Floor Statements

Let me start by joining my colleague, the Democratic leader, in his words about Lamar Alexander--a great Senator and a personal friend, someone I am sorry is going to bring his Senate career to an end in 2 years because he has done so many good things. I could spell out many of those things, but one comes to mind immediately. A few years ago when I was deciding whether to run for reelection myself, I thought one of my goals would be to increase the Federal investment in medical research. That is right in the wheelhouse of the committee jurisdiction of Lamar Alexander. I went to him and his counterpart on the Democratic side, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, and Roy Blunt of Missouri, and we put together an informal team pushing for increases in medical research. We have had amazing success. It has been bipartisan, and it has been an enthusiastic effort all around. We couldn't have done it without Lamar's wholehearted participation. He was committed to medical research, and as a result, we have had more than a 5-percent increase each year for the last 4 years in the budget and appropriations for the National Institutes of Health. That is going to end up creating more opportunities to spare people suffering and to cure disease and to save lives than we can possibly imagine. That is the kind of thing people expect of us, don't they, in the Senate?

The Democrats and Republicans will find a common goal and work together to achieve it. Lamar Alexander was part of that successful effort. I am going to hold him to it for the next 2 years, as I am sure he will hold me to the same goal. I look forward to working with him but certainly with some pain in my heart, as the Democratic leader said, with the knowledge his career is coming to an end. He has been an extraordinary public servant as a Governor, as a Presidential candidate, as a Cabinet member, and as a Member of the U.S. Senate. I am sorry for his decision, but I certainly understand why he would make that on a personal and family basis.

First Step Act

Madam President, I wish to say a few words about the legislation currently pending before the U.S. Senate. Every once in a while--it doesn't happen very often--the stars line up and the Democrats and Republicans and the conservatives and the progressives and the President and the Congress agree on something. I am not talking about Flag Day or apple pie or whether Lassie was a collie dog. It really comes down, occasionally, to something that is meaningful. We are in the midst now of a debate on the floor of the Senate, which will culminate probably tomorrow in some historic votes on the whole question of criminal justice reform.

How important is this issue? It is so important that we rarely take it up more than once a decade; that we sit down and look at criminal justice standards and laws in America and decide whether we can make them better and more effective.

Just a few minutes ago, my colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn, a conservative Republican, came to the floor and explained how the State of Texas engaged in prison reform and found out they could not only reduce the prison population but reduce the incidence of crime at the same time. That is what we are setting out to do at the Federal level as well.

Senator Cornyn's prison reform measure, which he introduced with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, has been a central part of our conversation on criminal justice reform.

I had another part of criminal justice reform that I have been working on for a long time. Three decades ago, Congress responded to our Nation's drug epidemic by creating the harshest mandatory minimum sentences in our history. Consider what happened next as we made the penalties for drug use and sales higher than ever in our history. What happened next was the use of illegal drugs in the United States of America actually increased, just the opposite of what we were trying to achieve. The availability of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine increased, despite harsh criminal penalties. Crime rates for Federal drug offenders did not go down. In other words, longer prison terms did not deter drug use or drug crime, but they did lead to an explosion in our Federal prisons.

Since 1980, the Federal prison population has grown by over 700 percent. Federal prison spending has increased by nearly 600 percent in that period of time. Today, the United States of America holds more prisoners, by far, in prison than any country in the world. America has 5 percent of the world's population, 25 percent of the world's prisoners--more than Russia or China. Our overcrowded Federal prisons consume one-quarter of the Justice Department's discretionary budget. This undermines other important priorities, like preventing crime in our neighborhoods and treating drug addiction.

The largest increase in the Federal prison population is for nonviolent drug offenders. This is largely because of the inflexible mandatory minimum sentences. These mandatory penalties don't allow judges to distinguish between drug kingpins, who should be our focus when it comes to criminal penalties, and lower level offenders. That isn't fair. It isn't smart. It isn't an effective way to keep us safe.

We also have to consider the racially disparate impact of these laws. Listen, the majority of illegal drug users and dealers in America are White, but three-quarters of the people serving time in prison for drug offenses are African American or Latino. The majority of the users and dealers are White, and three-fourths of those who go to prison for drug crimes are African American and Latino, and the large majority of those subject to Federal mandatory minimum penalties fall into that same group of African Americans and Latinos.

As a result of mandatory minimums, the families of nonviolent offenders are separated for years on end. Most of

these families are people of color. This has a destructive impact on their communities and erodes faith among them in our criminal justice system.

Most Senators don't come to the floor and say what I am about to say, but let me tell you the worst vote I ever cast. I was a Member of the House of Representatives, and it was about 25 or 26 years ago when I voted for a law that established what became known as the crack powder sentencing disparity. That jumble of words means that under this law, it took 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same minimum sentence--100 times. This came to be known as the 100-to-1 crack-to-powder disparity. Under this law 80 percent of the people sentenced for crack cocaine offenses were African American.

In 2010 I worked with an unlikely ally, then-Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama. He was a Republican Senator and a member of the Judiciary Committee, and he felt strongly about this issue.

I said to him: Senator Sessions, 100 to 1 isn't fair--that for a tiny handful of crack and a handful of powder cocaine, the handful of crack would get 100 times the sentence as the cocaine doesn't make any sense.

We debated back and forth. I thought it should be one to one in the sentencing. He didn't agree, but the day finally came when we had to make a decision. We actually bargained in the Senate gym. I know the Democratic leader referred to that gym earlier. We get a lot of business done there. We were bargaining in the gym on the day of the committee markup--back and forth and back and forth. Finally, the two of us agreed that it would go from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. I can't tell you why 18, but it was a compromise. It dramatically reduced the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

That Fair Sentencing Act passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate, the House Judiciary Committee, and the House, and it was signed into law in a very private ceremony by President Obama, which Senator Sessions and I attended.

For the last 5 years, I have been working on the next step--a bipartisan coalition of Republican and Democratic Senators to take the next step on reforming our Federal drug sentencing laws. Five years ago I joined up with another unlikely ally--Mike Lee, a very, very conservative Republican from Utah--to introduce a bill called the Smarter Sentencing Act. We had a problem. There was a Republican Senator who didn't like the bill at all. His name? Chuck Grassley, from Iowa, a conservative Republican. Coincidentally, he is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

After a while, I said to Senator Lee: We are going nowhere without Grassley. We have to get him on board if we are going to change the law.

It took a year, which is just a few minutes in Senate time. It took a year of negotiating for us to finally reach an agreement that Chuck Grassley and Mike Lee and I all signed on to for sentencing reform.

We were joined by Senator Cory Booker in the last year or two, a Democrat from New Jersey. After more than a year of negotiations, we introduced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, legislation approved by the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 16 to 5 earlier this year.

Around the same time, the House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation to reform the Federal prison system. This bill was supported--listen to this--by President Donald Trump, cosponsored by Republican Congressman Doug Collins, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia.

I didn't like the original version of this bill because I thought we could do better and we should add criminal sentencing to prison reform.

Then we did something that is rare. We sat down, Democrats and Republicans, and worked it out. We believed that we could come up with a common bipartisan bill by combining the two.

The result is the most extraordinary political coalition I have ever witnessed in the time I have been in Washington. The so-called FIRST STEP Act--the revised FIRST STEP Act--is a bipartisan sentencing and prison reform bill that is sponsored by 34 Senators--17 Republicans and 17 Democrats. It is supported by President Trump and a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

Listen to who is supporting this bill on criminal sentencing reform and prison reform: the Fraternal Order of Police. That is a good starting point. It is the largest police group in America. There is the National District Attorneys Association, the largest group of prosecutors in America. So we have the police and the prosecutors, and we also have the American Civil Liberties Union. Go figure that a bill we put together could bring these folks together in common purpose to pass it.

Our bill would reduce Federal mandatory minimum sentences in a targeted way. We don't repeal any mandatory minimum sentences, and we don't lower any maximum sentences. We would simply allow Federal judges to determine in certain low-level cases, on a case-by-case basis, when the harshest penalties should apply.

The bill also puts in place a recidivism reduction program and prison reform that will facilitate the successful rehabilitation and reentry of prisoners, which Senator Cornyn addressed just a few minutes earlier.

Let me tell you a story about this man here. His name is Alton Mills. In the year 1994, at the age of 24, Alton Mills was given a mandatory life sentence without parole for a low-level nonviolent drug offense.

When Alton Mills stepped into that Federal prison cell with a life sentence, he was stepping into a jail cell for the first time in his life, and he was bound to stay there for the rest of his life.

I ended up being contacted by his public defender. She has this wonderful name. She is from Chicago. Her name is MiAngel Cody. MiAngel Cody contacted me and told me Alton Mills' story--how this kid growing up in Chicago, a decent kid in high school, made a bad turn, got mixed up with a drug gang, was a sales runner on the street, which is just the lowest possible level, and on a third offense got a life sentence to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I asked President Obama to take a look at this and consider commutation. In December of 2015, after serving 22 years in prison, Alton Mills came home to Chicago.

What has he done since then? He has become a mechanic at the Chicago Transit Authority. He got married. He is contributing to society. He has a granddaughter. He is working as a community college student pursuing an associate's degree. If he hadn't received a pardon, Alton Mills was destined to die in prison because of the Federal sentencing laws that we are setting out to change.

The FIRST STEP Act would eliminate this mandatory life sentence for nonviolent drug offenders like Alton Mills, and the bill would also give a chance to thousands of people still serving sentences for nonviolent offenses involving crack cocaine under the 100-to-1 standard I mentioned earlier.

I am going to have more to say about the pending amendments, which will be brought up tomorrow. The Senator from Arkansas is going to offer three amendments that I consider to be poison pills.

After 6 years of hard work putting these bills together--Democrats and Republicans, police, prosecutors, the ACLU, and President Trump and Senator Durbin together on a bill--now comes the Senator from Arkansas, who has introduced three amendments which I think are very destructive to this bill. I am going to oppose all three of them, and I hope he will think twice about them.

We have an opportunity to do something significant, historic, and bipartisan here for the good of this Nation. We could end up reducing the crime rate in our country and do it in a smarter way with sentencing and prison reform. The amendments that he will propose tomorrow--the Senator from Arkansas--have been opposed by groups across the board--left and right, conservative, progressive, Republican, and Democrat. They all oppose his amendments.

I am not going to get into a specific discussion about them until later, but I wanted to let the Senator from Arkansas know that we are hopeful that he will take a more constructive approach. If he goes with the amendments that we have seen, we are going to have to do our best to oppose him.

Some are going to suggest that the underlying bill doesn't go far enough to unwind the harsh mandatory sentencing that I mentioned earlier. I agree. But that is the nature of legislation. It is the nature of compromise. It is what the Senate is all about. A Republican- controlled Senate is considering a bill supported by Senators from both sides of the aisle, and we have a chance to do something. Congress should make this bipartisan legislation a fitting ending to this year. For all of the cynicism and skepticism about what Congress can achieve, we can prove as soon as tomorrow, with one of the most historic changes in criminal justice legislation in our history, that we can work together for the good of this Nation. Our people who send us to this job expect no less.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to address the saddest and one of the most depressing issues of the moment, and that is the drug epidemic that faces America.

The reality of this drug epidemic is felt in every corner of this country. There is no suburb too wealthy, no town too small, no place in this country that hasn't been touched by the opioid and heroin epidemic.

The Centers for Disease Control put out a statement this morning that is important for us to truly understand this drug epidemic. What the Centers for Disease Control said is that fentanyl has become the deadliest drug in the United States. On Wednesday, they reported that fentanyl was involved in more deadly drug overdoses in 2016 than any other drug. There was a total of 63,632 drug overdose deaths in 2016, with fentanyl found to be involved in nearly 29 percent of those cases. By comparison, fentanyl was involved in only 4 percent of drug fatalities just 7 years ago--in 2011. That year, oxycodone ranked first; it was involved in 13 percent.

Lawmakers are struggling to deal with the sweeping opioid epidemic, and the CDC data shows that the problem goes further than the overprescription of opioid drugs.

From 2011 to 2016, cocaine consistently ranked second or third. During the study period, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving heroin more than tripled, as did the rate of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine.

Why do I bring up this issue of fentanyl? Because if you are discussing border security in America, you are talking about a number of things. You are talking about those who would assault our borders for a variety of reasons. You are talking about people who present themselves at our borders for a variety of reasons.

Let me try to make several concessions here that I think both parties agree with.

First, America needs border security. We cannot allow every person in the

world who wishes to come to this country entry into this country.

Second, we know people are trying to ship into this country things that are deadly and items that are contraband, that should not be part of America.

Third, we don't want anyone who is dangerous outside of our country to knowingly come into this country. Those who are here undocumented, if they are dangerous to our country, should be removed.

I hope that you would agree there is unanimous consensus on those three points.

The third point I am going to make and not dwell on at this moment is the fact that our immigration legal system is in shambles. It is awful. We currently are placing in tent camps on the border with Mexico hundreds and hundreds of children because of a circumstance created by this administration, which is almost impossible to understand or to explain.

But I want to focus specifically on fentanyl--on this drug fentanyl, which the CDC has told us is the deadliest drug in America today, overwhelmingly the deadliest drug in America today.

Where does it come from? Much of the production is in China, but it is produced in other places. Much of it transits into the United States across that Mexican border. So when we talk about border security and stopping the drug epidemic in America, let's be honest about it. Building a wall from one side of the United States to the other does not stop the flow of fentanyl into our country. Fentanyl is coming in through ports of entry--openings, legal openings--in the wall.

We heard yesterday from the experts that some 80 percent of the drugs that flow into the United States from Mexico come through our ports of entry. They are not putting them in backpacks and storming across the desert at night, trying to come across the Rio Grande. That may be a part of some effort, but when it comes to the deadliest of drugs coming into the United States, they are coming through our ports of entry.

What can we do about it? Well, the interesting thing we can do about it is to look at the obvious. I asked one of the experts, a Mr. McAleenan, who is with the Customs and Border Protection system--he does this for a living.

I asked him last year: If I gave you a blank check and said ``Make our borders safer with Mexico,'' what would you spend it on?

He said two things immediately: technology and personnel. That makes sense.

I said: Give me an idea of the kind of technology you think would make America safer.

He said: There is something called a Z-Portal.

I had never heard the term before. A Z-Portal is a scanning device; if you drive a car or a truck across our border, it scans it, x rays it, and can tell basically what is inside. If you are trying to smuggle people in the back of a semitruck, it will show it. If you have firearms, it will show it. It will show contraband that is not supposed to be part of the declared shipment that is coming into the United States.

Doesn't it sound like a good idea to try to make sure that anything entering this country has been scanned?

Well, it turns out that 98 percent of the railroad cars that come into the United States are scanned. That is good news. I wish it were 100 percent, but 98 percent is good. What percentage of other vehicles coming into the United States are scanned currently? Eighteen percent. Fewer than one out of five vehicles are scanned.

I asked Mr. McAleenan, when he appeared before our Judiciary Committee this week: Why not more?

He said: Well, we need to buy more technology. We need to buy more scanners so that we can spot those who are trying to ship people or contraband or drugs into the United States.

I said: Well, I looked at President Trump's request for your Agency, and he asked for $44 million for scanners.

What would it take, Mr. McAleenan, to have scanners to make sure that all of the vehicles coming into the United States are scanned?

He gave me the number: $300 million.

That is a lot of money. But when you consider the cost of our drug epidemic and the deadly results of that drug epidemic, it is not a lot of money. And when you put it to the idea of a $5 billion wall, it is laughable that this administration is insisting on a medieval wall as opposed to the technology that lets us look inside the vehicles that are shipping these deadly drugs into the United States and killing people in our country. That is the reality of what we face today.

I would say to this President: Don't shut this government down over border security; make smart border security choices. Listen to your professionals. Put aside your campaign speeches about ``a wall from sea to shining sea'' and listen to the professionals who will tell you, Mr. President, as they educated me, that there are better ways to keep America safe than to build a god-awful wall.

Walls can be overcome by ladders and tunnels underneath, but this technology we are talking about is inescapable. When you bring your vehicle through these scanning devices, we know a lot more about what you are trying to do.

And while we are on the subject, the hearing yesterday was about Mexican drug cartels. Some of the things that were told to us in that Judiciary Committee hearing were stunning. They estimate that the current economic activity of the Mexican drug cartels is part of a transnational network whose global revenue exceeds the gross domestic product of Mexico. What they are doing in creating this narcotic trade and exporting is now surpassing the entire Mexican economy's production of goods and services. Breathtaking, isn't it? And it turns out that 10 years ago, we identified Mexican drug cartels as our greatest criminal threat at that time, and it still is today.

How do they do it? How do they produce so much narcotics in Mexico at our expense? Well, certainly the answer is obvious: We pay for the drugs. American dollars flow back into Mexico so that the cartels can keep in business, and something else flows back into Mexico: guns from America. Seventy percent of the crime guns that were seized in Mexico-- 70 percent of them had come from the United States. How did they get across the border? Well, first, it is not legal to export guns across that border. Secondly, it turns out they buy them the same way they buy them in the Midwest and come to Chicago to shoot up our streets. They go to gun shows where there are no background checks, and they buy these guns in volume, and they surreptitiously ship them across the border to the Mexican drug cartels. So it is a circle. The narcotics come here; the money and the weapons go from here back to Mexico. That circle is growing in size and in intensity.

So I asked an obvious question: Do we check on the vehicles that are southbound out of the United States, headed down to Mexico? The answer is almost not at all.

How are we going to deal with this drug epidemic and how are we going to deal with border security if, instead of addressing these very real issues that directly impact the drug epidemic in America, we are sitting here talking about $5 billion for a wall?

All of us have voted for the Department of Homeland Security to build barriers where needed, to build fences--and they tell us they don't need a wall; they need a fence they can see through. We put money on the table for that year after year, and I will continue to because I think it is a smart thing to do, to have a border that is actually secured. But this President is prepared to shut down the Government of the United States not for the technology that I have described to you-- the successful technology that can reduce the flow of fentanyl, this deadliest of chemicals into the United States, not for the technology that could detect in these vehicles if they had a trailer full of people who are being smuggled in for whatever reason--no. This President is fixed on one issue: a $5 billion wall.

I hope someone close to the President will sit down with him and explain the reality of border security. It goes way beyond a campaign speech. There are plenty of votes, Democrats and Republicans, for border security that is smart and border security that will work.

The hearings this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee really told the story. I am sure the President didn't follow those hearings, but I hope someone at the White House can and did

convince him: Don't shut down this government to build a wall. Appeal to Congress on a bipartisan basis to give our government the resources to make America safe.

If we could stop the deadly flow of fentanyl across that border, we will save American lives. We can do it. We know the technology that will accomplish it. Now, all we lack is the political will to get it done.

Tribute to Jeff Flake

Madam President, I am sorry I wasn't here earlier when he was on the floor, but I know that my friend and colleague, Senator Jeff Flake, gave his farewell address to the Senate, and he will be leaving soon. I wanted to honor him for his service in the Senate and thank him for all the things we have worked on together.

When the political history of our time is written, I think one of the most interesting chapters will be about my friend, Senator Jeff Flake, of Arizona. I hope that history will be able to explain to me how one of the ideological sons of Barry Goldwater, who was, in fact, the father of modern American conservatism--how this ideological son named Jeff Flake came to be viewed as a suspect conservative in Senator Goldwater's home State of Arizona.

I have always found Jeff Flake to be a conservative with a conscience, and I have been privileged to work closely with him on some of the most important questions of our time.

Most people, in observing Washington, think all we do is fight like cats and dogs, and Democrats and Republicans won't work together. That is not true. Jeff Flake and I were members of something called the Gang of 8. We produced a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed on this Senate floor overwhelmingly 15\1/2\ years ago. Other members of the Gang of 8 included our current Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer; Mike Bennet, the Senator from Colorado; Lindsey Graham, the Senator from South Carolina; Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida; and that old iconoclast himself, Senator John McCain.

We met day after day and night after night to write an immigration reform bill. We fought like cats and dogs over some of the provisions, but in the end we agreed. We came up with a compromise bill, and it passed overwhelmingly. We spent hundreds of hours together because we knew that America needed immigration reform.

Senator Flake was a voice of conservatism in those discussions, but he was also a voice of conscience, compassion, and reason. I had to laugh at the description of my friend, Senator Flake, in an article in the Atlantic magazine last year. The reporter wrote:

Flake doesn't relish criticizing other people, but when he

does, it is usually in a fatherly tone of disappointment. . .

. He sometimes seems as if he just crash-landed here in a

time machine from some bygone era of seersucker suits and

polite disagreements.

Country before party--that is the North Star of Jeff Flake's political life. Adhering to that principle may have made him a one-term Senator from Arizona, but it also made him an extraordinarily good Senator and public servant.

The problems Jeff Flake tried honorably to solve haven't gone away. They still demand our attention. If we can approach these challenges with the same principles and openmindedness of Senator Jeff Flake, America will be a winner.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we recently heard a farewell speech from my colleague and friend, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. I grew up across the river from St. Louis in the town of East St. Louis, IL, and feel a familiarity with Missouri and St. Louis probably more than most residents of my State. We have had many great reminisces about the city and her life, and I wanted to say a few words on the floor today as she ends her service in the U.S. Senate.

My boyhood hero was Stan Musial--``Stan the Man''--St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer and one of greatest ball players who ever lived. He retired in 1963 holding National League career marks for games played, at-bats, and hits. Asked to describe the habits that kept him in baseball for so long, Musial once said: ``Get eight hours of sleep regularly. Keep your weight down, run a mile a day. If you must smoke, try light cigars. Then cut down on inhaling.''

``One last thing,'' he added: ``Make it a point to bat .300.''

Claire McCaskill has always brought the same sort of natural-born talent and relentless work ethic to public service that Stan Musial-- ``Stan the Man''--brought to baseball in St. Louis. She has stood for office 24 times--lost twice. That makes her batting average considerably better than .300.

Five years ago, Senator McCaskill and I teamed up to suggest a name for a beautiful new bridge that spanned the mighty Mississippi River between her State of Missouri and mine of Illinois, near St. Louis. Thanks to Claire's leadership, it is called the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. Locals all call it the Stan Span for short. It is a well-deserved, fitting tribute to my boyhood hero and a fitting tribute to Claire McCaskill's tenacity.

In an age of hyperpartisanship, Claire McCaskill is a bridge builder. She doesn't ask whether ideas come from the left or the right; she asks whether they will work. Like her own political hero, Harry Truman, she is a straight talker, and she can be a bulldog when it comes to demanding accountability for the people who pay for this government and those who rely on it. She has cast historic and heroic votes on the Senate floor. She voted for an economic stimulus package that helped prevent a second Great Depression. She voted to create the Affordable Care Act--one of the most important social and economic justice laws of our lifetime.

One story about Claire McCaskill seems especially telling. Nearly 2 years ago, she was ready to vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Missouri, a red State, that was a pretty good vote for her politically. But when she met privately with then-Judge Gorsuch, she asked him about a case in which he had ruled that a trucking company was within its rights when it fired a driver who left his broken-down truck briefly on a sub-zero night to find help.

Senator McCaskill asked Judge Gorsuch: Did you ever think about what you would do if you had been that truckdriver?

The judge said: No.

Senator McCaskill changed her vote to no. It cost her politically, but that is the kind of Senator Claire McCaskill is. Her idea of governing is to spend money wisely, punish misbehavior, and give people what they need in order to get through their daily lives. She has been a voice for truckdrivers and farmers and factory workers and a lot of ordinary people who work hard and still struggle to pay their bills. She has been a fearless champion of my Dreamers, and for that I will forever be grateful. Her votes to help these young people always were risky politically, but she never ever flinched. I will forever be in her debt for her show of courage on that one issue.

Incidentally, she showed the same courage and compassion when calling for an end to this administration's cruel policy of separating immigrant families at our border.

This past year, she used her influence as ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to investigate the causes of the opioid epidemic devastating America. That investigation showed how pharmaceutical companies knowingly sold dangerous and addictive pain killers in order to maximize profit. She worked diligently on a bipartisan basis to ensure passage of a law that will help combat the opioid epidemic and provide treatment for those who are addicted. And she has never ever wavered in her efforts to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions.

Results, not just rhetoric--that is Claire McCaskill.

As Stan Musial approached the plate for the last time before he retired, legendary sportscaster Harry Caray said: ``Take a look, fans. Take a good long look. Remember the swing and the stance. We won't see his like again.''

As Senator McCaskill leaves the Senate, take a look. Remember Claire McCaskill and her personal brand of Missouri courage. May we all try to be bridge builders, as she has been.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, the Senate is voting on a resolution of disapproval that would rescind a dangerous decision made by the Treasury Department and restore a vital tool in the fight against illegal spending in U.S. elections.

In July, the Treasury decided to reverse decades of precedent and eliminate a requirement that certain tax-exempt organizations must report the identities of their major donors to the Internal Revenue Service as part of their annual returns.

Why is this important? Because the 501(c)(4) ``social welfare organizations'' and 501(c)(6) business leagues that now are no longer required to disclose their donors to the IRS are the very same groups that have poured nearly one billion dollars of dark money into U.S. elections since 2010.

Dark money makes it nearly impossible for the public to find the true sources behind the shady attack ads and political campaigns that these organizations fund. But by at least requiring these groups to disclose their major donors to the IRS, the rule ensured that the government could monitor the groups' compliance with campaign finance laws, such as the ban on foreign contributions. Now that this enforcement tool has been lost, it will be much easier for foreign powers to illegally funnel money into our elections through dark money organizations.

At a time when we know the U.S. remains under threat of foreign interference in our elections, why would we make it harder for the IRS, law enforcement, and our nation's intelligence organizations to monitor the movement of money in our political system? The answer is clear--we shouldn't. The Senate must act to rescind Treasury's misguided decision and restore an essential tool in the fight against illegal money in politics and ward off the threat of foreign funds influencing U.S. elections.

I am proud to join Senators Tester and Wyden in support of this resolution and urge my colleagues to cast their vote in support of today's CRA.

Tribute to Bill Nelson

Mr. President, I would like to enter into the Record a tribute to my colleague and friend Bill Nelson of Florida.

Bill is leaving the Senate after an amazing career. We served together on the House for 8 years, 17 years in the Senate--a quarter of a century working together. He is an extraordinary man who has represented the State of Florida so well, served as one of the few congressional astronauts in 1986 when he was on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

He is a courageous, hard-working man. With his wife Grace by his side, they have done so many good things. They went to Haiti together, and I respect his commitment to public service and his commitment to the people of Florida.

Senator Nelson and I go back a long ways. We served together in the House for 8 years--and 17 years in this Senate. A quarter-century together in the arena. I remember then-Congressman Bill Nelson made the gutsy decision to fly in space aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia in January 1986.

To give you an idea of how much courage that took, consider this: That was the last shuttle mission before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

A number of people who have flown in space talk about something they call ``the overview effect''--a shift in perspective that occurs when you see the Earth hanging like a tiny, fragile ball in the black void of space. From the heavens, there are no boundaries, and you see that all of us on this planet are part of the same whole.

I think that seeing the Earth from that perspective would make anyone a better Senator. It may explain why Bill Nelson has always been so willing to reach out to other Senators--including our friends on the other side of the aisle--to solve problems for the people of Florida and for our Nation. He knows that our common humanity is bigger than our differences of opinion.

Senator Nelson displayed a different kind of courage in the Senate. He voted for the economic stimulus package that helped pull America and the world back from the brink of a Second Great Depression. He voted to create the Affordable Care Act--a vote that was politically risky, but has saved lives.

NASA and America's manned space program has had no greater champion-- save possibly John Glenn himself.

Bill Nelson has been a champion for: Working families; economic fairness; and good schools and affordable college education.

He has fought for: Clean oceans; safe and sustainable energy; reasonable, responsible action to prevent climate chaos; and for scientific integrity.

He has given most of his adult life to public service. He is a reasonable man in an unreasonable time. I will miss his courage in our caucus and in this Senate. I wish my old friend all the best as he begins the next chapters in his remarkable life. He will be missed.

Border Security

Mr. President, let me also say at this moment that we are debating the question of border security.

Yesterday, the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. McAleenan, who has been the Commissioner, is a professional. I respect the fact that he has a world of experience.

When he came to my office last year, I said to him: If I gave you a blank check for border security to make us safer in the United States, what would you buy?

He said: More technology, more people.

You will note that he didn't say a wall because he knows, as we do, that a wall is a 19th century answer to a 21st century challenge. We can make America safer, and should, with a secure border, using technology and personnel--well trained. This notion that we need to build a $5 billion wall came up yesterday during the course of the hearing.

I noted the fact that for the first time in my life, it was being reported publicly that the life expectancy of Americans has gone down. You wonder why, in this great, progressive, prosperous Nation, it is the case. It is because of the drug epidemic--an epidemic which has been fueled by opioids and heroin and fentanyl. Some 40,000 or more Americans lose their life annually to this epidemic--more than we lose in traffic accidents, for example.

When you look at the source of the narcotics, you find the most deadly chemical, fentanyl, is coming into the United States over our borders, where it is then mixed with other chemicals and sold to those on the street, ultimately leading to their death.

My question to Customs and Border Protection was: What more can we do to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States from China, through Mexico, and other places? What I heard from Mr. McAleenan was not encouraging because it says to me he knows what can be done, and yet he doesn't have the resources to address it.

Let me be specific. He told me last year there is something called a Z Portal. This is a scanning device which can literally scan railroad cars, trucks, and cars coming into the United States to see if they detect anything suspicious--whether it is narcotics or contraband or guns or individuals hidden away.

Currently, almost 100 percent of the railroad cars go through the scanning before they come into the United States, but fewer than one out of five other vehicles are scanned. I asked Mr. McAleenan, if we are going to put more money into border security, wouldn't we put money into these Z Portals; wouldn't you ask for more money to fund this technology? He said he would, and he wanted to.

I asked him how much it would cost to really make sure we have border protection to stop these deadly narcotics from coming into the United States. His answer was $300 million. Put that next to the President's outrageous demands for $5 billion for a wall that all of us agree--at least most agree--is an ineffective and wasteful expenditure of taxpayers' money.

The President may think he made some campaign pledge that he has to keep come hell or high water, but that pledge also included a promise that Mexico was going to pay for this wall. Now the President wants us to pay for this wall. That is $5 billion for his campaign promise instead of $300 million to keep America safe from more narcotics flowing across our borders. That, to me, is a ridiculous option that the President is demanding.

If we want a safe border, if we want to stop this drug epidemic which is killing so many people, let us put the technology in place which will keep us safer. That technology is not a wall from sea to shining sea that the President demands.

Saudi War Powers Bill

Mr. President, regardless of who is serving in the White House--a Democrat or Republican--I have long felt the Constitution is very clear. The American people--through Congress, and through Congress alone--have the constitutional responsibility to declare war.

Whether I was holding President Bush in the Iraq war or President Obama in our interventions in Syria or Libya to this standard, it really came down to the same basic principle. The Constitution is clear. Article I section 8 states: ``The Congress shall have the power . . . to declare War.''

What we are doing later today is a debate over the future of the U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen. It is long overdue and deeply important.

It occurs as we are entering the 18th year of the war in Afghanistan. That is an incredible fact. I was on the Senate floor and voted some 18 years ago, after the 9/11 occurrence, to go after those responsible for killing 3,000 innocent Americans and who were believed to be in Afghanistan at the time. I voted with a clear conscience, understanding no one can strike the United States and kill innocent people without being held accountable.

I had no idea when I cast that vote that beyond Osama Bin Laden, we would continue using that authorization against terrorism 18 years later to prolong the longest war in the history of the United States-- the war in Afghanistan.

I don't believe anyone who voted, as I did, in 2001, for that authorization of force could have imagined that 18 years later we would still be engaged in a war in Afghanistan or that the authorization would be stretched beyond credibility to approve the U.S. military action in multiple countries around the world, which brings us to the war in question today.

The disastrous and bloody Saudi-led war in Yemen is supported by the United States. Does anyone here remember voting to authorize U.S. military involvement in that war? Of course not. Did anyone who voted for the 2001 AUMF, authorization for the use of military force dealing with al-Qaida, believe we were including the Saudi-led quagmire in Yemen, a quagmire led by a reckless, young Saudi Crown Prince who I believe had direct knowledge of the brutal murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi?

Not only was this war never authorized by the elected representatives of the American people, it is a humanitarian disaster. An estimated 85,000 children have already died of malnutrition in this war, and in a country of 28 million, nearly half are facing famine because of a war that was initiated by the Saudis and supported by the United States.

Look at this heartbreaking photo. This is the photo of a 7-year-old, young Yemeni girl, named Amal Hussain. This photo was taken and featured in the New York Times in November. This young girl died shortly after this photo was taken.

``My heart is broken,'' her mother said.

I know this is a difficult photo to display in the U.S. Senate, but I believe it is necessary. It shows the consequences of this war and the failure of Congress to speak out clearly to this administration and take the actions necessary to stop our involvement in this war and humanitarian disaster in Yemen. The malnutrition and innocent suffering that you see in this photo cannot be ignored.

On Sunday, some may have read the New York Times columnist Nick Kristof's devastating piece ``Your Tax Dollars Help Starve Children'' about his recent and courageous trip to Yemen. Mr. Kristof writes about girls like Amal and notes how we typically think of war casualties as being men who have had their legs blown off. Yet, in Yemen, he writes, the most common war casualties are children who are dying of starvation and that in the conference room in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and here in Washington, officials, simply, don't fathom the human toll of their policies. Maybe some think that this war in Yemen is justified, that Iranian influence and the Houthis in Yemen are credible threats to U.S. security interests.

Ultimately, this is not about the merits of any such fight. It is not about soldier against soldier or combat against combat. It is about the innocent bystanders who are dying by the thousands. It is also not any way to vindicate the Houthis' troubling role in the horrible Yemeni civil war or their likely support from Iran. I don't try to do that, and I won't. It is about our constitutional duty and responsibility to debate and vote to participate in this war or in any war.

Our Founding Fathers were wise and knew that the decision to send someone's son or daughter into war must not be made by a King or a supreme executive, but in our case, it is by the United States, by the elected Representatives of the people. Just think of how many battles in human history--how many deaths, how much blood and destruction--have occurred to satisfy vanity or the narrow interests of a despot or an unelected ruler.

Our Constitution makes it clear that we are different. The American people are given the voice and the responsibility to decide if their sons or daughters will participate in the war, and they do it through the U.S. Congress, including this very organization, body, in which I serve. We have utterly failed as the U.S. Senate in this responsibility.

So we are long overdue to have this debate, which is coming up today or tomorrow, and a vote, which will ultimately reflect whether we should continue with the war in Yemen. I will be voting against that war. I believe we have to put an end to this humanitarian disaster, and the American people, especially those in Illinois, have sent me here to Congress to express that clearly.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I want to join my colleagues in thanking our friend, Senator Joe Donnelly, for his service to his State and our Nation.

When he was about 30 years old, while he was practicing law in South Bend, Joe Donnelly sought the Democratic nomination for attorney general in Indiana. Two years later, he ran for State senate. Both times, he lost.

Then he did something truly astonishing: He walked away from politics. For 10 years, he practiced law and ran a small stamp-and-ink business.

In 2003, local party officials asked him to run for Congress. They didn't expect him to win--just be a respectable sacrificial lamb.

He came closer to winning than anyone but he expected.

Two years later, he was elected, in a rematch, to the U.S. House.

As someone who also ran and lost three times before winning an election, I feel a natural camaraderie with my friend from Indiana.

I think I may also have some insight into why he was willing to try one more time.

You see, Joe Donnelly grew up in New York. He moved to South Bend for college, and he is a Hoosier, through-and-through, but he is also a member of the great White Sox Nation.

In 2005, the Chicago White Sox won the World Series for the first time in 88 years--proof, some would say, that anything is possible if you persevere and work hard.

The next year, it was Joe Donnelly's turn to score the upset victory by winning election to Congress from a red district in a deep-red State.

In his 6 years in the House, he voted to create the Affordable Care Act.

During the financial crisis of 2009, he voted for the American Recovery Act, to stop America's slide into a second great depression that could have brought down the entire global economy.

When free market hardliners said, ``Save Wall Street but let the American auto industry die,'' Barack Obama said no--and so did Joe.

In November 2012, Hoosier voters sent Joe Donnelly to the U.S. Senate, the first Democrat to hold his seat since 1977.

In a political era that often seems often to reward snark over substance, Joe Donnelly is a soft-spoken throwback to an earlier era, when working across the aisle was viewed as a talent, not as treason.

Joe is decent, honest, and direct. You may disagree with him on an issue, but you will never doubt his motives.

His values are classic Hoosier: hard work, common sense, bipartisan compromise, and a disdain for grandstanding.

As a Senator, he has done what he believes is needed to level the playing field for ``regular Joes,'' for farmers and factory workers and, as he says, ``the people who go to work in the dark and come home in the dark.''

I particularly want to thank him for his work to improve mental health care for military members and veterans. That work will save lives and families.

Like all nations, the White Sox Nation has some laws. One of my favorites is: ``Respect the past . . . people that are shoeless . . . and anyone named Joe.''

That last edict is a reference to one of the legends of White Sox history, Shoeless Joe Jackson, but it applies equally to our friend and colleague, Senator Joe Donnelly, who has served his State and our Nation well and earned our great respect.

Mr. President, I join my colleagues in thanking Senator Heidi Heitkamp for her service to her State and our Nation.

I remember one of the first conversations Senator Heitkamp and I had after she joined the Senate. I told her: ``I would really like your support on a bill to help the kinds of mom-and-pop stores that are the heart of so many small towns in your state and mine.''

I was about to give her my ``elevator pitch'' on the Marketplace Fairness Act. It wasn't necessary.

Heidi said: ``Uhm, Dick, you know the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that makes the Marketplace Fairness Act necessary. I'm the petitioner in the case. `Quill v. North Dakota?' That's me. I was the North Dakota tax commissioner who started that lawsuit.''

As I was quick to learn, helping Main Street, mom-and-pop stores stay in business in the age of Amazon is just one of many causes that Heidi Heitkamp had been working on, tenaciously, for years before she was elected to this Senate.

Heidi Heitkamp came to Washington with a to-do list. She worked doggedly, with Democrats and Republicans, to whittle down that list.

It was clear from the day she arrived here that she meant to use her new position as a U.S. Senator to right as many old wrongs and fix as many intractable problems as she could.

She leaves knowing that she made a difference in the lives of countless people, in North Dakota and far beyond.

She has been a champion for Native Americans, whose voices are so rarely heard in the halls of power.

The first bill she sponsored in the Senate created a new and long overdue Commission on Native Children, to try to rectify the conditions that cause one-in-three Native American and Alaska Native children to live in poverty, with suicide rates 2.5 times the national average.

Like so much of her work here, that was a bipartisan effort. Her partner in that case was Lisa Murkowski.

When the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized in 2013, it was Heidi Heitkamp who pushed successfully to close a loophole that allowed non-Indians who commit sexual assaults on Indian Reservations--very often--to go unpunished.

Her commitment to ``make a better future'' for Native children--and all children--is what motivated Heidi to become my partner on a bill to increase and improve the treatment of childhood trauma, the root of so much suffering and violence.

We are proud that our trauma bill was included in the new law to combat the opioid epidemic. It will save lives.

Heidi has said that her proudest achievement as a U.S. Senator was when she was able to help a Korean war veteran receive the Purple Heart and other medals.

The man, Corporal Andy Shaw, was a Native American elder who had served in World War II, was wounded in a gunfight in South Korea at the start of that conflict, and spent nearly the entire Korean war as a POW, but never received the thanks or medals he should have.

After 60 years, Heidi Heitkamp was able to right that wrong.

She and her staff tracked down the facts needed to document Corporal Shaw's heroism and sacrifice, and she travelled to the Spirit Lake Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to present Corporal Shaw's medals to him personally.

Andy Shaw has a little trouble standing now, but he stood proud and straight as his Senator presented his Purple Heart.

Heidi cried because she knew how much he had sacrificed for that medal and what it meant to him.

That is who Heidi Heitkamp is: a woman who uses her power to help the underdog.

I wish she were not leaving so soon.

She has been a force for progress, a friend, and a leader for whom I have great respect.

I know that she has a lot of grit and determination still in her, and I look forward to seeing what her next chapter will bring.

I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mrs. McCaskill) is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, on November 28, Quincy, IL, lost a legend in Coach John ``Jack'' Butler Mackenzie at the age of 77. Jack was the architect of an amazing soccer program at Quincy University. He led the Franciscan school's soccer program to nine National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, NAIA, National Championships and 516 victories, making him the tenth all-time in NCAA history for wins, regardless of division. He did all of this while setting examples as a coach, a father, grandfather, and leader.

Jack was born on February 26, 1941, to John ``Scottie'' and Mary Jane Mackenzie. He attended McBride High School in 1959 and earned a scholarship to play football at the University of Missouri. After a year, Jack left to attend Washington University in St. Louis, earning both a bachelor's degree in physical education and a master's in education.

Jack married his high school sweetheart, Sharon Bechtold, in June of 1962. He enjoyed telling people that he fell in love with her in sixth grade. Jack worked at Augustinian Academy in St. Louis and was on the cusp of making a big decision.

In 1969, at the urging of his best friend, Frank Longo, who introduced soccer to Quincy, Jack moved from St. Louis to run the Quincy University soccer program. QU had already won

two NAIA national championships in the program's first 5 years of existence when Jack arrived, but the QU Hawks reached new levels of success under Jack.

Jack's Hawks finished in the top three in the national tournament 12 times, including nine championships. They won five consecutive titles from 1977 to 1981. During his four-decade career, Jack won the NAIA National Coach of the Year four times. Thirty one All-American athletes came out of his program.

Jack loved the game of soccer, and soccer's popularity in Quincy exploded. The Quinsippi Soccer League formed in the late 1960s, helping young kids learn about soccer in elementary school. Jack helped teach adults who volunteered to coach the league, offered practice drills and strategies for helping boys and girls learn the game.

With QU's success, the school moved to NCAA Division I in 1984 and then to Division II in 1995, joining the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Quincy University didn't dominate as they did in the early days of Jack's tenure, but they regularly made the playoffs and had winning records.

In 2011, Jack's Hawks won the Great Lakes Valley Conference for the first time since joining the conference. It was Jack's last season coaching the team full time. It wasn't the biggest victory he had ever had, but it was one he loved like the others.

In retirement, Jack remained active in the community. He helped out with Special Olympics teams. He rarely missed a home game of QU's soccer team. Jack was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame, NCAA Hall of Fame, United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame, St. Louis Players, and QU Hall of Fame. Legends Stadium, where QU plays soccer, has its playing surface named after Jack.

Jack Mackenzie had a gift for storytelling and the ability to make someone's day more enjoyable. He loved his ``beautiful game,'' the kids who learned from him, and his family. His best story was really his own. When kids play on Jack Mackenzie field, it will be remembered as a game based on love.

Jack is survived by his wife of 56 years, Sharon, and six children-- Scott; Christopher, wife Leigh, and their children, Julian and Isabella; Kevin, wife Susan, and their sons, Andrew, Tyler, and Luke; Brian, wife Bonnie, and their children, Kate and Jack; Beth Hilbing, husband Chad, and their children Jake, Grace, and Sam; and Megan Henke, husband Adam, and their daughter, Genevieve.

Mr. President, on Saturday, at least 29 tornadoes reportedly touched down in Illinois in Cass, Christian, DeWitt, Fulton, Macon, Macoupin, Mason, McDonough, McLean, Montgomery, Pike, Schuyler, and Tazewell Counties in central Illinois. The National Weather Service is still surveying nearby areas but reports this is the biggest December tornado outbreak in the history of Illinois.

One of the touchdowns in Taylorville caused major damage. I spoke with Taylorville mayor Bruce Berry. Thankfully, no fatalities have been reported, but 20 to 30 people were injured and early reports indicate more than 400 homes and buildings were damaged. Several homes have had roofs damaged and torn off, and others were tragically destroyed.

Two days after the storm, 310 households still did not have power, and the schools in Taylorville were closed as a result of the damages. The community is busy cleaning up and utility companies are working to get electricity back on.

I am grateful for the dedication of the local first responders, who rescued residents that were trapped inside their homes due to the tornado damage. These responders still have task forces searching for anyone that might need assistance. Local officials and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency are also working to make sure communities have the resources to protect critical infrastructure and begin to repair damage, a feat that could take months. American Red Cross volunteers are also providing food, shelter, and water to those in need. Across the region, friends and family have stepped up to help those whose homes and businesses were damaged.

The Illinois delegation and I stand ready to assist in any way we can. I want to thank everyone who has been engaged in the response efforts so far, and all those who will take part in rebuilding damaged homes, businesses, and schools. Illinoisans always rebuild and endure, as we have done many times before--and we are stronger for it.

Mr. President, several years ago, after his 3-year-old daughter Robin passed away from leukemia, George Herbert Walker Bush wrote to his mother about how much he loved and missed his little girl. It is a beautiful, almost heartbreaking letter. Near the end, he wrote about his daughter's continued presence in his life and the life of his family. He said: ``We cannot touch her and yet we feel her.''

President Bush himself has now passed beyond our reach. Yet, knowingly or not, we all feel the difference he made in the Nation and in the world. Many of us feel that deep longing for a ``kinder, gentler'' Nation that President Bush promised in his inaugural address 30 years ago.

George Herbert Walker Bush was an American patriot who devoted his life to his family and to his country. On his 18th birthday--6 months after Pearl Harbor--he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became one of the youngest aviators in the history of the Navy. He was discharged 1 month after Japan's surrender, but he never stopped serving America.

There is a book entitled ``Flyboys'' that tells the story of the squadron George Herbert Walker Bush was a part of and the deadly mission they were given in the South Pacific. He flew some 58 missions as a Navy pilot. On his last assignment, he was shot down, and two of his crew were killed in that confrontation. Fortunately for us and for him, he was rescued by a submarine. There is a grainy, black-and-white film of his being fished out of the ocean by the American submarine that is still an inspiration to this day.

As the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd President, he was the linchpin of a political dynasty that spanned four generations. He already had a lifetime of public service before he became President--as a Texas Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, Envoy to China, Director of the CIA, and Vice President to Ronald Reagan.

Despite his extraordinary achievements, he was a man of remarkable humility. If his syntax sounded a little choppy at times--and Dana Carvey made a fortune imitating him--it was partly due to the fact that George Herbert Walker Bush had difficulty using the words ``I'' and ``me.'' When he was a young boy, his mother taught him that those were the words of braggarts. Riding in the Presidential limousine through streets lined with cheering crowds, he once told a fellow passenger: ``They're not clapping for me; they're clapping for the office of the President.'' That was exactly how he thought it should be.

I was still a rather new Congressman when George Herbert Walker Bush was President. I sure didn't agree with all of his policies, as my voting record demonstrates, but that is a discussion for another time. As President Bush's own life shows us, there is a time for politics, and there is a time to put politics aside and to recall the exceptional lifetime of service he gave to our Nation.

President Reagan helped hurry the end of the Cold War, but it fell to President George Herbert Walker Bush to successfully navigate the aftermath.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, he insisted there would be no gloating or triumphalism from his administration.

His low-key approach helped set the tone for our NATO allies, and it helped make possible the peaceful end of the Soviet Union. Never before had such a heavily armed empire ended with so little turmoil or bloodshed in its final days. In the 2 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Bush and then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev successfully negotiated the START nuclear arms treaty. Under President George Herbert Walker Bush, we saw the largest reduction in nuclear weapons in history, and America and the world are safer today because of it.

If you want to see the world's enduring respect for President Bush, look at the statesmen and stateswomen expected to attend his memorial service tomorrow at the National Cathedral. Among them are Mikhail Gorbachev, his partner in historic change, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany.

It is said that the Germans today credit George Herbert Walker Bush more than any person for their successful reunification. He knew that America is stronger when we work with partners than when we imagine we can somehow go it alone. When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, George Herbert Walker Bush methodically assembled an international coalition to push them back.

He left his mark on domestic policy as well. He fought for and in 1990 signed the Americans with Disabilities Act--one of the greatest civil rights laws in our Nation's modern history.

President Bush was a committed conservative and a Texan by choice. He had close ties to the oil industry, but he believed in science. What a welcome change it would be in Washington today if his party felt the same. President George Herbert Walker Bush understood that poisoning our planet is not just unfair to future generations, it is bad for business, and it is bad for our economy. He helped build bipartisan support--this Republican President helped build bipartisan support--and signed the Clean Air Act of 1990, strengthening the Federal Government's role and protecting the very air we breathe. He signed the Global Change Research Act of 1990, establishing an interagency Federal council to improve understanding of global change and to devise a plan to reduce the risks of climate catastrophe. What a sharp contrast to the current administration. George Herbert Walker Bush's work was the work of a leader.

Between 1980 and 1990, America's budget deficit tripled to $220 billion, driven largely by the Reagan-era tax cuts. In 1990, with a lot of criticism, President Bush had the courage to sign a tax increase--as President Reagan had before him--to help pay down the deficit for future generations. He put the interests of future generations ahead of his own short-term political advantage, and he paid a heavy price in the next election. He may have even lost because of it. Years later, he received a Profile in Courage Award for that leadership.

In his inaugural address, President Bush said that the real strength and greatness of America came from ``a thousand points of light''--the countless acts of decency and compassion we show to each other and to those in need. In his post-Presidential years, he remained a committed advocate for volunteerism, community, and national service. He was active in domestic and global humanitarian activities, often alongside former President Bill Clinton, an old political opponent turned ally.

In 1995, after a domestic terrorist bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 680 more, the National Rifle Association sent out a fundraising letter denouncing the Federal agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as ``jack-booted thugs.'' Former President George Herbert Walker Bush reacted with anger. He denounced that vitriol by the NRA as ``a vicious slander on good people.'' He publicly resigned his NRA lifetime membership, placing conscience ahead of political calculation.

Like John McCain and others who have personally experienced the terror of war, George Herbert Walker Bush did not confuse politics with war. He did not mistake political opponents for enemies. He understood that people can have differences of opinion and both still love the country.

Our sadness at losing him seems partly a reflection for our own deep, deep yearning as a nation today for the kind of leadership and character and integrity and honesty and courage that he brought to the Office of Presidency.

In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln pleaded with a nation on the knife's edge of war. He said:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.

Lincoln urged us to be guided ``by the better angels of our nature.''

In his own inaugural address, President George Herbert Walker Bush also spoke of all Americans as friends. Let me read two short sections of his remarks.

My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are

not the measure of our lives. In our hearts, we know what

matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger

car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense

of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a

citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better

than he found it. And what do we want the men and women who

work with us to say when we're no longer there? That we were

more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we

stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better and stayed a

moment there to trade a word of friendship?

President George Bush went on to say:

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in

high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose

today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and

gentler the face of the world. . . . My friends, we have work

to do.

As a tribute to George Herbert Walker Bush, who lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol--the 32nd person to be so honored in our history--let us try to remember we are not enemies but friends, and may we summon the courage, the wisdom, and the humility to put the interests of our Nation and our world ahead of self-interest.

In closing, my wife Loretta and I send our deepest condolences to President Bush, his family, and all who knew and loved him.

Mr. President, in 1830, a family of dirt-poor farmers moved to Illinois. In the previous 14 years, this family had moved from Kentucky to Indiana, always eking out a bare subsistence. In Illinois, they hoped their luck might finally improve.

After helping his father establish a small farm, the family's 21- year-old son struck out on his own. In the little village of New Salem, he found work as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and a member of the Illinois State Legislature.

On April 15, 1837, that young man moved to Springfield, Illinois' capitol. There, this self-taught man began a successful law practice. He married, and he and his wife welcomed four sons. His 23 years in Springfield were the happiest of his life.

When he left his adopted hometown in the late winter of 1861, he told the friends and neighbors and well-wishers who crowded to the train depot to see him off: ``To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.'' He hoped he would return one day, but it wasn't to be.

On April 15, 1961, 28 years to the day after he first arrived in Springfield, President Lincoln was killed by an assassin's bullet. He died just days after the end of the Civil War, the ``fiery trial'' through which he had steered our Nation--the cataclysm that finally ended America's original sin of slavery.

Most historians rate Abraham Lincoln as America's greatest President, and I agree. We who live in Illinois are proud to call our State ``The Land of Lincoln.''

Illinois had entered the Union as America's 21st State only 11 years before Lincoln's father Thomas moved his family there.

Yesterday, Tuesday, December 3, Illinois celebrated our 200th anniversary as a State. To commemorate this historic anniversary, Senator Duckworth and I introduced a resolution that passed the Senate earlier this year. An identical resolution was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Abraham Lincoln served one term in the late 1840s.

Let me tell you about my home State. Illinois stretches from the Wisconsin border in the north to the Kentucky border in the southeast. The southernmost point in our State, the town of Cairo, Illinois, lies farther south than Richmond, VA.

We also border Lake Michigan to the northeast, Indiana to the east, Missouri to the west, and Iowa to the northwest. You could fit Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Albania, and Cyprus inside Illinois' borders; that is how large Illinois is.

If Illinois were an independent nation, our economy, valued at over $820 billion, would be the 19th largest economy in the world, just ahead of Saudi Arabia.

We are the fifth-largest economy among U.S. States, and we are among the top States in exports, value-added manufacturing, and agricultural income.

The deep black soil of much of northern and central Illinois is among the finest in the world. More than 75 percent of Illinois is still covered by farms, more than 72,000 of them.

While this year marks Illinois 200th anniversary as a State, societies have flourished in Illinois for over a millennium.

Near Collinsville, IL, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, is the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico.

Historians estimate that Cahokia was first settled around 700 A.D. By 1250 A.D., Cahokia was larger than London. The flat-topped pyramids built by its inhabitants are as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Next came the Illinois Confederation, about a dozen Native American Tribes. The first Europeans to reach Illinois, French explorers, arrived in the 17th century. Most of the French Illinois following the nearly decade-long French and Indian War in the mid-18th century. Then came the English settlers and colonists from many of America's 13 original States.

In the 1840s, Illinois, like most of America, experienced great waves of European immigrants, starting with the Germans and Irish, followed by immigrants came from Poland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Austria, and Russia.

During World War I, the Great Migration began, the steady flow of African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the major industrial centers of the North, and Chicago was the Mecca of the Great Migration.

You can see and hear and taste our immigrant roots in the vibrant, ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago and in cities and towns and villages throughout our State.

Illinois is home to many firsts. In February 1865, Illinois became the first State to ratify the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude in America.

The first skyscraper in the entire world was built in Chicago in 1885. The world's first Ferris wheel debuted at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Chicago gave the world the first televised presidential debate . . . the first successful open-heart surgery . . . and the world first self-controlled nuclear reaction.

Evanston, the home Northwestern University, is also the birthplace of the ice cream sundae. The first McDonald's in the world was in Des Plaines. Lake Michigan is the largest body of freshwater in a world that is fast running out of water.

Illinois is a land of ingenuity and invention. In 1900, after vents threatened the safety of Chicago's water supply, engineers built a series of canal locks that actually reversed the flow of the Chicago River, a feat that was named a ``civil engineering monument of the millennium'' by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1999.

Illinois inventors have contributed to inventions from meatpacking and blood-banking, to the farm silo, the zipper, the vacuum cleaner, the mechanical dishwasher, the wireless remote control, and the cell phone.

Illinois has sent its sons and more than a few of its daughters to fight for this Nation in war after war.

Today, it is home to 20,000 Active-Duty members of America's Armed Forces, 24,000 members of the reserved forces, and more than 643,000 veterans who risked their lives to protect all of us.

My partner in this body, Senator Tammy Duckworth, is a proud example of the courage and dignity and self-sacrifice of Illinois veterans.

Let me tell you about some of the other remarkable men and women Illinois has given to our world.

They include champions of justice such as Jane Addams, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her work a century ago founding Hull House and helping poor families, especially immigrant families, to achieve their American dream.

Other Illinois champions of justice include Clarence Darrow, the legal champion of underdogs, and Betty Bloomer, whose courage in helping to reduce the stigma surrounding both breast cancer and addiction has saved untold numbers of lives. The world knows her better as First Lady Betty Ford.

Illinois comedians from Jack Benny to Robin Williams, John Belushi, and Richard Pryor have made the world laugh. Illinois singers and musicians, including Miles Davis, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, and the Staple Singers, have made the world sing and dance-- and maybe even work for justice and peace. Illinois storytellers, including Walt Disney and Ernest Hemingway, have captivated viewers and readers for generations.

In the field of sports, the Chicago Cubs have taught generations of fans the virtue of patience, going more than a century before once again winning the World Series in 2016.

Chicago has more than its share of sports champions. The Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986. The Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 2005. The Chicago Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013, and 2015.

The Chicago Bulls, led by the legendary Michael Jordan, won the NBA championship every year from 1991 through 1993 and from 1996 through 1998.

Illinois is the home State of President Ronald Reagan, and the adopted

home State of President Barack Obama, America's first African-American President.

It is also home to the first African-American woman ever to serve in this body, Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

The author and poet Carl Sandburg, another son of Illinois, wrote, ``Nothing happens unless first we dream.''

In Illinois' 200 years as a State, its sons and daughters have never stopped dreaming of ways to make life better and fairer, and working to make those dreams come true.

As we begin our third century as a member of this great Union, we intend to continue that proud tradition.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, one of our most preeminent oral historians of our time turns 100 on December 7. Timuel Black was born near the end of World War I and has been the keeper of the soul of the south side of Chicago to this very day. World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars, but we know some of America's greatest wars were yet to come. Tim Black was on the frontlines of many of those fights. As a historian, as an activist, and a humanist, he fought and continues to fight for the dignity of people and a better future.

Professor Black was born in 1918, in Birmingham, AL, the son of sharecroppers and grandson of slaves. At 8 months, his family moved to Chicago, joining the first wave of migration of African Americans from the Deep South to the North. His family settled in an area of Chicago then-called the Black Belt. It is now known as Bronzeville.

Tim would go on to celebrate and shape the history of Chicago's Black Belt. To Tim, this is sacred ground. But first, he went to Burke Elementary School and DuSable High School. His classmates included Nat King Cole; future publisher and founder of Jet and Ebony Magazine, John H. Johnson, the first African American on Forbes' 400 most wealthy; and future Mayor Harold Washington. Don Cornelius and musician Sonny Cohn also were among the many famous students of DuSable High School.

It was on his birthday in 1941 that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Army drafted Tim into a segregated army 2 years later. In the last 2 years of World War II, Tim experienced the worst of the war. He participated in the Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Paris. He earned four battle stars. But it was what he saw while liberating the Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp, that altered the way Tim saw the world. The horrors of the human capacity for cruelty at Buchenwald filled Tim with despair.

He returned to Chicago, resolved to fight for human rights and human dignity. He earned an undergraduate degree from Roosevelt University and a master's degree from the University of Chicago. Tim started his professional career as a social worker, but he quickly discovered that his real love was, in his words, ``teaching young men and women about the world they live in and how to be responsible citizens of that world.''

For 40 years, Tim did just that through his teaching positions at DuSable and other Chicago public schools, as well as Roosevelt University, Columbia College Chicago, and schools in the City Colleges of Chicago system.

Tim also has spent his life on the frontlines of the struggle for human rights and dignity. At age 13, he walked his first picket line to protest the refusal of White-owned businesses in Bronzeville to hire Black clerks. As an organizer in labor and social justice movements of the 1940s and 1950s, he worked with Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois.

Tim helped establish the Congress of Racial Equality and the United Packinghouse Workers of America labor union. I might not be where I am today were it not for Tim's work because it was the Packinghouse union that helped me work through college.

In December of 1955, Tim was watching television when he first saw an inspiring man in Montgomery, AL. He hopped on a plane to meet him. A year later, Tim convinced him to come to Chicago. This was the first time Dr. Martin Luther King would speak in the city. Tim then helped organize the Freedom Trains that carried thousands of Chicagoans to hear Dr. King roar ``I Have a Dream'' in Washington, DC, in 1963. In 1966, Tim was right there with Dr. King when an angry mob attacked him in Chicago's Marquette Park. Whenever there was a good fight against Jim Crow housing, segregated public beaches, job discrimination, or the shortchanging of Black students in public schools, you would always find Tim Black.

There is one student of Professor Black we all remember. A couple of decades ago, a young community organizer who had just returned to Chicago with a Harvard law degree asked Professor Black to teach him about organizing people so they could create a better life for themselves and their children. The young organizer and Professor Black became friends over the years. It was my privilege to invite Professor Black and his wonderful wife Zenobia Johnson-Black to be my guests as that community organizer swore an oath to become the President of the United States. I could not have had a better guest to see the history that he had helped make possible as Barack Obama became our first Black President.

Tim may have retired from teaching years ago, but we are all still students in his never-ending classroom. His three-volume history of Chicago's Black Belt, entitled ``Bridges of Memory,'' is the story of the great Black migration to Chicago from the Deep South, told by those who made that journey and by their descendants. His home in Hyde Park is an incomparable museum of stories about every place he has lived in Chicago. The theaters he first heard Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Billie Holliday are still alive and well in memories to be shared.

Happy birthday, Tim Black. Generations have grown up with a better appreciation of their homes and the history they inhabit because of you.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, when we encourage our students to be active and play school sports, it's because we want to promote healthy habits and team-building skills. Yet every year, more than 140,000 student athletes sustain a concussion--and that's just the reported count. We can be sure that many more go unreported and untreated.

The benefits of competing in school sports are undermined if students are staying out on the field after an injury--especially concussions. And there is more evidence than ever about the detrimental long term effects of concussions.

That's why I'm reintroducing the Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act. My bill would direct States to develop concussion safety plans for public schools that include a concussion safety awareness component. Certain States like Illinois already have such procedures in place, but it's high time we make this true for all States. By equipping our schools and communities with evidence-based guidance for responding to concussions; we can keep our students, and their futures safe.

The bill would also require States to adopt a ``when in doubt, sit it out'' policy. If there is even the possibility that a student athlete has suffered a concussion, their health and safety ought to be the number one priority. That means, if an athlete is suspected of having sustained a concussion, they should sit out and not be allowed to return to play the same day and, after that, only once evaluated and cleared by a qualified health care professional.

Unfortunately, many student athletes return to play prematurely--to the detriment of both their health and academic performance.

Let's be clear: a concussion is a traumatic brain injury that affects brain function. It is, by no means, something we can simply shake or walk off. The still-developing brains of students make them more susceptible to injury, making concussions all the more dangerous.

A ``when in doubt, sit it out'' policy, endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Neurology, will take the decision to return to the game out of the hands of a coach or an injured athlete who may not want to look ``weak''

to their teammates. It will prevent students from experiencing successive injuries by staying in the game when they are not fit. It will give injured athletes the time to heal to help ensure that short term symptoms do not become long term effects.

For school sports to be a safe option, we have to put the necessary, common-sense procedures for preventing, detecting, responding to, and treating concussions in place. This bill would help do that.

It's why my bill is endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Academy of Neurology, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the Korey Stringer Institute, and Safe Kids World Wide.

I hope my colleagues will join me in this common-sense, evidence- based approach to protecting student athletes. Thank you.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, when we encourage our students to be active and play school sports, it's because we want to promote healthy habits and team-building skills. Yet every year, more than 140,000 student athletes sustain a concussion--and that's just the reported count. We can be sure that many more go unreported and untreated.

The benefits of competing in school sports are undermined if students are staying out on the field after an injury--especially concussions. And there is more evidence than ever about the detrimental long term effects of concussions.

That's why I'm reintroducing the Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act. My bill would direct States to develop concussion safety plans for public schools that include a concussion safety awareness component. Certain States like Illinois already have such procedures in place, but it's high time we make this true for all States. By equipping our schools and communities with evidence-based guidance for responding to concussions; we can keep our students, and their futures safe.

The bill would also require States to adopt a ``when in doubt, sit it out'' policy. If there is even the possibility that a student athlete has suffered a concussion, their health and safety ought to be the number one priority. That means, if an athlete is suspected of having sustained a concussion, they should sit out and not be allowed to return to play the same day and, after that, only once evaluated and cleared by a qualified health care professional.

Unfortunately, many student athletes return to play prematurely--to the detriment of both their health and academic performance.

Let's be clear: a concussion is a traumatic brain injury that affects brain function. It is, by no means, something we can simply shake or walk off. The still-developing brains of students make them more susceptible to injury, making concussions all the more dangerous.

A ``when in doubt, sit it out'' policy, endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Neurology, will take the decision to return to the game out of the hands of a coach or an injured athlete who may not want to look ``weak''

to their teammates. It will prevent students from experiencing successive injuries by staying in the game when they are not fit. It will give injured athletes the time to heal to help ensure that short term symptoms do not become long term effects.

For school sports to be a safe option, we have to put the necessary, common-sense procedures for preventing, detecting, responding to, and treating concussions in place. This bill would help do that.

It's why my bill is endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Academy of Neurology, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the Korey Stringer Institute, and Safe Kids World Wide.

I hope my colleagues will join me in this common-sense, evidence- based approach to protecting student athletes. Thank you.

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

Mr. President, if I came to the Senate floor each day and told the story of another victim of gun violence in the city of Chicago, it would be a full-time job. Trend lines are improving ever so slightly, but the deaths from gun violence in that great city continue to break our hearts. Hardly a day, a week, or month goes by that we don't hear another story of some child, innocent bystander, infant, or elderly person victimized by gun violence. Last week, there was an extraordinary event which captured the hearts of the people of Chicago and Illinois.

This Monday afternoon, hundreds of police officers from Chicago and Northern Illinois--and some from as far away as Boston and New York-- stood at solemn attention, lining the roadways around the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines.

The night before, a powerful blizzard had dumped 7 inches of snow in the Chicago area. It was very cold, but it was not cold air that caused many of the officers gathered outside the chapel to feel numb. It was grief. They had come to pay their respects to a fallen brother and hero.

Chicago police officer Samuel Jimenez was shot and killed a week earlier when he tried to stop a shooting at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center on the city's South Side.

I am going to put this array of photos up because I want to address each and every one of them, the individuals on there. This is Officer Jimenez. He was 28 years old, married to his high school sweetheart, the loving father of three little kids.

Killed in the same shooting were these two women: Dr. Tamara O'Neal, an emergency room physician, and Dayna Less, a first-year pharmacy resident. Both women worked at Mercy Hospital. The man who shot all three of them also died, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Let me speak of this hero and these healers for a moment. Officer Samuel Jimenez was 28 years old, married to his high school sweetheart, Crystal. Together, they had three children--two little girls and a boy. Friends said his eyes lit up whenever anyone asked him about his kids.

Officer Jimenez had been a member of the Chicago Police Department for less than 2 years. He had already earned two honorable mentions for exceptional performance. He and his partner were in their patrol car around 3:30 Monday afternoon, a week ago, November 19. A call came over the police radio about an active shooter at Mercy Hospital. The gunman shot Dr. O'Neal in the parking lot and then ran into the hospital. Officer Jimenez followed. He was shot and killed in the hospital lobby.

The gunman shot Ms. Less as she stepped off an elevator. He then shot and killed himself, after first being shot by a Chicago policeman.

At the funeral, Officer Jimenez was remembered as a loving husband, father, and friend, and as dedicated to protecting others. He grew up in Northwest Chicago, the youngest of nine children. Before joining the police department, he worked at Dunkin' Donuts, bused tables at Moretti's Ristorante & Pizzeria. He even delivered mail in the suburbs. His instructors and classmates at the police training academy remembered him as a stellar recruit, always eager to lend a hand, always there with a warm hello.

He completed his 13-month probationary period with the police department just last August. Officer Jimenez and his partner didn't have to respond at Mercy Hospital. You see, that hospital was outside the district they were assigned to, but they went anyway, not even hesitating for a second because they knew people were in danger.

Dr. Tamara O'Neal was an emergency room doctor. That is one of the hardest, most stressful jobs in the hospital. Dr. O'Neal picked that profession because she thought it was where she could do the most good for people who needed help. She was 38 years old. She joined the staff of Mercy Hospital less than 3 months ago, after a 3-year residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago--the same school where she earned her medical degree.

Her colleagues remember her for her outgoing personality and her willingness to go out of her way to help others. They say she used to stay long after her shift ended to make sure her patients were taken care of. She was also a woman of great faith. She was the choir director of her church in Indiana, and she drove there every Sunday--60 miles each way--to lead the congregation in song. Her brother was the pastor of the church. Dr. O'Neal helped raise money every year to buy school supplies for children in the church whose families were strapped for money. She loved taking her nieces and nephews into the city of Chicago to show them new attractions, new restaurants.

Dayna Less was 24 years old. Had the shooting happened 1 day later, she would still be alive. She was leaving that next day to spend Thanksgiving in Indiana with her family. She graduated from pharmacy school at Purdue last May, after 6 years of study.

She was engaged to be married in June to a young man she met at church camp when they were both just 9 years old. Dayna Less loved the Chicago Cubs, working at Mercy Hospital, and traveling.

Before coming to Mercy, she spent 8 weeks on pharmacy rotation in Kenya. She wrote about her experiences there in a blog. This is part of what she wrote:

Watching patients die from things that would 100 percent be

treatable in the US is extremely disheartening.

It's been very important for me to focus on the positive

things we are doing here because it can be difficult to see

how we are making a difference. But, it's worth it when you

fight for something and it actually happens! Even if it's as

small as making sure a patient gets their medication, we are

doing something that matters.

Officer Jimenez, Dr. O'Neal, and Ms. Less were all doing work that mattered and mattered greatly. All three were dedicated to helping others--Officer Jimenez as a protector, Dr. O'Neal and Ms. Less as healers.

Their deaths have left their friends and families, the Chicago Police Department, and all of the city of Chicago stunned and grieving. There is never--never--a good time to lose a family member to violence but to lose them during the holiday season seems especially cruel. Our hearts go out to Officer Jimenez's family and to the O'Neal and Less families.

Officer Jimenez was the second Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty this year. Last February, the day before Valentine's Day, District Commander Paul Bauer was fatally shot in downtown Chicago. Gun violence against police officers is not just a problem in the city of Chicago; it is a problem across America. It is getting worse.

We all remember the horrific ambush of Dallas police officers in July 2016. Five officers were killed and nine others were injured by a sniper. Since then, 132 police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty in cities and towns across our country. These are intentional shootings. They are not accidents.

We have seen intentional killings at churches, synagogues, schools, and as we have learned so painfully in the city of Chicago, hospitals. We are seeing an increase in shootings in these locations.

In 2016, U.S. hospitals spent $1.1 billion to try to make their hospital grounds safer. Think about that: more than $1 billion--not to cure an illness, not to alleviate suffering but to protect the patients and professionals at hospitals across America from this horrific gun violence that shook the city of Chicago last week. Imagine if that $1 billion would have been spent on healing and keeping people healthy.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich was the main celebrant at Officer Jimenez's funeral. I want to read part of what he told the mourners who filled Our Lady of Guadalupe. He said of those in law enforcement:

Every day they get up, leave their homes and family to

watch out for us.

I think that maybe the best way that we can console each

other and also express our gratitude for the sacrifice that

has been given in the death of Officer Jimenez is as

citizens, remember that law enforcement wants us all to live

together, to watch out for each other, care for each other,

and then maybe we will make their jobs easier.

He added:

And maybe, there will not be another death of an officer

because all of us are taking responsibility for watching out

for one another.

It is not unusual for the people of Chicago to rightfully say to me, their U.S. Senator: What are you going to do about this? What are you going to do to reduce gun violence in the United States?

Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution create this burden on us today, where we have to accept wanton gun violence as part of someone's constitutional right? Of course not. Those who misuse guns, those who do not store them or use them properly and legally should be held accountable. Why then can't we pass basic legislation in this Congress? Why can't we pass a bill to keep guns out of the hands of people who are unqualified to own them or people who are unstable and should never be given a gun? Why can't we make certain that weapons that are military weapons, that have little or no application when it comes to sport or hunting, are not sold to everyone, right and left, in the United States?

I heard recently, there were 11 million AR-15s--a military-style weapon--that are circulating in the United States of America. Does anyone, in their wildest imagination, think that is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they talked about the right to bear arms; that people would have these deadly military weapons and they would be used so often?

I will be very candid with you, having served in the House and served in the Senate for a number of years, the prospects of passing meaningful gun safety legislation are minimal. There are two things that can make a difference. For one, if the police and law enforcement officers across the United States stood as one and demanded of Congress there be gun safety measures to make their lives safer, it would be happen. Law enforcement could be the inspiration and the political motivation for Congress to act.

Secondly, I know thousands of law-abiding gun owners in the State of Illinois. I grew up in a family--my family and others--where owning a firearm was considered part of life. It was what people did so they could go hunting in a proper way, a legal way. If those legitimate gun owners--sportsmen, hunters, and those who keep them for self-defense-- would step up and say we need to draw clear lines for those who abuse firearms and those who are using them to kill innocent people, that, too, could make a difference. Think of that. If the law enforcement community and gun owners who accept responsibility for that firearm came together and demanded Congress pass measures to keep guns out of the hands of those who kill our policemen, threaten our law enforcement officers, and hurt innocent people like the doctor and this pharmacy resident, it would make a significant difference.

Until that happens, we will come and make speeches on the floor of the Senate. We will issue press releases. We will attend funerals. We will offer our thoughts and our prayers, but I think it is time for more. I think it is time for this Nation to step up and do something significant, to not just stop and demand that we bring an end to gun violence in Chicago and other cities but make this a safer world for our children.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.