Floor Statements

Mr. President, I wish to memorialize a New Hampshire son and proud member of the United States Army, SFC Richard Louis Demers. Sergeant Demers was born in Manchester on December 31, 1966 and spent his young life there, graduating from Manchester Memorial High School in 1985. His lengthy career in the Army spanned 22 years, including a tour of duty in Iraq, as well as tours in Germany, Colorado, Texas, Hawaii and most recently Missouri.

Sergeant Demers' choice to dedicate his career to protecting our freedom and security is the essence of American patriotism. It is my hope that during this extremely difficult time, Richard's family and friends will find comfort in knowing that Americans everywhere appreciate deeply his selfless service in defense of our country.

Sergeant Demers is survived by his wife of 28 years, Karen, Gagne, Demers, of Laquey, MO; their two sons, Jonathan Demers and his wife Megan, of Georgia, and Shawn Demers and his wife Nadine, of Washington; five grandchildren; two siblings, Michelle Champagne and her husband Roland, of Allenstown, NH, and David Demers and his wife, Marcia, of Florida; and many nieces and nephews. This patriot will be missed by all.

On behalf of the people of New Hampshire, I ask my colleagues and all Americans to join me in honoring the life and service of this brave American, Richard Demers.

Mr. President, it is with great sadness I rise today to honor the life and service of SFC Mark Gerald Gulezian, a New Hampshire native who died on October 10. Mark was born on December 28, 1978 in Manchester, NH and was raised in nearby Londonderry, where he was a graduate of Londonderry High School. He joined the U.S. Army in 1998, and over the course of his career served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to a tour in Korea. Sergeant Gulezian was most recently stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina with the Army's distinguished 3rd Special Forces Group, Airborne.

Mark will forever be a member of the special community of Americans who bravely and selflessly vow to defend our country so that the rest of us may continue to live in peace and freedom. It is my hope that during this extremely difficult time, Mark's family and friends will find comfort in knowing that Americans everywhere deeply appreciate his commitment and service to our nation.

Mark is survived by his parents Jerry and Dotty of Londonderry, NH; his wife, Blair Anastasia Gulezian, of Raeford, NC; children Amira Gulezin and Dylan Gulezian, both of Richmond, VA; a stepson, Christopher, of Pennsylvania; his brother, Steven Gulezian of Londonderry and his girlfriend, Sara Hickey; and niece, Ambree Page ``S.J.'' Gulezian; also his two dogs, Whiskey and Lucic. This patriot will be missed by all.

On behalf of the people of New Hampshire, I ask my colleagues and all Americans to join me in honoring the life and service of this brave American, Mark Gulezian.

Mr. President, I wish to recognize the achievements of Donna Kuethe Recreation Director for the town of Moultonborough, NH, who was recently named New England Woman of the Year by Every Child is Ours, ECIO, an organization dedicated to promoting universal educational opportunity. For 40 years Donna has been a tireless advocate for children's education, environmental stewardship and community recreation.

On the national and international stages, Donna has volunteered in New Orleans and South Africa delivering emergency supplies to areas hard-hit by natural disasters. She has worked with Operation Recreation Relief, a group designed to help provide recreation services to areas impacted by disasters, in addition to focusing on assisting children in those areas through her work with the Save the Children foundation.

Back home in New Hampshire, Donna has been active throughout the State through her work with the Children in Nature initiative, the New Hampshire State Parks Great Park Pursuit and other programs focused on encouraging active and healthy lifestyles. She has also advocated for outdoor initiatives through her service on the House/Senate Committee on Child Care Licensing and as Chair of the Legislative Committee for New Hampshire Parks and Recreation.

Donna has also been a key leader at the Moultonborough Parks and Recreation Department, in addition to coaching New Hampshire high school students and establishing after-school programs, youth sports and summer day camps, and programs for seniors.

Donna's lifelong devotion to her community and the many organizations she has served is truly admirable, and her recognition as ECIO's New England Woman of the Year is well deserved. On behalf of Granite Staters everywhere, I thank Donna Kuethe for her service.

I thank Senator Stabenow and Senator Baldwin.

I am pleased to be on the floor today joining the distinguished Senator from Michigan, Ms. Warren, Senator Franken, and all the other Senators who will be here to speak on the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. This is a critical piece of legislation, and it will allow eligible borrowers who took out student loans prior to January 1, 2013, to refinance those loans at a lower interest rate. You can refinance a car and you can refinance a mortgage, but you cannot refinance a student loan.

We have heard from literally hundreds of students and residents in New Hampshire who are no longer students but who are trying to pay back loans after years of having to try to pay back the loans and start their lives. Supporting this bill is a commonsense way we can come together to help the millions across this country who are struggling to pay back their student loans. This is especially important to New Hampshire because we rank second in the country in average debt per graduate--almost $33,000 per graduate for student loans. According to recent estimates, almost 130,000 New Hampshire residents could benefit from this bill. These folks need some relief from their student debt burden because it often comes at interest rates that are higher than they pay for a home or a car. It is unacceptable to leave these borrowers struggling with crippling debt when we have an opportunity to address this growing problem.

It is not just for those people who are affected because of their own student loans; this has a ripple effect through our economy. I met with a group of realtors over the summer, and one of the things they talked about was how they are seeing first-time home buyers delay buying a home because of the cost of student loans.

To put this issue into perspective, I wish to talk about some of the people I have met who have been burdened by their student loans.

I first met Calvin, a young soldier from New Hampshire, at Walter Reed Medical Center. He was recovering from losing his leg after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan. He was married and had a young child. We were talking about the challenges he was facing after he recovered from his injuries. What impressed me the most about our conversation--in addition to his commitment to this country--was that the issue he was most concerned about was not losing his leg or where he was going to get a job after he got out of the military, it was how he and his wife were going to pay back their student loans.

Another college graduate--a woman from Durham, NH--wrote to me recently. She has a master's degree and is employed in the public service field. She has been working for 12 years but has not been able to buy a home for her family because she still has $90,000 in student loan debt.

I also heard from a woman in Stratham, NH, who has a $150,000 student loan debt. She consolidated her loan but has a 7-percent interest rate, which accrues nearly $900 per month in interest alone. A lower interest rate would make a critical difference to this woman and her young family.

Those three young people represent thousands--almost 130,000 people across New Hampshire--who would benefit

from refinancing their student loans. This bill is important for New Hampshire, and it is important for the country.

We should take action today for the benefit of all Americans with student loan debt who deserve a fair shot at the American dream and opportunities for themselves and their families. I urge my colleagues to join me. As Senator Baldwin and Senator Stabenow said, we have an opportunity this afternoon to make a huge step forward in addressing the student loan debt faced by too many Americans. I hope our colleagues will support the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act.

I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, these last few weeks have been very trying for America. In August, as the result of the cowardly and barbaric acts of the terrorist group ISIS, America lost two courageous and inspiring journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Along with my colleagues Senators Ayotte, Nelson, and Rubio, and Chairman Menendez, I am submitting a resolution to honor the lives of James Foley, who was born and raised in New Hampshire, and Steven Sotloff, a Florida native but a graduate of Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, NH.

Our resolution mourns James and Steven, two outstanding journalists who pursued their profession under the most difficult and dangerous conditions in order to tell the stories that needed to be told of the struggles that people on the ground were facing in the middle of difficult conflicts. We will never forget the bravery of James and Steven and their dedication to the ideals of freedom they so embodied.

Our resolution strongly condemns the terrorist group ISIS, a group that has committed unspeakable atrocities against humanity and attempted to justify them through a perverted interpretation of Islam. ISIS fighters have targeted Iraqi Christians, killing many and forcing others to flee their ancient homeland, they have massacred Muslims who do not subscribe to their depraved ideology, they have threatened genocide against the ancient Yazidi population of Iraq, and they have targeted other religious and ethnic minority groups. They have threatened to conduct terrorist attacks internationally, including here in the United States. And of course ISIS brutally murdered these two American journalists, Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Let us be clear. We must hold ISIS accountable for their despicable acts. We must vigorously pursue those responsible and bring them to justice, and we must not let the deaths of these two Americans go unanswered. The terrorists who murdered Jim Foley are deeply mistaken if they think their barbaric acts will lessen Americans' resolve and pave the way for ISIS to continue terrorizing. We will bring an end to those who stand against everything these men stood for.

I hope the entire Senate--Republicans, Democrats, and Independents-- will stand together to adopt this resolution. Let us show the world our Nation is united in its commemoration of the lives of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and in our condemnation of the barbaric group that took these Americans from us.

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

Mr. President, I would like to honor James Foley, a proud son of New Hampshire, whose life was guided by love--love for the humanity he devoted his life to documenting, love for his family members who worked tirelessly to secure his release, and love for God who brought him strength and comfort, even in the darkest moments.

The entire Nation was saddened to hear the news about Jim. It was with a heavy heart that I joined the Foley family and a crowd of nearly 1,000 on August 24 at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish in Rochester, NH, to memorialize Jim and reflect upon how he chose to live his life.

As we here pause to remember Jim, we cannot allow those responsible for his death to fill us with sorrow and despair. Though the sense of loss remains, through Jim's life we may hope to rediscover a sense of optimism and goodness--the same feelings that motivated him as a journalist to search for humanity in the world's darkest and most dangerous places.

When I think of Jim, I will remember his fierce passion for his work and for the people whose stories he lived to tell. I will remember the interminable spirit of his parents, Diane and John. And I will remember how New Hampshire, and Americans across the country, came together to support the Foleys.

Jim Foley's life began in Wolfeboro, a small New Hampshire town on the shores of Lake Winnipesauke. He graduated in 1992 from Kingswood Regional High School, where classmates remember him as light-hearted, but also caring and eager to see the world. As the oldest of Diane and John Foley's five children, James developed a strong sense of responsibility for others.

Jim was known in his family for running late because wherever he went he ran into friends and colleagues who wanted to stop and catch up with him. Jim's uncommon kindness earned him the trust and friendship of people across the United States and the world.

Jim's compassion for others and his desire to learn their stories is what motivated his life's work. According to his parents, Jim's exposure to the poverty of inner-city Milwaukee while attending Marquette University led him to realize that people are often shaped by events and circumstances out of their control, and that it was within his power to tell their stories.

He carried this mission with him throughout his life and used it as a basis for his work in conflict zones.

After graduating from Marquette, Jim started down the path that would turn him into the successful journalist he became. He first taught history for 3 years at middle school in Phoenix, AZ, a world away from his upbringing in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

Eager to learn how best to turn his experiences into compelling stories, he went on to complete master's degrees in writing and journalism at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Northwestern University. Classmates of Jim's at Northwestern recall that when one of his professors assigned him to cover a neighborhood in the Lower West Side of Chicago, Jim decided to move there, a telling decision for a future frontline journalist.

Jim later gained experience in conflict reporting while covering U.S. military operations as an embedded reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he worried that being removed from the local population detracted from his reporting to people back home.

When a wave of popular revolutions swept the Middle East and North Africa in the spring of 2011, Jim knew that he needed to bear witness to this incredible phenomenon from the perspective of those living through it.

Jim left for Libya, where he provided critical stories on the Libyan civil war until he was captured and imprisoned for 44 days by pro- Gadhafi forces.

Others who were detained with Jim tell stories of his unending selflessness toward his fellow prisoners--how he shared food, blankets and an endless stream of jokes to help everyone cope with a difficult and scary situation.

Furthermore, when Jim returned to the U.S. after his release, he was frequently asked to tell the story of his capture and detention. Instead of focusing on his own experience, Jim used the publicity to raise money for the family of a colleague who had been killed in the attack that led to Jim's capture. It was Jim's nature to care more about others than he did about his own personal successes or accolades.

In his reporting from Libya, Jim discovered that his passion was in helping the world relate to those in the middle of unimaginable conflict, and he would soon return to the region, this time to Syria, where Bashar al-Assad was escalating his brutal tactics of repression to maintain control of the country.

It was in the Syrian chaos that observers began to talk about rise of a group of militant Islamists calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the same group that would later hold Jim hostage for 637 days

alongside a handful of other innocent journalists and aid workers.

Thanks to a message Jim passed to his family through a fellow prisoner who was released, we know that his close relationship with God and his family provided him with strength in captivity.

In the letter, he thanked his family and friends for their thoughts and prayers, and recounted treasured memories from time spent together. Most strikingly, he spent most of his words offering encouragement and support to those he loved. Even in the most trying circumstances, Jim Foley refused to abandon his core concern for others over himself.

We will always remember Jim for his compassion and devotion to the lives and stories of others, even in the most difficult conditions.

We are all proud to call James Foley our fellow American.

Madam President, today I wish to recognize the New Hampshire Day to End Childhood Homelessness. On September 4, 2014, Families in Transition, a Manchester-based nonprofit organization that has long committed itself to ending the cycle of homelessness, will be hosting this important event.

Founded in 1991, Families in Transition was born from the belief that having a home is a basic human right. The organization has since been recognized, both statewide and nationally, for its effectiveness in ending homelessness through quality, affordable housing and comprehensive services. Families in Transition focuses on addressing homelessness by facilitating familial cohesion through specialized childcare, family therapy, and positive social activities. Family and youth services at Families in Transition are a vital part of efforts to help homeless children in New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Day to End Childhood Homelessness event will bring critical awareness and support to

these children and the work of Families in Transition.

On behalf of New Hampshire I thank Families in Transition, its staff, volunteers, and supporters for their determination to serve Granite Staters in need.

Madam President, I wish to honor Chief Richard E. Wright for his lifelong commitment to the New Hampshire fire service. Chief Wright retired in June after committing 70 years of his life to the safety of Granite State residents. Through seven decades, he served as a soldier, a firefighter, the fire chief for the town of Loudon, and as the chief coordinator for the Capital Area Mutual Aid Compact.

Chief Wright's service to the fire department began when he was only 11 years old. His paper route included the Central Fire Station and the fire chief's home. Soon, he became a fixture at the station, and his helpfulness earned him the unofficial title of ``Errand Boy Number One.''

Upon graduating from Concord High School in 1950, he worked for the Rumford Press. Then he served his country, enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1953. After a 2-year tour of duty in Germany, he returned to New Hampshire as a sergeant.

Although Chief Wright had left the Army, his life of service had only just begun. He joined the Concord Fire Department call force in 1957 and then became a full-time firefighter in 1963. Soon Chief Wright was using his skills to manage the Concord department's budget and handle administrative tasks.

Through his instinct for business and management, Chief Wright helped to create the Capital Area Mutual Aid Fire Compact in 1965. To this day, the Mutual Aid Compact enables Concord and surrounding localities to share resources to fund their fire departments efficiently, saving taxpayer dollars.

In 1970 he left full-time fire service to run his family business, Wright Communications, although he continued to serve as a volunteer firefighter in Concord for several years. Then in 1973 he was appointed chief coordinator of the Mutual Aid Compact and became full-time coordinator in 1989. In addition to this position, he worked with the Loudon Fire Department, serving as their fire chief for 12 years.

Chief Wright retired from his role as Mutual Aid Compact coordinator on June 14, 2014. Throughout his career, he has responded to fires and calls from across central New Hampshire 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He has coordinated resources in order to address major emergencies and keep Granite State residents safe.

Chief Wright's service to New Hampshire is truly remarkable. I congratulate him on his retirement and thank him for his lifetime of dedication to our great State.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to yield back all time.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to yield back all time.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to yield back all time.

Madam President, I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his compelling remarks about the importance of passing the Bring Jobs Home Act.

I am here to echo the need to pass this critical legislation, and I am certainly pleased we had such a strong vote to end debate on this legislation. I hope we can now come to some agreement and get the same kind of support for moving the bill forward. I am an original cosponsor of this commonsense bill.

As Senator Udall said, this legislation would end incentives for companies to send American jobs overseas, and it would instead encourage companies to move jobs back to the United States.

Believe it or not, when a company moves jobs offshore, it can write off those expenses on its taxes. That doesn't make sense. The Bring Jobs Home Act would stop forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for companies when they ship jobs overseas. In addition, to encourage companies to move production back to the United States, the bill provides a tax credit for the costs associated with bringing jobs back home.

Not only is this legislation the right thing to do, but it also comes at a critical time as our economy struggles to recover. In New Hampshire and across the country--as Senator Udall pointed out, in New Mexico with the closing of the mine and in that community--we are still feeling the effects of the great recession. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and too many middle-class families are still struggling to make ends meet.

But sadly, even before the recession hit, the American middle class was finding it hard to pay their bills, to pay their mortgage, to find the good jobs that allowed them to have opportunities. A big reason for that was the loss of so many good-paying American jobs that supported the middle class. Too many of those jobs were shipped overseas. Over the last decade, 2.4 million jobs were shipped overseas, and those 2.4 million families supported by those jobs had to find other ways to support themselves, and often they were in jobs that didn't pay as well.

Well, it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, many companies are now looking to move jobs back to the United States. As production costs rise overseas, these companies want the advantages provided by our American workers--the most productive workers in the world--and the ease of doing business in the United States.

I have heard from several companies that have already moved jobs back to the United States, and there are many more that are hoping to bring jobs back home if we have the right policies in place.

Let me give an example. Last year I met with Doug Clark, who is the CEO of a footwear manufacturing company, New England Footwear. When we think footwear manufacturing or shoe factory jobs, we don't think the United States anymore because while there are still some very good companies that manufacture footwear here, most of those jobs were sent offshore a long time ago.

I know that story very well because my father was in shoe manufacturing. The whole time I was growing up, I watched him struggle with the loss of those shoe manufacturing jobs that were being sent overseas and imports coming in to take the place of shoes made here in America and the jobs that workers here in America held.

Today about 99 percent of shoes sold in the United States are made abroad. But New England Footwear executives, who have years of experience in the shoe industry, are looking to bring those jobs back home--back to New Hampshire. The company currently manufactures in China, but as costs rise there, Doug believes he can bring higher paying jobs to the United States thanks to innovative technology that reduces manufacturing costs.

New England Footwear isn't alone. A Boston Consulting Group survey from last September showed that more than half of large U.S.-based manufacturers are planning or considering right now bringing production lines back to the United States from China. That is up 17 percent from just 2 years ago--17 percent. That is a big increase, a lot of jobs. The Boston Consulting Group projected that production reshored from China and higher exports due to improved U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing could create 2.5 to 5 million American factory and related service jobs by 2020. So by 2020 we could replace more than the jobs we lost in the

last decade. That is the kind of behavior we should be encouraging. That is exactly what the bill before us does.

We know it will work because a 2012 MIT forum on supply chain management found that providing tax credits for bringing American jobs back to the United States would be one of the most effective ways to accelerate that process, along with other commonsense measures such as enacting tax reform, which we all agree we have to do, providing research and development incentives, ensuring a highly educated workforce, and improving American infrastructure. Again, these are all challenges which I think the majority of us in this body understand have to be done.

I am very glad the Senate moved to this bill because our priority in Washington must be creating jobs and restoring the American middle class. Over the past few decades too many Americans have seen their jobs disappear or their incomes fall. The Bring Jobs Home Act is an opportunity to support those families by creating good-paying jobs in the United States and by helping our economy regain its competitive edge.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I come to the floor with a number of my colleagues to ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate resume consideration of S. 2262, which is the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill; that the motion to commit be withdrawn; that amendments Nos. 3023 and 3025 be withdrawn; that the pending substitute amendment be agreed to; that there be no other amendments, points of order, or motions in order to the bill other than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive; that there be up to 4 hours of debate on the bill equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended; that the bill be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold; that if the bill is passed, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 371, S. 2282, which is the passage of the Keystone Pipeline, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Republican leader, but no later than Thursday, July 31, 2014; that there be no amendments, points of order, or motions in order to the bill other than budget points of order and the applicable motions to waive; that there be up to 4 hours of debate on the bill equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill; finally, that the bill be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold.

What I am basically asking is that we get a vote on Shaheen-Portman and if that moves, that we then get a vote on the Keystone Pipeline-- something our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been talking about for months.

Before my colleague leaves I wish to thank Senator Heitkamp for her support, not just for Shaheen-Portman but for a resolution to getting a vote on our energy efficiency legislation that I have worked on for 3\1/2\ years with our colleague Senator Rob Portman from Ohio but also for the impasse that would break around the vote for the Keystone Pipeline as well. Pairing the two would allow us to see where we stand on both of these issues.

I appreciate my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Manchin, coming to the floor because he and Senator Heitkamp have talked about the fact that we have to look at a variety of areas of energy if we are going to address our future energy needs in this country. There is new urgency to energy efficiency right now. A recent study just came out that shows the United States ranks 13th out of the world's largest 16 economies in energy efficiency. So that study analyzed the world's largest economies that cover more than 81 percent of the global gross domestic product and posts 71 percent of the global electricity. What it found is we are severely lagging behind other countries in our use of energy efficiency. This legislation, the Energy Efficiency and Industrial Competitiveness Act, also known as Shaheen-Portman, is a way for us to address the deficit we currently have in this country.

We have heard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy that by 2030 this legislation would create 192,000 domestic jobs. That is nothing to sneeze at, at a time when our economy is still recovering from the recession. It would save consumers and businesses $16 billion a year--again, real savings in a way that is important to consumers and businesses. It would reduce carbon pollution at a time when we know pollution is affecting our environment and we are seeing a record number of disasters. It would be the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road. Our legislation does this without any mandates, without raising the deficit. In fact, we see a very small savings of about $12 million in the legislation.

It addresses the building sector where we use about 40 percent of our energy. It addresses the industrial manufacturing sector that consumes more energy than any other sector of our domestic economy, and it addresses the Federal Government where we use more energy than any other entity in our economy; 93 percent of the energy is used by our military. Clearly, energy efficiency is something that would benefit all of us.

There are 10 bipartisan amendments that have been incorporated into this legislation. It is the product of 3\1/2\ years of work. It has been endorsed by hundreds--literally hundreds and hundreds of business groups, of businesses, organizations, everything from the Natural Resources Defense Council to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, the International Union of Painters.

This is legislation that makes sense. We just heard Senator Cornyn on the floor saying he thought there was support to get this legislation done. I think we need to figure out how we can

come together. We don't have much time left before we go out in August to go back to our home States. This would be a great bipartisan effort to go out on at the end of July, to be able to go home and say to people across this country that we worked out a deal that passed this energy efficiency legislation, that we got a vote on the Keystone Pipeline--let the chips fall where they may--that we addressed one of the biggest challenges facing this country, which is energy, and what we are going to do about our energy future.

I certainly hope that in the remaining time between now and the beginning of August we can come together, find some sort of resolution to address this issue and get this legislation done. We know the House has said they are willing to take it up. They are interested in seeing some action on energy efficiency. Now is an opportune time to do that.

I am disappointed by today's objections, but as Senator Heitkamp said so well, we are not going to give up. We are going to continue to try and move this issue and do what is in the best interests of the people of this country.

I thank the Presiding Officer and I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 9:30 a.m. in room SR-328A of the Russell Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Meeting the Challenges of Feeding America's School Children.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2:45 p.m. in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled, ``The Cruise Passenger Protection Act (S. 1340): Improving Consumer Protections for Cruise Passengers.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 9:30 a.m., in room SD- 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Oversight Hearing: EPA's Proposed Carbon Pollution Standards for Existing Power Plants.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SD-430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, in room SD-628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 3:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Indian Gaming: The Next 25 Years.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and Administration be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 10 a.m. in room SR-301 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled ``The DISCLOSE Act (S. 2516) and the Need for Expanded Public Disclosure of Funds Raised and Spent to Influence Federal Elections.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2:30 p.m. in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2:30 p.m., in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Understanding Successes, Addressing Persistent Challenges, and Identifying New Opportunities.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 11 a.m., in room S-219 of the Capitol.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled, ``A More Efficient and Effective Government: The National Technical Information Service.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on National Parks be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight of the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 23, 2014, at 10 a.m., in room SD-215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Saving for an Uncertain Future: How the ABLE Act can Help People with Disabilities and their Families.''

Mr. President, I wish to congratulate MooreMart, a New Hampshire nonprofit organization that sends care packages to servicemembers and children overseas, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

MooreMart was born from Moore family members Paul, Carole, and Beverly's desire to send supplies to Brian Moore and his fellow soldiers stationed in Iraq. In the early years of their effort, they strove to send 10 packages a month to U.S. troops overseas. Today, MooreMart ships more than 1,000 packages every 10 weeks. Its mission has grown over the years, and now MooreMart also sends school supplies, toys, and clothing to local children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over the last decade, MooreMart has built and shipped more than 61,000 care packages and nearly 8 tons of relief supplies to troops in conflict zones, including to every Armed Forces unit deployed from New Hampshire. Each package includes toiletries, food items like s'mores and Girl Scout cookies difficult to find overseas, and letters and cards from schoolchildren and volunteers. All of the packages are assembled by volunteers and individually addressed to a servicemember.

MooreMart has successfully reached out to organizations both public and private, involving State and local agencies, faith communities, and businesses in its work. More than 11,000 volunteers have helped build the care packages, among them veterans, families of active servicemembers, and families who have lost loved ones in service to our country.

MooreMart represents the very best of New Hampshire, bringing comfort to those who selflessly defend our Nation. I am proud to congratulate this organization and the volunteers who carry out its mission on their 10th anniversary.