Sportsmen's Act of 2012 Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 4 years ago our economy was in a free fall. AIG had been bailed out, and Lehman Brothers plunged into bankruptcy. The depth of the recession we fell into is difficult to understate.

With the economy contracting at nearly 9 percent in the last few months of 2008 and nearly 700,000 jobs lost every month, it is not an exaggeration to call the crisis we faced the worst since the Great Depression. Demand dried up as our financial system collapsed, families struggled to pay the bills, and millions lost their homes to foreclosure. Our unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent nationally and 11.4 percent in Illinois.

It has been a hard road back to stable economic ground, but things have turned around. Private sector businesses are hiring again and have been for 30 straight months. Between July 2011 and July 2012, the economy added an average of 153,000 jobs every month--about 1.8 million jobs. Compare that to the average monthly losses of 544,000 between July 2008 and July 2009.

There is a lot of work still to be done. We all would like to see more jobs created, but it is clear our economy is better off and we are better off than we were 4 years ago.

I saw many examples of our economic progress as I have traveled my State. The Nucor steel plant in Bourbonnais, IL, makes rebar and angle iron that is used in construction across the country. What makes Nucor unique is that during the recession when many other companies were shedding employees, Nucor made a commitment to keep all of their full-time employees. It wasn't easy. When demand slowed, the company's idle workers developed new products for customers or they were actually, in many cases, sent out to work in the community on service projects as they waited for their company to get back into business.

During this time the Bourbonnais facility applied for and received the Department of Labor's Voluntary Protection Program star certification, recognizing their extraordinary efforts to improve workplace safety. Nucor made a commitment not just to the bottom line but to its workers and to the communities where they lived. It has paid off. Demand has returned, and the company is now firing on all cylinders, employing roughly 300 workers.

I have visited a lot of different production facilities. There was nothing more jaw-dropping than to stand in that steel mill and watch these three poles go into a caldron of scrap metal, burst and explode into flames, and then watch steel come trickling out of the bottom into these forms to make rebar and angle iron.

Earlier this summer I also met with the CEO of Woodward, an aerospace and energy firm, about its possible expansion of a facility in Loves Park, IL. Woodward was considering two locations for expanding its airline turbine product line. In the end, thank goodness for us, Woodward picked Illinois. The company is investing more than $200 million in the facility, and it is estimated that it will add 600 new jobs over the next 5 years.

There is more to the story. While growing demand led to the expansion decision, it was the infrastructure and skilled workers that sealed the deal for Loves Park. Loves Park and the Rockford area has been the home of aerospace companies for decades. Yet they made a concerted effort to grow and expand the training opportunities to meet modern workforce needs. Through a public-private partnership, the community has created an atmosphere that attracts new business investments and new jobs.

Illinois is about the last place--and southern Illinois certainly the last place--one would expect to find a world-leading firm in oilspill cleanups, but if one goes to Fairfield and Carmi, IL, that is what one will find. The Elastec/American Marine Company specializes in equipment to clean up environmental accidents, specifically oilspills. In two former Wal-Mart buildings in those towns, 140 employees have developed new technologies that have expanded our ability to clean up oilspills around the world. Just last year, the company won a $1 million X PRIZE for recovering more than 2,500 gallons per minute--triple the industry's previous best recovery rate in controlled conditions. This is in southern Illinois. Testing oilspill cleanup in southern Illinois is hard to imagine. Elastec's equipment was used for cleanups during both Exxon Valdez and the more recent gulf spill.

This is American ingenuity at its best, but the business is driven by regulations governing the discharge of oil. Without these ``job-killing'' regulations, the company, its jobs, and the technology it uses to clean up oilspills probably wouldn't exist.

I also visited Akorn--not the ACORN that has been debated at length on the floor of the Senate. Akorn, spelled with a ``k,'' is a pharmaceutical company in Decatur, IL, which manufactures products such as drugstore eye drops and liquid injectables used in surgery. Akorn employs 500 people in Illinois at facilities in Decatur, Lake Forest, Skokie, and Gurnee.

Since 2009 the company has been one of Chicago's and Illinois' fastest growing public companies. In 2011, Akorn launched a multimillion-dollar expansion at its two Decatur facilities. They have doubled production and added 100 jobs. They are looking to hire another 20 to 25 people with backgrounds in finance, production, chemistry, microbiology, engineering, and business. These are highly technical, good-paying jobs right in central Illinois.

One of my last stops in August was at the Chrysler plant in Belvidere. What a great story. Only 3 years ago there was a serious concern that this plant was going away. At the time Chrysler was facing bankruptcy and the plant was building a now defunct model, the Dodge Caliber, and different models of the Jeep. Plant production had slowed to a single shift, and employment had dropped to as low as 200 people.

The Federal Government offered a bridge loan and helped to facilitate a merger with Fiat. With government assistance, Chrysler has emerged from bankruptcy and is profitable. In October 2010, Chrysler announced a nearly $700 million investment at the Belvidere plant to retool for the production of a new Dodge Dart. The plant reached full production in July of this year, now employing 4,698 workers. If the auto industry had been allowed to collapse, between 1.1 million and 3.3 million jobs would have been lost between 2009 and 2011.

These are stories of businesses in my home State. I asked my staff to find businesses that survived the recession or are expanding and hiring people. I want to hear their stories and listen to the stories of all kinds of different businesses, large and small, expanding today--businesses that weathered the recession and are now successful. Business is picking up. These businesses are hiring people back, in some cases expanding.

Their stories aren't unique. Across America, 30 consecutive months of private sector job growth tells us we are moving in the right direction. In that time 4.6 million private sector jobs have been created. In Illinois alone 140,400 private sector jobs have been added since January 2010. Manufacturing employment has rapidly grown, adding 44,600 or 37 percent of 140,400 jobs.

During the last quarter of 2008, the economy was shrinking at a rate of nearly 9 percent. It was in free fall. During the most recent quarter the economy is growing on the positive side--1.7 percent. In March of 2009 the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen to 6,547. Since then it has nearly doubled to almost 13,000 today.

New home sales were up 3.6 percent in July. That is 25 percent over last year. U.S. goods and services exports increased .9 percent from May 2012 to June 2012 and have increased by 5.9 percent from the same time period last year.

The American people see these facts and figures. They also feel the improvement in their communities, with new businesses opening, and on their blocks, with the housing market recovering as well. We are much better off than we were 4 years ago. Now is not the time to go back to policies that brought us into this recession but to move forward, creating even more jobs and expanding more businesses.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the United States has led the world in creating the legal framework, building the infrastructure, and designing facilities that ensure inclusion and opportunity for people living with disabilities.

Just recently we celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the ADA--Americans with Disabilities Act--by reporting a treaty out of the Foreign Relations Committee on a strong bipartisan basis. Members of this body now have an opportunity to affirm our Nation's leadership on disability issues by ratifying this treaty. I hope we will do so with strong bipartisan support that has always characterized the Senate's work on disability issues.

Everyone knows the story of when Bob Dole, a disabled veteran from World War II, and Tom Harkin, his Democratic colleague from Iowa, with a disabled member of his family, came together to create the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was an extraordinary bipartisan effort. It did our Nation proud. It gave to disabled people a chance to be in the mainstream and part of America.

One of the people it helped, in addition to 54 million Americans living with a disability, was a fellow named Bob Greenberg. Bob Greenberg was the legendary sportscaster who rose to prominence at Chicago's WBEZ radio station.

At the apex of his career, Bob offered color commentary for Chicago's major sporting events. He interviewed the very best athletes. He analyzed the players. He rifled off stats and box scores that put the game in context.

For his loyal and large Chicago radio audience, Bob Greenberg described sporting events they couldn't see. Bob's story is unique because he couldn't see the games either. Bob Greenberg was blind, but he never let it stop him from achieving his dreams. There is no doubt that laws such as the ADA helped make Bob's road to achieving his dream a little bit smoother. We lost Bob to cancer last summer, but we will never lose the power of his life and his life's story.

Most of us don't give a second thought to crossing the street, reading the newspaper, or describing things we have seen. But for Bob and millions like him, our Nation's commitment to equal access for those living with disabilities has literally expanded their world.

Now we have an opportunity to once again demonstrate our commitment and advance disability rights around the world by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The support for this treaty is broad and bipartisan.

I wish to thank my friend, Senator John McCain of Arizona. He is leading this effort with me to pass this Convention on Disabilities. He is a great ally. Without him we wouldn't have reached this point. I wish to also thank Senators John Barrasso, Tom Harkin, Tom Udall, Jerry Moran, and Chris Coons for their bipartisan support and dedication to ratification.

This treaty is supported by 165 disabilities organizations, including the most prominent, the U.S. International Council on Disabilities, and many others. In addition, 21 veterans groups came and testified. They were the earliest witnesses, and for obvious reasons. Disabled veterans know the limits on life and how important it is to have countries such as the United States and countries around the world opening doors, literally, for them to the future.

The Wounded Warrior Project supports it, as does the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, and they are all calling on us to ratify this treaty.

President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law.

Former Senator Bob Dole, as I mentioned, a lifelong advocate for disability rights, strongly supports this treaty. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a human rights treaty that seeks to ensure that people living with disabilities have the same opportunities as others.

Thanks to the ADA and similar laws, the United States has been so successful at providing opportunities, increasing accessibility, and protecting the rights of the disabled, our Nation today is in full compliance with every term of the treaty I am bringing to the floor.

Before transmitting this treaty, the Obama administration conducted an exhaustive comparison of the treaty's requirements to current U.S. law. Their conclusion was that the United States does not need to pass any new laws or regulations in order to meet the terms of the treaty.

The fact that we already meet or exceed the treaty's requirements is a testament to our Nation's bipartisan commitment to equality and opportunity for those living with disabilities. So why would we ratify a treaty if it is not going to change life in the United States or put any new requirements on the United States?

Well, there are more than 5.5 million veterans living with disabilities--
American veterans. They and thousands of other Americans live with disabilities, but they travel, study, work and serve overseas, often with their families. Ratifying this treaty will help to ensure that they enjoy the same accessibility and opportunity they do right here at home.

Ratifying this treaty will give the United States a well-deserved seat at the international table so that the United States can provide its guidance and expertise and experience to other countries working to adopt laws, upgrade infrastructure, and modernize facilities to meet the high standards we already set and met.

American businesses have invested time and resources to comply with the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Businesses in some countries are not required to comply with similar standards. Compliance with the treaty levels the playing field by requiring foreign businesses to meet accessibility standards similar to those already met by American businesses. We also lead the world in developing accessible products and technology. As other countries comply with this treaty on disability, American businesses will be able to export their expertise and products to the new markets serving more than 1 billion people living with disabilities around the world.

Ratifying this treaty is not only important to the 54 million Americans living with disabilities, it is important to the 10 percent of the world's population living with disabilities. The 650 million people living with disabilities around the world are looking to the United States to join them and show leadership, as we have here at home, on an international basis.

Not only do these people around the world courageously live with disabilities, they live with many challenges and hurdles in other countries that might be removed if other countries follow our lead. Let me tell you just a few things when it comes to disabilities around the world. Ninety percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school--90 percent. Less than 25 percent--45 of the 193--of countries in the United Nations have passed laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person's disability. Studies indicate that women and girls in developing countries are more likely than men to have a disability. Women and girls with disabilities in developing countries are more likely to be raped, forcibly sterilized, or physically abused.

This treaty will help provide the framework so countries around the world can help their own citizens living with disabilities improve, live productive, healthy lives. Just as we did by enacting the ADA 22 years ago, ratifying this treaty will send the world a message that people with disabilities deserve a level playing field.

While this treaty will ensure inclusion and access, it is also important to note what it will not do. The treaty will not require the United States to appropriate any new funds or resources to comply with its terms--not a penny. The treaty will not change any U.S. law or compromise our sovereignty. The treaty will not lead to new lawsuits because its terms do not create any new rights and it cannot be enforced in any U.S. court. For families who choose to educate their children at home in the United States, the treaty will not change any current rights or obligations. I was pleased that the Foreign Relations Committee adopted an amendment I worked on with Senator DeMint to clarify that particular issue. Let me add too that leading pro-life groups, such as the National Right to Life Committee, confirm that the treaty does not promote, expand access, or create any right to an abortion. Senator McCain, in his testimony before the committee, made that eminently clear. He is pro-life. This treaty has no impact on that issue.

Thanks to decades of bipartisan cooperation, our country embodies the worldwide gold standard for those living with disabilities. When the Senate ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we can be proud that our coworkers, friends, family members, and courageous veterans will soon enjoy the same access and opportunity when they travel abroad that they have come to expect here at home.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 6, Treaty Document 112-7; that the treaty be considered as having advanced through the various parliamentary stages up to and including the presentation of the resolution of ratification; that any committee declarations be agreed to as applicable; that any statements be printed in the Record as if read; further, that when the vote on the resolution of ratification is taken, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to respond to my colleague, Senator Lee. Repeatedly he said we should not consider this in the lameduck session. We are not in a lameduck session. This is the regular session of the Senate. We do precious little in this regular session, and now the Senator is saying we should not do it in the lameduck session. We are not in a lameduck session.

And I might say that this treaty has been out there for review for months. It had a full review before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Kerry called it. The Senator was there and other Members were there and had a chance to go through it page by page and offer amendments, which many Senators did. So to argue that this is somehow being sprung on the Members of the Senate without time to review it is to ignore the obvious.

We are not in a lameduck session. This was produced for review and amendment in a full hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a vote was taken.

It is disappointing. We had hoped to do this and do it now because many of the supporters of this treaty are facing their own physical challenges. One of them is our former colleague, Senator Bob Dole. Twenty-two years ago, he led the fight for the Americans with Disabilities Act. When Senator John McCain took this up, he said: I am going to call Bob Dole first. And he did.

In his honor, I hope the Senator from Utah will reconsider his position. And now, before the lameduck session, perhaps we can have some communication, and perhaps there is a way we can ratify this treaty in the Senate. We do precious little in the Senate. To do this, at least to honor Senator Dole, is not too much to ask, not to mention the positive impact it will have on so many disabled people around the world. I know Senator Lee is a conservative, but I also know he has a heart and I know he cares, as I do, about these people--children in other countries who have no chance in life because of a disability, women discriminated against because of disabilities. These are things on which we should speak out.

We are proud to be Americans, but we are doubly proud of the values we stand and fight for. This is one we should fight for.

I see Senator Harkin on the floor. I am going to yield. He has been, literally, the leader on our side of the aisle on disability issues time and time again, and I thank him for his help on this matter.

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