Floor Statements

Mr. President, I am here today to rise in opposition to the Trump administration's domestic gag rule on the title X program.

For more than 40 years, title X has provided women and families with comprehensive family planning and preventive health services. Congress created title X with a strong bipartisan vote, with Members of both parties recognizing how vital the services it provides are. Since then, for those in rural communities, for low-income women and men, and for members of the LGBTQ community, title X-supported health centers have been a major source of preventive care and reproductive health services, including cancer screenings, birth control, HIV and STI tests, and counseling services.

Title X helps communities and people throughout my home State of New Hampshire. Title X-funded centers deliver care to nearly 18,000 Granite Staters annually, and title X-supported Planned Parenthood centers serve 60 percent of those Granite Staters. In some parts of my State, there are no options other than a title X center, and if other options exist, they don't provide the same expertise and commitment to reproductive healthcare services that title X centers offer. Community health centers around my State do important work, but they have told me that they will not be able to replace the services lost if the administration is successful in its efforts to target Planned Parenthood.

The Trump administration's gag rule is simply dangerous. It would force providers to violate their professional and ethical standards regarding their obligation to give patients full and accurate information about their healthcare and would discriminate against providers who refuse to curtail truthful communication with their patients. This rule would cut investments in family planning clinics, taking away services that so many people depend on, with a disproportionate effect on low-income families and those who already struggle to access care. This effort is part of the shameless and blatantly political attempts from this administration to restrict access to healthcare.

By attacking providers, such as Planned Parenthood, the Trump administration is once again threatening the health and economic well- being of millions. Women in New Hampshire and across the country deserve better. They should have the right to make their own choice about if or when to start a family, and they should be able to visit providers of their choice who understand their healthcare needs and will be truthful about their healthcare options and realities. This title X gag rule undermines all of that.

I am going to continue to stand up for a woman's constitutionally protected rights, and I will do everything I can to fight back against these partisan attempts from the Trump administration to undermine women's reproductive healthcare.

Thank you.

Mr. President, when Gerald Kotkowski of Hampton, NH, was preparing for retirement, he knew he would have more time on his hands and wanted to find a way to give back to his community. Inspired by his own life experiences, Gerald chose to serve as a volunteer driver to help people undergoing cancer treatment, as well as those who experience visual impairments. Since he started working with both Future in Sight and the American Cancer Society, Gerald has provided more than 400 rides to his fellow Granite Staters in need. For his incredible volunteerism, I am proud to recognize him as March 2019's Granite Stater of the Month.

Gerald began driving people undergoing cancer treatment after he heard about the program from a coworker. The cause, he said, touched him because of his own experiences; he and his wife both have had cancer scares, and their daughter was diagnosed with leukemia as a child. While his daughter has thankfully been cancer-free for over two decades, he still remembers the impact that the diagnosis had on his family. Gerald also provides rides to Granite Staters who experience visual impairments through Future in Sight, inspired by a friend with low vision. Many of the people Gerald drives are from rural parts of our State or don't have the support networks they need while undergoing treatment and are profoundly grateful for the simple act.

In addition to providing rides, Gerald is also active in supporting adult Granite Staters who experience disabilities. Inspired in part by raising his own daughter who experiences Down syndrome, every Monday, Gerald plays basketball with adults who experience disabilities through Friends in Action NH, an organization dedicated to providing social and recreational activities to those who experience disabilities. Gerald also serves on the board of the organization.

For his selfless work to support those who need care in his community and to ensure that those who experience disabilities are fully included, I am proud to recognize Gerald as the March 2019 Granite Stater of the Month.

Madam President, I am proud to recognize Heather McGlauflin of New Boston, NH as the February Granite Stater of the Month for her remarkable work to help prevent substance misuse. Now a high school senior, Heather has worked with a number of organizations since her sophomore year to help prevent substance misuse among her peers and to fight for young people to have a seat at the table in efforts to combat this devastating epidemic.

Heather's advocacy on this issue began after a guidance counselor encouraged her to attend a weekend training with CADCA, Community Anti- Drug Coalitions of America. At the end of the weekend, Heather participated on a panel of students proposing solutions to government officials and advocates on how to strengthen the response to this crisis that was broadcast live on New Hampshire's WMUR.

The CADCA training inspired Heather's continued activism, and in the years since, she has gotten involved in a variety of initiatives such as training younger students on over-the-counter medication safety, presenting on the importance of youth advocacy to DEA agents from across New England and the country, and participating in a public service announcement training with the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation. As a result of her work with the Mark Wahlberg foundation, Heather created several PSA's which were selected for further production and participated in an Emmy-winning PSA with WMUR. Heather also helped found Empower Youth 603--a youth coalition focused on substance misuse in New Hampshire--and she recently presented at CADCA's national conference in Washington, DC, where I met Heather and heard more about her work.

Heather says she is driven by the stories of her friends and peers, too many of whom have been impacted by New Hampshire's devastating opioid crisis. She believes that it is critical to stop substance misuse before it happens and that the best messenger for young people is often someone their own age.

For her continued efforts in preventing substance misuse, I am proud to recognize Heather McGlauflin as February's Granite Stater of the Month.

Mr. President, I rise to join my colleague from Maine in discussing the Retirement Security Act.

I first just want to start by thanking Senator Collins for her work on this bipartisan bill, the other bill she discussed, and for her leadership as chairman of the Aging Committee, to help ensure that older Americans can thrive. That includes, of course, making it easier to save for retirement.

By the time they reach retirement, every hard-working American should have the peace of mind of knowing they can live comfortably and without having to worry about how to make ends meet. While Social Security is a critical safety net--one we have to protect for all--it was only designed, as Senator Collins pointed out, as part of the retirement equation.

It is clear we are on the verge of a retirement crisis, as more and more Americans are retiring without the economic security they need. According to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, approximately 25 percent of working Americans have reported having no retirement savings or pension. AARP estimates that 55 million Americans--including roughly 230,000 Granite Staters--do not have access to a retirement plan at their workplace, and participation in retirement plans has dropped over the past several years.

We know there is a significant gap between what people need in order to maintain their standard of living after retirement and what they actually have. It is essential we do more to help workers close that gap. That is why I am pleased to join with Senator Collins today in introducing the bipartisan Retirement Security Act.

This commonsense legislation makes it easier for small businesses to provide retirement plans for their employees, something I hear from small business people all the time, something they want to do, but there are technical and financial challenges to doing it. This bill would encourage people in the workforce as well to save more for retirement, and it would help reduce the costs and complexities of maintaining a retirement plan.

We have more work to do to help people in New Hampshire, in Maine, and all across our country plan and save for retirement, and the Retirement Savings Act is a strong step forward. I again thank Senator Collins for her leadership on this issue, and I look forward to continuing to work with her to pass the bipartisan legislation, as well as other shared priorities for retirees, small businesses, and more.

Additionally, as a new member of the Finance Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues to tackle this and other critical issues.

Mr. President, I rise to join my colleague from Maine in discussing the Retirement Security Act.

I first just want to start by thanking Senator Collins for her work on this bipartisan bill, the other bill she discussed, and for her leadership as chairman of the Aging Committee, to help ensure that older Americans can thrive. That includes, of course, making it easier to save for retirement.

By the time they reach retirement, every hard-working American should have the peace of mind of knowing they can live comfortably and without having to worry about how to make ends meet. While Social Security is a critical safety net--one we have to protect for all--it was only designed, as Senator Collins pointed out, as part of the retirement equation.

It is clear we are on the verge of a retirement crisis, as more and more Americans are retiring without the economic security they need. According to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, approximately 25 percent of working Americans have reported having no retirement savings or pension. AARP estimates that 55 million Americans--including roughly 230,000 Granite Staters--do not have access to a retirement plan at their workplace, and participation in retirement plans has dropped over the past several years.

We know there is a significant gap between what people need in order to maintain their standard of living after retirement and what they actually have. It is essential we do more to help workers close that gap. That is why I am pleased to join with Senator Collins today in introducing the bipartisan Retirement Security Act.

This commonsense legislation makes it easier for small businesses to provide retirement plans for their employees, something I hear from small business people all the time, something they want to do, but there are technical and financial challenges to doing it. This bill would encourage people in the workforce as well to save more for retirement, and it would help reduce the costs and complexities of maintaining a retirement plan.

We have more work to do to help people in New Hampshire, in Maine, and all across our country plan and save for retirement, and the Retirement Savings Act is a strong step forward. I again thank Senator Collins for her leadership on this issue, and I look forward to continuing to work with her to pass the bipartisan legislation, as well as other shared priorities for retirees, small businesses, and more.

Additionally, as a new member of the Finance Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues to tackle this and other critical issues.

Madam President, I want to start by thanking my colleague, Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island, not only for his remarks today but for his leadership on this issue. I rise today to join him in highlighting the toll climate change is taking on coastal communities throughout New England. Senator Whitehouse has been a fierce advocate, and he is dedicated to and continues to push our colleagues to address the dire reality of climate change. I am here to join him in that effort.

In New Hampshire's Seacoast region, our State's beautiful coastline helps propel our economy forward, supporting industries such as tourism and commercial fishing and contributing to our high quality of life. Just as proximity to the ocean provides vital opportunities, our communities are finding that as climate change intensifies, these communities are increasingly at risk.

As you can see from this photo that was taken last year in Rye, NH, stronger storms and rising sea levels are leading to increased flooding in our coastal areas. As Senator Whitehouse mentioned, our communities are already feeling the direct economic impacts of rising sea levels.

According to the First Street Foundation and Columbia University, the increased risk of flooding and damage is hurting property values throughout New England. That report states that New Hampshire has already seen a $15 million loss in property value, particularly in areas such as Hampton, Exeter, Dover, and Portsmouth. Combined with the rest of the New England States, coastal properties have experienced approximately $400 million in property value losses just between 2005 and 2017.

The extent of those losses is just the beginning of the damage. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has estimated that New Hampshire's sea levels are expected to rise between 0.6 and 2 feet by 2050 and between 1.6 and 6.6 feet by 2100. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, rising seas could threaten more than 5,000 homes on the seacoast of New Hampshire by the end of the century.

Our climate is changing. Sea levels are rising. This is undebatable. Climate change and sea level rise are not threats to some distant time in the future; these threats--this damage--are here. These threats are taking their toll now. The people of New Hampshire know this. We are witnessing climate change in our communities in real time as storms get more intense and the floodwaters go higher.

It is our responsibility to help our communities adapt to these changes. This starts with focusing on planning for resiliency to help vulnerable communities prepare and on improving our infrastructure and developing strategies to help plan ahead for storms and extreme weather events.

At the local level, Granite Staters on the seacoast are already being proactive on this front. Community members have formed advocacy groups, and local governments have focused on addressing these challenges head- on and developing resilient strategies. We have to support their efforts.

We also must do more. We need to redouble efforts to cut carbon emissions, conserve and protect our natural resources, and build a stronger, clean energy future. People are calling on us to

act. Study after study has shown that as more Americans see the direct threats from climate change in their own communities and in the lives of their fellow citizens, they are becoming increasingly worried. It is time for us to start dealing with reality and to address their concerns.

I will keep working to address climate change and to achieve a cleaner environment and stronger energy future that will help our citizens, our economy, and our businesses thrive. I urge my colleagues to join us in those efforts.

Again, I thank Senator Whitehouse for being a leader in those efforts.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, for the first Granite Stater of the Month of 2019, I am proud to recognize fifth grader Evelyn Ellis- Haines of Belmont for her work helping those in need. Through a youth civics program at her school, Evelyn launched a clothing drive, and with the support of her teachers and classmates, she collected more than 700 items to donate to some of our most vulnerable citizens in the Granite State.

Evelyn was inspired to start her clothing drive because, in her words, she ``wanted to help people.'' Addressing poverty is something that has always concerned Evelyn. Her family even recalls her making baked goods to

give to people she saw experiencing homelessness and often asking why they could not do more to help them. When the opportunity to participate in New Hampshire's Kid Governor Program arose, Evelyn created a platform based on addressing poverty and worked with her school to start a clothing drive. Every Monday in December, she reminded her classmates during their school assembly to bring items to donate, which resulted in her collecting hundreds of items in just under a month.

Evelyn donated the items to the largest family shelter in her community and wants to continue working to help address poverty. She will be volunteering with the same organization this summer and hopes to expand her clothing drive beyond just her school. For her efforts to support her community and help those in need, I am proud to recognize Evelyn as the January 2019 Granite Stater of the Month.

Mr. President, I join with my colleagues here in saying how disappointed I was that today's vote to reopen the government immediately while we keep negotiating to address border security was defeated, but I am encouraged by the bipartisan group on the Senate floor with me this afternoon to send one clear message: Let's pass a clean, 3-week continuing resolution to reopen the government immediately, and each of us is committed to work to pass a strong, bipartisan border security bill during that 3-week period.

Like many of my colleagues, I have gone down to the border. I have talked to our frontline personnel on the border. There is a lot of common ground about what we need to strengthen our border security. I join my colleagues here and thank Senators Cardin and Murkowski for organizing us in saying that we can get to a solution on border security, but we need to open the government right away.

There is no reason to keep the government closed while negotiations on strengthening border security continue. In fact, there is concern that negotiations forced by shutdowns set a dangerous precedent.

So I strongly urge my colleagues from both parties to support this bipartisan approach. I also thank Senators Graham and Cardin for their leadership in this effort, and I am committed to working with them and the rest of this bipartisan group to find a way forward.

Every day that this senseless shutdown continues, it is hurting people in New Hampshire and across the country. We have all been sharing stories. We have heard these stories. We have talked to the hard-working men and women who serve the people of this country and who are doing their work without pay or who are furloughed and who really don't know how they are going to make their next mortgage payment and their next utility payment or put food on the table and get their medication--all of the things they need a good day's wages to do. So we need to end this now.

I join with my colleagues in being here this afternoon to simply say that we need to open the government and that I am committed, as all of us are, to negotiate in good faith going forward to find a solution on border security.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I would like to recognize the retirement of Mr. Millard ``Woody'' Crawford of Colebrook, NH.

Since 1975, Mr. Crawford has worked for the Colebrook District Office of the New Hampshire Electric Co-operative in the New Hampshire North Country.

The Colebrook District Office distributes power to about 1,500 co-op members in Columbia, Colebrook, Dixville, Stewartstown, Clarksville, and Pittsburg, NH and maintains miles of overhead lines.

Returning to New Hampshire after college in 1971, Mr. Crawford took a job digging and setting poles for the co-op, before making a pitch to the district representative as to why they should hire him as a utility lineman. He learned line work on the job, and bringing power to a household by connecting someone to the grid remained his favorite part of the job throughout his career.

In 1997, Mr. Crawford was responding to an outage with his partner, Mark Monahan, when they witnessed the shooting of a New Hampshire State Trooper. The gunman, having already killed another state trooper, a district court judge, and a newspaper editor, threatened Mr. Crawford and Mr. Monahan, but they drove to the main road to stop traffic and prevented the loss of more life.

Mr. Crawford's colleagues praise his professionalism and care for others, and I am proud to join them in congratulating him on his retirement.

I hope you will join me in honoring a dedicated Granite Stater, Woody Crawford.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my Democratic colleagues in sharing stories of what we are hearing from our constituents who are being impacted by this government shutdown.

I want to take a minute to thank my friend and colleague from Colorado for his thoughtful and comprehensive and passionate remarks about where we are and why. This is a needless and terrible exercise in politics, and we need to reopen the government.

This senseless shutdown has been dragging on now for weeks, affecting vital government services and leaving many Federal workers without pay. With every day that passes without a resolution, hard-working people are dealing with greater uncertainty, and many are facing tough choices in order to protect their families and the way of life they have worked so hard to build. Like many of my colleagues, I have heard from a number of people throughout my State who have been affected by this shutdown.

On Friday, I visited two nonprofits in New Hampshire, the Nashua Soup Kitchen and the Community Action Partnership--most of us know it as CAP of Strafford County--which provides vulnerable people with shelter, food, and support. They are now in danger of being unable to provide services that are a critical part of our safety net. They also fear an increase in demand for those services because unpaid Federal workers will be turning to them for help.

Federal employees and others affected by the shutdown in New Hampshire have also written to my office to describe the hardships they are facing and to urge us to reopen the government. One of those Granite Staters has been an air traffic controller for close to 19 years. Sadly, on Christmas Eve, her mother passed away, leaving her with a terrible loss but also with the stress and expenses of a funeral, all while having to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On top of that, now she has not received a paycheck for that work.

She wrote:

The government shutdown has been the last thing on my mind.

But now the realization of not being able to pay my mortgage,

credit cards from Christmas-time, and now this funeral is too

much to bear.

She put it simply, saying:

My colleagues and I deserve better.

I also heard from a Granite Stater who works for the IRS. He wrote to me saying:

The prospect of not having a paycheck for an extended time

is causing sleepless nights, and I am recovering from an

extended bout of pneumonia that ended up putting me in the

hospital right before Christmas. . . . My wife is worried

about the bills for that. Last night, I worked pushing out

the car payments. Today I applied for unemployment for the

first time in 25 years, and talked to my mortgage company.

He continues:

All this was under control a month ago, but now has me

worried, and is costing me charges and interest.

He also detailed his concerns about a coworker who is terrified of losing her home if she is not able to pay her mortgage and of another who is waiting to address a health issue until she has a paycheck again. He said of him and his fellow Federal workers:

We are hardworking, dedicated employees. Our jobs involve

long hours, nights away from home, and risks to our health

and safety. . . . All I want is to do my job and be paid

fairly for it.

Finally, I heard from a Granite Stater whose husband is in the Coast Guard and recently relocated to New Hampshire. She said:

To say this shutdown is impacting us is an understatement.

She wrote that she and her husband recently relocated to New Hampshire and spent every last penny purchasing a home in the State where they first met.

She said:

We knew it was going to be tight with our two paychecks,

but we would have enough to make ends meet. . . . That all

changed after Christmas when we were informed that our

President was prepared to shut down the government over a

wall.

Since then, she and her husband have watched, hoped, and prayed that funding would come because now they fear they are going to have to call family members to beg and to borrow money to pay their mortgage and not go in default.

As bad as the direct impact of this situation is on Federal workers and on some of our most vulnerable and on people and small businesses who rely on government services, the shutdown also has ripple effects on other people and businesses across our State.

We must do better. The President's politically motivated crisis is devastating for too many hard-working families in New Hampshire and across the country. They deserve better than being used as pawns for a campaign slogan created by President Trump.

It is time for these games to stop, for the President's shutdown to end, and for our government to reopen. We need a vote on the floor of the Senate on the bipartisan bills that we already passed that would reopen this government with a veto-proof majority.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in calling for an end to this senseless government shutdown. I, too, want to thank my friend and colleague from New Hampshire as well as my friend from Virginia for their leadership in bringing us together tonight to speak about the need to move forward and end this shutdown.

All across our country, Americans are feeling the impact of this shutdown, and government services people rely on have been put to a halt.

In New Hampshire, our farmers were relieved last month at the passage of the farm bill. Now, thanks to the shutdown, they are again facing uncertainty that they may not receive the financial assistance they need to help them operate.

Our craft breweries, which contribute to our economy, are unable to move forward with new projects because the brewers can't get the projects approved through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

At the White Mountain National Forest, some visitors' services are closed, and at this amazingly beautiful national resource, trash is piling up.

Additionally, the shutdown is creating safety concerns with regard to air travel. The Airline Pilots Association International recently wrote to the President to say that the shutdown is ``adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our national airspace system.''

We know this shutdown is impacting our Federal workforce. These are law enforcement officers, border security agents, members of our Coast Guard, workers from our National Park Service, TSA agents, and so many other people who dedicate their lives to serving their fellow citizens, but because of the shutdown, many workers are scrambling to make ends meet.

President Trump has said these workers can simply ``make adjustments'' to stay financially secure, but in making such a claim, the President grossly ignores the reality that hard-working Americans face. What an out-of-touch statement.

One missed paycheck can be the difference between people being able to put food on the table or not, of making their monthly mortgage payments, of affording their medications.

If, as the President suggests, the shutdown drags on for months or even years, those hardships to our families and our economy will grow as paychecks continue to be delayed.

It doesn't have to be this way. Last week, the House of Representatives passed bills that have received substantial support from Members of both parties in the Senate and would reopen the government immediately. Those included robust funding for border security, funding to support commonsense improvements, including better technology that border agents say they need. Unfortunately, the President is more focused on campaign slogans than on strengthening border security based on the facts on the ground. As a result, the President has created a crisis for families across the country, including for the border protection agents and law enforcement officers whose duty it is to protect us.

The fact is that we can keep our country safe while also reopening our government. That is why Leader McConnell must bring the bipartisan bills that have passed the House to the Senate floor and the President must sign them into law.

In the meantime, I am focused on ensuring that our Federal workforce gets the pay that they deserve and that they have earned. That is why I have joined with a bipartisan group of colleagues on legislation to ensure that any government employee furloughed as a result of this shutdown or any future ones will be paid retroactively as soon as appropriations are restored. I cosponsored legislation that would fund Coast Guard operations during lapses in appropriations--including pay-- for members of the Coast Guard.

Mr. President, it is time for these games to end. We need to keep providing the government services that Americans rely on, and the people who provide these services deserve stability not only for their own sake but for that of the people and country they serve. More broadly, the American people deserve to know our government can operate effectively without these constant games and irresponsible tactics from the President.

Let's move on from this shutdown. Let's reopen our government.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in urging approval of Chai Feldblum. The EEOC is a vital bipartisan agency that enforces workers' civil rights and helps protect them from harassment and discrimination while on the job. The EEOC has long operated with bipartisan support and requires a quorum of its five members to decide the cases before the Agency--cases which include racial discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, and the abuse of people who experience disabilities. As my colleague from Washington noted, it decides cases of sexual harassment as well.

In short, the EEOC operates to protect hard-working people who want a fair shot in the workplace. Blocking this nominee prevents the EEOC from carrying out the work it is tasked to do. It is bringing an unnecessary level of partisanship to a previously bipartisan process.

Ms. Feldblum is a highly qualified nominee. She has already been confirmed to the EEOC twice by the U.S. Senate, receiving support from Democrats and Republicans alike. She is also the first and only openly LGBTQ person to serve on the Commission.

After being nominated by President Trump for another term last year, it is time that we finally move forward with Ms. Feldblum's nomination. We need to stop these games, and we need to allow the EEOC to fully carry out its duties.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last month, as fires raged across northern California, a New Hampshire family business stepped up to help. For their efforts, I am proud to recognize Dr. Bruce Cozzens, his sons Jeff, Stuart, and Matt; long-time friend John Lenzini, as well as head brewer Chris Deapo of Schilling Beer Co. as December 2018's Granite Staters of the Month.

Schilling Beer Co. was founded in 2013 by friends and family who are deeply committed to their community, and one of their core values as a business is looking out for others. As CEO Jeff Cozzens put it, ``part of living this value means that we help others whenever it is within our power do so.''

As the Camp Fire blazed, Schilling Beer Co. agreed to be part of a national ``Resilience'' fundraiser spearheaded by Sierra Nevada Brewing. As part of the initiative, Schilling Beer Co. will join breweries across the country to help brew the Resilience Butte Country Proud IPA, of which all of the proceeds will go to relief efforts in Butte County, CA. Schilling Beer Co. also played an important role by lending their trademarked name of ``Resilience,'' their American ale project, to the cause.

In Jeff's words, ``Butte County residents have suffered a tragedy of unspeakable proportions,'' and the brewery was honored to be able to play a role in assisting them.

I am extremely grateful for their generosity and efforts to help the victims of the California wildfires, and I am proud to recognize the Cozzens and Lenzini families of Schilling Beer Co., as well as head brewer Chris Deapo, as the December Granite Staters of the Month.

Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues in honoring and paying tribute to my friend and mentor, Senator Heidi Heitkamp.

I am particularly and profoundly grateful for both her trailblazing work mentoring women who want to run for public office and her remarkable ability to get things done across party lines in the Senate.

For years, Senator Heitkamp has been at the forefront of mentoring other women and encouraging them to enter public service, recognizing that balanced representation is vital to our country's success. In fact, Heidi Heitkamp and I first met through a program that she helped start to encourage and prepare women to run for

office--to do more than just tell us it was possible but to help us understand that there were ways to prepare for it, to run in our own way, to be our own people. She helped demonstrate that even though you may experience setbacks--including her own setback battling breast cancer--you still have what it takes to serve your communities and to make a difference. I am incredibly grateful for those lessons, I am incredibly grateful for her efforts because they have helped inspire women all across the country.

All the issues that Heidi just talked about in her farewell speech-- there are now armies of current and future public servants who will take those issues and challenges as their own because she has helped prepare them to do that.

Then there is Senator Heitkamp's work in the Senate. During the time we served together in the Senate, I have been so impressed by Senator Heitkamp's ability to stand up for her priorities and her values, while also working with anybody else here willing to step up to get results, particularly on issues such as fighting for rural communities, standing up for our country's veterans, strengthening our Nation's healthcare system, and, yes, reminding our colleagues that there is a northern border that needs to be secured and attended to.

Serving together on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I saw firsthand her capacity to be constructive and to find compromise. In doing so, she earned the respect and trust of her colleagues, while also building a record of bipartisan accomplishments--accomplishments we all know last because of their very bipartisanship.

Above all, Senator Heitkamp was relentless in fighting for what she believed. Just ask any of the witnesses who testified before her on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

It has been truly an honor to serve with Senator Heitkamp, and all of us need to continue to work to emulate her example--the example that she has set of listening to others and being productive, her commitment and her recognition of the importance of getting things done while always doing the right thing for the people we serve.

Senator Heidi Heitkamp's voice in this Chamber will be sorely missed, but I also know that she will keep fighting to make a difference and that she will continue to do just that.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this month, I am proud to recognize as our Granite Stater of the Month an individual who has gone to great lengths to serve his community, Portsmouth police officer Thompson E. Potter III of Epping. After filling in at Portsmouth Middle School as a school resource officer, he was inspired to launch a fundraising campaign to provide the funds for six boys from traditionally underserved backgrounds to attend summer camp.

Officer Potter said that he attributes the YMCA camp he attended as a boy with helping instill in him the values of respect and responsibility, and putting him on a path to success. He also credits the camp with raising his self-esteem, and he believes that other young men could benefit from that same type of experience.

His goal was to raise $5,000 to send five boys to the YMCA camp, and donations immediately began coming in. As Officer Potter put it, the whole community worked to ``help take care of these boys,'' with Portsmouth Middle School staff and parents, friends, businesses, and other community members supporting the effort.

Ultimately, Officer Potter raised $13,000, which was enough to send six boys to camp and outfit them with all of the gear they would need.

Officer Potter intends to continue his efforts next summer, with the goal of sending five boys and five girls to camp. He says that he wants to give these students something to look forward to and give them a foundation to build upon.

For his commitment to his community, the young people of Portsmouth, and the better future that these young people will build, I am proud to recognize Officer Potter as the November 2018 Granite Stater of the Month.