So because of my experience with these patients, ive been working for years to actually help raise money for awareness for muscle disease, treatment for the disease. I served as a local host in wyoming for the multiple sclerosis Associations Annual labor day telethon. Every year i was amazed at the dedication and the generosity of people around the country who were calling in pledges at the pledge center at the love centers in caspar, wyoming. People would call in, wed always raise over 100,000. People were very committed to finding a cure for the muscle disease, to send young people with the disease to summer camp where they found a level of freedom and friendship that they didnt often find throughout the rest of the year. It was a great time for the young people with the disease and it gave their parents a rest as well. I think many of us in this body remember jerry lewis hosting this jerry lewis labor day telethon as it was called for more than 40 years. He would always end the telethon by singing the song and the song was youll never walk alone. So i come to the floor today to make sure that these patients, these families know that today theyre not alone. Congress is listening. You heard from senator rubio earlier today. You heard from senator wicker. And those families and those patients know how critically important it is and we know how critically important it is that we find a cure for this rare disease known as duchennes multiple sclerosis. In 2012, Congress Passed a food and Drug Administration safety innovation act and one of the key parts of this law gives the f. D. A. More flexibility to prove treatments that have the potential to help people with rare diseases. It also allows the f. D. A. To do followup studies to confirm the clinical benefits of the treatment. Well, we want to give people real hope. Its not good to give people false hope. Were interested in giving patients and give families a fighting chance. And i believe that the f. D. A. Needs to use the tools that congress has given it so patients can come across and get access to potentially lifesaving drugs. So a couple of weeks ago i signed a letter that was written by senators wicker and senator klobuchar, a bipartisan letter. It called on the f. D. A. To take full advantage of this accelerated approval authority. So we also asked the f. D. A. To ensure that the perspective of patients is fully considered in this review process when it comes down to the regulations. More than 20 u. S. Senators signed this letter because we know how important this issue is to patients as well as to their families. Last friday the wall street journal ran an he had toerld called the ran an editorial called the f. D. A. Versus austin leclaire. He is 17, has due multiple sclerosis. So does his younger brother max. This runs in family and sometimes when the diagnosis of a son in the family that there is a younger son who has not yet been diagnosed but likely will have the disease, well, back in 2011 max was able to get an experimental drug to treat his disease. Austin was not eligible to get the same drug. Austin is the older brother. So today max is 14 and hes still able to walk. He can still play sports, still dress himself. For most of us who have healthy children these are the things people take for granted. For a family where one of their sons has duchennes this kind of small victory can seem like a miracle. Cant even imagine how hard it must be when a mother has two or three children two or three sons with this disease. And especially when one of her children had access to an experimental drug and the other cannot. The family looks at it. One son is being helped and the other isnt being helped because they can see the difference in their sons. So how would any of us here in the senate react if we were in that same situation . How much heartbreak should one family have to bear . Those are the challenges for families who live with muscle disease every day. Well, the f. D. A. , i believe, needs to work with patients like austin and max. We all know that this agency needs to make sure that treatments are safe and effective. Thats not a question. We also know that people at the f. D. A. Are caring and careful professionals. The practice of medicine relies on hard science and on following data to understand and to treat illnesses. As a doctor, i know the practice of medicine requires an equal measure of compassion. I think that the f. D. A. Needs to take into account the unique needs of this patient population. We talk about double blind studies where you give one patient a real treatment and one patient Something Else, a sugar pill, Something Else thats not really the real treatment, the real medication. To really evaluate the impact of these medications sometimes, it involves doing muscle biopsies, putting people through painful tests. I think its hard for a Family Living with a child with muscle disease to say, well, were going to participate in the experiment. We dont know, its a 5050 chance if our child is even going to get the real thing, but were going to still put them through all of these tests, it can be painful as they take muscle biopsies. I think its unrealistic to ask a family to make that decision. I think we need to make sure that the f. D. A. And the f. D. A. Needs to make sure in their compassion that they dont lose sight of these kids. These young people really dont have a moment to lose in terms of potential treatments. I think the f. D. A. Needs to hear the cause of patients and to give these young People Living with a devastating disease a chance to beat duchennes multiple sclerosis. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Wyden mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oregon. Mr. Wyden mr. President , i rise today to warn of a gathering threat to americans most fundamental constitutional right, and that is the right to vote. 51 years ago president johnson urged the congress to pass the Voting Rights act, and in the face of implacable opposition from southern states, president johnson laid out to states, he said and i quote every american must have an equal right to vote. There is no excuse which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right. Sadly half a century after that law began to remove the most offensive obstacles to voting, americans now face new barriers to exercising their fundamental right to vote. Across our land there are stories of long lines, inexplicable purges of voter rolls and new requirements that make it still harder for our people to vote. There is absolutely no excuse for accepting this sorry state of affairs. There is no excuse for citizens in arizona to wait five hours to cast their ballot. There is no excuse for citizens in rhode island to find two out of every three polling places have closed. There is no excuse whatsoever for poor communities and minority communities across america to see their polling places shuttered. Seniors and disabled americans should not have to wait in long lines or struggle to reach polling places in america. Working parents shouldnt have to choose between going to work or going to vote. Voting should not be a test of endurance. It should not be a kafkesque experience in going through red tape. In too many experiences citizens show up at the polls on voting day only to find their name somehow magically has gone missing from the voter rolls or the i. D. Doesnt meet some new, even more burdensome, even more restrictive requirements. There is no excuse for our government to turn away citizens to say their vote just doesnt count because of a clerical error or an unjust technicality. These grossly unfair obstacles have sprouted like weeds across our country ever since the Supreme Court overturned large portions of the Voting Rights act in 2013. According to the Brennan Center for justice, just this year 17 states have passed new laws or rules to make it harder for their citizens to vote. Let me repeat that. 17 states in america just this year new laws, new rules, new hurdles for our people who want to vote. And thankfully there is a solution. My home state of oregon has led the country in making voting more accessible. In oregon, every voter receives a ballot two or three weeks before election day. Ballots should be arriving in mailboxes across the state over the next few days. Every other oregonian has ample time to research issues. Rather than waiting in long lines, oregonians can mail their ballot back or drop it off at collection sites, many of which are open 24 7. Nobody has got to take time off work just to exercise his or her constitutional right. So let me repeat, in our state weve made this work. Every voter gets a ballot two or three weeks before an election day. Now vote by mail is not going to stop every state legislature in america from devising new ways to suppress voter turnout. Certainly some state officials in our country have worked very hard to dream up new ways to limit the franchise. But heres why the oregon antidote is so important. If theres a problem, our state gives voters more time to fight back. When americans have two or three weeks to vote, theyll have more time to challenge registration problems. Theres more time for citizens to defend their rights. Oregon has been voting by mail since i was first elected to the United States senate in 1996, and we went to all vote by mail in 2000. Since then we have had consistently higher voting turnout rates than other parts of the country. Weve consistently had voter turnout rates that are among the highest in the nation. Oregon voting rates are especially high among young people and in midterm elections. And as an added benefit, this should appeal to all senators, studies have shown that it saves money to boot. So you have a system that voters like, gives them more time to reflect, is more efficient, and it saves money, to boot. That is a pretty appealing trifecta, it seems to me, for democracy. So my proposition today is the rest of the country ought to follow oregons lead, and all americans from one end of the country to another ought to have the chance to vote by mail. To me, this just is common sense. In fact, over the years there were questions about who benefited from vote by mail. And in fact oregonians put it on the ballot because they said everybody benefited from it and there was support all across the political spectrum. So today i rolled out a new proposal for National Vote by mail. And it builds on the oregon system. The plan is simple. Every voter in a federal election will receive a ballot in the mail. The federal government, through the Postal Service were to assist states with the cost of mailing ballots to registered voters. States can keep their current polling practices if they wish, but those states that choose a full vote by mail system are going to see their election costs drop and drop significantly. My hope is that this proposal ignites a new Campaign Across the country to make it easier, not harder, for americans to vote. V vote by mail is a first step in fighting back against those who have disenfranchised their fellow citizens to gain a political edge. For instance, in my view, it also ought to be easier for americans to register to vote. Again, my home state leads the way. Since january, every eligible voter is automatically registered to vote, eliminating extra trips to the Motor Vehicles department or the county clerks office. Our governor, governor kate brown, deserves, in my view, enormous credit for leading the effort to turn this particular idea, this particular reform into law. Now, i know many of my colleagues and many voters are cynical about the chances of passing real reforms in this partisan day and age. My view is that Voting Rights are too important to abandon the field to special interests who would manipulate our government, and thats why i mention, mr. President , in oregon, there was some initial debate with respect to who might benefit, who might get a little bit of a partisan edge on the other side, and oregon voters said nothing doing. We all think this is in our interests, making it easier to vote, making it easier to correct an error, cheaper than the alternatives. So i urge my colleagues and voters this afternoon to take advantage of this opportunity to promote real reform, reform that we have hard evidence shows actually works to make sure that every citizen in america who wants to vote has that opportunity, and oregon once again paves the way to making sure that there are Real Solutions to an enormous challenge. Mr. President , with that, i yield the floor. Mr. Cornyn mr. President . The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , after many months of discussion and debate, today we announced a Bipartisan Legislation to reform our criminal Justice System. I have been in the senate long enough to realize that even the best ideas that dont have bipartisan support go nowhere, nowhere. The good news is this is an issue that enjoys broad bipartisan support and actually represents the marriage of two distinct parts, but the more i think about it, the more it represents a continuum in terms of the way we punish people who violate our criminal laws and how we treat them when theyre in prison and how we prepare them or not for a life of reentry into civil society. But it is an example even in the polarized political environment that our country represents today an opportunity to demonstrate that when enough people identify a problem and work together, we can actually come up with viable solutions. In a previous life, i served 13 years as a state District Court judge and then as attorney general, and i have had an opportunity to witness some of the strengths and the weaknesses of our Justice System firsthand. And although we made some significant progress in reducing crime across the country and by the way, mr. President , that ought to be the litmus test, the crime rate. If the crime rates going down, to me it indicates were doing something right. If the crime rate goes up, thats pretty much a litmus test that were doing something wrong. But the truth is our criminal Justice System has been plagued with inefficiencies and overcrowding and failures that are ultimately detrimental to public safety. We spend too much of our criminal justice resources locking up lowlevel nonviolent offenders and not enough targeting the most dangerous and violent criminals. The good news is a number of states including texas have seen the need and have implemented statewide criminal Justice Reforms with positive results. And you know the longer i guess i as i said earlier, the longer im here, sort of the more things occur to me about how we do business here, but the idea that we can somehow initiative reforms at the National Level for 320 Million People and then cram them down on a big and diverse country like the United States is reall. Actually the federal government is rarely competent to do that sort of thing, and we saw this with the Health Care Reforms which have resulted in prices actually going up and most people dissatisfied with the Health Care Reforms. If we just tried things out at the local level that were successful and then scaled them up, i think we would have a much better chance for success, and thats exactly whats happened in the criminal justice area. I know most people think about texas as a state thats tough on crime, and thats true. But back in the mid middle of the first decade of this millennium, we saw the need to deal with overcrowding, we saw high recidivism or repeat offenders, and we were facing a major budget shortfall. In other words, we tried to keep building prisons to build our way out of the problem. But instead of just spending more money to build more prisons and hoping the problems would go away and the major problem is that we overlooked before which we finally realized is that people in prison will mostly get out of prison at some point. And the question is do they go back into prison after committing other crimes or can we help those who are willing to accept the help, turn their lives around and become productive members of society . So we opted for a different approach. We traded in our construction plans or our plans to help lower risk offenders turn their lives around and become productive members of society. Thats because, as i said, most offenders will one day get out of prison. Today texas has improved and increased programs designed to help men and women behind bars to take responsibility for their crimes and then to prepare to reenter societys productive, lawabiding members of the community. Im not naive enough to say this is something were going to be able to do for 100 of the people behind bars. Thats just not true. I wish the world was the kind of place where people, once they made mistakes and ended up behind bars, could transform their lives universally and then enter productive society. Its not true. But there are many who want to and who need our help and can benefit from some of these programs. This includes training that can really impact a prisoners life. Somebody with a drug problem. Somebody with a mental illness. Somebody who has been drinking, exacerbating their problems. Those sort of things can benefit from treatment and from rehabilitation. Those who are inadequately prepared educationally to enter the work force, we can help them through Work Programs and job training many of these programs have allowed local communities to get involved as well by encouraging partnerships in texas between prisons and faithbased organizations, people who believe in radical transformation of peoples lives through their faith. They can focus on helping those prisoners who are willing and wanting to turn their lives around get the training and life skills they need in order to succeed. Ill never forget my visit just a few months back to the maximum security prison in east texas, the h. H. Caufield unit where i saw firsthand how important some of these types of programs are. I went to one section of the prison and was introduced to the shop instructor, and he