Floor Statements

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5816, which is at the desk.

I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 706 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of the following items, which are postal naming-bills, and the Senate proceed to their consideration en bloc: H.R. 3027, H.R. 4416, H.R. 4651, H.R. 5331, and H.R. 5562.

I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Veterans' Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 4276 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5687 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I see we have been joined by the senior Senator from the State of Hawaii. Aloha.

I am happy to yield the floor to Senator Hirono.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Landrieu, concerning the authorization of the First State National Historical Park that was included within H.R. 3979, the National Defense Authorization Act.

As the chairman is aware, our staffs worked diligently with property owners and other stakeholders in the drafting of the language authorizing the First State National Historical Park within H.R. 3979. The authorization includes language that redesignates the sites currently within the boundary of the First State National Monument and authorizes four additional sites--the Old Swedes Church, Fort Christina, the John Dickinson Plantation, and the Ryves Holt House--to be included within the boundary of the new First State National Historical Park. The language authorizes the National Park Service to acquire the listed additional sites only under very specific parameters, including by purchase from a willing seller; by exchange, which can only be achieved if the property owner consents; or by donation. No lands or interests in land can be acquired by condemnation, so no landowner can be forced to sell their property for inclusion in the park. To further clarify our intent, the legislation references a map outlining the boundaries for each of the eligible sites.

I would like to ask the Chair of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources whether she agrees with my intent and understanding of the language authorizing the First State National Historical Park within H.R. 3979 in that no additional property can be included in the boundaries of the park until the U.S. government has acquired the property, and furthermore, that no property can be acquired--either in fee title or an interest in land, such as an easement--unless acquired from a landowner who willingly desires to sell or

donate. I would also like to ask the chairman if it is her understanding that none of these properties could be acquired for inclusion within the boundaries of the park by the exercise of Federal power of eminent domain?

I thank the Senator from Louisiana for her comments and her leadership on this issue. I also would like to thank the committee staff, especially David Brooks, for all the hard work they have done over the years to make a national park a reality in Delaware.

The Senator from Oregon has thanked Tom for his service in the Senate. I wish to thank him for his service before he was in the Senate when he and I were kids--well, not exactly--but when we served in the United States services. We spent some time in airplanes--not in the same airplane, but roughly at the same time. A lot of times people come up to me and thank me for my service in the Navy--and I am sure they do that with you--and I tell them that I loved it. I loved the men and women I served with, I loved the missions, and it was an honor to do that. I wanted to start off by thanking you for that, and to say that is one of the bonds which has drawn us together as friends right from the start.

The Senator from Oregon mentioned your strong effort to raise the minimum wage, which ultimately was not successful. I want to mention a couple of issues I have had the privilege of working on with you that I think have been very successful. There is a battle that needs to continue to be fought, and I plan to continue to do that, and my hope is that you and others will do it too.

As veterans, I know how important the GI bill was for me and for you as well. I think we got about $250 a month on the GI bill, and I was happy to have every dime of it. I moved from California to the University of Delaware when I got out of the Navy, got an MBA, and I still flew for the Navy and the Reserves, and it was a huge help for me.

The folks who get the GI bill today come back from Afghanistan and Iraq or wherever, and if they have served for 3 years they get the GI bill, as you know, and that means they get full tuition. If they go to the University of Iowa, Delaware State, Iowa State, they get free tuition. They get free books, fees, tutoring. In my State they get a $1,500-a-month housing allowance. That is the GI bill today.

There are a bunch of colleges around the country that--just as they did when my dad came back from World War II or when my Uncle Ed came back from the Korean war, others have come back from Vietnam and so forth--there are scam artists involved with postsecondary training schools, sometimes colleges, and they see the GI with that benefit, and they see it as if it were a dollar sign on their back, and they want to go after the dollar sign and separate the value from the benefit.

The Senator from Iowa has worked on this so hard, trying to make sure--there are plenty of for-profit postsecondary schools and such that do a good job, and there are some that don't. Nobody has been as active in trying to make sure that we clean this up as you have been, my friend, and my friend from Illinois, Dick Durbin, and I am pleased to be the wingman on this. I promise that Senator Durbin and I aren't going away. The folks who do this job right, the for-profits that are doing a good job by veterans and taxpayers, we salute them; and those who do not, we are going after them. So I thank you and your staff for standing up for veterans consistently.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that many people are having lunch right now across the eastern part of our country, maybe getting ready, over in Iowa, to have some lunch. If people go into a chain restaurant where there are 15 or more restaurants in that chain across the country--I think it is 15 or 20--they look at the menu to order, and right there they see the calories. If they want more information about the fats, trans fats, the amount of sodium in the food--all kinds of information--they get it.

We are a nation where obesity is a huge problem, a huge cost driver in health care. I thank the Senator for leading the charge on menu labeling, which is the reality in our country, and you should feel good about that. I feel very good about that.

It has been a blessing knowing you and serving with you, Tom. There is an old saying: Flattery won't hurt you if you don't inhale. You are having a lot of flattery thrown at you here today, so don't breathe too deeply and you should be OK.

We thank and salute you and your wife Ruth and your family. In the Navy, when people have done a really good job, we say words like ``bravo zulu,'' and I say bravo zulu to you. When people are ready to weigh anchor and sail off into the sunrise, we say things like ``fair winds and following seas,'' and I say that to you as well. God bless you.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with my colleague, Senator Coons.

Madam President, along with my colleague Senator Coons, I rise today in support of Division M of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, the Expatriate Health Coverage Clarification Act. I would also like to clarify the intent of this bipartisan and technical bill, which was necessary to clearly explain how the Affordable Care Act, ACA, should apply to U.S.-issued expatriate health insurance plans and to ensure that U.S. health insurers who provide expatriate health insurance plans encounter the same legal requirements and expectations as foreign expatriate health insurers.

Expatriate health insurance plans are high-quality and comprehensive health insurance plans intended for a globally mobile, highly skilled and sought-after workforce. Expatriate workers can be found in diverse industries and sectors, including corporations such as airlines and oil and gas exploration companies, nonprofit organizations, foreign aid groups, and contractors in conflict zones supporting or protecting U.S. troops and citizens. Expatriate workers often travel between multiple countries several times within 1 year or live in foreign countries for prolonged periods of time. These expatriate workers and their families typically require and depend on comprehensive health care services and other supporting services in multiple countries in the course of one year. U.S.-issued expatriate plans cover fewer than 500,000 individuals, which primarily include Americans working overseas.

My understanding and intent is that the Expatriate Health Coverage Clarification Act should make only limited and technical modifications to the ACA that apply to U.S. health insurers providing health insurance coverage to ``qualified expatriates'' as defined by this legislation. These modifications are necessary to ensure that U.S. insurance companies offering expatriate health plans can remain competitive in the global marketplace for these plans, alongside foreign insurers who are not subject to the same ACA requirements. This legislation should not affect current labor or immigration laws or regulations. I have worked hand-in-hand with Senators Coons, Toomey, Rubio, Harkin, Wyden, Alexander, Hatch, and a bipartisan group of our House colleagues to ensure that the Expatriate Health Coverage Clarification Act is narrowly written to respect, and leave undisturbed, our existing immigration laws and regulations.

Mr. President, I have no prepared remarks. I am trying to speak right from my heart, and my heart is full.

I want to start off by thanking Tom for the very kind comments he made about serving with me. We met 10 years ago. He was that bomb thrower--still is a little bit--that Saxby talked about when they were elected 20 years ago. I was one of the people who came up, along with Lamar Alexander, George Voinovich, and Mark Pryor, for an orientation for new Senators so that when they got here we could actually spend some time and teach the new guys and gals the ropes.

I remember the first day we convened and put them all in a big circle in Ted Stevens' office, a beautiful office here in the Capitol, and out of those 3 days Tom and Carolyn and Michelle and Barack began to bond and became friends. I didn't know how close friends they were until about 4 or 5 years ago. Barack Obama had given the State of the Union address. I was sitting on the Republican side. There was a time when we actually went back and forth to try to mix things up. The President finished his speech, and there is no rope line at those speeches. The President came along to shake hands with people. I was sitting next to Tom, and we walked down so we could say hi to the President.

I will never forget what the President said to him. In just the quiet between the two of them--they embraced, and the President said to him: Are you still praying for me? And very quietly, Tom Coburn said: Every night.

Just like that--they didn't agree on everything, but they were friends. They are friends, and they will always be friends. I hope Tom and I will be as well.

I remember sitting up there where Cory Booker, our new Senator from

New Jersey, is sitting now, listening to Mike Enzi talking about how he worked so well with Ted Kennedy--Ted Kennedy, one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, and Mike Enzi, one of the most conservative-- and how they got extraordinary amounts of stuff done.

I just want to say that the legislation coming out of our committee-- and Senator Collins has led that committee before--is moving through this body and the House--it is really pretty amazing--to strengthen our cyber defenses, to take the chemical facility antiterrorism law that Susan Collins authored and to make it better and make it real, to better protect our Nation's information from attacks from all over the world, to try to make our Postal Service not just relevant and not just hanging on but actually vibrant and real.

But that day, Mike Enzi talked about the 80/20 rule with Ted Kennedy. He said: Ted Kennedy and I agree on about 80 percent of the stuff, and we disagree on 20 percent. He and I decided to focus on the 80 percent we agreed on and set aside the 20 percent we didn't agree on to another day.

I call that the ``Enzi Rule,'' and that has helped guide me here in the Senate, and it certainly has helped to guide me in the work I have been privileged to do with Dr. Coburn.

When I became chairman of the committee about 2 years ago and Dr. Coburn was going to be the ranking member of the committee, somebody asked me what it was going to be like. How are you going to work with this guy?

I said: It is going to be a little like a marriage. You have to work at it every day. Everybody has to give and meet somewhere in the middle.

I love to ask people who have been married a long time what the secret is for being married a long time. Some of you have maybe heard me talk about this. I get some really hilarious answers but also some really terrific and insightful answers.

I think the best one I have ever gotten when I asked what is the secret for being married 40, 50, 60, 70 years is the two c's. It is not Coburn and Carper. It is the two c's: communicate and compromise. That is not only the secret for a vibrant, long marriage for two people; it is a secret for a vibrant democracy.

I believe the reason why Tom and I have had this partnership that I think has been productive is, one, we surround ourselves with people-- certainly for me--smarter than us. The second thing is we believe in communicating, we believe in compromising, and we believe in collaborating. I think the American people are the beneficiaries of that.

We have a reception later today for Tom, and I hope he comes. We will have the opportunity to say some more things, as well. He is not the kind of person who likes to be praised, so this is probably punishment. There is a verse in the Scriptures talking about heaping with praise, pouring praise all over. This is probably a little like that. But I want to close with this. His words on the Bowles-Simpson Commission are for the ages, and I hope we will never walk away from the lessons he showed us with his courage in supporting that work and helping to craft that work.

There are words in the Scriptures, in Matthew 25, that talk about the least of these in our society. When I was sick, when I was hungry, when I was thirsty, when I was naked, when I was in prison--those are the questions. The answer: If you have done it to the least of these, you have done it also to Me.

Senator Coburn believes we have a moral responsibility, a moral obligation to the least of these in our society. He also believes we have a fiscal obligation, a fiscal imperative to meet that moral obligation in a fiscally responsible way. And I think those two ideas guide him in his work, and, frankly, it is an inspiration to me.

Last word. Leaders should be humble, not haughty. Leaders should lead by our example, not ``do as I say'' but ``do as I do.'' Leaders should have the heart of a servant. Leaders should have the courage to stay out of step when everyone else is marching to the wrong tune. Leaders ought to be committed to doing what is right, not what is easy. Leaders should treat other people the way they want to be treated. Tom has offended just about everybody in this body, but he always comes back and apologizes, and he has already done it here today. Leaders should focus on excellence in everything they do. If it isn't perfect, make it better. It is in the preamble of the Constitution--``in order to form a more perfect Union.'' That defines him. Finally, if you think you are right and you know you are right, never give up. That is what a leader should be about.

For the years he served here and for a long time before that and for a long time to come, he has been that leader, and I feel lucky to say he is my friend.

God bless you.

Mr. President, our colleagues know the Presiding Officer is a recovering Governor, I am a recovering Governor, Mike Johanns is a recovering Governor. So we are sort of a support group for one another, men and women who used to be somebody special. I am kidding because I think we still are.

The Senator was talking about Michael, and I had the privilege of knowing him and his wife for a number of years. We were Governors together, and my wife Martha and his wife Stephanie were First Ladies together and define what the standards should be for First Lady or First Man, if you will, if you have a female Governor.

I will never forget when I first met him. I was talking about Stephanie and how we know each other and so forth, and he told me this great story about--I think they were county commissioners together. It was Lancaster County.

I might be mistaken, I think he used to be in those days maybe a Democrat, and a long time ago I was a young Republican for Barry Goldwater, when I was a 17-year-old Republican freshman student at Ohio State, and later found out Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater ``Golden Girl'' at the Republican convention in 1964.

In any event, I just want to say one of the reasons he is so thoughtful, and I hope maybe the reason I am fairly thoughtful, is because we have the ability to work across the aisle and to see and appreciate the views of other people.

The story about how he and Stephanie, when they were on county council together, they met, started liking each other, started dating, fell in love and later got married--they even had lunch together every day they were on county council, and every day he was Governor they continued to have lunch together and here, too, for many days. That is a love, the kind you just don't see. You just don't see that very much.

I just want to say: You are such an inspiration to the rest of us, you and your wife, the way you cherish each other and hold together and support each other and stand by each other. It is just a real source of inspiration.

There is an old saying: It doesn't matter who gets credit for something when you get a lot more done. You define that, a guy who doesn't need headlines, a lot of attention. I hope the rest of us are that way, but you define that for us.

We love working with you. We are going to miss you. We wish you the best and wish you Godspeed. As we say in the Navy, fair winds. God bless you.

I object, just for a moment.

Madam President, I would like to say to my colleague, Ted Kennedy said to me when I first got here a number of years ago, talking about compromise and that sort of thing--he always said: I am willing to compromise on policy, not on principle.

I think if we look at what we have accomplished in the last 2 years, that is exactly what we have done. I thank my colleague for being a great leader--not just of his caucus but of our body and for being my friend.

With that, I would say on the legislation that is before us, as he suggested, the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act does build on previous legislation reported out of our committee. Some of those bills, the DATA Act, the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, and some others have been signed into law with bipartisan support, including by the current President.

The Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act is a good government bill that will provide better and more detailed information to Congress and the American people about Federal spending. Congress has passed several bills in the last few years to improve transparency on government spending and to get this information online. Unfortunately, the information has not always been provided at the level of detail taxpayers and a number of my colleagues and I would prefer.

This bill builds on the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act passed in 2010 and that I coauthored with Senators Warner and Akaka. That bill required OMB to work with agencies to create a list of all Federal programs that can be accessed on a single Web site.

Unfortunately, there has been no consistency whatsoever across the government in how agencies define the term ``program.'' GAO has agreed that the current program list isn't giving us the kind of transparency we want because agencies took different approaches in defining their programs. The Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act addresses this problem by defining the term ``program.''

GAO has also noted that the current program inventory does not allow Congress and the GAO to compare similar programs, which is an obstacle to measuring government performance. Additionally, budget and cost information is not available for all programs.

This bill will ensure that agencies provide a full list of their programs along with important information about each program. For grants and other types of direct assistance, it will provide information on how many people a program serves and how many people it takes to run it.

A complete inventory of Federal programs, along with budget and financial information at the program level, will allow Congress to compare similar programs and identify overlap and duplication.

The bill has strong bipartisan support in our committee and was reported out without dissent. Seeing it to final passage would be a good win for this Congress.

I am pleased to yield back to our colleague from Oklahoma for a unanimous consent request.

Mr. President, I came to the floor without any prepared remarks, but I want to say a few words, if I could, about our colleague Mark Pryor.

I have affectionately called him ``Hey, man,'' because in Arkansas, when you see one of your friends, you don't just say ``hi, Tom'' or ``hi, Mark,'' you say ``hey, man.'' For the last 12 years, we have been saying a lot of ``hey, man's,'' and hopefully we will do so for a long time to come.

Ten or twelve days ago I was down in Honduras--murder capital of the world--and trying to figure out how to help save a nation that may be a failing nation. They have a lot of gangs down there--gangs involved in extorting money from businesses, a lot of them kidnapping people, trafficking people. Gangs have a bad connotation in Honduras, as they should--here in Washington, DC, and in the Senate, not so much.

Senator Collins and Senator Durbin have talked about some of the ``gangs'' this Senator from Arkansas has been involved in, which I think most of us would say are doing the Lord's work, doing good work. Mark is a man of deep faith, as we know, and he has been a great role model for the rest of us.

Mark has reminded me before--and maybe some others as well--that in the Old Testament, in Proverbs, we are reminded we should always pray for wisdom--always pray for wisdom. That is something I pray for every night--not just for my colleagues, of course, but certainly for me. All I can say is the good Lord has answered his prayer.

One of the reasons he has ended up as a member of these gangs for good is because he has so much wisdom. He is a good listener. He is just a very, very wise human being.

It has been a joy serving with him. He got here in 2003. He raised his right hand here and took the oath of office in 2003. He came through orientation for new Senators, and I talked to him about it later, and I said: How was orientation, Mark? He said: Well, it lasted about that long. It was over. If you are a Democrat, we are going to put you over here, and if you are a Republican, we will put you over here, and it was just like, have at it. He and I talked about it, and we said: That doesn't make much sense.

As an attorney general and a member of the Attorneys General Association, and myself as a former Governor and a member of the National Governors Association, we had a robust orientation program for new attorneys general and for new Governors. The Presiding Officer is a former Governor of Maine, and he recalls that well. I think one of the reasons why the Governors are less partisan and more likely to work across the aisle to get things done together--and the same with the attorneys general--is because of that orientation that occurs a couple weeks after the election. We didn't have anything like that in the Senate. So Senator Pryor, along with former Governor and Senator Voinovich, former Governor Alexander and myself decided to see if we could get some kind of orientation program here for Senators. Now when people show up a couple weeks after getting elected new Senators, they no longer get put over in one corner as Democrats and one corner as Republicans and are told to go at it. They spend some time together-- maybe the most concentrated time they will have together during the

time they are here--with folks of the other party. Those of us who are Senators and spouses and chaplains and so forth go in and provide information and tell them to learn from our mistakes--those of us who have made plenty of them--and you won't make those same mistakes.

One of the things Senator Pryor is especially good at doing is trying to connect each new Senator with a mentor--a Democratic Member and a Republican Member--and he was dogged in that. Not that everybody needs a mentor, but we all need friends. We need friends on both sides of the aisle, and you will keep those friendships for a long, long time.

I was a naval officer for 23 years. When I was a 17-year-old graduate from high school, I went off to Ohio State to eventually become a Navy midshipman. I did that for 4 years, 5 years as a naval flight officer in a hot war in Southeast Asia, and 18 in the Cold War until I retired in 1991. I started learning about leadership when I was pretty young-- something I learned before I became a midshipman. But among the things I learned about leadership is that a leader should be humble, not haughty. A leader should say do as I do, not do as I say. Leaders should have the heart of a servant, and we should come here with the idea of serving. The Scriptures we read say: He who would be a leader must be a servant to all; he who would be first should be a slave to all.

A leader should have the courage to stay out of step when everybody else is marching to the wrong tune. A leader shouldn't ask what is the easy thing to do, the speedy thing to do; they should ask what is the right thing to do. And a leader, as has already been said, a leader should ask the question asked of a rabbi some 2,000 years ago. A rabbi was asked: What is the most important commandment of all? He mentioned what one was, and then he said the second one is love our neighbors as ourselves. I think that is the most important one of all. Leaders are like that. Leaders are like that.

I just wish to say that I think my friend, ``Hey, man,'' also known as Senator Mark Pryor, personifies that kind of leader. God knows we need more of them. He has demonstrated by his own character and behavior what he believes.

I am tempted to say we are going to miss him, but we are still going to see a lot of him. In the Navy, when somebody has done a great job, we say two words: Bravo Zulu--Bravo Zulu. So I say that to my friend.

We also have this admonition. The Navy has the tradition of hailing farewell on a ship or submarine or aircraft carrier, whatever squadron you are on. When people come in, we have an event called a hail and farewell party. When it is over, for those who are leaving, we say: Farewell and a following sea.

So I would say this: Farewell and a following sea, and we will see much more of you in the future.

I ask unanimous consent to yield back all time.