Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I am introducing one last bill as a United States Senator. It is on an issue I have long wanted to tackle, changing our national anthem to one I believe is more representative of the amazing country and people that make up our United States of America. I believe that from its very first line, ``Oh beautiful for spacious skies'' America the Beautiful captures the spirit of our democracy and our shared commitment to liberty and freedom far better than our current anthem.

Now some might say but the Star Spangled Banner has always been our national anthem, but that's not true. In fact its only been the anthem since 1931 and its only been in popular use during the last 100 years. It first became popular with the military, particularly the Navy.

But the bottom line is that the Star Spangled banner commemorates a single battle, just one of the many historic battles and wars that we have fought to create and protect our great country. I think to me the thing that best captures my concern with the Star Spangled Banner, in addition to the fact that it is hard as heck for a layperson to sing, is that it doesn't actually mention the word ``America.''

In contrast, America the Beautiful celebrates not just the amazing geography and wonder of our country--from amber waves of grain to purple mountains--from sea to shining sea, but also captures something of our national spirit when we sing ``A thoroughfare of freedom beat, across the wilderness.''

Moreover, unlike the Star Spangled banner, America the Beautiful, like our coins, like our daily invocation here in the Senate acknowledges a higher power and calls upon god to guide us, to shed grace upon us, while also celebrating the heroism of those who have sacrificed their lives to create and preserve our democracy.

I am well aware that this legislation to redesignate the national anthem to ``America the Beautiful'' is not going to pass today, one of my final days in the Senate, but I would ask those who follow me to keep in mind the importance of symbols like the national anthem in reminding us what is great about this country--equality of opportunity, geographic diversity and majesty, shared commitment to individual liberty--and give serious thought to this proposal.

America the Beautiful is an anthem that far better embodies both the land and the principles that are the unifying beliefs of our democracy and for which we all stand together: freedom, liberty, and progress. For these reasons I believe that ``America the Beautiful'' should replace ``The Star Spangled Banner'' as the national anthem and I hope that my colleagues will come to share this view.

Mr. President, today I am introducing one last bill as a United States Senator. It is on an issue I have long wanted to tackle, changing our national anthem to one I believe is more representative of the amazing country and people that make up our United States of America. I believe that from its very first line, ``Oh beautiful for spacious skies'' America the Beautiful captures the spirit of our democracy and our shared commitment to liberty and freedom far better than our current anthem.

Now some might say but the Star Spangled Banner has always been our national anthem, but that's not true. In fact its only been the anthem since 1931 and its only been in popular use during the last 100 years. It first became popular with the military, particularly the Navy.

But the bottom line is that the Star Spangled banner commemorates a single battle, just one of the many historic battles and wars that we have fought to create and protect our great country. I think to me the thing that best captures my concern with the Star Spangled Banner, in addition to the fact that it is hard as heck for a layperson to sing, is that it doesn't actually mention the word ``America.''

In contrast, America the Beautiful celebrates not just the amazing geography and wonder of our country--from amber waves of grain to purple mountains--from sea to shining sea, but also captures something of our national spirit when we sing ``A thoroughfare of freedom beat, across the wilderness.''

Moreover, unlike the Star Spangled banner, America the Beautiful, like our coins, like our daily invocation here in the Senate acknowledges a higher power and calls upon god to guide us, to shed grace upon us, while also celebrating the heroism of those who have sacrificed their lives to create and preserve our democracy.

I am well aware that this legislation to redesignate the national anthem to ``America the Beautiful'' is not going to pass today, one of my final days in the Senate, but I would ask those who follow me to keep in mind the importance of symbols like the national anthem in reminding us what is great about this country--equality of opportunity, geographic diversity and majesty, shared commitment to individual liberty--and give serious thought to this proposal.

America the Beautiful is an anthem that far better embodies both the land and the principles that are the unifying beliefs of our democracy and for which we all stand together: freedom, liberty, and progress. For these reasons I believe that ``America the Beautiful'' should replace ``The Star Spangled Banner'' as the national anthem and I hope that my colleagues will come to share this view.

Mr. President, the omnibus appropriations bill that the Senate approved today includes the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies bill. Or, as we like to refer to it, the Labor-HHS bill. Most people didn't think that would happen. They thought Labor-HHS was too controversial. There was no way the Senate and House could work out a compromise on this bill. But we did, and as the Senate clerk of the Labor-HHS bill, Adrienne Hallett is the staffer who deserves the greatest credit. More than any other staffer, the burden of completing this bill fell on her. Despite what so many people expected, she made it happen.

Adrienne has been an outstanding staff director of my Labor-HHS subcommittee. She has served the Appropriations Committee and the Senate extraordinarily well during her 15 years of Senate service. I believe she will continue to serve it well after my term expires. I think a bit of background will help you understand why I have this view.

First of all, Adrienne has strong Iowa roots. She hails from Cedar Rapids, where her mom still lives and enjoys the company of dozens of relatives throughout the State. Her father left us too soon after a battle with ALS ended over a decade ago. However, before his untimely death he had already helped Adrienne develop a strongly held view on service and a can-do spirit that propels her forward in pursuit of solutions to challenges that seemingly can't be overcome. He also had already supported Adrienne in her pursuit of higher education.

That higher education started with a degree in philosophy from the University of Northern Iowa, UNI. Now, you might say that such a degree is perfect for the ponderous Senate. What I have noticed is that the ethical decisionmaking skills she honed there have enabled her to more effectively find agreements that help the Senate and Congress advance good public policy. I will discuss some of that policy in a moment.

After earning her degree from UNI she went on to divinity school at Vanderbilt University, where she earned a master's degree and then went on to work for the Vice Chancellor for Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Fortunately for me, Adrienne did not stay long before she joined my staff in Washington, DC in 1999.

Adrienne quickly demonstrated what an asset she was to me through her hard work and dedication to serving my Iowa constituents. I realized she could help me serve them and all Americans even better by joining my labor-HHS subcommittee staff which she agreed to do in 2001.

Now, I frequently am thanked and recognized for the things I have done as one of Iowa's Senators and in my role leading the labor-HHS subcommittee. What most people don't always know is the role that Adrienne Hallett has played in helping make those accomplishments a reality.

I think of community health centers from Clinton to Council Bluffs. That is thousands of families in Iowa receiving critical medical care they need to stay healthy or recover from injury or illness.

There is the Job Corps Center in Ottumwa that will give hundreds of youth another chance at education and training that will enable them to be self-sufficient and positively contribute to society.

There is the National Civilian Community Corps campus in Vinton. Hundreds of young men and women are being trained for service projects in local communities throughout the North Central region of the United States.

I could go on and on in naming centers and programs around Iowa where someone has thanked me for something that Adrienne helped make possible. But it is not just Iowa that has benefitted from her service.

It is also the expansion of community health centers throughout the United States. There are millions of families being served by those centers.

Something so close to my heart is the significant role she has played in advancing public health systems in the United States and throughout the world. These all are things where I am recognized for something Adrienne helped make possible.

Adrienne, I join with the entire Senate family in thanking you for your outstanding service and offering best wishes to you for the future.

Mr. President, I too want to spend a couple of moments reflecting upon my long friendship and association with Senator Carl Levin from Michigan.

Much has been said this morning about Carl the person and the Senator. Let me say this: I don't know of anyone in this body who has exhibited more of an intellectual honesty, a calm demeanor, and a sense of fierce loyalty and perseverance. I don't know who exhibits those qualities more than Carl Levin.

Carl embodies the best of what I think it means to be both a citizen and a U.S. Senator. Barbara and Carl, Ruth and I have enjoyed many meals together over the years, having great conversations about everything. I want to say to my friend Carl, I hope that Michigan and Iowa are not so far apart, and that we can continue to get together in the future.

I will say, Carl, right now I hope you don't hold it against me for all of the times the Hawkeyes will beat the Wolverines in the future. Don't let that be a stumbling block.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, almost 2 years ago I announced I was not going to seek a sixth term in the Senate. That decision and that announcement didn't seem all that difficult or hard at that time. After all, 2 years was a long time off. Since then, I have been busy with hearings, meeting constituents, getting legislation through the HELP Committee, and working on appropriations.

But now, knowing this will be my final formal speech on the floor of the Senate; knowing that in a few days a semitruck is going to pull up to the Hart Senate Office Building and load hundreds of boxes of my records of 40 years--30 in the Senate and 10 in the House--and haul all of that off to Drake University and the Harkin Institute on Public Policy and Civic Engagement in Des Moines, IA; seeing my office at 731 Hart Senate Office Building stripped almost bare and the shelves cleaned; when I will soon cast my last vote; when I will no longer be engaged in legislative battle; when I will no longer be summoned by the Senate bells; and when I will soon just be No. 1,763 of all of the Senators who have ever served in the Senate--now the leaving becomes hard and wrenching and emotional. That is because I love the Senate. I love my work here.

It has been said by a lot of pundits that the Senate is broken. No, it is not. The Senate is not broken. Oh, maybe there are a few dents, a couple of scrapes here and there--banged up a little bit--but there is still no other place in America where one person can do big things--for good or for ill--for our people and our nation.

I love the people with whom I work. This is a deaf sign. ``I-L-Y'' means ``I love you.''

To the Senators, staff, clerks, Congressional Research Service, doorkeepers, cloakroom, police, restaurant employees, and, yes, the pages--and especially to those who labor outside the lights, the cameras, and the news stories--who make this Senate function on a daily basis, I thank you.

I particularly thank my wonderful, dedicated, hard-working staff, both present and past, both personal and committee staff. When I say committee staff, I mean the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which I have been privileged to chair or be ranking member of since 1989; also the Committee on Agriculture, on which I have served since 1985 and which I chaired twice for two farm bills, once in 2001 and 2002 and the second one in 2007 and 2009; and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which I have chaired since the untimely death of Senator Ted Kennedy in 2009.

I first heard Pat Leahy say this, so I always attribute it to him: We Senators are just a constitutional impediment to the smooth functioning of staff. This is truer than most of us would probably like to admit.

Also in thanking my staff, I don't just mean those who work in Washington. I would never have been reelected four times without the hands-on, day in, day out constituent service of my Iowa staff. The casework they have done in helping people with problems is every bit as important as any legislative work done in Washington.

In 2012 our office marked a real milestone--100,000 constituent service cases that we processed since 1985. I cannot count the number of times Iowans have personally thanked me for something my staff has done to help me.

There is a story out our way that I have heard for a long time. It is a little story. If you are driving down a country road and see a turtle--see that image of a turtle--sitting on a fence post, you can be sure of one thing: It didn't get there by itself.

I can relate to that turtle. I didn't get here by myself. My staff helped. I thank my staff, both past and present, who so strongly supported me when I was right and so diplomatically corrected me when I was wrong and who all labored in a shared commitment to provide a hand up, a ladder of opportunity to those who had been dealt a bad hand in the lottery of life.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a list of the names of my staff so they will be forever enshrined in the history of the Senate.

Most of all, I thank my wife, Ruth, the love of my life, my wife of 46 years. You have been my constant companion, my soul mate, my strongest supporter, and my most honest critic. You have been my joy in happy times and my solace when things just didn't go right. So I am looking forward to more adventures, love, and excitement with her in the years ahead.

To our two beautiful, smart, caring, and compassionate daughters, Amy and Jenny, I thank you for always being there for your dad, for giving me such wondrous joy in being a part of your growing up. I am so proud of both of you.

To my son-in-law Steve and to my grand kids, McQuaid, Daisy, and Luke: Look out, because here comes grandpa.

There is so much I want to say, but I want to be respectful of those who have come to share this moment with me--my staff, here and there, my family, friends, and fellow Senators.

But I want to state as briefly as I can why I am here, what has propelled me, and what has been my guiding philosophy for all these years.

It has to do with that ladder of opportunity I just mentioned. You see, there is nothing wrong in America with being a success. There is nothing wrong with having more money, a nicer home, a nicer car, sending your kids to good schools, having nice vacations, and a great retirement. That is a big part of the American dream.

But I believe when you make it to the top, and you make it to the top, and you make it to the top, and I make it to the top, one of the primary responsibilities of our free government is to make sure we leave the ladder down for others to climb. Now, mind you, I said a ladder. I didn't say an escalator. An escalator is a free ride. Don't believe in that.

If you follow my analogy a little bit more, with a ladder you still have to

exert energy, effort, and initiative to get up. But, in order to do that, there must be rungs on that ladder. That is where government comes in, to put some rungs there--the bottom rungs--everything from maternal and child health care programs, Head Start, the best public schools, the best teachers, affordable and accessible college, job training.

Sometimes people fall off that ladder. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, they have an illness, they have an accident. That is why we have a safety net, to catch them--programs like disability insurance, workers' compensation, and job retraining programs to get them back up on that ladder once again.

Thirty-five years ago we looked around America and we saw millions of people who, no matter how hard they tried, could never climb that ladder of success. No matter how hard they tried, they could never do it.

These were our fellow Americans, our brothers and sisters with disabilities. So what did government do? We built them a ramp and we called it the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Again, we didn't build a moving walkway, did we? See, with a ramp, people still had to show energy and initiative to get up. I have often said there is not one dime, not one nickel in the Americans with Disabilities Act given to a person with a disability.

What we did is we broke down the barriers. We opened the doors of accessibility and accommodation, and we said to people with disabilities: Now, go on, follow your dreams, and in the words of the Army motto, be all you can be.

I can remember standing on the floor and leading the charge on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Once again, I felt a lot like that turtle, with a lot of people helping. When I think of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I think of people in the Senate such as Senator Lowell Weicker, Senator Bob Dole, and Senator Ted Kennedy; in the House, Tony Coelho, Steve Bartlett, and Steny Hoyer; and in the executive branch, at the head of it all, President George Herbert Walker Bush, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and Boyden Gray. On the outside, there are people like Ed Roberts, Marca Bristo, Bob Kafka, and the indomitable Justin Dart.

Here the one person who worked his heart out to bring it together--it is that staff again I tell you about--is Bobby Silverstein. It would have never happened without him.

So I believe government must not be just an observant bystander to life. It must be a force for good, for lifting people up, for giving hope to the hopeless.

I have never had an ``I love me'' wall in the office. What I did have were two items by my door when I walk out to vote or go to a committee meeting or whatever. One is a drawing of a house in which my mother was born and lived in until she was 25 years of age when she immigrated to America. That little house was in Suha, Yugoslavia, and is now Suha, Slovenia. That little house had a dirt floor and no running water. That was my mother's house.

The second item on my wall is my father's WPA card. It says: Notice to Report for Work on Project, WPA Form 402, to Patrick F. Harkin, Cumming, IA. You are asked to report for work at once on a project as a laborer for $40.30 per month. There is a signature by a supervisor. It is dated 7/1939, 4 months to the day before I was born.

My father was then 53 years old. He had worked most of the time in a coal mine in southern Iowa, was not in the best of health. There were no jobs--no jobs. Life looked pretty bleak. Things looked hopeless. And then my father, who only had a sixth-grade education--as he told me later--got a letter from Franklin Roosevelt. He always thought Franklin Roosevelt sent this to him personally. He always said: I got that letter from Franklin Roosevelt, and I got a job.

That was important for a lot of reasons, not only for the money and the dignity of work, but it gave my father hope--hope that tomorrow would be better than today and that our family would stay together. You see, there were five kids and a sixth one on the way--me. It gave him hope that his kids would have a better future.

The project he worked on is called Lake Ahquabi. My friend Senator Grassley knows about Lake Ahquabi. It is right south of Des Moines. It is a State park now, with a lake and recreation, and people still use it today.

Every Federal judge who is sworn in takes an oath to ``do equal right to the poor and to the rich.'' Let me repeat that: to ``do equal right to the poor and to the rich.'' Can we here in Congress say we do that, that we provide equal right to the poor and the rich alike? Our growing inequality proves we are not. Maybe we should be taking that oath.

There are four overriding issues I hope this Senate will address in this coming session and in the years ahead:

No. 1, as I mentioned, the growing economic inequality in America. It is destructive of lives, it slows our progress as a nation, and it will doom broad support for representative government. When people at the bottom of the economic ladder feel the government is not helping them and, in fact, may be stacked against them, they will cease to vote or they will turn to the siren song of extreme elements in our society. History proves this to be true.

I don't have a cookie-cutter answer or a solution, but it must include more fair tax laws and trade laws, more job training and retraining, rebuilding our physical infrastructure, and manufacturing. I believe it must include some things seemingly unrelated, such as quality, free early education for every child in America.

The answer to closing the inequality gap must include rebuilding labor unions and collective bargaining. If you traced the line over the last 40 years of the growing economic inequality in America and also put that over another line showing the loss in the number of union workers, they are almost identical. I do not believe it is a stretch to say that organized labor--unions--built the middle class in America, and they are a part of the answer in strengthening and rebuilding our middle class.

I believe another part of the answer is raising the minimum wage to above the poverty line and indexing it for inflation in the future.

We need more flex-time laws, especially for women in our workforce.

We need to strengthen Social Security, as in Senator Brown's bill-- not cutting, not raising the retirement age, but strengthening Social Security.

We need a new retirement system for all workers in America--not another 401(k) but a system in which employers and employees contribute and which can only be withdrawn as an annuity for life after one retires. I ask you to look at what the Netherlands has, that type of retirement system. Lack of a reliable retirement is one of the most underreported, unexamined crises on our national horizon, and it is a big part of our growing inequality.

Finally, we must continue to build on the Affordable Care Act. The cost and availability of good health care has in the past widened that inequality gap, and we are now starting to close that element of the inequality. I believe we need to add a public option to the exchange as another choice for people. We must continue support for prevention and public health, moving us more and more from sick care to real health care.

I believe that the second overriding issue confronting us is the destruction of the family of man's only home--our planet Earth--through the continued use of fossil fuels. We know what is happening. The science is irrefutable, the data is clear, and the warning signs are flashing in neon bright red: Stop what you are doing with fossil fuels. We must shift massively and quickly to renewable energy, a new smart electric grid, retrofitting our buildings for energy efficiency, and moving rapidly to a hydrogen-based energy cycle.

The third issue I commend to the Senate for further development and changes in existing laws is the underemployment of people with disabilities. As you all know, ensuring the equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities has been a major part of my work in the Senate for the past 30 years.

We have made significant strides forward in changing America to fulfill two of the four goals of the American with Disabilities Act; those two are full participation and equal opportunity. We have done all right on those. The other two goals--independent living and economic self-sufficiency--need more development.

I ask you all in the next Congress to do two things to advance these two

goals of independent living and economic self-sufficiency: First, help States implement the Supreme Court's decision in the Olmstead case to more rapidly deinstitutionalize people with disabilities and provide true independent living with support services. This will save money, and the lives of people with disabilities will be better and more truly independent. Second, we must do more on employment of people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment.

We all get the monthly unemployment figures every month. Last month unemployment held steady at 5.8 percent officially. My friend Leo Hindery has better calculations to show the real rate is probably about twice that figure. Also, we know the unemployment rate among African Americans is about twice that--11.1 percent. How many of us know, though, that the unemployment rate among adult Americans with disabilities who can work and want to work is over 60 percent? Yes, you heard me right, almost two out of every three Americans with a disability who want to work and who can work cannot find a job. That is a blot on our national character.

Thankfully, some enlightened employers have affirmative action plans to hire more people with disabilities. Employers are finding many times that these become their best employees; they are more productive, and they are the hardest working, most reliable workers.

I ask you to meet with Greg Wasson, the CEO of Walgreens, and Randy Lewis, who was the senior vice president there and is now retired. Walgreens has hired many people with disabilities in their distribution centers, and now Mr. Wasson has set a goal of 10 percent of all of their store employees will be people with disabilities. This needs to be emulated by businesses all over America. There are others making strides in this area. I will mention a few: Best Buy, Lowe's, Home Depot, IBM, Marriott. These are some of the other large companies that are moving forward, hiring people with disabilities. We need to learn from them what we, the Federal and, yes, maybe the State government can do to help in this area. We also need to implement policies to help small businesses employ more people with disabilities.

I dwell on this perhaps because I feel I haven't done enough on this issue of employment for people with disabilities, and we have to do better. I will say, however, that our HELP Committee passed this year and President Obama signed into law a new reauthorization of the old Workforce Investment Act, now named the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act. In this law there is a new provision I worked on with others to get more intervention in high school for kids with disabilities to prepare them for the workplace through things such as summer jobs, job coaching, internships. However, this is just starting and funding is tight, but it will do much for young people with disabilities to enter competitive integrated employment. I thank all members of the HELP Committee for their support of this bill but especially Senator Murray and Senator Isakson for taking the lead to get this bill done, along with Senator Enzi, Senator Alexander, and me.

While I am mentioning the HELP Committee, let me thank all members of the HELP Committee for a very productive last 2 years, during which we passed 24 bills signed into law by the President. These are important bills dealing with things such as drug track and tracing, compounding drugs, the Workforce Investment Act that I just mentioned, the Child Care and Development Block Grant Newborn Screening Act, and many more.

I would like to publicly again thank Senator Lamar Alexander for being such a great partner in all these efforts. Senator Alexander will be taking the helm of this great committee in the next Congress. Senator Alexander certainly has the background to lead this committee, but he also combines that background with a keen mind and a good heart, and I wish him continued success as the new chairman of the HELP Committee.

The fourth issue I hope future Senates will take care of concerns the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. I don't think anything has saddened me more in my 30 years here in the Senate than the failure of this body to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, or the CRPD, as it is known. It has been ratified by 150 nations. It is modeled after our own Americans with Disabilities Act. It has broad and deep support throughout our country--supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, veterans groups, every disability organization, every former living President, every former Republican leader of this Senate: Senator Dole, Senator Lott, Senator Frist. In November we received a letter from the National Association of Evangelicals supporting it.

I would also point out that Senator Dole has worked his heart out on this. If you remember, he was here on the floor 2 years ago this month, right before we brought it up. I thought we had the votes for it. Under our Constitution it takes two-thirds, and we failed by six votes. But Bob Dole has never given up on this--never.

Well, I hope the next Senate will take this up and join with the rest of the world in helping to make changes globally for people with disabilities.

I came to Congress--the House--in 1974 as one of the Watergate babies. But with my retirement and the retirement in the House of Congressman George Miller and Congressman Henry Waxman, we are the last of the so-called Watergate babies, with two exceptions. Among all of the Democrats elected in that landslide year of 1974, there were a few Republicans, and one is left--my senior colleague from the State of Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley.

I have the greatest respect for and friendship with Chuck. Several weeks ago, here on the floor, he said some very gracious things about me, and I thank him for that. I especially appreciated his observation that even though he and I are like night and day when it comes to political views, there is no light between us when it comes to Iowa. We have collaborated on so many important initiatives for the people of Iowa, and I think we made a heck of a good tag team on behalf of our State. So, again, I salute and thank my friend and colleague of nearly 40 years, Chuck Grassley. Carry on, Chuck.

The other exception I mentioned is again my lifelong dear friend, Rick Nolan, who was in the 1974 class who voluntarily left Congress after three terms, returned to the House in 2012, and was recently reelected.

So 40 years later, this Watergate baby has grown up, gray.

I came to the Senate 30 years ago as a proud progressive, determined to get things done. As I depart the Senate, I can say in good conscience that I have remained true to my progressiveness.

I have worked faithfully to leave behind a more vibrant Iowa, a more just and inclusive America, and a stronger ladder and ramp of opportunity for the disadvantaged in our communities.

You might say that my career in Congress is the story of a poor kid from Cumming, IA--population 150--trying his best to pay it forward, saying thank you for the opportunities I was given by leaving that ladder and ramp of opportunity stronger for those who follow.

If I have accomplished this in any small way--if any Americans are able to lead better lives because of my work, I leave office a satisfied person.

So I am retiring from the Senate, but I am not retiring from the fight. I will never retire from the fight to ensure equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for every disabled person in America. I will never retire from the fight to give a hand up and hope to those who have experienced disadvantage and adversity. And I will never retire from the fight to make this a land of social and economic justice for all Americans.

Let me close with a single word from American sign language.

On July 13 of 1990, I stood here and gave an entire speech in sign language. It confused Senator Kerry who was sitting in the Chair. He didn't know what to do. And the recording clerks didn't know what to do, either. But then I had to give it verbally. Well, I didn't want to do that today.

But there is one sign I want to leave with you. It says something powerful--powerful. One of the most beautiful signs in American Sign Language. And might I teach it to you?

Take your hands and put them together like this, put your fingers together, put your hands together like

that. You kind of close them, and it looks like an A when you do that. Now move it in a circle in front of your body.

That is it, pages, you have got it.

This is the sign for America.

Think about it. Think about it. All of us interconnected, bound together in a single circle of inclusion--no one left out. This is the ideal America toward which we must always aspire.

With that, Mr. President, for the last time, I yield the floor.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Thank you.

Madam President, I salute an unsung hero in our government, Mr. Robert F. Heil, Jr. Bob, as he is known to his friends, is retiring as the budget director at the Health Resources Services Administration after 42 years of service to the Federal Government.

To be honest, I don't know Bob Heil but I have heard about him and his work for years. Bob isn't the guy who stands up and gives speeches, he's the guy that quietly makes things happen. Whenever there was a problem with one of the community health centers in my State, my staff would say ``I'll call Bob'' and I knew it would get straightened out. Bob would always call to let us know when something good might happen, and if something bad was coming, he would call with a solution before we knew there was a problem. He's a man you can trust.

In a town where political winds blow, Bob has won universal praise from both sides of the aisle for years. That's because he always answers the phone, if he knows the answer he gives it, and he treats everyone with the same respect--no matter who is in the White House or who is in control of Congress.

As Bob moves into another phase of his life, I thank him for his years of work expanding access to health care for the least fortunate among us. Hubert Humphrey once said, ``the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.''

By that measure, Bob has made our society and our government a much better one. Thank you Bob, on behalf of myself, my staff, and all those who will never know who to thank. I wish you all the best.

Madam President, as I prepare to depart the Senate, I would like to take a few minutes to express my deep appreciation to Brian Ahlberg, my chief of staff for the last decade. Of course, every Senator knows that the title ``chief of staff'' encompasses a vast range of roles and responsibilities--counselor, confidant, kibitzer, trouble-shooter, day-to-day manager, strategic planner, and, in Brian's case, trusted friend. Brian has excelled in all of these critical roles, and I am very grateful to him.

Knute Rockne was fond of saying: ``I've found that prayers work best when you have big players.'' As Senators, we know that it is not enough to be on the side of the angels; we have got to have big players. For me, that means big intellect, big work ethic, big heart. And those are qualities that Brian Ahlberg possesses in superabundance.

Brian originally joined my staff in 2003 as legislative director, after a decade of service in that role and others for my great friend Senator Paul Wellstone. In short order, I promoted him to chief of staff, and he has served in that role with enormous skill and professionalism ever since.

Staff directors on committees have the challenge of managing large staffs. As chief of staff, Brian has had what is arguably an even bigger challenge: managing me. He has done so with great loyalty, intelligence, tact, and consistently good judgment. He is the proverbial calm amidst every storm. When my Irish is up, Brian's Norwegian cool serves as a calming counterweight. He has never hesitated to speak up when he thinks I am wrong or misguided--an invaluable service. He has done a great job of allowing me, as Senator, to get into just enough trouble to be effective in my own job.

It has been said, perhaps only half jokingly, that Senators are a constitutional impediment to the smooth functioning of staff. I long ago learned to get out of Brian's way and let him manage my far-flung operation. We call ourselves Team Harkin--staffers on my Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on my Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, and on my personal staff, both in Washington and back in Iowa. Brian is the impresario who skillfully coordinates their work as a single, collaborative team, skillfully resolving conflicts and keeping people focused on the mission at hand. I believe that Brian's skill in this role is a major reason for Team Harkin's remarkable legislative productivity over the last decade.

Brian has a great way of keeping my staff and me focused on what is truly important and strategic, avoiding detours and sidetracks. In meetings and

one-on-one, he functions like a whetstone--his aim is to make things sharper, and to cut to the heart of an issue or task.

I also appreciate the way Brian interacts with staff. He helps me to hire seasoned professionals, and then he empowers them to do what they do best, giving them confidence that he will be there to back them up when the going gets tough. His authoritative but soft-spoken, even- tempered approach seems to bring out the best in people around him.

Brian's focus is always on the task, not his ego. Washington is to self-promotion what Iowa is to corn and soybeans; but self-promotion is the opposite of Brian's style. He is always quick to spread the credit around, especially if that is what it takes to strengthen the team or seal the deal.

The questions you can always count on Brian to ask are: ``How does this help people in Iowa?'' and ``How does this give a hand up to people who truly need it and deserve it?''

Over the years, Brian Ahlberg has become a consummate Washington player. But he remains a Midwesterner through and through, a passionate progressive like his early mentor Paul Wellstone, with a passion for fairness and justice, a determination to make life better for ordinary working Americans.

Finally, I want to note that Brian has always been wonderfully attentive to my staff members' family needs, doing everything possible to accommodate them in times of sickness, bereavement, or emergency. Certainly, family comes first in Brian's own life. On that score, I realize that Brian's wife Jodi and sons Anders and Lucas have sacrificed because of his long hours at work, and for that I owe them a debt of gratitude.

Brian Ahlberg is my colleague, my confidant, my trusted friend. He is also a wonderful public servant. I will always be grateful to him for the personal sacrifices he has made to help me advance my agenda here in the Senate. Likewise, I will always be grateful to him for his extraordinary service to the people of Iowa and, more broadly, the people of the United States. I wish Brian and his family much happiness and success in the years ahead.

Madam President, as I prepare to relinquish the gavel as chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I would like to take a few minutes to express my deep gratitude to our staff director, Derek Miller, for his sterling service in one of the Senate's most demanding staff positions.

Knute Rockne was fond of saying: ``I've found that prayers work best when you have big players.'' Successful committee chairs in the Senate have the same approach. We know that it is not enough to be on the side of the angels; we have got to have big players. Here in the Senate, that means big intellect, work ethic, big heart. Those are qualities that Derek Miller possesses in superabundance.

Derek originally came to work for me in 2003, during my tenure as chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where he was the lead staffer in our efforts to address the childhood obesity epidemic by improving the nutritional content of foods available in schools. Derek's goal and mine, simply put, was to get junk food out of our schools and to get healthy foods in. Our efforts came to fruition with passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which reformed the school lunch program and established national nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools, including foods sold in vending machines, school snack bars, and a la carte cafeteria lines.

In addition, in the 2008 farm bill, Derek was instrumental in dramatically expanding a program I created in the 2002 farm bill to provide fresh produce free of charge to students in elementary schools that have a high proportion of children from low-income families. Also in that 2008 farm bill, he spearheaded important reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program.

In 2010, Derek moved to my personal office as legislative director, where he proved himself to be a gifted parliamentary strategist and where he combined equal measures of humor and commitment to progressive policy to successfully advance my agenda. It is my hope that his weekly email summations of the Senate floor activity live on in posterity.

Early this year I tapped him to lead the staff of the HELP Committee.

The ``P'' in the HELP Committee abbreviation stands for ``pensions.'' But we also like to think it stands for ``people.'' Traditionally, the HELP Committee has been a powerhouse of progressive legislation-- legislation to give people a hand up, provide a ladder of opportunity, and expand access to health care and a secure retirement.

Under Derek's skilled leadership, the committee has been true to that great progressive tradition. He has played a critical role in passing important bipartisan legislation to meet the everyday needs of working Americans. Indeed, amidst a Senate too often mired in partisanship, I thank Derek for helping our committee to chart a very different course--a course of bipartisanship and accomplishment. In this 113th Congress, the HELP Committee has passed a remarkable 23 bills signed into law by the President, distinguishing our Committee as the Senate's most productive.

But beyond legislative accomplishments, I want to pay tribute to Derek's excellence as a manager, as not just staff director but a true staff leader. Derek's colleagues respect that he has no ego, he has only a job to get done--and that is so rare here on the Hill, where empire-building and self-aggrandizement are all too common.

Derek is respected by staff because his approach is to empower those around him, to support them in every way, but to give them plenty of room to do what they do best.

He sees the professionals on the HELP Committee as people first, and as staffers second. If there is an illness, a pregnancy, or some other challenging circumstance, Derek will move heaven and earth to give the staffer the support he or she needs.

Derek is attentive to his colleagues' family needs because, in his own life, family comes first. Inevitably, Derek's wife Sun and his son Philip have paid a price because of Derek's long hours at work, and for that I owe them a debt of gratitude.

On behalf of my Senate colleagues, and in particular on behalf of members and staff on the HELP Committee, I thank Derek for his dedicated service to the people of the United States. I wish him much happiness and success in the years ahead.

Madam President. I wish to pay tribute and to extend my thanks to one of my smartest and most passionate staff members Zachary Schechter Steinberg. A native of Iowa City, IA, Zach started with the office as an intern in the summer of 2007. He became an official staff member immediately upon his graduation from Wesleyan University in 2008. Just 6 years later he serves as the Economic Policy Adviser for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and my most trusted advisor on tax, budget and banking issues. Zach is perhaps the strongest and most knowledgeable staff voice in the Senate on effectively preserving Social Security and on the critical importance of maintaining and strengthening the Social Security Disability Insurance program.

Zach has the ability to quickly develop a full understanding of very complicated issues and to work with other staff to forge policy solutions. This is perhaps best illustrated with his work on the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Although newly promoted to legislative assistant, when I was appointed to the conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills, he advised me on many narrow convoluted issues. He not only performed well, but won the respect of many of the committee's professional staff for his ideas. Zach also understands that passage of provisions into law is but one step, and has remained a stalwart advocate of successful implementation of the bill.

As many of you here in the Senate know last year saw the retirement of Richard Bender, my longest serving

staff member and a Senate institution in his own right. It is my firmly held opinion that Richard only allowed himself to begin his retirement because he was leaving Zach to handle his portfolio. I am also quite certain that Zach is the only staff member during Richard's 35 year tenure that he would have felt comfortable leaving in charge.

That is because not only does Zach possess a keen intelligence, a work ethic second to none and an innate ability to translate arcane tax and budget data into understandable prose--but he has the heart of a true progressive. Zach cares deeply about the people of Iowa, about the future of the middle class in this country and about making sure that every American has a fair shot at economic security.

It has been a pleasure to watch Zach grow personally and professionally over the past 6 years--as he transformed from a headstrong intern to one of the most skilled and able staffers in the Senate, from a new college graduate to a senior advisor newly married to Sarah this past summer.

This week I am concluding my 40 years in public office. It has been an amazing ride. One of the things that makes it easier to say goodbye is that I am leaving behind talented people like Zach from whom I know I can expect great things in the future.

Mr. President, as I approach the end of my Senate career, I cannot help but reflect on the role that my tremendous staff members have played in advancing my policy goals and, indeed, advancing the important work the American people over the years. I have been blessed to have worked with truly remarkable individuals who have worked tirelessly to promote initiatives that will improve the lives of ordinary Americans.

Among my own legislative and policy priorities over the years, none has been greater for me than advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. I am proud and honored to have been the chief Senate sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the last of the great civil rights laws of the 20th century--one that has correctly been called the Emancipation Proclamation for persons with disabilities. That legislation sought, once and for all, to fully enfranchise people with disabilities and to fully integrate them into the fabric of American life, guided by four great principles--equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic sufficiency. Over the last quarter century, that legislation has resulted in a quantum leap forward in the civil rights and daily quality of life of millions of Americans with disabilities.

However, even with that quantum leap forward, much work remains to be done to advance the rights of people with disabilities both in the United States and around the world. And over the last several years, no one has worked harder to advance this unfinished agenda of disabilities rights than Michael Gamel-McCormick, who served on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee as my lead K-12 staffer through the markup of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and subsequently as a team leader on disability policy.

Throughout his career, Michael has worked to improve the lives of children

and other people with disabilities. He came to the HELP Committee from the University of Delaware, where he was dean of the College of Education and Human Development and where he had previously served as a departmental chair and director of the Center for Disability Studies. Prior to that, Michael served, variously, as director of an early intervention program in West Virginia, director of children's services at an urban community services agency, and as a preschool and kindergarten teacher. Michael also consulted worldwide in helping other countries to establish their own systems to support persons with disabilities and to expand early learning opportunities.

Michael's deep experience and knowledge was evident as soon as he arrived at the HELP Committee. Immediately, Michael became an integral and trusted member of my staff. His initial work on the committee was as an education policy advisor, lead staffer on K-12 education, and an expert on the intersection of education and inequality. His expertise and leadership were critical in crafting and passing in committee the Strengthening America's Schools Act. As an education policy adviser, Michael was also deeply involved in shaping policies to strengthen the education of children with disabilities.

After serving as a senior education advisor, Michael assumed the role of my chief disability policy advisor, spearheading a number of important initiatives, including two important committee reports on persons with disabilities. The first report, on the continued use of seclusions and restraints in our schools, exposed the inappropriate and often dangerous use of physical restraints on and unsupervised exclusion of many children, especially children with disabilities, in U.S. schools. That report was accompanied by important legislation to finally prohibit these outdated and ineffective measures. The second report, ``Fulfilling the Promise: Overcoming Persistent Barriers to Economic Self-Sufficiency for People with Disabilities,'' investigated the barriers that people with disabilities face as they seek to rise out of poverty and enter the middle class. This report found that living with a disability is both economically and socially costly, and that significant barriers--especially logistical barriers and discrimination--continue to stand in the way of the economic security of people with disabilities. Specifically, the report said this:

Twenty-four years ago, Congress passed the Americans with

Disabilities Act. We have been successful at meeting many of

the goals of the ADA. We have increased the accessibility of

our buildings, our streets, even our parks, beaches and

recreation areas. And we've made our books and TVs,

telephones and computers more accessible as well. And for

many Americans with disabilities, our workplaces have become

more accessible as well.

But far too few people with disabilities are in the

workforce! The unemployment rate for people with disabilities

is 12.8 percent, more than double the six percent

unemployment rate for people without disabilities. Of the

almost 29 million people with disabilities over 16 years of

age, less than 20 percent participate in the workforce

compared with nearly 70 percent of those without a

disability.

Not content to identify a problem, Michael also seeks to solve them. His most enduring legacy as my disability policy director will be his work to promote the employment of persons with disabilities through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which was signed into law earlier this year. That law will ensure that young people with disabilities get the experiences they need to succeed in work settings. To obtain those experiences, the bill requires State vocational rehabilitation programs to work hand-in-hand with local secondary schools. The bill also ensures that employers will have the information necessary to recruit, hire, and retain people with disabilities.

These efforts will directly address the high unemployment rate among people with disabilities, smooth the transition of young people with disabilities into the competitive integrated workforce, and help employers to support their employees with disabilities. I am especially proud of these provisions. And I am very grateful to Michael, who successfully endeavored to enact them in the face of long odds.

I had the good fortune to travel with Michael to China earlier this year, where we sought to identify opportunities for international cooperation on disability policy and to work with the Chinese Government to strengthen its own policies and programs to assist and empower the millions persons with disabilities in that country. On the trip, not only was Michael incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, but he also proved to be a good humored and indefatigable travel partner.

Last and certainly not least, I want to salute Michael's heroic efforts over the past year to advance the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The CRPD, as it is known in shorthand, is a United Nation's treaty modeled after our own Americans with Disabilities Act, with a goal of exporting the same advances enjoyed by persons with disabilities in the United States to countries around the world. The United States has always been a city on a hill when it comes to disability policy, and the CRPD offers an opportunity for us to play a more robust leadership role in advancing disability rights across the globe. Unfortunately, despite broad support for the CRPD among business leaders, faith leaders, and in the disability policy community, the CRPD ran up against significant and, I might add, spurious opposition here in the Senate. In fact, after failing to be ratified in the 112th Congress, the treaty was all but declared dead.

However, at my urging and direction, Michael worked tirelessly to revive the moribund treaty, reaching out to Republicans, enlisting the assistance of business interests and activating grassroots networks around the country in support of the treaty. At the end of the day, the Senate was still not able to overcome the misinformed objections of a number of Senators who blocked consideration of the treaty. But Michael's efforts to resurrect and advance the treaty in the face of daunting odds were remarkable. Thanks to Michael's work, we came closer than ever before to passing the CRPD. I certainly haven't given up the fight to pass the CRPD, and I am grateful to Michael for all that he did to advance the cause of global disability rights.

It is no exaggeration to say that Michael has enriched the lives of countless individuals. Because of his work, young children have been exposed to the rich environments that they need for early learning. Because of his work, young people with disabilities will receive the supports and experiences they need to secure gainful employment. Because of his work, school-aged children will receive developmentally appropriate discipline and direction rather than the cruelty of seclusion and physical restraints. And because of his work, countless individuals with disabilities will work, live, laugh, and flourish in their communities alongside friends, colleagues, and neighbors.

This is a living legacy that Michael Gamel-McCormick deserves to be very proud of. I am deeply grateful for his service to the committee, to the American people, and to me personally. And I wish him great success in his future endeavors on behalf of people with disabilities here in America and across the globe.

Mr. President, in 1997, Beth Stein, a talented young woman armed with a razor-sharp mind and relentless attention to detail, arrived on Capitol Hill as counsel to a true American hero, U.S. Senator John Glenn. As his investigative counsel, Beth played a key role in the inquiry into campaign finance abuses in the 1996 election. And she helped to lead investigations into other critical issues, including food safety, Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse, and the relationship between thyroid cancer rates and exposure to nuclear fallout from Nevada testing in the 1940s. After working for Senator Glenn, Beth went on to serve as election counsel to Representative Steny Hoyer and as Judiciary Committee counsel to U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell.

The work of a U.S. Senator is only as good as the staff that he or she hires, and in 2004 I was fortunate to convince Beth to join my staff, where she has served ever since. Throughout that time, she has served in a number of different capacities, distinguishing herself in each and every one of them. I owe a debt of gratitude to so many of my staff members across my career,

but I would be remiss if I did not single out Beth for her especially meritorious contributions to my office over the past decade.

Beth began her work in my office as counsel, providing excellent advice on myriad constitutional and civil rights issues, among other things. One of her most noteworthy accomplishments from this time related to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, located not far from Burlington, IA. The history of the covert nuclear weapons program at the IAAP is a fascinating one that I could recount for hours. Suffice it to say that for decades the men and women of the Iowa Ammunition Plant worked on a secret nuclear weapons program, handling highly radioactive materials with protective gear of only cotton gloves-- gloves that were intended to protect the weapons material from contact with humans, not to protect humans from contact with dangerous radioactive materials.

After my office helped to uncover the long history of dangerous working conditions at the IAAP, we still had to address the needs of hundreds of men and women who were exposed to radioactive materials and to try and help them receive compensation and health care to deal with the high rates of cancer and respiratory disease associated with their work. For years we struggled with various Federal agencies. We tried to seek a legislative fix. We sought an administrative remedy. It was finally under Beth's leadership that the men and women of the IAAP were designated a special exposure cohort, which made them eligible for compensation and medical care to account for medical expenses and lost wages. It is not an exaggeration to say that, but for Beth's efforts, the former workers of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant might still be waiting on the Federal Government to appropriately compensate them for their service to our nation.

So much did I value Beth's work that when she decided that she wanted to take a step back and spend more time with her kids, I convinced her not to leave the payroll entirely but to stay on to work on special projects. In that capacity, Beth played a critical role in one of my proudest achievements, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. This law was written in response to several Supreme Court decisions narrowing the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. These narrow interpretations led to the denial of the ADA's protections for many individuals that Congress intended to protect under the ADA. The ADAAA made a number of changes to restore the intent of the ADA and to ensure that its protections were broadly available to persons with disabilities. Though the ADAAA passed the Senate by unanimous consent, a fact that is a credit to the Senate, one should not take from this the idea that it was easy. It required long negotiations and difficult choices involving Congress, the administration, disability rights organizations, and business interests. Beth played a critical role in these negotiations, deftly managing both the politics and the policy. The result of her steady guiding hand is abundantly clear today: the ADA, as amended by the ADAAA, continues its impact as one of the landmark civil rights laws of the 20th century, the Emancipation Proclamation for Persons with Disabilities.

When I became chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, one of my first acts was to establish an investigative unit to provide critical oversight and investigations work. There was no question in my mind that Beth, with her relentlessness, eye for detail, and penchant for sifting through detritus to reveal the truth, was the person for the job. As my chief investigative counsel, she has delivered time and again, for example, uncovering labor abuses by government contractors that led to a White House Executive order clamping down on such abuses. Beth also played a key role in producing HELP Committee reports on the abusive use of seclusions and restraints in our Nation's schools, on barriers that stand in the way of the economic security of persons with disabilities, and on the rapid growth of e-cigarettes and their marketing.

Most noteworthy was Beth's leadership of the HELP Committee's investigation of abuses in the for-profit sector of higher education. This investigation spanned several years and culminated in the release of a multi-volume report detailing in remarkable detail the abuses by some for-profit colleges--in particular, their misuse of taxpayer funds, their poor educational outcomes, and the need for greater Federal oversight of these schools. This investigation was monumental both in its scale and in its level of detail. Beth oversaw every aspect of this very delicate investigation, which resulted in much greater scrutiny of the for-profit industry and which also put the investigations arm of the HELP Committee on the map.

About a year ago, I asked Beth to return to my personal office to serve as legislative director. In that capacity, she has done yeoman's work managing the legislative staff, helping in the unenviable job of closing our Senate office, and continuing to provide the excellent counsel that had made her indispensable for the past decade. And she has done all of this while continuing in her role as chief investigations counsel for the HELP Committee.

Mr. President, when I was growing up, my parents didn't talk politics. We didn't know politicians. But we knew this: When my family hit rock bottom in the late years of the Depression, with my father out of work and with no way to provide for his family, the government gave us a hand up. Dad got a postcard in the mail notifying him to report for employment with the Work Projects Administration, the WPA. Dad always said that Franklin Roosevelt gave him a job. That opportunity gave my father dignity and enough money to put food on the table, and, maybe most important of all, it gave him hope.

As a proud Midwestern progressive, I have fought to give opportunity and hope to those who truly need it and deserve it, including working families seeking affordable health care and childcare, family farmers struggling to stay on the land, young people paying for college, and seniors seeking financial security in their retirement years.

But I haven't done it alone. Every Senator stands on the foundation of his or her staff, and on my staff Beth Stein has been a rock-solid cornerstone in that foundation. For her counsel, intelligence, and excellent work, and for helping me to be the best servant I can be to the people of Iowa and the United States, for working alongside me to do our best to give people hope, I extend my deepest gratitude to my counselor and friend Beth Stein.

Mr. President. As a boy growing up in rural Cumming, IA, population 150, I could never have imagined that I would one day serve in Congress. My father had a sixth-grade education. He spent most of his life working in coal mines, and all he had to show for it was a case of black lung disease. My mother was an immigrant, raising six kids in our little two-bedroom house. My parents did not talk politics. We did not know politicians. But we knew this: When my family hit rock bottom in the late years of the Depression, with my father out of work and with no way to provide for his family, the government gave us a hand up. Dad got a postcard in the mail, notifying him to report for employment with the Work Projects Administration, the WPA. Dad always said that Franklin Roosevelt gave him a job. That opportunity gave my father dignity, and enough money to put food on the table. Maybe most important of all, it gave him hope.

As a proud Midwestern progressive, my career has been guided by a desire to give hope to those who truly need it and deserve it, to provide a ladder of opportunity to working families seeking affordable health care and child care, family farmers struggling to stay on the land, and seniors seeking financial security in their retirement years. There is no rung on the ladder of opportunity more important than education, from rich early learning experiences, to college, and beyond.

As I have endeavored to give people hope and to provide them with a ladder of opportunity, I have not done it alone. I have been blessed to have one of the most capable staffs on Capitol Hill. I rise today to extend a personal thanks to one of the best, my chief

education counsel, Mildred Otero, who has stood stalwartly alongside me in my efforts to secure for every American a quality education from cradle to career.

Mildred came to Washington in 2003 as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellow, working for then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Over the years, she has also worked at the Children's Defense Fund, for Senator Jack Reed, and at the Department of State. Before joining the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Mildred served as Senior Policy Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, helping to lead its Federal advocacy efforts for U.S. programs.

When she arrived at the HELP Committee, she brought with her sterling credentials, unmatched knowledge of education policy, and a reputation as a tough but fair negotiator. Most importantly, she brought with her a commitment to children and a determination to confront the savage inequalities in America's public education system, and these priorities have been the foundation of all the work that she does. For Mildred, ``leave no child behind'' is not a slogan, it is an imperative, an obligation that motivates her every day to strive to do what is best for the children of our country, especially those who are born into disadvantage.

Mildred's commitment to our children and her determination to extend a hand up to the disadvantaged have borne fruit in significant accomplishments since she joined the HELP Committee.

Foremost among these accomplishments was passage last summer of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, a bill to update and strengthen our Nation's job training programs. Frankly, to call enactment of this bill an accomplishment is a huge understatement. This is a bill that had been stalled for years due to one disagreement after another, each seemingly as intractable as the next. But for Mildred, what others see as an intractable disagreement is just another challenge to work through with creativity and diplomacy. Work through them she did, one after another, until all that was left was final passage of the bill. It is testament to Mildred's determination, creativity, and skill that the final bill passed by a vote of 95-3. As a result of her work on this bill, millions of Americans will be able to upgrade their skills, obtain better jobs, and ultimately, better their lives and the economic security of their families.

Mildred and her team also successfully guided into the law improvements to the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which allocates more than $5 billion annually and supports more than 1.5 million children across the country. The last reauthorization of this program took place 18 years ago, at a time when child care was principally seen as a work-support activity and only incidentally as something that could have a positive impact on the development of children. Today, backed up by impressive scientific research, we know that this program can and should be much more. In addition to providing vital work support for parents, it should be a rich early-learning opportunity for children. These are exactly the kinds of improvements that Mildred shepherded into law. Among other things, the bill requires States to improve education and training requirements, strengthens licensing requirements, and stipulates that States must demonstrate how they are meeting the needs of the most vulnerable children, especially children with disabilities.

I would be remiss if I did not also mention Mildred's effort in the K-12 and higher education spaces. Last summer, the HELP Committee, under Mildred's guidance, passed the Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013. This bill, an update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provided a framework to ensure that all children graduate from high school with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in college and their careers. With Mildred's guidance, the Strengthening America's Schools Act focused greater attention on early childhood, encouraged equity through fair distribution of resources, and maintained a laser focus on helping all children, but especially disadvantaged children, to succeed in school.

Mildred brought similar energy to her efforts this year on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, efforts that culminated with the introduction of the Higher Education Affordability Act. For generations, a college education has been the pathway to the middle class, but new challenges are threatening that promise for many families in Iowa and across the country. College affordability, skyrocketing student debt, transparency--these are high stakes issues for students and families. The Higher Education Affordability Act seeks changes to our system of higher education in order to make college more affordable and accessible, and to restore and strengthen the ladder of opportunity--a ladder that has been growing weaker and that is in need of repair.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that ``life's most urgent and persistent question is: what are you doing for others?'' During her tenure as a senior counselor on the HELP Committee, Mildred has answered that question in powerful ways, and in particular through her tireless efforts to bring greater equity to public education at all levels. We respect her expertise, and we admire the strong moral voice that she has brought to the Committee. I am deeply grateful to Mildred for her superb leadership of the Committee's Education Office, and I wish her the very best in her future endeavors.

Mr. President, I would like to personally commend Senator Feinstein for releasing this report today. We have all heard the Justice Louis Brandeis quote that ``sunlight is the best disinfectant'' but occasionally we need a real world reminder. Today, Senator Feinstein and the members and staff of the Intelligence Committee have provided that. The findings of this report are truly remarkable, laying bare that the CIA interrogation program was simultaneously far more brutal and far less effective than previously claimed.

This 600-page report is long overdue and makes clear that the CIA's so-called ``enhanced interrogation techniques'' failed to produce any otherwise unavailable intelligence that saved lives. At no time were these coercive interrogation techniques effective.

But more critically, this report makes clear to all Americans that what took place was not in keeping with our ideals as a nation. We have no greater duty than to protect the American people and our national security. But the single best way to do that is--and always has been-- to do that in a manner consistent with our laws and our traditions. Horrific and torturous practices are explicitly prohibited and are never necessary. I thank Senator Feinstein, Senator Udall and other members of the committee for the months and years they have committed to making this release a reality.

Mr. President, as a member of the Senate who has spent many years leading efforts to build support for biomedical research and improved public health, I would like to pay tribute to a great public servant and trailblazer in medical informatics, Donald A.B. Lindberg, Director of the National Library of Medicine, NLM, the world's largest biomedical library, and a part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lindberg recently announced that he will retire next year after over 30 years of distinguished public service.

Trained as a pathologist, Dr. Lindberg is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in medical information technology, artificial intelligence, computer-aided medical diagnosis and electronic health records. When Dr. Lindberg joined NLM in 1984, the library had no electronic journals, personal computers were few and far between, and only a relatively small number of research institutions had access to the Internet. Today millions of scientists, health professionals, and members of the public use NLM's high-quality electronic information resources billions of times a year.

Dr. Lindberg arrived at NLM with a belief in the potential of advanced computing and telecommunications. He immediately launched the groundbreaking Unified Medical Language System, now broadly used to help computer systems behave as if they understand biomedical meaning. He also greatly expanded NLM's informatics research training programs, increasing the Nation's supply of informatics researchers and health information technology leaders. The library, its grantees, and its former trainees continue to play essential roles in the development of electronic health records, health data standards, and the exchange of health information.

One of the proudest achievements of Dr. Lindberg's tenure was the establishment of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, NCBI, in 1988. It expanded the scope of the NLM and provided a national resource for molecular biology information and essential support for mapping the human genome. Today, NCBI is home to GenBank, dbGaP, PubChem, and PubMed Central and is an indispensable international repository and software tool developer for genetic sequences and other genomic data, and a pioneer and leader in linking data and published research results to promote new scientific discoveries.

In another unprecedented move, Dr. Lindberg asked NLM to create the Visible Humans, a library of digital images representing the complete anatomy of a man and a woman--giving a unique and detailed look inside the body. People around the world can and do use the images in a variety of ways. They have been used to help students learn anatomy; to develop products like artificial limbs; and to create tools to help surgeons rehearse operations.

As access to the World Wide Web and the Internet spread throughout the country, Dr. Lindberg seized the opportunity to make high quality medical information freely available to the public. In a 1997 press briefing that I sponsored with the late Senator Arlen Specter, R-PA, and then Vice President Al Gore, we announced free Internet access to MEDLINE via PubMed. In 1998, Dr. Lindberg went on to create the consumer-friendly MedlinePlus.gov and a new era of timely and trusted online health information for the general public began. ClinicalTrials.gov, now the world's largest trial registry and a unique source of summary results data for many trials, followed soon after in 2000, providing patients, families and members of the public easy access to information about the location of clinical trials, their design and purpose, and criteria for participation.

In 2003, I again joined the NLM and the National Institute on Aging in launching NIHSeniorHealth.gov, a website that features authoritative, up-to-date information from the NIH, in a format that addresses the cognitive changes that come with aging and allows easy use. In that same year, I partnered with Dr. Lindberg and respected national physician groups to launch the Information Rx project, which supplies prescription pads to health providers to point their patients to trusted health care information from the NIH. At the urging of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Dr. Lindberg has also made high- quality health information available to physicians and their patients via NIH's first consumer magazine, NIH MedlinePlus. This free magazine is now available in Spanish and online around the Nation and worldwide.

Over the past three decades, Dr. Lindberg greatly expanded the scope of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Now, NLM and this network of more than 6,000 academic, hospital, and public libraries partner with community-based organizations to bring high-quality information to health professionals and the public-regardless of location, socioeconomic status or access to computers and telecommunications. NLM has entered into longstanding and successful partnerships with minority-serving institutions, tribal and community- based organizations, and the public health community. NLM's marvelous exhibitions which Dr. Lindberg championed, such as Native Voices: Native Peoples' Concepts of Health and Illness, expand NLM's reach with electronic and traveling versions, bringing important issues and scholarship to persons unable to make it through NLM's Bethesda doors. Moreover, Dr. Lindberg helped set the U.S. standards for the public's use of the Internet. He was the founding Director of the National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications in the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy and was named by the HHS Secretary to be the U.S. National Coordinator for the G-7 Global healthcare Applications Project.

It gives me great pleasure pay tribute to Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, one of this country's visionaries, for his many contributions in science and technology that have transformed access to biomedical information and clearly had a lasting positive impact on the Nation.

Mr. President, I speak in support of the nomination of Lauren McFerran to fill an approaching vacancy on the National Labor Relations Board. I was heartened by the recent cloture vote in support of the McFerran nomination and urge my colleagues in just a short while to vote in favor of her confirmation.

Ms. McFerran is well known to most of us as a senior staffer on the HELP Committee, where she has long served as chief labor counsel and more recently as deputy staff director. She has been nominated to fill a vacancy that will result from the departure later this month of a current Board Member, Nancy Schiffer. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Ms. Schiffer for her dedicated service to the National Labor Relations Board. She has been a highly respected Board Member and I wish her every success in her future endeavors.

I also want to say a word about the previous nominee to the Board, Sharon Block, whose nomination was withdrawn at the insistence of Senate Republicans. Although I have no doubt that Ms. McFerran will serve with fairness and distinction, it is unfortunate that Sharon Block, a dedicated public servant, will not have the opportunity to serve further on the National Labor Relations Board. Ms. Block was an extraordinarily qualified nominee who was widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans alike. Ms. Block's nomination was withdrawn as a result of circumstances wholly beyond her control. But her qualifications and experience are undiminished and untarnished by the circumstances that led to the withdrawal of her nomination.

The National Labor Relations Board is an agency that is absolutely critical to our country, to our economy, and to our middle class. Over 75 years ago, Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing American workers the right to form and join a union and to bargain for a better life. That act sets forth a national policy to encourage collective bargaining--to encourage collective bargaining. That is the national policy of this government, and has been since 1935.

Let me read what the act specifically states:

It is declared to be the policy of the United States to

eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to

the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these

obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the

practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by

protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of

association, self-organization, and designation of

representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of

negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or

other mutual aid or protection.

That is the policy of the U.S. Government, to encourage collective bargaining, not to destroy it, not to tear it down, not to throw up roadblocks against collective bargaining, but to encourage it. Those who continually attack the National Labor Relations Board, who try to interfere in its procedures, many times are those who want to throw a monkey wrench into collective bargaining. Well, they are going against the policy of the United States.

I am proud to be a citizen of a country that promotes collective bargaining, to allow workers to negotiate for better wages, better conditions, safe working conditions, a country that protects fundamental rights such as the freedom of association.

The act provides these essential protections for union and nonunion workers alike. It gives workers a voice in the workplace, allowing them to join together and speak up for the very essence of middle-class jobs: fair wages, good benefits, safe working conditions. These rights ensure that the people who do the real work in this country have a shot at joining the middle class and receiving a fair share of the benefits when our economy grows.

The NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, is the guardian of these fundamental rights. Workers themselves cannot enforce the National Labor Relations Act, but they can turn to the Board if they have been denied the basic protections provided under the law. In short, the Board plays a vital role in vindicating workers' rights.

Get this. Understand this. In the past 10 years, the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, has secured opportunities for reinstatement of 22,544 employees who were unjustly fired. Over that same past 10 years, the NLRB has recovered more than $1 billion on behalf of workers whose rights and wages were violated.

The Board also provides relief and remedies to our Nation's employers. A lot of people think the NLRB is just there for the workers. Not so. It is there to help employers too. For example, employers can turn to the Board for relief if a union commences a wildcat strike or refuses to bargain in good faith during negotiations. The NLRB has a long history of helping businesses resolve disputes efficiently.

By preventing or resolving labor disputes that could disrupt our economy, the work the Board does is vital to every worker and every business across the Nation. That is why it is so important that we maintain a fully functional five-member NLRB. I am proud of the fact that just over a year ago, we were able to confirm Members to completely fill the first Board in over a decade. Now we need to fill a soon-to-be-open seat so the Board can continue to function effectively. That is what this vote coming up is all about.

It is unfortunate that some of my friends on the other side of the aisle do not believe in the National Labor Relations Act--not all of them, but a very vocal minority, I would say. They do not agree that it should be the policy of the United States to promote collective bargaining and self-organization in order to prevent disruptions in ``the free flow of commerce'' that can have a detrimental impact on our Nation's economy.

They would like to change the existing law if they could, but they do not have the votes. So, instead, they have attempted to pull every possible lever to slow down the work that goes on at the NLRB. Recently, Republicans in the House of Representatives have held hearing after hearing specifically addressing the NLRB. They passed two bills to amend the NLRA, the National Labor Relations Act, to strip workers of their rights. Republican elected officials have tried to defund the agency, threatening the professional credentials and livelihoods of nonpartisan career employees, and even called on a Republican Board Member to resign in order to incapacitate the agency. You heard me right. Republicans called on a Republican Board Member of the National Labor Relations Board to leave it, and then they would not have enough Members to function.

What most concerns me about this political game-playing is how it affects the everyday lives of workers across America. For workers who are disciplined, penalized, even fired unjustly by employers, it is the NLRB that ensures that workers who are illegally punished, as I mentioned, can get back their jobs and lost wages.

This is exactly why we need to confirm Ms. McFerran today. No one can contest her qualifications. As I said, she currently serves as both chief labor counsel and deputy staff director of the Senate HELP Committee. I am proud to have her as a member of my staff. She has served this committee with excellence and great professionalism, first hired by my predecessor Senator Kennedy. She stayed on after his passing and my assumption of the chairmanship of the committee.

She has a deep knowledge of labor law. She is an incredibly talented lawyer. She is a person of sterling integrity and strong character. She will be a great asset to the Board. It is my hope that by promptly confirming Ms. McFerran's nomination to fill the upcoming vacancy, we can continue the progress that has been made recently and begin a new era where orderly transitions on the NLRB are the norm, where we do not go month after month, year after year, with vacancies, with a board that cannot function.

Instead of letting every vacancy become a political football, with threats to shutter the Board, and pressure for recess appointments, we should set a new precedent of confirming nominees, Democratic and Republican alike, in a timely manner, allowing the dedicated public servants at the Board to stop worrying about making headlines and instead focus on the important work they do every day.

Again, that important work includes assuring that American workers are able to exercise their right to freedom of association. In the workplace, this freedom means collectively bargaining for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. It is enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act and upheld by the NLRB.

I have no doubt that Ms. McFerran will do an excellent job in this important position. I urge my colleagues to support her confirmation later this afternoon.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Zachary Gross, Katy Crabtree, and Emalee Barto, interns with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of today's session and that Caitlin Boon, a detailee with the committee, also be granted floor privileges for today's session.