veterans living throughout the united states as well as the family members of those fallen and departed and missing in lacks now that at lotes -- will noknow that at least their serve has been received -- the brinkanneers never faltered or failed to prove just how valuable they are to the cause of freedom. my naiforts example is the story of operation portrix. a military exercise that occurred on the eve of the korean war. it was intended to test how the army and marines, navy and air force would do as liberators of an enemy-controlled island. the borinqueneers were tasked with playing the role of the enemy aggressors, and attempting to prevent the more than 3200 american troops from liberating the island in this exercise. and it was a task that quite frankly they were not expected to accomplish and yet much to the surprise of the army

commanders, the 65th infantry badly outnumbered was able to halt the offensive forces on the beaches. and so it's no surprise that after seeing the tremendous skill of the borinqueneers, our army commanders quickly deployed them into the heart of the korean war trusting them with numerous important offensive operations. one of those operations occurred on the 31st of january of the year 1951, and it's credited as having been the last battalion-sized bayonet charge by a u.s. army unit. of that charge, the commanding general, douglas mcarthur wrote, quote, "the puerto ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65 lgt infantry regiment on the battlefields of korea by valor and determination and a resolute will to victory give daily testament to their invincible loyalty to the united states and the federa fevor to human relato

which the americans and the puerto ricans are in common dedicated. they are writing a brilliant record of achievement in battle and i am proud, indeed, to have them in this command. i wish that we might have more like many more like them." throughout the storied history of the 65th, there are countless examples of valor that have distinguished this regiment and today puerto ricans serve in our military at some of the highest rates of any demographic group in the nation which is no doubt a lasting legacy of the borinqueneers. it has been one of my great honors as a senator to be involved in the effort to secure the congressional gold medal by cosponsoring the legislation that passed the senate in 2014. i was also honored to sand in the white house as president obama signed the bill into law. today i want to thank two congressionally designated liaisons who have worked tirelessly to make this day a

reality. sam rodriguez and javier morales, both of whom are army veterans themselves. they made it their mission to ensure through the design of the medal and its unveiling ceremony, these men who have honored our nation, received honor they deserve in return. and i thank both of them for their work. i would also like to say a special thank you to the students at st. luke's lutheran school in oveida, florida and their teacher, miss ford, who is the granddaughter of two borinqueneers herself. miss ford and her students raised thousands of dollars in their community toward an ongoing national effort to ensure that every single living borinqueneer would receive a replica of the congressional gold medal. the passionate efforts of mr. rodriguez and mr. morales and miss ford and her students and so many others who have labored to make this day a reality is part of what makes this congressional gold medal so special. it reminds us that the legacy of

past generations of borinqueneers who have fought and died for america is indeed a living legacy. today that legacy alive and well reminds us that america truly is an exceptional country. ours is a nation made up of people from all different backgrounds and all different cultures came together as one nation because we share a common idea, that everyone deserves the freedom to exercise their god given rights. each member of the 65th infantry regiment fought for that freedom and not just for themselves but for every man and woman and child in these united states. so in closing to the borinqueneers, i'd like to say congratulations on the unveiling of your well deserved congressional gold medal, and more importantly on behalf of my staff and my family and the people of florida, i'd like to say thank you. thank you for your shfs. thank -- for your service. thank you for your cowrnl. thank you for fight -- courage. thank you for fighting to make

this nation the best it can be. on another topic, i want to discuss briefly an amendment that i have now pending to the bill before us, the bill on the f.a.a. it's a bill -- it's an amendment that's drafted to the finance portion of this bill and it deals with welfare reform. for two decades now it's been the policy of the united states that new immigrants to the united states do not qualify for welfare and other public assistance programs for their first five years in the country. so just to lay out what that means, if you're an immigrant to the united states, a legal immigrant to the united states for the first five years that you are in this country you do not qualify for any federal welfare or other public assistance programs. and of course illegal immigrants do not qualify at all for federal assistance programs. but there is an exception to this federal law, and the exception from this policy for refugees and asigh lees who come to our shores seeking shelter from persecution.

while immigrants to the united states do not get federal benefits, if you can prove that you are a refugee fleeing persecution, then you do qualify for federal assistance. for these people who can prove they're fleeing persecution, our compassionate country makes this financial commitment so they can get a new start on life and a leg up. but there's a provision of existing law that many people are not aware of, and a provision of this existing law basically says that anyone who comes from cuba regardless of why you came to the united states, you are automatically and immediately presumed to be a receive jew and therefore -- a receive jew and therefore you are immediately eligible for welfare and other public assistance. our existing law treats all cubans categorically as if they were refugees whether or not they can prove it. as many of you know i am the son of cue wan im-- cuban immigrants. i live in a community where they have had an indelible imprint in

south florida and yet i stand here today to say that this provision of law, this distinction is no longer justified. the financial incentives that have -- this financial incentive, this notion, this reality that if you get here from cue barks you are going to -- cuba, you are going to immediately qualify for federal benefits has encouraged the current migratory crisis in which today thousands of cubans are making dangerous trips to come to the united states of america. it's creating pressure for foreign governments, for example, in central america that simply cannot host them. and it's now adding pressure to our southwest border. just to outline what is happening, traditionally cubans come to the united states on rafts or on an airplane, on a visa but now many are making the trip to costa rica or honduras and they're working their way up through central america, mexico and crossing our southern border. and it is my belief and well founded based on much of the evidence we've now received in testimony and in newspaper

articles, the south florida sun sent nenl, one of our \newspaper/up ins has extensively documented this and other abuses that are going on that a significant number of people are drawn to this country from cuba because they know when they arrive they can step foot on dry land, immediately receive status and they immediately qualify for a package of federal benefits that no other immigrant group would qualify for unless they can prove they're refugees. this current policy is not just being abused. it's hurting the american taxpayers. there are reports that indicate that financial support for cuban immigrants exceeds $680 million in the year 2014 alone, and those numbers, by the way, have quite frankly grown only since then. on top of the fundamental and fairness of the policy, recent reports in the media indicate that there is gross abuse of this policy. in florida we are now hearing many stories of individuals coming to this country and claiming their benefits regularly and repeatedly returning back to cuba.

in essence the country you're supposed to be fleeing because you fear for your life and your frefreedom. if you are a refugee, it means you're seeking refuge. it's difficult to justify someone's refugee status when after arriving in the united states at the are traveling back to the place they are quote/unquote fleeing from 10, 15, ten times a year. bay the way this is the cuban adjustment act in particular danger. that's a separate topic not dealt with in my amendment and one that i have said publicly perhaps should be re-examined and adjusted to the new realities that we now face. but i'm not dealing with that right now. we are dealing with the benefits portion of this. and it is difficult to justify refugee benefits for people that are arriving to the united states and are immediately traveling repeatedly back to the nation they claim to be fleeing. others who are -- others that are immediately traveling back to the island are actually staying there. so let me paint the picture for

you. you come from cuba on the cuban adjustment act. you arrive in the united states because you crossed the southwest border with mexico or you landed on a raft on a beach somewhere in florida. you claim your status as a cuban refugee and less than a year later or year later you travel back to cuba and you stay there for weeks or months at a time. but because you qualify for federal refugee benefits, you are receiving benefits from the federal government but you are living in cuba. and how this practically works is while you are living in cuba, relatives or friends in america are getting hold of your benefits. they're mailed to you or direct deposited and they're making sure you get that money to subsidize your lifestyle. so i can tell you today unequivocally that there are people living basically permanently on the island of cuba with occasional visits back to the united states who are living a lifestyle that is being subsidized by the u.s. taxpayer because of this abuse. now this practice quite frankly is illegal under current law,

but the responsible agencies seem to be -- seem to have failed to enforce this law. and so i have offered an amendment to this bill that puts an end to this abuse and puts an end to the unfairness of the existing law. and all my amendment would do is would simply require shows who come from cuba that would still be able under the cuban adjustment act to receive permanent status into the united states but they're going to be treated like every other immigrant and they are going to be ineligible for most federal benefit programs for five years unless they can demonstrate and prove that they qualify for refugee status. so let me paint a picture of what that would look like. if you come from cuba and you can prove that you are fleeing oppression, that you are involved politically, that you are a dissident, that you are someone who the government is persecuting, then you are a refugee and you will be treated like a refugee and you will qualify for refugee benefit tion. but if -- benefits. but if you simply arrive from cuba because you're seeking a

better life for yourself from an economic standpoint, you will still be able to benefit from the cuban adjustment act and that status but you will not qualify for federal benefits. you will be treated like any other immigrant who comes to the until. and -- to the united states. and we should be clear that the castro regime does indeed repress hundreds of people every week. so there's no question that there are many that still come here from cuba who are refugees and are fleeing persecution. there is no doubt that there are people that will arrive this month and this year from cuba that have left cuba because they are being politically persecuted. there is no doubt about that. so we are not talking about excluding them. they will be able to prove that they are refugees and they will be able to qualify for refugee benefits. but while it is clear that there are still many people facing persecution in cuba and fleeing, it is also clear that this is not everyone that is coming from cuba. and so all this amendment would simply do is bring parity between cuban refugees and every other refugee.

and i say this to you as someone whose parents came from cuba. i propose this amendment as someone who lives in a community where cuban americans comprise a significant plurality of the population. and i see firsthand these abuses that are occurring. and it is not fair to the american taxpayer and it is costing us money and quite frankly it is encouraging people to come here to take advantage of this program. so by passing this amendment, if we pass it, congress will not only save taxpayers millions of dollars, but i believe it will also help minimize the increase we have seen in migration of cubans over the last couple of years. by weeding out bad actors who only come to the u.s. in search of government benefits that they can take advantage of for the first five years that they are here. i believe this is responsible. i believe that this is the right approach for our nation both fiscally but also from an immigration standpoint. and i hope that i can earn bipartisan support for passing this very sensible proposal, and

i encourage my colleagues to go on the website of the south florida sun sent nenl, a newspaper in south florida and they have extensively documented not just these abuses but a series of other abuses that are occurring as well as part of this overall program and so it is my hope that i can earn the support of my colleagues to convert this idea into law. and with that, madam president, i yield the bloor and suggest -- yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. matsch i ask to dashes.

mr. manchin: i to sraeurbt the quorum call. i -- without objection. mr. manchin: i rise to share jesse's story, who passed away. she was 30 years old. after years of struggling with heroin addiction, she had been doing well. her parents and family members and all her close friends were very proud of the progress she was making. she had been sober since august, but last month she had surgery for an infection. the infection was related to a running injury, and she dyed --d the day after leaving the hospital. her father was a very good state senator. we worked together in legislature, and he shared their family's struggle with addiction with president obama, which i was very pleased at president obama coming to a state where he is probably the, has the least popularity but has the greatest

challenge of opioid addiction of west virginia. he came there, and he heard the struggles. he saw it firsthand. i really think it moved him and made him more committed to fighting this drug abuse that goes on in america. he shared that with president obama when he came last october, and i think, like i said, this made a difference. we have in west virginia, not unlike iowa, have been hit very hard. as a matter of fact, west virginia has been hit the hardest by the opioid addiction. it's really an epidemic. you think about an epidemic, pandemics, we talk about ebola and zika and all the things we're concerned about, but you haven't heard a lot about opioids. it is the silent killer. we're ashamed if it happens to ourselves or our family. we don't talk about it.

it's an epidemic and there is not a person in the country, as i say, that doesn't know someone in their immediate or extended family that hasn't been affected. that's the epidemic and something we have to cure. drug overdose in my little state of west virginia has increased by more than 700% since 1999 through 2013. last year alone over 600 lives were lost to prescription drug abuse overdose. that's legal. this is a product produced by legal manufacturing companies, pharmaceuticals, a product 3r50u6rbd by -- approved by the food and drug administration, a watchdog trying to make sure we're safe with our food and drugs. our doctors are prescribing something they think will help us. and it's something that's killing americans everywhere. so, this is jessie's story and

her family's pain, all too familiar and too common in west virginia and throughout the nations. we lost over 600 west virginiaans last year. 61,000 used prescription drugs last year for nonmedical. our state's not unique. every day in the country 51 americans die. 51 americans die every day from opioid abuse. since 1999 we lost almost 200,000 americans from prescription opioid abuse. think about that. 200,000 in little over a decade. it's unheard of. in any other category, we would be doing something monumental. jesse's story deeply impacted the president and i spoke with the president. when the president came, jesse

was in rehab for the fourth time before her life was taken over by addiction in 2009, jesse's future was very bright. a really unbelievable young lady, a beloved daughter, a beloved sister to her four sisters and a beloved friend to her family and many others. she was an excellent student. she scored 99 per iscentile. she was a cheerleader and avid runner. at the time of her death she was looking forward to running in her first marathon. the only trouble she had gotten into in school was when she protested the iraq war. needless to say, she was a natural-born leader. she truly was. she was one of those girls that was captivating. after graduating from capital high school, she was thrilled

and looking forward to her bright future at the university of north carolina ashville. she was sexually assaulted during her first semester which caused her to withdraw from school and return home to charleston. that traumatic event caused jesse to turn to heroin to escape her pain. over the next several years she would overdose four times and go to rehab four times. up until her death she had been sober for six months and was focused on making a life for herself in michigan and one her parents were very proud of. and all of her hard work was ruined because of a careless mistake, one mistake. jesse's death is particularly heartbreaking because it was 100% preventable. 100%. her parents traveled to michigan for jesse's surgery and told her doctors and hospital personnel

that she was a recovering addict. she was having a hip surgery caused by all of her running and they were treating her for an infection. however, after her surgery, the discharging doctor who said he didn't know that she was a recovering addict sent her home with a prescription for 50 -- 5. 50 oxycontin. he she should never have been given one, not one, for opioid medication. we must ensure that this never happens again. jesse passed away that night. and when you think about it, how preventable this was, because of a lot of privacy laws we can't tell. that doctor didn't know. did someone mess up? we don't know. were they not allowed to put -- if you're -- if you're allergic

to penicillin or something, it's on your chart. they know. if you're allergic to anything. but if you're an addict and you are aletter jibbing to opioid -- and you are alergic to opioid, they can't do that. madam president, i know you'll be compassionate about this. next week i'm going to be introducing jesse's law to make sure that this type of careless mistake never happens to another daughter, a son, a nephew, a niece, anyone in america. the bottom line is that we need to go at this problem at every -p angle with the help of everyone. family assistance, drug counseling, consumer and medical education, law enforcement support, state and federal legislation. we need to throw everything we've got into this. with continued support and tireless work from everyone, we can beat this epidemic once and for all.

jesse's death is heartbreaking to anybody who knew her or the family or their contribution to society every day. this is a tremendous family. they give so much back. and we all know someone who's been impacted. we do, every one of us. every one of our interns here, they know. our pages know. they see it in their schools. everybody sees what's going on. we've got to speak up. this is a fight we have to win. this opioid epidemic that has claimed a generation, taking away from us, i'm committed to this more than i've been committed to anything. if i have one purpose of being in this senate it's to bring to light these young people whose lives are changes, the families that have been changed all over west virginia, all over america. it's been silent for far too long and we're not going to keep it silent. people are sending me letters from iowa, letters from west virginia, and they're saying, please, use my name.

put a face and a name to a tragedy. they want us to know in congress that something has to be done. we don't need all these drugs on the market. we don't need the pharmaceutical putting more and more powerful opioids. we don't need a business plan that's destroying people's lives. this is something i think we agree on. this is something that will unite us like nothing else in congress. it's not a democrat or a republican epidemic. it's not a disease that's killing democrats and republicans. it's killing americans, and we are americans. so i'm hopeful and i have been very, very pleased with all of the support we're getting from both sides, democrats and republicans, coming together on this issue. we have got some important legislation coming forward that's going to allow us, i believe, for the first time to make a monumental change. i want to thank senator

mcdonald from the d.a. he is trying very hard to change the culture of the v.a. of treating pain with alternative. there is so much more we need to do and i will be getting into that later. madam president, i thank you for your attention, i thank you for the job you do for the great people of iowa. this is one that we're going to work together on because it's one that we can't afford not to. thank you, and i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. ms. murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. ms. murkowski: i request the proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i ask unanimous consent that amendments submitted to the previous substitute senate amendment 3464 be contributed as long as instructions to the clerk are drafted properly. the presiding officer: is there

objection? without objection. ms. murkowski: madam president, i have nine unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, madam president. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mrs. boxer: mr. chairman? the presiding officer: the senator california. mrs. boxer: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: mr. president, i'm trying to get a vote on an amendment that senator klobuchar and i have introduced and to explain it, i'm going to show you this. these are two airplanes. they're exactly the same size. they're flying across the same skies. they're flying over the same homes. but there is a difference, a difference that i'm trying to fix here. this is a passenger plane, and due to an f.a.a. regulation that senator snowe and i were able to get in place through a vote here

in this chamber several years ago, the pilots in the passenger plane can only fly up to nine hours a day. after that, they have to rest because fatigue -- pilot fatigue is a very dangerous situation facing not only our pilots but their crews and everyone that's in their vicinity. now, what happened when senator snowe and i wrote our legislation, we assumed that the regulation that would be forthcoming from the f.a.a. would cover both passenger planes and cargo planes. because, again, these planes share the same skies, go over the same airspace, go over the same homes. it is a pretty simple, straightforward point. and fatigue is fatigue. you don't get less fatigue because you're carrying cargo rather than passengers.

so these pilots can fly up to 16 hours a day, and we know from the pilots themselves, every single pilots' organization has endorsed this, that this is a very dawnous disparity, and it need -- a very dangerous disparity, and it needs to be fixed. so all i'm asking for from the majority here is for an up-or-down vote on this amendment. it's real simple. it simply says the f.a.a. shall issue a rule to get rid of this disparity and make the cargo pilots have the same rules as the passenger pilots. real simple. number-one issue from the national transportation safety board is fatigue -- is what they site, the number-one problem across the board: fatigue. so we need to fix this. so i have spoken both to my

friends, senator nelson who supports this, senator thune who's been a little more subtle about how he feels about this, and i've asked them if i can have an up-or-down vote. i hope i can have that up-or-down vote. i'm not asking for anything special. a 60-vote threshold is fine. if people want to vote against the amendment, fine, let them be held accountable. but it's a moral issue right now. and the bottom line is, people are in jeopardy right now. so i don't know what is exactly going to happen. and the reason we're at a standstill is partly because i've said i want a vote vote --e said i want a vote, and that's sort of stopped things. i know if we pass this, it's going to save lives. if you save one life, you've saved humanity -- written in the

testament somewhere. so you have to save lives. that's one of the things we need to do. since we know about this thisdisparity and we have prove we need to fix it. if people want to vote "no," that's fine with me. hopefully most will vote "yes" and hopefully we'll get this done. we got it done before. we should be able to get it done again. what could be happening is that we could get that vote -- of course, what i'd lovehe best is if senators thune and nelson just took our amendment and put it in the package. that would be wonderful. but they don't do that, i want a vote. what i hope doesn't happen is, okay, we'll give you a vote. but we're going to take two really poison pill amendments. i'm not here to have a game.

i'm here to have a vote. up or down. this should not be tied to anything else. i want to read you the incredible words that were spoken, excerpts from ups flight 1353, a cockpit conversation that took place minutes before a crash. these are words -- these are coming from the grave, so i'm just telling everything to listen to these words and make up your own mind as to whether i'm being unreasonable here wanting to have a vote. pilot 1: i mean, i don't get it. you know, it should be one level of safety for everybody. pilot 2: it makes no sense at all. pilot 3 -- i mean, pilot 1: no, it doesn't at all. pilot 2: ... and to be honest, it should be across the board. to be honest in my opinion,

whether you're flying passengers or cargo, if you're flying this time of day ... the you know fatigue is definitely ... pilot 1 yeah ... yeah ... yeah ... pilot 2: when my alarm went off, i mean i'm thinking i'm so tired ... pilot 1: i know. here's what happened to that cargo jet. and it happened over alabama -- is that right? in 2013. this is what happened. and the ntsb said it was definitely fatigue that played a role in this crash. so am i being unreasonable to say this is the f.a.a. bill, this is the bill we do every couple of years about air safety

-- am i beingunreasonable to ask my colleagues to vote up or down on whether there ought to be parity between passenger pilots and cargo pilots? i don't think so. let's see. remember captain sullenberger, who was the hero who landed his plane in the water, the hero of the hudson, sully sullenberger. he's superstar. he did this. he knows about safety. he knows it. he said request,ings i could feel the water running over the top of my feeters and that's what really scared me. i thought, i survived the impact, and now i'm going to drown." that was a passenger who said that. how the pilot saved them all. and we all know he saved 155 as he lands the jet in frigid new york river. let's see what sully

sullenberger says about the situation of fatigue. let's see it. if we cannot listen to this, who are we listening to? and by the way, these comments are not just aimed at my colleagues. they're aimed at the administration, who has not done this, who are wrong -- they're wrong. listen to what sully sullenberger said, the hero of flight 1549. "you wouldn't want your surgeon operating on you after only five hours of sleep, or your passenger pilot flying the airplane after only five hours of sleep, and you certainly wouldn't want a cargo pilot flying a large plane over your house at 3:00 a.m. on five hours of sleep trying to find the airport and land." so the question around here is, who do we listen to? do we listen to the companies that are afraid it's going to

cost them a few dollars? do we thereon the pilots? -- do we listen to the pilots? do we listen to sully sullenberger, who is telling us fatigue kills, it's a killer? that's what he said at the press conference the other day. i want to ask unanimous consent to place into the record a number of articles that appeared in the news. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you so much, mr. president. here it is -- this one in "the hill" quoting captain sullenberger. "fatigue is a killer. it is time to right this wrong. it's time to fix this rule." and here's another one. this one in the new york daily news with a picture of captain

sullenberger saying, "this is not a partisan issue. it's a science-based, commonsense issue." he said, "cargo pilots generally fly at flight and deserve the same sleep standards already garntsed to passenger pilots, flights limited to eight or nine hours and a limit of eight hours rest. it is wrong to exclude cargo pilots. they are the ones that need it the most. they have their natural circadian rhythms disrupted the most." just standing next to the guy was a thrill for me. "if you're home if the evening when hundreds of cargo airplanes are flying overhead, it doesn't matter if those planes are carrying people or packages. it matters that their pilots are alert enough to do their jobs safely, "the retired captain

said. you know what he said? sullenberger said it's doubtful he and his crew could have landed that i -- that usairways flight if they were deprived of sleep. look, we can all put ourselves in the situation, whether we're young -- and the young can take lack of sleep a lot better than -- as we age, it's tougher. but i used to take the red-eye all the time. i can tell you right now, i felt it for days. do you want to have a pilot in a circumstance where he or she is sleep-deprived and they find themselves in an emergency? i don't think so. and none other than sullenberger said, he's doubtful he and his crew could have landed that flight if they were

sleep-deprived. and he said again, and this is another article from "the daily news," a different one, he said, "i get daily reminders of that remarkable day. so many people rose to the occasion: the crew, the rescue workers. it was the result of the efforts of many people. but i've become the public face. and had i been fatigued, we could not have performed at that level." mr. president, i'll tell you something danders see the range -- i'll tell you something -- and i see the ranking member here. this is the classic case of a no-brainer. the people who fly the airplanes are telling us, fatigue is a killer. they're teling us in the situation of an emergency, they won't able to function. and we have an opportunity to fix it. but we don't have the vote right now.

we don't have a vote, and as i understand it, we might have a vote, but they may then say vote on two other issues, you know, that are poison pill issues. that's the way it goes around here. someday i'm going to write a book called "how a bill really becomes a law." and the truth is, that's how it goes around here. you want to vote on something? then they say, swallow a porcupine and maybe we'll give you a vote. now here's another one. miracle on the hudson pilot pushes more rest for cargo crews. and he and i are standing there and all i'm saying is we need a vote on this, and if people want to come down in the well and vote the wrong way on safety, they've shown themselves. but, frankly, they're putting the lives of people at risk. and i'm asking for a vote. again sully