Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I would like to speak on behalf of my constituents and the tens of millions of Americans who rely on a free and open internet.

Make no mistake, we are locked in a historic battle to preserve the core principles of competition, innovation, and consumer choice that have made the internet the world's greatest platform for commerce and communications; a historic battle to restore the hallmark of American innovation and democratization; a historic battle to protect America's innovation incubator and job generator--a battle for net neutrality.

In December, the Trump FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, eliminated net neutrality. These rules prevented your internet service provider--Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and Charter--from indiscriminately charging more for internet fast lanes or slowing down or even blocking certain websites entirely, the very rules that allow inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, the lifeblood of the American economy, to connect to the internet.

The reason why is simple. The Trump administration sides with the rich and the powerful first and consistently puts everyday American lives last. We have seen them wage an all-out assault on healthcare, on climate change, and now on net neutrality, but today the internet is fighting back, and we have a powerful tool at our disposal that will allow the average consumer to have their voices heard right here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Today I am officially introducing a CRA--Congressional Review Act-- resolution that will fully restore net neutrality. The entire Senate Democratic caucus is now standing with the millions of Americans who want to reverse the FCC's partisan actions and restore net neutrality.

Net neutrality is not and should not be a partisan issue. I thank Senator Susan Collins for supporting my CRA, and I encourage other Republican colleagues to stand with all of us who support net neutrality. We are just one vote away in the Senate from restoring net neutrality. There will be a vote right here on the floor of the Senate sometime this spring. The clock is ticking. We just need a simple majority for passage, and that is just one more vote.

When we take that vote, every one of my colleagues will have to answer the simple question: Whose side are you on? Do you stand with hard-working American families for whom the internet is essential or do you stand with the Big Money corporate interests and their army of lobbyists? We should all be on the right side of history.

Millennials are motivated. Momentum is building. Citizens are joining together demonstrating, writing letters, calling their Members of Congress, and taking this message to social media. They are joined by groups that include Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, Free Press, the Center for Digital Technology, the Center for Media Justice, Color of Change, Common Cause, Consumers Union, Engine, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and many others out across the country that are organizing right now as part of an effort that is going to bring millions of voices into the offices of every Senator and every House Member in our country.

This fight is not limited to the Halls of Congress. We are seeing a historic groundswell of activity at the State and local level. The Governors in Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Montana, and New York have issued executive orders promoting net neutrality.

State legislatures in more than half of the United States are currently considering net neutrality legislation. Just today, 76 mayors across the Nation signed a letter opposing net neutrality repeal, and 23 State attorneys general have filed suit to reinstate the rule, and we plan to stand by them throughout this entire battle, in the court and out here on the floor of Congress.

We cannot let net neutrality be another example of Congress disregarding public opinion and putting donor interests first. Net neutrality is our 21st century right, and we will fight to protect it. In fact, 83 percent of all Americans in polling say they want to protect net neutrality. By the way, that is pretty much every millennial, because for millennials, the internet is like oxygen. I will say that if you are 35 years old or younger, the poll is at pretty close to 100 percent.

I can see all the pages nodding their heads as I am speaking. They know no life without a device that they are carrying around. This is the world in which we are living, and they do not want to have any discrimination introduce itself into the relationship they have between the internet and their ability to control their own lives. That is what the battle is all about, those nodding heads of the pages in the well of the Senate. Those are the people who are going to be making a difference, the millennials, the generation Z young people who want this to be open for entrepreneurial activity and for democracy. Gun Violence

Mr. President, I also want to speak for a few moments about the epidemic of gun violence in our country. Almost 2 weeks ago, a 19-year- old armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, and killed 14 students and 3 teachers, and 14 others were injured. Time and again, we have seen this tragedy play out and time and again we are seeing Congress fail to act.

Each year we lose 33,000 American lives due to gun violence. In instances of disease, illness, natural disaster, this level of widespread death would be met with immediate and meaningful action by Congress. Yet we continually abdicate our moral responsibility when it comes to gun violence prevention. We don't have to accept this epidemic of gun violence in our country. It is not preordained. It is preventable.

So what should Congress do?

First, we should allow public health researchers to study the causes of gun violence so they can find solutions to this public health crisis. Right now, zero dollars are spent at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on gun violence prevention research. That is because since 1996, an appropriations rider has prohibited the Centers for Disease Control from advocating or promoting gun control.

Just last week, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said he would not let the rider impede the CDC's research into the causes of gun violence. So there is no reason now not to fully fund this critical research agenda.

I have introduced legislation to fund research into the causes and prevention of gun violence. My bill now has 32 cosponsors in the Senate. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to cosponsor this commonsense bill. It is long past time that we treat gun violence like the public health emergency it is, but we must also keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them.

Currently, anyone can use a handgun in America--whether it is the gun's owner, a thief, or, tragically, a young child, but it doesn't have to be this way. Technology exists now that can authorize handgun use only by its owner. In the 21st century, we have to use advances in technology to our advantage, and we can save lives by using it.

That is why I used the opportunity to introduce smart gun legislation that will require all handguns manufactured in the United States to be personalized for operation only by the authorized user. That means, unless you are authorized by fingerprint or other technology, you will not be able to fire that handgun. If we can do it for an iPhone, we should be able to do it for a handgun so that if a child gets ahold of a gun, if it is not their thumb, they cannot fire it. If someone steals a gun from a home, it will not work because it will not be their thumb that is on the barrel of that gun. That is ultimately a way to reduce dramatically the amount of harm we see in our country.

We must also ban these military-style assault weapons like the AR-15, which are the guns of choice for those who seek to inflict mass casualties on civilians. These are weapons that belong in combat, not in our communities.

We must also pass legislation to ensure that all gun purchases include a background check. In fact, 97 percent of all Americans now support expanded background checks--97 percent of all Americans. No one should be able to purchase a gun through Facebook or Instagram without a background check. Instagram should not mean ``Instagun,'' with no background check. That is crazy. That is crazy. You can go on Instagram and buy a gun without a background check. That is crazy in America in 2018.

We have the capacity to quickly do background checks to be able to find out whether somebody should be able to purchase a gun. It is crazy not to have that kind of a system put in place.

If you can buy a gun on Instagram, we should be able to check online whether or not that person, in fact, should be allowed legally to purchase the gun.

Let's close the gun show loophole, as well as the one that allows someone on the terrorist watch list to purchase a weapon. Let's close the loophole that allows domestic abusers to buy guns. Let's close the loophole that allows straw purchasers to buy guns and flood our streets with them. Let's ban bump stocks. Let's repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, and take away the gun manufacturers' immunity from civil liability. These are sensible steps.

What is not sensible is hoping that thoughts and prayers will prevent the next shooting. This generation of young people recognize this truth, and that is why they are leading this children's crusade. They are picking up microphones and raising their voices. They are saying enough is enough. It is my hope that this might just be the movement that pushes Republican leaders, once and for all, to take action on gun violence and make the NRA stand for ``not relevant anymore'' in American politics. This is the time for that to take place on the Senate floor.

This generation of young people is rising up, and they are demanding that we protect this country from the scourge of gun violence. Like generations past, this one is making the change they want to see in our society.

So, to them, let me say: I hear you. I am with you, and I will fight with you to ensure that not one more student has to endure what you did, not one more person has to be damaged because we did not put the laws on the books that should have been there to prevent this harm from occurring. I will fight with you to ensure that this does not happen in one more school in our country.

That is our challenge. That is the goal we should set. That is what should be the agenda here on the floor of the Senate in 2018.

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