Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print the following letter in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print the following letter in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print the following letter in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the months of bipartisan hard work that have gone into two bills that we are filing today: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--I repeat--the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--and the Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act.

I would like to commend my dear friend Senator Susan Collins for her leadership throughout this process. She has been shepherding this through and working diligently, as only she can do, and she does it so well.

We started these discussions back in January, when partisanship around here was at a fever pitch, a toxic environment that was absolutely not conducive to things that needed to be done. But for those who may not remember, we were in the middle of a heated debate over voting rights with both sides--Democrats and Republicans--equally dug in on their positions, and it was kind of hard to move people off of that.

The insurrection January 6 and the situation that has been going on since 1887 and should have been corrected and had not been--but no one ever felt that we would have what we had. So now, we needed to take care of it. And everyone stepped to the plate.

By January 19, my Democratic colleagues were so frustrated that they forced a vote on repealing the filibuster to allow that bill to pass with a simple majority, along party lines. It appeared to many, both inside and outside of Washington, DC, that the Senate was fundamentally broken. But Senator Collins and I have worked together for a long time, and we never gave up. We were not convinced it was broken, and you just have to work a little bit harder.

They call us the most deliberative body. Well, to deliberate means to talk, to converse; and when that fails, then, basically, the deliberative body is no longer the deliberative body. And we were not going to let that happen to us.

We asked our colleagues and friends to come together to start trying to see if we could work together and find a pathway and find common ground. Well--guess what--they did. So I am here to thank those who sat down: Senator Portman, Rob Portman; we had Senator Murphy; we had Senator Romney, Senator Shaheen, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warren, Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema, Senator Capito, Senator Cardin, Senator Young, Senator Coons, Senator Sasse, and Senator Graham.

Now, that was truly a team effort when you think about it. And this has gone on for quite some time.

What we learned through those discussions was that there was bipartisan support for some important, commonsense reforms that would help restore Americans' faith in our democracy and how we basically apply our democracy, how do we select our representative form of government. Specifically, most of our group felt that we could and that we should:

Reform the Electoral Count Act to remove the ambiguity that we saw weaponized after the last election. We were all in agreement.

Enhance the protections for local election officials who were facing unprecedented threats and intimidations. These are people who volunteer, most basically. And it is basically a family handing down generation after generation, people who always believe that their civic duty is to be able to perform during election times.

We wanted to establish best practices for the U.S. Postal Service to improve the handling of mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots have been so convenient to older people, shut-ins. And in the situation where we had this pandemic, my goodness, it was the only way that people could vote.

So reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission to help States improve the administration and the security of Federal elections.

The most important thing that we can do is that when that vote is cast and that vote is counted accurately, it has to be counted and reported accurately. And that is what we have to do and make sure that there is not even a shred of a thought where a person might think that count is not valid--it is not a valid count. And we have done everything we possibly can to make sure that we have cleared that up.

This is not everything that people on both sides of that wanted. Some on our bipartisan committee wanted a lot more, and some didn't want to basically interfere with the States' rights. So we were caught in betwixt and between. We worked back and forth on different things we could. We tried to put the guardrails on that gave guidance, and we think that we came up with a piece of legislation.

And when you have every Member I just mentioned all sign on, with the diversity of these memberships--we have almost 20; 20 Senators have been involved, coming equally between Democrats and Republicans, and able to come to an agreement--this is a bill that we should put forward.

I was proud to be an original sponsor of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and I still believe that we can and we must continue working to protect every American's sacred right to vote. But we also have an obligation to the American people to do the most good that we can right now--right now.

The confusing and antiquated language that we have on the books today from the 1887 Electoral Count Act is a real and present danger to our democracy. We can fix that, and that is exactly what we intend to do.

The increased threats and attacks we are seeing across the country on poll workers and election volunteers--we can fix that, too. But even more important than the policy provisions contained in these two bills is the fact that we have Democrats and Republicans standing arm in arm proposing commonsense election reforms that can begin to restore Americans' faith in our democracy. That is our solemn commitment and promise.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the Constitutional Convention had given us a republic or a monarchy, he famously replied ``A republic, young man, if you can keep it.''

He qualified his answer because he understood a democracy is fragile and can be lost if we are not careful. And while today's introduction is an important step in this process, we do have much work yet to do.

I look forward to continuing our bipartisan effort to get this bill to the President's desk as quickly as possible and signed into law. And our journey begins.

And with that, I would like to yield to my dear friend from the great State of Maine, Senator Susan Collins.

Mr. President, while my dear friend is here, I want to tell her, you know, 6 months ago--we have worked on this for 6 months. It started in January, and it was 14 Senators who came at that time. We just started talking, and 14 Senators--with all of your support, Mr. President, also--we had support from everybody saying something had to be done. But as delicate as this was, knowing that some might think we are picking on one side or the other or supporting or defending one side or the other, there was only one thing we were concerned about: How do we defend this country and the Constitution and this wonderful Capitol that we have so this could never happen again?

January 6 is a black mark on the history of the United States of America. And if you want to erase it, you better do what we did for 6 months, bringing people together to find a pathway forward so that type of opportunity--for some looking for an opportunity--to degrade our government and our country and our form of governing ourselves could never, ever encourage them thinking they could do something here at this Capitol and disrupt us.

When that day happened, the thing I was most proud of, we were all down in a secured room--and Senator Collins remembers--and it went on; we didn't know what the extent of this was going on. We knew one thing: They didn't come for a friendly visit. But we were down there talking; and, all of a sudden, someone said: Well, let's just conduct our business down here. Remember that? And to a T, everybody in that room says, No, no, no. They are not going to run us out of our body here. And we all came back here later that night and finished our business.

What we did--and Senator Collins has led this admirably--is make sure that we are finishing our business. We are just starting it now to protect this democracy. This form of democracy that we have is a representative form and the Republic that we are responsible for. And I am just so proud to be part of it. And she is my dear friend. We worked many, many years together, and we will continue to.

But I just want to thank the Senator for the hard work--our staffs worked together. I am very proud of all our staffs that they worked together for the betterment of our country.

So when people think that bipartisanship is not capable of happening in Washington, I want to say: Watch, we have proved them wrong. We have done so many things together, and we will continue to. Again, I say thank you to all those who participated for just hanging in there. It took us 6 months to get here, but we have just begun.

Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the months of bipartisan hard work that have gone into two bills that we are filing today: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--I repeat--the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--and the Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act.

I would like to commend my dear friend Senator Susan Collins for her leadership throughout this process. She has been shepherding this through and working diligently, as only she can do, and she does it so well.

We started these discussions back in January, when partisanship around here was at a fever pitch, a toxic environment that was absolutely not conducive to things that needed to be done. But for those who may not remember, we were in the middle of a heated debate over voting rights with both sides--Democrats and Republicans--equally dug in on their positions, and it was kind of hard to move people off of that.

The insurrection January 6 and the situation that has been going on since 1887 and should have been corrected and had not been--but no one ever felt that we would have what we had. So now, we needed to take care of it. And everyone stepped to the plate.

By January 19, my Democratic colleagues were so frustrated that they forced a vote on repealing the filibuster to allow that bill to pass with a simple majority, along party lines. It appeared to many, both inside and outside of Washington, DC, that the Senate was fundamentally broken. But Senator Collins and I have worked together for a long time, and we never gave up. We were not convinced it was broken, and you just have to work a little bit harder.

They call us the most deliberative body. Well, to deliberate means to talk, to converse; and when that fails, then, basically, the deliberative body is no longer the deliberative body. And we were not going to let that happen to us.

We asked our colleagues and friends to come together to start trying to see if we could work together and find a pathway and find common ground. Well--guess what--they did. So I am here to thank those who sat down: Senator Portman, Rob Portman; we had Senator Murphy; we had Senator Romney, Senator Shaheen, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warren, Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema, Senator Capito, Senator Cardin, Senator Young, Senator Coons, Senator Sasse, and Senator Graham.

Now, that was truly a team effort when you think about it. And this has gone on for quite some time.

What we learned through those discussions was that there was bipartisan support for some important, commonsense reforms that would help restore Americans' faith in our democracy and how we basically apply our democracy, how do we select our representative form of government. Specifically, most of our group felt that we could and that we should:

Reform the Electoral Count Act to remove the ambiguity that we saw weaponized after the last election. We were all in agreement.

Enhance the protections for local election officials who were facing unprecedented threats and intimidations. These are people who volunteer, most basically. And it is basically a family handing down generation after generation, people who always believe that their civic duty is to be able to perform during election times.

We wanted to establish best practices for the U.S. Postal Service to improve the handling of mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots have been so convenient to older people, shut-ins. And in the situation where we had this pandemic, my goodness, it was the only way that people could vote.

So reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission to help States improve the administration and the security of Federal elections.

The most important thing that we can do is that when that vote is cast and that vote is counted accurately, it has to be counted and reported accurately. And that is what we have to do and make sure that there is not even a shred of a thought where a person might think that count is not valid--it is not a valid count. And we have done everything we possibly can to make sure that we have cleared that up.

This is not everything that people on both sides of that wanted. Some on our bipartisan committee wanted a lot more, and some didn't want to basically interfere with the States' rights. So we were caught in betwixt and between. We worked back and forth on different things we could. We tried to put the guardrails on that gave guidance, and we think that we came up with a piece of legislation.

And when you have every Member I just mentioned all sign on, with the diversity of these memberships--we have almost 20; 20 Senators have been involved, coming equally between Democrats and Republicans, and able to come to an agreement--this is a bill that we should put forward.

I was proud to be an original sponsor of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and I still believe that we can and we must continue working to protect every American's sacred right to vote. But we also have an obligation to the American people to do the most good that we can right now--right now.

The confusing and antiquated language that we have on the books today from the 1887 Electoral Count Act is a real and present danger to our democracy. We can fix that, and that is exactly what we intend to do.

The increased threats and attacks we are seeing across the country on poll workers and election volunteers--we can fix that, too. But even more important than the policy provisions contained in these two bills is the fact that we have Democrats and Republicans standing arm in arm proposing commonsense election reforms that can begin to restore Americans' faith in our democracy. That is our solemn commitment and promise.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the Constitutional Convention had given us a republic or a monarchy, he famously replied ``A republic, young man, if you can keep it.''

He qualified his answer because he understood a democracy is fragile and can be lost if we are not careful. And while today's introduction is an important step in this process, we do have much work yet to do.

I look forward to continuing our bipartisan effort to get this bill to the President's desk as quickly as possible and signed into law. And our journey begins.

And with that, I would like to yield to my dear friend from the great State of Maine, Senator Susan Collins.

Mr. President, while my dear friend is here, I want to tell her, you know, 6 months ago--we have worked on this for 6 months. It started in January, and it was 14 Senators who came at that time. We just started talking, and 14 Senators--with all of your support, Mr. President, also--we had support from everybody saying something had to be done. But as delicate as this was, knowing that some might think we are picking on one side or the other or supporting or defending one side or the other, there was only one thing we were concerned about: How do we defend this country and the Constitution and this wonderful Capitol that we have so this could never happen again?

January 6 is a black mark on the history of the United States of America. And if you want to erase it, you better do what we did for 6 months, bringing people together to find a pathway forward so that type of opportunity--for some looking for an opportunity--to degrade our government and our country and our form of governing ourselves could never, ever encourage them thinking they could do something here at this Capitol and disrupt us.

When that day happened, the thing I was most proud of, we were all down in a secured room--and Senator Collins remembers--and it went on; we didn't know what the extent of this was going on. We knew one thing: They didn't come for a friendly visit. But we were down there talking; and, all of a sudden, someone said: Well, let's just conduct our business down here. Remember that? And to a T, everybody in that room says, No, no, no. They are not going to run us out of our body here. And we all came back here later that night and finished our business.

What we did--and Senator Collins has led this admirably--is make sure that we are finishing our business. We are just starting it now to protect this democracy. This form of democracy that we have is a representative form and the Republic that we are responsible for. And I am just so proud to be part of it. And she is my dear friend. We worked many, many years together, and we will continue to.

But I just want to thank the Senator for the hard work--our staffs worked together. I am very proud of all our staffs that they worked together for the betterment of our country.

So when people think that bipartisanship is not capable of happening in Washington, I want to say: Watch, we have proved them wrong. We have done so many things together, and we will continue to. Again, I say thank you to all those who participated for just hanging in there. It took us 6 months to get here, but we have just begun.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the life and legacy of my dear friend, the last surviving World War II Medal of Honor Recipient, West Virginian, and one of the last of the ``greatest generation,'' Woody Williams of Quiet Dell, WV.

Before I begin today, I want to recognize members of Woody's family who are here today with us in the Gallery, and in recognizing all of them, I want to say thank you. Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing Woody all those years with me and Shelley and all of our West Virginians.

We are here today to respect Woody's wishes of honoring all veterans and their families and to pay respects to our Nation's last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

To the family, I want to say this: You are the legacy he was most proud of, all of you, and I am honored to welcome--Senator Capito, both of us, are welcoming you, which is Woody's legacy, still here, and thank you.

But we are going to respect his wishes, and his wishes, basically, were honoring veterans and their families and to pay respects to the Nation's last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

It has been 77 years since Woody Williams quieted those enemy machineguns on the sands of Iwo Jima, and while he is now sadly gone, the ideals that he lived by are not: the love of his family, his friends and his faith and service to country above all.

GEN George Patton once said:

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather,

we should thank God that such men lived.

Woody lived every day as if he were given a second chance, and we are all so much better for it.

And, boy, did Woody live for a long time. His grandson Brent Casey passed along Woody's recipe for a long life. I hope I have got all this right. He would say when asked:

It's Braggs apple cider vinegar, and it has to have the

``mother,'' and, you know, the cloudy stuff in the bottom of

the bottle, mixed with local honey, and 6 ounces of warm

water. You can add some pure maple syrup for extra flavoring

if you'd like.

And Woody said:

I've been drinking it every morning since the early 1960s.

About 3 years ago, he got it printed on a business card because he said he was so tired of reciting it every time someone asked, and he handed out quite a few of those cards too.

One of my favorite Woody quotes is the one he cited when his great- grandson Cedar graduated from Marine boot camp. When Woody was asked what it meant to be a marine, he said:

By taking that oath, you can take my life, but you cannot

take my country or my freedom.

You cannot take my country or my freedom. That says it all about Woody.

During the ceremony in West Virginia last weekend, Woody's grandson Chad said:

We must remember what Woody taught us. There are few things

in the world that we can do alone. It is only through the

support of others that we can truly reach our goals. So look

to your left and look to your right. We are all a part of his

legacy, and it is up to us to carry it forward. In the words

of Woody, ``The cause is greater than I.''

One of Woody's last wishes was lying in state at the U.S. Capitol, and it wasn't for himself. We spoke about this years ago. It wasn't for himself, but he wanted to make sure that we represent all Medal of Honor recipients from World War II, and there were only 472--of the whole war, 472.

Tomorrow, the West Virginia farm boy from Quiet Dell will lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, laying to rest the sacrifices of a generation of heroes. That is what we do tomorrow.

Woody can rest in peace knowing his mission is complete.

I will miss Woody because he was my wingman or may I say this: We maybe were all his wingmen, and I think that is what he would have preferred.

Woody always had a project for everyone around him. Everyone sitting up there, he had projects for you. He had projects for me and projects for Shelley. He made sure that we understood exactly what he wanted done.

As his grandson Bryan Casey said, ``If you met with Woody, you know he always had a project for everyone. He would magically produce napkins and sharpies with his projects--typically with him diagramming the project while we watched and listened. They were not always unused napkins, but they always became works of art.''

Woody came to me a few years ago and said that we needed to help the Gold Star families in West Virginia and across the whole country. So we started a motorcycle ride for fallen service heroes. We did six of those rides--and Woody was in his nineties--and he was there every time in that sling shot, just giving it all he had, and he stayed right with us.

We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Gold Star families. Some of those funds, as you know, went into monuments across the Nation, including the one that sits at the Capitol we honored also with the laying of the wreath.

I know how many good things Woody and I worked on together. If you multiply that by all the other people he worked with, you will fully realize Woody's incredible impact on West Virginia and the entire country.

That is why he got a ship, a VA hospital, and a National Guard Reserve Center named after him.

Most recently, because of Woody, our VA medical centers were saved. His testimony ended the AIR Commission, which would have turned three of our four West Virginia VA medical centers into urgent care centers, as well as countless others across the Nation. And, really, in rural America, rural veterans would not have been served.

Every veteran in the Nation can thank Woody for saving their VA hospital.

Woody was with me when I was Governor and helped so much as we stood

up to the Cabinet Secretary for Veterans Affairs. Then he was the founding member of my Senate Veterans Advisory Group, where he led efforts to clean up the Clarksburg and Beckley VAMCs.

He helped get the first Fisher House. I remember we called Ken Fisher. Ken came in, met with Woody, and it was over. It was going to be done. It was that quick. It was unbelievable, and I know it gave so much solace to the family when they got to spend a few moments in that beautiful place. It was really something very, very special.

Woody has been there every step of the way, making sure that families of the fallen receive death gratuities during government shutdowns. That was the time that he said: Joe, we have to do something. He said: The shutdown is preventing us from giving the gratuities the families need.

That is when we called Ken Fisher, and that is when we all became very good friends with Fisher House. Ken Fisher was the leader of that. That is how that all began, and Ken was happy to step up.

Naming the first Gold Star Children's Day, August 1--he was instrumental in that.

It was also amazing that so many people from across the country and each of our States that we represent in this great deliberative body had so many good things to say about Woody because his legacy runs farther than just West Virginia, as you know.

I didn't realize the magnitude of Woody's impact until I traveled with him to California and also in Virginia when his ship was commissioned and it was christened. And, when that happened, I mean, from the brass all the way down to the ensigns on this ship, the marines learned about being a marine because of studying Woody Williams.

I didn't realize the impact that he had. It was unbelievable. I am there, and I had all of these people coming to me and telling me the impact that he had on them and how much they admired him.

But I am always remembering the one general telling me how they studied Woody Williams in the Marine Corps. I never forgot that. He said: Let me tell you, I know you know him as a friend. I know you know him as representing your State. Let me tell you how he represented the Marine Corps.

So when marines learn how to be marines, they learn about Woody Williams.

I always knew that West Virginia had a treasure with Woody, but what I didn't know is that he was their treasure also. I will forever be grateful that Woody and his family gave me the gift of spending time with him in Huntington. And when Mara and I were able to go down that Sunday morning before he passed, it was such a special day. He was as chirpy and bright as ever. You would not think that anything was really that much different.

And I said: Woody, I think someone wants to speak to you.

It was Denis McDonough, who is the Secretary of the VA for the United States of America. He wanted to speak to Woody, and Woody was so thrilled. It was a great conversation. And just as true to form as Woody, he said, ``Mr. Secretary, I have to tell you just a couple of things,'' and he went into exactly what needed to be done. It was just classic. Denis called me afterward to explain the conversation, and he was so tickled.

It took a Woody, also, to be able to have that conversation. And he was just full of life. He was still full of life, and he was still full of ambition to get things accomplished.

In his final days, he stayed the same as I always knew him. As you know, he was quick as a whip, kind, selfless, and concerned for his fellow veterans and the families and all of you. He was concerned about everybody.

And he was ready. It was a moment that I will cherish the rest of my days being able to spend that little bit of time at the end there. But in true Woody fashion, he gave me marching orders that day. He said that one of his last wishes was enclosing the committal shelter at the Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery. Senator Capito got the same order I got. It is on our to-do list, and it will get done so that the families will be protected from the elements when paying their final respects. It is something that should be done in every shelter and every VA burial ground, in every VA cemetery.

But, of course, this project was bigger than just West Virginia for Woody. It will probably lead to a national effort. I can promise you this: that we are going to get that done. It was a commitment we made to Woody, and it will happen.

As President Biden said upon Woody's passing, ``I don't throw the word `hero' around lightly, but if I'm going to use it, I'd use it for a guy like Woody Williams. . . . Heroism--like it did for Woody--can come in all shapes and sizes.''

Woody Williams was far more than just a hero. He was the greatest of the ``greatest generation'' and a model for future generations.

From what I know, Woody's greatest wish was for all of us to continue his mission, to give back to each other, to love our country. As his grandson Bryan said last week, ``I have the project that he wants each of you to work on. A couple of them, actually.''

And, today, I will ask each of you to work on these projects, too. If Gold Star families in your area are traveling more than an hour to one of the Gold Star Family Memorial Monuments, they are traveling too far. Your project is to get a project working in your backyard.

Second, if you have a monument in your area, your project is to ensure the legacy that Woody helped create by working to recognize these families. Become part of the project. Become part of the process to bring people back to that monument, lest we never forget these Gold Star families.

As we celebrate the life and legacy of Woody Williams and all our veterans of World War II this evening and tomorrow, let us all do our best to continue Woody's mission.

May God rest the soul of our dear friend, our leader, our national hero, Woody Williams.

I yield the floor to my colleague Senator Capito.

Madam President, I know that both of us want to thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the ranking member of the Republican Party, Mitch McConnell, and all the people who were so instrumental in making this happen.

There have only been 35 people lying in state in this Capitol--35 out of millions and millions and millions. And it is a tremendous tribute for us, coming from our wonderful, patriotic, beautiful State of West Virginia, to have the ``greatest generation'' being represented.

And as we have said, this is not him; it is for everybody and, I hope, for all the families and anybody who had anybody who served.

Shelley's dad was wounded in World War II and received a Purple Heart. He became our Governor three times and was a friend of mine. And my father and all of my family served in World War II.

But to have so many people, and Woody is doing that for them. Tomorrow is for every person who has sacrificed and given their all and the families who have sacrificed also.

So we want to thank them for making that happen. It was a great tribute and a great honor, I know, for the family and all of us. God bless you all and thank you for coming.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to the following fellows in my office: Carrie Libell, through July 31, 2022; and Sean Dzierzanowski, through December 31, 2022.

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

Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the years of bipartisan hard work on one of the most challenging subjects we have here, which is gun violence, mental illness, and all the things that basically contribute to these horrible, horrible tragedies. Something has to be done, and something has been done.

There are going to be people who look at the piece of legislation we are about to pass in a bipartisan way and say that it is not enough. I can understand that. There are going to be other people saying that it is too much, that it is the camel's nose under the tent and they want to take my guns away. I can understand their concern because people have scared them. It is a constitutional amendment. That is not going to happen.

So what I want to reaffirm is, myself coming from a little town-- Farmington, WV--being raised in a gun culture, growing up in a gun culture--my father was not a sportsman. He was not a gun person. But he wanted to make sure I had access to people who knew how and lived in this culture and who knew how to teach me properly.

So, growing up, they had what they called the Farmington Sportsman's Club. These were a lot of the men who worked in the mines who kind of took us under their wing, all us young kids. They taught us gun safety. They called it ``gun sense.'' We are going to teach you some gun sense, Joe. I said OK. And I understood it. Gun sense--it is the sensible thing you do with a gun. It is the law-abiding thing law-abiding gun owners do. The first thing they teach you is the safety of how to handle the gun. It is never loaded. It is always broken down before you go into the woods, before you prepare to hunt or if you are going to shoot, whatever you are going to do. They would teach us about that. They would teach us everything they possibly could, and then they explained to us why they were teaching us.

They said: First of all, the most important thing to know when you acquire a weapon--and it is a weapon--it is basically to feed your family, to defend your family, and basically the sporting of skeet shooting or target shooting.

I said: I got it. I understand.

They said: Do you understand this?

I said: What?

You never sell your gun to a stranger--never, ever, ever. If you don't know the person, that is not someone you want to sell to until you know exactly who they are and what their intent may be.

Fine. So that is part of my gun culture: You never sell your gun to a stranger.

He said: You never loan your gun--even to a family member who is not responsible. If you deem them to be not a responsible person and you have not trusted them by giving them your car or doing anything with them with any valuables you had, why would you loan them your gun? It is a dangerous--you know, they don't know how to do it. They won't, basically, take care of it and honor it and understand the gun culture that you do.

These are things I learned very young.

I am going to fast-forward to Sandy Hook. Never in my mind, never in my imagination, never in the United States of America could I believe that 20 babies would get slaughtered, that we had become so mentally disturbed that someone could feel that was something they needed to do or something drove them to it. I couldn't comprehend that. But what was even harder than that was, once I got to know all the families, knowing that most of the children were hard to identify or that they had to use DNA to identify them, that told me everything.

So I was on the floor of the Senate one time in 2013, and people were talking about, we have got to do something. Every time there is a horrific tragedy, we are all willing to start talking about, we have got to do something.

Mr. President, during that time I was here and we were talking, a person said we have got to ban this and ban that and take this off the streets and take this. I heard all those things.

I confronted one of our Senators at that time about the types of guns. They never--they didn't come from a gun culture. We were all raised a little differently. They never had the opportunity to learn as I did.

I said: I think what you are doing is taking a position right now that by me being a law-abiding gun owner--and I own guns--that I am going to do something criminally with them or abuse them. I am not. You have got to give me that certain amount of concern that I am a law- abiding gun owner the same as you buy--whether you buy a car or whatever you buy that may do danger to yourself or others in public, you have that right as a law-abiding citizen, and that is a product that is being sold. I understand all that.

They said: Well, Joe, if you know so much, why don't you write a bill?

I said: Well, the thing I see, where the loopholes are--I just told you. As a law-abiding gun owner, you can't infringe on me by saying I can't give it to my child or my grandson or I can't give it to my brother or my cousin--my family, immediate family. You have to give me that ability to make those decisions as a law-abiding gun owner with common gun sense.

But I said: What you do is--you have a problem at a gun show. You can go to a gun show anywhere--they are all over the country--and there will be somebody in that gun show selling

guns who doesn't do a background check because they are not a licensed dealer. That is the way the system is set up.

I said: That is not right. That person is either not a law-abiding gun owner or doesn't understand guns well enough of how we were trained. So that should be a loophole to be stopped.

Then we talked about, well, how about on the internet now? We have all these transactions on the internet anymore. So with the transactions that are happening on the internet, the way the law is set up today, if I buy from you in Maryland or you buy from me, then I have got to send my gun to a dealer, a licensed firearm dealer in Maryland, before, Mr. President, you can go pick it up, and they will do a background check on you. But if I sell my gun to somebody in my State of West Virginia--whether you are down in Bluefield, WV, or in Wheeling, WV--I can do that without going through any gun dealer, a licensed dealer, to do a background check. That should be stopped.

So basically we did a bill, and I got Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania. That was the Manchin-Toomey bill we did back in 2013. It has probably been vetted longer than anyone else--any piece of legislation as far as on guns.

I would dearly love to have a commonsense background check bill that did not infringe on law-abiding gun owners' rights and protected the Second Amendment. We weren't able to get that in. But, you know what, I understand. I am OK. I would have loved to. But we got some other things in.

So what I am trying to point out, those of you who didn't think you got what you wanted, trust me, we need to start somewhere. This is a start.

The only thing I had--advice to the committee--we worked on a bipartisan group--was this: Whatever we do, we have got to make sure that we are able to say what we are doing today would have prevented this horrible Uvalde tragedy.

Again, we had young, young kids--babies, if you will, innocent--whose lives were taken away from them and their families.

Something has to be done. It is not open season on children. So if we do anything, it has to be towards the safety of children and the school system. If you can't, as a parent or a grandparent, see your child off to school, knowing full well they are going to return home safe or if you have that doubt in your mind or if that child has that doubt and they are scared to go to school, something is wrong with our system in America.

We are asking just basically for good, decent people to step up. This is a piece of legislation that will do an awful lot of good, and it is something we can build off of, and I think that is our purpose.

Support State crisis intervention orders. We are putting $750 million that will be available for States to create and administer laws that help keep weapons out of the hands of those determined by a court, with strong due process--now, they have been talking about what kind of a flag it is, what kind of a law. Forget about that.

What we are saying is, when we identify them--let me tell you something. The people who can do more good and help us more are the students who are going to school and have befriended their group of friends, and all of a sudden, this student goes dark. Something happens. They take you off of their social media page. They don't want to interact with you anymore. They have another group of friends. Something is wrong. But if you had a mental hygiene professional in that school system that you could go to as a student and say, ``I have a friend I am concerned about,'' then it is in the proper hands. We haven't had that. This gives us that chance. This gives us that chance to do it.

Protection of victims of domestic violence. We know, far too many times--and to tell you how rampant this is and the culture that we have, there are domestic violence shelters almost in every corner of the country. Wherever you live in America, you can find a domestic violence shelter. We are that committed to protecting people going through abuse.

This basically closes the boyfriend loophole, which is something that has been needed to be done for quite a while. I think that it is going to save lives. I really do.

Enhanced background checks for people under 21. Myself, I was very open. I think it should have gone to 21. Makes all the sense in the world.

I use this rationale: If you are less than 21 years of age and over the age of 18, you cannot go to a gun store legally and buy a handgun. It is the law. Not once have we ever had a strong position to where people are saying: Oh, you have got to have 18-year-olds go buy handguns--trying to retract that. We haven't. It doesn't make sense. But for some reason, we never have on the long guns. And I am going to tell you why. Rite of passage: my first long gun, single shot .22--it is considered long. It is one single shot, bolt-action .22. My next gun was a .410 shotgun to go squirrel hunting. Then I jumped over 16-gauge to a 12-gauge because I wanted to be big time. I wanted to show them I can shoot a 12-gauge and take the kick. But that is the reason.

So at 18, you know, you are out there--and they told me this: Well, wait a minute, 18-year-olds can go into the military, and they are going to be taught all these weapons.

I said: Let me make sure you understand. They are going to be properly trained, and they are not going to leave base with them. They are properly trained. And those weapons that you are talking about are used only for the military and defense of our country and does not leave base unless they are on duty. That is the difference in what you want to do.

So we opened it up, and this new product comes onto the market. And this product comes onto the market with a vengeance. The only thing I have said--and I have been very public about it--I don't own one, but I have friends and family members who do, and I trust they will do the right thing. They enjoy them, for whatever reason. So I haven't gone down that path.

But the bottom line is we have got to take a position that we are going to protect our children. And this is what it is about. It is a child protection bill, as far as I am concerned. And if you can't protect the children in America, if you can't protect the children in your neighborhood, in your school system, that go to school, the same school as your children and grandchildren, then God help us all. And if that is not at the front of every discussion on a PTO meeting today going on around the country, in every school board going on around the country, then something is wrong. How hardened is your school? How well are our children protected? If I am a parent or grandparent, that is what I am asking.

I have three young grandchildren in that age exactly in the school system, very close to where this happened. And you can imagine where my heart was when I heard about this horrible tragedy. So I can only imagine. My heart and prayers go out to these family members who will never bring back their children. I am still very close to the Sandy Hook parents and the movement that made people more aware. It has taken a long time, but we are going in the right direction.

I see my good friend Senator Cornyn, who has worked so hard on this.

This is something that is long overdue--long overdue. So what we are going to do, if you are 18 to 21, we want to make sure that we know what your juvenile record is. If there is a juvenile record, we are going to find it, and we are going to see if you are worthy or not to have this type of gun. And that is going to be a 3- to 10-day process for us to get the records back through the different systems to make sure that we have evaluated them properly and to review the juvenile and mental records, which are so important. I can assure you, a young person who maybe didn't have the family support they needed or the nurturing that was needed and they have been in the juvenile system for violence or behavior problems, it is going to be someone that more than likely is going to have a problem as they grow older, unless they can get help. Maybe now we can identify and get that person help so they don't harm themselves or anyone else in society. That is the purpose of what we are doing.

And then you have the investment in mental health funding: $11 billion we are investing in mental health. That is serious. For the first time, for us to put this type of money--of public money--towards something that is a public

tragedy that we are dealing with, I think the money is going in the right place. So when we said we want to be able to prevent--this bill should be able to prevent someone who shouldn't have a gun in that age group, and it gives us a little extra eyes and time to look into it, we have done it. To say that we basically are going to be able to identify this person and maybe help that person save themselves and a whole lot of other innocent people, we have done it.

We have started in the right direction. There is a lot more we can do. So for all of you that are out there saying, You didn't do enough, it is just not good enough--don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This is a good piece of legislation, and it has bipartisan support. And I am so proud of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

It is time to move forward. We will be voting very shortly on that sometime today. It will be a historic vote, a very historic vote. And I am proud that the colleagues are standing tall on this. We have 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans, and that is a major accomplishment in today's atmosphere.

So I am proud to be a Senator that is going to take part in a historic piece of legislation to maybe correct a lot of the fears that people have right now of sending their children or grandchildren to school, of maybe relieving the fears of children who are saying, I am afraid to go to school today. That is something I have never heard growing up. It is something I couldn't imagine in the United States of America. I don't want my children or grandchildren and their children having to live through this. It is time for us to stop it.

This is a right start. It is a right piece of legislation. It is a good piece of legislation. And this is one time we have put our money where our mouth is and the mental health illness that goes on around in this country to make sure we are taking care of a problem that has been festering for a long time.

With that, I want to thank my colleague, Senator Cornyn, from Texas. I want to thank all of the group, if you will. We have 20-plus strong, equally divided--Democrats and Republicans--working for the right cause and the purpose for us being here, making sure we do something good for America and protect our children. We have done that in this bill.

With that, I say thank you to all of my friends, all of my colleagues, for a job well done.

With that, I see my friend is here, and I yield the floor.

If I could say one thing, Senator Cornyn, if you give me a minute here.

The leadership you have shown is admirable. It really is. You come from a gun culture. I come from a gun culture. We know the challenges in a gun culture. I said: To a group of people, it is not enough; to other people, it is too much. Anything is too much because it is the camel's nose under the tent they are afraid of. We protected the Second Amendment. And we attacked the problem we have been identifying, which is mental illness. And you brought that to the forefront, took it. We put our money where our mouth is.

I think this is a great piece of legislation for us to start protecting the children of America. And I thank you again for that.

Mr. President, I am pleased to support the nomination of Ms. Shalanda Baker to be the Director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact at the Department of Energy.

Congress established the Office of Minority Economic Impact within the Department of Energy in 1978. Congress recognized that the energy shortages and rising energy prices we faced at the time would have an overwhelming impact on the quality of life for our socially or economically disadvantaged citizens.

The Office of Minority Economic Impact was created to provide a mechanism to ensure that the energy needs of minorities were fairly considered and addressed. Its goals were, first, to understand the impacts of our energy policies and programs on the quality of life in minority communities and, second, to ensure that minority business enterprises are afforded an equal opportunity to participate fully in the energy programs of the Department.

The position of Director was created not only to head this office, but also to advise the Secretary of Energy on the effect of the energy policies, regulations, and actions of the Department on minorities and on how to increase minority participation in the Department's programs. The position does not carry with it the policy making or regulatory or adjudicatory powers of many other senior offices in the Department of Energy, but it plays an important role in ensuring that the needs of minority and disadvantaged communities are justly and fairly addressed and that they are treated fairly.

The Director also helps ensure that the Department complies with our civil rights and equal employment laws and that it maintains a diverse workforce and inclusive work environment.

The Department of Energy's commitment to fairness, equality, and diversity has always been important. But it is especially important today, as we face record high fuel prices, come to grips with the global climate crisis, and transform how we fuel our economy. We must ensure that our energy policies do not leave anyone behind or impose an unfair or disproportionate burden on minority or disadvantaged communities.

I believe Ms. Baker is very well qualified for this position. She has spent the past decade studying the impact of the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy resources on disadvantaged communities. And she has spent the past 17 months serving as the Deputy Director for Energy Justice and as Secretary Granholm's Advisor on Equity.

I strongly support her nomination, and I urge a favorable vote on her nomination.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the long- time program director for community and economic development Mary M. Hunt upon her retirement after more than 20 remarkable years of service to the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

I have often said there is no greater accomplishment than to find yourself in a position to give back to the community you love. As a Clarksburg native, Mary Hunt has served the people of her community and beyond with professionalism, compassion, and respect throughout her entire career.

Mary has never taken any position she has held lightly--and has always seen herself primarily as a servant of the people of West Virginia. She worked tirelessly for the Charleston mayor's office of economic and community development throughout the late `80s and early `90s. Mary found herself in the capital city at a pivotal time, when major development projects were coming to fruition. It is hard to imagine a Charleston today without such iconic spaces as Haddad Riverfront Park and Capitol Market, but Mary was there when the ideas were conceived and helped bring them to reality.

Mary made her mark in State government, too. In the early 1990s, during Gaston Caperton's administration, she worked as executive assistant to the cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Commerce for 2 years and then as the chief of administration for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for 5 years, through 1997. Truly, her legacy of civic service is one we should all instill in ourselves.

Throughout her time as program director at the Benedum Foundation, Mary served as an irreplaceable leader by advancing the foundation's existing programs and starting new initiatives to ensure the organization's continued viability and positive social impact. Time and time again, Mary has made her devotion to helping others abundantly clear--not only through her philanthropy projects, but by building new partnerships and inviting others into the fold--ultimately bolstering her capacity for good.

Over the last two decades, Mary has helped numerous communities, both internally and externally, to help them make their projects possible. During her tenure, she has helped distribute grants in almost all 55 of West Virginia's counties, supporting nearly 650 grant projects and touching roughly 200 organizations.

With an unrivaled, strong spirit of optimism and innovation, her commitment to strengthening our communities is something to admire. Her work has undoubtedly advanced the foundation, but more importantly, our entire State. I know she has inspired many young leaders throughout her illustrious career, and I am confident that they will carry the torch to ensure a brighter tomorrow.

I will always be grateful to Mary for her passion for serving the people of West Virginia. While she is retiring and everyone is sure to miss her strong leadership, Mary Hunt's unwavering dedication will leave a lasting legacy on the countless lives she has touched. Again, I congratulate Mary for her remarkable years of service, and I am honored to wish good health and much happiness to Mary and her family in the days and years ahead.

Madam President, I am pleased to support the nomination of Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to be the Director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy.

President Reagan famously complained that the Department of Energy never ``produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal,'' but that was never the Department's job.

The Department of Energy is as much a Department of Science and Technology as a Department of Energy. For nearly 50 years, it has been at the forefront of scientific discovery and technology innovation. As a seedbed for science, the Department has given us the technologies to increase our energy production and use our resources in a cleaner and more efficient way, and the Office of Science lies at the heart of the Department's science mission.

It is the Nation's largest Federal supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Its mission is to deliver the ``scientific discoveries, capabilities, and major scientific tools to transform the understanding of nature and to advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States.''

Leading this important scientific enterprise calls for a scientist of great ability and vision. I believe Dr. Berhe is very qualified for this important job. In judging from the long list of academic honors and awards that she has received and the long list of scientific papers that she has written, Dr. Berhe has the scientific credentials this job requires. She is a professor of soil biochemistry at the University of California, where she is also an associate dean of graduate education and holds an endowed chair in Earth Sciences and Geology.

The Office of Science itself has long engaged in basic research relating to soil science and broader ecological questions, whether they be tracing radioactive elements through the atmosphere or the flow of energy, water, and carbon through the Earth's natural systems. So her background is an asset and makes her very well suited to lead the Office of Science.

Dr. Berhe is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and she has been a visiting professor at ETH Zurich, where Albert Einstein studied physics. She didn't teach him, but he studied there. She has authored over 100 scientific papers and has received over two dozen honors and awards for her scientific achievements.

She is incredibly well qualified for this important post of leading the Office of Science. I strongly support her nomination, and I urge a favorable vote on her nomination.

I yield back all time.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 3 minutes.

Mr. President, 2 days ago, it was my unhappy task to notify the Senate that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources had deadlocked on another nomination and on 3 important public land bills, with all 10 Democratic members voting for each bill and all 10 Republican members voting against them.

I strongly believe that the Senate works best when we work together, find common ground, and reach a consensus and that we fail the American people when we don't.

So it is with great pleasure that I come to the floor today to speak on the nomination of Dr. Kathryn Huff to be the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy. I am very pleased to say that Dr. Huff's nomination is one thing Democrats and Republicans on the committee agree with completely. We reported her nomination last week without a single dissenting vote. I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to vote to confirm her today.

My friend John Barrasso is ranking member, and we work very close together, and this is one that we found total unanimity that she is the right person at the right time in the right place for this job.

Dr. Huff is extremely well qualified for this important position. She has the academic training as a physicist and in nuclear engineering. She holds degrees in physics from the University of Chicago and nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has extensive postgraduate experience as a research assistant at Argonne and the Idaho National Laboratories and as a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley. She has extensive professional experience as a professor at the University of Illinois for 5 years before joining the Department of Energy.

She joined the Department of Energy a year ago as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. She served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for nearly a year prior to her nomination. She has very clearly demonstrated her ability to handle the job through her performance as the Deputy and Acting Assistant Secretary over this past year. She also showed her firm grasp of nuclear issues facing the Department at her confirmation hearing.

In short, Dr. Huff has earned the strong bipartisan endorsement of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. I urge all Senators to vote to confirm her today. It shows that when we get the right person who is qualified for the job, basically, we will come together.

I would advise any administration to look deeply at the person you are bringing before us to make sure they fit those requirements. This is a carbon copy of what I would continue to find--people such as Dr. Huff to fill these very, very, very important jobs. It takes that type of dedication, but it takes the type of knowledge and experience that Dr. Huff has.

I urge total adoption of this by all Members of our Senate, 100 of us.

I ask for the yeas and nays.