we're moving this bill forward, we didn't have to pluck out one of the provisions. i just don't understand it other than what "the washington post" wrote in their story. i -- i mean, i've got to say, there are 60,000-plus bridges that are deficient, structurally deficient, mr. president. they're in your state, they're in my state. why didn't they pull out a couple of the worst bridges and say, fix those bridges? no, all they did was pull out a provision that the railroads wanted, not a provision that commuters want, not a safety provision that will save lives. it's very, very discouraging. now, we all know about the amtrak crash and i'm going to show you a picture of that. it was displayed all across the

paper. this -- imagine -- and i don't see it here in my talking point- an amtrak train from philadelphia -- this is a picture of a photo -- this is a photo of a destroyed amtrak train in philadelphia. and we all know the disaster that occurred there. and this could have been prevented. and as a matter of fact, if i remember right, leanne -- and correct me if i'm wrong, batina, if you know this -- they were about to put positive train control on this stretch very -- they were getting ready to do it. just look at this. and the suffering and the deaths needless, if there was positive train control. and if another train was coming, simply slow down that train

and -- and automatically avoid such a disaster as this. so, mr. president, i'm passionate about transportation, i'm passionate about safety. i know my colleagues are but we just had a very different view about this. and i can only say, if anything good came out of this, it was the fact that we now have an administrator of the federal railway administration. i really think that was good because i feel better now knowing that someone who really cares about this is officially now -- has officially now been given the power to assert her authority. and i look forward to working with senator thune as we move the underlying bill through. he knows how i feel. i want to thank him because, you

know, he -- he waited around until we had reached an agreement. i appreciate that because otherwise we could have had a complete shutdown of the -- of the entire highway program. we averted that because with respect for our differences, we worked together all day. and having the administrator in place. and i want to thank senator nelson and his staff as well as senator thune's staff. having that done, you know, for me is -- is something that means a lot and means a lot for safety across the board. i hope we won't be doing this in the future. i hope regular order will prevail. i hope we won't be pulling out important pieces out of other bills and passing them as stand-alone bills, you know, when we're about to -- when we're up against a deadline. i don't think it's the right way to govern. i don't think it's good governance. and -- and i think a lot of my colleagues feel the same way. but this is behind us and now we're going to work together. we're going to never take our

eyes off this positive train control. we're going to make sure the railroads are stepping up, doing the right thing. and, by the way, some of them have. i told you two of my railroads have been fantastic. they've put it all in place, they've met the deadline. and there are many others that are close to meeting the deadline. but there are too many that are hiding behind excuses and some who have real reasons why they haven't moved forward. and i hope that they're watching this today, because i'm not going away, none of us are going away. we're going to be watching this carefully and making sure that this deadline is really a dead klein, not some kind of political cover so that the railroads can get out of doing what they have to do to save lives. when we take these jobs, that is our overwhelming responsibility, to protect and defend our peop people, whether it's abroad or here at home. and i want to again thank my

staff, senator thune's staff, senator nelson's staff, senator blumenthal's, feinstein's -- i hope i'm not leaving anybody ou- for getting us to a place where we're accepting this with a heavy heart, we're moving on and we're thankful that we do have now in place an administrator, a wonderful, wonderful administrator of federal railway administration. thank you very much, mr. president. i would yield the floor. mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i -- the one thing that the senator from california and i share and that is a commitment, long-standing commitment to getting a multiyear highway bill through here. and i hope that that's going to happen here in the next few weeks. we did need to move on a positive train control extension and i want to get into the

reasons for that here in just a minute, but i think probably the most important fact as we look at this particular issue is that nearly every railroad in the country, including every major freight railroad, will not meet what is an unrealistic december 31, 2015, deadline for implementing positive train control. positive train control, or p.t.c., when working as intended is a critical safety technology that will prevent certain types of rail accidents and save lives. we have the ability to make rail transportation even safer by ensuring full implementation of positive train control. and as the chairman of the commerce, science, and transportation committee, i can assure my colleagues that these disruptions would have caused cascading and devastating effects for nearly every sector of the economy and every region of the country. railroads have already started notifying customers that they will stop accepting certain

chemical shipments in late november and early december to ensure that such cargoes are off their system when the existing deadline hits at the end of the year. as rail dependent businesses and their customers prepare for the shutdown, they've already started to feel the negative supply chain effects on logistics and inventory management. the house-passed short-term highway extension provided an option to avert this completely avoidable and unnecessary harm. and, mr. president, this is just not about the railroads, contrary to what has been said here on the floor, that somehow this is a -- you know, a special benefit that only helps railroads. it's about the farmers, many of whom i represent in south dakota, that depend upon the railroad for fertilizer. it's about the manufacturers and other businesses that depend upon rail for critical inputs. and it's about water treatment facilities that depend on rail for chemicals to purify drinking

water. it's about all the workers and the households that benefit from this safe mode of transportati transportation. rail dependent commuters and customers cannot afford -- cannot afford -- a congressionally caused railroad shutdown and that is exactly what would happen if we fail to act. each day, well over a million riders in the united states board commuter railroads to get to and from their places of work. over 2 million people work in industries that use hazardous chemicals hauled by rail, and the gross economic output of these industries alone is over $2 trillion. in fact, the effects of a looming railroad shutdown would have occurred well in advance of the year-end deadline, which is why we are where we are today. over 130 farmers, manufacturers, and retailers wrote to congress last week stating -- and i quote

already starting to feel the impact. with a shutdown just around the corner, rail customers must start putting contingency plans into motion, including adjusting production schedules and work force levels." this isn't just an economic issue. it has major, major implications for public health and safety. i mentioned earlier water treatment facilities across this country have urged a deadline extension in a joint letter to me reiterating that point, and i'll quote from the letter. this is what they said. they said, "even a temporary interruption of water disinfection chemical deliveries could risk a public health disaster for communities across this country." the u.s. conference of mayors also urged a deadline extension and wrote that switching from trial other modes of transportation would lead to additional accidents -- additional accidents -- in our nation's communities and greater exposure to the risks of

hazardous materials. the acting federal railroad administrator, who we just made permanent railroad administrat administrator, has the responsibility for conducting oversight of our nation's rail network. and she expressed concern at a september commerce committee hearing. she said that a rail shutdown would -- and i quote -- "lead to significant congestion and does lead to safety impacts." keep in mind, total train accidents per year have decreased by nearly 50% since 2005 and rail is often the safest available way to haul many types of products, especially hazardous chemicals. it would take, mr. president, more than 600,000 trucks on our nation's roads to replace freight rail, let alone the additional cars and buses needed to replace commuter rail. when congress passed legislation in 2008 mandating the implementation of positive train control, it never intended to

punish rail customers or to harm the economy. but this law failed to properly consider the complexity and time involved in developing mass, producing, installing and testing a new technology involving a complex network of new computers and communications equipment deployed on more than 20,000 locomotives and 60,000 miles of railroad track. and there's plenty of finger pointing to go around as to why it didn't get done, but, mr. president, the bottom line is this. after seven years of work, over $6 billion of mostly private funds spent, and with about two months to go before the legal deadline, not one railroad, single railroad in this country, commuter or freight, has fully implemented positive train control. for years, study after study, including those from the knob

nonpartisan government accountability office, found that the 2015 deadline for full implementation of p.t.c. was unrealistic. the independent experts at the general accountability office concluded that the vast majority of railroads, including all freight railroads, would not meet the deadline by the end of the year. mr. president, i'm pleased that the senate came together and acted on a solution. the bipartisan/bicameral proposal that i helped craft does not just extend the deadline for implementing positive train control, it significantly increases accountability and transparency. our proposal gives the secretary of transportation the authority to fine railroads if they fall behind metrics and milestones on their way to completing installation and full implementation. it requires detailed and publicly available reporting to ensure progress each step of the way. under our bipartisan proposal,

railroads must implement positive train control by december the 31st in 2018. now, to ensure that p.t.c. works as intended, the secretary has very limited case-by-case discretion to allow railroads additional time for testing and certification but only, only if railroads complete all installation, spectrum acquisition and employee training. to qualify for this additional time, freight railroads must have started using p.t.c. on the majority of their territories or track. these accountability focused changes, with objective criteria and rigorous oversight, are designed to ensure that we never need another extension. and i'd like to extend my thanks to our colleagues on the house side, representative shuster, defazio, denim and capuano for their strong bipartisan leadership in collaboration to address this major transportation issue. this issue's been extensively

debated in the senate and this proposal incorporates principles and text that have twice been reported out of the commerce committee and have passed the full senate in july by a vote of 65-34. now, let me repeat that. everything we're talking about right here today -- and it's been modified a little bit when we negotiated this with the house -- but the basic text, basic framework, basic outline of what we just passed had already passed the senate as part of the transportation bill with 65 votes earlier this year. so the idea that this is somehow something that is being sprung on members here in the senate is just not consist went the facts. -- consistent with the facts. i'm grateful to senators blunt and mccaskill to help bring colleagues together to make sure p.t.c. is made safely available as soon as possible. now, some have suggested different ways to approaching this issue. at a time when we're making

progress to finally kick the -- end the kick-the-can mentality through the enactment of a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill, this proposal will ensure that we're not injecting that same type of uncertainty into another transportation mode, which is our nation's rail system. attaching the bipartisan agreement on extending the p.t.c. deadline as part of the short-term highway extension solves this problem while keeping pressure on the house of representatives to pass a multiyear transportation bill that we can then reconcile with the senate-passed drive act, the multiyear transportation bill that passed this chamber earlier this year. so, mr. president, i want to applaud leader mcconnell, chairman inhofe, ranking member boxer, ranking member nelson for their continued efforts to push for the completion of a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill, and due to constant pressure from the senate, as was noticed with last

week's markup by the house transportation and infrastructure committee, we can actually see the path to getting a bill done with our house colleagues, and the fact that the short-term extension before the senate sets a november 20 deadline, along with the house planning to take up a multiyear transportation bill next week, indicates that it is, in fact, possible to soon get a multiyear transportation bill across the finish line. and i would say, mr. president, nobody should misinterpretty my work, my efforts with my colleagues here in the senate in addressing the harms associated with failing to fix the looming positive training control deadline. as a major part of the overall drive act, the transportation bill that passed the senate, legislative text that originated from the senate commerce committee and i will not be backing down in my efforts to see a host of transportation safety freight and rail provisions signed into law in the coming weeks.

together we have averted the potential harm that would come with a congressionally caused rail shutdown. we have set a realistic, positive training control deadline. we have held the railroads accountable and ensured that the job is done swiftly and safely. and, mr. president, it was important that that be done in a swift and a safe way, and i just want to mention, because my colleague from california was quoting a story from the "washington post" that ran earlier this week, but i want to mention that that very newspaper on their editorial page and their editorial board editorialized -- and i want to quote from that -- congress should revise the 2008 legislation to give railroads more time to come into compliance with consequences for those who fail to produce concrete plans for immediate

improvement and meet milestones along the way -- end quote. but the very newspaper that the senator from california was quoting actually in their editorial page editorialized the congress needed to fix and to put in place an extension that will allow the railroads to come into compliance. that was echoed by a lot of the large newspapers across the country. the "chicago tribune" editorial board wrote, and i quote, p.t.c., positive train control is coming. it's just not coming fast enough to meet what was always, what was always an unrealistic deadline. so if your commute is a mess come january, don't blame metra, blame congress -- end quote. that was from the "chicago tribune." the "chicago sun-times" editorial board opined, and i quote, congress should extend the deadline to give metra and other railroads the chance to get the job done -- end quote. in the "los angeles times" editorial board wrote, and i quote, rather than risk a shutdown, of crucial transportation services, congress ought to fast track a

solution -- end quote. the problem we had here, mr. president, is we didn't have the luxury of time. and so the vehicle that came over from the house of representatives, which was a short-term extension of the highway bill, presented a chance for us to address this issue, knowing full well that it had to be addressed and that it had to be addressed in a timely way. we have railroads, shippers in this country who, as i mentioned earlier, have already indicated that they are modifying adjusting their operations and their plans right now and notifying customers of the impacts and effects of congress failing to act in a timely way. so the reason that this needed to be fixed now, because if we hadn't fixed it, we would have started to see the disruptions in our economy that would have come with a -- a shutdown because no railroad, as i said, to date, no railroad to date has been able to meet the positive

training control deadline. and so we approach this in a way that -- approached this in a way that we felt watts reasonable, -- was reasonable, rational, logical and kept the pressure on the railroads, required the accountability that is necessary to see this done in a realistic way, and i think the end result that just passed the senate is a good outcome and a good solution not for just the railroads in this country but for the shippers, the farmers in states like south dakota who depend upon those railroads, the commuters around this country who rely on that form of transportation every day to get to work, and for the thousands and thousands and thousands of people who work in those rail-related industries across this country. it's one example where congress demonstrated that it actually could in a timely way act in a responsible way to -- to bring about a solution that will avoid what surely would have been not

only an economic disaster but a public safety disaster as well. so, mr. president, i'm pleased that our colleagues here in the senate found a way to approve this today, and i hope as i said before that we will continue to keep the heat on to get a multiyear transportation bill through the house and through the senate with this short-term extension through november 20. it gives us a few weeks to complete action on that piece of legislation, but we didn't have the luxury of time, nor could we afford to wait, to act on it to make sure that this positive train control extension was put in place in a timely way. mr. president, i thank you and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: and the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. by voice vote, this body has extended the highway funding program, which is a good thing, and it has also included in that extension a delay in the deadline for positive train control, which was inevitable. none of us opposed a delay in

positive train control. what we opposed was an extension of that delay with inadequate accountability and excessive time. this delay in positive train control, let's be absolutely clear, is really a delay until 2020 -- not 2018, because when railroads hit 2018, they can apply for two more years, and that second extension is dependent only on having completed work on half the system, and much of that determination is within the control of the railroad itself. that will be the 50th anniversary of the ntsb calling for positive train control. we're not talking here about a novel, untested technology.

in fact, five railroads will meet the deadline to implement this technology at the end of this year. clearly all could have at least sought plausiblely to meet that deadlindeadline. if they had a reason for failing to do so, they should have been required to present case-by-case, year-by-year with a firm deadline of 2018. that's the system that i proposed in the legislation that i offered six months ago, well before this deadline became an imminent necessity. 46 years ago, two passenger trains collide collided in darrian, connecticut, killing four people. there have been similar crashes and catastrophes since that

time, resulting in nearly 300 deaths and 6,700 injuries and incalculable economic losses. the worst of those cases o was a crash in california, in fact, southern california, in 2008, killing 25 people. another took place in the bronx in 2013. many of us having visited this site in the bronx, having observed the remnants of this derailment, are closely familiar with it. my colleagues in california and new york have been ardent advocates of positive train control and i thank them for their support. these examples are only a few of the many instances of death and destruction over decades that could have been presented -- prevented by positive train control.

positive train control could have prevented spitan dival. it could have prevented other repeated instances of death and destruction that resulted from trains speeding excessively and thereby derailing. it could have prevented trains from colliding. it could have prevented drivers from ignoring signals. it could have prevented death and injury around the country with economic losses far exceeding the cost of installing positive train control. joe bordman, the head of amtrak and a former f.r.a. administrator, has said -- quott important rail safety advancement of our time." today the united states senate has delayed it by five years. there are reasons and there is

blame enough to go around, and the federal government, in all frankness the federal communications commission, perhaps bears part of that blame in the failure to allocate sufficient spectrum. but let's be honest today that five years of delay was unnecessary. the railroads sought it. they won it with a threat to shut down railroad service everywhere in the country, an unacceptable outcome. the question is, can we change this deadline in a smart, responsible way? and unfortunately the action today rewards the dilatory with unnecessary delay. congress has sent a message that

these deadlines can be avoided without repercussions and responsibility. that's bad policy. it's a bad process. i regret it. there was a better way to act that would have ensured continued funding for our highways and continued accountability for positive train control which is, indeed, the most important rail safety advancement of our time. this is not some abstract, novel system. it's been around, it's been used, it's been tested and i regret that today it has been delayed unnecessarily. finally, i want to congratulate and thank sarah feinberg and the good news today is that her nomination has been approved. i look forward to working with her and welcome her as a new

source of leadership which she's already demonstrated. and i hope that she will act aggressively and responsibly to assure that positive train control and other safety measures become the law and the law that's enforced as effectively and promptly as possible. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to talk about an issue that affects the health of our children in every single state and i'm going to ask unanimous consent that after i complete remarks, senator blumenthal, senator markey, senator boxer and senator warren be afforded the opportunity to continue to address the same topic. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: and i'd also invite my colleagues to jump in if they would like at any point to exchange views as well.

so this issue is one that we have known about for a very long period of time which is that tobacco addiction destroys liv lives. i grew up in a family where my mother didn't smoke and my father didn't smoke but they both came from large families, many brothers and sisters, and it seemed like every single year when i was young, one of my aunts or my uncles died from smoking. they died from cancer. they died from heart disease. they died from emphysema. and this carnage was just all too apparent. and anyone who has taken the slightest look at this issue knows that the statistics just are unbelievable. the number of deaths and illnesses cost, the number of

years cost, the degrade -- the degradation of the quality of life of individuals. for this reason, it had long been a topic here in the senate that nicotine, the primary acting element in tobacco, should be considered a drug. it has many -- it is a drug. it has all these impacts. and we have a food and drug administration, the food and drug administration should be able to regulate it. for the health and welfare of our -- of our nation. and back in 2009, we debated just such a law here on the floor of the senate and across the way in the house and that law was adopted. and so we anticipated that in short order, regulations would be issued and they would help address particularly, particularly the effort of

tobacco companies to produce new products designed to essentially produce nicotine tobacco addicts among our children, to entice our children into smoking or chewing, this whole variety, this continuum of products. but here we are years later. it's no longer 2009. it's 2015. six years later and we have no regulation. and during that time, a great deal has happened. many new products have been introduced in the never-ending quest of the tobacco companies to find what they call replacement smokers. that is young folks who will continue to buy their products as their current customers die because they use their products. and so six years have passed and no action out of the administration.

year after year we've -- we've pushed, we've called as senators, we've talked about it on the floor, we've held meetings with the key officials, and it's always been, "we're almost there." "we're working on it." "we know how important it is." but while this process has gone along so slowly, millions more of our children have become addicted to tobacco. and one of the main instruments that the tobacco industry is using are flavors designed to target children. we can sew here particularly flavors in the e-cigarette category. and we have a whole variety. we have coffee. we have cherry. we have apple. we have cherry bomb flavoring. i was told on -- today on the

phone that there's a captain kangaroo flavor, there's a scooby-do flavor, there's a gummy bear flavor. now, these flavors are not designed to entice adults in to becoming smokers because the industry knows that very rarely does an individual start to use tobacco products after the age of 21. it is the youth who experiment and then the nicotine as an addictive drug does its work and turns them into lifetime users. and that is where, of course, the money is. now, i was asked in an interview today how it is that the tobacco companies say that these products are not targeted to children. and i responded very simply. it's the big lie. no one, no individual can look at the flavors of these products

and not know that they're targeting our children. so what has happened in the last few years is the e-cigarette industry, the most successful of the products that tobacco companies have tested. and, in fact, in just the last year alone, use by our high school students has tripled and that means that we now have 2 million high school -- and the survey was the previous 30 days, in the previous 30 days, 2 million of our high school students had utilized e-cigarettes. so the tobacco campaign is working which means they are hard at work compromising the health and welfare of our children and leading them down a path to suffering and death. and that's unacceptable. so we are here today, a number of us, to simply say to our own administration, our executive branch, get the regulations do

done. they have now been forwarded from the food and drug administration, from the f.d.a., to the group, the office of management and budget, that does the final review of those regulations. get the regulations done and make sure that they are strong regulations. do not put in a clause that grandfathers all the products and exempts them from regulation that have been produced up until now. such a grandfather clause would tear the heart out, tear the guts out of the entire effort to regulate these killer products. and certainly regulate the flavors. that is the key core strategy of addicting our children. do not ignore that key core strategy. so this is something very real that this body here debated and decided to do and turn it over to the executive branch.

it is way past time for the executive branch to act. so we are asking for quick and powerful, forceful action to stop the carnage that is ensuing from the failure on these regulations. so several colleagues are coming to the floor to join this conversation and the senator from connecticut, senator blumenthal, i believe is planning to jump in next, followed by senator markey and then senator warren. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i am going to yield to senator markey, if i may, and then follow him in light of the scheduling needs that he may have, and then i'll yield to senator warren. thank you. mr. markey: and i thank you, senator blumenthal, and senator merkley, for organizing this and senator warren, and to everyone who is here. mr. president, with halloween

just days away, i'd like to share some scary facts about nicotine. nicotine is the main ingredient in traditional cigarettes and is also found in the new cigarette, the e-cigarette. four decades of scientific research have proven the following. first, nicotine is addictive. second, nicotine affects brain development. third, nicotine combined with tobacco is responsible for claiming millions of lives. these facts are true, but for years big tobacco willfully, consistently, publicly and falsely denied them. those lies were exposed at congressional hearings, and thanks to the tireless efforts of antismoking and public health advocates, traditional cigarette smoking has declined, from 50% of all adults to 18% of all adults in the united states.

how many millions of lives have been saved because of that. but big tobacco and the e-cigarette industry are like the undead. traditional cigarettes are being supplanted by e-cigarettes. today e-cigarette sales in the united states alone tops $1 billion, and e-cigarette use is growing as fast as the students who are smoking them. the use of e-cigarettes among middle and high school students has skyrocketed, tripling from 2013 to 2014, accounting for upwards of 14% of all high school students. that's when my father began to smoke two packs of camels a day. my father died from smoking two packs of camels a day. nearly 2.5 million young americans currently use e-cigarettes. why the explosion in youth

e-cigarette smoking? it's because big tobacco and the e-cigarette industry are marketing their dangerous nicotine delivery product to children and to teens. big tobacco would have our young people think that e-cigarettes are a treat, but they are a cruel, cruel trick on those children. the younger a person is when he or she starts using products containing nicotine, the more difficult it is to quit, and we know from years of research that flavors attract young people. that's why congress explicitly bans cigarettes with flavors like cherry and bubble gum because of their appeal to young people. so it's very disappointing but not surprising that new nicotine delivery products are available in a myriad of flavors, from cotton candy to vanilla cupcake to coca-cola. i wonder what this industry is

trying to do. that got outlawed for the traditional cigarette industry. you don't have to be a detective to figure it out because over the past decade, we have mate great strides in educating children and teens about the dangers of smoking, and now we cannot allow e-cigarettes to snuff out the progress we have made preventing nicotine addiction and its deadly consequences. we need to ban the marketing of e-cigarettes to kids and teens. we need to ban the use of fruit and candy-flavored flavorings clearly meant to attract children. we need to ban the online sales of e--cigarettes to keep them out of the hands of children. the dangers of e--cigarettes are clear. every day we wait is another day young americans can fall prey to harmful products pushed by the tobacco industry. last year at a commerce

committee hearing when i asked several committee leaders to commit to ceasing the sale of these types of flavored products, a few agreed but the vast majority have not and will not. just today, the e-cigarette trade group, the tobacco vapor electronic cigarette association, threatened the f.d.a. after posting on its web site what the association purports is leaked draft industry guidance under the new deeming rule, tweeting -- quote -- the f.d.a. needs to know we mean business. the association got it partially right. the e-cigarette industry should be put out of business. my father smoked those two packs of camels. back then, it was a cool thing to do. for decades, big tobacco denied that there was any linkage between smoking and cancer. my father died because of that denial of the tobacco industry and the cooperation of the

united states congress. today's electronic cigarettes are no better than the joe camels of the past because e-cigarettes, children and teens, are still getting addicted to nicotine and putting their health and futures at great risk. i urge o.m.b. to give america's youth a real halloween treat by finalizing the f.d.a.'s deeming rule and stopping the sale of these candy-flavored poisons. thank you, and i yield back, mr. president. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i want to thank my colleagues for their very powerful and eloquent comments. i have a poster as well. in the spirit of halloween, mine uses candy. i doubt that children this halloween are going to receive

some of these products, i hope not, when they go door to door, but people looking at this poster could easily mistake the candy for the candy-flavored cigarillos or the candy that looks like cigarettes, appears to be tobacco products, or the spit tobacco that is flavored with candy look-alikes. today the temptation is to have some fun, use some puns, but i come here in sadness and frankly in anger. sadness that every day thousands of people will become addicted to nicotine and suffer from diseases that tobacco causes, whether it's cancer or

smoking-related lung problems, but also tobacco-related problems that can increase the costs as well as the suffering in our nation. we're dealing here with indefensible delays in issuing a rule that is necessary to enforce the law. let me be clear about what's happening. the tobacco control act was passed six years ago. all of us thought that the provisions of that federal law would go into effect to protect americans against the nicotine addiction that is pedaled relentlessly and tirelessly by the tobacco industry. we are six years later in an administration that is probably the most pro-public health and

antitobacco abuse of any in our history and still six years later that law is unenforced, and the reason is there are no regulations, and we are 18 months after the f.d.a. released the rule, the redeeming rule, necessary to enforce that law. 18 months have passed since the f.d.a. have acted. six years since the law was passed in this body. and still no protection for america. this fight goes back years and years, and i was involved as attorney general for the state of connecticut in helping bring a landmark lawsuit. i helped to lead that lawsuit as one of the states that sued the tobacco companies for marketing

to children. back then, this poster might have been used in court, and i appeared in court to say that the tobacco companies, despite their denials, were marketing and pitching to children by using joe camel. today the play book is exactly the same, the tactics have changed, but the strategy is the same of using pitches, wrappings, flavors targeting children. not teenagers or college kids. younger children who are persuaded by the model of their older siblings and friends to begin lifetimes of addiction and disease. they may be fooled by the candy flavors and the wrapping and the

pitches that are used, but we should not be. the f.d.a. should not be. the office of management and budget should not be fooled. and they should not be waiting to issue this rule. it should be issued now. we've written to them asking that the rule be issued. a number of us wrote a letter to sean donovan. i asked the president of the united states very simply to say no more delay, do the rule now. there is no excuse for delay. and by the way, mr. president, time is not on our side. every year of delay, thousands more children become addicted, and the president of the united states knows the power of that addiction because he is a former smoker. hopefully it is former, not

present. and he knows the power of nicotine because he's worked hard to overcome it. so let's prevent young people from becoming addicted in the first place. let's save money and save lives. please, mr. president of the united states, issue this rule. thank you, mr. president. ms. warren: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. i want to say thank you to senator merkley for organizing this event this afternoon. to senators blumenthal and markey for their work on this. smoking produces corporate profits, period. and there's the heart of the problem with e-cigarettes. long after the science showed that cigarette smoking kills, long after the industry denied and denied, long after millions of people died from smoking-related cancers and heart disease, this country

finally got serious about cutting smoking rates. now, much of our attention has been focused on ways to keep the industry from hooking young people, and it's a good approach. if you don't start, you don't have to quit. for decades now, public health experts have worked to reduce smoking and to keep kids and teens from becoming addicted to cigarettes. congress passed laws and implemented regulations that restricted access for teens, we increased tobacco classes, we clamped down on marketing to kids. state and local governments, along with the private sector, limited smoking in public, and those combined efforts worked. since the late 1990's, the youth smoking rate has been cut by more than 50%. the most recent effort in congress to address this issue was the passage of the family smoking prevention and tobacco control act of 2009. the late senator ted kennedy

fought for years and years and years to give the f.d.a. authority to regulate the manufacturer, the -- the manufacture, distribution and the marketing of tobacco, and i stand at his desk today to continue this fight because the law was passed but our federal agencies have still not fully implemented it, and the tobacco industry continues to target young people. the industry profits from getting kids hooked early, so it finds every way it can to undermine all the other work we have done to keep kids from getting hooked on nicotine. since it's harder now to get hidz hooked with cigarettes, the industry has -- get kids hooked with cigarettes, the industry has turned to e-cigarettes. six years after the tobacco control act was passed, the regulations that deem e-cigarettes as tobacco products and make them subject to all of the rules in that bill have still not been finalized. as a result, e-cigs remain

virtually unregulated at the federal level. no age limits, no marketing restrictions, nothing but a splotchy patchwork of state and local regulations. even though most states ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, this is not enough to combat the deliberate and well-financed work of the tobacco industry to hook another generation of kids on their products. now an investigation last year by house and senate leaders revealed how the tobacco industry is marketing their products to kids. it found that the industry is following the exact same practices of marketing to kids and teens that addicted ageneration to cigarettes decades ago. tobacco companies market e-cigs with cartoons and san saa claus. tobacco companies push e-cigs in phrasers designed to appeal

to kids, flavors like cherry crush and chocolate treat. tobacco companies provide free samples at concerts. tobacco companies advertise on television shows and radio programs that attract large audiences of teens and preteens. and to bring it all into the digital age, tobacco companies use all of these tactics online and social media. the tobacco industry has done all of this before, and it is having the same results. according to the c.d.c., e-cig rett use by middle school schoolers -- sixth, seventh, and eighth graders -- and high school students tripled in 2014 alone and new data released yesterday shows that 21.6% of young adults 18-24 have used an

e-cig rett. for teens, e-cig use is now greater than the use of all tobacco products. look, the tobacco industry is up to its old tricks, but we are not going to fall for them again. and after more than six years since the passage of the tobacco control act, the federal government is finally on the cusp of regulation to rein in the industry's e-cig marketing efforts. every day that goes by without this regulation, the tobacco industry hooks more kids. we need a strong rule today, and that's why i join my colleagues to urge the office of management and budget to act without delay and to release this important regulation. it is time. no, it is past time to take action, time to push back

against the tobacco industry, time to stand up for our families' health. mr. president, i yield. i suggest the absence of a quorum. a senator: would the senator withhold? mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i would like to thank very much my colleagues for coming to the floor and speaking to this issue. my colleague from connecticut, senator blumenthal, from massachusetts, senator markey, senator warren also from massachusetts. i must say that this topic of addiction to tobacco and tobacco products being targeted at our children is not one that is only

relevant to one state or this state or that state. it affects children in rural america, in urban america, and in every state and every corner of our nation. so there's basically a universal impact here, and that's really probably part of why the senate came together during a period of which there's been substantial dysfunction and substantial paralysis and said, no, it's time to regulate these tobacco products as the drugs that they are. but during these six years since the bill was passed, we've had no regulation. so i really appreciate my colleagues coming to the floor and trying to amplify the message that this is unacceptable because children will be addicted, they will develop diseases, they will

suffer, and they will die because of the inaction in putting the regulations forward, and this is completely unacceptable. during this time, there is a been a lot of experimental products put out by the tobacco industry. they have put out finely ground tobacco in the form of mints, and they put them into hour hourglass hourglass-shaped containers. in 2009 this was being tested in my state of oregon and ohio tht the shape would be an hourglass. and it came out with a product of toothpicks made out of

finingly ground tobacco and they came out with a product of breathstrips that you put on your tongue. can you imagine using tobacco to freshen your breath? but they were experimenting with everything. but the payday wasn't toothpicks. it wasn't mints, and it wasn't breathstrips sms. the payday product is e-cigs. i'm going to put back up the chart about the e-cigarettes. there are two fundamental myths propagated by the tobacco industry. the first is that they are not marketing to youth. well, let's examine the type of flavors in these products. we have apple, we have -- these are just ones that are on this chart here. we have cotton candy, we have gummy bear, we have watermelon, we have candy craze, we have red

bull, we have peach. these candy and fruit flavors are designed to appeal to children and to mask some of the nastiness of smoking. well -- so that's big lie number one from the industry, that they are not targeting our children; it's absolutely clear that they are. and, furthermore, they have to, because they know that replacement smokers, getting new smokers to replace those who are dying because of their product, requires targeting children because very few people start smoking when they're adults or start using tobacco products when they're adults. the mind of the teenager is the perfect moment to gain traction and produce addiction, and that is why the tobacco companies are targeting our children.

the second myth they put forward is that e-cigarettes are 1eu78ly cigarettes aresimply a d designed to help people quit smoking. maybe it is more healthy than a cigarette with a tobacco leaf ground up inside it. it is a clear liquid nicotine rather than a cigarette or a cigar. don't believe for a moment that tobacco companies are trying to help individuals stop smoking. they didn't become billions of dollars in commerce by getting people to stop smoking. everything about targeting kids is not about getting individuals to stop smoking but to start smoking. that is the goal. to start smoking, to lead them into a life in which they will spend an enormous amount of money buying a product that is destroying their body, eventually they will suffer,

eventually they will die. it will be a heart attack, it will be lung cancer, it will be a whole host of emphysema. and, okay, maybe not every single individual but a huge number of folks who become addicted as youth will suffer substantial health consequences. and even those who don't have cancer or full-blown emif a subsidem--emphysema will sufferr quality of life. so i thank my colleagues for chg to the ploor to accentuate this message that we have waited far too long for the regulations to get done, to take on this industry and that we are demanding that when the regulation is published -- and hopefully that will be very

soon, as in days or weeks -- that that will be a regulation that is written in a forceful, comprehensive fashion, that will not have a grandfather clause that excludes existing products from regulation, and that it will not fail to address this powerful instrument being used to target our children, which is fruit and candy flavors. so we ask that now that the food and drug administration has forwarded for final decision making this decision to the office of management and budget that o.m.b. come out quickly and forcefully and strongly to address this tremendous blight on our society. thank you, mr. president. mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: thank you,

mr. president. mr. president, i take this time as the ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee to bring to my colleagues' attention a very disturbing trend that has taken place on us carrying out our constitutional responsibilities. it's up to the united states senate -- and only the united states senate -- to confirm, advise, and consent appointments by the president of the united states that requires the confirmation of the united states senate. the senate foreign relations committee, which i am honored to serve on and to act as the ranking democrat, has acted, i think, in a very responsible manner in scheduling hearings and taking action on the nominations that have been submitted by president obama. and i want to thank senator corker. he has scheduled these hearings, i think in a very timely way and

scheduled markups in our committee so that we can make our recommendations to the full senate. but, mr. president, that's not true of the senate as a body. there are currently 16 -- 16 -- highly qualified nominees that have been recommended for senate confirmation, none of which are controversial, that are awaiting action on the floor of the united states senate. some of these nominees have been waiting as long as ten months, almost a year, for action by the united states senate. and let me repeat that. not one of these nominees are being held up because of challenges to his or her qualifications to assume the responsibilities for which that person has been nominated. in each of these cases that have cleared the committee hurdle by unanimous or near unanimous votes in the senate foreign

relations committee. so why have we not taken these nominees up for confirmation votes on the floor of the united states senate? they're not controversial. they're qualified for the positions. the reason, mr. president, is that in each case a senator has placed a hold on the consideration of that nominee. now, what does a hold mean? it means that a senator has let their respective caucus know that they will not consent to the nomination coming before the senate, either as a unanimous consent request or for a vote on the floor of the united states senate. that's been the prerogatives of members of the senate. they can do that. now, the way you overcome that is either a senator eliminates their hold -- in each one of these cases, the hold has nothing to do with the qualifications for the position.

or the majority leader, senator mcconditiomcmcconnell brings foa cloture motion to get the issue reresolved. one senator shouldn't be able to prevent us from carrying out our responsibilities of advise and consent. senator mcconnell has been unwilling to do that. i understand the challenges of floor time. i fully do. ten months some of these nominees have been waiting. and these are critical missions for our foreign service. the reasons why these individuals are being held -- and i'll just give you an example -- is because of a member being upset with the obama administration taking the iran agreement to the united nations for a vote before action in the united states senate, having nothing to do with the nominee that we're talking about. or concerns about secretary clinton or concerns about the

secret service, but not related to the person who was nominated for the position that we're talking about. mr. president, that's just wrong. we have the constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on presidential appointments. so let me give you some for examples to fall into this category of the 16 nominees that are currently waiting for senate confirmation. we have the assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilization operations, a person who has been nominated for that is ambassador david robinson, a career diplomat, 30 years of public service. he has held the principal deputy high representative in bosnia-herzegovina, one of the most difficult conflict areas in modern times. he has served both democratic and republican administrations. he's a career diplomat. the position we are talking about focuses on prevention and

response to mass atrocities, encountering violent extremism and election-related violence. i would think that's a high priority for this senate to make sure the united states has all hands on deck to deal with these types of international challenges. ambassador robinson served far and wide under dangerous circumstances. he was the chief admission in kabul, afghanistan, served as the principal deputy secretary for migration, served as the u.s. ambassador for guyana from 2006 to 2008 and as deputy chief of mission as the u.s. deputy in georgetown, guyana, from 2003 to 2006. he also serves as deputy chief of mission at the u.s. embass is i in paraguay -- embassy in paraguay from 2000 to 2003. this is a highly qualified

individual who has shown a clear commitment and dedication to serving his country. he's been waiting almost seven months, almost seven months for the united states senate to act on his nomination. let me cite another example. the state department's legal advisor, brian egan, he has served both republican and democratic administrations. this is a critical mission, the legal advisor. just today in a hearing before the senate foreign foreign relas committee, where we had general allen and the discussion ensued as to the legal authority that we have in regards to some of our activities. it would be good to have a confirmed legal advisor so that we can get those types of answers. like ambassador robinson, mr. egan has served in both democratic and republican administrations. he began his career as a government lawyer in 2005, as a

civil servant in the office of the legal advisor of the state department, which was headed at time by secretary of state condoleezza rice. he has worked in the private sector. he has served as assistant general counsel for enforcement and intelligence at the treasury department. he has served on the national security council staff. mr. president, this is a nonpartisan and fair-minded individual who clearly has the skill and ability to lead the office of legal advisor at the state department. he's been waiting nine months for confirmation. nine months. a person who devoted his career to public service, that's no way to treat people who want to give their service to this country in important roles. we need to carry out our responsibility. at the usaid, the administrator position has not been confirmed. the assistant usaid administrator for europe and

eurasia has not been confirmed. the inspector general of usaid has not been confirmed. these appointments have been here for some time. mr. president, i've listened to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle talk about the refugee crisis. we have approaching the number of people dislocated in this world similar to what we had at the end of world war ii. the principal agency that deals with this crisis in the united states is the usaid. we know we have conflict areas all over the world. we've heard over and over again that the way that we deal with this, one of our major tools is through development assistance. we need confirmed top management at this agency. the united states senate has an obligation to act. in each of these cases, none of these nominees are controversial. i want to repeat that. they're not being held by a senator because of anything to

do with their qualifications or the position to which they have been nominated for. they're unrelated issues. for a long period of time compromising the critical missions of these agencies. just as tragically, there are 20 innocent usaid foreign service officers who have been held up. these 20 usaid foreign service officers are not nominated for ambassador positions or assistant secretary positions. these are folks that were plucked from a list of 181 promotions that must be confirmed by the full senate for the promotions to take effect. in other words, their promotions have been denied taking effect because of an individual hold by a senator for reasons unrelated to their performance in office. career diplomats, civil servants. these are civil servants who are working hard day in and day out serving their country, both democratic and republican

administrations. they're not involved in the politics of the united states senate, and yet they are the casualties of this politics. in challenging and sometimes very dangerous places, these individuals are called upon to serve. we are talking about a supervisor program officer in cambodia, the deputy director of east africa operations in kenya, director of governments office in rwanda, resident legal officer for the regional mission for asia, an education officer in honduras, a regional legal advisor in el salvador, a deputy controller for financial management in el salvador, a regional food for peace officer in ethiopia, a regional legal advisor in egypt, a deputy education and youth officer director in kenya, the director of the food for peace program in south sudan, the democracy and

governors director in el salvador, the economic growth team leader in zimbabwe, economic growth director in ukraine and controller for financial management in rwanda. i went through that list because i think everyone would acknowledge these are people serving in very dangerous places. mr. president, we had a hearing, as i mentioned, in the senate foreign relations committee and general allen is doing an incredible public service for our representative in the middle east said that he wanted to thank the senate foreign relations committee for the attention that we have given to our diplomats. often on the floor of the senate, you hear glowing thanks. and i join in those thanks to the men and women who have worn the uniform of our nation to defend freedom. our thanks go equally to service officers who serve in dangerous positions in order to advance

u.s. principles of democracy and human rights. and we know about the casualties that we have suffered in that regard. well, these individuals are entitled to promotion. it requires our action and to hold up their promotions for reasons unrelated to their job performance is just plain irresponsible. and we need to take up these nominees. there are ambassadorships that have been open for way, way too long, mr. president. i can mention many of the ambassadorships. i'll just mention two: sweden and trinidad tobago. sweden which is a strategic ally and arctic council member, a azita raji has been nominated, a business woman whobt vice -- whs been the vice president of j.p.

morgan. she is a person who brings her unique expertise from the business sector to help one of our critical ambassador positions. again, a noncontroversial nominee who's been held up ten months. ten months. sweden, critical partner for the united states. in trinidad tobago, john estrada has been waiting 180 days for his confirmation. trinidad is a critical place for the united states in our drug smuggling activities that bring drugs into the united states. we need a confirmed ambassador to lead that fight against drug smuggling into the united states. again, being held up for reasons unrelated to his own qualifications. so, mr. president, i could go through all the 16 nominees. i think i've made my point. my point is this: i think the public would be surprised to learn that one senator could

block a nomination of a president, and that is used many times unrelated to the qualifications of that individual for the position in which he or she has been nominated. it's happened here numerous times, as i've just pointed out. and i think it's the responsibility of the senate to say enough's enough. it's time for us to act on these nominees so they can continue their public service in a confirmed position to help us on our war against drugs, to help us in our international diplomacy, to help us in development assistance in order to resolve conflicts, to provide the very best legal advice, to make sure that what we're doing is consistent with our constitution, to do the services of the people -- for the people of this country we've got to do our service here in the united

states senate, and that is to take up and vote on the president's nominees to these critical foreign policy positions. so i urge my colleagues to allow us to bring these members up, these nominees up for vote so we can carry out our responsibility so these people can carry out their critically important missions to the security interest of the united states. and with that, mr. president, i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. you quorum call:

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