A resolution honoring Lula Davis.

Madam President, before I make a statement on another issue, I join the majority leader in his comments about the retirement of Lula Johnson Davis from the Senate.

Before I came to the Senate, I was a Member of the House of Representatives for 14 years, and I greatly enjoyed that experience. It was certainly an amazing change to come from the House to the Senate, to move from one congressional district to representing the entire State, to move from a 2-year term to a 6-year term, to move from 434 colleagues to 99 fellow colleagues. All of these things took some getting used to, plus the fact that, in the House, you were constricted on the use of time for speeches on the floor, and in the Senate, there is almost no limit. If you want to speak forever, I think the Senate rules will accommodate you.

Those changes all pale in comparison to the single biggest change I ran into here, and that was facing the secretary to the majority, Lula Johnson Davis. I knew that people throughout Capitol Hill on both the House and Senate sides at the staff level were extremely courteous, kind, and helpful. I found that throughout my career in the House, and I certainly found it in the Senate. But the good thing about Lula Davis was that she was respectful of Senators, but not deferential. She would be happy to tell you when she thought you had stepped out of line in what you were wearing, and what you were chewing, and what you might be using your microphone for, your conversations on the floor, and on and on. She did this in a way that first startled me, because I wasn't used to it in the House. There was nobody like Lula in the House of Representatives to keep you in line. She did it, and I came to not only like it but respect it so much, because I knew she was doing it not in any personal way but because of her love for the Senate.

They do a Roll Call survey about the most powerful staffers on Capitol Hill, and they rate them in four ways: know-how, muscle, spin control, and access. Lula always received the highest check marks in every category but one--spin control. That is about right. Lula Davis was never one to mince words in her role as secretary to the majority of the Senate. Tough, fair, insisting on the strict observance of Senate rules and protocols, she reflected love for this institution in all that she did for us.

The National Journal described her as ``an internally legendary staffer.'' That is true. In the 221-year history of the Senate, Lula Davis is only the second woman--and the first African American--ever to hold the position of secretary to the majority.

Her loyalty and devotion to this Senate are unmatched. She was the first one here in the morning and the last one to leave at night.

I know I speak for all Senators from the Democratic side and the Republican side, as well, in saying she is going to be missed. Unlike many, Lula Davis did not move to Washington to get involved in politics. She started her career as a high school teacher and guidance counselor. A friend told Lula about an opening in the office of her home State Senator, Russell Long, of Louisiana. She started her Hill career at the bottom, as a legislative correspondent, answering mail.

When Senator Long retired in 1989, Lula moved to the Democratic floor staff and worked her way up from the lowliest assistant position to become secretary to the majority.

As many hours as Lula devoted to the Senate, it is hard to believe that she had time for anything else. But she founded an organization called LeadershipCares, which tries to guide young people into successful lives by helping others who are less fortunate. Almost every class of pages on the Democratic side would tell a story about Lula, because she became not only their boss but their friend. She taught them a lot about life in their life experience here in the Senate.

I join my colleagues in wishing Lula the very best of luck as she begins the next chapter in life.

Madam President, every working body needs a strong heart to function. This legislative body, the Senate, is no different. For many years--as long as I have been in the Senate, and that is a while--Lula Davis has been the heart of the Senate.

In 1997, when we elected her as assistant Democratic secretary, she was the first woman to hold that position. Before the 111th Congress, we elected her to be the secretary of the majority--the first African American in that role. Over the last 2 years, she has expertly tackled one of the toughest jobs anywhere in politics.

More importantly, the last 2 years have also seen the debate and passage of some of the most historic legislation in the entire history of the country--laws to protect Americans from health insurance companies, from Wall Street banks, from credit card companies, from tobacco companies, from mortgage fraudsters, from unsafe food, from discrimination, from inequality, and so, so much more.

Any one of these bills by itself would define a session of Congress. We did all of them in just the last 2 years, and we could not have done any of it without Lula Davis's leadership.

Lula has come a long way since her days as a teacher and guidance counselor, and even further from her time in rural Louisiana. She started her Senate career as a legislative aide to her home State Senator, the legendary Russell Long, and went on to serve in almost every position on the floor staff: office assistant, floor assistant, chief floor assistant, assistant secretary, and secretary.

Anyone who has watched the Senate knows it is not always an easy place to understand, and I am an expert on how hard it is to understand it. Anyone who has studied this institution, its idiosyncrasies and intricacies knows it can be extremely baffling. But Lula knows this place inside and out like no one else. She is fluent in the rhythms of the Senate. She knows and respects its complex rules, both formal and informal. Her counsel, as a result, has always been thoughtful and reliable to every one of us.

She is loyal to the Senate and to its Senators, and she respects the traditions that make this body great--which is why, in return, this body has great respect for her and her hard work.

Lula has spent her Senate career behind the scenes not just helping Senators do our jobs but also quietly helping young people, the hungry, and those in need. As tough and hard as Lula must be here on the Senate floor, she has a heart of gold.

She founded and runs a nonprofit called Leadership Cares, which each year helps children in our community provide quality meals to more than 650 families. She has encouraged many of her fellow Senate staffers to join her family and friends and volunteer to help. She has never asked for any recognition for this work or any of her work because that is the kind of person she is. But Lula deserves our praise and thanks for so much more.

Senator Landrieu of Louisiana likes to tell a story about how much a part of the Senate Lula really is, how great an institution our outgoing secretary of the majority is. Senator Landrieu once asked a group of Senate pages if they had had a chance to meet the Senate leaders. They said: Yes. They had met Lula.

Lula Davis has been the heart of the Senate, and our appreciation for her is heartfelt. I speak for each Senator, Democrats and Republicans.

For me, personally, Lula has been strong, resolute, and very wise. Words cannot describe how I will miss Lula Davis. She has been indispensable and she is irreplaceable.

On behalf of every Senator, I thank Lula for her years of service to our caucus and for her more than 25 years of service to the Senate and the United States of America.

Madam President, although I don't have anything written, I was listening to the leader speak and the whip talk about Lula Davis and all she has done here in the Senate. I, too, wish to pay my respects and give my thanks and my best wishes to Lula Davis as she leaves the Senate.

For 30 years, she has been a loyal, hard-working, passionate advocate for the people of this country in an unelected role--a role that required her to make sure the business of the Senate was conducted. I know of no one who knows the rules and how things work and how things should go better than Lula Davis. At times, she knew everything, it seemed to me. Many times, we would go to her because we would have a bill on the floor and we would have something that would get tied up. I would be managing a bill, and things would get into a big ball of wax sometimes or seem like a big ball of string and you had to figure out how to unwind it. I would always go to Lula Davis and say: OK, how do we get out of this mess? We have an amendment on an amendment and a motion to recommit and all these things piled up. And she always knew how to do it. She always knew how to make sure the place would run.

If you ever needed advice on how to do something or accomplish something, you could go to her. Of course, sometimes she would give you advice you didn't want to hear. Sometimes you wanted to do something, and she had to be the person to say: Well, the rules just won't allow you to do that. So there were times I would get frustrated, and I would say: But I want to do this; this is for the good of the country. And Lula Davis would say: Well, Senator, you are just going to have to find some other way to do it.

So that is just my way to pay respect to a person who devoted so much of her life to this Senate. A lot of times, we find ourselves here late at night, and once in a while, I would think I was the last person to leave, but Lula was always the last person to leave and always the person--if you came in early in the day, she was the first person here. So she has really been such an integral part of the Senate, the Senate floor is going to have a vacancy without her in the future.

So to Lula Davis, I say: Thank you for so many years of friendship and

loyalty and hard work in helping to make the Senate a more efficient, compatible working environment.

I thank Lula Davis, and I wish her the best in her retirement. I hope she doesn't get too far away from the Senate and that she comes back to see us once in a while to help us untangle that ball of string, as I am sure it is bound to become tangled again sometime.

Madam President, I rise this evening to acknowledge the retirement of Lula Davis, in appreciation of her dedication to the Senate and her many years of service to this institution. Lula has been a force in every legislative effort we have engaged in since my tenure as Republican leader began, and long before that. I have come to respect her deep knowledge of the Senate rules and the important role she has played in advising Democratic Senators over the past 2 years. She is a constant presence on the floor and an important part of Senate life. We congratulate her on her professional success, from her days as a school teacher to her work on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and we wish her every happiness in the years ahead.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 707, submitted earlier today.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.