Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum be rescinded.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak on two separate and distinct matters relating to the military.

Remembering Our Armed Forces

Justin Eldridge

Madam President, no one in this body other than I had the privilege to know Justin Eldridge of Waterford, CT. Justin was a true American hero, a patriot--a U.S. marine who served our country in Afghanistan and who scarcely more than 24 hours ago took his own life at his home. My thoughts and prayers are with Justin's wife Joanna and their four children and all of Justin's family and friends, fellow marines, who grieve his loss at this difficult time.

I first came to know Justin when he formed a chapter of the Marine Corps League in southeastern Connecticut. He believed deeply in the Marine Corps and in service to his country, his family, and in the values and traditions and ethos of all of our great U.S. marines and the men and women who wear the uniform.

Yesterday, Justin Eldridge lost his own battle--a long battle with post-traumatic stress that he fought heroically after serving in the Marine Corps for 8\1/2\ years before his medical retirement in 2008. Even after he returned home from Afghanistan, Justin had a long fight ahead of him. He returned home with the signature wounds of this war-- both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress--and he worked for years to get the specialized treatment he needed. He tried hard to be there for his family. According to his wife Joanna, his four children loved having him around.

He faced another all-too-common problem in this country--health care at the Veterans' Administration and accessing the care he needed. He was admitted to the VA hospital and began a long road of treatment. I cannot express in words how deeply sorry I am that treatment evidently proved unsuccessful--perhaps not the result of the VA or its doctors or its hospital because we are only beginning to learn as a country and society how to confront post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury with the specialized diagnosis and care these diseases demand.

Even in grief we should not forget Justin's service to his country and his joy and his pride in that service--and he deserved both joy and pride--as well as his long-fought battle here at home.

I wish to take this occasion to encourage anyone who is suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, or any other wounds of war to reach out for help. The Veterans Crisis Line is there to help you. Anyone who needs that help can call 1-800-273-TALK. Courage is shown not only on the battlefield but afterward upon return when an individual in need of help seeks it, as Justin did.

Justin's story also reminds us of the heroic caregivers who take care of our Nation's veterans. We owe thanks to the people who dedicate their lives to helping those who have served.

Joanna also deserves our thanks because she was there for Justin, by his side throughout his treatment. She never gave up; she never relented; she never surrendered. She was his full-time caregiver, participating in the VA's caregiver program.

Justin himself continued to give back. I will never forget my conversations with him at that Marine Corps League event and afterward by email and phone.

Joanna is a strong advocate for all veterans, as we should all be. She studied psychology in college and hopes to go to law school. She wants to dedicate her life to being a veterans advocate, and I commend her and all of our military families, all of our military spouses who are there for their loved ones who seek to reach out. We need to keep faith with those veterans. We need to know and discover what will conquer the demons that often threaten to subdue our bravest and most selfless veterans when they come back and to give them the courage and the strength they need to conquer these dreaded diseases that we ourselves have a complicity in creating. We have an obligation and an opportunity to do more and we must keep faith and make sure no veteran is left behind.

My heart and prayers go to Justin's family and, of course, I know I am joined by all the Members of this body not only in grieving but in offering our help and service if there is anything we can do.

Madam President, I would like to speak on a topic that has been discussed by two of my colleagues this morning, the senior Senator from Texas, Senator Cornyn, and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Chairman Carl Levin. I thank my colleagues for joining me in raising a vital issue that must be addressed by this body and by Alan Estevez--a well-qualified nominee for the position of Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

I will vote for the confirmation today of Alan Estevez. I believe he is well qualified and has the credentials to perform with distinction in this role. I hope that uppermost on his list of priorities will be the Mi-17 helicopter acquisition that is so misguided and wrongheaded in the way it has been handled by our own Department of Defense.

If one were to stop at Stella's corner restaurant on Main Street in Stratford, CT, for lunch or a cup of coffee and ask the folks there: What do you expect from your government? I think one of the things they would say is they expect the Congress and all of us here to keep our country safe; and that when it comes to buying the equipment for our troops and allies, we should do so, hands down, no doubt about it, by buying American. It should be made in America, manufactured in Connecticut or in the United States. Nothing could be more simple or straightforward. Yet somehow that Main Street common sense is simply ignored across the river at the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, where so many decisions are made.

Since becoming a member of the Armed Services Committee I have become aware the Department of Defense committed almost $1 billion to provide Afghanistan a fleet of Mi-17 helicopters. Let me clarify: Russian helicopters going to Afghanistan with American tax dollars, bought from the Russian export agency that at the same time is selling arms to Bashar Assad to kill his own people in Syria.

Since 2005, the United States has been procuring Mi-17s to build the capacity of the Afghan military and is working toward a total fleet size of approximately 80 helicopters. The Afghan military had approximately 50 Mi-17s as of last year, and this year the Army awarded a $572 million contract to purchase another 30, with approximately 15 more to come, to replace the aging helicopters the Afghan military has already run into the ground and failed to maintain.

The contract to award these helicopters was managed in a way to prevent any American helicopter companies from bidding on the work, even though the analysis of the Department of Defense in 2010 concluded the made-in-America CH-47D Chinook helicopter is the most cost- effective single platform type fleet for the Afghan Air Force over a 20-year life cycle.

I acknowledge I may be partial to helicopters made in Connecticut. The best helicopters in the world are made in Connecticut by the Sikorsky employees who happen to stop at Stella's on Main Street for lunch or a cup of coffee, and I see them there all the time. The H-92 troop transport helicopter or H-60 should also be considered by the Department of Defense for this mission. But at the end of the day, ``made in the USA'' ought to be the ruling principle. Made in the USA-- American helicopters for the American military and American allies.

In 2011, the Army contracted with the Russian state-owned arms export firm Rosoboronexport. Yes, the very same Rosoboronexport that arms our enemies in Iran and is a key enabler of Assad's ongoing slaughter of his own civilians in Syria. Women and children in Syria die by the arms provided by Rosoboronexport--purchased by Assad with money financed by Russian banks and purchased from Rosoboronexport. These are well- documented crimes against humanity--war crimes that eventually should be prosecuted.

I am working with my colleague Senator Ayotte on legislation to strengthen the contracting provisions that prohibit ``contracting with the enemy.'' These contracts are, in effect, supporting enemy purchases. Before us is a glaring example of contracting with the enemy.

We have all heard testimony that preventing mass atrocities in Syria was complicated by their air and naval defense systems that prevent the protection of civilians in Syria and threaten its neighbors in Turkey and Jordan. Where did those systems come from? The answer is Rosoboronexport--the same systems that could shoot down our planes if we pursue additional measures against Syrian war crimes, the same entity that arms Iran, where we currently are seeking solutions against nuclear armament, and where we have said all options should be on the table in terms of our military action. The Department of Defense thinks the best thing for our long-term national security is to pay the Russian arms dealer that threatens global stability and our own freedom of action.

But it gets worse. Without question we have overpaid for these Russian helicopters. A general told me the best way to think about these helicopters is they are ``flying refrigerators'' that we never should have bought in the first place. We paid about $18 million a copy, while Russia sold other nations Mi-17s for $4 million each. What a bargain. Other countries buy each helicopter for $4 million, we pay $8 million.

And it is still worse. The Army acquisition office that handled this contract is now under investigation for ``questionable transactions,'' including potentially improper payments to Russian companies involved in the repair of these helicopters as well as problematic personal ties between the Army officials in this office and those foreign entities.

If I went to Stella's and I told this absolutely remarkable story, I am hoping the folks there would say: No, you must be making this up. This couldn't happen at the U.S. Department of Defense. No way in the United States of America, not with our tax dollars. But in fact it is all true, and I have tried to cite the facts as objectively and dispassionately as possible.

I suspect for anybody at Stella's who might have believed this incredible tale, they would have said: Well, if a tenth of that is true, what are you going to do to stop it? What are you going to do to end this waste of taxpayer money and the insult and outrage to the American taxpayer? Well,

we did something. At my urging, and through the work of my colleagues who have spoken, including Senator Cornyn, Congress, in the Defense Appropriations Act, expressly prohibited the Department of Defense from spending any more taxpayer money on Russian helicopters and doing business with Rosoboronexport.

In fact, I wrote to the Secretary of Defense about this program. I have written numerous letters, and I have met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Did that stop these purchases? No. The $\1/2\ billion contract recently signed, recently completed, now under way by the U.S. Army for more Russian helicopters, used previously appropriated funds to ignore the will of Congress. Clearly, the spirit and intent of the National Defense Authorization Act was to end these purchases. The U.S. Department of Defense, in effect, has defied the will of Congress.

So here we are today, almost $1 billion out the door and the near certainty these helicopters are going to be used to smuggle drugs--that is right, smuggle drugs in Afghanistan. That purchase has occurred. The contract has been completed. And we can be sure, just as they failed to maintain those helicopters in the past, they will fail again in the future because the Afghan national security forces don't have the people trained to maintain the helicopters. In fact, right now it doesn't have the people trained to fly those helicopters. And in a few years what the American taxpayer will have to show for this folly is rusted scrap heaps at Bagram Air Force Base.

I understand that some in the Pentagon started this program with good intentions. Their thinking may have been that the Afghans already had some of these helicopters in the process of standing up their capability to defend themselves, they ought to have a few more, and then transition to a more capable helicopter. I have heard from our generals that we need these helicopters because the Afghans know how to fly them. But the fact is this program was never designed to be sustainable after we leave Afghanistan. My hope is we will leave Afghanistan sooner rather than later. There is simply no transition in place now or in the foreseeable future to buy American, to train those Afghan pilots how to fly those American helicopters, how to maintain American helicopters.

When the Russians forced us to procure the helicopters from them directly, rather than excess helicopters from countries like the Czech Republic, we should have made a course correction immediately, even if we thought those kinds of helicopters were necessary in the short term. There were options and alternatives that should have been pursued and they were not.

That is why I believe the plan requested by the senior Senator from Texas makes a lot of sense. He has asked the Department of Defense for an alternative plan for meeting the Afghan requirements. We cannot walk away from a problem that we created. We cannot walk away from the need for a transition. But there is a better way to get there. The answer, very simply, is buy American, buy American helicopters.

I expect Mr. Estevez will be confirmed today. But I want to say to him please, as one of your priorities, figure out a way to end these purchases from Rosoboronexport. You owe it to the Members of this body. You owe it to the American people to find a way to buy American and to keep faith with the brave men and women who will use the equipment that you will help purchase with taxpayer dollars. I know you take this responsibility seriously, and I hope that you will bring that seriousness of purpose to these issues because they are important, not just to the military and not just to taxpayers, but most especially to the American men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of the 1- year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy's landfall in the Northeast and the destruction it brought on a ruinous path through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. I will be joined today on the floor--and I ask unanimous consent that we be permitted to engage in a colloquy--by my colleague from New York, Senator Schumer, and from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse, if there is no objection.

Mr. President, I can scarcely capture in words the awesome, monstrous power of this storm as it hit the Northeast as I traveled there. I was near the coastline of Connecticut, traveling some of the roads in the midst of this storm as it ripped through my State, tearing apart communities along the coast, destroying homes and businesses, displacing families, and forever altering the shoreline itself. Anybody who questions the power of nature at its most destructive should have seen this storm as it unfolded and the damage it left in its wake--in fact, in Connecticut, $770 million in damages.

What I remember from touring Connecticut is not only the size and magnitude of the destruction but also the resilience and strength of Connecticut's people as they struggled through the pain and anguish of coping with this devastation, wondering how they would ever rebuild. In fact, they have rebuilt with the courage and relentless strength and fortitude that have so marked the character of Connecticut and New England and New York as they rallied around one another and exhibited that sense of optimism and hope. It was as important as any material resources that were brought to bear. They rallied around each other with gratitude and with hope because they had each other, and they have succeeded in clearing the debris, reconstructing, rebuilding in a way that is inspiring.

I only wish Congress's response was as effective and courageous as that of the citizens of Connecticut that I viewed in the storm's aftermath. The Senate was slow to act, but it was before the House in passing the $60 billion recovery package for the Northeast. The effort was stalled in the House, quite bluntly, with bipartisan politics of the worst kind and trivial obstruction.

There are lessons to be learned. No. 1 is that partisanship and politics should have no role in our response to disasters, whether in Oklahoma or Colorado or Louisiana or the Northeast. We are all in this effort together when disaster strikes. We should rally around each other as the people of Connecticut rallied.

Our response has to be quicker, smarter, stronger than it was in this institution. We owe it to ourselves as well as to the people who suffered the financial and emotional loss. For many of them, there were physical injuries as a result of this natural disaster.

Those two lessons are reinforced by a third, which is that these superstorms have become a new normal. We can no longer regard the once- in-a-century storm as once every hundred years. They are coming once every year because climate disruption is increasing their frequency and force in a way that is awesome and alarming and astonishing. So another lesson is that there has to be preparation to prevent damage and to mitigate the effects of these storms when they strike, and the investments--and they are investments--have to be smart and strong, with means such as storm barriers, breakers, better shoreline resilience.

Eventually, the Federal Government provided aid, and Connecticut has put to good use the $200 million that was distributed through the National Flood Insurance Program to homeowners and business owners. Cities and towns around my State have used $42 million in FEMA assistance, and more than $10 million has gone toward health services and facilities. As our Governor announced yesterday, an additional $65 million has been granted to the State to supplement the initial $72 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the form of community development block grants for disaster relief. These new Federal dollars are critical to the effort of rebuilding, and I will continue to fight not only for additional funds but also against the bureaucratic logjams and redtape that have prevented so many from receiving more timely aid.

This aid has come too slowly, it has been too small, and it has been behind the efforts--in time and strength--of the people of Connecticut. I will continue to fight for increased aid, including from the $100 million that was announced yesterday and today--today's announcement of the U.S. Department of Interior of $100 million in the coastline resiliency project. I will support all qualified applicants from Connecticut securing some of this competitive funding. We will fight for a fair allocation of this money to benefit the important work Connecticut is doing to strengthen our coastline so that we can prevent and reduce the effects of these storms in the future.

I had the privilege to travel the State as a leader of a listening tour for the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force this past May, just over the half-year mark from the time Sandy hit.

The progress made with this help from the Federal Government, combined with the good will, drive, and sense of responsibility toward one another--exemplified by the people of Connecticut--has been remarkable. We must resolve to do better at the Federal level, and I hope that not only the storm itself but the shortcomings of the relief effort will be a teaching moment for the Nation.

The evidence is irrefutable that climate disruption is impacting our oceans and atmosphere and leading to an increasing number of severe weather storm events across the country that we cannot control. We will see more of such monstrous storms here and in other parts of the country.

I thank my colleagues, Senator Whitehouse and Senator Schumer, who have been strong and steadfast leaders in this effort to recognize the effects of climate disruption and prepare for them.

Connecticut is in the process of upgrading our infrastructure to strengthen our resiliency among the most vulnerable communities. We are investing in microgrids, often powered by hydrogen fuel cells manufactured in our State, to provide backup power for hospitals and senior communities in towns such as Preston and Franklin, which I visited in the aftermath of the storm.

In Milford, residents are using HUD funding to elevate their homes so they can guard against these storm surges. Other coastal towns are employing green infrastructure with marsh grass to slow surging waters during storms.

In Stamford, CT, my hometown, the city is using Federal aid to upgrade a 17-foot hurricane barrier by replacing manual pumps to ensure against damage to the city's communities in future storms. I visited the shoreline of Stamford, as I did up and down the coast of Connecticut, and I have since, to see how Connecticut is learning these lessons so we can reduce dollar costs as well as human costs. The improvements taking place across Connecticut speak volumes to our strength of will and mind and the determined character of our people in Connecticut.

I express appreciation to colleagues, such as Senators Schumer and Whitehouse and others in this body, who helped us in a time of need. They came forth to provide encouragement and support. They assured the people of Connecticut that they are not alone.

No one in the United States--whether it is in the Presiding Officer's State of West Virginia or in the western most part of Hawaii--should be alone after being struck by a natural disaster. We need to rally together.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I thank both of my colleagues. I am not sure I can match their eloquence in describing their gifts and their contributions on this issue and so many others, but I hope they and others will join me in meeting with the present Sandy task force in seeking to remedy or correct perhaps some of the logjams and redtape and deficiencies in process that led the people of our States to wait for so long before they saw relief in practical terms.

I thank them for their eloquence today and for their truly formidable contribution on the issue of climate change and global warming and to thank them also for the very powerful contributions they have made on the response to Superstorm Sandy that affected so many people in Connecticut.

I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

I am very pleased to follow my colleague from Connecticut in recounting to this body some of the voices we have been hearing from across our State, some of the individuals whose stories make very compelling evidence for the need of this body to heed the bipartisan spirit--indeed, nonpartisan spirit that so animates and moves this country--to demand that we get the job done yesterday. I used exactly that expression to tell this body how important action is to move forward.

I am on the floor today with thanks to our majority leader Senator Reid, who has come to the floor and has so ably and courageously led us, not only on the Democratic side but also on the minority side as well. I hope we will demonstrate in this body the profile in courage the country expects and needs from us at this time.

I yield to the majority leader at this time if he has a message to bring to us.

Mr. President, let me add my voice to the eloquent and powerful remarks made by our majority leader and the Senator from New York, who have rightly deemed this House proposal an obstacle-- indeed, an obstructionist move--designed to perpetuate and not end the shutdown, and to block and not enable our efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise which would allow America to continue paying its bills on time.

Those two goals--ending the shutdown and enabling America to pay its bills on time--are the predominant objectives we must have as a bipartisan effort goes forward here in the Senate. This House proposal is doomed to failure. It would be a failure not just for

the legislative process, not for the political actors here, but a failure for America.

I am reminded of the remarks so well made more than 10 days ago by the majority leader about one aspect of the effects of this shutdown on an industry very important to his State of Nevada and very important to the Presiding Officer's State of Hawaii--the tourism, lodging, and hotel industry. That impact is devastating.

As their Senator, I have heard this morning from staff and employees of the Starwood Hotels based in Stamford, CT, who have written to Members of Congress about the effects they see to their company and to others like theirs in this industry--hotel and tourism--which is vital to the State of Connecticut. In fact, we invest constructively and positively in promoting our State's tourism industry.

I will read from a letter from Amy Kilbury, associate director of IT finance at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide:

The current impasse, now in its third week, is having a

negative impact both on the economy in general, and

specifically on the travel and tourism industry, which

depends on the confidence of business and individuals on the

future stability of the economy. The shutdown is having

ripple effects; as federal agencies have reduced their

operations so have private government contractors, and in

turn, this is affecting both business and leisure travel.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this letter, and a letter written by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

These Starwood employees are writing to their Senators and Members of Congress because they see firsthand the effects on their livelihood and their lives. The stories recounted earlier by my colleague from Connecticut and those I recited yesterday on the floor are real effects in the lives of real people, negative and painful--indeed, devastating effects on people who depend on the economic flow of certain and stable work by the government, contractors, and small and large businesses like Starwood that are affected.

There is no question the future health of the American economy depends on the policies we need to adopt

and advance to sustain economic growth--indeed, to make it more robust to preserve job creation and, in fact, heighten and enhance it, and to make sure that these employees of Starwood are well served, not impeded, by the government they supported with their taxes and they elected with their votes. We have an obligation to them to do better than we have.

I was deeply moved by the story recounted by Senator Durbin a short time ago on the floor about a young Iraq veteran more severely wounded than the ones I recounted yesterday. But he is a veteran like the individuals whose stories I told yesterday. They deserve better from our government. Indeed, they deserve an end to the kind of obstructionism we saw just a short time ago on the other side of this Congress, in the other branch of this legislative body, from Members of the House of Representatives who know the proposal they are making has no chance of adoption by the deadline we need to meet to make sure that the greatest Nation in the history of the world avoids default and continues to pay its bills on time.

The CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which represents Starwood, Katherine Lugar, said: Hotels are a major economic driver and job creator across the country, and the industry's ability to continue its growth is hamstrung by inaction from our policy members. The administration, the House of Representatives, and the Senate need to act swiftly in the best interests of the entire Nation and end this shutdown. Pay our bills on time.

That has been the objective of my colleagues on this side of the aisle and on the other side, like Senator McCain who has just come to the floor. That bipartisan effort has to be our objective. We need to do better for the American people and meet the obligations we now have.

As chairman of the subcommittee which has jurisdiction over the hotel and lodging industry, the commerce committee, we are hearing about how States such as Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada, as well as Connecticut, are losing millions of dollars every day in economic activity. In fact, the Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut is harmed, along with the Grand Canyon, and all the communities and industries associated with it. These issues are real and tangible. The harm is now and urgent.

I urge my colleagues to come together and resist the pressures and demonstrate the kinds of profiles of courage we have seen on both sides of the aisle--standing strong, speaking out, resisting partisanship-- and coming together for the good of the country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 15, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. room 428A Russell Senate Office building to conduct a hearing entitled ``Small Businesses Speak: Surviving the Government Shutdown?''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 15, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Oregon for speaking so forcefully and ably about the real-life stories in his State--stories of people affected very directly by the shutdown and the prospect of the greatest Nation in the history of the world failing to pay its bills on time. As powerfully as he spoke, so did our colleagues from California and Maryland, emphasizing again the evidence of how deep and broad the cumulative effect is of the shutdown.

I had occasion to speak to people across Connecticut, as I know my colleague, the Acting President pro tempore, has done over the past 10 days. He and I have talked about how Connecticut is affected and about the individuals there who have borne the burden of this shutdown. As in Oregon and California and Maryland, there are real-life stories of people who have been affected not just temporarily but lastingly and enduringly.

I had occasion over the last 48 or 24 hours to talk with many of them out of the glare of the public eye--privately, candidly--and I want to tell some of their stories today, beginning with a meeting I had this morning in East Hartford at VFW Post 2083, at the invitation of my good friend CDR John Hollis of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a group he helped to invite--veterans of conflicts ranging from Korea, to Iraq, to Vietnam, to Afghanistan--all ages, all races, religions--more than 20 of those veterans telling me their stories and imparting to me their message: Get the job done. Reach a bipartisan compromise and make sure the government opens and end the shutdown and pays its bills on time, as befits the United States of America, for which they fought, the Nation they served and sacrificed to keep free.

I was drawn by young men such as Micah Welintukonis, Jordan Massa, Michael Scavetta, David Alexander, veterans of the most recent conflict in Afghanistan; and John Hollis, Ed Dettore, Lester Yarmiel, Richard Kennedy, Mel Huston, Lucius Miles, who have fought in previous wars.

As a matter of fact, Micah Welintukonis has recently returned from Walter Reed, where he had to undergo the latest round of surgery to his arm, which was severely wounded in Afghanistan in combat there. That wound led him to receive the Purple Heart. He was there with his wife Camilla and his three children to talk to me about his fear that he will be denied benefits and compensation that he is due, he deserves, and needs--the disability claim that he may apply for.

Of course, Jordan Massa is also a Purple Heart recipient as a result of a wound that he likewise received in combat. He waited for 2 years to receive approval of his disability claim, only to learn on October 1 that he will very likely have to wait longer because of the VA furloughing so many of its employees.

Others who came to this meeting: Mike Scavetta from Wethersfield--a veteran who served in an Air Force military police unit deployed to Afghanistan, who needs the GI bill, which he credits as reconnecting him to a civil society after his return. He has applied for a higher disability rating with the Department of Veterans Affairs based on his continued experience of post-traumatic stress.

Jake Demaskiewicz in Rocky Hill, who has served not only in the Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, but on his return now in a nonprofit organization, is assisting other veterans. Thirty percent of his paycheck comes from the VA's vocational rehabilitation program, and he receives disability payments.

These payments, compensation claims will run out at the end of October, and the delays are present even now, discouraging and failing these brave combat veterans who have endured so much for our Nation-- the Nation that now has shut down these services because of a small fringe of extremist ideologues in one House of this Congress, one branch of this government, who have succeeded in paralyzing the process.

There are many other impacts on veterans in the denial of programs that are so important, many of which I have mentioned on the floor, such as the Education Call Center, personal interviews at regional offices, education and vocational counseling, outreach programs, including at military facilities and VetSuccess on Campus.

These programs and benefits and claims cannot be sustained by a piecemeal allocation of money. The claims need to be verified by going to other agencies such as the IRS. The labor training programs need to be provided by the Department of Labor. Opening one agency is no substitute for a comprehensive approach to serve these veterans and the people of the United States, whether it is Head Start children who depend on that program, or seniors who depend on nutritional services.

Over these past 2 weeks, I have spoken to home buyers whose loans cannot be processed by government agencies or by banks, business owners whose borrowing cannot be approved, potential victims of health threats who cannot be protected by the FDA or the CDC. There are researchers at the NIH and at places such as Yale who cannot continue their vital work to learn of new treatments, of advances in medicine that can help save people's lives and prevent suffering, and medical school applicants and Ph.D. candidates whose financial aid is in jeopardy and who cannot even, many of them, travel with government support to interview for their next possible assignment and study.

These ramifications are not limited to veterans. They affect our economy at its core. I warned about the effect on job growth and economic recovery and now it is visible, literally visible in the businesses and offices and places of employ throughout Connecticut.

Just yesterday in the Connecticut Post there was this story. The picture is of Robin Imbrogno. This picture of Robin Imbrogno from the Connecticut Post in yesterday's newspaper is of her at a meeting with her staff, preparing for their work. Their office in Seymour, CT, provides human resource services for businesses from California to Maine, across the country, to more than 150 business clients.

It begins:

Robin Imbrogno pulled her staff together after work on

Thursday for an update. How, she asked, has the federal

government's partial shutdown impacted business at her

company, the Human Resources Consulting Group. ``Even more

ways than I'd thought,'' she said moments later.

I am going to quote the article.

At the company's office in downtown Seymour, the staff of

about 30 was having trouble carrying out a host of tasks for

their more than 150 clients located from California to Maine:

For one, they can't access [the central source of information

in the government.] For another, they can't finish background

checks or file equal employment opportunity reports. Most

vexingly, perhaps, they got more phone calls than ever on

Monday complaining that paychecks hadn't arrived in people's

mailboxes across America--even though the U.S. Postal Service

is supposed to be fully staffed.

Their report is about new businesses that cannot open, retail businesses that cannot go into business because they cannot ``procure the necessary business license.''

As Robin said, ``It wasn't a fun phone call.''

There is evidence of this effect on employment in businesses across this country, across the State of Connecticut. This relatively modest- size business in Seymore, CT, the Human Resources Consulting Group, founded and headed by Robin Imbrogno, is just one of many across the country.

Her reports about the effects on jobs--we are talking jobs--is a wake-up call for this body. It is a wake-up call for not only the Congress but for everyone in positions of leadership, because this effect will be enduring.

In the same article from the Connecticut Post, it talks about the SBA not providing loans to small businesses: $150,000 worth of loans every day in one Congressional district in Connecticut alone. Eight companies slated to get SBA-backed loans from a private nonprofit organization will not receive them because of this shutdown.

There are other individuals. I cannot share all of their stories, but just a few. Mary Brady in Durham is trying to buy a home. She cannot do it because she is unable to verify Social Security numbers and income with the Internal Revenue Service; Jesse Pannell, who contacted my office because the buyer of his home in Union, CT, cannot process a loan from the USDA because the USDA employees are furloughed and there is no one to process his buyer's application.

In the city of New Haven, which I visited over the weekend, urban renewal is halted because of the shutdown. This city relies on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to proceed with foreclosure actions on developers. Those developers are subject to foreclosure actions when they fail to maintain their property, when that property becomes a blight on the neighborhood. But, of course, HUD employees are furloughed and they are not at their desks to help the city of New Haven.

This ripple effect spans the State and the country. It goes from loans to a physical therapy company, a car wash, a catering company, a dental firm, small businesses that populate Main Street. As much as we focus on the markets, on Wall Street, we are talking about Main Street in jeopardy because of this shutdown. These are real-life tragedies. There are real consequences to real people, real harm and hardship in real lives. This body has to listen to them, as I did, and as I have done over the past couple of weeks.

Behind all of this real harm to real people is the prospect of an even more horrendous possible harm resulting from this Nation failing to pay its bills on time. The havoc and chaos that would result, the calamity and catastrophe across the globe, the lasting impact on our Nation, on our credibility as a world power, simply is unthinkable and unimaginable.

How would we face our children if we were to allow this Nation to go into default? How would this generation explain itself to the next and the one after? Every generation enters into a compact in America that we will leave this Nation better than we found it, just as the World War II generation fought to preserve freedom and democracy and gave of itself in combat and then came back to build the interstates and desegregate our schools and put a man on the Moon. In peace as well as war, our veterans are coming back eager and ready to contribute to this country.

The men I just mentioned and met with in East Hartford at VFW Post 283, veterans across Connecticut, veterans across the country, expect more from this government and are eager to leave this Nation greater than it was left to them, and there are millions of other Americans who also are contributing and giving back in their own ways and who are committed to following that model of courage and dedication that has characterized previous generations. How do we face the next generation if we allow this great Nation to fail to fulfill its most basic obligation that every family meets--paying its bills on time.

It is often said America always does the right thing, after it tries everything else. I know I am paraphrasing, not quoting directly. Winston Churchill said democracy is the worst of all possible governments, except for all the others.

We do not have the luxury today of trying everything else before America does the right thing. We do not have the luxury of failing democracy and failing to pay our bills on time. We must meet this challenge and follow the example of those veterans and millions of other courageous Americans who have said to all of us, as they did to me this morning: Get the job done. Make sure the Government of the United States serves the people and pays its bills on time.

I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, yesterday the Veterans Affairs Administration announced it would furlough 7,000 Veterans Benefits Administration employees, and as a result activities and services in the following areas would be suspended: The education call center, personal interviews and hearings at regional offices, education and vocational counseling, outreach programs including at military facilities, the VetSuccess Program on campuses.

But this announcement is only the beginning of the contraction in the

services and activities of the VA. In fact, VA also announced that at the end of the month it will run out of funding for compensation, pension, educational and vocational rehabilitation, and employment benefits.

What does that mean for America? What are the consequences of the VA saying this shutdown means we are shutting our doors to processing and paying the claims of men and women who have served this country, who have been disabled as a consequence of that service, who have earned educational benefits so they can come back and continue to contribute to this country? What that means to America is we are in effect defaulting and failing on a core obligation this country has to men and women who serve and sacrifice. America is failing to keep faith with its veterans, and America is failing on one of its most essential obligations.

We ought to be ashamed and embarrassed that 7,000 men and women, who want nothing more than to help their fellow veterans--in fact, half of those 7,000 men and women at the VA are themselves veterans--have been told: Go home. In fact, at the end of the month the benefits, pensions, and educational benefits that are received by veterans will have to be suspended because the VA is running out of money. Right now it is in effect continuing on the leftover money, which will last only through the end of this month.

I spoke this morning to a veteran named Jordan Massa, a native of Bridgeport, who served for 6 years in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, including two tours in Iraq. Jordan Massa was injured in an IED explosion, a roadside bomb, that left him severely disabled with ear and back wounds as well as posttraumatic stress. Jordan Massa waited for 2 years after he applied for the benefits he needs and deserves, until October 1--just days ago--when he heard the good news that he would be receiving the disability benefits to which he is entitled--not as an act of charity or beneficence; he is entitled to those disability benefits. Now Jordan Massa is on the verge of being denied the benefits he needs and deserves because of this shutdown. A Connecticut native, awarded the Purple Heart, he has been a student at Tunxis, and has sought to help other veterans as a counselor--giving back to this country even after his service in uniform.

I spoke also to Aaron Jones, who works at the South Park Inn Shelter, which serves homeless veterans in Hartford. That shelter is full.

There are thousands of homeless veterans in Connecticut and millions across the country who also are a mark of shame and embarrassment for this country. The greatest Nation in the history of the world is failing to provide for men and women who have worn the uniform and now are homeless.

He is telling me the government shutdown has created an additional obstacle to those veterans who want to leave that shelter to find permanent housing. Some are there for emergency, about 7; some are there in transitional housing, about 10; and they want to resume productive and constructive lives. This shutdown has created an additional obstacle to their doing so. In fact, for Aaron himself, who is a veteran and served in the National Guard, a tour in Bosnia, a tour in Iraq, this shutdown is a horrendous obstacle.

At this moment as I speak on the floor there is a House hearing. The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has, as its principal witness, the head of the VA, General Shinseki, who has served this Nation with distinction and dedication and has sought valiantly to reduce the backlog in disability claims and to provide benefits more efficiently and effectively to our veterans.

Rather than using General Shinseki as a political punching bag, the House should simply have a vote. They should vote on a simple, straightforward, no-strings-attached funding resolution that would enable those 7,000 VA employees to come back to work and serve the people they love. It would provide for other essential services, whether at NIH serving cancer victims or the other agencies that work with the VA to help serve our veterans, such as the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The piecemeal approach the House is taking, a ``cause du jour'' approach to governing, is simply inadequate and irresponsible. The bill they have sent to us, while it deals with the VA, would not provide for those other agencies that are essential to the VA's work, whether in training or housing or processing claims.

This Nation should by embarrassed and ashamed. This legislature ought to be embarrassed and ashamed that it is failing to keep faith with Jordan Massa, with the folks who live at the South Park Inn Shelter, and countless other veterans in Connecticut and across this country who are entitled to benefits, pensions, and processing of their disability claims so they can receive what they deserve and need. If the House votes it will pass a simple, straightforward funding resolution, if the House is permitted to simply say yea or nay to that very straightforward, simple measure, this Nation will keep faith with Jordan Massa, with Aaron Jones, and with the countless millions of other veterans who at the end of this month will lose the benefits and pensions they are entitled to receive as a result of their service and sacrifice to this Nation.

I ask the Speaker of the House to simply allow a vote. Let the House vote so we can open government, pay our debts, and then reach a budget that is comprehensive and responsible and meets the needs of those veterans and many other Americans who are harmed and handicapped, enduring hardship as a result of the failure of that body. It is a small minority in one branch of the legislature, one branch of our government that is failing our Nation.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Connecticut for those eloquent and very powerful remarks, and I will take advantage of his presence here to perhaps engage in a colloquy, if he agrees to doing so, asking him, because he spoke so wonderfully about that one family, whether he has seen, as I have seen, that story of deprivation and setback duplicated on a bigger scale throughout our State?

In fact, I think statistics show more than a thousand children and their families are directly affected by this shutdown in Head Start alone. Seniors, in terms of nutritional assistance--I do not know whether my good friend and very distinguished colleague from Connecticut has seen that phenomenon as well in Bridgeport and throughout our State of Connecticut and would care to remark on it?

What is needed, I think my colleague would agree, is an end to the shutdown, reopening government--not for the sake of reopening the government but to provide these vital services and assurance that the United States of America, the greatest Nation in the history of the world, is going to continue paying its debts. Then and only then have a conference and a compromise and collaboration on what our overall budget should be with smart spending cuts and increases in revenue that close some loopholes and subsidies. I think that was the thrust, was it not, of what my colleague from Connecticut had to say?

In fact, what is happening is a small fraction of one House of the Congress--in fact, in the House of Representatives, one small group of rightwing extremists, whatever they may characterize themselves as--is holding hostage the entire House of Representatives, the entire Congress, the entire government, even though it is only one branch and one part of a branch. I think Senator Murphy has explained well our view--and our constituents in Connecticut need to know it--we are willing to compromise and collaborate but not with hostage-taking tactics that in effect say to everyone else in the country: It is our way or the highway.

I thank my colleague from Connecticut for speaking so clearly and persuasively on his topic, and for giving the impact of this government shutdown a human face and a human voice. The story he told from Bridgeport has indeed thousands of others just like it across the State of Connecticut, across the country, who are suffering the real hardship and harm of this shutdown.

We can talk in the abstract here. Our rhetoric may carry a little bit beyond these four walls. But the real-life consequences belong to them. Both Senator Murphy and I have seen them in real life and that is why we are here to advocate and fight for those people of Connecticut, in Bridgeport, those families who depend on Head Start, those seniors who depend on nutritional assistance--he has told their story, and that of Sikorsky, so well today in this Chamber. These men and women, and their families, do great work for our Nation on their assembly lines.

Black Hawk helicopters are the best-made helicopters in the Nation. They perform rescue operations for our troops in Afghanistan. They medevac our Nation's warriors to places where they can be saved. They provide resupply and provisions. They are literally lifesaving vehicles in our war to keep America safe.

Those workers in Sikorsky were told late last week: You are done. You are furloughed. Do not report to work next week because 45 inspectors-- civilian employees of the U.S. Department of Defense--are going to be furloughed. The 45 inspectors and 1,500 or 2,000 or more workers at Sikorsky who work on the Black Hawk helicopter assembly line, and other product assembly as well, were told they were going to be furloughed.

Senator Murphy and I, and other members of our delegation, spoke with officials of the Department of Defense. We made our interpretation of the recently passed law clear to them and told them that it applies to employees of the Defense Contract Management Agency whose services were vital to certify and inspect those helicopters. We needed to keep the assembly lines at Sikorsky open in order to make sure that Black Hawk helicopters were continuing to be available to our military men and women who depend on them so vitally.

Those conversations--and I am sure others had them as well--with officials at the Department of Defense, along with the action of the House over the weekend, will make sure that all of the furloughed employees who work for the U.S. Government will eventually be paid.

Secretary Hagel was persuaded to do the right thing. I commend and thank Secretary Hagel for bringing back those employees, such as the 45 DCMA inspectors, who have to be there for the Department of Defense in order to take delivery of those helicopters, which, in turn, is necessary to keep the assembly line open and keep Sikorsky workers employed and on the job with the countless other hard-working men and women defense contractors across the United States.

I thank Secretary Hagel, but at the same time we need to recognize that for every Sikorsky helicopter situation, for every Fortune 500 corporation, and for every one of those big defense contractors, there are literally thousands of suppliers and small businesses that are continuing in uncertainty, and sometimes confusion, about what is happening here in Washington.

There are thousands of other businesses that depend on those suppliers because they provide the raw materials for the parts for the Sikorsky helicopters. The ripple effect and the ramifications pervade our economy and our society. The uncertainty creates harm and hardship that is immeasurable and perhaps irreparable.

The harm is not only to those workers who rightly have whiplash from being furloughed one day and being called back another and then being uncertain as to what impact this shutdown will ultimately have; there are suppliers and the countless other small businesses that cannot plan, cannot look ahead, cannot hire for the future, and sometimes they have to tell their workers: You are going to be furloughed. You cannot plan to buy a car or a new home or even the most minor things such as school supplies--or make other plans, for that matter.

Lives hang in the balance; lives are at stake. The real-life consequences are real and perhaps lasting for many Americans--not only the family who depends on Head Start or the senior nutrition assistance or the jobs in Sikorsky, but there are countless others whose lives also hang in the balance.

There is a solution to this impasse. Calmer minds, cooler heads, and common sense are beginning to reach a consensus that the House should be given a chance to vote, and that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, should enable that vote. He should very simply provide an opportunity to Republicans and Democrats--not singling out one side or the other--to come together on a bipartisan basis.

Who cares who is in the minority of that vote as long as it reopens the government and provides Head Start, nutritional assistance, and enables some certainty that permits our economy to move forward rationally and sensibly so we can recover from the great recession? We need to grow jobs and enable the economy to reach some measure of prosperity. We all have an interest in that outcome. We should all be pulling for America. We should all be assured that the greatest nation in the history of the world will leave no doubt that it will pay its bills on time and that it will fulfill its obligations on time, just as we have for every year in the history of this great Nation.

There is a way to come together. I have heard from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that the time has come to end this impasse. Simply let the House vote.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, let me second the very powerful and eloquent remarks just made by my colleague from Rhode Island: that we must vote, we need to have a vote in the House of Representatives to give moderate Republicans the opportunity to put the Federal Government back to work in the service of Americans and keep America--in the private as well as public sector--at work so they can meet the obligations of their families.

We have developing a situation in America where more and more the ripple effects of this shutdown will affect private employees, not just the Federal and government workers who are told to go home and told they cannot do their jobs.

As I have said repeatedly, we need to end the hostage-taking tactics by one small faction of one party in one House of this branch of government. The ripple effects of this shutdown are beginning to grow across America.

Last night, United Technologies, the largest employer in Connecticut, announced it has been forced to furlough thousands of employees, starting initially with more than 1,500 at its Sikorsky facility in Stratford, which makes Black Hawk helicopters for our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Special Forces. Thousands of other jobs may be at risk at Pratt & Whitney and at defense manufacturers all cross the Nation.

This political gamesmanship and budget brinkmanship has stopped production of the Black Hawk helicopters, an iconic symbol to all our servicemembers that help is on the way. They are the ones that transport troops into combat, rescue the wounded, and deliver supplies to the most inaccessible and inhospitable parts of the Earth. Black Hawk helicopters are vital to our national defense. Why is the production line at Sikorsky being shut down? Because 45 Federal employees who work for the Defense Contract Management Agency have been sent home as a result of this shutdown--sent home by one small group of rightwing extremist ideologues in the House of Representatives, one part of this Congress, one branch of the government--and those 45 employees who work for the Defense Contract Management Agency cannot certify and inspect the work of the Sikorsky employees. So there is no way the U.S. military can take delivery of those helicopters.

My hope is this situation can be resolved quickly and that we can find a way to get these DCMA employees back doing their vital jobs that contribute so directly and importantly to the success of our military operations. They are civilian employees. They should be back at work certifying and inspecting and making sure those helicopters are the best in the world, as they have always been, and that they can be delivered to our military; that the military can pay Sikorsky, and Sikorsky can keep its people at work rather than furlough them, and so that those Sikorsky helicopters are available to help our troops in the toughest challenges they face all across the globe. They need and deserve those helicopters.

But even if we put those Sikorsky workers back at their jobs tomorrow, the needless chaos and confusion caused by the shutdown is an outrageous and inexcusable dereliction by those small, rightwing extremists who have insisted on ideology over country and fearmongering over job creation.

The ripple effects of Sikorsky shutting down its assembly line will be felt by the suppliers who provide parts and components used in those helicopters. I have visited them, and I have seen those parts and components used on those assembly lines by those Sikorsky workers. If Sikorsky is not using those parts and components, workers in those suppliers will be furloughed as well, or worse.

We are talking about men and women who live--many of them--paycheck to paycheck. They do not have huge savings. They may well, in fact, probably will not be paid for the time they are furloughed. The ripple effect on consumer demand will be felt across Connecticut and, as a result of similar situations, across the country.

All too often, we tend to think of the Federal workforce as a nameless and faceless group, but this shutdown is bringing home what the real impact of their work is--from the NIH employees who do cancer research and provide treatment to people who need it and now will go without it; to the Head Start workers and programs across the country that provide for educational readiness to children who now will go

without it; to the Social Security recipients who encounter problems with their check or payment and need someone to guide them or help them receive those checks that they need to survive and now will go without those checks; and resolving veterans' benefits, other kinds of issues all across the country. The chaos and confusion will ripple and accumulate. These effects are cumulative, and they will multiply.

The damage done by these wounds to our workforce are, tragically, self-inflicted and they dramatize how that cumulative effect will, in fact, increase exponentially.

I warned of the effects on job creation and economic growth repeatedly before and after the shutdown occurred. In addition to the vital services that are imperiled and impacted, these economic effects on job creation and recovery are irreparable. They affect people's lives. They are real consequences to real people.

I have called on this body to let compromise and cooler heads prevail and end those ripple effects, end the shutdown, end this self-inflicted wound before it becomes an economic tsunami.

I hope everyone in this body, everyone in this Congress, will use every ounce of their energy, every minute of this day and the days to come to cause this inexcusable shutdown to end, to fix the train wreck before it leads to other wrecks of other trains that may collide.

We have spent a lot of time in this body talking, and it is time we started listening. We ought to be listening to the American people, who are telling us: Get the job done. Get back to work. We ought to be listening to voices of our local communities which are seeing the harm of this shutdown.

Jim Finley, for example, the CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said yesterday:

Our poorest communities. They're the ones who are going to

feel the hit first.

That is because the Women, Infants and Children's Program and housing vouchers for low-income families are just two of the programs that make the social safety net work and help people most in need. The WIC Program provides food assistance to more than 58,000 low-income pregnant women, mothers, and children in Connecticut.

Listen to Mayor Pedro Segarra of Hartford, who said:

After 30 days it becomes very difficult. We've already been

under pressure from the feds because of sequestration to

reduce expenses in several categories.

Recently, Newtown and Monroe, along with other Connecticut communities, received Federal grants to hire local police officers. So listen to Monroe First Selectman Steve Vavrek, who said he has no idea whether that money will ever arrive, and he has no way of checking on it, and, of course, he has no way of planning for future law enforcement in his community.

Students from Sandy Hook Elementary School were relocated to a school in his town of Monroe. Let's listen to those kids. Let's listen to their parents. They have no one to speak for them here, unless we listen to them.

Similar to children across the country, they need those Federal grants for their schools. If we listen to our local leaders, if we listen to America, we will put the Federal Government back to work. We will avoid that train wreck and tsunami that will result from the spreading ramifications and ripple effects of the loss of income and service that results from this shutdown.

Finally, let me just emphasize one of the very important unintended consequences of actions that we have taken or failed to take. When Congress passed the resolution to pay our troops, we intended to cover all of the men and women who wear the uniform, all who serve in our military forces, including all categories of National Guard service.

Unfortunately, some are not covered in actual practice. I am committed to ensuring that everyone in uniform is paid for their service and sacrifice. Regardless of the numerous diverse categories of service that may exist in the National Guard or in other branches of service, every man and woman who wears the uniform, every man and woman who serves in our military should be paid and paid on time now.

I am committed to making sure our Department of Defense and our government recognizes that obligation. So let's think about them. Let's keep in mind the brave men and women who are serving and sacrificing to keep us free, to make sure our democracy functions in the service of people. Let's keep faith with them as well as with the American people. Let's do our work by making sure we put the American Government back to work and make sure the country is at work. Let the House vote.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, today is a day of enormous promise and needless tragedy. The promise is the

beginning, another step forward, in America's progress toward providing all America with affordable health care. It is a welcome day because Americans can now enroll in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. But it is a needlessly tragic day because, in the midst of a tragic economic recovery, millions of Americans are out of work now--an extremist faction having sworn to its followers the Affordable Care Act would never be allowed to stand have now shut down the government because they did not get their way.

I wish to begin by talking directly to the people of Connecticut. Today is an enormously frustrating one for me because in the years and decades of public service I have sought to provide to people in Connecticut, never have I been barred, as we are today, each of us in this Chamber, from serving those needs individually, from phoning them and proactively putting staff on issues that concern them.

Due to the shutdown of the Federal Government, our office operations in both Hartford and Bridgeport are severely reduced, as well as in Washington. If a constituent needs help, if there is an emergency, if there is an issue that is time sensitive, you can reach our office and we will provide help. We will endeavor to meet any issue that concerns the health and safety and lives of the people of Connecticut and in no way is our commitment to you diminished.

I regret that our staff will be handicapped by the legal constraints. Indeed, we are, in many instances, not permitted to work in the ways that we have. But I can assure you we are continuing to serve you.

Today, in Connecticut, enrollment in our health exchanges will ensure access to more affordable quality health care for millions of middle- class families. Access to affordable quality health coverage is a basic right. We cannot deny it and we cannot turn back the clock. We need to work together--Republicans and Democrats--to improve and strengthen it and to bring down the cost of health care. The task ahead is to reform health care delivery to bring down the rising--in fact, the astronomically increasing--cost of health care, and to build on the work that has already begun under the Affordable Care Act and before it.

There is a real difference between an America with affordable health care and one that lacks it. It is an America where being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition, where a family who is responsible and pays for health insurance knows when they arrive at the delivery room they will not be bankrupted by the bill, and where children are not denied care because they happen to get sick.

We are at an impasse in Washington because of a matter of principle. The kind of hostage-taking we see here cannot be allowed to take place. It has no legitimate role in a spending bill. The bill before us would enable government to continue the people's work, to continue to do business for the American people. That is our job, and the attempt has been to attach to that resolution a completely unrelated demand that the Affordable Care Act be defunded or delayed or destroyed. To tie health care repeal to a funding bill is akin to tying immigration reform to the National Defense Authorization Act. It is a dangerous precedent and it cannot be permitted. If we accept this take-or-leave- it approach that led to this shutdown, we will be forced to govern this way--or fail to govern this way--in the future.

In fact, the resolution before us already involves compromises--less money than is necessary, for example, to rebuild our roads and bridges, to engage in infrastructure, repair and rebuilding. Rather than nation- building abroad, more nation-building here at home has to be done and more investment is required. The compromises in this funding bill have been made in the amounts of money included in it.

The impacts of this shutdown will be felt throughout our economy, in all 50 States, and in thousands of jobs in Connecticut if the shutdown continues for weeks or months. There are millions of families nationally and thousands in Connecticut who will go without paychecks. There are 9,000 Federal employees in Connecticut who will be affected. Their work is important, but the ripple effect is equally important. The losses of income and diminished consumer demand will further inhibit economic growth. Defense contractors will lose their contracts or possibly fail to receive checks when they need them.

A shutdown does nothing to address our need to agree on a responsible budget and replace the slash-and-burn, across-the-board sequestration cuts that are continued in this resolution.

A shutdown undermines one of the key engines of economic growth in this country, research and innovation, such as the research done at the Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in New London, CT. What if the studies in that facility led to better ways to secure our borders, to rescue people lost at sea. Who knows what future innovations will be sacrificed at the National Institutes of Health across the country and in companies around Connecticut.

The lifeblood of our economy--job creation, research and innovation, investment in the future--is undercut and undermined by this shutdown. In fact, even as we go through this process in Washington, the Northeast region is seeking to recover from a shutdown in train service that occurred just days ago. That shutdown has been remedied to some extent--an inadequate degree--so that half or slightly more of the service has been restored. The failures in the feeder cable that led to this shutdown are directly due to a failure of investment in infrastructure, just as the derailment and collision that was caused months ago reflected a failure to invest in infrastructure. Right before our eyes, as we engage in this kind of conduct in Washington that led to a shutdown, are the consequences of investment failure in our roads and bridges and train system.

With displaced workers struggling to get back into the labor market and businesses in need of specific skills, it is shocking we should cut back first on job training through these unresolved sequester cuts that are projected to force Connecticut's job training services to assist 9,360 fewer job seekers than they otherwise would.

We need to come together now. The message to Speaker Boehner has to be: Let the House vote. There are reasonable minds on both sides of the aisle who say let's have a simple, straightforward spending bill without these unrelated demands, without the blackmail and hostage- taking tactics. Let us come together on that kind of simple, straightforward way of continuing the people's business and the government's work for the people.

Many of my colleagues and I listened with great interest to the Senator from Alaska and others on the other side of the aisle saying we should let common sense and compromise prevail and deal with the issues relating to the Affordable Care Act, for immigration, separately and distinctly. They are measures that deserve and need attention, and there are ways to strengthen and improve many of our laws. But let's deal with them on their merits, not as demands or conditions for continuing the people's work by their government.

I truly believe, as we look back on this day, it will be with pride in another step forward for health care reform in this country. A lot of work remains to be done. Bringing down the cost of health care is a task, an unmet challenge that needs to be addressed, as well as other ways to strengthen and improve our health care system and the law itself. Let the House vote on a measure that provides simple, straightforward funding to continue the work of government for its people and allows the economy to continue its recovery and growth, that allows job creators to do their work, and that allows our working families--middle-class families--to have the benefits of education and Social Security and the veterans' benefits they vitally need. These essential functions must continue.

Let the House vote. Let reason prevail, and we can return to the work that government should be doing for its people.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Housing Finance Reform: Fundamentals of a Functioning Private Label Mortgage Backed Securities Market.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 1, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.

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

Madam President, moments ago the House of Representatives adopted a rule which clearly indicates that it is set to adopt a resolution containing unrelated conditions that will forestall its approval by this Chamber. That is a tragic result which threatens harm and havoc to countless people who depend on government programs and to our economy. It threatens harm to veterans and children who depend on Head Start, seniors who receive meals, and it threatens jobs and economic growth with a ripple effect that will set all of us back in the continuing fragile and all-to-slow recovery we have seen from the greatest recession in recent memory.

Today's result in the House of Representatives is a tragedy for democracy. Without any overstatement, we have to recognize that this result reflects a dysfunction in democracy. The threatened shutdown of our government is the result of an extreme ideological fringe element in one House and one party that has made the decision that their agenda is a take-it-or-leave-it condition, that it is more important than economic growth, more important than our seniors, our children, our veterans. Key services, our economic growth, and jobs will be impacted very directly by this impending shutdown.

This morning I was at a gathering in Glastonbury, CT, with a group of manufacturers, their employees, and economic experts. One economic expert in particular, Steven Lanza of the University of Connecticut, told us that a shutdown of 3 to 4 weeks alone would cost the State of Connecticut 2,000 jobs.

We know from the predictions of expert economists such as Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics that the result for the country as a whole could be percentage points of lost growth. In fact, we can ill-afford this self-inflicted, manufactured wound to our Nation and to the trust and confidence people deserve to have in our democracy and our economy.

For some businesses these problems will be more than acute; they will be life-threatening injuries because their existence--not to mention their profits--depends on consumer demand that will be diminished by the ripple effect and the ramifications of the 9,000 Federal employees in Connecticut who will be furloughed, not to mention the hundreds of others whose jobs will be threatened by a shutdown of just days or a week. The fact is that at this point we can't know what the full economic ramifications will be. There are more questions--serious questions--than there are answers.

I will support an amendment and a measure that will be offered I think later this evening or within hours to preserve the benefits and payments that are due to our veterans for their service and sacrifice. That is a provision we need to make. It is our responsibility to keep faith with those veterans and make sure we leave no veteran behind and that the processing of claims goes forward so our veterans receive the benefits they have earned.

At the forum I had this morning, Brian Montanari, the president of Habco, which is in Glastonbury, told us

he relies on contracts with the Federal Government for much of his business, and his employees--to whose ranks he has been adding--will be impacted by this potential shutdown, if only the uncertainty it creates. He is not alone. Businesses all over Connecticut and the country will face a tougher economic climate because of the shutdown. The Small Business Administration will stop processing applications for the business loans it provides to tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, risk takers, and job creators around the country. Perhaps the most galling aspect of this shutdown is the direct economic hardship it will cause to families whose jobs will be threatened and whose livelihoods will be at risk.

There are hours to go before the final hour, but the point is, as the President said so well earlier, keeping the government open is not a bargaining chip, it is our job. President Obama said: ``You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job.''

Families need to be able to plan for their future, businesses need certainty in order to make investments and hire new workers, and the Nation needs both parties, not just one, to be fully committed to the democratic process.

I hope in the time remaining the House does its job, that these extremist demands are rejected--and certainly by this Chamber they will be. My hope is that we can move forward, keep the government open, provide the services people need, and support the economy, which is all too necessary at this point in our history.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise this evening to talk as well about the Affordable Care Act and perhaps cut through some of the rhetoric and talk a little about specific realities and the reason to preserve its funding, along with honoring our other commitments in the continuing resolution that will keep the Federal Government open and working for the American people.

I want to say at the outset that I hear from folks in Connecticut about the need for improvements and minor changes in the Affordable Care Act, which should be possible. But what should be impossible is holding hostage the work of the government to achieve changes in the Affordable Care Act and making improvements that may be necessary but should be done separately from keeping the government open for our veterans and Social Security recipients who may need services in connection with the checks they are issued, in paying our troops here and abroad who are serving and sacrificing for us, in the countless ways our Federal Government makes a difference in people's lives. Most importantly, the threat of closing the government helps to create uncertainty and confusion, which in turn undermines investment and job creation and economic growth and, indeed, recovery from the great economic recession that has so financially crippled our Nation.

The health care reform measure--the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, call it what you will--has already made achievements, enabling young people to stay on their parents' policies; moderating, if not eliminating, many of the insurance coverage abuses I fought against as attorney general; and achieving advances in health care delivery reform for greater efficiency and lower cost.

As we have noted on this floor countless times, the Affordable Care Act was passed by majorities of this body and the House of Representatives and signed by the President. It predated my service here, but it is the law of the land. The effort now is, in effect, to achieve through the back door what was not accomplished through the front door. It is to achieve indirectly what opponents of the Affordable Care Act wanted to achieve directly, which is to block it, to stop it, to halt it. That should not be the objective of this measure and certainly should not be achieved by a small minority, a fringe extreme group of ideologs who have, in the House of Representatives, threatened to hold hostage the entire Federal Government.

I am disheartened that some of the same Senators who rightly decried the pace of our economic recovery are themselves now undermining that goal by demanding an end to the Affordable Care Act and engendering uncertainty and confusion so inimical to job creation and economic growth.

Forums in Connecticut and my conversations and discussions with health care providers, our hospitals, our medical professionals, have convinced me that one of the central achievements already of the Affordable Care Act relates to preventive care, and I want to talk a little while about those specifics, about the reality on the ground in Connecticut that I have seen and heard--not the predictions or prognostications but the realities of preventive health care achievements in Connecticut that have already been demonstrated. They relate specifically to the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

Let me repeat that term: the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It is not exactly a household word to many Americans, but it should be credited, along with ObamaCare and the Affordable Care Act, with specific tangible accomplishments in helping people learn how to make smart decisions and prevent the onset of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. These conditions and diseases have real costs and preventing them has real savings. So we can seriously reduce not only the overall levels of spending on health care but also save people a lot of suffering and families a lot of heartbreak.

In my home State of Connecticut, the funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund has supported vital care and services in three critical areas: mental health, tobacco cessation, and women's health care--not the only three that has those accomplishments, but they are three.

On mental health services, last year the State of Connecticut received nearly $900,000 from the Prevention and Public Health Fund for use by the State's department of mental health and addiction services and the direct care providers in the State. Let me give an example of how that money was used.

Community Mental Health Affiliates, which serves more than 8,300 children, adolescents, and adults each year in 17 locations throughout Connecticut, received some of those funds to provide direct care. In particular, they are using those funds to create the Allied Health System, and they are doing it with the Hospital of Central Connecticut, which means having advanced nursing and practical help from the Hospital of Central Connecticut to come to their outpatient facility to provide case management and wellness programs and suicide prevention and screening programs. They are helping save lives and health.

We know that investment in mental health makes a difference. In fact, it ought to be a centerpiece of a comprehensive gun violence prevention measure. We know reaching dangerous people, along with keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people before they commit acts of violence is central to what we have to do to make our Nation safer and better. An investment in behavioral health services is vital to addressing the diseases--the psychoses, addictions, depression, post-traumatic stress--and helping to reach people before tragedy occurs.

We know that lack of investment makes a difference as well, not only in violence but in heartbreaking failures and life-changing illnesses that are perhaps invisible but in children can transform lives for the worst. The Connecticut Children's Medical Center recently came to my office and shared with me what the lack of investment in

preventive health care means for them and the children who come to this children's hospital. They have seen numbers of children arriving in a behavioral health crisis unmatched in our history--nearly quadrupled since the year 2000. Last year that meant 2,300 children seeking care in the emergency department of that children's hospital.

Emergency departments are not equipped to provide the kind of specialized care that the children need who come to them in these traumatic life-changing situations--in crises. And for some kids who wait over a week for placement in an appropriate inpatient facility, that is a crisis not only for them but for their family and their communities. We have seen the tragic results of failing to address those crises which affects individuals, and it is so heartbreaking.

I have fought for and made my life's work tobacco prevention and cessation programs. My colleagues want to talk about reducing Federal spending. Well, let's talk about the $96 billion a year in direct health costs that are necessary to treat diseases caused by tobacco addiction. That is $96 billion a year in direct health costs, with nearly $55 billion of it from the Federal Government. I hope to work in a bipartisan way to reduce that figure with my colleagues through the Affordable Care Act.

A study in the Lancet on the first ``Tips From Former Smokers''--the campaign of the Federal Government--found that 1.6 million additional smokers are making a quit attempt because of this campaign and over 100,000 have quit tobacco since 2012 because of that campaign.

The final area I think is so important is women's health care, and in this area the Affordable Care Act has been monumental in maternity care in our hospitals, in contraception coverage, in health insurance provisions that make a difference in women participating equally in our economy as well as having the health care they need, which in turn saves money not just for them but for children who are born in hospitals and who receive the kind of care they need in those first days of birth. The Prevention and Public Health Fund has made a difference in those lives, and it has made meaningful improvements to the lives and health of women and children across this country.

Cost savings to the Nation resulting from preventive health care are huge, but those economic benefits also accrue to our families. More than half of all the bankruptcy cases today are caused by health bills people simply can't pay. I know because I see the results and try to help the families who are affected by it.

One example is a family whose son struggles with Lyme disease and received denials from insurance companies. They had to exhaust their retirement savings and their health care funds as well as their college fund for medical treatment. My office was able to persuade the insurance company to reverse those denials but only after the family had to resort to asking their neighbors to pay for their son's medical bills.

Story after story after story about medical insurance denials convinced me that the Affordable Care Act will make a difference in reforming health care coverage practices by the insurance companies as well as enabling families to avoid the financial travails of bankruptcy.

Let me say finally, Connecticut has been a leader in insurance markets with many leading insurers headquartered in my home State. I am proud that Connecticut has been that leader that is home to many insurance companies and that Access Health Connecticut, the individual marketplace in Connecticut, has been working tirelessly and successfully with these insurance firms to put together a ground- breaking exchange.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently found that the likely cost for a family of four in Hartford, CT earning $60,000 a year for a bronze level plan through the exchange will be $122 a month. That is about the cost of a Starbucks coffee every day. The products being offered through the exchanges are high quality, and they are available even to people who have a preexisting condition.

In fact, the Affordable Care Act enables health care insurance for all people with a preexisting condition. No longer will people have to confront their insurance companies as regularly and frequently as they did. No longer will insurance companies be permitted to engage in the egregious practices they did. And hopefully, no longer will the services of my office, such as I did when I was Attorney General and now as Senator, be as necessary as often.

Shutting down the government is a movie we have seen before. It ends badly. It ends with undercutting investments, undermining job creation and economic growth. It is a disservice to our Nation. Hopefully, with bipartisan cooperation and compromise we can afford it and proudly go on with the work of this body and of the Federal Government.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, first, let me commend the chief cosponsors of this bill, Senators Shaheen and Portman, for their perseverance and their great leadership on this issue. I am a wholehearted and passionate supporter of this cause and urge my colleagues to address what is truly a triple play.

This bill is a way to win for employment and economic growth. It is a way to win for energy savings and financial savings for our manufacturing companies, to make America more competitive. It is a way to win for our planet, indeed, to help save our planet along with saving money and saving energy.

I will not only support the bill and the amendments, but I have asked for support for an amendment of my own that would help to measure the nonmonetary benefits of some of the changes that would be brought about by this legislation. I ask Senators Portman and Shaheen to accept this amendment and for my colleagues to support it as well.

Newtown Anniversary

I am here to help commemorate the 9-month anniversary of the tragedy at Newtown that took the lives of 26 wonderful people--20 beautiful children and 6 courageous, skilled educators. It was a commemoration I was going to observe yesterday on the floor of the Senate, but, of course, there was no Senate session yesterday because of yet another unspeakable, horrific tragedy, this one close, literally within blocks of this great building.

It was physically close, but every one of those incidents should be close to us emotionally as Newtown has been for me and others of my colleagues, most especially my friend and colleague Senator Murphy. It brought back a rush of memories for me because Newtown is still close to us in emotional proximity, just as the Navy shooting was close in physical proximity. The Navy lost 12 of its members. My heart and prayers go out to those great sailors, civilians, and contractors, and their loved ones.

Today we have an inspector general report that is profoundly and deeply troubling. If reports of this audit are true, the Navy put the safety of personnel at risk to save dollars and cents. This apparent security lapse, permitting people with criminal records to freely access military bases and facilities, is deeply concerning, indeed shocking. I call on the inspector general to release the full report. I have the report. I have reviewed it briefly. I cannot talk about its contents because it has not been released. Make this report public so we know what the inspector general of the Navy has said about lapses of security and about the failures of the RAPIDGate technology that was supposed to protect people at the Navy Yard here in Washington, DC.

Lax safety and security measures at our military facilities is inexcusable. I commend the Secretary of the Navy and the leadership of the Navy for raising this issue and hope they will decide to make public the full report to the extent it can be done so consistent with our Nation's security.

But one of the lessons here is that the Navy, with RAPIDGate technology and all of its facilities with armed guards and the complex technology it uses, could not protect members of its own ranks at the Navy Yard. We should know why. If it could not do so there, can our schools be safe? Can our workplaces be safe? Can America be safe with the present plethora of firearms in our Nation today?

This day was horrific and tragic for America. Yet in many ways it was another day. The threat is these incidents will become the new normal. We need to ask, will these incidents, these horrific, unspeakable tragedies, make a difference? Will they change the political mindset and culture in this body and in the House of Representatives?

In the days to come, we will learn more. There is much more to learn before we draw conclusions. I emphasize the facts are disclosed one by one even as we watch the news. We will try to wrap our minds around whatever evil motive caused this senseless crime, but we know the means all too well. The moment shots rang out and the blurb came over the news wire, we knew with an instinctive understanding this unfolding incident was another act of gun violence in America, another act of gun violence in an America plagued by a plethora of guns.

The answer to the question, will it become a new normal, should find the articulate, in fact, deeply powerful words of Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the hospital that received some of yesterday's victims, the hospital that deals routinely with gunshot wounds and sometimes deaths. I hope the Nation will hear her plea when she said, in effect, these senseless killings have to stop, stating:

There's something evil in our society that we, as

Americans, have to work to try and eradicate. I would like

you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would.

I would like to not be an expert on gunshots. Let's get rid

of this. This is not America.

When I went to Sandy Hook 9 months ago on December 14, I felt an obligation to go as a public official, but what I saw was through the eyes of a parent, the cries of grief and pain that I will never forget. They will live with me always, loved ones and parents emerging from that firehouse having learned moments before that their beautiful children and loved ones would not be coming home that evening.

Like the loved ones who said goodbye to the 12 victims at the Washington Navy Yard, it was another day, a day like every other day when they expected them to come home to the routine, mundane joys of life. Twenty innocent, beautiful children and 6 great educators did not come home that day. In the days that followed, we all hoped the Senate of the United States would keep faith with those families. In the 9 months since, we have hoped the Nation would keep faith with the 8,158 Americans around the country, the 8,158 victims of gun violence.

Last April, the Senate turned its back on Newtown families. One of the

most difficult days of my career in this job or any other job was to try to explain to those families how more than 90 percent of the American people--a majority of gun owners, in fact many members of the NRA--could back a commonsense measure like background checks, the bill the Presiding Officer and Senator Toomey sponsored so courageously and ably--could have that kind of support and yet fail to pass this body. It had 55 Senators supporting it on that day--54 voting for it, but 60 votes were needed. One of the answers, of course, is to change the Senate rules, which I have long supported, to eliminate the filibuster.

The families of Newtown, and those 8,158 Americans, their loved ones, and all Americans deserve a better answer. It is not to accept these mass killings as the new normal, as the commonplace of America. We are better than that normal as a Nation. We cannot accept it. I hope, ask, and pray that the unspeakable, unimaginable tragedy of Newtown and now Washington Navy Yard will renew and reinvigorate this movement and give us impetus, emotional, intellectual, and political, which we need and deserve.

The shooting at the Washington Navy Yard makes clear that, as we said in the wake of Newtown, these kinds of mass killings can happen anywhere, any school, any community--in Newtown, the quintessential New England town, or at the Washington Navy Yard, a supposedly secure military facility. We need to make sure it happens nowhere.

Let us make a mental health initiative a centerpiece of this renewal and reinvigoration of our effort to stop gun violence. Let us combine it with background checks and other commonsense measures. Bring back this issue and these measures.

We are not going away. We are not giving up. Many of the Newtown families will be here again this week. The Newtown Action Alliance has been joined by other groups such as Sandy Hook Promise, Newtown Speaks, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. They have formed a powerful gun coalition, and I promise I will never give up. I know together we can prevail.

Not long ago--in fact, this past weekend--I attended a playground dedication on the beach in Fairfield overlooking Long Island Sound, a beautiful, cloudless day lit by an early morning Sun, to dedicate a playground in honor of one of the children, Jessica Rekos, whose family was there as well. That playground will be a living reminder of our obligation to do better.

There are regulations right now that have not been approved in final form for mental health parity to enable more people to have private health insurance coverage. There are commonsense mental health funding initiatives. As we speak on this day, groups are going around to our offices from the National Council for Behavioral Health, asking for support for the Excellence in Mental Health Act, S. 264, ably cosponsored by Senator Stabenow and Senator Blunt, focusing on mental health and combining those measures with other commonsense, sensible gun violence prevention measures. It is the way to forge the consensus we need and move from those 55 votes to the 61 we need for passage of a gun violence prevention measure that can make us proud, make America better, safer, and that can make us, as Americans, a better Nation to leave for generations to come.

As we celebrate the lives lost but commemorate the horrific, unspeakable tragedy of Newtown, we should take heart from the courage and resilience of those families and their loved ones. From the Newtown community which will be visiting the Capitol again, their resoluteness and steadfastness should inspire us to do better and to ask more of ourselves and make America a better Nation.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I wish to recognize Blaise Messinger, Connecticut's 2013 Teacher of the Year.

Every year the Connecticut State Department of Education selects one teacher for this prestigious title who

then serves as an ambassador for education throughout the State and also represents Connecticut on a national scale, working on panels and advisory committees with other State teachers of the year, as well as with the National State Teacher of the Year Program and the U.S. Department of Education. This year's Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Blaise Messinger, was selected from 4 finalists, 15 semifinalists, and over 80 district teachers of the year for this tremendous distinction.

Mr. Messinger makes an extraordinary difference in the lives of his students and their families and at his school. He is an inspiration to his colleagues. At Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell, CT, he is well known for his commitment to making fifth grade engaging and interesting. An actor in Los Angeles and New York City for many years, Mr. Messinger dedicates this thespian acumen and ability to his students' progress. By making school fun and relevant, his students remember what he teaches and come out of his classroom as enthusiastic learners. When addressing fellow educators as Connecticut Teacher of the Year, he advised his colleagues to ``think back to that teacher you can still hear in your head.'' I am grateful that Mr. Messinger came to Connecticut to apply his talents, high energy, and positive spirit as a community leader.

One personal inspiration for Mr. Messinger's incredible impact as a teacher is his own family--especially his two sons, Ethan and Caleb, who live with him and his wife Kimberley in Cromwell. Mr. Messinger has said that his love for them--and his witnessing how teachers impacted their lives, especially his son Ethan who has autism--drives his desire to change the lives of children.

I thank the Connecticut State Department of Education and the National Teacher of the Year Program for representing the voices of passionate, talented teachers and recognizing their heroic efforts. Mr. Messinger has already done great work on a national level, sparking important discussions about changing the way we educate our future generations. I am very proud that he represents Connecticut as 2013 Teacher of the Year and invite my colleagues to join me in applauding his invaluable contributions to our country.