Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize CAPT William C. Pennington for his exemplary dedication to duty and service to the U.S. Navy and to the United States of America. I have personally gotten to know Captain Pennington, or ``BP,'' over the past 3 years, while he served as the director of the Navy and Marine Corps Congressional Appropriations Matters Office.

Captain Pennington was born in Chicago, IL, and raised in Dallas, TX. He began his Navy service in 1992 as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was the captain of the men's varsity track and field team, and earned his bachelors of science degree in weapons and systems engineering. In 1996, he was commissioned as a naval officer from the U.S. Naval Academy and was assigned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, DC, (PERS 43) until he began flight training in Pensacola, FL, in 1997.

A career maritime patrol aviator, BP has valiantly served all over the world on behalf of our Nation. Throughout his 28 years of service he has completed operational tours in Kaneohe Bay, HI, with Patrol Squadron FOUR (VP-4), in Whidbey Island, WA, with Patrol Squadron FORTY (VP-40), and in Jacksonville, FL, where he commanded the ``War Eagles'' of Patrol Squadron SIXTEEN (VP-16). While in command, he led his crew on the Navy's first-ever P-8A Poseidon deployment. Additionally, at sea, he served as the Japan and China Pol-Mil/Exercise Office on the staff of Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet onboard USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) operating out of Yokosuka, Japan.

In his most recent operational tour he served as Commander, Task Force 67 (CTF 67) responsible for maritime patrol, reconnaissance, and expeditionary naval aviation forces operating in support of the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

Captain Pennington's shore tours have included instructor duty at the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Fleet Replacement Squadron (VP-30), deputy executive assistant to the Director, Air Warfare (N88/98), a joint tour on the Joint Staff in the J-8 Studies, Analysis, and Gaming Division, and as Multi-Mission Aircraft and Programs Branch Head and Maritime Patrol Reconnaissance Aircraft (MPRA) Requirements Officer at OPNAV N98. Following command of Task Force 67, he was assigned to OPNAV N9I as the deputy director of the Navy's Unmanned Campaign before assuming his current duties as Director, Navy and Marine Corps Congressional Appropriations Matters Office (FMBE) in March 2021.

The importance of FMBE to the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee cannot be overstated. Established by law, FMBE serves as the committee's direct link to Navy leadership, and the committee relies on FMBE for timely and accurate information regarding the Navy's budget. As Director, Captain Pennington justified three budget submissions for the Department of Navy through continuous communication with Members of Congress and their staff. BP's rapport with Senators and their staffs enhanced transparency and reinforced trust in our Nation's Navy and Marine Corps team.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the contributions of economic development organizations and economic development professionals in Montana and across the Nation in honor of National Economic Development Week.

Every May, we recognize the valuable work these men and women do to create high-quality, good-paying jobs for folks across the country. Our economic developers are essential in building and strengthening many of the building blocks that our communities depend on and are critically important to achieving a thriving economy.

And it is not just about creating jobs. Our economic developers are a vital

piece of the puzzle for workforce development and talent attraction, small business development, infrastructure and broadband development, predisaster mitigation and postdisaster recovery, and much more.

This Economic Development Week, I want to thank all of our economic developers in Montana and across the country for the hard work you do to keep our communities strong, and I encourage all of my colleagues to celebrate alongside me.

Thank you, and happy Economic Development Week.

Mr. President, I first want to express my appreciation to the good Senator from South Dakota, Senator Rounds.

You know, Senator Rounds comes from South Dakota, and I come from Montana. These are both States where we raise a lot of beef. If you come from a State like that, you understand how catastrophic lifting the ban on Paraguayan beef is. It is not a good idea. In our States, lifting this ban is not supported by Democrats, and it is not supported by Republicans. The reason is pretty simple. The impacts that lifting this ban have on operations--ranching operations--and on our food security is real, and it is very, very, very serious.

This Congressional Review Act vote that we are going to take--the second one in this order--will overturn the Biden administration's decision to lift that longstanding ban on beef imports from Paraguay. The truth is, the administration butchered this decision. I have serious concerns if Paraguay does not currently meet the animal health standards that are in place to warrant access to our markets. Congress must step in and stop this decision in order to protect the American producer and the American consumer.

Our ranchers in this country--I like to say our Montana ranchers-- raise the best beef in the world. In fact, there is a bumper sticker that says, ``Montana makes beef, and beef makes Montana,'' and that is a fact. And it is true all over this country. Our ranchers do it by holding themselves to the strictest standards when it comes to managing and maintaining their herds. Paraguay simply doesn't meet those same high standards. They have a history of foot-and-mouth disease, and lifting this ban poses a real threat to our food supply.

Look, while the chances of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak to some may appear low, the effects of just one outbreak can be devastating. The cost to ranchers for our economy is estimated to be as high as $200 billion. And you say: Why could that happen? I mean, how could it happen? It is just a little bit of meat coming into the United States. Well, the fact is, this is highly contagious. What happens if a cow contracts this disease is--it is like pouring acid over their nose, over their udders, over their feet; it blisters the mouth, the feet, the udders; and, quite frankly, it goes through a herd like wildfire. It puts people out of business, and it impacts our food security.

Senator Rounds talked about this, but the USDA has to get more recent data and thorough data to show that Paraguayan beef is safe and healthy. It should be available behind the meat counter with the information that we have now because, as Senator Rounds pointed out, we haven't had inspectors there in 10 years, and there were only four there when they were there. Things change.

Look, this isn't about one single country. The fact is, I know Paraguay is a great ally, and I think the State Department is having a lot of influence on this decision because of that ally. I appreciate countries that have the same values as us, but the fact is, we do not have the animal health standard in place--it is a broken process--and we need to have better standards if we are going to be bringing beef from anywhere. This is about keeping our consumers safe. It is about protecting America's cattle herds so that ranchers don't have to fear an outbreak of this disease because, if it happens, they are done: generational ranchers, done; our food supply, put at risk.

If you want to know who is supporting this Congressional Review Act, they are folks who typically don't always get along together--the NCBA, U.S. Cattlemen, R-CALF USA, the Livestock Marketing Association, the National Farmers Union, and the American Farm Bureau. This shows the kind of broad-based support for the CRA that Senator Rounds and I are doing on this issue. Rural America sees this as a real problem. This united front shows just how important protecting our cattle herds and our food supply is to American farmers and ranchers.

I want to be clear: I share my colleague's concerns about what is going on in China and Russia right now. I understand the importance of strengthening alliances with partners all over the world, including Paraguay, but I am telling you we shouldn't do it on the backs of hard- working American ranchers. We shouldn't do it on the backs of threatening our food security.

I understand that many folks back here have never gone through a calving season; they have never had to fix a fence; they have never had to manage grass; they have never had to butcher a cow. But I am going to tell you, I see firsthand every day the kind of work these folks put in, and they don't need something that is totally out of their control putting them out of business and putting our food supply at risk. That is why this is critical. Congress needs to step up, do the oversight, pass this Congressional Review Act, and put the ban back on Paraguayan beef. It is really important. I would urge all of my colleagues to support this commonsense solution to protect our Nation's food supply and do right by American ranchers.

In closing, I will just say this: The way we adjudicate animal health standards in foreign countries that want to export beef to us--that system is broken. It is broken. Congress has an opportunity today to provide real oversight and jump-start the conversation about how much we need on these reforms, and it starts with this Congressional Review Act.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I don't need to tell the people in this body or on the other side of the Capitol that the public view of Washington, DC, is not very good. Our numbers in public opinion numbers oftentimes are in the single digits, and they are there for good reason. They are there because oftentimes people only see politics here all the time. They see bodies and individuals who work for the parties; they don't work for the good of America.

What we saw earlier this week just confirms that, where we had a bill that came out to address border security--particularly on the southern border, but it does good things for the northern border too. It addresses border security in this country, where we are seeing people coming across the border--the southern border in particular. We don't know who they are, and it is just flat a national security issue.

When I go home to Montana, I hear it from everybody. I hear it from families, from business owners, from policemen to mayors--you name it. In Montana--and I don't think Montana is different from any other State--this is a big issue. People understand the southern border is broken, and they want us, the folks who serve in Washington, DC, their representatives to the government, to do something about it.

Over the last many years, multiple administrations, we have seen people go to the border and talk about how things are really bad down there: They are bad because we have undocumented folks coming across the border in record numbers. They are bad because we have fentanyl coming into this country that is killing people and ruining families.

Then they come back and go around the country talking about how miserably bad it is on the southern border and how it needs to be fixed. They are right.

Unfortunately--this shouldn't be about press releases and emails and newsletters and interviews at night; this should be about getting something done to fix the problem.

So what transpired about 4 months ago is that we had a bill on the floor then--funding for Ukraine. I believe there was funding for Israel, and I believe there was funding for the Indo-Pacific. There were some in this body who said: This bill is going nowhere until we get something that addresses the problems at the southern border.

I was standing right over there when one of the Senators said: We get southern border--Republicans; Democrats get Ukraine funding.

Well, he was wrong. The truth is, the United States gets southern border protection, and U.S. citizens get to help Ukraine and support democracy and make sure that Putin isn't successful in taking over Ukraine and ultimately the rest of the Europe.

But nonetheless, there are three people who went out. They were given the blessing to negotiate a bipartisan--which is the way things should be done around here and are done around here--a bipartisan southern border bill. The two people, the Republican and the Democrat or the Democrat and the Republican--however you want to place it--happen to be the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Appropriations Subcommittee. The other was a Member who is an Independent who lives in a State that borders the southern border, Arizona.

So these folks went down and they worked and worked and worked. I have been part of these negotiations. Quite frankly, they are never easy. Nobody gets everything they want. There is compromise. There are negotiations. In the end, you thread the needle, and you come up with a bill that actually secures the southern border, that, by the way, any one of those three negotiators would tell you they would not have written themselves, but through the negotiating process, they came up with a bill.

I am going to tell you, it was a pretty darn good bill. They rolled it out last Sunday night for all of us to see, some 300-plus pages. I got to read that bill. But the interesting thing is, before the bill was even rolled out, some of the folks who serve in this body said ``I oppose it.'' Before they even had a chance to look at it, they said ``I oppose it'' because they were told to oppose the bill.

Now, look, we are all elected by our citizens in our States to come here. I would hope we all have a mind, I would hope we all can think, and I would hope we could all discern fact from fiction. But when somebody says ``Vote against it'' and you just vote against it after you have been in your State--you have heard what a big issue this is, and you have considered what can happen if we do nothing versus what could happen if we do something. Yet, for political purposes--not because it is bad policy but for political purposes--a person says ``Don't fix it,'' and, almost like a cult, people here said ``We are voting no.'' Many of them have not read it.

It is unbelievable to me. I have seen a lot of hypocrisy in this place, but it is unbelievable to me the hypocrisy in that vote, as a condition of national security--and folks in this body turn their backs on fixing the problem. Why? Because they want to keep it a political issue, which is exactly why the people look at Washington, DC, and say: Do you know what? Those folks don't represent us. They are in it for themselves. They just want everything to be an upheaval.

It confirms that thought.

So what does the bill do? What does this compromise bill do for America? It funds $20 billion in security for the southern border--for manpower, for technology, and to attack the fentanyl crisis, which is a scourge on this country. It includes the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which puts serious harm to China's wallet for putting the precursor elements of fentanyl into Mexico.

It changes the asylum laws. It raises the bar--exponentially--and stops folks who come to the border illegally from gaming the system.

It requires--it requires--the President to shut down the border when they can't handle the people. Look, don't take my word for it. The National Border Patrol Council, some 18,000 Border Patrol agents have endorsed this bill. These are the folks that are charged, by the way, with keeping our border safe.

The acting director of Customs and Border Protection endorsed this bill and said it ``would provide the strongest set of tools we have had in decades.'' The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol said on FOX News that ``this bill that would have added additional hundreds of border patrol agents to our rank and file, that would have given us more technology, would have given us more equipment infrastructure. Of course I'm going to be supportive of that.''

And one of the Senators that negotiated this bill--a strong conservative I might add--Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma said that this would have stopped 800,000 entries in the past 4 months if it had already been signed into law.

The hypocrisy is stunning. Senators and House Members, who went back to their home States and talked about how bad the southern border was and how we needed to act, now have flip-flopped.

These are politicians who claim to work bipartisanly, but they oppose bipartisan solutions. They are the same ones who have cried loudly for years that we need changes--policy changes--on the border, but they are revealing in plain sight that it isn't about policy issues; it is about politics.

And the disinformation campaign that has come along with this is rich. Claims that 5,000 migrants would be allowed into this country every day is patently false; and if they had read the bill, they would have known it.

There are those who say that Congressional action isn't needed. That also is false. We control the purse strings; we control the policy language. And only Congress can fix our asylum laws; only Congress can make sure we are giving the Border Patrol the resources that they need to secure the border.

I wish this place worked; I really do. This is the greatest country in the world--not by accident, because our forefathers acted responsibly that we didn't have campaign seasons that never end; that we could actually sit down and negotiate, not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans, to do what is right for this country.

If we don't start acting like adults in this place and start thinking and acting reasonably and listening to our constituents--not listening to one person but listen to the folks that sent you here; even when you disagree with them, you should be listening to them--to try to fix the problems, I fear for this country's future. And I don't say that lightly.

There is plenty of evidence out there that shows that China would love to replace us as the premier economy and the premier military in this world. That is not something that we should take lightly. That is something that we should take very, very seriously.

And when Congress doesn't do their job, when Congress doesn't even debate a bill to deal with a serious problem in this country, it does not speak well of us, and it only empowers our opponents out there, the countries that want to replace us in the world.

I don't know what will transpire with this negotiated border agreement, but I do hope that we get another opportunity to vote on it, on the policy that was negotiated by Lankford and Sinema and Murphy. They worked hard. At a bare minimum, they deserve--they deserve--but more importantly, the American people deserve--to hear a debate on this bill and find out not what Facebook or Twitter or what the internet says about this bill but find out exactly what is in this bill.

Because I can tell you Montanans are tired of DC political games and, quite frankly, so am I.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, today I would like to honor the life and service of a dedicated public servant, distinguished American, and champion for veterans: the Honorable Frank Q. Nebeker.

Judge Nebeker served as the first chief judge of the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, now known as the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. A long-time Federal judge and legal pioneer, he established the landmark court in 1988 before hearing the first case and issuing the first opinion in 1989. His work ensured that, for the first time ever, veterans had a dedicated court to hear their appeals for their earned Department of Veterans Affairs--VA--benefits.

While Judge Nebeker is no longer with us, his legacy lives on. On behalf of myself and my fellow Americans, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude for his life and service to this nation.

Judge Nebeker grew up in the West. He was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Ogden, UT, before graduating from the University of Utah and marrying his wife Lou. Together, they moved to Washington, DC, where he studied law and worked in President Eisenhower's White House. Working as a correspondence secretary, he began his career in public service that would last the rest of his life.

After serving as an attorney for the Department of Justice, he was appointed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1969. He presided on that bench until President Reagan nominated him to be the Director of the Office of Government Ethics in 1987, a position he held for 2 years.

Soon after, Judge Nebeker continued his service to this country when President George H.W. Bush appointed him to be the chief judge of the newly created United States Court of Veterans Appeals. In this role, he was tasked with standing up this new court from the bottom up.

Judge Nebeker's sharp legal mind and unpretentious demeanor made him an ideal person to bring the court to life. He, along with many other dedicated individuals who established the court, provided an opportunity for the men and women who served our country to appeal for the VA benefits they earned for the first time ever. Many veterans live a better life today because of the judicial system Frank helped establish.

He oversaw the court until his retirement in 2000 and served in senior status on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals until 2021. While he left the court, his enduring legacy of serving veterans lived on at the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the Veterans Appeals courtroom is named in his honor.

On January 4, 2024, Judge Nebeker passed away at the age of 93 years old. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Lou, his children Melia and William, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

It is my honor to recognize Judge Nebeker's decades of public service and commitment to serving our veterans and their families. His work will continue to benefit generations of veterans nationwide for years to come, and he will be sorely missed.

I ask unanimous consent to be allowed to speak up to 15 minutes.

Mr. President, this is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body on earth. This body is supposed to be a body that works for the American people and exemplifies what the greatest Nation in the world should exemplify and lead in that vein.

I rise today to highlight that we are not living up to expectations. I want to highlight the very real consequences of this body's failure to deliver a Defense appropriations bill that would provide urgently needed resources to our men and women in uniform and keep this country safe.

As most folks know, I am a farmer. We are getting winter underway, and I am planning for what I am going to plant next spring in the fields. I will tell you that when spring planting time comes, I will have to do that job. And I will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to get that job done. Because if I don't, I lose the farm--literally. If I don't tend to business, I go broke.

I want you to take a look at this body. We should have had a Defense bill, Defense appropriations bill, done the end of September, 3 months ago. And instead, we did a continuing resolution, then we did another continuing resolution, then we did another continuing resolution--keep kicking the can down the road. And the result of that is uncertainty, and the result of uncertainty is putting this country at risk.

By the way, what I do on the farm is what people do every day in their businesses. And folks who go to work, they don't throw in the towel at any moment in time because they can't. They have to stick around. They have to get the job done. We need to follow our constituents' lead.

I serve as chairman of the Senate committee that works on that military appropriations. I have been working with Republicans and Democrats for months to make sure that we have an appropriations bill that invests in the United States of America; that makes sure we stay ahead of our pacing threat, China; that we defend our country from foreign adversaries; and we take care of our servicemembers and their families.

That Defense Appropriations Committee came together, and we produced a strong, bipartisan appropriations bill in the Senate that meets the needs of our military. That bill passed through committee months ago. In fact, it passed back in July by a vote of 27 to 1. Of course, it was a bipartisan vote.

What that bill did was it included a 5.2-percent pay raise for our troops; it significantly ramped up production of made-in-America defense systems; it modernized our nuclear weapons programs; it accelerated investments in modernization to make sure that we, the United States of America, stays ahead of the countries that want to harm us and threaten our way of life.

Let me be frank. This bill should have been passed by the House and the Senate back in September. If that had been done, we would not be talking here in the middle of December about taking up a bill in February to keep this country safe.

Instead, we lurch from one potential shutdown to another potential shutdown.

Right now, the military is running under last year's budget, a continuing resolution that expires on February 2. Now I am hearing a number of folks talking about the fact that we do not need an appropriations bill for this year; that we will just run off the old bill. Quite frankly, it is stupid, and it is dangerous. Let me give you the consequences of continued inaction because they are serious.

Failure to deliver an appropriations budget for our defense emboldens our foreign adversaries--that is a given--and we are already seeing that play out before our eyes. After the horrific attacks of October 7, carried out by Hamas, the Defense Department ordered an additional aircraft carrier strike group, air defenses, fighter jets, and troops to the Middle East to prevent this conflict from spiraling into a regional war. But because of this body's dysfunction of not being able to deliver a defense appropriations bill on time, the Pentagon has no money to pay for this bill. As we speak, our Defense Department is hunting for literally hundreds of millions of dollars to cover these costs, and it is pulling money away from other critical operations.

It also leaves our men and women in uniform without the certainty and the resources they need to protect our freedoms both abroad and here at home. In my case, it is the brave air men and women serving at Montana's very own Malmstrom Air Force Base. The men and women of the 341st Missile Wing operate our ICBM missile fleet. These missiles are over 30 years old and need to be replaced. The silos that they sit in are over 60 years old. They need to be replaced, but without that appropriations bill, this program will continue to be delayed because of our dysfunction.

Folks, the American military is being weakened across the air, land, and sea because we are failing to provide the predictability of the delivery of assets. For anybody who has ever been in business, you know that predictability is critically important. Without predictability, your chance of losing profits is huge. Well, we are talking about a little different thing here. We are talking about the defense budget, and without predictability, we are talking about some 300 programs that are going to be impacted because they don't know where the money is going to come from.

They can't get started on assembly lines or ramp up production on already approved contracts because there isn't the money to pay for them because we haven't passed our defense budget. That includes things like helicopters. It includes things like B-21 bombers and F-35 fighter jets. It is causing a nearly $10 billion reduction in our shipbuilding programs, halting the construction of new ships and the maintenance of our current fleet, and delaying the completion of already approved Virginia-class submarines. These delays make this country a less safe country.

It is another blow to our already challenging recruitment and retention efforts. By the way, I might add, with the exception of the Marines, every branch of the service needs more people in our volunteer military, but because we haven't passed a defense appropriations bill, we are, once again, putting manpower at risk. Joint Chiefs Chairman C.Q. Brown noted that a yearlong continuing resolution would create a $5.8 billion shortfall in military personnel funding. These are the folks whom we send all over the world--to horrible places--to protect freedom. This is a $5.8 billion shortfall.

Quite frankly, what does that say for the folks who want to sign up for the military, for those folks who want to volunteer and dedicate their lives to keeping this country safe?

They look at Congress and look at the job we are doing, and they say: Why the hell would I want to do that?

And we wonder why our end-strength numbers aren't where they need to be.

It is a slap in the face to our Nation's veterans--the fact that we can't get a defense appropriations bill done. Why? Because these veterans are relying on this body to deliver a defense appropriations bill that will strengthen TRICARE so that they can get the quality healthcare that they have earned.

But maybe the most disturbing thing about all of this--that we can't get a defense appropriations bill or any appropriations bill done, I might add, in a timely manner--is that some will say: Well, we are going to save money.

That is a joke. This whole charade is going to cost money. It is going to waste taxpayer dollars. We know the longer it takes you to buy something, the more it is going to cost. They know, when you shut down production lines, it costs money to start those production lines back up, and without money, that is exactly what has to happen.

Look, I could go on and on about the damage that a continuing resolution--an extension of last year's budget, a budget that was created when we had no idea of the threats that would be going on now-- would do. The fact of the matter is that this Congress isn't doing its job. The greatest deliberative body isn't doing what it needs to do. And what is more important? What is a more important job for us than to keep our country safe? We wonder why our approval numbers are in the toilet. I can tell you. It is because of garbage like this--and it is garbage. They are tired of folks coming back to Washington, DC, and losing track of where they come from.

My point is just like on the farm. We need to stay here weekends, vote nights, and work as hard as we can to get this done because enough is enough. We need to get these bipartisan bills done so that we can keep this country the greatest country on Earth.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I would like to ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to Joe Farinash for the remainder of 2023.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the longstanding tradition of weekly, rural newspapers in Montana. This week, Montana's longest running weekly print newspaper is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Originally located in Virginia City, MT, dating all the way back to November 1873, the Madisonian newspaper now located in Ennis, MT, has kept residents of Madison County up to date and informed on what is happening in their community for a century and a half. From local elections, to stories about new public schools and libraries, the Madisonian has told the stories of Madison County residents for generations--heck, they have told these stories since before Montana was officially admitted to the Union.

The Madisonian is a paramount example of how folks in rural America stay informed. Rural weekly newspapers like the Madisonian are the lifeblood of engaged citizens in Montana. They tell stories, they keep us informed, and they hold elected officials--like me--accountable. The folks at these papers work long hours for little pay, and are often forced to drive long distances to chase leads, but they do it to serve their readers.

Much like hospitals and schools, rural newspapers are part of the fabric of their communities and help to keep every corner of our State strong. I appreciate the work of our weekly newspapers across Montana, but today, I especially appreciate the work of the people at the Madisonian that have kept this tradition alive for 150 years.

Thank you for keeping Montana informed, and I look forward to the next 150.

Madam President, I want to thank the Senator from Louisiana.

I rise in support of the Kennedy amendment and in support of the Second Amendment rights of veterans in Montana and across this country.

It is not right that a DC bureaucrat at the VA could take away veterans' legal rights to their firearms simply because they need assistance in managing their finances.

A Montana veteran and mental health advocate told me that the VA's longstanding policy to threaten veterans' constitutional rights, who ask

for help in managing their affairs, has been a barrier to veterans receiving help for years. It is time to end it so veterans can reach out for the financial help they need and the mental help they need.

I agree and don't believe someone who has served this country and who needs a fiduciary should have to hire a lawyer and go back to court to get their Second Amendment rights back.

I yield to Senator Kennedy.

Mr. President, today I would like to honor the life and service of a distinguished Montanan and Vietnam veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Whaley.

Bob is a native son of the Treasure State and graduated from Missoula County High in 1954. He had a successful college football career at Carroll College, where he also served as president of the student body council. After graduating from Carroll, Bob answered the call to serve and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps for Aviation Office Candidate School. He shortly commissioned as a second lieutenant and spent the next 18 months at Pensacola flight school training in Florida, flying both fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters.

In April 1962, Bob was a member of the first Marine aircraft unit to serve in South Vietnam. Soon after arriving in Vietnam, he also participated in the Vietnam war's first night medevac mission. Throughout his first two tours of Vietnam, Bob flew medevac helicopters, where he rescued wounded American troops. While flying a Huey gunship to support transport helicopters in 1965, Bob's aircraft was shot down. He and the rest of his crew miraculously survived the crash, but they sustained serious injuries and were evacuated stateside to recover. After recovering, he began training replacement pilots at Camp Pendleton and eventually returned to Vietnam in 1968, 3 weeks after marrying his wife, LaWana. There, he got back in the Huey and flew hundreds of recon and rescue missions. When Bob finally returned to the U.S. from Vietnam for the last time in 1969, he had logged more than 800 missions and earned 40 Air Medals, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. He continued his service in the Marine Corps for another decade and eventually retired in 1979 as a lieutenant colonel and the executive officer of Marine Air Group 39 at Camp Pendleton.

After retiring, Bob returned to his native Missoula and began working as a financial adviser. Eventually, he retired for good so he and LaWana could enjoy the mountains outside of Missoula. Sadly, LaWana passed last December, after 54 years of marriage.

Today, it is my honor to commemorate Bob's incredible service to our country. On behalf of myself and a grateful nation, I commend Lieutenant Colonel Whaley, and extend our deepest appreciation to him and his family. His exemplary service in the Marines is what makes our country the greatest in the world and Montana the Last Best Place. He is a true patriot who has made Montana proud, and we owe him a deep debt of gratitude.

Madam President, I rise today in support of my bipartisan legislation to protect funding for hunter safety programs.

Senator Cornyn is going to make a UC here in a bit. I just want to thank him and Senator Murkowski for the work that they have done on this bill. It has been incredible.

You know, in Montana and across rural America, our schools have long offered hunter safety classes and taught our kids gun safety and personal responsibility, but recently the Biden administration and the bureaucrats here in this city who really don't understand rural America very well decided to block funding for these important education programs.

I want to be clear. That was a poor decision that will hurt thousands of students who benefit from these resources and these programs every year. That is why I am pushing for this bipartisan fix that would require the Department of Education to restore a school district's ability to use Federal dollars for school archery or gun safety or hunter education programs.

Look, folks, when Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we did so to ensure that our kids are safe when they go to school. This commonsense bill will make sure that we stay true to that intent by educating future generations on the importance of responsible gun ownership and hunting, which will only make our students and our communities safer. It will protect Montana's longstanding and proud tradition of hunting and shooting sports, which are essential to Montana's way of life.

I would urge my colleagues in this room today to support this bipartisan solution.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I would like to honor the life and service of a distinguished Montanan and one of Montana's five World War II Medal of Honor recipients: Technician Fourth Grade Laverne Parrish.

Laverne and his family moved to the Mission Valley of Montana in 1934, and he graduated from Ronan High School in 1937. Never one to shy away from service or sacrifice, Laverne joined the Washington Army National Guard in the March of 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a medical aidman in Company C of the 161st Infantry Regiment where he achieved the rank of technician fourth grade, the noncommissioned officer equivalent of sergeant.

In August of 1942, his Army National Guard unit was activated and deployed to Hawaii for training. Soon after, his unit was mobilized and deployed to the Pacific Theater with the 25th Infantry Division. Known as ``Tropic Lightning'' for specializing in jungle warfare, his division saw combat in five different military campaigns, moving from Guadalcanal, to the Northern Solomon Islands, and eventually joining General MacArthur's campaign to recapture the Philippines.

In January of 1945, his division landed on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. During heavy fighting in Binalonan, Laverne risked his life rushing onto the battlefield to bring in his wounded brother in arms to safety. While treating casualties, he noticed two wounded soldiers from his company still in the field. Without hesitation, he crawled back onto the battlefield amidst intense enemy fire to successfully rescue both men.

Six days later, under withering enemy fire, Laverne's unit was ordered to withdraw to the cover of a ditch. Seeing two wounded soldiers unable to move, Laverne quickly left his position and pulled them to safety. In that same field, he also delivered aid to 12 casualties, crossing and recrossing an open area raked by enemy fire in the process and finally bringing an additional three men who were critically wounded back to the unit.

Shortly after treating nearly all 37 of the casualties suffered by his company, Laverne was mortally wounded by mortar fire and died on the battlefield, just 6 months before the war ended. He was 26 years old, and his body was returned to Montana, where he was laid to eternal rest at the Mountain View Cemetery in Ronan. While Laverne passed, the story of the heroic ``Montana Medic'' quickly spread through the 25th Infantry Division as they bravely carried on facing more continuous combat than any other Infantry Division in the 6th Army.

Laverne pitted heroism and bravery against great odds, saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers at the cost of his own. In honor of his incredible bravery and sacrifice, Laverne was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman, our Nation's highest military awarded to the men and women in uniform who have gone above and beyond protecting our freedoms. He was one of just six medical corpsman to receive this honor in World War II, and the six were credited with saving the lives of more than 150 military personnel.

In the fall of 1948, the town of Ronan came together to honor Laverne by naming the athletic field the Sergeant Laverne Parrish Memorial Field. Naming this field in Laverne's honor was a small token of our appreciation for his heroic service and sacrifice, but it ensured he will be remembered generation after generation in Ronan--and all across the Treasure State.

Seventy-five years later, Laverne's memory lives on in each of us--in the freedoms of our children, our children's children, and right here with us on this football field.

On behalf of myself and a grateful nation, I commend Mr. Laverne Parrish and extend our deepest appreciation to him. He is a true patriot who made Montana proud, and we will never forget him.

Today and every day, let us remember that we are standing here today, in a free country, because of Laverne, the sacrifices he made, and the sacrifices of our military men and women have made every generation since.

Madam President, with a historic number of veterans receiving care and benefits under the PACT Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs needs a qualified second-in-command.

Now more than ever, the VA needs a steady hand to uphold its mission to deliver veterans the healthcare and benefits that they have earned.

I rise today because Tanya Bradsher is that leader. She has an impressive record of serving our country in and out of uniform, especially in her current role--which is VA Chief of Staff--where she has been critical in overseeing the Department's implementation of the PACT Act.

Between her time serving in the U.S. Army--including a deployment to Iraq--and working in Congress and working at the White House and the Defense Health Agency and at the Department of Homeland Security, it is clear that she is qualified for the job and ready to hit the ground running to serve our Nation's veterans.

It is no secret that the VA has a lot of work on its plate. From rolling out the Electronic Health Record Modernization program to working with the Defense Department to improve transition process for servicemembers who are leaving the military, these are challenges VA's No. 2 official is directly tasked with, all while running the day-to- day operations of the VA.

That is why this body needs to come together in a bipartisan way to make Tanya Bradsher the permanent leader--the leader who will tackle these challenges and ensure that the VA is upholding its mission to the veterans and their families.

The fact is, having a permanent leader in this role ensures that we can hold the VA accountable to do their job. And our veterans deserve no less.

In the past, this body has been able to rise above politics to install qualified individuals at the VA responsible for getting vets the healthcare and the benefits they need and that they have earned. Today, we must do that again to confirm Tanya Bradsher as VA's next Deputy Secretary and making her the first woman ever confirmed for this position.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that this vote occur immediately.