Floor Statements

Madam President, in Colorado and across the West, as you know as well as I, many, many communities are facing a historic drought crisis. Decades of drought are, in fact, long-term aridification and in many ways have become the new normal.

These bills respond to the urgent needs of our drought-stricken communities. They maintain the Federal Government's ability to respond to drought and allow voluntary water conservation in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

We need these now as we are seeing in realtime how drought threatens our very way of life. More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River for water, food, recreation, energy. Our communities, our farms, our environment all depend on water. These bills extend programs that we already know work. At risk is our entire way of life.

Thankfully, the two House bills I mentioned, the Drought Preparedness Act and WATER, the Water Data Improvement Act, will now become law. My colleague from Boulder, Joe Neguse, has done the heavy lifting to get this across the finish line in that Chamber. I am happy to do the same here.

But the two Senate bills just passed will still need to pass the House to help us out in the West. We really are running out of time.

The System Conservation Pilot Program enables voluntary water conservation in the Upper Colorado River, and I have been working closely with Senator Barrasso to reauthorize it. It is supported by the Upper Colorado River Commission and got its start in the depths of the 2022 Colorado River drought that continues to this day.

It is critical that we pass this 2-year reauthorization because water users and farmers who participate need to make decisions now about signing on for next year. Any delay that will limit the Upper Basin's ability to find participants and run a successful water conservation program, we can't afford that.

We are asking Speaker Johnson to please put this lifeline for western farmers and ranchers on the suspension calendar and make sure that it is able to pass this year.

I yield the floor.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Kaaren Hinck and her 20 years of service to the U.S. Senate. Although she is never one to seek the spotlight, we can't let her walk out these doors without acknowledging what has been a tremendous career in public service to eight Senators and one Representative across four States and two Presidential campaigns.

Kaaren's Senate career got off to an auspicious start one day while she was at home playing hooky from school in Minnesota. Watching TV, she saw an ad for the Senate page program and thought that sounded like something she might like to do. In a sign of things to come, not only was she selected to become a page for her home State Senator, but she also worked it out with her principal so she could do an ``independent study'' and avoid the page program classes altogether, a born dealmaker even before stepping foot in the Chamber.

After studying art history at Boston University, she returned to the Senate, this time interning for the ``Lion of the Senate'' himself, Ted Kennedy, before becoming his volunteer coordinator. Thus began her long association with the gentlemen and gentlelady from Massachusetts.

Ted Kennedy would be a high watermark for most Senate careers, but Kaaren would go on to work for Senator John Kerry at the height of his Senate career and follow him onto his Presidential campaign. After the heartbreaking loss of 2004, she would embark on a new adventure: the post-Mickey Drexler Gap.

But the siren call of the Senate beckoned, and Kaaren returned not long after leaving the Presidential campaign trail, this time to work for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse before returning home to Senator Kerry's office.

A glutton for punishment, she would go on to work campaigns again-- this time for Senator Elizabeth Warren, including on her 2020 Presidential run, a campaign that will be remembered for the enthusiasm it inspired.

Fortunately for me, she became one of my very first hires when I was elected to the Senate. You can imagine how fortunate I felt that someone with her experience would help us stand up the office.

And now, almost 4 years later, Kaaren is the rock we have built that office on. It is hard to imagine the office without her. She is everyone's first stop when they hit a wall and have no idea what to do next. She is the one who makes the seemingly impossible, possible--the person who laughs at the idiosyncrasies of Senate rules and finds joy working around them. She is kind to everyone she meets, always generous with her time to help staff figure out their next career move or how to fix whatever problem has them stumped. Maybe that is also what makes her resolve so impressive. I pity anyone who sees in her kindness a person who rolls over in the face of a challenge.

For our office--and I suspect for every office she has served--she has always been exactly what our office needed her to be. From a trusted adviser present at the creation, to acting chief when we needed a steady hand.

I don't know what Kaaren will do next, but I know we haven't yet seen the height of her career. We wish her the absolute best and miss her already.

Madam President, standing here listening to my distinguished colleague from Alaska, it is hard not to be angry at what we as a country did, and we are here today to reckon with this disgraceful part of our past. The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act is the first attempt by the Federal Government to formally investigate and address this horrific period in U.S. history. This legislation and the truth that it will unearth is an essential step toward healing.

Now, from the early 19th to the mid-20th century, the U.S. Government established 408 Federal boarding schools across the United States. Now, these schools were created for the purpose of stripping Native American children of their language, their religion, and their cultural identity. In the over 100 years that these schools were in operation, our government took an estimated 100,000 Native American children from their homes and from their families. An estimated 40,000 of these children died alone, without their family, at government-sanctioned schools.

And this is the story of one of those schools.

Now, in 2022, I visited Colorado's Fort Lewis College. It is a wonderful, remarkable college. It has one of the highest, if not the highest, proportion of Native American students of any college in the country. But it traces its origin back to the Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School, and I went there to discuss the boarding school's history with students at Fort Lewis and with the Tribal Council of the Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes.

It is because of the hard work of Fort Lewis College and the hard work of the Tribes that we can bring many of the details of this dark history to light.

Now, Fort Lewis was established in 1892 in Hesperus, CO. To call Fort Lewis a school really is--that is a bald-faced lie. Native American children were not given an education in reading or writing or math. The education model, instead, was based on assimilation into a White and Western way of life, and it came at a truly devastating cost.

From 1892 to 1909, an estimated 1,100 children attended this boarding school in southern Colorado. These children were forcibly taken from their families of the Southern Ute, Navajo, Apache, and other numerous Tribes.

Desperate to save their children, many Southern Ute families refused to turn their children over. As punishment, the school's superintendent Dr. Thomas Breen cut off the Tribe's food rations to try to force the children's attendance.

Breen's tactics failed. The Southern Ute Tribe was steadfast in their resistance and their refusal to give up their children.

Upon arrival at Fort Lewis, students were stripped of their clothing, their names, and, as Senator Murkowski said, their hair. Each day, the children were required to perform manual labor, like digging ditches and planting crops, oftentimes in the hot midafternoon sun. Combined with the poor sanitation and lack of food, many students quickly became ill. Disaster struck in the school's first year. A tuberculosis epidemic hit, followed by trachoma, known at that time as ``sore eyes.'' Two children died. Four others became blind. All were under the age of 12.

Now, punishment of children at Fort Lewis was often severe. One father reported that his sons were forced to sleep outside in a coal shed in the middle of winter without adequate blankets. Superintendent Breen himself was known for sexually abusing his young female students and teachers. When the girls became pregnant, school officials made sure that they ``disappeared,'' transporting them to other schools to avoid suspicion.

Our Federal Government never held Breen accountable. School reports show that 31 children died during the 16 years that the Fort Lewis school was in operation. I can guarantee you that the actual number is probably higher.

This is the story of just one of these schools. There were four others in Colorado. There were 403 more across the country. That is 407 other Superintendent Breens, tens of thousands of children who died in unmarked graves and who never saw their families again.

It is hard to imagine why our government was preying on our own children. Why would our government sanction such conduct? Our government understood that erasing Native people's identity was a necessary condition to erase their claim to their land, to assimilate them right out of existence, and to ignore the lands guaranteed by treaty to the Tribes.

Don't take my word for it. In less than 50 years, from 1887 to 1934, Native Americans lost two-thirds of their Tribal lands, of their treaty lands.

And the legacies of this deep trauma remain embedded in Tribal communities today. In Colorado, we see it in the high rates of poverty, the high rates of addiction, the high rates of suicide among our Native American communities. We see it in children who don't know their parents' indigenous names or who have lost their own language, families who don't know what happened to their relatives, to their ancestors, many of whom just never returned home.

The Truth and Healing Act is not going to erase this dark past, but it does acknowledge our responsibility to unearth the stories of suffering and injustice that we have buried for generations.

In 2022, I joined Secretary Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, at a dedication ceremony for the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. In front of Tribal leaders and elected officials, Secretary Haaland told the crowd:

Stories like the Sand Creek massacre are not easy to tell

but it is . . . our duty to ensure that they are told. This

story is part of America's story.

The Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School, along with the 407 others, is a part of our story. When we pass the Truth and Healing Act, we make a choice to tell the whole story, and we make a choice never to repeat it.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this is my son Jack, who I think you know. Every time I look at him, I remember the doctor telling my wife Robin and me that we had literally a one-in-a-million chance of naturally conceiving a child--a one-in-a-million chance.

Like so many other couples in America, we had experienced a family health issue that would make having a child very difficult and exceedingly unlikely--all but impossible. You don't know how hard it is to hear something so definitive, so final until you are in that situation. It was the end of a dream we had to create a child together, to grow our little family--our family that, like so many others, didn't have the usual path to this point, the usual path that makes having children without medical help all but certain.

But regardless of what the doctor was telling us, we knew that we would welcome a child with more love and care than I could ever put into words, if we only had the chance.

If red States like Alabama had their way, Robin's and my story would have ended there, in inconsolable heartbreak and what might have been, what should have been. Thankfully for us, we don't live in an America as envisioned by MAGA Republican extremists in Alabama.

The one-in-a-million odds weren't the end of our dream. It was just the start of a new part. That part was called in

vitro fertilization. It is not an easy process. It comes with its ups and downs, its uncertainties, and tremendous cost, both economic and emotional. But it meant our dream could still come true.

And in December 2022, my wife and I welcomed this amazing little man, Jack Hickenlooper, into our family. In vitro gave us what we hoped for. It gave us our one in a million. And we are not the only ones. In 2022 alone, more than 2,300 babies were born in Colorado through fertility services. Across the country, it was nearly 100,000 families. Now, so many families like ours are cherishing the sacred experience of staring into your own child's eyes--when they take off the sunglasses--and of that child staring back.

Every family should have that same opportunity. And to restrict that opportunity in some States but not in others, or for some people but not for others, is nothing more than anti-American. Aren't we the country that stands for equality and freedom?

We are standing here voting on this today because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, seizing the rights of millions of women, same- sex couples, and families like our own in the process.

Don't take my word for it. Look at Alabama. We have already seen in vitro services stopped cold in the State of Alabama.

That is not all. In the aftermath of the Roe decision, we have seen red States and MAGA Republicans trying to roll back the rights to abortion, to in vitro, and even contraception--banning contraception in America in 2024.

The door is open right now for all of us to show our constituents that American families are more important than playing politics. I certainly hope we all do.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I am not sure I can add too much more beyond what has already been said.

I come to the floor today to remember and add to the remembrances of the incredible life and the impactful legacy of Pat O'Toole. Senators Barrasso and Lummis and my fellow Colorado Senator Mr. Bennet have been very eloquent. But I think sometimes, really, it has to be said by everyone if everything has already been said.

As was mentioned, he lived in the Little Snake River Valley that winds back and forth along the border of Colorado and Wyoming, and he did make a very big impression on both States. He may have legally resided in Wyoming, but both States claim him.

More than anything else, he was a westerner and, in many ways, a consummate westerner. Pat understood western water and agriculture. He understood conservation. And just as the West was built by barn raisings more than shootouts, he harnessed the power of collaboration to really get to the heart of the complex discussions on managing our water and our natural resources.

He was not only a graduate of Colorado State University; he was a longtime supporter. Obviously, he fell in love, met his wife, defined his future at CSU before he went off to South America for a little touring. He went on to serve as the longtime president of Family Farm Alliance, which stood up for irrigators all over the West and recognized the importance of food to the future of the country.

And he touched many different groups at that intersection between agriculture and the environment. His public service and engagement spanned decades, including service as a State legislator in Wyoming and as an appointee on President Clinton's Western Water Policy Commission.

But Pat's impact wasn't just limited to the West. He was well-known here on Capitol Hill. As each of the other Senators have said, he testified many times--more than 20 times--here in Congress. And this was not because he liked doing it or he enjoyed it, but he recognized he had a responsibility to share his expertise and to engage on legislation. He did it not because he found coming to Washington pleasurable but because he believed in the West and in his responsibility to make sure that decisions affecting the West were made wisely. And he really pushed to make sure that we had advancements in western water management. As Western States continue to wrestle with the extreme droughts caused by climate change, Pat's wisdom is going to direct us to good solutions, and his attention to process is going to inform us.

I think it is important to remember that, no matter how many hats he wore, he was always a rancher at heart, raising ``cattle, sheep, dogs, and children'' on his family ranch. He was deeply committed to preserving the farming and ranching character that is so essential to the West, and he recognized the importance of conservation in protecting and maintaining that heritage. Pat's enduring love of the land was an example to all of us.

I understand and recognize the great loss to the family and appreciate that Sharon and Bridget and Siobhan are here. But, really, it is all of our loss, and he will be sorely missed by our entire country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I was absent for rollcall vote No. 347 on December 18, 2023. Had I not missed the vote I would have voted yea, to confirm Mr. O'Malley's confirmation.

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

Mr. President, today, the Senate will consider President Biden's nominee, Judge Kato Crews, for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, as our senior Senator so ably represented.

I am not a lawyer, so I bring a slightly different perspective, but I do recognize the experience and sensibilities that Senator Bennet brings to this. I would argue that there is no one else in the Senate who has spent as much time really looking at our legal system and examining it from a variety of different perspectives and who really understands what it means to serve on our Federal courts.

Judge Crews came before us and comes before this body with broad and well-earned bipartisan support thanks to a career dedicated to the people of Colorado. His experience, his intellect, and his integrity set him apart. They make him an ideal candidate for the Federal judiciary and will make him a judge for all of Colorado.

As Senator Bennet mentioned, he comes from a part of Colorado, Pueblo, in the south-central part of the State, which sometimes has been neglected in these types of appointments. Judge Crews will bring that valuable experience from southern Colorado, but he also understands the whole State.

In addition to the more than 20 years of legal experience that he brings to the bench, Judge Crews has also served as a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado since 2018-- the same court to which he has been nominated.

As Senator Bennet mentioned, he also has a tremendous commitment to pro bono work. He founded the Federal Limited Appearance Program, which is a volunteer program that provides people with free representation when they first engage with our legal system. For many people, this can be an unknown and scary time for them--really, for any citizen. This program lends a helping hand and helps people deal with that anxiety.

Judge Crews's experience in community service has earned him enthusiastic support from members of the Colorado legal community up and down the list--former colleagues, labor leaders, elected officials. In supporting his nomination, a group of attorneys who has appeared as opposing counsel in Judge Crews's courtroom wrote:

Not one of us questions Magistrate Judge Crews's intellect,

integrity, respect for the law, and the profession we share.

They then added:

He has embodied what all hope to see in a judicial

officer--fairness and impartiality.

I could not agree more.

Kato has my full and wholehearted support. He is exactly the type of person who needs to be on the bench, who needs to join the court.

In May, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported Judge Crews's nomination to the floor, and now I want to wholeheartedly encourage all of my colleagues in the Senate to support his confirmation.

This is a proud day for Colorado. Colorado should be and is proud that we can put forward someone like Judge Crews. I know it is also a proud day for Judge Crews and his family, of course. We want to make sure it is a really good day, so I hope everyone will support him.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor a great American and a U.S. Air Force civil servant, Ms. Charli Kiley.

Charli distinguished herself through her outstanding service as the office manager and scheduler for the U.S. Air Force's Senate Legislative Liaison office. For the last 13 years, Charli delivered exceptional service through her professionalism, attention to detail, and continued commitment to serving this Nation as a civil servant. Total service included, Charli honorably served a combined 38 years in the U.S. Air Force and civil service.

Throughout her career, Charli demonstrated exceptional work ethic. As a bipartisan volunteer, Charli was responsible for escorting guests for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to two Presidential inaugurations. In 2022, Charli directly supported a bicameral congressional delegation in support of the Reagan National Defense Forum, as well as the unveiling of the Department of Defense's newest bomber aircraft, the B-21 Raider.

As the manager and scheduler for the Air Force Senate Legislative Liaison office from April 2010 to June 2023, Charli performed her duties well and without reservation supporting the 111th Congress through the 118th Congress. Her subject matter expertise, professional relationships, and in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of Capitol Hill directly strengthened and improved our national security. Charli was singularly responsible for scheduling thousands of engagements between Congress and the Department of the Air Force. These engagements helped U.S. Senators and staffers understand defense equities and their impact on national security. Due to her direct input and stewardship, Members of Congress were able to make informed decisions and ensured the Department of the Air Force was properly resourced and funded. Additionally, Charli's efforts helped establish the U.S. Space Force, she assisted with the confirmation of eight Air Force Secretaries, three Air Force Chiefs of Staff, two Chiefs of Space Operations, and gained the Department of the Air Force support for multiple National Defense Strategies. Last, Charli helped train nine incoming Senate Legislative Liaison division chiefs, nine deputy division chiefs, and dozens of action officers, ensuring seamless transitions, office continuity, and efficient performance.

After serving in this crucial role for the past 13 years and becoming a fixture on Capitol Hill, Ms. Charli Kiley will be retiring and moving to the great State of Colorado. Charli has given her all in service to our Nation. I am thankful for her service, her work with my office, and her work with the Senate on issues of vital importance to this great Nation. I salute this American patriot whose selfless service has kept our country safe and strong.

Mr. President, when I first arrived in this building a couple of years ago, Senator Klobuchar--one of the first things she brought up was the cost of pharmaceuticals, drug prescriptions for the American people.

Well, this is the beginning of the end for Americans getting the short end of the stick from pharmaceutical companies peddling prescription drugs. For years, we all have been paying much more than those in other countries pay for the same drugs. But now, Medicare has taken the first step towards ending that stranglehold on lifesaving drugs.

Let's be clear: This is not some unfair assault on global drug companies. Rather, this is a transition that is going to give Americans the same opportunity to afford lifesaving drugs as others in other countries are given.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. spends far more than any other industrialized country for prescription drugs, from getting charged $150 more for Xarelto--which reduces the risk of coronary artery disease--to getting ripped off by paying $1,600 for Enbrel, an arthritis drug.

Eliquis, a very common blood thinner--and one that I have occasion to use myself--prevents blood clots but costs an extra $514 out of pocket for Medicare enrollees in Colorado. In Germany, it is only $96. It is five times more in the United States.

Why should we pay more than Germans and Canadians and the Swiss? What possible rules of common sense should permit drug companies the right to charge us many times more than what the rest of the world pays for the same drugs?

Part of the answer is that, up until now, we have let them. Medicare--the largest buyer of prescription drugs in the United States--has never been allowed to negotiate the price of drugs with pharmaceutical companies.

As Senator Wyden was making painfully clear, the losses to the American people have been substantial. Until now, Medicare has had to accept whatever price Big Pharma dictated, even when Medicare knew we were subsidizing the rest of the world.

Well, that changes today. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act we passed last year, Medicare finally has the ability to negotiate with Big Pharma and get us a fair price for these drugs. Medicare will take the 10 most expensive drugs each year and negotiate their prices down.

But the impact goes far beyond the impact just on seniors or just for those 10 drugs. First, every year--every year--Medicare will negotiate down 10 more drugs, so the costs will keep coming down each year. In future years, Medicare will be able to negotiate even more drugs.

Second, because Medicare is the largest buyer in the American market, there is a darn good chance that other big buyers, like private insurance companies, are going to negotiate to bring the price they pay down to what Medicare will pay. A falling tide lowers all prices.

So what exactly does that mean now? Medicare has announced the first drugs it will negotiate. They include the two I mentioned, Xarelto and Enbrel, along with eight others. Four of the drugs treat diabetes. The others treat or prevent blood clots, heart failure, kidney disease, blood cancers, and arthritis.

In 2022, Medicare enrollees taking these 10 drugs paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs. That is what they paid out of their own savings. The average per-enrollee cost was a staggering $5,247 for the most expensive drug on the list, Imbruvica, which treats blood cancer.

It is a big deal in every State. It is a big deal in my home State of Colorado. Over 100,000 Medicare enrollees in Colorado take these 10 drugs, and 43,000, including me, take Eliquis--this is a blood thinner to help prevent blood clots--with an average out-of-pocket cost of over $500. Twenty-one thousand take Xarelto and pay $447, on average, out- of-pocket costs.

The bottom line: Seniors on Medicare are getting ripped off, and going forward, they are going to spend less. They are finally going to spend less on the prescription drugs they need, in many cases, just to stay alive. If all goes according to plan, the rest of us will also pay less once insurance companies follow Medicare's lead.

This isn't a fix to all the problems in the healthcare system in this country, but it is a pretty big step, and it is a reminder that we are not helpless to fix the other problems we face that are still out there. All it takes is the will to come together and get things done. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions introduced earlier today: S. Res. 303 and S. Res. 304.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 20; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Uhlmann nomination; further, that at 12 noon the Senate vote on confirmation of the Uhlmann nomination; further, that upon disposition of the nomination, the Senate resume legislative session for the consideration of Calendar No. 119, S. 2226, and vote on the Cruz amendment, No. 926, with the previous provisions remaining in effect; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.