Floor Statements

Mr. President, the tragic passing of Dr. Karen Trujillo, a devoted mother and compassionate leader who dedicated her life to New Mexico's students and teachers, is a tremendous loss for the entire State of New Mexico.

Like so many in New Mexico, I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I had to spend time with Dr. Trujillo and learn from her. She was a tireless advocate for education whose enthusiasm for learning was truly infectious. I am especially appreciative for how much she advocated for all students to have access to outstanding education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Dr. Trujillo served for more than 25 years as an educator. She began her career in the classroom as a math teacher at Las Cruces High School and went on to teach at Cobre High School in Bayard, Hot Springs High School in Truth or Consequences, and at Alma d'Arte Charter High School in Las Cruces. She also served in many education leadership roles, including principal at Las Cruces Catholic School, associate dean of research at New Mexico State University's School of Education, New Mexico secretary of public education, and superintendent of Las Cruces Public Schools.

Dr. Trujillo's legacy will be felt for years not only in all the students she inspired but in classrooms across our State led by educators whom she mentored and led. At NMSU, she directed K-12 outreach for the Alliance for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and started the Southwest Outreach Academic Research Lab and Educators Rising NM, an organization that recruits high school students for careers in teaching.

Dr. Trujillo was proud of her deep New Mexico roots and her close- knit family. After early years growing up in Santa Fe, she and her family resettled in Las Cruces, where she graduated from Mayfield High School and received her bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from New Mexico State University. Her father Gilbert set a positive example of public service for her as a longtime Dona Ana County commissioner.

Even while she took on leadership roles throughout the State, Karen could often be found with her family at the Hatch Valley High School gymnasium, where her husband Ben is the athletic director, her older daughter is a basketball coach, and her younger daughter played for the team. She often took on duties as the basketball announcer.

I am keeping Ben, their kids, Taralyn, Tim and Tavyn, the Trujillo and Apodaca families, as well as all of the New Mexicans who are grieving this devastating loss, in my thoughts.

Mr. President, what is the status of the floor?

Mr. President, I rise today in support of my colleague in the New Mexico congressional delegation, my Representative in the House of Representatives, and President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Interior, Congresswoman Deb Haaland.

Congresswoman Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She is what we like to call in New Mexico a 35th-generation New Mexican.

As many have noted, she will make history as the first-ever Native American Cabinet Secretary, something that, frankly, should have happened a long, long time ago in this country.

Deb also has lived experience--as a single mother, as a small business owner, as a Tribal administrator--experiences that will serve her well and bring real representation to President Joe Biden's Cabinet.

She grew up in a military family. Her father was a decorated Marine combat veteran, and her mother is a Navy veteran. She grew up like a lot of kids with parents in the military, moving frequently, actually attending 13 different public schools over the course of her childhood.

Before being elected to Congress, she owned her own business, she was the chair of the board of a tribally owned business, and also served as Tribal administrator for the Pueblo of San Felipe.

Thanks to all of that experience, Congresswoman Haaland knows firsthand how the decisions that we make here in Washington, and particularly in the Interior Department, affect communities across the country, especially in Tribal communities and rural Western States.

As Representative of the First District of New Mexico, my former district, Congresswoman Haaland has served as vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, a position where she made us very proud.

As a committee leader, she routinely demonstrated her commitment to working across party lines.

Of all the Members of Congress newly elected in 2018, she introduced the most bills with bipartisan cosponsors. She has always shown the ability to bring people together, something evidenced by her introduction in our committee by Congressman Don Young, Republican of Alaska.

She has an open door. She has an open mind and will listen and consult with a diverse range of stakeholders to try and build real consensus.

I am confident that she is the leader that we need at Interior to take on the important work of restoring our landscapes, opening up new outdoor recreation opportunities for all Americans, and putting our public lands to work in confronting the climate crisis that too many of our colleagues have long ignored.

Americans want the Department of the Interior to create more equitable access to our public lands, to stand for environmental justice, to find real solutions for the climate crisis, to protect wildlife and clean water, and support rural economic development.

Many of us here in this body--in the Senate--demonstrated just last year, when we passed the historic and bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, that making conservation and outdoor recreation a key part of our national economic recovery is a goal that has the ability to unite us all, Republicans and Democrats.

Implementation of that new law will allow us to put many Americans back to work repairing our campgrounds, repairing our trail systems, building new visitor centers, and Congresswoman Haaland is eager to lead that work.

She is also uniquely qualified to help us restore the Department of the Interior's nation-to-nation relationship with Tribal nations and to help Indian Country recover and rebuild from COVID-19.

The Interior Department will play a leading role in implementing President Biden's American Rescue Plan in Indian Country. That historic rescue package, which the Senate just passed over the weekend--and I would point out did not have a single Republican vote--includes more than $31 billion in emergency support for Indian Country.

Let me put that in perspective. That represents the single greatest investment in Indian Country in American history--in American history.

This emergency support is desperately needed in Tribal communities. Over the past year, American Indians and Alaska Natives infected by COVID-19 have been hospitalized at a rate four times higher than White Americans and have died from the disease at nearly twice the rate. That is not just some statistic. I know firsthand because of the people I know and have lost in Indian Country.

On top of these unacceptable public health outcomes, Tribal communities have also been disproportionately impacted by the educational and economic devastation of this past year--the lack of broadband, for example.

These disparities reflect the persistent inequities that are the direct result of decades of chronic underinvestment by Congress in Indian Country. That is why the American Rescue Plan includes $20 billion in emergency funds for Tribal governments that have taken on enormous, unprecedented costs to protect the health and safety of their members. It also includes billions of dollars of investment in Indian Country to expand access to healthcare, education, transportation, housing, and even essentials that many of us just take for granted, things like broadband, like internet, like electricity or water.

The Senate urgently needs to take up Congresswoman Haaland's nomination to lead the Department of the Interior so that Tribes will finally have the partner they need in effectively implementing the American Rescue Plan and to help them steer their communities out of this perilous moment.

Finally, it is unfortunate, frankly, that this needs to be said, but I do need to take a moment to address characterizations of Congresswoman Haaland that were raised by some of my colleagues in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that were neither accurate nor, frankly, appropriate to the kind of debate that we have in that committee.

I was disappointed by the tenor of the debate in our committee, as some of my colleagues described Congresswoman Haaland as ``radical'' or as ``extreme'' for holding policy views that fall well within the mainstream and fairly represent many of her constituents--I would say the vast majority of her constituents.

As a westerner, Congresswoman Haaland well understands that confronting the climate crisis, not denying it, and transforming our economy will not come without costs. We need to be honest about that. That is especially true for fossil fuel workers, including many of our fellow New Mexicans, who have long powered our economy and deserve our respect and support. But we need to be thorough on the details and thoughtful in preparing our traditional energy communities for a transition to the clean energy future that the market has already told us is coming--is here--and we need to be honest with them.

I am absolutely certain that Congresswoman Haaland will be a true partner to Western States like New Mexico, Alaska, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming as we navigate this challenging transition.

As we confront the climate crisis that is already an existential threat to our land and water resources and the communities that depend on those resources in the West, we must diversify our economy. We must invest in those communities and remain a global leader in producing and exporting energy.

Despite the objections that have been raised against her nomination and the holds that have unfairly held up her confirmation, I am confident in Congresswoman Haaland's commitment to work with every single one of us on these pressing challenges, and I am eager for the Senate to finally take up Congresswoman Haaland's confirmation so that she can get to work protecting our natural heritage for future generations.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, my friend from Wyoming and I disagree on many things. We disagree on the impact of this policy in the immediate, and we disagree on the speed of the energy transition to a zero-carbon economy.

What we do not disagree about is that these communities we support-- we support their schools, and throughout this transition we should support the people who have kept the lights on and made this country the greatest energy country on the face of the Earth.

So I would support this amendment because it is about supporting the schools in those communities.

Vote on Amendment No. 653

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

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 10, which was received from the House of Representatives earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 2; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the Buttigieg nomination, as provided under the previous order; further, that upon disposition of the Buttigieg nomination, the Senate resume consideration of the Mayorkas nomination, as provided under the previous order, and then recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

For the information of all the Senators, the Senate will vote on the confirmation of the Buttigieg nomination at 12 noon tomorrow and on confirmation of the Mayorkas nomination at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, a new generation of young leaders in my home State of New Mexico and all around the world recognizes that the climate crisis is not just urgent, it is literally existential. These young students and activists are demanding that their elected leaders get to work on implementing solutions to limit its devastating impact.

I heard from many students in New Mexico about how we should confront the climate crisis. Earlier this year, I sat down with students in Santa Fe to hear their ideas on how we should confront this crisis. These students showed an incredible depth of knowledge on climate science and on their changing atmosphere. They are observing how the climate crisis is already impacting their daily lives. Talking with young people who are calling on us to save their future drives home how urgent this issue is for our next generation.

It is not just high school or college students. I want to read to you from a couple of handwritten letters I recently received from elementary school students in New Mexico.

Brook is 9 years old from Albuquerque. She wrote to me: ``The Earth is important to me because if we don't take care of earth now things are going to get much worse, please do something.''

Orla, age 10, from Rio Rancho, wrote:

The Earth is important to me because Earth is the only

planet perfect for us. Earth is the place we live, plants

live, where other creatures big and small live. And if we

don't do something about this now, our Earth will not be

Earth, but Junk. We will have no place to live. Please do

something. NOW!

If these children can see so clearly how important it is, how desperately urgent it is to fight for the future of the planet, why on Earth can't our Nation's leaders here in Washington? I think it is long past time for us to listen to our children who are pleading for us to take action and to leave them with a better world in which to live. It is long past time for us to think through substantive solutions that can move us away from carbon pollution that is causing this crisis.

That means we should refuse to continue down the climate deniers' desired path of inaction. That will only keep us moving toward more and more costly disruptions for our children. I am focused on implementing real and pragmatic solutions to eliminate this pollution. That is why I was proud to join with Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Schatz of Hawaii to introduce legislation this year that will finally put a price on carbon. The scientific consensus is clear--the destructive wildfires in my home State, the catastrophic hurricanes, and the extreme flooding we are experiencing are all directly linked to our pollution.

When we look at the climate modeling, one of the surest and, for that matter, one of the cheapest ways we can move the needle is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution because the truth is carbon pollution isn't free. We are all paying the price for carbon pollution in the billions of dollars we are spending each and every year to recover from climate disruptions of more extreme wildfires, floods, and storms. We need to stop socializing the cost of that pollution and ask those who produce it to bear its true costs. In other words, we need to internalize the price of carbon pollution at the source.

Our legislation, the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, would collect a fee from carbon polluters. It would also include a border adjustment provision to ensure that American manufacturers would still be able to compete on a level playing field and that international carbon polluters would pay a price. The fee for carbon pollution under our bill would start at $52 a ton, and it would rise 6 percent each year. This matches the midrange of the estimated cost of carbon that researchers at the Office of Management and Budget, under the previous administration, determined in 2016. Roughly translated, this is the cost that carbon pollution is already costing you and your neighbors because of its devastating effects. This is the cost that pollution producers should be paying, and we can put the revenues raised by this fee on carbon pollution directly to work helping American households.

Our legislation would raise a projected $2.3 trillion over 10 years that would be returned directly to American families in the States to transition us toward a clean energy economy. States would receive $10 billion a year to help pay for their transition toward clean energy and a clean energy workforce. This transition represents our greatest opportunity to create millions of new jobs all across our Nation and particularly in our rural communities. Wind technology and solar are already two of the fastest growing jobs in the Nation. States need to put real resources into training our workers for these clean energy jobs, and our legislation would make that happen.

The rest of the revenue from our legislation would be delivered directly to American families in the form of tax credits and Social Security and veterans' benefits. This is the responsible way forward. This is the type of market-based climate policy that should have the support of both Democrats and Republicans.

We know that to meet our climate goals and to limit the damage wrought by the climate crisis, we must immediately change our trajectory. We must move toward an economy that is run entirely--yes, 100 percent--on clean, pollution-free energy.

Our proposal is just one way to take a major Federal action that would move us quickly in that direction--and I would welcome a full debate in the Senate on the best way forward--but what is abundantly clear is that we can no longer afford to debate whether to move forward.

Our climate crisis often feels too big, too complex, too hard to fix. However, the scientific fact is, we have created this problem, and we possess the creativity and the tools and the technology to fix it. Our kids understand better than even most of us do that we need to act urgently and decisively. That is what leadership is all about. That is our job.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it is an honor to remember and recognize the life of Governor Everett Chavez.

Governor Chavez devoted his life to the people of Santo Domingo Pueblo and to building a strong future for the next generation of leaders in Indian Country.

Chavez served three terms as the Governor of Kewa Pueblo, also known as Santo Domingo.

Governor Chavez also served as the superintendent of the Santa Fe Indian School, mentoring Native youth and setting high expectations for their educational achievements.

He was a proud graduate of the University of New Mexico, where he received a degree in electrical engineering.

Thanks to his dedication, many students received scholarships for college and put their education to work in their communities.

Governor Chavez was powerful at influencing policy to benefit Indian Country at the highest levels of government.

Governor Chavez served on President Obama's advisory committee for Native American and Alaskan Natives.

He worked with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to increase voter registration and election participation in Native communities.

He was constantly building partnerships and implementing major initiatives in his community.

He was hard at work serving others until the very end.

New Mexico has lost one of our greatest leaders.

My thoughts are with Governor Chavez's family.

His legacy will endure in all of those he inspired through his selfless actions.

Mr. President, we don't have any more time to waste on political stunts, on climate denial or, for that matter, on climate ``delay-al.'' Enough with the straw man arguments from my Republican colleagues about hamburgers and ``Sharknado.'' Is that really the best they can do?

Climate change is real, and our pollution is causing its devastating impacts. Those are just facts.

As an engineer, I am certain our capacity to confront this challenge rests heavily on our ability to make policy that is actually driven by facts, by data, and by the best available science. That science provides us with clear and indisputable evidence that the destructive wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding we have seen are directly linked to human-caused climate change.

We are running out of time. It is past time for us to start implementing real solutions to eliminate our carbon pollution and mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change, and we must create a managed transition to an economy that is run on 100 percent clean energy. I encourage us to look to what just happened in my home State of New Mexico to see that this is possible, that it is not pie in the sky.

For more than a century, New Mexico has been a major part of our carbon-based economy--from coal, to oil, to gas. Yet, just last week, our new Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed into law sweeping legislation to move our State toward being a 100-percent carbon-free power sector by 2045. I am enormously proud of the hard work that has led to there being this landmark legislation. This major transition to clean energy will change our State and our economy for the better.

New Mexicans will save money in their monthly bills. Along the way, we will create thousands of new, high-paying jobs across our State, including in the communities that will be impacted by this transition. We are already seeing the massive economic potential of clean energy with the enormous wind farms and solar plants that are coming on line all across our State. Every new project brings new jobs and brings millions--sometimes billions--of dollars of investment.

That is the kind of action we need to take in the U.S. Senate. The United States can and must lead the way in this transition. That is why we are challenging Majority Leader McConnell to put an end to the political stunts.

Leader McConnell, bring your solutions to the floor. Let's get to work together.

I yield the remainder of my time to Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has been an incredible leader on this issue.

Mr. President, on March 4 and 5, 2019, I was unavoidably absent due to illness during rollcall votes Nos. 34 and 35. Had I been present, I would have voted nay.

Mr. President, I rise today to state the obvious--to state in clear terms what scientists have been warning us about for decades. The scientific data couldn't be any clearer. Climate change is real. Climate change is here, and we are causing its devastating impacts and disruptions. Unless we start to implement policies to curb our carbon emissions and to mitigate its impacts, climate change will continue to wreak havoc upon communities across the Nation and around the world.

These are facts. These facts present us with the greatest and most existential global challenge humanity has literally ever faced. There are not two sides to these facts. The Earth's five warmest years on record happened since 2014. It is not a coincidence. It is not an unexplained phenomenon. It is the direct result of both our actions and our inactions. Only the willfully ignorant refuse to acknowledge these facts and the gravity and urgency of what we face because of the fact of human-caused climate change.

Unfortunately, the current occupant of the White House and too many here in Washington can be counted in that camp. President Trump's decision to upend the Clean Power Plan and pull us out of the Paris climate accord was perhaps the most consequential representation of his inward-looking, isolationist view for America. It was a dangerous abdication of our Nation's leadership role on the international stage, and if we choose to accept his failure to lead here in Congress, we will continue down a path toward a very real and very costly climate disruption.

In the coming weeks, Majority Leader McConnell says he plans to call a vote here on the Senate on the Green New Deal resolution. I wish this were a genuine effort to address our climate challenges. Clearly, it is not. It is a political stunt by the majority leader to divide those who actually want to rise to the occasion and who actually want to address this crisis, rather than offer up any substantive solutions of his own.

The majority leader would have you believe that solutions to climate change are too costly or they are just too impractical to be taken seriously. I don't know about you, but to me, it is that view that is wildly out of touch and, frankly, dangerous.

President Trump and Republicans love to talk about the cost of climate action. What we should be focusing on is the much steeper cost of inaction and the economic benefits of America's leading the clean energy transition.

As an engineer, I am certain that our capacity to confront the challenges that we face, large and small, rests heavily on our ability to make policy that is actually driven by facts, by data, and by the best available science.

The latest data on climate change should be deeply alarming to all of us. Last fall, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report based on the research of thousands of our planet's leading climate scientists. It laid out in stark terms how critical it is for us to find a way to limit the planet's warming. Unless we can reduce global carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it will be nearly impossible to keep global temperatures below a rise of 3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.

I know that is a lot of numbers, but what those numbers mean in terms of real ecological, economic, and humanitarian costs is incredibly important. Global average temperatures have already risen by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and that change is wreaking havoc on communities around the world.

One month after the U.N. released its landmark report, 13 Federal Agencies finalized the ``Fourth National Climate Assessment,'' a report mandated by Congress to study the evidence and the impacts of current climate change. That report provided clear, indisputable evidence that the destructive wildfires, the catastrophic hurricanes, and the extreme flooding that we have seen in just the last couple of years is directly linked to human-caused climate change. These disasters are costing us billions of dollars each and every year.

The Pentagon has correctly called climate change a threat multiplier, meaning that climate impacts will amplify the existing threats to our national security. These are massive problems today--right now--not in some far off future. We need to recognize what the science is telling us. We need to recognize that the impacts and the disasters that we have seen so far are just the beginning.

Things are only going to get more chaotic, more unpredictable, and more expensive unless we change our trajectory. That is going to require global cooperation. It is going to require scientific ingenuity, and serious, sober policymaking based on the facts in front of us to put us on a better path.

I am proud that a number of my colleagues are stepping up to think through what those actions, what those solutions, and what those policies should be. We can have a healthy debate about the best ways to achieve these reductions in our emissions, but we can't credibly dispute the science, what it is telling us, and the urgency of the need to act. These are facts. It is chemistry. Yet, instead of allowing us to productively debate those solutions, Majority Leader McConnell is planning to waste our time on a political stunt.

Since Republicans took control of the Senate, they have not brought a single bill to the floor that would address emissions--not a single one--and they have taken many actions that have actually made the situation worse. This is not the serious legislating that we were sent here to do. This is not problem-solving.

The Senate is supposed to be the world's greatest deliberative body. We are supposed to come together here on the Senate floor and in our committees and think through the greatest issues and challenges of our time. We are supposed to propose and debate policies to meet those challenges. I would welcome a long overdue debate on what policies would most efficiently and most effectively address our challenges.

I know that climate change often feels too big and too hard to fix, but, frankly, we all need to get out of that mindset because climate change is a problem we can solve. In fact, climate change is a problem that we must solve.

The good news is that we already have the technologies and the people to do it. Clean energy technologies have been evolving rapidly in recent years, and many of the clean energy technologies that seemed absolutely unrealistic only a decade ago have become

the new normal. I see a future where my two boys will use a reliable, cheap, resilient electrical grid that is 100-percent powered by clean energy because of the technologies invented in this country and because of the technologies built and installed with American labor. We need to invest in actually deploying these technologies with the urgency necessary to make real progress. This should be a bipartisan priority, not only for its impact on curbing carbon emissions but because it will create millions of jobs in communities across this country.

Some States are already moving in this direction. In my home State, new wind farms and new solar generation are bringing in billions of dollars of private investment. They are creating thousands of new jobs. Without aggressive, forward-looking national policies, we will not move fast enough. The scale of this transformation will be gigantic. There is no doubt about that. But this great Nation is up to the challenge.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I start by thanking Senator Tom Udall, our senior Senator from New Mexico, for the incredible amount of work and really the years of advocacy and attention that have gone into many of the portions of this land package that he just described. Without his leadership, without his partnership, we would not be celebrating this opportunity today.

I rise to celebrate the landmark conservation measures that we are about to vote on here in the Senate. As a Senator from a State that proudly calls itself the Land of Enchantment, I know how much our public lands mean to New Mexicans. These are the places to which generations of families have gone to explore our natural wonders and to learn about our rich history and our incredible culture. Hunting and fishing, as well as hiking and camping, on our public lands are quite simply part of our identity in the State of New Mexico, and this relationship with our land and our water is fundamental to who we are.

These activities also fuel a thriving outdoor recreation economy that supports nearly 100,000 jobs in New Mexico

alone. Nationwide, outdoor recreation generates nearly $900 billion of consumer spending each year and directly supports more than 7 million American jobs. Think about that--7 million American jobs. That is why I thought to pass this legislation that will open additional access and create recreation opportunities on our public lands to support this important part of our economy.

I commend our chairman, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, our ranking member, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and our former ranking member, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. We are, to say the least, going through a frustrating political era here in Washington, and there just don't seem to be many things we can agree on these days. Yet the package of public lands and conservation bills that we are now considering on the floor reflect Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Manchin, and Senator Cantwell's leadership. It demonstrates their willingness to put aside partisan rancor and do the hard work that is required to build bipartisan consensus.

I am proud that we are moving forward to pass these bills that have earned broad, bipartisan support in our committee to conserve our public lands, to create new outdoor recreation opportunities, and to build on the success of our Nation's most effective conservation programs. I want to quickly highlight some of these incredible victories in this bill for New Mexico.

First and foremost, I am so proud that we are passing two bills to advance community-driven conservation visions for New Mexico's two newest national monuments--the Rio Grande del Norte and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. From the tops of the Cerro de la Olla and Ute Mountain to the depths of the Rio Grande Gorge, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico is one of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. The historic monument designation for the Rio Grande del Norte was the direct result of tireless efforts by those in the local community who were dedicated to protecting this area for future generations, and they worked for decades to do just that.

The legislation we are voting on establishes two new wilderness areas within this monument--the Cerro del Yuta Wilderness and the Rio San Antonio Wilderness. By designating the most rugged and unique habitat in the Rio Grande del Norte as wilderness, we can protect the monument's natural heritage for our children and for generations to come.

We are doing the same thing for southern New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks is incredibly rich in cultural and natural history. It includes six stunning mountain ranges. This is the very well-known Organ Mountains-- its profile known by everyone who has ever visited or lived in southern New Mexico. It also includes the Robledos, the East Potrillos, the West Potrillos, the Dona Anas, and the Sierra de las Uvas.

The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Conservation Act that Senator Udall sponsored, that I have cosponsored, and that we have worked together on for all of these years will safeguard sensitive cultural, historical, and natural treasures in this monument. ``Wilderness'' designation for several of the most rugged and unique areas in the Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks will promote the monument as a world-class destination.

President Obama based his 2014 ``national monument'' designation on the legislation introduced by Senator Udall and me, but, as with the Rio Grande del Norte, only Congress has authority to create additional federally protected wilderness.

We can now ensure permanent protection for the wildest places within the national monument, including the Organ Mountains but also the Potrillo, Uvas, and Robledo Mountains, as well as Aden Lava Flow and Broad Canyon.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to the diverse coalition of stakeholders from throughout our State who worked for decades to make the Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monuments a reality. From Tribal leaders to local elected officials, sportsmen, ranchers, land grant heirs, acequia parciantes, small businesses, and conservation groups, so many New Mexicans came together and worked together to make this possible.

Once again, I especially want to thank my colleague, the senior Senator from New Mexico, Tom Udall, and our former Senator Jeff Bingaman for their leadership and their partnership in getting this over the finish line.

These two monuments protect places that New Mexicans have long recognized as national treasures in their backyards.

Once we pass this legislation, we will put a capstone on years of work to make these monuments national models of community-driven, landscape-scale public lands conservation. I have no doubt that future generations will be grateful for what we are voting on here.

Speaking of future generations, I am also pleased that this public lands package includes my bipartisan bill, the Every Kid Outdoors Act. I want to thank Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee for joining me as the lead Republican sponsor of this bill. The Every Kid Outdoors Act will allow every fourth grader in America to visit our Nation's national parks or national forests or national wildlife refuges free of charge and to bring their families along with them.

Many of you might not know that long before I became a Senator, one of my first jobs in New Mexico was as the executive director of Cottonwood Gulch Expeditions--a 90-plus-year-old experiential education organization that takes children and adults out into the backcountry of our public lands.

Connecting kids to the outdoors can inspire a lifelong connection to conservation, while reaping all of the health benefits that go along with an active lifestyle. Some of my favorite memories are from my adventures on public lands with my wife Julie and with our sons, Carter and Micah, and I want all kids to have those same opportunities to fall in love with our amazing public lands.

Since 2015, the Department of the Interior has offered fourth graders and their families free entrance to all federally managed public lands. I can't tell you how popular this program has become. The Every Kid Outdoors Act codifies this effort into law and will encourage the creation of more educational opportunities for all of our kids on their public lands.

I am so excited that we are encouraging a new generation of kids--a generation that will explore the rich natural and cultural history on display in our parks, forests, and monuments. After all, they are the future stewards of these special places that we all love.

I also want to celebrate that we are voting to permanently reauthorize what I believe has been one of America's most successful conservation program ever, the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

In New Mexico, LWCF, as it is known--the Land and Water Conservation Fund--has protected iconic landscapes, such as the Valles Caldera, Ute Mountain, and Valle de Oro, without costing taxpayers a single dime. It has also provided for community projects, such as baseball and soccer fields, playgrounds, and picnic areas.

The broad support that LWCF has had from both Republicans and Democrats over the last half century is a testament to how well the program has worked all across this Nation; however, despite our best efforts to save LWCF, congressional inaction allowed the program to expire last year. I am proud to say that once we pass this package, we will no longer need to worry year after year about renewing this incredibly successful program. Now LWCF funds can continue being put to work protecting drinking water, providing public land access, and funding our neighborhood parks.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude once more to Chairman Murkowski for working with me to advance provisions in this package to improve public access on our public lands. Many pieces of the Sportsmen's Act are included in this, and I am especially pleased that we are passing my legislation, the HUNT Act, which will improve access to public lands wherever hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation are permitted.

With that, I would like to encourage all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan package of bills. I am confident that they will grow our outdoor recreation economy, promote access to

our public lands, and support the sustainable use of our natural resources. What we will vote on will go a long way toward ensuring that the outdoor places that we all treasure will be protected for future generations of Americans to enjoy.

I yield the remainder of my time.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we are now in the third week of President Trump's government shutdown. This is yet another manufactured, unnecessary, and irresponsible crisis from this President. This one comes at a steep, steep cost for very real people. A government shutdown ripples throughout the entire economy. It shakes consumer confidence. It impacts hard-working families.

In my home State of New Mexico, almost 6,000 Federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay, many of whom were already living paycheck to paycheck before this President's shutdown.

Carol from Tijeras wrote to me: ``I feel I am being held Hostage by my government which I have always felt it was an honor to work for.''

Carol is worried about how she and her coworkers are going to pay their mortgages and their car payments if this shutdown continues.

Kathy from Los Lunas wrote to me: ``I am a federal employee and I am dismayed that the president is holding us hostage. . . . He needs to quit toying with our lives and all of the public that we support and serve and end this shutdown.''

It is hard to say it any better than that. The shutdown's impacts hit far more than our Federal employees. Hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans rely on the Federal agencies that President Trump refuses to reopen.

During President Trump's shutdown, our public lands have had to lock their gates or leave parks and facilities unstaffed. The impacts of reduced visitation, the challenges for furloughed public land workers, and the costs of repairing the damage accrued during the shutdown will hurt communities across our State and many others.

In this era of increasingly extreme and catastrophic wildfires, I am particularly worried about the impact that a prolonged shutdown will have on our national forests.

Nicholas, a wildland firefighter fighter from Las Cruces wrote to me that he and his coworkers have been furloughed. He says: ``If this shutdown is

not resolved, it will impact my ability to provide for my family.''

Nicholas deserves to be able to support his family. Our communities can't afford to wait for Nicholas and his coworkers to do their essential work that keeps our forests healthy and prevents more destructive wildfires.

Our State's farmers and rural communities are also facing increased uncertainty. That is because President Trump's shutdown has shuttered the Department of Agriculture, which funds agricultural loans and many economic development programs in rural communities.

If the shutdown continues into next month, as President Trump seems entirely willing to allow, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--sometimes referred to as food stamps--will run out of funding. That would mean that millions of Americans--including more than half a million in New Mexico alone--would be left struggling to put food on the table.

Over the weekend, KOB, one of our local television stations in Albuquerque, talked to New Mexicans who would be impacted by a lapse in food stamps funding. One man named Steven said:

All of us who use food stamps rely on it. That's how we

eat, that's how we get our nutrition.

He said that if he can't receive his support for food next month, he might have to take out a loan and go into debt.

New Mexico is also home to many Tribal nations, which are disproportionately impacted by a lapse in Federal funding and are now under distress to meet very basic needs in their communities. That includes things like law enforcement, education, housing, and transportation.

Let me tell you one example I heard from the Mescalero Apache Tribe in southern New Mexico. Mescalero's lands span more than 700 square miles. Because of President Trump's shutdown, the Tribe's federally funded police force has been furloughed. Just think about what that means for someone who needs help, someone who needs to report a crime, or someone who needs medical attention.

I need to remind us that this shutdown comes right after Congress failed in December to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Now, without this law and without funding, Tribes are especially strained in addressing an epidemic of sexual violence that has been so acutely felt in their communities.

Mescalero has seen every single one of its Bureau of Indian Affairs social workers and victims specialists furloughed. That is extremely dangerous for women and children who are victims of abuse. These are real people's lives being unnecessarily damaged by President Trump all because he will not stop holding our government hostage.

Perhaps most telling about President Trump's shutdown is the impact it is having on our Federal workers responsible for keeping our Nation safe along our southern border. As a border State, New Mexico is more familiar than President Trump with responsible and smart border security policies. In fact, our State is the proud home of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, one of the primary training centers for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers. Because of President Trump's shutdown, the workers at FLETC and all of the officers working at our ports of entry and agents along our border are either furloughed or working without pay. How can it possibly be the best way to keep our Nation's border region safe and secure?

The President has said he would be proud to shut down our government, and, well, I have to say there is nothing--nothing--to be proud of about any of this. The President can--the President must--put an end to this shutdown.

Look, the way out of this is pretty straightforward. The votes are not there in either the House or the Senate to make Americans pay the bill for President Trump's wasteful border wall.

Signing a bipartisan government funding bill to reopen the government is the only responsible way forward. The only thing he is doing by refusing to back down is hurting Americans like the families I represent in New Mexico, like the people who work along our southern border. They expect and deserve so much better than this irresponsible--this preventable--shutdown.

President Trump has all the power to end this madness right now. I will say this one last time. Mr. President, if you are listening, listen to the American people. Listen to the people who work for you and me and this entire Nation whom you are you hurting. Do the right thing and end this now.

Mr. President, I will.

That is correct.

A little over 2 million people.

I was aware of that.

Thank you.