Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I rise in absolute awe--remain in awe--of what happened in this country and in this world 50 years ago this week, and I am still inspired by the events of our space program 50 years ago.

Fifty years ago today, Americans of all ages, in every corner of this great Nation and, in fact, all over the world, stopped what they were doing to watch in complete awe as Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy, headed toward the Moon. It is unbelievable what we saw, what we witnessed, that entire week.

It would be the first time that humans would set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. We would step foot on the Moon, which had captured the imagination of the world since time began, trying to reach that big, round object in the sky. It was a remarkable feat, made possible by the sheer determination and grit of the American space program and all of those who participated in it.

I was just a kid growing up in Alabama at the time. I lived just 2 or 3 hours south of what was known as Rocket City in Huntsville, AL. It is still known as Rocket City because of all of the work at NASA and in our space program today. It was a thriving metropolis then and even more so today. That is where all of the rockets were built. That is where the engines, the powerful engines that drove the rockets into space, were built. They were tested in Huntsville, AL. If you go there today, most of those stands are still there. Some of them are about to be used again. Those Saturn V rockets, the most powerful rocket engines man had ever created, were built in Huntsville, AL. They were the engines that would propel man to the Moon.

I was absolutely mesmerized--absolutely mesmerized--by all things involving the space program. I still am. I can remember so many times when my maternal grandfather, Oliver Wesson, whom I called Paw-Paw, and I would just sit for hours and watch and listen

to the commentaries. We would watch the liftoffs. We would watch the splashdowns. Some of my best memories as a kid were literally sitting in front of a TV set with my granddad, watching the heroes I saw, the heroes I wanted to be, and the heroes America wrapped their arms around. At the time, there was nothing--nothing--and maybe to some extent today--more that I wanted to do than to be an astronaut and to go into space. It sounds corny for an old man like me to say that, but it is absolutely true.

Those astronauts, the original Mercury Seven astronauts, were heroes in every sense of the word. I admire their courage, not having a clue when they blasted off from Florida whether they would return safely. And we did lose astronauts along the way.

I did so many things. I read. I studied. I watched. I read papers. A lot of papers in my grammar, junior high, and high schools were all written about the space program.

I am a memorabilia collector, as many of you may know, including of autographed baseballs. I have a few autographed baseballs by some of the astronauts, but the ones I like most are the newspapers. From that time, I could see that everybody could sense something was special. From the time Apollo 11 took off from Cape Kennedy, and the headlines in the Birmingham News read ``Man Sets Foot in Heavens,'' to the time they splashed down, I collected and saved every one of those newspapers. They are still at home, and they are prized possessions.

We watched every single launch. We knew every single name of every astronaut. We stood there with intense, mesmerizing attention to every moment of those launches.

It was something that captivated this entire country. It was a unifying time. It was a unifying force at a time when America needed it--the 1960s. For Apollo 11 in 1969, it was a time when we needed that sense of collective pride. We needed that sense of unification. We had gone through tough times during the civil rights era. We had gone through and we were still in the midst of the Vietnam war and all that tore this country asunder. We saw all that happened in 1968. We saw the deaths of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, but the space program was that one sense of pride.

It didn't take a tragedy to unify America at that time. It took success. It took a build of what we do. It took our determination. It took knowing that we were the most patriotic, and, doggone, we were going to beat those Russians to the Moon. It sounds so corny these days, but it is absolutely the case. We were going to do it. It was going to be the United States of America, and, doggone, we did it.

A lot has changed. Today, we are building on this legacy. We are still building on this legacy in space. We are building it in Huntsville, AL, and elsewhere with NASA, and we are going to continue to inspire a new generation--and more generations to come--of Alabamans and Americans, people all across this country, to help us reach even loftier heights.

Yes, a lot has changed since 1969--50 years ago--but there is a reason that space flight and exploration of other worlds continue to capture our attention and to capture our imagination. It is because, at the end of the day, we are all dreamers. We always dream of those loftier heights. We always want to achieve. We always want to make this country great--consistently make this country great. We always want to reach for the stars, whether it is in our personal lives or whether it is collectively as a country. That is what we do. We are dreamers.

Today, 50 years after the launch of Apollo--and on Saturday, we will celebrate 50 years of the actual steps on the lunar surface--we celebrate the achievement of a dream five decades ago, but a dream that started long, long before that, long before President Kennedy challenged America to put a man on the Moon.

Looking back, 50 years ago was really just the beginning. It showed us that a true moonshot was possible, and, quite literally, it opened our world to new possibilities.

Today, we are reaching for human spaceflight back to the Moon and to Mars. It is not just us; other countries are doing the same. We are looking for a return flight to the Moon for deeper exploration. We are receiving pictures from the farthest reaches of the galaxy, things we have never seen before. We have seen the surface. We have landed rovers on the Moon surface and have seen the pictures and have done the tests. It is just unbelievable. Who would have ever thought of this some 50, 60 years ago when I was a kid?

Today, we have a greater understanding of the universe around us and how we apply that knowledge to our own lives. We continue to reach for the stars.

Yes, a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. We still have divisions in this country. We still need that unifying voice. We still need that sense of pride that we can all--everybody--wrap our arms around.

Today, we seem to be divided more than we were during the height of the Vietnam war. We seem to be divided over the very issues that my friend Senator Cornyn was talking about a moment ago with regard to immigration. We are divided over politics--a partisan divide. We are divided over gun violence. You name it; we are divided. So we need that unifying voice. We need something positive that we can all wrap our arms around.

It is not just a holiday--and sometimes now, in today's world, unfortunately, even our holidays get divided. Even on our holidays, people go to their corners for political reasons, on both sides of the aisle. Make no mistake, folks, I am not casting a stone one way or another. I am casting it across this land. People are divided.

We have to honor the visionaries of long ago, as well as the visionaries of today who think big, dream big, and give our Nation a collective sense of purpose and unity--a collective sense of unity and purpose--not a divisive sense of purpose for their own benefit but a collective sense of unity and purpose.

We can honor those folks by setting aside all of the differences we see. We can honor those folks by not going to our corners every time a hot-button issue is mentioned either here on the floor of the Senate or in a tweet or in a Facebook post or in the national news. We can set that aside. We can set it aside by setting aside our differences.

We honor folks by setting aside our differences today. We can honor those folks by remembering our collective pride and who we are as Americans, by making sure that all men and women are created equal and living up to the creed that we so proudly point to in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We can do that again. We can honor these visionaries by coming together, reaching across the aisle and also reaching within our aisles to bring people together to talk about those things we can do together and with a sense of pride. We can do it by, once again, being the leader of the world and not trying to do everything alone but bringing our friends and allies to join us in these collective efforts to make us stronger.

Yes, we owe those folks a great debt of gratitude for making America a leader in space, a leader in the world, and giving us all something to dream about. Let us now meet that challenge in a different way.

Let us continue to explore space. Let us continue to reach for the stars, but let us dedicate ourselves to becoming that unified voice so that something we can all dream about is one America--one America--not a house divided but one America for everyone.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I rise to honor two of Alabama's great citizens. The State misses greatly the late Senator Howell Heflin, who was a Member of this body for 18 years, and my friend and campaign manager, Giles Perkins, who was a lawyer in Birmingham, AL. These two men spent their lives working to improve our great State, and both shaped the future of Alabama in his own way. Following these remarks, we are going to be honoring both of these men in a reception to be held in my office.

I last spoke on the floor of my friend and former campaign manager, Giles Perkins, following his death last December. Giles was an accomplished attorney, community leader, brilliant political adviser, and strategist. Although a native of Texas, he moved to Alabama following his marriage to his true love, Hillery Head, and he quickly came to understand how Alabama's complicated and sometimes dark history shaped our State. He had the vision of a brighter future if all Alabamians could have just simply worked together to create one Alabama for everyone.

Whether in politics, his legal practice, or with regard to his remarkable community projects--most notably Railroad Park, which helped to transform the city of Birmingham--for anyone who crossed paths with Giles, one saw in him his passion for making Alabama and the entire South better places for us all.

Giles' last political effort was my 2017 Senate campaign. As campaign chair, he was nothing short of extraordinary. He challenged me constantly--so much so that I began calling him Yoda. I still often refer to him as Yoda. His ability to see the bigger picture and his ``tough love'' approach with me made me a much better candidate, a better person, and certainly a better U.S. Senator. I will always cherish his friendship.

Howell Heflin was, to say the least, a lion of the U.S. Senate and a political mentor of mine. A military hero who hailed from Tuscumbia, AL, Judge Howell Heflin was sometimes described as the ``conscience of the Senate'' as he was widely known for his unshakable integrity. Because of that, he was the chair of the Ethics Committee, I think, for 12 years running--something that, in his final remarks, he described as anything but enjoyable, but he was a man of unshakable integrity. He was part of the ``greatest generation.'' He became a marine at the age of 21, and he served the Nation during World War II. He was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat, and he received two Purple Hearts for his actions.

Even by Members of this body, Howell Heflin was always affectionately referred to as ``Judge.'' If you read back over the day he announced his retirement, which was on March 29, 1995, all of his colleagues referred to him as ``Judge'' because of his extraordinary career. As a one-term chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, he modernized Alabama's court system and won numerous awards for it as well as for himself personally. He was a known national figure because of his work on the courts. Later, while in this body, he helped to streamline the Federal courts in order to help move the civil courts and the criminal justice system. He always believed that justice delayed was justice denied.

He was elected to the Senate in 1978. I was then in my third year of law school. During the summer of 1978, I opted to work full time on his campaign rather than to clerk for a law firm. This was in part because I believed that his election, following a 20-year or more domination of Alabama politics by George Wallace, would be one of the most significant elections in Alabama's history--a turning point for a State whose reputation had sorely suffered throughout the civil rights movement. It turned out I was absolutely right. Howell Heflin's election ushered in a time in Alabama during which politicians in our State began to look beyond the dog whistle politics of race and to do their best to represent all of the citizens of Alabama.

He was a champion of the rural farmer, NASA, and businesses throughout Alabama. He was also a champion of the small business leader, teachers, members of the union, and African-American citizens in Alabama, who were still feeling the effects of discrimination and restricted voting rights.

By today's standards, Howell Heflin would certainly be considered pretty conservative with his positions that many, including myself, would probably not agree with. Yet, in his heart, Howell Heflin believed in the Constitution of the United States, and he strived to ensure that we lived up to the creed that all people are created equal. During his floor speech in which he announced his retirement, he said, ``Not until we become genuinely one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all can this country realize its potential for true greatness.''

He worked as a Senator to secure the extension of the Voting Rights Act, which is something we are still arguing about today--23 years after he left the Senate. He appointed the first two African Americans to the Federal bench in Alabama. Sadly, even though the number of Federal judges in Alabama's three Federal districts have grown significantly in number, there are still only two active Federal judges in Alabama who are African American. He supported historically black colleges and universities, and he ensured the passage of the civil rights restoration bill. He helped to pass the fair housing bill and helped to establish a national holiday that honors the late Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howell Heflin's commitment to racial justice and his sensitivity to issues of race led him in 1993 to give a remarkable floor speech that opposed an insignia patent bill that contained an image of a Confederate battle flag. This was over 20 years before the tragedy in Charleston, SC, when battle flags across the country came down. It was 20 years or so before that when he opposed an amendment that would have contained an image of the Confederate battle flag. It was truly a remarkable speech, and I referenced it just recently in a speech I gave here on the Equality Act. It was considered by many--his friends, his family, his staff, and all who knew him, especially those in this body--to be his finest hour. It was his finest hour because it was one of those rare occasions on the floor of the Senate during which an impassioned speech by one Senator swayed a vote.

There was an amendment and a motion to table on that bill--a motion that had not succeeded. Howell Heflin then took to the floor so as to sway Senators to reconsider. Then, overwhelmingly, by a vote of over 75 to 20-something, the motion was tabled, and the bill died, as it should have.

That led Carol Moseley-Braun--the first African-American female Senator in history--to state the following:

His integrity, his intelligence, his commitment and faith

in the Constitution of these United States, faith in what the

American dream has always stood for and can be in the future,

has led Judge Heflin in a direction that I think is without

peer and without parallel in this body. He has been a force

for good. He has been a force for right.

There are very few people who have known Howell Heflin and there are very few people in Alabama who remember him who would say otherwise.

He was a force for good, and he was a force for right.

I am so proud that my first job after law school was working with him as staff counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was just an amazing experience for a kid who had never been to Washington, DC, before taking the job.

It is now my privilege to hold the seat that Judge Heflin had for 18 years. It is my honor. The fact that I walked off this floor with him as a staffer in 1980 and walked back on in 2018 in his seat has been one of the greatest honors of my life.

In gratitude for that opportunity the Judge gave me, I have established a fellowship in my office for a recent law school graduate--just like me in 1979--and I look forward to welcoming the first Howell Heflin fellow to my team later this month.

Howell Heflin was sworn into the Senate in 1979, 40 years ago this past January. And it was about 40 years ago this time of year that I joined his staff--fresh out of law school, fresh off of taking the bar exam. He was certainly my mentor and role model in many ways, and each day that I am in the Senate, I strive to continue his legacy--not that I always vote as Howell Heflin would, although, frankly, knowing him as I did, I am absolutely convinced that he would have moderated many of his positions with changing times. He was that kind of leader. But I am certainly guided by the principles of public service to his constituents that he described in his retirement announcement, in which he said:

I have endeavored to represent Alabama in a studied,

impartial, and fair-minded manner. My record certainly

indicates at least an independent streak. I hope Alabamians

know that my decisions were based on what I thought was in

the best interest of my State and Nation. While some may

argue or disagree with my decisions, I was convinced that I

was right. And I believe most Alabamians felt that nothing

more could be expected of me.

I agree with him 100 percent.

Ironically, Judge Heflin passed away 10 years to the day from the day he gave that speech on March 29. I miss him. Alabama misses him. And I can assure my colleagues who didn't know him, the U.S. Senate misses him as well.

The threads that tie Judge Heflin and Giles Perkins together in history are their deeply rooted integrity and their dedication to leaving the State of Alabama better than they found it. Their memories inspire me every day.

Today, following these remarks, I am dedicating the conference rooms in my Senate office to these two men who, through leadership and commitment, made a positive difference in the history of the State of Alabama, as well as in my life.

I am so happy that I am going to be joined by Judge Heflin's son Tom and his wife Cornelia, as well as numerous former Heflin staffers, including his longtime chief of staff, Mike House, who is the one who made that fateful call to me that summer as I was studying for the bar exam to offer me the job here on the Hill.

Also with us will be Drew Perkins and his wife Nelly. Drew is the brother of Giles. They will be here with us as we celebrate both Judge Heflin and Giles Perkins.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that in the corner of the Giles Perkins Conference Room will be the large Yoda doll that will be kept in his honor.

As for me, I will strive to continue the work that they began, to fulfill their vision, and to honor their memories as long as I have the privilege of serving here in the U.S. Senate.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I approach to say how much I appreciate my colleagues, Senator Merkley and Senator Kaine, for their eloquent thoughts on an important issue of our time.

Let me also now rise in total frustration on a completely different issue--but total frustration, bafflement, and, quite frankly, just angry and disappointed in this body. I am angry because we have turned our back for over 40 years on military families. We have turned our backs on the widows of the very men and women who have given their lives to protect this country, to uphold our democratic ideals, and to make possible the very work that we are doing in the Senate and the very work that we, as Members of the Senate and as Members of Congress, are charged to do every day on behalf of the American people and, particularly, on behalf of veterans and their families.

I am talking about this body's refusal to bring up the Military Widow's Tax Elimination Act--the refusal to bring it up for a single floor vote--despite the fact that we have 75 cosponsors--75 cosponsors of this bill. It is the most bipartisan legislation, except for the robocall bill, which everybody could agree on. And we can't get that to a vote in this body?

Where have we gone wrong? Where have the rules of the body--the rules that the leadership of both parties are operating under--gone off the rails that we can't bring this to a vote, to just get a simple up-or- down vote, on a process that is ripe, and that is the NDAA?

In my 17 or 18 months--I forget how many now in this body--I have had some frustrating moments, as I know all of my colleagues who have been here for a long time have had a lot of frustrating moments. We have shut down this government three times since I have been a U.S. Senator--three times. I have seen disaster relief held up for 5 or 6 months, with farmers and others needing that relief, needing that money, needing that help, and we held it up for political reasons so that someone can score a point because everything is seen through the eyes of a political gamesmanship. That is how we are operating today, and it is incredibly frustrating for those of us who want to make sure we go forward with things when we see bipartisan efforts.

In this situation, we are talking about military families who are getting ripped off by us. You can call it the government if you want to, but at the end of the day, they are getting ripped off by every single Member of this body and the House of Representatives, and they have had it. It is no wonder that the American people think that Congress and Washington, in general, are just completely broken. If we can't fight for military widows and spouses, who are having their survivor benefits shortchanged, then, for whom are we going to fight? For whom are we going to stand up?

We always talk about standing up for the least of these. I have people wanting to stand up for the immigrants coming across the border. I have people wanting to stand up for corporations and to make sure that they are paying their share of the taxes, as opposed to overburden. I have people standing up for people every day, but here we have a chance to stand up for people who have given their lives for this country, and we are not doing it. We are not doing it.

If we can't do the right thing on this, with 75 cosponsors, how can we possibly tackle immigration reform? How can we possibly tackle healthcare reform or education in this country if we can't come to some agreement and one simple vote when we have 75 cosponsors?

How can we not fight for people like Cathy Milford, a retired schoolteacher from Mobile, AL, whose husband passed away unexpectedly 25 years ago from a service-connected illness just months after his retirement from the Coast Guard? Instead of a long and happy retirement together, Cathy has been fighting to right this wrong for all of the some 65,000 military spouses who are hurt by the current law.

During a recent visit here to Capitol Hill, she said: ``Every time I talk about this''--and she is up here a lot talking about elimination of the military widow's tax--``I have to dig up my husband and bury him all over again.''

Just think about that. Let that just sink in a minute: a military widow, one of many of thousands, who had to return to lobby Congress year after year at their own expense, saying she feels like she is digging up and burying her husband all over again when she has to talk about this issue. That is not only sad, it is shameful.

We have tried to pass this legislation. The Senate has, in some form, repeatedly over the last almost 20 years. It has been included in the NDAA numerous times only to be stripped out during conference. It has been included without an immediate pay-for to offset the budget issues that everybody kind of falls back on and hangs their hat on. We don't have that immediate pay-for.

It has passed before. It has passed before in this body with bipartisan support, but for some reason it just hasn't been able to get across the finish line. For some reason, even though the bill today has historic levels of cosponsorship, we are not allowed to bring it up for a vote as an amendment to this NDAA. Frankly, that is the frustration.

It is a frustration that goes beyond just this bill. It is a frustration that we can't debate on the floor of the Senate anymore. We can't bring up amendments. I think we have brought up one amendment in legislation in this Congress because of the rule between the leader and minority leader. There are all these deals going on. You have to have a Republican package; you have to have a Democratic package; you have to play one against the other. We are constantly playing the political games in this body when we should be working for the American people as a whole.

That is why today, at this time, I am once again calling for our bill to eliminate the military widow's tax, to pass it or get it voted on and bring it to the floor and pass it on unanimous consent. Every one of my colleagues would do well to remember that we are the ones who should be fighting for these spouses. We are the ones. We are the only people they can turn to. This can't be fixed on the streets. It can't be fixed at the Department of Defense or the Veterans' Administration. The legislature, the Congress of the United States, is the only one that can do it, and we are the ones who should be fighting for these military spouses, the widows and widowers whose loved ones gave their lives for this country, the widows and widowers whose lives are forever changed because of their family's selfless service to this country.

Caring for military families has long been part of the foundation of our government. In President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, he spoke in no uncertain terms on this obligation. In the midst of the Civil War, he addressed a nation that had sustained unimaginable loss--unimaginable loss--in order to preserve the Union we so cherish.

The country was then more divided than it ever had been, and God help us if it ever gets that divided again, but the values Lincoln asserted during that speech were so fundamental that, even at war with itself, it could agree on the importance.

He said this:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with

firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let

us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the

nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the

battle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which we

may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among

ourselves and with all nations.

Let me repeat that critical phrase today: `` . . . to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.''

This is the promise we have made to those who raise their hand in service to our Nation. This is the contract, the solemn contract, that we have made to those who have raised their hand in service to this Nation; that we will honor and support them and care for their families if tragedy occurs.

President Lincoln was assassinated just over a month after he issued this appeal, but the weight of his words still resonate today. In some ways, on this issue, they resonate more because in those days you could count on the fact that the legislative body, the Congress of the United States, heeded those words and took care of those families.

It has been 154 years since President Lincoln spoke those words; yet the Government of the United States, the Members of this body, the Members of the House have yet to fulfill that promise. It has been 154 years, and we still get caught up in the deals that are made as to what gets on the floor and what does not get on the floor, the political deals that have to be jockeyed, where we give and take, and it is one over the other. We need to fix that today.

We need to fix it in a broader sense and let this body get back to its real work and be the great deliberative body it is supposed to be. We are not doing that, but that is a different issue for a different time.

Let's start today and stand up and exhibit just a fraction, a small fraction--a small, small fraction--of the courage that these military spouses did on our behalf. Let's let our actions speak louder than words simply ever could. Let's put the issue to rest and give these widows some peace.

Let us do our duty.

It was Atticus Finch, who told the jury in ``To Kill a Mockingbird,'' as he closed out, knowing what the outcome was going to be, as I do here--knowing what the outcome was going to be, it was Atticus Finch, who said: ``In the name of God, do your duty.''

I say that to this body. I say that to the leadership. In the name of God, let's do our duty to these people. Let's get behind the political deals and let's do our duty, once and for all.

Unanimous Consent Request--Amendment No. 269

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to set aside the pending amendment; that amendment No. 269 be considered and agreed to; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

I thank my friend and colleague Chairman Inhofe, and let me say I know where he has been on this issue. I have seen his speeches from years past on this issue, and I do appreciate that, and I appreciate the fact that he is a cosponsor.

I also know this has been put on an NDAA before in this body without a pay-for, without an offset, in order to have a sense of the Senate and to go on record, and that is what I think we should do. I understand we are not there this year for whatever reason. I still believe, in part, that it is a procedural issue that ought to be put aside for this, but that is an argument for another day.

I do so very much appreciate the chairman's remarks. I have enjoyed working with him, Senator Reed, and others on the NDAA. That has been an effort. I told folks back home and across the country where I have spoken that I wish people could have actually seen what happened in that markup behind closed doors and the bipartisanship that the chairman showed and the other Senators showed. I wish people could have seen it because we don't get to see it. I don't think if we opened it up that we would have seen it, but it was remarkable.

So we are where we are in the Senate. I understand that, and I knew that coming in here. I will simply say this. The House of Representatives is also going to take up the NDAA, and I hope my colleagues on the other side of the wonderful Capitol are listening. Put it in. It is not in the committee bill. Put it in. Bring it to conference because, if it gets to conference, I am going to continue to have this in this NDAA, and let's get this done, once and for all.

Thank you, Chairman Inhofe, and thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to echo what my colleague and friend, the Senator from Maine, has said about the elimination of the widow's tax and rise today to urge this body to bring the Military Widow's Tax Elimination Act of 2019 to the Senate floor for a vote this week as an amendment to the NDAA.

I introduced this bipartisan legislation with my friend and colleague Senator Collins this year. It has been introduced numerous times. Legislation that is designed to right a terrible wrong has been introduced numerous times over the last 18 years but without success.

Today, we are at an alltime high for cosponsorship. Seventy-five Members of this body, Republicans and Democrats, support this legislation and have signed on as cosponsors. The only other major bill with support in this Congress like that was the one we recently passed by unanimous consent to crack down on robocalls, which I know is something we can all agree needed to be done, and just like that, this legislation is needed as well.

As Senator Collins talked about, the military widow's tax bill has earned overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle and from groups like TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the Military Officers Association of America, and the VFW. Support out there is overwhelming because it is simply the right thing to do.

The law currently prohibits military widows from receiving their full survivor benefits from both the VA and the additional Department of Defense Survivor Benefit Plan that they paid into voluntarily. These Gold Star families--as many as, I think, 65,000 across the country and as many as 2,000 in my home State of Alabama--are being ripped off. It is just that plain and simple.

To add insult to injury, they are being ripped off by the very U.S. Government that their loved ones swore to protect. That is absolutely shameful, that we would treat our military families in such a way. We obviously--obviously--can never repay these families for their loss and the sacrifices they have made, but it is our duty, I submit--our duty-- to try to do all we can. And we can dang sure stop the government from robbing them of the benefits they have paid for and earned.

At the end of the day, this is a cost of war. It is a cost of freedom, more importantly. It is a cost of freedom. So for folks to say that this fix is too expensive or that there is not an obvious pay-for in our budgets that we have today, I would remind my colleagues that this bill has made it into the NDAA several times before, and we have waived--this body has waived the pay-go rules for it several times in the past because Members of this body have recognized that there are more important issues at play here. Many of my colleagues have supported this bill without a pay-for in the past.

This week, we will be considering the NDAA, and I am very grateful to Senator Inhofe, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who is responsible for shepherding this defense authorization on the floor this week.

The committee, of which I am a member, has done just incredible bipartisan work to get the NDAA to the floor this week.

Senator Inhofe is a cosponsor of this bill. In 2008, when the bill came to the floor of the Senate as an NDAA amendment earlier, also without a pay-for, he noted that an effort to eliminate the widow's tax had been in the works for 8 years at that point, since 2000. He urged his colleagues to right this wrong. He spoke on the floor, stating:

It is time we give back these benefits to those families of

those who have served bravely in defense of our Nation. I

think it is an insult to their honor and their memory to do

anything else.

I couldn't agree more, and I hope that our colleagues today will, too, and will continue their support for our veterans and widows and will work with our leaders to ensure that this amendment gets a vote during the NDAA deliberations.

This is our chance to right this wrong once and for all. This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of common ground and, significantly, of common purpose. That is precisely why 75 Members of this body have signed on as cosponsors, to say that it is their fundamental belief that we should honor our promise to the families of the best and bravest among us who have given their lives in service to our Nation.

I thank my Republican colleague, Senator Collins of Maine, for her leadership on this important issue and for being a great partner in the fight to finally get this legislation passed once and for all. Like she did a few moments ago, I urge all the rest of my colleagues in this body to call for this amendment to be brought to the floor for a vote this week as an amendment to the NDAA. Let our votes speak louder than our words. Let's finally right this wrong.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I rise to talk about a matter that is very close to my heart and rooted in my faith and belief that we are all God's children created in God's image. It is an issue of fundamental equality, of basic human dignity, and it is consistent with the values we strive to embody as American citizens.

I stand today to honor the contributions of LGBTQ Americans--the contributions they have given so selflessly to our Nation--and to remind all of my colleagues of the great risks these Americans still face simply because of who they love and who they are.

It was 50 years ago this month that the gay community finally rose up. The Stonewall riots were a product of a brutal police force cracking down on the gay community. They found a voice that others had in the previous years. This Pride Month, June, we celebrate that 50 years of a rise in the voice of people to be treated just basically as everyone else. It is an important issue for me. It is an important issue for a number of reasons--first and foremost, because I am a father, but also, I am a product of the Deep South in which I was raised. As a kid, I came of age during a very tumultuous time in our Nation's history, a very tumultuous time in Alabama.

When I was a kid, our schools remained segregated for years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and my Black peers faced very difficult and different prospects for their future in life, which was a direct result of the Jim Crow laws that were still on the books in my childhood.

Men, women, and children were regularly targeted for violent attacks simply because of the color of their skin, the way they were born, and their audacity--their audacity to yearn for freedom and love and acceptance and respect.

The wounds of those years left scars that are still visible in many places today--many places not just in Alabama but across the country. The inequality and divisive rhetoric of the time and the tensions it fomented fueled the violence and tragedy that were wrought upon so many innocent people, especially in the 1950s and in the 1960s in Alabama, in the Deep South, and so many other places across this land.

I raise this because history has shown us time and again that when our government sanctions discrimination or merely turns a blind eye to it, we cause irreparable harm to those people. In doing so, we also turn our backs on the fundamental promise of this great country--that we are all endowed with certain unalienable rights, ``all'' being the key word in that phrase. We are all endowed with certain unalienable rights.

Without exception, policies of legalized discrimination that are fueled by fear always become a black mark on our Nation's history. Today, we can reflect on those incidents from the civil rights movement with more clarity and take pride in the significant progress we have made over time, but what we cannot do is delude ourselves into thinking this work is nearly concluded. There is still work to be done with regard to gay rights. There is still work to be done when you consider that LGBTQ people in this country are still not guaranteed permanent Federal protection against discrimination--they are still not. There is still work to be done when we see that the LGBTQ community youth are five times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers--five times more likely to commit suicide. And we know there is still work to be done when LGBTQ youth are more likely to become homeless and to face physical and sexual exploitation.

Our former colleague in this body who was here for such a long time-- he was here when I worked in the Senate in 1979 and 1980--Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah spoke passionately on this floor last year, making an important point about the scope of the challenge we still face. He said:

Ensuring that our LGBT friends feel loved and accepted is

not a political issue; we all have a stake in this. We all

have family or loved ones who have felt marginalized in one

way or another because of gender identity or sexual

orientation, and we need to be there for them.

Senator Hatch. I miss him, even though I am glad my friend from Utah is here.

Instead of love and acceptance, however, too often the LGBTQ community still faces hate, violence, and discrimination in the workplace, in the classroom, in the housing market, and, more and more, in our society.

In fact, today we remember the lives of 49 innocent people who were senselessly murdered in Orlando, FL, 3 years ago at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub.

Just last week, a Detroit man was charged with first-degree murder for killing three LGBTQ people in an apparent hate crime.

In my home State of Alabama, a local mayor recently made headlines around the country for advocating the killing of LGBTQ people, claiming it was the only way to ``fix'' the problem.

In Washington, DC, over the weekend, a panic ensued and thousands fled for their lives when it was believed there was an active shooter targeting the city's annual Pride parade.

In Alabama, young Nigel Shelby, a high school freshman from Huntsville, ended his life this past spring after enduring bullying from his peers and struggling through bouts of depression. Mourning her son, his heartbroken mother called him the ``sweetest child.'' She said Nigel was ``always full of joy, full of light.'' As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the pain she and her family have experienced at this sudden loss. But I will tell you, as the father of a gay son, I have had to imagine the pain and uncertainty her child must have felt in a world in which he didn't feel fully accepted.

These incidents are just a few of the most recent examples I could share. Quite frankly, I have hesitated to even mention incidents in Alabama because we sometimes have the stigma of discrimination in my State.

Most recently in Alabama, the Alabama Legislature passed a most restrictive law dealing with abortion and women's rights. It was a callous law, and once again people are looking at Alabama and saying: What is going on? They look at this smalltown mayor and say: What is going on? But let me tell you, folks, for anybody who is listening to this, that is not Alabama. That is not the people of Alabama. That may be a gerrymandered legislature that represents only a small segment, but that is not the good people I know across the State of Alabama. Regardless of their political persuasion, regardless of their age, regardless of their religion, those instances do not represent the great State of Alabama.

Those are the most recent examples, but it is clear that the fear LGBTQ people can feel is by no means unfounded.

In this Pride Month, while we celebrate the LGBT community and the right for everyone to live and love as they choose, we cannot forget that for this community, there is still much work to be done. That is why I have cosponsored and I am so proud to cosponsor the Equality Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. Our colleagues in the House of Representatives have already passed this legislation, which fills a gap in our Nation's Federal civil rights laws by providing permanent protections for the LGBTQ community regardless of where they live.

This act is an important step. It is not a silver bullet, but it is an incredible, important step forward in what we can do to recognize the dignity of all people in this country.

Right now, these protections are simply a patchwork of State laws and other regulations. In 30 States, including Alabama, LGBTQ people are at risk of being fired, evicted, or denied other services because of their sexual orientation or gender.

I urge my colleagues to look at who is supporting the Equality Act. This is not a bipartisan issue; this is a nonpartisan issue. If you look at the over 500 organizations, a couple of hundred major corporations--the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed this bill and is urging its passage because so many across the country recognize the importance of these protections.

How many times have you seen businesses and how many times have you seen the chamber--and I mean no disrespect to them--endorse a law that bans discrimination when they know it puts certain burdens on their members? This is a historic opportunity that we have here--a historic opportunity--and we need to take advantage of it.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute, a majority of people in every State support a law like this, including a majority of the folks in Alabama. Those majorities extend across party lines, religion, and demographics, but despite most Americans being on the same page about this, the minority in opposition to this bill and in opposition to the LGBTQ community in general seems to be firm. It seems to be solid. It seems to be vocal. Opposition to such expansions of civil rights protections usually is.

From where I sit, this is not a zero-sum game. My view on this is informed by my experience. Most of what we do here is informed by experience, and my view on this issue is informed by my own experience as a father, as someone who loves his son very much--as any parent loves their son. It is informed by my experience as a lawyer, having spent my career working for justice. No matter where the downtrodden might be, I have spent my career working to make sure people are treated the same under the law, knowing that if you can change those laws and you can get treated the same under the law, hearts and minds will follow. We have seen it happen time and again.

My view is informed by my religion, my religion as a Christian and my belief that we are called upon to love one

another. It is the same and similar view expressed by our colleague Orrin Hatch in his floor speech last year.

We are called to stand up and fight for equal treatment and dignity of our fellow human beings--dignity and respect--to fight for people like my talented and compassionate son Carson and for all other sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandsons, granddaughters, friends, and neighbors, all out there who deserve to pursue a full, free, joyous, and loving life.

Today the Senate has an opportunity to stand up and make a very clear statement that we will not allow State government-sanctioned discrimination of LGBTQ people. We will not continue to allow that discrimination to continue, but we have to make that stand, and that stand can start right here. It has already started in the House.

The time is now to send a message. The time is now to send a message to all people--to all people across this country--that we in the U.S Senate believe that all people deserve to live with dignity, free from the fear of discrimination.

As I prepared these remarks and I read through them and made changes, I thought about my old boss whose seat I now fill, Howell Heflin. It was in the 1990s that Howell Heflin from Alabama, a son of the South whose relatives fought in the Civil War, stood before this body and said that it was time to remove the Confederate battle flag from all Federal Government-sanctioned emblems. It was a bold statement. Now we have a son of the South standing up for what in the Bible Belt is that love and respect, a son of the South who is now talking about his family, talking about discrimination, and reaching out to people across the aisle and within my own party to say that it is time; it is time to make that move.

So I ask my colleagues to take this step with me, to do the right thing by calling on Leader McConnell to bring this legislation to a vote in the U.S. Senate. Let all 100 Senators stand up and be counted one way or another. Every voice counts. Let every U.S. Senator say where they are by a vote on the Equality Act and to do it sooner rather than later.

This is a matter of civil rights, this is a matter of human rights, and this is a matter of being on the right side of history. We have an important opportunity right now to get it right. It is right now. It is the right time.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, before I get into my initial remarks, let me commend my colleague, the Senator from Wyoming. I didn't know about all of the Wyoming women having been first in women's issues. I congratulate that State, and I hope that, given the record number of women we have in this body and in the Congress of the United States, we will continue that march toward progress that Wyoming started over 150 years ago.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the second bill I have introduced today would create a one-time refundable tax credit of up to $2,500 for homeowners to build or purchase a storm shelter for their home. It would ensure that people won't have to travel dangerous distances to seek shelter in the event of sudden severe weather.

Alabamians know all too well that extreme weather can strike at any time, especially now as we move from the spring tornado season into the summer hurricane season. That is why I want to use this opportunity today to urge every single one of my colleagues to support these bills and these efforts so that all of our communities can be better prepared when natural disasters strike, and they will.

In Lee County, I have been discussing with local officials these two bills, which are just a step. They are obvious steps to me. Not everybody can afford to buy a storm shelter, so the tax credit would not be available. So, working with the Lee County M.A. and officials on the ground, we are trying to learn best practices. What can we better do to harden those areas where people live in the rural communities so they will not lose their lives, much less all of their possessions? That is what we are planning to do, and the two bills today are first steps.

I sincerely hope going forward that helping fellow Americans who have suffered disasters will no longer be the partisan issue that it suddenly became this year and that we can get back to the business of taking care of our citizens and those who have sent us here to represent them.

Mr. President, while it is critical that communities get the disaster relief they need after the fact, it is also important that folks can better prepare for natural disasters and help make our communities safer so that we can reduce the impact and costs of the inevitable severe weather we will have in this country.

The 2019 hurricane season is upon us. It started just last Saturday. Folks in my neck of the woods and especially down in South Alabama know that means storms can come at any time. Fortunately with hurricanes, they can get some warning, but for tornadoes like the ones that hit Lee County, it is just minutes.

It is not a question of whether severe weather will happen; it is a question of when and where. It is also a question of whether we will be prepared when it strikes again. That is why today I am introducing two bills. The first is cosponsored by my Louisiana colleagues, Senators Kennedy and Cassidy. It would establish a new grant program through the U.S. Department of Transportation that would award up to $100 million for projects to improve emergency evacuation routes in small and rural communities.

Generally in our State and in a lot of the coastal States, there is only one or two major evacuation routes, which is just not enough to handle the situation should another hurricane hit the gulf. This grant money would help expand those routes.

The grants would be used for two purposes: to build State and local connector roads that would improve access to the broader thoroughfares and to expand existing roads and bridges so that folks can evacuate safely during extreme weather events. These infrastructure investments would also have the additional benefit of serving rural Alabama communities year-round and expanding and improving some of our aging roadways. With expanding and improving aging roadways and giving better access to rural communities, economic expansion will follow.

Mr. President, the second bill I have introduced today would create a one-time refundable tax credit of up to $2,500 for homeowners to build or purchase a storm shelter for their home. It would ensure that people won't have to travel dangerous distances to seek shelter in the event of sudden severe weather.

Alabamians know all too well that extreme weather can strike at any time, especially now as we move from the spring tornado season into the summer hurricane season. That is why I want to use this opportunity today to urge every single one of my colleagues to support these bills and these efforts so that all of our communities can be better prepared when natural disasters strike, and they will.

In Lee County, I have been discussing with local officials these two bills, which are just a step. They are obvious steps to me. Not everybody can afford to buy a storm shelter, so the tax credit would not be available. So, working with the Lee County M.A. and officials on the ground, we are trying to learn best practices. What can we better do to harden those areas where people live in the rural communities so they will not lose their lives, much less all of their possessions? That is what we are planning to do, and the two bills today are first steps.

I sincerely hope going forward that helping fellow Americans who have suffered disasters will no longer be the partisan issue that it suddenly became this year and that we can get back to the business of taking care of our citizens and those who have sent us here to represent them.

Mr. President, while it is critical that communities get the disaster relief they need after the fact, it is also important that folks can better prepare for natural disasters and help make our communities safer so that we can reduce the impact and costs of the inevitable severe weather we will have in this country.

The 2019 hurricane season is upon us. It started just last Saturday. Folks in my neck of the woods and especially down in South Alabama know that means storms can come at any time. Fortunately with hurricanes, they can get some warning, but for tornadoes like the ones that hit Lee County, it is just minutes.

It is not a question of whether severe weather will happen; it is a question of when and where. It is also a question of whether we will be prepared when it strikes again. That is why today I am introducing two bills. The first is cosponsored by my Louisiana colleagues, Senators Kennedy and Cassidy. It would establish a new grant program through the U.S. Department of Transportation that would award up to $100 million for projects to improve emergency evacuation routes in small and rural communities.

Generally in our State and in a lot of the coastal States, there is only one or two major evacuation routes, which is just not enough to handle the situation should another hurricane hit the gulf. This grant money would help expand those routes.

The grants would be used for two purposes: to build State and local connector roads that would improve access to the broader thoroughfares and to expand existing roads and bridges so that folks can evacuate safely during extreme weather events. These infrastructure investments would also have the additional benefit of serving rural Alabama communities year-round and expanding and improving some of our aging roadways. With expanding and improving aging roadways and giving better access to rural communities, economic expansion will follow.

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

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise because I am deeply concerned about what is happening across the country to our farmers as a result of the President's trade war with China.

Let me first say, I agree with the President 100 percent that we need fair trade deals and that we have to make sure American workers and consumers are not being taken for a ride by other countries, especially rogue countries and bad actors like China. Yet, since this trade war began last year, these tariffs are having the complete opposite effect on the people they are supposed to help. That is because tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. Tariffs are taxes, and they are being raised every day by the administration.

The President insists that tariffs force China to pay money to the U.S. Treasury, which is just not true. It is just not factually accurate at all. It is also misleading to the American people. When a tariff is placed on a Chinese good, it is the American company that is importing that product, in addition to the American consumer who ultimately buys it, that pays that additional price. It is just like adding a sales tax to any consumer good or to any commodity on which a tariff has been levied. From businesses to farmers, to consumers, these taxes are being paid for by Americans. That is not politics; that is economics.

The President thinks these tariffs will somehow punish China for its bad behavior, but it is our people who are suffering right now. Last week, we saw a report that showed that the cost of these tariffs had fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and on U.S. households. Just yesterday, China announced it is planning on retaliating, once again, with increased tariffs on $60 billion worth of American-made goods, which sent the stock market into a tailspin.

Unemployment is incredibly low today, and the economy is doing well today, but across the country, there are so many people who don't always feel the effects of that booming economy. Yes, they have jobs, but they also have families, healthcare costs, and other costs, so they don't always feel the economy is doing as well for them as it is for others whom they see on the news, on TV, and in Washington, DC. Working folks aren't going to feel the true benefits from this economic growth and from the tax cuts of 2017 if they are paying higher taxes on the products they are buying every single day.

Just yesterday, the President was talking about the tariffs and feeling a little bit of pain but about how great a deal this is going to be and how our government will be happy. The President said: ``[O]ur government is happy because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars.'' Yet that money is being brought into the Treasury on the backs of working people--hard-working American taxpayers. It is not the Chinese companies; it is not the Chinese people; it is not the Mexican people; and it is not the Canadian people. It is the American public that is paying that money into the U.S. Treasury.

Tariffs are taxes, and we are all going to pay because of this trade war. Call them whatever you want, but that is the effect they are going to have on the wallets of American taxpayers. Even the President's own economic advisers admitted this week that it will be the Americans who will suffer as a result of this trade war, with the increased taxes being placed on them every day through the consumer goods they are purchasing.

In Alabama, our farmers, in particular, are hurting, and that is an understatement. Tariffs are affecting a cross-section of our manufacturing workforce. It has our automobile dealers concerned because of the threat of foreign automobile tariffs. Yet, even in the best of times, it is the farmers who are at the most risk. Farming is a risky business, and their margins are very tight. Many farmers in Alabama have already suffered devastating losses from natural disasters, like Hurricane Michael. Quite frankly, they are suffering another congressional disaster right now--in the words of my colleague and friend Senator Isakson from Georgia--because we can't put politics aside quickly enough to get disaster aid to farmers in the South, to folks who have suffered from flooding, or to folks who have suffered from wildfires. We can't do this because of politics, so now they are suffering. The farmers whom I visited back in South Alabama after Hurricane Michael are suffering now from the congressional disaster.

The last thing in the world they need is another administration disaster that is being manufactured because of the Chinese tariffs on their crops. In particular, soybeans are being hit. Soybean farming supports more than 11,000 jobs in Alabama, but soybean prices are at the lowest they have been in a decade. You can see from this chart how they started up. It was over $10 just in April of 2018--over $10. Now it is just above $8, and it is continuing to slide. The longer this goes on, the more it hurts.

Cotton farmers have been hit. Cotton has had an almost 25-percent reduction in the market price since these tariffs took effect. We have record low unemployment in the country right now; yet

we have a growing number of bankruptcies in farm country. I was looking at reports just today that showed the rise in the number of bankruptcies, the point being that these are hitting people now.

We all want a great deal. We all want to make sure the President gets a good deal for the American public, for the American consumer, but this is hurting people right now, and they will not be able to recover if this does not end soon. Unless the President can reach a deal soon, we can expect prices to continue to deteriorate and for the economic conditions in farm country to get even worse, which will put in jeopardy generations of farmers who may get run out of business.

This is a dire situation. I am not trying to just light fire somewhere. This is really serious for these folks. You only have to watch the news every day. These are people who have supported the President of the United States and who voted for the President of the United States. They want a good deal, and they want a fair deal, but this has been going on for a long time, and there does not seem to be any end in sight. Many of my State's farmers--probably most of my State's farmers--support the President, as do others around the country. They have had his back over the last 2 or 3 years, even during the campaign. Yet, in return, these trade policies have taken money out of their pockets.

When this first started over a year ago, they believed they would get a good deal soon. They believed they could get crops in the field, that they could get their loans paid, and that they could recover from the disasters that had hit them, but it has just dragged on and on. Every time we see a new round of tweets or a new press conference, we talk about what a great deal this is going to be. Yet, when you look behind the curtain, everything is different, and the trade war goes on and on and on.

I fear he is not listening to these farmers or to the Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle--like our Finance chairman--who are telling him that these policies are hurting farmers, that they are devastating farmers. I am not sure how much longer they can hang on in this trade war. Many will. Many can hang on. Yet others cannot. Whether the next generation of farmers will take up the mantle of farming remains to be seen.

This is one reason I am introducing a bill today to update the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which was originally created by my colleague Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, to provide help for farmers and producers who have been hurt by these retaliatory tariffs. TAA was originally created to help provide assistance to workers who were impacted by trade, but it was updated in 2002 to include assistance to growers, producers, and fishermen. This bill that I introduce today, as well as a companion bill that has been introduced in the House, would, once again, update the program to help folks who are hurting because of trade actions that have been carried out by our government--not by another government but by ours.

Look, the fact is, no matter how many legislative stopgaps my colleagues and I propose or bailouts the President offers, the massive losses from which farmers and producers suffer are not going to end until the President calls off this trade war.

We all want better trade deals, and farmers want access to global markets. China has, without a doubt, been a bad actor on many trade issues--a rogue country on trade issues. We should be working with our allies in Europe and elsewhere to hold China accountable. Instead, the administration has decided to go it alone. We are picking fights with friends over our own trade issues with them rather than working through diplomacy to try to work those deals. We are picking fights with them, and we are going it alone against China when we so desperately need our friends to help us. China is a growing concern around the world, and we need global partners to help us with our trade issues to try to make sure the global economy stays stable.

I will be absolutely thrilled if the President of the United States negotiates a great deal. I hope he negotiates the best deal ever--the one that he says he is going to negotiate. I hope and pray we get that great deal and that we can do a trade deal with China that is fair and better for America than it has ever been in the history of this country. For all of our sakes, I hope it happens. I really do. This is not a partisan issue. This is about where we are as a country. I hope for the best for him, but, right now, these tariffs are having the opposite effect, and it is hurting so many people.

What many of us fear is going to happen in the cynical world we live in today--and we all get caught up in it, including Members of this body--is that when the President finally wakes up and realizes he has done irreparable harm and irreparable damage to so many of his own supporters with these tariffs and when he wakes up and approaches 2020 and understands that his support may be eroding among those who form the core backbone of his support, he will scramble to make a deal regardless of whether it will be a good deal or not but a deal nonetheless and regardless of whether America will come out on top.

When all is said and done, we can claim victory, but it may be a very hollow victory because, in going forward, we may have a little bit better deal or we may have a much better deal, but it will not change what is happening today or what has happened over the last year. Even if a deal is struck, we have already lost.

Farmers will still have to be digging themselves out of this financial hole for a very long time. Many will have to declare bankruptcy and lose their farms because they couldn't wait out the President's trade gamble and his tough talk.

To mitigate the tariffs' harmful impacts, the administration is providing some aid to help farmers who are struggling as a result of the trade war. They did so last year, and they need it, but those government bailouts--and that is what they are, they are bailouts--are being paid by other American taxpayers in order to alleviate the pain inflicted by the administration's policies.

That is right. Working families across the country are being asked to step up. We do those things. We are charitable people. If somebody is in pain, we want to do that and help, but when the pain is being caused by the very person who is causing us to then step up, that makes no sense.

Folks, these handouts will not come close to making up for the losses these farmers have suffered, and it is sure not a long-term solution for a healthy trade market.

The biggest problem for these farmers is that they don't want handouts. They don't want government subsidies. They don't want handouts to them for the problems they are facing because of these trade policies. They want their markets. They want to go to China. They want to go to places around the world and share their products. They are proud of their products. We should be proud of those products.

We should not be just simply telling farmers: Do not worry because we will pay for you to grow your product. We are not worried about your markets because we will buy your soybeans. We will buy the cotton. We will buy those things if China doesn't do it. That is not what these farmers want. They don't want that charity. They want their markets. They work hard for those markets.

So how much more can our farmers take? How much more? How long can they go on like this? At what point will they be forced to cut their losses and find another way to support their families while we negotiate with China, while we tweet the fact that a good deal is coming?

At what point will Members of this body and the House of Representatives who ignore the math and the suffering of their constituents--at what point will those in this body and the House of Representatives who ignore the suffering of their constituents by supporting these harmful trade policies, at what point do they stand up?

There are so many people I have talked to who do not support these trade policies, but yet they are silent, and they say: Give the President time. He is going to get a good deal.

At what point does it come where they recognize the suffering of the farmers of the United States and my State of Alabama? At what point do they finally stand up and say enough is enough?

Over the years, the Congress of the United States has ceded a lot of authority to the executive branch of government, and now it is coming home to roost. We can't do much of anything except give speeches like this. We can try to introduce bills that probably will never get to the Senate floor. We can go home and listen to the pain, listen to the suffering, listen to people who so badly want to support the President and what he is doing, as all of us do for these new trade deals, but the fact is, we have ceded so much power to the executive branch of government. It is time for Congress to stand up. It is time for people to speak out to help their farmers, to let the administration know that this cannot go on much longer. We have to stand up and stop this pain as quickly as we can.

We can do it. The President can do it. He has smart people surrounding him. They need to explain to him again that these tariffs are being paid by the American people, not another country. Let's get this negotiated, and let's stop the bleeding for the American farmer as soon as we possibly can.

Mr. President, I rise because I am deeply concerned about what is happening across the country to our farmers as a result of the President's trade war with China.

Let me first say, I agree with the President 100 percent that we need fair trade deals and that we have to make sure American workers and consumers are not being taken for a ride by other countries, especially rogue countries and bad actors like China. Yet, since this trade war began last year, these tariffs are having the complete opposite effect on the people they are supposed to help. That is because tariffs are taxes, plain and simple. Tariffs are taxes, and they are being raised every day by the administration.

The President insists that tariffs force China to pay money to the U.S. Treasury, which is just not true. It is just not factually accurate at all. It is also misleading to the American people. When a tariff is placed on a Chinese good, it is the American company that is importing that product, in addition to the American consumer who ultimately buys it, that pays that additional price. It is just like adding a sales tax to any consumer good or to any commodity on which a tariff has been levied. From businesses to farmers, to consumers, these taxes are being paid for by Americans. That is not politics; that is economics.

The President thinks these tariffs will somehow punish China for its bad behavior, but it is our people who are suffering right now. Last week, we saw a report that showed that the cost of these tariffs had fallen entirely on U.S. businesses and on U.S. households. Just yesterday, China announced it is planning on retaliating, once again, with increased tariffs on $60 billion worth of American-made goods, which sent the stock market into a tailspin.

Unemployment is incredibly low today, and the economy is doing well today, but across the country, there are so many people who don't always feel the effects of that booming economy. Yes, they have jobs, but they also have families, healthcare costs, and other costs, so they don't always feel the economy is doing as well for them as it is for others whom they see on the news, on TV, and in Washington, DC. Working folks aren't going to feel the true benefits from this economic growth and from the tax cuts of 2017 if they are paying higher taxes on the products they are buying every single day.

Just yesterday, the President was talking about the tariffs and feeling a little bit of pain but about how great a deal this is going to be and how our government will be happy. The President said: ``[O]ur government is happy because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars.'' Yet that money is being brought into the Treasury on the backs of working people--hard-working American taxpayers. It is not the Chinese companies; it is not the Chinese people; it is not the Mexican people; and it is not the Canadian people. It is the American public that is paying that money into the U.S. Treasury.

Tariffs are taxes, and we are all going to pay because of this trade war. Call them whatever you want, but that is the effect they are going to have on the wallets of American taxpayers. Even the President's own economic advisers admitted this week that it will be the Americans who will suffer as a result of this trade war, with the increased taxes being placed on them every day through the consumer goods they are purchasing.

In Alabama, our farmers, in particular, are hurting, and that is an understatement. Tariffs are affecting a cross-section of our manufacturing workforce. It has our automobile dealers concerned because of the threat of foreign automobile tariffs. Yet, even in the best of times, it is the farmers who are at the most risk. Farming is a risky business, and their margins are very tight. Many farmers in Alabama have already suffered devastating losses from natural disasters, like Hurricane Michael. Quite frankly, they are suffering another congressional disaster right now--in the words of my colleague and friend Senator Isakson from Georgia--because we can't put politics aside quickly enough to get disaster aid to farmers in the South, to folks who have suffered from flooding, or to folks who have suffered from wildfires. We can't do this because of politics, so now they are suffering. The farmers whom I visited back in South Alabama after Hurricane Michael are suffering now from the congressional disaster.

The last thing in the world they need is another administration disaster that is being manufactured because of the Chinese tariffs on their crops. In particular, soybeans are being hit. Soybean farming supports more than 11,000 jobs in Alabama, but soybean prices are at the lowest they have been in a decade. You can see from this chart how they started up. It was over $10 just in April of 2018--over $10. Now it is just above $8, and it is continuing to slide. The longer this goes on, the more it hurts.

Cotton farmers have been hit. Cotton has had an almost 25-percent reduction in the market price since these tariffs took effect. We have record low unemployment in the country right now; yet

we have a growing number of bankruptcies in farm country. I was looking at reports just today that showed the rise in the number of bankruptcies, the point being that these are hitting people now.

We all want a great deal. We all want to make sure the President gets a good deal for the American public, for the American consumer, but this is hurting people right now, and they will not be able to recover if this does not end soon. Unless the President can reach a deal soon, we can expect prices to continue to deteriorate and for the economic conditions in farm country to get even worse, which will put in jeopardy generations of farmers who may get run out of business.

This is a dire situation. I am not trying to just light fire somewhere. This is really serious for these folks. You only have to watch the news every day. These are people who have supported the President of the United States and who voted for the President of the United States. They want a good deal, and they want a fair deal, but this has been going on for a long time, and there does not seem to be any end in sight. Many of my State's farmers--probably most of my State's farmers--support the President, as do others around the country. They have had his back over the last 2 or 3 years, even during the campaign. Yet, in return, these trade policies have taken money out of their pockets.

When this first started over a year ago, they believed they would get a good deal soon. They believed they could get crops in the field, that they could get their loans paid, and that they could recover from the disasters that had hit them, but it has just dragged on and on. Every time we see a new round of tweets or a new press conference, we talk about what a great deal this is going to be. Yet, when you look behind the curtain, everything is different, and the trade war goes on and on and on.

I fear he is not listening to these farmers or to the Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle--like our Finance chairman--who are telling him that these policies are hurting farmers, that they are devastating farmers. I am not sure how much longer they can hang on in this trade war. Many will. Many can hang on. Yet others cannot. Whether the next generation of farmers will take up the mantle of farming remains to be seen.

This is one reason I am introducing a bill today to update the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which was originally created by my colleague Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, to provide help for farmers and producers who have been hurt by these retaliatory tariffs. TAA was originally created to help provide assistance to workers who were impacted by trade, but it was updated in 2002 to include assistance to growers, producers, and fishermen. This bill that I introduce today, as well as a companion bill that has been introduced in the House, would, once again, update the program to help folks who are hurting because of trade actions that have been carried out by our government--not by another government but by ours.

Look, the fact is, no matter how many legislative stopgaps my colleagues and I propose or bailouts the President offers, the massive losses from which farmers and producers suffer are not going to end until the President calls off this trade war.

We all want better trade deals, and farmers want access to global markets. China has, without a doubt, been a bad actor on many trade issues--a rogue country on trade issues. We should be working with our allies in Europe and elsewhere to hold China accountable. Instead, the administration has decided to go it alone. We are picking fights with friends over our own trade issues with them rather than working through diplomacy to try to work those deals. We are picking fights with them, and we are going it alone against China when we so desperately need our friends to help us. China is a growing concern around the world, and we need global partners to help us with our trade issues to try to make sure the global economy stays stable.

I will be absolutely thrilled if the President of the United States negotiates a great deal. I hope he negotiates the best deal ever--the one that he says he is going to negotiate. I hope and pray we get that great deal and that we can do a trade deal with China that is fair and better for America than it has ever been in the history of this country. For all of our sakes, I hope it happens. I really do. This is not a partisan issue. This is about where we are as a country. I hope for the best for him, but, right now, these tariffs are having the opposite effect, and it is hurting so many people.

What many of us fear is going to happen in the cynical world we live in today--and we all get caught up in it, including Members of this body--is that when the President finally wakes up and realizes he has done irreparable harm and irreparable damage to so many of his own supporters with these tariffs and when he wakes up and approaches 2020 and understands that his support may be eroding among those who form the core backbone of his support, he will scramble to make a deal regardless of whether it will be a good deal or not but a deal nonetheless and regardless of whether America will come out on top.

When all is said and done, we can claim victory, but it may be a very hollow victory because, in going forward, we may have a little bit better deal or we may have a much better deal, but it will not change what is happening today or what has happened over the last year. Even if a deal is struck, we have already lost.

Farmers will still have to be digging themselves out of this financial hole for a very long time. Many will have to declare bankruptcy and lose their farms because they couldn't wait out the President's trade gamble and his tough talk.

To mitigate the tariffs' harmful impacts, the administration is providing some aid to help farmers who are struggling as a result of the trade war. They did so last year, and they need it, but those government bailouts--and that is what they are, they are bailouts--are being paid by other American taxpayers in order to alleviate the pain inflicted by the administration's policies.

That is right. Working families across the country are being asked to step up. We do those things. We are charitable people. If somebody is in pain, we want to do that and help, but when the pain is being caused by the very person who is causing us to then step up, that makes no sense.

Folks, these handouts will not come close to making up for the losses these farmers have suffered, and it is sure not a long-term solution for a healthy trade market.

The biggest problem for these farmers is that they don't want handouts. They don't want government subsidies. They don't want handouts to them for the problems they are facing because of these trade policies. They want their markets. They want to go to China. They want to go to places around the world and share their products. They are proud of their products. We should be proud of those products.

We should not be just simply telling farmers: Do not worry because we will pay for you to grow your product. We are not worried about your markets because we will buy your soybeans. We will buy the cotton. We will buy those things if China doesn't do it. That is not what these farmers want. They don't want that charity. They want their markets. They work hard for those markets.

So how much more can our farmers take? How much more? How long can they go on like this? At what point will they be forced to cut their losses and find another way to support their families while we negotiate with China, while we tweet the fact that a good deal is coming?

At what point will Members of this body and the House of Representatives who ignore the math and the suffering of their constituents--at what point will those in this body and the House of Representatives who ignore the suffering of their constituents by supporting these harmful trade policies, at what point do they stand up?

There are so many people I have talked to who do not support these trade policies, but yet they are silent, and they say: Give the President time. He is going to get a good deal.

At what point does it come where they recognize the suffering of the farmers of the United States and my State of Alabama? At what point do they finally stand up and say enough is enough?

Over the years, the Congress of the United States has ceded a lot of authority to the executive branch of government, and now it is coming home to roost. We can't do much of anything except give speeches like this. We can try to introduce bills that probably will never get to the Senate floor. We can go home and listen to the pain, listen to the suffering, listen to people who so badly want to support the President and what he is doing, as all of us do for these new trade deals, but the fact is, we have ceded so much power to the executive branch of government. It is time for Congress to stand up. It is time for people to speak out to help their farmers, to let the administration know that this cannot go on much longer. We have to stand up and stop this pain as quickly as we can.

We can do it. The President can do it. He has smart people surrounding him. They need to explain to him again that these tariffs are being paid by the American people, not another country. Let's get this negotiated, and let's stop the bleeding for the American farmer as soon as we possibly can.

Mr. President, today I wish to offer a resolution recognizing the critical contributions the laboratories of the Department of Defense make to the national security of this country. The 63 Laboratories, Warfare Centers, and Engineering Centers of the Department of Defense spread across 22 states and the District of Columbia are important components of the U.S. warfighting establishment and are instrumental in maintaining the technological edge of our military forces. My resolution would highlight the contributions of these laboratories by designating April 25, 2019, as ``Department of Defense Laboratory Day 2019'' in order to celebrate the work and accomplishments of the men and women in those defense labs. Many of the technological advantages upon which our military rests are rooted in the diligent, dedicated work and innovative mindset of the scientists and engineers in our defense labs. Their work drives not only the near- term, tactical innovations needed to support our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in the wars of the past century, but they are critical foundations of research that will fuel the processes and technologies needed for the next century and beyond. In addition to the cutting-edge research and development of new technologies, our defense laboratories are a resource to the national economy and innovation ecosystem of the nation--providing the people, facilities, experience, operational problems, and capabilities for technology transfer that support the warfighter, industry,

academia, other parts of federal government, and even many of our allies and partners throughout the world. The nearly 76,000 scientists and engineers employed by the Department of Defense labs are exemplars of public service, and the outstanding dedication, qualifications, service, and accomplishments of these scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff of the defense laboratories should make all Americans proud.

In recognizing the men and women of the defense labs, I am especially proud of the contributions Alabama makes. As the home to multiple Army laboratories--including the Aviation and Missile Center, Space and Missile Defense Technical Center, and the Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory--Alabama punches far above its weight in terms of contributions of people, facilities and resources to the defense laboratory network. This results in one of the highest per capita concentrations of scientists and engineers in the country, with an extraordinary economic impact on the State. Not only do these labs provide thousands of jobs in Alabama, they bring in billions of dollars in investments and return those dollars back into the communities in which they reside.

The network of Department of Defense laboratories is not just an asset for the Department, but is a national asset as well. With over a hundred DoD-funded Nobel prizes, and thousands of patents and publications, defense laboratories are technological and economic engines on par with any industry or university laboratory. I applaud the work of the defense labs, and all of the scientists and engineers that make them successful, especially those in Alabama. I urge my colleagues to support the contributions of the labs by supporting the proclamation of April 25th as the 2019 Laboratory Day.