Delaware. According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, he shot an acquaintance in the head at a car dealership. The victim was in stable condition and later identified his attacker to police. the suspect was arrested after a brief foot choice. Foot chase. This terrible shooting in maryland came a few weeks after the worst mass shooting in modern u. S. History which occurred in las vegas, nevada. This mass shooting targeting concert goers at an outdoor Music Festival left 58 dead and victims who are in Critical Condition in the hospital. I want to put a human face on this for my colleagues and talk about one marylander who was injured in the las vegas attack. The Baltimore Sun shared the story of tina frost. She is a 2008 graduate of arundal high school, a star Soccer Player in school, and she now lives in california and works at the Accounting Firm of ernst and young. The story begins before a bullet from a 32story above cut through her face, crofton native tina cross drove from san diego to see one of her favorite country artists in las vegas. Becky said her 21yearold sister lost her right eye and was in two hours of surgery. She said her sister was in a coma, that the family expected to last about a week. Another sister wrote on facebook that the family was waiting to see the sent of the brain damage. Were sticking together and praying, becky frost said. Tina woke up from the coma and transferred back to maryland and had additional surgery at Johns Hopkins hospital in battle more. She baltimore. She is a true fighter an warrior. Today i want tina and the entire frost family to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers. I understand i understand that their community has already been receiving funds to help defray tinas medical expenses for her recovery. This is just one example of hundreds that were victimized in las vegas. I am just as heart broken by the terror in las vegas, with the entire country im grieving for the senseless loss of life and praying for the victims, their families and all those injured like tina frost, whether by gunshots off the chaos that ensued. Much thanks go to the first responders, including the police, firefighters, and emergency medical workers who ran toward danger instead of running away from it. Thoughts and prayers console victims and families, but actions speak louder. We must be outraged and we must act. Congress must act, states must act. Weapons of war should not be in the hands of civilians. We have seen the deadly results in las vegas just as in blacksburg, aurora, sandy hook and elsewhere across this great country. We need to do everything in our power to stop the carnage of these shootings. How high does the death toll have to get to enact bipartisan reforms to make the American Public safer and reduce the risk of such easy access of dangerous weapons primarily designed for the battlefield. Assault weapons are only meant to kill people and they do far too often in this country. I urge my colleagues to be bold and break the cycle of what can only be described as a callous disregard of victims of gun violence. Only action and real change in federal and state laws can change. This tears us at the heart an leaves us frustrated and confused. We must resolve to stop those who wish to do harm to americans from committing acts of terror. We as a nation and community and American Family we must take actions to change minds and hearts and finally change policies. We can help others by taking immediate action. I was disappointed that congress missed another opportunity to enact gun Safety Measures after the shooting at the pulse nightclub in orlando, florida. The mass shooting in las vegas has now surpassed these numbers. In the las vegas massacre, Steven Maddock had a semiautomatic weapon fired at a rate of nine bullets a second. This is unlegal under current law. Paddock had an arsenal in his hotel p room. Police found a large quantity of ammunition including numerous highcapacity magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds appease. The preliminary assessment, with the understanding that the investigation is gone going ongoing, is that the shooter legally purchased all of these guns and ammunition legally. A mass shooter was able to purchase a gun and design it into a military weapon with no legitimate civilian use. The mass shooter was able to purchase high capacity magazine use with no legitimate civilian use. These are weapons of war. You dont need them for hunting. You dont need them for selfdefense. I convened a roundtable meeting with Law Enforcement. The group included officials from local, state, and federal levels, including the sheriff, the police chief, the states attorney general of maryland, and representatives of the u. S. Attorneys office. Merrill has progressive laws on gun safety and taken steps to ban weapons of war and highcapacity magazines. The group echoed the concern to me that if maryland has strict laws relating to gun safety that protect the police officers, what is to stop someone from driving over the border to procure guns. Thats why we need a strong law to protect all americans and congress should act on commonsense gun Safety Measures. What can we do in congress . I have cosponsored the automatic gun Fire Prevention act with which senator feinstein introduced. The gunman was able to unleash thousands of bullets on a crowd. Machine guns are banned from civilian use, but a loophole exists to allow for the bum stock devices and to convert semiautomatic weapons to automatic weapons. This bill would allow conversation bans the sale, transfer, manufacturing of bum stocks trigger cranks or anything that accelerates a semiautomatic rifle rate of fire. Semiautomatics have a fire of 45 to 60 round a minute. The bum stock can increase that to 700 rounds per minute or nine per second. Ive also cosponsored the large ammunition feeding device act, also called, keeping america safe act. It prohibits the transfer of large capacity magazines with limited exceptions for Law Enforcement personnel. Senator menendezs bill authorizes a buy back program for high capacity magazines using burn jag grants. These two bills represent a practical commonsense approach to promoting gun safety and reducing the threat of gun violence without impinging on the rights of legitimate owners. Mr. President , as nbc news recently reported, more americans have died from gunshots in the last 50 years than all the wars in americas history. Since 1968 more than 1. 5 million americans have died from gunrelated instances according to the center of Disease Control and prevention. I cosponsored the background check expansion act introduced by senator murphy. This would expand federal background checks of the sale of guns of all private sellers. Under current law unlicensed or private sellers are not required to conduct a background check prior to transferring a firearm. This is outrageous and congress should act right now to close this dangerous loophole. It should not matter whether you buy a gun at a local gun store or gun show or on the internet. You should have to pass a basic background check. Congress has an obligation to act. As ive indicated before, we need to act. Inaction is not an option. Many of our states have acted as well include pg my own state of including my own state of maryland. We need a national law. Ban bum stocks, prohibit the transfer of highmagazine clips, require universal background checks for all gun purchasers. The time for action is now. We cannot wait. Congress should come together and address the real problem which lacks begun safety laws and pass commonsense gun Safety Measures to are protect all americans. Lets not wait for the next mass shooting when we send our thoughts and prayers to victims and stand by and pretend we are powerless to prevent another tragedy. Lets take action now. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Hoeven thank you, mr. President. I rise to talk about how we need to reform our tax code and provide tax relief to americas Small Businesses, hardworking families, families, and ranchers and to not only provide Hardworking Taxpayers with tax relief, but also to strengthen our economy, to stimulate job creation, and, along with the regulatory relief that weve already provided and are working to continue to provide, this tax relief is all about a growing economy, more jobs, and higher wages for hardworking americans, and then making had sure that they not only keep more of their earnings after tax, but that they see growing wages due to a stronger economy. And thats so important after the last decade of really stagnant wages and income. Its important top understand that this tax relief is both. Its absolutely about lowering the tax burden, but its will its also about moving wages and intersection high incomes higher. Thats the rising tide that lifts all boats in our country. Today the house of representatives passed a budget resolution that the senate sent them last week and so now weve completed the first step in terms of enacting progrowth tax reform that will provide tax relief to millions of middleclass families that have been struggling to get ahead over the past decade. Today i want to focus on how our tax proposal will reduce the tax burden on Small Businesses. Small businesses make up 96 of all employers in my state and over 90 of the businesses in our country. Over 90 of the businesses in this country are Small Businesses. Earlier this week we had a very productive meeting with the president to talk about our priorities about tax relief. I specifically highlighted to him the importance of ensuring that tax reform works for our Small Businesses. When you talk about a Small Business, you are talking about farmers, ranchers. Like i say, you are talking 90 of all businesses in this country are Small Business. So were working with the administration and with the house to enact tax reforms that will enable American Families to keep more of their hardearned money and empower our Small Businesses to invest and to grow. Our effort is about growing our economy and regaining our economic competitiveness in a global economy. Our tax code needs to ensure that our Small Business owners and entrepreneurs can compete in that global economy. Small businesses, as i said, are the engine that drive our economy. They are the backbone of our economy. Small businesses create more jobs and employ more people than major corporations. They are the heart and soul of main street across america. These businesses are in the majority of all business income in the United States and employ over half the private sector workforce in 49 out of 50 states. So they employ over half of the private sector workforce in 49 of our 50 states. Over the past month ive hosted tax reform roundtables across north dakota to hear directly from our job creators from our states Small Businesses, from our agriculture leader and farmers and ranchers. What are their priorities when we talk about tax relief and tax reform. It will promote job creation, Economic Growth, and as i said earlier, global competitivenesso this in a number of ways but the most impactful thing is that we lower the tax burden. It needs to be tax relief. Right now for our Small Businesses, the marginal tax rate can reach as high as 44. 6 . Think about that. Almost half, almost half of their income going to federal tax. Federal income tax. Thats nearly twice the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world. So here we are trying to compete with that high of tax rate almost double compared to the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world. By reducing the maximum tax rate for sole proprietorship, partnerships and S Corporations to 25 , were creating greater Economic Growth and tunltses as Small Businesses reinvest in their businesses, in their employees, in their communities, and generate job growth. Additionally, many Small Business, including farmers and ranchers, do not have access to the equity that they need to operate instead relying heavily on Debt Financing to fund their businesses. They go to the bank and borrow, right. And this is particularly true for new and beginning enterprises, including new startups and technology, not just farming and ranching and traditional businesses but businesses across the board. And so our tax code needs to incentivize our nations entrepreneurs to start their business and we need to make sure that they can get access to capital. They need to be able to get access to that capital. But when they do, by and large theyre going to the bank and borrowing. And that means that they have to pay interest on that debt. So it is very important that for Small Businesses, the interest on that debt be dibl. Thats a be deductible. Thats a huge cost, particularly for our farmers and ranchers. They dont have the opportunity to float equity issues. They dont raise equity for their farming operation when they need to buy a tractor or combine or you name it. Thehave to go to the bank they have to go to the bank and borrow. So th the deductibility is vita. When you look at Small Businesses in your community, you know thats true. They go to the bank and borrow and that interest cost is a big part of their business expense, and they need to be able to continue to deduct it. In the framework weve proposed, another very important issue is being able to expense investment. And if you really want to trigger growth, you encourage that investment. So the tax reform framework or proposal that weve put forward allows in the first five years full expensing of new investment. And thats very stimulative to our economy, very progrowth. The other piece that i think is very important here is that we keep this section 179 expensing longer term. So i think as we proposed it now, wed have expensing in the first five years, full expensing. Thats great. Thats, as i say, stimulative to the economy, but beyond that, then, we need to make sure that that section 179 was there so that Small Businesses, farmers, ranchers, others know they will continue to be able to expense their investment in new plant and new equipment. Thats what keeps them growing those Small Businesses. Thats what keeps them hiring more people. Thats what creates more jobs, and thats what pushes wages and income higher. Also, we need to simplify and streamline the tax code. Right now the tax code is nearly 70,000 pages long, 70,000 pages. I mean, talk about difficult and complex. I mean, americans right now currently spend 6 billion hours a year complying with that tax code. Thats ridiculous. Thats ridiculous. Can you imagine six billion hours a year just to figure out how to pay your taxes . So heres somebody who wants to pay their taxes. They have to spend all that time and all that effort just to figure out how much they have to pay. Obviously, we can do a lot better than that. So our goal through tax reform is to allow the vast majority of americans to file their tax return on a single, simple page. Ill mention that again. I think its important. We are our goal is for the vast majority of americans, in essence, just file their tax return on one page and make it easy to pay your taxes, to figure out what you owe and take away all that stress and all that difficulty in just trying to pay your taxes. Many economists agree that high business taxes reduce wages to workers, raise costs for consumers, and reduce returns on retirement savings. Maintaining these high rates do nothing to improve the fairness of our system. They only punish everyday hardworking taxpaying citizens and reduce Economic Opportunity in america. So, again, i would just conclude on the same point that i started with. And that is, theres two objects here. Its not just to simplify and reduce the tax burden so that people have more of their earnings in their pocket after paying taxes. The other is to make sure they earn more, that you move wages and income higher. If you look at the growth rate in our economy over the last decade, its struggled, in essence, to get for 2 . But to compare that from the period from world war ii to the present, we over that longer period averaged 3. 3 . We want to get that growth rate back up. Now, we started to get that growth rate back up by doing what . Reducing the regulatory burden. Over the course of this year, the administration, this congress has done a lot to reduce the regulatory burden. And our growth rate is ticked up in the most recent month to 3. 1 . Highest its been in a long time. So what we want to do is combine that regulatory relief and tax relief and get that higher growth rate. We also want to add an infrastructure package. And when you put those things together, what do you get . More jobs, higher wages, a higher standard of living for hardworking american citizens across this great nation. Thats the objective. Thats what were trying to do. And we all need to Work Together and our goal is to get that done before the end of the year. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin mr. President , earlier this week the Senate ForeignRelations Committee held a hearing on an issue i consider one of the greatest moral tests of our time in the conduct of u. S. Foreign policy. The situation in burma where the