Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 717 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

The bill (S. 717) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, was read the third time, and passed, as follows:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the applicable committees be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following resolutions, en bloc: S. Res. 203, S. Res. 194, S. Res. 214, S. Res. 215, S. Res. 231, S. Res. 213, S. Res. 233 and S. Res. 221.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 239, S. Res. 240, and S. Res. 241.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 510 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Wednesday, August 2; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Kaplan nomination, with the time until 11 a.m. equally divided between the two leaders or their designees.

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

Mr. President, I rise tonight to talk about the Portman amendment and about the broader substitute that repeals and replaces the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare.

Is this replacement perfect? No. I don't think any replacement is. But it is a big improvement over the status quo. The status quo on healthcare is simply no longer sustainable.

It isn't working for Ohio. We heard a lot about the middle-class squeeze in Ohio, and it is real. Wages are flat and expenses are up. For most folks, the biggest single expense is healthcare costs. It is the fastest growing expense because of higher premiums and higher deductibles.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. In fact, when the Affordable Care Act--ObamaCare--was enacted in 2010, we heard a lot of promises about lower costs. They promised that ObamaCare would bring down premium costs by 2,500 bucks for the average family, but we now know that families have seen their premiums skyrocket. According to the Ohio Department of Insurance, health insurance premiums on the individual market in Ohio have nearly doubled since the Affordable Care Act went into effect 7 years ago. Small business premiums have gone up 82 percent. Premiums for this year are up double-digits, and next year we all expect the same. No one can afford that.

To make matters worse, we have seen a sharp increase in deductibles. For a lot of people covered by insurance, they feel as though they really don't have health care insurance at all because their out-of- pocket expenses are so high and deductibles are so high, they really can't access it.

These higher premiums and deductibles have already made healthcare unaffordable for a lot of hard-working Ohioans. But it is not just about costs, it is also about choice. Some people are losing their coverage altogether because the policies established in the Affordable Care Act were set up for failure.

Fifteen of the 23 nonprofit insurers set up around the country as co- ops around the Affordable Care Act have now gone bankrupt. One was in Ohio. Last year in my State, 22,000 hard-working Ohioans lost their coverage because our co-op declared bankruptcy. Many of them, by the way, had already paid their deductibles on that, and they lost that as well.

Worse than that even, right now there are 19 counties in Ohio without a single insurance company in the exchange market, the individual market--not one insurance company. Another 27 counties in Ohio have only 1 insurer. That is not competition. That is not choice. Far too many Ohioans--thousands of them--if they want health insurance, are told they have to move out of their county to another county.

Less competition has also meant less choices and higher costs for Ohio families and cost shifting on to employer-based plans. As these insurance companies have lost money, some of them haven't left Ohio, but they shifted their costs to other people. That is why so many people's costs have gone up.

Without competition and choice in the market, we are never going to be able to lower healthcare costs for families and small businesses. That is one more reason why the status quo on healthcare, the system we have now, is not sustainable.

The Affordable Care Act has failed to meet the promises that were made, but we can do better, and we have to do better. It is our job to do better, but we should do it in a way that protects low-income beneficiaries of Medicaid, that protects the most vulnerable in our State. We can do that too.

At the outset of this debate and consistently throughout the debate, I have

said my goal was to create a more workable healthcare system that lowers the cost of coverage and provides access to affordable care while protecting the most vulnerable. This most recent version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act--as my colleague just called it, BCRA.3--is an improvement over the House bill, but it is also an improvement over the previous Senate bill. This measure includes reforms that will help lower premiums on families and small businesses. The No. 1 priority out there should be to lower those costs. This bill will help lower those premiums.

Throughout the process, I have expressed my concerns about how we deal with Medicaid, which is a critically important Federal program that provides healthcare benefits to about 70 million Americans who live below the Federal poverty line. The Affordable Care Act allowed States, including Ohio, to expand Medicaid eligibility actually above the poverty line, to 138 percent of poverty, and to cover single adults.

With our growing debt and deficits, we know the current Medicaid Program is not financially sustainable over the long term, and we have to look for innovation and reform to protect and preserve it now so that Ohioans can count on this program in the future and so that those who need it will have it.

My point all along has been that these reforms can and should be done in a way that doesn't pull the rug out from under people and gives States time to adjust. So, in this Senate bill, I have worked to put Medicaid expansion on a glidepath for 6 years, with the current law for 3 years and then a transition for another 3 years. That transition would be to a new healthcare system. This is a big improvement over the House bill, which had a cliff in 2 years without a glidepath.

Just as important, in this substitute before us, Governors would have new flexibility in this legislation to design innovative Medicaid Programs that meet the needs of their States and their expansion populations.

One issue I have focused on a lot in this discussion has been the opioid epidemic. In my own State of Ohio, this epidemic has had a devastating effect. About 200,000 Ohioans now suffer from drug addiction, primarily from heroin and prescription drugs and the new synthetic heroins, such as fentanyl. Unbelievably, I will tell you that about half of the funds we spend in expanded Medicaid in Ohio go for one purpose, and that is mental health and substance abuse treatment, primarily driven by addiction to heroin and prescription drugs and fentanyl.

We have to deal with this issue in a smart way. In this latest version of the substitute, that is why I fought to provide not only that transition for those on expanded Medicaid but also an additional and unprecedented $45 billion in new resources for States to address the opioid epidemic. I am pleased to say that in the legislation we are going to vote on tonight, it is included. We want those receiving opioid treatment under Medicaid expansion to maintain access to treatment as they work to get back on their feet. This new funding is critical to help with regard to that treatment and longer term recovery.

An additional issue I have been working on is to ensure that those on expanded Medicaid are able to find affordable healthcare options under a new system, whether it is under the new Medicaid structure or affordable healthcare options in the private sector on the private market. Over the past few weeks, I have worked with the President, the Vice President, administration officials, and many of my colleagues on ways to improve this bill further in this regard, to help out low- income Ohioans and others who are trying to find affordable coverage. That is why this proposal before us, the Portman amendment, is so important.

By the way, it is called the Portman amendment, but it is the result of the work of a lot of different Senators, some of whom I saw on the floor earlier and one I see here tonight. Senator Capito, who has been a leader on this, and Senators Hoeven, Gardner, Sullivan, Cassidy, Young, Boozman, Heller, Murkowski, and others, have worked on this proposal.

I am pleased that we have received a commitment that the Senate will vote tonight on this approach to help those on Medicaid expansion and other low-income Americans get access to affordable healthcare in the private market.

This plan has two parts. First, it provides an additional $100 billion to the long-term stability fund in the Better Care Reconciliation Act to help people with out-of-pocket expenses, such as deductibles and copays, thus ensuring that those who transition from Medicaid expansion into private insurance under a new system not only have the tax credit to help them, which is part of the underlying bill, but also have this additional help for affordable coverage options.

Second, it is a Medicaid wraparound that allows States to provide cost-sharing assistance to low-income individuals who transition from Medicaid to private insurance and receive a tax credit on the exchange. The States could use this flexibility in combination with this long- term stability fund increase--the additional dollars I am talking about--to assist individuals with their deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses, and copays.

It would also allow the States to capture Federal Medicaid matched dollars to supplement the tax credits under the Better Care Act without having to seek and renew existing waiver authority.

This Medicaid wraparound is already available through a waiver, but we think it is critically important to put it in a statute so that other administrators and the current ones--Seema Verma has said she supports this waiver being granted--but others will grant it, and you don't have to renew this waiver or beg for a waiver. It is a commonsense way to help get people who are going into private plans the help they need to be able to afford the premiums, deductibles, and copays.

This is a commonsense approach to help ensure that these low-income Americans have access to affordable care, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

We must do better than the Affordable Care Act. I have heard from people across Ohio on both sides of this debate. Trust me, I have heard a lot. There is a lot of passion. I understand that. But it is interesting, the common denominator in many of these discussions is that doing nothing is not sustainable. Pretty much everybody acknowledges that the status quo is not working. Ohioans deserve action.

In my view, to throw in the towel and give up on finding a better alternative is to give up on Ohio's families, give up on Ohio's small businesses, and I am not willing to do that.

We all know the Affordable Care Act has not lived up to its promises to the American people. Today, after 7 years of consistently calling for repeal and replace, I am supporting a sensible plan to do just that. Is it perfect? No. I don't think any substitute is. Replacement is hard. But it is an improvement on the unsustainable status quo, and it does help keep our promise to the American people to do better.

I urge my colleagues to support the legislation before us.

I yield back my time.

Mr. President, today I wish to remember Maynard F. Hagemeyer, a WWII veteran and Ohio business and civic leader. Mr. Hagemeyer passed away on July 16, at the age of 98, at his home on Wilmington Road in Clarksville; he died in the same room he was born in on November 22, 1918.

Maynard Hagemeyer attended Spring Hill elementary school in a one- room schoolhouse and graduated from Massie Township High School in Harveysburg, OH in 1936. He attended the University of Cincinnati, studying business administration. He loved horses and, in his youth, showed Percheron and Belgian horses throughout the U.S., and in 1940, he traveled through the Panama Canal, transporting draft horses to Chile.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941, Maynard served almost 5 years during WWII, half in deployment overseas. He attained the rank of captain and commanded a company in the 23rd replacement battalion in North Africa, serving under General George Patton. He also served under General Mark Clark in Italy.

Maynard took over the family farm in 1948 and operated various business ventures over the years. These included an excavation business, a feed mill, an anhydrous ammonia and fertilizer business, an egg business, and a Standardbred racing and breeding business he started in 1957 that still continues today.

Active in the community, Maynard was a member of the Clarksville Masonic Lodge since 1940, the Scottish Rite and Shrine since 1946, and he joined the Eastern Star in 1947 and served as ``Worthy Patron'' in 1952 and in 1962.

Maynard was on the Warren County Fair Board for 42 years and the Warren County Veterans Commission for 20 years. He also served as a director of the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association and was the first president of the Harness Horse Youth Foundation.

He stepped into public service after the death of his father in 1948, completing the balance of his father's term as Warren County commissioner. He was also a member of the Warren County School Board for 10 years and served as a Washington township trustee for 32 years.

Maynard has been recognized many times over the years, including the Pacer Grass Roots award in 1989, named a ``Kentucky Colonel'' at the age of 91, Masonic Lodge 75-year award in 2016, and the Harveysburg alumni 80-year award in 2016.

Maynard and his beloved wife, Stella, were married for 71 years and had 4 children, 8 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

I would like to honor Maynard Hagemeyer for his contributions to his community, his country, and his family.

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

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an issue that Members on both sides of this aisle have a deep concern about, and that is human sex trafficking and, specifically, the work we have done to try to stop one website called backpage.com from selling people online.

This morning, I--along with my colleagues Tom Carper and Claire McCaskill--announced that we have asked the Department of Justice to investigate backpage.com for criminal

violations of the law. This is a criminal referral, and it is a new development in this case. We believe there is sufficient evidence to warrant this criminal review by the Justice Department, based on the work that we have done in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

With estimated revenues of more than $150 million a year, backpage.com is a market leader in commercial sex trafficking and has been linked to hundreds of reported cases of sex trafficking, including trafficking vulnerable women and children. Backpage has claimed that it ``leads the industry'' in its screening of advertisements for illegal activity, including sex ads for children. That is simply not true. In fact, we now know that this website has long facilitated sex trafficking on its site so that it can increase its profits--profits that come at the expense of those being trafficked, including children.

When victims or State authorities try to bring actions against this company, backpage has evaded responsibility by saying that it doesn't write the ads for sex; it just publishes. Frankly, as a rule, courts have sided with the company, citing the immunity granted by a Federal law that is called the Communications Decency Act. The law, in essence, says that if a company like backpage publishes an ad someone else gives them, they are not liable, even though, again in this case, we know that this website has long facilitated sex trafficking and they know what they are doing.

We also now know that backpage has actively edited words and images, which makes them cocreators of these ads. We also know from a new report in the Washington Post just this week that, despite claims, backpage has aggressively solicited and created sex-related ads designed to lure customers. It further demonstrates that backpage is not merely a passive publisher of third-party content. They are involved. The article found that backpage workers were active cocreators of many of these sex advertisements, including those that seek to traffic women and young, underage girls.

I believe the legal consequences should be that they should lose their immunity under the Communications Decency Act, and that is why we have asked the Justice Department today to review this matter.

Let me be clear about the Communications Decency Act. It has an important purpose. It is a well-intentioned law. It was enacted back in 1996 to protect online publishers, and I support the broader legislation, the Communications Decency Act. But the law was not intended to protect those who knowingly violate the law and facilitate illegal conduct, and it was never intended to protect those who knowingly facilitate the sex trafficking of vulnerable women and girls.

We are actively exploring legislation to fix this issue once and for all. I have been working with a bipartisan group of Senators on potential legislation, and I am hopeful that will soon be introduced in the U.S. Senate. We must protect women and underage girls and hold accountable websites that knowingly facilitate these types of criminal exploitations.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a place in Ohio called the Ranch of Opportunity in Washington Court House. The Ranch of Opportunity opened its doors in the latter part of 2013. It is on a 22-acre site, a tranquil setting, a peaceful, spacious, and healthy environment for girls between 13 and 18 to help find healing and recovery during a residential program.

The ranch is a place of hope. As it says in its name, it is a ranch of opportunity, and a lot of the girls who spend time at the ranch have been victims of human trafficking and child abuse. In fact, I am told that the majority--roughly 60 to 80 percent--of the young girls who come through this program have been trafficked.

As I have talked to some of the girls and the staff there, of course, backpage.com comes up again and again, as it always does when I talk to survivors and victims of human trafficking. These types of crimes-- sexual abuse and trafficking--are horrific, but they are happening. They are happening all over the country, and they are happening more and more. So in your community, wherever you live, sadly I will tell you that this is a problem. Part of it is because of these online traffickers. In other words, as many of the survivors of human trafficking have told me: Rob, this has moved from the street corner to the smartphone, and the smartphone is where backpage.com dominates.

In touring the State, I have heard over and over again about this specific link between drugs and human trafficking. I have talked to trafficking survivors who have told me that their trafficker first got them hooked on heroin and other drugs. I saw this firsthand in May, when I toured the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland Harbor Light Complex. They have been operating in Cleveland for 65 years, providing incredibly important services to some of the most vulnerable members of society, including women who have been trafficked. It is important to know that link is there.

Both of those issues are so important to address--trafficking and what is happening in terms of the increasing heroin and prescription drug and fentanyl crisis in this country, which is now at epidemic levels. That is why the STOP Act is so important--the Synthetic Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, which we are trying to get passed here, as well as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, which is so important. There is a connection.

Human trafficking requires urgent action, and so does the opioid epidemic. On human trafficking, including sex trafficking, we are now told it is a $150 billion a year industry. Think about that. It is the second biggest criminal enterprise in the world behind the drug trade. Unfortunately, again, it is happening in all of our States.

Just last month, a 26-year-old man was indicted on human trafficking charges. He used backpage.com to advertise the availability of two girls, ages 15 and 17. He advertised them for sex and trafficked them out to several hotels in the area. Thankfully, in this case, members of the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force rescued both of the victims, one in Columbus and one in Toledo.

Cases like this are alarming, but they are happening all over the place. At the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, experts on this issue report an 846-percent increase in reports of suspected child sex trafficking from 2010 to 2015. That is an increase of more than 800 percent in 5 years. The organization found this spike to be ``directly correlated to the increased use of the internet to sell children for sex.'' Again, it is the dark side of the internet, and trafficking has now moved from the street corner to the cell phone.

To confront this problem, as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with my colleague and ranking member, Senator Claire McCaskill, now Senator Tom Carper, I opened a bipartisan investigation into sex traffickers and their use of the internet. The investigation began over 2 years ago. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children now says that nearly three-fourths--73 percent--of all suspected child sex trafficking reports it receives from the general public are linked to one website, backpage.com.

According to leading anti-trafficking organizations, including Shared Hope International, service providers working with child sex trafficking victims have reported that between 80 percent and 100 percent of their clients have been bought and sold on backpage.com. Backpage now operates in 97 countries--934 cities worldwide--and is valued at well over one-half billion dollars. According to an industry analysis, in 2013, $8 of every $10 spent on online commercial sex trafficking advertising in the United States goes to this one website, backpage.com.

As I said earlier, they say that they lead the industry in screening; in fact, their top lawyer described their screening process as a key tool for disrupting and eventually ending human trafficking. That is not true. Despite these boasts, the website and its owners have consistently refused to cooperate with our investigations on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. With regard to our inquiries, despite subpoenas for company documents on how they screen advertisements, they have also refused to provide us documents after a subpoena. As a result, this body, the U.S. Senate, last year, for the first time in more than 20 years, voted to

pass a civil contempt citation--in other words, holding backpage.com in contempt and requiring them to supply these documents and come forward with this information or else face a lawsuit and potential criminal violations. Finally, last August, after going through the district court, the Circuit Court, all the way to the Supreme Court, we were able to get their request to appeal it rejected, and we were able to get the documents.

Over 1 million documents were eventually turned over, including emails and internal documents. We went through them all, and what we found was very troubling, to say the least. After reviewing the documents, the subcommittee published a staff report in January that conclusively showed that backpage is more deeply complicit in online, underage sex trafficking than anyone ever imagined. The report shows that backpage has knowingly covered up evidence by systematically deleting words and images suggestive of the illegal conduct, including child sex trafficking. The editing process sanitized the content of millions of advertisements in order to hide important evidence from law enforcement. I encourage people to take a look at this report. They can look at it on our website and other websites here from myself or Senator McCaskill.

Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer personally directed his employees to create an electronic filter to delete hundreds of words indicative of sex trafficking or prostitution from ads before they were published. In other words, they knew these ads were about selling girls, selling women online; yet they published them.

Again, this filter they used did not reject ads because of the obvious illegal activity. They edited the ads only to try to cover up the illegal activity. It didn't change what was advertised; it changed the way it was advertised. Backpage did nothing to stop this criminal activity. They facilitated it, knowingly.

What did they do? Well, afraid to erode their profits--they were afraid because, as Mr. Ferrer said, in his words, it would ``piss off a lot'' of customers. They began deleting words. Beginning in 2010, backpage automatically deleted words including ``lolita,'' referencing a 12-year-old girl in a book sold for sex, ``teenage,'' ``rape,'' ``young,'' ``little girl,'' ``teen,'' ``fresh,'' ``innocent,'' ``school girl,'' even ``amber alert''--and then they published the edited versions of those ads on their website. They also systematically deleted dozens of words related to prostitution. This filter made these deletions before anyone at backpage even looked at the ad.

When law enforcement officials asked for more information about the suspicious ads, backpage had destroyed the original ad posted by the trafficker, so the evidence was gone. This notion that they were trying to help law enforcement flies in the face of the fact that they actually destroyed the evidence that would have helped law enforcement.

We will never know for sure how many girls and women were victimized as a result of this activity. By backpage's own estimate, the company was editing 70 to 80 percent of the ads in their adult section by late 2010. Based on our best estimate, this means that backpage was editing more than one-half million ads a year--more than one-half million ads a year.

At a hearing on the report, the backpage CEO and other company officials pled the Fifth Amendment, invoking their right against self- incrimination rather than responding to questions we had about the report and its findings.

We also heard powerful testimony from parents whose children had been trafficked on backpage. One mother talked about seeing her missing daughter's photograph on backpage. She frantically called the company to tell them that it was her daughter--they finally found her--and to please take down the ad. Their response: Did you post the ad?

Her response: Of course I didn't post the ad. That's my daughter. Please take down the ad.

Their response: We can take it down only if you pay for the ad.

Talk about heartless.

Based on our report, it is clear that backpage actively facilitated sex trafficking taking place on its website in order to increase profits at the expense of vulnerable women and children. Then, after the fact, they covered up the evidence of these crimes.

What is happening to these kids is terrible. It is not just tragic. To me, it is evil.

No one is interested in shutting down legitimate commercial activity and speech. As I said earlier, the Communication Decency Act plays an important role, but we want to stop this criminal activity.

I see some of my colleagues are here to speak. I appreciate their allowing me to finish, but I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in reforming these laws to be able to protect these innocent victims, these children.

I yield back my time.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Suzy DeYoung from Cincinnati, recipient of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service. The Jefferson Awards Foundation was founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Robert Taft, Jr., and Sam Beard to power others to have maximum impact on the things they care about most.

Suzy cares about helping her community and has a passion for good food. She was born to be a chef. Her father, Pierre Adrian, was head chef at the five-star Maisonette restaurant in Cincinnati and her grandparents were chefs in New York. She and her sister co-ran La Petite Pierre restaurant until Suzy split off to focus on La Soupe.

Now, Suzy is more than a chef. She is a business owner, transportation manager, teacher, and a fundraiser.

In response to growing childhood poverty rates and the fact that one- third of all food produced worldwide is either lost or wasted each year, Suzy DeYoung started La Soupe to close the gap between food waste and hunger. La Soupe rescues otherwise wasted produce to create delicious and highly nutritious meals for customers, nonprofits, and food-insecure families.

In 2016 alone, La Soupe rescued 125,000 pounds of food from going to the landfill and donated over 95,000 servings to people living in food insecurity.

La Soupe partners with Kroger, Jungle Jims, Crosset Company, Sugar Creek, and various local organic farms who provide ingredients allowing La Soupe's team of volunteer chefs to share their culinary magic turning rescued produce into soup or sometimes stew or gumbo or a casserole to feed to people who are hungry.

Suzy also spends time helping parents learn how to feed their kids and teaches weekly cooking classes at area schools, sending kids home with ingredients and recipes to cook for their families. In addition, she operates a retail ``Soupe Shack,'' where sales of the meals made from rich ingredients fuel donations to Cincinnati's food-deprived individuals.

An energetic social entrepreneur, Suzy has inspired chefs to create and give. She has inspired parents to provide healthier options to their families, and she has also inspired kids to pursue culinary careers.

I would like to congratulate Suzy DeYoung and thank her and all of the volunteers at LaSoupe for their dedication to closing the hunger gap for so many in greater Cincinnati.

Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a promising young man from Wyoming, OH--just outside of Cincinnati, my hometown--a young man whose life was drastically cut short at just 22 years of age. I rise to talk about Otto Warmbier.

Otto had all the smarts and talent you could ever ask for. He was a homecoming king and the salutatorian of the Wyoming High School class he graduated from a few years ago. He spent a summer at the London School of Economics. He was a smart kid. He won a prestigious scholarship to study at the University of Virginia. As everyone expected he would, he excelled at UVA. He got great grades. He had a thirst for learning. He loved meeting new people and hearing about their lives and their perspectives. His future was as bright as it could possibly be.

It was this smart, kindhearted young man--a college kid--who was taken prisoner by the North Korean regime for nearly 18 months. Otto's detainment and sentence were unnecessary and appalling. Neither one should have ever happened in the first place. At some point soon after being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, from what we know, Otto suffered a severe brain injury--from what, we don't know, and we may never know.

Whom did the North Korean Government tell about this? No one. For the next 15 months or so, they kept this a secret. They denied him access to the best medical care he deserved, and they refused repeated requests for consular access that would normally be provided to those who have been detained--requests from our government, from the Obama administration, from the Trump administration, requests from the Red Cross, requests from the Swedish Government, which provides consular service for Americans in North Korea, requests from many of us here in the Capitol.

The regime unjustly imprisoned him and then lied about his severe medical condition. By the way, they continued to tell stories that make no sense. Doctors at the University of Cincinnati--some of the best doctors in the world and just the type of medical professionals Otto should have been able to see from the start--say that North Korea's claims as to what happened simply don't stand up to the evidence.

They called him a prisoner of war, but they also violated the Geneva Convention. For North Korea to imprison Otto Warmbier with no consular access for more than a year with his medical condition and severe brain injury--it goes well beyond that. It demonstrates a complete failure to recognize fundamental human rights. Because of these actions by the North Koreans, Otto is dead. His promise has been cut short.

If there is ever any doubt about the nature of the North Korean regime--that pariah country--then Otto's case should erase all doubt. We know this regime has no regard for the rule of law or the freedoms we enjoy here, but they also have no regard for basic human rights and dignity. They have subjected hundreds of thousands of their own people to mistreatment, torture, and death for decades. They are now extending that treatment to innocent Americans. North Korea should be universally condemned for its abhorrent behavior and be held accountable for its actions.

Otto's family--God bless them--tried everything they could to bring Otto home. For 18 months--and for almost 16 months not knowing of his dire condition--they were steadfast and resilient, trying everything they could.

I was there with Fred and Cindy Warmbier when Otto finally returned from North Korea. He came home. It was incredibly emotional to watch Otto be reunited with his loving family. I believe he knew he was back home. I believe he knew he was among those who loved him.

I want to thank State Department Special Representative Joe Yun, Deputy Secretary Sullivan, and Secretary Tillerson for their work to help secure Otto's release last week and to bring him home.

There are still three Americans who are being detained by the North Koreans. They should be released immediately, and we should do everything we can do as a country to secure their release.

Otto's case is a reminder that we must, on the one hand, increase pressure on North Korea to force them to change. There will soon be more to discuss on that. At the same time, we have to maintain an open line of communication to deal with the deadly serious issues we face. Those are some of the lessons I have taken from the last 18 months.

Fred, Cindy, and the entire Warmbier family have been incredibly strong through this ordeal. No one should have to go through what that family has experienced. My wife Jane and I will continue to be at their side, including at the funeral service tomorrow in Wyoming, OH.

I urge my colleagues and everybody listening at home to continue to hold up this family in prayer, but also let's ensure that this tragedy is a wake-up call about the true nature of this brutal regime.

Mr. President, I yield back.

Mr. President, I want to start by commending my colleagues from Georgia and Montana for their compassion and care for our veterans and specifically for their continued efforts to ensure we have accountability at the VA. They worked hard on this legislation. I hope the Senate moves expeditiously to vote for it and to help our veterans to be able to have the kind of responsibility and accountability they deserve.

Remembering Les Spaeth

Mr. President, I also rise today to talk about veterans. I am going to focus on World War II veterans.

Last Monday was Memorial Day. I was in Mason, OH. I was in Warren County, OH. My mom grew up there, and my family still has a lot of ties there. I was there at a ceremony for the veterans memorial, one of the most beautiful memorials in the State of Ohio. I happened to be there about 15 years ago when it was first began, and it was great to be back. At the ceremony, I got to see a World War II buddy of mine. His name is Les Spaeth. He is also a good friend of my father's and grandfather's. As always, seeing him brought back great memories, and I was able to speak about him during my remarks.

Two days later--a few days ago--we got word that Les Spaeth died at age 92. I want to take a moment to pay tribute to this man who gave so much to his country and to his community.

Les was a marine corporal during World War II. He signed up after graduating from Mason High School in 1942. He served in the Pacific, including the occupation of Japan after the war, helping that country make a difficult transition to democracy. Thanks in large part to American soldiers like him, by the way, the transition worked. Japan has become one of our greatest allies.

Les came back to Mason, OH, and started a small business called Spaeth Brothers Cleaners. He had that optimism so many of the World War II generation had. He had the courage to take a risk and help build jobs and help the economy of his hometown. My dad did the same thing after World War II.

Les was a businessman, but he was also a public servant for more than half a century. He served six terms as Warren County auditor. He served on the Board of Elections for 25 years. He chaired the Warren County Republican Party for 17 years.

He was very active in the community in so many other ways too. He was one of the very first volunteer firefighters in Mason, OH, starting way back in 1948. He was elder at his church, Heritage Presbyterian, where his service will be held. For 70 years, he was a freemason and member of the American Legion. He helped set up the American Legion Buckeye Boys Program, a great program where they are teaching young men about State, local, and Federal government and values and leadership. His whole life was centered around his community--through the family business, through military service, through elected office, and through volunteerism.

In 2009, Mason High School started having a distinguished alumni graduation speaker every year. For all the reasons I talked about a moment ago, a few years ago, in 2013, I wrote a letter and recommended that they honor Les Spaeth. They agreed with me. That spring of 2013, it was time to receive his award. He gave a beautiful speech. He talked about his love for this country and counting our blessings as Americans. He received a standing ovation from the graduating class. I know that meant a lot to him. That ovation shows the respect and esteem people in Warren County have for Les Spaeth across generations.

On behalf of Ohio, I want to express my condolences to the family of Les Spaeth. I also want to thank them for sharing Les with the rest of us in Ohio for these past 92 years. He was a dedicated servant to the people of Warren County, an American hero for his military service, and a good friend to so many.

73rd Anniversary of D-day

As was noted, as we talk about World War II, today is also the 73rd anniversary of D-day. As Chairman Isakson just said, it was really the beginning of the end of that war. And 73 years ago this morning, Les Spaeth was in theater in the Pacific, as I said, risking his life for all of us. But in Europe on that same morning, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world was taking place. Men as young as 18 years old were crossing the channel, carrying packs weighing 80 pounds. More than 160,000 Allied soldiers--mostly Americans--and more than 5,000 ships backed by more than 10,000 aircraft were fighting to liberate Europe from Hitler. The outcome was far from certain. The Nazis had spent 2 years fortifying the coast to prepare for this moment. It was Hitler's so-called Atlantic Wall. The beautiful coastline of France was covered in barbed wire, land mines, and bunkers.

A little more than a month before D-day, by the way, the Allies had conducted a trial run. They practiced on beaches in western England that were most like those of Normandy. The practice run was a disaster. In fact, Germans spotted the Allied ships and attacked them. Hundreds of American troops died in that practice session.

COL George Taylor told his troops as they were about to land on Normandy: ``Only two kinds of men are going to be on this beach--the dead, and those about to die. So get moving.'' This was

tough stuff. They had an enormous task, and the stakes could not have been higher.

Erwin Rommel--and Rommel was leading the Nazi defense at that time-- said at that time: ``The fate of Germany depends on . . . the first 24 hours of this invasion.'' He was right.

Well-known historian Douglas Brinkley said that D-day was ``the single most important moment in the 20th Century.'' It was one of the bloodiest too. It was the beginning of the end of the most difficult war in human history, and the lives of millions of people depended on the outcome.

They depended on the success of brave, young Americans like Eugene Lyons of University Heights, OH. Eugene was a medic. His ship hit a mine in the English Channel and sank off the coast. He swam to shore while German planes shot at him, missing him by a matter of inches. Or the Napier brothers of Warren County, like Les Spaeth. Five brothers all served during World War II. Two of them were there on the beaches that day; one died. Or Jim ``Pee Wee'' Martin from Dayton, OH, who served in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and parachuted behind German lines before dawn that day. Jim received both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his service that day. Or Sigmund Czelusniak of North Royalton, OH, who was wounded by a mortar shell on Omaha Beach. Sigmund later said, as he lay wounded: ``In my heart, I didn't think I'd ever come back.''

More than 10,000 Allied troops did not come back.

While those brave men and hundreds of thousands of others were fighting, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took to the airwaves, as you would expect a President to do. As you know, he was known for what were called fireside chats. These were informal speeches he would give to the Nation during difficult times. But on that day, he did something very different. Instead of giving a speech, he was called to lead the Nation in prayer. This prayer brought our country together. It strengthened our resolve. It comforted us at a very difficult and frightening time for our country, and it briefly encapsulated, as you will hear in a second, what our purpose was--not just in World War II but what our purpose was as Americans. He made an indelible mark on our history.

Three years ago, after the 70th anniversary of D-day, then-President Obama signed into law legislation that I had authored to add the words of this famous prayer to the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. Since then, the site for the plaque has been approved. The architect is continuing to work with the National Park Service on the design. I have been told that the Park Service intends to present the design options to the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission during their meetings this summer. Construction could begin as soon as December and be completed by next June.

Frankly, I am discouraged this has taken so long because this prayer belongs on the World War II Memorial, and Congress has said so. I urge the Park Service to move as expeditiously as possible to complete this project, to bring those words to so many veterans and others who visit that beautiful memorial.

As has been my tradition since the time we were trying to get that legislation passed, I would like to read the words President Roosevelt spoke on D-day 73 years ago.

He started by saying:

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you . .

. I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and

our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater

operation. It has come to pass with great success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in

prayer.

This was his prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have

set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our

Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free

a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give

strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts,

steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and

hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces.

Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return

again and again; and we know by Thy grace and by the

righteousness of our cause our sons will triumph. They will

be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--until the

victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame.

Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They

fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end

conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice

arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They

yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the

haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive

them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for those of us at home--fathers, mothers, children,

wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose

thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty

God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this

hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single

day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the

desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a

continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again

when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips,

invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to

redouble the contributions we make in the physical and

material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail,

to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our

sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in

our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade.

Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not

the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but

fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable

purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces

of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and

racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and

with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a

sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy

men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom,

reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

Those were the words he spoke and the words that will soon be inscribed on the World War II monument.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I came to the floor last week to talk about our police officers. It was during Police Week. We talked about the bravery and heroism of our officers back home. I talked about tragic stories of police officers who were gunned down in the line of duty and talked about what they do for us every day.

Today I want to talk about an issue that is endangering their lives and the lives of so many in our communities but specifically law enforcement. This happens in every single State represented in this Chamber. This danger is this new epidemic of synthetic heroin, of opioids.

We know more about heroin and prescription drugs. Now we have these synthetic heroins coming in that are even more powerful. Being a police officer has always been a tough job, but it is becoming riskier today because of this. Some people have heard it as carfentanil or fentanyl or U4. Most of this synthetic poison coming into our communities is coming through the mail system. It is coming from overseas, primarily from China, where they have laboratories, where some evil scientist is mixing up this chemical mix and sending it over here into our communities.

Let me tell you about something that happened last Friday in East Liverpool, OH. Some of you may know the name ``East Liverpool'' because it is the same city where there was a photograph that went viral on the Internet of a couple who had overdosed in the front of a car, with their 3-year-old grandson in a car seat behind them. It showed the grandson, and it showed the two who had overdosed passed out in the front of the car.

In this same town of East Liverpool, OH, an officer by the name of Chris Green pulled over a car in a routine traffic stop. As he came up to the car, he noticed there was white powder sprinkled around the car. He took the appropriate precautions. He put on his gloves, he put on a mask, and he began to deal with the situation at hand. The people in the car apparently had spread the powder to try to avoid it being detected, but it was easily detectible.

At the end of his arrest process, there was a small amount of powder that was left on his jacket, which he did not notice. He went back to the police station. When he got there, he noticed the powder on his shirt and instinctively he went like this to get the powder off of his shirt. This small amount of powder touching his hand caused him to overdose. Officer Green is not a small guy; he is about 6 feet 3 inches, 225 pounds. He is a big, strong police officer who overdosed just by trying to get a few flakes of powder off of his jacket. Why? Because this fentanyl is so powerful. It is so deadly.

Fortunately, his fellow police officers were able to save his life with naloxone. This is a miracle drug which reverses the effects of an overdose and which is being used on our streets every single day to save people from dying from overdoses. In this case, it was used to keep a police officer who was doing his duty and who had simply tried to get a few flakes of powder off of his uniform from dying of an overdose.

East Liverpool police chief John Lane put it this way:

If he had been alone, he'd be dead. That's how dangerous

this stuff is.

Chief Lane later made the point that if Officer Green had gone home in that shirt and unknowingly had this powder on his shirt or his jacket, he could have endangered the lives of his family. That is a scary thought. Obviously, that is true. That is how deadly these drugs are.

It only takes a few milligrams, just a few specks, to kill you. This chart will show you how much it takes. Here you see that 10 milligrams of carfentanil is powerful enough to sedate a 15,000-pound elephant. Here is the carfentanil over here, as shown on this chart. You will see why a fatal dose can be a very, very small amount--30 milligrams for heroin, 3 milligrams for fentanyl, even less than 3 milligrams for carfentanil.

By the way, for those of you at home, if you look at a penny, you will see Abraham Lincoln's profile on one side of it. The deadly dose of fentanyl that we are talking about here is enough to only cover up the face of Abraham Lincoln on a penny. That is how little we are talking about and how deadly this stuff is. You can see why our law enforcement officers are so concerned about this.

Officer Green is not the only one to experience this. There was a famous case last year where two officers in Atlantic County, NJ-- Detective Dan Kallen and Detective Eric Price--overdosed on fentanyl just by breathing fentanyl in the air at a crime scene. As some of you have heard, fentanyl is so dangerous that they are afraid to use dogs to try to sniff it out because just by trying to sniff these packages to see whether fentanyl is included in them, the dogs could overdose and die. Fentanyl is dangerous stuff.

By the way, it is taking up more and more of the resources of our police officers and other first responders. Earlier this year, I came to the floor and talked about Officer Ben Rhodes of Chillicothe, OH. Last year Officer Rhodes reversed more than 50 drug overdoses. This is one officer in one small town.

Talk to the firefighters in your community and ask them whether they go on more fire runs or more heroin and fentanyl and carfentanil overdose runs. I almost guarantee you they will say they go on more overdose runs. As a result, in some communities, those firefighters are not there to be able to protect us as you would typically think from the fires that still continue to be a major problem. So this is a real issue. It is taking up more and more of their time and more resources and causing more and more crime.

On Thursday, in Middletown, OH, which is a town in Southern Ohio, a family was getting ready to leave the house. In fact, they had already strapped their 3-month-old baby into a car seat. It is not clear whether they had shot up with heroin before they put the baby in the car seat or after, but they went back into the house and they overdosed in the house. They had the baby in the car seat in the car. They overdosed in the home.

They have another son who is 5 years old. He ran out of the house barefoot. He went to a neighbor's house, to his stepfather's home, which is a few blocks away, and yelled at the door: Mom and dad are dead. Mom and dad are dead.

The grandfather called the police, and they rushed to the scene. They were able to revive the boy's dad with naloxone. They used seven doses of naloxone on the mother, but she still couldn't wake up. From talking to police officers about this, they tell me that there is a very good sign this involved fentanyl, perhaps carfentanil, because after two, three, four, five, six, seven doses of naxolone, she still could not be revived. Fortunately, the police rushed her to the hospital, where they were finally able to bring her back.

Again, this is what police officers are facing every day in my home State of Ohio, in your State, in your community.

After this incident, the Middletown Police said on Facebook:

It has to stop. Please get help before it's too late. Not

only to save yourself, but to save your kids. Give these kids

a chance by getting help. If you or someone you love has a

drug problem, please seek help right now.

This is a cry from our police officers saying that this can't continue.

Talk to the firefighters and police officers who have administered naloxone to the same individual time and time again, overdose after overdose. These brave officers and police officers around the country are feeling overwhelmed.

Drug overdoses are now the No. 1 cause of accidental death in the United States of America. It has now surpassed car accidents. It has way surpassed gun violence. In the last 3 years, more Americans have died of drug overdoses than died in the Vietnam war. More Americans are dying of drug overdoses now than died of AIDS at the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995. This year, 2017, more people will die from overdoses from opioids than died from AIDS at the peak in 1995--another tragedy. According to an article in the New

York Times, more than four times as many people are dying every day from this epidemic than were dying of drug overdoses at the peak of the crack cocaine epidemic. When I say it is the worst drug crisis we have faced in this country and that it is an epidemic, that is not overstating it.

The Fraternal Order of Police and the Major County Sheriffs of America are actually focused on this issue, and they want better tools to be able to at least try to stop some of this poison--the fentanyl and the carfentanil--from coming into our communities.

I mentioned earlier the fact that this actually comes by the mail system. Unbelievable. It doesn't come by all mail systems. It comes through the U.S. mail system, as opposed to the private carriers, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, or others. One reason is because our mail system in the United States does not require the kind of advanced notice of where the package is from, what is in it, and where it is going that the private carriers require. So where do the traffickers go? They go to our mail service, the U.S. Postal Service, and the postal service in the country that interacts with and connects with our postal service.

This is why the Fraternal Order of Police, the Major County Sheriffs of America, and other law enforcement are saying: Help us by passing legislation called the STOP Act. The STOP Act is to help stop traffickers from bringing these deadly poisons into our communities, the kind of stuff that caused Officer Green to overdose.

Fentanyl and these other synthetic drugs are not just coming in from overseas; they are coming in through our mail system. What we are saying in the STOP Act is, let's close the loophole. Let's say that the mail system in the United States has to say the same thing that other private carriers say, which is, if you want to ship something through our system, that is fine, but you have to tell us what is in it. You have to tell us where it is from and where it is going. Otherwise, they can't effectively stop these packages. It is like finding a needle in a haystack.

I talked earlier about the difficulty of detecting it and how poisonous it is, and sniffing dogs can't be used because of the potential of them overdosing and dying. It is also very difficult for our officers to find these packages without some information. Expert testimony, including that from the Secretary of Homeland Security, General Kelly, from Customs and Border Protection, and from the folks at DEA all reach the same conclusion, which is that this policy change would make it easier for law enforcement to detect suspicious packages of fentanyl, carfentanil, and other synthetic drugs and help keep this poison out of our country.

Support for this legislation is bipartisan, and it is growing. We now have 16 cosponsors in the Senate--8 Democrats and 8 Republicans. Completely bipartisan. In the House, Congressman Pat Tiberi of Ohio and Richard Neal of Massachusetts--a Republican and a Democrat--have introduced bipartisan companion legislation. They now have 128 cosponsors. Support is building. It is an obvious way to help push back. Is it the silver bullet? No. There is not one silver bullet. We need to do more in terms of prevention, treatment, and recovery, and help our law enforcement more to make sure they have naloxone to be able to save lives.

At least, let's stop some of this poison from coming in, and let's at least increase the cost of the fentanyl because one reason you see this big increase in overdoses from fentanyl and carfentanil and traffickers using more of it is because of the cost. At the very least, by helping our law enforcement, giving them the tools they need, we can stop some of it and increase the cost on the street.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the STOP Act. We have a hearing on this legislation on Thursday of this week in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. We have experts coming in--law enforcement officers who care a lot about their colleagues. They talk about what a danger this is to them, what a danger this is to our communities. It is time for us in the U.S. Senate to stand up and take this important step, not the silver bullet but the important step to be able to help save lives and make our communities safer.

Thank you, Madam President.

Absolutely.

I thank my colleague from Florida. He has been a stalwart on this issue. We have never made this a partisan issue, have we. We always kept this a bipartisan issue because this is a danger to our country, our communities--all Americans. The Senator is absolutely right. It is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. A flew flakes can kill you, as you see here.

It is absolutely necessary we figure out a way together, as Republicans and Democrats. With the recovery efforts the Senator supported and the Cures Act he already supported, this is the next logical step to deal with the new threat, which is this synthetic heroin coming to our country.

I thank my colleague from Florida.

I yield back.