quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. a senator: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. cassidy: thank you madam president. last week a terrible tragedy occurred in lafayette louisiana. a mentally ill man opened fire on a group of people. jillian johnson was a talented artist. successful entrepreneur and active member of the lafayette community. she often organized community projects that benefited all. she was a kind and charitable soul. described by her husband as a loving friend, daughter, sister and wife. macy breaux was an incredible young lady with a bright future, a student, she was studying to be a medical radiology technician and was engaged to her high school sweetheart planning to marry after she

graduated. she worked in a local fashion boutique where her customers and dough workers remember -- coworkers remember her smile and optimism. these two women exemplify the kindness and essence of the lafayette community and were taken from us far too quickly. let's take a moment to thank the heroes in this tragedy the lafayette police, the employees of the grand 16 movie theater and other first responders who acted bravely and quickly to stop the shooter and aid the injured. we're grateful for their service and honor them today. i also acknowledge by name gima mo and ally martin. their quick thinking and courageousness saved lives when they crawled across the movie theater floor to pull a fire alarm to alert authorities. in times of tragedy and pain we

come together to care and support each other. the love we have for each other even in the darkest of times will hip -- help laugh educate and our community -- help lafayette and our community recover. the events of last week are a reminder of the long road we must take to reform our mental health system. too many lives are being taken in movie theaters, churches and other places where we should feel safe. the common denominator in these tragedies is all too often untreated mental illness. as public servants we should seek to keep the public safe but our mental health system is broken and fails to do so and reforms are coming too slowly. it doesn't make sense that parents caring for a mentally ill child cannot be part of the medical decision making that could prevent horrendous tragedies. i can go down the list of reforms that need to be made to improve our mental health system. i'm working with my good friend,

senator chris murphy, on legislation that will help reform our mental health system and make it easier for those in need to have the help they that can potentially avert a tragedy like this. i finish by saying our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the loved ones of jillian and macy and those wounded who are suffering. may they know god's comfort at a time when it may be otherwise impossible for them to feel comforted. i yield to my fellow senator and good friend, senator vitter. mr. vitter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: madam president i come to the senate floor sadly in light of this tragedy to join my colleague senator cassidy in expressing these heartfelt thoughts. and we rise today again to express our deepest sympathy for the victims of this horrible, horrible shooting in lafayette for their families. our thoughts and prayers, all of

lafayette and all of louisiana's hearts go out to all of the families involved in this tragic tragic incident. we lost, as senator cassidy suggested, two enormously talented and unique and irreplaceable individuals and we certainly pay tribute to them. as senator cassidy suggested macy was a student at louisiana state university full of life, full of hope, full of promise. she was studying to become an ultra sound and radiation technician. she was scheduled to begin her training at lafayette general hospital just a few days after her tragic death when she was at the movies with her boyfriend matthew rodriguez who was among the nine wounded. jillian was the owner of a stirt

stirt -- t-shirt printing company. she and her husband also owned a gift and toy shot in lafayette. again, full of life, full of talent full of vigor and happiness. she played the unanimous consent consent -- the ukelele and guitar. two individuals completely, completely irreplaceable and they'll be sorely missed. i also join senator cassidy in recognizing and thanking the heroic actions of those two teachers from a high school in iberia parish. according to several reports ally jumped in front of gina to shield her from the shooting. very very likely saving her life. it caused the bullet to hit gina's leg instead of ally's

head and ally was shot in the leg in the process. despite their injuries gina pulled the fire alarm alerting the whole movie theater and certainly saving lives. so we pay tribute and remember them as well. and we also pause and remember and continue praying for the recovery of nine other individuals who were wounded in this horrible incident: matthew rodriguez, the boyfriend of macy breau. morgan egandal dwight bo ramsey and his wife jerry. these are cousins of congressman busthane, good friends of senator cassidy. ally martin, an english teacher at a high school and gina mo, who i mentioned as true heroes in this incident. on saturday evening lafayette

residents gathered downtown to honor particularly the two victims who lost their lives. during the vigil one lafayette resident stated and she certainly stated it well, "we can't let evil win. we as a community have to rise above that and move forward " -- end quote we do, but as we do senator cassidy and i rise again today to honor the victims, to remember them, particularly macy and jillian and to certainly recommit ourselves to the important work at hand, including regarding mental illness, as senator cassidy suggested. we have prepared a senate resolution commemorating the victims of this horrible event. and so at this point madam president, i would ask unanimous consent that the

senate proceed to the consideration of that resolution senate resolution 231 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 231, honoring the memory and legacy of the two louisiana citizens who lost their lives recognizing the heroism of first responders and those on the scene and condemning the attack of july 23, 2015, in lafayette louisiana. the presiding officer: is there objection to the proceeding measure? without objection the senate will proceed with the measure. mr. vitter: thank you madam president. now i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. vitter: thank you madam president. again, madam president we all

hold up these families and particularly the two victims and their families in our prayers in our continuing thoughts and our love. it's a horrible, horrible incident but i know the community of lafayette well. i know the state well. and it certainly will not stop with pure tragedy. certainly folks will hold up these families in love and support and prayer and work toward far better resolution of issues involved as the one senator cassidy mentioned. thank you madam president. i yield the floor. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. inhofe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: madam president i ask unanimous consent the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: and, madam president, i see there's kind of a lull here. we're waiting around for a vote to take place at 10:00 or 10:30 tonight, i think it is, and i thought i'd share. there are still some uncertainties on the bill the transportation reauthorization bill. it's one that i'm very proud to be the author of. in fact, the last one we had was 2005 and i was privileged to be the author of that bill. and at that time working very closely with someone, with a fellow member that's the least likely to be working with me on

anything because by her own admission, senator boxer is a very proud liberal and i'm a very proud conservative. but we do agree that there's that old worn-out document that nobody reads anymore called the constitution and it tells us what we're supposed to be doing here. it says, defend america and roads and bridges. that's that's what we're doing. that's what this is all about. we got a disturbing message from the house about an hour ago saying that they would not take up our bill. we're going to pass this bill, but they say they're not going to take it up. now, that means that there's a dilemma because at the end of this month we -- there's no longer any money in the highway trust fund, and things would just stop. so i i don't know whether their intention is to give a short-term extension and go home or -- of course, i still am thinking that brighter minds

will prevail and they'll realize that we have a long-term six-year highway authorization bill. because the things that you can't do in this country you can't do with short-term extensions. on a couple -- yesterday i listed many of the bridges that were in really terrible shape and the fact that we could not address those problems unless we are -- pass a long-term highway reauthorization bill. and i mentioned also that someone that i knew -- it was right after the 2005 bill a mother and three children were driving under a bridge in oklahoma city. it was far out of its extended life its warrant period, if you

will. and a chunk of concrete fell off and killed her. and this is happening all over. we saw what happened in minnesota when that disaster occurred and all the pictures of the people that died, that were injured, and it was really -- but now we're going to be looking at a lot of amendments. i think -- i heard there's one amendment that senator manchin was going to be along with senator boozman they're putting together to change the -- to adopt the pilots' bill of rights to -- and go ahead and have that -- which is appropriate. it may not be as germane as we'd like to have it be, but it's still transportation. the pilots' bill of rights 1 was passed two years ago. and that was passed by -- in fact they wouldn't one take it -- they wouldn't even take it up in committee, but i had 67

cosponsors to the bill, and i was very thankful at the time. of course, democrats were in the majority. harry reid, when i went to his office and said, you know, it doesn't seem fair to me that we have 67 cosponsors and they won't take it up in the committee. and he said, well, that isn't right. they came to the floor and they passed it. when things get outrageousrageous, people tend to work together. that was on an issue that just a handful of people are aware of. but anyone who is a licensed pilot knows that in their minds that was the most significant thing that was going on. i've been flying for a lot more years than most people in this chamber have been alive and i had an experience -- you know, because i have been an active pilot and have been in aviation for many, many years the people that have problems with the f.a.a. would come to me to help

them with their pilot -- with their problems. and a lot of times -- and i found this to be true back when i was mayor of tulsa. we had a police force a very good police force. but there are a few bad guys that get in there and the same thing is true in the f.a.a. you have a few people who will take advantage of their political -- of the power that they have and take licenses away from people. i remember 10 years ago bob hoofer --hoover -- i bet none of you guys have ever heard of bob hoover. bob hoover was arguably the best pilot in the history of aviation. he had a strike of a twin-engine arrow commander. he'd put a glass of water up on the dash and start doing barrel rolls. this guy was really good. well, there was an inspection in the feed and bob hoover lost his pilot tion's license. and there was really no reason

for it. and in order to get it back, i actually had to go to the -- it took a year to pass legislation that would stop that abuse from going on. and so that has continued and i've always helped people until it happened to me. and then that had a whole new feeling, because people who are involved in aviation the one thing they don't want to lose is their -- is their pilot's license. and the f.a.a. has the power to -- for one person in the field to do something that is not -- not right -- maybe it is because he doesn't like the particular version, whatever reason, can take away their license. for several years i was a developer down in texas. nobody knows where texas is here. they think that there is no such thing as texas as a nice coast

with beaches unless it is on the east coast. but there is the padre island area of texas and it's got beautiful beaches. and i was in the building business. we built condos and townhouses and i always enjoyed that. well the airport that reaches that -- keep in mind, this the southern tip of texas. it is just as far west as key west florida is, but it is in the middle of the country. so we'd go down there and i'd go down and fly my plane down. probably once a yen week for week for a number of years. i'd go down and make a norm l a landing. it is not a controlled field. so the approach control from -- i'm getting a little technical here but i have a reason for telling this story. he said, all right, you are cleared to land on runway 1-3.

so i went up to land and just before i toughed down with six passengers in -- so it was too late for a go-around -- i saw that there were a bunch of people working on the runway. now, there wasn't a big "x" on the runway, which is required. they claimed there was. they quickly painted one on after that. and everybody started criticizing the -- i remember there was a front-page cartoon in "the new york times" that had me chasing a bunch of illegals off the runway. everybody was having a good time with that. but the bottom line is, i didn't do anything. and they claimed that there was a -- a notice for armet. -- a notice for airmen. if you'll check your notice before you land on the runway, you'll find out if there are lights owvment they claimed there was a note.

they never could find it. so anyway, to bring us up to date i passed -- introduced and we passed the pilots' bill of rights. the last -- our legal holdout was where you are guilty until proven innocent is if you were a pilot. that's the last place because one man's accusation can turn into the revocation of a license. and he has no -- so, we introduced the pilots' bill of rights. we gave an opportunity to -- if they agreed with the f.a.a., if an accusation was made, or the ntsb, they could go to the federal district court. that seemed to work out. the bill forced the f.a.a. to put notums in one secure place where everybody would have access to it. and all of these complaints were made were dealt w with.

but a lot of the things that we wanted to happen wouldn't happen. now, in case you're wondering -- and i'll take it off now since there's no reason to keep it on -- but this is shall know what that is? thesethat's the pass you get into oshkosh. oshkosh -- and the chair knows this because the chair's husband has an f.b.o. operation in western iowa. well any washings i'veway, i have a gone to the -- the largest event in all worldwide is oshkosh the last weekend of july of every year. i've been to every one of those along with my sons for 36 years. never missed one. and i didn't miss the one last week either, even though we were having votes because you know, some things are really important. and so i went up there with the idea that we have the pilots' bill of rights 2 in order to

correct the areas where the f.a.a. is either not complying with the intent of the law or even the federal district courts are not accepting cases. so we're going to correct that. and so i went up and for the benefit of those individuals -- first of all if it happens that senator manchin and -- senators manchin and boozman that they offer thearmt their amendments, then i will be supporting their amendments and i'm going to kind of go over why it's important. but if, as a result of the announcement that was made by the house of representatives two hours ago, we are not going to be having amendments, it's still introduced as a free-standing bill. and i have 56 cosponsors. now, that's a lost cosponsors around here. so -- but if that happens, i want to mention a couple of minks thatthings that are on here. there's a problem with the third-class medical.

so 10 years ago a decision was made -- it was a good decision. they took the light air craft and they said, if you can drive a kayea car, you can fly an aircraft. there's not been one accident in 10 years whether it was due to the fact that they didn't have any third-class medical certificates. so in this bill we're taking that up to include a larger number of pilots, up to include airplanes as heavy as 6,000 pounds carry six passengers, not exceeding 250 knots and several requirements like that, and giving them the same opportunities that the pilots of the light aircraft have. that's a part of this bill. and i know that there are a lot of people in this chamber because i've talked to them -- not a whole lot because we have 56 cosponsors -- but there are a lot of them that really believe

that that would somehow be dangerous. so nor thatso for that purpose, we have made several expeptions to it. i-- several exceptions to t i it. first of all on a third-class medical we have the requirement for an online medical education course every two years. now, this will make sure that the pilots coming up for renewal of their certificate are up to date on all of the new things that have transpired since the last time and they -- in the new medical requirements. second thing it does is anyone who has been -- a new pilot just coming on, he has to have a thorough examination that now you have to have every couple of years. and so that hasn't changed. then the third would be the self-certification that takes

place every five years. that can be done actually with your own doctor. so that's some of the changes that have been made to make it a little bit easier for some of people to be voting on this. a second area where the pilots' bill of rights did not address -- it addressed it but there are two federal judges, you're supposed to be able to go from the f.a.a. to the ntsb, the national transportation safety board and then to the federal district court. so that if -- what has happened in the past is the ntsb has always rubber stamped anything that the f.a.a. goes so that's -- really f.a.a. is making those decisions without proper due court and other people are entitled to. so what we've done, some federal judges said that they are not going to take a case on

a pilot until they've exhausted all the administrative remedies that come from the f.a.a. and the ntsb. so we've got a solution to that in this bill so that the section explicitly states that the pilots will have the option to appeal an f.a.a. enforcement action directly to the federal courts for a guaranteed de novo trial. the de novo means instead of taking the investigation to the f.a.a. and the conclusions and risking rubber stamping it, they have to have a trial from the beginning. this is something that's a very significant thing that we changed that we are making. something we neglected to do is is -- is include other certificateholders other than pilots because you can be a mechanic, you can be a flight attendant and a number of things and you were not included in

four of these -- for of these legal opportunities. so the pilots' bill of rights 2 allows all certificateholders to have this. and the third area is that the access to the flight records. in my case, i could not get access as too what the f.a.a. was accusing me of. and in this we had this corrected, we thought in the pilots' bill of rights but still it needs to be strengthened. so we have a section in the pilots' bill of rights 2 that requires the f.a.a. to notify a certificateholder that he is being investigated and clarify the incident being used to begin enforcement proceedings. so that person will know what he's been accused of and can address it. the fourth area was the -- in the area of document requests.

the f.a.a. has retaliated against pilots because the pilots' bill of rights 1 by requesting broad documents requested from them which can be very time consuming an very costly and it's not necessary at all. so the solution to that is we explicitly -- explicitly rein in the ability of the f.a.a. to initiate expansive document requests limiting them to the pertinent issues being investigated by the f.a.a. so that should correct that. and we have several other things too one is we know that if somebody has a minor infraction a car after 90 days or so many days it would be taken from their record. that's the way it used to be prior to 1996 when they had the pilot records improvement act of 1996. now we're going to go back to

where we were before that. so a lot of these things that were problems before that weren't corrected with the pilots' bill of rights 2 would be -- are corrected and i feel very comfortable. the reason i just have all this on my mind now is that i just came back from oshkosh and while i was only there two days i was able to give ten presentations and there are some -- somewhere a little less than a half million pilots at the time. and so i'm sure i got to all half million of those pilots during the -- these events that we had. and, you know, it's kind of interesting because to someone who is a pilot that's the most important thing. i mean we're not talking about democrats or republicans things that are controversial it's just that when you go to

oshkosh and you see what the people have accomplished through experimentation, the technology that's developed, used to be all planes had to be made out of aluminum and this all changed with new types of things that were discovered at oshkosh. people building planes in the backs of their garages. well anyway, so much for that. we have a good solution to all these problems and i could just say to my 56 pilots -- 56 members that they are -- they're certainly very popular among the pilots, that group that i spent the last two days with up there. now, we don't know -- i only mention that because in the event that they change the rules around here and we are allowed to have amendments that were not germane, that would be one of those and i want to be sure that we are at least getting things into the record so people are

aware of it and while they're not members here right now the staff is monitoring everything that's going on and so i want to make sure that that's an issue that we may or may not be dealing with. but the bill that we're dealing with is very much a surprise to me the house of representatives said we're going to go home and we're not going to pass it after we go to all the trouble of passing it. and i think that there are ample votes to pass this. it's the most popular thing -- the coalitions that are going together on this, it's the departments of transportation for every state and then they're along with the labor unions, they're all in support because this is going to provide a lot of jobs, the chambers of commerce are involved, the farmers are involved, this has the most popular support of anything that we'll deal with all year long.

and so we really need to have this and i just am kind of having a hard time believing if we go to the trouble of having a reauthorization bill that the house is not going to take it up. but that statement was made two hours ago and that may be the situation. i can remember in the earlier days the highway highway trust fund had one big problem. they always had a surplus. they had too much money. but that all changed with this new emphasis of changing to electric cars and all that, they're still using the highways but they're not paying the gas tax. and so subsequently we have a real problem in funding this thing. you take the total amount of revenues that come from the gas tax, let's say over the next six years -- because this is a six-year bill -- each year falls short by $15 billion. so you're looking at -- you're

looking at $90 billion over a six-year period that we're short. and there are a lot of people who -- i can say this because i think i've been ranked as the most conservative member for a longer period of time than anybody else in the senate, so i can talk about this. this is a conservative position. the conservative position is have a long-term bill because if you do short-term fixes it costs -- and this is irrefutable, no one disagrees with this -- it costs 30% off the top if you do short-term extensions. that's what we've been doing. we've had 33 short-term extensions since the 2005 bill that we passed, went out in 2009. and that has -- robbed all the money, a very large amount of the money that is there to take care of the problems with the roads and the highways.

we do have these problems that are out there and it's going to take a long-term bill to do it and i have a feeling since the money runs out on the last day of this month that the house if they are not going to take up our bill they may just pass a short-term extension and then go home. which is not the way i think it should be done but if that's what happens then we'll have to get this long-term bill, it's not as if the long-term bill we've been working on so diligently is not going to be passed it can be passed but it will be passed after we come back and maybe other things done to the bill. so this is something that doesn't happen very often. we went through the same thing with the other big bill, the defense authorization bill over the last three or four years they didn't bring it up as they should have early in the year. i remember two years ago we passed our defense authorization bill in june, and they didn't

bring it up, the leadership didn't bring it up until december. if we hadn't brought it up then the kids that are out there risking their lives would lose their reenlistment bonus pes hazard pay and a bunch of other things. but just before the end of december we were able to get something bun done. not the way we're supposed to be doing and not what i want happened with the highway reauthorization bill. but could be happen if the house does what they say they're going to do. i do want to come back and go over some of the larger problems that cannot be addressed unless we pass a long-term highway beautification -- highway bill bill, reauthorization bill. and let my say there is the -- what's the name -- there's a very fine f.b.o. operation in

western iowa called red oak. and red oak it happens my son just left there on his way back from oshkosh. and it always happens that red oak is owned by the husband of a very prominent senator in this body. who happens to be presiding now. so with that i'll -- come back later and we'll be talking about these things because shall the next thing we're going to do i understand is a vote at 10:00 tonight unless some time is yielded back, i hope it is yielded back, no one down here talking, no reason not to yield back time. if it's yielded back, i'll come back and talk about some of the things the projects that are not going to be done unless we have a long-term reauthorization bill. with that i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. johnson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. mr. johnson: madam president i come to the floor today to pay tribute to -- the presiding officer: senator the senate is in a quorum call. mr. johnson: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johnson: i come to the floor to pay tribute to one of america's sons who has fallen in the line of duty. sergeant holmquist from wisconsin who lost his life tragically as a result of a behindous act committed by terrorists on july 16 in chattanooga, tennessee. the sergeant was one of the finest among us. he gave his life to preserve the liberties on which america was founded. he was a son a husband a father and a very proud marine.

he also must have been a great friend to all the people he knew and a man who was respected by many people he didn't know. i was honored to attend his funeral this past saturday. i was witness to a tremendous outpouring of support. i saw a line probably about two blocks long, three or four people wide, of citizens of all across wisconsin and from several other constituents. some of these people were sergeant holmquist's relatives some were his friends. many were brothers in arms, both past and present. still others were citizens who had no personal connection with sergeant holmquist. they came simply to pay their respects to a man who swore to support and defend the constitution of the united states. they came to honor a man who so loved america that he chose to serve in faraway lands. he revered freedom so he sacrificed his own freedom that

we may be free. he defended our right to live as individuals by yielding his own individuality in that noble cause. he valued life that he bravely readied himself to lay down his own, his own life in humble service to his comrades in arms, to his family and his nation. in 239 years our service men and women have served as guardians of our freedom. the cost of that vigilance has been high. since the revolutionary war more than 42 million men and women have served in our military and more than one million of those selfless heroes have be given their lives. wisconsin has borne its share of that sacrifice. since statehood more than 27,000 wisconsin sons and daughters have died in military service. statistics cannot possibly convey the weight of these losses.

statistics are merely numbers that could never fully communicate the qualities of promising lives that were cut far too short. statistics say nothing of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. so instead of numbers like one one million or 27,000, i ask everyone to think for a moment about a much smaller but yet even more staggering number, simply the number one. sergeant holmquist was one man loved and cherished by family and friends. he was one fan whose loss is a tremendous blow to wisconsin to this great nation. he was one man but his sacrifice was not his alone. his parents thomas and labrenda his wife jasmine and his son wyatt and every other relative and friend left behind has experienced profound loss and grief. the tragedy multiplies. it is not contained.

for those left behind, the pain will slowly subdue but the pain will never heal. our hearts go out to the holmquist family. i pray they will find peace and comfort amid overwhelming and tragic loss. the torch of freedom burns brightly because of men like sergeant holmquist. may god comfort his loved ones. may he watch over those who answer the nation's call. may god bless america. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. menendez: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. menendez: mr. president i rise because i am deeply and profoundly disappointed in this year's trafficking and persons report that was released today. by upgrading malaysia and cuba, which were at tier 3 the worst tier that any country could be considered at, the administration has turned its back on the victims of trafficking and turned a blind eye to the facts and politicized the report. and they've completely ignored the calls from congress, from leading human rights advocates from the realities on the ground in cuba and from malaysian government officials themselves to preserve the integrity of this exceedingly important report. they have succeeded in elevating political considerations and political goals above the most fundamental principles of basic human rights. i heard secretary kerry and his

presentation of the report say something to the extent that we should not put a price on our fellow human beings' freedom. well, it seems that we have in this case. in arbitrarily upgrading malaysia and cuba, they are clearly criticizing the report giving an stamp of approval to countries who failed to take the basic actions that would merit this upgrade. this flies in the face of what flay -- may saleh thans -- mall lay shans want. today, mr. president, we have failed them. in cuba, adults and children are subjected to sex trafficking and the government continues

perpetrating abusive practices of forced labor. the administration's decision to upgrade cuba defies common sense. in the state department's own words, cuba is a source country where adults and children -- children -- are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. and in the case of forced labor the castro regime itself is the single greatest perpetrator of forced labor in cuba. every year the cuban government coerces tens of thousands of its own doctors and medical professionals to serve under conditions that violate international norm. the castro regime restricts the movement of its doctors while they are overseas, takes their passports from them and often prevents family visits. in addition, the cuban government garnishes their doctors wages using what should be a humanitarian mission as a means to fill its own coffers. this gross violation of

international standards is so bad that the united states has a specific parole program for cuban doctors that have been subjected to forced labor conditions by the castro regime. we have our own special parole program for cuban doctors that have been subjected to forced labor conditions by the castro regime. and thousands of cuban doctors have come to the united states as a result. so at a time when these doctors are being received in the united states on humanitarian parole, we're going to turn a blind eye to the fact that the castro regime is the sole responsible actor. this raises one question: is this yet another emerging detail of something that the administration and the cuban government have been discussing in recent months? another demand of the castro regime that the united states had to agree in the name of normalizing relations? we're willing to look the other way on human rights in order to

normalize relations? and as the state department's own report recognizes, there's been no progress -- no progress -- on forced labor in cuba. and given that reality any upgrade of the country's ranking challenges common sense. so i intend to use all the tools at my disposal, from hearings to a call for investigations to legislation to challenge these upgrades. the united states commitment and credibility in fighting the scourge of modern-day slavery is on the line. we spent an enormous amount of time in this senate on the legislation senator cornyn had along with others, on modern-day slavery. spent a lot of time in the senate foreign relations committee, where i'm privileged to serve under chairman corker who had his own legislation about how we deal with human trafficking in the world modern-day slavery as he calls it. so we need to make clear that

the trafficking in persons report must not be subject to political manipulation. i'm utterly dismayed at the administration's decision to upgrade malaysia and cuba under these circumstances. it represents a bastardization of the trafficking in persons ranking process and takes away the power to incentivize real progress. the administration's upgrade of malaysia as well as cuba compromises american values in the interest of promoting a trade agenda with a country that has consistently failed to uphold human rights. now one can only characterize this action as a cynical maneuver to get around the clear intent of congress with no regard for the effect on a key measurement tool of a country's human trafficking record. this not only represents the latest release of the trafficking in persons report in the history of its publication

nearly a full two months overdue, but calls into question this administration's commitment to uphold human rights. we all know that the malaysian government has not undertaken a serious effort that would warrant an upgrade. as i've noted before on april 17 of this year -- this year -- the united states ambassador to malaysia our ambassador to malaysia said that the malaysian government needs to show greater will, political will in prosecuting human traffickers to improve on its current lowest ranking in the trafficking in persons report. this is the person on the ground in malaysia representing the united states government who has an eyes on what's happening. and he said on april 17 that in

fact the malaysian government needs to show greater political will in prosecuting human traffickers and protecting their victims if the country wanted to rise from tier 3 to a better tier 2 standing. on june 1 the assistant secretary of state for population migration and refugees ann richard reaffirmed that -- quote -- "this year's report covers up to march 15, which means malaysia's handling of the refugee crisis will only be reflected in the 2016 report, next year. according to the assistant secretary, actions taken after march of this year, good or bad -- good or bad -- should certainly not be reflected in this year's evaluation. well if you're not going to reflect the mass graves of rohemia muslims and what the

government of malaysia did or did not do, the holding pens of humans because it came after the reporting period, then you can't claim that the government's action to pass a law that has no teeth no enforcement, and that hasn't even been put into effect after the date, the same date that you say you cannot consider the plight of hundreds who lost their lives then you can't consider the passage of a hollow bill. it doesn't work both ways, mr. president. even the malaysian bar the nation's association of legal professionals, stated in a letter last week -- quote -- "if there is any lesson to be learned from recent experience, it must be that the government has an excellent record of drafting written plans but a less than satisfactory record of implementing them. as such, the upgrade of malaysia if it were to occur would be premature and

undeserved." close quote. the fact is by the trafficking in persons report's own admission, the malaysian government has only three -- three -- human rights convictions in 2014 a two-thirds decrease from the last report. so compared to the last trafficking in persons report, they had a two-thirds decrease in their convictions of human rights abuses. yet, they get an upgrade. wow, that's a sure-fire way to send a message across the world that we're serious about human trafficking. frankly, that's beyond comprehension and common sense. mr. president, there can be no clearer statement no more compelling statement than we have lowered the bar on human trafficking and lessened the value of the one report the world relies on to evaluate the

behavior of nations. the events of recent months have clearly shown that the malaysian government has not even begun to adequately address their human being trafficking problem. thousands of victims continue to be exploited through tex trafficking and force -- through sex trafficking and forced labor. and it was unnecessary to do this mr. president. having passed an amendment that would have said tier 3 countries in the trafficking in persons report of the state department would not be allowed preferential access to the u.s. market unless they cleaned up their record, which had a strong bipartisan support of members of the senate finance committee and ultimately was incorporated in the t.p.a., the trade promotion authority legislation that passed the senate and was sent to the house in good faith because of concerns that maybe that would undermine the

trans-pacific partnership. in good faith i negotiated an amendment, a provision to change in the amendment that would have said you could still negotiate with malaysia, but they had to clean up their act. if you concluded that negotiation and they were part of t.p.p., they had to clean up their act on human trafficking before they got the preferential access to u.s. markets. i thought it was a significant give on my part considering the vote of the senate, but it was a good-faith effort. so this wasn't even necessary to do unless you just want to give malaysia a pass. the goal was to take the full weight off of the t.p.p. deal -- i should say take the full weight of the t.p.p. deal off the trafficking and persons report process. instead of choosing the route we

worked out together, requiring the president to testify in writing that malaysia has taken concrete steps to deal with their very serious human trafficking problem the administration backed out. i see no reason why the comprehensive ban on fast-track for human traffickers should be amended. i see no reason why my willingness to accommodate should be amended. this underscores the need for further oversight of the trafficking in persons process both legislatively and through the noble work of human rights groups here in washington and out in the field. i plan to work with my colleagues to advance my amendment to the state authorization bill passed by the senate foreign relations committee last month which requires the state department to notify congress of all trafficking in persons upgrades and downgrades 30 days prior to the release of the report. i am looking forward to speaking to the chairman of the senate

foreign relations committee to see if he -- when in a very busy schedule because we have all of the iran nuclear review, but it seems to me that this merits a congressional hearing to determine what went on here. and if i for some reason cannot achieve that, then i may very well turn to the inspector general of the department to seek a report as to what went on here. despite the clear will of copping, this administration has made a mistake and will now have to answer questions as to its ability to objectively evaluate global human trafficking. the hardworking committed n.g.o.'s who labor in the field to fight human trafficking and the countless victims who continue to suffer deserve an honest reflection of american values not an arbitrary determination based on expediency and achieving a limited political objective rather than a real solution. i look forward to working with all the groups who have been

instrumental in shining a light on the continued human rights abuses that take place in malaysia in cuba elsewhere to ensure that the integrity of the trafficking in persons report is restored. thousands of men women and children around the world who are victims of human trafficking, it is on their behalf that i come to the floor. it is in their interests and in the interests of responsible trade policy that recognizes there can be no reward to nations who ignore these types of trafficking in persons and do nothing to end the scourge of what amounts to modern-day slavery. one of the great moral challenges of our time. it is for the world's 50 million refugees and displaced people, the largest number since world war ii, many of whom are targets of traffickers because they're displaced have nowhere to go, they are preyed upon.

we have the largest number since world war ii of refugees in the world. it is for the 36 million women and 5 million children around the world subjected to involuntary labor or sexual exploitation. for the victims of these crimes, the term "modern slavery" more starkly describes what is happening around the world and i will continue to fight against human trafficking in all its forms, and i intend to fight for the integrity of the report that is a critical tool for us to be able not only to pass the light upon human trafficking in the world but to get countries to understand that they must meet this great moral challenge and change the course of events in their country. and that's why i come so incredibly upset to the senate floor on something that i never would have thought would have happened mr. president. but it has. and we need to change it. and change the course of events. with that, mr. president i observe the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: texas the senator from montana. mr. daines: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. daines: mr. president today i rise to speak about the nation's cybersecurity. prior to being elected to the united states senate, i spent nearly 12 years working at a cloud computing company. this is a company we started up from virtually nothing we took the company public, we grew it to over a thousand employees. it became a leading conclude computing company in the customer experience sector. i've seep the opportunities created by advances in technology. but i've also seen the power that big data holds because our information becomes currency for both companies and for hackers. these risks are even greater

when they impact our children. and as a daddy of four children i know the importance of maintaining a close relationship between the parents as well as our children's school. because today student electronic records are used in schools across the country and updates can be easily made and can follow a student from one school to another. this more accurately reflects the nature of students' movement within the school system. but at a time when overseas hackers are fighting to gain access to any information they can, these technological gains also come with some risk. securing students' digital information is critical to ensuring that our kids' privacy is protected. and that's why i'm grateful and proud to announce that i join senator blumenthal in introducing the safe kids act.

the safeguarding american family from exposure by keeping information in data secure, safe kids, this act protects student privacy by establishing clear parameters for third-party operators when using data collected from students. this bipartisan legislation empowers parents to control access to their children's information. because keeping personally identifiable information secure lead to a uniform way to secure our students' data. by placing that power back in the hands of the students, in the hands of parents and the schools, we can make progress towards protecting the privacy of our children. because our schools and our kids aren't the only one at risk for serious breach. this economy we can debating ways to provide the certainty and resources needed to improve our nation's infrastructure, our roads our bridges our ports, our highways.

but recent news reminds us that we must also consider the security of the cars that are driving on our roadways. in fact, just in the past week news broke that fiat chrysler announced the recall of 1.4 million vehicles due to vulnerability that could ahackers to disable the vehicles on the highways. in fact, through the radio of a jeep cherokee hackers disabled the vehicle's transmix as -- transmission as a driver drove into a public highway in st. louis. this episode is telling that cyber hacks can affect every sector of our economy from the financial sector to our automotive manufacturers. our military installations across the globe are also vulnerable to an attack, according to a new report from the g.a.o. in fact, our utility systems that provide water

electricity, and other essential services to our military installations worldwide have limited defenses against cyber attacks. report details that the industrial control system or i.c.s.,if computers that monitor and operate surface from -- and i quote -- "very little in the way of security controls and cybersecurity measures in place." in fact, in a recent july 25 military times article they cite an example of a successful cyber physical attack through an i.c.s. the stuxnet the virus that was used to attack iranian centrifuges in 2010. by hacking the i.c.s., the centrifuges were made to operate incorrectly causing extensive damage. in the fears of a massive cybersecurity breach don't only rest in the pentagon.

just yesterday attorney general loretta lynch said on abc's "this week" that a cybersecurity by the islamic state is one of the terrorist group's biggest emerging threats to our country. in fact, in the interview attorney general lynch noted that the terrorist group now boasts over 20,000 english-language twitter followers. our country's most sensitive data can be in the hands of our enemies at the mere click of a button or press of a screen. as i speak today we have yet to obtain answers from the obama administration on the scope and the perpetrators from the massive hack at the office of personnel management. this attack has paralyzed the obama administration. they haven't put in place any real meaningful reforms at o.p.m. i have called on chief information officer donna

seymour's resignation but she remains at her post and we still have yet to have any concrete answers for the some 21 million plus federal employees who were victims of this attack. we must do more. we must act more quickly and more nimbly than those seeking to wage a terrorist attack on our nation's cybersecurity infrastructure. thank you and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i rise to speak about the freight division of the drive act the highway bill, transportation bill that's under consideration before us at the moment. the freight division provisions represent the combined efforts of both the commerce committee which i chair and the environment and public works. and to create this division we incorporated a number of initiatives by senator cantwell senator booker, senator murray and the senate the administration's grow america proposal. we worked hard to incorporate this and make it a bipartisan product. we took into consideration the suggestions made by our

colleagues many of whom serve on the commerce committee, some who don't but we got to a point where we feel like we have a good product that incorporates the best ideas not everything obviously that everybody wanted but addressed many of the issues that pertain to our particular part of this legislation. so the language included in the commerce committee's freight program also drew from recommendations made by the department of transportation's nonpartisan national freight advisory committee. another entity that we look to and consult with as we took input on provisions of the bill. the vast transportation network, freight can move by rail it can move by aircraft, it can move by truck it can move by ship. it's multimodal. under the bipartisan legislation before the senate freight planning efforts will be concentrated under the secretary of transportation. this is to reflect the multimodal nature of how goods

are transported and ensure that the involvement of veterans' affairs agencies which regulate different forms of transportation is properly coordinated. because freight moves from truck to rail to port, freight planning must consider these connections and it must include the development of a strategy to expand capacity and to increase efficiency to meet growing demand. this is especially true when it comes to focusing infrastructure investment decisions. growing demand indicates and fuels a growing economy. we need a plan to handle the significant growth of freight traffic that we expect in the coming years. the department of transportation notes that by 2040, our transportation system is projected to haul an additional nine billion tons of freight. that represents a 45% increase over what we move today. as our economy recovers and continues to grow, we will continue to need additional freight infrastructure. the freight network serves our

export-import needs and is a critical element of our economic competitiveness. bottlenecks and delays have significant economic costs. freight is by nature not just a highway problem. airports, ports and railroads connect farms manufacturing centers and the markets that they serve. freight needs are not just urban issues. they are also very important for rural america. advancing agricultural freight projects is necessary for the economies of many states, so ensuring planning and funding for these projects is also critical. keeping freight transportation costs low keeps american farmers competitive in the global marketplace. in the winter of 2014, south dakota faced significant challenges moving grain from the state due to congestion in the rail network. when the freight could not move, farmers weren't getting paid. commodities faced spoilage due to a lack of available storage space. agriculture is the leading

driver of south dakota's economy. delays and the significant increase costs of moving grain by rail negatively impacted the pocketbooks of many of the farmers in my state. this in turn reduced main street's bottom line as well. more recently, the west coast port slowdowns delayed shipments to and from stores in south dakota and across the country. agricultural products for export were delayed and imports of products from lumber, medical supplies and automobiles to basic retail goods were delayed. this was an unforced error that harmed our economy for way too many months. this labor strife underscored the interconnected nature of our transportation system and how vital our infrastructure system is to each and every state in this country. in fact, the resulting strife was widely cited as a contributing cause of the u.s. economy actually shrinking in the first quarter of 2015.

protecting our competitiveness is at the core of this legislation's freight program that was developed between the commerce science and transportation committee and my colleagues on the environment and public works committee. planning for and fixing our freight network will create and maintain jobs over the long term. reducing delays and lowering the price of freight transportation serves the entire supply chain and ultimately the american consumer and that's why the freight division in the drive act is so important. the bill improves the planning process, engaging states and stakeholders to help plan for future freight needs. states will provide a forward-looking plan to address these freight needs step by step. these plans will develop investment strategies and prioritize projects for funding. the bill's consolidated strategy that plans for both highway projects and multimodal projects is a significant improvement over what we have today with the

status quo. in addition, the environment and public works committee developed a highway trust fund formula program that will support critical projects in every state. in the first year alone the bill provides $450 million of grant funding to assist with these critical investments. projects to improve rail grade crossings, port facilities and connections between freight modes of transportation will have access to these new resources. this will reduce the time and the cost of moving goods. the coalition for america's gateways and trade corridors noted that the planning and strategy outlined in the bill is, and i quote a significant step forward for multimodal freight planning and policy -- end quote. the american association of port authorities says, and i quote again, "elevating a policy for freight within your legislation sends a strong message that freight must continue to be a priority and that planning, funding and the establishment of a multimodal freight network are

critical for the economic growth of our nation." end quote. and, mr. president i would ask unanimous consent that these statements be made a part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, the legislation before the senate is a critically important part of addressing our nation's current and future transportation investments. as senator cantwell often says, freight can't wait. the drive act includes these critical freight provisions that will help our economy and lead to job creation. strengthening our freight program is yet one more reason to support this legislation. mr. president, i hope that before all is said and done in the senate here we'll be able to complete action on this legislation this week and get many of these provisions that are so important to our economy so important to jobs, so important to america's competitiveness into law ultimately. of course first we have to get action by the house of representatives to get it to the president's desk, but the work that's gone into this is a

product of a lot of various members and committees, those who are in the stakeholder community offering their input and consultation that got us to the point today where i think we have a product that we can be proud of and that we can say actually will help address the freight challenges and the needs that we have across this country and make our economy even more competitive. mr. president, i yield the floor and i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i rise today to talk about -- the presiding officer: i would advise the senator we're in a quorum call. mr. portman: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president i'm rising today with regard to one of the parts of the highway bill that we're talking about and that's the export-import bank, otherwise known as ex-im. i rise today as somebody who

feels strongly we need to have a long-term highway bill. i'm glad we're on the floor with that because it's about jobs, it's about crumbling infrastructure. i'm also pleased that within this bill there is some regulatory reform to clean up the permitting process and i thank the authors for including my permitting reform bill. but i also am pleased by the fact that we also voted to add as an amendment the reauthorization of this bank called the export-import bank. if i could let me just talk a little about why i think this is so important to ohio jobs and to jobs around this country and to keeping our economy from falling behind. now, some people say why do we need the government involved in this business of providing financing for credit to companies that do business overseas? well frankly it's because often these are relatively high-risk ventures, so companies cannot get the credits the guarantees or the loans from private sector companies and

i'll give you a few examples of this in a minute, but it's also because of the fact that other countries all over the world have these export credit subsidies. in fact, we're pikers. we have a lot less than our competitors. on average our competitors do a lot more in terms of supporting their exports than we do. so we need to have this in order to ensure that we don't lose jobs in this country. by us unilaterally saying we're not going to help our companies to export, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. now, if these other countries around the world were to say you know what? we're going to back off on our export financing that would be great. and when i was u.s. trade representative back in the bush administration, that's what i pushed for. i think we should be getting rid of these subsidies. and by the way also in terms of agriculture subsidies and others if there was a level playing field where our

competitors were not doing this, it would be a different world. and i will note that one thing i like about the amendment that was adopted -- or at least the cloture vote here and the amendment that's likely to be adopted to this bill on the export-import bank is that it requires as one of the reforms -- and yes i think it should be reformed -- that the administration begin the process of an international negotiation to get rid of these export subsidies all over the world. but in the meantime, if we as the united states of america say, you know, just unilaterally we're going to stop these export subsidies through this financing mechanism, we're going to lose jobs. and it's not just that we're not going to create jobs that would be otherwise created by these projects. it's the fact that some companies will actually move overseas to take advantage of the export subsidies in other countries. and they've told me this, and i'm sure they have told other senators this, and senators know

this. so i view this really in pretty simple terms. one, this program actually puts money back into the coffers every year rather than taking money out. i think it added about $650 billion or so -- or 650 million to our surplus last year. so over time, it has added billions of dollars so it's not costing taxpayers money. it brought $7 billion in profits to the u.s. treasury since 1992. last year, it generated $675 million in profits. and by the way created 164,000 jobs and $27 billion in exports. so one it's not one of these programs government programs that's costing the taxpayer. two, other countries are doing it and if we don't do it, they'll continue to do it, and we'll lose out on jobs, on

contracts. i'm told, for instance, that right now while this program is in flux where you're not sure whether it's going to go forward or not because it has already technically expired, there are 100 transactions sitting in the pipeline worth more than $9 billion. and those transactions won't go forward unless we take action. so again, this is one where the united states of america would be shooting itself in the foot, saying we're not going to expand exports to the detriment of our workers. and then third yes we ought to get busy on reforms to the export-import bank to make it more transparent. i think that's good. one of the reforms in here, as i said earlier is to ensure that the president submits a strategy for ending government-supported subsidies internationally. the obama administration should be more aggressive at that. i believe that's appropriate and they should be doing it. by the way it also creates a risk management committee that will oversee the bank's risk exposure rmt it -- exposure.

it also sets up an officer to provide oversight to the ethics practices of the bank employees. that's all important. i support all those reforms. i could probably support some more too. but let's not shoot ourselves in the foot and lose these good-paying jobs we've got here in this country. i view it, frankly a lot like the trade debate we just had. what we want to do in trade is have a balance where we're sending more exports overseas, creating more jobs in this country. in my state of ohio, in the presiding officer's state of indiana, other states around the country. at the same time, let's level that playing field by increasing our enforcement and stopping the unfair imports from other countries, the dumping the subsidies. in the trade bill, we talk a lot about this over the last month and we actually got in place a new amendment to help companies be able to deal with unfairly traded imports to get a remedy right away, and it's already working, you should know. sherrod brown my colleague from ohio and i put together an

amendment that actually is part of the trade bill that was passed. already, already tire workers in ohio united steelworker union employees in ohio are taking advantage of that because they got a positive determination from their international trade commission, in part because we gave them better tools we improved the law, to be able to more easily show that you have been injured by these unfairly traded imports that are sold below cost or dumped or that are subsidized and that you can get the relief that is needed to avoid losing so many jobs that you go out of business. that's one thing we ought to be doing to expand exports is more trade. another thing we ought to be doing is ensuring that we aren't pulling back on this export financing. again, that doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. at a time when we are underexporting compared to what we should be doing as a