Texas senator john cornyn spoke on the floor today about the Church Shooting in texas. The texan republican aimed at strengthening the system, following his remarks, a number of senators came to the floor to talk about veterans day. Ou as the world now knows, there was a tragic shooting in texas last sunday that took the livese. Of 26 innocent people and injured 20 more. There was a prayer vigil for those victims where the community gathered to pray and pay their respects to the deceased. Cu there were two people in attendance i would like to highlight. Stevenm and johnny. I mention them yesterday and perhaps youve seen them on the news. Ive been thinking a lot about them. Steven is the man who responded to the shooters rampage by grabbing his rifle and running toward the church. Johnny drove the truck that chased the gunmen down at high speeds. Al inen typical texas fashion, you dont consider themselves to be heroes, but i consider them to be heroes. They said they were just doing what they need to be a done. Johnny said it was act now, ask questions later. I think we should take our cues from johnny and steven. We should show courage and track down anything thats not right and do our best to fix it. Le maybe you have to be a texan or alaskan toe appreciate what he did. He was an nra certified shooting instructor. He heard the shooting, grabbed his gun and basically ended up stopping the shooter from killing more people. He had more ammunition to do more damage than he did but thanks to the intervention of this concerned citizen, who was willing to put himself into harms way, and to actually shot the shooter, and discouraged him from doing more,ts but for his actions, a lot more people would have died on that terrible, terrible sunday. The police cant be everywhere all the time. Thats one reason why, in my state and around the country, we believe citizens ought to be able to defend themselves. We now know the gunmen was courtmartialed by the air force and convicted of serious domestic abuse. Under the law this should have prohibited him from ever purchasing a firearm. The fact that it didnt means that we need to figure out why the federal law wasnt followed and make darn sure that the relevant information is always uploaded to the background check database. There werepl multiple errors, human and systematic errors that prevented, but should have prevented the shooter from ever buying a firearm. The unlawfully purchased firearms that he wasnt legally permitted to purchase, background checks did not turn up his air force conviction for domestic violence, for a felony by fracturing the skull of his stepson as an infant. Because these convictions were uploaded on the federal databas database, i plan to introduce legislation, and ive been talking to a number of colleagueses on both sides of the aisle who are interested in providing a solution to this problem, but we will introduce legislation to ensure that all federal departments, and agencies upload the required conviction records. My legislation will also encourage, to the greatest extent possible under the constitution that state and localta governments do the same. We all remember the terrible shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech a few years ago. That was a person who had already been adjudicated mentallydi ill by the state. But because the state did not upload that into the federal database when he went to buy a firearm, there was no hit. There was no disqualifier that appeared that would have prevented him from buying that firearm in the first place. We need to make sure those systems work every time. Sutherland springs is exposed the governments failing to comply with reporting requirements. This is unacceptable and it must change. Yesterday the chief of staff at the air force came by my office, and iml grateful to him. I told him this must have been one of his worst days when he found out that the air force had, by its failure, somehow failed to notify the federal authorities that this individual was disqualified from buying a firearm, and he appropriately expressed grave concern over the fact that the gunmans convictions were not t sent to the database, and he pledged to get to the root of the problem. It is worth noting that we have tried to address similar problems before and we can do it again. In 2015, i introduced a bill called the Mental Health and safe communities act that addressed a related issue and that was the failure of state and local authorities to upload valuable Mental Health records into the same database. I think theres a bipartisan willingness in the chamber to work on problems inherent in the sharing of these records. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this new legislation we are shooting to the for next week because we owe it to the men and women in the families to make sure our laws are enforced and the individuals like the shooter with a history of violence do not gain legal access to firearms. Mr. President , p this week, this coming weekil will mark veterans day. Its an important time for us to reflect onet what veterans do for us and what their families do for us. The sacrifices that those who serve is incredibly important. We have half a million missouri veterans. The values and commitment and freedom in our country that they stand for, just a couple weeks ago, we had an opportunity to welcome veterans who came tos washington with the honor v flight program, i think you do this too, but every time i get a chance, if theres an honorn b flight from our state, i always try to get down there because it is a great time to see and talk to and thank those who have served us. When the honor flight started 20 years ago emma there were still some world war i veterans coming and then there were almost all world war ii veterans and today we see a few world war iian veterans and some korea veterans and some vietnam veterans, all of whom continue to serve in the great tradition of being willing to fight for the freedoms we enjoy every day. I find it humbling and gratifying to know that those veterans could come here and enjoy the day with each other but also, in many cases, the first time theyve ever been to the capital they go to World War Two memorial and to arlington and other places on that trip that now so many tens of thousands have taken. Many of those veterans that i saw the other day, and that ive seen for the history of the honor flight, were just teenagers when they answered the call to serve. Basically, a little more than High School Kids who knew that something needed to be done and they were able and willing to do it. They fought i difficult battle in some cases, often under unbearable conditions. Some of them lost their closest friends in the military or comrades in arms or comrades right beside them. Some lost people who went out on another mission and never cameam back. I was down in perryville missouriss. They are building an exact replica of the Vietnam Memorial, the vietnam war. We were able to present them with the flag, the group that had raised the money and made the plans at the Vietnam Memorial on the wall to take back and become part of the Vietnam Memorial at perryville. Our veterans are an Extraordinary Group of men and women. They really stand for the best we stand for as a nation. Its important that we dont just honor them on veterans day but we honor them every day that we live in this free and prosperous nation that they helped defend. Its hard not to take all the freedoms that we enjoyor for granted because generations of americans have been willing to fight and die to protect those freedoms, and because of that, generations of americans have benefited from those freedoms and it seems to us, the way people should be able to live everywhere and sometimes the way we think people do live, but in many parts of the world, having the security to walk out the doorr every morning and drop your kids at school and go to work and earn a living, to worship as you please, to build a better life is not available to people in other countries the way it is here because of that of gratitude we owe to our veterans. One of the great areas of legislative success has been in the work for veterans. The chairman is going to follow me on the floor in just a few minutes and hes the chairman of that committee and sure hes got a great committee, but theyve got a great chairman and that committee, its chairman, the committee in the house have passed eight bills that the president of the United States has signed into law to do a number of things for our veterans. Weve built on previous progress for veterans care. A few years ago we made the decisions that they need to have more choices. If youre a veteran, you shouldnt have to drive by the hospital you would like to t go to to go to a hospital miles and hours away. You shouldnt have to drive by three facilities that would do as good a job or better to get to veterans facility. Therear s are some things they should be better at than anybody else. They should be b better at dealing with posttraumatic stress than anybody else though they may not be accessible and they should be better at dealing with eye injuries since all time people who work with prosthetics, people who have lost arms and legs in the service, they should be pretty good at that. Theres no particular reason they should be all that good at open heart surgery or kidney dialysis or all the other things you go to hospital for. If thats where you want to go but we found out a lot of veterans would rather go closer to home. They would rather go to the hospital they are more familiar with when they need their own healthcare. They like to go to the hospital theyve been to lots of time with other family members and others so weve really extreme bandedro the program and expanded the money available for that program as you try to create these w opportunities sidebyside with with an existing facility. There has to be some startup money involved but eventually our young veterans will find they can almost always find a hospital theyd rather go to or doctor theyd rather see. Weve increased compensation for veterans with serviceconnected disabilities and world war ii veterans who have suffered a lifetime of illness because he was part of a mustard gas experiment. Hes finally getting both the compensation and the recognition that his Lifetime Health was impacted by something that happened while he was serving his country. Weve continued efforts to address the problems that they had by passing legislation to modernize the outdated benefits claims and appeals process to make it easier for va employees to be fired. While we want to protect employees who point out whats wrong, theres been plenty of whistles to be blown by the way, at the va over the past decade, and while we want to be sure people can blow those whistles, we also want to be t sure that the va can quickly and effectively move to remove employees who areg not doing what they ought to do, and in fact they are doing things they shouldnt be doing. We work to expand the possibility and the opportunity for educational benefits by expanding what can happen under the post 911 g. I. Bill and helping connect veterans with employers to provide benefits and programs, the bill that i sponsored in congress was part of the first major piece off the legislation that the Congress Passed this year, and within 11 months or so, starting when that past and i think sometime in the next few weeks, the department of t labor is going to talk about how we recognize and evaluate employers who hire veterans, who give veterans credit for skills they learned in the military, who promote veterans,r every employer that wants to say they hire veterans, thats a good thing because you should want to do that. Its sort of the lead standard forli energy. It creates a standard that we canan recognize companies who do that and do that in a significant way and im certainly pleased the secretary at the department of labor has really put that on the fast track to get that done so these companies can begin to be recognized for what they do. They have worked hard, they do dangerous things, theyve kept us safe. We owe to them our continued job as legislators just as we owe to those who follow an footsteps our continued effort that people in our country have everythingg they need to defend our country and we are grateful to those who defended the country in the past. I yield the floor. Mr. President , i want to thank senator blunt for his eloquent remarks and all the things weve tried to do in the Veterans Committee and for pointing out the many reasons why we are so proud of s americans who serve us and allow you and i to be here today. If it were not for our veterans, rest assured this republic would not exist. I did an interview with a reporter who want to ask me number of questions about the Current Administration what we were doinghen for veterans and things like that. Turned out to be a 35, 40 minute interview. I said ive got to go. He said i have one more question. I always know that means the zingers come in. He said dont you think we could save a lot of money if we didnt fight any more wars and i thought for a minute and i said we probably could but there wouldnt be any reason for you and i to be alive because we are here because people want to be here in america to live free. We fight battles overseas and sometimes challenges domestically to keep us free. America is a great country. You dont find people trying to break out of the United States of america. A they are trying to break in. Its a safe and great place to raise a family and serve in so many ways. This year end on the 11th day of the 11th hour in the 11th minute in november which is when we always celebrate veterans day, talk to the men and say thanks to those who have come and gone and those were still here to fight and serve and protect us. Always remember the congress decided after world war i to decide that the 11th day, the 11th month, the 11th hour will be the time the bellwood toll to celebrate and pay tribute to veterans. Rogge told that bell one more time to give thanks. For all theyve done for us and all they will do for us in the future. Its best to talk about veterans to talk about them as the people they were in the people they ar are, whether theyre alive or whether they passed on. I want technet to veterans whose paths have crossed p my life and point out why we owe them so much and we have so much to be thankful for. One of them is Jackson Elliott of berks county georgia. At the home of a nuclear powernt plant, its a beautiful rule county in georgia. Jack was my best friend in college. We met in 1962. We graduated in 1966. Ill never forget the last time i saw jack. It was when he was shipping out to go to the marine corps. He decided when he graduated it was more important for him to volunteer and fight for our country because of what was going on in vietnam than anything else. He joined the marine corps, got his commission as an officer, became a captain and fought and died in vietnam. Ill never forget the last words he told me only put them on the bus from georgia to atlanta to be shipped out. He said im sure im coming bac back, dont worry about me, just pray for me. But in case i dont, make sure people remember who Jackson Elliott cox the third was. I felt do that and sure enough, two years later he was shot and killed by a sniper in vietnam. He lost his life at the age of 24. Finest human being i ever knew. Nicest guy had ever met. My favorite friend all my life. He was taken from me because he volunteered to serve and fight for our country. Im gonna keep today and the promise i made at that bus station. I want you know who he was. He was a good old country boy from south georgia who volunteered to serve hisia country and gave his life so you and i could be here today. There are thousands of him all over theo world. We have so much to. [inaudible] less than half of our population has served us like he did. You all them a debt of gratitude. Sometime when you get a chance to pay them back, take that enopportunity. You wouldnt get to where you were going if they didnt allow you to be safe and travel. The second name i want to mention is noah harris. Hes from georgia. He was a cheerleader at the university of georgia on saturday afternoon in november 2001. It was his junior year. Y they let the school to victory and celebrated like everybody else did. A few years later on september 11, 2001, he turned the television on and thought 3000 innocent citizens, most of them americans, die in the twin towers when al qaeda and Osama Bin Laden and the faces of evil attacked our country. They took her innocence, killed her people, and change the world forever. He was a cheerleader. We dont have a mandatory draft anymore. He was not serving, he was graduate near half, he wanted to be an architect. The nextn morning after 911 when he left his dorm, he went to the army rotc building at the university of georgia campus and walked in and said i want to go fight and get the people who did this to my country my friends. They said you cant do that because at the twoyear program and you graduate next year. You dont have enough time to do that. He said i will double up on my studies and do whatever i need to do. I want to go and fight for my g country and they let a man, and he did. He graduated with honors. A few months later he actuated. Before long he was in iraq, a suburb of baghdad and he had beanie babies in one pocket and ammunition in the other. He was trying to win over the hearts of thein iraqi children and help return their country to some sort of a democracy republic. I knew him casually. I knew hisar pants well, rick and lucy, and i know they have mourned every day since they lost him in baghdad when he died in an ied accident. I know they are proud of what he did and why he did it. Im proud to stand on the floor the United States senate today to talk about noah and Jackson Elliott cox who are exemplary of all the others who have served in the military. Men and women, rich and poor, black and white who have borne the battle for us so we can be where we are today. It reminds me of the guy in philadelphia after the constitution was adopted in Constitution Hall and they said mr. Franklin, what have you givens. [inaudible] because we have a military were in a fight for what we believe in, protect their citizens and keep our country free. The country that our Founding Fathers gave to us that was nurtured in the early days of this republic that is