Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I am honored to congratulate the Jerome D. Mack Middle School, in Las Vegas, NV, for earning the School Innovation and Change Award, SICA. On June 1, 2017, a representative of the National Principals Leadership Institute will join with Mack Middle School to recognize this achievement formally to a gathering of 700 parents, students, and teachers.

This award recognizes Mack Middle School's principals, teachers, staff, and students for their efforts to embrace new and innovative strategies for educational improvement. To win this award, Mack Middle School submitted a competitive application to the National Principal Leadership Institute that included a school profile, a school changes story, documents supporting those changes, a reflection of innovation, a sustainability plan for how a $10,000 award would be used, and a description of community building.

Earning this award is no easy feat. In its improvement efforts, Mack Middle School has seen many upgrades in technology and pedagogy that mark demonstrable change. Every student now receives a laptop computer, and all assignments are completed on a virtual classroom portal. Students are taught to critically self-assess their own abilities and have learned to improve their skills to new levels of mastery. Their principal is a nationally board certified teacher and a nationally accredited principal mentor. Ten of their teachers attend national board certification classes, and approximately 390 of their students will earn high school credits this year. All this to say Mack Middle School is more than deserving of this award.

Moreover, these changes have positively affected the campus dynamic as teachers are excited about their work and students take charge of their education plans. More community center than a school, Mack Middle School has become a hub where parents and students alike partake in use of the school's athletic fields and even the school's Wi-Fi signal. In an area that is too often marred by high crime and poverty, the school stands as a beacon of what is possible when teachers are engaged in their community and where parents take an active role in their students' lives. Mack Middle School is an inspiration for East Las Vegas and the greater Nevada community.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Jerome D. Mack Middle School for their hard work, innovative approaches to education, and their efforts to improve educational outcomes for students in East Las Vegas.

Mr. President, I say to my colleague from the great State of Washington, I do know where Gonzaga is, and I am with you. As a graduate from the Gonzaga School of Law, we are going to the final four, and this time we are going to win. I am very excited.

Congratulations to the players, the coach, and to everyone at the school.

Mr. President, I take the floor today to urge my colleagues across the aisle to stand up for their constituents and vote against the measure on the floor, which will restrict access to safe, affordable, basic healthcare to millions of Americans across this country. This measure will allow States to discriminate against title X family planning clinics for no other reason than petty partisan politics that degrade women's access to healthcare and turn it into a Republican talking point.

These clinics provide essential family planning and health services to millions of American women, men, and families--many of whom are poor and low-income and in rural areas. This measure will cause these families to suffer by limiting their access to healthcare.

In my home State of Nevada, there are 23 clinics that risk losing funds as a result of this measure. These clinics are in Nevada's major cities and in our rural areas, like Hawthorne, Lovelock, Pahrump, Tonopah, Ely, Winnemucca, and Fallon. For many families in our rural areas, these clinics are the only healthcare facilities where they can access family planning services, as well as basic primary and preventive healthcare services.

The votes today empower States to discriminate against providers and, in turn, threaten the health and safety of the men, women, and families who rely on these clinics for basic and, at times, lifesaving services. We should be promoting access to healthcare, especially for our vulnerable communities. We should be expanding access to care, especially for Americans living in rural areas.

Republicans' actions today are an affront to American women and families. Their political agenda and shortsighted approach will do nothing but cause harm to Americans. It is time for Republicans to stop playing politics with women's health and actually put Americans' health and safety first.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I speak in unity with my colleagues and highlight the irreparable harm that will be done to our environment and communities now that Scott Pruitt has been confirmed to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Pruitt has focused his career on working against the EPA's fundamental mission of protecting our Nation's environment, instead pushing an antienvironment agenda dictated by big corporations that have funded his campaigns and political career.

Mr. Pruitt has been serving as Oklahoma's attorney general since 2010, during which he has spent countless hours working to undermine and repudiate the very Agency he is nominated to run.

Throughout his tenure, Mr. Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times over orders that seek to protect our environment and the health and safety of our communities.

Included in Mr. Pruitt's lawsuits were efforts to undercut basic, commonsense measures that are essential to Americans' health and safety: EPA safeguards for clean air and clean water. Yes, Mr. Pruitt supports undoing measures that ensure the air we breathe is not polluted and the water we drink is free of contaminants.

And during his confirmation hearing, Mr. Pruitt contradicted his own record and biography, calling into question his knowledge of basic principles. Pruitt claimed he believes that the EPA has ``a very valuable role.'' And yet his own LinkedIn profile brags that he is ``a leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda.''

Almost 4,000 Nevadans reached out to my office urging me to vote against Mr. Pruitt.

I want to read some stories from Nevadans who voiced their concerns about Mr. Pruitt and what is at stake for them--as well as countless other families across the country.

From Jean Pierre LeBarry of Las Vegas, NV:

I am of Basque descent, as is my whole family. I grew up in

Northern Nevada, as many other Basque folks did, on a ranch.

We did not have running water or even electricity. We did

have our sheep though. We were sheep ranchers, across the

great state of Nevada the industry flourished, but before I

had heard Al Gore say anything about climate change, I saw

its effects in our state [Nevada]. We stopped getting as much

snowfall; we would scour the desert for water to keep our

herd alive on the range. Year after year it got worse, slowly

killing our industry, thinning our herd, and giving me first

hand example of how severe climate change is. This was more

than 30 years ago I saw these changes taking place. After I

left the ranch, I worked as a government employee for the

Bureau of Land Management, until I retired. To see how much

disregard Scott Pruitt would have for my family and their

struggles with the deterioration of our climate; it is

appalling that anyone would dare to confirm his nomination to

head the Environmental Protection Agency, the very agency he

has tried so hard to dismantle already.

From Sharon Ingram-Bevans of Reno, NV:

My Husband was a Vietnam Vet and he died last March after a

10 year illness directly related to environmental pollution.

He was stationed at Camp Le Juhen North Carolina, exposed to

drinking water full of jet fuel, and some great general's

idea to have young Marines scrape and repaint Agent Orange

boxes while serving in the Refugee camps at Okinawa Japan.

Our Daughter has Thyroid disease due to this exposure also.

If we only paid attention to how we use and dispose of

substances we might have a better world to give to our

children. There is no Planet ``B'' and even rich people need

clean air and water.

From Brittany Lamborn of Las Vegas, NV:

I was born and raised in Nevada. My sister, brother, and I

grew up in the Las Vegas valley, surrounded by majestic

mountain ranges, fragrant pines, and breathtaking sunsets.

Away from the glitz and glamour of the Strip, I could lose

myself in the beauty of Red Rock or walk the trails on Mt.

Charleston. My mom would take us to Gilcrease Orchard to pick

fresh produce. My dad would take us on stargazing trips to

Cathedral Gorge in Panaca. I have never wished for another

home. Home means Nevada.

Now I have two young children of my own. I put on a brave

face every morning so that they do not see my fear that

increases with each day. I fear that these God given wonders

will not be protected for them. I fear that the overwhelming

need to consume will eat up our natural resources. And I fear

that, unchecked, we will do irreparable harm to the only

planet we have. When the dust has cleared, I fear: What will

be left for our children?

Climate change is a fact, not a feeling or an opinion. We

need someone at the helm of the Environmental Protection

Agency that will protect every Gilcrease Orchard, every Red

Rock, and every Cathedral Gorge in the United States. Scott

Pruitt is not that man.

I know I am not the only Senator whose office was contacted by countless constituents, urging us to put the health and safety of our children and our environment first and oppose Mr. Pruitt's nomination.

I promised Nevadans I would come to Washington and fight for them and their priorities, and that is why I could not support Mr. Pruitt to lead the EPA. I urged my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same.

Mr. President, I rise today, along with many of my colleagues, to speak out against the White House nominating Steven Mnuchin to be the next Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. President Trump has nominated the former CEO of OneWest Bank--who before that for 17 years was a Goldman Sachs executive--to run the Federal agency tasked with crafting and implementing U.S. economic policy. So much for draining the swamp.

I want to start, however, by sharing the story of a good friend, Lola Orvik, whom I met when I was attorney general of Nevada.

In 2013, Lola's mortgage on her townhouse in Henderson was underwater. Like thousands of other Nevadans, she needed to refinance, but five different loan modification applications had all been rejected by her bank. Lola was desperate for a solution and on the verge of losing her home. She received a telephone call offering help that was too good to be true, and it was. After calling my office, she thankfully discovered that it was a scam. I am so glad she called my office. Our staff referred her to a new program we had created, the Home Again Homeowner Relief Program. It is a one-stop shop to help struggling homeowners. It helped Lola finally get a loan modification, reduce her principal by $37,000, slash her interest rate from 5.7 percent to 2 percent, and keep the house she had lived in for nearly 20 years.

The Home Again Program helped thousands of Nevada homeowners understand all the State and Federal housing resources available to them. It has helped folks like Lola restructure their loans to ensure more affordable monthly payments. That simple hotline number has gone a long way.

Because we were there to help her, Lola got her life back. However, not everyone was as fortunate as Lola. In fact, some families are still trying to overcome the continuing destructive impact of the foreclosure crisis in Nevada and across this country.

In the depths of the great recession, Lola's predicament was not unique. Nevada was ground zero for the housing crisis. Property values plummeted. ``For sale'' signs lined the streets. Foreclosure notices hung on doors throughout the State. Thousands of families lived in constant fear of losing their homes.

In 2008, Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the Nation, with more than 77,000 homes getting a notice at the door saying they were at risk for eviction. We led the Nation in the terms of foreclosure rate for 62 straight months during the recession.

Things got so bad that by 2010, nearly 70 percent of Nevada homeowners were underwater on their homes, meaning

that they owed more on their mortgages than the current value of their property.

As Nevada's attorney general, I fought the big banks, Wall Street institutions, and default servicing companies to secure more than $1.9 billion to help hard-working families get back on their feet. That money helped to fund the Home Again Program.

More than just getting that money back, this was about changing the conduct and predatory practices of the big banks when working with homeowners. For instance, we made dual tracking an illegal practice so that banks could no longer foreclosure on a home while simultaneously considering their request for a loan modification and then charging them fees every step of the way. We demanded that a homeowner have a single point of contact within the financial institution so the homeowner would no longer get shuffled around from person to person and told to resubmit their loan modification application over and over again. We demanded that the banks demonstrate that they had personal knowledge of the foreclosure documents they filed to prevent robo- signing and unlawful foreclosures of a home.

Unfortunately, not every bank was willing to do everything possible to help the millions of Nevadans and Americans who were suffering. Mr. Mnuchin's OneWest Bank--formally known as IndyMac--was one such bank. Instead of trying to help homeowners, OneWest enforced predatory and unforgiving practices that only served to line the pockets of Mr. Mnuchin and his co-owners.

Steven Mnuchin purchased IndyMac from the Federal Government after it collapsed and took control of the thousands of mortgages the bank managed. Mnuchin rebranded the bank as OneWest and went to work using questionable foreclosure practices, like dual tracking, so he could make more money. That is not right.

Instead of working to help these homeowners stay in their homes, OneWest Bank, under Mnuchin's leadership, became a foreclosure machine. The bank had one of the highest denial rates for applications to the Home Affordable Modification Program. A judge in Wisconsin cited OneWest's ``harsh, repugnant, shocking, and repulsive'' practices when deciding a suit against them. Recent documents show that the company used robo-signing to deny modification claims, proving that it did not fairly consider loan modification applications for tens of thousands of homeowners.

When confronted with these facts at his Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Mnuchin lied. He denied that OneWest used robo-signing, offered empty excuses, and shifted blame for his company's heinous practices. And during his confirmation hearing, Mr. Mnuchin repeatedly refused to say how many homes OneWest foreclosed on in Nevada.

However, according to new data, during the foreclosure crisis and its immediate aftermath, OneWest made $3 billion in profit while evicting 3,654 Nevada families from their homes. This includes 181 foreclosures on seniors who had taken out reverse mortgages. When he eventually left the bank, Mr. Mnuchin received a $10.9 million payout. This is on top of the annual compensation of $4.5 million he has received since 2015, when OneWest was bought by other investors. Let me repeat that. Some 3,654 Nevada families lost their homes because Mr. Mnuchin's OneWest put profits over people. That is a snapshot and a statistic which does not do justice to how much pain that caused for those families.

I want to spend some time on these accusations of robo-signing, both because Mr. Mnuchin clearly lied and also because this was an issue I took on when I was attorney general during and after the crash.

First, let's be clear what this is. Robo-signing is a procedure used by mortgage companies to sign foreclosure documents without reviewing them. This is a reckless practice used by banks to cut corners and forge documents, to rush things along, and it caused thousands of families to be wrongfully evicted from their homes.

Like OneWest, the banks were involved in a massive robo-signing scheme in my home State of Nevada, and I went after them aggressively as the State's attorney general. Nevada led the Nation in foreclosures every month for more than 4 years.

Mr. Mnuchin's company did not care that middle-class families were losing their homes during the crisis. In fact, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate, he admitted:

I never wanted to be in the mortgage servicing business. I

didn't want to be in the reverse mortgage business, I wanted

to build a regional bank.

In other words, Mr. Mnuchin had to convince his investors that they would make money--a point that Mr. Mnuchin admitted at the hearing, saying: ``Yes, my investors made a lot of money on OneWest.''

Not only did his investors make a lot of money, Mr. Mnuchin did so as well. Since leaving the bank, he has pocketed nearly $20 million. Mr. Mnuchin was making millions, while thousands of Nevadans were losing their homes and their dignity, Nevadans like Heather McCreary of Sparks, who came to Capitol Hill last month to share her heart- wrenching story of how she applied to OneWest for a loan modification in 2010 after she and her husband lost their jobs as a result of the financial crisis. Despite three applications and following all instructions, the bank kept Heather's family dangling and then suddenly foreclosed on their home. I want to read some of Heather's testimony. It is moving and heartbreaking and deserves to be heard by every Member of this body.

Here is what she told us at the hearing:

In 2008, when the economy started to get worse, I was laid

off. The following year, in 2009, my husband Jack was laid

off too. Though Jack was able to find another job pretty

fast, he had to take a big pay cut--from about $25 an hour to

$8.50 an hour. Between the cut in Jack's pay and the loss in

income I experienced when going on unemployment insurance

benefits after I got laid off, we were pinched and we were

drowning financially.

However, we were determined to keep our dream home, so Jack

and I were tenacious about doing whatever we could to get

help. We sought help from the Hope Now Alliance, which is an

alliance of HUD-approved counselors who provide free

foreclosure help, and from the Washoe County Senior Law

Project.

We worked side-by-side with both organizations to do

everything required of us by our mortgage servicer IndyMac,

which later became OneWest. When we first asked for help,

OneWest gave us a short forbearance and allowed us to make a

smaller payment for several months with the goal of a

reduction in our monthly mortgage payments through the Home

Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP).

By applying for the HAMP program, we thought we were back

on the road to keeping our home. We complied 100 percent with

OneWest requirements for HAMP--we were incredibly nervous

about being able to keep our house, so we were extremely

careful to make sure we did everything we could to keep the

process going forward. Our application for HAMP was processed

and we were approved for our modification. I sent in the

signed paperwork and the first payment under the modified

payment amount along with it.

But then the process started to fall apart. After a whole

30 days, OneWest returned our personal check and told us that

only certified checks would be accepted, so they were now

voiding the modification offer. We had followed the

instructions to the letter on OneWest paperwork, crossing our

``T''s and dotting our ``I''s. But in the end, this didn't

matter--and OneWest's rejection of our HAMP application put

us on the road to foreclosure.

We applied two more times for loan modifications over the

next six months because we were given assurances by people at

OneWest that they would approve our application. We again

complied with every request OneWest made of us, taking care

to send in extra documents whenever OneWest requested them.

But as far as I can tell, OneWest never attempted to

process the loan modification. The foreclosure went through

and we lost our home on September 10, 2010. The foreclosure

left us without a home; and finding a new rental was

extremely difficult because of our credit. Juggling the

demands of raising our twins was so hard--the foreclosure

even meant that our kids had to miss school. Eventually we

did find a new place, but we had to pay an outrageous rent,

even though it was not a good home for us at all.

It's hard to explain the shame, embarrassment, and grief

that Jack and I felt. I've cried a river of tears over this.

I really didn't think we were asking too much: We wanted to

hang on to our home for the sake of our kids, and we did

everything we could to stay in our home. And while I will

probably never know exactly what OneWest did, the outcome of

my story proves that Steve Mnuchin's company had no interest

in helping us. They wanted to foreclose because they were

focused on their profits.

Heather's story is just one of thousands that highlight just how wrong

Mr. Mnuchin is to be our next Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. The Treasury Department has the vital mission of promoting the conditions that enable economic growth, stability, job opportunities, and the ability to buy a car or own a home. Their actions directly affect the lives of every American.

Our next Treasury Secretary should have a proven record of fighting to expand economic opportunities for everyone. That is what Americans deserve. Yet, from where I stand, Mr. Mnuchin falls far short of that test.

President Trump's choice of Mr. Mnuchin to lead the U.S. Treasury is a slap in the face for Nevada families like Heather's. Her story makes it crystal clear: This is not someone who will be looking out for working people when he implements our Nation's economic policy.

In many ways, President Trump's unfortunate choice of someone like Mr. Mnuchin should not surprise us because in 2006 the President said he ``sort of hoped'' the real estate market would tank, and in 2007 he said he was ``excited'' for the housing market crash. The motive was the same: profits.

We cannot afford to return to the misguided policies that brought us to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Families cannot afford to lose their homes again. But that is exactly what we can expect if Stephen Mnuchin is confirmed as President Trump's Treasury Secretary.

When I ran for the Senate, I promised Nevadans that I would fight for them, that I would stand up for them and be their voice here in Washington. Today, I am that voice, and that is why I rise with my colleagues in opposition to the ``Foreclosure King,'' Mr. Mnuchin.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, let me first of all say I echo the comments of my colleague from South Carolina. Thank you to all of you who have been working so hard.

I rise to yield the remainder of my postcloture time to Senator Wyden.

Mr. President, I yield my hour of postcloture debate time under rule XXII to Senator Cardin.

Madam Clerk, how am I recorded?

On behalf of the thousands of Nevadans--

--who will lose health care, I vote no.