Important news from the week:
- England has its history. Italy has its art. Egypt has its pyramids.
But, the United States of America has the great American outdoors. This
week, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that will be the biggest help to our national parks, including the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in half a century.
- The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $20 million to the new Oak Ridge Institute at
the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to expand the
university’s partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to train the next
generation of American scientists and engineers.
- The U.S. Supreme Court released a decision that will provide temporary relief to current
DACA recipients – children who were brought to the U.S.
illegally, but by no fault of their own. I believe it is up to Congress to
fix our broken immigration system – that means achieving a
permanent result both for DACA recipients and for increasing border
security.
- U.S. Transportation
Secretary Elaine Chao announced the Tennessee Department of
Transportation is receiving a $11.2 million grant to install 143 miles of fiber
optic cable along I-40 from Memphis to Nashville. This grant will help
provide drivers with real time road conditions and expand broadband
access to distressed counties along I-40.
Passing the most important
conservation legislation for our national parks – including the Smokies
– in half a century
I spoke about this landmark legislation and what it will
do for the Smokies this week on the Senate floor. You can listen to my
remarks here.
This week, the U.S. Senate passed the Great
American Outdoors Act – the most important conservation and
outdoor recreation legislation in the last half century. Today, too many
of our national parks are in bad shape, and American families visiting
those parks are often shocked to find that so many of the roads,
picnic areas, trails, campgrounds and visitor centers are in such bad
condition or even closed. This bipartisan bill will cut in half the $12
billion maintenance backlog in our national parks, including $224
million in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It will also reduce
maintenance backlogs at our national forests and refuges. Here is what
this means for Tennessee – it means that places like the beautiful
Look Rock Campground in the Smokies, which has been closed for several
years because the sewage system doesn’t work, will have the
resources needed to reopen so the 5,000 families who camp there each year
can continue to enjoy it. And the Cherokee National Forest in East
Tennessee, which suffers from a $27 million deferred maintenance backlog
and welcomes more visitors each year than most of the western
national parks, will have its roads and trails restored. And then in West
Tennessee, the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge, which has about $8
million of maintenance work that needs to be done on boat ramps and boat
docks, will receive the support it needs as well.
This bill will also fully and permanently fund the Land
and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), an unrealized goal of Congress and
the conservation community since 1964. Fully funding the LWCF was
also a recommendation of President Reagan’s Commission on Americans
Outdoors, which I chaired in 1985.
None of this would be possible without the strong support of President
Trump and so many Democrat and Republican senators. In the midst of
all the bad things that are going on today, this is a good thing, and
sends a strong signal to the American people that Congress can come
together to do important work. I hope Congress can send this bill to the
president’s desk soon so future generations can continue to
enjoy our national parks and public lands.
$20 million federal grant for Oak Ridge
Institute at UT Knoxville will help train the next generation of American
scientists and engineers
This was an exciting week for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville
(UT), the U.S. Department of Energy and our state. On Wednesday, the
U.S. Department of Energy awarded $20 million
to the new Oak Ridge Institute at the University of Tennessee to
expand the university’s partnership with Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL) to help train the next generation of American scientists
and engineers. One of the joys of my public life has been to see and
encourage the partnership between the University of Tennessee and Oak
Ridge National Laboratory from the vantage point of governor,
president of the University of Tennessee, and now as chairman of the Senate
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, which sent
about $4 billion in federal money to Oak Ridge last year. As chairman of
this subcommittee, I included $20 million in last year’s
spending bill to promote workforce development and prepare the next
generation of American scientists and engineers – which was competitively
awarded to the Oak Ridge Institute.
The Oak Ridge Institute will be a pipeline for a new supply of
American-trained scientists and engineers, which our country sorely
needs in this competitive world. It will also combine the resources and
experience of the nation's largest science and energy laboratory and a
major research university. With such a strong foundation and current
leadership, I am betting that the Oak Ridge Corridor brand and the Oak
Ridge Institute will be recognized as one of the most important
science and engineering alliances in the world.
Below are a few notable tweets from this announcement:
Supporting police reform legislation in the U.S. Senate
I was proud to cosponsor South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s
legislation to help states reform our country’s police departments
by holding police officers accountable, identifying and encouraging
the adoption and use of best practices in community policing, and
providing better training to police officers. Senator Scott is the
right person to lead on this important issue due to his personal
experiences and his ability to bring people together. Benjamin Hooks, the
former NAACP president from Memphis, said that “America is a work in
progress. We’ve come a long way, and we have a long way to
go.” That long way to go will not be as easy as passing laws –
although this legislation will definitely help. It will also take
changing behavior.
#TennesseeStrong – Tennesseans fighting back against
COVID-19
These are trying times,
but through the difficulty that has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic,
there have also been inspiring stories of Tennesseans volunteering
their time and effort to help their communities when they need it the
most. Here are just a few recent stories of Tennesseans showing their
Volunteer Spirit:
- A seven-year-old
artist from Clinton, Tennessee, is doing his
part to help others during the coronavirus pandemic. When he heard
that Italy was having such a hard time with the COVID-19 virus, he
began to draw comic books and sell copies to raise money to send to
nursing homes in Asiago, Italy. He ended up raising $1,200 by selling his
comic books. His friends in Italy were so impressed, they decided to
make him an honorary citizen.
- A 12-year-old from Arlington, Tennessee, wanted to make a
difference in his community, so he decided to start an
annual food drive that raised over $3,000 in food and cash donations
in its first year. This year, his food drive raised over $2,500 in just
one week. He said, "I want to help out other people over the summer
because children need food when they are not in
school."
Working to support telehealth
On Wednesday, I held a hearing in the
Senate health committee I chair, which featured testimony from
telehealth experts about what we can learn from increased use of telehealth
during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which temporary policies that provide
flexibility for patients using telehealth should be extended. I was
especially happy to have Dr. Andrea Willis of Chattanooga as a witness.
Dr. Willis serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, which is the first major
insurance company to permanently cover telehealth
visits.
As dark as this pandemic has been, it has
created an opportunity to learn from and act upon these three months of
intensive telehealth experiences, specifically what permanent changes
need to be made in federal and state policies. In 2016, there were
almost 884 million visits nationwide between patients and physicians,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If 15-20
percent of those were to become remote permanently due to telehealth
expansion during COVID-19 – that would produce a massive change in
our health care system. Part of this explosion in remote meetings
between patients and physicians has been made possible by temporary
changes in federal and state policies. The private sector, too, has made
important changes. One purpose of the hearing was to find out which of
these temporary changes in federal policy should be maintained,
modified, or reversed—and also to find out if there are any additional
federal policies that would help patients and health care providers
take advantage of delivering medical services using telehealth. I also
spoke about this on the Senate floor, and you can watch here.
Below are a few articles from this week I thought you might
enjoy:
Knoxville News Sentinel: $20M grant will help make Oak Ridge
Institute one of the top research facilities
worldwide
Chattanooga Times Free Press: Oak Ridge wins $20 million prize to propel
research, training in East Tennessee
Knoxville News Sentinel: Sen. Lamar
Alexander: Bill that helps the Smokies is 'most satisfying' of his
career
Maryville Daily Times: Senate approves bill that would fund repairs
for GSMNP
WATE-ABC Knoxville Channel 6: How the Great American
Outdoors Act will help the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park
Try not to let your tongue run faster than your
brain.
#35 in Lamar
Alexander’s Little Plaid Book
