A resolution relative to the death of Gaylord A. Nelson, former United States Senator for the State of Wisconsin.

Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce a bill that authorizes the Secretary or Homeland Security to establish a pilot program to enhance an Indian tribe's response to border activity. I am pleased to be joined by the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan, and my good friend and colleague from Arizona, Senator Jon Kyl, as original cosponsors of this bill.

This bill establishes a pilot program to enhance tribal first responder capabilities, provide assistance for surveillance technologies and communication capabilities and to facilitate coordination and cooperation with Federal, State, local and tribal governments along the international border. The criteria for participation in the pilot program is to be prescribed by the Secretary taking into consideration the tribes' proximity to the border and the extent to which border crossing activity impacts existing tribal resources.

This bill is substantially similar to Section 132 of S. 536, the Native American Omnibus Act of 2005, which was unanimously passed out of the Committee on Indian Affairs earlier this year. It has been modified to address several concerns including to clarify that it does not alter the original jurisdiction or traditional role of the Federal agencies responding to border crimes or any Indian tribe.

Several Indian tribes inhabit land on or easily accessible to the United States and Canada and Mexico. This bill recognizes that these tribes are exceptionally vulnerable to border crimes. And, although enforcement of our immigration laws and border security is a Federal responsibility, these tribes continue to bear extraordinary costs in responding to border crimes and almost always divert funds intended for local police and welfare services to do so. For example, a tribal police officer may see suspicious drug or immigrant smuggling activity occurring within the Indian tribes boundaries or come upon an accident scene or death involving illegal immigrants or drug smugglers. The tribal officer is required to notify Federal officials and render aid to the injured. The Federal official may be hours away and the tribal police are usually asked to detain the suspects or possibly transport them to medical aid. Meanwhile, the tribal police agency is unable to respond to community calls for service. Additionally, tribal police are intimately familiar with their territory and are able to provide Federal agencies with information that is useful in fulfilling their responsibilities.

I recognize that Federal and State agencies play the primary role in these efforts. However, in specific areas of this Nation, tribal government police, fire and emergency services often provide the first and often only response because of their access to the border. A tribe's proximity to the border and its responsibility for public safety and welfare of their members requires that they respond. Simply put, Indian tribes situated close to the international border are vulnerable and greatly impacted and we must acknowledge their daily role in responding to border crimes. This bill gives them added tools to do so.

I ask unanimous consent that my remarks and the full text of the bill be included in the Record.

Mr. President, today I rise to introduce a much needed amendment to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. I am pleased to be joined by the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan, and my good friend and colleague from Arizona, Senator Jon Kyl as original cosponsors of this bill.

This bill expands the existing Federal investigative authority by authorizing other Federal investigative bodies, such as the BIA Office of Law Enforcement, in addition to the FBI, to investigate cases of misrepresentation of Indian arts and crafts. This bill is substantially the same as Section 111 of the Native American Omnibus Act, S. 536, which passed out of the Committee on Indian Affairs earlier this year. This bill also addresses concerns that were raised by the administration.

A major source of tribal and individual Indian income is derived from the sale of handmade Indian arts and crafts. Yet, today, millions of dollars are diverted each year from these original artists and Indian tribes by those who reproduce and sell counterfeit Indian goods. However, it is my understanding that few, if any, criminal prosecutions have been brought in Federal court for such violations. It is understandable that enforcing the criminal law that prohibits the sale of Indian arts and crafts misrepresented as an Indian product is often stalled by the other responsibilities of the FBI including investigating terrorism activity and violent crimes in Indian country. Therefore, expanding the investigative authority to include other Federal agencies is intended to promote the active investigation of alleged misconduct. It is my hope that with this much needed change will deter those who dare to violate the act.

I ask unanimous consent that text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, we are all deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life caused by the terrorist attacks in London last week. Those incidents are a painful reminder of the cruel nature of our enemies in this war, and of what we must do to fight and win against those who wish to eradicate our way of life.

I have said on many occasions that we cannot just play defense in this war, that instead we must take the fight to the enemy. Still, we must do what is possible to protect Americans at home. To that end, the Senate passed by unanimous consent last year the Rail Security Act of 2004, rail security legislation that, unfortunately, was not approved by the House of Representatives. The London bombings and the attacks on Madrid's commuter rail system last year demonstrate all too vividly the continuing need for this legislation.

Our Nation's transit system, Amtrak, and the freight railroads, I am sad to say, remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Though we have increased dramatically our security capabilities since 9/11, we have more to do. For example, since 9/11, only modest resources have been dedicated to rail security, and efforts to address rail security remain fragmented despite the constant and tragic reminders abroad that we are in desperate need of deliberate action. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security has not yet completed a vulnerability assessment for the rail system, nor is there an integrated security plan that reflects the unique characteristics of passenger and freight rail operations.

The legislation I am introducing today, which is nearly identical to the Rail Security Act of 2004, would authorize resources to ensure rail transportation security receives a high priority in our efforts to secure our country from terrorism. The legislation directs DHS to complete a vulnerability assessment for the rail system and make recommendations for addressing security weaknesses within 180 days of enactment. It would also authorize funding to address long-standing fire and life-safety needs for several tunnels along the Northeast Corridor, and would authorize appropriations to meet immediate security needs for intercity and freight rail transportation. Further, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office, the bill would require DHS to sign a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Transportation to add clarity to each department's roles and responsibilities with respect to rail security. It is my expectation that this memorandum would supplement and add detail to the memorandum of understanding between the two departments signed on September 28, 2004.

The freight railroads, individual commuter authorities, and Amtrak have, on their own initiative, completed risk assessments and taken steps to safeguard passengers, facilities, and cargo. These efforts, accomplished at a very small cost to the Federal Government, have helped make our rail system safer. The legislation introduced today will augment these efforts and bring these individual initiatives together in a coordinated rail security program.

I trust that the Senate will move quickly to once again pass this essential legislation. We owe at least that much to the American people as we continue our struggle against an enemy that wants nothing less than to destroy everything we stand for and believe in.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, I am introducing the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act. I am pleased to be joined by Senators Stevens, Dodd, Warner, Burns, and Akaka. The Act's purpose is to improve geographic literacy among K-12 students in the United States by improving professional development programs for K-12 teachers offered through institutions of higher education. The bill also assists States in measuring the impact of education in geography.

To begin to understand other people, we need to understand ourselves. Eudora Welty said that understanding begins with a sense of place. When we understand our own environment, we can better understand the differences in other places, and the people who live

in them. The diversity of cultures, land, and distances between states within our nation is the first evidence we have that a good understanding of geography is necessary. According to the National Geographic Society, home is where the knowledge of geography begins.

The 2005 publication, What Works in Geography, reported that elementary school geography instruction significantly improves student achievement. And, the 2002 National Geographic-Roper Global Geographic Literacy Survey shows that more than half of American adults best able to read a map had taken a high school geography course. That's the good news. Unfortunately, other recent studies show us that nearly one third of our elementary schools have reduced the number of geography courses in the last few years, and only 7 percent of our Nation's fourth graders are taught by teachers with specific undergraduate or graduate experience in geography. Geography is taught by less than 9 percent of K-12 social studies teachers and not even one quarter of high school students graduate with a geography class.

To expect that Americans will be able to work economically and diplomatically with the other people in this world, we need to be able to communicate and understand each other. It is a fact that we have a global marketplace, and that will continue to be the case. We need to be preparing our younger generations for global competition and ensuring that they have a strong base to be able to participate in future industry. Geography knowledge improves those job opportunities.

Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. GDP, that's $2.3 trillion annually, results from international trade. According to the CIA World Factbook of 2005, many U.S. workers need geographic knowledge for this global economy. Geographic knowledge is increasingly needed for U.S. businesses in international markets. For example, the inadvertent placing of Kashmir outside of Indian territory on a time zone map in a widely used computer operating system forced a costly recall, fix, and reissue of the software.

A comprehensive geography education provides training in geospatial technologies, such as remote sensing and geographic information systems. This high-growth industry is expected to reach $30 billion in annual revenues by the end of 2005, up from $5 billion in 2002. Geospatial technologies are one of the three biggest emerging fields identified by the Department of Labor, and they are providing 75,000 new jobs annually. A strong geographic education system is a necessity for this industry's continuing advancement.

Geography literacy is essential to a well prepared citizenry in the 21st Century. Last year, then Secretary of State Colin Powell said, ``To solve most of the major problems facing our county today--from wiping out terrorism, to minimizing global environmental problems, to eliminating the scourge of AIDS--will require every young person to learn more about other regions, cultures, and languages.''

We need to do more to ensure that the teachers responsible for the education of our students, from kindergarten through high school graduation, are prepared to participate constructively in solving those problems. Over the last 15 years, the National Geographic Society has awarded more than $100 million in grants to educators, universities, geography alliances, and others for the purposes of advancing and improving the teaching of geography. Their models are successful and research shows that students who have benefitted from this teaching out perform other students. State geography alliances exist in 19 States, including Mississippi, endowed by grants from the society. It is clear that their efforts alone are not enough. My bill establishes a Federal commitment to enhance the education of our teachers, focus on geography education research, and develop reliable, advanced technology based classroom materials.

I hope the Senate will consider the seriousness of the need to invest in geography and I invite other Senators to cosponsor the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act.

Mr. President, today I am pleased to join with Senator McCain to introduce the Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act of 2005. This legislation strengthens the investigative and enforcement authorities of the underlying Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.

Native arts and crafts are the only indigenous art of America. Unauthentic reproductions and mass produced knock offs undercut sales of genuine articles, discouraging young Native Americans from learning traditional artisans' techniques and their decisions to pursue jobs in other industries. The end result is that if less Native people are practicing their arts, those traditions risk extinction. It would be a tremendous loss to the entire country's cultural heritage to lose these traditions.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which I coauthored with now retired Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell when we were both Members of the House of Representatives, was enacted in response to growing sales of arts and crafts products misrepresented as being produced by Indians. It is a truth-in-advertising law, with civil and criminal provisions, that prohibits the marketing of products as ``Indian made'' when such products are not made by Indians as defined by the act. It is intended to protect Indian artists and craftspeople, businesses, tribes, consumers and our cultural heritage.

Since the passage of the 1990 Act, we have had an opportunity to assess its effectiveness and make changes as necessary through the legislative process. Last year, now retired Senator Campbell and I, on the recommendation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, agreed to consider amending the act to strengthen its investigative authority and enforcement provisions. The Board was becoming concerned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, charged with investigating violations of the act, needed some help. Fewer complaints that had been referred for investigation were receiving the attention they deserved and meritorious cases were not making it to the Attorney General for prosecution. During the last Congress, we proposed amending the act to strengthen the investigative and enforcement authorities, but these amendments were not enacted prior to adjournment.

I am happy to say, the new Indian Affairs Committee chairman, Senator McCain, recognized these concerns still existed, and we agreed to work together to address them. The Amendments we are introducing today build upon the work in the last Congress. When enacted, they will make the act even more effective. The amendments expand the investigative authority under the act to include all Federal law enforcement officers as defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 115 (c)(1). Expanding the investigative authority to include other Federal law enforcement beyond the Federal Bureau of Investigation will permit agencies with expertise in Indian issues and cultural resources, such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement and the Department of Interior Cultural Resources, to thoroughly investigate complaints and work with Department of Justice attorneys to enforce these cases. The FBI will still have the ability to conduct such investigations should it choose to do so. I hope it will.

These amendments also recognize the important role of the Attorney General in enforcement. The amendments require the transmission of all investigation reports from Federal investigators to the Attorney General. The Attorney General can work directly with the investigators, and prosecute cases that warrant prosecution without waiting for the report to be referred by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. This is an efficiency measure and is not designed to take away any authority the Board has to refer cases to the Attorney General. The Board will continue to receive all investigative reports and make referrals.

I believe these amendments to the act will strengthen the investigative and enforcement authority under the act and increase the number of complaints that are investigated and prosecuted. These violations are serious, and we need to provide the necessary federal resources to put an end to these crimes and preserve the cultural heritage of our Native people. I look forward to swift passage of these amendments.

Mr. President, I rise to speak on a resolution submitted by Senator Frist and Senator Reid to commemorate the life and work of Senator Gaylord Nelson. It is with mixed emotions that I make this statement honoring Senator Nelson.

I am proud--proud to have known Gaylord Nelson, proud to be from the same State as him, and proud to occupy his Senate seat. I am also deeply saddened--saddened by the loss to his family, especially to his wife of 58 years, Carrie Lee; saddened by the loss to our Nation; and saddened that a personal hero and dear friend of mine is gone. I am also thankful--thankful for Senator Nelson's long life, thankful for the example he set of how to make a difference in this world, and thankful to his family for sharing this good and decent man with the Nation. We mourn his death, but we also celebrate his remarkable legacy.

Gaylord Anton Nelson was born on June 4, 1916, in Clear Lake, WI. Gaylord's parents were always interested in politics, and in true Wisconsin tradition, they were La Follette Progressive Republicans at the State level and Democrats at the national level. Their Wisconsin- style progressive politics rubbed off on young Gaylord.

When he was 10, Gaylord traveled with his dad to hear a campaign speech by Senator Bob La Follette, Jr., who succeeded his father in the Senate in 1925. Gaylord recalls in his biography:

On the way back home to Clear Lake, my dad asked if I

wanted to be a senator. I said I'd love to be a senator, but

I'm afraid that Bob La Follette will solve all of our

problems before I get a chance to serve.

Thirty-three years later, Gaylord was nominated to be the Democrat candidate for Governor of Wisconsin. At the 1958 Democrat convention in LaCrosse, Gaylord's father had a heart attack. When Gaylord went to see him in the hospital, the elder Nelson smiled and then said to his son, ``Do you think Bob La Follette left enough problems behind for you to solve?'' Gaylord's father died 10 days later.

Unfortunately, Gaylord's father did not get to see his son's rise to the national political level. If he had, he would have seen Gaylord attack those ``remaining problems left to solve'' with La Follette-like dogged determination and commitment to Progressive politics. From consumer protection to employee rights, Senator Nelson fought doggedly to address problems affecting countless Americans.

Gaylord Nelson was also willing to take a tough stand. When President Johnson requested money to escalate the war in Vietnam, for example, Nelson was one of three senators to vote against the proposal. In a speech on this floor, he said:

At a time in history when the Senate should be vindicating

its historic reputation as the greatest deliberative body in

the world, we are stumbling over each other to see who can

say `yea' the quickest and the loudest. I regret it, and I

think some day we shall all regret it. . . . Reluctantly, I

express my opposition . . . here by voting `nay.' The support

in the Congress for this measure is clearly overwhelming.

Obviously, you need my vote less than I need my conscience.

Whether it was issues of war and foreign affairs, worker safety and health, or access to affordable healthcare, Gaylord Nelson was guided by his conscience, and by the wellbeing of Wisconsinites. Out of his impressive record, however, one issue stands out as central to his legacy--Gaylord Nelson's passion and commitment to protecting our environment.

Not many people who have served in this distinguished body can lay claim to a day, but Gaylord Nelson can. On April 22, 1970, Gaylord Nelson created a day to celebrate the glory of the Earth. Where did Nelson get his lifelong interest and dedication to the environment? ``By osmosis,'' Nelson would say, ``while growing up in Clear Lake,

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and achievements of Senator Gaylord Nelson. The people of Wisconsin owe him a debt a gratitude for his years of service to the State. And the Nation owes him honor as the founder of Earth Day and the driving force behind the way the American people and the world view the environment and environmental conservation.

Gaylord Nelson was born the third of four children on June 4, 1916 in Clear Lake, WI, a community of about 700 people in the northwest corner of the State. Nelson's parents were deeply involved in Clear Lake civic activities and his first lessons in political discourse were around his boyhood kitchen table. Those early days were a foundation on which Senator Nelson built a lifetime of public service.

Senator Nelson first won elected office in 1948, after 4 years in the military during World War II. He served as a Wisconsin State Senator, Governor, and then as a U.S. Senator for 18 years. As Governor, he fought to preserve Wisconsin's forests and wetlands long before those causes became popular nationally. As a Senator, he built on his environmentalist legacy working to protect the Appalachian Trail corridor and to create the national trail system. He fought for consumer protection and was one of only three Senators to vote against the $700 million appropriation that signaled the start of the ground war in Vietnam.

However, Gaylord Nelson's greatest gift was his vision of a national day to protect and celebrate our environment. What started out as an idea in the early 1960's blossomed into a national day of observance with an estimated 20 million demonstrators participating in the first Earth Day in 1970. Earth Day is still celebrated. This year 500 million people in 167 countries took part.

Earth Day publicized in an unprecedented manner the dangers of poisons in our water and air, pesticides in our drinking water, and chemicals in our soil. Armed with information and a spirit of activism, Americans turned their Earth Day celebrations into a movement pressuring Congress and the President to pass the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Superfund legislation. These are the foundation of our environmental law today, and they would not have been possible without the work and vision of Senator Gaylord Nelson.

Though Gaylord Nelson left the Senate in 1981, he never stopped working for the Earth and environment, going on to lead the Wilderness Society's important work on environmental conservation. In 1990, he received the Ansel Adams Conservation Award, given to a Federal official who has shown tireless commitment to the cause of conservation and the fostering of an American land ethic. In 1992, the United Nations Environment Programme presented Gaylord Nelson with the Only One World Award. And in 1995, Senator Nelson received the Nation's highest civilian award: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On that day, President Clinton proclaimed: ``As the father of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all that grew out of that event: the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act.''

Senator Gaylord Nelson worked not just for our State, or even just our country. His gift was to the Earth and his legacy, a cleaner, healthier world. And though Gaylord is gone, he lives on--for us and into the future--in every clear stream, breath of fresh air and virgin trail. We honor him by thinking as he did, globally and responsibly. We honor him by--on every day, not just Earth day--taking seriously our responsibility to the air, land and water that sustain us.