The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS” mentioning Bernard Sanders was published in the Senate section on pages S1023-S1024 on March 3.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
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VERMONT STATE OF THE UNION ESSAY CONTEST FINALISTS
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I ask to have printed in the Record some of the finalists' essays written by Vermont High School students as part of the 11th annual ``State of the Union'' essay contest conducted by my office.
The material follows:
Finalists
Emily Borrazzo, South Burlington High School, Sophomore
Supporting Our Veterans
Every day, men and women in the military risk their lives for the protection of their fellow citizens. The ideology of our nation depends on their service. Yet every day, veterans across the country face issues regarding claim approvals, mental health, and post-service employment.
The lengthy claim approval process and 36% claim granting rate is something that many veterans encounter. The issue is not the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' generous budget, but how the money is spent, and the efficiency/availability of the benefits being offered. The VA should hire more people to process claims in order to shorten the processing time, which is currently four months or longer on average. Hiring veterans in these positions would also address unemployment issues. Additionally, more guidance should be given on how to file a claim. This includes identifying the quickest claim type and specifying what medical information should be given. Lastly, the VA only approves claims for illnesses and injuries which they deem to be a direct cause of service. Extending this to all serious illnesses and injuries throughout life, or at least partial financial and medical support, would be extremely beneficial to veterans and could even improve their mental health.
Studies have shown that veterans have a higher risk for alcohol/drug abuse, and suicide. One in five veterans suffer from mental health problems like PTSD, depression, and severe anxiety. Veterans account for 13.8% of the suicides in America, and for over a decade 17-18 veterans have died daily from suicide. We cannot take away their experiences, but offering more support in their recovery is the least we can do. Many veterans with mental health problems are not aware of their condition, or are too embarrassed to ask for help. Educating veterans (especially while serving) about signs and effects of mental health problems, and the care and treatment available to them, could save lives. Additionally, implementing a mental health scan for veterans every few years could be very effective in identifying these issues early on, and opening thousands of veterans' eyes to the care available to them. Enforcing quality-of-care standards for treatment in all mental health care facilities would also benefit the nation.
American veterans receive very effective military training and preparation, but are rarely prepared for post-service employment. Studies suggest the unemployment rate for veterans is considerably higher than their civilian counterparts. This can be attributed to the rarity of higher education and the numerous mental health issues among veterans. Increasing accessibility and lowering costs for college education would broaden the post-service career opportunities for countless veterans. Lower tuition rates for veterans could be paid for by the VA, with the extra money resulting from having to offer less veterans unemployment benefits.
Our nation cannot forget the selfless sacrifices our soldiers and military families make. Brave women and men have been taking care of this nation for almost 250 years. It's time we start taking care of them.
LING BUSHEY, BELLOWS FREE ACADEMY, FAIRFAX, SENIOR
The sexual health education and curriculum in America is not adequate to our current society, and should be focused on immensely to ensure better health in our youth population. Kids are not educated on the topics revolving around sexual health, and this leads to struggling mental health effects and potentially life changing decisions that teens should be informed on.
Ignorance on sexual orientation, contraceptives, and diseases leads to a dangerous society, where teens are unaware of consequences and ignorant to possible solutions of preventions. According to the USC Department of Nursing, nearly 750,000 teenagers in the United States will become pregnant this year; and half of the 20 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases will be diagnosed in young people ages 15 to 24. Being informed about the physical, mental, and emotional changes in a teenagers' life and environment will benefit not only the person learning, but relationships surrounding them for years to come. By starting to educate kids in middle school will normalize these discussions to be had later on, and create a more open and unjudged environment. According to the United Nations, understanding one's own body is a human right, and the US needs to address a human's right to learn about their body and have legislature and youth service providers fund and educate a coherent and inclusive sexual education across the nation.
A guaranteed cohesive program or set curriculum addressing sexual health, will also allow for schools to help inform kids in the LGBTQ community, what the subject is and how to respect and support members that are a part. The importance of educating a positive outlook sexual orientation, and safe hetero and homosexual activities is crucial. Only 24 states mandate sex education, which is unacceptable. America needs to educate teens on the opposite sex's changes during puberty, and normalize these changes as they are inevitable. Mandating sexual education in schools will give students a coherent safe space to learn about these topics, which might not be offered and found from other inaccurate sources which leads to false information and mis-interpretations.
While this might be a tedious and drawn out process, our legislature should mandate sexual education across the nation by making a federal law. This law would teach an all inclusive comprehensive curriculum across all states. Overall this would positively affect teens all across America and would take a step towards a brighter and better future. Along with this federal mandate we need to make teens and young adults have access to a planned parenthood or a trusted medically accurate source to trust and rely on for information. Especially during these strenuous times during this pandemic, the availability of these sources are more crucial than ever.
FATIMA KHAN, ESSEX HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR
July 17, 2014: ``I Can't Breathe.'' These were the last words of Eric Garner. A 43-year-old father of six children. A man who was known as the ``neighborhood peacemaker.'' Eric Garner was an unarmed black man, who was choked to death by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City police officer, as he repeatedly pleaded for him to stop.
May 25, 2020: ``I Can't Breathe.'' These were the last words of George Floyd. A 46-year-old father of one daughter. A man who wanted to ``touch the world.'' George Floyd was an unarmed black man, who died when Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into his neck, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, as he repeatedly pleaded for him to stop.
The murder of Eric Garner, in 2014, ignited fierce emotions and propelled people into action, all over the country. A developing project which began as a response to the murder of Trayvon Martin, was beginning to receive national attention. It was known as Black Lives Matter. Today, BLM is one of the most influential social movements today, and among many human rights issues, it has awakened the eyes of the nation to the issue of police brutality.
Although we have come a long way in our work against police brutality since 2014, there is still plenty of work to do. Black Americans are disproportionately affected by police violence across the US. According to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police. In order to truly combat this issue, there needs to be a reformation of our police departments.
To do so, the responsibilities of police officers relating to mental health, homelessness, and drug abuse, needs to be pared back. According to the US Department of Justice, there are over 10 million arrests, annually. Only a small fraction of those are violent crimes. This makes the US the world's largest jailer, housing about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Police departments are overworked and our jails are overcrowded. Overcriminalization has led to mass incarceration in our criminal justice system. To address overcriminalization, policymakers should consider what offenses result in conviction and prison time, and reduce arrestable offenses. More resources should be put into education and training for officers, not arrests. Additionally, more mental health professionals should be deployed as first responders.
We also have to hold every police officer accountable to the law. Too many times, police officers who have broken the law, haven't faced adequate consequences for their actions, because of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity has protected police officers in cases where they have disgustingly abused their power. Victims whose constitutional rights have been violated have been denied justice. By altering this doctrine, we can ensure that nobody is above the law. Increasing the consequences of misconduct, will weed out the bad apples in our police departments.
By critically reforming our police departments, we can ensure a more equitable future for all Americans.
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