Floor Statements

Mr. President, let me begin my remarks tonight by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to the members of the law enforcement community and the National Guard whose hard work and courage made it possible for us to resume our deliberations tonight.

We return to this Chamber tonight undeterred by the violence we witnessed and strengthened in our determination to fulfill our constitutional duty. The Constitution is the foundation of our American democracy, and the Constitution is what must guide our decisions on the Presidential election.

The process the Constitution sets forth for electing Presidents through the electoral college is straightforward. The people vote. Electors are chosen. The electors vote. Then Congress counts the electors' votes.

That final step in the process is why we have convened today. Counting the votes of the electors, a function that the 12th Amendment assigns to Congress, is an administrative and largely ceremonial act. Our job is simply to count the votes certified by each State--nothing more. We should not attempt to usurp the roles of the voters, the States, or the electoral college.

The American people have done their job, turning out in record numbers to vote in the midst of a frightening pandemic. Indeed, as a percentage of the voting-eligible population, the turnout was the highest in 120 years. Similarly, in the midst of this pandemic, hundreds of election officials and volunteers have done their job, staffing polling places and faithfully counting and often recounting votes. The States have done their job by certifying the election results.

Now, I have heard the proponents of these objections raise questions about whether the various States conducted their elections properly. When disputes over elections arise, candidates are able to appeal to our legal system, not Congress, for recourse.

In the 2 months since the 2020 election, the President's lawyers and allies have had the opportunity to make their arguments and challenge election results before the courts. Notably, every one of nearly 60 lawsuits they have brought forward have been rejected. In fact, the Supreme Court has twice refused to hear their election challenges.

We must abide by these rulings. The time has now come for Congress to do its job. We should affirm the certified results of each State by counting the votes of their electors. Altering the results of the electoral college would set a terrible precedent in which the party in control of Congress could override the will of the voters and overrule our courts to unilaterally choose the next President. One Senator attempted such a maneuver after the election in 2004, and the Senate overwhelmingly rejected that effort. The Senate has demonstrated by its vote tonight that it will follow that precedent and do so again.

Today--tonight, Mr. President, I will continue to vote to reaffirm the foundation of our democracy, the Constitution of the United States. And I will reject these challenges to the electoral college.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Madam President, today I wish to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the town of Fort Kent, ME. The motto of our State's northernmost community, ``The Little Town That Could,'' describes a past of hard work, courage, and determination. ``The Little Town That Can'' describes Fort Kent today: a wonderful place to live, work, and raise families.

Located where the Fish River joins the St. John River, Fort Kent has a rich history. For thousands of years, the region has been the home of the Micmac and Maliseet. French explorers, led by Samuel de Champlain, first visited the area in 1604. In the early 1800s, French-speaking Canadians began settling in the area, laying the foundation for the robust Acadian culture that is so important in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and as far away as Louisiana.

The Acadian settlers created a vibrant community. They cleared farmland, established lumber and grain mills, schools, and churches. The namesake of the town is the Fort Kent Blockhouse, a fort named for then-Governor Edward Kent and carefully preserved today, which was built in 1839 during a long-running border dispute between the United States and British Canada. Settlement to the region increased dramatically when the ``Bloodless Aroostook War'' ended peacefully with a treaty in 1842.

Fort Kent's dedication to education began shortly after the town became established. In 1878, the Madawaska Training School was established in Fort Kent, one of the first institutions in Maine dedicated to preparing students for careers as bilingual educators. That school continues today as the University of Maine at Fort Kent, which in 2019 was named for the 14th consecutive year as one of the best

northeastern colleges by the Princeton Review. As the only institution in the United States located at the center of French culture in northern Maine, the University of Maine at Fort Kent offers opportunities for students of all heritages to study and live in a bilingual community.

Today, more than 60 percent of the town's residents speak French, and they continue to uphold the Acadian traditions of great food, music, and dance, and of close-knit families and lasting friendships. The Maine Acadian Heritage Council continues to help preserve these traditions and is working to teach the next generation about the Acadian heritage through programs like the Youth Renaissance.

The can-do spirit of Fort Kent is evident today. It is an agricultural powerhouse. and the potato industry remains an essential part of its economy. The town is home to an Olympic biathlete training center and frequently hosts world-class biathlon competitions. For 26 years, the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog race has attracted teams from around the world. The International Muskie Fishing Derby highlights the valuable fishing grounds and the pristine environment the people of the community work to preserve. The Fort Kent Ploye Festival celebrates the pancake-like dish that is a staple of Franco- American-Canadian cuisine.

To my Franco-American friends, it is a pleasure to congratulate you on this landmark anniversary. Across the generations, you have worked hard and worked together to create a community that combines your rich heritage with the values that define our State and our Nation.

The celebration of Fort Kent's 150th anniversary is not merely about the passing of time. It is about human accomplishment. We celebrate the people who pulled together, cared for one another, and built a great community. ``The Little Town That Can'' has a fascinating past and a bright future.

Mr. President, today I wish to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Town of Frenchville, ME. As one who was born and raised in Aroostook County, I am honored to celebrate the generations of industrious and caring people who have made Frenchville such a wonderful place to live, work, and raise families.

The story of Frenchville begins long before its incorporation in 1869. For thousands of years, the St. John River Valley has been the home of the Maliseet Tribe. French explorers, led by Samuel de Champlain, first visited the area in 1604 and established friendly relationships with the Native Americans. In the late 1700s, French- speaking Canadians began settling in the area, and the Maliseets often provided vital assistance during the first difficult winters. These settlements laid the foundation for the vibrant Acadian culture that is so important in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and as far away as Louisiana.

The Acadian settlers created a prosperous community. They planted crops, established lumber and grain mills, and built schools, churches, and thriving general stores. Later in the 19th century, the people of Frenchville joined their neighboring towns in connecting their remote region to the world with their own hands. Town by town, they built roads and railroads with pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow. These transportation networks, combined with rich soil. made the region an agricultural center, and the potato industry remains an essential part of the economy.

The town was incorporated in 1869 as Dickeyville, in honor of Major William Dickey, an early civic and political leader in the region. Two years later, the name was changed to Frenchville to recognize the language and origins of its original settlers. Today, 80 percent of the town's residents speak French, and they continue to uphold the Acadian traditions of great food, music, and dance, and of close-knit families and lasting friendships.

(English translation of the statement made in French is as follows:)

To my Franco-American friends, it is a pleasure to congratulate you on this landmark anniversary. Across the generations, you have worked hard and worked together to create a community that combines your rich heritage with the values that define our State and our Nation.

While the people of Frenchville cherish their fascinating history, they build for the future. Last year, the Dr. Levesque Elementary School was named a 2018 National Blue Ribbon Exemplary High Performing School, marking the second time this outstanding school received that prestigious recognition. For nearly 50 years, Frenchville and neighboring communities have joined hands to make the Northern Aroostook Regional Airport an invaluable transportation link between the St. John Valley and the world. In addition to the airport's important role in economic development, the volunteer pilots of the Patient Airlift Service provide a crucial lifeline to people needing advanced medical treatment.

The celebration of Frenchville's 150th anniversary is not merely about the passing of time. It is about human accomplishment. We celebrate the people who pulled together, cared for one another, and built a great community. Thanks to those who came before, Frenchville, ME, has a wonderful history. Thanks to those there today, it has a bright future.

Mr. President, before I deliver comments on a bill that I am introducing, let me express my disappointment that the Senate will not be voting today on the amendment that Senator Jones and I have filed to eliminate the military widow's tax. This is a tremendous inequity, as is recognized by the fact that 75 of our colleagues have cosponsored our freestanding bill.

Nevertheless, I am heartened by the commitment and the compassion of the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Inhofe, who has indicated his receptivity to dealing with this issue but in a different way on a different bill. I hope that today is just a temporary setback and that we can see this bill taken up as a freestanding bill by the entire Senate.

Mr. President, I send a bill to the desk and ask that it be appropriately referred.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the American Broadband Buildout Act of 2019, or ABBA. This legislation would help ensure that rural Americans have access to broadband services at speeds they need to fully participate in the benefits of our modern society and economy regardless of whether they live in the largest cities or the smallest towns. I am delighted to be joined by my friend and colleague Senator Doug Jones in introducing this bill.

Twenty-five years ago, when the internet was known as the World Wide Web, Americans typically accessed the web using their home phone lines via modems capable of downloading data at just 56 kilobits per second-- too slow even to support MP3-quality streaming music. Today, the threshold for broadband service as defined by the FCC allows downloads at speeds nearly 500 times faster--25 megabits per second. At these speeds, Americans not only can watch their favorite movies on demand in the comfort of their very own living rooms but can also participate in the global economy while working from home, upgrade their skills through online education, stay connected to their families as they age in place, and access healthcare through advances in telemedicine.

While the increase in broadband speeds has been dramatic and is encouraging, these numbers mask a disparity between urban and rural Americans. Nearly all Americans living in urban areas have access to the internet at speeds that meet the FCC's broadband threshold, while one in four rural Americans does not.

Similar disparities occur in terms of broadband adoption--the rate at which Americans subscribe to broadband service if they have access to it. According to the Pew Research Center survey last year, 22 percent of rural Americans don't use the internet at home, compared to just 8 percent of urban Americans.

The bipartisan bill that we are introducing would help close the digital divide between urban and rural America by directing the FCC to provide up to $5 billion in matching grants to assist States and State- approved entities in building ``last-mile'' infrastructure to bring high-speed broadband directly to homes and businesses in areas that lack it. Let me briefly discuss a few key points about the bill that I would like to highlight.

First, projects that receive funding must be located in unserved areas where broadband is unavailable at speeds that meet the FCC standards. Narrowing the focus to those areas will ensure that the money goes where it is needed most and will also protect against overbuilding where broadband infrastructure is already in place.

Second--and this is important--the bill requires that this Federal funding be matched through public-private partnerships between the broadband service provider and the State in which the last-mile infrastructure project will be built. This means that States and their private sector partners will have ``skin in the game'' to balance the Federal commitment, ensuring that projects will be well thought out and designed to be sustainable.

Third, the bill requires that projects be designed to be ``future proof,'' meaning that the infrastructure installed must be capable of delivering higher speeds as broadband accelerates in the future. This will ensure that Federal tax dollars are used to help build a network that serves rural Americans now and in the future without our having to rebuild it every time technology advances.

Furthermore, the bill directs the FCC to prioritize the funding of projects in States that have traditionally lagged behind the national average in terms of broadband subscribers and are at risk of falling further behind as broadband speeds increase.

Finally, the bill provides grants for states and state-designated entities for digital literacy and public awareness campaigns, highlighting the benefits and possibilities of broadband service and helping to attract employers to rural parts of our country in which broadband services are lacking and yet are essential for a business's success. The key reason to do this is to address the disparity in the adoption rates I have already mentioned, which will help drive down the costs of the service and make it more affordable for everyone.

One broadband application that holds special promise for rural America is telemedicine. As a native of Aroostook County--the largest county by land area east of the Mississippi, with fewer than 70,000 residents--I know how important healthcare is to the vitality and even to the survival of rural communities. Often, these communities struggle to attract and retain the physicians they need to ensure their having access to quality care for their citizens. Broadband can help to bridge this gap by enabling innovative healthcare delivery in these rural communities.

In an example described to me in a recent letter, hospice workers at Northern Light Home Care and Hospice were able to use the internet and video technology to help support a patient who was living on an island off the coast of Maine--not as far as the seagull flies but hours away in travel time. Although the connection was very poor, the video enabled the hospice nurses to monitor the patient's symptoms and provide emotional support to her family. As the author of that letter, Lisa Harvey-McPherson, put it, ``Our hospice team could be doing so much more with video and telemonitoring technologies if Maine had better connectivity.''

I ask unanimous consent that immediately following my remarks, this letter from Lisa Harvey-McPherson be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in closing, rural Americans deserve to enjoy the benefits of high-speed internet in the same way that urban Americans do, but a digital divide has arisen due to the simple fact that rural areas are more sparsely populated than urban ones and are therefore more expensive to serve. The bill that Senator Jones and I are introducing today would help to bridge this digital divide by funding future-proof broadband where it is needed most and giving a real boost to job creation in rural America.

I urge my colleagues to support our bill.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the American Broadband Buildout Act of 2019, or ABBA. This legislation would help ensure that rural Americans have access to broadband services at speeds they need to fully participate in the benefits of our modern society and economy regardless of whether they live in the largest cities or the smallest towns. I am delighted to be joined by my friend and colleague Senator Doug Jones in introducing this bill.

Twenty-five years ago, when the internet was known as the World Wide Web, Americans typically accessed the web using their home phone lines via modems capable of downloading data at just 56 kilobits per second-- too slow even to support MP3-quality streaming music. Today, the threshold for broadband service as defined by the FCC allows downloads at speeds nearly 500 times faster--25 megabits per second. At these speeds, Americans not only can watch their favorite movies on demand in the comfort of their very own living rooms but can also participate in the global economy while working from home, upgrade their skills through online education, stay connected to their families as they age in place, and access healthcare through advances in telemedicine.

While the increase in broadband speeds has been dramatic and is encouraging, these numbers mask a disparity between urban and rural Americans. Nearly all Americans living in urban areas have access to the internet at speeds that meet the FCC's broadband threshold, while one in four rural Americans does not.

Similar disparities occur in terms of broadband adoption--the rate at which Americans subscribe to broadband service if they have access to it. According to the Pew Research Center survey last year, 22 percent of rural Americans don't use the internet at home, compared to just 8 percent of urban Americans.

The bipartisan bill that we are introducing would help close the digital divide between urban and rural America by directing the FCC to provide up to $5 billion in matching grants to assist States and State- approved entities in building ``last-mile'' infrastructure to bring high-speed broadband directly to homes and businesses in areas that lack it. Let me briefly discuss a few key points about the bill that I would like to highlight.

First, projects that receive funding must be located in unserved areas where broadband is unavailable at speeds that meet the FCC standards. Narrowing the focus to those areas will ensure that the money goes where it is needed most and will also protect against overbuilding where broadband infrastructure is already in place.

Second--and this is important--the bill requires that this Federal funding be matched through public-private partnerships between the broadband service provider and the State in which the last-mile infrastructure project will be built. This means that States and their private sector partners will have ``skin in the game'' to balance the Federal commitment, ensuring that projects will be well thought out and designed to be sustainable.

Third, the bill requires that projects be designed to be ``future proof,'' meaning that the infrastructure installed must be capable of delivering higher speeds as broadband accelerates in the future. This will ensure that Federal tax dollars are used to help build a network that serves rural Americans now and in the future without our having to rebuild it every time technology advances.

Furthermore, the bill directs the FCC to prioritize the funding of projects in States that have traditionally lagged behind the national average in terms of broadband subscribers and are at risk of falling further behind as broadband speeds increase.

Finally, the bill provides grants for states and state-designated entities for digital literacy and public awareness campaigns, highlighting the benefits and possibilities of broadband service and helping to attract employers to rural parts of our country in which broadband services are lacking and yet are essential for a business's success. The key reason to do this is to address the disparity in the adoption rates I have already mentioned, which will help drive down the costs of the service and make it more affordable for everyone.

One broadband application that holds special promise for rural America is telemedicine. As a native of Aroostook County--the largest county by land area east of the Mississippi, with fewer than 70,000 residents--I know how important healthcare is to the vitality and even to the survival of rural communities. Often, these communities struggle to attract and retain the physicians they need to ensure their having access to quality care for their citizens. Broadband can help to bridge this gap by enabling innovative healthcare delivery in these rural communities.

In an example described to me in a recent letter, hospice workers at Northern Light Home Care and Hospice were able to use the internet and video technology to help support a patient who was living on an island off the coast of Maine--not as far as the seagull flies but hours away in travel time. Although the connection was very poor, the video enabled the hospice nurses to monitor the patient's symptoms and provide emotional support to her family. As the author of that letter, Lisa Harvey-McPherson, put it, ``Our hospice team could be doing so much more with video and telemonitoring technologies if Maine had better connectivity.''

I ask unanimous consent that immediately following my remarks, this letter from Lisa Harvey-McPherson be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in closing, rural Americans deserve to enjoy the benefits of high-speed internet in the same way that urban Americans do, but a digital divide has arisen due to the simple fact that rural areas are more sparsely populated than urban ones and are therefore more expensive to serve. The bill that Senator Jones and I are introducing today would help to bridge this digital divide by funding future-proof broadband where it is needed most and giving a real boost to job creation in rural America.

I urge my colleagues to support our bill.

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

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from Alabama, Senator Jones, to urge our colleagues' support for our amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. It would repeal the Survivor Benefit Plan and dependency indemnity compensation offset, more commonly known as the military widow's tax. This unfair offset is currently preventing as many as 65,000 surviving military spouses--more than 260 of them in the State of Maine--from receiving the full benefits they deserve.

The Defense Department's Survivor Benefit Plan, or SBP, is primarily an insurance benefit that military families purchase in their retirement. It provides cash benefits to a surviving spouse or other eligible recipients when a retiree passes away. On the other hand, the Department of Veterans Affairs dependency and indemnity compensation, known as DIC, is a monthly, tax-free payment to survivors and dependents of servicemembers who pass away from service-related conditions.

For example, if a military retiree pays premiums into the SBP insurance program, then his or her spouse ought to be able to receive those benefits when the retiree passes away. What we find instead, however, is that surviving

spouses receiving these insurance payments have a dollar-for-dollar offset for the separate payments they are receiving from the VA. In some cases, this leads to the total elimination of the Survivor Benefit Plan benefit. In other cases, the offset greatly reduces the benefit. In either case, it is out-and-out unfair and harms the survivors of our servicemembers and military retirees. The average offset amounts to about $925 per month, which is often a significant amount of money that a widow or a widower needs to help support their families or themselves in the absence of their spouses.

Military commanders often say that you recruit the soldier but you retain the family. We have an obligation to make sure we are taking care of our military families who sacrifice so much for our country.

Our amendment has the support of numerous military and veterans advocacy groups, including the Gold Star Wives of America, the Military Officers Association of America, the National Military Family Association, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, and the VFW, among others.

More than 75 Senators--three-quarters of the Members of this Chamber--and 340 Members of the House of Representatives support the effort Senator Jones and I have led by cosponsoring our stand-alone bill. In fact, this legislation has been adopted by the Senate in the past numerous times, always by an overwhelming margin or by a voice vote, only to be later stripped out in the conference process.

This problem goes back decades, but this year we can finally solve it once and for all. It is time for us to do our duty not only to support the brave men and women who serve in our military but also to support their families. I encourage each of our colleagues to join in this bipartisan effort and support the repeal of the military widow's tax as part of the NDAA.

Mr. President, today I wish to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the town of Grand Isle, ME. As one who was born and raised in Aroostook County, it is a great pleasure to celebrate the generations of industrious and caring people who have made Grand Isle such a wonderful place to live, work, and raise families.

Named for a large and fertile island in the St. John River, Grand Isle is a small town with a rich history. For thousands of years, the river valley has been the home of the Micmac and Maliseet. French explorers, led by Samuel de Champlain, first visited the area in 1604. In the late 1700s, French-speaking Canadians began settling in the area, laying the foundation for the vibrant Acadian culture that is so important in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and as far away as Louisiana.

The Acadian settlers created a vibrant community. They cleared farmland, established lumber and grain mills, railroad roundhouses, and thriving general stores. In the 1870s, as railways expanded in the region, the people of Grand Isle joined with their Canadian neighbors on the opposite shore of the St. John River to build a ferry system that used an 800-foot cable suspended above the river to connect the products of their hard work to faraway markets.

When the World Acadian Congress convened in Aroostook County in 2014, the descendants of those neighbors again came together to build a replica of that historic ferry. The Grand Isle homecoming held during the Congress celebrated the rich Acadian traditions of great food, music, and dance, and of close-knit families and lasting friendships.

Those traditions are preserved and honored at the Cultural Museum of Mount Carmel and its remarkable collection of Acadian artifacts. The museum is located in the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, one of the few surviving 19th-century Acadian churches in northern Maine. That beautiful architectural gem was lovingly restored by the people of the region and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The celebration of Grand Isle's 150th anniversary is not merely about the passing of time; it is about human accomplishment. We celebrate the people who pulled together, cared for one another, and built a great community. Thanks to those who came before, Grand Isle, ME, has a wonderful history. Thanks to those there today, it has a bright future.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Smith, in introducing the School Food Modernization Act to assist schools in updating outdated kitchen equipment, allowing them to provide healthier meals to students.

School meals play a vital role in the lives of our young people. More than 95,000 schools participate in the National School Lunch program, serving upwards of 30 million children each day. Many children consume up to half their daily caloric intake at school, and some get their most nutritious meal of the day at school instead of at home. Because school meals are a significant source of daily nutrition for so many, we must consistently aim to improve the program to best serve students.

Schools built decades ago often lack the equipment and infrastructure necessary to do more than reheat and serve one or two meal options each day. In 2014, it was estimated that Maine schools alone would need $58.8 million for equipment infrastructure upgrades needed to serve healthy meals to all of our students. I am pleased that the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee has consistently recognized this need, and in Fiscal Year 2019 appropriated $30 million for School Equipment Assistance Grants. Through this funding, Maine will be able to competitively award $85,470 to school districts in need of updated equipment.

Nutrition directors at Mount View High School in Thorndike, Maine, used USDA Equipment Assistance funding to purchase a blast chiller to accommodate increased quantities of fruits and vegetables. Thanks to this equipment, the school is now able to quickly and safely preserve the food's freshness while reducing spoilage. Other schools have acquired hot holding cabinets, mobile food carts, and even combination ovens, which prepare foods faster and maintain more vitamin and nutrient content compared with many other cooking methods. Our legislation would codify and improve this successful grant program to better meet the growing need nationwide.

The School Food Modernization Act seeks to help school food service personnel offer a wide variety of nutritious and appealing meals to all students. First, the bill would provide targeted grant assistance to supply the seed funding needed to upgrade kitchen infrastructure or to purchase high-quality equipment. Second, it would establish a loan guarantee assistance program within USDA to help schools acquire new equipment. Finally, to aid school food services personnel in running successful, healthy programs, the legislation would authorize USDA to provide support on a competitive basis to highly qualified third-party trainers to develop and administer training and technical assistance, including online programs.

I appreciate that some provisions of this legislation were incorporated into previous versions of the Children Nutrition Reauthorization legislation approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee. I encourage our colleagues to continue to support school kitchen equipment needs as the reauthorization process continues.

Mr. President, if our school children are going to be able to learn and succeed, they need their minds and bodies to be fully nourished. This bill would help us achieve that goal.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Smith, in introducing the School Food Modernization Act to assist schools in updating outdated kitchen equipment, allowing them to provide healthier meals to students.

School meals play a vital role in the lives of our young people. More than 95,000 schools participate in the National School Lunch program, serving upwards of 30 million children each day. Many children consume up to half their daily caloric intake at school, and some get their most nutritious meal of the day at school instead of at home. Because school meals are a significant source of daily nutrition for so many, we must consistently aim to improve the program to best serve students.

Schools built decades ago often lack the equipment and infrastructure necessary to do more than reheat and serve one or two meal options each day. In 2014, it was estimated that Maine schools alone would need $58.8 million for equipment infrastructure upgrades needed to serve healthy meals to all of our students. I am pleased that the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee has consistently recognized this need, and in Fiscal Year 2019 appropriated $30 million for School Equipment Assistance Grants. Through this funding, Maine will be able to competitively award $85,470 to school districts in need of updated equipment.

Nutrition directors at Mount View High School in Thorndike, Maine, used USDA Equipment Assistance funding to purchase a blast chiller to accommodate increased quantities of fruits and vegetables. Thanks to this equipment, the school is now able to quickly and safely preserve the food's freshness while reducing spoilage. Other schools have acquired hot holding cabinets, mobile food carts, and even combination ovens, which prepare foods faster and maintain more vitamin and nutrient content compared with many other cooking methods. Our legislation would codify and improve this successful grant program to better meet the growing need nationwide.

The School Food Modernization Act seeks to help school food service personnel offer a wide variety of nutritious and appealing meals to all students. First, the bill would provide targeted grant assistance to supply the seed funding needed to upgrade kitchen infrastructure or to purchase high-quality equipment. Second, it would establish a loan guarantee assistance program within USDA to help schools acquire new equipment. Finally, to aid school food services personnel in running successful, healthy programs, the legislation would authorize USDA to provide support on a competitive basis to highly qualified third-party trainers to develop and administer training and technical assistance, including online programs.

I appreciate that some provisions of this legislation were incorporated into previous versions of the Children Nutrition Reauthorization legislation approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee. I encourage our colleagues to continue to support school kitchen equipment needs as the reauthorization process continues.

Mr. President, if our school children are going to be able to learn and succeed, they need their minds and bodies to be fully nourished. This bill would help us achieve that goal.

Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for the National Defense Authorization Act and to highlight amendments that I have sponsored or cosponsored to enhance opportunities for servicemembers and their families.

The NDAA represents one of the Senate's most important responsibilities. It authorizes funding to support our servicemembers, including those who are serving in harm's way. It sets policy for our Nation's military and authorizes critical national defense priorities. It is vitally important to ensure that our men and women in uniform, as well as our Department of Defense civilians, have the training, ships, planes, vehicles, and other equipment they need to help defend our Nation and its interests.

I commend Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed and the other Members of the Armed Services Committee for their leadership and bipartisan work on this important legislation. They have done an excellent job.

This bill contains many provisions that are important to the State of Maine and to our Nation. To cite just a few items, I am pleased that the NDAA includes authorization for three Arleigh Burke destroyers, 94 fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, and six CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. These essential ships and aircraft will help to ensure that our military maintains its superiority in both the seas and skies. I also strongly support the 3.1 percent pay increase that members of the Armed Forces will receive when this bill is signed into law.

In addition, the NDAA expresses our commitment to key international partners and allies. For example, the bill includes a full $500 million authorization to continue the cooperative missile defense programs with Israel, which are becoming increasingly vital in that volatile region. It also provides additional security assistance for Ukraine to help check continued Russian aggression on its eastern and southern borders.

To build on the impressive work done by Chairman Inhofe and the rest of the committee, I have introduced amendments to improve benefits for military widows, increased access to and awareness of Department of Defense and VA apprenticeship programs, and improved temporary duty travel lodging for DOD employees, such as those serving at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, ME.

The first amendment, which I am pleased to join my colleague Senator

Doug Jones in sponsoring, calls for the elimination of a longtime inequity in the Survivor Benefit Plan and the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Plan. This inequity, which causes there to be an offset between the two programs, is commonly known as the military widow's tax. This unfair offset is currently preventing as many as 65,000 surviving spouses--more than 260 of them in Maine--from receiving the full benefits that they deserve.

The Department of Defense's Survivor Benefits Plan, or SBP, is primarily an insurance benefit that military families purchase, usually in their retirement, and it provides cash benefits to a surviving spouse or other eligible recipients when the military retiree passes away. On the other hand, the Department of Veterans Affairs Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Program, known as DIC, is a monthly tax-free payment to survivors and dependents of servicemembers who pass away from service-related conditions.

For example, if a military retiree pays premiums into the insurance program, then, their spouse ought to be able to receive those benefits when the retiree passes away. However, what we find instead is that if the surviving spouse receiving SPB insurance payment is also eligible for the separate payment from the VA, there is a dollar-for-dollar offset. In some cases this leads to the total elimination of the Service Benefit Plan. In other cases, the offset greatly reduces the amount that is received. In either case, it is out and out unfair, and it harms survivors of our servicemembers and military retirees.

I am often reminded by our military commanders that you recruit the soldier, but you retain the family. We have an obligation to make sure that we are taking care of our military families, who have sacrificed so much.

This problem goes back decades, but this year can be the time that we finally solve it. With more than 75 Senators--three-quarters of the Senate--and 340 Members of the House of Representatives supporting this effort as cosponsors of the stand-alone bill, this is the year. It is our time to do our duty, not only to support the brave men and women of our military but also to honor our commitment to their families.

I would urge all of my colleagues to join in this effort and to support the repeal of the military widow's tax as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, and, indeed, Senator Jones and I have introduced an amendment to do just that.

Mr. President, the second amendment I wish to discuss is one that I have introduced with Senator Klobuchar. It would authorize servicemembers transitioning to civilian life to carry out skills training, apprenticeships, and internship programs at other Federal Agencies, in addition to the private sector. Currently, the military services are permitted to authorize servicemember participation in job training, including apprenticeships and internships, beginning up to 6 months before their service obligation in the military is complete. In a recent report to Congress, the Department of Defense recommended that we expand this authority to allow for inclusion of Federal Agencies as well as the private sector as participants.

I am very grateful to Chairman Inhofe and to Senator Reed for recently accepting this amendment and including it as part of the NDAA managers' amendment. That will ensure that these provisions are included in the Senate bill. This is a win-win for both servicemembers as well as Federal Agencies, as this simple expansion will create new opportunities for individual members of the military and allow the Federal Government to benefit from the talents that our highly trained soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines bring to their careers subsequent to their military service. It is a commonsense reform that will expand access to apprenticeships to our servicemembers and ease their transition.

Third is an amendment that I introduced with Senator Cantwell. It would require the Department of Defense, in coordination with the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor, to report on their efforts to promote the utilization of apprenticeships and on-the-job training by servicemembers transitioning out of the military. So, obviously, this report is very much related to the earlier amendment that I just described.

The dramatic underutilization of apprenticeship and on-the-job training under the GI bill demonstrates the need to promote these vital programs. In fiscal year 2018, fewer than 1,500 veterans participated in apprenticeships and fewer than 1,400 participated in the other kinds of on-the-job training, and that is out of a universe of over a million beneficiaries of the VA's educational programs.

One obvious benefit of apprenticeship programs is that graduates learn hands-on skills for jobs that will immediately be available to them, and there are many of these kinds of good-paying jobs available in the State of Maine and elsewhere today.

Finally, there is an amendment that I have introduced with Senators Shaheen, King, and Hassan. This would address significant problems that the Department of Defense workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, ME, and elsewhere in the country have encountered with the Department's Integrated Lodging Pilot Program, which was initially authorized in the 2015 NDAA. The intent of the pilot program was to save money by assigning TDY lodging first at government facilities and then at specific commercial lodging at prenegotiated rates. However, what we have seen with employees at our shipyard is that they are often being forced to stay in subpar or inconvenient lodging--sometimes, in areas that simply are not safe.

Workers have shared stories with me and with the other members of the Maine and New Hampshire delegations about being awoken in the middle of the night to the sounds of loud shouts while staying at required government lodging, as well as more serious incidences of robberies and shootings nearby. In other cases, travelers describe staying in remote lodging on military installations without security or desk attendants nearby to resolve standard issues that are ordinarily addressed quickly at commercial hotels--basic things like dealing with room keys that don't work or addressing other problems in the hotel rooms.

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, in fact, has directed its travel office to no longer use the Integrated Lodging Pilot Program for travel to at least one installation due to repeated problems with personnel who were promised lodging only to find that it was not even available when they arrived, leaving these workers scrambling to find an alternative place to stay.

This was a pilot project that simply did not work. It is for these reasons that I have joined my colleagues from Maine and New Hampshire in introducing an amendment that simply allows this pilot program to end in December of this year as currently scheduled. This program may be something worth revisiting after we straighten out the problems with it--certainly, after Congress reviews the still uncompleted DOD report on the pilot. But for the time being, it clearly has not worked well for the workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and other DOD employees, and it should be allowed to expire at the end of this year.

I am very proud of the role that the State of Maine plays in our national defense. From the accounting center in northern Maine to the Air National Guard base in Bangor that refuels so many military aircraft, to contractors like Bath Iron Works, where we will christen a ship on Saturday in honor of our former colleague Senator Daniel Inouye, to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, to countless other smaller suppliers, the State of Maine is essential to our national security.

Enactment of this bill is vitally important to the security of our Nation. I would encourage my colleagues to support the underlying bill, as well as these commonsense amendments.

I yield the floor.

I just wanted to thank the majority leader for his very generous comments, as well as acknowledge the good wishes and congratulations from so many of my colleagues, including my colleague from Maine, Senator King.

This is a momentous occasion for me, a real milestone. I am proud of the fact that I have never missed a rollcall vote during the time I have been privileged to represent the great State of Maine in the Senate. There have been some close calls over the years, but fortunately I have been able to be present for each one. I realize that I have been blessed with good health and that when I had broken ankles, including one that required surgery, it fortunately happened over the Christmas break, so once again I was able to come back and not miss a vote.

But it is the embodiment of how seriously I take the responsibilities with which I have been entrusted by the people of Maine. Voting is a Senator's most solemn responsibility, and I feel strongly about making sure that my State is represented on each and every rollcall vote we take in this Chamber. It hasn't always been easy, but it is such a privilege and honor to represent the people of the great State of Maine.

I thank the majority leader, Senator McConnell, for acknowledging this

milestone in my tenure in the Senate and in my service to the people of Maine and this Nation.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Madam President, in 1969, General Electric opened a factory in Bangor, ME. At that time, it was a small operation using old machinery to produce components for turbines that powered only 7,000 homes. Today, 50 years later, the skilled workers at GE Power manufacture equipment that powers more than 1 million homes. I am delighted to congratulate this outstanding company and its dedicated workforce on their golden anniversary.

GE Power is a center of excellence for steam turbine rotors and blading. It specializes in gas turbine component manufacturing, which is especially important as natural gas has become an essential contributor to America's growing energy independence and has helped reduce harmful emissions. As this facility has grown, so has its global reputation for innovation and problem solving.

That reputation is earned every day by the nearly 400 employees at GE Power. Their ingenuity and dedication have made their plant one of Bangor's most significant employers. They have embraced GE's companywide ethic of philanthropy and service to others, and they contribute to their community in countless ways.

The General Electric Company was founded in 1892 by Thomas Alva Edison. The famed inventor and electricity pioneer could well have had Bangor in mind when he said, ``The three great essentials to achieve anything are hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense.'' The men and women of GE Power demonstrate those essentials every day, creating opportunity for themselves and our city, and I congratulate them on this landmark anniversary.

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

I yield the floor.