Floor Statements

Mr. President, for many Ohio children, schools have let out for the year, and summer vacation is just beginning. During the school year, in my State--a State of about 11 million people--840,000 Ohio children receive some nutrition assistance through free or reduced-price school lunches or breakfasts during the school year. It is a statistic that tells the story of families struggling to get by. In many of these children's cases their parents have jobs but simply are not making enough money. It is a statistic that tells a story of how children are often helpless victims in a challenging economy. Many of these children come from the 18 percent of Ohio families--about 1 out of 6--who are food insecure. Essentially it means they are unsure where their next meal may actually come from. When the school year comes to a close, many of these children go hungry.

Where can these 840,000 students go? Where do they turn for nutritious meals when their school cafeterias are closed for the summer? The answer is the Summer Food Service Program run through the U.S. Department of Education and administered in my State by the Ohio Department of Education. For Ohio parents and guardians and school administrators, the Summer Food Service Program is available for them to find healthy meals for children during the summer. But too many Ohio families don't know about this critical program, and that is why it is so important to raise awareness and increase access to the program for all Ohio children regardless of where they live. Summer break shouldn't mean a break from good nutrition.

At the beginning of this talk, I mentioned that 840,000 Ohio children benefit from free and reduced school breakfast and lunch programs-- 840,000. But, unfortunately, last year in the

summer only 66,000 Ohio children utilized the Summer Food Service Program. Only 66,000 when there are 800,000 eligible. I believe last year Ohio was slightly above the national average. So in State after State, of those students who were benefiting from the free and reduced- price breakfasts and lunches at the school, less than 10 percent of those children benefit in the summer.

In Ohio, only 66,000 children utilize this program. Obviously hundreds of thousands need to receive nutrition assistance during the school year. Ensuring that our children have access to healthy food during the summer is so important, especially as more families slip into poverty. The Summer Food Program is a vital program that helps stem the crippling cycle of food insecurity by providing school-aged children breakfast, lunch, or a snack during the summer.

In some sites children can receive these meals while participating in educational activities or organized games. The Presiding Officer was a superintendent of one of the great school districts in the country. We know particularly how low-income students during summer months slide back in their educational attainment. In the beginning of the school year, the teachers have to sort of reteach what was taught perhaps in April and May. We also know that in families with a little higher income, the children often have activities in the summer which include exposure to books, magazines, vacations, and cultural events to help those children continue to advance in the summer.

Many of these students who are not getting proper nutrition in the summer also are not getting the educational challenges they need. That is why at these sites children--while they receive these meals-- participate in educational activities or organized games. The good news is there are more sites this year for Ohio families to turn to. There are more than 1,700 sites across 77 counties.

Nonetheless, 11 counties out of the 88 in Ohio still lack feeding sites. It is not too late for program sites to be established. The official deadline was May 31. Interested sponsors and volunteers can still work with the Ohio Department of Education to establish new centers for children to get meals.

Understand the difficulty here. Somebody needs to step forward, such as a teacher, an administrator, someone in the school district, someone in a church, someone in a recreation center of some type has to step forward every May or June and set up one of these programs and take it down again in August or September. So it is unlike the school district which has this built into its process.

At existing sites, such as schools, summer camps, churches, community centers, and recreation centers, volunteers spend their time ensuring our children have the food they need to succeed.

The Federal Government will reimburse local groups small amounts of money for the breakfast, snack, or lunch for these children, but volunteers need to come forward.

Two years ago I co-hosted a first-of-its-kind hunger summit at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank in Columbus with leading antihunger advocates across Ohio. This past year the USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon came to Ohio to hold the second summit.

We continue to reach out to organizations such as the AmeriCorps and VISTA Summer Association Partnership that can help with volunteers through AmeriCorps and can set up the programs and provide meals to the children in need.

This summer will be an important few months to learn how far we have come and how far we have to go in serving our State's children. Outreach and public awareness are critical components to ensure that the end of the school year doesn't mean the end of children getting the nutrition they need for the summer.

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

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 2445.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, Congress has provided an average of $400 million for farm bills in the rural development title. The bill we are considering includes no funding at all. My fiscally responsible amendment funds rural business development programs, a portion of the backlog of wastewater infrastructure projects, and will help bring a new generation of farmers into agriculture.

As a member of the Agriculture Committee, I know how important it is that this amendment maintain our committee's commitment to save at least $23 billion in the farm bill. I yield the rest of my time to the chairwoman, Senator Stabenow.

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

Madam President, I rise today in support of a resolution I am cosponsoring to commemorate Juneteenth Independence Day.

In just 2 weeks, Americans will gather, of course, as we know, to celebrate the Fourth of July, but it is important to remember that when our Nation gained its independence, there were some 450,000 enslaved people in the 13 States. It wasn't until June 19, 1865, more than 2 years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which liberated a limited number of people, that enslaved people in the Southwestern States finally learned of their freedom.

Months after the 13th amendment was ratified, Army MG Gordon Granger and Federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX, to enforce emancipation. Since then, Americans in Texas and throughout the United States have celebrated Juneteenth, which is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in our country.

To celebrate that day, people from all backgrounds--not only African Americans and not only descendants of slaves but people of all backgrounds and ethnicities--will gather in special places all over Ohio. They will gather at Franklin Park in Columbus, our State capital. They will gather at ``The Coming of Emancipation'' memorial service in Oberlin, just a few miles from my house, the site of visits from Martin Luther King and the site of the Underground Railroad where those escaping slavery were housed on their way to Canada. Ohioans will reflect in Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin, where former slaves and famous abolitionists are buried. At Cincinnati's Juneteenth Festival in Eden Park, families and visitors will gather on one of the hilltops overlooking the Ohio River, which slaves saw while coming from Kentucky into freedom as they crossed the river into the North. They will remember the perilous journey to freedom that many made at the banks of that river. In Wilberforce, an African-American school--a university in southwest Ohio--and Zanesville, in Newcomerstown and Cleveland, Ohioans will hold ceremonies of remembrance and celebration.

On Juneteenth Independence Day, especially, we have yet another opportunity to celebrate our great Democratic traditions--our American ingenuity, innovation, and imagination. We celebrate the rich heritage and vibrant culture of all Americans who are descendants of enslaved people on American soil. We celebrate the ingenuity of Ohioans such as Columbus native Granville T. Woods, who invented the telegraph device that sent messages from moving trains and train stations. We celebrate the innovation of Ohioans such as Garrett Morgan, a Clevelander who invented the traffic light. We celebrate the imagination and wisdom of Ohioans such as Nobel Prize-winning and recent Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Toni Morrison of Lorain, OH.

In America, progress is never promised, but through the work of dedicated citizens, we move closer to being the Nation our Framers envisioned. We can work together toward achieving a more perfect union, where justice isn't limited to the powerful but is also accessible to the people.

Today I am proud to commemorate Juneteenth Independence Day.

I yield the floor.

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

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

Mr. President, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, which the Presiding Officer from New Jersey just spoke of, in my State called the farm bill, represents the most significant reform of U.S. agriculture in decades. It is the product of months of policy discussion and late-night deliberations, guided by Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Roberts. It is the reason why people across the country, farmers and business owners and faith leaders and county commissioners are paying attention. The bill benefits all of us, all Americans.

Today, one in seven jobs in Ohio is related to the food and agriculture industry. To get the economy back on track, the farm bill must remain a priority in Congress. The Agriculture Committee has worked to craft a farm bill that is forward-looking and realistic. The centerpiece of the bill's deficit reduction efforts is based on a bill I authored with my colleague John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, along with Senator Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Senator Lugar, a Republican from Indiana. Our Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management Program proposed streamlining the farm safety net and making it more market oriented. The era of direct payments--the billions of dollars that newspaper editorial writers and constituents alike complained about, these huge farm subsidies that went mostly to large corporate farmers--the era of direct payments made annually regardless of need under this bill is over.

Instead, the new Ag Risk Coverage Program will work hand in hand with crop insurance to provide farmers the tools needed to manage risk, making payments only when farmers need them most.

The program is market oriented. It relies on market data instead of arbitrary numbers in statutes. It is more responsive to farmers' needs and more responsible 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 puts a firm cap on how much support any farmer can receive from the direct farm support programs every year. There are commonsense reforms that ensure the taxpayer dollars go only where they are needed.

Is there more to be done to make sure taxpayers get the most efficient, effective, and affordable farm policy possible? Of course there is. In the coming years, we will continue to improve our farm and food policy, but

this is a good start. It is good for farmers, good for taxpayers. It continues to move our Nation's food and agriculture policy in a positive direction.

The farm bill is a jobs and innovation bill. Every $1 billion in exports supports 8,400 American jobs that cannot be shipped overseas, according to the USDA. In 2011, U.S. agriculture enjoyed a trade surplus of $42 billion, $42 billion we sold more than we brought in from abroad in farm products, the highest annual surplus on record. Contrast that with the billions and billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in trade deficit we have in manufacturing in other parts of our economy.

There is so much room for growth, not only overseas but also at home. Bio-based manufacturing and renewable energy are two examples of the potential that American agriculture holds for U.S. economic growth and for job creation. Alongside food production, farm-based and renewable energy production, such as advanced biomass energy, can serve as the engine of the rural economy for decades to come. It is investments in agriculture such as this, such as the ones this bill maintains in research and energy and bio-based products and food production, that will enable continued creation of good-paying jobs, again that will not, that cannot be shipped overseas.

The farm bill provides economic relief to millions of Americans. Alhough we call it a farm bill, this bill is fundamentally an economic relief bill. For farmers, the bill provides financial assistance to weather tough times or adopt conservation practices that protect clean water and healthy soils and wildlife habitat. For millions of Americans, this bill helps put dinner on the table when wages are tight and families are struggling to make ends meet and keeps children from going hungry. That is why this bill is so important. I add, the Presiding Officer from New Jersey has always been such a strong advocate of these nutrition programs. We both understand that more than one-third of people who are getting SNAP, who are receiving what we used to call food stamps, are working families, people who are only making $9, $10, $11 an hour, sometimes working two jobs, and still cannot make it without some food assistance.

The bill includes resources for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is one of the Nation's most essential antipoverty programs. In addition to supporting people who are struggling to feed their families, SNAP supports retailers and businesses and the farmers and ranchers who grow the food.

At a time of high unemployment, SNAP participation now exceeds 44 million Americans, half of whom are children. Many of these families are working families. Half the people served by SNAP are children.

SNAP participation is expected to fall as the economy recovers. The bill continues to support SNAP with minimal modifications. It continues and increases support for commodity distribution to food banks at a time when food pantry shelves in Ohio and across the Nation are bare. But I want to be clear. I have serious concerns with the cuts, not large cuts such as the House Agriculture Committee wants to do and that Senator Paul tried to do--very unsuccessfully--and that Congressman Ryan made with his budget from the House of Representatives--nothing even close to the tens and tens of billions of dollars they want to cut from nutrition. But I am concerned about this $4 billion cut. When compared to the $130 billion in cuts to SNAP in the Ryan budget, the modification in this bill was done carefully.

The farm bill is a deficit reduction bill, a jobs bill, an economic relief bill. It affects every American every day. I commend, again, Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Roberts. Their joint effort to work across party lines is to be commended.

These months of work and deliberation are at risk because some insist on debating dozens of unrelated amendments and others seek to score political points at the expense of American families and at the expense of American farmers. This is not the time to debate conceal-and-carry laws or American aid to Pakistan or the future of the Labor Relations Board. Not that any of those are not debatable or any of those aren't a place where people can have reasonable differences on public policy. But conceal and carry, American aid to Pakistan, the future of the Labor Relations Board should not be part of the farm bill.

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

I am the first Ohio Senator who is a member of the Agriculture Committee in 40 years. In my first month in the Senate, I made a request to Senator Reid to join the Agriculture Committee, along with other duties, because of the importance of agriculture in my State. One out of seven jobs in Ohio is related to agriculture. It is the largest business, largest industry in my State. It matters so much to Ohio.

My position on the Agriculture Committee has helped as I have done roundtables around Ohio and met with literally hundreds of farmers, including grain farmers, dairy farmers, specialty crop farmers, nursery farmers, tree farmers, experts at Ohio State in the agriculture school, and I have come prepared to help write this farm bill both back in 2007 and this year. This is a major step forward. It is something of which we can be proud.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 14; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that the majority leader be recognized and that following any leader remarks, the first hour be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the second half.

Mr. President, we continue to work on an agreement on amendments to the farm bill. We hope such an agreement can be reached. Votes are possible during tomorrow's session, and we will notify Senators when they are scheduled.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it adjourn under the previous order.

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

Mr. President, people in my home State of Ohio know how to make things. We know how to make big things. For decades, Ohio has been a national leader in auto production, in chemicals, in steel, in concrete, in aluminum, and in the aerospace industry and food processing. Now we are a leader in solar power, in wind turbine components and batteries and all the kinds of things that really create middle-class jobs and help us lead the world in manufacturing production. Ohio is the third leading manufacturing State in the country. We make more in Ohio than any State but California, three times our population, and Texas, twice our population.

What Ohio perhaps is best known for in production is the auto industry. The auto rescue did not just save the U.S. auto industry 3, 3\1/2\, 4 years ago, it saved thousands of auto-related jobs in Ohio. Estimates are that some 850,000 jobs in Ohio--a State of 11 million people, only smaller than the Presiding Officer's home State of Pennsylvania--that 800-plus thousand jobs in Ohio are related to the auto industry. It is clear from the auto rescue that the President, the Senate, and the House supported that it saved tens of thousands and created tens of thousands of those jobs.

New data shows manufacturing is at the forefront of the economic recovery, with factories adding 250,000 jobs since early 2010--the first sustained increase in manufacturing employment since 1997.

From 1965 until the late 1990s, America had about the same number of manufacturing jobs in the late nineties as it did in the midsixties--a smaller percent of the workforce, a smaller percent of GDP, but a pretty constant number of manufacturing jobs, with some ups and downs, obviously, during that period. But from 2000 to 2010, during that philosophy of trade agreements that ultimately cost us jobs, tax cuts and tax policy that contributed to outsourcing jobs, and an economic policy of ``trickle down'' during the Bush years--from 2000 to 2010, America lost one-third, more than 5 million manufacturing jobs. One out of three manufacturing jobs disappeared during those 10 years from 2000 to 2010.

Thousands of factories closed, never to be reopened, as jobs were outsourced, as jobs left our country. But since 2010, almost every single month in Ohio and across the country we see manufacturing jobs increasing. The auto industry has led the rebound, with more than 20,000 jobs at General Motors and Chrysler saved or created thanks to the 2009 auto rescue, and thousands more were saved or created in the auto supply chain.

Too many Ohioans are struggling. Many are still looking for work, while others have seen their wages cut or their hours reduced.

There are also important signs of recovery at our manufacturers, auto suppliers, and small businesses. Just 4 years ago the auto industry, many people thought, was faltering and imploding. But look where we are today. As a result of the auto rescue, we are seeing a healthy turnaround. The Toledo Supplier Park employs 1900 people. The GM assembly and stamping plant in Lordstown employs some 4,500 Ohioans. GM Powertrain in Defiance is home to some 1,200 workers. Following the auto rescue, these facilities all created new jobs due to increased demand.

Some Members of Congress were willing to bail out Wall Street without so much as asking for reasonable executive compensation restrictions on

banks that received taxpayer help but then attacked middle-class auto workers. Bonuses and huge salaries have continued unabated for far too many Wall Street executives. Yet some of my colleagues have said that auto workers' retirement--union and nonunion retirement--and health care and wages were simply too much. Let's be clear. Ohio would be in a depression if these naysayers had their way and let the auto industry collapse or let it ``go bankrupt.'' It was about rescuing middle-class workers, and it was about fueling the next generation of U.S. automakers and auto manufacturing.

Ohio is home to an almost completely Ohio-made automobile, the Chevy Cruze. Its engine was made in Defiance, the transmission in Toledo, the sound system in Springboro, the steel in Middletown, the underpinning steel in Cleveland, and the aluminum wheels in Cleveland. The car is stamped in Parma, OH. The Chevy Cruze is assembled in Youngstown, OH. The Jeep Wrangler had only 50 percent America-made components 4 years ago. The Jeep Wrangler and the Jeep Liberty are assembled in Toledo, now made with more than 70 percent U.S.-made parts.

When things looked bleak and when nobody wanted to stand with workers or auto companies, we didn't give up on American auto companies or American manufacturing. The decision wasn't popular, and there were clearly some naysayers. But it was the right thing to do.

Our work is far from over. In particular, we have to keep our foot on the gas pedal and fight back against China's unfair trade practices and other new threats to our auto industry. Our trade deficit in auto parts with China--the parts that are obviously used, that you buy at various retail operations to fix your car when something goes wrong--grew from about $1 billion 10 years ago to about $10 billion today, fed by unfair subsidies, currency manipulation, and illegal dumping of Chinese products. This is an unlevel, tilted playing field that will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

My China currency manipulation bill--the biggest bipartisan jobs bill to have passed the Senate this session--costing taxpayers zero, would level the playing field for American manufacturers when China tries to cheat by manipulating its currency. A recently released report shows that addressing Chinese currency manipulation could support the creation of hundreds of thousands of American jobs--without adding a dime to the deficit. It is time to take bold action and stand up to China, and it is time to put American workers and businesses first. We did it in 2008 and 2009. The Presiding Officer played a role in that, as did so many in this body. We can do it again if our colleagues in the other Chamber take up this currency bill.

I yield the floor.

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.

Mr. President, I come to the floor fairly often to share letters I get from people in Ohio and especially when it is an issue that is on the tips of so many young people's tongues and on the minds of so many in our State.

I spent much of the last month visiting with students on college campuses at Wright State University in Dayton, at Hiram College in Portage County in northeast Ohio, at the Cuyahoga County Community College in Cleveland, at the University of Cincinnati, and Ohio State University. Just this last Monday, I was at Owens Community College in Toledo. I hear over and over and over about the debt that far too many of our young people bear when they get out of school.

Today is the last session day for our pages from the winter term, and I hope the burden of debt on them--they are still several years away from absorbing the debt from college and going on to the workplace. But I worry for them, as I worry for so many of my constituents from Cleveland to Cincinnati and Ashtabula to Middletown and Gallipolis to Wauseon because the average Ohio student who is graduating from a 4- year school and who has borrowed money owes $27,000. This is a small step, but it is one more piling on of debt. If we are not able to freeze interest rates on Stafford loans--which is what my legislation will do, with Senator Reed of Rhode Island, Senator Harkin of Iowa--to freeze interest rates for at least another year, these students will be faced with another $1,000, in addition to what they are already facing.

It has become a moral issue. If we turn things over to these young people when they come out of school and they face this kind of debt, it means they are less likely to buy a house, it means they are less likely to start a business, and it means they are less likely to start a family. Do we want to do that to this generation of smart, young, enthusiastic, talented people, instead of giving them a better launch for their lives in their twenties and thirties? That is why it is essential we do this.

Two years before the Presiding Officer came to the Senate, in 2007, we

passed this freeze; President Bush signed legislation that Senator Kennedy and I and others in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee worked on to freeze interest rates for Stafford subsidized loans at 3.4 percent. There is a 5-year freeze. If we don't act by July 1, 2012, 5 years after we passed it, that will mean these loans are going to double.

I wish to share a couple letters I have gotten from people in Ohio. This doesn't just affect the students; there are some 380,000 college students in my State whom it affects. But it doesn't just affect these students; it affects their families. Their parents, sometimes their grandparents, send us letters about how serious this is for them. I will read two letters.

Jeff from Lorain--which happens to be my home county:

I've been a lifelong resident of Lorain, OH. My daughter

graduated top of her class from Southview in 2008. She just

graduated from Hiram College with a bachelor in Mathematics

and minor in Political Science Cum Laude. She maxed out her

Stafford loans each year, and these help her to attend

college. I've worked in factories all my life, the last 20

years at Avon Lake Ford so we are able to help some but the

major work was done by our daughter with her focus and hard

work. She is moving on to grad school but at some point she

will have to start repaying these loans. Do we want to burden

these young bright minds with loan payments that are so large

they will weigh them down financially for a large portion of

their young adult lives? Were these loans designed to help

students who don't come from families with large disposable

incomes? Or are they to be used as a way to make money off

our young people trying to reach their potential?

One of the good things President Obama did about this was he helped people get into the Federal Direct Loan Program so they would no longer be borrowing from banks at much higher interest rates. College is too expensive. The States don't put enough money into colleges so that the colleges don't charge such high tuitions. Tuitions have gone up like this over the years. But at least we were able to make a big difference on interest. This is our chance to do it again, and we shouldn't let Jeff and his daughter down and others.

The other letter I will read is from Marcelline from Wilberforce.

I am 60 years old. I went back to school to get a job that

would not continue to destroy my physical health. My previous

job for companies like BP and Wal-Mart were devastatingly

hard on me all with little or no medical help. I also

returned in hopes of obtaining employment that will position

me to be gainfully employed for the next 15 to 20 years. I am

supporting my two grandchildren both are aspergers and my son

while he tries to gain a degree of his own. I see no

possibility of retiring before I die. I also see no

possibility of paying off my education before I die. When I

started my education I could justify the cost, but I have

seen it going up yearly to the point I see no way of paying

for it now, especially if interest rates continue to climb. I

cannot conceive how the young people will be able to repay

their debts. I am very concerned for them. The burden this

will place on them as they go forward is heartbreaking.

This is the story the Presiding Officer hears in Anchorage, in Fairbanks, in Nome. I hear it in Toledo. I hear it in Lima. I hear it in Mansfield. I hear it in Sandusky. It is incumbent upon us--it is a moral question--not to load more debt on these young people so they can develop their talents in a way that not only will help them individually, not only will help their families but will help our society prosper.

We know what the GI bill did in the 1940s and 1950s and 1960s. It not only helped millions of service men and women and their families, it also lifted the prosperity of the United States of America. We owe this generation no less than that.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, 68 years ago today, June 6, 1944, some 150,000 Americans, including many Ohioans, began what seemed like an impossible journey. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower called it ``the Great Crusade.''

At 6:30 on a fog-filled morning on June 6, 1944, our servicemembers made it to France. They waded onshore--past mines landed from the air, past sharpened stakes--and crawled toward gunfire. General Eisenhower told our sailors, soldiers, and airmen that the ``eyes of the world . . . the hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere'' were with them. A mere 50-mile stretch of the French coast--with places named Utah and Omaha, Gold and Juno Pointe du Hoc and Sword--was all that stood between humanity's freedom and Hitler's aggression. But our warriors--men such as Ohio's own PFC Frank E. Harget--did not give up.

Last May I had the honor of presenting Mr. Harget, of Akron, OH, the service medals he earned during World War II, some 67 or 68 years later.

Frank Harget joined the Army in September 1943 and was immediately sent to the European theatre. He was given the unenviable task of scout and was dispatched to the front lines to perform reconnaissance. His job was to gather intelligence on enemy forces. Many times, Mr. Harget told me, he was so close to the German front, he could see German soldiers eating their lunch. He served in five battle campaigns, from D-day to the Battle of the Bulge, and in Central Europe.

Mr. Harget was discharged in November 1945 after the war was over without receiving the Bronze Star he had earned. My office helped him finally receive that Bronze Star and seven other medals and awards. He helped our Nation and the world--think about living with this for the next 60 years of your life--overthrow an evil regime.

Today we recognize men like Frank Harget who overcame great odds thousands and thousands of miles from home.

D-day was the largest amphibious invasion in recorded world history, with 73,000 American troops, 61,000 British troops, 21,000 Canadian troops, and 195,000 allied naval and Merchant Marine personnel, with more than 5,000 ships involved.

After 24 hours, only 2,500 troops of the 101st and 2,000 of the 82nd Airborne Divisions were under the control of their parent units.

At Gold Beach, 25,000 men landed and some 400 were killed. At Omaha Beach, the U.S. 1st Infantry and the 29th Infantry Divisions found their sections to be the most heavily fortified of all the invasion beaches. The official record stated:

. . . within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, the

leading company had become inert, leaderless and almost

incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been

killed or wounded. It had become a struggle for survival and

rescue.

The 2nd Ranger Battalion had to scale 100-foot cliffs under the cover of night and then attack and destroy the German coastal defense guns at the massive concrete cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc. But despite these obstacles, young men such as Frank Harget from Akron, OH, who participated in this invasion fought and persevered and began the liberation of Europe with little else besides their training, their comrades, their courage, and their refusal to quit.

These men proved that the forces of freedom are strong. I would suggest that the forces of freedom are still strong today.

Members of the allied forces showed us the strength of humanity over tyranny. Franklin Roosevelt knew our D-day warriors would not ``rest until the victory is won.'' And we did win.

Today we salute the Frank Hargets of the world. There are still thousands of World War II veterans left. Most have died. Most who fought and survived D-day are no longer with us. Some still are. We salute them, and we salute those who went before them for running toward danger in order to secure peace.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I appreciate the kind words and the insight from Chairman Leahy and his leadership on trying to speed up the confirmation process on a whole host of judges.

I have a lot of respect for my colleague from Iowa, but I take exception with a couple of things he said. No. 1, he compared the number of nominations during the second Bush 4 years with the first 4 Obama years and said that the Senate was more cooperative now than it was then. Clearly it was apples and oranges. We know--almost any schoolkid in America now knows--the dysfunction of the Senate in terms of the minority party blocking all kinds of things, from medium- to low-level Federal appointments to the executive branch, to district court judges, to legislation. So I think Senator Leahy has addressed that very aptly, and I don't need to go into detail there.

Senator Leahy also has spoken to the two public criticisms--shallow and vacuous that they are--of Jeffrey Helmick. The one on him representing terrorists, I am not a lawyer, but I know that when a Federal judge asks a lawyer to represent somebody, the lawyer does it, as Jeffrey Helmick did. And, as Senator Leahy said on the ethics issue, the Ohio Court of Appeals said that Mr. Helmick should be commended. The supreme court agreed

unanimously that the letter they talked about was a client secret and that Mr. Helmick acted in good faith. So those criticisms don't really stand the test of time in that way.

Again, I thank Senator Leahy and the Judiciary Committee for moving as quickly as they could move. This is a difficult time. At times, there is Senate dysfunction and the minority party blocks or slow-walks some of these nominees.

Jeffrey Helmick has been supported by a bipartisan, rigorous committee of 17 who come from the Southern District of Ohio and who help to choose nominees for the Northern District of Ohio. I spoke personally with all but 1 or 2 of those 17 Republicans and Democrats around whom consensus was formed in support of Jeffrey Helmick. They think he is an outstanding lawyer, jurist, and potential Federal judge. The other Federal judges in the western region of the Northern District Court in Ohio, which is out of Toledo--including a judge nominated by President George W. Bush--enthusiastically support Jeffrey Helmick.

Senator Grassley said he was a controversial nominee. He is only controversial in the Senate Judiciary Committee and among some of my colleagues. He is not controversial in Ohio, where they know Jeffrey Helmick the best. He is not controversial in the Toledo bar. He is not controversial among people who know Jeffrey Helmick and who have watched him perform his service to his community and watched him professionally and the way that he does his job as a lawyer in Toledo, OH, in Federal court or in State court. So the fact is, he is not a controversial nominee. He is only a controversial nominee in the U.S. Senate and in some places in Washington, DC. But we know he is qualified, and we know he is ready to serve.

I ask my colleagues to vote today to confirm Jeffrey Helmick to the U.S. Federal court in the Northern District of Ohio.

Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Leahy, I ask unanimous consent that Michelle Lacko, a fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee, be granted Senate floor privileges for the duration of the debate on S. 3240, the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012.

Sure.

Madam President, I am pleased to work with Senator Inhofe on this matter.