Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn to then convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business being conducted, on the following dates and times: Friday, June 21 at 6:30 a.m.; Tuesday, June 25 at 11:30 a.m.; Friday, June 28 at 12 noon; Tuesday, July 2 at 12 noon; Friday, July 5 at 9 a.m.; further, that when the Senate adjourns on Friday, July 5, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Monday, July 8; that on Monday, following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Maldonado nomination postcloture and that all time be considered expired at 5:30 p.m.; and that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen on Tuesday, July 9.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, today, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation was slated to consider the Spectrum and National Security Act. This bill, a hard-won compromise months in the making, would have provided a balanced approach to spectrum management, protected our national defense by ensuring our military has the telecommunications capacity they need, promoted innovation by unleashing spectrum for commercial use, and essential for America's economic and international competitiveness. It also funded key bipartisan priorities that make our Nation more secure and also increases opportunities for Americans to be competitive in higher-wage jobs.

This bill was to be considered in a markup today and included shared priorities by the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Commerce. In fact, they all released a joint statement last week in support of the bill.

I ask unanimous consent that their statement be printed in the Record.

Why did these Agencies stop sparring and finally agree to a path forward? Simply put, it is because spectrum helps each of them meet their responsibilities on behalf of this Nation. The spectrum deal would have put policies in place that give Federal Agencies equity at each part of their Agencies and a seat at the table in spectrum decision-making.

It eliminated the disruptive inter-agency disputes that we have come to know that literally have impeded spectrum policy progress in the past years. It also reinstated the FCC's spectrum auction authority without compromising national security. The FCC has been without its auction authority for more than a year because the fighting

among these special interests threaten our economic growth.

Establishing a sustainable spectrum pipeline would not only spur our own economic growth and promote innovation, it would also have raised revenues to fund important critical security and economic opportunities across the United States. One of those key priorities funded through this legislation is the continuation of the Affordable Connectivity Program. And I will note that the Presiding Officer is very vocal in his support for the Affordable Connectivity Program. I thank him for his leadership.

This Affordable Connectivity Program provides affordable broadband to more than 23 million American households. Americans need broadband to speak to their doctors, to do their homework, to connect to their jobs, to stay in touch with loved ones.

It is interesting--Mr. President, you will know--that there are parts of the United States where people either can't afford broadband, nor are the fees and services requirements affordable enough for people to purchase them. I am pretty sure there are places like that in Vermont. So it is so important to have a program like the Affordable Connectivity Program.

The pandemic laid bare how important broadband access was to every American and to businesses--no different from having access to affordable electricity or heating or telephone capacity.

Who are these 23 million Americans? About half of the ACP households are military families; about a quarter are African-American; another quarter are Latino; 300,000 ACP households are on Tribal lands; over 10 million Americans who use the program are over 50. A lot of people are on a fixed income, elderly, but still count on affordable broadband for their daily lives.

Not surprising, just as in this article that was in yesterday's newspaper in my State: End of the internet subsidy puts healthcare lifeline at risk, which describes the story of a woman in Idaho who literally was trying to fix her home in a rural community and actually fell down and broke her leg and then needed that connectivity to maintain connection with her doctors and her healthcare. These are the Americans who need this program. They are in every State.

One school employee told me about a student who hadn't done their homework for weeks. Her teacher called to find out why. The student didn't want to say. They didn't want to be called out in school. They didn't want any of their friends to know they just didn't have internet services. She wasn't trying to get out of the work; she was just trying to protect her family and protect herself.

We can't be asking parents to choose between a child's food and their education. But despite this demonstrated level of need, the Commerce Committee, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, offered amendments to actually reduce the ACP program. They wanted to get rid of the program that helps these families who cannot afford connectivity. I am not surprised because some members on the other side don't even support the ACP program.

But blocking the committee progress will have serious consequences. For example, this legislation also funded a program called Rip and Replace to remove Chinese spyware from our telecom system.

Some providers in rural communities and telecom networks don't have the resources to, as we say, rip out the Chinese spyware and replace it with American products. This legislation would also help them.

Releasing more spectrum also would lead to greater adoption of new technologies like the Open RAN system--another alternative to an open system that would help our telecommunication providers upgrade our infrastructure to new spectrum and get rid of the Chinese technology. Getting more of the secure technology will protect our communities from network adversaries and allow Americans to be in the lead again on telecommunications network equipment.

Additionally, the all-of-government approach to spectrum management in this bill allows the United States to maintain our commercial and military leadership around the globe, including at important standard- setting bodies where adversaries are going to make inroads.

This bill would have funded a historical investment in our technology advancements that we voted for in the CHIPS and Science Act, particularly in what are called EPSCoR States, tech hubs, and essential programs to maintaining U.S. competitiveness.

There is no way that ``rip and replace'' should be a partisan issue. We don't want Chinese spyware in our telecom system. There is no way that ACP--affordable connectivity for people who can't afford it-- should be a partisan issue. This is about tackling the cost of expensive broadband for the working poor, and it should not be a partisan issue.

Pushing ahead with grant funding enhances America's innovation and competitiveness, it protects our national security, and it helps us with the economic innovation we all want to see happen throughout the United States.

I hope my colleagues will stop with obstructing and get back to negotiating on important legislation that will deliver these national security priorities and help Americans continue to have access to something as essential as affordable broadband.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I rise to join my colleagues here. I want to thank my colleague from Washington, Senator Murray, for her leadership and so many others who are here on the floor today.

I come to speak also about the Right to IVF Act and want to say how important it is that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle support this.

I want to take one minute, though, to talk about the important decision the Supreme Court just made on mifepristone. It is so important because 60 percent of abortions in the State of Washington are done with this drug. It is a highly safe and effective medication used by millions of Americans. And the Court ruled on standing alone. It didn't reach any conclusion about the ludicrous arguments that the plaintiffs were making.

So America should not rest on this decision because anti-choice activists are going to keep using the courts to target abortion. It is just another reminder of why we have to fight for reproductive freedom and why we can't rest.

I also, though, want to talk about how important it is to support the legislation in front of us. Every American should have a chance to use fertility treatments to bring new life into this world and to become a parent. This opportunity wasn't always available. The first child conceived through IVF was born in 1978. That was an era of major advances and new freedoms for women: the right to have your own credit cards, the right to choose to have your access to an abortion and when you start your family, the right not to be discriminated against in so many ways.

Today, nearly half a century after IVF, it is safe, it is well- established, and many, many, many American families rely on it. In fact, more than 2 percent of all children born in the United States are born as a result of IVF. We have IVF to thank for over 2,000 new lives created in the State of Washington just in 2022.

IVF brings new life into the world and helps families start their families, and it shouldn't be controversial. That is why I can't believe that we have to take this action today because there are those who are trying to take this hard-won right away from families, to take away their reproductive rights and their freedoms.

Since the Dobbs decision revoked the constitutional right to abortion, we have seen waves and waves of different things that affect our healthcare. In February, in Alabama, the State supreme court shockingly ruled that frozen embryos legally have the same rights as living children. That forced IVF clinics in the State to temporarily halt their services. One can only guess why they halted those services.

At a Pacific Northwest facility in Seattle, a reproductive endocrinologist said her office got a wave of phone calls from fertility patients wanting to move embryos there, to the Northwest, after the Alabama ruling. They were terrified that the ruling could cause complications for the embryos and the future of their IVF process. The doctors said there is an increase in cost, in complexity, and the risk of damage to embryos associated with moving them because of the possibility of threats to IVF access.

I have heard so many stories from my own constituents and that of Senator Murray's. A mother from Kirkland told me she gave birth to a baby boy after 4 years of fertility treatments, but she is afraid that the future in States might force people like her to remain without that option.

A Spanaway mom of a 19-month-old conceived through IVF asked me to protect IVF so that everyone can choose--everyone gets to choose--when they start their family.

Grandparents from Bremerton of an IVF baby wanted me to know that, during the IVF process, everything--everything, everything--is time- sensitive.

But rulings like Alabama's throw the process into chaos, potentially, permanently ripping away the prospects for these couples of having children.

A Vancouver woman struggling with infertility due to scarring in her abdomen pointed out that IVF is science, and courts and legislators shouldn't be interfering with it.

A woman in Everett, currently going through the IVF process for her second child, urged me to ensure everyone has access to those treatments.

My constituents are right. Congress needs to act today to expand and protect the access to IVF.

While it is safe and common, the IVF process still is stressful. It is still expensive. And that is why the possibility of activists going to court in an overzealous, anti-choice State and getting involved in these choices is not what we should support. We should support making sure that this right is protected. We can't have this continued attack on reproductive healthcare in the United States of America.

The bill we are voting on today would establish the right to access IVF. It also would expand insurance coverage, which is incredibly expensive. Just one cycle can cost between $15,000 and $30,000, and many women require more than one cycle. So that cost can be as high as $60,000.

It would also allow our veterans to help preserve their opportunities.

In February, this Chamber tried to pass a narrow bill codifying the right to access IVF, and it was blocked.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim reproductive freedom isn't under attack. Trust me. Come to the State of Washington, where we have codified these rights. We are seeing this happen. Physicians are moving to our State because they are not sure, if they go home across the Idaho border, that they are not going to get arrested. Women are coming over to get treatment, not sure if they can get back to their State.

The system is more clogged because more people are coming there because we provide the care. All of this is making the system harder to deliver the important things.

I should just say that people aren't even thinking of the two collision courses here, where the vertical integration of healthcare is making it harder and harder for people like gynecologists to even stay in business. And now we are making it harder and harder on States that are the ones who are carrying the burden of upholding reproductive rights.

I ask my colleagues to support this important measure. Let's make sure Americans have the freedom to decide for themselves when and how to have children, and let's put this to rest. Let's give Americans the certainty that fertility treatments in America are part of your healthcare delivery system.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I join my colleagues out here on the floor. I thank the Senator from Minnesota for her unbelievable advocacy on behalf of women and healthcare and for her constant leadership on this issue, and I am glad to be joined by my colleague from Hawaii, who also has been such a great leader--both of them serving on the Judiciary Committee, the frontline of making sure that women's rights are protected. I thank them so much.

Most Americans alive probably don't remember a time when they didn't have the freedom to use birth control. We hear a lot about family planning. Well, what is family planning if you don't have access to contraception? Most people don't remember a time when they didn't have the freedom to decide whether and when to have children.

In Idaho recently, they have banned abortion. Now several of the State's colleges have banned their staff from even speaking to students about contraception. Imagine keeping college students in the dark about something as basic as a healthcare service.

We heard from an OB/GYN doctor from Idaho who moved away from their State after their reproductive care law, like so many other physicians have done in other States, and one thing really stuck out about what she told us. She said that anti-choice activists really stood out to her because they told her that ``they're not done.''

After Texas banned abortion, the State's Governor said women should just use emergency contraception to avoid getting pregnant, but Texas had already stopped covering emergency contraception under their State- funded family planning programs.

Madam President, when they say they are not done, I believe them.

In Iowa, the abortion ban is blocked for now, but the State attorney general temporarily paused a public funding program that helped pay for emergency contraception for rape victims, and 362 reimbursements have been delayed.

Madam President, I believe them when they say they are not done.

In Arizona, where abortion rights have been in legal chaos due to a practically Civil War-era ban, Republicans there unanimously blocked a vote to protect the right to access contraception.

In Virginia, people still have abortion rights, but the Governor chose to veto a bill to protect and expand birth control access just hours before the deadline.

So, yes, they are not done.

In Florida, where a near-total abortion ban just went into effect, lawmakers granted so-called crisis pregnancy centers a fivefold funding increase. These centers pretend to be real clinics while spreading misinformation about reproductive care, including contraception.

Across the country, anti-choice organizations are pushing false claims about contraception, fighting access to contraception, and basically even saying that birth control should be illegal.

So they are not done, and that is why we are here today.

The Supreme Court took away our constitutional right to abortion, and according to one Justice, they said they are not done.

So the point is that a woman cannot even be sure she can depend on the miracle of IVF to start a family.

America needs to know where people in this institution today stand on the reproductive rights of women, on family planning, on giving us access to contraception.

Today in my State, the State of Washington, abortion and contraception are protected by law, but this bill is important to my State because healthcare laws in nearby States affect our delivery-of- care system.

The University of Washington just this week released a study that showed that our State's abortion providers have seen a 50-percent increase in out-of-State patients since the Dobbs decision. Now, if you think about it, if you have seen a 50-percent increase in out-of-State patients, it means you are seeing more patients. What is the effect of seeing more patients? The study also found that all patients are getting abortions about 1 week later than they were before the Dobbs decision, which is dangerous on the healthcare delivery side.

Washington saw the largest increase in patients from those States who had banned abortion, States like Texas and Idaho, Louisiana and Florida. Now imagine if they carry this further and ban contraception too.

Our State doesn't want to be impacted in the delivery of care. It wants people to be able to see a physician when they need to see a physician, get the care when they need to get the care.

If we want to keep the right to contraception, if we want to keep the freedom to choose when people want to start their families, if we want to keep OB/GYNs in our national network system, we need to codify this right here today. We have to protect this right so the Supreme Court can't take it away.

I am glad to be a cosponsor of the Right to Contraception Act. I certainly look forward to voting on this legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same.

It seems not that long ago when our country recognized, in Connecticut v. Griswold, that we had this right. When we have been talking about it for the last many years now, really, as so many people came before Congress to be a nominee for a judicial branch, they have all said: This is all settled law--oh, yeah--Connecticut v. Griswold.

We always ask that question. Why? Because Griswold v. Connecticut was a decision based on contraception that gave you this right to privacy.

Now, all of a sudden, not only was that ignored by the Supreme Court--it was amazing when you think about the time before that. People didn't have access to contraception. It became such a day-to-day part of our lives. If it is such a day-to-day part of our lives and the delivery of healthcare, then we should have the courage to say so and vote this way today. If people don't, it is because they aren't done, and they don't want to protect this. And I guarantee you, families deserve the privacy of knowing when and how they want to start their families.

I ask my colleagues to support this legislation and support our healthcare system that has been working very well with the support of contraception.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion with respect to the substitute amendment numbered 1911, as modified, be waived.

Mr. President, I call up second-degree amendment No. 2041.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I, too, want to thank our colleagues for their hard work and their overwhelming support for the passage of this legislation.

This legislation will now, hopefully, go to our House colleagues on the consensus calendar, on Tuesday, and then very shortly after that to the President's desk.

This is historic bipartisan-bicameral legislation that not only invests in the Federal Aviation Administration but in the National Transportation Safety Board for the next 5 years. It is a record reauthorization to make sure that our safety regulators and our safety investigators make aviation the safety gold standard of the world.

This bill not only provides those authorizations, but I believe it helps give consumers the right kind of refunds for tickets after 3 hours of delay. It also puts the right safety people on the job, both at our air traffic controller system and at the FAA oversight of manufacturers.

By ensuring that we have the safest aviation system in America, we are investing in our economy. Aviation contributes more than 5 percent to our GDP--$1.9 trillion of economic activity--and it supports over 11 million jobs. If you ask me, the best way to the middle class is to get an aviation job, coming in as working class and leaving as middle class, as many manufacturing jobs in my State represent.

Our bill invests in the growth and well-being of that aviation workforce to try to continue to thrive by making education investments in controllers, machinists, engineers, mechanics, pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, maintenance workers, and all those who are the backbone of the aviation economy.

I want to thank my colleague and partner in this, Senator Cruz, the ranking member of the Commerce Committee, for everything that he has done to help pass this landmark legislation. It really was a bipartisan effort, and his efforts were instrumental in helping us get this legislation over the goal line.

I, too, want to thank many of our colleagues. He mentioned our two colleagues, the chair of the subcommittee, Senator Duckworth, and Senator Moran, who both played a long and terrific advocacy role on very key sections of this bill, including the Essential Air Service Program and expanding the aviation workforce in our country.

I want to thank House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen, from my State, for their leadership and dedication to making this a bicameral product and certainly for making it bipartisan.

I also want to thank President Biden, Secretary Buttigieg, and Administrator Whitaker for their input as we moved through this legislation, and Senator Schumer for helping us get this bill to the last phases here and over the goal line.

I also want to thank Senators Schumer and Thune, Duckworth and Sinema, for helping to negotiate key positions of this bill related to pilot training. Nearly 3 million passengers fly in and out of our airports, and making sure that we have the safest skies by the FAA doing its job is exactly why we needed this bill.

This bill implements new safety improvements in that workforce and codifies, as I mentioned, strong consumer protections like refunds, and it provides direction and resources to build a well-trained FAA workforce.

I want to thank the hard work of Senators Casey and Fetterman in this bill that helps the FAA require airlines to have a secondary cockpit barrier to ensure that the safety and security of our flight deck is there.

I want to thank Senator Klobuchar for advancing the aircraft runway traffic and landing technologies to prevent near misses--a conversation that has been very much part of this debate.

The air surface detection technology helps prevent close calls, and at only 43 airports, this bill was about expanding that as soon as possible because the NTSB said that was one of their No. 1 recommendations. Our bill will now require the deployment of this technology that will help prevent runway close calls at medium- and large-hub airports within the next few years.

Building on the Aircraft Certification and Accountability Program, we help provide for significant improvements in the design process so that the public is more informed.

We have also directed the FAA to require training programs for those organizational design authorities. These are the ODA units that oversee the manufacturer. This includes strengthening those unit members' understanding of safety management systems--something the committee has held a lot of hearings on--and we know how important the safety management system is, according to our expert review panel, to implement into law.

We have authorized money for the next 5 years to boost the FAA's programs in safety, in factory inspections, and have implemented a revised model that really helps us with our air traffic controller system, which is so critical because, right now, we need more air traffic controllers and we need them to be rested on the job.

This bill also includes an important safety provision from Senator Schatz: a helicopter safety bill which brings standards to the commercial air tour systems in Hawaii.

Another major safeguard in safety is Senator Baldwin's provision, with Senators Welch and Capito, called the Global Aircraft Maintenance Safety Improvement Act, which helps oversee the safety inspections at our overseas airports. There are nearly 1,000 FAA-certified maintenance and repair stations outside of the United States, and they need to make sure that they have the proper oversight. This helps raise those safety standards worldwide.

Specifically, these technicians are now required to undergo background checks and alcohol testing, and foreign repair stations are now subject to surprise inspections.

As I mentioned, NTSB authorization is critical, and I want to thank my colleague Senator Lujan for his leadership on helping get this in the bill.

But also one of the No. 1 requirements as to why we wanted to get this done now with the NTSB is that one of their key recommendations is now in this statute--a 25-hour cockpit voice recording requirement that was also championed by Senators Blumenthal and Wyden. This means, when accidents happen, the NTSB will no longer be stifled by not getting the recording. They will have this recording, and it will be required to be held for more than 25 hours.

I mentioned the workforce issues which, to my State, are paramount. We need to continue to train and skill the best workers. Certainly, that means air traffic controllers and aviation safety inspectors.

Besides the increase in air traffic controllers to help deal with the staffing gap, we are making sure that they have the best technology to work with as well. Our colleagues Senators Klobuchar, Duckworth, Moran, Thune, Peters, and Kelly helped us to recruit and retain the next generation of workforce. So I can't thank all of my colleagues enough.

As mentioned and much discussed, Congress is setting for the first time in statute a refund standard for consumers to get a refund on nonrefundable tickets after 3 hours of delay in the United States and for 6 hours on an international flight. These statutory rights are a big win for consumers. Passengers can just reject vouchers and alternative flights and get a hassle-free refund.

I want to thank Senators Markey and Vance for their provision of the bill that says you cannot charge families extra dollars to sit next to each other and for the fact that they are championing, as Senators Markey and Schatz did, a new office at the Department of Transportation to make sure that airlines receive fines if they don't adhere to those provisions.

I also want to thank Senator Duckworth. I can't thank her enough, not just as the ranking member of the committee but also for her key leadership on so many aspects of this bill. Not only is she a pilot, but she understands the needs of handicapped individuals and made sure that this legislation did a better job of training and skilling people at our airports. She is a true champion of the provisions of this bill dealing with wheelchair damage on flights and in ensuring that passengers can safely evacuate a plane if necessary. We will be forever grateful for her many leadership provisions of this legislation.

I want to just finally thank Senators Tester, Fischer, and Sullivan, who also worked on Essential Air Service and infrastructure financing improvements to make sure that our airports in rural communities continue to grow, and thank Senators Peters, Baldwin, and Warnock for championing additional Federal resources to help airports dispose of harmful chemicals and replace them for firefighters.

My colleague from Texas mentioned the great investments in next- generation technology. Thanks to Senators Hickenlooper, Rosen, Moran, Thune, Young, Warner, and Wicker for advancing drone technology so that the United States can compete on a world stage and for providing next- generation research for companies like Universal Hydrogen and ZeroAvia, which are making great products.

Also thanks to Senators Thune and Warner--our colleague from Virginia--for the creation of a regulatory path for drones to operate beyond the visual line of sight. That means, yes, we are going to move forward on how drones are going to start delivering home products to us. I thank them for their hard work.

I thank Senator Rosen for her hard work on a grant program so that States and local governments are using U.S.-manufactured drones in repairing and fixing critical infrastructure.

And I thank Senator Blackburn for her leadership on ensuring that the FAA is not funneling any drone funding to American adversaries.

The Presiding Officer was part of this process. I thank him for his leadership, certainly for expanding capacity at airports and getting more flights, but also for his great contributions, as I mentioned in this legislation, on PFAS and many other things.

This was a committee process. It really was the way the Senate is supposed to work. It really was bipartisan and bicameral, and lots of people got their issues addressed. They got their issues addressed because we had great staff who were willing to accommodate and work hard and implement those legislative ideas.

So I want to thank from our team the staff director of the Commerce Committee, Lila Helms; our general counsel, Melissa Porter; Rachel Devine, who literally came back about 6 or 7 months ago to rejoin the Congress, and, literally, we would not have this bill today if Rachel Devine had not rejoined the effort to work on the Hill. So I thank Rachel for her hard work and dedication.

I want to thank Alex Simpson and GiGi Slais. GiGi has been at this for so long, working under many people, and she knows every detail of this bill, and I so appreciate it.

Doug Anderson, Lucia Mastrangelo, our current Samya Rose Stumo National Air Grant fellow Amber Willitt, Tricia Enright, Ansley Lacitis, Jami Burgess, Maurie Mueller, and Drew Hammill.

I certainly want to thank Meghan Taira, from Senator Schumer's office, for helping us through many phases of this.

I want to thank our former staffer Ronce Almond and detailee from the FAA's Office of Airports, Rob Hawks, and our first Samya Rose Stumo fellow, who is now over at the FAA, Rukia Hassoun, for their hard work on this legislation.

I also want to thank Senator Cruz's team because, in all of these negotiations, it was critical to not only have a great understanding of FAA issues but of our colleagues and their priorities in continuing. I am not saying the Republicans came up with more amendments, but it certainly felt like that for a long time. It felt like they all had a lot of them. We had a pilot on our side, and they had a few pilots on their side. We processed a lot of amendments.

So I, too, want to thank Brad Grantz, Nicole Christus, Simone Perez, Andrew Miller, Matt Swint, Hannah Hagen, and Liam McKenna for their work and, of course, Matt Weisman and Ben Rhodeside from Senator Duckworth's team, and Lauren Bates from Senator Moran's.

This is a big moment in aviation. We have been through a lot. We have been through a COVID crisis and having to manage our aviation system while we were in that crisis and coming out of the COVID crisis when we may not have had everything correct in the order of how to keep flights and regain the capacity where we were. We certainly know that we have had safety issues and concerns so that we needed to make a big investment. This legislation is that investment in safety standards, in protecting consumers, and in advancing a workforce and technology that will allow the United States to be the gold standard in aviation.

I thank my colleagues.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, reserving the right to object--and I will object--I thank my colleague from Kansas for his comments, but we are on the FAA bill.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board need reauthorization by this Friday. So the leadership, both the House and Senate, have decided to best move forward to meet that deadline--the best thing we can do is to keep the subject of this debate to germane amendments. We have all four corners, not one person, not one individual, but all four leadership teams saying we need to get this bill done, and we will consider amendments that are germane to this subject.

I hope my colleagues will turn down my colleague from Kansas' request and move forward with an FAA bill so we can get this done to make sure that we are implementing the most important safety standards possible today--more air traffic controllers, more near-runway-miss technology, 25-hour cockpit recording--and make sure that we are giving consumers the refunds they deserve.

Madam President, therefore, I object to the Senator from Kansas.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to speak for up to 20 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Mr. President, my colleagues have already been out here today. It is a great day for aviation because we have a product before the U.S. Senate, and Members will be asked to vote to move forward on the consideration of this important aviation safety legislation.

As my colleagues have already said, this is a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on the FAA reauthorization.

It is important to reauthorize both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board for another 5 years. We are not only giving them direction and resources to improve safety, but we are asking them to keep up to date on the implementation of the latest technologies that help us do just that.

I want to thank my colleague Senator Cruz, who was just on the Senate floor, for helping negotiate this through the Senate Commerce Committee.

I want to thank Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen from my State for their participation and dedication to producing this bicameral, bipartisan legislation.

I certainly want to thank Senators Duckworth and Moran, who chair the subcommittee in the aviation area, for their important contributions to this legislation.

I also want to thank President Biden, Secretary Buttigieg, and Administrator Whitaker for helping us on all of the input as we move forward on this legislation.

I certainly want to thank Senators Schumer, Thune, Duckworth, and Sinema, who helped to negotiate key provisions of this as it relates to pilot safety and training.

I definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely want to thank the very hard work of our committee majority staff and the committee minority staff for working diligently on this important legislation.

I can't tell you how important it is at this point in time for us to show that we are paying attention to these issues. Over the last 12 months, several incidents--including a door plug blowout and a string of close calls at airports--have made the public question where we are with aviation safety. We need to show them that we are asking for, implementing, and holding accountable the FAA to a gold standard for safety.

These incidents underscore why we need a strong reauthorization bill, why we need to implement safety improvements, why we need to invest in a safety workforce at the FAA, and why we need strong consumer laws on the books that give consumers a right to a refund. The FAA reauthorization bill does all those things. It provides the direction. It provides the resources. It helps us build that aviation workforce. It helps us implement safety technologies that will be part of the next-gen system and improve aviation and airport infrastructure nationwide.

Some of my colleagues may think, well, FAA, OK--it is an aviation bill, but what is behind this?

Aviation contributes to 5 percent of our GDP. That is $1.9 trillion of economic activity and 11 million jobs. Getting this right is paramount.

I think some people look at what has happened during COVID and say: Everybody has workforce shortages. Everybody has problems with the workforce everywhere.

But when you have a workforce problem in aviation, it means you don't have the highest standards for safety. That is why we have to pass this legislation. Our bill gives the aviation workforce the tools and the platform they need. I am talking about machinists, about engineers, about mechanics, about pilots, about flight attendants, about baggage handlers, about maintenance workers--the people who really are the backbone of an aviation economy.

It is simple: This bipartisan bill puts safety first. It says we are authorizing over $100 billion so that the FAA does meet that gold standard.

We also are including a robust reauthorization of the National Transportation Safety Board so this organization has the resources it needs to hire more investigators, conduct thorough investigations, and produce the highest level of critical analysis as to why--why--we have had safety accidents.

The NTSB needs to have the critical funding to carry out its important mission, like investigating Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 and the train derailment in East Palestine. These are important missions that help inform us what is wrong with our systems and how they should be improved. Unless we have those inspectors at NTSB--and we have lost some of them lately, and some have retired. We need to continue to have these most critical investigators.

This bill also funds key safety improvements of our system. It requires current and newly manufactured commercial aircraft to be equipped, as my colleagues have mentioned, with a 25-hour cockpit voice recorder. The standard today is just 2 hours. What unfortunately happened in the Alaska Air door plug issue is that, in those short 2 hours--when people were in the aftermath of the confusion, that 2 hours was overridden. Now we are asking the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate without the most critical information that would have told us exactly what was happening in the cockpit at that time-- the voice recorder. This legislation is critical to have a mandate and never to have that overridden in this time period so we have enough time to investigate.

The NTSB also will strengthen its Board and its workforce. It investigates more than 2,600 accidents every year; however, it has had the same number of people as staff for decades. That is why those 33 more investigators would be better equipped and better able to understand emerging technologies.

I want to thank Senator Klobuchar for her leadership. She, in her provision on runway traffic and landing safety technology, is helping us to reduce collisions or near misses at airports. This bill invests in deploying this technology that NTSB accurately assessed has been saving lives at various airports and says it needs to be deployed more across the entire country. These critical airport technologies will be required at all medium and large hub airports--to implement this within the next few years.

Building on the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act--the bill that we passed in the aftermath of the two Boeing MAX crashes--this bill continues to make reforms in aircraft certification to ensure that the planes we fly meet the highest standards of the FAA.

To further the reform certification, we require the FAA to provide public notice and opportunity to comment on significant aviation product design changes. A lot of the confusion in the MAX incident, on the MCAS system, is people said they didn't know or didn't understand. This provision ensures transparency for proposed exemptions from current airworthiness standards. It puts the flying public--and, unfortunately, families have been impacted--more in the driver's seat of understanding what changes are being proposed to airplane certification.

It also requires recurrent training and stronger standards for manufacturer's representatives who act on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration as unit members, to understand the manufacturing process. This includes strengthening the members' understanding of what are the international aviation standards from ICAO for safety management systems--which is the gold standard for safety--and procedures to report safety issues, a key recommendation from the Expert Review Panel's report.

To address safety concerns also, this legislation includes an analysis of what are called Service Difficulty Reports and regular updates to Congress. Service Difficulty Reports are information filed by pilots every day after a flight that tells somebody: This happened on our carrier. This incident happened.

We are strengthening the requirement for the FAA to analyze that information early and frequently and to give Congress updates on this-- again, something requested by the families of the MAX air crash incident.

Additionally, we authorize $66.7 billion to boost the FAA's staff and programs and resources to strengthen the oversight of the manufacturing process. This is critical in providing what are called safety inspectors by the FAA. These are people we hire and train at the FAA. They go to a community college and take a safety course, and they are required to understand what are the obligations of a manufacturer to implement the code that the FAA has. We need a more aggressive investment in these individuals from the FAA--their training, their skills, their ability to stay current on the latest and greatest technology.

To better support the FAA's oversight, the Agency is required to revise and implement an updated aviation safety inspector model to reflect their increased oversight responsibilities. In 2021, the Department of Transportation inspector highlighted critical staffing shortages by facility at the FAA's Flight Standards and Certification Management District Offices.

Mr. President, I want to take a moment to give my condolences to the family of Ian Won. Ian Won was one of these people who helped understand the certification process at what is called the Seattle BASOO office. That is the office of the FAA that oversees certification.

We need people to stand up like Ian Won did, who said that the certification is only good when the FAA says it is good. Those are the kind of people we need in the system. We recently lost Ian to cancer but will remember his dedication to getting aviation right.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, PASS, representing FAA safety employees, estimates that the FAA is currently experiencing a 20-percent shortage of safety inspectors. So implementing a revised model helps us better capture the inspector workload, what it takes to ensure the next generation of technology is fully understood, and to make sure that operators and manufacturers are complying with the law.

I also want to thank Senator Schatz for his helicopter tour safety provision. Many people know how many people travel to the State of Hawaii to travel on air tours in and around those beautiful islands, but that important safety responsibility has to be clear to those independent operators: that they are going to meet the highest standards when moving the public around.

Another safety provision that went in the bill by Senators Baldwin, Capito, and Welch, called the Global Aviation Maintenance Safety Improvement Act, will strengthen the FAA's oversight of foreign repair stations and create a more level playing field.

Unfortunately, as aircraft maintenance went overseas and the FAA didn't have enough inspectors, where did they not inspect the maintenance and repair of aircraft? In those overseas repair stations. But now we are taking away any incentive for someone to go do that overseas because the FAA will be there and will inspect and make sure that we are meeting the standard. So this will help us bring this back to the United States.

There are nearly 1,000 FAA-certified maintenance and repair stations operating outside the United States, and we have to make sure that they are properly regulated.

We are also, in this legislation, making sure that the FAA workforce is well trained and advised to help the FAA. It helps recruit skilled technical and expert staff to ensure that manufacturers don't take shortcuts. It helps the FAA do more direct hiring to quickly fill these positions.

And one of the most important aspects of the legislation is our most

pressing workforce problem, and that is the shortage of over 3,000 air traffic controllers. Everyone knows that these air traffic controllers are what guide us every day to the safety of our destinations. This bill recognizes that we have shortchanged that investment, with air traffic controllers sometimes working as many as 6 days a week. We need a workforce that is going to continue to tackle these challenges, and this bill makes the investment so that happens.

We have seen the FAA fall short of goals before in workforce training, but this staffing model and the FAA staffing committed to in this bill will help us fill that gap.

I want to thank Senators Klobuchar, Duckworth, Warnock, Moran, Thune, Peters, and Kelly for their Aviation Workforce Development Grant Program in this legislation. It helps us grow pilots, mechanics, engineers, and technical workforce and streamline the job pathway for veterans who have real skill in the military and can more easily help us fill these aviation roles.

Our bill requires the GAO to also study airport worker standards, a step toward getting our baggage handlers, our ramp workers, and our aircraft cleaners the pay and benefits they deserve.

This bill also does something for the first time for consumers. It says that you deserve a refund after a 3-hour delay, even if you have a nonrefundable ticket. You also deserve a refund for an international flight if it has been delayed for 6 hours. And you can get that refund immediately by talking to the carrier or, if you decide you just don't even want to be on the delayed flight, you can get a refund.

I want to thank Senators Markey and Vance for a mandate in the bill that says families get to sit together, and you can't charge us more. If the airlines break these rules, guess what happens. The DOT Assistant Secretary is authorized to issue penalties up to $75,000 for fines and penalties to have a strong deterrent here.

I also want to thank Subcommittee Chair Duckworth for her leadership in making sure airlines better accommodate passengers with disabilities. It is because of her unbelievable advocacy here that we are going to reduce the damage that is done to wheelchairs and to the passengers who have to make these flights for their own needs, and I certainly thank Senator Duckworth, who is one of our national heroes and veterans, for her unbelievable pilot expertise in helping us.

Senators Tester, Fischer, and Sullivan are to be commended for their hard work to improve the Essential Air Service Program for small and rural communities that need important economic lifelines to have aviation in their community. We authorized a record $1.7 billion for that program.

And, overall, airport infrastructure is getting a big boost too. I thank Senators Peters, Baldwin, and Warnock for championing making sure that airports dispose of harmful chemicals that are harmful to all of us.

And I want to thank the Presiding Officer Senator Hickenlooper and Senators Rosen, Moran, Thune, Young, Warner, and Wicker, who helped usher in the next generation of technologies for aviation--not just drones and air mobility aircraft but also the research and development necessary to see the electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft industry take off in the future. Companies like ZeroAvia in my State and Universal Hydrogen are leading the way with the next generation of strategies that will help us make these technologies a reality.

I just will say, too, that this legislation gives the FAA the direction to provide safe operating standards for advanced air mobility and safety for the 2028 Olympics, coming soon, in Los Angeles.

And I also thank Senators Thune and Warner for their legislation creating a pathway for drones to operate beyond the visual line of sight, which we have also included in this bill. And I acknowledge Senator Rosen's hard work on the legislation for grants so that States are using the U.S.-manufactured drones to inspect, repair, and fix critical infrastructure.

So my colleagues can see that this legislation is full of safety improvements. It helps address a huge part of our U.S. economy. It helps make the aviation system today work better and guarantee that we are going to continue to focus on this for the future.

So I thank all my colleagues. I urge them to support the motion to move forward on this legislation that we will be taking shortly and get this to the House before the May 10 deadline. It is great bipartisan, bicameral work. But most importantly, it is safety improvements for our aviation system.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, for the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the Record on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Ms. Amber Willitt, a detailee with the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration, be granted floor privileges for the duration of the 118th Congress.

Mr. President, I rise to urge my colleagues to pass this important legislation, and I want to thank Leader Schumer for his tremendous leadership on this entire package. It is amazing. His dedication and support to getting this done. He really, really held steadfast as well as our caucus, as he just described, and so many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

I also want to thank Senator Murray for her continued leadership on appropriations bills.

This supplemental will supply Ukraine with desperately needed equipment, weapons, training, and logistics.

For over 2 years, the Ukrainian people have shown courage and resilience, enabling them to resist Russian aggression. As just described by our leader, it would be disastrous for our national security and democracy and human rights if we had not supported them.

This bill also continues to support American taxpayers by authorizing the President to use an estimated $5 billion in frozen Russian assets. These assets will help pay for Ukraine's reconstruction. And it designates the U.S. economic assistance, which Ukrainians will have to pay back once they have repelled the Russians.

The supplemental also includes support for our Middle East ally Israel, including support to make sure, just like these past few days, of shooting down 99 percent of missiles and drone attacks by Iran.

It also includes $9 billion of humanitarian aid for Gaza, Ukraine, and for people caught in conflicts around the world. These conflicts have taken an immeasurable toll on the Palestinian and Ukrainian people.

The supplemental also contains a range of sanctions that will make it harder for each of Israel's adversaries--Iran and Hamas--to finance their operations.

It contains the SHIP Act, which requires the President to post sanctions against individuals and companies that knowingly help evade oil sanctions. Illegal revenues funnel tens of billions to designated organizations and terrorist groups. And it builds on legislation Senator Murkowski and I enacted over a decade ago that helped expose the middlemen who were enabling Iran to evade these sanctions.

This package also includes over $8 billion to support Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific allies in this critical part of the world where we stand shoulder to shoulder with these democracies.

It also contains legislation, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, of which I was proud to be a cosponsor--It is critically important legislation that does a couple of things. One, it declares that fentanyl is a national emergency. This enables the President to impose sanctions on fentanyl traffickers, enabling the U.S. Treasury to better fight fentanyl-related money laundering. Those fentanyl traffickers and money launderings have ties to organized crime and to drug cartels.

These issues have been clearly outlined in my State by communities, health providers, law enforcement, and others who want help in stopping the traffickers.

Part of the solution is stemming the flow of fentanyl. This supplemental would allow the proceeds from those seized assets of those narco-traffickers to be used by law enforcement in our local communities to fight this fentanyl scourge.

We must give our communities all the tools they need to stop this product from flooding across our borders, and this legislation will do just that.

I also want to address that technology should be a tool to help solve our greatest challenges, to improve the human condition, and to drive innovation and support economic opportunity. But foreign adversaries use technology for social and political control.

There is no individual right to privacy or freedom of speech in these autocracies. U.S. social media companies are not allowed to operate in China. In fact, China leads the world in using surveillance and censorship to keep tabs on its own population and to repress dissent.

Governments that respect freedom of speech do not build backdoors into hardware or software, into apps on phones, or into laptops. Backdoors allow foreign adversaries to target vulnerable Americans based on their user name or sensitive data. Backdoors allow foreign adversaries to use proxy bots to bombard--bombard--vulnerable populations--Americans--with harmful content or even to blackmail people.

The U.S. Department of Justice has stated: ``Hostile foreign powers are weaponizing bulk data and the power of artificial intelligence to target Americans.''

I do not want technology in the United States used this way. I want the United States to work with our most sophisticated technologically advanced countries, like-minded democracies--places like Japan, South Korea, our European allies--and set the global standards for technology and data protection. I want to see a technology NATO, one in which our allies come together and say there cannot be a government backdoor to any hardware or software if it wants to see global adoption.

We should have a trusted framework for cross-border data flows, as has been discussed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the G7. And criteria for trusted data flow should include commitments to democratic governance, the rule of law, and the protection of property rights and free speech.

I believe in trade, and I want trade. And I believe that business should be about business. But business is not

about business when foreign adversaries weaponize data, weaponize technology, and weaponize business approaches that hurt Americans.

I want to yield to my colleague, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for his perspective on why this legislation before us is so important.

I thank Senator Warner for his perspective as chairman of the Intelligence Committee and his hard work. He and I both drafted legislation more than a year ago trying to give our government the tools to deal with this issue.

In 2020, India concluded that TikTok and other Chinese-controlled apps were national security threats and prohibited them. As a result, India TikTok users migrated to other platforms, including Google's YouTube, and Indian small businesses found other ways to operate on other platforms.

This supplemental contains the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Congress has a nonpunitive policy purpose in passing this legislation. Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok, or any other individual company. Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, and malign operations harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. Government personnel.

I thank Senator Warner for his comments.

I find it most disturbing that they used TikTok to repeatedly access U.S. user data and track multiple journalists covering the company. Researchers have found that TikTok restricts the information that Americans and others receive on a global basis.

As of December 2023, an analysis by Rutgers University found that TikTok posts mentioning topics that are sensitive to the Chinese Government, including Tiananmen Square, Uighurs, and the Dalai Lama were significantly less prevalent on TikTok than on Instagram, the most comparable social media.

Foreign policy issues disfavored by China and Russian Governments also had fewer hashtags on TikTok, such as pro-Ukraine or pro-Israel hashtags. Here are some of those hashtags on TikTok:

The example of Tiananmen Square, which we all know was an example of students standing up to the military, and yet for Tiananmen Square, there are 8,000 percent more hashtags on Instagram than on TikTok.

The Uighur genocide protecting a Muslim population, there are 1,970 percent more hashtags about that on Instagram than on TikTok.

And my personal favorite, just because I had the privilege of meeting the Dalai Lama here in the Capitol, 5,520 percent more hashtags where the Dalai Lama is mentioned on Instagram than on TikTok.

And pro-Ukraine, 750 percent more hashtags on Instagram than on TikTok about Ukraine and support for Ukraine.

I think that says it all in this debate today. Are we going to continue to allow people to control the information by using an export- controlled algorithm and China-based source code?

My colleagues and I are urging for this deweaponization by saying that TikTok should be sold. Now, I know that the Chinese have an export control on that algorithm. Congress believes that you have to have adequate time to sufficiently address this issue posed by our foreign adversaries. That is why the legislation before us is for ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok.

We think a year is ample time to allow potential investors to come forward, for due diligence to be completed, and for lawyers to draw up and

finalize contracts. This is not a new concept to require Chinese divestment from U.S. companies.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States requires Chinese divestment from hotel management platforms--StayNTouch, from a healthcare app called PatientsLikeMe, from the popular LGBTQI dating app Grindr, among other companies. And even after the Chinese owner divested from Grindr in 2020, Americans had continuity of service on this platform.

So I turn it back to my colleague, but we are giving people a choice here to improve this platform and have the opportunity for Americans to make sure that they are not being manipulated by our foreign adversaries.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that H. Res. 1051, the House resolution originally on this legislation, be printed in the Record.

I turn it back to my colleague Senator Warner and again thank him for his leadership.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about and thank Carl Imhoff who is retiring after an explementary 44-year career at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Carl's insights and contributions have shaped our Nation's approach to grid reliability, resiliency, and security. I can personally attest to how Carl's keen understanding of how our Nation's grid works has helped me draft and enact legislation ranging from measures to respond to the West Coast Electricity Crisis, to the Smart Grid Title of the 2007 Energy Bill, to numerous provisions related to boosting grid R&D, cybersecurity, and expanding transmission lines.

Aided by his forethought and vision, Carl has been a champion for infrastructure modernization. He understands and his work underscores the importance of the electricity grid as the backbone of our economic and national security, as well as the critical role it plays in decarbonization strategies that will power America into the future. His leadership has helped bring forward new approaches and technology advances to energy and grid challenges that will have an impact for years to come.

A native of Arkansas, Carl grew up learning about the intersection of technology, policy, and economic security through the work of his father John, a distinguished professor and long-time chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas, who also served in an advisory capacity on a variety of initiatives for Senators Pryor, Bumpers, and then-Governor Bill Clinton. From his mother Lois, an avid conservationist and community organizer, Carl took lessons on the value of public lands and waters and the necessity of their preservation. In fact, Carl paid his first visit to the hearing room of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as part of his mother's work with the Ozark Society, which would ultimately lead to the Buffalo River's designation as our first National River, way back in 1972.

With his own degrees in industrial engineering in hand, Carl brought these very sensibilities to Richland, WA, in 1980, when he joined PNNL. Carl began building not only his technical career, but also his reputation in the region as a collaborator and thought leader in charting the path forward for energy system reliability. Meanwhile, he took the opportunity as an avid outdoorsman to experience all the variety and adventures the Pacific Northwest's public lands have to offer and shared them with his growing boys. Carl remains a student of the works of former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a Yakima native and confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is renowned for his work in connection with the preservation of wilderness and wild and scenic rivers.

I have known Carl for the last two decades of his career at PNNL, much of which time he spent as the leader of the lab's grid research and development portfolio. When I first took office in 2001, our region was experiencing the

challenges and economic dislocation associated with the Western energy crisis. As a new member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I immediately set out to understand how technology--and in particular, the convergence of grid and emerging internet and communications technologies--could bolster system reliability and prevent such a series of events from happening again.

I learned that a group of researchers from PNNL had been working with the Bonneville Power Administration on concepts of wide-area situational awareness, given transmission system reliability events that had recently happened in the West. What is more, they were working on extending those concepts to provide more flexibility and control at the grid edge, integration of variable renewables and working to build cybersecurity into these approaches from the outset.

Over time, Carl and his team's work at PNNL would help inform technical programmatic trajectories included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Energy Security Act of 2020, and related provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Approaches pioneered at PNNL in the cybersecurity arena, with the stewardship of DOE's Office of Electricity--and subsequently, the Office of Cyber Security, Energy Security, and Emergency Response--would underpin the designation of DOE as the energy sector-specific Agency for cybersecurity included in 2017's FAST Act.

Throughout these two decades of dynamic change in the electricity industry--and the added complexity of the environment in which it operates--Carl has shown the unique ability to synthesize the technical findings of PNNL and other laboratory and university researchers, take into account multiple perspectives from industry, and help chart a clear and actionable path forward for next steps in the grid modernization journey. He has built relationships on the basis of a clear-eyed, technically unassailable and unbiased approach, and with the confidence of his colleagues grounded in his integrity and his insistence on always putting the Nation's needs first, ahead of any parochial concerns. Carl has stressed the importance of research, government, and industry working together and built the relationships across industry, long-time DOE civil servants and spanning different administrations, necessary to deliver on the mission.

As a recognized expert and cochair of DOE's Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, Carl would find his way back to the very same Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing room he had first visited as part of his mother's conservation work back in Arkansas. He has testified on `` . . . the high return on investment encountered by utilities and national labs across the country when combining new electric infrastructure innovation with public-private validation and deployment.'' He has brought perspectives on growing interdependencies across multiple critical infrastructures, smart grid concepts, changes in generation mix, grid controls, and information technology ``. . . . collectively reshaping utility business models and enabling new innovations and market participants.'' And most recently, Carl brought forward DOE and laboratory perspectives on efforts to mitigate wildfire risk and increase grid resiliency--an emerging issue of great concern for utilities and communities across the West.

Our collective efforts to address the necessity of grid modernization as an energy, economic, and national security imperative are much better for the work of Carl Imhoff and the leadership he has shown across his four decade plus career at PNNL. As he heads off to spend more time with his wife Kristen and his growing grandchildren, I congratulate him on a well-deserved retirement. Still, I hope Carl will keep a phone handy to share occasional wise perspectives on the next phases of our grid modernization journey in the Pacific Northwest, even if he answers the call while hiking Badger Mountain.

So I am pleased to have this opportunity to publicly thank Carl, not only for the contributions he made while at PNNL, but for his approach to collaboration and innovation in the public interest, which will continue to help the Pacific Northwest and our entire Nation realize a more reliable, resilient, affordable, and cleaner energy future.