These bills are a product of montanas congressional delegation working together to move montana forward. We all know if congres congresso agree on much these days. Few people are willing to compromise. But when you give a little and you get a lot. Thats how montanas lands bill becomes a part of this legislation. These bills have been vetted on the ground by montana ranchers like dusty prairie and carl raphold. They have been approved by committees an negotiated for years. They not only deliver on our promises to montanas ranchers but also to the outdoors men and women and tribes. They are montanamade bills. Take the Rocky Mountain heritage act. This protects access along the Rocky Mountain front. The front is a special place in montana lower. Its where the Rocky Mountains shoot straight out of the plains into the sky. I. T. Its a breathstaking, magnificent its a breathtaking, magnificent saoeugt. The heritage act designates the front as conservation management of area. Adds another 67,000 acres to the bob marshal wilderness and supports a Noxious Weed Management program. It follows b. L. M. Recommendations on approximately 14 ,000 acres of wilderness study areas. And it requires new assessments of oil and gas poe essentia poto others. Some will question the details of this bill and others in the package, but montanans know how to responsibly manage our land. We know what Irresponsible Development looks like. Mining corporations pillaged our land in their search for copper and other minerals. Not only did they turn our mountains inside out and pollute our waters, they ignored workers rights and bought influence over montanas elected leaders. In response, montana passed legislation bayh way back in 1912. We followed that up in the 1970s with on one of the most progressive state constitutions to date enshrining regulations into law. The same max baucus who worked on an introduced the Rocky Mountain heritage act in 2011. Passing this lands bill helped fulfill maxs legacy in montana and honors the hard work of his staff and the bills many supporters. Before max introduced this bill, he received letter from a rancher along the front. Ben pierce was his name. Ben told max that he wanted to see the front remain a place with both wellmanaged working ranches and vibrant wildlife values. Ben supported the bill because he knew that preserving the rarchling culture was critical to our way of life. But he also supported the bill because he knows we must preserve montanas most special places. Thats because montanas outdoor treasures are not only symbols of our heritage, they are also incredible economic drivers. Montanas outdoor economy, thanks to places like gley schuss and yellowstone, creates or sustains some 64,000 jobs and contributes nearly 6 billion to the states economy every year. Thats impressive in a state of just one million people. From Outdoor Stores to park cafes, montanas economy thrives when montanas outdoors are spreerved and accessible. Preservation and access are also the cornerstones of the north fork protection action, another legacy of senator but a kusms the bill permanent senator baucus. It permanently protects the North Fork River water head by banning future mining. The land is jai sent to Glacier National park, bounded by snowcapped mountains, ringed by you ainspiring valleys and bisected by beautiful greengreen waters, home to some of the best whitewater rafting. Thanks to this bill, the american side of the watershed will be protected from oil and Gas Development forever. Preserving the north fork is not just good for wildlife or the hiker who enjoys t its also good for our economies and nearby communities. Thats why this bipartisan bill is supported by the local chamber of commerce and by the mayor of nearby whitefish, who said this bills passage quote means permanental protection of our communitys water supply. And we all know how important water is. These two measures are not only not the only bills that will benefit montana in this lands package. The cabinet fee act provides economic certainty for folks who have seen their fees skyrocket. Many of these cabins pass from generation to generation and this bill makes sure that family cabins can be enjoyed by those who cherish them. This package also does right by our nairng friends. The northern cheyenne lands act restores the tribes mineral rights to 5,000 acres within its boundaries, strengthening the tribes control over its land, resources, and trust fund. It corrects an error that was made by the federal government more than 100 years ago. That in and of itself makes this a worthy endeavor. But there are other areas that we can Work Together. Just as these bills are montanamade solutions, we can and i believe welcome together over montanamade solutions to better manage our forests. Mr. President , for decades, folks in montana have argued over our lands. Theyve battled over access, we fought over resource development, weve sued and countersued over logging, but in montana, we havent had a new wilderness designation in 31 years. Why . Because we havent been able to compromise. But now we have. And it means progress for montana. This agreement is bipartisan, and i was proud to work with senator walsh and senatorelect deigns to bring it to a reality. I hope we can find more ways to compromise over land issues and other legislation moving forward. Because, after all, it is a future that matters most. Whether this body is debating Immigration Reform or our education system, how to rebuild infrastructure, we must always look to the future. We want the best for ourselves and for our communities. We want to leave this world in a better shape than how we inherited it. And we want to pass our treasured lands and outdoor traditions down to our kids and our grandkids, wherever they may live. Places like the Rocky Mountain front and the north fork are living legacies to montanas greatness. There are many reasons to preserve these places but the best ive heard comes from jane sens. She wrote a book about the Rocky Mountain front. In it, he quoted another montanans who said some places on earth should be left alone, even if solid gold lies beneath them. And i couldnt agree more. Montana is home to skytouching mountains and beautiful plains that roll on as far as the eye can see. Its home to hardworking men and women and native americans with deep connections to the land. But its the last, best place because we are all of these things and because were willing to Work Together to plea serve and strengthen them. Im very proud of this historic agreement. , and today i am particularly proud to be a amongian. Mr. President , i yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Ms. Heitcamp i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection, the senator is recognized. Ms. Heitcamp thank you. I rise today and i was struck by the last two speakers, my great friend, senator heinrich and senator tester, showing you amazing pictures of the beauty of western the western part of our wonderful country, and i thought, well, those are really beautiful pictures. Not quite as beautiful as north dakota, but well well well acknowledge that these are areas that will open up your soul and open up your eyes and make it possible for you to see the beauty that is this great country and the resilience of the people who settled in the areas of the west. And it got my thinking and i think more, importantly, understanding that awful what we are in this country is only possible because men and women for centuries have stepped up to serve our country and to serve our country in the armed forces. I want to rise today and talk about an issue that hasnt gotten a lot of attention, i dont think, in this country, this quiet thing thats going on in the v. F. W. Halls and the amvets and the d. A. V. s and American Legion halls in my state, talking about not only that kind of sacrifice but recognizing and moving to a special recognition this year. And so i want to talk about north dakotaans because we all are extraordinarily proud of our states but we know in north dakota that North Dakotans have always answered the call to serve in particular the native American Community who have answered that call to service in record numbers. Ive made it a priority during my time in the United States senate to meet as many of my state veterans as i can. I want to hear their stories and i want to learn about the challenges of their everyday lives and what we need to do to fulfill our obligation and our sacred trust to live up to the commitments that we made as they lived up to the commitments that they made to serve our country and to carry our freedom and protect our freedom in the battlefields across this world. Through these trips ive met a lot of wonderful veterans. World war ii veterans and their proud stories of their service in the pacific and europe. I met korean war veterans with memories of what is often referred to as the forgotten war, maybe forgotten by others but not by me and veterans in north dakota. Then there are veterans from the conflict in iraq and the overall war against terror. These young veterans, men and women both face many different challenges and i think different challenges from their counterparts from Previous Service relationships. But i think theyre helping change the way our nation sees our veterans. All of these veterans, without a doubt, deserve a place of honor in our society. All of them serve and deserve our thanks for their service and their sacrifice. Together they have protected our freedom and allowed our nation to flourish. But today today i want to talk and focus on americas Vietnam Veterans, north dakotas Vietnam Veterans. We are in the midst and im not sure a lot of people know this. We are in the midst of a remembrance of the 50year anniversary of the vietnam war. On may 25, 2012, president obama issued this proclamation, a proclamation that i have right here, issued this proclamation to honor our vietnam vets, those brave servicemen who gave their lives and their families, to honor all the veteran service but particularly to recognize those who lost their life. I want to quote from this proclamation. As a grateful nation, we honor more than 58,000 patriots. Their names etched in black granite not too far from this symbol of american democracy, our nations capital, who sacrificed these patriots who sacrificed all they had and all they would ever know. We draw inspiration from heroes who suffered unspeakably as prisoners of war, yet who returned home with their heads held high. We pledge to keep faith with those who were wounded and still carry the scars of war seen and unseen. This special period of honoring our Vietnam Veterans runs through 2025. Since our involvement in the war stretched through 1975 and thats the period to which were going to recognize the 50 years 50year commemoration and anniversary, as this period continues, it remains important to talk about the vietnam war and its veterans as much as possible. The vietnam war represents a difficult time in our nations history. By taking time to thank our vietnam vets and honor their service, our nation makes another great attempt to bind up the unhealed wounds left behind. In north dakota there have already been a number of veterans events related to the 50th anniversary of vietnam. Im sure such events are happening in many other states. In fact, theres a web site. If you want to check it out, theres a web site where you can look at whats happening in every state across the union honoring Vietnam Veterans in ceremonies that are being prepared mainly driven bivens groups, but driven by veterans groups but hopefully and one of the reasons for coming here is to urge my colleagues to participate in those events, to participate as they do every day in saying thank you to our iraqi war vets and Afghanistan War vets, participate in any event that you can to say thank you to our Vietnam Veterans and for the families of those people in your state who lost their lives in service to their country. For myself, i plan to hold an event to honor all Vietnam Veterans throughout north dakota next year. Through this effort, i hope to help make our nation remember and never forget the needs of our Vietnam Veterans. The Congress Needs to make policy decisions so that the v. A. Can meet the needs of the next generation of veterans. But we cant forget the unique needs of our vietnamera veterans. I will tell you, mr. President , i have spent hours talking to Vietnam Veterans who will tell me repeatedly when i got out of the service, the last thing i wanted to do was go to the v. A. And theres a lot of reasons for that. In the 1970s the v. A. Wasnt the place where people thought you could go for Quality Health care, where they thought you could go for help. They wanted to forget that part of their service, so a lot of those unseen wounds of service in vietnam went unhealed and it manifested itself in a high rate of homelessness, a high rate of poverty, a high rate of Substance Abuse and a high rate of despair. And we are seeing now our Vietnam Veterans both those who have lived incredibly fruitful lives, are who are now aging into the system, coming back to our v. A. s across the country, coming back to our communitybased outreach clinics, coming back to our v. A. Hospitals. And for the first time asking for access to service. And they are finding that maybe they dont always see the level of service that theyre entitled to. I recently worked to restore and provide the appropriate paperwork so that a vietnam veteran who had earned, clearly earned a purple heart actually received the benefits of a recipient of the purple heart in the v. A. All of these issues will now begin to work their way through the v. A. They will continue to work their way through our Veterans Service organizations, and its time, i think, to take the pause. As the president did in his proclamation and to understand the basis of this, it was required by a bill similar to the one that were debating today, ndaa. It was required by ndaa to begin this proclamation. It was a mandate from this congress not this particular congress but from the United States congress to begin to have this ceremony. And so i was struck, i think, by the fact that when our veterans have lost their lives in iraq and afghanistan, most of us have pictures in our office. We have a poster or some kind of commemoration in our office of that sacrifice. But yet, weve never seen that kind of commemoration or that kind of depiction in for our Vietnam Veterans. So a loaning with the amvets so along with the amvets in the great city of dis mark who have done tons of research in collecting pictures and images of the 198 veterans, 198 servicemen from north dakota who lost their life in vietnam, i thought it an appropriate commemoration for my office and for us, is to have something that we walk by every day and tell the families of all these young men who are on this poster that every day we honor your sacrifice. We honor your loss. We honor the fact that we will never know what this, these 198 young men could have been had they survived this war. We dont know if they could have been standing here giving a speech instead of me. We dont know if they would have been mayors of our small town. We dont know if they would have been the industrial leaders who invented a product as lucrative and as innovative as the bobcat, which was originated in north dakota. It was invented in north dakota, and its manufactured in north dakota. We will never know. But one thing we do know one thing we do know about all of these men is they lost their life and sacrificed to the greatest extent that you can sacrifice in honor and service of this country. And they deserve to have this period of remembrance. They deserve to have a recognition. And their family deserves to have the United States of america pause, pause for a period of time and say thank you. Thank you from a grateful nation. So posters like this will be in every one of my offices across north dakota and certainly here in the nations capital. I know for states like the presiding officers state, when you look at the numbers, its probably not possible to have a photographic image of every vietnam veteran or every person who served in vietnam who unfortunately lost their life, from massachusetts. But it is possible to have their name. It is possible to have a place where they can be honored during this time period, mandated by this body, approved and proclaimed by the president of the United States, a place of honor and remembrance. And so i intend over the next year to come and talk a little bit about the lives of each one of these young men, to talk about the challenges of Vietnam Veterans, to talk about what it is that we need to do today to make up for past sins of this country in not recognizing this service. And i challenge the other members of this body to do the same thing during this period of remembrance and recognition and honor, and to think about not just the past, but to think about the future. Think about the amazing sacrifice of 198 north dakotaans who gave their life in service to our state and in service to our country and for the betterment of all human kind. And so with that, mr. Chairman, the challenge is issued, and i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call s quorum call a senator mr. President . The