Floor Statements

Madam President, I rise today for the final time as a U.S. Senator with a heart full of gratitude. When I was growing up in Scranton, PA, my mother Ellen Harding Casey would often say to my brothers and sisters and me:

Count your blessings. Count your blessings.

She would say that over and over again. So, today, I seek to do so here on the floor of the U.S. Senate. I begin with an expression of deep, abiding gratitude to the people of Pennsylvania who conferred upon me the honor of serving them in three statewide public offices for 28 consecutive years; first as auditor general, then as State treasurer, and for the last 18 years, as U.S. Senator. It has been a privilege to have served our Commonwealth, to have served the people of our Commonwealth.

Now, for 39\1/2\ years, I have been blessed by the unconditional love and unfailing support of my wife Terese, the oldest daughter of John and Nancy Foppiano.

I am proud of the work we have done together, on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania, to fight for our children, our seniors, people with disabilities, our veterans, and our workers.

In my 18 years in the Senate, I have worked to pass many laws focused on improving the lives of everyday Americans. Allow me to give you some examples. One of my proudest accomplishments is the Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, the so-called ABLE Act, which turned 10 years old this month.

Before ABLE, people with disabilities could not save more than $2,000 without risking access to their Federal benefits, forcing many people with disabilities into a permanent state of poverty.

I worked with Senator Richard Burr to pass the ABLE Act in 2014 so that people with disabilities can save for their futures. There are almost 190,000 ABLE accountholders across the Nation who have already saved over $2 billion. Brenda Dare is one of those, an ABLE accountholder from Allegheny County, PA. She says that ABLE ``gives us a way to be fully functional citizens who are able to save and prepare for their futures.'' Her ABLE account allows Brenda to own her own home and raise her niece full time.

In building on the success of the program, starting in 2026, people who acquired their disability before the age of 46 will be able to open ABLE accounts, expanding eligibility to 6 million more Americans, including more than a million veterans.

In 2013, I passed the Campus SaVE Act to put greater responsibility on colleges and universities to prevent sexual assaults on college campuses. This was important legislation to make sure students understood their rights and protections on campus. It has made college campuses safer in the decade since its passage.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed 2 years ago this month. It provides pregnant women with ``reasonable accommodations'' to work and to maintain a healthy pregnancy as they continue to do their work. Senator Bill Cassidy worked with me to pass this bill, and I am grateful for his help.

Modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act, this legislation ensures that pregnant women can go to their employer and ask for reasonable accommodations, simple things like a stool to sit on or a water bottle or bathroom break and other accommodations, just as people with disabilities have been able to ask for accommodations of other kinds for the past three decades in their workplaces.

A number of years ago, as a Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I was proud to author a law that has dramatically improved our schools and our children's nutrition. That provision, modeled after a Philadelphia pilot program, allowed high poverty schools to offer school lunch and breakfast free of charge.

Nearly 68 percent of American school districts now offer free meals under this option, and 20 million children attend schools offering universal free meals. That is 10 times the number of children as in 2010.

Captain Victor Saracini was a Bucks County resident and a United Airlines pilot killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. His wife Ellen Saracini turned her

unimaginable grief into action, and she fought to pass legislation to make airline cockpits safer.

I was honored to work alongside Ellen to pass two laws to make sure that new airplanes are built with a secondary barrier to the cockpit and to retrofit older planes. These laws would help prevent future terrorist attacks.

We all know the global food insecurity around the world not only leaves millions of children starving and malnourished, but it also creates political instability. I worked with my Republican colleagues to authorize and then to reauthorize--more than once--the Global Food Security Act to combat food insecurity, create economic opportunity, and promote international stability.

I also fought to keep our servicemembers safe in Afghanistan by working to reduce the number of IEDs--those awful explosive devices. In the 2000s, IEDs were killing and wounding U.S. troops in Afghanistan at an alarming rate. Through legislation to stop the flow of ammonium nitrate used in IEDs as well as pushing the Pentagon, by 2012, deaths by IEDs had dropped significantly.

But passing legislation isn't the only measure of success in the Senate. I am an extraordinarily proud Senator of the work that was done by my constituent services team, currently led by Lindsay Martin, all of whom have some of the hardest jobs here in government anywhere in the Capitol--in our States, as well.

Over the course of my three terms in the Senate, they have closed almost 200,000 constituent cases. Let me give you just four examples: First, the number represents Pennsylvanians we helped get the Social Security benefits that they were due but were not receiving; second, the 94-year-old World War II veteran from Philadelphia for whom we secured updated discharge papers and backpay reflecting a promotion he had been denied because he was a Black soldier; the first responder from Erie we helped receive money that she was owed from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund; and, finally, the mother whose son was denied care by their insurance company for 2 months until our office reached out on their behalf--and so many more constituents across the State.

Finally, I fought to deliver Federal funding for Pennsylvania families and communities in all 67 counties. I worked to provide investments to lift up families during the pandemic; support public safety by delivering funding for police and fire departments; improve water and sewer systems, roads, and bridges in small rural areas; and support local nonprofits that protect the most vulnerable among us.

In Southwestern Pennsylvania, that economy of that corner of the State relies upon our waterways system. The Port of Pittsburgh and the region's locks and dams could move essential commodities. Those waterways create jobs, and they promote economic development.

Without our waterways, the region's entire economy would come to a standstill, threatening some 200,000 jobs.

Thanks to the Infrastructure Law and persistent work over many years to highlight just how vital these waterways are, I was able to secure nearly a billion dollars to replace the Montgomery Locks and Dam in Beaver County, PA, and invest in the broader waterway system.

In 2016, during a phone call with county commissioners in Southwestern Pennsylvania, one of the commissioners just started to scream into the phone. He said: ``Senator, kids can't do their homework.'' And he made a point to me that I will never forget.

So I went to work, as we all did, on high-speed internet. I was able to deliver significant investments to expand high-speed internet to rural communities across our Commonwealth. Without high-speed internet, not only are schoolchildren adversely impacted, small businesses can't connect with their customers; farmers can't fix their equipment when it breaks down in the field. But that is changing.

Just last week, I was in Washington County, in the southwestern corner of our State, to highlight the expansion of high-speed internet for 9,000 residents and small businesses in rural communities, made possible by a public-private partnership that folks at the local level started. But it included $25 million from the American Rescue Plan legislation.

Washington County is not alone. High-speed internet is being deployed all across the Commonwealth.

As many of you know, Pennsylvania has a rich history of energy production. Our coal miners risked their health and their safety and many lost their lives over generations to power the Nation.

Pennsylvania's energy workers, I would argue, are the best in the world. And they are also well-equipped to lead us into the energy economy of the future.

As the Senate worked to pass the Inflation Reduction Act--as many know, a bill to spur a new energy manufacturing renaissance--I made sure that Pennsylvania energy communities were first in line.

In the bill, I secured an energy communities tax credit for investments in clean energy facilities and communities whose economies have relied upon coal, oil, or natural gas.

These incentives are spurring investments all across Pennsylvania-- from the Mineral Basin solar plant on abandoned mine lands in Clearfield County to the expanded demand for Voith Hydro's production in York County.

I want to wrap up with just some thoughts about what is ahead for the next Congress--and the next number of Congresses probably--with some of these challenges. I want to highlight some of the challenges that lie ahead for our Nation.

There are so many priorities we could talk about today, like combating climate change and gun violence and the opioid crisis, lowering costs for families, providing home and community-based services for seniors and people with disabilities. And there are so many more that I didn't mention.

As many of you know--and you see it in your own communities, your own families, your own States--it is much more difficult to raise a family and provide long-term stability than it used to be. Pennsylvanians used to be able to work one job, often without a college degree, and provide for their families for decades.

There is a big moment in 2025: a tax bill. I won't be here for it. But that tax debate will be a critical moment for American families. Congress will decide whether to help middle-class and low-income families--people striving to get to the middle class--or to continue what I would argue is a 40-year trend to provide substantial tax benefits to the largest corporations on the planet Earth and the wealthiest Americans. I hope that the Senate will act to help the middle class and those striving to get to the middle class.

I urge, as well, the Senate to make the Child Tax Credit--something that Senator Brown and Senator Bennet long ago introduced legislation on--to make that Child Tax Credit--two words--``fully refundable'' rather than provide more corporate and high-income tax breaks.

When that tax credit was made fully refundable in 2021, that one action changed the lives of so many children. It reduced childhood poverty by 40--40--percent.

I have long warned as a United States Senator that China is not just a competitor, it is an economic adversary, and that we must continue to confront China head-on. I have often said that when China cheats, Pennsylvania loses jobs.

I have worked for years to crack down on China's trade cheating and to limit the risks of sending our national security technology and know-how to China.

Senator Cornyn and I have been working for years to pass legislation to crack down on U.S. investments in China that would undermine our national security. And later this week, Congress will pass a version of that legislation in the continuing resolution to fund the government.

We all know that a key to global competitiveness lies here at home. In order to compete globally, we must invest in our children.

Inspired by Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, I introduced, in early 2020, a set of ideas where I proposed Five--Five--Freedoms for America's Children: the freedom to be healthy, the freedom to learn, the freedom to have economic security, the freedom to be safe from harm, and the freedom from hunger.

If every American child--every American child--was able to benefit

from these five freedoms, they would have the opportunity to succeed in life. There are so many benefits to our Nation as well: a higher skilled workforce, if we invest in our kids; a greater GDP; a stronger national security; a healthier society, if--if--we invest in our children.

Finally, the Senate--and the American people--have to make a choice in the years ahead between dictators and democracy. We must continue to support--not just in the Senate and the House but as Americans, we must continue to support the people of Ukraine in their consequential war with a murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin.

Our Nation has generously supported the Ukrainian military. We cannot stop. Abandoning them now undermines freedom-loving people all over the world.

You and others have been a patient audience. But I would like to conclude with some final thoughts. I want to go back to my mother. Inspired by my mother, I have been granted today the privilege of counting my blessings on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

One of the greatest blessings in my life--and I know for so many people here--has been the blessing of public service. As the scriptures tell us:

It is in giving that we receive.

Dr. Martin Luther King said it another way. He said:

Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.

King taught us in that simple statement that the word ``great'' in this context isn't about fame or a claim or notoriety or riches. ``Great'' is about something much more valuable, much more valuable: the opportunity to help others.

I will continue to do my part to serve as a citizen and as a Pennsylvanian. And serving in the U.S. Senate has been an honor of a lifetime. Thank you. And God bless you.

I yield the floor.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Are you really telling this?

A true story.

A true story.

A bar.

Mr. President, I know we have a number of colleagues who want to speak. I will be very brief.

I just want to start by saying how grateful we are for the service of Sherrod Brown in the U.S. Senate and the great work that he has done. He reminded us to make sure that we wore the canary pin. And for me, it has a special significance, even though I haven't been wearing it all these years, but I wanted to wear it today. But it is especially significant because I have ancestors who worked, of course, in the anthracite coal mines. But I think, in so many ways, it is emblematic of his service, that he never forgot where he came from, never forgot who sent him here, and you heard that throughout his remarks today about the work he has done on behalf of American working men and women and their families.

When the history of the labor movement of the United States--if it were ever written, of course, it wouldn't be one book. It would be a multivolume work by some scholar, maybe sometime in the future. But whenever that complete and comprehensive history is written, there will be a significant portion of that history written about the work of Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio because no one that I am aware of that has served in this body has done more for workers in the time he has been in the Senate.

The last thing I want to say is what he did--and there are too many to mention here today--but I want to thank him for what he did leading the effort, which culminated in 2021, March of 2021, at 5:34 a.m. in the morning, when the first vote was taken on the American Rescue Plan. Among many things that bill did was allowed us to take the child tax credit--an existing tax credit--and turbocharge it for America's children. As he said, 60 million American children--2 million in Ohio, a little more than 2 million in my home State of Pennsylvania. It would not have happened without his leadership.

So with that, I will yield the floor and thank Senator Brown again for his service.

Madam President, I rise today to recognize the 51st anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the importance of the law to equal access for people with disabilities, including equal access to Federal technology.

When it was signed into law on September 26, 1973, the Rehabilitation Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability by the Federal Government, in federally funded programs, and by Federal contractors. Passage of the Rehabilitation Act committed the Federal Government to ensuring that every person, including people with disabilities, have access to government programs and services. As with any legislation, enforcement is key. In the years following passage, people with disabilities needed to advocate that the Federal Government issue regulations and implement the law in order to ensure Federal services and products are accessible. Four years after passage, no regulations had been issued. At the beginning of April 1977, disability advocates started a month-long national protest, pressuring President Carter and his Cabinet. The protests lasted 26 days and resulted in implementation of the first Rehabilitation Act regulations. The Rehabilitation Act and the resulting regulations laid the groundwork for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

The Rehabilitation Act helped make the Federal Government more accessible for people with disabilities, but with time, new accessibility barriers emerged. Those accessibility barriers were related to America's information revolution, which has changed society at a rapid pace. In response to the emerging digital revolution, Senator Orrin Hatch led efforts in 1986 to establish guidelines on electronic accessibility, resulting in a new section of the Rehabilitation Act: section 508. In 1998, Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Anna Eshoo led efforts to further strengthen section 508's accessibility requirements for digital information, services, and tools offered by Federal Agencies. The Rehabilitation Act amendments in 1998 were the last significant congressional changes to Section 508.

Section 508 requires technology at Federal Departments and Agencies to be accessible for, and usable by, people with disabilities, including Federal employees who have disabilities. Section 508 requires the United States Access Board to develop the specific standards that Department and Agency technology must meet to be accessible for people with disabilities. Technology covered by section 508 includes websites, apps, and electronic documents, as well as physical technology such as kiosks, computers, and telecommunications equipment. Examples of accessible technology include websites, apps, or PDFs that can work with a screen reader or other assistive technology. They include video communications systems that are capable of incorporating sign language. They include kiosks that are properly positioned for a wheelchair user and provide an option for speech output.

Accessible Federal technology is important to ensure all Americans can benefit from government resources, and demographic changes mean more Americans will be disadvantaged if Federal technology is not accessible. Our Nation is rapidly aging, and older adults are more likely to have a disability. That means a larger population will be relying on accessible Federal technology for access to Federal employment, information, and services in the coming decades. Accessible Federal technology also benefits people without disabilities. For example, an accessible Federal website also benefits someone browsing on a small screen, someone browsing with a broken arm, or someone in a noisy environment who cannot hear an online video.

Despite the importance of accessible technology, the Federal Government has a poor record of meeting its obligations under section 508. In 2018, I was approached by blinded veterans who informed me that they could not access Department of Veterans Affairs' websites using their screen readers. In

response, I introduced bipartisan legislation, the Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act. When it was signed into law in 2020, the VA Website Accessibility Act required the VA to report on the accessibility of the VA's websites and intake kiosks. The resulting report, released in 2021, had stark findings--fewer than 10 percent of the VA's websites were fully accessible for people with disabilities. The report also included a wholly inadequate plan for bringing the VA's websites into section 508 compliance.

The VA's web accessibility report was a wakeup call; the Federal Government must do better. To start, I used my position as chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging to push the VA to improve. I am pleased that my efforts had bipartisan support from the ranking member of the Aging Committee and from the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs. In response to a letter signed by the bipartisan leadership of three committees and two subcommittees, the VA released a revised website accessibility report, with an updated plan for making VA websites accessible. I also requested that the VA conduct regular section 508 compliance updates for bipartisan House and Senate staff, which the VA has done since March 2022. The VA's recurring progress reports for congressional staff help ensure that the VA's efforts to improve stay on track.

Unfortunately, the shortfalls at the VA are not unique. In recent years, a long list of agencies has settled lawsuits alleging that their websites and technology are not accessible. Further, since 1998, the Federal Government's reporting and oversight for section 508 has ranged from lackluster to nonexistent. The Department of Justice is required by law to report every 2 years on the Federal Government's section 508 compliance but, prior to my oversight, had not done so since 2012. The General Services Administration routinely collected data on Federal website accessibility but did not make that information available to the public or Congress. The Office of Management and Budget maintained a strategic plan for Federal section 508 compliance, but that strategic plan had not been updated since 2013, despite Federal accessibility shortfalls and rapid technological change.

Since 2022, I have authored multiple letters to Federal departments and Agencies urging them to improve section 508 compliance, oversight, and transparency. Many letters were bipartisan, demonstrating the continued, broad interest in accessible Federal technology. I also led two Aging Committee hearings on accessible government technology that included people with disabilities as witnesses. Their testimony helped the committee understand the real-world impact when Federal technology does not allow for equal access. In December 2022, I released Unlocking the Virtual Front Door, an Aging Committee majority staff report that lays out many of the Federal accessibility failures that I have outlined today. Unlocking the Virtual Front Door includes a set of recommendations for the Federal Government and for Congress for making Federal technology accessible.

I am pleased that improvements have been made in response to my oversight of section 508 compliance. The VA reorganized its technology access office, expanded its outreach to people with disabilities, and bolstered its efforts to make its technology accessible. The VA also reevaluated over 300 exceptions that it had granted to allow the use of inaccessible technology and revoked all but 18. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, released its first report on the Federal Government's section 508 compliance since 2012, and the General Services Administration committed to new section 508 oversight and transparency efforts. The Office of Management and Budget has released updated guidance for Departments and Agencies on meeting section 508 standards, replacing its outdated 2013 strategic plan. Department and Agency inspectors general have also taken an interest in accessible technology, which resulted in a January 2024 inspector general report on technology at the VA.

While there has been progress toward making the Federal Government's technology accessible for people with disabilities, significant shortfalls remain. The Justice Department's latest section 508 report, released in January 2023, found that 1 in 10 public-facing websites at major Departments and Agencies are not fully accessible for people with disabilities. A December 2023 General Services Administration assessment likewise noted that the Federal Government's section 508 compliance is ``well below expectations.'' There are also continued, troubling reports of specific electronic accessibility failures within the Federal Government. For example, there are allegations that the new electronic health record system at the VA is not accessible for people with disabilities. The VA has come a long way since I began my oversight of section 508. The VA must continue to show that it is serious about section 508 by prioritizing accessibility for all new information and communications technology, including its EHR system.

The reports and data that have been released in response to my oversight of section 508 highlight a need to do more. One recommendation in Unlocking the Virtual Front Door was for Congress to significantly update section 508 for the first time since 1998. That is why I have introduced S. 4766, the Section 508 Refresh Act of 2024. My legislation would make changes to ensure that newly purchased or developed Federal technology is accessible before it is deployed. It would also reform the Federal Government's section 508 complaint process by giving the experts with the Access Board a prominent role. The Section 508 Refresh Act would require regular testing to ensure that Federal technology already in use remains fully accessible over time, and it would require Departments and Agencies to appoint qualified, dedicated section 508 officers. Critically, my legislation would also require the involvement of people with disabilities in the acquisition and accessibility testing of Federal technology. People with disabilities who work for the Federal Government or use Federal resources are the ones who are harmed when Federal technology is not accessible. It is essential for them to have a seat at the table when Federal technology is being acquired, designed, implemented, and tested.

The need to reform section 508 is real. My own constituents have testified to the Aging Committee about the impact when Federal technology does not allow equal access for all Americans. Ms. Jule Ann Lieberman of Devon, PA, is an expert on assistive technology. Yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she could not access local prevalence data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website because it was inaccessible for her screen reader. Although Ms. Lieberman was able to ask a family member for help, she explained to the committee that ``repeated requests for help become burdensome for those who support me, potentially leaving me with either no access or not timely information.'' Sadly, Ms. Lieberman ran into yet another accessibility barrier later in the pandemic, when she could not use her screen reader to access COVID-19 vaccination resources on the CDC website.

Mr. Ron Biglin is a blind Air Force veteran from Clarks Summit, PA. Mr. Biglin can fish, kayak, and do online banking. However, Mr. Biglin could not use the internet to access his VA health benefits. When Mr. Biglin tried to do so, the VA's online portal, My HealtheVet, would not work with his screen reader. Mr. Biglin told the Aging Committee that, ``when you are visually impaired you want to be as independent as possible and having problems getting on VA websites takes away this independency.'' In response to my oversight, the VA worked to resolve the issues that Mr. Biglin was having with My HealtheVet. However, to safeguard equal access, we must ensure that all Federal Departments and Agencies build accessibility into their technology from the start.

I remain committed to ensuring that Federal technology is accessible for people with disabilities and that all Americans have equal access to Federal jobs, information, and benefits. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress on continued section 508 oversight and to advance the Section 508 Refresh Act.

Mr. President, I am grateful to be here on the floor today and to join with our colleague from Oregon who has led this fight as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to bring us to this moment where we have the chance to vote on a bipartisan bill.

I will mention what happened in the House in a couple of minutes. But this bill addresses some of our long-term challenges. One of them is addressing our low-income housing shortage.

The bill also enables our businesses to continue to invest in research, development, and manufacturing. The bill eliminates fraud. The bill eliminates fraud. The bill reduces the deficit. For me, most importantly, it invests in America's children by expanding the child tax credit.

That is why groups from across the spectrum have lined up to endorse the bill. Groups like the National Association of Manufacturers, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Children's Defense Fund, and so many other groups support this bill that will grow our economy, reduce poverty, and reduce the deficit.

The House overwhelmingly passed this bill by a vote of 357 to 70. That happened back in January. So now we are hoping for a similar result in the U.S. Senate. I hope the Senate, in a similar bipartisan fashion, will pass this bill.

We know that, for example, just with regard to one provision in this bill, the child tax credit provision--in 2021, Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, which had as one of its features an enhanced version of the child tax credit. I have often said we took the child tax credit in 2021 and we turbocharged it to help families in a much more substantial way. By passing that legislation in 2021, for 6 months--and only 6 months, unfortunately, but for 6 months--we cut child poverty in half, according to the Census Bureau.

So after all the years of work, decades of work to reduce child poverty, helping to set the stage for that reduction in child poverty, in 2021, we finally--finally--found the solution to substantially reducing childhood poverty and giving our children freedom from poverty. That solution was the child tax credit, in addition to other investments in children.

I want to thank Senator Brown, my colleague from Ohio, who is seated next to me here today, for his years of work on this, laboring in the vineyards long before this was popular and long before it had a chance to pass. I want to thank his work and Chairman Wyden's work to bring us to this moment.

I am one of eight children. My parents had eight children. I am right in the middle. I often think about how difficult it was for Mom and Dad to raise that many children. My mother passed away last August, August of 2023. We will be coming up on August 11, the 1-year anniversary of her passing. I was thinking today, what if my mother was not only the mother of eight children, but what if she didn't have a husband or what if we didn't have a household income that allowed us to be economically secure? We never went without food or went without a meal. We never had to worry about that in my life. But what if that wasn't the case? What would my life have been like if my mother faced the same challenges that so many families face today? We had the full measure of economic security when I was growing up.

So back in October of 2021, after we had passed the American Rescue Plan, which contained that enhanced child tax credit, I met another mother in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, in the southeastern corner of our State. This was a mom also of eight children, just like my mother, but she was a single mom. She gave us a sense of what it meant to have that child tax credit in place.

Her name was Crystal. She said that the extra child tax credit payments gave her the ability to spend more time with her children and to allow her children to do more school activities for the first time. How do you put a price on that? How do you put a price on the opportunity a child has because their mom or their dad or the person taking care of them has a little extra money in a month--first of all, to buy food, which was often the No. 1 utilization of the child tax credit, the enhanced version of it, or to pay for rent or childcare or so many expenses of raising children?

Why did it take us so long to finally say that raising children is really difficult and that we should give families a chance to do that in a more substantial way? Why is it that every time we have a tax debate in Washington, year after year--40 years now, by my recollection--every time we have a tax debate, the most powerful people in the country benefit disproportionately and the most powerful corporations on the planet Earth benefit disproportionately? Why is it that families raising children have always been left behind?

We finally broke that cycle in 2021. The big guys got nothing from that. We finally said: You have had enough. It is time to help children, time to help those families raising children.

But how do you put a price on a parent being able to pay for a school activity that child would benefit from? Maybe they have a chance to join a math club or to join a science club or to play a sport or to be in the band--whatever it is. How do you put a price on that--that lost opportunity because a mom or a dad or someone taking care of that child didn't have an extra $100 or whatever it cost to pay the fee to be in that school activity? How do you put a price on having a couple of hundred dollars more a month to pay for food? It is incalculable.

But we know that because of what we did in 2021, we began--just by way of one step, but we began to change substantially the trajectory of these children's lives, millions of them, tens and tens of millions across the country. We have a chance to do that again in a similar fashion--not exactly how we did it in 2021 but in a similar fashion. This bill doesn't fully revive the version of the child tax credit that we enacted in 2021. We should do that next year when we have a big tax debate in 2025. In my judgment, the most important tax bill of our lifetime is coming up in 2025.

This bipartisan bill we are trying to get passed will make millions of children more economically secure, more secure--closer to what my family had when we were growing up. This year, it will give benefits to 16 million American children whose families are either in poverty or near poverty--half a million just in Pennsylvania, half a million children who are in poverty or near poverty in Pennsylvania. For example, a single parent with two kids who earns $22,000 a year as a childcare worker would gain $675 this year. How do you put a price on that, the benefit to that family just in this year?

Research shows that when the child tax credit was expanded in 2021, families used that money on essentials like food and housing and clothes and so much else. In 2021, those payments lowered the distress that a lot of families felt, that parents felt, especially among single mothers. No mother should have to worry about how she will put food on the table. My mother never had that worry even though she had eight children. She never had that worry because of our circumstances. No mother should be concerned about or burdened by worrying about buying her kids new clothes for school or keeping a roof over their heads.

We have the power in one vote to move this bill forward and enact it into law to help millions of children and millions of families across the country. I encourage all of our colleagues in both parties to stand with those children, stand with those families, and vote yes on this tax bill.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute on the next nomination.

Madam President, I rise just for 1 minute to talk about Judge Saporito.

Joe Saporito is someone I have known for decades. He is someone who serves currently and has for the last 9 years as a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Prior to his service as a Federal magistrate judge, he served as an assistant public defender over the course of several decades, at the same time doing private practice. So he has broad experience as a magistrate judge, as someone who has been in the courtroom, providing a defense for people, and also serving in private practice.

I have great confidence and I think everyone who has dealt with him has confidence in his integrity, in his judicial temperament, and in his ability to serve with distinction in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

I would urge a ``yes'' vote on the cloture vote as well as on his nomination vote.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Ellen Urheim of my staff be granted floor privileges for the duration of today's proceedings.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Sean Pyles be granted floor privileges for the duration of today's proceedings.

Madam President, I rise this afternoon to highlight the continued imprisonment of Marc Fogel. Marc Fogel is a teacher whose career I will describe in a moment, but he is from Oakmont, PA, Allegheny County, in the southwestern corner of our State, just near Pittsburgh.

He has been imprisoned by Russia, and I urge my colleagues in the administration to continue to prioritize his release.

On August 14, 2021, Marc Fogel was arrested by Russian authorities upon his return to Russia to teach one last year at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, after 35 years of teaching history to the children of American diplomats at international schools across the globe and teaching at the same school in Russia since 2012.

Yes, Marc had medically prescribed marijuana in his luggage to help him through the year in dealing with his chronic pain. That pain came from a hip replacement. It came from multiple back surgeries, multiple knee surgeries, and a spinal fusion, which have left Marc with a permanent limp.

Marc broke Russian law by bringing marijuana into the country. Marc's worsening medical conditions and actions to bring in less than an ounce of marijuana into Russia should not require him to serve the full 14- year sentence at a Russian penal colony--14 years of imprisonment for less than an ounce of marijuana.

It has been 1,026 days since Marc's initial arrest, over 33 months ago. At Marc's age--he will turn 63 this July--and in his poor health-- terribly poor health--continuing to serve another 11 years, or 130 months, in any prison will indeed be a death sentence.

Based on a review of Marc's records from the prison hospital, Marc's treating physician has expressed grave concerns over Marc's declining health. His spinal cord and knee injuries and a prosthetic hip have combined with neuropathy, a loss of feeling, in one of his feet to make the risk of a more severe injury a lot more likely.

Marc has already fallen multiple times. Every fall--every fall-- heightens the risk of a broken hip or other severe injury that Marc will struggle to recover from in prison. The 33 months have taken a toll on Marc Fogel's mental and emotional health. Where many other younger individuals in Russian penal colonies can have great hope for decades of life after their full sentences, Marc Fogel will be almost 75 years old by the end of his current 14-year prison sentence.

I am hopeful that Russia, seeing the time that Marc has already served and fully aware of his terribly declining health, will release Marc from prison on humanitarian grounds so that he may return to his family in Pennsylvania.

Marc's support from his family has given him strength over the last few years, but the phone service they rely on to contact him is unpredictable and goes down for weeks at a time.

My thoughts and prayers--and I know that is true of so many others who have advocated on Marc's behalf--our thoughts and prayers remain with Marc and his family, but we must also act, act to bring him home. That is why I introduced a resolution with my colleague Senator Daines calling for Marc's release and urging the Biden administration to prioritize Marc's case in all--all--of its interactions with the Russian Government.

I am proud that the resolution passed the Senate just last night. I am proud because this resolution shows the world--but more importantly Marc and his family--that while the news cycle may have forgotten Marc, the U.S. Government has not. This resolution's passage is also evidence that bringing Marc home is and will continue to be prioritized at the highest levels of our government; that the U.S. Government is continuing to explore all possible avenues to bring Marc home.

I want Marc and his family to know that we are working to bring him home; that we will continue our efforts until Marc Fogel is back having dinner with his family at his mother's home in Butler, PA, just north of where Marc lives.

Madam President, I wanted to move to another subject, and the subject is one that I think so many Americans are concerned about: It is anti-Semitism across college campuses and in primary and in secondary schools but, of course, well beyond the boundaries of any school. It is an American problem. It is a problem across our society and even across the world.

Combating anti-Semitism has been a top priority of mine for my entire time in the Senate, and I have consistently taken strong actions to address this hate, including working to pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act since 2016.

Back toward the end of the calendar year 2022, I came to the Senate floor to talk about anti-Semitism, mostly through the lens of the horror of October of 2018 when a gunman killed 11

Pittsburghers and injured several others, including police officers, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. That horrific moment in the history of the Jewish people and the history of the American people reminded all of us of how pernicious and how widespread anti-Semitism is. At that time, I was cataloging the numbers, the exponential rise in anti-Semitism up to that point in time, the end of the calendar year 2022, and how anti-Semitism had grown so substantially in that timeframe.

However, as we all know, since October 7 of 2023, since Hamas terrorists attacked the people of Israel and killed over 1,200 Jews in Israel, those numbers, which are high and exponentially high before, went even higher--an explosion across the country of anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League has tracked the highest numbers of anti-Semitic incidents ever--ever--in the United States in 2023, and those numbers have undoubtedly continued to rise with the ongoing campus protests. There were over 8,800 instances, including 2,177 cases of vandalism and 161 assaults.

No one in this country, none of us, can tolerate any form of anti- Semitism, any form of discrimination abroad or at home, on college campuses, in the workplace, on the playground, in any setting in American life. That is why we must pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, a bill that my colleague Senator Tim Scott and I have worked on for almost 8 years.

Our bill would mandate that the Department of Education consider a widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism in carrying out its enforcement actions, strengthening civil rights enforcement against anti-Semitism, just like that same office, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, is charged with investigating incidents of racial discrimination or discrimination of any kind on a college campus that rises to a level of a hostile environment on that campus.

The House has already passed its version of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. They passed that recently. We must find a pathway here in the Senate to pass this bill. This bill is cosponsored by 15 Democrats and 15 Republicans all across the length and breadth of the country.

There are objections to our legislation from individual Senators on both sides of the aisle, which so far has blocked unanimous consent, but we are confident the legislation would pass if given a vote.

An additional point on this matter is relevant. I mentioned the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. That is the office that is charged with conducting these investigations of anti-Semitism but, as I said, also charged with the obligation to conduct investigations of racism on a campus or other forms of discrimination.

I have a separate bill that would add substantial funding, absolutely essential funding, to the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. That office has to hire more people to conduct these investigations, to initiate an investigation, to expeditiously gather evidence, complete the investigation, and make that fundamental determination whether there is a hostile environment on a college campus for Jewish students, just like it would make a determination with regard to a hostile environment for Black students in the case of allegations of racial animus on a campus--make that determination of hostile environment or not, making that decision. Once they make that decision, of course, the college or university would be subjected to penalties.

But the only way that can happen, that those investigations can be commenced and be completed, is to have the resources and personnel. The Office of Civil Rights needs to hire hundreds more people to do this, and I think it is a worthy investment. So I would urge Senators in both parties, both sides of the aisle, to work with us to pass that legislation.

I think most of us come to this from a very basic part of our DNA. We know that this kind of discrimination, whether it is anti-Semitism or racism or other forms of discrimination, is a scourge on the country. It is a scourge, and I think it is an insult to our country as a country of free people. We have to figure out a way to combat anti- Semitism, and we can do that by passing the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, but also to take other actions which will stamp out this kind of discrimination in our society, throughout our country, and throughout the world.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

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

Mr. President, I rise today to speak against anti-Semitism and to speak about efforts we are undertaking here in the Senate to combat anti-Semitism.

We see it throughout our society, including on college campuses, and my friend from South Carolina, Senator Scott, and I have worked on legislation not just this year but for many years on this issue.

We introduced together the Antisemitism Awareness Act and have been trying to get that passed into law.

The significant rise in anti-Semitism across the country on college campuses has made me--and I know so many other Members of the House and the Senate in both parties--increasingly concerned regarding the safety of Jewish students on campus.

Students, of course, have the right to peacefully protest, but when it crosses a line, either into violence or discrimination, then we have an obligation to step in and stop that conduct.

I stood on this floor in late 2022 to speak about this subject, anti- Semitism in America, and the exponential rise we were seeing in the years leading up to that point in time to 2022. I spoke, in particular, about the hateful anti-Semitism that led to the murder of 11 Pittsburghers at the Tree of Life synagogue.

At that time, we were calculating the numbers as being much higher for 2020, 2021, and going into 2022.

But after October 7, when a band of terrorists, Hamas, went into Israel and killed 1,200 innocent civilians, since that date, the rise in anti-Semitism across the country and across the world has increased even beyond what we thought were exponentially high numbers in 2022.

The Anti-Defamation League has tracked the highest number of anti- Semitic incidents ever in the United States in 2023. These numbers have undoubtedly continued to rise with the ongoing campus protest.

There were over 8,800 instances, including 2,177 cases of vandalism and 161 assaults. We cannot tolerate any form of anti-Semitism, abroad or here at home in America, on college campuses, in the workplace, at our schools. Wherever we find it, we have to take action against it.

To address the 140-percent increase--just imagine that, a 140-percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents, compared to last year--I have introduced several bills aiming to strengthen civil rights enforcement against anti-Semitism. The Antisemitism Awareness Act that I made reference to earlier working with Senator Scott and a group of bipartisan Senators would mandate that the Department of Education considers a widely accepted definition of ``anti-Semitism'' in carrying out its enforcement actions.

The Department of Education has an Office of Civil Rights. That office is empowered to conduct these investigations, and we have to provide more funding, by the way, for that office to do these investigations.

They are badly, badly underfunded right now. But Senator Scott and I have worked together on this anti-Semitism legislation for almost a decade now, since 2016.

I want to thank our colleagues in the House who passed the Anti- Semitism Awareness Act of 2023 yesterday with a vote of 320-91. However, one finding in the House bill is different from my and Senator Scott's bill and the Biden administration's Countering Antisemitism Strategy; that the use of other anti-Semitism definitions impairs enforcement. Taking this finding out is important because other definitions of anti-Semitism also help to address this terrible problem. But what is even more important is passing this bill today with the unique opportunity that we have. In the Senate, we must take up and pass this bill and pass it today.

The hotline to all Senate offices went out last night, but objections on both sides of the aisle prevented us from bringing our bill to the floor. We must bring it to the floor and pass it today.

But that is not all that is needed to counter discrimination and harassment on college campuses. As I mentioned earlier, the office responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, is--and I will say it again-- badly, severely underfunded. That is why I am leading the Showing Up For Students Act, which would double the funding for the Office for Civil Rights to investigate incidents of harassment and discrimination, including anti-Semitism, on college campuses nationwide.

In the months following the terrorist group Hamas's attack on Israel, the Office for Civil Rights has seen a more than 1,300-percent increase in complaints related to discrimination and harassment based upon shared ancestry, including acts of anti-Semitism at schools across the United States. This is a staggering increase in incidents and shows no sign of abating.

We must meet the moment and ensure that students can learn free from anti-Semitism, free from discrimination, and all--all--forms of hate.

We must pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act today to ensure that Jewish students on campuses or anywhere else in our society are protected against discrimination.

I yield the floor.

Vote on Motion

Madam President, I will continue with the reading of the letter from the Birmingham jail.

You may well ask: ``Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches

and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?'' You are

quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the

very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks

to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a

community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced

to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue

that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of

tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may

sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not

afraid of the word ``tension.'' I have earnestly opposed

violent tension, but there is a type of constructive,

nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as

Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in

the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage

of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of

creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see

the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of

tension in society that will help men rise from the dark

depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of

understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct

action program is to create a situation so crisis packed

that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I

therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation.

Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a

tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the

action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is

untimely. Some have asked: ``Why didn't you give the new city

administration time to act?'' The only answer that I can give

to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must

be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will

act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of

Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to

Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person

than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to

maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell

will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive

resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without

pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must

say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil

rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups

seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may

see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust

posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups

tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never

voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by

the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct

action campaign that was ``well timed'' in the view of those

who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.

For years now I have heard the word ``Wait!'' It rings in the

ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ``Wait''

has almost always meant ``Never.'' We must come to see, with

one of our distinguished jurists, that ``justice too long

delayed is justice denied.''

We have waited for more than 340 years for our

constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and

Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political

independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace

toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it

is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of

segregation to say, ``Wait.'' But when you have seen vicious

mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your

sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled

policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and

sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty

million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of

poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you

suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering

as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she

can't go to the public amusement park that has just been

advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her

eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored

children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to

form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to

distort her personality by developing an unconscious

bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an

answer for a five year old son who is asking: ``Daddy, why do

white people treat colored people so mean?''; when you take a

cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night

after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile

because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated

day in and day out by nagging signs reading ``white'' and

``colored''; when your first name becomes ``nigger,'' your

middle name becomes ``boy'' (however old you are) and your

last name becomes ``John,'' and your wife and mother are

never given the respected title ``Mrs.''; when you are

harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you

are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never

quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with

inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever

fighting a degenerating sense of ``nobodiness''--then you

will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There

comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men

are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of

despair.

Madam President, I would like to talk about two Pennsylvanians, Malphine Fogel and Marc Fogel. Today, Malphine turned 95 in her Butler, PA, home. She has lived a long and fulfilling life, with a successful career and a loving family. But today, one key part of her life is missing: her son Marc. Vladimir Putin has held Marc as a political pawn for more than 30 months on extreme charges for bringing into Russia less than an ounce of doctor-prescribed medical marijuana to treat his chronic pain. Instead of a nice dinner with Marc and his wife Jane at Malphine's house and the knowledge that they drove safely down Route 8 and the Turnpike back to their Oakmont home, Malphine will be lucky to get a timed call from Marc. Instead of the joy of celebrating her 95th birthday, Malphine woke up and spent her day with the stress of not knowing if she will ever be with her son again.

As Marc Fogel sits in prison after conviction by a kangaroo court, it is critical to highlight not only his plight and treatment by the Russians, but also those affected by it, like his 95-year-old mother. Malphine was born to Italian immigrants Guilliano and Celeste Andreassi on March 11, 1929, in Brady's Bend, PA, just west of Butler. Malphine was always a hard worker and earned valedictorian honors of the 1947 class at East Brady High School. She then worked for many years as a proofreader at the local paper, the Butler Eagle. In 1957, Malphine married Maurice ``Cubby'' Fogel. Seven years later, they had three thriving children--Mary Elise ``Lisa,'' Marc, and Anne--and Malphine had a bachelor's in economics from Grove City College. While raising her kids, Malphine continued to work periodically at the Butler Eagle and the local elementary school, later joining Nationwide Insurance Company.

All the while, Malphine devoted herself to her family and her community. Every Sunday for over 60 years, she has driven the half hour to Brady's Bend to visit the rest of her family; now, her sisters Lydia, Josephine, and Helen and her brother Silvio. In the midst of raising the family and still today, Malphine has tirelessly volunteered at her church to serve the needs of her local community. Malphine and her husband Cubby's marriage lasted a happy 57 years, until 2014, when Cubby passed away from cancer related to his asbestos exposure while serving in the Navy during the Korean war. Malphine and Cubby's three children all grew up to have successful and engaging careers and families. From meeting her and feeling the warmth of her home, I know why. At 95, Malphine is the proud grandmother of 9 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren and an aunt to 51 nieces and nephews. We can all learn a lot from Malphine about living a good life. I am thankful to her example for the 13 million Pennsylvanians across

the Commonwealth, even as she deals with unimaginable adversity. Given her absolute devotion to her family, it can be no surprise what anguish she must feel now knowing that her own son faces an uncertain, and possibly deadly, future in a Russian penal colony.

As public servants, we have a solemn duty to address the root cause of Malphine's adversity, to advocate for the release of Malphine's son Marc. We must approach the task of bringing Marc safely home with the same commitment, consistency, and patience that Malphine has lived the last 95 years--for Marc does not deserve the 14 years at a remote Russian penal colony which the Russian court leveled on him.

In August 2021, Marc chose to return for a final year of teaching at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, after 9 years at that school and a 35-year career as an international educator. Yes, Marc made a mistake. Russia has not come to accept marijuana as a medical treatment as in the United States. And yes, according to the Russian penal code, Marc's possession of less than an ounce of marijuana warrants a short prison sentence, the same sentence leveled on Russian citizens who have committed similar offenses. But no, justice does not allow, much less require, Marc to spend his sixties and almost half of his seventies in a remote Russian penal colony. Clearly, Marc's 14-year sentence is a bargaining chip for Putin against the United States.

No family deserves to be torn apart, much less Malphine's family. That is why I call on the President to continue to do everything in his power to give Malphine the chance to see her son again. Today, we honor and celebrate Malphine, but we also must recommit to bringing Marc home.

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

Madam President, I am honored to rise today on the last couple of days of Black History Month to talk about a program we have had since 2007 in our office. This is a time for us to reflect, in our State, upon the Black Pennsylvanians who have led our communities in years past and who continue to honor us with the trailblazing work that they do throughout their communities.

This year, I again have the privilege of honoring several Pennsylvanians as part of my Senate office's Black History Month celebration. Our honorees this year are Edgar and Barbara Farmer, who reside in State College, PA; Loretta Claiborne of York, PA; Donta Green of Pittsburgh, PA; and Lurline Jones of Philadelphia, PA.

The theme of this year's celebration is ``The Voices Empowering Generational Change.'' I think all of us would agree that change comes with great difficulty, and we know that when we honor these individuals, we honor Pennsylvanians, year after year, who have demonstrated the courage that has enabled others to follow them and to continue their work for change. It is especially important this year that we honor those with the courage to take that first difficult step to create change.

This Black History Month, I am grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to several trailblazing Pennsylvanians who sparked change and, by doing that, make it possible for later generations to pursue that same powerful change. So I will just give a brief biographical sketch of each of our honorees for the Senate to hear about.

Loretta Claiborne, as I mentioned, is from York, PA. Loretta is a lifelong resident of York. She is a speaker, an athlete, and, above all, an advocate for people with disabilities. She was born in the middle of seven children to a low-income, single-parent family. She was partially blind and with an intellectual disability at her birth. She was unable to speak or run until she was 4 years old. But--you know what--since that age, she hasn't stopped running, having completed 26 marathons--that is 26 more than I have completed--twice placing her in the top 100 women in the Boston Marathon. She has won dozens of medals at the Special Olympics World Summer Games. She introduced President Clinton at the 1995 Special Olympics Summer Games. Loretta has been inducted into the Women in Sports Hall of Fame and the Special Olympics Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.

Loretta is a lifelong learner, communicating in four languages, including American Sign Language, and has received honorary doctoral degrees from Villanova University, Quinnipiac University, and York College--two of those three institutions in Pennsylvania.

More than a learner, Loretta is also a teacher, having given a TED talk on intellectual disabilities and speaking frequently about her story, including twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

She tells her story not to promote herself but to teach others that people with disabilities are equal to others. Here is something she said:

I figured if my story could change a person's mind about

another person, or especially a child's mind about another

child, then it was the right thing to do.

Loretta's story is all the more remarkable given that she was born at a time when a person with a disability was likely to be placed in an institution. Due to her efforts and others like her, people with disabilities today go to school, they go to work, and they are members of sports teams around the world.

Loretta is a trailblazer for disability civil rights, working to ensure that people with disabilities can grow, live, and continue to contribute to their communities as full members, sharing their own extraordinary gifts.

Our second honoree is Donta Green, from Pittsburgh. He is a mentor, coach, and widely respected community leader in Pittsburgh who brings excellence to all that he does. He is among the next generation of community leaders helping young men to reach for the future and working to empower others to take the first steps toward a better life.

As a coach for the Westinghouse Bulldogs, Donta took over a struggling football program and built it into a winner, even taking the Bulldogs to the State title game in both 2022 and 2023. As a coach, he is not just the architect of a football program but a molder and teacher of young men, helping them not only achieve on the field but also to translate their success off the field as well.

Donta also serves as the executive director of the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh--known by the acronym T-I-P, or TIP--which seeks to empower men and women with significant barriers to employment by providing them skills training and opportunities for career advancement. The Training Institute of Pittsburgh offers tuition-free trade programs such as masonry and carpentry, as well as related life skills such as financial and math literacy, resume and interview coaching, driver's license prep, and one-on-one life coaching.

Many of the students at TIP are formerly incarcerated individuals trying to make the difficult transition to life after prison. TIP does remarkable work helping them to overcome the societal biases and barriers that many of these Americans face. So many of these individuals are successful, achieving an employment rate of 94 percent among individuals who complete the program.

TIP also runs a workforce housing program that matches homeless students with a Training Institute of Pittsburgh alum who will work one-on-one with them until their lives and income are ready for independent living.

Our third honoree is Lurline Jones. Lurline is yet another coach or involved in athletics, as several of our honorees are. Lurline is from Philadelphia, as I mentioned. She is a teacher, a mentor, and a basketball coach with more than five decades of coaching experience within the school district of Philadelphia, where she recently retired as the head basketball coach of the Martin Luther King High School. Since her coaching career began, more than 300 of Lurline's student athletes have gone on to college on athletic scholarships, and 3 have played in the WNBA.

Lurline also cofounded the Developmental Basketball League, a nonprofit that helps girls and boys hone their fundamental basketball skills, and she has been doing this for nearly 50 years.

As impressive as her coaching career has been, Lurline is the first to tell you that it is not just about sports. ``These kids are my kids,'' she says. ``They know I'm teaching them more than how to play basketball.''

Lurline credits her mother, Mary Nixon, a domestic worker who grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, for instilling in her the spirit of an activist. Her mother raised Lurline in the Brewerytown section of North Philadelphia.

After leaving home for Morgan State College in Baltimore, which is now known as Morgan State University, Lurline Jones experienced legal segregation for the first time, spurring her to get involved in the civil rights movement, which landed her and hundreds of other Morgan students at that time in jail after protesting the segregation policy at a nearby movie theater.

Lurline was involved in fighting against gender disparities in athletics as well. As a high school player at Philadelphia's William Penn High School for Girls, she was denied a chance to play varsity basketball because the school did not field a team, spurring her to become a lifelong advocate for the rights of women athletes.

At the age of 80, Lurline's energy and enthusiasm are as strong as ever. Here is what she says:

I want to give these kids a chance to succeed in life. I

feel extremely blessed to still have the opportunity to make

an impact and pay it forward.

Finally, Madam President, our fourth and fifth honorees are Edgar and Barbara Farmer, as I mentioned, from State College, PA, the home of Penn State. Edgar and Barbara are longtime educators and community pillars in the State College community. They fought for years for progress on issues such as education and diversity.

Barbara Farmer is a retired educator who taught business classes in North Carolina and Virginia before serving as the first Black principal in the State College Area School District. After 40 years as an educator, Barbara became director of multicultural affairs at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. She also found time to volunteer and to serve her community outside of work, serving on the boards of Centre County United Way and the Women's Resource Center, while also chairing the State College Borough's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Plaza Committee.

Edgar is a retired U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam, attended Penn State in the mid-1970s, and worked in higher education in North Carolina for

almost two decades. In 1996, he returned to Penn State as a professor of workforce education and development.

Prior to retirement, Edgar Farmer worked in a number of roles, including head of Learning and Performance Systems and professor-in- charge of the Workforce Education and Development Program.

Barbara and Edgar Farmer have long shared their wisdom and expertise outside the classroom, coauthoring the two books: the first, ``Diversity in America: Visions of the Future,'' and the second, ``Leading with Character.''

They are leading contributors to local news outlets on the issues of education and diversity. In 2017, they served on Penn State's Policing People of Color Task Force and have long been involved in diversity issues in the Borough of State College.

Barbara and Edgar are also committed philanthropists, establishing and contributing to a number of funds and scholarships at Penn State, as well as Hampton University and Norfolk State University, where Barbara and Edgar received their undergraduate degrees.

Last November, as honorees of Penn State's annual Renaissance Fund celebration, Barbara and Edgar helped to raise nearly $200,000 for scholarships for students with financial needs. Regarding that event, Barbara summed up their approach to service, saying:

All we have done and all we hope to continue doing is part

of the charge that we have been given as our life's task.

Supporting one another and taking care of one another make

the world and our community a better place.

No one could say it better than Barbara did.

So, once again, it is a privilege to be able to honor these remarkable Pennsylvanians and to speak briefly about their accomplishments here on the Senate floor.

Loretta Claiborne, Donta Green, Lurline Jones, and Edgar and Barbara Farmer are each, in their own right, individually and collectively, truly inspirational figures and leaders who have brought about remarkable change through their own efforts through their courage but who will continue to empower generational change, inspiring others to also fight for the change that we need across our commonwealth and our country.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I want to make sure I am procedurally correct here. I rise to speak as if in morning business.

Madam President, I rise to talk about an amendment that I filed. We are hoping we will get to the point where both sides will come together and have an agreement on amendments, but I know we have some more work to do.

If I had to describe this amendment, this is one of those you can describe in one word: ``fentanyl.''

There is not a community in the country--big city, small town, rural area, suburban community--that hasn't been ravaged by fentanyl in one way or another. We all know it is in every State.

When I consider the challenge we have in Pennsylvania, when I look at the counties with the largest percentage of their population who have been victims of an overdose, the so-called overdose death rate, those counties are not one kind of county. They are a lot of small, rural counties that have a lot of small towns. They are counties with big cities in them and big urban populations. So no matter where you live, fentanyl is a problem.

The overdose death rate is almost all fentanyl-related in my State of Pennsylvania. Something on the order of 70 or 75 percent or higher of the overdose deaths are fentanyl-related.

So I don't think anyone in this Chamber--Democrat, Republican, or Independent--would disagree with the scale and the severity of the fentanyl problem. There are some things we can do about it, investments we can make that we should not fail to make in the short term, in the near term, and, I hope, with this legislation.

We all know that the fentanyl problem starts in China. China for years now has been producing the chemical precursors. If anything, we should continue to crack down on the bad guys in China and the cartels in Mexico. The good news is, this legislation, by including the FEND Off Fentanyl bill, which is an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill out of the Banking Committee, will help us do that, to target the bad guys, to target money laundering with provisions that will focus on anti-money laundering provisions. It will also target the bad guys by way of sanctions against transnational criminal organizations.

This all starts in China, but of course it does end up coming across the border. Most of the fentanyl coming into the United States is trafficked into the country through official land border crossings. This isn't a problem where someone is crossing the border and has fentanyl in their pocket. That is not where most of the fentanyl comes in. The fentanyl comes in in vehicles, in cargo.

The good news is, we have the technology to detect that and to stop it at the border. But because most of it is coming across those land border crossings by those transnational criminal organizations that start in China--here is the data:

In fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, CBP, seized 240,000 pounds of drugs at the southwest land border, which included an estimated 1.1 billion doses of fentanyl. That is just in fiscal year 2023.

What we stopped at the border was 1.1 billion doses of fentanyl. The bad news is, that number could be a lot higher. Billions and billions of doses could be stopped at the southwest border if we are willing to make the right decisions here and invest in the technology and the manpower, the personnel that it takes to do that, to intercept more and more doses. We should be intercepting billions of doses, not just 1.1 billion doses of fentanyl.

What does the amendment do? Here are the specifics on it:

The amendment would support the procurement and deployment of so- called nonintrusive inspection systems--known by the acronym NII, nonintrusive inspection systems--which scan vehicles at the border and provide detailed images of the interiors of those vehicles to detect fentanyl and other illicit drugs and help increase their effectiveness by supporting ongoing efforts to develop algorithms to analyze and flag the scans for officers.

That would be a significant investment in technology that we know can bring that intercepted number of doses at the border much higher so we can stop billions of doses instead of just 1 billion doses.

The second thing the amendment would do is it would create a structured outbound inspection program to increase seizures of firearms and currency that are flowing out of the country and into the hands of these international cartels in Mexico. It would also fund related technology and infrastructure.

Then, thirdly, the amendment would support and expand existing fentanyl interdiction efforts by investigative law enforcement agencies and task forces throughout the country. These individuals are working night and day with limited resources and limited technology to stop fentanyl. We can't tie their hands behind their backs and point at them and say: Stop the fentanyl at the border. They need more technology--a lot of it. It is expensive, and we have to pay for it. If you want to stop fentanyl at the border, you need to invest in it and support the appropriations that would invest in that inspection.

We also need to help these law enforcement officials who are currently working on this morning, noon, and night every day of the week. We have to give them the tools they need to stop fentanyl at the border.

This amendment should be and I think it would be overwhelmingly bipartisan. Both parties have a concern about this. Both parties have counties like mine where the overdose death rate is high, mostly caused by fentanyl.

Let's come together and take a step, as we pass this larger bill, to stop Putin in his murderous invasion of Ukraine. Let's help stop and disable the terrorist organization Hamas. But also, as we make investments, let's make an investment to stop fentanyl at the border with proven strategies--technology and otherwise--that we know will work. Let's stop fentanyl at the border and do it in a bipartisan fashion.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.