Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise for a moment, the day after elections all over the country, to pay tribute to a great Georgian.

Yesterday, November 5, 2013, the city of Sandy Springs elected a new mayor by the name of Rusty Paul. But Rusty was elected to succeed Eva Galambos, the first and only mayor of Sandy Springs, GA--an outstanding citizen of our State and a real representative of what it is about to be a good citizen of Georgia.

For 30 years she chaired a committee called the Committee for Sandy Springs, from 1975 until 2005. That committee was a committee of community members in an unincorporated area who wanted to have their own city, their own government, and they wanted to privatize government.

They tried for 30 years to get the State legislature--for 20 of those years I was a part of that legislature--to approve a municipal charter for Sandy Springs. Finally, in 2004, the legislature did. In 2005, it was ratified by the voters of Sandy Springs and the voters of the city of Atlanta, and Sandy Springs became a city.

Because Eva had chaired the committee to make it a city for 30 years, she was selected as its first mayor and served in that capacity for 8 outstanding years. A city that was a typical urban sprawl, suburban sprawl city, she turned into one of the prettiest places in Georgia. She beautified the streets, put in streetscapes, easements for beautification.

Today, we have a beautiful linear park on the most major road that goes through Sandy Springs, on Johnson Ferry Road and Abernathy--a linear park where people are able to enjoy a park and have a buffer from a highway, yet improved traffic flowing through that community.

That was just one of many things she did in innovative ways to make it a better community.

Eva is a great citizen. She has a wonderful husband, three great children, six great grandchildren, but her seventh grandchild is the city of Sandy Springs. She birthed it. She led it. She grew it. At the end of this year she will leave it as its mayor, but she will always be there as its leading citizen.

So I rise today on the floor of the Senate to pay tribute to Eva Galambos for doing the American dream--having a dream, 30 years working to achieve it, and at the end of those 30 years then leading it to become what she always hoped it could be: a great city, the city of Sandy Springs, GA.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I wish to honor in the Record the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard for 10 years of exemplary service on behalf of the United States.

During the wing's decorated career, it served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn with the majority of the unit's 900 airmen having been deployed in support of these major war operations.

Over the past decade, the unit has flown over 11,363 hours and 7,441 combat sorties, and in 2004, the wing was the first C-130 unit to deploy and operate out of Iraq and fly under the distinguished ``Red Tail'' designation 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing.

A unit of precision and valor, the wing crew supported the rescue mission of SEAL Team 10 and 3rd Battalion of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. During the mission, 16 U.S. servicemembers were tragically killed in action, including three from the wing after a MH-47D Chinook was shot down during a reaction force task in support of the U.S. Navy SEALS. Acting swiftly and heroically, the wing was the first C-130 aircraft to respond. The courageous response from the unit was later celebrated in Marcus Luttrell's book, Lone Survivor.

The 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard has set a standard of military excellence, and its decade of service during the War on Terror has demonstrated remarkable strength and diligence.

It is with great pleasure that I recognize the altruism and bravery showed by the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard and thank the unit for its courageousness and dedication toward protecting the freedom of our country.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate as in morning business.

Madam President, we get to do a lot as Members of the Senate on the floor of this great body. We make great speeches and we have great debates. Periodically, from time to time, we pay tribute to someone in our State who has done great work for many people. I take this opportunity to do exactly that on the floor of the Senate.

This Sunday night, at 5 p.m., at the Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, the Reverend Jasper W. Williams will be honored for his 50th year of continued service at the Salem Baptist Church. I have been privileged to know Jasper for 20 of those 50 years. I have been a member of that church and I heard his sermons. I have heard him preach the Gospel. I have seen him teach others and I have seen him save people's lives. I have heard and I have seen him reach out into the community to bring children together for daycare, to watch him help to mend the sick and the poor, and doing everything that is expected of a church and doing so without any expectation of benefit to himself, except for the self-satisfaction of serving the Lord and serving his church.

He has a great church at Salem Baptist. They have two sites, as a matter of fact, and two large congregations.

He succeeded his father as a minister and learned the ministry from his father. He went to Salem Baptist Church to preach as a guest on Easter Sunday in 1963. And in November of that year, at the age of 19, that church offered Jasper the pastorship of Salem Baptist, and he has been there every day since.

His two sons also preach in the Salem Baptist Church community to carry on the tradition of the Jasper Williams family.

He is a graduate of Morehouse College, the leading Black institution in Atlanta at the Atlanta University complex. He is a great citizen of our city, a great citizen of our State, and a great citizen of our country.

So I take a privilege at this time on the floor of the U.S. Senate to pay tribute to my friend, Jasper W. Williams, Jr., to thank him and to thank the Lord for his service to the people of Atlanta, GA, and to the Baptist Church.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President. I would like to honor in the Record Ms. Jo Kenney of Atlanta, GA.

Jo has continually demonstrated leadership in both her profession of real estate and her local community. She serves on the DeKalb Association of REALTORS' board of directors and its executive, nominating and Pinnacle Award committees. She is also the former president of the Women's Council DeKalb chapter. Jo also serves on the board of directors for the Decatur Kiwanis Club, is a cofounder of the Atlanta Independent Women's Network and regularly serves as a mentor to other REALTORS'.

Jo has received numerous awards throughout her career for her efforts. Jo received the 2009 Businesswoman of the Year Award from the DeKalb chapter of the Women's Council of REALTORS', the 2010 Member of the Year Award from the Georgia Chapter of the Women's Council of REALTORS', the 2013 REALTOR' of the Year Award from the DeKalb Association of REALTORS', the 2013 Five Star Professional Award and the Mary Nelson Spirit Award.

On November 9, 2013, Jo Kenney will be installed as the 2014 national president of the Women's Council of REALTORS', which is an affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS' and the 12th largest women's professional organization in the United States. Jo will be the third person from my home State of Georgia to serve as president of this national organization. Through Jo's strong leadership, dedication and guidance, I know that she will be successful in her role as president of the

National Women's Council of REALTORS', and I wish her the best in her endeavors.

Mr. President, I ask to be recognized for up to 8 minutes.

Mr. President, on August 28 of this year, the six Federal regulators of the banking industry reported out on their charge to promulgate a rule required by Dodd-Frank known as the QRM rule or the qualified residential mortgage.

The qualified residential mortgage rule was a rule that Senator Landrieu, Senator Hagan, and I put into the Dodd-Frank legislation to provide for a parameter for residential mortgage loans to be exempted from the risk retention requirements of Dodd-Frank if they met a certain standard. These regulators were charged with establishing that standard. That law passed over 5 years ago and we are just now getting the promulgation of the rule, but I am happy to say I rise on the floor of the Senate to memorialize my support for a job well done. The qualified residential mortgage rule, which is being circulated now until October 28, is the right answer for the requirement of Dodd-Frank and for the American housing industry.

For the education of the Senate and the public at large, the Dodd- Frank law, in its desire to make sure loans that were underwritten were better underwritten and loans that were made were better made loans so there would be less default and less problems in the housing industry, required the banking industry to make only qualified residential mortgages as defined.

The original discussions within the banking industry were that part of that definition would be a required 20-percent downpayment, which I and many people in America strenuously objected to, because a 20- percent requirement to exempt from risk retention would be far too great a downpayment for most American families to meet, would have probably meant a decline in the housing market, even greater than we experienced in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and would have had a negative impact on America's economy, unemployment, and America's health and well-being.

So the banking regulators did a great job in their rule which does the following: First of all, it equates QRM, or the qualified residential mortgage rule, with the QM rule, or the qualified mortgage rule, which Richard Cordray, the Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, promulgated 1 year ago. Mr. Cordray did an outstanding job of seeking input from people in the industry and the trades affected by the housing industry and wrote a rule that made sense. That rule required the following: It required good, solid underwriting. It required a maximum ratio of total debts to total gross income of 43 percent so we would not have somebody borrowing more than half of their take-home pay or their gross pay in order to service debts. That would mean people would have the money to pay their mortgage.

It required people to verify their income, credit, employment, the value of the property that is being purchased with the loan. All of those things are the standards that served America well for years until the subprime lending took place from 1999 until 2006.

So I commend Richard Cordray and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau for defining a qualified mortgage as one that is well underwritten. A required downpayment is not necessary to have a qualified mortgage because underwriting is what led us into the difficulties of the past 5 years in the housing industry.

We went through a recession that was not a downpayment recession but an underwriting recession, and Congress itself was partially to blame when it mandated that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae hold a certain percentage of their portfolios in what is known as qualified residential mortgages for the purposes of meeting the needs of underserved people in our society. Those underserved people in society ended up being credit risks or higher credit risks. They became known as subprime lenders. They got guaranteed by the government. They were sold in securities. When they defaulted, the securities went down, the American housing industry went down and the American Federal Reserve had to bail out people such as AIG and we went through the worst housing crisis in the history of the United States.

So the proposal of the six banking regulators to merge QRM and QM, they are recognizing that underwriting is the key to sound loans. By requiring good underwriting to exempt from the 5-percent risk retention required in Dodd-Frank, we are ensuring a robust housing market, robust and available capital through Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and private institutions, to ensure housing in America can return to the heights it has known in the past.

Quite frankly, we are never going to get below 7 percent unemployment, we are never going to get higher than 2 percent growth in America in our economy until we return to a robust housing market. We are not going to return to a robust housing market until we get liquidity in the credit markets for residential mortgages of a conventional nature. That is only going to happen when Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can secure well underwritten loans and guarantee them so they can be sold in the marketplace.

The banking regulators who are now circulating the QRM rule for public comment did precisely the right thing by recognizing that underwriting was the problem and not downpayments.

Lastly, one of the things the regulators did put in their proposal for circulation for input was what if they did require a downpayment of 30 percent, would that be an exemption for the risk retention under QRM. I would implore the regulators not to consider doing that because a 30-percent downpayment would be even worse than a 20-percent downpayment. It would restrict even more Americans from becoming homeowners, and it would not address the problem. The problem was underwriting. The problem was not downpayment. Credit enhancements such as private mortgage insurance and things of that nature can supplant a downpayment requirement, but nothing can supplant quality underwriting.

Richard Cordray wrote a good rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is enforcing that rule, and I commend the bank regulators for merging the QRM rule with the QM definition to ensure that we return to a robust economy with a strong housing market, don't revisit the problems of the past with shoddy underwriting, and instead look forward to a brighter future for the American housing market.

I yield the remainder of my time.

Mr. President, I wish to thank the distinguished Senator

from Illinois, the distinguished majority whip, for bringing up Chaplain Barry Black's name and the article that appeared in the New York Times. I know Senator Durbin and I do a lot of things together. One of those things is just about every Wednesday morning we attend the Senate Prayer Breakfast. Replete through all of Barry's prayers at that breakfast is always one word, and that is ``humility.'' I think the message in that article in the New York Times and the message in the prayers in the last 7 or 8 days in the Senate and the message to all of us right now is that we need to grasp a little humility and find common ground among consternation and move this country forward.

To that end, I want to make my suggestion, for what it is worth, and I want to make mine as an inspiration with Senator Collins, the other Senator from the State of Maine who last week made her proposal. If we can't find common ground with the arguments we have today, let's proffer a new proposal to give us a chance to solve our problem.

Susan Collins made a great suggestion, to replace the medical device tax with other revenue so it doesn't cut the revenue and to get back to sequestration but only by cutting defense agencies, not by cutting across the board. That made a lot of sense. It provides a way to absorb those cuts but does so in a professional way.

So I come to the floor in a Robert Frost moment. You know the poem:

``Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. . . . I took the one

less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.''

We have been traveling down the wrong road for far too long. We are here today, in large measure, arguing over a CR we shouldn't have to be arguing over. Had we been doing our appropriations and doing our budgets over the last 4 years, the money would have been spent, the regular order would have been in place, the fiscal year moneys would have been appropriated, and there would be no need for a CR.

There is bipartisan responsibility for not having done a budget or an appropriations act. The leadership, obviously, controls the floor, so they can bring the appropriations act forward and that is their responsibility. But we have also cried out on our side for a budget. Year after year, let's have a budget. Now we have a budget, one approved by the House and one approved by the Senate, but an inability to go to conference because we can't get agreement on preconditions. Once again, this is another situation of not negotiating over something that is important to the American people.

So I have a suggestion, a suggestion that two-thirds of this Senate agreed to in the budget debate we had in March, a decision that 20 States have exercised in our country that has made them better, a decision the State of Israel made 2 or 3 years ago when they got into such dire financial conditions and went to the World Bank for suggestions; that is, let's force our CR and add to it a simple resolution that changes our way of doing business to a biennial budget and appropriations act, where we force ourselves to appropriate over 2 years and not 1, and make those appropriations in the odd-numbered years so that in the even-numbered years we do only oversight.

It would make a lot of difference for the American people if we were arguing over not how much bacon we were bringing home but how much money we were saving through oversight, savings, and fiscal accountability. I have introduced that legislation, along with Senator Shaheen--a Democrat from New Hampshire and a Governor who ran a State under a biennial budget. It makes sense, it is humble, it is the right way to do business, and it ends this necessity of having continuing resolutions at the last minute because we didn't do our job.

Let's face it. We are here today in the conundrum we are in because we did not do our job. We did not pass a budget and go to a conference committee, we didn't have appropriations acts, so we are doing a continuing resolution into a new fiscal year. That is no way to run the greatest country on the face of this Earth. Four years and running we have shirked our responsibility. It is time for a new day in the Senate. It is time for a biennial budget. It worked for Israel. If it worked for 20 States, it will work for us. It establishes priorities, it ends waste, fraud, and abuse, and it brings about good decisions.

Last night on ``60 Minutes,'' Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma was featured, and the feature was about SSI disability and the fact that we now pay $135 billion a year in SSI disability payments--a trebling of those costs in just a few years--and fully 25 to 40 percent we know is fraudulent. Twenty-five to forty percent is $40 to $60 billion. You can do a lot with $40 to $60 billion. That is where transparency and oversight works.

There is nobody better than the Senator from Oklahoma in terms of oversight and nobody more humble than the Senator from Oklahoma, but when he knows he is right, he is going to work hard to do what is right, and that is what all of us should be doing.

Referring to the Senator from Oklahoma, I go back to the Workforce Investment Act, which Senator Murray and I are working very hard to bring to the floor. In that, Senator Coburn found forty-four duplicative job training programs in nine different agencies--over and over again. We are appropriating money forty-four different times to nine different agencies to do workforce training when we really only ought to be doing one. If we were budgeting on a 2-year basis and doing other oversight in even-numbered years, there would be no limit to the successes we could have, the transparency we could enforce, the agreements we could come to, and the lack of cliff management we are in today.

The debt ceiling we face in about 10 days is a debt ceiling we face because we are having to borrow more money to run our government. We are having to borrow more money to run our government because we are not doing fiscal accountability, we are not doing appropriating, and we are going to continue for that to grow and grow.

As a businessman and a saver, I know what the time value of money is. The time value of money means that if you put away a little bit of money every year and save for your kids' education, for your health care, or whatever it might be, when the time comes and you need it, you will have it. But I also know what the time cost of money is: when you are borrowing money to pay off borrowed money--and that is where we are in the United States of America today. So that is why this debt ceiling crisis is such a big issue.

I would submit, and humbly, that the Shaheen-Isakson legislation that forces us to do our regular order of business of appropriating, forces us to budget, and forces us to do it every year puts us back to the kind of discipline and job responsibility we really need around this place. Instead of arguing about what we can't agree upon, we ought to find common ground and run our country's household the way American families run their households. If we had to do here in Washington what every American family has to do year in and year out, this place would be a whole lot different.

It is time that we find humility, find common ground, do what 20 of the 50 States do, do what the State of Israel has done, and do what 67 Senators said we ought to do in the budget debate back in March; that is, pass a biennial and appropriations act, end this foolishness, and gain back some of the humility we richly deserve.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 2 extra minutes to pay tribute to a physician in my county.

Mr. President, we had a discussion at the Prayer Breakfast 2 weeks ago about skin cancer, and we have shared a common experience in that we have confronted a melanoma at one time in our lives.

On this Friday night Dr. Clem Doxey of Marietta, GA, is retiring after 43 years as a leading dermatologist in the Southeast, chief of staff at Kennestone Hospital, and also a leading dermatologist around the United States of America. He is a real inspiration to me, a man who led me to help pass the TAN Act, along with Senator Reid, John McCain, and others, who came together to bring about awareness for skin cancer, awareness for melanoma, and awareness for early detection; a citizen who contributed to us an idea that is now the law of the land in the United States of America and one I am sure will help save lives.

Clem is retiring after many years in Marietta, GA, and 43 years of practice. He has been a leader in Rotary, a leader in organizations in our community, a leader in our hospital, a friend to me, and my dermatologist.

He graduated from the Pensacola School of Medicine and went straight, as a flight surgeon, to Vietnam in the U.S. Marine Corps. He returned to be a physician and get his residency training at Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans, LA, and then came to Marietta, GA, and founded Marietta Dermatology, now the leading dermatology practice in the State of Georgia. He will retire this Friday night.

I walk around on these two feet in part because Clem taught me early awareness, early identification, and the right practices to deal with skin cancer. I thank him for what he did for me and what he has done for countless patients over countless years in the great city of Marietta in the great county of Cobb.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that immediately

following my remarks, the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Sanders, be recognized.

Mr. President, I rise not to talk about ObamaCare, not to talk about a shutdown, not to talk about the debate we have been going through the last couple of days but, rather, I rise to talk about a man by the name of Chris Carr, who is my chief of staff and has been my chief of staff since I have been in the Senate.

Chris will be leaving my office on November 1 to become the commissioner of economic development in the State of Georgia. It is a tremendous opportunity for him and my State. While it is a loss for me personally, it is a continuation of economic development in my State, where my fingerprint still lies because he will be replacing my former State director, Chris Cummiskey, who has been the commissioner of economic development in the State of Georgia, which means I will still have that fingerprint there.

Chris is a very special person who deserves a tribute on the floor of the Senate for all he has done for me, not just as a Member of the Senate or as my chief of staff but as a deep and abiding personal friend.

Chris joined me in 2003 when I announced I was going to run to replace Zell Miller, who retired as a Senator from Georgia. Before that, Chris had been an attorney at Alston & Bird for what he always refers to as a 15-minute brief time of period. But he went on from there to be an adviser to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, and a dear friend of ours by the name of T. Rogers Wade, who, by the way, was the executive director for Herman Talmadge and chief of staff years ago in the Senate.

Chris joined me in 2003 for a great adventure--my race for the Senate. He guided us through a primary a lot of people said I couldn't win and a lot of people said I would never win without a runoff. My two opponents were a former Congressmen from the State of Georgia and Herman Cain, who everybody knows later ran for President of the United States.

Georgia is a primary State that requires 50 percent plus 1 in terms of votes. So we had to get 50 percent plus 1 in a Republican primary. We did that without a runoff because of Chris's leadership, his dynamics, and his hard work in how he guided that campaign.

We won the general election by 58.8 percent. I brought Chris to Washington, DC, to be my chief of staff in my office, and he has done a phenomenal job. He has traveled with me to Africa--as the Presiding Officer knows because he has been with us on some of these trips. He has guided me through difficult times in my journey from the Foreign Relations Committee to the Finance Committee to the Commerce Committee. He has been a great guiding hand.

Most important, he brought together a staff that has been loyal, dedicated, and gotten the job done for the people of the State of Georgia.

Chris is a great Georgian. He is what we refer to in our State as a ``double dawg.'' He graduated with his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia--which I might add beat LSU very handily last Saturday--and then went to law school at the University of Georgia to get his second degree, a bachelor of law degree from the University of Georgia.

After that he went on, as I said, to Austin & Bird, and then to the Public Policy Foundation, but he has been with me ever since--almost a decade. During that period of time, he has served me as chief of staff. My deputy chief of staff, Joan Kirchner, will be replacing him as chief of staff, so we will have a continuity of service in our office.

I know I would not be where I am today if it weren't for Chris Carr. I know the State of Georgia is going to go places it never thought it would go because of his guiding leadership as commissioner of economic development.

So for a brief minute on the floor of the Senate, I wish to pay tribute to a friend, a chief of staff, a leader, someone who has had a positive influence on my life but, most importantly has had a positive influence on his country, the United States America.

I am thankful to Chris Carr for his support and thankful for all he has done for my State, my country, and our office.

I yield back my time and defer to the Senator from Vermont.

Madam President, I wish to honor Mr. Jim Rubright, chairman and CEO of RockTenn, headquartered in Norcross, GA, on his retirement.

Jim came to the paper industry with a wealth of prior experience in the energy business, public company management and served as a partner in the law firm of King & Spalding LLP.

Jim was named PaperAge's Executive Papermaker of the Year in 2009 and 2012 as well as North American Forest Products CEO of the Year in 2008 and 2011. He received the first ever Global CEO of the Year award at the 2009 Pulp & Paper International, PPI, Awards in Munich, Germany. Jim is a leader in the global forest products industry, and his philosophy is to lead his employees by example. He focuses on the importance of corporate citizenship, giving generously of time, talent and funding to take care of the communities where he lives.

Under Jim's leadership, RockTenn has grown to become a highly respected leader in its industry. He has increased shareholder value eight-fold with annual dividends of 18.6 percent for 14 years, and earlier this year led his company on to the Fortune 500 list for the first time in its history primarily by engineering large acquisitions. He has grown RockTenn from $1.3 billion in 1999 to an estimated $9.5 billion this year, with 26,000 employees whom he is leaving on sound financial footing even in these tough economic times.

It is with great pleasure that I recognize Jim Rubright, a dedicated family man who has also left an incredible legacy in his outstanding career. I have enjoyed working with him on issues in Washington over the years and wish him the best in his retirement.

Madam President, I rise to discuss the current dilemma before the Senate with regard to whether to vote on the motion to close debate and go to the debate and final vote, if you will, on the House- passed version of the CR which put in the language that defunds ObamaCare.

I will vote yes for cloture so we can go to the vote I have promised my constituents in my State 57 different times in other votes I have cast in the Senate in favor of defunding the ObamaCare legislation because I believe there is a better way to do it.

We only have two options before us. One is to end debate and go to a vote on legislation passed out of the House that will continue the government and defund ObamaCare, understanding the leadership will have an amendment to strip out the defunding. I will vote against that amendment because I want to be consistent with the other 57 votes I have taken.

But the other alternative is an alternative not to shut off debate, to continue the debate, which means we come up to Monday night, midnight, when the fiscal year ends and the government shuts down. Government shutdowns are a bad idea. They are bad for the people who send us here to this body to represent them. They are bad for seniors on Social Security. They are bad for those whose husbands and wives and sons and daughters are fighting in harm's way in Afghanistan and

other parts of the world. It hurts our military. It hurts our health care system. And it does not do anything to stop ObamaCare.

What a lot of people do not realize is, if you shut the government down, you are not shutting down ObamaCare. A great percentage of that is mandatory funding. If you shut the government down, you are actually encouraging ObamaCare and discouraging our government to function as it should.

I will not vote to shut the government down. I will vote to end the debate. And I will vote in the way that I have promised every citizen of my State since the ObamaCare legislation came before us.

Look, I am on the HELP Committee. We did the markup on the Affordable Care Act in 2009. Like almost every other Member of the Senate, I was here on Christmas Eve 2009 and voted against the ObamaCare legislation on the final vote. Since that period of time we have had a plethora of votes and challenges and opportunities, and I have remained consistent. I am not going to all of a sudden, in a debate, change my consistency and vote to shut down the government and continue ObamaCare. I want to be consistent with the way I voted. I want the Senate to take up its responsibility. I want us to be sure we do not shut down the government for our people. I want to be sure everybody in the Senate has the opportunity to cast their vote, both on the continuing resolution and on whether ObamaCare stays or is defunded. That is the question before us--not whether we shut the government down.

So while I respect and appreciate everybody's position, I think it is irresponsible for us as a Senate to knowingly and voluntarily shut down our government and extend ObamaCare when we have the opportunity to have the debate, have the vote, strip out the funding for ObamaCare, and move forward as some of us have tried.

I do not know how it will end up. I think I know. But I know one thing: Inaction and not voting is wrong. The people of Georgia sent me here to take action, not to avoid action. They sent me here to run the government, not to shut down the government. In fact, I got to the Senate and the House because of a government shutdown, and I want to tell that story.

In the 1990s, when President Clinton was President and Newt Gingrich was Speaker, many issues came about on fiscal spending, and the Speaker and the President and the majority leader of the Senate, Bob Dole, got in a conflict over whether to extend the budget. The Republicans took the position: We will shut the government down rather than yield to what President Clinton wants to do. So the government shut down. About 3 weeks later, the government was brought back. The Speaker, Mr. Gingrich, came back and capitulated. We reopened the government, but he lost a lot of ground. Two years later he was reelected by a narrow margin but was not reelected Speaker and resigned. I replaced him. Be careful if you shut down the government. You might get another me.

So that is what happens when government happens. The voters speak out. The voters make sure we are accountable and responsible. It cost us a Speakership. It cost us leadership in the House, and politically that is unsustainable and something we should not do.

I want to be a part of doing my responsible action, voting like I have told my voters I am going to vote; instead of shutting down the government, having the vote we need to have to see which way we are going to move forward as a country.

I yield the remainder of my time and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, September is National Suicide Prevention Month. I think as a member of the Veterans' Committee, as an American, as a Member of the Senate, it is important for us to pause for a minute and recognize some alarming facts about suicide in America among our veterans.

On average, every day, 365 days a year, 22 veterans who have served America take their own life in suicide. That is 8,000 veterans a year, an alarming number that is growing. It is important for us to recognize the need to see to it our veterans have access to those things that can help to prevent suicide and make sure it is minimized and happens as little as possible.

Recent surveys by VSOs--the veterans service organizations--have demonstrated that an alarming number of veterans in America out of our 22 million have actually considered suicide. An even more alarming number actually knows someone who attempted to take their life or, in fact, was successful.

We know there are reasons that reach out and help us, and we know there are reasons that are hurting us. One that is hurting us right now is long lines for veterans in need of mental health. Mental health needs are an emergency. They are time-sensitive. We need to improve our wait times so they are not as long at our VA hospitals.

There is a nationwide shortage, both public and private, of mental health providers. We need to work to improve the number of providers for our entire country. Scarce appointment times for veterans because of their work or family obligations and scarce appointment times because of overworked VA hospitals make it sometimes difficult and protracted for a veteran to receive services.

Most important to me are the gaps in the continuum of service and treatment for a veteran under mental stress and depression. I wish to focus on that for a moment.

Recently I held a VA field hearing in Atlanta, GA, because of the tragedy that took place at the Atlanta VA. We had two suicides of veterans under the care of the hospital and one overdose of drugs while someone was in the hospital and under the care of the hospital.

Those brought about an inspector general's report that made a plethora of recommendations to the Veterans' Administration in Atlanta but also nationwide on things the VA needed to do to address those problems. To the credit of Director Petzel, who is head of all VA medical care, and Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of the Veterans' Administration, the VA has begun taking initiatives to do so. We have to make sure

they accelerate those initiatives and provide the care that is necessary so that wherever possible we eliminate the wait times and the lack of continuum of care.

In a recent survey by the inspector general, they found that 20 percent of veterans--one in five--who were referred to a private mental health provider never received an appointment. That is one in every five veterans who have come in and admitted they have a problem. They may be at risk for taking their own life. They may be depressed. That is unsatisfactory.

One of the focuses we made in our hearing was bringing about better coordination by the VA in terms of accessing community resources in mental health to see to it that we raised the number of providers offering mental health services to our veterans. As I said earlier in my remarks, suicide is preventable. It is not preventable, however, if there is no access to therapy, no access to consultation, and no access for our veterans when they need it the most.

Let me brag a little bit about the VA and some of what they have done in recent years that was helped and give you some amazing statistics.

In 2007 the Veterans Crisis Line was conceived where veterans in trouble could call in and receive counseling. More than 814,000 calls have been received by the Veterans Crisis Line since it opened, and 28,000 interventions have saved the lives of veterans. There are 28,000 veterans who are alive today because of the crisis line.

In 2009 the VA added an anonymous online chat service where a veteran could have a nonthreatening way of communicating and seeking therapy anonymously. There have been 94,000 calls since its inception.

Most impressive to me is that in 2011 the Veterans Crisis Line added texting as a way to expand its accessibility to veterans.

If you are a veteran in crisis, we need to make sure, as Senators and members of the Veterans' Committee, that you have the access you need to therapy and counseling when you need it. We all know that the tragedy of suicide is terrible for a family and a horrible loss of a life that was sacrificed on behalf of the United States of America. We owe it to ourselves to see that the Veterans' Administration continues to improve access to mental health services, continues to reduce their wait times and long lines, and continues to cooperate and reach out to the community to bring in private providers on a referral basis so that veterans in need of care receive a referral and an appointment quickly.

My last point is that it is important that the VA follow that veteran to see to it they keep that appointment. In the cases of the suicides in the Atlanta VA, the failure to keep an appointment or the failure to have a continuum of care in the following of that veteran substantially created and contributed to the loss of life.

While we have had tragedies at the Atlanta VA, things are improving. While we have had tragedies and suicides across the country, we are finally focusing on veteran suicide.

Lastly, we need to focus on the fact that there are many contributing factors to suicide. Many people will think it is someone returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom. In some cases, that is true, but more often than not veterans over 50 are the victims of suicide. In fact, of the ones in Atlanta, they were Vietnam-era veterans.

It is important we understand that it is every veteran who is at risk, that it is every veteran who needs access to treatment. We need to understand that we owe our veterans a big debt. It is most important to see to it that they don't lose their lives out of despair and depression, that their lives are saved because our VA cares enough to see to it that they have the continuum of care and the access to help they so vitally need.

To the VA Administration, thanks for the improvements you are making. To every Member of the Senate, let's continue to support the Veterans' Administration with the funding necessary to deal with the more than 1 million new veterans returning home from the wars in the Middle East over the last decade.

I yield back the remainder of my time, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, before I make my remarks, I would like to join Senator Thune and others on the Senate floor who have expressed their compassion and their sympathy for the survivors and the victims of yesterday's terrible tragedy at the Washington Navy Yard. Yesterday was but another grim reminder of the dangerous society we live in, the danger that can confront all of us, and the need for all of us to be aware and do everything we can to make sure our environment is secure and safe.

To those who were injured, those who sacrificed their lives, those whose loved ones were hit, may God bless their souls and may God bless them in their recovery during this period while dealing with this terrible tragedy.

Mr. President, tonight in Marietta, GA, my hometown, there will be a celebration I cannot attend. There will be a celebration to honor 50 years of medical service to our community by Dr. John D. Knox, Jr. I hate it that I can't be there because he has been an important part of my life, but I would like to take a minute on the floor of the Senate to pay tribute to Dr. Knox and all those physicians who deliver health care to our people, our citizens in our States, our districts, and our country.

As I pondered what I would say about John Knox on the floor this morning, I was sitting in my office looking at the plaques and certificates all of us receive for various works we have done in public life, and it occurred to me, when you go into a doctor's office you will see a diploma and you might see a Norman Rockwell painting, but really the trophies and tributes to doctors are people walking around with two feet in our communities who have survived a terrible injury or a terrible disease and who are living a normal life because a physician, with his or her training, brought them back to life or cured a terrible problem.

Dr. John Knox has done that for 50 years in my community--50 years as an orthopedic specialist and orthopedic surgeon with Resurgens Orthopaedics, which is one of the largest orthopedic practices in the Southeast. In fact, one of those great trophies to John D. Knox, Jr., is my son Kevin, who in 1989 went through the windshield of a pickup truck on a rural road in south Georgia. He had a double compound fracture of his lower right leg. He landed in a ditch full of dirty water and lay there for 2 hours before help came. Fortunately, he didn't sever an artery, but he was in bad shape.

I got the call at 4 a.m. that no parent ever wants to get--the call that paramedics had my son, that they were on the interstate and did I want them to take him to Augusta Medical College or to Atlanta, GA, for treatment because nobody in rural Georgia had the facility to treat his injuries. I immediately asked them to bring him to Marietta, GA, to Kennestone Hospital, and to immediately call John D. Knox and ask him if he would meet my son at the emergency room. The next 6 weeks my son had four surgeries, all performed by John D. Knox. He had antibiotic therapy to make sure his bone marrow did not get infected from lying in the ditch. For 8 months he got psychiatric and psychological help and

home recovery with his mom, myself, doctors, and those physicians recommended by John Knox.

The great story is that the night before my son was injured, he started as defensive end for Walton High School. One year later, after this terrible wreck and recovery, he again started as defensive end for Walton High School. The miracle of medicine put my son back together, but if it wasn't for John D. Knox, my son might not be here today.

I wanted John D. Knox, a great doctor in Marietta, GA, to know that what he did in 1989 for my son and what he has done for countless thousands of citizens in my community for years and years never will go unappreciated and will always be recognized. I am glad my family was a part of his 50 years of service as a physician. God bless John D. Knox, and congratulations on his service to our great community of Cobb County, GA.

I yield the floor.