Floor Statements

Mr. President, it is my honor to recognize the heroic life of Samuel F. Sandoval, Sr., who passed away on July 29, 2022. Mr. Sandoval had been one of the last four remaining Navajo Code Talkers who served during World War II and whose unbreakable code using the Navajo language delivered military communications and played an indispensable role in America's victory in the Pacific.

Mr. Sandoval was Naasht'ezhi Dine'esh, Zuni Clan, and born for Tl'aashchi'i, Red Cheek People. He was born on October 24, 1923, in Kimbeto, NM, near Chaco Canyon and graduated in 1942 from the Navajo Methodist Mission School in Farmington, NM, where he was discouraged from using the Navajo language.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in March of 1943 and completed his basic training Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA, where the original 29 Code Talkers had arrived the previous fall. After transferring to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA, he and other Code Talkers created more than 600 codes using words from the Navajo Language. As one of the 418 Navajo Code Talkers, he used the 813-word Navajo code to securely send and receive military communications.

Mr. Sandoval served in five combat tours, including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Peleliu, and Okinawa, before his honorable discharge in January 1946. In recognition of his military service, Mr. Sandoval received the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, a Combat Action Ribbon, a China Service Medal, a World War II Victory Medal, a Navy Occupation Service Medal with Asia Clasp, and an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with a silver star, in lieu of five bronze stars.

After the war, Mr. Sandoval earned a degree in substance abuse counseling from the University of Utah. He worked for many years as a counselor, assisting Navajo people experiencing alcohol addiction and substance use disorders at his clinic, To-Tah Alcohol Counseling.

Like other Code Talkers, Mr. Sandoval had strict orders not to discuss their secret mission during the war or until it was declassified decades later in 1968. After their role was revealed publicly, Mr. Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, took immense pride in their experiences as Code Talkers and worked to educate the public about their contributions. Mr. Sandoval told his personal account in both a book and documentary titled, ``Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior.''

In 2001, Mr. Sandoval received a Congressional Silver Medal from President George W. Bush in recognition of his service as a Code Talker. Earlier this year, during his last trip away from home, Mr. Sandoval received American Spirit Award for Bravery from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA. He was looking forward to attending the groundbreaking for the Navajo Code Talker Museum in Tse Bonito, NM, which took place on National Navajo Code Talkers Day on August 14.

My thoughts are with his widow, Malula, his surviving siblings, his six children, his 33 grandchildren, his 33 great-grandchildren, and all those on the Navajo Nation and in New Mexico who he inspired through his incredible life of service.

This amendment disrupts the carefully negotiated delicate balance of this agreement, putting really the entire reconciliation vehicle at risk.

Therefore, I would urge my colleagues to vote no on the amendment.

Vote on Amendment No. 5409

Mr. President, these are all problematic amendments that would jeopardize the underlying legislation and the progress on climate, on prescription drugs, and on a whole host of other things. So we should all vote no. We should pass this important bill, and we should be done with this.

Vote on Amendment No. 5487

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, what my colleague from Kentucky is attempting to do here is to really short-circuit the bedrock public health protections in the Clean Air Act.

And make no mistake. This is a major policy change; not a minor change. It would have far-reaching impacts. For example, this policy would clearly make food even more expensive; it would make air quality worse. And it is not even eminently clear that the impact on gas prices would necessarily be negative.

So, fundamentally, this is the kind of sweeping policy that should actually go through the committee of jurisdiction--in this case, the Environment and Public Works Committee.

So I object.

Mr. President, like many of my constituents in New Mexico, I am a gun owner. I have a sincerely held respect of law- abiding gun ownership.

Many of my own most cherished memories involve the responsible use of a firearm to feed my family and to forge memories with my sons and my closest friends. But those same sons grew up doing active shooter drills in their classrooms, something that would have been absolutely unimaginable when I was their age. And just this spring, my son's high school was on lockdown when I arrived, due to a nearby shooting that actually involved students from that high school. That type of experience has become all too common in our country.

The gun violence our communities are experiencing is appalling, and it is unacceptable. It is evident from the unthinkable mass shootings that we have witnessed in Uvalde and Buffalo and Tulsa and Vestavia Hills and El Paso. And it is evident in the mounting number of gun homicide and gun suicides that have taken tens of thousands of lives each year.

My home State of New Mexico continues to struggle with one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the country; and in recent years, far too many New Mexicans have lost friends and family members to this epidemic of violence.

I personally refuse to accept the idea that we are so divided in this country that we can't do something to make this situation better. That is why I join my good friend Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and a number of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to try and chart a meaningful path forward. Over these past weeks, we have engaged in challenging but productive conversations. We found areas of agreement on real solutions that we can and we will pass here in the U.S. Senate.

Our bipartisan negotiations and the legislation that they have produced prove that we can work together in this body. And they show that when we set aside the vicious politics that have held us back for too long on this particular issue, we can actually create policies that save lives.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act includes Federal resources to help States and Tribes implement crisis intervention programs.

New Mexico passed a law to establish one of these programs just last year. The goal was to ensure that deadly weapons were kept out of the hands of those that a court, with due process, determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others. But as of last month, New Mexico had only used our law nine times, primarily due to a lack of funding and resources and training.

Just last month, on Mother's Day, New Mexico tragically lost two teens, shot and killed by a man who very likely could have had his firearm removed using New Mexico's crisis intervention law.

The alleged suspect had been issued a temporary restraining order at the request of his former girlfriend and the mother of one of the victims. The restraining order showed that he was in possession of two firearms. Unfortunately, the local sheriff's office failed to recognize the threat that he posed and didn't use our State's law to remove the firearms that he used to take the lives of two young New Mexicans.

If we can provide our law enforcement officers and courts the funding and training they need to make crisis intervention laws effective, we can protect our communities and ensure that future lives are not lost. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will help us do just that.

Our legislation also enhances the review process for firearms buyers under 21 years of age. This new process will require an investigative period to review criminal and mental health records, including checks with State databases and local law enforcement.

Over the last 4 years, six of the nine deadliest mass shootings were by people who were 21 or younger. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act ensures we respond to this deadly trend in a meaningful way.

Our legislation also makes clear who the Federal firearm licensing requirements apply to, leading to more firearm sales that require a background check.

We are finally making sure that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders are included in the Federal background check database, whether or not the abuser is married to the victim. That has long been a major failure in Federal law, and it has allowed dangerous abusers, who are dating but not married to their partners but whom we know pose a violent threat, to acquire deadly weapons. This provision alone will save an enormous number of lives.

Our legislation will also make historic investments in community behavioral health and school-based mental health services, and it will increase access to behavioral health services through telehealth.

The bill will help support school violence prevention efforts and provide training to school personnel and students so that they can recognize the signs that so often precede some of these violent shootings events.

Over the course of our negotiations, I worked especially hard on a few key provisions with my colleague from Maine, Senator Susan Collins. Our provisions will crack down on straw purchasing and trafficking of firearms. These provisions will directly reduce gun violence in our home States and internationally. Let me take a moment to explain how.

Under current law, it is a minor paperwork offense to buy a gun for someone else. And even then, that only applies if you buy the gun from a Federal firearm licensee. Under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we are making it a serious crime to buy a gun for someone else when you know that person will use the gun to commit a felony or that they are not allowed to buy a gun themselves. That applies whether you buy the gun from a Federal firearm licensee or not.

The consequences of this simple change will be real. It will keep deadly weapons out of the hands of people who would use them to hurt others, and it will level serious consequences for those who break the law.

Just last year, a New Mexico State Police officer was tragically killed during a traffic stop in Deming, NM. Officer Darrion Jarrott was shot and killed by a convicted felon whose wife had allegedly purchased the gun for him. She is now being prosecuted under the paperwork offense that is currently on the books. But under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, she would be facing more severe and deserved consequences for her role in the death of a State police officer.

This legislation will also stop the type of organized straw purchasing and trafficking that we have seen too often in New Mexico and elsewhere. Right now, law enforcement has to watch as an organized chain of straw purchases happen one after another, intended to protect the person most at fault--the mastermind of the operation--by keeping them far removed from the purchase that happens at an FFL, at a Federal firearm licensee.

Our law enforcement watched this happen, but they can only go after the person who walked into the FFL and made the very first of that series of straw purchases--that is usually the person least involved in the scheme. But that is about to change. Soon, these ringleaders won't be able to distance themselves from the law anymore.

With our new straw purchase provision, law enforcement will be able to go after every link in the illegal chain of purchases to take down the entire ring, not just the vulnerable individuals these rings sometimes rely on to make the initial purchase.

There is more. While trafficking firearms into the United States is a major Federal crime under existing law, trafficking firearms out of the United States has not been. For years, this has meant that firearms trafficked out of the United States are the primary supply of guns used to commit violent crimes in Mexico, in El Salvador, in Honduras, and in Guatemala.

It has also invited dangerous firearm trafficking into communities on both sides of our Nation's southern and northern borders. We saw this in my home State about a decade ago when a major firearms trafficking ring was uncovered in Columbus, NM. This trafficking operation involved the chief of police, the mayor, a village trustee, and an estimated 190 firearms, including large numbers of handguns and assault rifles. And the crime they were charged with? Lying on their paperwork.

Not anymore. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act takes this violence on with the severity that it deserves. It gives law enforcement the tools they need to stop this activity and the violence it directly and indirectly creates in our communities and within our borders. By taking on the violence that families are fleeing in their home countries-- violence that our inadequate gun laws have actually contributed to--we are also taking meaningful action to address a root cause behind so many refugees coming to our country.

Now, I fully recognize that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a compromise. Many of the parents and students who have raised their voices to demand action on gun violence would like us to go further. But progress has to start somewhere. The hardest part of every negotiation is letting go of the perfect for the possible, and I am confident that the legislation we are voting on will make a real difference in reducing gun violence--a difference that will be measured in lives. It will boost public safety, it will invest in mental health, and it will keep more firearms out of the hands of those who would use them against their communities.

The painful truth is that we can never bring back those precious children whose lives were cut short in Uvalde, TX; in Parkland, FL; in Newtown, CT; or Aztec High School, West Mesa High School, Deming Middle School, and Washington Middle School in my State. We can never offer enough words to heal the grieving families all across the country who have lost their sons and daughters and their brothers and sisters and their fathers and mothers to gun violence. But what we can do by voting to pass this legislation in the Senate is to honor their memory--not just with condolences and hopes and prayers but with concrete action.

I would encourage all of my colleagues to support the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Each life that we save by passing this legislation will mean literally everything to that person's loved ones, and that is what this is all about.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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 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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11 a.m., Wednesday, January 5; 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 and resume consideration of the Witkowsky nomination; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. 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, it is my honor to recognize Dr. Barbara Damron's countless contributions in service to New Mexico over the course of her career as she transitions from her position as the chief government relations officer for the University of New Mexico, including the central campus, the health sciences center, and all branch campuses.

For more than three decades, Dr. Damron has built an impressive resume of experiences as an education leader, a healthcare executive, a college professor, an international consultant, an advanced practice nurse, and a cancer scientist. In addition to her work at the University of New Mexico, she has served as the New Mexico Higher Education Department Cabinet Secretary and as the State Higher Education Executive Officer, where she oversaw all of our State's 28 institutions of higher education, 4 Tribal colleges, and over 190 private and proprietary postsecondary schools.

Dr. Damron led the Common Course Numbering System, which aligned all lower division courses among institutions of higher education throughout New Mexico. As cabinet secretary, Dr. Damron demonstrated her responsiveness to and collaboration with communities in our State. Dr. Damron has also chaired the New Mexico Education Trust Board and New Mexico's 529 college savings plan and served as a commissioner of the Western Interstate Commission and of the Education Commission of the States.

I appreciate Dr. Damron's deep engagement with my office as she worked to help bring the University of New Mexico's impressive talent and resources to bear against the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our communities. I will always be grateful for both Dr. Damron's incredible management skills and the sense of humor she has always brought to her work.

I am pleased that Dr. Damron will keep serving New Mexicans as an educator by continuing to teach students in the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center's College of Nursing. I am confident that her commitment to the success of our State's students and educators will never end. And I congratulate her on this next chapter of her career.

Madam President, Rudolfo Anaya's writing captured the beauty of New Mexico's landscapes and the strength and resilience of our people. It is a testament to the power of his literary work that so many New Mexicans recognize themselves and their families in the characters of his award-winning novels. Known to many as the godfather of Chicano literature, Mr. Anaya taught all of us to cherish the rich traditions, cultural heritage, and deep-rooted communities in our State.

Mr. Anaya was born and raised in Pastura and Santa Rosa, small communities in Guadalupe County. His childhood experiences on the desert flatlands of the Lllano Estacado later inspired much of his best work. After his family moved to the historic Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, Mr. Anaya attended Albuquerque High School and the University of New Mexico. Through many decades as a lifetime educator, Mr. Anaya taught and mentored students in Albuquerque Public Schools and at the University of New Mexico.

In 1972, Mr. Anaya published his coming-of-age novel, ``Bless Me, Ultima,'' about a young boy's search for spirituality and his sense of place. The novel broke new ground by centering the unique experiences, complex cultural identities, and deep-rootedness of Hispanic and Chicano New Mexicans. ``Bless Me, Ultima'' has stirred the hearts of countless readers over the years and inspired adaptations for theater, a feature film, and an opera. On a personal note, reading ``Bless Me, Ultima,'' was also an important part of the experiences and events that led my wife, Julie, and I to settle and raise our family in New Mexico.

Over the course of his prolific literary career, Mr. Anaya wrote a wide range of novels, stories, nonfiction essays, and poetry that captured the spirit and culture of New Mexico. In 2002, he was awarded the National Medal for the Arts by President George W. Bush and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2016.

Rudolfo Anaya leaves behind a legacy that will never be forgotten. As we remember his incredible life, my thoughts are with his family, the countless people he mentored and taught, and everyone who experienced the power of reading his work. I am certain I join so many others in our State in honoring and lifting up the life of this quintessential New Mexican.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess subject to the call of the Chair.