senate supports you with all its heart and soul. I yield the floor.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I would like to take a moment today to recognize and congratulate an incredible group of young Alaskans on their victory in the 2019 USA Hockey National Championship. On April 8, 2019, the Anchorage North Stars beat the McKinney North Stars of Texas 4-3 to win the Youth Tier II 16U National Championship. USA Hockey is the major governing body for ice hockey in the United States. There are almost 600,000 players across the various age groups. Make no mistake; the best youth hockey players in the country were competing in this tournament, which makes the North Stars' victory all the more significant. The Anchorage North Stars traveled nearly 4,000 miles to compete with 11 other teams for the title. Early on in the tournament, during round- robin play, the Anchorage North Stars lost to the McKinney North Stars in a hard-fought 3-2 battle. However, like many great sports stories, the Anchorage North Stars found redemption. Late in the championship game, the teams were tied 3-3, but Hayden Fox, who had already scored one goal in the third period, scored the game-winning goal for the Anchorage North Stars with less than a minute left on the clock. The Anchorage North Stars held their lead and came home with a national championship, the first for an Alaska youth hockey team since the mid-90's. Hockey is a way of life for many Alaskan families. Many of these players have been in the sport since they were young kids. The North Stars' victory is a testament to the years of hard work and commitment by each and every player and coach, not to mention all the support from parents and other family members who were there from the beginning providing support, driving the players to and from practice, and cheering them on to victory. This achievement was a long time in the making, and I think it is important to recognize that kind of dedication. Throughout the season, the North Stars adhered to two mottos--``Let's Leave No Doubt'' and ``Together We Can.'' This spirit of confidence and comradeship took the North Stars all the way to the final round, and they showed the entire country what kind of team they are. They performed at the highest level on the biggest stage, and I think it is safe to say that there is no one doubting them now.

Mr. SULLIVAN

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Thursday afternoon, and it is one of the times that I enjoy the most in the Senate because it is the time I get to come down on the Senate floor and talk about my State, talk about the people in my State, and talk about the people who make Alaska a great and unique State in our wonderful country. It is the time when we talk about the person I refer to as the Alaskan of the Week. It is someone who has helped to make their community or Alaska or America--or sometimes all of the above--a better place. I think it is the pages' favorite time, too, because they get to learn about Alaska and hear all of the unique aspects that make Alaska such a great, wonderful, and unique State. To those listening in the Gallery or on TV, I always make a plug. It is also a time to pitch Alaska for our visitors. Come on up. You will have the trip of a lifetime guaranteed. Don't put it off. It is time to book your trip to the great State of Alaska. Today I am going to recognize an extraordinary teacher, Danielle Riha, whom I just had the privilege of meeting right here off the Senate floor, and who is in the Gallery right now. We are excited that she is hear watching. She teaches at the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School in Anchorage. That is a pre-K through eighth grade charter school. She is our Alaskan of the Week. You might say: What is she doing? Why is she in town? She is in town because she was chosen to be the 2019 Alaska Teacher of the Year. She is so impressive in her profession and her teaching is so impactful on her students that she was one of four finalists in America--across the country--to be chosen for the National Teacher of the Year award for the whole country. What does that mean? In other words, she is viewed by her peers, by her students, and by others as one of the top four teachers in the United States of America--our Alaskan teacher of the year. We are so proud of her. We have thousands of teachers in my State, just as you do in yours, who do such great work, day in and day out, to make sure that our next generation is not only educated on the facts and things like math and history but that they also understand, in the words of the great leader Nelson Mandela, that ``education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.'' That is true, and that is why our teachers in Alaska and in America are so important. Danielle Riha is teaching our youth so that they can go out and change the world. She and all the teachers in Alaska and in America have one of the most important jobs for our Nation and one of the most difficult jobs for our Nation. We certainly salute and honor them all, particularly this week, as so many of the top teachers in the country have been in town. Why is Danielle good at what she does? Why did she get this award? Why is she viewed as one of the top four teachers in America? Why has she touched so many students in Alaska? How did she make her way into this profession? Let's talk about that. Let me start with the last question first. She came to Alaska in 1995 when she was a college student at North Texas University. She came to a part of Alaska called Unalaska--which is way out in the Aleutian Island chain--to fish and to help pay to finish college, where she had plans to become a physical therapist. That is a great profession as well. Like a lot of people, she came up to Alaska maybe for a little adventure, and maybe she was only planning on staying 6 months. Then, one day, the principal of the school in Unalaska approached her when she was playing basketball and said: Have you ever thought about being a teacher? How about a substitute teacher? Well, that was the beginning of the love affair she had with teaching, with the classroom, and with her ability to really connect with kids, particularly kids with difficult emotional challenges. She finished her education degree at the University of Alaska in Anchorage. Then, she taught for 7 years in two small villages in Southwest Alaska. While there, she helped to develop the curriculum that was culturally appropriate for her students, most of whom were Alaska Natives. She was then recruited to teach at the school where she now teaches, the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, and she was one of the original teachers to start up this great new teaching and education venture in 2008. Let me read from her Teacher of the Year application form: Imagine you are a 7th grade student living in a rural, Yup'ik speaking, Alaskan community. By the way, we have many communities in our State where English is not the first language and where the Alaska Native languages are the first languages. Back to the application: The only way to get to your village is by small plane or boat in the summer and snowmachine in the winter. You have never been to a city or had life experiences that include seeing an elevator, stores, restaurants, or roads [even outside your community]. Your family survives by subsistence hunting and gathering from the land of their ancestors. By the way, that is how thousands of Alaskans survive to this day. Now imagine yourself in math class considering a word problem that takes place in California and involves distance, rollerblades, a convenience store, and a curb. That is in the application. What this is getting at is that there are things so many Americans think are common for education that in certain communities in Alaska, and I am sure in other places, aren't common. It is difficult to teach when everything is assumed to be the same when it is not. You can imagine how confusing that might be. These are the kinds of educational challenges that Alaskan students, particularly in our most rural communities, face every single day. What did Miss Riha do to help with the confusion? Working with Alaskan Native elders, she helped to create what she calls the Kayak Module, which uses culturally relevant material to teach math, science, social studies, and language arts. Let me give you an example of how she uses the module to teach math and science. The students are given blocks of clay and put into groups. Each group then designs a kayak of different shapes and different weights. They are tested for speed, water disbursements, and capacity. Data is collected. Hypotheses and mathematical calculations are made, and the students learn from using these examples that are actually examples from their own lives, and they love doing so. This can work across cultures. Think about it. Alaska Native students who are on rivers or who are on the ocean, or Samoan students, many of whom live like in the example--all of these kinds of students have boats in their culture. They understand that. ``As an educator,'' Danielle said, ``nothing feels better than allowing students the opportunities to bridge what they already know culturally to new content, and to teach them to have a voice for themselves.'' This helps them learn. Isn't that a simple, but insightful approach to teaching? I think you are all getting the picture of why she was considered one of the top four teachers in America. She and the whole school are also devoted to ensuring that the students go to school in a very safe place and where the students feel welcome. For example, one student who wrote a letter in support of her for her Teacher of the Year nomination talked about how she was worried about being bullied because she came from a different culture. She was Muslim. Because of that, she started to feel that she was falling behind in reading and math. This student wrote: [Miss Riha] helped me be bold enough to teach others about my culture in a way that made me feel proud of who I am. Needless to say, I caught up in my math and reading within one year because of her leadership, and now I love learning. That is from one of her students. That student is now studying to become a dental hygienist at the University of Anchorage. She and Miss Riha still stay in touch. As you know, we all have that teacher--maybe one, maybe two, maybe several, but that one teacher--who made a difference in our lives, who encouraged us, who believed in us when maybe no one else did and who helped us through hard times by passing on the joy of learning, by passing on the passion of learning. Danielle and thousands of other teachers across my State, and millions across our great Nation, wake up every day to do that as their mission, to take on one of the most important things any of us can do, and that is educating our youth. Danielle, congratulations for being Alaska's Teacher of the Year, for being one of the top four teachers in the United States of America, and, importantly, thank you and congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week. I yield the floor.