Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016--Conference Report--

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I rise with a heavy heart to address devastating tragedies that have shaken communities in Michigan and across this country. Just yesterday, the community of St. Joseph, MI, suffered a tragic shooting that cost the lives of two dedicated public servants and injured several others.

I would like to extend my condolences to the families of bailiffs Joseph Zangaro and Ronald Kienzle, who were fatally shot yesterday in Berrien County, MI. Both Joseph and Ronald had distinguished careers as public safety officers prior to serving as bailiffs in the Berrien County Courthouse.

Joseph Zangaro retired from the Michigan State Police as post commander of the Bridgman Post and had worked for the Berrien County Trial Court for over 10 years.

Ronald Kienzle retired as a sergeant in road patrol with the Benton Charter Police Department in Benton Harbor, MI, and was a veteran of the U.S. Army.

I also want to wish Deputy James Atterbury and Kenya Ellis a speedy recovery for the wounds they received during this attack.

Yesterday's incident illustrates a very important fact. Whether as a member of a local police department, a rapid transit officer, or a court bailiff, public safety officers risk their lives every day to keep our families and our communities safe. This is a fact we can never forget and a reality that confronts public safety officers and their families every day.

Across Michigan, our hearts have been shattered by senseless violence like this, and I know the grief of my fellow Michiganders because I feel this grief in my own heart as well. Unfortunately, this is not the first tragedy to strike West Michigan this year. We are still reeling from the mass shooting in Kalamazoo in February, where six people were killed and two were critically injured.

We are facing a very difficult time in our country's history. Last week's tragedies further demonstrate this point. Within just 48 hours, we saw two separate incidents where American citizens died at the hands of those who were sworn to protect them. Then, what started out as a peaceful protest in response to those deaths, suddenly morphed into an unrelated and horrific attack on law enforcement--an attack on officers who died to protect the rights of protesters to peacefully protest.

Let me be clear. Something is wrong when a hard-working and beloved cafeteria supervisor is killed during a routine traffic stop. Something is wrong when police officers, honorably serving and protecting their communities, are killed during a peaceful protest. Something is wrong when a salesman and a father of four dies while selling CDs. Something is wrong when a police officer is ambushed and shot while responding to a 911 call for help. Too many precious lives are being lost, not just in Michigan but in States all across our country.

I was heartbroken by the tragic shooting deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana last week, only to wake up horrified on Friday morning to learn of five Dallas police officers, including Michigan native Michael Krol, who were struck down in the line of duty.

We have seen enough violence. Across our countries, our communities are outraged and heartbroken at the number of lives which have been lost. While the events of last week are almost too much to bear, the images from communities like Chicago, Staten Island, Ferguson, and Baltimore have gripped this Nation's attention as well.

We have seen tears of sadness, burning storefronts, and confrontations between police and young people, as well as peaceful protesters marching through the streets. It is clear there is a persistent and troubling problem in our country that is eroding away Americans' faith in our justice system. With each troubling incident, it becomes clear that justice in this country is sometimes neither fair nor equal, and we must act now to address this inequity.

This problem isn't isolated to our African-American communities or to our law enforcement communities. These injustices undermine the very values our Nation was built upon. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to acknowledge that too many Americans are needlessly dying, and we must come together to stop them.

More now than ever, it is time for us to unite as a country to encourage understanding and compassion for our fellow Americans. Now is the time for us to walk in another's shoes and acknowledge the experiences that have shaped their views. Now is the time for this body to come together to offer solutions. The American people need us.

It is crystal clear that the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve is strained, and an overhaul of our criminal justice system is long overdue. On top of these strained relations, we are continuing to see rising prison populations and unsustainable costs as public budgets remain tight.

We see too many at-risk youths being funneled out of our schools and into our prison systems, continuing a vicious cycle in many of our communities. We see too many people who have served their time only to find that once they get out of prison, they can't find a good job or a stable home.

We need a better understanding of the causes of these concerning trends, and we need to identify solutions that will help ensure we are administering justice in a fair and equitable way for every American-- regardless of who they are, where they may live, or their income level. That is why I have introduced legislation with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas to create a National Criminal Justice Commission. The Commission will be made up of experts on law enforcement, victims' rights, civil liberties, and social services who will be charged with undertaking an 18-month review of our criminal justice system from the top to the bottom. It is something that has not been done since 1965--more than 50 years ago during another very difficult time in our Nation's history.

The goal of this Commission is to identify commonsense solutions to the serious issues facing our criminal justice system, promote fairness in our laws, build stronger relationships between law enforcement and our communities, and strengthen faith--basic faith--in our criminal justice system.

The Commission will focus on transparency, issuing recommendations to the President and Congress, and making reports on its findings available to the public and entities within the criminal justice system. It will take a comprehensive approach to reviewing the criminal justice system and will look at numerous issues in light of our current climate.

When President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Commission last conducted a comprehensive review over 50 years ago, it was the first time police, prosecution, defense, the courts and corrections were all examined as a whole. That Commission made more than 200 recommendations to improve the criminal justice system, including creating the 9-1-1 emergency system that is so ingrained in our society today.

Our country has changed significantly over the last 50 years, and another top-to-bottom review of our criminal justice system is long overdue. In fact, the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which was created after the troubling situation in Ferguson, strongly recommended the creation of a national commission to evaluate the entire criminal justice system.

The National Criminal Justice Commission that my legislation creates will shine a light on the whole scope of our criminal justice system, including police and community relations, our grand jury system, the right to counsel in misdemeanor cases, the lack of speedy trials, and the struggles ex-offenders face in finding housing, employment, and support services after leaving prison.

This Commission is one critical piece of a larger puzzle. We must also take swift action on our justice system, such as sentencing reform. The Commission also has the support of a wide range of groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police, the NAACP, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Urban League, and many other law enforcement and civil rights groups.

The National Criminal Justice Commission is vital to understanding the reforms and best practices that we need to reduce crime, help law enforcement do their jobs safely and effectively, protect our communities, and build a justice system that works for every American. These problems are not easy, and there are no quick answers. It is going to require all of us working together to make these vital changes a reality, but together we can achieve the promise of this great country--justice for every American, no matter who you are, where you live, or how much money you may have in your pocket.

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, as ranking member on the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, I know how important it is for our country to invest in scientific research and to make informed decisions based on those findings.

Sound science has played a critical role in the United States' becoming a leader in fields like space exploration, medical research, advanced manufacturing, and other high-tech industries. So when 97 percent of scientists in a particular field agree on a serious problem, it is wise for our policymakers to listen.

The scientific community is sounding the alarm about the urgent need to address the causes of global climate change. Scientists here in the United States and across the world overwhelmingly agree that the weight of evidence is clear: Global temperatures are rising, dramatic changes in weather and climate have accompanied this warming, and humans are largely responsible due to our emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Military leaders, doctors, economists, and biologists are among the experts warning us about global climate change and the fact that it is major threat to national security, public health, our economy, and our natural resources.

Unfortunately, powerful special interests, led by some organizations and companies in the fossil fuel industry, are deliberately spreading false information about climate change to influence public opinion and to muddle the truth. The strategy to confuse the public about climate change science and delay policy action has many parallels to the strategy used by Big Tobacco to mislead the public about scientific evidence linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease.

The corporations spreading disinformation on climate change are the very same interests that have the most to gain financially by stopping meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gases, protect our clean air, and address global warming for future generations.

The Koch brothers are a prime example of this fact. Charles and David Koch made their vast fortunes from owning companies that profit from a range of dirty industries. Much of their wealth is funneled into activist groups that produce questionable information and the spin necessary to support their own interests. The web of denial they have created is a threat to sound science-based decisionmaking.

While some big polluters seek to confuse and cloud the judgment of decisionmakers and the public, the American people continue to suffer the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels. These consequences are not just limited to rising global temperatures. The people of Michigan are paying for the costs of coal and oil pollution in many ways, but I would like to focus on just a couple of them.

A few years ago, three-story, high piles of petroleum coke, or pet coke, lined the banks of the Detroit River in the open air. Pet coke is essentially the industrial byproduct that is produced during the oil refining process. These particular piles were owned by Koch Carbon, a company controlled by the Koch brothers.

Usually pet coke is shipped off to other countries, where it is burned as fuel, worsening terrible air quality problems in places like China and contributing to global climate change. In this case, the banks of the Detroit River were being treated as a dumping ground to store these mountains of pet coke. The wind would blow the pet coke dust everywhere, including into the homes and lungs of those living in the neighborhoods nearby. It was even documented blowing across the river into Windsor, Ontario.

Not only was the air being contaminated, the pet coke was fouling the Great Lakes, a source of drinking water for nearly 40 million people. When it rained, pollution would run off from the piles into the Detroit River, which is part of the Great Lakes system.

I joined residents in Detroit to call for these pet coke piles to be moved, and only through a community-wide effort were they eventually successful. I have also introduced legislation to study the health and environmental impacts of this pet coke but, unfortunately, this same area of Detroit that has had to deal with mountains of particulate matter blowing into the air already had the distinction of having some of the worst air quality in the Nation.

Research shows that exposure to air pollution at a young age can lead to health problems like asthma, and air pollution can worsen asthma symptoms. Detroit has the highest rated of asthma in young children among the 18 largest cities in the United States. Over 12 percent of Detroit children have asthma; the national rate is around 8 percent.

Most air pollution comes from burning of fossil fuels, and parts of Detroit are dealing with high pollutant levels as a result. I wrote a letter, along with Senator Stabenow, calling for a plan to reduce sulfur dioxide levels in Southwest Detroit and comply with Federal clean air standards. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality finally just submitted their plan to comply--over a year past the initial deadline.

These examples in Detroit show how protecting clean air and clean water are often environmental justice issues. Those that are most affected by pollution are often from low-income and minority households. Addressing climate change will also improve the air quality of these affected areas.

While these communities bear the brunt of fossil fuel pollution, the Koch brothers and others pour hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars into activities to avoid regulation of their dirty industries. One of the tactics that powerful corporate industries use is to bankroll numerous front groups to spread misinformation. The idea behind this strategy is to use seemingly independent organizations, such as think tanks, to deliver misleading messages that the public might rightfully dismiss if they had heard them directly from industry.

They have calculated that it is better for business to mislead the American public, rather than acknowledge the scientific evidence and their role in climate change and join the effort to combat this growing threat to our planet. It is a page taken right out of Big Tobacco's playbook. By creating their own scientific studies and policy papers from a network of surrogates, it gives the appearance that there is a legitimate debate over the fundamentals of climate change science.

One example is the Cato Institute. For years, the organization has received funding from fossil fuel interests such as ExxonMobil and the Koch family. At the same time, Cato spreads climate skepticism. Over a span of 15 years, the Cato Institute published 773,000 words and 768 documents expressing climate skepticism.

The web of denial is intended to manufacture doubt among the American public in order to delay action, but the spending efforts by the same corporations also specifically target elected officials and other key decisionmakers to prevent meaningful action on global warming.

The Koch brothers have poured vast sums of money into election ads, lobbying efforts, and campaign donations often funneled through other organizations to hide the source of the funding. As a result, I have heard many climate myths repeated in the Halls of Congress that were carefully crafted by the network of climate denial front groups.

Late last year, the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness held a hearing that was specifically designed to cast doubt on the scientific evidence of climate change. The witness panel was stacked by the majority with prominent climate deniers. As the ranking member, the one witness I was able to invite was RADM David Titley, who, as the U.S. Navy's chief meteorologist, initiated and led the Navy's task force on climate change. At the hearing, Dr. Titley outlined how climate change is a serious threat to national security. Admiral Titley explained that the military makes decisions based on known information and calculations of risk. Often they must act on less than perfect intelligence, but they understand risks and will take action to prevent threats when given the chance. The admiral applied this to the broad agreement among climate scientists, saying that any military commander would take action ``in a heartbeat'' if there was a consensus among 97 percent of the intelligence community about a particular scenario. In fact, the military has already started taking action to anticipate vulnerabilities and mitigate the impacts related to climate change.

The brightest, most experienced minds in our U.S. military realize that reliance on fossil fuel leaves our troops and citizens exposed to more risks at home, as well as abroad. Unfortunately, Congress has not been as quick to act. Efforts to pass meaningful legislation to address climate change have been blocked. Existing administrative efforts to reduce admissions or invest in clean energy have also been repeatedly attacked.

We can and must pass legislative solutions to address global climate change. Transitioning away from fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy will create sustainable jobs and good-paying jobs here in the United States. Taking bold action on climate change will strengthen our public health, economy, and national security.

We must wake up and realize that those attempting to mislead and confuse must not be successful. I am confident that we will overcome this web of denial and use peer-reviewed, sound scientific information to guide our decisionmaking in order to create a resilient future for our children and grandchildren.

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