ARTS Act of 2018

Mr. President, as we close out Black History Month this week, I wanted to recognize a few people and initiatives that we are really excited about.

Yesterday, I joined Congressman Mark Walker, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee in the House, to host our Second Annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fly In.

We hosted Presidents and Administrators from HBCUs throughout the country, including four from my home State of South Carolina--South Carolina State University, Claflin University, Allen University and Benedict College.

We were able to host some great panels on ensuring curricula are matched with the needs of the workforce, how to best encourage entrepreneurship among students, and what steps we are taking at the Federal level to help our HBCUs provide an invaluable education for students for generations to come.

Representatives from the HBCUs heard from Google, McDonalds, Starbucks, Bank of America the Morehouse College Entrepreneurship Center, John Deere, Wal-Mart, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, and the Koch Foundation. I also want to thank my friends Senator Lankford and Congresswoman Terri Sewell for joining us on our member panel.

For decades, HBCUs provided Americans of color with educational opportunities they would not have otherwise had. For generations, they have given low-income students an education they could not otherwise afford.

We have stood by them with the restoration of year-round Pell Grants, a top legislative priority from last year's fly-in, which benefits more than one million students.

I joined a bipartisan group of members of Congress, including Representative Alma Adams, to ensure an increase in the Department of Defense's HBCU and PMI grant program, boosting funding for this important collaboration to $40M.

And earlier this month, we saw the Environmental Protection Agency renew its partnership with Bowie State University to provide professional experiences and advanced resources to Bowie State students.

We will continue to stand with our HBCUs, and help ensure they are providing the opportunities sought by so many people of color and low- income families from across the Nation.

I also want to talk about legislation my friend Senator Booker and I introduced today to help combat Sickle Cell Disease.

Our Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment Act will do exactly what the title suggests . . . aid in fighting sickle cell through research, surveillance, prevention and treatment.

Currently, we don't really know exactly how many people have Sickle Cell Disease. There's no real surveillance and reporting in place at the Federal level, and only a handful of states have a reporting process.

To best battle Sickle Cell, we have to know the universe of what we're fighting against. So, our bill establishes the National Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment program to collect data on the demographics and prevalence of Sickle Cell as well as identify and evaluate strategies for prevention and treatment.

We're also reauthorizing the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program (SDTDP) for four years, making some smart reforms and expanding support services for kids and young adults making the transition to adult care.

If you've ever met someone with Sickle Cell Disease, you know the pain they go through. You see how hard it is on their families to watch them suffer.

The Medical University of South Carolina has put so much effort into finding a cure, and over the past few years I've gotten to know some of the patients. Their perseverance is amazing.

We have taken some great steps forward, but we have to keep that momentum going. I want to thank Senator Booker again for joining me in this effort, and I look forward to our colleagues supporting the Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment Act.

Mr. President, Black History Month allows us to not only study and learn from our past, but to see where we can go in the future. Our Nation has made amazing progress in the past 50 years.

Without a doubt, there are still challenges ahead of us, and by remembering the strength of folks like Dr. Martin Luther King, the Friendship Nine, Cleveland Sellers, and so many other civil rights heroes, I am heartened that despite those challenges, we will continue to make progress.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the introduction of the ``Age 21 Act'' by Senator Flake and myself.

Two weeks ago, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, our Nation experienced yet another horrific mass shooting that has shocked the conscience of us all.

The shooter--a 19-year old former student of the high school--used an AR-15 military-style assault rifle that he legally purchased at a gun store, to kill former classmates and educators. Along with 14 wounded, 17 beautiful lives were lost in this horrific attack. Many of them were children and young adults. Their whole lives were ahead of them.

The overwhelming agony so many victims and their loved ones are experiencing is all too familiar to gun violence victims and survivors all across America. This palpable agony and grief has emboldened students from Parkland and all across this Nation to speak out about gun violence and demand that we as lawmakers act. I am deeply inspired by the courage of these young people, and I hope my colleagues will join me in working with them.

The bill that Senator Flake and I are introducing is straightforward and simple--it raises the minimum age to purchase a military-style assault rifle and high capacity ammunition magazines to age 21. In so doing, this legislation closes the loophole in current law that allows teenagers to legally walk into a gun store and buy an AR-15. It further prohibits private individuals from selling or transferring AR-15s to teenagers under the age of 21. In this way, it brings the minimum age requirements for buying handguns and military-style assault weapons into parity.

It makes perfectly clear that in America, if a person is not old enough to buy a handgun--or, for that matter, old enough to buy a beer--they should not be able to purchase a military-style assault weapon. In my view, this bill is one small step in the right direction. It was developed following the attack in Parkland that had students asking ``why was this teenager able to legally walk into a gun store and buy an AR-15?'' In fact, one student named Samuel Zeif, who lost his best friend in the shooting, asked President Trump why a young person in America ``can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war?''

So we worked in the spirit of bipartisanship to let Samuel, and these students, know that as lawmakers we hear them. And we will work together to make sure that they feel safe in their schools and in their neighborhoods.

So I'm proud of this bipartisan piece of legislation and would urge that this body take it up and pass it immediately. However, I would be remiss not to mention that so much more remains to be done. Already this Congress, I have introduced legislation to ban bump stocks and assault weapons from our streets. I've also introduced legislation that would provide states with a legal framework for courts to issue gun violence restraining orders to prevent dangerous individuals from accessing firearms. Additionally, nearly 100 percent of Americans support legislation that would require universal background checks on all gun sales, something that ordinary Americans are shocked is not already the law.

I ask my colleagues to work with us on these common-sense, broadly supported proposals. I strongly believe that lives are at stake. We can't continue to watch our children get slaughtered.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that ``we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late'' and ``we must move past indecision to action.''

Today, as students and communities all across our nation cry out for stronger gun laws, this message continues to ring true. Now is the time for us to act, and to show the American people that we can come together when they are looking for leadership.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, Vermont has a rich history of supporting vibrant arts in communities throughout our State and across the world. Local and foreign visiting artists alike make invaluable social and economic contributions to our communities. Today our complex, overloaded, and outdated immigration system often prevents foreign artists from coming to the United States and engaging in international cultural exchange.

That is why I am reintroducing the bipartisan Arts Require Timely Service, ARTS, Act with Senator Orrin Hatch. Our bill would assist nonprofit arts organizations in obtaining visas for foreign artists by ensuring enforcement of current statutory requirements. The O visa is available to individual foreign artists, while the P visa is available to groups of foreign artists. The Immigration and Nationality Act currently requires that O visa and P visa petitions be processed within 14 days. However, artists and nonprofit arts organizations routinely confront lengthy and uncertain wait times in the adjudication process. Many nonprofit arts organizations are unable to afford the exorbitant filing fee necessary for expedited processing of petitions.

The ARTS Act would require USCIS to provide premium processing services, without a fee, if an O visa or P visa is not adjudicated within the statutorily required 14-day timeframe and if the petition is filed by or on behalf of a nonprofit organization.

The many problems plaguing our immigration system demand responsible reforms. This bill is just one small piece. As we look ahead to comprehensive immigration reform, I hope that Congress will consider commonsense legislation like this that will help create permanent solutions. Foreign visiting artists provide an important public service and support our international diplomacy. It is time we start working to create results that can best help our communities as a whole.

Mr. President, Vermont has a rich history of supporting vibrant arts in communities throughout our State and across the world. Local and foreign visiting artists alike make invaluable social and economic contributions to our communities. Today our complex, overloaded, and outdated immigration system often prevents foreign artists from coming to the United States and engaging in international cultural exchange.

That is why I am reintroducing the bipartisan Arts Require Timely Service, ARTS, Act with Senator Orrin Hatch. Our bill would assist nonprofit arts organizations in obtaining visas for foreign artists by ensuring enforcement of current statutory requirements. The O visa is available to individual foreign artists, while the P visa is available to groups of foreign artists. The Immigration and Nationality Act currently requires that O visa and P visa petitions be processed within 14 days. However, artists and nonprofit arts organizations routinely confront lengthy and uncertain wait times in the adjudication process. Many nonprofit arts organizations are unable to afford the exorbitant filing fee necessary for expedited processing of petitions.

The ARTS Act would require USCIS to provide premium processing services, without a fee, if an O visa or P visa is not adjudicated within the statutorily required 14-day timeframe and if the petition is filed by or on behalf of a nonprofit organization.

The many problems plaguing our immigration system demand responsible reforms. This bill is just one small piece. As we look ahead to comprehensive immigration reform, I hope that Congress will consider commonsense legislation like this that will help create permanent solutions. Foreign visiting artists provide an important public service and support our international diplomacy. It is time we start working to create results that can best help our communities as a whole.