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.
“STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S6361-S6367 on Oct. 5, 2017.
The Department oversees more than 500 million acres of land. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the department has contributed to a growing water crisis and holds many lands which could be better managed.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Franken):
S. 1927. A bill to amend section 455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to allow adjunct faculty members to qualify for public service loan forgiveness; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I reintroduced the Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act, a bill that would enable faculty working less than full-time to participate in the Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program.
Contingent faculty members are like full-time instructors. They have advanced degrees. They teach classes and spend many hours outside the classroom preparing for class. They hold office hours, grade papers, and give feedback to students. They provide advice and write letters of recommendation. Students rely on them. Since most adjuncts have advanced degrees and, as the 63 percent of graduate degree recipients who borrow have an average of almost $59,000 in student loans, they are among the 44 million Americans with student debt.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is meant to encourage graduates to go into public service by offering student loan forgiveness for eligible Federal loans after ten years of full-time work in government or the non-profit sector. Public service fields like nursing, military service, and public health qualify. And many education jobs qualify, including full-time work at public universities and part-time work at community colleges in high-needs subject areas or areas of shortage. But other faculty members, those who work part-time, are not eligible for loan forgiveness because the law requires an annual average of 30 hours per week to qualify for the program. For adjunct faculty working on a contingent basis--many of whom may only teach one or two classes while holding down other part-time jobs to make ends meet--this requirement can be difficult or impossible to meet, even when they are putting in more than 30 hours of work each week.
The number of faculty hours given for each class is calculated differently at different schools. Some schools give one hour per hour in the classroom while others actually take into consideration the time required outside the classroom. So, even as these faculty members are working hard to provide quality instruction for their students, often without the option of moving into a tenured, full-time position, their public service is not recognized by the current Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act of 2017 would solve this by amending the Higher Education Act to expand the definition of a
``public service job'' to include a part-time faculty member who teaches at least one course at an eligible institution of higher education. They would still have to meet all the other requirements to qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program, including making 120 on-time payments while employed at a qualifying institution, and they could not be employed full-time elsewhere at the same time. I believe it corrects a major flaw in the current system and rewards individuals for their contribution to public service rather than penalize them for the number of hours they work.
This bill would benefit someone like Brittany, an adjunct professor in southern Illinois. Brittany finished her graduate degree in 2013 and still has over $70,000 in student loan debt today. This debt has prevented her from attending law school, her longtime dream, and makes it challenging to put money aside for her retirement. This debt is also putting her children's future at risk--Brittany will still be paying off her own loans when it is time for her now four-month old child to attend college. This bill would ensure that Brittany, and thousands like her, could secure their family's financial future by earning credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness for loan payments made while teaching, regardless of the fact that she isn't full-time faculty.
Unfortunately, for all their contributions to their colleges and the students they work with, adjunct faculty like Brittany often don't have the same employment benefits or job security as their colleagues. The number of classes they teach every semester varies. To make ends meet, these professors often end up teaching classes at more than one school in the same semester, getting paid about $3,000 per class and making an average annual income that hovers around minimum wage. This also means that, in some parts of the country, they spend as much time commuting as they do teaching.
Nationally, over half of all higher education faculty work on a contingent basis. In the past, these were a minority of professors who were hired to teach an occasional class because they could bring experience to the classroom in a specific field or industry. Over time, as university budgets have tightened and it has gotten more expensive to hire full-time, tenure track professors, higher education institutions have increasingly relied on adjuncts.
From 1991 to 2015, the number of part-time faculty in the U.S. increased two and a half times from 291,000 to over 743,000. At the same time, the percentage of professors holding tenure and tenure-track positions has been steadily decreasing from 45 percent of all instructors in 1975 to only 29 percent in 2015. The number of full-time instructors, tenured and non-tenured, now makes up less than half of all professors on U.S. campuses. Today, a majority of the 1.5 million faculty employees at public and non-profit colleges and universities in the United States work on a part-time, contingent basis.
Illinois colleges rely heavily on adjuncts. In 2015, 52 percent of all faculty at all Title IV degree-granting institutions in the state--
more than 31,700 faculty employees--worked on a part-time basis. This is a 32.4 percent increase in part-time faculty in Illinois compared to a 7 percent increase in full-time faculty since 2002.
This bill does not fix the growing reliance by our higher education system on part-time professors who are underpaid and undervalued. But it would ensure that members of the contingent faculty workforce are no longer unfairly excluded from the loan forgiveness program for public servants. I would like to thank my colleague, Senator Al Franken from Minnesota, for joining me in this effort. I hope my other colleagues will join us to ensure this program benefits faculty members who provide our students with a quality education.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1927
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Adjunct Faculty Loan Fairness Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR ADJUNCT FACULTY.
Section 455(m)(3)(B)(ii) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)(3)(B)(ii)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``teaching as'' and inserting the following: ``teaching--
``(I) as'';
(2) by striking ``, foreign language faculty, and part-time faculty at community colleges), as determined by the Secretary.'' and inserting ``and foreign language faculty), as determined by the Secretary; or''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(II) as a part-time faculty member or instructor who--
``(aa) teaches not less than 1 course at an institution of higher education (as defined in section 101(a)), a postsecondary vocational institution (as defined in section 102(c)), or a Tribal College or University (as defined in section 316(b)); and
``(bb) is not employed on a full-time basis by any other employer.''.
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By Mr. FLAKE:
S. 1937. A bill to authorize appropriations for border infrastructure construction, to provide conditional resident status to certain aliens, and to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to include grounds of inadmissibility and deportability for alien members of criminal gangs and cartels, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Border Security and Deferred Action Recipient Relief Act, which I am introducing.
This bill offers solutions to the serious problems facing us with regard to border security, while at the same time addressing the needs for a legislative solution for those issues faced by the children who were brought here through no fault of their own.
With respect to the border, this bill provides $1.6 billion in funding for border security measures that the President requested and the House has already approved in a bipartisan vote. As an Arizonan, I am more than familiar with the steps we need to take to increase border security. We have a better situation on the border than we have had in a while, but there are still measures that need to be taken.
In addition to the appropriate barriers that will aid in preventing illegal crossings, we need access roads that actually get to the border. If there is one issue I hear from property owners, ranchers, Border Patrol agents, and others near the border, it is that they need better access. We have had an issue with regard to roads that are used by the Border Control that are paid for by the county. It is a situation that needs to be resolved, and it will benefit all of us who travel near the border. This bill addresses that. The road issue was also raised by the GAO. I requested a study on behalf of my constituents, along with my colleagues, to see what we could do with the roads and access situation. GAO came back with recommendations, and this would implement some of the recommendations.
The bill also aids law enforcement by ensuring the swift deportation of individuals determined to be members of violent gangs and drug cartels.
I would also like to thank Congresswoman Barbara Comstock for her leadership on this issue by sponsoring the Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act, which passed the House.
With respect to the children brought here through no fault of their own, this bill takes a measure that has already earned bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, the Recognizing America's Children Act, which provides a solution for the DACA kids. These young immigrants were brought here as children and simply know no other country. For all intents and purposes, these young people consider themselves Americans. If we can protect these DACA recipients and provide solutions to better secure our borders at the same time, that is a win-win.
The President and Congress both want to improve border security. We both want to respond to the threat of dangerous gangs and drug cartels. We both want to arrive at a legislative solution for the rescission of the DACA Program that benefits those who want to contribute to their communities and to the American dream. This bill is the best way to thread the needle and deliver what the President has asked for, what the Congress wants, and what my constituents in Arizona deserve. These issues are far too important for us to delay.
To be clear, I will work with anyone to support any number of proposals that accomplish these goals, but I believe that the straightforward approach of the Border Security and Deferred Action Recipient Relief Act, which I am introducing today, is the best chance we have to put this bill on the President's desk.
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By Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mr. Franken, Mr.
Heinrich, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Warren):
S. 1942. A bill to direct the Attorney General to review, revise, and develop law enforcement and justice protocols appropriate to address missing and murdered Indians, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss and bring awareness to the obligation that we have to never forget what is happening to way too many Native American women in this country.
For too long, the disproportionate incidents of violence against Native American women have gone unnoticed, unreported, or underreported, and it is time to address this issue head-on. That is what I intend to do today and in the remaining days of my time in the Senate, until we actually get a bill passed.
There is no official database or requirement for information collection regarding the number of missing and murdered Native women. In most cases, the only records of them are records that have been provided to us by the families and friends of the victims. It is critical that Congress push the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to work with Tribal communities to come up with culturally appropriate protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native women.
I would like to take this time to honor Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, whose story has been told on the news in North Dakota and nationally and who has been on the forefront of my mind since introducing this bill.
On August 19, Savanna, a 22-year-old member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, who was 8 months pregnant, went upstairs to her neighbor's apartment in Fargo, ND, after being invited to try on a dress for alterations. While she was there, what awaited her in that apartment were truly horrific acts of violence. Although Savanna's baby daughter survived and is now safe with her father and grandparents, that was the last time anyone who loved Savanna saw her alive.
After 8 days of searching for Savanna by the family and the community, her body was finally found by chance by kayakers in a nearby river. Her body was wrapped in plastic and duct taped. Her death was an incredible tragedy and, unfortunately, one that happens way too often to Native women.
While the news of Savanna's death was heard around the world, thousands of indigenous women are murdered and disappear each year, with many of those cases being ignored or forgotten.
Over my decades in public service, I have worked with Tribal communities on issues that involve violence against Native women. In response to those talks and to this latest tragedy, today I am introducing legislation that would help tackle the barriers to bringing justice for missing and murdered Native women across the country.
My bill, which is named after Savanna, would work to improve Tribal access to Federal databases for missing persons. It would promote interjurisdictional collaboration by establishing protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans, and it would require the collection of data related to missing and murdered Native women.
Native women are an inherently vulnerable population whose voices are still not heard by most people in power. Across rural North Dakota, women living on reservations face unique challenges when dealing with violence. Lack of access to emergency services, lack of access to law enforcement officers, lack of access to an AMBER Alert system, and confidential victim services that are not provided--these all act as barriers to women getting the help that they desperately need.
Unfortunately, there is no official database or mandated database collection on the total number of missing and murdered Native women in our country. This has added to not knowing what the actual magnitude of this epidemic really is and has resulted in several Tribal members sending me stories and handwritten lists of the names of missing and murdered women that people have gathered just from their collective memory.
I would like to share some of the stories that I have been so honored to receive from family members. Telling these stories--and giving me the ability to tell these stories--is not easy because every time you tell the story, you relive the story. These tragedies still hurt deeply. Even years after the murder, they still absolutely relive that experience. I know they have given me these stories to tell for one simple reason: because they pray and they hope and they dream that giving me these stories may change the outcome for some other family.
I am going to start by talking about these wonderful women--these beautiful women. Up at the far right-hand corner with her beautiful baby is Stella Marie Trottier-Graves. Stella Marie was born and grew up in Belcourt, ND, and was a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She spent many years traveling the world with her husband, who served in the U.S. Air Force, and their three children. The family lived in Florida, Germany, Japan, and Arizona. Everywhere they went, Stella quickly made friends and proudly shared her Chippewa culture. She was loved and adored by all who met her for living an adventurous and fearless life.
In July 2009, Stella and her family moved back to Belcourt, ND, and she started to attend Turtle Mountain Community College. On September 16, 2010, Stella and her cousin were at the local bar when she decided to stay behind with other people they knew. According to witnesses, Stella left with another couple to continue the evening out.
Stella's body was later found in a male Tribal member's pickup in an open field on the reservation. It wasn't until 13 days later that the family was officially notified by law enforcement of Stella's death.
Throughout the investigation, there were a lot of rumors and misinformation, which made it difficult to find the murderer or the murderers. People who were with Stella the night of her death said that they were never questioned, and information provided was never followed up on. No one has ever been charged or convicted for this murder, and the last hours of Stella's life remain unknown.
Stella was an incredible woman who was loved by all who knew her. Her family, her children, and her Tribe deserve justice.
Monica Wickre is pictured here with those beautiful earrings and the red shirt. Monica was a 42-year-old mother of three who was born and raised in Belcourt on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation and lived near Aberdeen, SD.
After a night out with friends on April 7, 1993, Monica never returned home. Her relatives grew concerned when they had not heard from or seen Monica for several days. Eventually, the family filed a missing persons report and started to talk to friends and neighbors. The detective assigned to the case worked closely with the community and the family and assured them he was working diligently on this case.
In June of that year, a canoeist found Monica's badly decomposed body in the James River outside Aberdeen. Throughout the next several years, new detectives were assigned to the case, each having to basically start over and work with limited notes, interviews, and evidence from the previous investigators. A couple of times, the police told the family that they had a suspect or were close to arresting someone for Monica's murder, but there was never enough information to charge the suspect. This has resulted in nearly 25 years of heartache for Monica's family and her friends.
Monica's family wants justice for their daughter, sister, and mother, and they all want closure. Although the case is no longer active, the family continues to bring awareness about Monica's case in the hope that someone will come forward with information that will, in fact, help solve it.
Monica Lisa Two Eagle is the woman with the dark hair in the floral print shirt. She was a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and one of 14 children. She was kind, caring, and athletic. In the winter of 1979, Phil Two Eagle saw his sister Mona Lisa, who was in her early twenties, leave the siblings' house and get into a red-and-white pickup with a couple of men. Mona Lisa never returned.
In the following days, the family and local law enforcement searched for her on horseback. Taking it upon themselves, they searched for her on horseback. About 2 weeks after she went missing, Mona Lisa's father and brother found her frozen in a pasture near their home. She had been beaten, possibly raped, and left alone in a blizzard. Rumors ran wild that family and law enforcement tried to solve the crime, but, even to this day, no one was ever convicted or even charged. The two men who were last seen with Mona Lisa all those years ago are still running free, while the family lives every day with the lack of justice.
Lakota Rae Renville, the woman in the black-and-white photo, is the last victim I want to talk about. I want to thank her family, who are here today and who have honored me and trusted me with her memory. I want to help them understand how grateful I am, but I also want them to know that sharing her story will help raise awareness about the crimes of missing and murdered indigenous people.
Lakota was a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Bands of North and South Dakota, who, despite being shy and reserved, had a solid group of friends who supported her and even helped her excel in school. After graduation, Lakota spent time taking care of her family, especially her nieces and nephews.
In 2005 Lakota met a man online and unexpectedly relocated to Missouri, unbeknownst to her family. With most details still unknown 12 years later, the family is left with more questions than answers. What they do know is that she was forced into sex trafficking and manipulated against her will.
In October of 2005, Lakota's family was called and told that her body was found badly beaten, wrapped in carpet padding and a blanket in an open gravel pit in Missouri. Local investigators brought in and subsequently let go dozens of suspects and, to this day, have not brought her murderer to justice.
Lakota was never given a chance to become a mother or pursue that bright future that surely lay ahead of her. She was robbed of a life she had yet to experience, a life that was certain to be filled with love from her family and deep appreciation from her family.
These are not isolated cases. This goes on every day in America.
I want to make a point of how discouraging it, so many times, when you see events unfolding where it may be that a young girl goes missing in a Caribbean island and the world is turned upside down looking for her or when we hear a story of someone who comes from maybe a more affluent and wealthy family who goes missing and we turn over every stone to find them. Yet that is not the story for very many indigenous women.
When you look at the importance of what we do today, probably the most important thing we can do is to tell these stories, and from telling these stories we have an opportunity to really change. We can't ignore that frequently for Native people, they are not wrong to believe that they are the forgotten people of this country. Way too often, the first Americans become the last Americans.
Under the Savanna's Act, the Attorney General, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, must consult with the Tribes on how to improve Tribal access to Federal criminal information databases, such as the National Crime Information Center and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. We need to ensure that Tribal law enforcement has up-to-date information on missing Native women and better communication--in fact, essential--with Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and Tribal law enforcement agencies so cases like the ones you have heard of today don't go unnoticed or uninvestigated.
Jurisdictional issues are a huge barrier in Indian Country to responding to and prosecuting crimes committed on Tribal lands. Standardized protocols must be established in order to give a quicker response to Native women going missing. The complexity of jurisdiction on Tribal lands can slow down an investigation, but it is not an excuse. It can waste crucial time at the beginning of an investigation or a case, but it is not an excuse. If we do not act rapidly, we know we lose precious time to prevent homicides and to bring a woman safely home and help apprehend the perpetrators.
In one case study alone done by the National Institute of Justice, 97 percent of Native women experience violence by a non-Native perpetrator. This number emphasizes what I have long said, that historical trauma is a major factor of violence against Native women, and perpetrators feel that Tribal lands give them a free pass from the law. This can no longer be tolerated, and jurisdictional issues must be addressed. It cannot be the excuse for inaction.
Although we don't know the total number of missing and murdered Native women, it is clear, from all of the stories and from the statistics that we do have, that the rates at which Native American women experience violence is intrinsically related to the likelihood of their going missing, being murdered, and forced into sex trafficking.
Here are just some of the statistics collected by the National Institute of Justice, the Government Accountability Office, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding violence against Native women. In 2016, 5,712 cases of missing Native women were reported to the National Crime Information Center, and 125 of those cases were in my State of Dakota alone. On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than 10 times the national average. I want to repeat that. On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than 10 times the national average.
American Indians and Alaskan Natives are two times more likely to experience rape or sexual assault compared to all other races.
In 2010, we found that the U.S. attorneys declined to prosecute nearly 52 percent of violent crime that occurred in Indian Country. Homicide is the third leading cause of death among American Indians and Alaskan Native women between 10 and 24 years old.
These high rates of violence, including domestic violence, sex assault, and human trafficking, must stop. We must work together to combat domestic violence and human trafficking in Indian Country.
Just last week, the Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing to discuss the lack of services provided for Indian Country regarding the horrific acts of violence and human trafficking of Native women. Just yesterday, while questioning one of the officials at the Department of the Interior about the need to do training in human trafficking at our casinos, he simply said: I thought you were going to ask me about Indian gaming. I quickly said: I am asking you about Indian gaming because all of this works together.
If we do not work together in every institution of the Federal Government, in every institution of the State government, and in every institution of Tribal government, we will never make progress in providing the security that we have in this building, and the security that we enjoy as White women will never be realized for women living on the reservation in Indian Country. We cannot let this continue.
There are countless more stories like Savanna's, Stella's, Mona Lisa's, Monica's, and Lakota's that we will never know. It is time for Congress to recognize this epidemic and take action to prevent these stories and find out just how many stories there really are. It is time to give voice to these voiceless women. It is time to bring their perpetrators to justice and give a voice to the families who are struggling even today--sometimes decades later--to understand how this can happen in America. They seem to be second-class citizens.
I think that is what we know. I am working with very many of my colleagues on the other side. This isn't a partisan issue.
I have been joined by my wonderful colleague from the great State of Alaska. I think the first time we ever met, this was the topic of conversation: What is the security for Indian children, security for Indian women, and Alaskan Native women? We knew because both of us have traveled extensively in our States and spent a lot of time in the indigenous populations.
When family members ask us why this is happening, we frequently don't have an answer.
I know that in my State jurisdictional issues provide some barriers to actually getting this done, but that is an excuse. We need to do better.
With that, I want to yield the floor to my wonderful colleague from the great State of Alaska, who once again is joining me and leading her side of the aisle to bring attention to these issues.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I want to acknowledge and thank the Senator from North Dakota. She has been a champion for the Native people, the indigenous people around the country, including in my State of Alaska. Whether it is working to address the issues related to childhood trauma, which so many of our young Native children face, or the issues relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking--these are scourges that we see directed, unfortunately, at so many of our Native women in the State of Alaska, in the State of North Dakota, and around the country.
She has cited the statistics. I think sometimes we just get numb by the statistics. When you are told that you are four times the national average, that sounds bad. But what does that mean? When you put a face to it, when you hear the tragedy repeated through the stories, these are not just statistics that we are speaking of. These are real women. These are our sisters. These are our neighbors. These are our friends, and these are human beings who deserve to be respected in their lives but also respected in other tragic deaths. How we work to address these difficult issues needs to be a focus and a priority for us.
So I appreciate what the Senator from North Dakota is doing in bringing attention to our Nation's lackluster--and that is kind of a polite term here--response to the tragedy of missing and murdered Native women and girls.
I am proud to lend my voice to the proposition that Congress, in the exercise of our trust responsibility to our Native peoples, has a responsibility to do more. You would think that that trust responsibility demands us to be paying even closer attention, and yet it seems that we just withdraw from that, that that responsibility is not acknowledged.
Now, it is not often here in the United States that we benchmark our treatment of indigenous peoples against Canada, but in this case, there is actually a compelling difference between Canada's national response to the tragedy of missing and murdered Native women and our seeming indifference here in the United States.
Down in southeastern Alaska, right across on the Canadian side, lies a town called Prince Rupert. It is in British Columbia. The Alaskan ferry comes in from Washington State and stops in Prince Rupert and then moves into Alaska. Prince Rupert is also the terminus of Highway 16, and the locals refer to Highway 16 as the ``Highway of Tears.'' They refer to it as the ``Highway of Tears'' because it is a road on which Native women and girls have vanished for decades now. The question is, How many? Who is disappearing? Some would say as few as 12 and perhaps as many as 43. CBS News devoted a segment of its news magazine show ``48 Hours'' to the Highway of Tears.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed 54 million Canadian dollars to a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. I will admit that there is some controversy over whether the national inquiry is actually fulfilling its mission, but my point here is that Canada stepped up. They have acknowledged that this is an issue, that this is a problem, and they have responded to the disproportionate victimization of Native women and girls, and they have done so in a tangible way. Here in the United States, as my friend and colleague has noted, we are more than a bit late in acknowledging that the problem even exists.
Earlier this year, the Senators from Montana--both Senator Daines and Senator Tester--were successful in designating May 5, 2017, through a resolution, as the National Day of Awareness on Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. The resolution recites that some Tribal communities face murder rates that are 10 times the national average, as Senator Heitkamp has noted. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide was the third leading cause of death among Native women between the ages of 10 and 24 years and the fifth leading cause of death for Alaska Native women between 25 and 34 years of age. So we are trying to raise attention and awareness. We are trying to shine a spotlight on this issue.
I certainly think it is high time that Federal law enforcement answer the question, Why? Why is the murder rate for Native women so high, and why are we not addressing it in a comprehensive fashion? The Senator from North Dakota has pointed out that in many areas, jurisdictional issues are at play, and I agree. That is not an excuse. We acknowledge that we have challenges with jurisdictions. Let's figure this out. Women are disappearing and dying.
In Alaska, it is not so much jurisdictional issues; it is the fact that in far too many of our communities, we lack any law enforcement presence. We might have a VPSO--a village safety police officer--but they are not armed. They are very limited in terms of their ability to provide for levels of enforcement. More frustrating than so much of that is that women who have been victimized feel as though reporting doesn't get them anywhere because there is no follow-through. There is no prosecution. There has been no effort that will allow them to have any level of recourse, much less justice, visited upon them.
As we talk about these issues of jurisdiction and law enforcement and the rates that we see, I think we need to be clear that the discussion today--the call for justice--is not driven by statistics and rates. It is driven by their faces. It is driven by the loss of people's daughters, people's siblings, people's friends, including Savannah and Stella and Nicole and Mona Lisa. These are all real people, real women with names, with faces, with families.
In Alaska, the face we so often associate with the lack of progress when it comes to addressing the issue of missing and murdered Native women is the face of Sophie Sergie. This year marks the 24th anniversary of the death of Sophie Sergie from Pitkas Point. This is a Yup'ik village in southwest Alaska.
On August 26 of 1993, Sophie was found dead in the women's bathroom dorm on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. She was raped. She was shot dead. It is believed that her body remained in that bathroom for some 13 hours before it was found. The murder weapon was never recovered. That case is still a cold case 24 years later. But we don't forget Sophie Sergie, just as we don't forget the women the Senator from North Dakota has shared stories about. We cannot forget these women.
Unlike the tragedies along the Highway of Tears, we really don't know how many Native women and girls have gone missing and murdered. That is a big part of the problem. But I will tell my colleagues that if you ask advocates for Native women, the answer comes back: It is no secret. We all know somebody. We all know somebody who has gone missing, somebody who has been murdered.
That was the testimony of Tammy Jerue. She is the executive director for the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, and she testified before a congressional briefing last February. Tammy told the briefing that her organization has documented as many as 50 names of women. When we think about it, numbers on that order were significant enough for Prime Minister Trudeau to commission a national inquiry. So it causes us to ask the question, What about us? What number do we have to get to before there is a call to action, before we wake up and say: This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable that our Native women are disappearing, are being murdered.
Native women are asking why Federal law enforcement has no protocol for addressing the crisis in our Indian Country, why there is a lack of coordination among criminal justice agencies in this country to set aside the jurisdictional challenges and investigate these tragedies in an effective manner, and why there is a lack of victim services.
In the Indian Affairs Committee, we had a hearing on human trafficking, sex trafficking. It was pretty revealing about the lack of victim services--specific--that could be there to help our Native victims. Right now, the families of missing and murdered Native women in Alaska have to cover the cost of a traditional burial. They have to cover the cost of immediate long-term counseling, and so many other expenses they can't afford. We maintain a victims of crime fund here in this country to address these sorts of costs, but there is no dedicated Tribal funding stream. We have had some pretty bipartisan efforts here in the Senate to establish one, but we haven't even been able to do that bare minimum to provide for the victims.
The issue we are discussing today is tragic and frustrating. It is depressing. But to remain silent is to truly further marginalize Native women and girls, and that is unacceptable. Perhaps we are not going to devote tens of millions of dollars to a national inquiry; However, it is high time that we acknowledge a problem that has failed to make headlines in this country, because you first have to acknowledge that a problem exists to make headway in addressing that problem.
So, again, I thank the Senator from North Dakota for her strong and steadfast advocacy on behalf of not only our Native women but our Native children, our indigenous peoples across this country. I appreciate all that is being done, and I look forward to working with her again as we try to shine a brighter light on a very tragic situation.
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By Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Reed, Mr.
Kaine, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Franken, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Van
Hollen, Mr. Markey, Mr. Carper, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hirono, Mr.
Cardin, Mr. Booker, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Murray, Mr.
Blumenthal, and Ms. Harris):
S. 1945. A bill to regulate large capacity ammunition feeding devices; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1945
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Keep Americans Safe Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after paragraph (29) the following:
``(30) The term `large capacity ammunition feeding device'--
``(A) means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, helical feeding device, or similar device, including any such device joined or coupled with another in any manner, that has an overall capacity of, or that can be readily restored, changed, or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition; and
``(B) does not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.
``(31) The term `qualified law enforcement officer' has the meaning given the term in section 926B.''.
SEC. 3. RESTRICTIONS ON LARGE CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING
DEVICES.
(a) In General.--Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after subsection (u) the following:
``(v)(1) It shall be unlawful for a person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a large capacity ammunition feeding device.
``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the possession of any large capacity ammunition feeding device otherwise lawfully possessed on or before the date of enactment of the Keep Americans Safe Act.
``(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to--
``(A) the importation for, manufacture for, sale to, transfer to, or possession by the United States or a department or agency of the United States or a State or a department, agency, or political subdivision of a State, or a sale or transfer to or possession by a qualified law enforcement officer employed by the United States or a department or agency of the United States or a State or a department, agency, or political subdivision of a State for purposes of law enforcement (whether on or off-duty), or a sale or transfer to or possession by a campus law enforcement officer for purposes of law enforcement (whether on or off-duty);
``(B) the importation for, or sale or transfer to a licensee under title I of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 for purposes of establishing and maintaining an on-site physical protection system and security organization required by Federal law, or possession by an employee or contractor of such licensee on-site for such purposes or off-site for purposes of licensee-authorized training or transportation of nuclear materials;
``(C) the possession, by an individual who is retired in good standing from service with a law enforcement agency and is not otherwise prohibited from receiving ammunition, of a large capacity ammunition feeding device--
``(i) sold or transferred to the individual by the agency upon such retirement; or
``(ii) that the individual purchased, or otherwise obtained, for official use before such retirement; or
``(D) the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of any large capacity ammunition feeding device by a licensed manufacturer or licensed importer for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General.
``(4) For purposes of paragraph (3)(A), the term `campus law enforcement officer' means an individual who is--
``(A) employed by a private institution of higher education that is eligible for funding under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.);
``(B) responsible for the prevention or investigation of crime involving injury to persons or property, including apprehension or detention of persons for such crimes;
``(C) authorized by Federal, State, or local law to carry a firearm, execute search warrants, and make arrests; and
``(D) recognized, commissioned, or certified by a government entity as a law enforcement officer.''.
(b) Identification Markings for Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Devices.--Section 923(i) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: ``A large capacity ammunition feeding device manufactured after the date of enactment of the Keep Americans Safe Act shall be identified by a serial number and the date on which the device was manufactured or made, legibly and conspicuously engraved or cast on the device, and such other identification as the Attorney General shall by regulations prescribe.''.
(c) Seizure and Forfeiture of Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Devices.--Section 924(d) of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by inserting ``or large capacity ammunition feeding device'' after ``firearm or ammunition'' each place the term appears;
(B) by inserting ``or large capacity ammunition feeding device'' after ``firearms or ammunition'' each place the term appears; and
(C) by striking ``or (k)'' and inserting ``(k), or (v)'';
(2) in paragraph (2)(C), by inserting ``or large capacity ammunition feeding devices'' after ``firearms or quantities of ammunition''; and
(3) in paragraph (3)(E), by inserting ``922(v),'' after
``922(n),''.
SEC. 4. PENALTIES.
Section 924(a)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking ``or (q)'' and inserting ``(q), or (v)''.
SEC. 5. USE OF BYRNE GRANTS FOR BUY-BACK PROGRAMS FOR LARGE
CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING DEVICES.
Section 501(a)(1) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968
(34 U.S.C. 10152(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(I) Compensation for surrendered large capacity ammunition feeding devices, as that term is defined in section 921 of title 18, United States Code, under buy-back programs for large capacity ammunition feeding devices.''.
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, the amendments made by this Act, and the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.
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