globalized world, and and of the countries have free trade agreements. i think that the free trade agreements need to enhance the -- against corruption from the rule of law, and i think a great example would be -- [inaudible] if agreements and how they really have promoted rule of law in different countriesment -- countries. and that's an example that we follow in other regions, and it will help as a tool to promote the rule of law and and to fight corruption in countries where there is a lack of democratic values. >> we're leaving this here to keep our 45-year commitment to covering congress. the senate is returning from recess to resume legislative work this afternoon. coming up, members will vote on whether to begin debate on a 5-year faa reauthorization bill. current faa a programs expire on may 10th. live now to the senate floor here on c-span2.

mr. brown: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. madam president, i join -- we joined last year to do this reading. i'm glad she's presiding today. it's an honor to jape my -- join my colleagues on the floor to read dr. king's letter from the birmingham jail.

thanks to senator cassidy first, casey, lankford, britt, butler who will wrap it up for joining for this annual bipartisan tradition. every year, we bring together three republicans and three democrats to read one of the greatest pieces of writing of the 20th century and reflect on the mission and powerful words ever dr. king. this year, a reading falls right after workers' memorial day, which we marked on sunday, a day when we honor all the workers killed on the job over the past year, workers -- past year, workers injured and killed throughout our history. every year on that date i'm reminded of dr. king's final trip, second trip of the year, his final trip to memphis. he went to stand with black sanitation workers striking for better pay and safer working conditions. they were some of the most exploited workers in the country, unfair wages and unsafe conditions. months earlier, two black workers had been killed in a tragic accident that surely could have been prevented.

mr. eshingle cole, mr. renault walker showed up -- mr. robert walker showed up to segregated memphis in a segregated neighborhood. during the shift, a storm hit and mr. cole and mr. walker huddled in the back of the truck, surrounded by garbage to shield themselves from the rain. segregated memphis, segregated neighborhood, segregated sanitation truck, i might add. the truck malfunctioned. these two young men, 36 and 30 years old with wives and families and their lives ahead of them, were crushed. the white workers in the front of the cab were not, obviously. dr. king knew discrimination killed those men as much as their work conditions had. he understood the deep connections between civil rights and worker rights. he understood that all labor has dignity. until we have equal rights for all, indignity for all -- and dignity for all, our work is unfinished. we have a long road to travel. it's up to each of us to push this along.

that's the message of dr. king. that's why i asked my colleagues to join us on the floor every year. he wrote on scraps of paper in solitary confinement in april 1963 in the birmingham jail with only his memory to pull from. he referenced two texts, the bible and howard thurman, one ever his important spiritual counselors. thu thurman's book "jeeps us and the dis -- jesus and the disinherited." my friend told me dr. king carried these two books with him. before every speech or march, he packed them. he was responding to white moderate ministers who told him, slow down, don't move too much or demand too much at once. they told him wait, things will change. but dr. king knew better. he knew wait meant better. he knew progress only happens when you push and don't give up. in the letter dr. king made that point more eloquently and persuasive than any of us could.

dr. cassidy, senator cassidy, dr. cassidy, was here with senator butler and me, marvelling at the wisdom and skill that his words inspire us to write bert too. i will let the reading begin with senator cassidy of louisiana. thank you for joining us again this year. mr. cassidy: thank you, senator brown, and thank you to my colleagues. my dear fellow clergymen, while confined here in the birmingham city jail, i came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." seldom do i pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. if i sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and i would have no time for constructive work. but since i feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and that your criticisms are sincerely

set forth, i want to try to answer your statement in what i hope will be patient and reasonable terms. i think i should indicate why i am here in birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." i have the honor of serving as president of the southern christian leadership conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in atlanta, georgia. we have some 85 affiliated organizations across the south, and one of them is the alabama christian movement for human rights. frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. several months ago, the affiliate here in birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program, if such were deemed necessary. we readily consented, and when the hour came, we lived up to our promise. so i, along with several members of my staff, am here because i was invited here. i am here because i have organizational ties here.

but, more basically, i am in birmingham because injustice is here. just as the prophets of the eighth century b.c. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns, and just as the apostle paul left his village of tarsus and carried the gospel of jesus christ to the far corners of the greco roman world, so am i compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown. like paul, i must constantly respond to the macedonian call for aid. moreover, i am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. i cannot sit idly by in atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in birmingham. injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial

"outside agitator" idea. anyone who lives inside the united states can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. you deplore the demonstrations taking place in birmingham. but your statement, i am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. i am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. it is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the negro community with no alternative. in any nonviolent campaign, there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. we have gone through all these steps in birmingham. there can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community.

birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the united states. its ugly record of brutality is widely known. negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. there have been more unsolved bombings of negro homes and churches in birmingham than in any other city in the nation. these are the hard, brutal facts of the case. on the basis of these conditions, negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. but the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation. then, last september, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of birmingham's economic community. in the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants -- for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs. on the basis of these promises, the reverend fred shuttlesworth and the leaders of the alabama christian movement for human rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. as the weeks and months went by,

we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. a few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. as in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. we had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community.

mr. casey: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: i'll continue with the reading of the letter from the birmingham jail. you may ask why direct action, why sittins and marches and so forth? isn't negotiation a bert path? you're quite right for calling for negotiation. indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. nonv nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and fivesers such attention that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue. it seeks so to dramatize is the issue that it can no longer be ignored. my citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resistor may sound rather shocking. but i must confess that i am not

afraid of the word, quote, tension, unquote. i have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there's a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. just as sock ra -- socrates felt it was nez to create tension in the mind so individuals can rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfetterred realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal. so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhoods. the purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will be

will inevitably open the door to negotiation. schneck i, therefore, concur with you in your call for negotiation. too long has our beloved southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue. one of the basic points in your statement is that the action that i and my associates have taken in birmingham is untimely. some have asked, "why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" the only answer that i can give to this query is that the new birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it will act. we are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of albert boutwell as mayor will bring the

millennium to birmingham. while mr. boutwell is a much more gentle person than mr. connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. i have hope that mr. boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. but he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. my friends, i must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as reinhold niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. we know through painful experience that freedom is never

voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. frankly, i have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. for years now i have heard the word "wait!" it rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity. this "wait" has almost always meant "never." we must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." we have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and god-given rights. the nations of asia and africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political

independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "wait." but when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your 6-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that funtown is closed to colored children and see ominous

clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a 5-year-old son who is asking: daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes [racial slur] your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your

last name becomes "john," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: madam president, i'd like to continue reading from the letter from a

birmingham jail. dr. king continued. i hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. you express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. this is certainly a legitimate concern. since we so diligently urge people to obey the supreme court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. one may well ask: "how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" the answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. i would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. one has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. i would agree with st. augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." now, what is the difference between the two? how does one determine whether a

law is just or unjust? a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of god. an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. to put it in the terms of st. thomas aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. any law that uplifts human personality is just. any law that degrades human personality is unjust. all segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. it gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. segregation, to use the terminology of the jewish philosopher martin buber, substitutes an "i it" relationship for an "i thou" relationship and ends up

relegating persons to the status of things. hence, segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. paul tillich has said that sin is separation. is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? thus it is that i can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the supreme court, for it is morally right; and i can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong. let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. an unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. this is difference made legal.

by the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. this is sameness made legal. let me give another explanation. a law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. who can say that the legislature of alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? throughout alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single negro is registered. can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured? sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.

for instance, i have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. but such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the first amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest. i hope you are able to see the distinction i am trying to point out. in no sense do i advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. that would lead to anarchy. one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. i submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is, in reality, expressing the highest respect for law.

of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. it was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of shadrach, meshach, and abednego to obey the laws of nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. it was practiced superbly by the early christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the roman empire. to a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because socrates practiced civil disobedience. in our own nation, the boston tea party represented a massive act of civil disobedience. we should never forget that everything adolf hitler did in germany was "legal" and everything that the hungarian freedom fighters did in hungary was "illegal." it was "illegal" to aid and comfort a jew in hitler's germany.

even so, i am sure that, had i lived in germany at the time, i would have aided and comforted my jewish brothers. if today i lived in a communist country where certain principles dear to the christian faith are suppressed, i would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws. mr. brown: i must makle two honest confessions to you, my christian and jewish brothers. first, i must confess that over the past few years, i have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. i have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white citizen's counselor or the ku klux klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of

justice; who constantly says, "i agree with you in the goal you seek, but i cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the negro to wait for a "more convenient season." shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. i had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. i had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the south is a necessary phase of the

transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. actually, we who engage in actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. we merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. we bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness for the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. in your statement, you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. but is this a logical assertion?

isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? isn't this like condemning socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? isn't this like condemning jesus because his unique god consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to god's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? we must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. i had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. i have just received a letter from a white brother in texas. he writes: "all christians know that the colored people will

receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. it has taken christianity almost 2,000 years to accomplish what it has. the teachings of christ take time to come to earth." such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. more and more i feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with god, and without this hard work, time itself

becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. we must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity. you speak of our activity in birmingham as extreme. at first i was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. i began thinking about the fact that i stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the negro community. one is a force of complacency, made up in part of negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect in the sense of "somebodiness" that they have

adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. the other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. it is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being elijah muhammad's muslim movement. nourished by the negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in america, who have absolutely repudiated christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil." i have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.

for there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. i am grateful to god that, through the influence of the negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. if this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the south would, i am convinced, be flowing with blood. and i am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies -- a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. mr. king: continuing with the

words of martin luther king. oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the american negro. something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of africa and his brown and yellow brothers of asia, south america and the caribbean, the united states negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. if one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. the negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. so let him march; let him make

prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -- and try to understand why he must do so. if his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. so i have not said to my people, "get rid of your discontent." rather, i have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. and now this approach is being termed extremist. but though i was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as i continued to think about the matter, i gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. was not jesus an extremist for love -- "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully

use you and persecute you." was not amos an extremist for justice -- "let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." was not paul an extremist for the christian gospel -- "i bear in my body the marks of the lord jesus." was not martin luther an extremist -- "here i stand; i cannot do otherwise, so help me god." and john bunyan -- "i will stay in jail to the end of my days before i make a butchery of my conscience." and abraham lincoln -- "this nation cannot survive half slave and half free." and thomas jefferson -- "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." so the question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremists we will be. will we be extremists for hate or for love?

will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? in that dramatic scene on calvary's hill three men were crucified. we must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. two were extremists for immorality and, thus, fell below their environment. the other, jesus christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness and, thereby, rose above his environment. perhaps the south, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. i had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. perhaps i was too optimistic; perhaps i expected too much. i suppose i should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race,

and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action. i am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the south have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. they are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. some -- such as ralph mcgill, lillian smith, harry golden, james mcbride dabbs, ann braden, and sarah patton boyle -- have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. others have marched with us down nameless streets of the south. they have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have

recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. let me take note of my other major disappointment. i have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. of course, there are some notable exceptions. i am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. i commend you, reverend stallings, for your christian stand on this past sunday, in welcoming negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. i commend the catholic leaders of this state for integrating spring hill college several years ago. but despite these notable exceptions, i must honestly reiterate that i have been disappointed with the church. i do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. i say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church;

who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mrs. britt: i will continue reading martin luther king jr.'s letter. when i was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in montgomery, alabama, a few years ago, i felt we would be supported by the white church. i felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the south would be among our strongest allies. instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

in spite of my shattered dreams, i came to birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. i had hoped that each of you would understand. but again i have been disappointed. i have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but i have longed to hear white ministers declare, "follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the negro is your brother." in the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the negro, i have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.

in the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, i have heard many ministers say, "those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." and i have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, unbiblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. i have traveled the length and breadth of alabama, mississippi, and all the other southern states. on sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings, i have looked at the south's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. i have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. over and over i have found myself asking, "what kind of

people worship here? who is their god? where were their voices when the lips of governor barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? where were they when governor wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? where were their voices of support when bruised and weary negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?" yes, these questions are still in my mind. in deep disappointment i have wept over the laxity of the church. but be assured that my tears have been tears of love. there can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. yes, i love the church.

how could i do otherwise? i am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers. yes, i see the church as the body of christ. but, oh! how we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists. there was a time when the church was very powerful -- in the time when the early christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. in those days, the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. whenever the early christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and

immediately sought to convict the christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." but the christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey god rather than man. small in number, they were big in commitment. they were too god-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." by their effort and example, they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. things are different now. so often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. so often it is an archdefender of the status quo. far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the

church's silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are. but the judgment of god is upon the church as never before. if today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century. every day i meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust. perhaps i have once again been too optimistic. is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? perhaps i must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the

true ekklesia and the hope of the world. but again i am thankful to god that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. they have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of albany, georgia, with us. they have gone down the highways of the south on tortuous rides for freedom. yes, they have gone to jail with us. some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. but they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled

times. they have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. i hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. but even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, i have no despair about the future. i have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. we will reach the goal of freedom in birmingham and all over the nation because the goal of america is freedom. i yield the floor ms. butler: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from the great state of california ms. butler: in conclusion in a letter from a birmingham jail --

abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with america's destiny. before the pilgrims landed at plymouth, we were here. before the pen of jefferson etched the majestic words of the declaration of independence across the pages of history, we were here. for more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. we will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of

god are embodied in our echoing demands. before closing, i feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. you warmly commended the birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." i doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent negroes. i doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old negro women and young negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together.

i cannot join you in your praise of the birmingham police department. it is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. in this sense, they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. but for what purpose? to preserve the evil system of segregation. over the past few years i have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. i have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. but now i must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. perhaps mr. connor and his

policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was chief pritchett in albany, georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. as t.s. eliot has said, "the last temptation is the greatest treason -- to do the right deed for the wrong reason." i wish you had commended the negro sit-inners and demonstrators of birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. one day the south will recognize its real heroes. they will be the james merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. they will be old, oppressed,

battered negro women, symbolized in a 72-year-old woman in montgomery, alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness, "my feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." they will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. one day the south will know that when these disinherited children of god sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the american dream and for the

most sacred values in our judeo-christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the constitution and the declaration of independence. never before have i written so long a letter. i'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. i can assure you that it would have been much shorter if i had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers? if i have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, i beg you to forgive me. if i have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for

anything less than brotherhood, i beg god to forgive me. i hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. i also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a christian brother. let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not-too-distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood, martin luther king jr.

i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i thank my colleagues from california and alabama, from louisiana and maine, from pennsylvania and oklahoma. i urge my colleagues that weren't listening today to read dr. king's wler from a birmingham jail, that it inspires us today, that helped move a nation almost 61 years ago. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 211, h.r. 3935, an act to amend title 49, united states code, and so forth and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory

quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the is that the in a debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 3935, an act to amend title 49, united states code, to reauthorize and improve the federal aviation administration and other civil aviation programs and for other purposes shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. and the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet.

the clerk: mrs. blackburn. the clerk: mr. blumenthal.

mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines.

the clerk: ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand.

the clerk: mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan.

ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders.

mr. schatz. the clerk: mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow.

mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, bennet, blackburn, britt, brown, but the legislation, daines, cruz, king, markey, murphy, murray, reed, rosen, warnock, and whitehouse. senators voting in the negative -- kaine, warner, and warren.

the clerk: ms. duckworth, aye. ms. ernst, aye. mr. menendez, aye.

the clerk: mr. blumenthal, aye.

the clerk: mr. grassley, aye.

the clerk: ms. cantwell, aye. mr. van hollen, no. mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. peters, aye.

mr. merkley, aye. mr. booker, aye. mr. fetterman, aye. the clerk: mr. tester, aye.

vote: the clerk: ms. collins, aye. mr. wyden, aye. mr. schatz, aye.

mr. manchin, aye. mr. boozman, aye.

the clerk: mr. moran, aye. mr. durbin, aye. mr. cassidy, aye.

the clerk: ms. hirono, aye.

the clerk: mr. crapo, aye. mr. carper, aye.

the clerk: mr. graham, aye.

the clerk: mr. thune, aye. the clerk: mr. mullin, aye. mr. hoeven, aye. mr. barrasso, aye.

the clerk: mr. young, aye. mr. coons, aye. the clerk: mr. heinrich, aye.

the clerk: mr. marshall, aye. mr. tillis, aye. mr. hickenlooper, aye.

the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye. mr. ricketts, aye. mr. braun, aye.

the clerk: ms. klobuchar, aye. the clerk: mr. wicker, aye.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, aye. the clerk: mr. johnson, aye.

the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, aye.

vote:

the clerk: mr. rubio, aye. ms. hassan, aye.

the clerk: mrs. hyde-smith, aye. the clerk: mr. casey, aye.

the clerk: mr. cornyn, aye. the clerk: mr. cotton, aye. the clerk: mr. padilla, aye.

the clerk: mr. lee, no.

the clerk: mr. lankford, aye. the clerk: mr. scott of florida, aye. mr. paul, aye.

the clerk: mr. risch, aye. mr. vance, no. mr. kennedy, no. mrs. fischer, aye.

the clerk: mr. rounds, aye.

the clerk: mr. schumer, aye.

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, aye. the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye.

the clerk: mr. tuberville, aye.

the clerk: ms. cortez masto, aye. ms. sinema, aye. mr. scott of south carolina, aye.

the clerk: mr. romney, aye. the clerk: mrs. capito, aye.

the clerk: mr. budd, aye.

the clerk: mr. lujan, aye. the clerk: mr. sanders, no. ms. lummis, aye.

the clerk: mr. welch, aye. mr. schmitt, aye. vote:

the clerk: mr. cramer, aye. ms. smith, aye.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: mr. ossoff, aye.

the clerk: mr. hawley, no.

the clerk: mr. cardin, no.

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 89. the nays are 10. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: madam president, i rise to talk about the faa reauthorization bill that's pending before the senate now. i want to begin by thanking the chair of commerce, senator cantwell and ranking member senator cruz for doing something very important. it is critical that this faa reauthorization bill happen. and as i look at the bill, i see many provisions that i strongly support, and i applaud the committee for their work. in particular, the committee has addressed the critical shortage in air traffic control that is incredibly important to the safety of our skies. and second, the committee dealt with a challenging issue surrounding pilot training hours and i think came up with a solution that is going to be the right solution. so i begin with, this is a big bill with a lot of provisions and i find much to like in almost all of it. but i rise to address the one piece of it where i am not

supportive, and that is the mandate that the senate committee version contains to add five slots, or ten flights, to one of the most delay-prone and congested airports in the united states, reagan national airport, otherwise known as dca. and i want to spend a little bit of time going into this issue as the senator representing virginia, but i stand together with the support of colleagues, the senators from maryland, senator van hollen, senator cardin, the senator from virginia, senator warner. we're filing an amendment to remove this provision. i want to explain why to my colleagues. first, just a word about dca. most of us know it but maybe not all of us can put it into context with all other airports in this country.

dca is a postage stamp of an airport. by comparison, dulles is built on 12,000 heartaches, the denver airport is nearly 30,000 acres. dallas airport is i think 18,000 acres. dca was built at a time when airport traffic was not so intense, wasn't so normal, wasn't so critical to the economy, and it was built on this small footprint and everyone who has flown into dca knows there's no way to expand t you're essentially wrapped around on nearly three sides by water, and then on the fourth side it's us-1 and a rail line. there is no way to make it bigger. there is a primary runway, a long runway, then there are two commuter runways on this 860 acres. when dca was built and more recently as studies have been done, the estimate has been that

dca on that footprint with those three runways accommodate 15 million passengers a year in and out of that airport. where is dca today? today dca is pressed to the gills and 25.5 million passengers a year are coming into or out of dca. and it's pressed in another way. the airport was built so that the 15 million passengers would be spread across the three runways. larger planes from father away on the main runway and then commuter planes on the commuter runways. but there have been significant advances in the configuration of airlines and commuter airplanes that used to be turboprops are now jet. most airplanes that come into

dca have to use the main runway. so to summarize that, a very small airport that was designed for 15.5 million passengers spread across three runways is now dealing with a passenger load of 25.5 million passengers with 90% of those having to land on the main runway. how does that make dca ranking with other airports in the united states? well, again, because of its small size, there are a umnumber of airports that have more passengers in and out. dca is the 19th busiest airport in the united states, if you look at the entire airport. but if you look at the main runway at dca, that main runway is the single busiest runway in the whole u.s. laguardia doesn't meet it. kennedy doesn't beat it. lax doesn't beat it.

atlanta doesn't beat it. this runway is the busiest runway in the united states. what does 00 mean? what does it mean to have this 25.35 million passengers mostly on one runway at dca (the first thing is means is very significant delay. remember, i mentioned that dca is the 19th busiest airport in the united states. but if you look at the average delay per day, it is number eight. it punches really far above its weight when it comes to delay. and what kind of delay? you know, a delay of two or three minutes, i mean, hey, that wouldn't be a problem. but the average delay at dca and more than 20% of flights in and out of dca experience delay, the average delay of those that do is not ten minutes, is not 30 minutes, is not 45 minutes, it's 67 minutes is the average delay

on these more than to% of flights that come -- on these more than 20% of flights that come into and out of dca. how about beyond delay? what other measures? again, i told you that dca was the 19th busiest airport in the united states. but it is number three in canceled flights. now, some jurisdictions have canceled flights because the weather is horrible. you know, you might expect a lot of cancellations in alaska or maybe in minneapolis or chicago, the windy city. with so many flights coming in, you might expect they would have a lot of cancellations. the problem at dca isn't weather. the problem is congestion. and number three in had the country in terms of cancellations. there's another measure that is a combination of both kind of a delay in safety measure. the number of times -- and i think we've all experienced this -- if you're flying into dca that you're put into a routing circle before you can land, that's part of what

contributes to the 67 minutes of delay that's experienced by these more than 21% of planes that have delay. but it also poses some additional challenges. when you are looping a plane over a very reinstructed dca airspace, as other planes are taking it off one per minute from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., taking off one per person, you raise the risk of accident. and you also subject neighborhoods with loop patterns to noise, and that was one of the original controversies that led congress to decide to take these airports out of the federal control and put them into the control of the metropolitan washington airports authority, the idea that we can manage this better for safety, for convenience, but also to reduce noise in the neighborhoods in the dmv. so delay, cancellation, looping patterns that are both a delay

factor and a convenience factor and a neighborhood amenity factor, and that's dca today. there's another challenge with dca, and that is with congestion you run into risks of safety. as we were considering this matter just in the last few weeks before the faa bill was pending before congress but work had been done in the committees and work had been done in the house, there was a near miss on the runways of dca. a plane was getting ready to take off on the main runway, a flight to boston, a jet to boston, and another plane was trying to cross over to one of the shorter commuter runways. they came within 300 feet of a collision. if you listen to the audio tape -- and i can't play tape in the chamber. i wish i could. but i played it for colleagues outs the chamber. you hear this conversation of

the air traffic controllers. they are the most even-keel mono to enfolks on the face of the earth. you never hear emotion in their voice. but in this particular instance, you hear the tension ratcheting up. you hear in a frantic and worried way one of the air traffic controllers just yelling, stop, stop! to these two plains because -- to these two planes because they're about to collide. 300 feet is not very much. it is not very much. and yet you raise the risk of accident with congestion. it stands to reason. auto accidents don't happen as often on roids that aren't -- on roads that aren't congested. that is what is happening at dca right now, before we talk about adding slots. i do appreciate that in this bill, one of the things that i like is the focus on air traffic

controls because that's a key part of this. but it just stands to reason that if it's already the busiest runway in the united states and it's already one of the most delayed airports in the u.s., and it's already near the lead in cancellations and need for flights to loop around, it is a problem waiting to happen. and i have described this accident in the last two weeks as a flashing red warning cignaal in to congress -- signal to congress to not add more flights. the proposal before the body is to add ten more flights, what we call five slots. it doesn't sound like a lot. i mean, i'll admit, five flights doesn't sound like a lot. and maybe in an airport where there wasn't already a severe congestion problem, it wouldn't be a lot. and maybe in an airport that wasn't so smalled and whose size is already creating safety challenges, it wouldn't be a lot. but at dca, it is a lot. and so we've asked the faa,

charged with air traffic safety, experts in this -- and i'm definitely not an expert -- what would ten more flights mean? five slots -- each slot is a flight in and a flight out. what a faa said was, okay, even one flight would increase delay. -- in operations at dca. even one would increase delay. -- in this top-ten most delayed airport in the united states. but ten flights would add an extra 751 minutes, more than 12 hours, of delay at dca every day. 751 minutes of delay at dca every day, and it likely affect

180 flights. this airport is already one of the most delayed in the united states, and if you add that 751 minutes to that average daily delay at dca, you are now over 12,000 minutes of delay every day at dca. dca would be climbing a ladder. they wouldn't be the eighth most delayed airport. they would really cement their place in the top ten or bottom ten depending on how you would want to look at it. you all know that delay is bad. you don't want to arrive at a location late. already 67 minutes is the average. it would increase -- it doesn't increase by average. some would increase by a lot, some by little. but remember that delay also has a compounding effect. if you are late by 67 minutes leaving and then some. then you might miss a connection

or two. or you might cause planes to wait for you which then delays a whole lot of other people. so in our air traffic system, delay builds on delay, and it's kind of a geometric progression that creates massive inconvenience. the argument that we are making, those of us who are in this region, as we're not on the commerce committee, we weren't involved in the negotiation. we made our intentions known. we made them known for a very long time, and the intentions that we made known are that this is already an overburdened airport with the busiest runway in the united states and there are both passenger convenience and safety reasons to not do this. but it's not just us. it's not just us. the faa has not said do this or don't do it. but the faa has said, if you add even one plane, you're going to increase delay at this very delay-prone airport.

but there's also another body that is offering us advice. congress created a board called the -- an authority called the metropolitan washington airports authority during the reagan administration. i have a personal connection to this story. my father-in-law had been the governor of virginia and was somewhat of an expert in transportation and president reagan's secretary of transportation, liddy dole, asked him to come and lobby congress to let go of control of these airports and instead create an authority. my father-in-law, lynnwood, died a few years ago. it was one of his proudest moments it was hard to convince congress to give up control of thighs apparatuses. it was very hard. it was a tough battle but you eventually did it. and congress agreed that dca and dulles would be operated by the metropolitan washington airports authority, and congress appoints that board. there's -- certain members have

to be from dc, certain from virginia, certain from maryland, and certain are federal appointees who can be from knit where. but we appoint that board and we exercise oversight over that board and they have responsibility for the safety of these two airports. what are they saying about this proposal? well, those who are charged with operating these airports every day are saying don't do this. they are essentially saying the same thing that this air traffic controller is saying. stop, stop. the way to manage this extra congestion and delay and safety danger at dca is not putting more flights in here. it's taking advantage of more capacity at dulles and more capacity at bwi. so my colleagues and are i are offering this amendment

recognizing the good work the committee has done to promote safety throughout this reauthorization bill, but pointing out that in this one instance the proposal in the bill is directly contrary to the safety of 25 million people who use this airport, is directly contrary to the safety of neighborhoods surrounding this airport, and will take an already overburdened delay and cancellation prone airport and make matters much worse. we will do all we can to press for a vote on this amendment to hopefully convince our colleagues to vote with us. the last thing i'll say, madam president, before i sit down is this. the near miss two weeks ago is a warning light. we've all been warned. it's rare, it's rare to have legislation where there's no down side to it.

there's always going to be potential down side, and sometimes we can assess what the down side is, and sometimes the down side we may not be able to assess what it is. there's nothing we can do here that doesn't have a down side. but i've been here for about 12 years now, and i will say this is a piece of legislation unlike any other that i have considered where the down side has been placed on the table right before us in such a stark way as we are coming up to consider this bill. and i just hope my colleagues will see the warning for what it is, will heed the advice of the faa, will listen to those that we've empowered to operate this airport. if they're telling us this should not be done, and if it's done you could increase risk of

something bad happen, we should listen to them. we should listen to them. the one last thing i'll mention because it's often relevant in bills like this, if we were to make this change and accept the amendment and strip away these ten additional flights, are we going to cause problems over on the house side. we had this debate about the fisa reauthorization. we had this debate about appropriations bills all the time. okay, we know the faa bill reauthorization needs to be done by the end of next week. if we were to strip out the ten flights are we going to have problems over on the house side, and the answer to that is no because the additional slots were only included in the senate bill. the house considered the same proposal and rejected it in committee. no extra slots jammed into the busiest runway in the united states. none. now some didn't like that, and so on the floor of the house they offered an amendment to add these five slots, ten flights, and the amendment failed. we know what the will of the

body is on the house side already, and that was a vote that took place before this near miss. my surmise is if they were against it before the near miss, they're going to be even more against it after the near miss. so we need not worry that if we adjust the bill before us to take this out that there's going to be a danger on the house side of compromising the bill and causing us to miss the deadline on the reauthorization. and with that, madam president, i appreciate the attention of the body and yield the floor.

i'm sorry. . >> you have to use this? >> no. >> it's to be here. i'm sorry for being late and i'm sorry i'm going to have to leave early. i've had to rate comrades in our

battle to get this done. booker and wyden want to thank them for their lead on this issue with me and pushing for months and years, long history to get this done so today we are proud to say we are introducing cannabis administration and opportunity act. comprehensive necessary to the federal government's approach to cannabis. over the decades, millions of americans most often american of color about their lives derailed and destroyed our countries failed war on drugs. the consequences of this campaign playground to this very day. i was pleased by yesterday's news the da under the biden administration preparing to take a truly historic step rescheduling cannabis from schedule one substance to a scheduled three out of the controlled substances act.

three.cannabis is necessary and long overdue step but not the end of the story. it's not all we need to do. time for congress to wake up to the times and do its part passing cannabis reform most americans have wished for. last time congress to catch up with public opinion and catch up with the science. i'm proud to be the first majority leader never to call for an end to the marijuana prohibition because obscene sequences of the outdated drug laws and benefits of common sense regulation the state level and type of congress to follow suit. this was the laboratories of innovation and about the way. reporter: reform is growing in the senate. our bill has 18 sponsor some of

the most ever for this bill and we will keep working to build support because when liberals, conservatives and norse and groups can come together on an issue, it's a clear sign we got momentum in the windows at our back. i'm proud of theus dope barrel releasing. all legislation will remove marijuana they look at long-term prospects and earning potential for their careers. at least we hope they are looking at that before they decide to pursue their studies. as they look at schools, they also evaluate admission requirements, student resources, and the campus culture. but far and away the most important factor for the majority of students is how much will it cost. how much will it cost to receive a degree? as any student or parent who's been through this process will attest, it's not a cut and dry

answer. i've been through it with both of my daughters and still have flashbacks occasionally from the experience. between scholarships and grants, the advertised sticker surprise versus the out-of-pocket costs can vary significantly. to cover the remaining balance students vft option to take out loans, participate in work-study programs or take on a part-time job. and those decisions require even more consideration and planning. for most students to understand or even begin to evaluate the true cost of college, they rely on something called the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa as you heard it called. now the free application for federal student aid or fafsa determines how much financial aid students can receive through loans, grants, scholarships, and work study programs.

for millions of students, this information is unlocked by the fafsa is a deciding factor. so it's a critical factor in determining students' ability to be able to go to school. it's not just deciding which school is right for them. it's understanding if, whether college education is even feasible from a financial point of view. but despite today being college decision day, many texas students and other students across the country are still waiting for their financial aid packages. they should have had this information weeks ago, even months ago, giving them the time to look at the range of their options and make an informed decision by may 1. instead not enough students -- instead enough students are still in limbo that many colleges and universities have

been forced to postpone their admission decisions. but the fault doesn't lie with the students or the colleges, but with rather the administration which completely bungled the fafsa process this year. the biden administration rolled out a new fafsa application that promised to simplify the notoriously complicated forms. they claim that the new and improved fafsa would make it as easy as possible for families to get the help they need in order to plan for their education. as countless families in texas and across the country can attest, that hasn't happened. not in the slightest. the fafsa is typically available on october 1. this cycle it wasn't available until the end of december, nearly three months behind schedule. but once it went live, the

problems had just begun. applicants reported website crashes, system errors, and lengthy processing times. many of texas's mixed status families have had trouble completing the fafsa at all due to a technical glitch and across the board applicants struggled to get help -- to get the help they needed. instead of a streamlined process, families have been introduced to a convoluted maze of confusing questions, unclear instructions and lengthy delays. the fafsa problems have been so severe that many students have decided not to even complete the fafsa at all this year. this is having dramatic and negative consequences.

the biden education department says that fafsa submissions by texas students alone are down by more than 40% -- 40% over last year. this is a scandal. this is a precipitous drop and it's sure to have a negative impact on those students, the colleges and universities that eventually are employers. starting with students, it's impossible to be make an informed financial decision without a financial aid package. costs can vary significantly from one school to another, without a financial aid offer, it's impossible to understand how to put the puzzle together to figure out whether it's even feasible to attend a particular university. a student who thinks they're making a more ecoxnom kal choic

don't have a clear understanding of their financial obligations and for students who are weighing whether or not to go to college at all or to go to a four-year college or community college or technical school, this could be the deciding factor that forces them to forego higher education and enter the workforce. or to accept something short of what they have aspired to in terms of their occasional opportunities. this is it especially true for students from low-income families who rely more on financial aid to make their dream of higher education come true. without timely access to this critical information, students risk being locked out of a lifetime of opportunities for success. high school students, though, aren't the only ones impacted by the biden administration's fafsa

fiasco. current college students who are receiving aid have to complete this same document every year. for example, a student by the name of alexis is a junior at the university of texas in austin and she says she's very concerned about what she described as a waiting game. as i noted, the biden administration made the new fafsa application available at the end of december, three months later. alex completed the form and completed it in january but has not received an update since that time, may 1. she's worried, and i can understand why, that her fafsa won't be processed next september forcing her to get third job or take out more

loans. this should be an embarrassment to the biden administration who said that the new fafsa process will streamline it and make it easier to comply with. what they didn't figure out was the bureaucratic bungling of administering new process. the ripple effects of the fafsa fiasco was not only felt by students but by colleges and universities across the nation. i met with a number of leaders from texas colleges and universities, and i'm sure they're not unique in this regard, but they are absolutely outraged by the biden administration mishandling of the fafsa. without complete fafsa data, they aren't able to send financial aid packages to prospective students, without that, students are unlikely to confirm enrollment. without enrollment data,

universities are not able to set a budget for their operations for the upcoming year. institutions rely on a timely access to students' financial aid information to manage their admissions process and allocate resources. the delays caused by the botched rollout of the new fafsa have disrupted these operations, created unnecessary headaches and anxiety and logistical challenges that make it impossible to plan for the future. eventually reduced enrollment will have a negative impact on the workforce. most of the meetings i've been having this week are with chambers of commerce all across the state of texas. one of the first things they mention to me is workforce development. fortunately in our state we are attracting a lot of new

well-paying jobs, and we are depending on these colleges and universities to help with the workforce. it's no question that our country is already dealing with a skills gap. again, i've spoken with countless employers and job creators who told me they're still struggling to find qualified candidates to fill available jobs. this includes high-tech manufacturing jobs like those in the semiconductor area that i mentioned, but also nurses, elect trigsz, mental health providers -- electricians, mental health providers, cybersecurity experts and the list goes on and on. we need people trained in these various disciplines and skills in order to fill these jobs and keep our economy going. the primary goal of the new fafsa was to simplify the

application process, making it easier for students and their families to navigate. instead, the biden administration's lack of preparation has created a bureaucratic nightmare for families, for students, and for schools. it's un -- it undoubtedly will lead to countless numbers of students who will abandon their dreams of furthering their education because they simply can't plan for the future. they don't know what schools they're going to be able to apply to because they simply don't know how they fit their own financial picture together. obviously this is going to create a lot of anxiety and headaches and uncertainty for colleges and universities, as i mentioned. and in in few years, i'm afraid we'll still be dealing with the ripple effect, the trickled down consequences of reduced enrollment and work force

training. there's simply no excuse for this sort of bureaucratic bungling. the education department has had plenty of time and more than ample resources to roll out fafsa by october of last year. unfortunately it appears the biden administration has been so busy looking at ways to forgive or erase existing student debt that they fail to keep current and future college students to help and current college students from making informed decisions about their future. again, this should be a national scandal. my friend, ranking member, senator cassidy, has pushed the accountability office to push the biden administration's education department about the mishandling of this situation and i'm glad the accountability

office has launched that investigation. texas students and students across the count and the american people at -- current and the american people at large deserve a full explanation of how we ended up in in mess and we will keep fighting for answers and accountability until we get those answers. madam president, i yield the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin. quorum call: the presid quorum call:

going on. >> do i have to use this? >> no. >> it's great here, i'm sorry for being late and i'm sorry i'm going to have to leave early. first, i had great comrades are battle to get this done. senators over and wyden underwent to thank them for their lead on this issue and pushing for months and years, a long history to get this done some today we are practicing mark we are introducing cannabis administration and opportunity act, comprehensive necessary update to the federal

government's approach. over decades, millions of americans most often americans of color of heather lives derailed. mrs. blackburn: are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are. mrs. blackburn: i ask to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: last week the democrat authority at the federal communications commission voted to have broadband as a telecommunication service under title 2 of the communication act. this is an effort that is known as net neutrality. now, the internet has been under title 1, an information service, but our democratic colleagues at the fcc, and the democratic administrations have sought to put this under title 2 and regulate it like they do the

telephone line. this action is nothing less than a big government takeover of the internet, which will decrease investment in broadband and hurt the american people's access to high-speed internet. now, how do we know this? here is how. under president obama, the fcc enforced the failed regulation on the american people between 2015 and 2017 with harmful consequences. so we have done this before. now, back then, democrats claimed that net new neutrality -- net neutrality was desperately needed to prevent throttling speeds and create

fast lines. one democrat senator argued during this debate back in 2015 that without the heavy-handed regulation, the internet would, and i quote, cease to exist. and another from their official senate democrat twitter account claimed that without net neutrality internet users would only, and i quote, get the internet one word at a time. end quote. now, of course, we all know this never happened. internet service providers never lived up to the democrats' doomsday predictions even after the fcc, under president trump, repealed the net neutrality regulation. in fact, the internet has seen more development, faster speeds,

and lower prices since president trump's administration repealed that obama-era net neutrality order. while the order was in effect from 15 to 17, investment in broadband fell. it actual -- failed. it actually failed. it deincreased -- decracied for the -- decreased for the first time in a nonrecession period, for the first time ever, it decreased. why was that? government regulation. by comparison, the industry spent $102 billion on capital expenditures in 22, up from $76 billion in 2016. at the same time, without so-called net neutrality, americans have enjoyed faster broadband speeds with a freer

internet, free of net neutrality regulations. by the end of 2019, 94% of americans had access to high-speed broadband. in 2015, just three-fourths of americans had that access. between 2016 and 19, the share of rural americans without high-speed internet was actually cut in half. with greater investment and competition, the repeople of net neutrality also made internet access more affordable. between 2016 and 2021 -- this is a period of time without net neutrality rules -- during that period of time, broadband prices

decreased in the range of 14% to 42%. now, think about that. the price of access went down. it shows you, free markets work. tennesseans and americans are probably wondering, why is the fcc trying to go back and put a policy in place that limited access, that gave you government control, that increased prices, that slowed investment? why would the democrats want to do that? today democrats have abandoned all the arguments they had during the obama years about internet service providers blocking content and throttling speeds. instead, the biden-appointed fcc

chairwoman claims that net neutrality is needed to address loopholes in the agency's oversight of national security threats. i thought, how novel. so now it is all about loopholes and about national security. well, when you look at the 1996 communications act, it does not grant broad national security authority to the fcc. it does not give them the responsibility to do that, and it doesn't say that they've got to have net neutrality in order to grab that. the biden administration even admitted that u.s. security and law enforcement agencieskind i'm

quoting the biden administration hear. end quote. so, they've made up a story now that they need to do this because of national security. they do not have the authority. does not fit their mission, and the authority actually belongs to other agencies. so what you have is today's justification is different from the obama era. the real motivation for net neutrality remains the same. it is simply this -- democrats want the federal government to completely control the internet. it should come as no surprise that big tech companies who block and censor conservative speech every day are the biggest supporters of net neutrality. they would enjoy the opportunity

to work right alongside the federal government and control your access, your speed, your content that you are choosing on the internet. so senate republicans are going to fight against this big government takeover, and you're going to ensure that the internet does remain free and accessible and open to all americans. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. america can only achieve peace through strength. we know that. yet since his first day in office, president biden has ignored this time-tested truth, and our servicemembers and allies are suffering the

consequences. last week militants in iraq fired five rockets toward u.s. forces stationed in northeastern syria. less than 24 hours later, u.s. forces in western iraq were targeted by explosive drums. thankfully, no servicemembers were injured in these attacks. but it marked the first time american troops were targeted in the region since february. in their attacks earlier this year, iranian militias injured dozens of u.s. troops and killed three brave servicemembers in jordan. by all appearances, iran-backed terror groups, including hezbollah, were behind the latest attacks. shortly after the attack on u.s. forces in syria, the group issued a statement claiming that it will resume attacks on

american troops, adding that -- and i quote them -- what happened a short while ago is the beginning -- end quote. this aggression isn't happening by accident. it is a direct result of president biden's pro-iran policy of appeasement. for more than three years, the biden administration has rolled back the trump administration's successful maximum-pressure campaign against the ayatollahs. instead, president biden has emboldened the iranian regime, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism which killed more than 600 american troops during the iraq war. within weeks of taking the office, president biden announced a return to diplomacy with iran with the goal of restoring president obama's

failed nuclear deal. then the administration revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for the iran-backed houthis. those are the rebels in yemen. right before russia invaded ukraine in 2022, the white house approved a $10 billion nuclear deal between tehran and moscow. at the same time, the white house allowed iran to secretly export oil to communist china, filling the regime's coffers with billions to fund their terror proxies, including hamas and the houthis and hezbollah. and in september 2032, the -- 2023, the biden administration engaged in a $6 billion deal with iran, the largest hostage

payment in history. it's quite a record. it's quite a record of appeasing iran. it's quite a record of pushing forward, making certain there is money into a regime which is the globe's largest state sponsor of terrorism. now, you would think that after the october 7 attacks, when iran-funded hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 israelis in the deadliest attack on the jewish people since the holocaust, that the biden administration would abandon its policy of appeasement. but, no, that is not what this administration has done. what they did do is to double down on their policy of

appeasement. so, are we to assume that they are okay with all of this? just 11 days after the attacks, the president let the international embargo on iran's missile and drone program lapse. 11 days. 11 days after iran had moved forward, they trained hamas, they prepped them, they fund them, hamas carries out the october 7 attack, and 11 days later the biden administration let the international embargo on iran's missile and drone program lapse. in november, the administration reapproved a sanctions waiver that gives iran access to iran

$10 billion in frozen being a sets. last month after iran directly attacked israel from its territory for the first time ever, watching more than 3 -- launching more than 300 drones and missiles toward the jew usual state, president biden told israel that the united states opposed any counteroffensive to restore deterrence. telling israel to look at iran's failed attack as a win. now, madam president, can you even imagine what the american people would have thought following 9/11 if countries were telling us, cool it, back off, they didn't take you totally down? imagine that. just weeks ago, the biden

administration refused to commit to enforcing sanctions on the $10 billion iran-russia nuclear deal, and to top it off, president biden is now reportedly looking to revive the failed iran nuclear deal in this latest attempt to appease the ayatollahs. madam president, you cannot make this stuff up. you absolutely cannot. when i do visits in each of tennessee's 95 counties, when i do a telephone town hall like i did last night with thousands of tennesseans, people say, what are they thinking? and, you know the sad thing about this is it makes you wonder what they are thinking. it makes you wonder what they're

doing to secure this country, to secure our people, to secure the homeland. it makes you wonder, what are they doing intentionally, especially when it comes to that southern border? thousands of people from countries of interest. about 25,000 chinese nationals so far this fiscal year coming into our country. and, by the way, they're mainly young single men. what are they doing? why does this administration not put our nation's safety and security first? why do they not put the safety and security of our troops, who are deployed, first? why do they not have the backbone to stand up to thugs and put an end to this

appeasement? i yield the floor.

mrs. capito: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. well, today is may 1, which is national college decision day. this is normally such an exciting occasion, where students in my home state of west virginia are just -- and your home states -- would be finalizing those really fun and hard decisions about which college or university to attend in the fall, much to look forward to. but this year the customary hopefulness has been replaced by anxiety, fear, and

apre-helpings. -- apprehension. as confusion and tensions take hold regarding the availability of support that has long accompanied one of the most important decisions of our young students' lives. when it comes to the 2024 fafsa applications, the data from the west virginia higher education policy commission paints a very bleak picture. compared to the same time last year, freshmen -- this is national statistics -- freshmen fafsa completion rates are down 35.3%. for pell eligible students, fafsa completion rates are down 32%. for nontraditional students 25 and older, fafsa completion rates are down 35%. these are national figures. the total number of high school

students that completed fafsa is down 39.6%. and the total number of high school students who submitted a fafsa is down 31.6%. these percentages ring true in my home state of west virginia. back home, because of president biden's fafsa fiasco, students are left hanging in the balance severely jeopardizing college access and affordability for students in west virginia, many of whom are that first-time college goer in that family. this is just another way that president biden and his administration are threatening a form of the american dream and destroying the vision to implement a simplified fafsa process that was intended by congress. so how did we get here? well, this is an interesting

statistic here too. fafsa completion rate among west virginia students age 25 or up. these are students maybe that took a couple of days, maybe they were in the military -- i mean took a couple of years in the military, in the workforce. they want to go back to school to improve it. down 35%. so how did we get here in december of 2020 when i was here, congress passed the fafsa simplification act to simplify and improve the process of applying for federal student aid. federal student aid and the fafsa were first authorized in 1992 as a way to provide a critical lifeline for our students. in 2020 congress made the simplification effort a bipartisan priority championed by my friend who we miss dearly, senator lamar alexander, a former cabinet secretary of the department of education. but unfortunately the administration's implementation

of this law has made things, has not made things better for students. instead it's created an unmitigated disaster caused by inexcusable failure of leadership from the white house and the department of education. the deadline to update the fafsa should have come as no surprise. congress gave the administration an extra year. they had three years, and we gave them an extra year to complete it. four years implementation of this law should have been a top priority for the biden administration. instead, what happened? the political leadership of the department of ed chose to take time, resources, and personnel to advance the administration's priority around canceling student debt. this is proof of the administration's blatantly putting politics before our students, and that is simply indefensible. i've spoken with so many west virginians in every part of this

process the past several months who are very angry about the department of education's misplaced priorities. they feel discouraged about their future because of the bungled implementation. this is obviously a huge issue for students and their families, but it is a tremendous challenge for our colleges and universities at the same time. the department of education claims that there is nothing more important right now -- well, it is college decision day. i guess maybe that's correct -- than fixing the issues around the fafsa process. but those words have yet to be backed up by much action. while there's no guarantee that the administration will get their act together, there are two things that are certain. number one, students deserve better, and their families. number two, senate republicans will remain committed to holding the administration accountable and pushing for a fix to this

issue. back in january i joined a bicameral group of congressional republicans requesting the government accountability office investigate the administration's botched fafsa. that was in january. this investigation is now under way. it is my hope it will yield answers as to what the failure could be and how similar mistakes would be avoided in the future. additionally i helped author a formula fix to the fafsa simplification act that passed the senate and became law earlier this year. this fix intends to make financial aid more accessible for students by streamlining the process and it corrected actions taken by the department of education in february that would have jeopardized future pell grant awards for student. then just yesterday i questioned secretary cardona of the department of ed during our

labor, health and human services subcommittee hearing. i demanded answers as did many and accountability regarding the fiasco with the fafsa his department has overseen. to say i was underwhelmed by his responses would be an understatement. literally he said, well, we kind of are changing, we kind of redoing these. we think they're there. why did you make mistakes? well, we had missed deadlines. did you not see that coming for four years? i mean just very, very nonspecific answers. with the lack of action from the biden administration, west virginia's governor jim justice declared a state of emergency on the matter just yesterday. this order will temporarily suspend the requirement for students to complete their fafsa in order to qualify for our state's largest financial aid program. providing needed relief and certainty for our students that

they are not now receiving from the department of ed, at least they'll get some certainty from the west virginia department of ed. i hope that in the future the biden administration and their department of ed will be singularly focused on addressing outstanding issues and ensure that these problems are not present in the 2025-2026 fafsa cycle. i can assure you my senate republican colleagues and i will not stop putting pressure on the biden administration to do the job they're supposed to do. and as they have received ample resources from this congress to do so. i will remain in constant contact with the west virginia higher education policy commission to further understand what they are seeing and ways we can help to work out to mitigate the fallout from the crisis the biden administration has manufactured. i commend the efforts from my republican colleagues in the senate on these issues as well. in particular, senator joni

ernst, who's going to speak next, and bill cassidy of louisiana who have been outspoken on this issue with me, as well as many of our other colleagues like the ones who are joining me on the floor to speak. we have to remain focused on these issues surrounding the fafsa application process and to make sure that vital resources remain available for our students during the moments where they need them the most. delivering on what our students deserve, which should not be a partisan issue. and i'm going to go off my formal remarks and say quickly when they calculated late in january and february what the parameters would be for the aid for the student, they determined that some students would be getting more than they should and that some students would be getting less than they should. totally unfair. but the department's first response was, well, we'll let the people that are getting more

than they should, they can just keep this and we'll fix it next year. what does that say to the taxpayer who's paying for this? i mean, finally public pressure came to bear, and they rescinded and recalculated everything. so with that, i encourage everybody to recognize this is a real problem across our country, particularly for our lower-income, first-time college-going students, first time ever filling these forms out. it's not an easy thing anyway andates daunting challenge trying to think about how to afford a higher education. with that i'll yield to my good friend from iowa who worked on this and glad she's here on the floor to speak about it. ms. ernst: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: thank you, madam president. i want to thank the senator from west virginia for arranging today's floor speeches focused on fafsa. today is may 1 and it's national college decision day, and

typically this day is cause for celebration for students and families all across the united states. finalizing the next step after high school represents a huge milestone for young men and women, and one that is earned by that late-night studying, participating in different extracurricular activities and meticulously filling out applications, and oftentimes determined by a good old college road trip. together families, they'll hop on the highway to find their future college or university, hopefully of that student's choosing. this year's folks embarked on this journey, little did they know that the biden administration would be putting up roadblocks.

so today instead of celebrating college decision day, there are millions of young people waiting anxiously to hear from the department of education on whether they will be able to afford college. the best way for college hopefuls to know what support they may receive comes from the free application for federal student aid which we call the fafsa. due to incomplete planning measures and likely yielding to progressives' priorities, biden's department of education released this year's fafsa form three months late, drastically condensing the timeline for families to submit it. to this day, they still haven't

fixed their fiasco, and the negative implications are like a five-car pileup. since the delayed january release of the new fafsa form, i have been driving river to river across iowa, hearing from students, from their parents, from aid administrators and counselors on the impact of this disastrous rollout. i recently met with jennifer holiday. jennifer is a fellow farm kid and the current student body president of iowa state university. so go, jennifer, and go clones. she and her younger sister eagerly submitted their fafsa forms as early as possible, but as of last week jennifer had

still not received her estimated aid, even though her sister received it months ago. so, folks, we're talking about two kids from the same family. it doesn't make any sense. during our conversation, jennifer told me that she is scared to see how much her aid offer will decrease due to the department penalizing farm families. even though the new fafsa formula was supposed to improve eligibility for aid, it has instead caused some farm families expected contributions to skyrocket more than five times. sadly, these fafsa fumbles are far too common under the biden

administration. an exceptionally bright high schooler from des moines shared with me that while he hoped to have a traditional college experience living in a dorm at a four-year university in iowa, he still wasn't sure what his aid package would look like. since he wasn't willing to sign up for debt without knowing exactly what he would have to pay -- that's a smart kid -- he plans to live at home and attend community college for now, hoping the fafsa fiasco is fixed in time to try again next year. but this wreck isn't just punishing high school seniors. i recently spoke to a mom of four from sioux city, and she told me that she went back to

school after more than a decade. again, she was a young mother, mother of four, and she really wanted to finish her degree. so she went to school after more than a decade to complete her teaching degree. her goal is to teach high school history and equip our next generation. and like so many other hopefuls, she still has not received a clear estimate of her aid, and it remains to be seen if she will be able to pay for her fal classes. as the biden administration refuses to provide a clear path for students or school administrators, we have seen the department detour to democrat priorities. after more than three months of requests by my office, this

administration has failed to provide congress with a transparticipate response on how -- transparent response on how they are adequately making collections to the fafsa, even as we are rapidly approaching next year's rollout. meanwhile, just two weeks ago, right before college decision day, the biden administration announced an additional $7.4 billion in loan cancellation. and $6 billion more today, bringing the grand total to $160 billion. biden's ed department has also prioritized radical gender ideology over the most faument

stach -- supplemental statutory protections of women in schools. it's clear, folks, the left lane to higher learning has been paved with the president's political pet projects and iowans are in for a bumpy ride. when congress passed the fafsa si simplification act, it was -- it was done so with the understanding that the department of education would prioritize and well tested model for the student aid form. well, that clearly has not happened. while the administration has had fafsa under construction for three years -- yes, three years to get this rollout right -- traffic is still at a screeching halt. but rest assured folks, i'm fighting back.

first, ensure not a cent allocated for the fafsa simply indication was spent on biden's student loan bailout and like the stories i have shared, the farm kids from rural iowa, our nontraditional students, mothers looking for a second opportunity, and everyone who is forced to miss ot on purr -- miss out on pursuing the college of their choice this year because of the administration's incompetence to get access to potentially life-changing aid they deserve. madam president, there's significant road work ahead, but i'm not pumping the brakes until the biden administration removes these roadblocks and fixes its fafsa fiasco. thank you, madam president, and

i yield back. mrs. fischer: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. we've been hearing from my colleagues about the fafsa fiasco, and i join them in expressing concern about it, telling you about some of the complaints that we've heard from nebraskans and hopefully draw more attention to this so we can see it fixed. this failed fafsa launch, it was late, it was chock-full of glitches and complications, it threw a wrench into the plans of both students and universities. i know this not just because i read the news but my office has heard from both students and schools. both public and private universities in nebraska as well

as nonprofits have reached out about the chaos this has caused. seniors have a hard enough time about making waiting decisions with their futures, but the fafsa fiasco is multiplying the stress and the complications of that decision process. one high school guidance counselor in lexington, nebraska, said that of the fafsa is creating delays and barriers and curve balls for those who need scholarships. a counselor in north platt said it is causing serious problems for her students as well. students don't get the different scholarships they like to have and not getting enough money to pay for college. almost 18 million students across the country completed --

usually complete fafsa in a typical year. this year, the number's only closer to 5 million. millions less will get the financial aid they need to attend school balls of the department of education failed rollout. so this is it a national crisis. and it's not just affecting college applicants, it's affecting colleges members. the director of financial aid at nebraska wesleyan said that the nebraska problem is forcing them to condense what would normally be a seven-month financial aid process down to only three months. the chancellor who overseas financial assistance at the university of nebraska in omaha said they're, quote, way behind. each additional blender by the

department of education puts them even further behind. he said they're going to have an adjust their decision, orientation and onboarding processes all balls of fafsa -- all because of fafsa. so how do we get to this point? i would say, in short, it's due to political pandering. the department of education put fafsa on the backburner because they wanted to prop up biden administration's financial student loan scheme. we know all about it. there was the supreme court challenge to the president's 400 billion }dollar student loan giveaway. the proposal was nonsensical and it was deeply, deeply unfair. it forced american taxpayers to

bear the burden of loans that they never took out. sources told the publication snyder higher he'd -- insider higher add that they were looking at plans more politically high profile, prayerly the administration -- primarily the administration scheme. this bulldozed students. why? to pander for votes. my colleagues and i are here to call out this catastrophe but we're also urging the administration to fix it. in january, i joined senator cassidy in sending a letter to the government accountability office asking them to look at

the negative aspect of the fafsa rollout. we pushed them on what they plan to change for the next cycle. president biden's administration is accountable to the american people for this failure, and they are responsible for fixing it. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. marshall: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: thank you, madam president. today should be a day of celebration, national college decision day marks a pivotal moment in the lives of millions of students across the country,

a day that many of us still remember ourselves. it's meant to be a day of excitement and anticipation of young men and women's bright future ahead, but today i rise frustrated and disappointed. 17 million hopeful students are victims of the biden administration's bureaucratic nightmare. students' futures are in limbo as they continue their month long wait on the federal financial assistance that will be available to them. millions of families nationwide rely on the fafsa process to unlock the doors to higher education. still, the department of education has left 82% of them unable to even submit their fafsa applications for consideration. 82% of them can't complete the form. in kansas, over 11,000 students have been affected by this

botched fafsa rollout and this number represents a nearly 30% decline in fafsa applications, i hope this drop stems from the application process being so dysfunctional and filled with dmrichs that many kansas students and families have simply given up. this is certainly unacceptable. these repeated months of delays by the department of education in rolling out the new fafsa application has left millions of students and schools in limbo with no path forward for the upcoming school year. think about the uncertainty this breeds. the dysfunction within this department of education, has sent shock waves across the country. we have watched the biden administration spend their energy on finding a way to fulfill the campaign promise to forgive millions in student loan debts. now, due to their tunnel vision,

colleges lack the vital debt needed to formulate, and it leaves them wondering how they will afford college books and other essentials. who suffers the most? first generation and middle-income students as well, very few students are able to afford college on their own. they need this fafsa application, whether you're waiting for a state scholarship or military scholarship many we rely on this assistance to help fulfill and pursue our own american dreams. now, i stand here today as a very lucky person, a first generation college student myself who went to a community college and i certainly understand the struggles of those who are waiting to get into college wondering if they can afford and where they can afford to go to. to -- the help the students and

colleges are waiting from the department of education isn't just on loans, it's also scholarships and grants, take for example the promise scholarship in kansas, this is a lifeline for many students bridging the gap for critical aid. this requires on -- this relies on guess what, a fully processed fafsa to accurately award students. for months my colleagues and i called on this administration to allocate the resources they're using to connect their student loan forgiveness scheme to help our fafsa applicants and address the delays to help deliver senator to our students and families. we've written letters, we've hosted hearings, we sponsored legislation, still here we are as college campuses are now being terrorized by far-left pro hamas protesters threatening the safety and security of jewish students and we're no closer to

an answer on fafsa today than when we started. this is why we need changes this november, not only in the white house but in the department of education. they need to reassess their priorities, their propaganda and politics. our students deserve better and it's time to reset and focuses on the -- focus on the repriorities at the department of education, the future of our young men and women are at stake. time is of the essence, the clock is ticking on millions of students' futures with graduating day fastly approaching. thank you, madam president. i yield back.

the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: if there's a theme to this colloquy, it is is that students and families are bearing the consequences of the botched fafsa rollout. first, may 1 is national college decision day which should be an exciting day for the kids and families. in my day they used to pop open the mailbox and show it to mom and dad, woe -- isn't that

exciting. that is it not going to happen this time. the issue is clearly because of the administration's botched rollout. what do i mean by that? first, let's explain what fafsa is. fafsa is the information that a prospective students receives as to the amount of financial aid they will receive if they go to this college or that college. so they open it up and they say oh, this is how much i get. to offset tuition if i go to my local state school or no, i want to go out of school. how much do i get to go there? and they can compare those financial offer sheets and make a decision as to what is the best place for them to go financially. but that's not going to happen. or if it happens, it's going to happen in a poor way. so timeline is last october is when fafsa should have been ready. but the system wasn't ready and we were told it would be ready

in january. it was for about three or four days. and then it was delayed until march. now we learn that about 30% of those fafsa forms have processing data errors and have to be reprocessed and they won't be reprocessed until after the may 1 deadline. so instead of opening up that e-mail and learning what your financial package could be, it will be you'll hear at a later date. so what are the consequences? colleges cannot offer these students their financial package because of the processing errors. some students will decide not to go to school because they don't know if they can afford it. some universities will have a cash flow problem because the students that might go there for enrollment will not and so the

cash flow problem will be very real. now, what is doubly frustrating is that the administration has been doing things they shouldn't have been doing instead of doing that which they should have done. remember, they were supposed to have this ready in october. then in january. then it goes down again. and when it finally comes up in may, we're told that 30% of them will be in error. when it was supposed to be ready in october. what have they been doing in the meantime? they've been working on student loan, quote, unquote, forgiveness which really means student loan transfer of debt from those who willingly took the student loan debt on and transferring it to someone who either paid back their loan or never went to college. that's what they've been doing. now, we have got to -- by the way, by the way, madam president, we have this hotline

h here. and trouble with faa sa -- fafsa. go to help.senate.gov/fafsa. we've had this up and we've gotten some responses. let's see, not receiving clear instructions when able to reach -- able to reach a person and the total thing was about anger, about the long wait times on the phone. this is when they call department of education or fafsa trying to get an understanding. another person, frustration about the continued delays and lack of communication and then there are additional delays which seem to be frequent. uncertainty due to the lack of communication from the department, and when there is information, it is not helpful. parents are expressing concerns, anxiety about choosing the best school for their child due to the compressed decision

timeline. and for those who have been through the process in the past, they describe this year as, quote, being significantly worse. so it's up to congress -- and this colloquy is republicans but i invite my democratic colleagues to come on board and hold the administration accountable. this should not be partisan. it is about the students. it is about the parents. it is about the integrity of a process that the department of education has totally failed at. so for those watching, if you have an experience of fafsa that you wish to report, please go there. help.senate.gov/fafsa and i invite all my senate colleagues to join me and the help committee in terms of holding this administration accountable. with that i yield. thank you.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. a senator: thank you, madam president. like my colleagues before me, i rise to i dress an issue affecting families all across the country, including in my home state of missouri. millions of students who have worked hard are deciding where they'll continue their education. fortunately, a lot of those students' experiences today will be marred by the department of education's complete inability to do their basics of their

jobs. mr. schmitt: there are major issues in the free application for federal student aid, the fafsa application. colleges including missouri state university, pushed back deadlines for financial aid. and students are left with more questions now than answers. additionally, on march 22, the department of education announced that roughly 200,000 student financial aid records sent to schools included errors in the data. the bipartisan fafsa simplification act eased the bureaucratic burden of students by streamlining the questionnaire from 108 questions down to just 38. for nearly every student in the country, especially first-generation college students, a simplified fafsa experience would ease the college application experience. despite plenty of time and adequate funding, the department of education failed to properly implement the new fafsa. through the fafsa implication act -- simplification act passed

in 2020, the form was not available for prospective students until december of 2023, delaying the financial aid process. colleges and universities did not begin to receive student data from completed applications until the end of march of 2024, delaying the process even further. my office sent a letter to secretary cardona demanding answers on behalf of missourians impacted by this bureaucratic nightmare and we still have not received any answers. in the meantime, my office has been working with counselors across the state to assist students and families as they navigate this fiasco. the department of education has pushed unnecessary and legally dubious loan bailout initiatives while also failing to prioritize existing obligations with established student aid programs. even more concerning, the department has prioritized the applications of families with illegal aliens devising work arounds and loopholes to allow these applications to be

submitted. based on all accounts, working families depending on fafsa determinations are in the back of the queue for the department of education. the department of education and secretary cardona should prioritize working families and fix this mess now. madam president, i yield back.

the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. ricketts: i live in the best place in the world in nebraska. and one of the reasons it's the best place in the world is because of the people and the community that pulls together in times of disaster. we just experienced one of those disasters on friday. according to the national weather service, we had 14

tornados, five of them measured as an ef3. they impacted much of the eastern part of our state. we had 450 homes were destroyed, many more damaged. millions of dollars in damage to public infrastructure. but thanks to a number of people, nebraska was able to avoid any fatalities, in fact, had no serious injuries. i want to thank the people of the national weather service and our broadcasters who helped make sure that we got the message out. these occurred on friday afternoon. educators kept kids in schools and sheltered. people gatt the advanced warning thanks to our broadcasters and sought shelter. and that's one of the reasons we were able to avoid any serious

injuries. nebraskans knew what to do. and i want all nebraskans who have been impacted by this to know that my wife and suzanne and i continue to keep you in our thoughts and prayers. and then came the reaction. all of the groups that worked to protect nebraskans. i want to thank our first responders, especially those in douglas and washington county for the work that they did. i want to thank the nebraska state patrol, nebraska national guard, nebraska emergency management agency. all those organizations did a fantastic job of responding. as they also do to these disasters. and as nebraskans always do, whether their knaub needs -- their neighbor needs help, they step up. and we saw it time and time again, neighbors helping neighbors. the lines of people showing up at churches and other points of

collection to drop off packages of bottled water, gatorade, food. i had a chance to tour some of the neighborhoods that were impacted on saturday morning and saw all the volunteers that had shown up. the wood chippers out there chipping up the wood, people cleaning up, volunteering, showing up with saws and hammers to be able to help out their neighbors. there was one house i went by in particular, the roof had been torn off and already people were on that roof fixing that damage and an american flag flying high at that house. it's the nebraska way. we live in such a great place because the people respond. and this disaster, like the other disasters we have, is just another shining example of nebraska's spirit and how we come together to help our neighbors. my office has been in touch with

the governor's office and he has declared an emergency and we will support his request and stand by to make sure that any federal resource that's neighborly goes to help us recover nebraska. we will make sure the resources get to the people who need it and we will recover. that's an example of how communities work, with how government works. i now want to talk about an example where government is not working. and it's the fafsa fiasco. fafsa standing for the free application for federal student aid. now, this is what students go through to be able to get -- student aid, to be able to apply to college, and then know what that college is going to cost them so they can budget and afford it out.

it is an incredibly important program for millions of students across this country every single year. and what i want to do is just talk about how that has become such a disaster, because today is national college decision day. and because of the biden administration's incompetent, it has -- incompetence, it has become national college indecision day as so many students are left in limbo by the incompetence of the biden administration that could not roll out a new fafsa form for students to use and get the information to colleges so colleges make decisions, get the information back to students and students could decide where they want to go to school. let's just walk through the timeline a little bit here. back in march of last year, the department of education said that they were going to have the new form out in december of 2023. now, normally this form come out in october, october 1, so

students can get working on it right away, get the information in, get the information back, aplay to the school, all that sort of thing. but we knew it was going to be delayed. well, then on november 15, they said, well, it'll be december 31 before we have this form available. so pushed back to the very end of december. now, they did get that new form launched. it was a soft launch on december 30. but immediately students started experiencing problems. then what they said is, well, we're not going to get the information back to universities until we get some information, and it won't be till march -- or till january, rather. and they did launch the form full on, january 8, but they'd already experienced glitches on december 30. so we're still experiencing glitches and problems in january. well, then in january, the department of education realized they had a problem, said we're not going to get the information

back to be able to process this until the first half of march. and then in march they said, well, students won't really be able to start making corrections to these forms until the second half of april, or the first half of april. and so time and time again, the biden department of education kept pushing back the changes because they had incompetent process to be able to manage this and get this done for students in a timely manner. and that problem is still going on right now. millions of aid forms had errors that had to be reprocessed. i've had parents talk to me. we've had a number of people call to my office talking about all the problems we've had with nebraskans strawing struggling with this. you one of my constituents from ord tried to apply online several times only to find the fafsa website was down. another nebraskans was called

because there was a corrections called forment but when they went to the form, they saw there was no place to make the corrections. and parents told me that there was no one they could contact to be able to ask questions. one parent told me they have two students that are already in college. they had applied through the forms again, put their forms in again, got rejected twice. but nobody could tell them why. they couldn't get through to anybody to tell them what was going on. we had another example in nebraska, this constituent from geneva contacted us in december because they had questions about the state and local grants. they called fafsa repeatedly. they rarely got somebody in the fafsa office to answer, and even when they did the fafsa staff never had the answer to their questions. this is terrible customer service. it's exactly what's wrong with the massive, unaccountable federal bureaucracy. the federal government always needs to put the taxpayers

first. these are our customers. and colleges and universities have been forced to consider pushing back their admission deadlines for accepting students to commit. for example, the university of nebraska-lincoln has extended their deadline for incoming undergraduates until may 15. however, not every college and university was able to make that choice. the biden administration's incompetence has forced some students to make their college decisions and pay a deposit without knowing exactly how much college will cost them. think about how crazy that is. would we every say, go out and buy that mutual fund and not know how it is going to cost, or go out and buy a car, or a house. why are we asking our college students to make that decision about where they're going to go to college without knowing how much financial aid they're going to get to know whether or not it

is affordable? it is absolutely crazy and terrible customer service and another example of the incompetence of this biden administration to be able to do the basic functions of government that we all rely on. we should do everything we can to make it easier for taxpayers to access and navigate government services. instead of doing that are job on foaf, is as the biden administration -- on pa, is as the biden administration education department has wasted their time on unconstitutional student loan bailouts, so their priorities are completely misplaced. instead of focusing on things they have to do for millions of students to deliver good service, help them get into college, we are talking about forgiving them for loans they can't get in the first place. this is unbelievably incompetent. i support my colleagues' efforts to get to the answers about this fafsa fiasco and stand by ready to yet again force the biden administration to do its job. mr. president, i yield back my time.

the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina.

mr. tillis: thank you you mr. president. i rise today to honor the lives of four brave law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty on monday this week in north carolina. actually in a community that's only about 20-30 minutes from my home. it is the community of charlotte, and the entire state of north carolina is shocked and devastated by the deadly assault on law enforcement. they were just showing up to do their job. it was the deadliest attack on law enforcement our nation has seen in nearly a decade, and it's profoundly tragic that it happened in a city and a state that i love. young families are grieving, their lives are forever changed, and their fellow law enforcement officers are grieving. charlotte-mecklenburg police lost a beloved officer. the u.s. marshal service lost a beloved colleague.

this tragedy was the result of one of the most important yet very dangerous responsibilities of our law enforcement officers, executing can an arrest warrant. on early monday afternoon, a task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement led by the u.s. marshal service attempted to serve an arrest warrant for a fugitive at a residence in charlotte. the fugitive had a long criminal record and was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of felony fleeing to allude law enforcement. instead of surrendering to law enforcement, the fugitive opened fire and he shot eight law enforcement officers at the scene. four officers were tragically killed and four more were injured and had to be transported to the hospital. one in critical condition. police officer joshua eyer served six years with cmpd.

before that served more than a decade in the army national guard. as a cmpd officer, he was already making his mark. the chief down in charlotte-mecklenburg police department, johnny jennings, remembered that he was in the very room they did the press conference to announce the events, he was congratulating officer eyer for becoming officer of the month in april. he certainly dedicated his life and he gave his life on monday serving the people of charlotte. officer eyer is survived by his wife and his 3-year-old son. another officer -- two, actually, sam poloche and alden

elliott worked for the north carolina department of corrections. poloche joined the department's intelligence unions in 2013. he was a husband and father to two boys, one that's about to graduate high school, another one about to graduate from college. officer poloche's father said his main purpose was his life and family. he was a man who showed extraordinary kindness, even to perfect strangers. alden elliott joined a special operations intelligence unions in 2016. his colleagues remember him as a serious and dedicated law enforcement officer who had a great sense of humor. one of his friends in charlotte honored his sacrifice by writing, my best friend was killed in the line of duty while serving a warrant to a felon

with multiple convictions. he was a marine, a father, and a hero to me. he was protecting charlotte. elliott is served by his wife -- survived by his wife and child. u.s. marshals service deputy thomas weeks jr. age 48 was a husband and father of four children. he was a 13-year veteran of the marshal service and an eight-year service of customs and boatered patrol. -- customs and border patrol. deputy weeks led the team that executed the warrant of the suspect. a district judge whom weeks protected said the thing that comes to mind with him is not only his competence at what he did but his demeanor. everybody remembers weeks and his smile. he enjoyed his job, and he was

good at it. mr. president, these four officers were all heroes who protected and served the public. they were loving family men who tragically left behind wives and children. susan and i are praying for these four families -- and i cannot imagine what they're going through. i want them to know that all of charlotte, the whole of north carolina, and our nation is proud of them for their service and we regret their loss. we'll be forever grateful for their courage be, their service, and their ultimate sacrifice. may god bless the families, friends and colleagues of these fallen officers and give them the strength they need during this difficult time. and, mr. president, may god bless and protect the brave men and women who serve in law enforcement. thank you.

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should it's not just any piecef legislation, it's a commitment to safeguarding lives fostering innovation and fostering economic growth. and that's ensures that our

skies remain safe. it sets stringent standards for air track safety air traffic control and airport operations ensuring that every flight is conducted with the highest level of care and expertise. today i rise to especially acknowledge the hard work that our air traffic controllers do day in and day out to keep our skies clear and safe for all. back home in olathe, kansas we have an air route traffic control center that is responsible for some 130,000 square miles of airspace. covering that much airspace is no small thing that takes a team of highly-skilled and trained comptrollers to get the job done. i made a visit to that control center in olathe and the most constant my apartment of mentally challenging task of any job i've ever seen. for than anything i've seen in eight hours or 12 hours in an

operating room and one day more than a day and emergency-room, more than any task i've seen and the mental challenge and constant bombardment of different sequences trying to make sure, not trying but ensuring that every flight landed safely. there's no room for air and no second chances and it amazes me how time after time and day after day the stalwarts do their jobs with perfection. in years past i've been disappointed at the time allocated to the faa. this agency has continued to -- for air traffic controllers not only there but across the nation. again based on my visit to kansas it's clear that our air traffic controllers need relief. we need to hire more people to prevent burnout among those critical workers for the sake of preserving passenger safety. thankfully we have a golden

opportunity this week to make sure things are right with the faa reauthorization. the compromise package includes provisions to higher at maximum levels over the life of this bill and adopting new staffing models to better protect hiring needs in the future. i want to especially salute here traffic comptrollers hiring at a commonsense simple fix that over 30 senators have supported including this bill in this reauthorization package was the right thing to do and is a bipartisan when that we can all celebrate together. i applaud the committee for including this import language in taking care the folks who works around-the-clock to keep our deliveries on time in our passengers safe. finally i went to take a moment to applaud all the members of congress and more partly their dedicated staff who have worked on this faa reauthorization legislation. along with the dedicated aviation industry who strive to

keep us safe and on time. thank you mr. president grade i yield back. >> mr. president i rise today to discuss a bipartisan bicameral agreement reached for a long-term federally aviation administration reauthorization. you would know as a member of our committee that we are forked hard to bring the faa aviation community together to make certain that we do not end up with a result of one more extension after extension after extension and we can provide certainty to the faa in fulfilling its mission. when i became the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee i stated the importance of passing a long-term reauthorization and pledge to work with senators duckworth, cruz and cantwell as well as my other colleagues on the committee to get a comprehensive agreement complete or that want to thank the leaders of both the senate

commerce committee senator cantwell in cruz and house transportation committee congressman graves and congressman larsson for their months of work to get us to this point. i also want to take my counterpart from the aviation subcommittee the chairman of the subcommittee senator duckworth of illinois. she's been a pleasure to work with commitment to aviation and experience to back up that desire to reach success in the sector. multiyear reauthorization and are vital for long-term planning and growth in the civil aviation industry including the maintenance and modernization of aviation infrastructure and technology. continuing short-term extensions are detrimental to the agency industry and to the flying public. this week and next to the congress must come together to ensure current extension for the federally aviation administration on may the 10th will be our last, no more extensions. last october the senate recognize how critical the faa is to the country and evidence

that recognition by voting 98-0 to confirm mike whitaker is the faa administered or. if the united states is to remain a leader in the aviation aerospace it's important we were acquired -- the aviation sector has seen close calls and near misses that plague our nation's airspace in addition to quality control issues. recent incidents indicate now, now more than ever, revision system need certainty, stability and that's provided in part by long-term authorization of congress. the original senate legislation was drafted after a committee and subcommittee hearings and i'm pleased that many of my priorities were included in this legislation. kansas will have an important role to play in advancing her aviation industry including research and development of hypersonic flight as well as

a.m.'s and uav's for this legislation also includes my priorities to bolster the aviation workforce, improve the faa backlog, promote women in aviation and expand travel access for people with disabilities, attract air to small communities. support staffing and training for air traffic controllers for the first time in decades. address new aircraft entering the airspace expand air mobility and essential mobile programs. i encourage my colleagues to once again find a collaborative way to move forward to address faa's reauthorization. we manufacture lots of airplanes in the state of kansas. we are the air capital of the world. general aviation aircraft in the world are manufactured there as well as commercial aircraft. i sometimes think if i have any

reputation of being an advocate for aviation it's probably because we manufacture so many airplanes. i also and that certainly is true but i'd also highlight the importance of the airport and airplanes to small communities across kansas not just in the manufacturing that is centered around south central kansas but every community and their airport is an essential way in which that community has a brighter future. airports and aviation including commercial air service to small airports is hugely important to the well-being of the state like ours. the american people deserve the safest and effect that's probably the most important component of we can do to ensure as best we can the safety of the traveling and flying public. there is no future of aviation and aerospace in kansas or elsewhere if citizens of our country and around the globe are not feeling safe and secure to

fly. the american people deserve nothing less than the safest most efficient aviation system in the world. our bill provides critical safety enhancements, americans aviation workforce, it is an infrastructure at airports in urban and roe community sets clear priorities for dancing innovation aviation solutions, proves the flying public's travel experience that ensures a healthy general aviation sector for years to come. i thank my colleagues on the committee are working to a cop which this moment. i look forward to the vote that takes place a little later today and i encourage my colleagues to work hard to see that we get this completed in the next few days. >> mr. chairman and mr. president i yield the floor. >> mr. president i come to the board in support support of the faa for authorization act of 2024. this has been a truly bipartisan bicameral endeavor and that's how it should be. it has taken longer than we had hoped that the final product is

worth it. this bill will empower the faa to aggressively address the aviation system safety crisis, make her aviation system marks visible for passengers with disabilities, provide historic investments that will enhance our nation's capacity to train the next generation of aviation workers and do so without lowering, weakening or watering down the safety system including pilot qualification standards. there are many important provisions in this bill that i want to highlight just a few today. first and foremost this bill takes important steps to address critical safety challenges facing our aviation system. during the pandemic weed brought critical experience or aviation workforce both in the title agencies like fda in ntsb as well as in the commercial aviation sector. the post covid's surge in demand for air travel put a huge strain on her system and stretch the aviation workforce then.

protocols became so frequent the faa was forced to convene the safety summit. despite this the close calls keep happening over and over and over again. just last week a swissair flight had to abort takeoff at jfk when for their planes were crossing the runway at the same time. the week before that the southwest jets crossed the runway at the national airport as a jetblue flight was starting a takeoff roll. we need -- the need for congress to act is urging of this bill takes important steps to address safety critical challenges. our bill preserves an important pillar is the post covid's safety system. the 1500 hour rule for flight training. as both a commercial and a private pilot i know how critical real-world experience is in the cockpit. it can mean the difference between life and death created demand for air travel to grow we

will need more but putting safety first demand congress always reject efforts to lower pilot qualification standards and that's why i work so hard to make sure that our bill left the 1500 hour rule intact. her air traffic controllers is a key component of the faa authorization bill also. our legislation will give a much-needed boost to air traffic controller workforce. coming out of the pandemic hour air traffic facilities are understaffed and our comptrollers are overworked. last year only three of three to 13 air traffic facilities nationwide had enough comptrollers to meet targets prelaw comptrollers are working 60 hours a week to keep up this is dangerous. these are highly stressful critical jobs under the best of circumstances. growing this workforce is a safety imperative in of this

bill takes aggressive steps to do so. it will set a minimum hiring target equals at the maximum number of air traffic controllers are economy can accommodate and require the staffing model to ensure they will be enough air traffic controllers to meet the growing demand and keep the flying public safe. the bill expands deployment of service detection technology to more airports to help prevent near misses or actual collisions. our bipartisan compromise offers passenger safety by requiring faa to finally update their evacuation standards to account for wirral world conditions. the regulations are part of that. the event of an emergency passengers can evacuated aircraft within 90 seconds however in person evacuations use only able-bodied adults under the age of 60 in groups just 60 on the plane with no carry-on baggage and nobody over do it -- under the age of 18.

the typical 737 you see more than twice that number of passengers. i think it's safe to say you probably see a couple backpacks maybe 100 backpacks and some senior citizens children and passengers with disabilities to print. all of these folks were left out of latest faa simulation. we don't actually know for an aircraft can be evacuated in 90 seconds in real-world conditions and that's what's so dangerous. it took twice that long to evacuate three minutes. one of 10 airlines cruised successfully evacuated for good people from a burning airbus a-350 and 18 minutes from the point of impact an overall five minutes from when the plane had stopped moving. in 2016 it took more than 17 minutes to evacuate a 767 at o'hare after the plane came to a stop. well short of the 92nd threshold.

carry-on bag slow down that evacuation since then the ntsb has recommended faa take a closer look at this issue pay the bill before us today includes a provision senator baldwin and i championed to require the faa to finally do just that along with mandating the agency to consider other issues like the presence of children seniors and passengers with disabilities. if the bill will offer a much-needed progress to be safer and marks visible for passengers with disabilities. i was proud and honored to work with individuals and organizations in the disabilities community in drafting this portion of our legislation. while we still have a long way to go to ensure equal access for millions of people with disabilities when flying, if passed, our faa reauthorization act would be one of the most significant in the past decade towards improving the air traffic experience for the disability community. our bill is a years long effort

by my colleague senator baldwin i'd like to thank her for her leadership on the air carrier access to agreement act which is but a party of the disability community for years and today am happy to say several other important provisions from that baldwin bill are included in this reauthorization. it includes a new program to upgrade airports to make the marks visible to passengers with disabilities. to bipartisan bicameral bills are also included to aid on board improve lives for which i worked in with senators thune and steve cohen and peter -- and prioritizing accountability for aviation consumers act which i worked on the senators fischer and representative steve cohen and brian fitzpatrick. i want to thank my colleagues across the island in the house for working with me to show that even in this political moment we can and we must still legislate in a bipartisan fashion for

issues that impact americans throughout every inch of this country and states that are both red and blue. this bill will help the next generation of pilots, aviation mechanics and aviation manufacturing technical workers expanded the faa's aviation workforce development grant program. this is critical to meet future demands which is expected to grow tremendously. the faa estimates 696 million mainline planes in 2023 will grow to more than 1.1 billion by 2044. i want to thank senators moran kopitar -- klobuchar to work on the highest level for these grant and a special thanks to senator morant's been such a pleasure to work with in my colleagues in the house and especially to our chairwoman of the committee who has been so generous in working with me as a subcommittee chair.

while this may be relatively new in its short history it's proven to be incredibly popular with educational stations with demands for training grants outdoing supply. our bill will drastically strengthen the capacity capabilities ever nation's aviation education and training organization with the goal of successfully recruiting and preparing the next generation of american aviation workers. i want to say of view -- brief word about boeing a company with a proud heritage in american aviation. this bill does not fully address the many issues that have come to light since the door plug blew out of an alaska flight early in january this year. congress must look more closely at these issues and assess what additional legislation may be needed. as senator cantwell is indicated we will conduct oversight but that will take time and this built needs urgently until late

fixes. let's pass this bill and i yield the floor. >> i rise today in strong support for the faa reauthorization act of 2024. this bill negotiated by chair on myself with the leadership of the house transportation infrastructure and science committee is a bicameral, and a bipartisan accomplishment. it is the culmination of many months of work between us and our staff and it's reflected the priorities of a great many senators. on the republican side alone more than 200 member priorities were included. i'm especially proud of the numerous provisions for a safer and more convenient travel experience for texans and for consumers across the nation. in the provisions that will help

grow texas' driving aerospace center. it will make significant strides in aviation safety. the primary mission of the faa and something i know that all of us care deeply about. it will provide a clear path forward to integrate new advanced aviation technologies and will make it easier for flyers to get upfront information on ticket prices. a flurry of near misses that our nations airports, multiple concerning maintenance reports of united airlines flight and the alarming decompression event of alaska airlines flight 1282 have together raised serious concerns with the safety of our airspace. aviation safety has been and will continue to be one of the very top priorities of the senate commerce committee. when the people of texas board a

flight to expect their flight and their families to be safe. as a result i'm proud to say that our bill includes crucial safety provisions such as requiring 25 hour cockpit voice recorders in all commercial aircraft. the safety upgrade will allow the national transportation safety board and the faa to have access to vital information needed during accident investigations. this became abundantly clear after the cockpit voice recorder in the alaska airlines flight was lost because of an outdated two hour requirement. that's unacceptable and it should never happen again and with this bill it will not happen again. in response to recent runway surface incidents, this bill establishes a zero-tolerance runway safety policy.

he prioritizes projects that improve surface surveillance and establishes a runway safety council. it requires a timeline and an action plan to actually get better runway and tarmac in curzon technologies installed in airports that need them. air traffic controller shortages have plagued airports across the country including in my home state of texas. putting traveler safety at risk. this legislation aims to relieve the strain on air traffic control by directing the faa to hire the maximum number of aircraft -- air traffic controllers hopefully aiding the many facilities that have been understaffed for far too long. at a time when aircraft safety seems to be in the news every other day our bipartisan bill makes important upgrades to safety. commercial aviation has improved in the last several decades, in

part because the faa and the industry have tracks trends in safety to respond in a proactive manner to safety concerns. instead of waiting until after a fatal accident has occurred. furthermore, this bill recognizes the important role that the whistleblowers play and includes protections for those reporting safety concerns. this bill also makes transformative investments in airports across our country by making updates to the formula used to disperse grants for airport infrastructure projects. as a result of all airports across the country will be able to rehab their runway or acquire critical safety technology. i'm also pleased that the bill makes it easier to obtain permits for airport construction projects. this bill is good for airport large and small across the

nation. this bill does not ignore the fact that sometimes airlines grew up and leave consumers hanging. one provision provides that parents in the chamber should be really happy about, is the requirement for airlines to ensure that families are able to sit together. this just makes sense and will help make the traveling with young children just a little bit easier. i'm also pleased that there is a requirement that customers who need customer service will now be guaranteed that they can talk to a human representative, an actual human being, 24/7. finally, this bill makes important improvements for travelers with disabilities, including requiring training for employees who handle wheelchairs and it requires the d.o.t. to actually respond to complaints submitted by passengers.

i know there has been a lot of attention paid to the additional five round-trip flights at dca added by this bipartisan bill. reagan national is the only airport in the country that congress has decree that the plane may travel no further than 1250 miles from when landing or taking off from. it is and it is unfair to millions of flyers who are forced to pay higher prices because of this rule. it's been over a decade since congress has expanded access to dca and the inclusion of five round-trip flights of their modest proposal that will bring down consumer prices for flyers in the d.c. region and from western states. this modest increase will not result in negative impacts or delays nor will it result in loss of life for anyone who currently receive service. i repeat, it will not result in

loss of flights for any route that currently receive service. despite the threats and the fear-mongering from the army of united airlines lobbyists who are actively working to protect their dolis monopoly. by my count of united threatened service cuts these five round-trip flights will leave united to cancel air service to more than half the states in the union. don't believe the propaganda. and i have to say it's not in the interest of any senator to support a policy that reduces competition, enhances monopoly products for one airline, united airlines, and drives up the price not only for the residents of virginia and d.c. and maryland but for the residents of all 50 states that come to our nation's capitol.

in contrast this modest addition of service will allow for further competition between the airlines that serve dca. competition is good for consumers and it's good for lowering prices. the change will also provide the ability for there to be a direct flight from san antonio to d.c. reagan. delivering a more convenient travel experience for members of the military traveling from joint space san antonio to the pentagon to arlington cemetery, to our nation's capital and also for business travelers and tourists in san antonio. i also want to talk about the benefits this bill has for new aerospace technology. our bill helps the faa both modernize and transform its operations and handling of new entrants by drones and air taxis. a provision that will increase productivity and spur economic

activity. importantly this reauthorization includes measures to eliminate inefficiencies plaguing the next jan. this legislation also directs the faa to complete the beyond visual line of sight rule-making , which will expand expand drone deliver another drone operations across the country and especially in my home state of texas. i'm also proud of the reforms aimed at better integrating commercial space activities into the national aerospace system. assisting launch providers and navigating complicated airspace will be a boost for texas' thriving commercial space industry. to carry out all of these ambitious goals the faa needs a workforce that has the technical expertise to conduct effective oversight of manufacturers and airlines. as well as technical experts who can help in the certification of

these new and novel technologies. this was the major focus of our efforts. for example, in an effort to boost the aviation workforce and provide more opportunities for america's veterans, this legislation makes it easier for military servicemembers to transition to civil aviation careers. this comprehensive and bipartisan bill bolsters the faa at a time when the agency needs support. the aviation system is more strained than ever. millions of americans travel every single day. millions of americans depend on this sector are in their livelihood. the u.s. aviation sector is the gold standard of safety and i'm proud of the improvements and reforms made in this bill and i look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the

aisle to advance this bill to final passage. .. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, some of us have been out of school for a while and we may have forgotten our american history, but i did want to take a moment to remind some of my colleagues about a document called the u.s. const constitution, and specifically the first amendment of that constitution. so for those who may have forg forgotten, here is what the first amendment says. quote, congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the

free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or the right for people to peacefully assemble for a redress of grievances. end of quote. first amendment to the constitution of the united states. let me also, mr. president, take this opportunity to remember our late colleague, the former congresswoman john lewis for his heroic role in the civil rights movement. i know it's very easy to heap praise on congressman louis and many others decades after they did -- lewis and many others decades after they did what they

did, but congressman lewis was arrested 45 times for sit ins and protests, 45 times for protesting segregation and racism. i would remind my colleagues that the lunch counter protest at woolworth and well where -- and elsewhere were in fact sit ins and occupations where young black and white americans bravely took up space in private businesses demanding an end to the racism and segregation that existed at that time. further, as i hope everybody knows, we have also seen in recent decades protests, some of

them massive protests, against sexism, against homophobia, and the need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel in order to save this planet. in other words, protesting injustice and expressing our opinions is part of our american tradition. and when you talk about america being a free country, well, you know what, whether you like it or not, the right to protest is what american freedom is all about. that's the u.s. constitution. and, mr. president, let me also remind you that exactly 60 years ago, ironically, exactly 60 years ago, student demonstrators

occupied the exact same building on columbia university's campus as is taking place right now. ironically the same building 60 years ago. across the country students and others, including myself, i would say, joined peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the war in vietnam. those demonstrators were demanding an end to that war and maybe, just maybe, tens of thousands of american lives and countless a votvietnamese livest have been saved if the government at that -- vietnamese if the government at that time listened to the demonstrators. and i might also add a great president at that time, a great

president at that time, lyndon johnson, chose not to run for president due to the opposition of him from the vietnam war. further, not us -- let us not forget those who protested against the failed wars in iraq and afghanistan. maybe those protestors should have been listened to as well. shockable shocks, government's policy is not always right. mr. president, i noted recently that a number of my colleagues in both parties, not just the republican party but the democratic party as well, as well as many news reporters, tv, newspapers, they are very

concerned -- very, very concerned about the protests and violence we are seeing on campuses across the country. so let me be very clear. i share those concerns about violence on campus, or for that matter any place else, and i condemn those who threw a brick through a window at columbia university. that kind of violence should not be taking place on college campuses. i also am concerned and condemn the group of individuals at ucla in california who violently attacked the peaceful encampment of antiwar demonstrators on the campus of ucla. so, mr. president, let me be clear. i condemn all forms of violence on campus whether they are committed by people who support

israel's war policies or by people who oppose those policies. further, i would hope that all of us can agree that in the united states of america all forms of bigotry must be condemned and eliminated. we are seeing a growth of anti-semitism in this country, which we must all condemn and work to stop. we are also seeing a growth of islamaphobia in this country, which we must all condemn and stop. and in that regard, mr. president, i would mention that in my very own city of burlington, vermont, three wonderful young palestinian students were shot at close

range on november 25 of last year. they were visiting a family member to celebrate thanksgiving, walking down the street, and they were shot. and, mr. president, let me make an additional point. i have noted that there is an increasing tendency in the media and on the part of some of my colleagues here in the senate to use the word -- the phrase pro-palestinian to suggest that that means that people who are pro-palestinian are pro-hamas. to my mind that is unacceptable and it is factually inaccurate. the overwhelming majority of american people, and protestors, understand that hamas is a

terrorist organization that started this war by attacking israel in an incorrectably brutal and horrific way on october 7. to stand up for palestinian rights and the dignity of the palestinian people does not make one a supporter of terrorism. and let me also mention something that i found rather extraordinary, and i've been in politics for a while, but i did find this one particularly extraordinary and outrageous, and that is just a few days ago israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing extremist government in israel, a government which contains out and out an anti-palestinian racists,

netanyahu issued a statement in which he equated criticism of his government's illegal and immoral war against the palestinian people with anti-semitism. in other words, if you are protesting or disagree with what netanyahu and his extremist government are doing in gaza, you are an anti-semite. well, that is an out rageous statement from a leader who is clearly trying do something -- and i have to tell you, i guess he is succeeding with the american media -- and that is to deflect attention away from the horrific policies that his government is pursuing in gaza which has created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. so let me be as clear as i can

be. it is not anti-semitic or pro-hamas to point out that in almost seven months -- the last seven months, netanyahu's extremist government has killed 34,000 palestinians and wounded more than 77,000. 70% of whom are women and children. 5% of the 2.2 million people in gaza have been killed or injured, 70% of whom are women and children. and to protest that or to point that out is not anti-semitic, it is simply factual. it is not anti-semitic to point out that netanyahu's government's bombing campaign

has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in gaza. so over 60% of the housing units in gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving more than one million people homeless, about half the population. no, mr. netanyahu, it is not anti-semitic to point out what you have done in terms of the destruction of housing in gaza. it is not anti-semitic to understand that netanyahu's government has annihilated gaza's health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers at a

time when 77,000 people have been wounded and desperately need medical care, netanyahu's government has systematically destroyed the health care system in gaza. it is not anti-semitic to condemn netanyahu's government for the destruction of all of gaza's 12 universities. they had 12 universities, they're all destroyed. it's not anti-semitic to make that point nor is it anti-semitic to make the point that 56 other schools have been destroyed, hundreds more have been damaged, and today 625,000 children in gaza have no opportunity for an education.

it's not anti-semitic to make that point. it is not anti-semitic to note that netanyahu's government has obliterated gaza's civilian infrastructure. there is virtually no electricity in gaza right now, virtually no clean water in gaza right now, and sewage is seeping out on to the streets. not anti-semitic to make that point. mr. president, it is not anti-semitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the gaza area. in saying that netanyahu's government in violation of american war has unreasonably

blocked humanitarian aid coming into gaza, and they have created the conditions under which hundreds of thousands of children in gaza face malnutrition and famine. it is not anti-semitic to look at photographs of skeletals of children who are starving to death because they've not been able to get the food that me need. -- that they need. it is not anti-semitic to agree with american officials and u.n. officials that parts of gaza could become famine districts in the not very distant future. mr. president, anti-semitism is a vile and disgusting form of

bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people for hundreds of years, including my own family, i might add. but it is outrageous, and it is disgraceful to use the charge of anti-semitism to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies that netanyahu's extremist and racist government is pursuing. furthermore, it is really cheap politics for netanyahu to use the charge of anti-semitism to deflect attention from the criminal indictment that he is facing in israeli courts. bottom line, mr. president, it is not anti-semitic to hold

netanyahu and his government accountable for their actions. that is not anti-semitic. that is precisely what we should be doing. because among other things, we are the government in the world that has supplied over a period of years and most recently billions and billions of dollars to netanyahu in order for him to continue his horrific war against the palestinian people. mr. president, i would also point out that while there has been wall-to-wall tv coverage of student protests -- i think that's about all cnn does now -- i should mention it is not just young people on college campuses that are extremely upset about our government's support and funding for this illegal and

immoral war, and i would point out that just last week, just last week, this senate voted to give netanyahu another $10 billion of unvetted military aid to continue his war. but it is not just the protesters on college campuses who disagree with that decision. it is the american people. and let me just quote from a few polls that have recently been taken. april 14, a poll from "politico" morning consult. 67% support the united states calling for a cease-fire. this is at a time when netanyahu is threatening now to expand the war into rafah. april 12 cbs poll, 60% of the american people think the u.s. should not send weapons and

supplies to israel as opposed to 40% who think the u.s. should. and for my democratsic colleagues, as you well know, those numbers are disproportionately higher among the democratic community. april 10, the economist poll, 37% support decreasing military aid to israel, just 18% support an increase. overall 63% support a cease-fire. 15% oppose. so, mr. president, it is not just protesters on college campuses who are upset about u.s. government policy regarding israel and gaza. increasingly the american people want an end to u.s. complicity

in the humanitarian disaster which is taking place in gaza right now. the people of the united states, democrats, republicans, independents in large numbers do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children. now, maybe, mr. president, this is a very radical idea. here is a really, really, really radical idea, and maybe it's time for the u.s. congress to listen to the american people. maybe it is time to rethink the decision that the u.s. senate recently made to provide netanyahu with another $10 billion in unvetted military aid. mr. president, maybe it is time to not simply worry about the

violence we are seeing on american college campuses, but to focus on the unprecedented violence we are seeing in gaza which has killed 34,000 palestinians and wounded more than 77,000, 70% of whom are women and children. i suggest to cnn and maybe some here, take your cameras for a moment off of columbia and ucla. maybe go to gaza and take your camera and show us the emaciated children who are dying of malnutrition because of netanyahu's policies. show us the kids who have lost their arms and their legs. show us the suffering that is going on over there.

so, mr. president, let me conclude by saying this. i must admit that i find it incomprehensible that many members of congress are spending their time attacking the prote protesters rather than netanyahu government which has caused and brought about these protests and has created this horrific situation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

ms. hassan: mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc, calendar numbers 575 and 606. that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc, without intervening action or debate, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. the question occurs on the nominations en bloc. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en bloc. ms. hassan: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 668, which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk

will report. the clerk: s. res. 668, honoring the life of daniel robert "bob" graham, former senator for the state of florida. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. hassan: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hassan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on veterans affairs be discharged from further consideration of s.2181 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.2181, a bill to amend title 38 united states code to repeal the sunset on entitlement to memorial headstones and markers, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection. the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. hassan: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third

time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hassan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on veterans affairs be discharged from further consideration of s.3126 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.3126, a bill to amend title 38 united states code to authorize the secretary of veterans affairs to furnish or replace a headstone, marker, or medallion, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. hassan: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hassan: i have 11 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. ms. hassan: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it stand adjourned under the provisions

of s. res. 668 until 10:00 a.m. on thursday, may 2. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to calendar number 211, h.r. 3935 postcloture. further, that all time be considered expired at 1:45 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. school ms. hassan: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: under the previous order, and pursuant to s. res. 668, the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 am on thursday, may 2, 2024, as a thursday, may 2, 2024, as a the senate voted federal aviation administration program

bill. current fa programs expire on may 10. all d.c. area saturday suppose a provision in the bell adding five daily flights recognition airport. democratic senators carter and ben holland voted against beginning to bay. senator kaine plans to offer an amendment to remove that part of the bill. to date the chamber voted to confirm u.s. district court judge from northern illinois. as always live coverage of the set is here on cspan2. >>arlier today at united health ceo testified on the recentyber attack ainst the company and its impactn healthcare providersnd patient prive data. watch the entire house energy and commerce subcommittee hearing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern cspan2, c-span now are freed mobile video app or online at c-span.org.