S4456 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE June 22, 2016 The Fry Scholarship provides GI bill CONGRATULATING THE CLEVE- then. That is how long ago this was. It benefits to surviving spouses and chil- LAND CAVALIERS FOR WINNING was called the NFL championship. Lit- dren of servicemembers who have died THE 2016 NATIONAL BASKETBALL tle did any of us know that we wouldn’t in the line of duty since 9/11. However, ASSOCIATION FINALS see another trophy for another half when Congress extended the benefit to Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I know I century. spouses in the Veterans Access, Choice, will be joined in a few moments by my I was 12 years old at the time. The Cleveland Cavaliers did not and Accountability Act of 2014, a 15- colleague from Ohio, Senator PORTMAN. exist. The NBA was much smaller. year limitation was put on these bene- I rise to make some remarks on a resolution Senator PORTMAN has sub- Three years earlier, the Indians had fits. Captain Twine passed away in traded the beloved outfielder, the hero 2002, meaning that now, as his wife mitted with me. Mr. President, journalists and sports of all young fans. Rocco Colavito was tries to go back to school to pursue her fans like to describe victories as ‘‘his- traded away to Detroit. The Indians master’s degree, she and so many other toric,’’ and often that is a bit of hyper- were in the midst of losing season after surviving spouses don’t have the time bole. But in the case of the Cleveland losing season. Within a year or 2, they to use this benefit. This bill will fix Cavaliers’ NBA championship win on put together a top-line four-person that and give veterans’ families the op- Sunday, the word ‘‘historic’’ is war- starting pitching staff—Sonny Siebert, portunity to further their education. ranted. Luis Tiant, Sam McDowell, Steve Hargan—but still the Cleveland Indians In addition to expanding the Fry Today, several hundred thousand didn’t win. Scholarship, the bill will expand the people gathered in downtown Cleve- land. Senator PORTMAN and I talked As a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, and a VA’s Yellow Ribbon Program to help about how we would have liked to have 15-year-old, my dad would take us up students with out-of-pocket tuition joined in. But we have these day jobs, old U.S. 42, often to see a double-head- and fees and to include all spouses and and we just figured we couldn’t really er, back when they played those kinds children of servicemembers who gave go back. Today, literally hundreds of of double-headers on Sunday. their lives fighting for our country. thousands of people are in downtown My dad would never take us to see The bill also incorporates legislation I Cleveland. Some estimates were as the New York Yankees, a team he de- helped to introduce to restore GI bene- high as almost all the adult population spised, because he knew that 15 or 20 fits of veterans who lost credit or of Cuyahoga County. The numbers are cents of our ticket price would go to training time because their school per- pretty spectacular. The word ‘‘his- Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris and manently closed. We have heard too toric’’ is warranted in this Cavaliers Yogi Berra and other Yankees. many stories of shady, for-profit col- victory on Sunday night. Every year I was naive to think the leges that close abruptly, leaving stu- No other team in NBA history has Indians would win the pennant. Never in those years would they even get dents and many veterans in limbo. This come from a 3-to-1 series deficit in the close. By July, or certainly by August, ensures the veterans don’t lose their GI finals, until now. No other major American city has gone so long as it was clear even to this 12-year-old benefits. Cleveland has without winning a major boy that the Indians were not going to We know that, shamefully, too many league sports championship. win the pennant. veterans don’t have a roof over their It is fitting for my city—my wife and For the next 52 years after the 1964 heads or a place to call home. The leg- I call Cleveland home—that this cham- Browns championship, we were chal- islation incorporates elements of the pionship came down to game 7. The se- lenged in the city of Cleveland. The Veteran Housing Stability Act, which ries played out like a metaphor for manufacturing economy that sustained would increase veterans’ access to per- what this means in Cleveland—ever the Northeast Ohio eroded with decades of manent housing options. underdog, down 3 games to 1. policy choices that closed factories and To understand what this victory shipped jobs overseas. Too often there This is an issue that we have been means for our Midwestern city on the was bad trade policy and bad tax pol- working on for years. Last year, I vis- lake, think about the last time we won icy. The population of the city shrank ited organizations around Ohio that a championship in a major sport. None to almost half its population from my are doing terrific work to give veterans of the pages sitting here were born. In boyhood, from my early years. the support they need to get back on fact, some of their parents might not Beginning in 1995, Ohio had 14 years their feet and find permanent homes. have yet been born. It was 1964. of consecutive foreclosure increases, With this bill we will give veterans the Lyndon Johnson was President. Mar- each year more than the year before. support they need. Even one veteran on tin Luther King, Jr., was in the middle But today, downtown Cleveland is the streets means Congress isn’t doing of a very successful civil rights cam- coming back, not just because hun- dreds of thousands of people are in nearly enough to tackle this problem. paign. Robert Kennedy, who sat at this desk on the Senate floor, was still downtown Cleveland celebrating this The legislation also helps ensure alive, campaigning for civil rights and first NBA championship, but it is com- whistleblowers at the VA can disclose economic justice. America was begin- ing back. My wife and I moved into the concerns relating to veterans care ning to hear more and more about city 3 years ago. We wanted to be a without fearing retaliation. Vietnam on the evening news. We had part of this renaissance, and we have It expands a critical program to sup- no idea of the nightmare that it would seen the city beginning to return to its port veteran caregivers. become. glory. The Beatles had just come to Amer- Nothing has embodied the hope and As a country, we made a promise to ica. We had three TV channels in the determination and the grit of our care for veterans in return for their Cleveland—channels 3, 5, and 8. The city like this team. We know that service to this country. Far too often most popular shows were ‘‘Bonanza’’ sports teams are far more than the sum people in this body are willing to vote and ‘‘Bewitched.’’ of their parts. They are a point of con- billions of dollars for defense but then As a boy growing up in Mansfield— nection for people in every walk of life not do what we should with veterans. not far from Cleveland, about 70 in the city. There is a reason we have This bill helps to change that. Right miles—I watched with pride a little begun to call it Believeland. now, 9/11 veterans and their families al- more than 2 years before that when On Monday, a native Clevelander who ready take advantage of this critical Ohio’s John Glenn orbited the Earth in had to move away from his hometown support. This bill will make the same Friendship 7. The moon was still a dis- posted this on Facebook: support available to families and vet- tant dream, and none of us had heard of We draw so much from our teams. It’s astronaut Neil Armstrong. wound up in our identity—a token of the erans of all generations. The Cleveland Browns with Jim pride we have for the local tribe from which I urge my colleagues to move quickly Brown brought home the NFL cham- we came. in this important legislation to protect pionship for us that December. It My wife Connie reposted the man’s and honor our Nation’s heroes. wasn’t even called the Super Bowl back words that night, and hundreds chimed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 Jun 23, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G22JN6.039 S22JNPT1 rfrederick on DSK6VPTVN1PROD with SENATE June 22, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S4457 in to explain the connection they felt the games and is as excited as I am region. Cleveland is a comeback city, to the Cavaliers and their fellow Cleve- about this, congratulations to the and that is exactly what happened. landers. One woman said Cleveland Cavaliers, congratulations to the city In many respects, the way we won sports were her connection to her fam- of Cleveland, and congratulations to the finals is the way we worked ily—her grandfather, her parents, the fans scattered far and wide across through the season with some of the aunts and uncles, cousins, some of this country who never gave up, and challenges we had.