Chris Van Hollen

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, devotion, commitment, resilience--these are just a few of the words that describe the professionals who comprise Maryland's 24 local boards of education. The dedicated public servants who lead the school systems in Maryland counties and Baltimore City act with deep commitment to their communities and their time-intensive school board duties. Maryland school board members make critical budget and planning decisions, adopt policies to create supportive learning environments for all students, engage with parents, students, school staff, and other community stakeholders, work closely with superintendents, respond to crises, and undergo ongoing training to carry out effective governance, continue to grow as leaders, and stay up-to-date on the latest best practices. As devoted professionals who serve students, school systems, and their communities at large, Maryland school board members face an array of daunting challenges every day, challenges made significantly more difficult and complex during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet Maryland's 24 school boards have consistently risen to these challenges, working to ensure excellence in public education throughout the State. School board members come from all backgrounds and professions. They may not agree on every issue, but they unite and volunteer to serve under the strong conviction that Maryland students come first. Because of the extraordinary, continuing commitment of those who serve on our school boards to helping Maryland students grow, thrive, and excel each day--and with my ongoing commitment to Maryland public education in mind--I am proud to recognize January as Maryland School Board Recognition Month.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, let me start by thanking our colleague, the Senator from Oregon, Senator Merkley, for his leadership in working to restore the functioning of the Senate and to protect our democracy. We need both, and we need them now. It was just 12 days ago that we marked the 1-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on this Capitol and on our democracy itself. It was a violent attempt to stop Congress from certifying the Presidential election of Joe Biden and to overturn the decision of the American people. It was inspired and instigated by the former President. While that assault did not succeed in stopping us from counting the vote that day, the Big Lie did not die. In fact, the Big Lie has metastasized. It has spread, and its poison is seeping across the country. It is now taking the form of Republican-controlled State legislatures enacting laws that erect new barriers to the ballot box. Let's be clear. They are erecting barriers specifically designed to make it harder for people of color and younger voters to cast their ballots. As we saw in a Federal Circuit Court case a number of years ago with respect to North Carolina, the court found that the State legislature had targeted African-American voters with surgical precision. Dr. King observed that voting is ``the foundation stone for political action.'' He also observed that when the right to vote is impeded, a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition are betrayed. What we see happening in State legislatures are not just efforts to put up barriers to the ballot box; they are also passing laws to authorize partisan operatives to interfere in the counting of the votes and even to overturn the results after the count. So laws to interfere with the casting of the votes and laws to interfere with the counting of the votes--that is what is happening right now. Nineteen legislatures around the country have already enacted these kinds of laws. So, yes, our democracy was under attack right here on January 6 of last year, but 1 year later, the evidence is clear: The Big Lie is alive, and our democracy is still under attack. It is under attack by those seeking to implement the Big Lie in State legislatures. It is just the venue that has changed. When we reconvened here after the attacks of January 6, I said on this floor that what we witnessed is what happens when we don't stand up together as Democrats and Republicans to confront the Big Lie. Now, over a year later, we have another chance to stand up together. To meet this moment and to protect our democracy, we need to take action here and now. That is what the Freedom to Vote Act does. It establishes minimum standards to ensure equal access to the ballot box across the country. It guards against partisan election meddling. It ends gerrymandering nationwide, and it ends secret money in elections. It contains the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the protections guaranteed in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That is what it does. We are well within our rights as Federal lawmakers to write and pass these bills. The relevant portion of article I, section 4, clause 1 of the Constitution--I have that here--clearly states: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations. The Constitution specifically empowers us to pass these laws to protect voting. So enough of the specious argument I have heard so many times here on the Senate floor that these bills somehow represent an unconstitutional power grab--far from it. The Framers expressly empowered the Congress to protect Federal elections. Now, all 50 Members of the Democratic majority, the Democratic caucus, support these bills to protect our democracy. I am disappointed that, as of this moment, not one Member of the Senate Republican caucus plans to join us. In fact, we know that there are 16 Republican Senators here today who voted in 2006 to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Today, not a single Republican Senator will stand up and support these bills. That is a very sad and bad sign of this moment in our history. I accept that each and every Senator has the right to cast their vote on bills however they choose. That is the way democracy works. But what is happening now is very different. Republican Senators are using the current version of the Senate rules to block a vote on these vital measures to protect our democracy; to prevent this body from having a final vote on the Freedom to Vote legislation and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. So let's step back and look at how the current version of the Senate rules operates in practice, and I say ``current rules'' because the Senate rules have evolved over time, as our colleague from Oregon has mentioned. They have taken many twists and turns over the years. In their current form and practice, they have departed radically from their original purpose and design. Today, with some exceptions, 41 out of 100 Senators can block the other 59 from voting on legislation that is important to the American people. Over the last year, this Senate rule has been used to block bills that enact commonsense gun safety provisions and provide for equal pay for equal work. Many other bills have been blocked from even getting a vote under the current Senate rules. So let's unpack this. Let's understand what this means. Right now, under our rules, it is possible for 41 Senators representing 21 States and 11 percent of the U.S. population to block the will of 50 Senators representing 84 percent of the U.S. population. Think about that. Under our current rules, Senators representing a small percentage of the population--11 percent--can block the will of the majority. How did this happen? Well, it happened because over time--not at the beginning but over time--Senators decided to empower themselves at the expense of the American people. It wasn't always this way. As I said, in its earliest days, the Senate was founded on two principles. The first was that Senators would have ample opportunity to make their case to their fellow Senators and to the country. If they had the minority position on a particular issue, they had a chance to come here to the floor of the Senate to persuade their colleagues of the merits of their position and maybe in the process have the whole country turn to their side of the debate and influence the ultimate result. So the Senators were given the opportunity for a prolonged debate to ensure that all opinions were heard and considered before the final vote. In fact, as my colleague from Oregon mentioned, each Senator was able to deliver two speeches on a particular question on a single legislative day. But after all the views were heard, after prolonged debate was ended, the Senate would move to a majority vote. That is how the Senate earned its representation as the world's greatest deliberative body. Nothing could be further from that truth today. We have very little debate on the Senate floor today--real debate, where Senators engage on the big questions of the day. In fact, the minority of Senators who oppose legislation pending before the Senate can block it without even coming to the Senate floor to debate. They don't even have to come here to make their case to their fellow Senators and the American people, don't even have to show up to debate. We are talking about a Senate rule that was designed to encourage debate. Yet we have it operating today where nobody has to even show up on this floor to make their position known. It is not that Senators don't even have to show up to debate; they don't even have to show up for the vote to cut off debate. Under our current rules, we could have a vote right here in the Senate of 59 to nothing in favor of moving forward on legislation, and the 41 Senators who didn't even show up would carry the day. They would block the 59 from expressing the will of the American people. How crazy is that? That is what the current Senate rules provide. That is not what the Founders of our Republic envisioned. In fact, the current version and application of the Senate's rules amount to a total perversion of the constitutional framework. These rules pervert the intent of our Framers, and they undermine the democratic architecture of our Republic. Our Founders never--never--intended for a minority of Senators--for 41 Senators--to be able to thwart the will of the majority and of the people. In Federalist 22, Alexander Hamilton asserted that the fundamental maxim of republican government was ``the sense of the majority should prevail.'' Even more clearly right on point was James Madison in Federalist 58, where he directly warned against requiring more than a majority for a decision in the legislature, saying that ``the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority.'' This is James Madison, a key architect of our Constitution and the framework of this Republic. Now, we know it is true that the Framers of our Constitution knew the dangers of overly powerful majorities, and they wanted to and did guard against that risk in the Constitution itself. That is why the Framers diffused power among the people, among the States, and within the Federal Government--to protect minority viewpoints in the country. In the Bill of Rights, our Founders clearly said that each American has certain unalienable rights that no government action can take away--not by a vote of this Congress, not by an order of the President, not by anybody in the executive branch. That is the Bill of Rights. Our Founders also created three coequal branches of government constrained by a system of checks and balances. It is all right here in the Constitution. Within the legislative branch, they didn't create one unitary body, like most Parliaments today; they created two separate bodies--the Senate and the House of Representatives--and a totally independent executive branch, with the President directly elected by the people through the electoral college. Now, I think it is worth pointing out that the Senate contains built- in protections for the minority by its very structure. The 2 Senators from Wyoming represent 578,000 of our fellow Americans, and the 2 Senators from California represent 39 million of our fellow Americans. Two Senators from Wyoming represent 578,000 people, and 2 Senators from California represent 39 million Americans, but here in the Senate, each of those Senators, whether from Wyoming or California, has votes of equal weight. We can do the math, the political math. People of Wyoming are already exerting influence here in the Senate way out of proportion to their share of the American population. That is in the structure. But if you layer the current version of the Senate filibuster rule on top of the Senate structure and on top of other protections for minority rights enshrined in our Constitution, you further nullify the will of the American people. You nullify the will of the majority of our fellow citizens. That is why the anti--majoritarian, anti-democratic--small ``d''-- Senate rule is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. You can search high and low; it is nowhere to be found here. In fact, as I said, our Founders were very clear about allowing the majority sentiment vote to prevail in the end. And they were very clear in this document, the Constitution, exactly when to require a supermajority vote. It is right here: Two-thirds vote of all Members is required to convict and remove a President; two-thirds vote is needed to expel a Senator; two-thirds needed to override a Presidential veto; two-thirds vote to concur on treaties; two-thirds to amend the Constitution. That is it. That is what is in the Constitution of the United States. Our Founders did not envision a Senate where the normal course of legislative process and business could be permanently blocked by a minority of Senators. There is nothing in here about needing 60 out of 100 votes to pass legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act. There is nothing in our Constitution about a Senate where 41 out of 100 Senators can routinely block the will of the majority and subvert the will of the American people. James Madison expressly warned against requiring supermajorities for legislation--yes for treaties, yes for removal of a President, not for the normal course of legislation. So where did the current Senate rule come from? It is a total invention of Senators that empowers individual Senators by disempowering the overwhelming majority of the American people. That is what it is. Think about this in the context of the Freedom to Vote Act. The duly elected President of the United States, who won over 80 million votes and in the electoral college, is in favor of it. A majority of the House of Representatives representing the majority of the American people is in favor of it. And 50 U.S. Senators representing 62 percent of the American people are in favor of it. But the bill is being blocked by a minority of Senators representing a minority of the American people. And think about this. State legislatures around the country, as we gather here, are passing laws to erect barriers to voting by a majority vote. The laws they are passing impact every citizen in this country because they impact the outcome of Federal elections. When State legislatures in Georgia pass laws to disenfranchise voters in Federal elections, they are disenfranchising voters in all of the other 49 States who have a stake in the outcome of Federal elections. But the current version of the Senate rules prevents the U.S. Senate from casting a majority vote to protect voting for every American, even though the Constitution expressly empowers us to do that--to regulate Federal elections. So, Mr. President, what arguments do proponents of the current filibuster rule present to justify this self-anointed power to thwart the majority will of the American people? One claim is that it promotes bipartisanship. Look, I know the Presiding Officer. I know the Senator from Virginia who has joined us. I know the Senator from Oregon. All of us prefer to find common ground to meet the challenges of the day when we can. I am proud to be the author of many bipartisan measures and to sponsor many others, and to vote for many of those measures. But let's not kid ourselves here in the U.S. Senate about the ability of the 60-vote requirement to promote bipartisanship. The Senate we are living in today is the most polarized ever. The claim that this rule promotes bipartisanship flies in the face of the reality we witness every day. In fact, the filibuster in its current form has become a partisan political weapon. Tim Lau of the Brennan Center notes that, while there have been more than 2,000 filibusters since 1917, about half of them have been in just the past 12 years. Think about that. There were more filibusters in President Obama's second term than in all the years between World War I and the end of the Reagan administration combined. This abuse has led to partisan gridlock, not bipartisan cooperation. But let's talk about bipartisanship. I had hoped--we had hoped--that action to preserve our democracy would be a bipartisan endeavor. But that isn't where we are today, and that is not new. The battle to protect constitutional rights has been waged along party lines in the past. The Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to former slaves and guarantees equal protection under the law, was passed by Republicans in Congress with almost no bipartisan support. We salute them for that action. The 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote to all citizens of the United States, and it was passed by one party and one party alone. Those actions were taken by the old Republican Party that used to be the party of Lincoln. Should we have sacrificed those critical amendments at the altar of bipartisanship? Should we have said to them: Don't pass them because no Democrats at that time supported them? Of course not. We all strive for bipartisanship, but that goal should not stand in the way of legislative action, especially on issues central to protecting our democracy. Another argument often made, including by many of our Democratic colleagues, in favor of keeping the current version of the Senate rules and the supermajority requirement, highlights the risk of giving up the ``protection'' of the filibuster on issues that Democrats hold dear and where Republicans hold a different position. If we eliminate the 60-vote threshold to pass policies that Republicans don't like, won't Republicans be able to use a majority vote to pass policies that Democrats don't like? That is true. That is the nature of democracy. That is what elections are for--every 2 years for Members of the House, every 6 years for the Senate, and every 4 years for the President. If the American people don't like a law that we have passed, they get to go to the ballot box to render a decision. That is the ultimate accountability in the system, and we should not be erecting artificial rules to protect ourselves from the majority views of the American people. In fact, it is simply arrogant--arrogant--to invent a rule that blocks the will of the American people. It is simply arrogant to say that we Senators, not we the people, are the guardians of our democracy, and we are going to come up with this rule that is not in the Constitution to do that. That is what our current Senate rules do. Now, there is one major exception to the 60-vote rule to end a filibuster on legislation. It is called the reconciliation process. I believe that this major exception exposes the absurdity of the current Senate rule itself. Most folks watching this debate may be justifiably confused. They are watching the Senate and they are saying: It was about a year ago that the Senate passed the American Rescue Plan with a majority vote. It was a vote of 50 to 49. It was a major piece of legislation responding to the pandemic emergency. Not a single Republican Senator voted for it, but it passed. During the Trump administration, Senate Republicans passed a major tax giveaway to the rich by a vote of 51 to 48. Not a single Democrat voted for it. Those laws contained major policy changes, but they could not be blocked by a vote of a minority of 41 Senators. Why is that? It is because in 1974, the Senate carved out a major exception to the supermajority filibuster rule for legislation connected to the annual budget process. That carve-out--that procedure--allowed for the passage of the Trump tax law, for the American Rescue Plan, and earlier for the Affordable Care Act. So, colleagues, here we are maintaining this carve-out to the filibuster rule that allows Donald Trump and Senate Republicans to pass big tax cuts by a majority party-line vote. You can't block it with a vote of 41. It allows us to pass important things like the American Rescue Plan, using the same procedure. But our rules don't allow us to pass rules to protect our democracy. That is absurd. Anyone paying close attention to the rules would see how absurd that is in a great democracy, and it needs to change and it needs to change now. Each day that we maintain the current undemocratic Senate rules that allow 41 Senators to block the will of the majority, we allow State legislatures to continue their assault on democracy and we prevent our own democracy from working the way it was intended. The American people sent us here to get things done, to move the country forward, and the overwhelming majority are crying out for us to protect the future of our democracy. That is why we must amend the undemocratic rule that empowers 41 of 100 Senators to disempower the majority of the people of our country. And I support the proposal put forward by our colleague from Oregon, Senator Merkley, that takes us back to the original design and intent of the first Senate and the Framers--debate. Everyone gets a chance to make their point. Convince your colleagues and convince the American people. But as James Madison said, at the end of the day, a great democracy must have a majority rule subject to the conditions already applied and set out in our Constitution. So I urge my colleagues to join us in restoring the Senate to its original purpose and then to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, to protect our democracy. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I want to thank my colleague from Colorado for reminding us of how important it is for us to come together as Americans to protect our communities and to protect our country. That is really why we are all here today on the floor of the Senate because, 1 year ago today, we witnessed a violent attack on this Capitol and on our democracy itself. It was not a sneak attack by a foreign power, like Pearl Harbor. It was not an attack by a foreign terrorist group, like 9/11. It was an attack from within, and it was orchestrated and instigated by the former President of the United States. One year later, while we have improved the physical security of this Capitol, we have not secured our democracy. Our great American experiment remains under as much threat today as it did a year ago, and we as Americans have a duty to come together to take action to protect it. The violent mob unleashed by Donald Trump a year ago stormed and sacked this Capitol. Insurrectionists scaled the ramparts, tore through the barricades, and breached this building. They used flagpoles to beat Officer Michael Fanone and used chemical spray to assault Officer Brian Sicknick, who tragically died the next day. A gallows was built outside of this Capitol while rioters chanted ``hang Mike Pence.'' Like many others, I recall watching horrifying television footage of a rioter pulling down an American flag and raising up a Trump flag in its place. Confederate flags and banners of far-right extremist groups were paraded through these halls. This citadel of our democracy was violently attacked. The Capitol Hill community was traumatized and so was the country. But in that dark hour when our democracy was under attack, members of the U.S. Capitol Police, the National Guard, and the DC Metropolitan Police stepped up and answered the call. There were many stories of bravery from that day, but I want to draw attention to Officer Eugene Goodman, a Marylander who protected our democracy by diverting the mob away from this Senate Chamber. His actions on January 6 saved lives, and Maryland is proud to call him one of our own. It is because of the courage of Officer Goodman, his fellow officers, and many other heroes that the mob was ultimately forced to retreat and the Senate and the House were able to reconvene to finish the certification of the electoral count. That was the job that we had all come here to do on January 6, 2021, and that was the job the rioters had tried to stop. They were driven to violence by Donald Trump's Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and they were hell-bent on answering his call to overturn the results of that election and overturn the will of the American people. They failed in that effort. On that day, all of us were determined not to leave this place until we got the job done and certified the vote. And that is what we did. And when we returned to the Senate floor after the attack on our Capitol, I really believed, for those few hours, that most Members of this Senate appreciated the gravity of the moment we had just lived through. I had real hope that all of us, regardless of party or politics, felt the weight of history upon us. I had hoped that most of us grasped the idea that the machinery of our democracy does not operate automatically; it is not self-executing, that institutions are ultimately only as strong as the people who safeguard them, that it is up to each and every one of us to nurture and protect our democracy, that we are the current stewards of our Republic's tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. I really believed that night that that was a shared belief in this Senate. In my remarks when we returned that evening, I described the attack as a wake-up call to the country for all of us as Americans. That day showed us exactly what can happen when we fail to come together--not as Republicans or Democrats but as Americans, to stand up for the truth, to stand up for our democracy, and to stand up against lies that undermine public confidence and faith in our elections. That day showed us, in a violent and undeniable way, that if we allowed the poison of the Big Lie to continue to spread, our democracy would continue to be under threat. I hoped we would heed the warning of that horrible day. And I was pleased to work with colleagues here, including the Senator from Minnesota and others, to help fortify the physical security of our Capitol Building. We have delivered additional resources to the Capitol Police. We selected a new Sergeant of Arms and a new Chief of the Capitol Police. And we are continuing to implement the other key recommendations that have been made to strengthen the security of Capitol Hill. While we are improving the physical security here on Capitol Hill, we are failing in our larger duty to the American people. We have failed to stop the spread of the Big Lie and its corrosive impact on the confidence in our democracy. We know that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in a free and fair election, and yet too many of our Republican colleagues put political convenience ahead of country and ahead of our Constitution. Too many are afraid to state the facts and tell the American people the simple truth. And because of that fundamental failure, the Big Lie has metastasized and represents a clear and present danger to the democratic process throughout the country. When the violent mob failed to overturn the election results in this Chamber a year ago today, the Big Lie did not end. It materialized in other forms to undermine our democracy. As we speak, Republican- controlled State legislatures, fueled by the Big Lie, are passing laws making it harder for people to vote--especially people of color, people with disabilities, and younger voters. In addition to putting up barriers to voting, proponents of the Big Lie are stripping power from election officials who dared to challenge Donald Trump's plot to falsely claim victory in the 2020 election. The Georgia General Assembly removed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as head of the State election board after he denied Trump's request to ``find 11,780 votes,'' the exact number he needed to defeat Joe Biden in Georgia. It was not enough that Raffensperger, a loyal Republican, had voted for Donald Trump. His offense was failure to implement the Big Lie. In Michigan, Republicans are moving to saturate election wards with Big Lie loyalists in an effort to control the counting of ballots. And across the country, other laws are being passed at the State level that would authorize partisan officials to change or overturn the results of elections, even after votes have been cast and counted. What we are witnessing is an all-out, continuing assault on our democracy. And the longer we wait, the more the threat grows. The clock is ticking. Now is the time to act. That is why we must establish uniform national standards to protect access to the ballot box and ensure that our elections reflect the will of the American people, not the political wishes of any party or any one person. That is exactly what the Freedom to Vote Act does and why we must pass it. This bill would defend every American's right to the ballot. The Freedom to Vote Act also helps protect election officials from unfair removal and guards against attempts to tamper with or change election results. In addition, the bill contains provisions to keep our elections fair and honest, including crucial campaign finance reform and a ban on partisan gerrymandering. An enactment of the Freedom to Vote Act should go hand in hand with the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full protections guaranteed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While I had hoped that action to preserve our democracy would be a bipartisan endeavor, it is clear that our Senate Republican colleagues are not willing to join us in passing these bills. Efforts to strike a compromise have been met with virtually zero support on the other side of the aisle. Democrats are willing to move forward ourselves to protect our democracy, but our Republican colleagues have weaponized the current filibuster rule and are using it to thwart progress. They have even blocked our attempt to have a debate on voting rights when we raised the issue 6 months ago. Those actions are undermining the very spirit, the tradition, and function of this Senate. The Senate was designed to promote vigorous and long debate while also respecting the ultimate will of a majority of Senators and a majority of the American people. Today, we see the opposite: very little real debate on the Senate floor and the denial--the denial--of a majority vote to resolve the big questions of the day, resulting in the denial of the will of the American people. We can change that. We have to change that. We can change it by adapting the current rules of the Senate to restore the original intent of the Framers. We must do that for the health of our institutions and the good of our democracy. James McHenry, Maryland's delegate to the Constitutional Convention, wrote in his diaries about a famous exchange between Elizabeth Willing Powell and Benjamin Franklin. He wrote: A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy--A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it. A year ago today on this floor, I quoted this exact exchange. And now, on the 1-year anniversary of January 6, we are still met with the same question and same test of whether or not we can muster the will to do what must be done to keep our Republic. There is still time. We can still repair and sustain our democracy. One year ago, we did not allow a violent mob to prevent us from staying right here to do our job. We completed the certification of the Presidential election, but our job is not over. We have not finished the job of security or democracy. Now is the time for us to do that. Let's come together and do what is necessary and right for our Republic, for our democracy, and for the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022. The National Defense Authorization Act provides crucial resources for our Armed Forces and our national defense, including a 2.7 percent pay increase for our servicemembers and DOD civilian employees, parental and bereavement leave for servicemembers, and the creation of basic needs allowance. I am glad that the Senate was able to come together on a bipartisan basis to pass this legislation to support our servicemembers, strengthen our national security, and invest in critical projects in my home State of Maryland, including over $500 million in authorized military construction projects across the State. This legislation also includes several important pieces of legislation that I introduced to strengthen our Foreign Service, ensure that all students have a fair shot at attending one of our Federal service academies, and support our Federal firefighters. While there are parts of this legislation that I have concerns with and important priorities that were left out, I believe that, on balance, this bill serves our national interest. In particular, I am pleased that this NDAA includes the Foreign Service Families Act of 2021, which I introduced with Senator Sullivan, with whom I cochair the Foreign Service Caucus. As the son of a Foreign Service Officer, I know the challenges that Foreign Service families face in accessing education and employment when they accompany our diplomats abroad. That is why I introduced this legislation, which authorizes expanded employment services for the spouses of Foreign Service officers serving overseas. It also extends in-state tuition at public colleges and universities for Foreign Service members and their families after 30 days of residency in a State and allows Foreign Service families to terminate leases without penalty when ordered to move for work. This legislation will make a real difference in the lives of our Foreign Service families and will help reduce attrition and attract the talented and diverse diplomatic workforce we need to compete on the global stage. It is modeled after benefits we extend to military families, who also have to move frequently in service to our country. I am also glad that this legislation includes the SERVE Act, which I introduced with Senator Cardin and Representative Brown. This bill ensures that high school students applying to attend one of our Federal service academies do not lose out on opportunities to be nominated because of a vacancy in Congress. After the tragic loss of my friend and colleague, Representative Elijah Cummings, my office learned that nomination slots at our service academies, like the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, cease to exist if a seat in Congress is vacant at the time nominations are due. This meant that a student from Congressman Cummings' district had one-third fewer opportunities to receive a nomination to a service academy. As a result of this new law, Senators may make nominations on behalf of a vacant seat, ensuring that students do not lose an opportunity to serve their country through no fault of their own. Further, I am glad Armed Services Committee agreed to include the Federal Firefighter Flexibility and Fairness Act, which I introduced with Senators Tester, Collins, and Carper and Representatives Sarbanes and Wittman. This legislation grants additional flexibility to our Federal firefighters that their State and local counterparts have enjoyed for many years. As a result of this bill, Federal firefighters will be able to trade shifts across pay periods without negatively affecting their pay. This NDAA also establishes a consortium on irregular warfare threats, a critical step in the transfer of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism--START--from the sponsorship of the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of Defense, which has the resources to maintain this national security research. I previously worked to secure funding for this transition in the FY21 defense appropriations bill. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, better known as START, is a university-based research and education center based at the University of Maryland and comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world. I am also glad the NDAA incorporates the Enhancing Military Base Resilience and Conserving Ecosystems through Stormwater Management Act, which I introduced with Senators Kaine, Cardin, and Warner. This bill authorizes the Defense Department to carry out stormwater management projects on military installations. These projects will improve installation resilience and essential infrastructure that supports military installations and protect nearby waterways like the Chesapeake Bay. In August, I worked to secure language in the FY22 Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill encouraging the Department of Defense to use Energy Resilience and Conservation Program funds to support stormwater management projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed in order to better protect and conserve the health of the bay. I also want to thank my colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee for working with me to address the Army's incorrect application of the law pertaining to the Prisoner of War Medal, which has negatively affected a Maryland veteran. In 2020, I asked the Army to award the POW Medal to Marylander Ronald Dolecki for his military service in Ethiopia in 1965, which he has been denied for over a decade. Mr. Dolecki clearly qualifies for the Medal under the criteria established by Congress in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, but the Army continued to incorrectly apply the previous standard to his case. I am grateful to Chairman Reed and Ranking Member Inhofe for including language directing the Army to rectify its incorrect application of the law to ensure that this Marylander who served his country with honor and distinction and others like him are appropriately recognized. Lastly, this bill includes funding and language that is critical to supporting Maryland's military installations, including more than $350 million for Fort Meade, more than $150 million for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and more than $30 million for Joint Base Andrews. The bill also includes report language ensuring the Army's continued support for the demolition of contaminated facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground and provisions to continue responding to the recent crisis in privatized military housing which affected installations in Maryland and across the country. While I am pleased with many of the provisions included in this bill and voted for its passage, I do have significant reservations. I appreciate that this bill codifies the GAO's recommendations related to tactical vehicle rollover accidents in response to the tragic loss of lLT Conor McDowell, a U.S. marine who lost his life in a training accident at Camp Pendleton. 1LT McDowell showed extraordinary bravery, saving the life of a fellow marine, and Congress has a responsibility to ensure that these preventable crashes end. The bill also includes a directive that the Department of Defense report on the cost and feasibility of a pilot program that Senators Cardin and Representatives Brown and Wittman and I proposed in the the 1LT Hugh Conor McDowell Safety in Armed Forces Equipment Act of 2021. This simple, straightforward bill directs the Departments of the Army and the Navy to jointly implement a 5-year pilot program to evaluate the prospect of using data recorders to monitor, assess, and improve the readiness and safety of the operation of military tactical vehicles. This commonsense program will improve the safety of our men and women in uniform and save lives. I believe we could have proceeded with this pilot today, but look forward to receiving the mandated report no later than March 1, 2022, as directed, and I will continue to advocate vigorously for the implementation of this program. I am disappointed that the NOAA does not include my amendment to prohibit the use of funds for the research and development, production or deployment of the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile--SLCM- N--and its associated nuclear warhead. The United States already possesses an array of nonstrategic nuclear capabilities that fulfill our theater nuclear deterrence missions and reassure our allies of our extended deterrence commitments. In its 2019 cost estimate of U.S. nuclear weapons programs, the CBO projected that the SLCM-N would cost $9 billion through 2028. This projection does not account for production costs after 2028, nor does it factor in costs associated with integrating the missile on ships, nuclear weapons training for personnel, and storage and security for nuclear warheads on naval bases. Not only is the program a waste of money, it will also dangerously raise the risk of nuclear miscalculation and escalation. I also believe that this bill fails to tackle the long-term budget challenges facing our country. In the midst of a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 800,000 of our fellow Americans, we simply cannot afford to continue this level of investment in defense at the expense of other critical national priorities. I oppose the decision to invest an additional $25 billion over the President's budget request for defense while we continue to underinvest in diplomacy, development, and a wide range of critical domestic priorities. Lastly, I am disappointed that the bill did not include my amendment with Representative Jacobs to close a loophole that allows some U.S. security assistance to foreign forces without being subject to Leahy law restrictions that bar U.S. military assistance to units credibly believed to have engaged in gross violations of human rights. This is a simple, straightforward matter of the United States living up to our most basic commitments as a member of the international community. The accompanying NDAA report language does require the presentation of a report detailing the processes through which the Defense Department seeks to ensure that consideration is given to any credible information relating to violations of human rights by such entities, before support is given to them. I will be reviewing that report closely to determine what further action is necessary to safeguard human rights and ensure that no U.S. security assistance is exempt from these commonsense restrictions. While I am opposed to some of the provisions in this bill and disappointed by the omission of others, I believe that, on balance, the NDAA will strengthen our national security and advance other important national priorities. For that reason, I voted in support of final passage.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to an extraordinary leader, a visionary healthcare advocate, and a tireless champion for the people of my state and for citizens across the National Capital Region: Maria Gomez. Ms. Gomez is retiring this month after 33 years as the president and CEO of Mary's Center, a renowned federally-qualified health center that she founded in 1988, and which has transformed the lives of countless individuals and families throughout our region. Her tireless efforts to improve the health and well-being of underserved families and individuals in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area have left an indelible mark on our communities, and her lifetime of service has inspired a new generation of activists, advocates, healthcare leaders, and public servants. I would like to share her story today and have the course of her life forever written into the Congressional Record. Ms. Gomez immigrated to the United States from Colombia with her mother at age 13 to escape violence and find new opportunities. Together, they built a life in Washington, DC, through hard work, courage, and the determination to succeed. By means of her own grit and skill, along with the support of a loving mother, Ms. Gomez obtained a bachelor of science in nursing from Georgetown University and a master of public health from the University of California at Berkeley. Following graduation, she returned to the District of Columbia to empower the very same community that had empowered her when she first arrived in the United States. After first working at DC Health, the Red Cross, and the Visiting Nurses Association, Ms. Gomez founded Mary's Center with a group of health advocates and the DC Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs. Her goal was to help immigrant women fleeing war and poverty in Central America. But what began as the shared vision of one person and a small group of community and government partners would soon grow into a nationally renowned health center that has touched the lives of thousands. Under Ms. Gomez's leadership, Mary's Center went from serving 200 participants in a small basement with a budget of $250,000 to serving more than 60,000 participants across seven locations in DC and Maryland, with an annual budget of $76 million in just over 30 years. The center and the people who work there are committed to providing the highest quality of care to each and every patient, regardless of their ability to pay, and the mission of Mary's Center is guided by core principles of care, education, social justice, and respect. I have had the privilege of visiting Mary's Center locations in my State of Maryland while serving in the Senate, and I have witnessed, firsthand, the extraordinary attention, compassion and professionalism that the entire Mary's Center family brings to everything they do. It is because of their work that so many within our communities can receive support and critical services. That is Maria Gomez's legacy, and our State and our Nation are deeply grateful for all she has given to our fellow citizens in need. Her extraordinary achievements have made Ms. Gomez one of the most effective and highly regarded leaders in the region and throughout the country. It was Ms. Gomez's hard work and dedication that led First Lady Michelle Obama to choose Mary's Center for her first official visit to a nonprofit organization in February 2009. In 1995, First Lady Hillary Clinton also visited Mary's Center during National Immunization Week in recognition of the center's efforts to get children vaccinated and ready to learn and thrive in school. What is more, President Barack Obama selected Maria Gomez as one of the 18 recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, the Nation's second-highest civilian honor, as a testament to her leadership and service. Ms. Gomez has accrued decades of wisdom over the course of her distinguished career, and she has always been willing to share that wisdom and knowledge with those who seek it. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, as well as former Mayors Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty, named her to their mayoral transition teams. She currently serves as cochair of the Human Services, Social Services, and Health Committee of the DC Mayor's ReOpen DC Advisory Group for COVID-19, and she is a member of the Mayor's Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformations, which makes recommendations on strategies and investments necessary to transform healthcare in the District of Columbia. Ms. Gomez also shares her expertise by serving as a board member for the DC Primary Care Association and the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County. She is a member of the Suburban Hospital Board of Trustees, is cochair of the Latino Health Steering Committee of Montgomery County, and serves on the advisory boards for the Smithsonian American Women History Initiative, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, and the AmeriHealth Caritas National FQHC Initiative. In addition, she is a member of the Washington Housing Conservancy--WHC-- Board. While Ms. Gomez is the recipient of numerous well-earned awards and accolades, no medal or trophy that we can give to her can truly speak to all that she has given us throughout her inspiring life and career. She has been a beacon of hope for so many families in need over the past three decades. She leaves behind a legacy of deep compassion for all whom she has met and known and helped and served. Ms. Gomez's colleagues regard her as a strong leader, a dedicated mentor, and a friend to all, and the entire Mary's Center community treasures the warmth, grace, and respect she has imparted throughout the organization these past 33 years. Our Nation's Capital is healthier and stronger because of Maria Gomez's many years of visionary leadership and dedicated service. I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing our deepest gratitude to her and in extending our best wishes to her and to her husband Michael Rexrode and daughter Amalia--as she begins the next chapter of her life of service to her community and her country.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I would just ask my colleague, in the coming days, before the end of the year, to reconsider his position. He is a member of the Commerce Committee, and he knows well that there have been three hearings on supply chain issues, one on May 11 regarding ``Freight Mobility: Strengthening America's Supply''; on July 15, ``Implementing Supply Chain Resiliency''; and on December 7, ``Unchartered Waters: Challenges Posed by Ocean Shipping Supply Chains,'' where the committee discussed a whole range of supply chain issues. Moreover, responding to these issues, if we are really serious about addressing our supply chain issues, how does it help to deny us the opportunity to vote and put in place the Director of an Agency that is supposed to help relieve the supply chain bottlenecks? I know the Senator from Florida had to leave, but it is a very simple question. If there is a genuine interest in addressing supply chain bottlenecks and addressing the cost pressures, how does denying NIST a leader help advance that agenda? Clearly, it does not. Clearly, this is harming the U.S. markets at this important time. Clearly, it is harming our supply chain efforts. Clearly, it is harming U.S. competitiveness. So I urge my colleagues to move forward on this nomination. Apparently not today because of the objection, but let's get it done before the end of this year. I am not going to ask for a quorum call. Thank you. That is it.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to urge the Senate to move immediately to vote on the confirmation of Dr. Laurie Locascio to be the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology at the Department of Commerce and--this is a double-headed position--as the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. As of today, we have 156 pending nominations on the executive calendar. These include Ambassadorial nominations to important countries like China, Japan, and others all around the world. It is harming our national security. We should be moving forward with them urgently. Then there are a whole number of nominations that relate to very important U.S. domestic Agencies, and one of them is this appointment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Look, many Americans are aware of the NIH, the National Institutes of Health. They know that that Institute does very important medical research that helps save lives and that it develops treatments to help Americans and others around the world. In fact, they have played a key role in the development of the vaccines against COVID-19. Less well-known but also very important is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which plays a key role in supporting American economic competitiveness and supporting innovation for Americans and American companies around the world. They also play an important role in the supply chain effort of the United States. That, of course, has taken on added significance in recent months as we experience bottlenecks. So we are only hurting ourselves, and we are only hurting our country by refusing to allow this body to move forward on a vote on her nomination. We are essentially saying to this very important institute, this important government entity: We are not going to vote on your leader. So it is time to move forward on this. Now, I want to talk a little bit about why Dr. Locascio is an exceptional choice for this role. It is not only because she hails from the great State of Maryland; it is not only because she is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and that she has been a leader of the University of Maryland's research endeavors since 2017; but it is also--and most importantly--because she brings to this position three decades of experience in working at all levels at NIST, the institute to which she has been nominated to lead. She began her time at the Agency as a research staffer and rose to become the Acting Principal Deputy Director and Associate Director for Laboratory Programs. She was responsible for directing the Material Measurement Laboratory, which is one of NIST's largest laboratories. She also has very intimate knowledge of NIST from her other years of experience there, and she has really touched upon every area of endeavor within the NIST portfolio. As I indicated, this appointment would be important at any time, but it is especially important at this moment as we grapple with supply chain issues and as we try to bolster U.S. manufacturing and try to make sure that we manufacture here, in the United States, essential products that we need. This body, in addition to focusing on the manufacturing side of the ledger, also understands the importance of investment in vital research and materials science, in things like quantum computing and artificial intelligence. We passed, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 68 to 32, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, and NIST has very important responsibilities in those areas. What NIST does there is very important in our maintaining and sharpening our position in the world, especially as we address the growing challenge of China. I also want to mention the Manufacturing Extension Partnership that is run out of NIST, which plays a very important role right now as we work to fight these supply chain blockages and also accelerate the production of personal protective equipment--N95 masks and ventilators. That push was fueled, largely, by the $50 million that this body helped to appropriate for the MEP program in the CARES Act. Again, that is a program housed in NIST that is helping to deal with supply chain bottlenecks when it comes to essential protections from the pandemic. So there is no justification for blocking this nomination. In fact, all we are doing is tying our hands behind our backs by depriving this important institute of their top leader at a time when we face national challenges on supply chain issues and at a time when we understand we have got to be at the top of our game when it comes to innovation and cutting-edge technologies in so many areas where it is essential to meet the challenge of China and others around the world in global competition. So I would really urge my colleagues to allow this nomination to proceed. It is the right thing to do for our country. Mr. President, at this point in time, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate consider the following nomination: Executive Calendar No. 551, Department of Commerce, Laurie E. Locascio, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology; that the nomination be confirmed; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order on the nomination; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I stand today to extend my heartiest congratulations to Ann Mathis--``Andi''--as she prepares to retire from the National Endowment for the Arts--NEA--after 42 years of dedicated service. A resident of Bethesda, MD, Andi has served as the NEA's program specialist for States and regions, using her expertise in arts management and best practices in grantmaking to support the work of 50 State arts agencies, six regional arts organizations, and six U.S. Territories. Andi first joined the NEA after graduating from Cornell University and then earning a master's degree in community arts management from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Andi began her career in the NEA's Grants Office and Office of Management Analysis before settling into her role with States and regions in the Partnership Division. During her distinguished tenure, Andi has nurtured partnerships with State arts agencies and regional arts organizations, building a network that has extended the reach of Federal support for the arts. As a guiding force in the NEA's Partnership Division and a font of institutional knowledge, Andi's expertise, dedication, and sense of humor have made her a beloved icon in national arts funding. Often, State and local officials would line up, literally, to obtain Andi's guidance and insight. Andi's efforts have included extensive work with both the Maryland Arts Council and Maryland's Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She was also instrumental in centering the role of arts and culture in Federal disaster relief and recovery efforts, representing the NEA on disaster preparedness task forces and Federal Government working groups. Her outstanding work at the NEA has earned her numerous Distinguished Service Awards and other commendations over the years. Andi's greatest pleasure has always been her beautiful family. While at the NEA, she married, had two daughters, Allison and Melinda, and now delights in her daughters' growing families, which enabled Andi to become ``Grandi.'' A devoted mother and grandmother, Andi is renowned for her sewing prowess and her own line of ``Grandi'' children's clothing. After more than four decades in the Federal Government, Andi plans to continue her legacy of service in retirement, working in the area of adult literacy, which will include tutoring through the Literacy Council of Montgomery County. We know that she will take seriously the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, repairing the world, as she continues to make a difference in the lives of others. I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our gratitude to Andi Mathis for her outstanding service to our Nation and in sending our best wishes to her as she begins her next adventure.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a faith leader and community activist from my home State of Maryland who has recently stepped down from his post as senior pastor at Union Baptist Church: Reverend Alvin C. Hathaway. I would like to honor his service to the people of Maryland and enter the details of his journey into the Congressional Record so that current and future generations may learn from and study his inspiring career. The story of Reverend Hathaway's life is deeply bound to the story of Union Baptist Church. Alvin Hathaway grew up on Druid Hill Avenue in West Baltimore in a family that believed deeply in combining education and service--four doors down from the church itself--and he came of age in a neighborhood shaped and nurtured by faith. That community had cradled other great leaders too--leaders who, like Reverend Hathaway, bent the arc of history toward justice. Thurgood Marshall had lived along the same avenue where he grew up. The late great Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings was one of his high school classmates. And at an early age, Reverend Hathaway was mentored by another legendary son of Baltimore City and civil rights champion, Reverend Vernon Dobson, with whom he helped organize and found BUILD, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. That organization has been serving the people of Baltimore City for over 40 years, helping to improve affordable housing, create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, and so much more. Through BUILD, Reverend Hathaway left his mark on Baltimore City early in his career, and his legacy of good works will continue to endure through that powerful organization. But he has never been one to rest on his laurels, and Reverend Hathaway continued throughout his life to find new ways of serving at the intersection of faith and social justice--and of giving back to the church and the community that raised him. After earning a B.A. from the McKendree University School of Religion and an M.A. from Saint Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, Reverend Hathaway pursued a Ph.D. at the United Theological Seminary in Ohio, and he chose the history of Union Baptist Church as the focus of his academic study. Through his deep research into the narrative and legacy of that church, Reverend Hathaway became a steward of the church's culture, traditions, and values. I submit that no one knows Union Baptist Church better than Reverend Hathaway. He then returned to Baltimore City, becoming senior pastor of Union Baptist in 2007, and he channeled his efforts in that role toward renovating the very traditions of the church that he had studied and lived for so many years. Reverend Hathaway marshalled the full force of his religious wisdom and oratorical gift to guide the West Baltimore community forward, through both good times and bad times. His swelling sermons moved a generation--and grew the faith. But Reverend Hathaway learned early that the duties of a faith leader don't end at the bricks of the church walls. He took the values of his religious devotion and aimed them at the ongoing fight to realize the full promise of civil rights and equal opportunity. His efforts have spanned issues of health equity, civil rights, wages, and employment, but perhaps his greatest fight of them all has been waged through his dedication to expanding access to education. As senior pastor, Reverend Hathaway was deeply committed to bolstering the church's Head Start Program so more children from the surrounding area could receive high- quality early education. I have had the privilege of visiting the Union Baptist Head Start with him to see, firsthand, the impact his work has had on the community. Reverend Hathaway's legacy can be seen in the wide smiles of the children who benefit from that initiative--and who benefit from his efforts to grow and strengthen that vital program. While senior pastor at Union Baptist, Reverend Hathaway also served as a longtime leader of Promise Heights, an organization committed to improving outcomes in West Baltimore's Community Schools. He has helped guide the course of higher education through his role on the board of the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was an early and outspoken advocate for bridging the digital divide and narrowing the homework gap so more students could access the internet. And even now, after his retirement, he is leading the fight to transform the now vacant lot of P.S. 103 in West Baltimore into the Justice Thurgood Marshall Center, which will focus on programs supporting education, justice, and ethics. He has done all this, and more, over the course of an extraordinary career marked by a commitment to his faith, a dedication to the people of Baltimore City, and a belief in the power of community. Though he has retired as the leader of Union Baptist Church, I know that he will carry on in the work that has defined his tenure as senior pastor--and defined his entire life. I am proud to call him a full partner in the work of building a more perfect union, and I will continue standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him in our shared endeavor to invest in the success of all.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, November 21, 2021, will mark the 26th World Day of Remembrance--WDoR--for Road Traffic Victims, commemorating the millions of people killed and injured on the world's road. It is also a day to thank emergency responders for their role in saving lives, to reflect on the impact of road traffic deaths and injuries on families and communities, and to draw attention to the need for improved legislation, awareness, infrastructure, and technology to save more families from the tragedy of losing a loved one. More than I million people die from road crashes every year, and tens of millions are seriously injured. Road traffic crashes are the No. 1 killer of young people aged 15-29 and the eighth leading cause of death among all people worldwide. Rochelle Sobel, president of the Association for Safe International Road Travel, highlighted the gravity of this issue and the imperative to fix it: ``Every 27 seconds, somewhere in the world, a person dies in a road crash.'' On this 26th anniversary of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, it is important to remember the history and recommit to the goals of this day. It was initiated in 1995 as the European Day of Remembrance and quickly spread around the globe to countries in Africa, South America, and Asia. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 60/2, recognizing November 15 as the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Since that time, the observance of this day has continued to spread to a growing number of countries on every continent. This year marks the start of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, during which the WDoR will highlight the reasons for all of the necessary actions to be taken during this coming decade. Indeed, the day has become an important moment to focus international attention on this preventable epidemic and as an advocacy tool in global efforts to reduce road casualties. As a result of the growing awareness and global call to action that World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims has generated, in September 2020, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring the years 2021 to 2030 a new Decade of Action for Road Safety. The declaration affirms the UN's commitment to work vigorously to implement a new, ambitious agenda to halve road crash deaths by 2030. Additionally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 calls on governments and their stakeholders, including NGOs and private citizens, to address the personal, medical, and financial burdens associated with road traffic deaths and injuries. The devastation of losing a child, parent, sibling, partner, friend, caregiver, or caretaker is immeasurable, as are the challenges of caring for a permanently disabled loved. Road traffic crashes are preventable, and so we owe it to our communities to work together so that the hopes and dreams of our loved ones are not shattered on the roads of the United States and the world. We must all take action to prevent these avoidable tragedies and save lives.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, which will help fund essential government programs that invest in the success of everyday Americans and help build a stronger, more resilient economy with greater opportunity and more shared prosperity for all. As chair of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, I developed this bill with the help of Ranking Member Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, and I want to begin by thanking her and the Appropriations Committee staff on both sides that have helped assemble this legislation. Putting together any one piece of the Federal budget is beyond the power of any one individual; it takes a dedicated team of public servants working shoulder-to- shoulder, day-in and day-out--and committed to delivering real results for the American people. I appreciate Senator Hyde-Smith's partnership on our subcommittee, and I also want to thank Senator Leahy and Ranking Member Shelby for their leadership on the full committee. And in addition to my colleagues and partners on Capitol Hill who have contributed to this legislation, our work has also been guided by the input of others, outside of the Senate, who have offered their testimony and insight. In order to craft this spending package, the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee held public hearings with the Treasury Department and the IRS, a public hearing to help understand Postal Service delivery issues, and a public hearing to learn about the important role of Community Development banks in economically challenged communities. We were briefed by an array of agencies under the bill's jurisdictions and met with stakeholders who would be directly affected by key elements of this legislation, including residents from my home State of Maryland. The result of those combined efforts can be seen in the substance of this year's Financial Services and General Government spending bill, which provides $29.4 billion to bring critical services to the American people by funding a number of important Federal agencies and government bodies from the Treasury Department to the Small Business Administration to the Federal Judiciary to the D.C. courts--and much more. Today, I would like to share with the American people exactly what is in this bill and how they stand to benefit from the provisions within it. First and foremost, this bill arms the IRS with the resources it needs to ramp up customer service. This bill includes $13.6 billion for the IRS, an increase of $1.6 billion over last year's spending levels, and these funds will allow the IRS to bring taxpayer services into the 21st century by upgrading and replacing aging IRS infrastructure. For working families, that means improved service and shorter hold times when they call the IRS with questions. That additional funding will also allow the IRS to go after those ultra-wealthy tax cheats who have avoided paying what they owe to the government. Now, let's be clear: Each year, millions of folks pay what they owe, fill out their tax forms, and send them in to the IRS honestly and on time, and they trust that others do the same. But we know that while most people pay what they are required to under the law, some do not. There is anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion in taxes each year that are owed but not paid, primarily by the wealthy. That is billions of dollars that are overdue under current law and which should be available to help fund everything from education to our national defense. Both my Republican and Democratic colleagues know that doing nothing and allowing this tax gap to grow on our watch just isn't right. It flies in the face of basic fairness. While everyday Americans have their taxes withheld and follow the law, we cannot allow the super wealthy to evade the system. Everyone needs to pay what they owe. By enhancing the agility of the IRS to crack down on individuals who sidestep their current tax responsibilities, we can raise more revenue without raising taxes by a single dime. The investment in a robust IRS will deliver additional monies to invest in growing opportunity and wealth in all of our communities, including underserved communities. And that mission has taken on an added measure of urgency as our country continues to recover from the economic fallout of COVID-19. Our bill helps meet the full promise of that very mission by providing $360 million for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, a $90 million increase from last year's spending levels. CDFIs are key vehicles for funding businesses and projects in economically underserved communities. My State of Maryland is proud to have 13 certified community-based lenders across our State that benefit directly from the CDFI fund L, and earlier this year, I chaired a subcommittee hearing that included testimony from a Maryland constituent and valued adviser, Mr. Joseph Haskins, Jr., who is the chairman of Harbor Bank in Baltimore, a certified CDFI that has helped create $3 billion in economic development in the Baltimore community since its founding in 2001. And just last month, I convened a roundtable with Shelly Gross-Wade, the CEO of the only CDFI in Prince George's County, MD, to discuss how we can better support minority small businesses across the region. Community lenders support a wide range of local projects, including everything from bringing grocery stores to communities with no healthy food alternatives to investing in low-income housing, and I am glad that we were able to include robust funding for CDFIs in this year's bill. On top of that, this bill provides additional resources for communities and small businesses through $1 billion for the Small Business Administration, so we can make sure businesses continue to recover from the pandemic--and can grow stronger into the future. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and this spending bill puts that notion front-and-center in our Federal budget. I am proud that this legislation also includes a $53 million increase for Entrepreneurial Development Grants that will encourage entrepreneurs to build businesses and create good-paying jobs--including entrepreneurs from historically under-served communities. Money that goes to the SBA will also help make sure our small businesses have the support they need to get back on their feet in the wake of devastating natural disasters, which we all know have been on the rise due to the growing and very real consequences of climate change, an issue that demands this government's full and undivided attention. Extreme weather events get worse and worse each year, and my State of Maryland is feeling the pain of that trend right now in the aftermath of Tropical Depression Ida. I am glad that the Small Business Administration approved Maryland's request for a Disaster Declaration for those impacted by Ida, which has unlocked additional low-interest loans for businesses and homeowners in affected communities and emphasizes how just important the SBA is in helping our fellow citizens endure the impacts of climate change. But if we want to tackle the climate crisis head-on, it isn't enough for us to support those who have already been harmed by the devastating effects of global warming; we also need to cut emissions. That is why this bill invests $200 million in transitioning the Federal fleet to zero-emission vehicles. There are currently around 655,000 gas-powered vehicles in the federal fleet that spew more than 7 billion pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. With this bill, that will change. We need to take an all-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis, and this provision within our legislation helps us do just that. And as we invest in the health of our planet, we also need to invest in the health of our democracy and I am glad that this bill is a big win for increased campaign finance transparency in two major ways. First, this legislation drops a long-standing rider that blocked the SEC from requiring public companies to share their political spending with shareholders. Shareholders and the public have a right to know what political causes their money is being used to support, decisions that can go against their values or put their investments at risk. Our legislation will enable the SEC to shine a light on that secret spending. And second, the bill drops a longstanding rider that blocked the Treasury from clarifying the definition of ``political activity'' for 501(c)(4) social welfare group, which are major sources of secret election spending. More transparency in political fundraising is part of the essential mission to restore faith in government. Toward that same end, this bill also mandates greater transparency in how the Office of Management and Budget manages apportionments, which is the process of spending the money that Congress appropriates. And additionally, this bill works to ensure that our government represents the full diversity of the United States by expanding opportunities for DREAMers so that DACA recipients can be employed by the Federal Government. DREAMers should be able to bring their skills, talents, and unique perspectives to government jobs, where decisions affecting their communities are made every day, and our legislation allows them to participate fully in public service. This legislation also includes an increase in funding to the White House that would allow for paid internships, and I urge the President to use these funds to offer the opportunity to enter Federal service to more young people. But while we work to recruit more of our fellow Americans to serve, we also need to ensure that those who are currently serving can work in offices that meet their full needs. That is why I am particularly pleased to include language in this bill urging the General Service Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to move forward on the proposed new, consolidated FBI headquarter, a process that was abruptly halted by the last administration. The FBI currently works in a crumbling building that fails to meet its operational and security needs, and it is time to move forward on the process of securing a new campus. I would be remiss if I did not note that Maryland, which is already home to many FBI employees, has two fully vetted sites in this process. I am committed to getting this new campus, which is over a decade in the making, finally completed to meet the needs of the FBI' s mission. And in addition to strengthening the core planks of government by expanding transparency, helping grow pathways to service, and upgrading Federal buildings, the Financial Services and General Government bill also strengthens the government's ability to take on pressing crises facing our communities, including our Nation's ongoing challenges with addiction. It provides a 9-percent increase in funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, including resources for the High- Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program and the Drug-Free Communities program, which helps prevent drug addiction among our Nation's youth. Substance use disorders continue to tear at the fabric of our communities, including in my home State of Maryland, and this vital funding is essential both to stopping illegal drug trafficking and to healing my State and States across the country that have been plagued by addiction. Finally, I would also like to note that this bill ends harmful riders that have interfered with the District of Columbia's ability to spend its own taxpayer dollars, an example of Congressional meddling in local affairs that no Senator would tolerate toward their own State. And this bill includes $760 million in special Federal payments for over a dozen distinct purposes relating to DC, including $40 million for the DC Tuition Assistance Grant Program to expand higher education choices for students of the District. And at a time when we see attacks on a women's right to choose across this country, I am proud to say this bill ends years of restrictions to abortion care by dropping a rider that prohibited the District of Columbia--and Federal health insurance systems--from providing coverage for abortion services. This is sound policy that the majority of Americans support, and this provision is essential to protecting reproductive freedoms in this country. In short, this legislation enhances services that help everyday people, builds more economic opportunity, uplifts working families, delivers support directly to our communities, fights climate change, strengthens our democracy, accelerates our work to modernize the IRS, and does much, much more, and we must get it to the President's desk. While I wish we could consider this bill under regular order, have a conference with the House and sign it into law, we are quickly running out of time. It is imperative that we enact this spending bill and the other 11 appropriations bills by December 3 when the current continuing resolution runs out to avoid a government shutdown, and in order to meet that deadline, we will likely be negotiating an omnibus. I look forward to working with Ranking Member Hyde-Smith and our House colleagues to move this process forward immediately because we have no time to waste. So let's now push ahead with our work, finish these bills, and do the job the American people sent us here to do.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, which will help fund essential government programs that invest in the success of everyday Americans and help build a stronger, more resilient economy with greater opportunity and more shared prosperity for all. As chair of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, I developed this bill with the help of Ranking Member Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, and I want to begin by thanking her and the Appropriations Committee staff on both sides that have helped assemble this legislation. Putting together any one piece of the Federal budget is beyond the power of any one individual; it takes a dedicated team of public servants working shoulder-to- shoulder, day-in and day-out--and committed to delivering real results for the American people. I appreciate Senator Hyde-Smith's partnership on our subcommittee, and I also want to thank Senator Leahy and Ranking Member Shelby for their leadership on the full committee. And in addition to my colleagues and partners on Capitol Hill who have contributed to this legislation, our work has also been guided by the input of others, outside of the Senate, who have offered their testimony and insight. In order to craft this spending package, the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee held public hearings with the Treasury Department and the IRS, a public hearing to help understand Postal Service delivery issues, and a public hearing to learn about the important role of Community Development banks in economically challenged communities. We were briefed by an array of agencies under the bill's jurisdictions and met with stakeholders who would be directly affected by key elements of this legislation, including residents from my home State of Maryland. The result of those combined efforts can be seen in the substance of this year's Financial Services and General Government spending bill, which provides $29.4 billion to bring critical services to the American people by funding a number of important Federal agencies and government bodies from the Treasury Department to the Small Business Administration to the Federal Judiciary to the D.C. courts--and much more. Today, I would like to share with the American people exactly what is in this bill and how they stand to benefit from the provisions within it. First and foremost, this bill arms the IRS with the resources it needs to ramp up customer service. This bill includes $13.6 billion for the IRS, an increase of $1.6 billion over last year's spending levels, and these funds will allow the IRS to bring taxpayer services into the 21st century by upgrading and replacing aging IRS infrastructure. For working families, that means improved service and shorter hold times when they call the IRS with questions. That additional funding will also allow the IRS to go after those ultra-wealthy tax cheats who have avoided paying what they owe to the government. Now, let's be clear: Each year, millions of folks pay what they owe, fill out their tax forms, and send them in to the IRS honestly and on time, and they trust that others do the same. But we know that while most people pay what they are required to under the law, some do not. There is anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion in taxes each year that are owed but not paid, primarily by the wealthy. That is billions of dollars that are overdue under current law and which should be available to help fund everything from education to our national defense. Both my Republican and Democratic colleagues know that doing nothing and allowing this tax gap to grow on our watch just isn't right. It flies in the face of basic fairness. While everyday Americans have their taxes withheld and follow the law, we cannot allow the super wealthy to evade the system. Everyone needs to pay what they owe. By enhancing the agility of the IRS to crack down on individuals who sidestep their current tax responsibilities, we can raise more revenue without raising taxes by a single dime. The investment in a robust IRS will deliver additional monies to invest in growing opportunity and wealth in all of our communities, including underserved communities. And that mission has taken on an added measure of urgency as our country continues to recover from the economic fallout of COVID-19. Our bill helps meet the full promise of that very mission by providing $360 million for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, a $90 million increase from last year's spending levels. CDFIs are key vehicles for funding businesses and projects in economically underserved communities. My State of Maryland is proud to have 13 certified community-based lenders across our State that benefit directly from the CDFI fund L, and earlier this year, I chaired a subcommittee hearing that included testimony from a Maryland constituent and valued adviser, Mr. Joseph Haskins, Jr., who is the chairman of Harbor Bank in Baltimore, a certified CDFI that has helped create $3 billion in economic development in the Baltimore community since its founding in 2001. And just last month, I convened a roundtable with Shelly Gross-Wade, the CEO of the only CDFI in Prince George's County, MD, to discuss how we can better support minority small businesses across the region. Community lenders support a wide range of local projects, including everything from bringing grocery stores to communities with no healthy food alternatives to investing in low-income housing, and I am glad that we were able to include robust funding for CDFIs in this year's bill. On top of that, this bill provides additional resources for communities and small businesses through $1 billion for the Small Business Administration, so we can make sure businesses continue to recover from the pandemic--and can grow stronger into the future. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and this spending bill puts that notion front-and-center in our Federal budget. I am proud that this legislation also includes a $53 million increase for Entrepreneurial Development Grants that will encourage entrepreneurs to build businesses and create good-paying jobs--including entrepreneurs from historically under-served communities. Money that goes to the SBA will also help make sure our small businesses have the support they need to get back on their feet in the wake of devastating natural disasters, which we all know have been on the rise due to the growing and very real consequences of climate change, an issue that demands this government's full and undivided attention. Extreme weather events get worse and worse each year, and my State of Maryland is feeling the pain of that trend right now in the aftermath of Tropical Depression Ida. I am glad that the Small Business Administration approved Maryland's request for a Disaster Declaration for those impacted by Ida, which has unlocked additional low-interest loans for businesses and homeowners in affected communities and emphasizes how just important the SBA is in helping our fellow citizens endure the impacts of climate change. But if we want to tackle the climate crisis head-on, it isn't enough for us to support those who have already been harmed by the devastating effects of global warming; we also need to cut emissions. That is why this bill invests $200 million in transitioning the Federal fleet to zero-emission vehicles. There are currently around 655,000 gas-powered vehicles in the federal fleet that spew more than 7 billion pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. With this bill, that will change. We need to take an all-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis, and this provision within our legislation helps us do just that. And as we invest in the health of our planet, we also need to invest in the health of our democracy and I am glad that this bill is a big win for increased campaign finance transparency in two major ways. First, this legislation drops a long-standing rider that blocked the SEC from requiring public companies to share their political spending with shareholders. Shareholders and the public have a right to know what political causes their money is being used to support, decisions that can go against their values or put their investments at risk. Our legislation will enable the SEC to shine a light on that secret spending. And second, the bill drops a longstanding rider that blocked the Treasury from clarifying the definition of ``political activity'' for 501(c)(4) social welfare group, which are major sources of secret election spending. More transparency in political fundraising is part of the essential mission to restore faith in government. Toward that same end, this bill also mandates greater transparency in how the Office of Management and Budget manages apportionments, which is the process of spending the money that Congress appropriates. And additionally, this bill works to ensure that our government represents the full diversity of the United States by expanding opportunities for DREAMers so that DACA recipients can be employed by the Federal Government. DREAMers should be able to bring their skills, talents, and unique perspectives to government jobs, where decisions affecting their communities are made every day, and our legislation allows them to participate fully in public service. This legislation also includes an increase in funding to the White House that would allow for paid internships, and I urge the President to use these funds to offer the opportunity to enter Federal service to more young people. But while we work to recruit more of our fellow Americans to serve, we also need to ensure that those who are currently serving can work in offices that meet their full needs. That is why I am particularly pleased to include language in this bill urging the General Service Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to move forward on the proposed new, consolidated FBI headquarter, a process that was abruptly halted by the last administration. The FBI currently works in a crumbling building that fails to meet its operational and security needs, and it is time to move forward on the process of securing a new campus. I would be remiss if I did not note that Maryland, which is already home to many FBI employees, has two fully vetted sites in this process. I am committed to getting this new campus, which is over a decade in the making, finally completed to meet the needs of the FBI' s mission. And in addition to strengthening the core planks of government by expanding transparency, helping grow pathways to service, and upgrading Federal buildings, the Financial Services and General Government bill also strengthens the government's ability to take on pressing crises facing our communities, including our Nation's ongoing challenges with addiction. It provides a 9-percent increase in funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, including resources for the High- Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program and the Drug-Free Communities program, which helps prevent drug addiction among our Nation's youth. Substance use disorders continue to tear at the fabric of our communities, including in my home State of Maryland, and this vital funding is essential both to stopping illegal drug trafficking and to healing my State and States across the country that have been plagued by addiction. Finally, I would also like to note that this bill ends harmful riders that have interfered with the District of Columbia's ability to spend its own taxpayer dollars, an example of Congressional meddling in local affairs that no Senator would tolerate toward their own State. And this bill includes $760 million in special Federal payments for over a dozen distinct purposes relating to DC, including $40 million for the DC Tuition Assistance Grant Program to expand higher education choices for students of the District. And at a time when we see attacks on a women's right to choose across this country, I am proud to say this bill ends years of restrictions to abortion care by dropping a rider that prohibited the District of Columbia--and Federal health insurance systems--from providing coverage for abortion services. This is sound policy that the majority of Americans support, and this provision is essential to protecting reproductive freedoms in this country. In short, this legislation enhances services that help everyday people, builds more economic opportunity, uplifts working families, delivers support directly to our communities, fights climate change, strengthens our democracy, accelerates our work to modernize the IRS, and does much, much more, and we must get it to the President's desk. While I wish we could consider this bill under regular order, have a conference with the House and sign it into law, we are quickly running out of time. It is imperative that we enact this spending bill and the other 11 appropriations bills by December 3 when the current continuing resolution runs out to avoid a government shutdown, and in order to meet that deadline, we will likely be negotiating an omnibus. I look forward to working with Ranking Member Hyde-Smith and our House colleagues to move this process forward immediately because we have no time to waste. So let's now push ahead with our work, finish these bills, and do the job the American people sent us here to do.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

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

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I think all Senators can agree that we would not be able to deliver results for the people in our States and for our country if it were not for our extraordinary staff, who work with us each and every day. They are there with us in the trenches, fighting for the constituents we pledge to serve, and defending the Constitution of the United States. It is for that reason that I am confident my colleagues will agree with me when I say congressional staff is more than just a collection of individuals; it is a family. And it is that truth that makes my presence on the Senate floor this evening all the more difficult, because my office, our family, has lost a beloved member. John Amara F. Walters, a legislative aide in my office, passed away on the morning of October 2, at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. He died in the arms of his beloved mother, Kimberley, who joins us this evening in the gallery. John was 29 years old. On behalf of myself, our office, and the people of Maryland, I want to take a little time not only to express our profound grief at the loss of a dear friend and amazing human being, but also to tell a little bit of John's story to this Senate and to the Nation, and to pay tribute to his life, to honor all that he gave us, and to celebrate all that he gave to the world. John Amara F. Walters was born on Friday, February 9, 1992, in Adrian, MI, to John A.M. Walters and Kimberley H. Davis Walters. He came from a long line of patriots and leaders, including his grandfather, who defended the United States in World War II as a Tuskegee Airman. And John caught the political bug early. At age 6--yes, you all heard that right, aged 6 years old--John started working on local political campaigns. In his early years, he participated in three Presidential elections and traveled across Michigan and the country to serve communities in need. In high school, he interned for the late great Michigan Senator, Carl Levin. John was also a committed member of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute's Pathways to Freedom program. He excelled inside the classroom--first graduating from Adrian High School in 2010, and then going on to study at the District of Columbia's own Howard University, where he earned his BA in psychology in 2015 magna cum laude. I should add he was a loyal Howard alum and proud Bison and a favorite son of the university's. The last time I met face-to-face--in the pre-COVID days--with the president of Howard University, Wayne Frederick, John was with me, and I told Dr. Frederick how proud we were of John's exemplary work, and Dr. Frederick was proud too. John did all of this at a young age and more, and he achieved these things despite having a lifelong battle with sickle cell anemia--an illness that often struck him with fatigue and pain. But that didn't stop John. He refused to be defined by his illness, and he refused to allow sickle cell to prevent him from pursuing his dreams with passion and decency and dedication. It is a disease that took him from us far too soon, but it never took away his spirit or his zest for life and his commitment to making a positive change. I will always remember John for the twinkle in his eye, his enthusiasm for everything he did, his absolute brilliance, and his commitment to helping others. Everyone in our office--and I mean everyone--loved John. After he passed away, we held a staff Zoom call with his mother, both to grieve together and to remember John; and in that gathering, we witnessed a torrent of love and affection for all John did and what he meant to us. There were lots of tears, but also many moments of beautiful laughter, as we recounted many fun stories about John. He gave us many things, but perhaps one of his greatest gifts was his empathy. In the world of politics and Capitol Hill, there is plenty of ambition. And John was ambitious. But empathy is often in short supply. Not in John. Empathy is that quality where someone seeks to see the world through the eyes of another, of understanding what somebody else is experiencing by trying to walk in that person's shoes and live the world as they live it. John did not just hear the words spoken by others; he listened; he absorbed them; he dared to be vulnerable. And what always struck me about John was his capacity to focus on the struggles experienced by others at the same time he was carrying on his own fight against sickle cell. Perhaps his own personal struggle made him far more attuned to the hardships faced by others; but whatever its source, John's capacity to care inspired us all, as did his ability to persist and carry on in the face of adversity. John embodied the very best of us. John first joined my office as an intern right out of college, when I was still serving in the House of Representatives. After graduating from Howard, he could have chosen many different paths. He chose public service. From John's first moments on our team, it was clear that he was not only sharp and eager to work, but that he cared deeply about his fellow colleagues and that he was completely dedicated to our mission of serving the people of Maryland and the country. When I was elected to the Senate, I was thrilled to have John move to this side of the Capitol with me. He leapt at every opportunity to advance our mission--growing from organizing and drafting letters to constituents, to taking constituent meetings, to eventually thinking of and writing legislation. He was a vibrant force on Capitol Hill both in our office and outside of it, and was an active member of the Senate Black Legislative Staff Caucus. When our Senate office first divided up issues among our legislative correspondents, John chose to take responsibility for some of the hottest button issues, like criminal justice reform and public safety, that demanded an open ear and a welcoming heart. He worked on gun issues and spoke to constituents who had experienced personal tragedies from gun violence, and he always brought their feelings to his work on legislation to strengthen our gun laws. When the previous administration was trying to dismantle parts of the civil service, John met with and helped Federal employees who feared they might lose their jobs at any moment. In a million different ways, John proved that empathy has a home in public service and can even direct the course of policy changes. When we decided to hold a hearing on the hardships that Postal Service delays were imposing on Americans, John remembered a meeting he had held months earlier with a group from the National Federation of the Blind, where they discussed the real challenges they were experiencing because of the long delays in the delivery of their essential materials. John was moved by their stories at the time, and he lifted their voices. At his suggestion, we invited a member of that group to testify, and their moving and powerful testimony is now leading the changes that will help every American. That was John-- listening and then bringing people's voices into the public square to change lives for the better. John brought empathy to his work and to the office, but he also brought great joy. His desk was a must-stop place for members of our team throughout the day. People would stop by to share his company, to hear his loud and infectious laugh, to talk about the latest news of the day, or--I have been told--to joke about the craziest couple on ``90 Day Fiance,'' which, on the enthusiastic recommendation of John and a few others, built quite a following in our office among current and past staff. I was not sure what to think about all that when I learned about it. John brought joy with his wry wit and keen sense of the absurd-- always taking his work seriously, but never taking himself too seriously. He had a critical skill on Capitol Hill--the ability to track down House and Senate receptions with the very best food, and then alert his colleagues to the spoils. If someone couldn't get away from the office, he would bring back snacks to share, pulling treats out of his pockets like a magician. He was a true member of our office family and always a team player, always willing to advance our causes on behalf of our constituents. And in coming to know his family, I can see where those qualities began. You could see that he was supported by his beloved mother, Kimberley Davis, in the way he supported our team--always ready to help out and pitch in for the mission. You could see that he was helped and mentored by his uncles and aunts in the way he helped and mentored the new members of our office whom he worked with. Today, in the gallery, in addition to John's mother, Kimberley, we are joined by his uncle John and John's wife, Carol; and Christian Gibbs, who was like an uncle to John. You could see how much John was loved by those closest to him by how much he loved and embraced others, and he, in turn, was loved and respected by our entire Capitol Hill family. He was an example to all of us of a person who put everyone else's challenges ahead of his own. Our office wants to hold John Amara Walters up as a model to other young people who walk through our doors. As I mentioned, John began his service with us when he was an intern, and we have decided to establish a permanent paid internship position in John's name and memory, and that position will always go to a student from Maryland who is attending Howard University. In that way, we know that the young leaders of the future will learn about John's spirit and his legacy and learn to carry forward his torch of empathy and positive change. John wanted to help others. He wanted to leave the world better than he found it. He did that and much more. While his life was far too short in years, it was long in the joy and the love he shared and in the lives he changed for the better. Thank you, John. We love you. I yield the floor.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I am here to talk about the President's Build Back Better agenda and its importance to our country. We have heard a lot over the last couple of months about the new jobs that that plan will bring. It is estimated by economists that it will generate 4 million jobs every year for the next 10 years. That is because we are going to be investing in modernizing our infrastructure. We have already heard about the important work to modernize our roads and our bridges, expand our transit systems, build out the infrastructure of the 21st century, including high-speed internet to every American household and every small business. We have talked about the importance of deploying a clean energy grid and making sure that we move toward a clean energy economy. That will put millions of Americans to work in good-paying jobs. If you are generating that kind of economic activity, that kind of wage opportunity, obviously, that is good for every American household and brings in more income. But, today, I am going to gather with some of my colleagues, organized by the Senator from Minnesota, Ms. Klobuchar, who will join us shortly, to talk about how the Build Back Better agenda will not just generate millions of jobs and good-paying jobs, but help the dollars that Americans have in their pockets and bank accounts travel faster, how it is going to save them money. Now, one way it is going to save money is for families with kids. They are going to get a tax cut. In fact, that tax cut was put in place as part of the American Rescue Plan that we passed earlier this year. As a result of a tax cut for families with kids, families around the country right now are getting up to $300 per child to help cover the everyday costs of raising kids and addressing the needs of a family. That will also cut child poverty in half, but only for this year. It is currently scheduled to terminate at the end of this year, that tax cut for American families with kids. So one of the things we do in the Build Back Better agenda is extend that for many years because it doesn't make sense to have that terminate and have those families stuck with all those additional costs. But there is also another way that the Build Back Better agenda is going to help every dollar that comes into the family bank account go farther, and that is by reducing the costs that they face in so many of their everyday household expenditures. I want to focus on a couple of areas. One is in the area of childcare, one is in the area of healthcare and prescription drugs, and the other is the energy costs and gas costs that so many families face. The Build Back Better agenda is going to lower the costs for American families in those areas so that the income they have will go much further. I want to start with childcare because working parents with infant children are scraping by today to pay for childcare, paying, on average, $1,300 every month to get licensed care. Under the Build Back Better agenda, if you look at the projections, you will see that Marylanders--families in my State of Maryland--will see their childcare bills cut nearly in half with weekly savings of $141 every week. That is $7,322 a year for childcare costs--lowering of childcare costs for those families. If you think about the need to try to get more people in the workforce, it is understandable that if you are a parent with kids, you want to make sure that when you go into the workforce, your kids have an affordable and secure place during the day. And right now that is not an option for millions of American families. So one of the things this proposal does, the Build Back Better plan, is dramatically reduce those costs for childcare. The proposal will also cut prescription drug costs for seniors. We have been having a debate for years about the need to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices on behalf of all of us, on behalf of all the beneficiaries in Medicare. The Veterans' Administration negotiates drug prices for veterans who are in their care, and yet we don't allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. This is nuts. And it runs up the costs for Medicare because if you don't get to negotiate price, the pharmaceutical companies get to set the price wherever they want. So this proposal, the Build Back Better plan, will cut those costs and reduce prescription drug costs for Part D premiums by 15 percent. We are also proposing to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing services. This is a big gap in the current Medicare Program. Right now, seniors, on average, each year, are paying $914 out of pocket for hearing services, $874 for dental services, and $230 for vision services. Our proposal would cover that big gap in the Medicare Program. I am going to talk for one moment about energy prices because we all know we have to move to a clean energy economy. We are going to make it easier to do that as we put more Americans to work in that area. One of the things that is proposed is a generous electric vehicle tax credit of up to $12,500. This will make it easier for Americans to afford those cars. It is much easier to run a car on cheaper electricity than on gas. But it is also going to help folks who continue to drive their gas- powered cars for years to come, because if we get more people into electric cars, that means less demand for gas, and so that means the folks who continue to drive in their gas cars will get lower gas prices. And we all know that gas prices have been on the rise. Finally, talking about energy savings--you know, the best way to save energy money is to make sure that we don't waste as much energy. All of us know that we have homes, in many cases they are not that well insulated. So part of this plan also includes help to homeowners to more cheaply make their homes energy efficient. That means, with a given amount of power, they will heat their homes at cheaper costs because there will be less wasted energy. In situation after situation, if you look at this bill, not only will it generate more jobs at better wages, not only will it provide working families with kids with tax cuts, but it will also help Americans save money on everything from prescription drugs to childcare, to energy prices, and many others. That is what economists have said, and that is especially true because we are going to pay for this by finally requiring big corporations to pay their fair share and not allow them to hide so many of their profits offshore in places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. And we are going to ask the very wealthiest, billionaires, to also pay more for the success of the entire country. So I just want to emphasize the fact--because we hear so much misinformation in this Chamber about what is in the Build Back Better agenda--that in addition to the jobs and higher wages, it is also going to help save families money on their bills so that their dollars will travel farther. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. This Maryland-based nonprofit has become the world's leading private source of research funding to save and restore vision for individuals affected by blinding retinal diseases like macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and Usher syndrome. These conditions currently affect more than 10 million Americans--and millions more throughout the world. Even though the foundation has a global reach, its origins are local. In 1971, a Maryland family learned that two of their three daughters were going blind. At the time, there was no treatment for blindness and few resources for the blind; the family was only told to teach their daughters Braille. Despite these challenging circumstances, this brave family banded together with friends and community members to organize a movement around those struggling with blindness. These early efforts paved the way for the establishment of the foundation we know today. Since its creation, the foundation has raised over $800 million to support cutting-edge research at the vanguard of the fight to cure blindness. Their efforts have identified more than 270 genes that cause retinal diseases and led to more than 40 clinical trials for potential sight-saving and sight-restoring therapies. The first-ever FDA-approved gene therapy for inherited retinal research was made possible thanks to $10 million in funding from the foundation. This innovative treatment has enabled children and young adults born virtually blind to see the faces of their parents and even gaze at stars in the sky. The millions of dollars raised by this organization have already helped make big strides in the area of blindness research, but the foundation's work is far from over. Today, the foundation continues to invest in new frontiers of discovery. Their funding is fueling efforts by major biotech and pharmaceutical companies to move more therapies from the lab bench to clinical trials and, hopefully, treatments. And through its unwavering commitment and persistence, the foundation raised the funds to establish the first ever interdisciplinary laboratory dedicated to research for inherited retinal diseases, which will serve as an engine of future discoveries and advancements. The foundation's work inspires us all, and I ask my colleagues to join me in commending the founders and leaders of the Foundation Fighting Blindness on their 50 years of innovative work transforming the lives of millions around the world.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, on Saturday, October 9, 2021, nearly 200 members of the class of 1970 of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD, will hold their 50th class reunion, an event delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is my pleasure to congratulate them on this special occasion. This distinguished class of 1970 from Walt Whitman has an exemplary history of contributions to society and to advancing social justice. As children, a number of class members from the Bannockburn neighborhood in Bethesda joined a contingent from Howard University for the first multiracial civil rights protest in America, picketing segregated Glen Echo Amusement Park daily for 22 weeks in 1960 after Blacks were arrested for riding its carousel. As the result of these and other efforts, the policy was changed, and the park reopened to all the next year. And this year, those members of the class of 1970 will return to Glen Echo during their 50th reunion to ride that same carousel on its 100th anniversary. The class of 1970 came of age at an important time in our Nation's history, a period of great change and dramatic events. When they were 8 years old in 1961, they saw President John F. Kennedy call for all citizens to commit to work for the common good. They saw the beginning of space exploration, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the arrival of the Beatles, the passage by the U.S. Congress of landmark bills on voting rights and fair housing, the Vietnam war, and the tragedies of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy. This social awareness led to lifelong commitment and activism for so many in this remarkable class. In protest of the Vietnam war, many participated in the National Moratorium Against the War. In the dramatic March Against Death, dozens of members of the class carried the names of fallen soldiers whose families could not travel here to join the protest. As the first class of students subject to a draft lottery conducted by the Selective Service System, many classmates participated in efforts to abolish military conscription in the U.S. and in support of lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. In 1970, when members of this class were in their senior year, WWHS was named the No. 1 public high school in the Nation by ``U.S. News & World Report,'' which also recently named Whitman the best high school in Maryland. Whitman's first principal, Dr. Daryl Shaw, called the class of 1970 ``the most challenging'' he ever had, in light of their frequent questioning of authority and vigorous advocacy for social change. Profound events that changed the Nation happened during their high school years. The first moon landing and Woodstock happened only 27 days apart. And just 5 weeks before graduation, in a reflection of the profound tension in our Nation, 13 unarmed students were shot at Kent State, four fatally. Some in their generation warned, ``Don't trust anyone over 30.'' Now, as the class of 1970 approaches 70, its members can look back on 50 years of lives well lived. This class can boast of significant achievement, as its members include, among many other graduates of great distinction, elected officials, physicians, lawyers, real estate developers, orchestra conductors, musicians, magazine publishers, and at least one juggler. I ask my colleagues to join me in sending our very best wishes and congratulations to the Walt Whitman High School class of 1970 as its members gather--1 year late--for their 50th reunion.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

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

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, the United States of America has always paid its bills on time--always. It is an unbroken record that dates back to our founding--a 232-year streak--and that unbroken record has helped the United States become the anchor of the global financial system and the many benefits that it brings to every American in our country. But now, as we have heard on this floor over the last 2 days and more, Senate Republicans are threatening to end that unbroken record. Senate Republican Leader McConnell has not only said that he and Senate Republicans will vote against increasing the debt ceiling to allow us to pay bills that are already due and owing but that they will block a vote on the measure altogether. That would destroy our economy; it would throw our country into a recession; it could cause the loss of millions of jobs all over the Nation, and trillions of dollars of wealth would collapse. What makes this threat by Senate Republicans so especially outrageous is that they know exactly what devastation will be caused by their actions. In fact, in 2019, Senator McConnell himself stressed the importance of raising the debt limit so we could avoid an unnecessary economic meltdown. Here is what he said then: We need to address the debt limit. It secures our Nation's full faith and credit and ensures that Congress will not throw this kind of unnecessary wrench into the gears of our job growth and thriving economy. He knew, plain and simple, that refusing to increase our debt limit would throw a wrench into the gears of our job growth. In fact, after voting to raise the debt limit that year, he said: We raised the debt ceiling because America can't default . . . That would be a disaster. ``That would be a disaster.'' That is what the Senate Republican said about what happens if you don't raise the debt ceiling--the exact thing that he and Senate Republicans are threatening to do right now. The Republican leader, Senator McConnell, was not alone in expressing those sentiments. When President Trump was in charge, Senate Republicans voted to raise the debt limit three times, and the Democrats joined them in doing that when President Trump was in office because we, too, understood the consequences of failing to pay our bills on time. And let's not kid ourselves. There are lots of things that President Trump and Senate Republicans did over those 4 years that we disagreed with--policies that we thought were irresponsible, not good for the country--including the 2017 Trump tax plan that provided huge tax breaks to the biggest corporations in the country, tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, with over $2 trillion added to our national debt. They didn't pay for a dime. Not a penny of that was paid for--it was all on the credit card--but when it came time to pay the bills that were due and owing for our country, the Democrats joined the Republicans in lifting the debt ceiling because we knew the devastating consequences of the alternative. Let's also be very clear that the moneys that we currently owe, that are currently due and owing, are largely made up of the debt incurred when President Trump was in office. The national debt increased by a total of $7.8 trillion during that 4-year period. In fact, over one- quarter of our entire national debt comes from those 4 years of the Trump administration, and our Republican Senate colleagues spent those 4 years voting here in the U.S. Senate for policies that they now say they don't want to pay for. They voted to put expenses on the credit card, and now, when it is time to pay the bill on that credit card, they are like: Sorry. We are out of here. The country is on your own. So this is, obviously, rank hypocrisy, plain and simple. If that were all, it would be unsurprising--in fact, sadly, expected--but while the hypocrisy is shameful, what is downright dangerous are the consequences of that hypocrisy. A recent study was done by Mark Zandi--he is the chief economist at Moody's Analytics--who estimates that a prolonged default would cost the U.S. economy up to 6 million jobs, wipe out as much as $15 trillion in household wealth, and send the unemployment rate surging to, roughly, 9 percent, just as we are working to again stabilize our economy and pull out of the downturn that we have been in. Now, those predictions are frightening, but they shouldn't be surprising to anybody. You know, our constituents--none of us--can just decide one morning, as they get up, to say, ``Do you know what? We are not going to make a mortgage payment. We are not going to make a rental payment. We are not going to make a payment for our cars,'' without expecting to suffer some financial consequences ourselves. So imagine, one morning, that the Senators here--in this case, Republican Senators--get up and say: The United States of America is not going to pay its bills today. That sends shock waves throughout the entire country and system, and that is why you get the cataclysmic results that Mark Zandi at Moody's Analytics is predicting, and that is why we are hearing from every responsible adult that we can't allow this to happen. Six former Secretaries of the Treasury, having served under Presidents of both parties, have urged the congressional leadership to make sure we raise the debt ceiling and pay our bills that are currently due and owing. They made clear ``postponing action to raise the debt limit until too close to the deadline undermines confidence in our political system at home and abroad.'' In other words, what they are saying is, when you go over the waterfall, you are in deep trouble, but even if you get close to it and can begin to hear the rumbling waters of that waterfall, so can the rest of the world and the financial system, and that, in itself, ends up causing economic damage. As Secretary Yellen said, it would be ``unthinkable'' for the United States to do what Senate Republicans are proposing to do, and the chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that the United States of America defaulting on its obligations is not an option. They are all right. We should be listening to them and to the American people because, if Republicans continue on the path they are, it is going to cause job loss, and that loss in household wealth, as well, will be hitting families throughout this country. So, if the necessity of raising the debt ceiling is so clear, why are we here? Well, I have been listening to our Republican colleagues over the last couple days, and they say, well, they don't want to raise the debt ceiling because they don't like the Democratic plans to beat COVID-19, and they don't like the Build Back Better agenda. There are two fundamental misunderstandings with this argument. The first, as I mentioned, is that these are bills that are already due and owing, and Republicans voted for a lot of these policies. In fact, I have seen them back home in their States telling their constituents how they helped deliver relief for small businesses and how they helped expand broadband. Well, that is part of the bill that is coming due right now that we have to lift the debt ceiling to pay for. But they also fundamentally misunderstand what President Biden is talking about in his Build Back Better agenda. I know, these days, it is an alien idea to many of our Republican colleagues, but President Biden and Democrats are planning to pay for the Build Back Better agenda. We are putting out proposals to do that, to reform our Tax Code, to reform our Tax Code in a way that we should do anyway, regardless of the important investments that we need to make, and to reform our Tax Code so that major multinational corporations cannot continue to park millions and billions of dollars of profits in overseas tax havens, like the Cayman Islands and other places, and shirk their obligations to this country and to the American people. We should shut down those loopholes. Some of those loopholes also encourage those companies to move their plants and workers overseas. We should shut down those loopholes. We should make sure that the IRS has the capability to enforce the current law and taxes that are already due and owing under current law. The current IRS Commissioner, appointed by the former President, has said that we lose hundreds of billions of dollars to people who are cheating on their taxes. That hurts all the rest of us in this country, and most of those people are higher income people. We need to make sure that the very wealthiest people in the country--the billionaires--pay some taxes. We have seen some years when they pay zero in taxes, some of them. I keep hearing from our Republican colleagues that they don't want to vote for this because of some future plan, even though what we are talking about now is to pay for other things that have been previously incurred which Senate Republicans voted for, and they are criticizing a plan which we intend to pay for. And, yes, we have planned to make some important investments with that revenue. We intend to extend the tax cuts for middle- and lower- income families with kids. They are going to expire at the end of this year, December 31. The up to $300 a month tax cut for families for each child, that goes away if we don't enact the Build Back Better agenda. We intend to reduce the cost of prescription drugs--something that is hitting every American really hard in their pocketbook. We intend to increase the availability and affordability of high- quality childcare. A lot of parents aren't reentering the workforce because, like every parent, they want to make sure their child is in a safe and secure place during the day, and it doesn't make economic sense if they have to pay as much for that childcare as they make on the job. So we need to address that issue. We want to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing services. That is a big gap in the program. So I hear Republicans down here railing against the Build Back Better agenda even though every survey shows that the American people of all parties support that agenda. And then I hear them say they are not going to vote to lift this debt ceiling because of that proposal even though we are planning to pay for that proposal. I just heard one of our colleagues talking about inflation. The reality is, if you pay as you go, then that is not a problem. The problem is when people put everything on the credit card and then decide not to pay for it. That is what the Republicans did during the 2017 Trump tax plan. So I would just say to my colleagues: You yourself are on record here in the U.S. Senate talking about what kind of economic devastation would be caused if the United States defaults on its debts if we don't lift the debt ceiling. You know what that action would mean for American families because you have said it here on the Senate floor and around the country. So don't threaten the American people and our entire economy with something that you know to be so irresponsible. I will end with this: You should do the right thing and join with Democrats in lifting the debt ceiling to pay for bills that are already due and owing and that you voted for. But, for goodness' sake, if you don't want to do the right thing, at least get out of the way. At least don't use the filibuster to prevent Democrats from doing the right thing for the country. That is a cynical ploy. I don't know what the political calculus is. I have heard the Republican leader say that he didn't want the Biden agenda to succeed, but, for God's sake, let's put country first, and let's make sure that we do the right thing for the American people. Let's lift the debt ceiling. Let's pay our bills on time, as we have done every year throughout our history. I urge my colleagues to either do the right thing on the vote or get out of the way and help the country. I yield the floor.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to thank my constituent, Congressional Research Service analyst Eugene P. Boyd, on his four decades of service to the U.S. Congress. Mr. Boyd retired in January 2020, but, as with many other milestones, recognition of his retirement was disrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Boyd, a resident of Clinton, MD, began his CRS career in 1979 as an analyst focusing on urban policy and federalism. Throughout his career, he provided expert advice to the House and Senate on topics that included economic development, empowerment zones, gentrification, and intergovernmental relations. Mr. Boyd began his career as a relocation specialist for the Prince George's County Housing Authority. He earned a bachelor's degree in urban planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master's degree in urban planning from Howard University. Mr. Boyd is noted especially for his commitment to and expertise on the District of Columbia, including detailed knowledge of the city's policies and politics that helped Congress understand the effects of its lawmaking on the Nation's Capital. He coordinated a CRS team that supported congressional consideration of the 1997 Capital Revitalization and Government Reorganization Act. He advised Congress throughout its oversight of D.C. revitalization during the 1990s. More recently, his work focused on the Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board--FOMB--and the Community Development Block Grant-- CDBG--Program's role in disaster recovery. He also aided Congress in understanding challenges facing local governments that drew national attention, such as the Flint, MI, water system. Mr. Boyd's colleagues regard him as a leader, mentor, and friend. In addition to guiding his colleagues in their official duties, Mr. Boyd served in his personal capacity as an active member of the Congressional Research Employees Association--CREA--and as a director and vice chairman of the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union. His colleagues always appreciated his kindness, humor, impeccable sartorial style, and expert culinary contributions. Above all, they treasured him as a gentleman and a professional who made CRS a better place to work. Some of Mr. Boyd's most important life's work occurred outside of the office. He was a member of only the second class to integrate the public high schools in Newport News, VA. He knew well the realities of segregation, which inspired his lifelong belief in the importance of democratic participation. He is a committed mentor, especially to young Black men, individually and through the Concerned Black Men organization. And in a true act of selflessness, in 1992 Mr. Boyd helped save the life of a 13-year-old boy in Oklahoma, whom he had never met, by serving as a bone marrow donor. Mr. Boyd is so humble that many of his longtime colleagues did not know about his personal sacrifice until after he retired. The U.S. Congress and our Nation are better informed because of Eugene Boyd's service to the legislative branch. I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing Mr. Boyd and his beloved wife Sharon Butts, also a CRS retiree, and daughter Lauren, all the best as Mr. Boyd begins the next chapter of his life of service to his community and his country.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a beloved pastor, an inspirational leader, and a lion for justice: Bishop Douglas Miles. He passed away on August 3 of this year at the age of 72, and I would like to take this time to honor his life and his legacy. Bishop Miles was a lifelong Marylander, born in Baltimore City and raised in Lafayette Courts in East Baltimore. By the time he entered Johns Hopkins University as an undergraduate, he had determined that he would become a doctor and set out to earn his medical degree. He wanted to serve the weak and heal the sick. It was an auspicious career choice because, while he eventually switched majors and earned his degree in humanistic studies, Bishop Miles would commit five decades of his life to serving and to healing communities across Baltimore. He first embarked on that mission by helping to found the organization Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, or BUILD, where he served as cochair. In this role, Bishop Miles fought to build a better and stronger Baltimore for all by expanding job opportunities, supporting schools, strengthening neighborhoods, and improving housing. His efforts to force real action on housing at BUILD resulted in the construction of at least 767 affordable homes throughout the city over a 14-year span, and his leadership was pivotal in revitalizing the Oliver neighborhood in East Baltimore after a tragic fire that claimed seven lives. When he wasn't pushing for progress with BUILD and the many other organizations he helped lead, including the Industrial Areas Foundation, the College Bound Foundation, and the Johns Hopkins BLocal initiative, he was running his beloved Koinonia Baptist Church, which he founded in 1992. As pastor, he used his gift for oratory and his deep religious faith to guide his congregation with spirit and grace. He was a titanic force, who could command an audience with equal vigor at the pulpit, the podium, and the policy table. But regardless of whether he was delivering a sermon on the scriptures or leading a rally for social change, Bishop Miles always spoke his mind and lived his values fully. Just a few weeks ago, I met with him and a group of advocates about how to close the racial homeownership gap in this country and help every American achieve their full potential. He dedicated his life to holding the powerful to account and raising the voices of those who had too often been left out and left behind. I was honored to work with him over the years to strengthen our healthcare system, expand access to affordable housing, and prevent teen tobacco use, and I am forever grateful for his leadership on a host of other issues from gun violence to education to public safety to immigration. His dedication to the causes he held dear left an indelible mark on our communities, and you can find proof of his lifelong service in the countless lives he changed for the better throughout Baltimore City. He is gone too soon, but his legacy and his spirit live on in all the Marylanders he helped shape and inspire, both as a faith leader and as an advocate for justice. Bishop Miles taught all of us what it means to live a life dedicated to serving your community, and it is a lesson we must never forget. In living, he inspired a generation to fight harder for those in need. In passing, his memory will continue to push future generations to serve and to heal, as he did.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I came to the floor today to make remarks in support of the bipartisan infrastructure modernization plan. But before I do that, I do want to take a moment to remember a real giant of the American working people, and that is Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, who is somebody who got up every single morning thinking about how to make life better for working people in America. He was passionate about it. He was a fellow Marylander. We are going to miss him, but I know that we will continue to be inspired by his example and his understanding that when working people ban together to form a union, that is the best way for them to be able to bargain for better wages and better benefits and a better retirement and a better life. So I know that we will all carry on in his memory. And as we take up this bill to modernize our infrastructure, it was something that he worked with us on to ensure that as we modernize our infrastructure, we also create good-paying jobs. And I do think that this bill will modernize our infrastructure and generate millions of good-paying jobs for the American people. Infrastructure Mr. President, it was just about 6 months ago that I came to the floor to urge my Senate colleagues to heed the call of the American people and pass the American Rescue Plan. At that time, the country was being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The economy was in a slump. The country was hurting, and the American people were hurting. The American Rescue Plan was designed to accelerate the deployment of vaccines to defeat the pandemic, to extend a hand to those who have been hardest hit, and to boost an economic comeback. We knew we had to be bold, we had to be quick, and we had to be decisive in our actions or risk a drawn out recovery and a weakened public health response. That legislation, the American Rescue Plan, promised immediate action to meet the urgency of the moment, and that is exactly what it did. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we jump-started the deployment of the coronavirus vaccines in faster and fairer ways, distributed around the country. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, millions of American households received a new round of direct payments, bringing their total relief payment--including the December relief bill--up to $2,000 per person. The American Rescue Plan also expanded the child tax credit to cut child poverty nearly in half this year, with millions of American families receiving up to $300 each month for each child. And because of the American Rescue Plan, State and local governments are receiving the direct funding they need to keep frontline workers on the job and continue essential benefits to lift up our communities. And thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we secured Federal funds to keep restaurants and small businesses afloat, assist children with disabilities, get our kids back in school more quickly and more safely, bolster childcare, and help more people get connected to the internet during this time when we had to experience so much social distancing, and much more. That plan was a victory. It was a victory for our families, for our workers, for small businesses, for communities, and for the country. And while we know we have more work to do to defeat the Delta variant of the virus, today, more than 70 percent of the adult population has gotten at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. And last quarter, our economy grew at an annualized rate of 6\1/2\ percent, and our gross domestic product rose for the first time from the beginning of the pandemic to the point where it had been before that started. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan and the resilience of the American people, we are building back from this crisis. But while building back is good, it is not good enough. As President Biden has said, we need to not just build back but build back better. And building back better means not only growing our economy bigger and faster but providing for more inclusive growth and more shared prosperity. We cannot accept an economy where the already-rich grow ever richer while everyone else is running in place or falling behind. A rising tide must lift all boats, not just the yachts. President Biden has laid out two important pieces to advance the better part of the Build Back Better agenda. One is the American Jobs Plan, and the other is the American Families Plan. Both of these plans, and more, are key to building an economy that works for everyone and not just those who are already at the top. The bipartisan infrastructure plan that we are considering now contains many elements of the Biden American Jobs Plan. And while I wish it included even more, it is a very important start, and I strongly support it. And I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation that helped advance this plan, including the efforts of the Presiding Officer. These combined efforts have produced a plan that will make key investments in virtually every part of our infrastructure. It will include investments in our transit systems and railways and help repair our roads and bridges and tunnels and more. It makes the largest investment in clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in American history. And, very importantly, this legislation includes essential investments to build the backbone of the modern 21st century economy, including funds to expand broadband so we can bridge the digital divide and funds to start building out our clean energy grid and the deployment of electric charging stations. I was proud to work with my colleague and friend from Maryland, Senator Cardin, to secure some key elements that will directly support our home State of Maryland and the people who live there. I would like to take a moment to discuss the impact of this legislation here in Maryland, starting with the funds that it provides to repair and restore our roads, our bridges, and our tunnels. Under this plan, the State of Maryland will receive $4.1 billion for Federal highways and $409 million for bridge replacement and repairs over the next 5 years. These funds will be absolutely vital as we work to restore 273 bridges and over 2,000 miles of Maryland highways that are in poor condition and in desperate need of repair. This plan also makes a historic investment in public transit and rail systems in Maryland and the DMV area. Maryland will receive $1.7 billion over 5 years to improve public transportation options across our entire State. And this legislation will make an important down payment on our Amtrak passenger rail systems by addressing the big repair backlog along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and by supporting projects like the B&P Tunnel in Baltimore, which is used by 9 million travelers every year but has faced challenges of structural deterioration and fire safety concerns for far too long. Restoring this tunnel could slash the time it takes to get from Baltimore to Washington down to just 30 minutes and create 30,000 jobs. And it is a shining example of the type of projects that could be funded by this bill and we expect will be funded by this bill. As you know, we are not just talking about heavy rail. This plan also authorizes transit monies and, importantly, it continues the $150 million annual Federal contribution to the Washington area Metro system, known as WMATA. We call it the Nation's Metro system. This bill will extend the Federal authorization of $150 million for another 8 years. This is especially important since that authorization has now expired. It is also important because this new version includes provisions to strengthen WMATA's inspector general's authority in order to improve oversight and passenger safety. It is a big win for passengers and transit employees alike, and I am delighted to see that 8-year authorization in this bill. That is good news for this part of the region and for this part of Maryland that is covered by WMATA, but in the Baltimore area, many residents don't have easy access to accessible, affordable transit that can get them where they need to go around the city or the region when they need to go there. That is why we also secured a provision in this bill to keep alive future Federal funding for the Baltimore Red Line Metro system. This is a project that had been years in the making, and, if completed, would boost jobs and economic growth, reduce travel times in the Baltimore region, alleviate congestion, and reduce air pollution. The Maryland delegation fought for years to get this project to the front of the line, and, in 2015, we were pleased to secure $900 million in Federal funds for the Baltimore Red Line project. But then something happened. The Maryland Governor pulled the plug on the entire Red Line project, turning down the jobs and improved transportation network for the Baltimore area. Other cities and regions around the country were celebrating when they got those funds instead of Baltimore. Senator Cardin and I have not given up. And while the Federal Government cannot, by itself, bring this project online, this bill states that the Federal Government is still a willing partner on the Red Line when State and local officials signal that they are ready and willing to move forward again. At the end of the day, the transportation investments made in this bill will facilitate people and products moving more quickly throughout their regions and throughout the country. It invests in airports and ports, including $17 billion in ports like the Port of Baltimore and others around the country. This funding will benefit our port, the Port of Baltimore, which is a key asset in our State and a powerful engine for economic and job growth. It is currently a hub for 15,000 jobs, with room for growth that can be fueled by this bill. I was pleased to join others in welcoming our Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, to Baltimore just last week where he underscored the Department's commitment to investing in our ports and the men and women who work there. This legislation helps us make good on that commitment. I partnered with colleagues over the years to secure over $500 million in Federal funds for that port, including funds to dredge channels in the Chesapeake Bay and the Baltimore Harbor so that they are deep enough to accommodate the biggest ships. Speaking of the Chesapeake Bay, every Marylander knows that the health of the bay is deeply bound to Maryland's local economy and Maryland's environmental well-being, and I am pleased that we secured $238 million in funding for the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program to help us meet the pollution reduction targets that are spelled out in the most recent multistate Chesapeake Bay agreement as part of this legislation. While this legislation provides important investments to modernize the infrastructure for this century, we, the Federal Government, should also take responsibility to help eliminate some of the past projects that, rather than helping unite communities, divide them and harm them. And there is no clearer example of such a project than what is known as the ``highway to nowhere'' in West Baltimore. As many Marylanders know, the ``highway to nowhere'' was a project conceived in the 1960s as a way to link Baltimore with the growing U.S. Interstate Highway System. Instead, it tore West Baltimore apart. Developers started dividing up the community to make room for the highway, residents were evicted from their homes, businesses were shut down, and a Black community was split down the middle by that ``highway to nowhere.'' It is estimated that 971 houses and 62 businesses were destroyed, and over 1,500 residents were displaced. And that has been the story of several other Federal infrastructure projects from the 1960s, projects that too often place pavement over people. I am pleased that this bipartisan plan makes at least an initial down payment for the first time to put Federal dollars toward removing harmful infrastructure projects like the ``highway to nowhere'' so we can reconnect these communities and make them whole. This provision was based off a pilot program I authored in 2019. I want to thank my colleagues, Senator Cardin and Senator Carper, for helping make this vision a reality, and President Biden for including it as part of his American Jobs Plan. While we didn't get the full amount of funds that we would like, this is a very important first step. As we dismantle some of the harmful legacy from the 1960s and 20th century projects, we must build out and meet the new needs for the 21st century, like universal, affordable access to high-speed internet. I am very pleased that Maryland will receive a minimum of $100 million from this legislation to help provide broadband coverage across the State, including providing access to the at least 148,000 Marylanders who currently lack it--they are not connected--and it would provide over 1 million Marylanders access to the affordability connectivity benefit plan to help lower income families afford internet access. It doesn't do you much good to be connected to the internet if you can't afford to use it. This bill also will make important progress, a first step, toward building out clean energy grid and a network of charging stations to facilitate long-distance travel and provide convenient charging options for electric vehicles. In short, and for all of these reasons, this bipartisan bill is an important step to helping us build back better and stronger than before the pandemic. That work starts here with this bill, and I strongly support it. But while that work starts here, it does not stop or end here. To pass this legislation and then call it quits would be to leave a big part of our job undone. We still have urgent work to do in our mission to enact all of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and address the profound challenges facing our communities that have been exacerbated by this pandemic. While this bill provides important downpayments in many areas, it does not do everything we need to do. That is especially true when it comes to infrastructure in the area of clean energy. We need to make sure we take up the other big pieces of the clean energy agenda in President Biden's American Jobs Plan and other proposals that many of us have put forward here in this body, including the clean energy standard, including a clean energy accelerator financing system, and many other provisions, in order for us to be true to the science and really confront the climate crisis that is upon us. And as we take those next steps to fully modernized our physical infrastructure, we also have to dramatically expand opportunities for every child and every family and every worker in America. Much of that is laid out in President Biden's American Families Plan, including universal access to early education so every single child, regardless of ZIP Code, has a chance and a good start in life; making workforce training more affordable and college more affordable, whether it is 2 years of community colleges or more. And we also have to make sure that we continue to provide support for families in the form of affordable childcare and, very importantly, extend the child tax credit payments that so many families are now receiving up to $300 a month. That ends at the end of this year if we don't extend it. While it is always a good thing to reduce child poverty in America-- and that reduces it by about half--that would only be true to the end of this year. We need to finish the job and keep going. We also need to reduce the costs that are squeezing the pocketbooks of every American family. We need to reduce the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs. We need to reduce the costs of childcare. We need to make sure that families don't have to spend more than 8.5 percent of their budget on their annual healthcare premiums. And we need to provide more security for everybody, including our seniors, by expanding Medicare coverage to cover dental and vision and hearing needs. Those are just some of the additional things that we need to do as part of the American Families Plan and as part of passing the overall Build Back Better agenda. I look forward to working with my colleagues to do all of that. But every journey begins with a big step, and this is a very important big step forward on that Build Back Better agenda. So I am pleased to join many of my colleagues, and I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan infrastructure modernization bill as part of a very important first step to implement the Build Back Better agenda and make sure that we truly build an economy that works for every American. I yield the floor

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I want to start by thanking some of our colleagues--Senators Rounds, Ernst, and Kelly--for cosponsoring the provisions of this amendment, and thank the chairman and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senators Carper and Capito, for their support as well. I also want to acknowledge the good work of our House colleague, Congressman Steve Lynch, on championing this issue. So what is this amendment about? It is a commonsense amendment to ensure that as we work on a bipartisan basis to modernize our infrastructure for the 21st century, we also work together to ensure that new infrastructure projects that flow from this bill and others are financed securely. Most Federal projects are financed securely by law. Most require some kind of surety bond. That has been the case for almost 100 years in this country. But because of an odd and old loophole, public-private infrastructure partnerships, or P3 projects, often do not maintain the same level of protection that has been required for public infrastructure projects over time. That can spell disaster for subcontractors, for workers, for taxpayers, and for the success of projects that are not so secure. We know that contractor defaults can cause costly delays, waste taxpayer money, and leave residents and local stakeholders and project workers in the lurch. In fact, one developer defaulted on a P3 project in Indiana and left subcontractors without pay and left taxpayers on the hook for over $300 million in additional project costs. This amendment simply requires that P3 projects using TIFIA financing--that is Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act financing--be secured with a surety bond. That way, in the event a contractor defaults, the protections by that bond ensure the completion of those projects. They protect taxpayers, and they ensure that workers and subcontractors and suppliers are paid for their work. Not surprisingly, this effort is supported by a broad coalition of organizations, including the American Subcontractors Association, the National Association of Minority Contractors, and a wide range of other contractors, because it will ensure that they are paid for the work they do, and it will also protect taxpayers who otherwise are left in the lurch if a contractor goes belly up and we do not have the protection of this kind of surety bond. That is why this amendment has broad bipartisan support, and I urge its adoption. I suggest the absence of a quorum.