Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I have come back to the floor again this afternoon to plead with my colleagues to pass legislation that deals with the toxic algal blooms that affect many of our States, including my State of Ohio.
It turns out this is the 1-year anniversary of the water crisis that occurred in Toledo, OH. I see my colleague from Ohio is now on the floor also. He will remember this well. But it was a year ago when we found that there were toxic algal blooms around the intake valve in Toledo, OH, making the water unsuitable. There was an advisory sent out to 500,000 people that said: Do not drink the water.
You can imagine the chaos that occurred. You can imagine how difficult this was for the people who live in the Toledo area, who rely on this water. By the way, there are about 3 million Ohioans who rely on Lake Erie water and more than twice that many around the country and in other States, such as Michigan.
This is a critical issue. Last week it turned out that there were algal blooms that were moving within a few miles of this same intake valve--the same kind of blue-green toxic algal blooms. I was on the lake the weekend before last to see some of this. Within a couple of days, the city of Toledo changed the city's water quality status from ``clear'' to ``watch.'' We are on a ``watch'' status right now because of the amounts of toxins that have drifted closer to the intake valve.
We have a problem right now. We know that the toxic algal blooms prediction for this year in Lake Erie is projected to be worse than it was last year, almost as bad as it was during another crisis period in 2011, when a lot of the beaches were closed down and people weren't able to take their pets to the water and when fishing was pretty much shut down because of the algal blooms. This is a huge issue. It is an economic development issue. It is a health and safety issue. It is an issue that goes to the heart of the economy in this part of Ohio where we have relatively high unemployment and where Lake Erie is the single biggest driver of economic activity. In fact, it is the biggest destination in the State of Ohio. It is our biggest resource for tourism.
It is not just Lake Erie. We now have this in Grand Lake St. Marys. There is an advisory out on water in Grand Lake St. Marys, which is a reservoir that is inland that is a freshwater reservoir south of Lake Erie. It is the same thing--toxic algal blooms. We had a lot of rain earlier this spring and summer, as those of us in the Midwest will remember, and that washed a lot of effluent into the lakes, a lot of nitrogen, a lot of phosphorous--the things that cause algal blooms to grow. Then we had some hot weather. That is a bad combination.
Again, I see my colleague Senator Brown is on the floor too. We drafted legislation to get the EPA more engaged in this issue, to help Ohio more, and to help all of the States represented here.
We have had this legislation on the floor of the Senate for over 40 days--45 days, I think. We have had it cleared on both sides of the aisle. In other words, there is no substantive concern about it. It took a while to do that.
We had to work with some people on my side of the aisle who thought maybe EPA didn't have a role here. But EPA does have a role. It is a really important role. It can bring best practices, and it certainly can bring the best research done in the country. It happens to be done in Cincinnati, among other places, at EPA. We have required EPA under this legislation to come up with a plan to deal with this issue immediately for Lake Erie, working with the other agencies, such as USGS, NOAA, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and USDA, and to come up with a plan that helps us to deal with this issue right now.
If you live in the Toledo area this evening, you are worried. There is a watch on. Once again, you are worried that you are not going to have water supply that is safe for you and your kids. If you live somewhere else along the lake--say, in Cleveland or Sandusky--you are worried too because these same toxic algal blooms know no barriers, know no boundaries, and they move around the lake.
All we are asking tonight is that we be able to pass legislation that is straightforward, that is nonpartisan. It is not just bipartisan. I would say it is nonpartisan. It is very sensible, and it highlights the need for us to take immediate action because it talks about some of the issues that are involved.
There are 42 water systems in Ohio that are now susceptible to harmful algal blooms, for instance. It talks about the fact that we have to be sure that we are not just protecting Lake Erie but other bodies of freshwater, and it forces the EPA to come up with a plan that helps us deal with this issue right now.
This legislation passed the House already. It didn't just pass the House; it passed the House with a vote of 375 to 37. Not many pieces of legislation pass the House with those kinds of numbers. Again, Senator Brown and I have been trying for more than 4 months to get that House-passed bill passed here in the Senate. We have worked through the substantive problems. I tried to do this on Thursday evening, and I was told I had to stop and I was going to get blocked from doing it because the other side had other legislation they wanted to consider that had not been passed in the House--much less passed in the House 375 to 37.
If we pass this legislation tonight and if we are able to get it through with a voice vote and get it done, it will go to the President and he will sign it. In other words, it will become law. That is what the people I represent are looking for.
Again, I notice my colleague Senator Brown is on the floor. If he is interested, I would certainly yield to him. Any comments he has, I would appreciate hearing.
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Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Ohio for his good work on this bill. He helped to improve this legislation and make it more effective. It is about having the EPA play a bigger role on not only how we monitor but also how we treat the water and how we establish when there is a problem. This is needed, it is needed now, and it is immediate.
This is a photograph that was taken about 8 days ago--not this past week but the weekend before--on the lake. The jar in the photograph was collected by the charter boat captain. He is actually one of the charter boat captains who go out every day and collect samples that are then used by the experts to determine not just where the algal blooms are but the level of toxicity. This is what we found. As you can see, that doesn't look very appetizing. It is thick and green. It is filled with the kinds of toxins that can affect people in very negative ways if they get in the drinking water. We know that people are getting rashes right now from some other freshwater reservoirs in our area, from being in contact with the water.
If we don't deal with this issue, we know we are going to have more of this. We know it has already cost our communities a lot to mitigate it. In Grand Lake St. Marys, as I mentioned earlier, they have already shut down some of the beaches because of this. The city of Celina spends $450,000 annually to deal with this. So this is also a taxpayer issue. Columbus was recently forced to spend $700,000 to mitigate an outbreak in their reservoir. This is happening right now as we speak.
We just want this legislation to be out there as one of the tools in the toolbox to deal with it, and it is a very sensible one. It gets the EPA engaged in a way so that Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate can agree on it. Let's get this done tonight.
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Mr. PORTMAN. Look, this is ridiculous. We have a health and safety issue on the floor of the Senate that is ready to go. You just heard from me and Senator Brown. It is bipartisan, bicameral, and is ready to go to the President.
I must say to my friend the Senator from Rhode Island, who talked about his legislation, that I have no problem with his legislation, but he hasn't had it cleared. The Senator said this has been going on for weeks and weeks, and that is not true. This came onto our radar screen on Thursday night of last week when, after over 40 days on the floor with our bill, we got it all cleared, and then we found out just prior to my going and asking to have a voice vote on it that now they want to pair it with another piece of legislation that has nothing to do with health and safety. It is a reauthorization of a program that has not been passed by the House. The Senator from Rhode Island said it has been passed by the House. It has not been passed by the House. It may have been passed by the House in a previous Congress, but that doesn't count. What counts is that our bill passed the House with a vote of 375 to 37, and it is now on the floor.
The people I represent deserve to have our government work for them right now to help deal with this algal bloom problem, and they are blocking my bill with legislation they say is nonpartisan and noncontroversial?
I am happy to support their bill. In fact, what I did last week when I found out about it on Thursday was I started clearing it for them because they hadn't done it. I put it in the clearance process. As of today, there are some concerns on my side of the aisle. Nobody has seen it yet. They are seeing it for the first time. We went out of session right after I started clearing it, and we are back in session now and people are looking at it. I am happy to support the Senator's bill, but the Senator from Rhode Island shouldn't block our bill because they are looking for me to support their bill. I am happy to support their bill but not if it is going to keep us from moving forward tonight. I can't agree to pair it because there will be an objection because people haven't had a chance to look at it. I know the committee sometimes likes to pair legislation. They don't always pair legislation, by the way.
I think it is ridiculous that we can't move forward on a very simple piece of legislation that we worked on for over 40 days. And everybody is fine with it. There are no substantive problems. It is a health-and-safety issue. Let's go ahead with this. In this instance, let's put partisanship aside.
I support the Senator's bill. I will support his bill. I will vote for his bill. I will continue to try to clear it even though they didn't clear it. I am the one trying to clear it. I don't know if they have even cleared it on their side. I don't know if they even put it in the process yet. But obviously you have to do that in order for this to happen.
I am amazed that we are going to actually stop legislation that is needed right now for legislation that has not passed the House, is not going to the President for his signature, and is not due to an imminent health-and-safety issue.
The Federal Government is not going to be there for the people in northern Ohio and throughout our State who are worried about the algal blooms right now, because of some disagreement on the floor of this Chamber where at the very last minute Democrats stepped forward and said: No, we are not going to let this bipartisan bill go forward because we want to insist that it be paired with one that has not gone through the clearance process.
I commit to my friend that I will support his bill. I have had a chance to look at it over the weekend. I am OK with it. But it has not been cleared, and it is not going to go to the President for signature.
The House of Representatives is not in session this week, so even if by some miracle they could get their bill cleared here, they can't get it cleared by the House because the House is out of session. They are coming back in September. We are in session. We can get this done. We can send it to the President. We can let people know they can sleep a little more comfortably at night, with a little more peace of mind, knowing that we have actually taken action here to get this expert agency that deals with water quality engaged and involved to help the local folks, the State folks, and experts back home to be able to do the right thing so they can avoid another water crisis and all of the issues Senator Brown and I saw when we were up there.
I went up with bottles of water, threw them in the back of my pickup, and they were gone like that. Why? Families were desperate to be sure they had water for their kids. Mothers were desperate to make sure they had water to be able to ensure that their families weren't going to be left without access to what is perhaps the most important thing any of us can imagine, which is clean water one can drink and use for cooking.
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Mr. PORTMAN. I am sorry to hear that. I will be back again tomorrow and the next day. I will be back again and again because we want to get this done. This is simple. There is no real mystery here. This is an opportunity to get something done that helps people not just in my State but around the country deal with a very real problem they are facing this summer, now.
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Mr. PORTMAN. So this is all about leverage--to leverage me to be able to help you on your bill, which I told you I support, in order for us to get something done that has been on the floor for over 40 days.
Look, I am happy to talk to my colleagues. I am the one who started clearing this on our side of the aisle. You guys didn't. I am happy to talk to colleagues who have concerns. But they get a chance to look at it, just as you had a chance to look at our bill over the last 45 days.
So if this is all about leverage, you got me. You have leveraged me. You have already done it. You have succeeded. I already started clearing it. I support it. I am happy to help, and I am sure Senator Brown is happy to help also, but let's not block this in the meantime.
We will be able to get your bill done; I am sure of it. I am sure, if it is as popular as you say it is, we can get it done in the House too. It has not cleared the House at this point. In the meantime, let's not block this legislation. This is ridiculous. This is not the way this Senate ought to operate.
We have a smart bill on the floor that has been looked at over 40 days. It is ready to go. It has been cleared by both sides. There are no substantive concerns. And it is time that we deliver for the people we represent.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
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