Important news from this week:
- One of the most beautiful bridges in America, on one of
the most beautiful drives in America, was named this week after Dean
Stone – a good friend of mine and of the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Dean Stone Bridge is located on the Foothills Parkway in the
Smokies.
- I introduced legislation
that will make it easier for Tennessee students to attend college.
This proposal includes legislation that simplifies the dreaded FAFSA
– the student aid form that Governor Bill Haslam called “the
single largest impediment to more students participating in Tennessee
Promise.”
- The United States
Senate confirmed President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of
Labor, Eugene Scalia.
The whole world sings with
Tennessee
Click here or on the above image to listen to my
remarks.
I spoke on the Senate floor about
Ken Burns’ new film series, “Country Music,” which
concludes this week on PBS. The first two hours of ‘Country
Music’ were about the recordings of hillbilly music in 1927 at the
birthplace of country music in Bristol, where the Tennessee-Virginia
state line runs down the middle of Main Street. The rest of the episodes
wind through a community called Boogertown in the Smoky Mountains,
where Dolly Parton was born, to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, to
Beale Street in Memphis. As a senator from Tennessee, I must confess my
bias, but Burns’ new documentary shows that the whole world sings
with Tennessee. If you haven’t already, consider watching these
great films and learn more about Tennessee’s country music
history.
I was at the Bluebird
Café in Nashville not long ago and heard Will Duvall play a song
he wrote called, "The King of Country Music." It was good to have him
in Washington this week where I got to hear him play that song again,
and talk about the Music Modernization Act – bipartisan legislation I introduced and President Trump signed
into law to ensure songwriters are paid fairly.
Visitors to the Foothills Parkway will
know Dean Stone’s legacy
If you want to see the best view of the highest
mountains in the eastern United States, you’ll drive the
Foothills Parkway. The scene is so magnificent that it surprises even
those of us who have grown up admiring the Smokies. This parkway is also
home to one of the most beautiful bridges in America, and, this week,
it was named after a good friend of mine and of the Great Smoky
Mountains – Dean Stone. For those who don’t know Dean, he was
the long time editor of The Daily Times in Maryville, and a
lifetime advocate for the Great Smoky Mountains. Dean did as much as
anybody to make the Foothills Parkway happen. He enthusiastically
celebrated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and was the best historian
of what I like to call the “Oak Ridge Corridor” that we
ever knew. As East Tennesseans know, we all love stories about
ourselves, and Dean could tell them. It is now my hope that the naming of this
bridge will tell the story of Dean Stone.
It
was good to visit with some folks from Nissan this week. The auto
industry has done more for our state the last forty years than anything
else and has been the number one driver of higher family
incomes.
Introducing legislation to make it
easier for Tennesseans to attend college
This week, I introduced a long-term solution to permanently
provide funding for Minority Serving Institutions, including the six
Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Tennessee. This
solution is part of a package of eight bipartisan higher education bills
drafted by 35 senators – 20
Democrat, 15 Republican. This package of bills will make it easier for
millions of students to get a college education by simplifying the
Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) – which according to
former governor, Bill Haslam, is “the single biggest impediment to
more students enrolling in Tennessee Promise.” It would also
provide Pell grants to parole-eligible prisoners, allow Pell grants to be
used for short-term programs and increase the maximum Pell grant
award.
Confirming Eugene
Scalia to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor
This week, the Senate labor committee I chair approved the
nomination of Eugene Scalia, President Trump’s nominee to serve as
Secretary of Labor. And Thursday, his nomination was confirmed by the
full Senate. Mr. Scalia has the skills to help continue to grow our
economy and help workers gain the skills they need to succeed in
today’s workplace. I am glad we have a well-qualified Secretary of Labor,
so we can continue to create a strong economy for
Tennesseans.
Read below about
three of the five funding bills approved this week by the U.S. Senate
Appropriations Committee, on which I serve, and the impact they will have
on Tennessee:
Approving legislation that funds the border wall the right
way
I support the president
on border security, and I commend him for pursuing funding for the
border wall in the right way – by asking the Congress for funding,
allowing Congress to consider his request, and working with Congress
to achieve a result. Congress has approved, for the last four
presidents – Obama, Clinton, W. Bush and H.W. Bush – on a
bipartisan basis, 654 miles of physical barrier – that’s wall
– along our almost 2,000 mile southern border. The bill approved by
the Senate Appropriations Committee this week continues the work to
secure our border by including $5 billion for the border wall system.
When a president, elected by the people of the United States, has a
legitimate objective, we in Congress should bend over backwards to try to
meet that objective if we want a result, regardless of whatever you
may think of him or her. This bill is now ready to be considered by the
full United States Senate.
Approving more money to reduce the maintenance backlog
at the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park
The Senate
Appropriations Committee took a promising step to reduce the maintenance
backlog at our national parks, including at the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. The funding approved this week will help restore the
campgrounds, trails,and roads in what Ken Burns calls
“America’s best idea” – our national park system. The next step is
to pass the Restore Our Parks Act, bipartisan
legislation I introduced that would be the biggest help to our parks in
a generation.
Also included in this
bill is money to help Tennessee protect its waterways from invasive
Asian carp. Asian carp are aggressively invading Tennessee waterways
and threaten biodiversity, the economy,and sporting from Memphis to
Chattanooga. While the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is working to
combat Asian carp in the Tennessee-Cumberland Sub-basin, additional
federal resources are needed. I was glad to support the $25 million in
funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to combat this issue and
protect commercial fishing and our nation’s
waters.
Approving funding to help
Tennessee fight the opioid crisis
The Senate Appropriations Committee also approved a funding
bill that provides $505 million for U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
grants to help states, including Tennessee, tackle the opioid crisis.
States could use these grants to help fund their drug courts, educational
efforts, law enforcement programs, recovery programs, and treatment
programs. Our law enforcement officers witness almost daily the tragedy
associated with the opioid crisis, which effects virtually every
American community. This funding will help give them the support they need
to keep our communities safe.
I was also glad to see that the $12 million I requested to fund
meth lab cleanup was included in this bill. This will allow DOJ to
continue to assist states in the very difficult and often dangerous
efforts to clean up meth labs. According to Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation, between 2002 and 2012, Tennessee law enforcement agencies
discovered more than 16,000 meth labs. While lab seizures are down,
meth abuse continues to be a serious and deadly problem across
Tennessee.
It was good meeting with Tennesseans
this Tuesday with my colleague and friend Senator Blackburn! If
you’ll be in Washington on a Tuesday while the Senate is in session, we
would love for you to attend Tennessee Tuesday. Sign up here.
