Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow, July 23; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time of the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3268, the Energy speculation bill, and that the time during the adjournment count postcloture. I further ask that the time until 11 a.m. be equally divided, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; that the time from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees in 30-minute alternating blocks of time, with the Republicans controlling the first 30 minutes and the majority controlling the next 30 minutes.

Mr. President, tomorrow, at 11 a.m. in the Rotunda, there will be a congressional ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the integration of the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition, National Security Adviser Hadley will brief Senators in S. 407, from 4 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., tomorrow.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for the transaction of morning business for 1 hour, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each, and the time be equally divided between the two sides.

Mr. President, on June 9, just a month ago, Nebraska Beef, an Omaha slaughterhouse, received a notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that two beef samples had tested positive for E. coli. By the second week in June, it had also been confirmed that numerous people from my State, Ohioans, had been infected with E. coli O157:H7, a sometimes deadly strain of bacteria. It was not until July 3--June 9 was the original notification--that Nebraska Beef finally acquiesced and issued a recall of 5.3 million pounds of its meat.

Federal officials at the USDA have criticized Nebraska Beef for being slow to respond. Unfortunately for consumers in my State and other places, USDA's authority--beyond issuing public admonishments--to protect the public is limited. In other words, USDA under the law cannot order a recall. They can be critical of Nebraska Beef. They can notify others about what Nebraska Beef is doing. But they cannot order a recall. For instance, most Americans would be alarmed to learn that the Federal Government does not have the power to issue a mandatory recall of contaminated food. Had the USDA been able to issue a mandatory recall of Nebraska Beef once it became clear that consumer safety was at risk due to unsanitary production conditions, unsafe food would have been taken off of the shelves more quickly and fewer people would have purchased it and consumed contaminated meat.

Again, June 9 is when the USDA first found out, but it was not until July 3--almost 4 weeks--until Nebraska Beef did what it should have done right away, something USDA had no authority under law to do. Lives continue to be put at risk because of delay since many consumers may be unknowingly storing infected meat in their kitchens for future use.

I have been on this floor lots of times in the 18 months I have been in the Senate, especially the last 8 or 9 months, talking about food banks and food pantries. I know the Presiding Officer from New Jersey has had particular concerns of constituents of his in places such as Essex County and urban poor areas but also rural, low-income areas or even moderate-income areas where people with jobs, people employed but not making much money have to go to food banks and food pantries to supplement their food budgets because of the cost. We have enough concerns of people getting food. We should not have to have concerns in New Jersey or Ohio about buying food and being uncertain of its safety.

In my State, health officials have confirmed that 21 Ohioans, plus another 20 in other States, have been made ill by this outbreak. Yesterday, reports were released that indicated the outbreak has spread from Ohio and Michigan, where it was initially reported and perhaps confined to, to now New York, Kentucky, Indiana, and possibly Georgia. The 21 ill Ohioans hail from Franklin County, Columbus, Fairfield, which is where Lancaster is the county seat, Lucas, which is where Toledo is located, Delaware, Seneca and Union Counties. Eleven people have required hospitalization.

This recent example is, unfortunately, not an isolated case. An analysis of a selected sample of outbreaks affecting Ohio over the last 5 years has shown a widespread problem. It is not the first time, and it probably will not be the last time. It means it is a real public health issue. Ten outbreaks dating back to 2003 have led to 217 illnesses, 66 hospitalizations, and 1 death.

Of the people exposed to food safety problems, to toxins, to bacteria in our food supply, those who are harmed the most are the very young and very old, people whose immune systems are weaker, who are sick anyway and are most likely to be hospitalized or even die from these kinds of outbreaks. But it affects all of us. Some of these outbreaks, such as those involving hepatitis A and botulinum, cause serious lifelong health problems. It is not a question of your digestive tract clearing it out and surviving these bacteria; sometimes they actually cause long-term health problems.

The top priority for both USDA and the Food and Drug Administration, the two chief food safety oversight agencies, should be to protect the public's health--a mission that will sometimes require swift and decisive action that sometimes the industry simply will not like. It is all about public health.

That is why yesterday I introduced legislation to provide mandatory food recall authority for both the USDA, which is responsible for poultry and beef, and the FDA, which is responsible for most processed foods, fruits and vegetables--everything the USDA doesn't do. Mandatory recall authority will ensure that these agencies have the necessary leverage to demand that those private companies, such as Nebraska Beef, that have sometimes been

resistant--many companies have. Many companies that hear it want to deal with it immediately, but some do not. Under our legislation, these agencies will have the necessary leverage to demand that those private companies responsible for feeding our Nation follow strict safety standards, and it means that when mistakes are made, public safety is not compromised.

I have partnered in this initiative with Representative Diana DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado. She and I sat together on the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee. She still sits there and has been a long-time advocate of making a generally good food- safety regimen in this country even better. This is one major step in doing that.

In 2004, the GAO concluded that the current recall system, which relies on voluntary action by industry, is flawed and that the USDA and FDA must do better to ensure recalls are prompt and complete. The administration seems to have reached a similar conclusion, asking Congress late last year to provide FDA with mandatory recall authority.

So consumer groups want it, the FDA wants it, the President wants it, and an awful lot of us in this Chamber think the FDA and USDA should have authority to do mandatory recalls. I hope the FDA food safety legislation currently being drafted in both Chambers ultimately includes mandatory recall provisions and that we get a chance to vote on such a proposal this year.

It is imperative both USDA and FDA be given this authority. We can't afford to continue to put the public's health at risk by waiting for some kind of comprehensive legislative package. A simple fix such as the one in my and Representative DeGette's SAFER Meat, Poultry, and Food Act, could solve this glaring deficiency in our food safety system. I implore my colleagues to support our legislation.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I thank the senior Senator from Delaware.

I rise in support of this very important legislation that the Senate, I hope, passes this evening. HIV, as we know, debilitates and kills. It orphans children. It fractures communities. It drains resources from fragile economies. In addition to what it does to human beings, it destabilizes fragile governments in the poorest countries in the world.

It is a human tragedy, the dimensions of which have humbled the world community.

I thank the Senator from Delaware for his terrific work and leadership on this legislation, and the senior Senator from Indiana, Mr. Lugar, who has been a leader in combating global poverty, and especially fighting for public health, combating malaria, AIDS, and tuberculosis.

I met a young man recently who now lives in my hometown of Mansfield, OH. He grew up in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya. He is now married to a Mansfielder, after he came to this country. He himself had malaria, which caused his weight to drop to 110 pounds at one point.

Now that he is healthy again, he is finishing his degree at Oberlin College, not far from where I live. His life's goal is to train more health workers to work in Africa to combat TB, HIV, and malaria.

I was, earlier this evening, talking with Senator McCaskill about how we can, with relatively small amounts of money, cure tuberculosis. With literally $20, $30, $40 a patient, over a period of 6 months we can give them medicine so they, in fact, can be made whole. It is the combination of TB and HIV together--people get TB, their resistance goes down, and that is what kills the most people with HIV in Africa and increasingly in India and other places around the world. The combination of TB and HIV is ravaging Africa.

In 2006, 65 percent of new HIV cases and 72 percent of all HIV- related deaths occurred in Africa. TB killed half a million Africans last year.

As important, what happens with TB does not stay necessarily in Africa. We saw what happened just a year or so ago when a young man from Atlanta, a professional, who had TB--he was not probably sure he had TB--flew around the world and could have very likely infected people in an airplane with TB. People who are immigrants who come here, people who are traveling abroad and come here from other countries, and Americans traveling around the world, all can be infected with TB.

With PEPFAR, we are making a huge investment in services, in prevention of these diseases. Now our investment will grow. We obviously need to do more. What we are doing with PEPFAR with a scaled- up investment will mean significant numbers of children won't be dying from HIV and won't be dying from TB.

Investing more in family planning is one of the best ways of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. To address this issue, this week I am introducing the Senate companion to Representative McCollum's bill, a Congressman from St. Paul, MN, legislation entitled ``Focus on Healthy Families Worldwide Act,'' a bill which will significantly scale up U.S. involvement in global family planning.

When I think of PEPFAR, I am reminded that we constantly need to think about how our actions affect people directly in ways we don't fully understand, and in terms of our lives of plenty, we need to be committed to help. This is major landmark legislation. What Senator Biden and Senator Lugar are doing is so very important to our place in the world, to a more peaceful world, to a more healthy, developing world, but also to a more healthy United States because it really will matter in this country. It will help to preserve our public health infrastructure, and it deeply matters to people all over the world, especially in our country.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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

Mr. President, this summer is turning out to be one of great anxiety and uncertainty for literally thousands of families in southwest Ohio. At this moment, the economic future of more than 8,000 people--8,000 workers and their families--in the Wilmington and surrounding communities hangs in the balance.

DHL, the cargo carrier service, has threatened to shut down its Wilmington hub, a decision that, if successful, threatens both families and surrounding communities. In May, DHL's parent company, the German company Deutsche Post World Net, announced a proposed deal with UPS that would close the Ohio operation.

In 2004, the State of Ohio and the city of Wilmington, a community of 13,000 people, and surrounding counties--Highland County, Greene County, Clark County, and the area around it--proudly laid out the welcome mat for DHL, providing more than $400 million in incentives only 4 years ago. It was, we thought then, the beginning of a long friendship.

The Wilmington Air Park is the largest employer in a six-county area of Ohio. Literally, in each of the six counties in the region, DHL is the single largest employer. Air Park employees were drawn from 45 counties, more than half of Ohio's 88 counties.

Tomorrow, Americans from across the country will gather around their television sets to enjoy baseball's All Star game in Yankee Stadium. The first pitch will be thrown by Cleveland's All Star pitcher Cliff Lee. During this midsummer classic, fans may notice emblazoned on the walls of Yankee Stadium and on game memorabilia the DHL logo, because DHL is the official carrier of major league baseball. More than 8,000 Ohio workers and their families have helped make DHL a major league player in the North American express delivery business. Their families in the community have supported DHL, worked for DHL, helped build DHL, and State and local governments pitched in, as I said, with $400 million to build this company and help it thrive in southwest Ohio.

Thankfully, the agreement with UPS and the agreement to shut down is not yet final, and so we fight. This morning, earlier today, Mayor David Raizk, Clinton County Commissioner Randy Riley, and I joined hundreds of DHL, ABX, and Air Star workers to fight for these jobs and this community. Together, I delivered to DHL's headquarters in Wilmington--at their headquarters just outside Wilmington, on the outskirts of Wilmington--I delivered more than 9,000 signatures on petitions to DHL headquarters, petitions

that were denied by DHL management 2 weeks ago when employees and community members tried to deliver them.

DHL needs to hear from these families and they need to understand that good corporate citizenship means more than baseball advertisements and company sponsorships. DHL workers and their families rightfully feel betrayed by the callous decision made by Deutsche Post.

This kind of betrayal does not just eliminate jobs. The community loses revenue, public schools take a hit, the police force, fire department--all take major hits. It is estimated that 10 percent of the Wilmington City school budget is derived from DHL's operations in Wilmington. Hospitals suffer. Clinton Memorial Hospital is a not-for- profit, and people connected with DHL account for a huge percent of their overall operations. They get $7 million in revenue just from DHL, ABX, and ASTAR, and their overall budget is $100 million. They don't know how they will be able to continue operations if DHL closes its operations in Wilmington.

There are some 15,000 children of those DHL workers at the Wilmington airpark--DHL, ASTAR, and ABX--who will lose their jobs.

Today I stood with the real All Stars, a couple of hundred workers and their families from southwest Ohio at DHL and at their union hall right across the street. In the last few months they have been sending me their stories. I would like to share some of them.

Tara Pratz of Lebanon, a community a few miles from there in Warren County, told me she and her husband relocated to Ohio because they trusted DHL and the promises made to her and workers like her. Reading from her note, she said:

Deustch-Post is nothing more than a corporate terrorist

destroying the very lives that built the company.

Kelly Morse of Blanchester also wrote me about moving to Ohio because of the loyalty she felt for DHL. She wrote:

At first we did not want to move, but as a loyal employee I

wanted to live close to my employer. DHL needs to be held

accountable for the commitments they made to the people,

workers, and community of southwest Ohio.

New Vienna resident Beth Carpenter wrote:

My husband is one of the many employees being laid off . .

. with the economy the way it is, it is hard enough trying to

keep food on the table, let alone to try to do it without a

job.

Sherry Barrett, also of New Vienna, wrote, simply:

We are all extremely terrified of what our future holds. .

. .We need all of you in our government to fight hard for us

and Ohio.

Again, it doesn't need to be this way. DHL has been a good corporate citizen. It can remain a good friend to the people of Ohio. Workers and family members and the community are ready to do whatever it takes-- whatever it takes. This morning in Wilmington it was clear that this community sticks together when times are tough.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I want to speak briefly for 1 or 2 minutes, because I know we are voting right at 5:21, and I will be done well before that.

First, I thank Senator Dodd for his very important and incredibly effective work on housing. That is such a huge issue, and we need to pass that today, and we will in a couple of minutes.

Secondly, I thank Senator Durbin for his comments on PEPFAR and how important that is for our place in the world and as a humanitarian effort. I have spent time in prisons in Moscow, in Siberian prison camps, and in Haiti in Dr. Farmer and Dr. Kim's clinic, and I have seen how tuberculosis ravages bodies, especially when it is combined with HIV. Most people in Africa who die from HIV actually are dying from the tuberculosis bacteria. I would add it is even more crucial and devastating when this TB evolves into multidrug resistant TB or, even worse, a newer form, a more virulent, more deadly TB called excessive drug resistant TB.

I urge this body to pass the housing bill, and to have particular focus on the PEPFAR legislation, supported by the President. I appreciate the President's input and work on this. It is very important for our country and for our place in the world.

I thank the Chair, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, today I honor the efforts of St. Stephen's Community House to designate July 10, 2008, Summer Learning Day.

Located in Columbus, OH, St. Stephen's Community House has worked tirelessly to increase awareness of the importance of summer learning programs. Summer breaks in schooling can lead to significant academic loss, particularly among students in low-income areas. The efforts of St. Stephen's Community House to partner with the Ohio Department of Education and other community organizations help ensure that children all across Ohio have access to high quality summer enrichment programs. Its work provides students with meaningful summer activity and helps reduce the growing achievement gap in education.

In addition, St. Stephen's Community House has demonstrated its commitment to the community through its work with the Children's Hunger Alliance and Major League Soccer. Almost half of Ohioans living in poverty are under 24 years old, yet only 57,000 out of 500,000 eligible children participate in Ohio's Summer Food Service program. Working together, these organizations are expanding summer feeding programs and ensuring that all Ohio children have access to nutrition throughout the summer months.

The dedication of the staff and volunteers of St. Stephen's Community House to the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our communities serves as an inspiration to us all. I hope my colleagues will join me in wishing them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Mr. President, today I commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Mansfield Garden Club.

Since its founding in 1928, the Garden Club has worked diligently to serve the Mansfield community. During World War II, members demonstrated their civic commitment by raising Victory Gardens and replacing their flowers with fruits and vegetables, thereby reducing pressure on the public food supply and boosting community morale. The club's continued work on community improvements over the years has been recognized with numerous awards recognizing their commitment to the community. Today, the club's efforts have provided floral plantings at the Mansfield Lahm Airport, landscaping at the Mansfield General Hospital, and a large circular garden in the city's central park.

For more than eight decades, the Mansfield Garden Club's members have demonstrated profound dedication to culture and community and have served as an inspiration to us all. I hope my colleagues will join me in wishing them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

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

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 10 minutes.

I share with my colleagues some bad news from my State that I hope turns into better news; that is, there is a company in Ohio called DHL. It is an airfreight company. They are the second-largest, single-site private employer in Ohio next to the Honda Corporation in Marysville and other nearby places.

DHL is in Wilmington, Clinton County, southwest Ohio, where some 8,000 people work pretty much in one facility in Clinton County. Wilmington is the county seat of Clinton County. Wilmington is the home of Wilmington College, a Quaker school, a wonderful private 4-year institution in southwest Ohio.

Wilmington has only 13,000 people living there. This company, DHL, employs close to 8,000, through a couple subsidiaries, a couple people they contract with there, ABX and ASTAR. The announcement to close by the owner of DHL, a German company called Deutsche Post, which I believe is the largest freight company in the world and which used to be the German Post Office but now is a privatized company, will have a devastating effect on this region and these people.

Deutsche Post owns many facilities of all kinds around the world; one of them is DHL. They made a decision to shut DHL down in Wilmington, a loss of up to some 8,000 jobs. I was in Wilmington last week, conducted a roundtable, listened to the concerns of pilots and material handlers and clerks and computer operators and mechanics and engineers and all kinds of people who fly the planes and service the planes and move the baggage, often in the middle of the night. There are local farmers who work there part time who get health care, there are very skilled pilots, there are very skilled machinists and mechanics.

DHL is everything to a community of 13,000. Those 7,000 to 8,000 employees live all over southwest Ohio, obviously not all of them in Wilmington or in Clinton County. Many of them live in Hillsboro, Highland County; some live in Brown County and Adams County and Hamilton County and Montgomery County and Clark County and Green County, all over southwestern Ohio.

We are not just accepting this tragedy as is. The mayor, Mayor Raizk, Governor Strickland, Lieutenant Governor Fischer, the development director, Senator Voinovich, Congressman Turner and I and others are banding together to fight this perhaps as an antitrust violation, perhaps in some other ways that we are working to try to stop this from happening.

The contract has not yet been signed. We are hopeful that DHL, that Deutsche Post, this German company will, in fact, listen to us and listen to proposals from ABX and ASTAR to stop the bleeding, if you will, to keep these jobs here. They have been productive. They took over a company called Airborne Express 4 years ago. The State of Ohio and Governor Taft in those days put together a $400 million package for them. We thought it was the start of a long friendship, a long relationship between Deutsche Post and DHL and the community of Wilmington, the County of Clinton, and the State of Ohio. We have been disabused of that notion, at least temporarily. We hope something better comes of it.

What I wish to share today is the background. I wish to share for 4 or 5 minutes some e-mails I received. I asked people in Clinton County, in Brown, Adams, Highland, Montgomery, Clark and Green Counties to share with me on my Web site what this closing might mean to them and what this company means to them and to their prosperity and their middle-class lifestyle and all that.

I told them I would read some of these on the Senate floor. Last week when I had a roundtable discussion with about 20 people, we talked about many of these issues. I wish to share with you today some of these, three or four of these entries, if you will, from statements written by people who are affected directly.

I am not going to share the name. I think I probably could, I think they gave us permission, but I will share their hometown. This gentleman from Wilmington wrote:

I am in my 15th year as a pilot with DHL/ASTAR. I was hired

by DHL Airways in January 1994 after serving as a C-5 pilot

in the United States Air Force. DHL later became ASTAR Air

Cargo due to U.S. Airline ownership laws. The airline pilot's

career is based on seniority; there are no lateral moves to

another airline. Losing my job with ASTAR due to Deutsche

Post's forcing DHL to use UPS [that is what actually happened

here] will result in the loss of not only my job but the loss

of my career. I do not have enough years left, due to

mandatory pilot retirement age at 65, to restart a commercial

pilot career with another airline and regain the salary I

earn now. I also own property in Wilmington based on working

for ASTAR Air Cargo. As these jobs go away my property

approaches being worthless and makes it likely I will have to

turn it back to the bank. The DHL deal will destroy many

careers, families, and create a duopoly in the U.S. Express

shipping industry, driving down competition, driving up costs

for business and for consumers.

A lady from New Vienna writes:

I know you are well aware of what is going on in Wilmington

with ABX/DHL. But you probably do not have any idea what it

is already doing to all of our workers. Our morale is at an

all-time low. We already know our time is short, but DHL is

cutting the rope shorter and shorter. I really do not know

how much more some of the people can take. I have heard of

many problems in marriages already. I know of many husband

and wives who work out there, my husband and I included.

The majority of us on days are full-time employees and are

scheduled to work 8-hour days. As of today, DHL has dictated

that whenever our work is finished we are to leave whether we

worked 6 hours, 7 hours or 8 hours.

My husband and I were planning on taking whatever we could

out of our last paychecks and put away because of what awaits

us. Now we are not even allowed to stay and get our 8 hours

so we only get paid for time worked.

Generally, at these roundtables I heard this discussion over and over. We are not giving up. We are still trying to save these jobs. People who work at ASTAR, who work at ABX, who are part of DHL, obviously have real fears.

Another lady from New Vienna writes:

My husband is one of the many employees being laid off by

ABX after putting in 26 years with them. I cannot begin to

tell how much this is going to hurt us in many, many ways,

along with 6,000 plus other employees here.

When I said up to 7,000, I was including, you know, some of the ancillary supply jobs in the vicinity.

The reason I am e-mailing you is to see if there is any way

you or any government employee can help all of the employees

and their families that are being let go. With the economy

the way it is, it is hard enough trying to keep food on your

table let alone trying to do without a job. Please, Senator

Brown, fight for all of us at ABX, ASTAR and DHL. We need all

of you in our government to fight hard for us and Ohio.

Someone from Blanchester, just south of Wilmington, said:

I am a 19-year pilot for Astar Air Cargo; a 16-year member

of the pilot's union. My wife and I became residents of Ohio

when DHL consolidated their main sort facility in Wilmington,

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

Mr. President, today the National Transportation Safety Board presented its final report on the Atlanta motorcoach accident involving the Bluffton University baseball team last March.

The crash resulted in the deaths of five players on that team: Tyler Williams, Cody Holp, Scott Harmon, Zack Arend, and David Joseph Betts. The driver, Jerome Niemeyer, and his wife Jean were also killed in the crash. Many of the other passengers--33 in all--were treated for injuries.

For the families of those who lost loved ones and the families whose sons survived but now struggle with the aftermath, today has been highly anticipated.

Only hours after news of the accident hit home, these families pledged to improve safety measures on motorcoaches so that preventable--preventable--fatalities would not occur in the future.

For John Betts, who lost his son David in the crash, it was important to take the accident and make it into something positive in honor of his son and the other bright, talented young men who died that morning. Motorcoach safety became his crusade.

I spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Betts today and their son and daughter and talked to other parents of survivors and one who had died, and I think about their courage and their commitment and their passion to do this in the names of their sons, to fight for motorcoach safety so this tragedy does not befall other families. The Betts family sees upgrading the safety laws for motorcoaches as an opportunity to save the lives of future riders. Mr. Betts sees it also as a way to memorialize David and his teammates and, as he puts it, to make the world they lived in better than it was when they left it.

The Motorcoach Safety Enhancement Act, which I introduced last November along with Senator Hutchison from Texas, would address the shortfall in safety regulations for motorcoaches.

Today's final report echoes the recommendations the NTSB has been publishing for years and aligns itself with the safety improvements incorporated into our legislation. Specifically, the National Transportation Safety Board underscored major safety shortfalls that the Motorcoach Safety Enhancement Act addresses, such as development of a motorcoach occupant protection system, improved passenger safety standards, enhanced safety equipment and devices, and required onboard recorders with the capability to collect crash data.

Many of the injuries sustained in motorcoaches could be prevented by incorporating high-quality safety technologies that exist today but are not widely used, such as crush-proof roofing and glazed windows to prevent ejection. More basic safety features, such as readily accessible fire extinguishers and seatbelts--simple seatbelts--for all passengers, are still not required on motorcoaches. As a father of four, I find it particularly disturbing to know students are still riding in vehicles without even the option of buckling up. Seatbelts, window glazing, fire extinguishers--these are not new technologies. These are commonsense safety features that are widely used. Yet mandating them, as recommended by the NTSB, has been languishing for years.

The Motorcoach Safety Enhancement Act would instruct the Secretary of Transportation to enact these and other safety features and to establish a timeframe so these safety requirements do not spend any more time in limbo.

Sadly, the Bluffton University baseball team's fatal accident was not unique. We have witnessed story after story about motorcoach accidents. One happened in Texas, which precipitated Senator Hutchison's involvement in this effort. This bill takes the lessons learned from the tragic events of the Bluffton University baseball team's motorcoach accident and aims to correct them for future riders.

It is my hope that in the future parents will not have to endure the anguish and the grief that the Betts family members experienced and the family members of Tyler Williams and Cody Holp and Scott Harmon and Zack Arend and, as I said, the Betts family. I applaud the Betts family and the other Bluffton University parents for their courageous fight, for their persistence, and for their dedication to improving motorcoach safety in the midst of so much personal pain. Those families are truly remarkable.

I urge this body to swiftly pass the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.