Floor Statements

Mr. President, June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month.

It is important to recognize the impact Alzheimer's has on families in Iowa and across the country and to recognize the cost to taxpayers because of the care it takes in the last years of their lives. This disease robs Americans of their memories and impacts their ability to speak, pay attention, and exercise judgment.

The best way for Congress to help with Alzheimer's disease is to ensure adequate research funding to find treatments. As Congress considers appropriations for next year, we should continue to fund research and work toward curing this disease.

Mr. President, on another point, the Supreme Court made a decision this week that I very much disagree with. I am an advocate for the Freedom of Information Act and for the public's business being public, and this Supreme Court decision inhibited that.

In a self-governed society, the people ought to know what their government is up to. Transparency laws, like the Freedom of Information Act, help to provide access to information in the face of an opaque and obstinate government. Unfortunately, a recent Supreme Court ruling and new regulations at the EPA and the Department of the Interior are undermining access to there being public information.

In other words, the public's business ought to be public. So I am working on legislation to address these developments and to promote access to government records. Americans deserve an accountable government, and transparency leads to accountability.

Mr. President, on a little lighter note, I am proud to say that the NBA season concluded with a University of Northern Iowa graduate's being able to call himself a champion.

The Toronto Raptors' head coach, Nick Nurse, graduated from my alma mater. He played for the University of Northern Iowa Panthers from 1985 to 1989. Nick went on to coach numerous teams, including for Grand View University in Des Moines. Nick knows how to reignite hometown pride. He led the first and only boys' Class 3-A championship for Kuemper Catholic High School in Carroll, IA. He is a class act. Congratulations to Nick.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 90 seconds.

Mr. President, ever since I was elected to the U.S. Senate, I have welcomed young Iowans to intern in my office. Internships provide students with the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, to apply the things they learn inside the classroom to the real world, and to develop skills they will carry with them into the future.

That is why my office offers year-round internships in both Washington, DC, and in Iowa. I offer students the opportunity to work alongside my staff to learn more about our Federal Government, and it happens that about two-thirds of my staff were former interns. This is a wonderful educational opportunity, and I encourage all college-age students to apply.

National Dairy Month

Mr. President, on another subject, Wells Enterprises, the maker of Blue Bunny ice cream, produces more ice cream in one location than any other place in the United States. That is why Le Mars, IA, is called the Ice Cream Capital of the World.

It produces over 200 million gallons a year, which I appreciate, because I like to eat ice cream. The Wells Ice Cream Parlor is one of the busiest tourist attractions in our entire State, and I have been there multiple times.

With this being National Dairy Month, I am proud to recognize Wells and all of the hard-working farmers and dairy workers who produce the great dairy products that are enjoyed across the country.

I yield the floor.

Recognition of the Majority Leader

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 1 minute.

Madam President, later today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to consider four protocols to the United States' tax treaties with Spain, Switzerland, Japan, and Luxembourg. I support swift action on these protocols both in committee and in the Senate, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes on them.

I encourage the committee to also take up the new tax treaties with Chile, Hungary, and Poland as soon as possible. These new treaties will provide important benefits to U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. Government.

After years of discussion and debate, the time has come to move forward on all of these bilateral agreements.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask to speak as in morning business for 1 minute.

Mr. President, Gov. Kim Reynolds of my State of Iowa has unveiled what she calls the ``This is Iowa'' campaign. That campaign has encouraged people to choose Iowa to live and work.

Iowa has the second lowest unemployment rate in the Nation. As I travel Iowa with my county meetings, I hear from employers across Iowa that have high-paying skilled jobs they cannot fill. That is why Iowa was ranked the No. 1 State to find a job in 2019.

The cost of living is low and the quality of life is second to none. Check out thisisiowa.com to learn more. In the words of Meredith Wilson, of ``76 Trombones'' fame, from Mason City, IA: ``You really ought to give Iowa a try.''

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask to speak as in morning business for 1 minute.

According to the Pentagon's estimation, a young woman in the military has a one-in-eight chance of being sexually assaulted. Unfortunately, many cases are never prosecuted.

This is completely unacceptable. We must do more to prevent assaults and ensure that survivors get justice. The men and women who have volunteered to place their lives on the line deserve better.

The Military Justice Improvement Act would help ensure impartial justice and send the message that sexual assault in the military will not be tolerated.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The short answer to your question is yes, but I would like to give a longer answer, if I could, and give you my perspective of TANF.

TANF is an acronym for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, which was created almost 23 years ago to provide help to low- income families with children in order to promote work and to strengthen families.

The creation of TANF sent a very clear message: People receiving help from the taxpayers should be expected to work, to prepare for work, or to take steps to become more self-reliant in exchange for having the taxpayers help you through difficult times in your life. TANF also sent another message, this one to our 50 States: In exchange for this funding, States must help people find work, prepare for jobs, or do other things that will help families get back on their feet.

Besides Senator Daines' mentioning Montana, I presume that of the 49 States, many are not meeting the requirements of TANF. Obviously, it does not make much sense for us to have standards if we don't enforce those standards.

There have been many proposals in recent years to improve the program, but, unfortunately, none have become law. That is why I am grateful to be here with Senator Daines, who effectively represents Montana. I know Senator Daines has been working on fixing problems with TANF and getting more people from welfare to work.

Other than these statements he is making here, this year, as evidence of his work, Senator Daines introduced a bill with Ranking Member Brady, of Texas, of the House Ways and Means Committee, that seeks to help more people find jobs and escape poverty.

Senator Daines and I have agreed to work together, along with our other colleagues on the Finance Committee, to find ways to get something done on TANF as it has been too many years since any changes have been made to the program. I am grateful for his commitment to work with me to update this program, and I do look forward to working with the Senator and the other members of the Finance Committee to see what we can agree to, for reforms are needed more now than ever.

To my colleagues and people in the Senate who feel this way or to people outside the Senate who feel this way with regard to any talk of reforming TANF as being needlessly harmful to the people whom Senator Daines and I want to help, I say what is really harmful to people is, if there are incentives to stay on government programs, because being on government programs guarantees a life of living in poverty.

What our goal should be for everything is to help people get out of poverty, and the way to get out of poverty is to be in the world of work if you have the capacity to work. Maybe some people who have certain physical conditions aren't able to work, and we have to help those people. Yet, for people who have the capability of improving themselves, they ought to be incentivized to improve themselves. Not only that, but it would work well for the needs of our labor market's requirements right now, and the Senator gave the statistics that there are more job openings than there are people for those jobs.

In the final analysis, if we want to get people in the workplace, we ought to have programs that incentivize people to go to work, and our reforming of TANF takes care of some of that. We also have to get rid of this cliff we have; that being, when people make $1 more than what they get from the government programs, they lose everything. I can give you an example.

When I went to a factory in Northwest Iowa, I asked: Have you ever thought about encouraging people who are on welfare to come to work?

He said: We have one. He works until he makes about $800. He quits for the rest of the month and then comes back at the beginning of the month because he knows he is going to lose all of those benefits.

It seems to me we ought to do away with that cliff and that we ought to encourage people to get jobs. If they make more money, they shouldn't lose everything all at once. Then, as they work their way up the ladder and improve themselves, maybe they will be off of the programs entirely.

In being a humanitarian, that is the way I see it. You are not a humanitarian if you give a person a life in poverty, which is what life is if you are just on government programs. In most cases, you have to be in poverty to qualify for the programs. Yet a few working people qualify for some. In helping to be humane to people, we provide a process for them to be in the world of work and improve themselves. So I look forward to working with the Senator.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, today is the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services.

The Court ruled that employees who face age discrimination have to meet a higher standard of proof than workers who face discrimination based on any other factor. This case involving Iowan Jack Gross affected employment discrimination litigation across the entire country, and sent the message to employers that age discrimination is

Mr. President, I call my colleagues' attention to an issue that has affected many families in Iowa and throughout the country. That issue is elder abuse and neglect of those same people.

Many older Americans reside in assisted care facilities, nursing homes, and all kinds of group living arrangements. It is critical that these care facilities and the staff at the facilities not only follow the law but provide the type of care they would want their own family members to receive.

The Des Moines Register last year published reports suggesting a troubling lack of compassionate care for elderly residents in some of the nursing homes in my State. We also had other reports surfacing in 2017 of nursing home workers in at least 18 different facilities taking humiliating and unauthorized photos of elderly residents and posting them on social media websites.

Earlier this year, I convened an oversight hearing in which we heard from the daughters of two elderly women who resided in a federally funded nursing home. One testified that her mother, an Iowan, died due to neglect in a facility that held the highest possible rating--a five- star rating--on a Federal Government website. The family discovered that the nursing home was the subject of multiple complaint investigations related to those complaints in recent years. Yet, after each complaint, government inspectors reported the facility had come back ``into substantial compliance with program requirements.''

At this same hearing, another witness from another State testified about her mother's rape in a nursing home.

These and similar cases around the country point to the need for reform. By one estimate, 1 in 10 persons older than the age of 60 will fall victim to elder abuse each year.

According to the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, one-third of nursing home residents may experience harm while under the care of these facilities. In more than half of these cases, the harm was preventable. That is why statutes like the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act, which I championed in the last Congress; also the Older Americans Act, which promotes seniors' independence; and the Elder Justice Act, which I have long supported, are all very important pieces of legislation.

On Monday, I introduced a resolution designating June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. I would like to thank my lead cosponsor, Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut, for joining me in introducing this legislation. The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the leaders of Senate Aging Committee, Senators Collins and Casey, along with Senators Lankford and Hassan, also are original cosponsors. I thank all of them for doing that.

This bipartisan resolution recognizes those adult protective services and healthcare personnel, ombudsmen, criminal justice personnel, and advocates who help prevent and combat elder abuse in communities all around our country.

It calls for us to promote awareness and long-term prevention of elder abuse. Congress has a very key role to play in ensuring the protections of seniors, not only in the passing of legislation but in our constitutional oversight role to make sure the executive branch of government faithfully executes those laws. In faithfully executing our laws in spirit as well as in the legalese, they will be helping us prevent elder abuse.

Years ago, I joined my colleagues in developing an earlier version of the Elder Justice Act. It is time to update and extend the key programs authorized under this important law, which authorized the Elder Justice Coordinating Council and also authorized resources to support forensic centers to investigate elder abuse, among other initiatives in that important legislation. I am working closely with the members of the Elder Justice Coalition on legislation to accomplish that goal.

It is also time for us to update and extend the Older Americans Act, which I have long supported.

As Finance Committee chairman, I intend to convene a hearing to discuss ways that we can continue to promote the health and well-being of our seniors, which is an issue I have cared about for a long time.

Creating a supportive, inclusive environment in our communities is essential to preventing elder abuse, and that is what the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is all about.

I urge my colleagues to join me in raising awareness for the most vulnerable among us, protecting our loved ones and protecting people we don't know, but in the process of our doing that, we empower all citizens to take a stand against elder abuse.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute as in morning business.

Mr. President, Congress needs to address the crisis facing multiemployer pension plans. The Finance Committee is continuing its work on retirement income security, including those issues with the multiemployer plans.

While we work to enact the first round of reforms in the retirement savings accounts, known as RESA, which is now before the Senate, there is still more work to do. We have the benefit of the joint select committee's work on multiemployer plans last year. We know what is going on, we know what is broken, and we know the various options for repairing the system.

It is time to put pen to paper and fix these plans that will protect the workers who have paid into them.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.