John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Thank you.

Mr. THUNE. I would say my view here is that the gentleman from Wyoming wants to explain his point of order. There is no objection to allowing him to do that.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that this be separate from the discussion that we are now having, but I would ask unanimous consent that at 12 p.m. today, postcloture time on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1865 expire; the other pending motions and amendments be withdrawn; and Senator Enzi or his designee be recognized to raise a budget point of order, followed by Senator Shelby or his designee to make a motion to waive the budget point of order; finally, if the motion to waive is agreed to, the Senate vote on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1865 with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment, and I know of no further debate on the motion.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I appreciate that. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts. He and his staff were tremendous in working on this. As I said before, it is nice when we have an opportunity to work in a bipartisan way on something that is this meaningful in people's lives. This has a tremendous impact on the daily life of Americans who are bombarded, in many cases, not just with annoying nuisance calls, but also with calls that are very predatory and particularly when it comes to some of our vulnerable populations. Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XII, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 151. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 151) entitled ``An Act to deter criminal robocall violations and improve enforcement of section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes'', do pass with an amendment. Motion to Concur

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, today the Senate is taking the final step to send much-needed legislation to protect consumers from robocalls to the President's desk. I think we had hoped that this would be able to be passed with a couple of other bills coming out of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. I think the chairman of the committee, Senator Wicker, will address those later: the data mapping bill and the secure communications bill that deals with ensuring that we protect our technology from harmful elements--Huawei and those sorts of things. I would hope that we could get those cleared at some point, too. Today, we want to proceed with the robocall bill. I will just start by saying that illegal robocalls have flooded Americans' phones to the point where many folks don't want to answer their phones at all. In fact, a recent report found that only 47 percent of calls Americans receive are actually answered. This means consumers aren't answering legitimate calls that could be alerting you of fraud on your credit card, notifying you that your flight has been canceled, or reminding you of an upcoming medical appointment--all calls that are important to consumers. It is clear that no one is immune to these annoying and potentially dangerous calls. Scammers use these calls to successfully prey on vulnerable populations, especially elderly Americans, and they target the kind of personal information that can be used to steal your money or your identity. When scammers are successful, the consequences for their victims can be devastating. While there are laws and fines in place right now to prevent scam artists for preying on Americans through the telephone, these measures have been insufficient. When I served as chairman of the Commerce Committee, I subpoenaed the mass robocaller Adrian Abramovich to testify about his operation. His testimony made it clear that robocall scammers simply build the current fines into the cost of doing business. On top of this, the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement efforts are hampered by a tight time window for pursuing violators. That is why, earlier this year, I introduced the legislation before us today, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or the TRACED Act, with my fellow Commerce Committee member, Senator Markey. The TRACED Act provides tools to discourage illegal robocalls, protect consumers, and crack down on offenders. It expands the window in which the FCC can pursue intentional scammers and levy fines from 1 year to 4 years. The legislation also requires telephone service providers to adopt call verification technologies that would help prevent illegal robocalls from reaching consumers in the first place. The TRACED Act also recognizes the importance of legitimate calls and ensures important calls like emergency public safety calls are not wrongly blocked. Importantly, it convenes a working group with representatives from the Department of Justice, the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, State attorneys general, and others to identify ways to criminally prosecute the illegal robocalling. TRACED also addresses the issue of so-called one-ring scams, where international scammers try to get individuals to return their calls so they can charge them exorbitant fees. It directs the Federal Communications Commission to convene a working group to address the problem of illegal robocalls being made to hospitals. Mr. President, I am very pleased that the TRACED Act received bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. I am especially grateful to Senator Markey for partnering with me on this legislation, and I appreciate Chairman Wicker and Ranking Member Cantwell for quickly advancing this legislation through the Commerce Committee this year. I also appreciate the work of our House colleagues, Representatives Pallone, Walden, Doyle, and Latta, for their work on advancing the TRACED Act through the House. I am also very pleased this bill has attracted tremendous support from State governments and industry and consumer groups. While the TRACED Act won't prevent all illegal robocalling, it is a big step in the right direction. As The Washington Post editorial board recently stated, the TRACED ``is what good, old-fashioned legislating looks like.'' I could not agree more. No process is perfect, but today, I am excited that the Senate will be sending the TRACED Act to the President's desk. Before I close, Mr. President, I would like to quickly thank several staff members whose efforts helped get us here today. In my office, I appreciate the work of Alex Sachtjen, Lauren Greenwood, Jessica McBride, and Nick Rossi. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dan Ball, Olivia Trusty, John Keast, and Crystal Tully on Chairman Wicker's team, who worked tirelessly to help develop and advance this legislation. As I mentioned before, I appreciate the great work of Senator Markey, his partnership on this bill, and I want to thank the work of Daniel Greene, Joey Wender, and Bennett Butler on his staff. This truly was, Mr. President, a team effort, so I thank you. I look forward to the President's signature on the TRACED Act in the near future, and I hope that, as this bill gets implemented, it will once again be safe to answer your phone in this country. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 81, which was received from the House.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, in 1906, two brothers named Nikolai and Matthew Gjelsvik arrived at Ellis Island from Norway. The only English they knew were the words ``apple pie'' and ``coffee,'' which evidently they learned on the boat on the way over. The immigration officials at Ellis Island thought that their name would be too difficult to spell and pronounce in this country, so they asked them to change their name. The names, when they got to this country, were Nikolai Gjelsvik, spelled G-J-E-L-S-V-I-K, and his brother was named Matthew. So the immigration officials asked them to change their name, and they picked the name from the farm where they worked near Bergen, Norway, which was called the Thune farm. So Nikolai Gjelsvik became Nick Thune, my grandfather. He and his brother worked on the railroad as they built it west across South Dakota. They learned English and saved up enough money to start a small merchandising company and then later a hardware store in Mitchell, SD. To this day, there is a Thune Hardware in Mitchell, although the family sold it many years ago. In 1916, Nick Thune married an Iowa girl who had moved to South Dakota to teach school, and they had three sons. The middle son, Harold, will turn 100 in a few days, and that middle son happens to be my dad. Like many of my colleagues, I send congratulatory notes to constituents for big birthdays and anniversaries. I never thought I would have the occasion to send one to my dad. I figured for this one, instead of writing a letter, I would come to the floor. My dad is a World War II veteran. He is a member of that ``greatest generation,'' and he shares the qualities of so many in that generation--humility, patriotism, quiet service. Dad was a Navy pilot who flew Hellcats off the USS Intrepid, and he was an excellent pilot. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down four enemy planes in one engagement. As a side note to that, that accommodation was issued to him by none other than ADM John McCain, Senator John McCain's grandfather. But my dad didn't and still doesn't talk about his own exploits. In fact, had it not been for my mom, I am quite sure I never would have known about my dad's record in World War II. I did have the opportunity to interview him for the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project a few years back, and he shared some wonderful details about his service. As usual, his focus was never on his own achievements but on those of his fellow pilots. I also probably would never have learned what an outstanding athlete my dad was, had it not been for my mom. My dad grew up in the small town of Murdo, SD, during the Great Depression. They didn't have a lot, but there were a lot of basketball hoops around Murdo. They put them on barns, poles, garages, and my dad learned to play. In fact, he learned to play so well that he took his high school basketball team to the State championship game where, although they lost narrowly, he was named the tournament's most valuable player. My dad had hoped to attend college in South Dakota, but there was a doctor in Murdo named Joseph Murphy who thought my dad was good enough to play at the University of Minnesota and used his contacts to get my dad up to Hibbing Junior College in hopes that the Minnesota Gophers would notice him. Well, they did. He went to the Twin Cities on a scholarship and played three seasons for the Gophers. He was the team's most valuable player in his junior year. In fact, he was high point man in Madison Square Garden on his birthday, December 28, 1940. In another example of how things have changed through the years, my dad said that when his team came out to play for the second game that night at the Garden, you couldn't see the upper deck because of all the cigarette smoke. Some things do change for the better. While at the University of Minnesota, my dad met a girl who served sodas at a drugstore just off campus. They were married within a couple of years while my dad was in flight training for the Navy, and they spent the next almost 69 years together. After the war, they came back to South Dakota. My dad had been thinking about a career in the Navy, but his dad asked him to come back and run the family hardware store. My dad said that his heart sank, but he knew that is what he had to do. So he went home and went to work for his dad. The hardware store did OK for a while, but started to struggle. My dad sold it and went back to school and got a teaching degree. All parents are teachers for their kids, but my parents were teachers several times over. Kids usually get a break from their parents when they are at school. My dad was a teacher at my high school. He was also a coach and the athletic director, and he drove the bus. My mom was the school librarian. So I think it is safe to say that my brothers and sister and I were pretty much always under the watchful eye of my parents. I have to say that I never had my dad for a class in high school, but my brother Rich did. Rich was the valedictorian of his high school class, and the only B he got in high school was from my dad. That was my dad for you. He never showed any preference or gave any of his kids better treatment than anybody else. In fact, some of us might argue that he gave us a harder time because we were his kids. But he believed very firmly that you had to earn your achievements. As a coach, my dad taught us about being a team player. He made it clear that being on a team was not about building your personal statistics but about making the players around you better. It is a lesson I have carried throughout my life and one that I try to live by every day. A few years ago, the Jones County School District in Murdo named the auditorium in Murdo after my dad in recognition of his service and achievements at the school. It was particularly special since my dad was one of the volunteers who originally built the auditorium back in the 1950s. My dad would tell me the story that he was more scared up on the scaffolding of that building than he had ever been flying off a carrier during World War II. You might think that with my dad as coach and athletic director, sports were the main focus around our house. They certainly were a big part of our lives. But my mom was determined that we would grow up to be well-rounded people, and my dad always supported her in that. They worked hard to ensure that we grew up with a perspective on life that went beyond just the latest sporting event. Mom made us take piano lessons and, during the summers, come in from outside and read for an hour every day. We complained at the time, but I know all of us today are grateful to her and my father for their investments in that. Mom and Dad made a good team. Mom was an optimist, and Dad was a pessimist--or, as he would put it, a realist--and they balanced each other out well. We didn't have material riches growing up, but we were beyond rich in those things that money can't buy but that lend purpose, joy, and meaning to life. All of us Thune kids are very, very grateful for that heritage. I can't close without talking about something that was life-changing for my parents, and that was their strong faith in Christ. My dad always had real discernment and wisdom in no small part because of his daily dependence upon God in his life. God blessed him with it. As we celebrate my dad's 100th birthday, I want to say thank you to you for the example of faith, integrity, character, and humility that you have given to me and to Bob and to Rich and to Karen and to Tim. Thank you for faithfully serving God's purpose for your generation and happy 100th birthday. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a longtime member of my staff, Nicolaas Budde, who is departing my office after 15 years of service. Nic has been my systems administrator, responsible for keeping all of the technology in my personal and leadership Senate offices here in Washington and in our three State offices in good working order, among many other things. Needless to say, a key part of the job description for a systems administrator is the ability to be extremely patient with those of us who may not be as up to speed on the technology available to us. And I would say that there are very few people who are as patient and kind as Nic. From fixing a recalcitrant printer to setting up a new, high-tech studio for the Senate Republican conference, Nic always does what can often be frustrating and time-consuming work with a cheerful smile and a reassuring word. He comes to work every single day with a sunny and enthusiastic attitude, and he doesn't accept anything less than the best when it comes to serving South Dakotans and our fellow Americans. Nic grew up in Harrisburg, SD, and worked on both of my Senate campaigns as systems administrator while he was in college at Dakota State University in Madison, SD. For those who may not know, Dakota State University is the ``high-tech'' college in our State, and students who graduate from DSU often go on to prestigious jobs at technology companies and the like. Nic could have done any of those jobs, but instead he chose to dedicate his career to serving here in the Senate. Nic is very involved in the Senate community, often vetting new technologies and participating in pilot projects and working groups regarding the use of technology in the Senate. Nic manages my official website, and during his tenure the site has earned several Mouse Awards from the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, including a Gold Mouse Award. Our website is a critical part of our efforts to keep constituents informed about the work we do on their behalf, and I am grateful to Nic for all the work he has done to make our site a helpful resource for South Dakotans. Before I came to my current leadership position as majority whip, I was head of the Senate Republican Conference, and Nic was a key part of the conference team. While we were there, Nic managed a complex and highly technical project to upgrade the technological infrastructure of the office, an important but often unsung part of our ability to get our conference's message out to the nation. Nic is currently managing a similarly difficult project at the Senate Republican Conference, setting up a new, high-tech studio that will greatly expand our technological and communications capabilities in that office. This is incredibly important work, and Nic has done all of this while at the same time putting out fires in my whip office and in the personal office whenever the phones go down or someone's email isn't working--and always with a smile and a great deal of patience. I want to thank Nic for his service and also thank his wife Jackie and his children, Ella and Frederick, for letting us have their husband and dad for these many years. Thankfully, Nic won't be going far. He will just be down the hall continuing his work at the Senate Republican Conference, where all of my colleagues will get the benefit of his expertise. Nic, thank you again for your many years of service, your cheerfulness, your kindness, your hard work, and most importantly, your patience. We wish you the very best for the future.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 82, which was received from the House.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).