Floor Statements

Mr. President, I wish to congratulate Mr. Julius Ciaccia, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District on his election as president of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, NACWA.

Mr. Ciaccia is an accomplished leader and committed environmental steward who has played a prominent role in the water industry, exemplifying what it means to be a public servant. He is ideally suited to serve as president of one of the Nation's leading proponents of responsible policies that advance clean water. Mr. Ciaccia has served the people of the Cleveland area for decades, and in this new role, will continue to ensure that the Nation's clean water agencies continue to protect public health and improve the environment.

Mr. Ciaccia began his career in public utilities in 1977 when he was appointed as assistant director of the Public Utilities Department for the city of Cleveland. In 1979, he joined the leadership of the city's Division of Water where he served as both deputy commissioner and commissioner until 2004.

During some 30 years with the city of Cleveland's Division of Water, Mr. Ciaccia oversaw the management of more than $1 billion worth of capital improvement projects and maintained the agency's favorable financial position. He was appointed director of the city's Department of Public Utilities in 2004 exercising oversight of the water, sewer collection, and public power systems, with a focus on developing comprehensive financial plans and supporting revenue enhancement initiatives.

Mr. Ciaccia began his current role at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, NEORSD, in 2007. In his current role at the district, he oversees all aspects of managing one of the Nation's largest wastewater management utilities. Under his leadership, the district has received two awards from the Commission on Economic Inclusion, including a 2009 award for Supplier Diversity, which highlights the success of

his initiative to craft and implement a supplier inclusion program. In 2012, the NEORSD was awarded by the Commission for Senior Management Inclusion, recognizing the diversity of senior staff.

As the district's executive director, Mr. Ciaccia was responsible for confirming their consent decree for a long-term control plan to significantly reduce overflows from combined sewers, as well as the successful development and implementation of a new Regional Stormwater Management Program. Among Mr. Ciaccia's many accomplishments as executive director of NEORSD is the transformation of the district's culture to one of transparency and exceptional financial management.

As a member of NACWA's board of directors, Mr. Ciaccia has served as the secretary, treasurer, and vice president. Mr. Ciaccia has shared his time, passion, energy and ideas to carry out the objectives of the Clean Water Act.

It is my pleasure to congratulate Julius Ciaccia on becoming president of NACWA. I am certain his actions will ensure continued water quality progress for the Cleveland area, the State of Ohio and the Nation.

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

Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor from time to time to share thoughts from people in my State. All of us are hearing comments from college students, people who have finished college, and often from the parents of those who face a massive debt from going to 2-year and 4-year private-public schools. This situation can sometimes be even more tragic at for-profit schools where they haven't gotten much help in their job search. It can be even more tragic if they have not finished school and still face this debt.

My wife Connie Schultz graduated from Kent State University some number of years ago. Her father was a utility worker and carried a union card for more than 30 years. Her mother was a home care worker. She was the oldest of four and the first in her family to go to college. Her two younger brothers and sister also went to college.

Connie graduated from Kent State University 30-some years ago with a debt of only $1,200. That so starkly illustrates the difference from today and then. She had little privilege, little money, and parents who couldn't really put much money out, but with lower tuition, Pell grants, a few scholarships, Stafford loans, and working, she was able to get through school with little debt.

The stories we hear today are so different from that. I plead with my colleagues that we freeze interest rates at 3.4 percent. I know that will not solve anything close to all the problems of college tuition and costs of room and board, but it will help. We need to do much more than that.

Every year I convene 50 or 60 college presidents from Ohio's 2- and 4-year private and public schools, community colleges, and 4-year State universities. I invite all of them to come and discuss these issues. We have done it for 6 years in a row. It is helpful to try to find ways to keep higher education costs in check, but, again, it is not nearly enough.

I am hopeful that in the next 24 hours or so we can freeze interest rates at 3.4 percent and then get serious about what we are going to do about the $1 trillion aggregate debt that students, or former students, have in this country. We need to focus in part on the $150 billion of the $1 trillion which 2.9 million students are burdened with. That is debt from the private market for the $150 billion of the $1 trillion. Fifteen percent is in the private market where interest rates sometimes are as high as 12 or 15 or 16 percent. Few private banks are willing to renegotiate and refinance those loans.

My legislation with Senator Heitkamp will help with a carrot-and- stick approach to encourage the private institutions--banks and private lenders--to refinance these loans.

Let me share a couple of letters from students and families because I think that speaks volumes better than I can.

This is a letter from Daniel from Centerville, OH. Daniel has been at the University of Dayton.

He said:

I currently have $100,000 in outstanding loans. Last summer

(2012) I graduated with a Masters Degree in Middle Child

Education and the previous summer I graduated with a

Bachelors in Middle Child Education as well from Wright State

University in Dayton, Ohio.

Starting in July of 2013, because of the high interest

rates, my average monthly payment for all my student loans

will be $600 a month.

I recently got one of my payments lowered; otherwise that

total would be over $800 a month.

I have consolidated all I can, and even deferred (and still

made payments while in deferment) other loans which will be

due in February 2014; adding to the $600 a month payment.

I teach in a school in Cincinnati and LOVE THE WORK THAT I

Mr. President, I want to echo the words of my colleague from Iowa about the upcoming vote this week, which is so important. We know a lot of what has happened with student loan debt, which now exceeds $1 trillion--that is 1,000 billion dollars. It is more than credit card debt in this country. It is more than auto loan debt. It is also second only to mortgage debt of 300 million people of this great country.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the average student loan debt for a college graduate who borrowed to finance a bachelor's degree this year is nearly $30,000.

My wife, who graduated some years ago from Kent State University--the first of her family to go to college--graduated with just $1,200 in debt. Her father carried a union card, worked at the local utility company in Ashtabula. Her mother was a home care worker. They had no real money to put into her education or the education of her two younger sisters and younger brother. Yet she graduated with only $1,200 in debt, getting a 4-year degree from Kent State University and going on to a very good career in journalism.

For students such as the young man named Amish Patel, who works two jobs to pay tuition at that same university, Kent State, Stafford loans are important. Stafford loans are essential to helping students such as Amish achieve their goal of obtaining a college degree.

Just 7 days ago, because of inaction by Congress--as we know so well from the comments of Senator Harkin and others on the floor--the Stafford interest rate doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

We have a chance to address this private student loan market today also. My legislation, introduced not so long ago, helps those 2.9 million students across the country with more than $150 billion in private student loan debt. Overall, student loan debt is $1 trillion. Most of that is with the direct lending program--the Stafford loan program from the Federal Government. But $150 billion, or about 15 percent, which burdens about 2.9 million students, is private student loan debt. Private loans typically have higher interest rates, sometimes topping 15, 16, 17, 18 percent. They are more difficult to refinance, and they offer fewer payment options than those loans administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

Recent graduates with private loans, such as Lynsay Spratlen of Macedonia, a community in northeast Ohio, are living with their parents because their heavier debt burden often means they are unable to buy a home, to start a business, to buy a car, or to go on to graduate school. So along with Senator Heitkamp, I am introducing legislation to help stop the fleecing of college graduates who are stuck under a mountain of private student loan debt.

Often these banks will not refinance these loans. They are paying much higher interest rates. Sometimes they are cosigned, other times they are not cosigned, by a family member, by a parent, typically. But either way they are a huge burden, and a significantly lower interest rate would be available if they could refinance these loans.

The legislation authored by Senator Heitkamp and myself--Refinancing Education Funding to Invest for the Future Act--addresses this problem by authorizing the Treasury Department to make the private student loan market more efficient.

I want to read a couple of letters. We come to the floor of the Senate and talk about statistics, but we don't often enough illustrate or recite notes and letters and stories and discussions from people we meet or who write our office or we meet on college campuses or around our States.

This is a letter from Chad, age 25 from Toledo. He is from the University of Toledo:

I am currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in electrical

engineering at the University of Toledo. I live 15 minutes

away from there so I am a commuter living at home. My parents

don't have the funds to help me pay for college, so in order

to attend I must work full time to cover expenses. The

Federal aid I receive helps me cover a good portion of the

tuition costs. Increasing the interest rate for my loans

would be devastating to me on a financial level. It is hard

enough to pay them at the rate they are now; increasing them

would only make things a lot worse.

They are now at 3.4 percent. He wrote this before it had gone up to 6.8.

Mr. Brown, if there is anything you can do to prevent this

from happening please do so. I am not the only one that will

feel the major effects.

That is why this upcoming vote is so important.

Let me share one other letter from Oregon, OH, also near Toledo. It is from Mlynek:

I have been a single mother of twin boys since 1989. They

were born October 1, 1986. I co-signed on loans for both of

them so they could further their education in the field they

love ``music.'' Jason Mlynek went to Ball State University

for 2 years and then transferred to Carnegie Mellon

University for his BA and obtained his Master's Degree in

arts management. Jason is working in New York City for

Distinguished Concerts International, but due to the loans he

incurred and the cost of living barely has enough to buy

food. He is paying $1,300 a month on his loans.

Shawn Mlynek received his BA from Carnegie-Mellon and then

went to the University of Miami 1 year and then transferred

back to the University of Cincinnati Music Conservatory and

received his Master's Degree in vocal performance. He works

as a singing waiter and has voice students but is in the same

situation. His income for 2012 was under $20,000, but he is

paying over $900 a month on his loans.

I work full time, have been at the same company 19 years,

make $35,000 a year, have good credit, own by own home . . .

and wanted to refinance. I was told I have too much

outstanding debt due on the loans I cosigned for my children.

Too much debt to ratio so I cannot refinance to lower my

payments.

So not only do these burdensome student loans with interest rates too high--if they double to 6.8 percent, but with costs already too high-- affect the student when she or he graduates and wants to buy a house or start a business, but they affect the whole economy, and they also affect the debt burden of parents, such as this mother--Jason and Shawn's mother--who couldn't refinance her own mortgage because of the debt burden she was carrying because she cosigned on student loans for her sons.

Finally, she writes this:

The American Way is to help our children and they would not

have been able to accomplish their dream of an education in

the music field if I hadn't cosigned for their educational

loans.

Mr. President, I think that sums it up. These two letters--the one from the University of Toledo student and from the mother of the twins--sum up in so many ways why this issue is so important and why the Senate needs to act, and act quickly, because the interest rates on student loans doubled last week.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise to speak about amendment No. 1311, the Hire Americans First amendment, which I hope to call up later.

Nearly 8 percent of Americans are unemployed or underemployed and our immigration policy obviously must be a jobs policy. Any successful immigration plan must take a closer look at the H-1B Program, which serves an important but specific and limited purpose. The H-1B visa was created so businesses--particularly in high tech but not exclusively that--so businesses could recruit foreign workers to help fill the void created a by a lack of

American workers with those specific skills. Yet, as this bill comes to the floor, something very important was excluded. The bill lacks a requirement--which was in earlier versions of the bill--that employers hire an equally or better qualified American worker when one is available, rather than a potential H-1B worker.

The bill lacks a requirement that employers hire a qualified, equally or better qualified American worker when one is available, rather than a potential H-1B foreign worker. With this bill we are enshrining a process--without this amendment--that allows companies to pass over skilled Americans for foreign workers after they have been required to actually actively recruit those Americans.

The bill has provisions to recruit Americans for these jobs that might have gone to an H-1B foreign worker, but it falls short. It doesn't require the employer to actually--after going through that process, to actually hire the American worker who is as qualified or better qualified than the H-1B foreign worker. This approach only undermines support for the H-1B Program because it will be seen as a tool to avoid hiring American workers.

Understand the American public, as they start to kind of understand and digest the provisions of this purported new law, this legislation, when they hear that, yes, companies have to recruit and look for American workers but in the end, even if the American worker is as qualified or more qualified, the company is under no obligation to actually hire the American. Senator Grassley has been a champion in the fight to end H-1B abuse. That is why I am proud to join Senator Grassley in our bipartisan amendment to introduce the H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2013.

The H-1B program should only be used when there is no qualified worker available in the United States. That is clearly what the American people overwhelmingly say they want: that the program should only be used when there is no qualified worker available here. This amendment would increase protections to workers by requiring that employers only hire H-1B workers, as I said before, when there is no equally qualified or better qualified American.

This amendment would make sure a worker from Wuhan would not be hired at the expense of a qualified engineer or scientist from Elyria or Sylvania, OH. It means ensuring that American companies seek out, find, and hire skilled American workers before seeking visas for foreign workers. However, that is not included in this version of the bill that we are debating on the Senate floor--the immigration bill. The bill in its current form simply says that companies have to look for qualified Americans. It doesn't require them to actually hire the equally qualified or better qualified American, such as a chemist from Cleveland or a computer scientist from Celina. The underlying bill increases the number of H-1B-eligible visas, and that is fine. But it also cracks down on employers who take advantage of the system. Without the requirement to also hire qualified U.S. workers, the recruitment steps mean standing on an escalator that leads to nowhere.

What this legislation now says is that companies that consider H-1B visa hires need to recruit Americans, but the bill falls short of saying if the American is as qualified or more qualified they need to hire that American. If they are qualified Americans who can do the work, there is simply no need to fill the post with an H-1B worker. Passing the Brown-Grassley amendment--also cosponsored by Senator Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, and Senator Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia--the hire Americans first amendment is important in fixing that.

I yield the floor.

I thank Senator Isakson. I am so appreciative of the work the Senator has done with the Centers for Disease Control in his home State of Georgia. There is no Federal agency that is quite like the CDC in this country or across the world.

Our Nation's fiscal health cannot be strengthened at the expense of our Nation's public health. In the 21st century it is easy to overlook this country's public health safety net. Too often we take for granted that our children are not being crippled by polio or dying from whooping cough because we have immunizations. We take for granted that we have stronger teeth and less tooth decay because of water fluoridation in many of our communities. We take for granted that few people in this country now die of infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis because we have made the kind of remarkable progress we have in sanitation, in hygiene, antibiotics, and disease surveillance. We take these advancements for granted because for over six decades the CDC has been doing an extraordinary job of ensuring Americans have basic health protections.

The CDC's work, along with that of other public health advocates and researchers, is credited with increasing the average American's life expectancy over the last many decades, increasing the average American's life expectancy by 25 years--25 years, a quarter of a century longer because of our investment in public health.

The CDC's reach and responsibility, as intimated by Senator Isakson, is not limited by our country's borders. Due to globalization it matters a great deal how other countries respond to health threats. The CDC plays an essential role in helping its international partners react to these threats.

The CDC is the gold standard, the global leader in disease prevention and public health preparedness. Other nations follow our lead. Yet the CDC's leadership is not guaranteed. Even with its topnotch facilities and world-class staff, the CDC faces challenges to this continued leadership. The CDC's base budget authority is at its lowest level in a decade.

The fiscal year 2013 budget is about $600 million below its fiscal year 2012 level. This reduction undercuts the health security of all Americans, even those who never once think of the existence of the Centers for Disease Control. The reduction in the CDC budget has harmful, immediate, and long-term consequences across the United States and around the world. This reduction affects the ability of our State and local health departments to provide on-the-ground services.

As my friend from Georgia explained during his discussion of the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak, funding the CDC is critical to the foundation of our public health. When we invest in CDC, we invest in the health of families in Lorain, OH, and Cuyahoga Falls, OH. When we invest in CDC, we support programs such as the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity Program which addresses infectious disease threats.

When we invest in the CDC, we ensure that our State and local health departments on the frontlines are able to detect the first signs of outbreak. Without this critical funding, we leave ourselves vulnerable to the initial spread of health threats, such as fungal meningitis and emerging new diseases such as the MERS coronavirus and the novel H7N9 avian flu virus, which we read about. Unfortunately, public health departments across the Nation have already lost thousands of jobs and will lose more if our support of CDC continues to dwindle.

Before turning it back over to Senator Isakson, I would like to emphasize a point he made. The CDC responds to long-term health threats as well as to urgent immediate health dangers. These threats don't make the headlines. So much of CDC's work you never hear about, you never read about

because of its name, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevention is such an important part of this. CDC continues a longstanding tradition of working in partnership with many international organizations and global partners to ensure that our country takes the lead in stopping these threats.

I have had the pleasure of seeing CDC's dedicated, expert staff working in Africa, in Atlanta, in communities such as Medina County, OH, and all over the world, working to keep these countries and our communities healthier, safer, and helping to keep all Americans safe as well.

I yield to the Senator.

I thank the Senator from Georgia. I think that is exactly the point. While perhaps those who know CDC--obviously in the State of Georgia people know it more intimately than in my State. They more likely think of CDC doing something in Africa or Asia, not so much what it means locally. We know that our hospitals, for instance, are sometimes havens for high health care costs and unnecessary illnesses due to infections acquired in the hospital and antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as CRE--a family of germs with high levels of resistance to antibiotics. I wonder if my friend is familiar with CDC's work in these areas and if he would expand on that.

That is certainly right. It seems there are new emerging and potentially dangerous health threats. We obviously know of the disease--the acquired infection you just mentioned. We know now of the H7N9 bird flu and MERS. How does the Senator see CDC's unique role in tracking and attempting to prevent the spread of these threats before they reach our shores, before we in American hospitals such as Grady Memorial or at MedCentral of Ohio might be victims of that?

If the Senator would yield for a moment, MERS was identified recently, and CDC scientists developed and shipped a diagnostic kit to be used in the field. To talk about one--when I talk to people about public health and certainly the importance of NIH but especially the focus on public health by CDC, we talk about polio and what CDC did to address and not quite yet wipe out but in our country certainly wipe out--and in most of the rest of the world--the polio virus. Give us a little bit of history on how important that was and what we learned from that, if you would, Senator Isakson.

I wish to close with a personal story about polio. My brother, born in 1947--there are three of us, three boys. My brother is the oldest, my brother Bob. When he was in about the first, second, or maybe the third grade, my father, who was a local family physician in Mansfield, was asked by--if not the CDC, some national health organization to give polio vaccines in Mansfield, OH. There were doctors in other communities who were asked to do that. They chose my father in part because he was a good doctor. They also chose him because he had son, he had a child who was in second or third or fourth grade at the time.

People were afraid. They weren't sure about injecting that vaccine into their arm because a lot of families thought that actually could cause polio. There was always that fear. Scientists didn't believe that, but an awful lot of people did.

There was a picture on the front page of the Mansfield News Journal in the 1950s of my brother getting a polio vaccine. I believe his was Salk. Sabin came later with the cube. He got the Salk vaccine, administered by my dad. CDC or one of the other public health groups--I apologize, I don't know which--made sure that happened all over the country so people could be more reassured. That was really the beginning, with Salk and then Sabin, of the eradication of polio in this country.

It is hard to think back--the Presiding Officer is not old enough-- Senator Isakson and I can remember with our parents the fear, until the end of the 1950s, of parents that their child would go swimming and might come back, as Franklin Roosevelt did, with a case of polio. Whatever the causes, that virus spreading scared so many people.

In these days of hyper-partisanship consuming Washington, I appreciate the work of Senator Isakson, working together with CDC because this is far and above, far and away more important than any kinds of political differences that we might have.

I will let Senator Isakson close.

Madam President, I rise today to commemorate Boy Scout Troop 414 in Wellington, Lorain County, OH.

For more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America has evolved along with America. This organization has helped create a foundation for boys to realize their responsibilities as citizens. Boy Scouts learn to value leadership, discipline, equality, justice, and integrity--but, perhaps, the greatest lesson shared with Scouts is the importance of service.

Good citizenship matters. It strengthens our democracy, transforms strangers into neighbors, and helps move us closer to becoming a more just and open society.

Troop 414, one of the oldest troops in Ohio, remains active in the local community. From volunteering and maintaining the county fairgrounds to collecting items for the local food bank and organizing monthly camping trips, Troop 414 provides new opportunities for boys to contribute to Northeast Ohio.

As an Eagle Scout, I am especially proud of the Eagle Scouts in Troop 414: Alex Coker, Bradley Cuthbert Jr., Connor Dunwoodie, Aaron Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson, and Michael Savel.

With more than 30 additional active troop members under the guidance of Scoutmaster Darrell French, I know that the future of scouting is bright in Ohio.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes. Following my remarks, Senator Sessions will have the floor.

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

Under the leadership of Chairman Stabenow and Ranking Member Cochran, the Senate has again passed a bipartisan deficit- reducing bill that will help our farms, our families, our economy, and our environment.

The Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013 is a good start to cultivating a new era of prosperity in our country and reinvesting in rural America. That is because this bill benefits all Americans, especially in my home State of Ohio.

One in seven jobs in Ohio, in places such as Custar and Defiance, is related to food and agriculture. To keep our economy growing, the farm bill must remain a priority here in Congress. We have shown the Senate can do its part.

To people who are uncertain about our ability to work across the aisle, I say look at this farm bill. To people who are concerned about spending in Washington, I say look at this farm bill. To people who are disheartened about our ability to help low-income families make ends meet, I say look at this farm bill.

This bill saves more than $24 billion, and it maintains important investments in conservation, nutrition, renewable energy, and rural development. Farmers across Ohio and across the country tell us they want a leaner, more efficient, and market-oriented farm safety net. Taxpayers deserve that too.

By eliminating direct payments, linking crop insurance to conservation compliance, and by further reforming our risk management programs, the Senate has taken that first step.

Every farmer knows the importance of building on last season's work. Last year, Senators Thune, Durbin, Lugar--the predecessor--the Presiding Officer, and I proposed the Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management Program, streamlining the farmer safety net, making it more market-oriented. The Agricultural Risk Coverage Program included in this bill gives farmers the tools they need to mitigate risks, ensuring that payments happen only when farmers need them most. The program relies on current data and, as a result, is more responsive to farmers' needs and more responsive to taxpayers.

It also includes a provision to help Ohio farmers and producers sell their products directly to consumers. It will make a world of difference to families and schools that want to eat locally grown food. I appreciate the efforts, interest, and support of Senator Cochran in those efforts.

However, this bill does not include my food and agriculture market development amendment, cosponsored by 14 of my colleagues, to provide needed funding to several important programs that support the development of a stronger, more sustainable food system. We will work on that in the House.

By aligning our agricultural, health, and economic policies in ways that ensure farmers get a fair price for their product, all Americans can have access to affordable, healthy food, while contributing to strong communities and thriving local economies.

The farm bill affects every American every day. It is a deficit reduction bill. It is a jobs bill, conservation bill, rural development bill, and it is bipartisan.

I commend again Senator Stabenow and Senator Cochran for their work in crafting this bill, and their joint effort to work across party lines is to be commended.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that tributes to Frank Lautenberg, the late Senator from New Jersey, be printed as a Senate document and that Members have until 12 noon on Thursday, June 20, to submit said tributes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 11, 2013; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill, under the previous order; further, that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

Tomorrow at 2:15 p.m., there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the immigration bill. If cloture is invoked, there will be a second vote at 4 p.m. to adopt the motion to proceed and begin consideration of the bill.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn following the remarks of Senator Sessions, as provided for under the previous order.

Madam President, Ohio has a robust history of pioneering innovation--as the home of Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, aerospace leaders including former Senator John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and more. Today, Ohio is transforming from the Rust Belt into the Innovation Belt.

This week, OARnet, a member of Ohio Technology Consortium or OH-TECH, is being honored here in the Nation's Capital for its new ultra-fast broadband network as an honored 2013 laureate by IDG's Computerworld, an international source of technology news and information for informational technology influencers.

This Emerging Technology Award is based on Ohio's innovative efforts to meet the growing economic and research opportunities offered by ``Big Data.'' In 2012, Ohio invested more than $13 million to increase tenfold the speed and network capacity of OARnet, a statewide broadband network, to 100 gigabits per second, Gbps. Although several research institutions in other States are experimenting with this new gold standard of broadband speeds, Ohio is the first in the Nation to harness this capacity on a statewide scale. Ohio touts connections to 10 major cities, 90 of Ohio's higher education institutions, commercial applications, and Internet2's international network.

These broadband speeds are expected to create many opportunities for Ohio. At 100 Gbps, each of Ohio's 1.8 million enrolled K-12 students could download an e-book simultaneously in just over 2 minutes; data equivalent to 80 million file cabinets filled with text can be transferred daily; 300,000 X-rays can be transmitted in just 1 minute; 8.5 million electronic medical records can be transmitted in 1 minute; and data can be sent at 50,000 times faster than current average smartphone speeds.

OH-TECH's international recognition is further testament to Ohio's evolution into a high-tech environment that supports next-generation business applications to attract new employers, connects the State's higher education institutions, our cutting edge medical corridor, and serves as a platform for developing large-scale scientific research.

Ohio is also celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ohio Supercomputer Center with the launch of a new cluster supercomputer. This new supercomputer, which can perform 88 trillion calculations per second, allows researchers statewide to innovate and compete for grants and national supercomputing resources in the areas of the biosciences, advanced materials, energy, and the environment. I am proud to have worked closely with the White House to secure a $5 million grant to the Ohio Supercomputer Center and several partner organizations to support the advanced manufacturing efforts of Midwestern small- and medium- sized manufacturers, SMEs. I have also helped secure Federal funding to help small polymer companies address the technical barriers, costs, and training needed to use advanced manufacturing technologies. Through partnerships with the government and collaborations with technology leaders like Procter & Gamble, we can work together to help strengthen Ohio's manufacturing sector and provide the tools needed to compete in the global marketplace.

My home State is one of the largest investors and active partners in the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, NDEMC, a broad public-private partnership supporting the use of modeling and simulation by small- and medium-sized manufacturers. This project gives manufacturers the ability to conduct complex simulations to test virtual prototypes and maximize production methods, all through cost- effective means. These platforms reduce manufacturers' time and labor costs and help them bring products to market faster, making them more competitive with our overseas counterparts.

A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial proclaimed, ``Ohio is wired for business. Goodbye Rust Belt, Hello Nerd-

vana.'' The Columbus Dispatch similarly noted, ``For those inventing the future, Ohio is the hot spot.''

They are correct. Ken Murray, Transformatix founder and CEO, explained:

One reason we located our new company, BioLinQ, in Ohio,

rather than California, is because Ohio demonstrated the most

forward-thinking approach to technology and high-speed

innovation.

Ray Leto, president of Total Sim, echoed those sentiments:

Our business focuses on modeling and simulation for the

automotive industry, and we chose Ohio over the North

Carolina Research Triangle because of the advanced technology

infrastructure available here.

The knowledge economy is the pathway to restoring our national prosperity, and I am proud to represent Ohio--a pioneering State that is providing the tools and leading the way.

I thank the Senator from Wyoming for his unanimous consent request, and I ask unanimous consent that after I conclude my remarks, the Senator from Rhode Island Mr. Whitehouse be recognized for up to 15 minutes.

Madam President, today new U.S.-China trade deficit figures from April show a 34-percent increase since March. Last month our trade deficit with the world's second largest economy was more than $24 billion. I remember about a dozen years ago when the Senate and the House approved PNTR--permanent normal trade relations--with China. Around that time the bilateral yearly trade deficit with China was barely $10 billion. Today, just for last month, it was $24 billion. It has persistently and consistently been over $200 billion a year in recent history.

This kind of trade deficit keeps our domestic companies on the defensive. It means workers in Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, throughout the Midwest, and across America are prevented from unlocking their potential. Our manufacturers are still the most productive in the world. Our workers are the most skilled and the most productive in the world. Their productivity continues to go up and up and up, in part because of globalization; however, their wages have been stagnant. That is part of the price our country has paid for globalization.

Our workers can't compete when China cheats. How can we win the future when our manufacturers can't win contracts because China doesn't play fair? In many ways China and so many of our trading partners practice trade according to their national interest. Yet we in the United States practice trade according to some economics textbook that has been out of print for the last 20 years.

Despite universal agreement that China continues to manipulate its currency to gain an artificial advantage over American-made goods, no action has been taken down the hall by the House of Representatives and no action has been taken down the street at the White House. No action has been taken by the House despite widespread support for legislation this Chamber passed in October 2011. That legislation, worked on by many of my colleagues, would establish new criteria for the Treasury Department to identify countries that misalign their currency. The bill would trigger tough consequences for those countries which engage in such unfair trade practices. It would allow for industries harmed by currency manipulation to seek relief, the way they do for other export subsidies, which several industries in my State have sought, such as steel pipe producers in Lorain, where I visited last week, in Youngstown.

We can solve this problem. The major reason there have been new investments in the Lorain U.S. Steel plant, at V&M Star in Youngstown, at Wheatland Tube, also in the Mahoning Valley, stabilization in jobs, and growth in jobs is because we have enforced trade laws. We can solve this problem further with currency reform. That is why Senator Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, and I will join our colleagues, including Senators Schumer, Collins, Stabenow, and Burr, tomorrow when we reintroduce this bill. Why? Because more nations are engaged in this practice, and it is clear we don't have the tools to address it.

It is no longer just China manipulating its currency. There are a number of other countries--especially in East Asia--that are engaging in this practice, and, as I said, we don't have the tools to address it.

In 2009, as nations were seeking to restore stability to financial markets and respond to the global financial crisis, G-20 leaders met in Pittsburgh to set a framework that would better promote more evenly balanced trade. Among the steps to be taken would be a more market- oriented exchange rate--something China obviously isn't familiar with-- and a move away from the practice of adopting artificial, manipulated exchange rates not based on market forces.

While this appeared to be a step in the right direction, there has been too little to show for the good intentions stated back in 2009. Here is what we know. Workers and manufacturers still face an unfair advantage from currency manipulation. By keeping the value of the RMB-- the Chinese currency--artificially low, China drives foreign corporations to shift production there because it makes exports to China more expensive and it makes Chinese exports back into the United States cheaper.

It has only been in recent history that business after business after business, as we have seen in the United States, has developed a business plan that involves shutting down production in Lima, OH, move that production to Beijing, and then sell back to the United States of America. Never really in history has that been a widely adopted business plan in a country--shut down production in Springfield, MA, or Springfield, OH, move that production to Shihan, China, or Wuhan, China, get tax breaks for doing it, and then sell those products back into the United States. Part of the reason for that is currency manipulation.

This continued undervaluation has caused serious harm for this economy. It has cost American jobs. The first President Bush said in the 1980s that $1 billion in trade surplus or trade deficit could translate into some 12,000 jobs--meaning that if there is a trade deficit with a country, it costs this country 12,000 jobs. Multiply that by a $500 billion, $600 billion, or $700 billion trade deficit, and see what we get.

A December 2012 report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that currency manipulation by foreign governments had cost the U.S. from 1 to 5 million jobs and increased the U.S. trade deficit by $200 billion to $500 billion per year.

Think of that. By addressing currency manipulation now, we could create up to 5 million jobs and reduce our trade deficit by tens of billions of dollars, and doing so wouldn't cost taxpayers a cent.

But let's look for a moment beyond the numbers. Workers in my home State who work hard and play by the rules at Titan Tire in Bryan, OH, American Aluminum Extrusions in Stark County, Wheatland Tube in Trumbull County, the people who make coated paper and lightweight thermal paper in southern Ohio, the Ohioans who forge steel into products we all use--these women and men deserve a chance to earn a living without companies in other countries illegally dumping goods--or legally if we don't do anything about currency--on our markets. We can't afford to sit idly by while our trade deficit grows and our domestic manufacturing base erodes.

By addressing currency manipulation and other unfair trade practices, we create American jobs and position ourselves to meet the challenges and opportunities of globalization.

I look forward to continued debate and action on finally penalizing the countries that cheat on trade.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss one of the most important and significant reforms of our Nation's agriculture in decades. The Agriculture Reform, Food, and JOBS Act of 2013, known around here as the farm bill, is the product of months and months of policy discussions and late-night deliberations, with special thanks to the chairman of the committee, Senator Stabenow from Michigan, and the ranking member, Senator Cochran of Mississippi. I thank them both for their good work, and also a special thanks to Katharine Ferguson in my office for her good work on this legislation.

There is a reason people across the country--farmers and business owners, faith leaders, and county commissioners--are paying attention to this legislation. It is a farm bill, it is a food bill, it is a nutrition bill, it is an economic development bill, it is a rural development bill, and it is a conservation bill all in one. In my State one out of seven jobs is related to food and agriculture. To keep our economy moving forward, the farm bill must remain a priority in Congress.

We did our job last year on this legislation. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives didn't, but I think this year it will when we pass overwhelmingly a similar bill to the one which passed by a vote of 64 to 35 last year.

The bill saves more than $20 billion while maintaining important investments in conservation and nutrition, renewable energy and agricultural research, which is so important to my State, to rural development, to broadband, and all that farm legislation can in fact do for rural development.

In the last 2 years the Senate has considered reform bills that have done more than any farm bill literally in 20 years. We have eliminated direct payments and recoupled eligibility for crop insurance with the expectation that farmers do right by the land.

The work of Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Cochran in committee to keep that coalition together, linking crop insurance with conservation, was especially important. We set tight limits on the amount of support any individual producer can receive.

There is obviously more that can be done, but this bill takes important strides in reforming our farm program. It will increase efforts to improve water quality in Lake Erie--one of the five Great Lakes with the greatest body of fresh water anywhere in the world. It is even perhaps more important to the State of Michigan, the chairwoman's State, than even mine. It will help small towns such as Bryan, Bucyrus, and Bellaire make strategic economic development investments to jumpstart their local economies.

The bill continues efforts to make sure all Americans have enough to eat and access to affordable, healthy, and fresh food.

This is a forward-looking bill, and I was pleased to support it in committee and hope to work with Senate colleagues of both parties in the coming days to make slight improvements as it moves forward.

The centerpiece of the bill's deficit reduction efforts is rooted in reform of the farm safety net. The era of direct payments made annually regardless of need is over.

Across Ohio and the Nation we have heard crop insurance is the most important tool farmers have for managing risk, so this bill improves and preserves crop insurance. We know what that meant last year, particularly as drought hit States such as Ohio and, more severely, States west of my State.

Farmers have said they want a leaner, more efficient market-oriented farm safety net. Taxpayers deserve that too. Last year, Senator Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and Senators Durbin and Lugar and I proposed the Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management Program, ARRM, streamlining the farm safety net to make it more market oriented.

Instead, the new Agriculture Risk Coverage Program will work with crop insurance to provide farmers the tools they need to manage risk-- making payments only when farmers need them most. This program is market oriented, relying on current data. It is more responsive to farmers' needs and is more responsive to taxpayers.

The bill reforms a number of longstanding unjustifiable practices. For the first time this farm bill ends payments to landowners who have nothing to do with farm management. It ends payments to millionaires and puts a firm cap on how much support any farmer can receive from the direct farm support programs each year. This so-called conservation compliance provision reflects a landmark agreement put forward by a number of key commodity and conservation interests and stakeholders.

People who are going to receive federally subsidized crop insurance need to show they are meeting basic conservation requirements. Again, the days of subsidies without conditions and subsidies without responsibility are over. It is an example of what can happen when groups with different perspectives--the commodities farmers and the conservationists--come together to listen to each other. By relinking crop insurance subsidies with good environmental practices, this bill makes our farm safety net more defensible and protects our natural resources.

As I said, this farm bill takes great strides toward better, leaner, smart farm policy, but it is also a work in process. A key difference between this year's bill versus the one we passed last year is the inclusion of the Adverse Market Payments Program--the AMP Program-- that, to be candid, is something important to southern growers but not in line with what I believe Ohioans want to see and what I hear from Ohio farmers.

I worked closely with colleagues from the middle of the country to make sure this AMP Program is as market-oriented as possible, but it was a battle not wholly won and something I want to see modified. We cannot have farm programs in one part of the country become more market-oriented while others do not.

The Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act supports farmers but also provide a lifesaving safety net to American families who have fallen on hard times. The SNAP program now serves 47 million Americans, more than half of whom are children and seniors. Along with unemployment insurance, SNAP is the primary form of assistance we provide Americans who have fallen on tough times. Just understand and be certain that many of these families are people with full-time and part-

time jobs who simply do not make enough money to get along.

Some of my colleagues will point out the rapid increase in SNAP enrollment over the past few years. This is to be expected since it mirrors the downturn in the economy, the unemployment levels, and the fact that for 10 years most people in this country have not had a raise. As costs go up, it hits the lowest income people the hardest. That is the biggest reason people have relied on food stamps. This is evidence that SNAP is working. As our economy is recovering, SNAP enrollment will decrease.

More telling is that today some 50 million Americans still live under the Federal poverty level. The number of Americans who rely on SNAP tells me we should not be gutting, we should not be undercutting, as a number of my colleagues in the House of Representatives want to do. We should not be cutting Federal nutrition programs. What we should be doing is enacting better economic policies that create jobs and reduce inequality and enable Americans to put food on the table without assistance.

This bill cuts $4 billion from SNAP. That is already $4 billion too much. I appreciate the chairwoman's efforts to make that $4 billion cut as painless as possible in terms of benefits SNAP beneficiaries receive. Again, most of these--a huge number of these SNAP beneficiaries are in working families. A huge number of them are children. A huge number of them are senior citizens. It goes without saying that a bill with the level of the cuts to SNAP--some $20 billion included in the House bill--will not get my support and will not pass muster in the Senate.

While we also work to preserve SNAP, we can make sure our nutrition programs are smarter. The farm bill makes important strides toward aligning our food and our farm and our economic policy. Agriculture has always been an important engine of economic growth. I said at the outset that one out of seven jobs in my State is related to agriculture and food. Shortening the supply chain benefits farmers and families, meaning that the more people eat what is grown locally, the better it is for the economy, the better it is for their health, and the better it is for the environment. It helps keep money in the local economy and helps build the economy, especially of rural communities in my State and across the country.

This farm bill affects every American every day. It is a deficit reduction bill, it is a jobs bill, and it is a bipartisan economic relief bill. I again commend Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Cochran for their work in drafting this legislation. I especially appreciate the staff of individual members of the committee, their staffs, for their work.

I urge my colleagues to work together and break the impasse that keeps us from making progress on this legislation.

I yield the floor.

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