Floor Statements

Madam President, I rise today to honor John Shepler, an outstanding public servant who has served both my office and the citizens of West Virginia well in his 21-year career with the Internal Revenue Service. John is retiring from his position as taxpayer advocate in order to spend more time with his family and enjoy the next stage of his life.

During his 10 years as taxpayer advocate, John was a valuable resource to my office and West Virginia's citizens. He was well informed, quick to respond, and straightforward in his dealings as he advocated on behalf of his clients. He was a dedicated employee, fully committed to his many responsibilities. He was a pleasure to work with, and my staff were always confident that John was providing top-level service, regardless of the issue.

John also served his country through his military service with the U.S. Air Force, serving 6 years as a missile facilities specialist. A dedicated public servant, John has served his country and his community continually throughout his adult life.

John is the proud parent of daughter and a son, living in Little Hocking, OH, and Houston, TX, respectively. I am sure he is looking forward to spending more time with his five grandchildren, as well as with his favorite pastimes: hunting deer and turkey, fishing, and camping.

I would like to thank John for his service and wish him well in his next phase of life. My staff will miss working with him at the IRS, but we are all happy that we had him as long as we did to provide excellent service to the citizens of West Virginia. Good Luck, John. Thank you again for your commitment to our State.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I rise today to discuss my opposition to the nomination of Michael Regan for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now, before I begin, let me be very clear. I really liked meeting and getting to know Michael Regan. He is a dedicated public servant and an honest man. He had a beautiful family with him, and he answered the questions as straightforwardly as I think he thought he could. I have enjoyed getting to know him through my role as the ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, and I appreciated the willingness he expressed to visit my home State of West Virginia. But this vote is not based on what Mr. Regan might do if he had his say; this vote is about confirming someone to execute President Biden's agenda, which Mr. Regan said he would faithfully do, and I cannot support that agenda. I cannot support that agenda that Secretary--if confirmed--Regan would be tasked with implementing.

Throughout his confirmation process, Secretary Regan did not commit to a different policy agenda than that of the Obama administration--an agenda that absolutely devastated my State and other energy-producing States.

In his nomination hearing, Secretary Regan, because he is secretary of North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality, would not comment as to whether the so-called Clean Power Plan or something worse would be reinstituted. He did not rule out a return to the WOTUS rule. He could not say whether the EPA would again claim overarching authority to force States to shift their electricity generation sources. He could not commit to real changes, and that is because the agenda is already set. Climate czar Gina McCarthy and others have already set the table.

InsideEPA recently reported:

Administration observers are questioning whether Michael

Regan . . . could face a diminished role if he wins Senate

confirmation due to the large number of Obama-era officials

who have returned to the agency and the White House to work

on implementing Biden's environmental agenda.

The article went on to say:

[T]hese sources also say that because there are so many

officials now working on climate change policies across the

Biden administration, this could lead to ``turf wars''

between EPA and the White House on this issue.

Well, I share those concerns.

For almost 2 months now, unaccountable czar Gina McCarthy has been working both behind the scenes and in front of the press to lay the groundwork for the Biden administration's agenda. She is wielding her power publicly to make it clear who is calling the shots and directing the troops.

McCarthy herself said recently:

I've got a small stronghold office, but I am an orchestra

leader for a very large band.

She is operating this ``stronghold'' office with no transparency outside of the Senate confirmation process. It would be bad enough with just a turf war between an equally matched White House and EPA, but we know that McCarthy is poised to have influence within the EPA too.

In addition to the Obama EPA alums already in place, the nomination of Janet McCabe to serve as EPA Deputy Administrator has only increased my concern and made it worse.

In 2019, McCabe, McCarthy, and another alum of the Obama EPA wrote an op-ed fully backing the overreaching Clean Power Plan. They admitted that their Clean Power Plan was a War on Coal. They stated:

The best way to cut emissions is to shift electricity

generation from the dirtiest plants, which happen to use

coal.

So they were willing to say it outright once they were out of public office. They are willing to admit to their War on Coal. It upsets me because they wouldn't say it to the people of my State when they were in the office. They didn't have the courage to look the people in West Virginia--they didn't even come to our State to talk about it--to look them in the eye and admit they wanted to wipe coal off the map. Had they come, they would have had to hear in person, eye to eye, the harm, the devastation that workers in our coal industry and many other associated industries in West Virginia were facing.

WVU economist John Deskins put that harm into perspective in testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at a hearing in 2015. He observed:

In Central Appalachia, coal production has fallen by 51

percent since 2010, compared to a decline of 10 percent from

the nation's other coal-producing regions. . . . [N]early all

of the coal job losses that have occurred in West Virginia

have come from our state's southern coalfields. The

concentration of these job losses has created a Great

Depression--

Great Depression--

in six southern counties--Boone, Clay, Logan, McDowell,

Mingo, and Wyoming [Counties]. Job losses over the past four

years range between--

Remember, this is in 2015--

25 and 33 percent in each of these counties.

That is how many jobs were lost.

John Kerry stood alongside Gina McCarthy in the Oval Office in January and talked about how workers in the fossil fuel industry can just become wind turbine technicians or solar panel technicians. John Kerry doesn't really know what it actually means to be any type of these workers.

Brad Markell, a representative from the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, explained some of the differences to the Washington Post. He said:

You get guys that are coming off of fossil jobs in the

Dakotas or the wind belt, and are making, you know, eighty,

ninety, a hundred thousand a year. [To put wind turbines up],

they're looking at thirty to thirty-five thousand, with

either no or substandard benefits.

In President Biden's White House, we have unaccountable--and either misguided at best or uninformed at worst--czars trying to do what they think is best for this country.

So let's go back to Secretary Regan. In his hearing, he talked in depth about his work with Republicans in North Carolina and his commitment to transparency, and both of the Republican Senators from his home State came and introduced him to our committee and spoke very well of his ability to work across the aisle.

I appreciate that greatly, and I welcome that, but the fact remains that I can't support Secretary Regan when Gina McCarthy is the self- described orchestra leader for the Biden administration and Kerry is basing so-called ``transition'' policies on a fantasy world that does not exist.

I am very skeptical that the next 4 years will be any better than the 8 years of economic devastation brought on by President Obama's EPA. So, without commitments to different policies than what were pursued in the Obama EPA, I cannot support Secretary Regan today. But, you know what? I hope he proves me wrong. I hope he makes good on his promise to work with Republicans to help address climate issues.

As ranking member of the EPA Committee, I stand ready to just do that. We have so much common ground on climate issues. I hope Secretary Regan can cut Gina McCarthy out of power and let her know who is calling the shots for environmental policy in the Biden administration. I hope Secretary Regan embraces President Biden's mandate of unity and works with both red and blue States to take care of our planet. Until then, I will continue to look out for my State and practice aggressive oversight on what I think may be coming.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I have a motion to commit at the desk, and I ask that it be reported.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided.

Mr. President, one of our top priorities will be the surface transportation reauthorization bill.

Our EPW Committee has already kicked off bipartisan efforts to meet our Nation's transportation needs. Every State needs the certainty of a long-term reauthorization plan to complete projects. Paying for infrastructure is a difficult challenge. A status quo reauthorization bill would require at least $70 billion in new funding for the highway trust fund, which we all know falls short, and we all want to make sure that we make robust investments in our roads and bridges.

The bill on the floor provides $350 billion to State and local on top of the $150 billion that was provided in the CARES Act. This motion instructs the Finance Committee to divert some of that $350 billion to, instead, help pay forward for a bipartisan surface transportation reauthorization bill. Funds would still go to our States and localities, but the dollars would be better spent on road and bridge projects that create a safer and more efficient transportation system.

I urge my colleagues to support the motion to commit.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, today I rise to speak on a couple of topics, but first, I want to take this opportunity to thank really an icon in our State, and that is West Virginia State Senate Pro Tempore Donna Boley. She is a good friend of mine, and she is now in her 10th term. She is the longest continuously serving member in our State's State senate. At one point in history, Donna Boley was the only Republican. She was the ranking member on every single committee and the lead Republican, as she was the only one in the early nineties.

I want to thank her for her service, for her service to our State, which began in 1985, and wish her all the best as she presides today-- she is presiding today--over the West Virginia State Senate.

So, Donna, way to go. Really proud of you. You are a role model for every woman who is watching and certainly young girls as well

Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from the great State of Iowa for bringing forth her three r's. I think they are very succinct. They are the message that certainly I want to convey with my colleague from the great State of Florida here today: respect the science, reopen the schools safely, and return students, teachers, and learning to the classroom.

A year ago, we were only just starting to realize what COVID-19 was about, almost a year to this date practically. Yet no one could have foreseen that many children would leave their classrooms in 2020 and still not have returned in March of 2021.

Fortunately, during these past few months, we have come a long way in our knowledge of COVID-19. We knew little about how the virus spread when most schools closed last March, but now experts have had the opportunity to learn more about the spread of the disease, specifically as it would spread in a K-12 school environment.

At the end of January, the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published data showing that in-person learning for K-12 students with limited in-school COVID-19 spread is, indeed, possible. The schools studied adhered to the public health practices many of us have followed--wearing a mask, social distancing, washing hands, avoiding large groups, and quarantining after exposure to the virus.

Since this data was released, CDC has gone on and issued additional guidance for reopening our schools. This guidance focuses on many of the same public health strategies as well as cleaning facilities and additional ventilation.

In addition to the improved knowledge of how COVID-19 affects our schools, we also have safe and effective vaccines. By enabling our teachers and other education professionals to have the vaccine on a priority basis, we continue to forge ahead with reopening our schools.

Yesterday, Dr. Clay Marsh, who is our State's coronavirus czar--he has done an incredibly great job. He has also led our efforts in our successful vaccine efforts. And I want to remind the Nation that West Virginia is No. 1 in vaccine distribution per capita. We have done a fantastic job.

Dr. Marsh said yesterday:

The classroom is a safe place to be.

He continued by saying:

The K-8 classroom--there is a tremendous amount of really

good data to suggest that it is even a safer place to be than

staying in your community.

Following these comments, our State's board of education voted in favor of our students in kindergarten through eighth grade returning to a full 5-day, in-person learning. It had some blended, some in class, and some at home.

While data we have seen makes a very compelling case for why we can get children safely back into the classroom with the right mitigations, other realities make it even more necessary.

With the option of remote learning at home, there are still many children--especially in States like mine, West Virginia--who struggle with connectivity. Despite robust funding from Congress to attempt to address these issues, the digital divide is very real, and it begins to exacerbate the have-and-have-not phenomenon. As a result, these children can be affected for years.

I hear concerns from parents all over my State. Last year, I had a Mercer County principal tell me that many of the students' parents in their class had to drive their students to a parking lot of a fast food restaurant so they could get Wi-Fi so they could do their homework.

A constituent from Lewis County recently wrote to my office expressing her frustration with balancing her work with also the remote learning that her children are doing. To make matters worse, they can't get on the internet at the same time in their home.

Another parent from Berkeley County wrote to me with a heartbreaking story about how her daughter cries at the computer because she requires extra help on certain assignments. Parents helping their children on schoolwork can only go so far. In-person attention is absolutely necessary and something that the internet can't solve through a Zoom meeting or a video meeting or what a lot of this is--going to certain assignments on your computer where there is nobody to interact with whatsoever.

These are very real concerns that parents have, a fear that their children will fall behind and are falling behind without access to their schoolwork.

Even more disturbing are the concerns I have heard from child abuse advocates throughout our State. The heightened stress, school closures, loss of income, and social isolation from this pandemic have increased the risk of child abuse and neglect. Yet, without the safe space of the school and the watchful eyes of our teachers and other caring professionals, I fear too many children are falling through the cracks and would have nowhere to turn

Last week, our West Virginia DHHR deputy secretary said there were 8,000 fewer referrals to child protective services this year in our State. Sadly, we know it is not because it is not occurring; it is because teachers and school employees aren't there to notice the abuse and neglect and report it. This is where our teachers are so incredibly caring and invaluable.

According to data from the CDC, between April and October of 2020, emergency departments nationwide have experienced a rise in the share of total visits from children with mental health needs. In my State of West Virginia, our State board of education has reported a spike in attempted suicides in Cabell County.

In addition, parents have had to make hard decisions as they attempt to balance their careers with their children's education, especially more difficult for those parents of younger children who can't leave their child at home for any period of time as they are doing their schoolwork.

As more workers are being asked to physically return to their workplaces, the lack of in-person learning and adequate childcare is hindering many from returning to work. This is especially true for many women who work outside the home. In fact, many women are having to quit their jobs as a result.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the January jobs report showed that some 275,000 women

left the workforce, while about 71,000 men left the workforce. Overall, approximately 2.4 million women have left the workforce since last February. This has been a common and unfortunate trend we are seeing as a result of the pandemic, and I know for certain it is definitely tied to the fact that schools have not reopened.

West Virginia's State superintendent said recently:

There is absolutely no substitution for a teacher in the

lives of a child.

He continued by saying:

There is no substitution for what that means to the

community and the families--not just for the academics but

for the social, emotional, [and] physical well-being.

He is absolutely right, and this is just another reason why it is so important for our children to return to school safely.

At the same time, I know there is no one-size-fits-all solution. State leaders, local governments, school administrators, and parents must take this data and these recommendations and apply them to the realities they see in their own communities.

Congress has provided $68 billion in resources for K-12 schools that they could use last year, which schools could use to implement these strategies. For these, this may mean continuing some form of remote learning. For others, including my State of West Virginia, it means bringing every K-8 student to a 5-day school week.

Before I conclude, I want to take a moment to thank the teachers, the parents, and the students who have adjusted and readjusted over the past years.

Despite the many challenges--whether they are technical, logistical, or emotional challenges--you have tried to make it work the best you can, and for that we are all very grateful. But now we have to do the three r's. We must look at the data, listen to the stories, and look at the realities in our classrooms and in our communities.

Get our children back to school. Respect the science. Reopen the schools safely, and return students, teachers, and learning to the classroom, where it should be.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment numbered 655 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, we know the burden that implementing the 2015 WOTUS rule would have had on farming, agriculture, energy production, and construction activities across this country and in our State of West Virginia. The legal challenges that followed resulted in years of uncertainty and confusion.

Finally, in 2020, the EPA announced the Navigable Waters Protection Rule as a replacement. It is clear, commonsense policy, and States like it. As a matter of fact, the Navigable Waters Rule is now in effect in 49 States. President Biden has revoked President Trump's executive order that led to the Navigable Waters Rule, making it likely the rule will be revisited in this administration. Replacing this Navigable Waters Rule with something like the 2015 WOTUS rule would completely redefine and reframe all water policy and devastate farmers, manufacturers, and small business owners.

We have had enough uncertainty. Let's not create more. This amendment would preserve the continued implementation of the Navigable Waters Rule. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, it is nice to see you in the Chair, Mr. President. I haven't seen that for a while. Congratulations to you.

I feel like yesterday I was in the movie ``Back to the Future.'' I rise today to voice my deep concern with the lengthy Executive order that President Biden issued yesterday pertaining to climate, and my larger concerns about where the Biden administration is moving with regard to their energy and environment agenda.

President Biden, very passionately, as we sat out on the steps, called for unity in his January 20 inauguration speech. But as his first actions, President Biden managed to kill thousands of jobs and paralyze America's industry--the energy industry.

His order yesterday put a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on Federal lands. This is an economic, energy, and national security disaster, in my view. This order moves America from energy independence back to relying on foreign sources for fuel--and a lot of times these are the countries that have much more lax environmental policies than we have right here in the United States.

The order also usurps our States' rights--the States' rights which are to manage their own energy industries.

As you know, I come from an energy-producing State. We have a proud heritage of that. So what about the States that rely on tax revenues from the energy industry to fund education? We see what has happened with education now under the pandemic. More headwinds into how do we deliver a great education product is a question we are going to be answering over the next several months and years. So any ideas?

I wonder if President Biden actually talked to any of the Governors of these States to see what the impact of what he was doing might have.

But what we saw yesterday in the press conference was President Biden and Gina McCarthy and John Kerry's ultimate goal, which is to ban fossil fuels. They were pretty upfront about that.

So my skepticism, when I hear that the administration is going to give industry time to transition and give workers a clean energy job-- that is where I found myself thinking: I am in ``Back to the Future.'' I have heard this before because I vividly remember the empty promises of the past.

This is a deeply personal issue for me because I have lived through this. I have seen this playbook before. So we are back to the future.

The Obama administration said the very same things to West Virginians. In fact, I remember the same people saying the same things, and I remember the utterly unachievable regulatory requirements that Gina McCarthy created in her position as head of the EPA that decimated my State.

I remember the thousands of jobs lost--and still lost--and the hopelessness and then the succeeding opioid epidemic that followed.

I remember begging the Obama EPA to come to West Virginia to see how the regulations, with no time to transition, were destroying more of our State's economy. They were destroying our families. They really didn't seem to care. The only response I got in one of my hearings was, well, they will come to Pittsburgh. Well, that is not coming to West Virginia.

Look, I am not here to just put down the Biden administration. I want to work with the administration, and I am going to be in a position to do that as ranking member on EPW. I want to be a part of the solution. I am not a climate denier. We all need to take care of our planet. We must be good stewards of our Earth, of our water. We know it is the right thing to do.

The free market is already moving in that direction, which was part of the presentation yesterday. Private companies are cutting their emissions. That is awesome. And as we see the emission figures, they have gone way down over the last 15 years.

Consumers moving toward greener products? That is great. I find myself doing that in my everyday living, and it is great. I feel like, in some ways, I am doing my small part at home.

But a national energy transition really needs time, and the Biden administration needs to be very clear about what their timetables really are.

They also need to be very clear about who is really in charge here. This is another one of my concerns. President Biden's nominees--Michael Regan; Jennifer Granholm; Brenda Mallory, at CEQ, Janet McCabe; and even Pete Buttigieg--have all been tasked with addressing climate. They are going to be tripping all over each other, before you even consider those avoiding Senate confirmation, process all of this together-- McCarthy, Kerry, and a whole host of other czars who aren't accountable to Congress. So who is really going to be making the decisions? I think, from yesterday's press conference, it is pretty clear what the answer to that question could probably be.

Will this Cabinet actually wield any power or will the decisions be made in the White House in an effort to avoid public and congressional scrutiny?

The American people really need to know. West Virginians need to know. New Jerseyans need to know. I will definitely be asking those questions in the upcoming hearing.

In closing, I would just like to say that America is a great and very proud energy producer. West Virginia has powered the country for decades, and we are incredibly proud of that fact. Coal, natural gas, oil, solar, wind, nuclear, biomass--our country has been incredibly blessed with energy resources, and using all of them keeps Americans safe and keeps our country running.

Eliminating fossil fuels from our energy mix will lead to higher utility costs and less reliability. So whom does that really hurt? It hurts those in the lower and mid-income category--the ones that are hurting right now because of this pandemic. And you can just ask California about the rising cost and the rise in unreliability of the grid.

Renewables can't power our country at 100 percent all the time right now. Maybe in the future, but right now they can't, and battery technology hasn't been able to fill that gap.

But we can address climate change together through innovation and technology. We already have new markets for coal and carbon products. We know investing in carbon capture and utilization and storage is critical. For a lot of reasons it is a win-win on both sides. We know new technologies are progressing every single day, and we have been working on this issue in a bipartisan way. Senator Whitehouse and I were the main proponents of the 45Q credit for capturing carbon and reusing it.

But I am very concerned that President Biden's Executive order yesterday really alienated some of the key players in the conversation, and I don't think that is the way to build unity. Here we go--back to the future, picking winners and losers. That is pitting American jobs against one and the other, and that can create and will create resentment across the country.

So I urge the President--let's tackle these climate challenges together, not through overreaching Presidential orders and Federal regulations. This country has risen to every single challenge that we have had. This climate challenge is no different. I understand the urgency. I understand the issue. But with our American ingenuity, we can find these solutions together.

So let's make our future one that we build together.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague on the Senate floor to talk about an extremely important topic--that is, lowering the cost of prescription drugs in this country. Just a few weeks ago, on June 20, West Virginia celebrated our 156th birthday. There is plenty to celebrate about West Virginia, from its breathtaking beauty and wonderful families to our kind and hospitable West Virginia spirit.

Unfortunately, West Virginia has its challenges, too, including health challenges. We have some of the highest rates in the Nation for heart disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and arthritis. While there are many nonpharmaceutical steps people are taking to prevent and control diseases, for many, their prescription medicine is the difference between wellness and illness or even between life and death.

That is why it is so important that West Virginians are able to secure their medications and that we as a Congress make sure they are not paying too much for those medications. Of all the issues that my constituents come to me with--whether it is a phone call, a letter, or casually running into them at the grocery store--this is the issue I hear most about because it is something that affects so many West Virginians' way of life, and it is something that affects them every day. If it doesn't affect them, it affects somebody in their family.

The same can be said for Americans across this country, and that is why it has become one of our Nation's top priorities, one that is shared by Republicans and Democrats and one that is a significant bipartisan focus of this administration and this Congress. It is a far- reaching problem with many different factors contributing to it, and that is why we have to address it on many different fronts.

The chairman of the HELP Committee is here today. He has worked through his committee diligently, and I applaud him for his efforts and look forward to joining him on the floor in support of those efforts.

As we all know, the path a medication takes from the manufacturer to the patient is very complex, with many factors impacting the price a consumer pays. While making changes to this pathway is very important, my constituents really don't care about the pathway. They are more concerned with the total on their bill that their pharmacist is ringing up. That is why I have focused a lot of my personal efforts on the important role that our pharmacists play in lowering drug costs.

In many small towns and rural communities--which is my entire State-- pharmacists are the healthcare providers people go to quite regularly, and they are often some of the most trusted, friendly, and welcoming. It is essential that patients, especially seniors, are able to access the local pharmacy.

West Virginians and Americans across the country should be able to trust that their pharmacist is not being restricted about telling them how to get the best prescription drug prices. They need to know they aren't facing higher cost sharing for drugs and being accelerated into the coverage gap or the doughnut hole phase of Medicare Part D due to an overly complicated system of fees and price concessions that nobody really understands--certainly not at the pharmacist's desk.

In order to ensure that seniors have access to a pharmacy of their choice, Senator Brown and I introduced the Ensuring Seniors Access to Local Pharmacies Act last Congress. We will be reintroducing this bill, which requires that community pharmacists in medically underserved areas be allowed to participate in the Medicare Part D preferred pharmacy networks.

Why is this important? If a local pharmacy is not included in a preferred network, a senior must either switch to a preferred network pharmacy, which could be a lot farther away or less convenient, or pay higher copayments and coinsurance to access their local pharmacy. In some cities and towns, you can find a pharmacy on nearly every corner. In rural areas, that is just not the case, and accessing a preferred pharmacy could require significant time and difficult travel.

Additionally, many seniors rely on their local pharmacies not only to access prescription drugs but also to receive those needed services like preventive screenings and medication therapy management.

As important as access to a local pharmacy is, it is also essential that patients can trust their pharmacists to let them know which payment method provides the most savings when purchasing their prescription drugs.

I was proud to join Senator Collins last year as a cosponsor of the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act. This commonsense bill, which the President signed into law in October, bans the use of the pharmacy gag clause. It was hard to believe this still existed. These clauses were put into place by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, and they prevented our pharmacists from proactively telling consumers that their prescriptions could cost less--less--if they paid out of pocket rather than relying on their insurance plan.

I am also currently working with Senators Tester, Cassidy, and Brown on legislation that would help improve transparency and accuracy in Medicare Part D drug spending. Our bill would reform the application process of pharmacy price concessions, also known as direct and indirect remuneration, or DIR fees, in the Medicare Part D Program. It sounds complicated, but it is driving up the cost of our pharmaceuticals.

This will ensure that our seniors are not facing higher cost sharing for their drugs or, again, being accelerated into the coverage gap. It will also help ensure that local pharmacies are able to stay open. This is critical. We have to keep our local pharmacies open for a vast majority of rural America and have them continue to stay open and continue to serve Medicare beneficiaries and other communities that rely on them. It would provide needed financial certainty for these pharmacies, which are often small businesses.

My colleagues and I hope to see this legislation included in the soon-to-be-released Senate finance package. These are just a few examples of how we are working to lower prescription drug costs.

I have been listening to my colleagues and have heard a lot of other ideas. They are small but much needed steps that can be, and already are, making a real difference in our constituents' lives, but our work is far from over. We have to continue looking at both commonsense and complex solutions to the problem. This is a complex problem. While as a Congress and a country we may not agree on the best way to do that, we do all agree that it is a problem that needs to be solved.

I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Alexander and Senator Lankford, who are on the floor here today, and my other colleagues and the administration to find that pathway forward to lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

I yield back.

Mr. President, I rise to address two very important bills that are before the Senate this week--the National Defense Authorization Act and the border supplemental appropriations bill.

First, on the NDAA, I am pleased that this bill meets the needs of our all-volunteer force by providing the brave men and women with one of the largest raises in a decade, that of 3.1 percent. With the rising threat of countries such as China, Russia, and Iran, this NDAA authorizes funding for crucial defense efforts to make certain that our military is well prepared and equipped to defend this Nation from the threats and challenges we face.

The NDAA substitute actually includes an amendment I offered, joined by my Senate Environment and Public Works chairman, John Barrasso, of Wyoming, by Ranking Member Carper, and by several other bipartisan cosponsors. This amendment will formally address the PFAS contamination about which I have spoken on the floor. It directly mirrors my legislation, the PFAS Release Disclosure and Protection Act, which the committee approved last week.

PFAS pollution is a nationwide problem, but its effects are concentrated locally, often in rural and disadvantaged communities, especially those near military installations where large volumes of certain firefighting foams have been deployed. Significant exposure to the legacy compounds of PFOA and PFOS have been linked to rare cancers and developmental issues.

I got involved with this issue because it is important but also because two communities in West Virginia were all too familiar with the PFAS contamination and its effects--Parkersburg, WV, which has endured a history of industrial PFAS contamination, and Martinsburg, which has been impacted by the use of firefighting foams.

My amendment will provide certainty to our citizens that the water coming out of their taps is safe--in my opinion, that is really not much to ask--by requiring that the EPA set a safe drinking water standard for PFOS and PFOA within 2 years and that it look at regulating other types of PFAS chemicals as the science would merit.

It also provides funding and technical assistance to ensure that small and rural water systems can monitor and address this contamination. That is a big issue for our rural State. We have a lot of small water systems, and we want them to have the same access to the science but also to the remediation that large systems have.

My legislation will also improve transparency by requiring emitters to report to the EPA the release of any of one of hundreds of PFAS compounds into the environment. Sure, we want to know that. Sure, we do. This information is essential for citizens, their local governments, and Federal agencies to be able to quickly and adequately respond to this pollution before it pervades the water or the soil. I think this increased accountability will contribute to there being fewer PFAS emissions in the first place.

Several other bipartisan provisions will accelerate research into PFAS and their effects on human health and the environment. It will ensure collaboration between Federal agencies and municipalities in addressing the challenges posed by contamination, and it will support the research and development into cleaning up these persistent compounds.

Crucially, this approach is rooted in science and a formal rulemaking process. We have put the Federal Government on a shot clock to act to end agencies' endless delays in addressing these challenges without short-circuiting the regulatory procedures.

Make no mistake--PFAS are essential to commerce, but some have been shown to carry substantial risks. This balanced regulatory strategy should provide the confidence to Americans that we are serious about protecting them from this pollution while also not upending the economy.

Another important environmental provision that is included in the NDAA substitute is the USE IT Act, which I introduced with Senator Whitehouse, Ranking Member Carper, and its lead

sponsor, Chairman Barrasso. The USE IT Act follows up on the bipartisan expansion of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture, utilization, and storage, which was passed last Congress.

CCUS is key to eliminating CO2 emissions while protecting West Virginia's coal and natural gas jobs. Trying to weave that balance is difficult sometimes, but the USE IT Act would provide CCUS project sponsors with a regulatory playbook so that they would know what Federal agencies' expectations are at the start of the process. This is essential for capital-intensive projects in their drawing private investment without having the fear of getting trapped in a regulatory purgatory.

Our decades-old environmental statutes never predicted a situation in which emissions would be captured and then actually used for an economic benefit. Carbon provides that opportunity, but regulatory standards that do not reflect this new reality, like New Source Review, sometimes get in the way. The USE IT Act addresses these issues, and it will also fund studies into the pollution reduction benefits of these technologies.

This is the sort of bipartisan and consensus-driven approach that will have a meaningful impact on emissions while it will protect jobs and drive innovation in the American economy, and I am glad that we are taking a significant step toward enacting this bill.

I thank Chairman Inhofe and the Armed Services Committee for their excellent work on the NDAA. It is important that we pass this bill this week.

Madam President, today I wish to recognize a friend and fellow public servant of the great State of West Virginia, John Manchester, as Friday marks his retirement from 16 years of service as the mayor of Lewisburg, WV. Under John's leadership, the city of Lewisburg has endured tough times, yet still flourishes as one of the cultural epicenters for our State, nestled deep in the rolling hills of Appalachia and the mighty Greenbrier River.

Although Mayor Manchester is not a native West Virginian, the love for this State has rooted itself deep within him. After graduating from Brown University, he packed his bags for Morgantown, WV, and became a Mountaineer as he accepted a research assistantship with West Virginia University. However, it wasn't until 1982 that these country roads called John and his wife Connie home to the Greenbrier River Valley, when they settled in the small town of Renick, WV.

John and his family began to grow into the fabric of the small town with only 200 residents. First, they started their own sawmill and entered the timber business. The harsh West Virginia winter forced John to reconsider his line of work, and he took a job as an editor with a newspaper, the Mountaineer Messenger. From there, John's desire to give back to the community that had given so much to him and his family took over, and he accepted the vacated mayor position in Renick. It would be this experience with local government that would inspire John to run for mayor of Lewisburg when his family moved in 2003.

Sixteen years later, Mayor Manchester still calls Lewisburg the best small town in West Virginia. I truly believe in John's vision and dedication for Lewisburg and can personally attest to how special of a place that this town is. One can sense a deep communal bond in this locale, which is a direct result of the strong character of its people and the examples set by its leadership.

Leadership begins and ends with service. Mayor Manchester is someone who exemplifies service, not only by his words, but by how he lives his life every day. Three years ago, Greenbrier County experienced an historic flood, and while Lewisburg experienced its share of high water, it was spared the widespread devastation that hit the nearby towns of White Sulphur Springs and Rainelle. Once Lewisburg was safe and sound, the residents, under the leadership of John Manchester, pulled together and took care of their neighbors throughout the Greenbrier Valley. I appreciate and commend the leadership Mayor Manchester showed during that difficult time and throughout his tenure as mayor.

Mayor Manchester has many accomplishments over the past 16 years of service as the mayor of Lewisburg. On a personal note, I would like to thank John for his kindness to my staff and me during our many interactions over the years. The people of Lewisburg are very fortunate John Manchester chose to live in West Virginia and serve its residents through his constant devotion, truly making this State and his city a better place to live. I wish him well in his retirement. It is truly an honor to call you friend and fellow West Virginian.

Madam President, today I wish to honor my friend and the first woman mayor of the town of Rainelle, WV, Andrea ``Andy'' Pendleton. Mayor Andy, as her friends call her, has served the town of Rainelle and Greenbrier County for the past 8 years, standing tall in the face of adversity and some of the toughest times that the Greenbrier River Valley has ever experienced. As the first woman elected to the Senate from West Virginia, I greatly admire Andy's initiative and her desire to give back to her community through public service.

Growing up in West Virginia teaches you to be tough, it teaches you to be respectful, and it teaches you take care of those around you. I know by Mayor Andy's character and her desire to help others that she holds those same West Virginia values close to her heart. To this day, Andy credits many of the positive qualities she possesses to the time she spent growing up in her family's discount food store, working 7 days a week. Little did she know that these fundamental lessons were building her into the leader that the town of Rainelle desperately needed.

The historic floods that ripped through West Virginia in June of 2016 devastated Rainelle, with almost 90 percent of homes and businesses ravaged by the flood water. Out of the 23 West Virginians we lost on that day, five of them were members of the Rainelle community. Mayor Andy was on the scene immediately and worked tirelessly in the days and months following the flood. From moving logs and rocks, alerting first responders, and keeping the community together, she dove directly into the flood relief process and led by example. She was tireless.

The impact that Mayor Andy has had on her community will be felt for far longer than her tenure as mayor. She was the driving force in securing funds to construct a new water system that efficiently supplies clean drinking water to the people of her town. In addition, she has also worked to replace

aging sidewalks, as well as other beautification and community development projects including the Meadow River Trail. Even now, in her final days in office, Mayor Andy continues her tireless work for Rainelle and its recovery.

Mayor Andy and the people of Rainelle inspire me. I am incredibly appreciative of the selfless leadership that Mayor Andy exhibits with her actions, and I hope that it further inspires young women in her community and across our State to rise up and be leaders and influential voices in their community. The town of Rainelle's motto has never been so fitting and true, largely in part to Mayor Andy: ``A Town Built to Carry On.'' On behalf of the people of the great State of West Virginia, I thank Mayor Andy Pendleton for her service to Rainelle. It is truly an honor to call her a colleague and a friend.

Madam President, I wish to recognize a dedicated public servant and proud West Virginian, John Schmidt, on the occasion of his retirement from the West Virginia Ecological Services Field Office, WVFO, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located in Elkins. I would especially like to recognize his leadership and contributions to fish and wildlife conservation. Innumerable West Virginians have benefited from his tireless efforts to improve wildlife conditions in our great State. John has been a vocal champion for creating a conservation legacy through collaboration and strong working partnerships with local stakeholders.

John has been working as a biologist for 32 years. For 25 of those, he has served the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working with landowners and State and Federal agencies. Currently, he helps nongovernmental organizations as a project leader to help restore, enhance, and protect fish and wildlife throughout our state.

Due to his leadership, contributions, and dedication to his community, John is being awarded the Superior Service Award by the U.S. Department of Interior. John has highlighted the need for providing restoring wildlife and recreational safety for West Virginians.

Beyond the critical assistance that the WVFO provides to the wildlife in West Virginia, it also has a positive effect on the economy. John and his staff volunteered numerous hours on a project to remove three legacy dams, leading to savings of nearly $60,000 per year for the municipal water system and its ratepayers. This work helped connect over 47 miles of formerly segmented river and drastically improved the water quality in the West Fork River.

Outside of his work for the WVFO, John has played an active role in giving back to his community. Some of his volunteer work has included time spent helping community leadership and conservation organizations such as the Tygart Valley Lions Club, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, and the Virginia Tech Monogram Club. He has also served as a swim coach and official for 30 years at all primary school levels. John has shown that he is dedicated to help all West Virginians in numerous efforts.

I would like to thank John for all his insight and advice over the years. My office has relied upon him countless times for guidance and input. On a personal level, he was kind and helpful not only to me, but to my staff as well. They often spoke highly of how attentive, patient, and kind he was to everyone with whom he worked. I wish John the very best during his well-deserved retirement, and I hope he can enjoy more time with loved ones. West Virginia owes John our gratitude, and I thank him for all his excellent work over his decades-long career.

Mr. President, I stood before this body on December 11, exactly 6 months ago, to discuss what I called then ``an escalating crisis on our southwest border.'' Well, 6 months later, I don't think this is a subject for debate anymore. Not only is this a crisis, but it is one that has escalated and continues to do so. Congress must take action or I feel it will come to deeply regret our inaction.

When I called it a crisis in December, 50,000 migrants had been apprehended crossing our southwest border during the previous month of November. It is now June, 6 months later, and we are looking at the numbers for May that approach over 133,000 apprehensions--the highest 1-month total in 13 years.

In 6 short months, the numbers of encounters on the border have increased by more than 156 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number has increased by more than 229 percent. Those are staggering figures.

To put this in context for my fellow West Virginians, in the month of May alone, the Border Patrol apprehended a population that is larger than our capital city, Charleston; Huntington, WV, our neighbor; and Morgantown, WV, combined--three of our largest cities in 1 month.

As I said standing at this desk in December, the flow of people across the border is not only larger but is also changing. Twenty years ago, the vast majority of those crossing our border illegally were adult men from Mexico. In fact, in fiscal year 2000, 98 percent of those people caught at our border were Mexicans. Under U.S. law, migrants from Mexico can be immediately returned to Mexico by the Border Patrol, but today we are seeing families and not just adults.

Last month, of the over 133,000 people, nearly 64 percent of those who crossed our borders did that as a family unit, and the vast majority of them are from other places than Mexico. They are Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran. Of the more than 84,000 members of family units apprehended by Border Patrol last month, only 547, less than 1 percent, were from Mexico.

So unlike folks from Mexico, these folks who are coming cannot be sent home immediately under U.S. law. They remain in our country often for months or years as their cases work their way through the system.

To summarize, today we have significantly more people crossing our southern border, and because of who they are, whom they are traveling with, and where they are traveling from, each of these individuals causes us to have a more significant strain on our system. Our system makes it advantageous for migrants from places other than Mexico to cross the border with children. So more people than ever are making absolutely sure they are accompanied by a child on their long and often very dangerous journey from those places through Mexico.

All of these factors I have discussed have completely overwhelmed our system. Everybody in this Chamber ought to believe that and know it is true. Conditions at Border Patrol stations that were never intended to be used as migrant shelters are stunning. These facilities are bursting at the seams, and our Border Patrol agents are spending more time caring for these migrants than they are patrolling our border, which is their core function. At any given time these days, somewhere close to 20,000 individuals are being housed in Customs and Border Protection facilities not at all conducive to extended stays. In other words, these facilities were not meant for long stays.

People are upset. It is unsettling seeing pictures of people sleeping on concrete floors under Mylar blankets. I have been to these facilities and, yes, it is heartbreaking to see, but when drug lords are dropping off busloads of migrants in secluded parts of our southwest border, where there is virtually no infrastructure, there is not much to be done to improve the situation, unless we provide the resources to deal with this crisis.

So what is happening? In the last 5\1/2\ months, more than 22,000 family units that crossed our border illegally have been released into the United States--often without any place to go--and told to come back when their case comes up, which could be years. I am encouraged by the President, and I am very supportive of the President's plan and his administration's, where they successfully negotiated an agreement with Mexico that will lead to more migrants waiting outside the United States while their asylum claims are being processed. I believe the agreement will improve the situation on the southern border when it is fully implemented.

While we have to work to improve the situation going forward, we have to address the problem we have right here today. I am the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. I must repeat to this body what I repeated here before, 6 months ago. We do not have a choice. We do not have a choice, but we must get this emergency supplemental done. It is the only choice we have from a humanitarian perspective. It is the only choice we have from a border security perspective.

If we fail, the Department of Homeland Security will be faced with even more difficult choices. It will either have to stop their efforts to improve these horrible conditions on our border or it will have to raid other agencies that are vital to our national security.

I don't want to see that happen. There was a very robust debate a few months ago about the crisis on our border. Was it real or was it manufactured? I stood here 6 months ago and said it is real and, quite frankly, I don't hear that topic up for debate much anymore. I think we all know it is real. It is tragic, but we can do something about it.

The New York Times, no less, is now deciding the situation is ``a nightmare'' and is imploring Congress to stop ignoring this crisis.

It was 103 degrees this past weekend at one of our entry points at McAllen, TX, which is the epicenter of this crisis. We know it is only June, and it is only going to get hotter. I hate to see what the situation will look like this summer if we fail to act.

I will end with this. The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security who work our border and are trying to process this influx of people are doing incredibly tremendous work. It is stressful, it is hard, and in many cases it is not the mission they signed up for when they joined the Department of Homeland Security, but they have stepped up to address a national need, and it is past time that we stepped up for them and for these children and these families in need.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I thank all of my colleagues, particularly my colleague from Maine, Senator Collins, for her leadership on this issue and many others.

It is great to be here with our former colleague Senator Mikulski, who taught me how to be tough on the Appropriations Committee--if I could only be that tough.

I join my colleagues today to commemorate and celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment. We all know the history-- at least we should--and we have talked a lot about it today. We have heard the names in documentaries and have read about them in history books--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and so many others. These suffragists, these leaders paved the way for women to exercise their right to vote, changing history and the fabric of our Nation in the process. I think it goes without saying that this was no small or easy feat. In fact, it was a pretty tough fight, and it wasn't won overnight. It took a total of 9 years for the amendment to reach the Senate floor.

In 1887, the vote for suffrage was actually defeated--hard for us to imagine. I think experiencing legislative defeat is something we all have experience with in this body. But that was not the end. It certainly took too much time, and things started to really heat up around 1916. That year, the people of Montana made the monumental move of electing Jeannette Rankin to the House of Representatives. Interestingly enough, with a woman finally serving in Congress, it didn't seem so crazy that a woman should be able to have a say when it comes to who serves.

Eventually, the Senate passed the resolution proposing the 19th Amendment. The date was June 4, 1919, exactly 100 years ago. I am proud to say that both of West Virginia's Senators at the time, Senator Howard Sutherland and Senator Davis Elkins, voted in favor of the resolution--I would expect nothing more from tough mountaineer men--and that language was adopted and ratified to the Constitution on August 18, 1920, marking the moment that women were given the opportunity to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

Finally, our country was acknowledging that women had a voice and that their voice was needed to be a part of this democracy. Don't get me wrong--women were not instantly made political equals of men overnight, at least not in practice. Even today, despite making up more than half of the population, women do not make up half of the Congress, and that is something we are working hard on every day. Over the years, thanks to the pioneering efforts of the suffragists and others who came before them, we have made progress, yes, and we have celebrated many victories, from the very small to the very significant.

Just think, when I first came to Congress in 2001--I saw my colleague from Tennessee, but I don't believe she was here then--we had to work to just get a woman's restroom put in off the floor of the House of Representatives. Today, I am one of 127 women who have the honor of serving our districts and our States and our country in Congress. That is the most women to ever serve in the Congress. And across the Nation, there are countless future leaders. That is why I think this day is so important.

I am very proud of the history my home State of West Virginia has already made when it comes to having women participate in our democracy.

In 1951, Elizabeth Kee of Bluefield took the place of her husband, the Honorable Congressman John Kee, to be the first woman to represent West Virginia in the U.S. Congress.

I am also proud to say we have Carol Miller--another woman--on the other side representing our State.

Elizabeth Kee had been her husband's longtime secretary--which, by the way, is not allowed today--and actually stood up against party leaders who said she should retain her position as secretary for the incoming appointee. She didn't listen to that, thank goodness.

When the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1971, changing the voting age from 21 to 18, this was done at the dogged insistence of my predecessor, Senator Jennings Randolph. But a proud West Virginian, Ella Mae Thompson Haddix, was the first person in the United States of America--a young woman from West Virginia--to register to vote as an 18-year-old.

I am very honored to be the first woman to represent my State, and many of us are that in our States. With that honor, I feel a special obligation to help the next generation of young leaders. I started a program called West Virginia Girls Rise Up, and with that program, I travel and talk to fifth grade girls, encouraging them to set goals for themselves and then work to achieve them. We talk about what it

means to be a leader in whatever career or field they love or are passionate about. My hope is that eventually these girls will grow into engaged citizens and leaders--not only women who vote but women who aren't afraid to run for office or run a boardroom or pursue a STEM career or anything else they might desire.

The 19th Amendment--hard fought--brought women more than just the right to vote; in many ways, it gave us women more courage to run, to advocate, and to lead.

I thank my colleagues for taking time today to celebrate the 19th Amendment, to celebrate civic-minded women, courageous women, and to celebrate that our country is stronger now and will be stronger in the future because women are voting and leading.

I yield the floor.