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 RESOLUTION” mentioning Richard J. Durbin was published in the Senate section on pages S2294-S2296 on April 28.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION
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By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Blumenthal, and Ms.
Hirono):
S. 1423. A bill to amend the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 to give Americans the option to delete personal information collected by internet operators as a result of the person's internet activity prior to age 13; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Mr. DURBIN. 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. 1423
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 ``Clean Slate for Kids Online Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. ENHANCING THE CHILDREN'S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION
ACT OF 1998.
(a) Definitions.--Section 1302 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(13) Delete.--The term `delete' means to remove personal information such that the information is not maintained in retrievable form and cannot be retrieved in the normal course of business.''.
(b) Regulation of Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices in Connection With the Collection and Use of Personal Information From and About Children on the Internet.--Section 1303 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
(15 U.S.C. 6502) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following:
``(3) Failure to delete.--It is unlawful for an operator of a website or online service directed to children, or any operator that has actual knowledge that it is collecting personal information from a child, to fail to delete personal information collected from or about a child if a request for deletion is made pursuant to regulations prescribed under subsection (e).''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(e) Right of an Individual To Delete Personal Information Collected When the Person Was a Child.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Commission shall promulgate under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, regulations that require the operator of any website or online service directed to children, or any operator that has actual knowledge that it has collected personal information from a child or maintains such personal information--
``(A) to provide notice in a prominent place on the website of how an individual over the age of 13, or a legal guardian of an individual over the age of 13 acting with the knowledge and consent of the individual, can request that the operator delete all personal information in the possession of the operator that was collected from or about the individual when the individual was a child notwithstanding any parental consent that may have been provided when the individual was a child;
``(B) to promptly delete all personal information in the possession of the operator that was collected from or about an individual when the individual was a child when such deletion is requested by an individual over the age of 13 or by the legal guardian of such individual acting with the knowledge and consent of the individual, notwithstanding any parental consent that may have been provided when the individual was a child;
``(C) to provide written confirmation of deletion, after the deletion has occurred, to an individual or legal guardian of such individual who has requested such deletion pursuant to this subsection; and
``(D) to except from deletion personal information collected from or about a child--
``(i) only to the extent that the personal information is necessary--
``(I) to respond to judicial process; or
``(II) to the extent permitted under any other provision of law, to provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety; and
``(ii) if the operator retain such excepted personal information for only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purpose for which the information has been excepted and that the excepted information not be used, disseminated or maintained in a form retrievable to anyone except for the purposes specified in this subparagraph.''.
(c) Safe Harbors.--Section 1304 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6503) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ``section 1303(b)'' and inserting ``subsections (b) and (e) of section 1303''; and
(2) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ``subsection (b)'' and inserting ``subsections (b) and (e)''.
(d) Actions by States.--Section 1305(a)(1) of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6504(a)(1)) is amended by striking ``1303(b)'' and inserting
``subsection (b) or (e) of section 1303''.
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By Mr. THUNE (for himself and Mr. Carper):
S. 1424. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit high deductible health plans to provide chronic disease prevention services to plan enrollees prior to satisfying their plan deductible; to the Committee on Finance.
Mr. THUNE. 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. 1424
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 ``Chronic Disease Management Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. CHRONIC DISEASE PREVENTION.
(a) In General.--Section 223(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(F) Preventive care services and items for chronic conditions.--For purposes of subparagraph (C)--
``(i) preventive care shall include any service or item used to treat an individual with a chronic condition if--
``(I) such service or item is low-cost,
``(II) in regards to such service or item, there is medical evidence supporting high cost efficiency of preventing exacerbation of the chronic condition or the development of a secondary condition, and
``(III) there is a strong likelihood, documented by clinical evidence, that with respect to the class of individuals utilizing such service or item, the specific service or use of the item will prevent the exacerbation of the chronic condition or the development of a secondary condition that requires significantly higher cost treatments, and
``(ii) an individual who has been prescribed preventive care for any chronic condition may be presumed to have been diagnosed with such condition if such preventive care is customarily prescribed for such condition.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply to coverage for months beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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By Ms. COLLINS:
S. 1429. A bill to provide compensation for United States victims of Libyan state-sponsored terrorism, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mrs. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce the Justice for the Living victims of Lockerbie Act. This bill would create a process to seek justice for a group Pan American World Airways pilots who lost their careers and pensions following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the subsequent bankruptcy and closure of Pan Am.
On December 21, 1988, the State of Libya committed an infamous act of terror by bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 innocent civilians. Despite Pan Am's greatly improved financial position in 1988, the media coverage of the terrorist attack wreaked havoc on Pan Am sales leading to its bankruptcy in 1991.
In 2008, the U.S. entered into the U.S.-Libya Humanitarian Settlement Agreement, in which Libya paid $ 1.5 billion to settle claims by U.S. citizens for Libyan-sponsored terrorism. After payments by the State Department to families of death victims from Lockerbie and the La Belle Disco bombing in Germany, compensation to other victims was to be determined by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. The Commission could only consider further claims referred to it by the State Department.
One of these claimants was a group of senior Pan Am pilots, most of whom were veterans, who were over the age of 50 and lost and livelihoods when Pan Am went bankrupt and closed. Due to the federally required retirement age of 60 at that time, and the airline industry's seniority system, they were unable to get new pilot jobs with other airlines. Two of these pilots reside in Maine--Ron Fitch of Poland Spring and Schafer Bean of Diamond Cove--and I have heard their stories and their pleas for justice on behalf of their own families and the others who suffered as a result of Libya's acts of terrorism.
Mr. Fitch served nearly ten years in the Air Force and flew rescue helicopters during the Vietnam War. Mr. Bean served in the Navy where he was stationed at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station during the 1960's. Both of these veterans told me that lost their jobs, pensions, health care, and savings as a result of the Pan Am bombing.
This group's initial lawsuit against Libya, which had been joined with the families of those who died at Lockerbie, was dismissed by the courts due to sovereign immunity. Following the 2008 settlement agreement with Libya, the group of pilots approached the State Department in 2009 seeking the necessary referral to have their claims heard by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. For more than four years the State Department failed to refer the group's claims to the Commission, but following bipartisan letters to then-Secretaries Clinton and Kerry signed by myself and more than 60 other members of Congress, the State Department finally referred the claims in 2013.
After an initial denial of claims in a preliminary ruling by the Commission in July 2016, the group of pilots was granted a hearing in December 2016. So many of the pilots and their families attended the hearing that it was moved to a U.S. District Court courtroom in Washington, D.C. Three senior Pan Am executives testified at the hearing, including the former Pan Am CEO, Thomas Plaskett; former Pan Am Senior Vice President for Finance, Ramesh Punwani; and former Pan Am Vice President of Strategic Planning, Peter Pappas. Each explained why the Lockerbie bombing and the subsequent media coverage directly caused the airline's collapse.
In January 2018, more than a year following that hearing, the Commission ruled against the pilots. Using an undefined standard of proof and applying international law, the Commission argued that Pan Am's demise was not caused by the Lockerbie bombing, contrary to the testimony of the former Pan Am executives themselves. The pilots' referred claim was the very last of the Libya claims adjudicated by the Commission, and the Libya settlement fund is now exhausted from the claims it approved prior to the final adjudication of the pilots' claims.
Mr. President, these terrorism victims were denied an opportunity to even make their case for four years by the Department of State, and when finally referred to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, they were forced to wait another three years for a preliminary ruling and another two years for a final decision, by which point the Commission had already awarded claims that essentially exhausted the settlement funds provided by Libya. That simply is not fair, and I believe these Mainers and other Americans deserve a quick and fair process to compensate them for their losses.
I urge my colleagues to join me in working toward justice for all of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing perpetrated by Libya.
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By Mr. CORNYN (for himself and Mr. Padilla):
S. 1432. A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to establish an electric grid resilience grant program and an electric grid resilience research and development program; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to join Senator Cornyn in introducing the ``Preventing Outages With Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act of 2021''.
This legislation would authorize the Federal government to offer grants to States and Tribal governments to modernize the electrical grid and better withstand extreme weather events and natural disasters.
It would also serve as a catalyst for our Nation's research and development and deployment of new technologies that will ensure our Nation's grid can meet the challenges of climate change and continue to provide reliable electricity to our citizens.
The ``POWER ON Act'' is a bipartisan step-forward to combating the devastating impact of climate change and keep the lights on for everyone.
This legislation would help protect America's electric grid and make it more resilient.
Climate change is real and nowhere is that fact more clear than in my State of California. As the State continues to experience historic wildfires, droughts, dangerous mudslides, prolonged heatwaves, and extreme wind events that prompt sustained power shutoffs, the Federal government can and must help. We must work with States to invest in our electrical infrastructure and make our grids more reliable.
This legislation would establish a grant program through the Department of Energy for States and Tribal governments to award funds to eligible entities to deploy projects that enhance the resilience of the electric grid.
This legislation specifically includes natural disasters, such as wildfires, and extreme weather such as heatwaves, drought, and high winds as threats to the resiliency of the electrical grid. Additionally, it explicitly includes Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which have become all too routine in California in recent years, as eligible events.
To protect ratepayers, this legislation ensures that a utility may not seek any cost recovery for any grant awarded through this new program.
Lastly, this legislation would establish a grant program through the Department of Energy for research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of innovations to enhance resilience and strengthen emergency response and management of the electric grid.
California has always been a leader in research and development, and this new program would allow universities, national laboratories and others to make our grid smarter and more resilient. This legislation will not only work to harden our grid but it will allow our world-
renowned institutions to usher in new technologies that will keep our grid and our citizens safe.
I thank my colleague Senator Cornyn and our House partners, Representatives Doris Matsui, Jared Huffman, Doug LaMalfa, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Kevin Brady, and Michael Burgess for championing this bill.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the ``POWER ON Act'' as quickly as possible.
Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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