Floor Statements

Madam President, I urge my colleagues to join me in support of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a comprehensive effort to address the threat of tobacco products to public health.

This bill will finally give the Food and Drug Administration the legal authority it needs to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors, make tobacco products less toxic and addictive for those who continue to use them, and prevent the tobacco industry from misleading the public about the dangers of smoking.

As the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, tobacco use kills over 400,000 Americans a year. More deaths in the U.S. are caused by tobacco use than from illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and murders combined. This legislation takes crucial steps to save the lives of as many as 80,000 Americans every year.

Sadly, our failure to address this issue is having the greatest effect on our Nation's children. Ninety percent of all new smokers are children. In just 1 day, about 3,500 children will try their first cigarette and 1,000 more will become daily smokers. In just 1 year, kids in my home State of California will purchase 78.3 million packs of cigarettes.

Even though studies have shown children are twice as sensitive to tobacco advertising as adults and that one-third of children experiment with smoking due to advertising, marketing for tobacco products is virtually unregulated. Each year, the tobacco industry spends $13.4 billion nationwide on advertising. Granting the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco advertising will reduce targeting of kids and crack down on false claims.

Additionally, this bill will grant the FDA the authority to regulate smokeless tobacco--particularly those products that have been designed to appeal to children, such as tobacco candy. Claims by the tobacco industry that these products are safe alternatives to smoking are dangerous and wrong. In fact, the Surgeon General has determined the use of smokeless tobacco can lead to oral cancer, gum disease, heart attacks, heart disease, cancer of the esophagus, and cancer of the stomach.

This legislation will ensure that tobacco companies can no longer market addictive carcinogenic candies targeted at children without review by the Food and Drug Administration and careful regulation to safeguard the public health.

Cigarettes contain 69 known carcinogens and hundreds of other ingredients that contribute to the risk of heart disease, lung disease, and other serious illnesses. Yet tobacco products are currently exempt from basic consumer protections like ingredient disclosure, product testing and marketing restrictions to children. Tobacco products are the only products on the market that kill a third of their customers if they are used as directed. In spite of the risks, in spite of the costs, tobacco products are the most unregulated consumer products available today.

This bill will ensure that the tobacco industry is finally required to tell us what is in the products they sell.

This legislation will also give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to require stronger warning labels, prevent industry misrepresentations, and regulate ``reduced harm'' claims about tobacco products. According to a 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study, the average amount of nicotine in cigarettes rose 11.8 percent from 1997 to 2005. More important, this bill will give the FDA the authority to ban the most harmful chemicals used in these products, or even reduce the amount of nicotine. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act is not about unfairly punishing tobacco companies or consumers of tobacco products; it merely gives the Food and Drug Administration the right to regulate tobacco products as it regulates other products to safeguard the public health.

This Congress and the President have committed to reducing health care costs through comprehensive reform. This legislation is precisely the kind of investment in prevention and wellness that will enable us to increase access to quality health care while reducing costs. Tobacco use results in $96 billion in annual health care costs and California alone will spend $9.1 billion on smoking related health care costs-- imagine if we spent those funds on preventative medicine or wellness measures.

The passage of this bipartisan bill would be one of the single, greatest public health protections that affirms our commitment to prevention and wellness as the foundation of responsible health care in our country. I urge my colleagues to make an investment in the health of the American people and support this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I look forward to the Senate's vote this morning on the confirmation of Regina McCarthy to be Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency. I am happy to report to the Senate that my ranking member, Senator Inhofe, supports her as well, and he wanted to make that point.

The Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation plays a crucial role in developing and improving programs that better protect public health and the environment, and she also will help address critical threats to our families and our communities. Regina McCarthy is very qualified to be Assistant Administrator. She comes to this position with a stellar record of achievement. During her hearing before the EPW, she impressed us all with her deep firsthand knowledge of clean air policy. She has three decades of experience in public service. She has a unique record of accomplishments in addressing air pollution at the State level in Massachusetts as well as Connecticut.

Here is the thing: She will bring a spirit of bipartisanship to this critical EPA office that is focused on protecting public health and the environment. In Massachusetts, Regina McCarthy served under Governors Cellucci and Romney, both Republicans. She served as Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Office of Environmental Protection and Deputy Secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development. In 2005, Republican Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut--another Republican-- appointed Regina to be Commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Environment. So Regina's ability to work with people on both sides of the aisle is clear. She wants to solve the serious air pollution problems facing our families and communities, and I believe her experience in a bipartisan world will greatly help her.

California faces some of the most dangerous air pollution in the country. My State is a magnificent State, but it has its problems because we have the busiest ports in the Nation. We actually are responsible for taking care of 40 percent of the Nation's imports, and those goods are brought into our ports by ships that, unfortunately, still use--many of them--a highly polluting fuel called bunker fuel. And when we look at the rates of cancer across this Nation, you see clusters of cancer at all of our ports, and a lot certainly at our ports in California.

I worry very much about those families. We have been able to work in a bipartisan way--although not quickly enough, in my view--to make sure that these ships get away from this bunker fuel, and actually we are working very hard with the Obama administration, as we did with the Bush administration, on international treaties to move us away from this very polluting bunker fuel. So we are making great progress there, but we still have a lot of the trucks at our ports. We are working closely with, in this case, Los

Angeles, where they have a very cutting edge program to move away from the dirty trucks, and we are fighting hard to get that program to move forward.

So we look at the ports and we know there are problems, and we look at the highways, and we know there are problems. In my State, and other States, where we have valleys, the dirty air is trapped into those areas. So as a Senator from California, I welcome Regina McCarthy to this job, because, frankly, we need to do much more about the quality of the air, or lack of same, across the country.

The California Air Resources Board estimates that diesel emissions contribute to 2,000 premature deaths each year, and that the health costs of diesel emissions are billions of dollars each year. So I want to say again, we are talking about 2,000 premature deaths each year when we talk about dirty air. We are not just saying we are upset because you can start to see the air and it looks terrible; we are saying that this dirty air is being breathed in by our kids, by our grandkids, by pregnant women, by people with disabilities, and only the strongest survive on this. So we know it is a problem, and Regina McCarthy gets it. Her job isn't to be a robot, her job is to understand that the situation is dire here--2,000 premature deaths a year because of dirty air. And that is just from diesel emissions. So we need an assistant administrator on air who has the experience, the expertise, and the ability to work with communities large and small, to work with industry, and to work with government to find lasting solutions.

One of the opportunities we have here, separate and apart from the enforcement of the Clean Air Act--which will be under her domain--is to pass global warming legislation which will move us away from the dirty sources of fuel toward clean energy and, by the way, create long- lasting clean energy jobs which will stay here and boost our economy forward.

We have a lot of work ahead of us on this committee which I am so privileged to chair, and certainly right here in the Senate, and we are going to call on Regina McCarthy. She is well qualified, she has the ability to work with communities and industry, and she is the right person for this job.

I am disappointed that we had a colleague of ours hold her nomination up, you know, week after week after week. It should have been done. But today it looks good that we are moving forward. I hope we can do it by voice vote, and again I want to point out that in terms of Regina McCarthy's nomination, Senator Inhofe, the ranking member on the committee, supports her for this job, as do I. And I think that is the best thing I could say for a nominee, because oftentimes we find ourselves at loggerheads. But in this case, we are together.

I thank the Presiding Officer, I urge approval of her, and I hope we can do this by voice vote.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, today I want to speak about an extraordinary young woman who has left us far too soon. On May 15, my former staff member Frances Nam died after a 3-year battle with lung cancer. Fran was just 39 years old. She left behind two beautiful daughters--Seanna, age 11, and Henna, age 9.

In the mid to late 1990s, Fran was my legislative assistant on all matters related to appropriations, immigration, housing, judicial appointments, and matters under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee. She was a standout staff member in every way: always enthusiastic and diligent about her work, always caring about her colleagues, and an exemplary public servant who cared deeply about our constituents.

In January 1999, Frances went to work for U.S. Department of Justice's Community Relations Service, CRS, DOJ's race relations mediation arm. This job brought out another side of Fran: the compassionate but cool-headed mediator, a master of human relations. CRS sent Frances all over the country, wherever ethnic communities were at odds with one another, to prevent or soothe civil strife and bring disparate people together despite their differences. Originally a political appointee in the Clinton administration, Fran stayed at CRS until 2003 as a senior policy adviser.

Frances then went to work as senior policy adviser to the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald. Along with her primary legislative and policy duties, Fran was the Congresswoman's liaison to the Congressional Black Caucus, CBC. In this role she became the first non-African American to organize a CBC annual legislative conference, and she is still remembered fondly by CBC members and staff for her charm, efficiency, and diplomatic skills.

Since late 2003, Frances has worked as vice president of Government Affairs for Sodexo USA, a major food service company. Here, in addition to working with Congress as well as State and local governments, Fran was known for her extraordinary efforts to open new educational and career opportunities for Asian Americans and other people of color.

Outside her working life, Fran was a vivacious young woman who enjoyed a wide circle of friends and her two loving daughters. A woman who truly loved her work and life, she was recently the subject of an article in Working Woman magazine on successful working mothers.

In her all-too-brief life, Frances Nam made a deep and lasting difference in the lives of many people--here in the Senate, in communities across the country, and in her own close community of family, friends, and colleagues. She will be deeply and truly missed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act. My vote today does not indicate a blank check for the administration. But it is indicative of a strong desire on my part to begin to change to a new approach in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We all know about the challenges President Obama inherited from 8 long years of the Bush administration. He was left with an economy and recession, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, diminished U.S. standing around the globe, a country more dependent on foreign oil, and a resurgent al-Qaida.

Today, we have a new administration with clear priorities and realistic foreign policy objectives. We must give President Obama and his administration the resources and flexibility they need to move U.S. foreign policy in a new direction. If we were to walk away from this change in policy that is reflected in this supplemental, I think the message we are sending is for the status quo. The status quo does not deserve a vote.

Again, I repeat, my vote is not a blank check. I am voting for this bill not because I want the United States to remain bogged down in two wars, but because I want to give this administration--the Obama administration--the resources it needs to successfully end these wars, starting with the war in Iraq. Furthermore, I don't support an open- ended commitment of American troops to Afghanistan; and if we do not see measurable progress, we must reconsider our engagement and strategy there.

In particular, we must do more to sharply reduce the numbers of heartbreaking civilian casualties. As ADM Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said:

We cannot succeed in Afghanistan, or anywhere else . . . by

killing Afghan civilians. . . .

In a reference to a U.S. airstrike in the Farah Province, Admiral Mullen said:

We can't keep going through incidents like this and expect

the strategy to work.

I could not agree more. President Obama promised the American people a new way forward in Iraq and a new way forward in Afghanistan. The passage of this bill will allow him to put the pieces in place to keep his promises by finishing the mission in Afghanistan, which was shortchanged because of the Iraq war. I want to talk about that for a minute.

I voted, after 9/11, to go after al-Qaida, to go after the Taliban, to go after Osama bin Laden. The administration, instead of doing that, turned around and went into Iraq under the false premise that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. We still have former Vice President Cheney out there trying to convince the people that was the right thing to do. That was the wrong thing to do. There have been so many needless deaths in Iraq. We left Afghanistan, and the Taliban returned in force; and the people there are under the yoke of the Taliban in many parts of that country. What a tragedy, because of a mistaken policy. What a terrible legacy, because of a mistaken policy. Yet the debate rages on. So I am going to engage in that debate.

I believe we need to tackle this mission in Afghanistan, which was shortchanged. I believe we must increase the role of the State Department and our civilian agencies in working toward peace. I know my colleague in the chair, Senator Kaufman, has been very eloquent on this point--a new way to allow the Afghan people to, in essence, take back their country. We need to train Afghan security forces so we can ultimately change the nature of our mission there and bring our troops home. That is the goal.

I have heard my Republican friends say they don't know what the goal is in Afghanistan. That is OK. I don't think there is any problem explaining what it is. We want to go after al-Qaida. We want to decrease the influence of the Taliban and defeat them, if we have to. Hopefully, we can, in fact, work with some of them. I am not convinced of that, but it may be possible. We need to give the Afghan security forces the ability to defend their own people.

There is a lot more we have to do over there to protect the most vulnerable Afghans, and that means the women and the children of Afghanistan. I will talk more about that because this supplemental takes a huge step forward in protecting the women and children there.

It seems to me we have to give President Obama an opportunity to bring about the change he promised. If I see that change is not coming, I am not going to be there. But today, I believe we should give him that chance.

To think that we actually had Osama bin Laden cornered at one time, but the obsession with Saddam Hussein drove us away in those Bush years from that mission and brought us into a situation where we have lost so many of our young men and women, many of them--30,000--were injured, some with horrific injuries, and many more are suffering from post- traumatic stress and brain injury.

President Bush took his eye off Afghanistan, and so did Vice President Cheney. Frankly, sadly, we come to this day. I understand why some colleagues might just say: I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to spend any more money on it. Just forget it.

I don't think that is the way to go. I think President Obama said very clearly that he is going to bring change. I think this is the day. We either stand for change or for the status quo. That is my belief.

In the Bush years we never really had enough resources to fight al- Qaida in Afghanistan because we were waging an open-ended war in Iraq. Remember, there were no benchmarks for progress. It was day after day, death after death after death. Frankly, because the Iraq war fueled recruitment by al-Qaida, our Nation's security has been compromised. Our standing in the world has suffered. Again, most heartbreaking, American servicemembers and their families have paid the price.

In my view, there are four provisions in the supplemental that will help to correct our course.

First, the bill provides funding to get our troops home from Iraq. These provisions are essential for President Obama to meet his date of August 31, 2010, to remove combat brigades from Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011.

For those of us who want to bring the troops home, the funding to do that is in this supplemental. So, clearly, when we vote for this, we vote to begin that process. The responsibility for security must be turned over to the Iraqis--and quickly. U.S. forces cannot continue to shoulder the burden there anymore. The people there have to decide if they want to live together or die together. They have to look at these ethnic divisions and make their own decisions. We will help. We will always help. But it is their decision.

So the first part of the bill is funding to begin bringing the troops home from Iraq.

Second, this bill seeks to turn things around in Afghanistan by providing a significant investment in diplomacy and development, including, very importantly to me and to a lot of my colleagues, for the Afghan women. A military solution alone will not solve the problems in Afghanistan. We need a strategy that helps the Government provide for its people and invest in the civil society and those programs that are crucial to the long-term security and prosperity of that country.

Development is very important to the people of Afghanistan. I am very proud that this bill takes critical steps to support Afghan women and girls. Today, more than 7 years after the international community helped free Afghan women from the prison of life under the Taliban, the situation for women in Afghanistan remains dire.

I want to say to Senator Leahy and his staff: Thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for working with us. Thank you for working with the women-led nongovernmental organizations.

Without Senator Leahy and his staff, we would not have this language in the bill. I wanted to make that point.

More than 80 percent of the women in Afghanistan are illiterate. More than one in six die in childbirth. These are the voices that have been forgotten. We cannot return to the days when Afghan women had to be draped in burqas against their will. If you have never tried on a burqa--and I am sure most people haven't--let me tell you what it feels like, because I did. You disappear. You become nothing. Remember when women were murdered in cold blood by the Taliban in soccer stadiums? Those days must be over.

It seems to me that walking away from this supplemental at this time says we are walking away from those women. We need to help them. We need to do everything we can to give them a chance because to not do so would be tragic.

This bill specifically appropriates $100 million for programs that directly address the needs of Afghan women and girls. In addition to Senator Leahy and his staff, I thank Congresswoman Nita Lowey and her staff. In the House bill, they also put in quite a few resources for the women-led NGOs. In our bill, we do even more to directly address the

needs of women and girls, including funding for the Afghan Human Rights Commission and Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs.

I wrote a bill called the Afghan Women Empowerment Act. Specifically, the supplemental appropriates $30 million for Afghan women-led nongovernmental organizations, which is a key component of that bill. The international community cannot stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. We know that. So this funding will help empower those organizations that will provide for the needs of the Afghan community long after the international community has left.

The supplemental includes $10 million to train and support Afghan women investigators, police officers, prosecutors, and judges with responsibility for investigating, prosecuting, and punishing crimes of violence against women and girls.

This is particularly important in a country where women have been so marginalized. No female victim of violence will ever come forward if she believes there is no system in place or resources to help her. What happens if she comes forward is that she becomes a target. I don't know how you feel about it--I think I can guess--when any of us sees little girls being attacked with acid when they are going to school. There is something deeply wrong if America turns away from that. We cannot, it seems to me, in good conscience not give this one more chance, which is what this supplemental is doing because it is taking a major step to give the Afghan people the chance to stand up for their women, children, and families.

Third, this bill recognizes the importance of Pakistan, a dysfunctional, nuclear-armed nation that has some of the most notorious al-Qaida terrorists within its borders. Pakistan is one of the greatest threats to international security that we face today. This danger is such a concern that Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar who served as the coauthor of the President's review of our Afghanistan- Pakistan strategy, said that the country--this is Pakistan--``has more terrorists per square mile than any other place on Earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that has grown faster than anyplace else on Earth.'' It seems to me to walk away from that threat is the wrong course. This bill provides funds for nonmilitary aid and counterinsurgency training to enable the Pakistani Government to defeat the growing extremist threat within its borders.

Fourth, this bill provides funding to help our servicemembers and their families deal with the wounds of war and to improve their quality of life. It provides funding to increase the number of soldiers and marines to help ease some of the burdens on servicemembers and families who have served three, four, and five deployments to combat zones. How can we walk away from giving those soldiers relief at this point when they have served three, four, and five times? We see some of the fallout on the mental health of our soldiers. We have seen some tragic things happen, including a soldier who actually turned on his own colleagues and killed them. We cannot have servicemembers under this amount of stress from three, four, five, or six deployments. Some of them can handle it. Not all of them can handle it. This bill will increase the number of soldiers and marines, so we can help ease the burden of those who have given and given.

This bill includes funding to keep our servicemembers safer, including funding for mine-resistant vehicles in Afghanistan to combat the dangers of roadside bombs. It helps ease the childcare needs of our military families by funding the construction of 25 child development centers to serve 5,000 children. It provides $230 million to complete construction of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and it provides funds for the construction of nine warrior support facilities across the United States. Our soldiers need help. They cannot be expected to travel across the country to get medical care, either for physical wounds or mental wounds. We need to make sure we do this.

Finally, this bill provides funding for domestic programs that will safeguard our security. It includes $1.5 billion to prepare and respond to a global disease pandemic, such as the H1N1 influenza virus we are combating today. A lot of people say: Maybe you are overreacting. We just don't know because in other flu epidemics, we think we have conquered it, and then it comes back in a more virulent form. We need to vaccinate our citizenry. This is expensive and a must-do. I am very pleased it is in this bill. Just this week, two lives were lost in New York City to the virus. One victim was only an infant, and the other was an assistant principal of a school. Yes, we lose people to the flu every year. We know that. But we want to make sure we are not facing something for which we are unprepared. Better to be prepared, and this bill gives us the funds to prepare.

There is significant investment in shoring up our southwest border and also combating drug traffickers who operate there. We keep seeing horrific violence along the border. It is deplorable. The drug cartels must be stopped and the perpetrators brought to justice. That is also in this bill. This is an emergency spending bill.

It also includes $250 million for emergency firefighting activities. California has suffered devastating wildfires over the last few fire seasons. I know all of you have watched in horror at the recent wildfire in Santa Barbara. We know we are facing terrible challenges. We are facing warmer temperatures. We are facing more drought conditions. The funding will help ensure resources are on hand when they are needed.

I have to say that this bill should be a must-pass. I have to also reiterate that my vote indicates my support for a change in our foreign policy, a change in Iraq to bring this war to an end, a change to finally do what we have to do in Afghanistan so we do not walk out and walk away as we did before. The Taliban allowed al-Qaida to thrive, and we have to work in Afghanistan so that the people turn away from the Taliban toward something else that is positive. And we can provide that.

Strong diplomacy is in this bill. A change in policy is in this bill. It is our best opportunity to achieve these objectives. If it does not work, I will be the first one to stand up here and say so because, frankly, I believe too many of our brave soldiers have been put in harm's way.

I think this is the last use of a supplemental appropriation, according to the administration, to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. I welcome that. It says that our President is going to hold true to his commitment to an open and transparent government that is held accountable to the people. We are going to have these policies funded through the regular budget process. I understand why we need this now. To bring about the change in Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot do it on the cheap. We have to do it right. I think President Obama's quote--and I am not quoting him exactly--was that we have to get out of there very carefully even though we did not get in there very carefully. That is what we are doing. We are getting out of Iraq carefully. We are doing it right. We are funding the way to do it right. We are helping our soldiers. And we are changing course in Afghanistan, first of all, by paying attention to it, going after al- Qaida, trying to make sure the Taliban is not an option people choose there, and being very strong in our help toward the women of Afghanistan.

I will be voting yes for all those reasons and watching closely.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that for the next hour, this bill be open to debate only.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

: Mr. President, it is with a very heavy heart that I ask my colleagues to join me today in honoring the memory of an extraordinary National Park Service, NPS, leader, Brian O'Neill. Brian was a legendary conservationist and community builder whose legacy will serve as a source of inspiration for decades to come. Brian passed away on May 13, 2009. He was 67 years old.

Brian was born in Washington, DC, in 1942, where he lived for the first 27 years of his life. During his early years, Brian's family often took camping and road trips to many of our National Parks. It was on these trips that Brian first began to bond with the Great West that would eventually become his home. The deep love and respect for nature that Brian fostered in his youth continued to motivate his professional life and nurture his personal life for the remainder of his years.

Brian never kept his love of the out-of-doors to himself. From the beginning, he recognized the importance of sharing his enthusiasm for all things wild with his family, friends, and especially with young people. As a freshman at the University of Maryland, Brian and his twin brother Alan worked with their mother Mimi to establish a nonprofit organization that provided urban children with opportunities to visit national parks.

Brian began his career in Government service in 1965, when he was hired by what was then the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, BOR. As Deputy Director of BOR's Office of Urban Park Studies, Brian was a crucial part of the team that persuaded President Nixon to support legislation establishing two major urban parks: Golden Gate in San Francisco and Gateway in New York City. Brian was also instrumental in the inclusion of 2,000 miles of rivers on California's north coast in the national scenic rivers system during the final days of President Carter's administration.

For the past 25 years, Brian O'Neill served as the superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, GGNRA. Comprised of over 76,000 acres in Marin, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties, GGNRA is one of the largest urban parks in the country. GGNRA hosts over 16 million visitors annually and is home to 1, 250 historic buildings, or 7 percent of all designated historic structures in the country. With ever-growing expertise, Brian led GGNRA's 347 NPS employees and 8,000 volunteers.

Brian had a special skill for connecting people with parks. He understood that in order to garner lasting support for parks, community members must be personally invested and involved every step of the way. Brian's can-do attitude enabled him to create fruitful partnerships with business leaders, philanthropists, and community leaders. He consistently proved skeptics wrong, as he raised more and more money to create additional parklands. NPS recognized Brian's natural aptitude for building partnerships--when NPS created a new assistant director position focused on creating relationships with outside entities, Brian was asked to serve in this role for the first year of its existence.

I had the great pleasure of knowing Brian for many years, and will always remember his bright smile and cheerful optimism. Brian's warmth drew people to him--he was always surrounded by a rich circle of friends and colleagues of all ages. Though he will be deeply missed, Brian has left us with the priceless and timeless gifts of the parks he helped to build. Thanks in great part to Brian, GGNRA provides its visitors with endless opportunities for exploration, education, and getting in touch with life's deepest purpose and most rewarding opportunities.

Brian has no doubt left an indelible mark on our hearts, minds, and the bay area's natural treasures. He was an inspiring and wonderful man. For those of us who were fortunate to know him, we take comfort in knowing that hundreds of thousands of park visitors will continue to benefit from Brian's vision and determination for generations to come.

Brian is survived by his mother Mimi, twin brother Alan, wife Marti, daughter Kim, son Brent, daughter-in law Anne, and three grandchildren--Justin, Kieran and Sean.

Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the brave men and women firefighters who worked tirelessly to protect the residents of Santa Barbara County from the recent Jesusita wildfire.

The Jesusita wildfire has burned nearly 10,000 acres, destroyed and damaged dozens of homes, and at one point forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 local residents.

Firefighters are often called upon to protect our communities while putting themselves in grave danger. This is certainly the case when reflecting on the efforts of Firefighter Robert Lopez, Captain Ron Topolinski, and Captain Brian Bulger from the Ventura County Fire Department. Firefighter Lopez and Captain Topolinski were assigned to structure protection when their position was overrun by a fast-moving wall of fire. Firefighter Lopez and Captain Topolinski utilized their combined 40-years of firefighting experience to survive the initial fire blast and call for help. Captain Brian Bulger responded to the emergency call and risked his own life to ensure the safety of his fellow firefighters. Although all three firefighters suffered injuries due to fire and toxic smoke exposure, all three survived and are now on their way toward recovery. An additional 27 firefighters were injured during this event.

I want to give special thanks to the more than 4,000 Federal, State, local, fire protection district, and volunteer firefighters who have put their lives on the line to fight this fire. Their courage and swift action during this recent wildfire has been truly heroic. They have risked their health and well-being for the benefit of our communities, and we are grateful.

I invite all of my colleagues to join me in commending all men and women firefighters who risk their lives to protect our own.

Mr. President, I am pleased to recognize the career and contributions of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails, Inc., chief executive officer, Jane Hagedorn, for her 36 years of service to promoting clean air and preventing lung and air pollution-related diseases.

Jane Hagedorn began her affiliation with The American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails--later becoming Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails--as a volunteer in 1973. During her 3 years as a volunteer, she served as president of the board and then became executive director in 1976.

Under Jane Hagedorn's leadership, Breathe California of Sacramento- Emigrant Trails, Inc. lead the fight to substantially reduce smoking and developed ``Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!'' a nationally recognized tobacco research program developed to reduce the negative influence of tobacco use in film. Ms. Hagedorn also led Breathe California's collaboration with the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to create the Cleaner Air Partnership, which brings elected officials, business leaders and nonprofit organizations together to collaborate on clean air initiatives for the Capital Region. She was also a leader in bringing light rail transit service to Sacramento to provide an environmentally friendly

public transportation alternative to the region.

Ms. Hagedorn's dedication to her community and California has also been demonstrated by her participation on the boards of many government and nonprofit organizations in the region such as, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the Arden Park and Recreation District, Friends of Light Rail, and the Planning and Conservation League.

As her family, friends and the community gather to celebrate her retirement, I congratulate and thank Jane Hagedorn for her work to maintain clean air for our future generations.

Mr. President, I am pleased to recognize the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl Champions Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, CA.

The National Science Bowl is a national high school competition that tests each team's knowledge in astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, general science, mathematics, and physics at a college freshman level. Mira Loma's National Science Bowl team consisted of senior team captain Rishi Kulkarni; juniors Edward Lee and Heather Yee; sophomores Andrew Chen and Sriram Pendyala, and Coach James Hill.

The Mira Loma team qualified for the national competition by winning the Sacramento Regional Science Bowl in the spring. At the National Science Bowl, Mira Loma High School joined 67 high schools from 42 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to compete for the national championship in Washington, DC. Mira Loma High School's victory at the National Science Bowl has earned the team a research trip to the prestigious International Science School in Sydney, Australia, to further pursue their studies in science.

In competing for the national championship, the Mira Loma High School team learned many valuable lessons, including tenacity, dedication to their schoolwork, and teamwork. It is with great pride that I congratulate them on this remarkable accomplishment and wish them continued success.

I invite my colleagues to join me, Mira Loma High School, and the Sacramento community in recognizing the Mira Loma High School Science Bowl Team on this wonderful achievement.

Madam President, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating Tunisian American Day on May 27. This annual celebration is in recognition of the many contributions that Tunisian Americans have made to enrich our culture and society.

The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Tunisia for more than two centuries. On March 26, 1799, the first agreement of friendship and trade was concluded between the United States and Tunisia. The first American consulate was established in Tunis, the Tunisian capital, on January 20, 1800. On May 17, 1956, the United States was the first major power to recognize the sovereign state of Tunisia. Throughout the years, the United States and Tunisia have forged an amicable and enduring relationship that is based on a common commitment to the ideals of democracy and liberty.

Currently, there are more than 13,500 Americans of Tunisian descent residing in the United States. The Tunisian American community has made invaluable contributions to improving our cultural diversity by sharing their proud heritage and rich cultural traditions.

As Tunisian Americans gather to celebrate Tunisian American Day, I wish them a joyous and inspiring day and thank them for their contributions to cultural diversity.

Madam President, California and our Nation have lost one of our most talented entertainers. Dominick ``Dom'' DeLuise, a wonderful

comedian and chef who entertained America with his delightful sense of humor, recently passed away. I would like to take a few moments to recognize Dom DeLuise's many accomplishments and the tremendous impact he made on our lives.

Born in New York City, DeLuise entered acting at an early age. Although discouraged at first, he persisted in finding his way in the field of entertainment and into the hearts of his fans. His hard work and dedication earned him many entertaining and prestigious acting roles in film, television, and theater. Many films which feature Dom DeLuise, such as ``The Cannonball Run,'' ``Blazing Saddles,'' ``History of the World Part 1,'' and ``Spaceballs'' have become classics in their own right and will ensure that future generations will enjoy and appreciate his talent.

Later in life, DeLuise worked toward furthering his love for the culinary arts and establishing himself as a chef. His efforts resulted in the publishing of two successful cookbooks: ``Eat This It Will Make You Feel Better!'' and ``Eat This Too! It'll Also Make You Feel Good.''

I invite all of my colleagues to join me in recognizing and honoring Dominick ``Dom'' DeLuise for his work, which touched the lives of generations of Americans. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Carol Arthur, and his three sons, Peter, David and Michael.

Mr. President, I am pleased and honored to pay tribute to Chuck Mack for his many years of service to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

After 43 years of dedicated service, Mr. Mack is stepping down from his positions as secretary-treasurer for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 70, and president of the Teamsters Joint Council 7. While Mr. Mack may be leaving his current leadership positions within the Teamsters, he is by no means retiring. Instead, he is heeding the call of the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust, where he will now serve as the co-chair of the organization.

During his four-plus decades of service to the Teamsters, Mr. Mack has worked tirelessly to help negotiate first-class rights for bay area workers and their families. With a reputation for integrity and hard work, Mr. Mack has provided the Teamsters with unparalleled leadership in major labor disputes in northern California throughout his tenure. I particularly commend Mr. Mack for his efforts in advancing environmental justice issues for port communities throughout the San Francisco bay area.

As he transitions to his new position as cochair of the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust, I applaud Mr. Mack's continued involvement with the Teamsters Union. Unions provide valuable representation to American workers and their families, and have worked to establish many of the rights and privileges that we now take for granted--rights and privileges that have helped millions of workers achieve the American dream.

After over four decades of service to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I remain in admiration of Chuck's strong sense of civic duty, his unparalleled service to the labor movement, and his tireless advocacy for workers' rights at the local, Sate, and national levels. I wish him many more years of continued community involvement and leadership.

Mr. President, I am pleased to pay tribute to world-renowned cardiologist Kanu Chatterjee as he retires from the University of California at San Francisco--UCSF--Medical Center after 34 years of dedicated service.

Dr. Chatterjee was born in what is now Bangladesh and moved with his

family to Calcutta, where they remained unsettled for many years. His father passed away just before he graduated from R.G. Kar Medical College in 1956. To support his family, he took the job of medical officer at the IISCO Hospital at Burnpur. In 1963, Dr. Chatterjee left India for the United Kingdom to further his studies. In 1971, he was recruited to direct the inpatient cardiology service at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Chatterjee joined the UCSF Medical Center staff in 1975 as director of the cardiac care unit and associate chief of cardiology, where he became the Ernest Gallo Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the division of cardiology.

A beloved physician, teacher, and researcher, Dr. Chatterjee has worked tirelessly over the last 30-plus years in the fields of diagnosing and managing coronary artery disease, heart failure, and pulmonary hypertension. He is also a world-renowned researcher in vascular reactivity and heart failure and has pioneered the study of drugs, such as ACE inhibitors and vasodilators, that have become the standard of care for heart failure. With such a long-standing list of professional accomplishments, it is all the more touching to hear Dr. Chatterjee's patients speak with genuine gratitude and heartfelt emotion about his expertise and compassion.

As Dr. Chatterjee prepares to move on to his new half-time position at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, I wish him many more years of continued leadership and success in the field of cardiology.

I commend Dr. Chatterjee for his 34 years of dedicated service to the UCSF Medical Center community. Along with his friends and admirers throughout the San Francisco Bay area, I thank him for his tireless efforts and wish him the best as he embarks on the next phase of his remarkable life.

Mr. President, as we mark the end of National Nurses Week, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated professionals who serve on the front lines of our health care system. Nurses are heroes--not just to their patients, but to the families and loved ones who rely on their compassion and care.

While we celebrate nurses this week, we must also acknowledge that too many nurses are overworked because of staffing levels that are simply inadequate.

Nurses treat patients not just in hospitals or emergency rooms but in homes, schools, community health centers and more. Nurses take on a lot of different duties and roles, but they all have at least one thing in common--they are all on the front lines of providing care to patients.

For decades nurses have been telling us that there are not enough of them, especially in hospitals. Study after study has been done--we know there is a nationwide nursing shortage.

By 2020, it is estimated that the demand for full time nurses will exceed supply by 1 million nurses.

This is unacceptable. We must address a problem that affects the quality of care that patients receive and drives too many nurses away from the hospital bedside.

That is why I am introducing the National Nursing Reform and Patient Advocacy Act, which will not only help address the nationwide shortage of skilled nurses, it will improve the quality of health care for all Americans.

The National Nursing Reform and Patient Advocacy Act champions nursing rights, nursing ratios, and nursing reform.

Specifically, this bill protects the rights of nurses to speak out for their patients and to speak out for themselves, without the fear of discrimination or retaliation, because if there is a problem in a hospital nurses should be able to talk about it.

This bill sets minimum nurse to patient ratios, because you cannot give patients high quality care without giving nurses the time to provide it. It offers transparency in the process of establishing staffing plans in hospitals and puts forward the tools to report inadequate staffing or care.

This bill reforms the role of hospitals not just in retaining nurses but also in training nurses. It creates a Registered Nurse Workforce Initiative that invests in the education of nurses and nursing faculty, because we will need many more nurses to meet the needs of our Nation-- especially after we expand access to health care.

President Obama has made improving patient safety and quality care one of the cornerstones of the health care reform effort. You can't have high quality health care without a high quality nurse workforce to provide it.

Ten years ago, nurses in California fought and won a major battle for their

patients and for themselves--and the results were minimum nurse to patient ratios in California hospitals.

I am proud to bring this fight to Washington, DC and to pursue federal legislation that would extend these rights, ratios and reforms to nurses in hospitals across the country.

Reports on California ratios have only begun to show what all of the nurses in this room already know--that setting a minimum standard for safe staffing can be the difference between life and death of patients.

A 2002 study found that for every patient added to a nurse's workload there is a seven percent increase in the chance of death following common surgeries.

In California, the hospitals that have seen the greatest effect in reduced mortality were the ones that started with the worst staffing ratios.

We also know that hospitals are losing good nurses because of these staffing shortages. A poll of nurses nationwide found that almost half of the nurses who plan to quit their job say that inadequate staffing is the reason they are leaving. The cost of replacing these valuable workers has been estimated at $25,000 to $60,000 per nurse.

Too many nurses get burned out by being overloaded with too many patients. Too many nurses have given up on serving in hospitals because the hospitals have given up on providing a better environment for both nurses and patients.

We need to remind hospitals that by investing more in their nursing staff, they will save money by avoiding costly medical mistakes and providing better care for their patients--and most importantly, they will save lives.

I strongly believe that health care reform cannot succeed unless we invest in our health care workforce. At 2.9 million strong, nurses are the largest health care workforce in our country, and this investment is long overdue.

My new legislation builds on the success of California's historic law for registered nurse staffing ratios. Under the California ratios law, lives are being saved, nurses' ability to be effective advocates for their patients is stronger and more registered nurses are entering the workforce and staying at the bedside longer--which is easing the State's nursing shortage.

Nurses are not just the face of the movement to improve health care in our country, they are the face of health care in our country. This bill is for them and the patients they so faithfully serve.

Mr. President, as we mark the end of National Nurses Week, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated professionals who serve on the front lines of our health care system. Nurses are heroes--not just to their patients, but to the families and loved ones who rely on their compassion and care.

While we celebrate nurses this week, we must also acknowledge that too many nurses are overworked because of staffing levels that are simply inadequate.

Nurses treat patients not just in hospitals or emergency rooms but in homes, schools, community health centers and more. Nurses take on a lot of different duties and roles, but they all have at least one thing in common--they are all on the front lines of providing care to patients.

For decades nurses have been telling us that there are not enough of them, especially in hospitals. Study after study has been done--we know there is a nationwide nursing shortage.

By 2020, it is estimated that the demand for full time nurses will exceed supply by 1 million nurses.

This is unacceptable. We must address a problem that affects the quality of care that patients receive and drives too many nurses away from the hospital bedside.

That is why I am introducing the National Nursing Reform and Patient Advocacy Act, which will not only help address the nationwide shortage of skilled nurses, it will improve the quality of health care for all Americans.

The National Nursing Reform and Patient Advocacy Act champions nursing rights, nursing ratios, and nursing reform.

Specifically, this bill protects the rights of nurses to speak out for their patients and to speak out for themselves, without the fear of discrimination or retaliation, because if there is a problem in a hospital nurses should be able to talk about it.

This bill sets minimum nurse to patient ratios, because you cannot give patients high quality care without giving nurses the time to provide it. It offers transparency in the process of establishing staffing plans in hospitals and puts forward the tools to report inadequate staffing or care.

This bill reforms the role of hospitals not just in retaining nurses but also in training nurses. It creates a Registered Nurse Workforce Initiative that invests in the education of nurses and nursing faculty, because we will need many more nurses to meet the needs of our Nation-- especially after we expand access to health care.

President Obama has made improving patient safety and quality care one of the cornerstones of the health care reform effort. You can't have high quality health care without a high quality nurse workforce to provide it.

Ten years ago, nurses in California fought and won a major battle for their

patients and for themselves--and the results were minimum nurse to patient ratios in California hospitals.

I am proud to bring this fight to Washington, DC and to pursue federal legislation that would extend these rights, ratios and reforms to nurses in hospitals across the country.

Reports on California ratios have only begun to show what all of the nurses in this room already know--that setting a minimum standard for safe staffing can be the difference between life and death of patients.

A 2002 study found that for every patient added to a nurse's workload there is a seven percent increase in the chance of death following common surgeries.

In California, the hospitals that have seen the greatest effect in reduced mortality were the ones that started with the worst staffing ratios.

We also know that hospitals are losing good nurses because of these staffing shortages. A poll of nurses nationwide found that almost half of the nurses who plan to quit their job say that inadequate staffing is the reason they are leaving. The cost of replacing these valuable workers has been estimated at $25,000 to $60,000 per nurse.

Too many nurses get burned out by being overloaded with too many patients. Too many nurses have given up on serving in hospitals because the hospitals have given up on providing a better environment for both nurses and patients.

We need to remind hospitals that by investing more in their nursing staff, they will save money by avoiding costly medical mistakes and providing better care for their patients--and most importantly, they will save lives.

I strongly believe that health care reform cannot succeed unless we invest in our health care workforce. At 2.9 million strong, nurses are the largest health care workforce in our country, and this investment is long overdue.

My new legislation builds on the success of California's historic law for registered nurse staffing ratios. Under the California ratios law, lives are being saved, nurses' ability to be effective advocates for their patients is stronger and more registered nurses are entering the workforce and staying at the bedside longer--which is easing the State's nursing shortage.

Nurses are not just the face of the movement to improve health care in our country, they are the face of health care in our country. This bill is for them and the patients they so faithfully serve.