Floor Statements

Mr. President, this week I have the honor of recognizing Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones of Silver Bow County for his tremendous impact on lives of folks in Butte and surrounding areas.

Dr. Mulcaire-Jones has spent over 30 years practicing medicine, each of which he committed to improving the health of those around him. He founded Maternal Life International, which goes above and beyond, to provide training and program development in Africa and Haiti. Over the course of his career, Dr. Mulcaire-Jones has also focused on addressing the growing issue of substance abuse among pregnant and postpartum moms.

Dr. Mulcaire-Jones led the fight to address the growing drug crisis in pregnant and postpartum moms across Montana. Dr. Mulcaire-Jones directed an initiative that defines symptoms for these moms and ensures they receive the proper medical care. He was instrumental in a $150,000 grant awarded to a local hospital that works to treat these moms. Dr. Mulcaire-Jones also worked hard to ensure that other care providers in the industry have the training they need to properly treat those patients.

I congratulate Dr. Mulcaire-Jones on his proactive approach in recognizing the signs of drug abuse in pregnant and postpartum mothers. Through his efforts, Dr. Mulcaire-Jones has paved the way for other communities around Montana to combat this growing epidemic.

Mr. President, on the heels of Veteran's Day and in honor of President Trump's designating November 2018 as National Veterans and Military Families Month, I have the distinct pleasure of recognizing Jason Gleason of Great Falls, MT, for his

dedication to serving veterans in North Central Montana.

Jason serves as a nurse practitioner in the Great Falls VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic and has become one of the most sought-after experts in veterans' healthcare. A veteran himself, Jason spent 20 years in the Montana Air National Guard, retiring as lieutenant colonel.

During his time in the Guard, he served as officer in charge of health promotion, medical readiness, staff development, and as assistant chief nurse, where he gained a great deal of knowledge and experience caring for fellow servicemembers.

Jason retired from the Air National Guard in 2015, and since then he has dedicated himself to providing exceptional healthcare to Montana veterans. He has built and maintained a patient panel that is at 110 percent capacity and has 1,000 patients. When another provider recently retired, he stepped up and took over the patient panel and provided care to another 556 veterans.

Jason has worked to improve the overall Montana VA system. He has recruited and mentored other nurse practitioners, which helped fill critical positions in the VA system. Jason also participated in a VA residency program that trains providers to better serve our women veterans.

In 2011, he experienced a deep personal tragedy when his wife of 16 years, Heather, passed away from a stroke, leaving him a widower with three children. After his wife's death, he dedicated himself to becoming an expert on strokes.

He regularly speaks to healthcare providers across the country about stroke prevention and treatment and received the Montana State Department of Health and Human Services Stroke Hero of the Year Award.

Montana is incredibly lucky to have a healthcare professional like Jason Gleason serving our veterans. He is truly an excellent example of someone who puts service before self. He understands that his service to our country did not end with his service in the military.

I want to personally congratulate and thank Jason for his excellent work.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I have 3 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

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

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations, Paul B. Matey, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, Jean- Paul Boulee, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, James David Cain, Jr., to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana, Damon Ray Leichty, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Indiana, and J. Nicholas Ranjan, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Big Bank Bankruptcy: 10 years After Lehman Brothers''.

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, at 5:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Steven Dillingham, of Virginia, to be Director of the Census, Department of Commerce, and Michael Kubayanda, of Ohio, to be a Commissioner of the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m., Wednesday, November 14; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the House message to accompany S. 140 and vote on the motion to concur in the House amendment with a further amendment, as modified.

Mr. President, 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, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6896 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, this week I have the honor of recognizing Ethan Davidson of Lewis and Clark County for his outstanding academic achievements.

Ethan Davidson epitomizes hard working Montanan's, his work ethic has shown in his academics Ethan recently received a perfect score on his ACT, being one of the 2,760 high school students across the United States who received a perfect score of 36. About 2 million high school students take the test each year.

At a young age, Ethan devoted himself to his academics, always striving towards being a straight-A student. He attends Capitol High School in Helena, where he is involved in many extracurricular activities, ranging from being the cocaptain of the cross country team, to being a member of the math and science club. To add to his accolades, Ethan is a National Merit semifinalist and has earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

I congratulate Ethan on his impeccable academic achievements, as well as his willingness to give back to his community by being a role model for all high school students I look forward to seeing his success in his future endeavors.

Mr. President I would like to discuss my strong support for the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In July I had the opportunity to meet with Judge Kavanaugh in my office, and it was clear to me that President Trump had nominated an outstanding jurist who was well- qualified and ready to be our next Supreme Court Justice.

From the very beginning, just minutes after his nomination, some of my Democratic colleagues had already decided to oppose Judge Kavanaugh at all costs. They refused to meet with him, spread a misinformation campaign about his record, and claimed he was outside of the mainstream. The indisputable fact is that Judge Kavanaugh is the mainstream. His reasoning has been adopted by the Supreme Court more than a dozen times, and he is well respected by people across the spectrum, from fellow judges to those who have argued before him.

Judge Kavanaugh sat through more than 30 hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and subsequently responded to 1,287 questions for the record, more than every previous Supreme Court nominee combined. It was not until the 11th hour, when Judge Kavanaugh was on the verge of being confirmed, that unsubstantiated and uncorroborated claims from 36 years ago were leaked to the media in a last ditch effort to derail his nomination. The F.B.I. conducted yet another background investigation, its seventh, and yet again, nothing was discovered that would disqualify Judge Kavanaugh from sitting on the Supreme Court.

Montanans overwhelmingly want a Supreme Court Justice with impeccable academic credentials, someone who does not legislate from the bench, but upholds the rule of law and who follows the Constitution. Judge Kavanaugh is without a doubt that person.

Yesterday, I was happy to cast my vote in favor of bringing debate to an end on this nomination. While I was unavailable this afternoon for the vote due to a longstanding family commitment, I spoke with Judge Kavanaugh and assured him that, if my vote was needed for final passage, that I would return as soon as possible. I would like to thank my good friend and colleague, Senator Murkowski, for pairing votes so that my absence would not change the outcome.

However, I would be remiss not to mention that we would not be in this position had my friends across the aisle not turned this entire process into a political circus. They have done this for no other purpose than to obstruct and delay this nomination through the election in hopes that they take back control of this body and block all of President Trump's nominees. I fully support Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation look forward to his many years of service on the Supreme Court.

Mr. President, this week I have the honor of recognizing Leland Paul Cade of Golden Valley County for his impact on the surrounding central Montana region.

Leland was born in 1925 on the Cade homestead just North of Lavina, MT. He was the third child of five. Leland often recalls the days of having no car and having to harness a team up to the wagon. Years later, he recalled what a challenge it was for a kid from a homestead that had no electricity or running water to learn to use flush toilets with paper on a roll and faucets with hot and cold water.

Leland graduated from Lavina High School in 1942. Directly after graduation, Leland enlisted in the Army, where his main job was to be a horse trainer. After being discharged from the Army, Leland attended Montana State College in Bozeman, graduating in 1950 with a degree in agriculture. He went on to work as an extension agent for the next 16 years. Later he went and worked as the editor for the Montana Farmer- Stockman, located in Billings. During this time, he continued his commitment to education and improving the farm and ranch economy throughout Montana and the West.

Leland has published 11 books on the homestead era. His recognition of the homesteaders on the eastern Montana plains has helped educated a great many people. Along with his publications, Leland also helped found the Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton.

Leland Cade is truly a son of Montana, born and raised on that short grass prairie north of Billings, a testament to all that embodies Montana. I congratulate Leland on his lifelong commitment to agriculture and education.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senators be allowed to present legislative items at the desk during today's session.

Mr. President, this week I have the honor of recognizing Mark Biel of Flathead County, natural resources program manager at Glacier National Park, for his outstanding work bringing new programs and research to the Crown of the Continent.

Growing up hiking and camping, Mark fostered a love of the outdoors, particularly national parks and public lands. He has had a long and distinguished career with the National Park Service and served at multiple national parks across the West. Mark has been at Glacier National Park for the last 8 years, where he has been recognized for his research on mountain goats and helped the park achieve designation as an International Transboundary Dark Sky Park.

He has also pioneered a wildlife shepherding program with his dog Gracie. Gracie, known as the bark ranger, has been trained to move bighorn sheep and mountain goats out of areas of high visitor traffic, such as visitor centers and parking lots. The program has helped make the park safer for both humans and animals while also providing an excellent tool for educating park visitors on the importance of avoiding human-wildlife conflicts.

Earlier this month, in recognition of his work at Glacier, Mark won the National Park Service Director's Award for Professional Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship. He was selected over six other nominees, one from each National Park Service region.

I congratulate Mark on such a tremendous achievement and thank him for his dedicated service to Glacier National Park and our entire National Park System.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with colleagues.

Mr. President, I have come down to the floor today to discuss a very important issue to Montanans and to many of my colleagues in the Senate, and that is the Land and Water Conservation Fund, also known as LWCF. I am joined by friends and colleagues--in fact, by the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. Burr, and the Senator from Colorado, Mr. Gardner--who know like me, firsthand, the importance of LWCF. Why we are here today is because in just a few short days--in fact, on September 30--this program is going to expire. Without any action from Congress, a program that is widely supported, provides more access to public lands, conserves our public landscapes, and--I think this is probably Senator Burr's favorite comment about LWCF--costs the taxpayers nothing--I bet you will hear that from him in a moment--is going to expire.

Of the many benefits provided by LCWF, the most important one to Montanans is making public lands accessible. In fact, I brought a few maps of Montana to show some of the challenges we have.

This map shows all the public lands in our State. Anything that is colored is a public land. That is Forest Service, BLM, national parks, wildlife refuges, and State trust land. As you can see, there is a lot of public land in Montana.

Our public lands help to drive a $7 billion outdoor economy, create tens of thousands of jobs, and supply about $300 million in State and local tax revenues. As an avid outdoorsman, myself, I know firsthand the importance of our public lands. In fact, in August, back home in Montana, my wife and I did a 25-mile backpack in the Beartooth Wilderness, fly fishing at lakes above 10,000 feet. That is my idea of a great weekend in Montana. But public lands out of public reach benefit no one.

This next map shows a portion of the eastern side of our State. In Montana, much of our public land is checkerboarded. You can see it a little better here because these checkerboards are sectioned. There are 640 acres in square miles. This means that each one of those yellow squares are inaccessible in many cases to Montanans.

This is BLM-owned public land, but despite being owned by the Federal Government, it cannot be accessed by the public. In fact, a recent study by the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and onXmaps, a great Montana tech company, found that there are 1.52 million acres in Federal land in Montana alone that are inaccessible. I have the onXmaps app on my phone. If you are a hunter, fisherman, or outdoorsman in Montana, you oftentimes will have that app because it tells exactly where you are and where the lands are public and where the lands are private.

Let me put this in context about the inaccessibility of our lands. In Montana, we have more inaccessible public lands to the people than the entire State of Rhode Island--about the size of Delaware--all of which Montanans

are locked out of, and public land that is only open to a select few or to none at all is really not public at all.

The next map shows the western side of Montana, where we see the same problem on Forest Service land. If you look here, you can see a piece of checkerboarded land. We are using LWCF dollars to expand public access.

In fact, the Beavertail to Bearmouth corridor is currently the highest ranking Forest Service LWCF project. This project unlocks approximately 1,900 acres of currently inaccessible public land.

As you can see on this map, there are whole sections that Montanans are locked out of. This project--like many LWCF projects--ensures that our booming outdoor economy can continue to grow. It allows hunters, anglers, and other sportsmen to have access to their public land. However, projects like this are in danger if we don't reauthorize LWCF. Luckily, very fortunately, there has been some good work done. Recently, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed a bill to permanently reauthorize LWCF.

I thank Congressman Gianforte from Montana, on the House side, and Chairman Bishop of Utah for getting that pushed through. The House has done their job. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has also passed legislation to reauthorize LWCF. We now need to get this through the full House and the Senate, and we need to do that now.

LWCF is a program that maximizes the value of public lands to taxpayers, it boosts our economy, and it has strong bipartisan support. Lord help us, we know we need some bipartisan bills right now in this city. That is why I stand here today to urge my colleagues to act and reauthorize this critical program.

Montana is not the only State that has greatly benefited from LWCF. I want to turn it over to my colleague--truly one of the warriors in LWCF--the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. Burr.

I thank Senator Burr.

I think it also demonstrates the diversity, geographically, that we have a Senator from North Carolina, a Senator from Montana, and a Senator from Colorado. It doesn't matter if you are a Western State or a State on the East side of our Nation. I knew Senator Burr would talk about the fact that it costs the taxpayer nothing. I hear that all the time. Members care deeply about responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. It doesn't cost the taxpayer anything.

There is another word I always hear from Senator Burr; that is, it is ``permanent'' reauthorization. This is no longer an experiment. This is proven. This is why we need to move away from this temporary reauthorization and make it permanent.

I am pleased to have another colleague of mine from Colorado, Senator Gardner, join me now. We would be border States if it weren't for the State of Wyoming. Senator Gardner is in the southern part of the Rockies, a beautiful State. I am grateful to have the Senator as one of the key champions in the U.S. Senate of LWCF, Mr. Gardner.

Senator Gardner, thank you. I thank Senator Burr as

well. I think this is something that, for us, is more than a policy discussion. You can see the passion from each Member here. It is a way of life.

I come from a State--Montana--where a mom or a dad or a grandpa or grandma can still load up a son or daughter or granddaughter or grandson in the pickup and go down to Walmart and buy an elk tag or a deer tag over the counter and then head out and have access to public lands to hunt and to fish. That makes America unique. You don't see that in most places around the world, and that sets us apart as a unique people.

Yes.

Thank you, Senator Burr.

I will tell you why that permanent reauthorization is important in places like Montana, Colorado, and North Carolina. It is because it takes time to put together some of these consolidations of checkerboard lands to make this all work.

Here is an example of that right here. This is a project that was executed. And you see we are not playing checkers here; this is the way the land management works oftentimes out West. So to make all that happen, to get the parties--the State, the Federal Government, and a private landowner--together here, sometimes takes years.

What we don't need to have is the Federal Government back here-- Congress--providing uncertainty about whether we are going to fund a process that oftentimes takes years, getting the landowners, the State, and the Feds together to execute a consolidation that gives the public access to those public lands. That is why permanent reauthorization is so important, to take that off the table. There are enough challenges already with the LWCF and with trying to make these transactions work without having Congress get in the way.

I thank you, Senator Burr, for your passion, for your steadfast commitment to the permanent reauthorization. And keep reminding us that it costs the taxpayers nothing. I think it is a pretty good value.

So, again, I want to thank both my colleagues here. They have been strong leaders on this issue. We are going to keep fighting. As Senator Burr just ticked down from 100 days, now we are down to 4 days. We are going to fight for this every opportunity we have. We all urge our colleagues to listen to the stories you heard today, listen to your constituents, and join us and finally reauthorize to save LWCF.

Thank you.

Mr. President, the Medicare Advantage Quality Payment Relief Act will protect and enhance Medicare benefits by reversing a damaging policy created by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Obamacare attempted to provide better benefits for seniors and people with disabilities who are enrolled in the highest rated Medicare Advantage plans. But Obamacare also inadvertently limited these bonus payments from ever reaching beneficiaries by putting a cap on the payments, or benchmarks, that these Medicare plans receive. Now, 17,000 Montanans, and millions of Americans across the country--are being denied the full scope of the Medicare benefits that they should be receiving.

I'm glad to join with Senator Angus King of Maine to introduce legislation that reverses this ill-advised policy. Our bill protects Medicare benefits by removing the damaging limitation on payments to Medicare Advantage plans with a 4-star rating or higher. This legislation is crucial to ensuring that these top-rated Medicare Advantage plans are offered throughout Montana and our country. Nearly 20% of Medicare beneficiaries in Montana, and one-third of Medicare enrollees nationwide, receive their Medicare coverage through Medicare Advantage plans.

I'm pleased that our legislation enjoys strong support from diverse stakeholders, and I will continue to champion this issue on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities in Montana who rely on Medicare Advantage for their Medicare coverage.

Mr. President, the Medicare Advantage Quality Payment Relief Act will protect and enhance Medicare benefits by reversing a damaging policy created by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Obamacare attempted to provide better benefits for seniors and people with disabilities who are enrolled in the highest rated Medicare Advantage plans. But Obamacare also inadvertently limited these bonus payments from ever reaching beneficiaries by putting a cap on the payments, or benchmarks, that these Medicare plans receive. Now, 17,000 Montanans, and millions of Americans across the country--are being denied the full scope of the Medicare benefits that they should be receiving.

I'm glad to join with Senator Angus King of Maine to introduce legislation that reverses this ill-advised policy. Our bill protects Medicare benefits by removing the damaging limitation on payments to Medicare Advantage plans with a 4-star rating or higher. This legislation is crucial to ensuring that these top-rated Medicare Advantage plans are offered throughout Montana and our country. Nearly 20% of Medicare beneficiaries in Montana, and one-third of Medicare enrollees nationwide, receive their Medicare coverage through Medicare Advantage plans.

I'm pleased that our legislation enjoys strong support from diverse stakeholders, and I will continue to champion this issue on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities in Montana who rely on Medicare Advantage for their Medicare coverage.