The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EXECUTIVE SESSION--Continued” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S6428-S6436 on Oct. 2, 2018.
The Department handles nearly all infrastructure crisscrossing the country. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department should be privatized to save money, reduce congestion and spur innovation.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EXECUTIVE SESSION--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will come to order.
The Senator from Minnesota.
FAA Reauthorization Act
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the Federal Aviation Administration, or the FAA, Reauthorization Act of 2018. This bill provides needed certainty in aviation and gives the FAA authority to enhance consumer protections and passenger safety. It also maintains critical investments that will help to modernize and maintain our aviation infrastructure.
This agreement is the product of bipartisan negotiations over the last several months. I am proud to serve on the Commerce Committee, which played a major role here. I thank Senator Thune and Senator Nelson for their work on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
Minnesota has a long aviation tradition, from Charles Lindbergh to our Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Two years in a row, it was ranked as the best airport in America. We manufacture jets in Duluth at Cirrus. We manufacture parachutes that go with those jets in our State. We have first-rate military training bases for aviation in Bloomington and in Duluth. We have very strong regional airports, including Duluth and Rochester, which has recently expanded its airport. It matters in our State.
For too long, the aviation sector of our economy has had to rely on a series of short-term extensions. It is not good for workers, and it is not good for businesses. That is not good for travelers who use our services. For airports looking to expand or airlines looking to test new routes, these short-term bills created uncertainty that hampered growth and prevented new investments.
This 5-year reauthorization bill will provide the long-term stability needed to encourage investments and help maintain American leadership in the global aviation marketplace. We know a lot about that in our State, being a major Delta hub, as well as the home of Sun Country Airlines. We know the kind of global competition that we are up against all the time. That is a very important reason for America to be a leader in aviation and not a follower.
Changes in the airline industry in recent years have drastically altered the way consumers travel. New fees and complicated itineraries can make even routine travel confusing and expensive. Thankfully, this FAA bill builds on important work we have done in past reauthorizations to strengthen protections for consumers while shopping, booking, and traveling.
Most people know what it is like to show up to the airport and be shocked to find out that you have to pay extra for your seat or that checking a bag is going to cost you an arm and a leg. When consumers don't have this information up front, they can be left paying hundreds of dollars in fees they didn't budget for, which can mean the difference between a family trip being affordable or not.
It isn't just fees. In some instances, online travel websites have sold unnecessarily complicated passenger itineraries, provided outdated or incorrect travel information on their websites, and failed to provide appropriate disclosures for passengers. That is why I worked to include an amendment to provide a consistent level of consumer protections, regardless of where the airfares are purchased. This part of the bill will ensure that, whether a consumer books tickets directly with an airline or from a third party, the consumer will receive the same level of price disclosures and customer service.
This was a provision strongly supported by consumer groups because it is such a problem that there were different types of price disclosures and customer service, depending on how a consumer booked the flight. It doesn't matter where you book the flight or how you book the flight, you should have consumer protection. This bill includes that provision.
This bill will also make important improvements to the passenger experience on the plane. By directing the FAA to set standards for the size of airline seats, we will make sure passengers can travel safely and these seats will not get even smaller than they already are.
The agreement also includes a provision to make clear that once a passenger has boarded a plane, they can't be involuntarily bumped by an airline. Passengers deserve to be treated with respect throughout their entire journey, and this will end the practice of removing paying customers to accommodate airline employees.
The bill sets new requirements for airlines to promptly return fees for services, such as seat assignments or early boarding, when these services are purchased and not received by a customer.
In addition to the strong consumer protections, this bill makes new infrastructure investments that will help to ensure passengers have a safe and efficient travel experience.
Smaller regional airports provide a vital link to the rest of the world for many rural communities. In my State, both residents and businesses located near these rural airports rely on them to connect to the Twin Cities and beyond.
The Essential Air Service Program is a critical tool that supports rural air service. This bill boosts EAS funding to help maintain the operations of smaller, regional airports across Minnesota and across our country. Of course, funding alone isn't enough to improve aviation infrastructure. We need policies that support the unique infrastructure needs in different regions of the country.
In the 2012 FAA reauthorization, I included a provision to require that the Department of Transportation give priority review to construction projects in cold weather States with shorter construction seasons. For those of us who live in States that happen to have cold weather and snow, our construction seasons are shorter, and that means we have less time to work on these projects than maybe they do in Miami or in California. What we did here was to make sure that the FAA realized that in how they did grants and how they got these construction permits approved.
Anyone who has ever been to Northern Minnesota in April or October understands that our construction season is shorter. There is a reason we have cold weather testing facilities on the Canadian border in our State, because that is the coldest conditions you can possibly have for cars. That makes for this short construction season.
This provision was included again in the current bill, and it will help to ensure that cold weather States like Minnesota can make the most out of our limited construction seasons.
The investments made by this bill are an important down payment that will help to address the growing demand for air transportation. I look forward to building on the progress made by this bill with bipartisan infrastructure legislation to support 21st century aviation infrastructure that is prepared to meet the demands of the 21st century economy.
I wish to thank my colleagues again for their work on this bill. It makes important advances in security, consumer protections, and infrastructure development. I was proud to be a part of this, and I also am glad these provisions I worked hard on are included in the bill. The aviation industry and American air passengers will be safer because of this bill. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan agreement so we can pass, finally, a long-term extension into law.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Thank you, Mr. President.
It is Congress's obligation to protect the public from abusive practices that harm consumers and dull the competitive process. Regrettably, Congress has failed to fulfill that obligation with the FAA reauthorization bill.
With this bill, Congress has missed a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to stop gargantuan airlines from gouging Americans with exorbitant fees. Last year, Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, and I secured a provision in the Senate FAA reauthorization bill that would protect passengers from ridiculous, sky-high airline fees. Our FAIR Fees--Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous Fees--provision directed the Department of Transportation to, No. 1, assess whether change and cancellation, baggage, and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of the services which are being provided, and secondly, to ensure that change and cancellation fees are reasonable.
Airline fees would be fair and reasonable--that is all the provision did. The reason we need that is simple. In a truly competitive industry, an airline would be unable to charge unreasonable fees because their competitors would undercut their prices. Darwinian, paranoia-inducing competition would drive down fees to reflect the actual costs of the services provided--the cost to check a bag, the cost to change a flight reservation, the cost of booking a passenger on standby for an earlier flight. Fair and reasonable. But the airline industry is far from competitive. In the past 10 years, we have gone from 10 major airlines down to 4. Four airlines now control 85 percent of traffic in the skies. An analysis from the U.S. Travel Association found that 74 airports are served by only 1 airline, while 155 airports are dominated by 1 carrier controlling over 50 percent of seat capacity. Here is the result: sky-high airline fees and a growing frustration with the modern flying experience.
To the surprise of no one, the airline industry launched a ferocious lobbying blitz against our bipartisan FAIR Fees provision, making its elimination from the bill their top priority. The airline industry lobbed all sorts of false accusations against these commonsense protections--profitability of the airlines would go down, passengers would no longer be able to change or cancel their flights--but not once did the industry actually defend the price of all of these fees to cancel or to change a flight. Not once did the industry actually demonstrate that their fees are reasonable and proportional to the cost of the services provided. That is because those costs are not proportional to the services being provided to the customer by the airlines.
The independent Government Accountability Office, GAO, recently released a report confirming what countless passengers across the country already know to be true: Airlines are gouging captive passengers to line their pockets, not to cover the actual costs of the services being provided. During a hearing last year, representatives from United Airlines and American Airlines testified that their change and cancellation fees bear no resemblance to the costs borne by the airline for actually canceling a ticket or changing a flight reservation.
Even in the past few weeks, as we worked in Congress to include important consumer protection measures in this final FAA legislation, the airlines continued to raise fees. That is how confident the airlines were that their powerful industry lobbyists would remove my provision and Senator Wicker's provision from the bill. Despite bipartisan support, despite the provisions included in the Senate bill, and despite the public outcry, the airline lobby knew that they could count on Congress to do their bidding, so they raised their fees anyway.
Last month, JetBlue Airways changed its cancellation fees from $150 to $200 for certain flights. JetBlue also raised fees for a passenger's first checked bag from $25 to $30 and increased the fees for a second checked bag from $35 to $40. That is $140 to check two bags roundtrip. Not surprisingly, almost immediately after, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines followed suit, raising their bag fees to match JetBlue's.
When I sent letters to the 11 major airlines inquiring as to why airline fees are on the rise even though there appears to be no appreciable increase in the cost of services provided, the airlines' response was predictable.
Eight airlines had refused to respond to my inquiry by last Thursday's deadline--a deadline I set to ensure that this body would have this critical information in hand when considering the FAA bill. There has been no response from United, American, and Delta. That is unacceptable. Of the three airlines that did respond, two could not explain whether their fees were reasonable to the costs of the services provided. The other refused to address the matter altogether, claiming that this information is ``proprietary,'' claiming that the flying public does not have the right to know if they are being gouged. That is the airline industry's position.
If it is not to cover the cost of the services provided--checking a bag, changing a flight reservation, canceling a ticket--why are the airlines charging these fees? The answer is, because they can. Last year, the airlines raked in $2.9 billion in change and cancellation fees. That is equivalent to the cost of 11 million flights from Washington to Boston. The airlines collected over $4.5 billion in checked bag fees, which is enough to buy 55 jumbo jets. The airlines have turned this nickel-and-diming into a multibillion-dollar industry--a $7.4 billion industry last year. Passengers think they are buying low-cost airfare, only to be gouged by proliferating airline fees.
The American public wants Congress to stop these abusive practices, and here in the Senate, we answered their call. We secured a bipartisan provision in the Senate FAA bill that would have stopped this fee epidemic once and for all. But through an opaque process and after months of lobbying against my bipartisan FAIR Fees provision, the airlines won and airline passengers lost.
What exactly are the airlines so afraid of? Why won't they even respond to my letters? The FAIR Fees provision doesn't set fees; it only directs the Department of Transportation to set up a public process to assess those fees. But that is exactly what the airlines oppose. They don't want to have to explain this, to be transparent about what they are doing, because if they did, the American people would know the truth--this is price-gouging in its purest form.
On behalf of the American flying public, the millions of Americans who are subjected to ridiculous airline fees, I will vote no on the FAA bill. And I vow to the public that this fight will not die with this bill. As the fees rise, pressure will mount on Congress to address this consumer protection, competition issue. We know the problem. FAIR Fees would have been the solution, but this bill does not include that solution, and this fight must go on.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the bipartisan Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018.
After six short-term extensions ranging from 1 week to just over a year, the Senate will finally pass comprehensive legislation that will set FAA policy until 2023. These short-term extensions keep the lights on, but they deny us the opportunity to make meaningful changes and better serve the American people.
I am a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and I am proud of our committee's work that made this long-term reauthorization possible, but I am especially thankful to our committee chairman, John Thune, and ranking member, Bill Nelson, for their leadership throughout this process.
This bill makes critical investments in airport infrastructure. It promotes competition and leadership in aviation, increases safety in the National Airspace System, and strengthens customer service practices across the commercial aviation sector.
The legislation delivers very strong support to our rural communities in Michigan and across the Nation by continuing the Essential Air Service, or EAS, Program. This program drives economic development and tourism while also connecting local residents to world-class healthcare. I will never stop fighting to ensure that Michigan's EAS airports--from Muskegon, to Houghton/Hancock, to Alpena--get the funding they need to continue to serve their communities.
In addition to driving sustained investment in rural communities, I support this long-term reauthorization because it gave me an opportunity to address a number of critical challenges that are facing our country. This bill includes provisions I authored that will help prepare our students for the high-tech jobs of today and tomorrow, secure public spaces in our airports, and remove the outdated Federal requirement that airports use firefighting foams containing fluorinated chemicals that contaminate groundwater and are causing disastrous human health effects across the country.
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 will improve the competitiveness of our Nation's workforce by clearing the way for our students and educators to use unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, for research, education, and job training. Whether this technology is used for critical infrastructure or boosting crop yields at our farms, UAS technology will create tens of thousands of new jobs in the coming years, and we need American students and workers ready to take advantage of that. That is why I worked across the aisle with Senator Moran to introduce the Higher Education Unmanned Air Systems Modernization Act and include it in this long-term FAA bill.
This provision has the support of the Association of Public and Land-
grant Universities, the Association of American Universities, and dozens of other colleges and universities all across our Nation.
Our brightest minds will have the ability to design, refine, and fly UAS to prepare our country for the safe integration of UAS into our National Airspace System.
In my home State of Michigan, Alpena Community College has created a UAS pilot training program that complements existing certificate programs, like the utility technology certificate, making their graduates even more competitive.
This will support job creation across the income spectrum, as our Nation's workforce will be able to get the training they need to operate these systems both safely and efficiently.
Ultimately, whether we are talking about UAS, passenger planes in the air, or travelers making their way through the airport, this is all about safety. In recent years, we have seen high-profile attacks at airports around the world but also in places like Flint, MI. These attacks have demonstrated the vulnerabilities of heavily trafficked public areas outside of security screening, such as baggage claim and pickup and dropoff areas.
I heard from our international airport in Detroit and others across the country that current airport funding streams often cannot be used for security projects in these public spaces. Their need for greater flexibility for airport infrastructure improvements led me and my colleague Senator Gardner to introduce the bipartisan Secure Airport Public Spaces Act. This legislation would increase safety and security for airport passengers and visitors outside of the TSA screening areas. A critical provision of our bill was incorporated into this reauthorization bill that will now allow airports to use Airport Improvement Program funds on state-of-the-art surveillance cameras in these public areas, which will help monitor, prevent, and respond to potential attacks at airports across our Nation.
Finally, I would like to discuss what could be our Nation's defining public health challenge for generations--a group of harmful chemicals known as PFAS. The PFAS class is a group of over 4,700 manmade chemicals that have been used nationwide and internationally. These chemicals do not break down in the human body or in the environment, and they can accumulate over time and cause a great deal of harm. We already know that there are several health effects associated with exposure to certain PFAS. A few examples include compromised immune system function, cancers, endocrine disruption, and cognitive effects.
I have listened to families exposed to PFAS in Michigan, but PFAS are not just a Michigan issue. We know that there are over 170 sites in 40 States that are contaminated with PFAS. PFAS are so pervasive that it is estimated that up to 110 million Americans could have these chemicals in their water.
PFAS chemicals have been used for decades in a wide range of consumer products, including textiles, paper products, and cookware. In addition to all of these uses, they have also been used in firefighting foams for decades. These foams have been used on military bases and in our commercial airports. They have been used near businesses and neighborhoods, near ground water and surface water, near lakes and streams.
Last week, I worked with Senator Rand Paul to convene a hearing in our Federal Spending Oversight Subcommittee that addressed the Federal Government's role in PFAS. We heard firsthand about the impact of this public health crisis on community members, firefighters, and veterans. Not only have these foams containing PFAS been used for decades, we are still requiring their use at American airports even as safe alternatives are now being developed and deployed abroad.
While there is a lot of work to be done related to remediation, human health research, filter technology, and more, we must stop making this problem worse. This is why I worked with Senators Sullivan, Stabenow, Rubio, Shaheen, Gillibrand, and Hassan to lead a commonsense addition to this FAA bill.
Our bipartisan provision gives airports the option to use fluorine-
free foams. I also appreciate Congressman Kildee for leading this effort in the House of Representatives.
Using fluorine-free foams is not a novel idea, but it is an idea whose time has come. Over 70 airports around the world are already using fluorine-free foams that have passed the most challenging of tests, and they have seen real success in combating fires. These airports include major international hubs such as Dubai, London Heathrow, Manchester, and Copenhagen. Every major airport in Australia has already made this transition.
It is past time that we catch up, and I am happy too that this important legislation will finally allow American airports to embrace safe, innovative firefighting technologies and stop using fluorinated foams.
I want to thank Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson, as well as Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer, for their work to pass this important bipartisan legislation.
I urge my colleagues to support this critical long-term FAA reauthorization that will help keep PFAS out of our water. It will help drive investment in our Nation's workforce, and it will help ensure that our airports and skies are safe.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Tribute to SSG Ronald J. Shurer
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the FAA reauthorization bill. Before I do that, I would like to take a moment to recognize a graduate of Rogers High School in Puyallup, WA. SSG Ronald J. Shurer II, who received the Medal of Honor yesterday for his selfless heroism in Afghanistan.
When he heard wounded members of his team were trapped on a hill, he didn't hesitate. In the face of heavy enemy fire, Staff Sergeant Shurer shielded three wounded teammates with his own body and helped them reach safety.
I congratulate Staff Sergeant Shurer for his heroism and bravery and his sacrifice, and I would like to congratulate him and his family on his receiving this honor. We in Washington are very proud of Staff Sergeant Shurer.
FAA Reauthorization Bill
Mr. President, turning to the FAA bill, which I hope we are going to be considering very shortly, I am pleased that the Senate is looking at a 5-year reauthorization.
It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about short-term extensions and didn't know if we could get to this point of clearing the rest of these issues. I would like to thank my colleagues Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Blunt for helping get us to this point.
The work we have done on this legislation is so important because it is helping U.S. commercial aviation remain the safest and most secure in the world and to improve the traveling public's experience.
Just like so many other reauthorizations, this reflects an agreement by Congress on the need to focus on safety and security, to implement the latest and greatest technologies, and to increase the use of bomb-
sniffing dogs to help the flying public feel more secure and to move quickly through our airports.
This legislation recognizes the values of the latest technologies across many aspects of the aviation sector from NextGen--which allows us to fly more efficiently--to expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicle systems, to new TSA equipment that, as I said, will help us move through security lines more efficiently and help make us safer.
While we need to keep on working to address infrastructure needs at our crowded airports, I can tell you most specifically that, for the Pacific Northwest, where we have seen some of the fastest growth in air transportation and demand by the public in recent years, this 5-year reauthorization does provide the FAA with the certainty it needs to use its Airport Improvement Program to invest in long-term projects that will help us increase capacity at large and small airports.
Again, I can't tell you how important this is for airports all over the State of Washington. Many of us know that about 90 percent of businesses are housed within about 10 miles of an airport. So the investment in the airport and airport infrastructure is an investment in our economy for the future. These projects in this bill, like the new runway that will be completed next year at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport in eastern Washington with $100 million in Federal funding, gives communities the tools they need to keep that economy growing.
I can tell you, it is growing. With WSU and other institutions in the region, it is helping grow and attract some of the best technology in Next Generation Energy. The fact that the airport is able to expand helps all of us in the region grow.
The Federal funding that will continue to be provided in this bill is critical for airports to increase their capacity and help our economy. Under programs reauthorized in this legislation, Sea-Tac is currently completing a $14 million runway and taxi reconstruction. Spokane has received $15 million for airfield improvements, and airports from Everett to Walla Walla to Winthrop have each received millions of dollars through these programs to keep their facilities up to date.
The Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco was awarded $7 million to install an inline baggage screening system in their new terminal. Yes, our airports depend on to continue to move forward on FAA and infrastructure investment.
This legislation also expands the Small Community Air Service Development Program, which provides grants to communities to help them attract and maintain critical air service by creating marketing programs and providing incentives to airlines. This has been a great tool for our State, including airports in Walla Walla, Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, and Pasco, as they have used these resources to help grow service. Once service is established, it is easy to maintain. Why? Because they have helped get the carrier and the traffic and they can see that it can be sustained.
The United States has the best aviation safety record in the world, and the FAA's oversight and certification procedures are critical in maintaining that. This bill continues with making sure that those procedures remain strong.
The bill helps us with what are called contract air traffic control towers in making sure that small communities that are working to retain air service can do so by making sure that their towers remain in operation. These contract towers provide a key layer of safety at smaller airports and in the region. Places like Yakima, Wenatchee, Spokane, Bellingham, Renton, and Walla Walla will not be saddled with the responsibility for these contract towers but will receive support so that they, too, can handle the demand of air transportation. Contract towers handle about 28 percent of ATC operations, yet they account for about 14 percent of the FAA's tower operations budget.
The bill recognizes the important role, also, that flight attendants play in ensuring cabin safety by making sure they receive adequate rest. This legislation finally puts them on par with our pilots. It says that they have to have their 10 hours of rest, as well, so that they can function and continue to help us with the traveling public.
The bill preserves access to important safety tools. It bans the FAA from removing contract weather observers from airports for the next several years. Why is this so important? Because at airports with changing conditions where we need human observation of critical weather measurements, this helps us maintain safety. In places like Spokane, WA, where conditions can change quickly and freezing conditions can be quite common, this helps us maintain safety.
The bill also takes important steps toward securing airports and airplanes with reauthorization of the Transportation Security Administration.
We know that there is no better tool in our airports today to helping us make sure they operate safely and securely by having explosive detecting K-9 units. That is why I was proud to lead a provision in the bill that will help us expand the use of bomb-detecting K-9s for screening our passengers and protecting the public at our airports. What we are seeing is that security lines at our airports move much more rapidly when these K-9s are present.
Yes, they are a deterrent in and of themselves, and they help speed up lines. But they also are there to detect the use of explosives or other materials, and they are doing an unbelievable job. That is why this provision allows for larger airports to get more K-9 units certified by TSA and work with them to address long lines at our airports.
In the Northwest, we have seen that these K-9s can do unbelievable things to help us. In fact, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has been one of the fastest growing airports for the last several years, and the K-9s have helped us through these checkpoints in the passenger screening process where they can screen almost 60 percent more passengers per hour than a checkpoint without K-9s.
It is so important that this legislation helps us get more K-9s trained and more coordination between airports and TSA as these new tools are improved. We are so happy that it is included in this legislation.
We also give smaller airports more tools to improve security. The bill contains a program to implement exit lane technology at small hub airports. It contains a $55 million authorization to reimburse airports for deploying local law enforcement officers to help maintain public areas in large and small airports.
These tools are also important because our airports have had more and more responsibility; yet we need them to operate efficiently and effectively. At the same time, we are trying to improve the flying experience. More people are flying than ever before, and airplanes and airports are becoming more cramped and chaotic.
This FAA bill is set to make sure that there are minimum dimensions for passenger seats. It raises the bar on some of the other safety improvements to make sure that the traveling public and disabled passengers are treated with dignity and respect.
The bill also requires airlines to provide prompt refunds so that passengers are paid in a timely fashion when they are due a refund.
It also improves other technology in unmanned air systems, an increased use of important commercial, scientific, and public safety issues that are now at the advent of what we see with drone applications.
These are so important because we want to move forward with our Coast Guard, with our Forest Service, with transportation, using information and data to help us do our jobs better. This important piece of legislation helps us make sure we are improving safety and oversight by the right amount for these new systems that will be part of this package.
I am so glad to have worked with my colleagues on this very broad bipartisan piece of legislation. I can't tell you how important aviation is to the State of Washington. We are a big aviation-
manufacturing State. Yes, we like to build and sell airplanes, but we also know that, as our economy has grown, our airports are a key tool, as they are in any State, to continue to grow and continue to manage the challenges of air transportation.
This bill is the right tool for many airports across the State of Washington and across the Nation to continue to grow, to continue to manage that population growth, and ensure safety and efficiency.
I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation. There are many more things we need to do, but this is a good down payment for the next 5 years.
I thank Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson for getting us to this point today.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hoeven). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about a few good things that have happened in Washington this week. At a time when people are looking at Washington and wondering whether things are getting done, let me just suggest, on the floor this week, we are going to pass landmark legislation that will deal with a crisis we have in our States--every single one of us--and that is the opioid issue. I will talk about that in a minute.
Funding for National Parks
Mr. President, first, let me mention that today, in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and with a vote of 19 to 4, we passed legislation to help our national parks. It is historic in the sense that it is probably the most funding we have ever put against the long-
term maintenance problems at our parks.
We have more visitors at our parks than ever. Yet we have crumbling roads and bridges and water systems. We have, literally, campgrounds and other areas that are closed off because of the lack of funding for these longer term projects, which is the deferred maintenance backlog--
about $12 billion now. We have come up with a bipartisan solution to try to address that by using some of the oil and gas revenues, onshore and offshore, from Federal lands. It is an example of how we are moving things forward.
USMCA
Mr. President, finally, I am encouraged that the President and his team have negotiated an agreement to add Canada, along with Mexico, to a new North American trade agreement. They are not calling it NAFTA; they have changed the name to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. I think this is going to be a step forward. I have now looked at the summary from it. We don't have the details yet--and I, of course, want to see the final details--but I think it has two general advantages for us.
One is that it will encourage more production in North America of things like automobiles because you have to have a higher American content--Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. content now--in automobiles than you did under the old agreement. You will have more cars being built in America and North America as well as auto parts. I think that is good.
I also think there are other things in the agreement that will help to encourage production in the United States because it will level the playing field more with our country. It does things with regard to Canada that are long overdue to try to keep it from putting protection policies in place on its agriculture products, especially its dairy products. So, when it sends powdered milk to us now, it can't take advantage of the subsidies it is providing for its milk producers, as an example. It lets our dairy farmers be able to compete on a more level playing field.
Those are the kinds of things that are in the agreement. I, again, look forward to seeing the entire agreement. I think having a North American compact that is updated is good because the NAFTA agreement was 24 years old. We have modernized it and put new labor standards in place, as an example.
The second, again, is to level the playing field further with these countries in our region that are our allies and, therefore, should not be viewed as national security threats. We shouldn't be putting tariffs in place on them on a national security basis, which we were doing and threatening to do more of, including on autos under section 232, it is called. We now have better trade agreements with these countries that are our allies but that also had some barriers in place for our exports. We need to be sure their imports are going to be fairly traded in this country. So it is positive, I think, to have this agreement.
Now, frankly, it enables us as a North American market to be more effective in dealing with some of the trade disputes we have had with other parts of the world, most notably with China, with which we do have a lot of unfair trade going on. China is not playing by the rules often, and this helps us to have Canada and Mexico with us to be able to address those issues with China, as an example.
Those are some of the things that are happening this week that I am happy about, and I think we are making some progress.
Opioid Epidemic
Mr. President, let me go back to what is going to be voted on, on this floor, I am told, sometime tomorrow. Probably tomorrow afternoon, this Senate will take up legislation that has now been passed in the House and passed in the Senate. There has been a conference committee between the two bodies, and it has come up with a final product. I think the final product has a lot of good things in it that will help push back against this opioid epidemic that is growing in our country.
On my way to Washington yesterday, I went by a memorial service for a young man who had died of an opioid overdose. I had known him and have known his family for a long time. It strikes close to home for pretty much everybody in this Chamber, I am sure, and for pretty much everybody who is listening. When we have our tele-townhall meetings and I ask this question, which I do regularly--I had two tele-townhall meetings last month--``Have you been affected by the opioid issue,'' most people say yes.
In fact, in parts of our State, in Southeastern Ohio, where we had a tele-townhall meeting recently, two-thirds of the people on the call said, yes, they were directly affected. That is because, sadly, this issue has grown to the point where last year 72,000 Americans lost their lives to the opioid epidemic. That is more people than we lost in the entire Vietnam war in 1 year. That many people died from opioid overdoses in 1 year. It is a grim statistic, and it is a record level.
Although Congress has done some good things in the last couple of years in passing legislation to help, those legislative efforts to have better prevention programs in place, more treatment offered, more longer term recovery programs, more first responders with Narcan--this miracle drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose--that is starting to happen, but it is being overwhelmed with the influx of drugs, particularly this new synthetic form of opioid that is coming into our communities.
It is usually called fentanyl, sometimes it is called carfentanil, but in my home State of Ohio and in other States around the country, this is resulting with a much higher overdose death rate than even the horrible drugs like heroin and the prescription drugs that are causing these opioid addictions--cocaine, methamphetamines, and crystal meth. This drug, fentanyl, is growing and growing rapidly.
I will tell you, in Ohio, we had about a 4,000-percent increase in fentanyl overdose deaths just in the last 5 years. Let me repeat that. There was a 4,000-percent increase in deaths from fentanyl. About two-thirds of our overdose deaths over time in Ohio are due to this synthetic form of opioid.
By the way, this stuff is coming from overseas, mostly through our U.S. mail system. It is outrageous that this is being permitted without the proper screening.
The legislation we are going to vote on this week--probably tomorrow afternoon--will finally put in place legislation called the STOP Act that we have worked on. Senator Klobuchar and I are the coauthors of it. We have worked on this for 3 years now to get it to this point.
We had hearings. We had an investigation in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to understand what was going on and how to deal with it, how to stop it. We found out, unbelievably, that the U.S. Postal Service is the main conduit for this poison. We also found out that the Postal Service is pushing back against putting additional screening in place.
We also found out that private carriers, like FedEx, UPS, or DHL, will require every single package to have advanced electronic information provided to law enforcement to help stop this poison, to be able to find that needle in the haystack, that package out of the 900 million the post office deals with every year that might have this poison in it.
Under this legislation, the STOP Act, the post office is now going to have to do what these other private carriers do, and that is really important.
In our investigation, where we used undercover resources to talk to websites, to find out what was being offered, to look behind the websites to find out what was really going on with this fentanyl issue, we found out that if you shipped it by the U.S. mail system, they guaranteed delivery but not if you shipped it through a private carrier. Why? Because they knew the private carriers had this electronic data that provided in advance what is in it, where it is going, where it is coming from, and then law enforcement can use Big Data to figure out what packages are suspect and take them offline.
I have seen that done at the distribution centers of these private carriers. I have also spent a lot of time talking to the post office about it. They are now going to implement this legislation, I hope, aggressively.
It requires 100 percent of packages, within a couple of years, to have this data on it and right away for China. It will be 100 percent for China this year because, according to law enforcement, unfortunately, China is the country where most of this is coming from. It gives us the opportunity to be able to stop some of this poison coming into our communities. That is really important.
To me, getting that passed is just common sense. I think it is overdue. I am disappointed it took us this long. How many people had to die before Congress stood up and did the right thing with regard to telling our own post office, ``You have to provide better screening''? So it should be done.
Having said that, that is not going to solve the problem. Yes, having a cutoff of some of the supply of this poison is important. To a certain extent, it stops it from coming into our communities, and it is going to raise the price on the street because you are cutting the supply. That is important because it is so cheap and so powerful. It is 50 times more powerful than heroin, but that is not the ultimate solution.
The ultimate solution is us, isn't it? It is in our hearts, in our families, in our communities to push back by having better prevention and education in place, by ensuring people who become addicted, who have this disease of addiction, have access to treatment to get them better so their lives can be turned around and they can go back to their families and to their work and to being productive citizens.
We need longer term recovery programs because we know shorter term treatment isn't very successful. So many people relapse after a short-
term treatment program, but a longer term recovery program with it--
let's say with sober housing--with support from people who are recovery coaches who have been in recovery themselves, that is going to lead to a more successful result. Drug courts are very important in this.
This legislation we are going to vote on this week does have the STOP Act, but it also has these other pieces. It reauthorizes the drug court system, as an example, diverting people out of incarceration into drug courts where they agree they are going to go into treatment and stay clean or risk going back into prison or jail if they don't. That has worked very effectively in parts of my State and around the country, as an example, to get people clean.
The legislation also does something really important that some of us have been fighting for years. We have had legislation to do this for the last 3 years, but it has really been about a 10-year battle. It is this issue of treatment centers that receive reimbursement from Medicaid being capped at a certain number of beds with a certain number of days that people can stay. It is called the IMD exclusion, or the Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion.
This is an arcane part of Federal law. It is an example where, well-
intended, years ago Congress said: We are going to put this limitation in place on treatment centers because we want to deinstitutionalize people, particularly in mental health facilities, because we have had some examples of abuse in these institutional care settings and people aren't getting the help they need so let's limit the number of beds you can have in these treatment centers on the mental health side to try to deal with the problem.
Then the opioid crisis came. I would argue even before the opioid crisis this was true with regard to cocaine and meth and other things. Beds are at a premium in many places in our country. I have spots in Ohio that don't have any treatment centers. I have communities that literally don't have a place where people can go. So what happens is, these people go out of the county or out of their communities to find a place or they simply don't find treatment. Other examples are where people go to a treatment center, and they are told: Sorry, you have to come back in a couple of weeks. We just don't have any beds.
There is nothing more heartbreaking than talking to a family or talking to a parent, as I have done, who talks about, in this case, his daughter going to a treatment center with him and his wife. She was finally ready--and when you are ready with this disease, with this addiction disease, you need to act. You need to get into treatment. She was ready, but they told her: There is no room at the inn. There is no bed for you. You have to come back in a couple of weeks. It was during those 2 weeks that she had a tough time. She overdosed again in their home and died.
That family is really happy about this legislation because this will say to these treatment centers: You are not going to be capped at a certain number of beds. If you are doing a good job and providing the kind of treatment we want to have you provide, we don't want you to be capped at a certain number of beds.
Again, this legislation that is currently in place with the 16-bed limit is a vestige of another time. This will enable us to take that limit off and provide more treatment to so many Americans
We also provided in this legislation that those who want to get this exclusion lifted also have to provide at least two kinds of medication-
assisted treatment to people, which we know, based on the evidence--
depending on the person--is more successful. So we want to encourage people to offer medication-assisted treatment to get people off their addiction.
It also says it is not limited to a certain kind of drug. There was some expansion of this in the previous legislation in the House, and some of us in the Senate introduced a bill a few weeks ago that is very similar to our final product that said: Let's not limit it just to those who have opioid addiction or even just opioid addiction and cocaine addiction; let's open it up to people who have substance abuse addiction--it can be alcohol, it can be crystal meth, which is unfortunately growing in some of our States, and it can be opioids. So we broadened it for individuals with substance abuse disorders.
We have said, these institutions need to provide the best possible treatment, medication-assisted treatment. Through this legislative effort that is going to be voted on here tomorrow, we have been able to open up a whole other possibility for people who are addicted. It is something we have worked on for many years.
It is important we expand these services. It is important we tell people: If you are ready, we are going to find a treatment center for you--because we want these people to get better.
We are told most people who are addicted don't seek treatment--
probably 8 out of 10 don't. One of the tricks is how do you get these people into treatment and into treatment in a way that is comprehensive where there are not big gaps. So between the overdose and the Narcan being applied, you want to be sure there is not a gap before treatment because people go back to their old community and, unfortunately, there are too many cases of people overdosing again and again. So get them into treatment but then from treatment into longer term recovery. We have to smooth that gap out so people are handed off to a facility or to an outpatient program that can help them ensure a greater level of success.
Then how do you have this ability to say to people, ``We are going to be there for you,'' because, unfortunately, particularly with this opioid addiction, all the evidence coming in shows that long-term care really helps.
Again, Congress has already taken some steps in the last couple of years with the Cures Act and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the so-called CARA legislation. There is more going on in our States.
I visited about a dozen different places in our State where they are taking advantage of the funding from the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, legislation I coauthored a couple years ago with Senator Whitehouse on the other side. It is starting to work. It is closing some of the gaps we are talking about.
The Cures legislation goes right back to the States. Last year, Ohio got about $26 million for that. It is very helpful for us because we are struggling to provide enough resources for treatment, particularly. Then now we have this additional bill to build on CARA and Cures.
I think over time this will have the effect of reversing what we have seen as a terrible and deadly trend, which is more and more Americans overdosing, dying, not being in the workplace, not being with their families, and not being productive citizens. This is something that affects every single one of us.
If you go to your hospital, you will see that the emergency room is overburdened. If you go to your NICU unit where these babies are being born who are addicted, babies who have neonatal abstinence syndrome--
these babies can fit in the palm of your hand or your two palms--and they have to be taken through withdrawal. How sad that innocent babies have to be taken through withdrawal because they were born to a mother who was using and who was addicted.
These are all things that must be addressed and can be. Again, our legislation is going to help do that.
I will say, as much progress as we are making on education, treatment, recovery, and with our first responders helping, as long as you have this deadly poison coming in, this fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and relatively inexpensive because it is being made by some evil scientist somewhere out of synthetics, out of chemicals--as long as you have that overwhelming the system, it is hard to see us reversing the trend. That is why the STOP Act is so important.
We also reauthorized the HIDTA Program for high intensity drug trafficking areas. We need to push back on the supply side. We need to do more in terms of the demand side. With that, I will predict that when all of this is implemented properly, we will see some hope at the end of this dark tunnel. We will see fewer funerals like the one I was at yesterday.
Instead, what we will see are families beginning to come back together, people beginning to have the opportunity to achieve their God-given potential in life, whatever it is. God's purpose for these addicts certainly isn't to continue to be an addict. His purpose is for them to have a meaningful life also, as well as for all of us. It is in all of our interests.
My hope is, we can pass this legislation tomorrow, get it to the President, he will sign it, get it out to our States and communities, and begin to make the difference that can indeed begin to reverse this terrible epidemic and reverse the tide.
Unanimous Consent Agreement
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators be allowed to present legislative items at the desk during today's session of the Senate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PORTMAN. Thank you.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
FAA Reauthorization
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am here this afternoon to address two pieces of legislation that are coming before the Senate. One we are currently waiting to consider is a long-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, and the second, which I hope we will soon consider, is comprehensive legislation to address the Nation's opioid epidemic.
I begin by thanking Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson for their work to deliver a bipartisan, bicameral FAA reauthorization bill that provides a 5-year reauthorization for the agency. The last time we reauthorized the FAA, when I was in the Senate, I think it took us 23 tries to get it done over a period of time that was actually longer than the original authorization, but this time we are doing it much faster, with three short-term extensions. Last week, the House passed this bill, the FAA reauthorization, with broad bipartisan support, and I hope the Senate is going to act quickly so we can get this bill to the President's desk for signature.
The FAA has not received a long-term reauthorization since February of 2012. Short-term reauthorizations fail to give the FAA the certainty and the necessary resources they need to make to improve our Nation's airports and make commercial air travel safer for all passengers.
I think it is particularly an issue right now as we are switching over to the NextGen system of air traffic control. Last month, I had a chance to visit with air traffic controllers in New Hampshire at the Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility in Merrimack, also called the TRACON. What I heard from folks there was that a long-term reauthorization bill means that the TRACON and Merrimack will be able to upgrade its systems to keep our airways safe, while also allowing the center to continue to hire well-qualified, trained controllers to meet staffing needs.
The bill we have before us now provides critical investments through the Airport Improvement Program that provides grants to airports nationwide for planning and development projects that these airports would be unable to complete otherwise. In New Hampshire, where we have a number of small airports, this grant program is particularly important.
It also increases investments in the Essential Air Service Program, which provides services that would otherwise be too cost prohibitive for airlines to operate in rural communities like we have in New Hampshire. For example, EAS is vital for Granite Staters who utilize the Lebanon Municipal Airport and depend on this service for access to regularly scheduled flights that would not otherwise be available. I am sure the Presiding Officer has an appreciation for the Lebanon Municipal Airport, since he went to school at Dartmouth in that region of the State and knows how important that airport is to New Hampshire.
I am also pleased the FAA bill includes legislation I introduced as part of it to permanently reauthorize the Human Intervention Motivation Study, the HIMS Program, and also directs the National Research Council to study how other subagencies within the Department of Transportation could create similar programs to fight drug and alcohol addiction within their workforces.
HIMS, as it is known, is an employee assistance program that provides education and outreach in order to coordinate the identification, treatment, medical recertification, and return to the cockpit of flight officers with substance misuse issues. HIMS doesn't provide direct treatment but instead helps identify those who are in need, and it facilitates the successful return to work. It is an industrywide effort in which airlines, pilot unions, and the FAA work together to preserve careers and promote air safety. Since its implementation, the program has successfully helped over 5,800 pilots, and it provides airlines with a
$9 return on every dollar that is invested.
There are a lot of lessons from the HIMS Program that I think have real resonance to other agencies within the Department of Transportation, and I am hoping the study that is authorized as part of the FAA bill we are considering will be able to be shared so we can see how other agencies can also benefit from this.
Right now, we have a 1-week extension on the FAA bill that expires this Sunday, October 7. I hope this bill is going to come to the floor for final passage before we go home this week.
Opioid Epidemic
Mr. President, second, I also want to point out that I hope the Senate will be moving soon to advance the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which is comprehensive legislation to address the opioid epidemic. It is legislation that is the product of real bipartisan collaboration, not only within multiple committees within the Senate but multiple committees within both Chambers of Congress. It really shows we can work together across the aisle to help combat a crisis that has such a devastating impact on so many of our communities across the country. In my State of New Hampshire, where we have been particularly devastated, we have the second highest rate of overdose deaths from opioids of any State in the country.
What I have heard from Granite Staters time and again is that local providers and communities need more resources and flexibility to expand access to opioid treatment and prevention. This legislation responds to that call for action.
I am proud to have worked with Senator Hassan and Senators from across the aisle to ensure that this bill includes a reauthorization of the State opioid response grants, with the inclusion of the set-aside funding pool for States like New Hampshire that have been hardest hit by the epidemic.
I am also pleased that the bill includes provisions of legislation I cosponsored with Senator Collins to provide technical assistance and resources to peer recovery support networks. These networks play a vital role in a patient's successful recovery.
The bill extends flexibility for physicians and other practitioners who are seeking to expand access to medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. Ensuring that more patients can receive MAT services is critical to stemming the tide of the opioid epidemic.
The bill provides a variety of improvements to prescription drug monitoring programs, which has been a priority for New Hampshire. It includes a number of provisions that will improve the ability of Federal, State, and local law enforcement to reduce the illicit distribution of opioids and interdict particularly deadly synthetics like fentanyl, which is really the source of so many overdose deaths across the country.
The legislation reauthorizes critical law enforcement programs that work to combat drug trafficking, including the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program, HIDTA. I had an opportunity in January to visit the New England HIDTA Program headquarters in Massachusetts, and I saw firsthand the work they are doing to combat the flow of illicit drugs.
Finally, this opioid legislation provides much needed focus on addressing the impact of the opioid epidemic on children and families. If we don't get ahead of this epidemic, we are going to see another generation of children who are going to be lost because of what has happened in their families because of substance abuse disorders.
This bill will help pregnant women with substance use disorders access the maternity care they need. It has programs that will give families better options for treating opioid withdrawal in newborns, programs like Moms in Recovery that Dartmouth-Hitchcock does so well in New Hampshire. What we are seeing in some hospitals in New Hampshire is that as much as 10-percent of babies are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, caused by their mothers using opioids while they were pregnant. The bill will also help spur new family-focused interventions for parents struggling with opioid use disorders so that fewer kids will be raised in foster care.
In sum, the policies included in this bipartisan legislation will go a long way toward helping us fight the opioid epidemic. We will need to continue to focus Federal resources on this crisis in the years to come. This is an important step forward in making sure at the Federal level that we are working with States and communities to address this multifaceted public health challenge. If we all work together, we can help end the devastation that is being caused by opioids. I look forward to joining all of our colleagues in supporting this bill soon.
At this point, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Flake). The Senator from Idaho.
Recognizing Micron Technology
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I rise today on behalf of myself and my good friend and colleague, also from Idaho, Senator Crapo, and we wish to honor an exceptional business from our great State. That business is Micron Technology.
Although Micron began in Idaho with just four employees, it will celebrate its 40th anniversary this week as one of the world's top tech companies, with thousands of employees worldwide.
Micron started as a semiconductor design company in the basement of a Boise dental office in 1978. Soon after it broke ground on its first fabrication plant in 1980, Micron introduced the world to the smallest 256K dynamic random access memory. By 1994, Micron's development of solid state drives and other flash memory technology in its product portfolio earned it a spot on the Fortune 500 list. Today, Micron's team of more than 34,000 employees spans the globe from Boise, Silicon Valley, and Virginia, to Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Europe.
As one of the top four semiconductor companies in the world, Micron works with the world's most trusted brands and is the only pure play memory company headquartered in the Western Hemisphere. Throughout its 40-year history, Micron has contributed to more than 40,000 patents and continues to advance memory and storage technologies that enable innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles. Micron's advancements have made the United States a leader in technology and give the Nation a competitive edge in data storage, security, and supercomputing.
In addition to its renowned technological developments, I am proud that Micron is working to transform the communities where its team members live and work, providing resources to educate the next generation of scientists, inventors, and engineers.
In 2017, Micron was ranked 23rd in the Fortune Just 100, Forbes' list of companies with the best and most just business behavior.
Last year, the Micron Foundation awarded more than 550 grants worldwide and donated more than $10 million to education and community-
related causes.
I wish to congratulate Micron on its long list of accomplishments and thank the company for the opportunities it provides for Idahoans and for all Americans. The advances Micron's solutions provide for computing across our country are considerable. It is my pleasure to recognize its 40th anniversary on October 5, 2018. We all wish Micron the best of luck and continued success as a global technology leader and world-class semiconductor company.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Daines). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Opioid Epidemic
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, everyone in this Chamber knows how bad the opioid crisis is. In Ohio, based on the averages, 11 people died yesterday, 11 people will die today, and 11 people will die tomorrow from a drug overdose. We have a long way to go to fight this, but right now, we are taking an important step to get resources to communities, doing innovative work, and tearing down the redtape regulations that prevent people from getting treatment.
This week we will pass a comprehensive package of legislation to fight addiction. Several of these bills are important to Ohio.
I worked with my Republican colleague from West Virginia, Senator Capito, on a bipartisan CRIB Act to support treatment centers for babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome, like Brigid's Path in Dayton, Lily's Place in Huntington that serves people across the river in Lawrence County, OH, and elsewhere.
Brigid's Path in Ohio is one of just two residential treatment centers like this in the country. Again, Huntington, WV, on the Ohio River, across the river from Ohio, and Brigid's Path in Dayton are the only two of these in the country.
I am meeting in my office tomorrow with folks from Brigid's Path to talk with them about the important work they are doing in our State.
NAS is caused by the use of opioids or other addictive substances during pregnancy. It has become a growing challenge for families and healthcare providers in States like Ohio.
Recent studies show that cases of NAS have tripled over the past decade. Right now, babies are usually treated in the neonatal intensive care unit, known as NICUs--the neonatal intensive care unit--where treatment costs are five times the cost of treating other newborns, but given the relative bright lights and the relative loud noises in neonatal units, the NICU is not always the best place for newborns struggling with withdrawal. They are even more sensitive to noise and light than other premature babies that might be in a NICU.
Residential pediatric recovery facilities like Brigid's Path can give these infants specialized care as well as bringing the mothers and the families in for counseling in a setting outside the chaos of a hospital. So while they are treating the newborn baby, they also have opportunities with some wraparound services to treat the addicted mothers so mother and child and others in the family can have a normal, healthy life.
These unique venues are relatively new. The CRIB Act will allow them to bill Medicaid for the services they offer. The CRIB Act, Brigid's Path in Dayton, OH, and the Huntington program are not eligible for Medicaid because they are neither a doctor nor a hospital. So this bill will make them eligible for Medicaid and will save millions of dollars. As more of these facilities like Brigid's Path and Lily's Place are formed around the country, we will be saving millions and millions of Medicaid dollars. Instead of going to the more expensive, less-
effective neonatal intensive care unit, they are going to Brigid's Path and other places like that.
As I said, the CRIB Act will allow them to bill Medicaid for their services, expanding options for care for the thousands of babies who need specialized treatment. Unfortunately, thousands of babies are born to addicted mothers.
This package will also do some other things that matter. It will lift the cap on the number of beds at Medicaid-funded treatment facilities for 5 years, something Senator Portman and I have worked on for a long time. My colleague from Ohio, in the opposite party from me, has been working on opioid issues for some time, and this is one of the issues on which we worked together.
The bill includes Senator Portman's STOP Act that I supported and that will work with my INTERDICT Act that Senator Portman and others supported, that was signed into law by the White House several months ago, that will help keep illegal fentanyl, a synthetic substance much more toxic and powerful than heroin, and something called carfentanil off the streets.
We know we have more work to do to fight this crisis. We need more resources in our communities in Ohio. This package is a bipartisan step forward. I hope we can get this to the President's desk and signed into law soon.
One sort of editorial comment also. I was a fairly young kid when I first started hearing about this, and we all know about this. In the mid-1960s--a huge number of Americans smoked tobacco--the U.S. Surgeon General first brought to the public's attention that smoking caused people's life expectancy, lifespans, to be considerably shorter because of all the illnesses coming from smoking. In one of the great success stories in public health in the last half century, the Federal Government worked together with local health officials, physicians, nurses, hospitals, cancer societies, the American Heart Association, and others--starting with warnings on cigarette packs and all the things we do now--and the rate of smoking in this country considerably dropped from what it was in the mid-1960s.
Our country, led by the Federal Government in many cases--and people can say what they want about the government, but the Federal Government led the way on tobacco, on that public health initiative against tobacco. We can help lead the way, and we can work with local communities in addressing this terrible public health affliction of opioid addiction. It will matter to the next many generations if we do this right.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
