While creating new public spaces that reflect continuing stories that is our great country. In my view, when the Senate Debates this kind of legislation, the debate also has to include discussion about a particularly important topic and that is jobs. Now a major component of this bill is of course the land and Water Conservation. That puts funding into natural wonders all over the country, in cities and rural areas. And so today i want to speak for a moment, specifically about those rural areas and rural economies. The Economic Impact of the covid19 pandemic has hit so many of our Rural Communities like a wrecking ball. These are communities that have been struggling, going back a long time and Building Back up after covid19. This is going to be enormously challenging. The senate ought to be looking at every good idea the gig help get these rural economies moving again that land and waterou Conservation Fund is not just about opening up the countries treasured areas for everyone to enjoy and to help people get outdoors. It has got a proven track record of boosting the economies of the communities near those lands. The lands and water Conservation Fund is the ultimate win win approach because you focus with this program on recreation that involves protecting our natural wonders and jobs. Thats a big step forward. So what i wanted to do was just spend a few minutes talking about how we could do evenwo more. For some time now, i have been working with my colleagues from the pacific northwest, around trying to help secure to economic lifelines for the Rural Community of the northwest and much of our nation. Im talking about curing schools in payments in lieu of taxes. In the west there are a lot of areas that have long depended on resource distraction and a lot of areas made up of federal land. We went through a light of boom and bust cycles to define those economies for generations. Nearly always those of boom and bust cyclesd proved to be harmful and unsustainable. So some time ago, a number of years of go. Former senator larry craig and i wrote the bill that created the secure rural schools program. It has provided years and years of reliable revenue for Rural Counties so they could plan budget. After a while, secure rural schools got caught up in the knockdown back and forth physical battles that happened in congress too often. So once in a while, the program with lapse. It meant then that from all over the country, county leaders of Rural Communities came to washington and had to plead for extensions of the secure rule Rural School Program that has always been successful a model that involves local input, spending this program should have been a nobrainer all along. It expired just last year before congress stepped up its last minute to reauthorize the program. At the start and stop authorizations do nothing for certainty. I remember one year, mr. President , that to keep secure rural schools program, the distinguished senator from alaska, we were involved in selling off the helium reserve. That gave us some money, some key money for secure rural schools and programs in the west. I remember when we sold off the helium reserve to get money for secure rural schools a number of editorial writers out west had a lot of fun with it and basically said well we always knew ron why didnt full of a lot of hot air. The point is, we have got to end that cycle that boom and bust cycle of having to just go through this routine at the end of the period when secure rural schools are helping with roads and schools for many kinds of areas. I worked with the senator to propose reforms that would upgrade the secure rules program in sustainable funding for Rural Counties the bill would establish a Permanent Endowment Fund for county Economic Development and roads and schools that is where the money goes it goes into Economic Development goes into roads and schools and by the way when you are helping those Rural Communities with their budget, when they have those funds secure it frees up money for them for important things like Mental Health. We have certainly seen the demand for Mental Health increased dramatically in the last few months. After Congress Makes an initial investment into the fund under our proposal which would establish a permanent endowment to provide funding for county Economic Development roads and schools Congress Makes that initial investment into the fund the principal will be invested in the interest will be used to make payments to counties. So you have senator crapo, senator merkley summoned arisha and i proposing a way to move away from this roller coaster in the west to upgrade secure rural schools into a stable sort of funding. You have a Permanent Endowment Fund that provides money for the roads and schools and the counties and the principles invested in the interest to be used to make payments to counties the proposalth is backed by a one 100 of oregon senators and one 100 of idahos United States senators. For united or state senator to democrats to republicans having worked closely with rural groups and National Association of counties and others to advance this idea. The proposal with directm revenue sharing payments would force that to be deposited into the endowment nature that way the payments the county will grow in the safety net they provide to their constituents can expand. These inre my view are the basics of an economic toolkit for rural areas. If you focus on roads, if you focus on schools. If you make sure that counties have the money for services so they stand for example take care of Mental Health needs. That is theea key to building up rural economies and create jobs forng residents. Now payment in lieu of taxes similar reasons. People who live in these Rural Counties dominated by public land also deserves support. They to rely on local Governmental Services and deserve a safety net like everyone else. They ought to be able to budget, planning create jobs like bigger cities can. Our amendment to really promote secure rural schools and pill would extend for ten years to give these counties the certainty and predictability they need. Im going to wrap up here in a moment, mr. President , but i just hope that the majority leader is going to set up a process for real debates on these ideas and these amendments. This is a bipartisan proposal when we have offered in the past, senator and i and others proposals to extend this program we nearly always get at least 70 votes here in the United States senate because there is an awareness of how important it is that these Rural Communities have certainty for school and road and basic kinds of services that our efforts support. Covid19mo pandemic is causing an normas pain everywhere. But we have seen big corporations, we talked about this yesterday in the finance committee, some colleagues think we ought to cut the Unemployment Benefits in half but it is a fine to make available trillions of dollars to the biggest corporations in america so the covid pandemic is causing pain everywhere. It seems to me with so many resources going to big corporations and intensely populatedra areas the United States senate has an obligation to make sure rural economies and rural workers and Rural Businesses art just left behind upgrading secure rural schools and spendingre pilled as a targeted way to advocate for Rural Communities we are going to be home for several weeks in july my hope is to be able to have conversations with folks in person in those areas and we have not been able to do as much of that with 970 town Hall Meetings in person just they are to be able to respond and answer questions. I really hope we will be able to do that again soon. And when we have those discussions, you can be very sure that in those Rural Communities front and center will be secure rural schools. Front and center will be payment in lieu of taxes, folks will in on those areas because they will say they have to meet since larry craig, former colleague and i program, people will come up and say it with secure rural schools is doing is giving us a chance to make sure we have a real education program. Before we got that program going, people thought they would have school three days a week. N people will say ron we need secure rural schools. We need itds for education. It is the key to our Roads Program, Roads Program for smaller counties it is an able to have rural life without rural roads and schools the heart of secure rural schools as you cannot have rural life. These two programs are Solutions Based on providing certainty andct predictability to help build thriving economies good jobs in rural areas. I am going to keep pushing for support here in the senate. I know my colleagues are going to continue to do so as well. And with that, i yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. Mr. President this week we considered a measure for permanent funding of the land and water Conservation Fund for our National Parks. I would support this measure joyously if there were am Similar Program for americas coasts and bays and oceans. As it is, i support this measure but with a heavy and frustrated heart as once again the urgent needs of coastal communities go unaddressed. Put bluntly, the land and water Conservation Fund massively favors inland and upland states and projects. That is indicated by the prevalence of advocates on f the floor from landlocked states. It fails to meet the needs of coastal communities. Over the past decade, for every dollar the fund sent to inland states. Capita coastal states just got 40 cents. The imbalance against coasts gets worse if you factor in theirs greater coastal inland and the imbalance worsens furthernd when you factor in much of the land and water Conservation Fund spending and coastal states is for upland, indolent, projects. Coasts and saltwater are not treated fairly. The upland freshwater imbalance is not justified and we want to make it right. Look at rhode island. People from the nation and around the globe visit our wonderful beecher gem beaches in bay and they drive a huge amount of the economic activity. In 2018, Rhode Islands commerce suggests 5 Million People visited our state bringing in tax revenue and over 86000 jobs. In total, travelers through rhode island generated 6. 8 billion in our economy. Our coast attracts that economic activity. It is a big deal for us. And rhode island has over half of americans live in a coastal county nearly 60 of the nations gross semester product derives from coastal counties. According to the american sure and beecher preservation association, i will quote them here, more than twice as many visit americas coasts is visit state and National Parks combined. Consequently, 85 of all tourism related to revenue in the u. S. Is generated and coastal b states. Where beaches are the leading attraction it supports 2. 5 million jobs billion dollars in revenue and 45 billion in taxes annually. For all of that, you had Water Conservation gives 40 cents to coastal states for every dollar that sends to inland states. And that 40 cents is. Capita, not adjusted for the greater Coastal Economic activity in the greater tax revenue and, it doesnt trust for uses and coastal states. Coasts are over looked. I wish it were just the land water Conservation Fund but look at the inland to coastal disparity in the army court flood and coastal storm damage reduction fund. Over the past ten years the core has spent of that fund in various years between 19 and a 120 times more on inland work than it spent on coastal work. 19million to one coastal dollar was our coast best year. 120 inland dollars to one coastal dollar was our worst coastal communities are exposed to storms to sealevel rise, to shifting fisheries to all manner of other conservation and infrastructure challenges that they received acrossha that decade less than three pennies out of eachnt dollar spent from an Army Corps Program that has coastal in its name. This persistent and unfair aimbalance against coasts nor is the massive and unique risks which that coastal communities, coastal features, coastal infrastructures and coastal economies now face. Look at the dire warnings of Coastal Property value crash. Freddie. Not an environmental group, has estimated somewhere between 238 billion worth of coastal real estate will be gone, below sea level by 2100. Freddie. Warns about that text nothing losses and social disruption likely to be greater in total experience of the housing prices and great recession. Are we listening . Along the east coast, the first three foundation estimates Property Values already took a 15 billiondollar hit due to Sea Level Rise the Providence Journal using first street and Columbia University data reported rhode island lostn over 44 million relative Coastal Property values from 2005 to 2017. Firstrate data showed maine, New Hampshire massachusetts and rhode island lost a combined 403 million during that stretch. Hundreds of millions of dollars lost already. And the worst is yet to come. Look elsewhere along the coast, want to know why senator cassidy is so motivated . His entire louisiana coast is in a declared state of emergency. A recent headline from the timesc and those words we are screwed. The only question is how quickly will the wetlands advantage the study says. That is a quote. That two lady universities that says Sea Level Rise will flood 5800 square miles of louisiana coastal wetlands the report concludes this is a major threat. Not only to one of the ecologically richest societies in the United States, also the one point to million inhabitants with associated economic assets that are surrounded mississippi delta marshland. Obvious, right but are we listening to senator cassidy . In florida, coastal communities already see flooded streets on sunny days. Researchers project over two and half feet of Sea Level Rise in the next 40 years affecting 120,000 Florida Coastal properties in or near rising seas. Some studies say miami beach is iconic south beach has two decades left. Communities in southern florida are considering abandoning Public Infrastructure because of the sticker shock of protecting it. Fish, manatees, sea turtles, and other Sea Creatures have washed up on florida beecher student toxic algae as the oceans get warm. The iconic everglades are in peril who is listening . In north carolina, the outer banks face erosion and sealevel rise such as the National Park service has normative loss to the area will be inundated in the country outer banks washington d. C. , there goes a millions of annual visitors, thousands of local jobs at a local economy with over 250 million. Over 5500 homes and coastal texas are projected to flood in the next decade. Homes with a one point to billion dollars coastal South Carolina just since 2017 has been hit by four different billion dollar hurricanes. The list of what our coast are facing those on and on and the projected losses are enormous. Here is Moodys Investor Services warning for coastal communities is the issue bond i quote moodys the growing effective Climate Change includingec priming, with temperatures and rising sea levels forecast avid increasing Economic Impact on state and local issuers. This should be a glowing negative credit factor for issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation strategies. Going to ask my colleagues if you are amu small community, on the coast where are you going to go to get sufficient adaptation and mitigation strategies for moodys . Where are we to help those communities. Says the union of concerned scientists i quote by the end of the 21st century, nearly 2. 5 million residential and commercial properties collectively valued today at 1. 07 trillion we will be at risk of chronic flooding. Chronic flooding . Makes thosech property on insurable and un mortgage suitable. She was one of the word freddie. s warning about a Coas