A senator are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer no, we are not. A senator thank you, madam president. I rise today because its my honor to introduce my colleague who actually needs no introduction but still for this speech today. Mr. Hoeven i have the pleasure to introduce kevin cramer who will be thriferring his delivering his official maiden speech to the senate. Ive known kevin for many years. Hes always been incredibly diligent worker for the people of north dakota. And he served our state in many different capacities. He served as tourism director and did a tremendous job promoting our state, promoting tourism, and really promoting the beauty and the history of our state in a way that brought a lot of National Attention and really made a difference in terms of tourism for our state. He also served our state as Economic Development director, something that is certainly near and dear to my heart. Ive always believed that job creations are job one. To me thats the engine that drives the car. Kevin serves as the Economic Development director under governor shaeffer, my predecessor. Again, did a fantastic job. So he knows the importance of supporting our farmers and Small Business, Energy Industry and all the things that really make our state go. Its been a huge part of helping create an environment in our state that from a tax and Regulatory Environment has been very supportive of the growth and development of our economy and all aspects of our economy, as i said from ag to energy to technology to manufacturing and throughout the Small Business world. And like me as a true champion for Small Business, we are big believers, Small Business is what makes this economy go, whether its north dakota or the United States of america, it is Small Business that makes our economy go. As governor i had the opportunity to appoint kevin to our States Public Service commission in 2003. And he followed that and ran and was elected to the p. S. C. Biff the people of north dakota and served as a Public Service commissioner for the state until 2012. And certainly in that role he was a big part of the growth and development of our state from back in 2000 when i started as governor we produced less than 100,000 barrels of oil a day. Today we now produce more than 1. 5 Million Barrels of oil a day. The only state that produces more oil than north dakota is texas. And kevin was a big part of building again that climate where the industry just developed amazing technologies in this whole shale play. And now the United States is the largest producer of oil and gas in the world. So he truly understands that youve got to help and promote that kind of Economic Development but at the same time theres a reasonable role for regulation and things have to be done right and well and with Good Environmental stewardship. Prior to joining me in the senate, kevin served for three terms in the house of representatives where we worked together on many of our states priorities and share the same belief in this not only our great state but this great country and certainly had a tremendous working relationship in the house and now im pleased to have him as a colleague in the senate. We both served as members of the Farm Bill Conference Committee years ago and were able to put in place a strong farm bill for our farmers and ranchers. We both worked to rein in regulation, to serve our military as a member of the Armed Services committee and also the Veterans Committee and has already passed a resolution supporting our veterans with his battle of the bulge resolution which has been passed by this body. And these are just a few of the things hes already done as a member of the United States senate. Hes been a dedicated Public Servant for the people of north dakota. Hes also a very devoted family man. He and his wife, chris, have three son, isaac, ian, and able, and two daughters rachel and annie and theyre the proud grandparents of five. I got him by one. I have six. This is a competition so well see where it ends up. Hes got a great family. And hes been a great partner in the senate and of course i look forward to continuing to work with him. So again im very pleased today to introduce senator kevin cramer for this speech and with that i yield the floor, madam president. Mr. Cramer madam president . The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Cramer thank you, madam president , for yielding the time and a very special thanks to my senior senator, my great friend, our former governor and senator john hoeven. As he went through much of my speech for me, i thought to myself, you know, this is kind of like when i played high school basketball, john, and wed be ahead by 20 points and the coach would get me off the bench and tell me not to screw this up. Thats kind of how i feel right now. But thank you for the kind introduction and most of it was true. You know, the idea of a maiden speech a year into your first term may seem a little odd but i actually kind of like the idea. It gives me a years worth of opportunity to reflect which creates greater clarity about the future and vision. The first thing i want to say to all of my colleagues here is thank you for being so welcoming. And i mean all of them. What they say about the senate and the collegiality of it is very true. Its not just true. Its really important and its something worth preserving. I can honestly say out of the 99 that ive met, i love every one, individually and collectively and appreciate all that theyve meant to me. Chris and i have been married for 33 years. We have five children together. And im going to talk about one in particular in a little bit. Our children range in ages from 12 to 38. Thats too long of a story to explain, but we love and are proud of all of them. John has named them all. Our five grandchildren, theyre a little closer in range. They range from 1 to 7 and we love every one of them. Lyla, chet with all the love our god has for us. I think its important for people to know i am a child of god and a follower of jesus and it informs everything that i do, both at home and here and throughout life. I was raised i think its important to know a little about where you come from. I was raised by loving parents. My dad was a Rural Electric lineman who never once complained about going out into the storm to get the lights back on for the farmers of our area. My mother who was an elder caregiver when she wasnt pumping gas at the local Farmers Union station. They did whatever they needed to do to help us kids and to provide for our family and we never felt like we needed anything because we didnt. We were loved and we were well cared for and had great examples of culture and work ethic and values tha of North Dakotans. I think its important to understand where a person comes from. But i want to fast forward a little bit to this last year. And i said i was going to talk a little bit about one of our sons. It was a tough campaign. A lot of people think that north dakota is this bright red state that everyone that runs there thats republican wins. While thats certainly been the trend, i think its sort of important for people to know im the first republican in my lifetime to hold the seat that i hold right now for the people of north dakota. In fact, the names of the previous senators in this lineage are in this desk that i stand at. So it was a tough campaign. I got into the race late. I really didnt aspire to be a senator. I liked the house of representatives and still do. But the call came and i answered it. But what made the year so tough, fortunately it was shorter than most Campaign Years for the United States senate. I got in late so it was a short year. But in the middle of the campaign in the early part of the campaign, our 35yearold son isaac became very ill. He suffered from alcoholinduced liver disease. And we spent a good month and a half in the middle of an already Short Campaign at his bedside in intensive care, both in bismarck and rochester at the mayo clinic. I say that because it was perhaps one of the hardest six or seven weeks of my life, the deepest valley i ever walked through was also some of the most instructive, most informing, as informing as all those years in north dakota where serving in state office, helping senator hoeven, governor hoeven build this dynamic economy. Those several weeks with my son probably prepared me as well for this job as i. As any. I got to see our Health Care Industry up close. I got to know more about addiction and Mental Illness and how tragic it is, how devastating it can be, how consequential not dealing with it actually is. It robs people of life. Not just inconvenience. And so it sharpened those senses. But more than that, madam president , i got to learn about our community. I heard from thousands of americans who watched this very public tragedy play out in the public arena because of the very public job that i was seeking. And my faith in mankind was enhanced. My faith in god was strengthened. Learning that the sufficiency of his grace is more than adequate not just for salvation, but for life. And it makes everything, shall we say, clearer, i think, for me today. Senator hoeven raises the issue of some of my Committee Assignments. I want to speak to that for a minute because hes a very important part, as you can tell, of my public life and career. And while i stand on the shoulders of former governor ed schaefer, former secretary of agriculture ed schaefer john and i both served with him in Economic Development when john was the president of the bank of north dakota it was john hoeven that cave me my first entree into elected office in the Public Sector of service in north dakota and worked with me, and of course i had the opportunity to serve with him, as he said, on the Farm Bill Conference Committee when i was in the house of representatives. But when i had that very first important meeting with leader mcconnell to talk about what committees i would want to be on in the senate, realize i was coming from the house where i only served on one. I served on the energy and commerce committee, an important committee, big committee, but it was only one committee. Here i would serve on three or four or as it turns out five. The first thing i did is i looked at senator hoevens Committee Assignments, and i wanted to assess how can i complement where he serves. He serves on the agriculture committee, he serves on the energy and Natural Resources committee. It made sense to me with my environmental background, my regulatory background to serve then on the environment and Public Works Committee where both agriculture and Energy Development are greatly impacted, whether its environmental policy, whether its land policy, regulations that i think serve as a bit of a taking of a farmers land or every bit as important as the revenue that they received through safety net programs. So i sought and received that. The banking committee. John talked a little about that and my role as an Economic Development director in the state of north dakota. I have always liked macroeconomics. Its always intrigued me how financial policy and Economic Policy go together. But as interesting as the Federal Reserve is to me and it is as important as the Exportimport Bank is to me and it is its really the Community Bank like the bank that senator hoeven comes from and whose family started and is building in north dakota. The local credit union, the farm lenders. Thats what drives me more than anything in the banking committee. The Veterans Affairs committee is a Great Committee and something that i could never have imagined aspiring to or holding, but i do know this muce veterans. North dakotas home to only 750,000 people, but 52,000 of them are veterans. In north dakota, patriots sign at a rate four times the National Average to serve. So Public Service in the form of wearing the military uniform is really big, really important in our part of the country. I had the opportunity for a number of years to chair the roughrider armor flight in north dakota. Where we raise the money and organize the trips for about 500 world war ii veterans to come and see the memorial built in their honor. And what a moving experience that was. But before Service Members return from duty, of course, they serve, and we should be working to give them the best resources we can, which is why today is an appropriate day for this maiden speech as its also the day that we passed a very important, very impressive National Defense authorization act, that provides those tools and the things that our military men and women need to be the dominating force for good in the world. And its an honor to serve them. You know, im the very first member of the senate Armed Services committee from north dakota. I didnt know that when i sought that Committee Assignment to complement my Veterans Affairs assignment, but im honored to do it. And the reason i sought that one is because, again, back to senator hoeven, hes an appropriator, hes a defense appropriator. I thought how can i best look out for north dakotas assets . And the Armed Services committee seemed like the right place to be. I also believed that north dakotas assets are perfectly positioned for the future of war fighting. And so im very grateful today for the passage of the National Defense authorization act and for the opportunity to serve on the Armed Services committee. We have air force bases in both minot and grand forks. Their histories are similar but their new missions are very different. In minot, we have twothirds of the Nuclear Triad, in the b52 bombers that carry those impressive bombs and of course the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which are being replaced now by the groundbased strategic deterrent, the modernization of our Nuclear Triad in this ndaa is very important to our state, and im honored to have been part of seeing it through to completion. We also have a very important space radar station in cavalier, something very few people know about. Very few people in north dakota really are aware of that space station at cavalier. Yet its a very important asset. Now as we launch this sixth service, the space force, again, we can see very important things and opportunities for north dakota. We also happen to have a very Excellent National guard. Both army and air force National Guard that does important work, not just locally and they do great work locally, but around the globe, as i think every member here can attest to the power of their National Guard. Their i. S. R. Systems over in fargo, flying the u. A. V. s, its just remarkable what they do. Its remarkable what they contribute to the National Defense in our air guard in fargo, the 119th, the happy hooligans. The grand forecasts air force base, as i said a base that was similar in its founding as minot is now a u. A. V. Base, a global base where they do important i. S. R. Work. Again, the future of war fighting, the importance of good intelligence is so critical. And the airmen in grand forks are second to none in carrying out that mission. So the strategic pick of my assignments, again, designed to complement senator hoeven and serve the good people of north dakota. I will spend a little time talking about my service in the house of representatives because it is the peoples house. I love that its the peoples house. Senator thune served in the house of representatives from south dakota, and he knows what its like to be the only member from an entire state. Its got its opportunities and its got its challenges. I used to say to students who would visit if you want to know what america looks like, go to the house of representatives, sit upstairs, look down, and you will see 435 people just that are just like 700,000 others. 700,000 others just like each one of them. The diversity of our country is perfectly demonstrated in the house, and i loved that. But i also knew how hard it was because if i could get my colleagues from south dakota, wyoming, montana, and alaska to go along with me, i would have five votes. Thats almost 10 of california. Thats a lot of Relationship Building to get things done, and yet i loved it. There are