Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, in a few moments, the Senate will vote on the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act. The shorthand name for that is the TRACED Act. I rise in strong and optimistic support of this legislation at this time. I thank the leadership on both sides of the aisle for working to bring this bill to a vote.

Last month, the people of my State of Mississippi received over 50 million robocalls. That is just in the State of Mississippi, with about 3 million citizens. That is more than 17 robocalls for every man, woman, or child in my State--50 million. Imagine what it is around the country. It is billions and billions.

Some robocalls are legitimate. When we get a reminder from a doctor's office that our appointment is coming soon or when a school activity is canceled, those are welcome. But many are not. Most are not.

Billions and billions of robocalls are scams targeting the most vulnerable members of our society. These abusive robocalls have plagued Americans for years. Studies show that in my part of the country, the Southeastern United States, they are particularly abusive and pervasive, costing consumers billions of dollars each year and costing our economy billions of dollars each year.

Many of these illegal robocalls use what is referred to as neighbor spoofing, where robocallers somehow manage to use a local number and a local area code in the hope that recipients will be more likely to pick up the phone. The result is many Americans don't answer those phone calls. They just let it ring and see if there is a message. But Americans also miss important calls because of scammers and because this has been hijacked by the extraordinary networks used by these scammers and illegal violators of the law.

The TRACED Act will help. It goes after abusive and illegal robocallers by giving consumers, regulators, and law enforcement tools to fight the people taking advantage of the system. The bill will help the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, to crack down on violators, require phone companies to authenticate calls, and require the FCC to consider when and how to make call-blocking services available to customers.

Perhaps the most important part of the TRACED Act is that law enforcement will now join the battle. Under the authority of the U.S. Attorney General, the bill will get law enforcement fully engaged in the fight to prevent and prosecute robocall violations. The American people are ready for this and are demanding this. We can give it to them in just a few moments when we vote on final passage.

The bill will task the Attorney General with providing Congress with the next steps we need to take to stay ahead of the pestilence of illegal robocalls.

I thank the bipartisan leadership in the Commerce Committee for moving this bill forward and the authors, Senator Thune and Senator Markey, for their leadership on this important issue. I thank my ranking member, the Senator from Washington, Ms. Cantwell, for her help in getting this important piece of legislation approved by a voice vote out of the Commerce Committee. Also, there is a special thank-you to Senator Schatz and Senator Moran for their amendment to the TRACED Act, which improves the FCC's reporting on robocalls and generally makes the bill better.

I predict an overwhelming majority vote for this piece of legislation when it comes up for a vote in just a few moments. My appreciation goes to all of those who have participated. My optimism is that this will soon move to passage in the House of Representatives also.

Thank you.

I see my distinguished colleague from Massachusetts, the sponsor of this legislation.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I am pleased to advise the Senate of the 150th anniversary of Sigma Nu Fraternity, a principles-based men's fraternal organization with more than 160 chapters on college campuses in the United States, approximately 12,000 current collegiate members, and more than 250,000 initiates in its history. This year, Sigma Nu celebrates the 150th anniversary of its public founding on January 1, 1869, at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA. Cadets James Frank Hopkins, James McIlvaine Riley, and Greenfield Quarles joined together to form Sigma Nu as a brotherhood committed to the principles of love, honor, and truth and in firm opposition to hazing. Sigma Nu Fraternity remains the only men's college fraternity founded in direct opposition to hazing. Its history and its mission to develop ethical leaders for today's society are worthy of the highest esteem.

Originally founded as the Legion of Honor, Sigma Nu's central founding value is honor, and the concept that a man's character and conduct should always be governed by a high sense of honor guides all its work. This value is as relevant 150 years later as it was then.

For 150 years, members of Sigma Nu have led in their respective communities, professions, and families. From NASA to the Pentagon, from the arts to the sciences, and from business to public service, there are few facets of American life and history in which a Sigma Nu initiate has not made his mark.

When this Nation has called upon its citizen-soldiers, Sigma Nu initiates have answered that call. They have fought and died in every major conflict since the Civil War. Its members are veterans of every branch of the Armed Forces, including two Medal of Honor recipients. Sigma Nus have understood the price of freedom and been willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for it.

The 12,000 collegiate members on campuses across the country today serve their communities in student government, interfraternity councils, athletic teams, and other student organizations. Last year, these young future leaders of our Nation performed over 375,000 hours of community service and raised over $2 million for philanthropic causes.

Whether it is through its award-winning ethical leadership development program, LEAD, or through the mentorship of more than 2,000 volunteer advisors, Sigma Nu continues to be at the forefront of developing the minds, hearts, and character of its initiates, inspiring them to excel with the timeless value of honor.

Today, in its 150th year, Sigma Nu Fraternity calls upon its initiates to renew that legacy, to reflect on the principles of its founders, and to commit to a strong future for this esteemed brotherhood. As a proud initiate of Sigma Nu Fraternity, I would like to congratulate the fraternity on achieving 150 years of love, honor, and truth and to wish it many more years to come.

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

Mr. President, I have a request for one committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committee is authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Monday, April 1, 2019, at 5:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. President, I am pleased to advise the Senate of the accomplishments of a fellow Mississippian, Mr. Samuel B. Olden of Yazoo City, on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

Mr. Olden is from Yazoo City, the gateway to the Mississippi Delta, where he was born in 1919, to a family of Mississippi planters. Throughout his youth, he read widely in the B.S. Ricks Memorial Library, the oldest privately funded public library in the State, which greatly contributed to his personal development and admission into the University of Mississippi in Oxford. There, he received a B.A. and M.A., reportedly conversed with Nobel Prize winning author William Faulkner, and was ultimately recruited to Washington, DC, to serve at the Department of State. Prior to American involvement in World War II, Mr. Olden was sent abroad as the Vice Consul at our embassy in Quito, Ecuador, from 1941 to 1943. Upon his return, Mr. Olden enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving from 1943-46 at posts ranging from Shanghai, China, to Paris, France.

After the war, Mr. Olden transited the north Atlantic on a Liberty ship. A fellow naval officer noted Mr. Olden's fortitude during this stormy passage. While tending to his ailing father back in Mississippi, he received a letter from Washington asking him to consider defending our Nation's freedom, in a third, essential way. Mr. Olden returned to the District of Columbia, where he was invited to join the newly formed Central Intelligence Group. Commencing in 1947, Mr. Olden spent 2 years in the group's Washington office, followed by 3 years in Vienna, Austria, where he defended freedom and democracy against Communist aggression.

Following a decade in public service, Mr. Olden entered the private sector, where he employed his experience abroad for Mobil Oil. From 1952-1957, he was posted in East and West Nigeria, British and French Cameroon, The Congo, Chad, and Gabon. He joined Mobil's government relations department in 1957 and returned to New York. There, he attained Observer status at the United Nations and strode the halls with Adlai Stevenson and Eleanor Roosevelt. Later, he went abroad once more to serve as general manager of Mobil's affiliates in Tunisia, Algeria, Peru, and Spain.

By 1974, Mr. Olden was fluent in English, French, German, and Spanish. He had connections around the world. And where did he go? He chose to retire to the finest place that he had ever lived: Yazoo City. There, he owned and operated a cattle ranch for 15 years, while continuing to pursue his passion for the study of history. He was twice a board member and was elected president of the Mississippi Historical Society, served 15 years on the State Committee for the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and founded the Yazoo Historical Society's remarkable museum, housed in the same Triangle Center building where he had attended elementary school. Even in his 90s, he established and helped to fund the Yazoo Memorial Literary Walkway, which stretches between the Triangle Center and the B.S. Ricks Library. The walkway memorializes more than 100 Yazooan authors that include former U.S. House Minority Leader and U.S. Senator John Sharp Williams, literary critic and editor Henry Herschel Brickell, Governor Haley Reeves Barbour, beloved writers Willie Morris, Teresa Nicholas, Ruth Williams, John Langston, and Caroline Langston Jarboe, and educator Henry Mitchell Brickell. His large collection of pre-Columbian ceramics is now on display in the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson and is the focus of Yumi Park's book ``Mirrors of Clay.''

This remarkable man has served his Nation as a diplomat, military officer, and emissary, during wars hot and cold. He served the world in the energy industry as a global businessman of distinction. He returned to his hometown and has continued to serve his State, his university, and his community as a historian, educator, and philanthropist even into the tenth decade of his life. His friends across the Nation and around the world celebrate with him today.

Madam President, what is the pending business?

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for no more than 10 minutes.

Madam President, on Sunday, February 24, thousands of people marched in Moscow and in cities across Russia to remember Boris Nemtsov, a Russian statesman and friend of freedom who was gunned down in sight of the Kremlin walls 4 years ago.

These people were honoring a Russian patriot who stood for a better future--a man who, after leaving the pinnacle of government, chose a courageous path of service to his country and his fellow Russians. Boris Nemtsov was a man who walked the walk. When others were silent out of fear or complicity, he stood up for a future in which the Russian people need not risk jail or worse for simply wanting a say in how their country is run.

Sadly, since Mr. Nemtsov's assassination, the risks of standing up for what is right have grown in Russia. With every passing month, ordinary citizens there become political prisoners for doing what we take for granted here in the United States--associating with a political cause or worshipping God according to the dictates of one's conscience.

Last month alone, in a high-profile case, a mother was jailed for the crime of being a political activist in Russia. She was kept from caring for her critically ill daughter until just hours before her daughter died. Jehovah's Witnesses have been sentenced to years behind bars for practicing their faith. Also, a leader of a small anti-corruption organization was beaten to death with metal rods on the outskirts of Moscow. This was all just in February, and it is not even a comprehensive account of the Russian state's using its powers not against real enemies but against its own people--peaceful citizens doing what peaceful citizens do.

As for the Nemtsov assassination, 4 years later, justice has yet to be served. It appears that President Putin and his cronies have little interest in uncovering and punishing the masterminds behind Russia's highest profile killing in recent memory. While a few perpetrators who had been linked to the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, were convicted and sent to prison, Mr. Nemtsov's family, friends, and legal team believe the organizers of his murder remain unidentified and at large.

I understand that Russia's top investigative official has prevented his subordinates from indicting a close Kadyrov associate, Major Ruslan Geremeyev, as an organizer in the assassination, and the information linking Geremeyev to Mr. Nemtsov's murder was credible enough for a NATO ally to place Geremeyev on its sanctions list. Yet there has still been no indictment. Russian security services continue to forbid the release of footage from cameras at the site of the assassination. Russian legal authorities refuse to classify the assassination of a prominent opposition leader and former First Deputy Prime Minister as a political crime. Despite all of this, they have declared the case solved.

Given this pattern of deliberate inaction on the part of Russian authorities, the need for some accountability outside of Russia has grown more urgent. Russia and the United States are participating states in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the OSCE, and have agreed

that matters of justice and human rights are of enough importance to be of legitimate interest to other member states. Respect for these principles inside a country is often a predictor of the country's external behavior. So countries such as ours have a reason to be involved.

At the recent meeting of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, we began a formal inquiry into Mr. Nemtsov's unsolved murder and have appointed a rapporteur to review and report on the circumstances of the Nemtsov assassination as well as on the progress of the Russian investigation. As the chair of the U.S. delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I supported this process from its conception at an event I cohosted last July in Berlin.

Yet, as the United States of America, there is more we can do. To that end, I am glad to cosponsor a resolution with my Senate colleagues that calls on our own government to report back to Congress on what we know of the circumstances around Boris Nemtsov's murder. This resolution also calls on the Treasury Department to use tools like the Magnitsky Act to sanction individuals who have been linked to this brutal murder, such as Ruslan Geremeyev.

We hear constantly from Russian opposition figures and civic activists that personal sanctions, such as those imposed by the Magnitsky Act, have a deterrent effect. Vladimir Putin has made it abundantly clear that these sanctions, based on personal accountability, are more of a threat to his regime than blunter tools, such as sectoral sanctions, that often feed his propaganda and end up harming the same people we are trying to help in Russia--innocent citizens. To its credit, the Trump administration has done a better job than had the previous administration in its implementing of the new mandates and powers Congress authorized in both the Russia and Global Magnitsky Acts. We are in a much different place than we were when these tools were originally envisaged nearly 10 years ago.

The administration is mandated to update the Magnitsky Act's list annually, with there being a deadline in December that sometimes slips into January. Now it is already March, and we have yet to see any new designations under the law that the late Mr. Nemtsov himself called the most pro-Russian law ever adopted in a foreign legislature. While the law has been lauded by Russian democrats, it is rightly despised by those like Vladimir Putin who abuse and steal from the American people.

Recall that it was at the Helsinki summit late last summer between the leaders of Russia and the United States of America--perhaps the grandest stage in U.S.-Russian relations in a decade--where Mr. Putin himself requested that his investigators be able to depose U.S. officials most closely associated with passing and implementing the Magnitsky law, as if they were criminals.

We need to show the Russian dictator that this sort of bullying will not stand and that we will continue to implement the Magnitsky Act thoroughly and fairly.

A year ago, I participated--along with many of my colleagues in the House and Senate--in the unveiling of Boris Nemtsov Plaza in front of the Russian Embassy here in Washington, DC--the first official memorial to Boris Nemtsov anywhere in the world.

One day, I hope there will be memorials to Boris Nemtsov all across Russia, but the best tribute to his memory will be a Russia he wanted to see, a just and prosperous Russia, at peace with its neighbors and a partner with the United States.

I yield the floor.

What is the pending business?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mr. President, today is Data Privacy Day, a day set aside to raise awareness about how personal information is being used, collected, and shared in today's digital society. It is also an opportunity to educate the public about how to safeguard individual data and also an opportunity to encourage businesses to respect consumer privacy when correcting and dealing with data.

As we all know, data-driven innovation is exploding today, and that is a good thing. It allows developers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and large companies to create applications, products, and services that are increasingly customized for users. This is great for consumers and great for the economy.

The benefits from this explosion of data come in the form of increased productivity, convenience, and cost savings. The benefits also extend to our

very health and safety. In using data and in using this data economy, we can serve to improve the daily quality of life for every American.

All in all, opportunity in this digital era is potentially limitless. However, to realize our Nation's economic and societal potential in the global digital economy, consumers need to have trust and confidence that their data will be protected and secure in the internet marketplace. That is the reason we are emphasizing data privacy today.

I want to talk briefly about the potential for legislation in this Congress. Over the last decade, there have been numerous calls at all levels of government in the United States and elsewhere for baseline privacy legislation to protect consumers in a world of Big Data. Some jurisdictions have already acted. For example, the European Union recently enacted the General Data Protection Regulation--commonly known as GDPR. California has enacted and signed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act, CCPA. We see some American companies, not based in California, certainly not based in Europe but who are dealing with data across the board, calling on Congress to act and enact baseline privacy protections across the board in the United States of America.

I say that we have reached a point where Congress needs to act to develop Federal privacy legislation, and this is a viewpoint that is accepted and supported across the aisle by Democrats and Republicans in both Houses of the Congress. Strengthening consumer data protections will be a top legislative priority for the Commerce Committee during this Congress. We will continue to build on the current momentum in the Senate as we discuss how to approach the development of bipartisan privacy legislation in this Congress.

This is one of the best opportunities in this Congress, will be one of the best opportunities for Democrats and Republicans to work together and put something on the President's desk for his signature. I know that through collaboration, we can develop a legislative proposal that provides consumers with meaningful choices and strong protections of their data, both online and offline. We need a legislative proposal that will be balanced, balancing the need for flexibility, for businesses to innovate, invest, and compete. This issue is critical to maintaining U.S. leadership in the global digital economy.

I hope next year, at this point in time, we will be discussing and celebrating the enactment of bipartisan legislation to ensure both consumer protection and continued innovation in the United States. Happy Data Privacy Day.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I was going to ask the distinguished Democratic leader to have yielded under his reservation.

Might I be recognized for just a moment? The objection has already been heard, and we will not get this done.

Madam President, I appreciate the Senator from Louisiana.

His unanimous consent request would have done one simple thing-- gotten the uniformed servicemembers in the Coast Guard paid just like we are paying today for members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. The Coast Guard members are the only servicemen out there now who, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, are required to perform their duties under pain of penalty, and they are not being paid as the others are. It would also protect survivors' benefits for the retirees and their survivors in the Coast Guard, as is being done with the other uniformed services.

We may be getting close to a solution on this. I certainly hope so. In the meantime, I think it would be a significant gesture on the part of the Democrats and the Republicans in this Senate and in the House of Representatives to pass this one small change that the President has said he will sign and to do the right thing by paying members of this uniformed service. I regret that the Senator has objected, and I appreciate at least having a chance to explain why this mere carve-out is different from a larger solution that may be coming soon.

On the Senator from Iowa's time, let me join her and the Senator from Missouri, and I associate myself with their remarks and their support, not only for the March for Life, which will occur on Friday, but also for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which I am proud to be the principal cosponsor of and which will, we hope, have a vote on the Senate floor by tomorrow afternoon.

I was a pretty young staffer for then-Congressman Trent Lott in 1981 when I first became aware that there was such a thing as the March for Life. I can assure you that it will be much more massive this year then it was back in those early days when Americans were struggling with what Roe v. Wade meant and when they weren't quite so sure about what the science was about this practice of abortion.

As each year passes, as more and more parents see that sonogram, as more and more grandparents--and I am a grandparent to six now; I am buddy to six beautiful grandchildren--see the sonograms early on and we see the feet and we see the heartbeat and we see the faces of these children, we realize as Americans--and more and more Americans are coming to the realization--that this is a living human that deserves protection.

Senator Blunt was accurate in saying we have good polling. Polling is coming around to our way. Even if some people consider themselves to be pro-choice, when you delve down into the figures and ask them the questions, it turns out they are not quite so pro-abortion as we might think.

When we ask the question that the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion bill goes to centrally--Do you support taxpayer funding for abortion?-- the polls show that 24 percent oppose and 30 percent strongly oppose. A majority, or 54 percent of Americans--some of whom would actually check the box and say they are pro-choice--say no, we shouldn't go so far as to provide taxpayer funding for abortions. That is what this legislation, which tomorrow afternoon will be considered on the floor of the Senate, would do.

When asked another question: Should abortions be banned after 20 weeks, with the exception of risking the life of the mother? And 59 percent of Americans say yes, they strongly support that or support banning abortions after the 20th week.

So I would say that the March for Life is working, year after year, step after step, and I hope we get a good vote on the floor of the Senate tomorrow.

Do I think this is going to sail through the House of Representatives and be sent by Nancy Pelosi's House to the President for signature? Probably not, but we make the case. We warmly welcome these marchers for life each and every year, and we appreciate what they have done to move the needle of public opinion and to protect those innocent people who have no way of protecting themselves.

I see that we are joined by my distinguished colleague, the senior Senator from Nebraska, and perhaps she might have some remarks to say.

I will yield the floor at this point.

Mr. President, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has adopted rules governing its procedures for the 116th Congress. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying rules for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be printed in the Record.

My friend from Nebraska, Senator Sasse, tells me he has remarks that will take approximately 2 minutes. I have remarks that will follow that will take somewhat longer than 2 minutes.

I ask unanimous consent that Senator Sasse be allowed to speak before me and that I might speak afterward for such time as I will consume.