A resolution relative to the death of the Honorable Mark O. Hatfield, former United States Senator for the State of Oregon.

Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate a statesman and a mentor, Senator Mark O. Hatfield. He took many roles: dedicated public servant, conscientious man of faith, and pioneer for new development in the West. He was born in 1922 in Dallas, OR, a small town not far from our capital, Salem, to a family of modest means. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was a schoolteacher. When he was young, his family then actually moved to the State capital, which gave him a chance, as a teenager, to work as a guide in the State capitol building and to imagine returning one day as a public leader.

He proceeded to study at Willamette University in Salem. During his freshman year, events took a dramatic turn with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Senator Hatfield joined the Reserves and accelerated his studies, so he completed his degree in 1943 and joined the Navy. He proceeded as a naval officer and fought in Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and he saw the devastating aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, an imprint that, along with his State, caused him to struggle with the appropriate and moral use of force throughout his life in public service. In his own words:

In the war's immediate aftermath, one vivid experience made

the profoundest impression on me. I was with a Navy

contingent who were among the first Americans to enter

Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been dropped. Sensing, in

that utter devastation, the full inhumanity and horror of

modern war's violence, I began to question whether there can

be any virtue in war.

He elaborates on this process of questioning, this process of challenging, in his book ``Conflict and Conscience.'' In terms of the Vietnam war, he concluded that it did not meet the Christian theologians' test for a just war. After the war, Hatfield went back to Oregon and he started a law degree, but he changed course after a year. He decided instead to pursue a master's in political affairs, and he went to Stanford and completed that master's and came back to Oregon. He started teaching at Willamette University, and in short order he was running for the Oregon House, in 1950, first elected at the age of 28, and then Secretary of State 6 years later at the age of 34, and Governor 2 years later at the age of 36. Through these experiences, Senator Hatfield developed the ability to chart his own course, to determine and follow his own convictions. In 1964, he championed an initiative to outlaw the death penalty. That ballot measure passed, and Governor Hatfield then commuted the sentences of those on death row.

In 1965, in July, he was the one Governor at the National Governors Association to vote against the resolution endorsing the Vietnam war.

In 1995, he proceeded to oppose the balanced budget amendment, and as the Senate historian, Don Ritchie, observed, ``It was one of the most courageous votes I had ever seen. He knew he was sacrificing his chairmanship and his position as a Senator. Few knew then that Senator Hatfield had offered to resign.''

Senator Hatfield also worked hard to build core institutions in Oregon. He was a champion of Oregon Health and Sciences University and built it into a fabulous institution of research and learning. The Mark O. Hatfield School of Government carries on his legacy of leadership, conveying those principles to young leaders who are dispersing throughout the public policy arena. The Marine Science Center in Newport, a tremendous research facility, continues to yield benefits, including setting the foundation for the recent location of NOAA'S research fleet in the city of Newport.

He was an intense advocate of medical research, and he championed NIH, where a building now bears his name. He was a champion for the U.S. Institute of Peace. He felt if there were academies that studied war, there should be acadamies to study peace and reconciliation.

In 1975, he introduced the George Washington Peace Academy Act to further the understanding of the process and state of peace among nations, to consider the dimensions of peaceful resolutions of differences, to train students and to inform government leaders in the process of peaceful resolutions. It took 9 years, but this effort which began as the George Washington Peace Academy Act ended in the establishment of the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984.

As my senior colleague mentioned, he championed many efforts to protect Oregon's precious wilderness. One of his final projects was to protect Opal Creek, which has been described as 6,800 acres of virgin old growth, the largest span remaining in western Oregon. He said about this:

It is an inspiration. It is a place of educational and

spiritual renewal and exploration. To walk among the

centuries old fir, hemlock, and cedar inspires tremendous awe

and instills, I think, a perspective unlike itself.

My own connection to Senator Hatfield began in 1976, in the spring of that

year, when I went to Salem to meet with Jerry Frank, Senator Hatfield's legendary Chief of Staff, to interview for a possible summer internship in Senator Hatfield's DC office. I will be eternally grateful to Jerry Frank and Senator Hatfield for offering me that internship, for that opportunity to come to our Nation's capital to see government in action. My first responsibility was to open the mail. When you open the mail, you start to understand the dimension, the breadth of political opinion in the breadth of a State.

How readily did many constituents attack Senator Hatfield's Christian faith because they disagreed with him on some policy position. I opened so much mail that said: Hi, my policy position is this and yours is different. So how can you be a man of Christian faith?

Indeed, Senator Hatfield started his book ``Conflict and Conscience'' with just this dimension, a politicization of religion. He puts in it a number of letters that he received. One reads:

Dear Mr. Hatfield,

Your encouragement of antiwar demonstrations and the riots

that have come from such demonstration are in fact treason

for they give comfort and aid to our enemies. . . .

I and a lot of other Christian people are extremely

disappointed in your performance in the Senate, for you who

claim to be a Christian and have access to our Almighty God

should have a better understanding of human nature and the

evil in the human heart.

Senator Hatfield talked about the challenge of being a public man of faith and working to take those principles and convert them to public policy in the face of hostility coming from the left or the right. But it was his determination to stay that course, to continue to be a person of reflection and depth in the pursuit of public policy.

That summer, I was assigned to the Tax Reform Act of 1976. The great joy that I had was that it happened to come up on the floor that summer. Back then, before there was television in this Chamber, before there was e-mail, you would come to the floor, if you were working on an issue, and go up to the staff gallery and follow debate, and you would rush down with the other staffers to meet your Senator coming out of the elevators just outside those double doors. Because there were lots of amendments, I got to meet with the Senator many times to describe the debate on the floor here, and to fill in what folks back home were saying about the particular issue at hand.

Then, occasionally, the timing being just right, we would have a chance to walk back and forth. Senator Hatfield loved to walk back and forth outside in the sunshine under the trees between the Capitol and his office in the Russell Office Building. It was while observing those debates that I saw the Senate at its best. There was an amendment from the right side of the aisle that was debated and discussed and voted on an hour and a half later. Then there was an amendment from the left side of the aisle. The amendments were on the issue at hand, such as different tax strategies, and often they were bipartisan in nature. Indeed, you saw that our Senators at that time--most of whom had served in World War II together--could disagree without demonizing each other. This is a tremendously important facet of the Senate that has been lost over the decades since. Indeed, there were many friendly debates between Republicans and Democrats.

My father, Darrell, was a mechanic, and he had one of these debates with his boss who owned the company. When I was offered the internship with Senator Hatfield, Jerry called my father and said, Darrell, I won the debate because Senator Hatfield will work to make Jeff a good Republican. My dad said, no, no, no, I won the debate because Jeff will work to make Senator Hatfield a good Democrat. Neither of us would have broached such a topic.

The conversation wasn't about Democrats and Republicans. It was about the challenges at hand and how you resolve them. It was from that summer that I developed a lifelong admiration for Senator Hatfield and his model of public service. Here is what Senator Hatfield had to say about public calling:

Political service must be rooted in a philosophy of

society's overall well-being, with a broad vision of how the

body politic serves the people through its corporate

structures. The heart of one's service in the political order

must be molded by ideals, principles, and values that express

how we, in the words of the Constitution, are ``to form a

more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic

Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the

General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of liberty to

ourselves and our posterity.''

He continued:

Political service must flow out of such a commitment.

Convictions about war and peace, about the priorities

governing the expenditure of Federal funds, about the

patterns of economic wealth and distribution, about the

Government's responsibility toward the oppressed and

dispossessed both in our land and throughout the world, about

our Nation's system of law and justice, and about the meaning

of human liberty--these should be at the core of one's desire

to seek public office.

It was because of my admiration for Senator Hatfield that when I became Speaker of the Oregon House in 2007, I called him and asked if he would consider coming to swear me in when I took the oath of office. He readily agreed to do so. That was the last public event that my father was at before he passed away. It was one of Senator Hatfield's last major public events.

I so much appreciated the symbolism of a Republican and a Democrat coming together at that moment, and sought to help guide the Oregon House, the same Chamber where Senator Hatfield started his political career to solve Oregon's problems.

It is because of my admiration for Senator Hatfield that when I came to this Chamber I asked for Senator Hatfield's desk. There are 14 names carved into the desk drawer in his desk. The 13th is Senator Hatfield's. As I looked at the names, I was surprised to discover this desk had never crossed the aisle before. So I think it is symbolic of Senator Hatfield's career of public service, focused on solving problems and working together across the aisle, that his desk made that journey to where it is now.

During those walks back and forth between here and the Russell Senate Office Building, Senator Hatfield paused one day to pull the leaf off a Ginkgo tree. He said: Jeff, this is one of the simplest of God's creations. Why is it that folks can't see the beauty of God's creation in the very simplest of one of his plants?

I held that leaf tightly in my hand, determined to preserve it. Just as we got back to the office, he plucked it out of my hand and said: Well, of course, you don't want to continue to carry that leaf. I didn't have the courage at that moment to say: No, I would treasure that leaf all my life, and then grab it back from him. So I don't have the leaf, but I take that memory of his deep personal faith and conviction.

I was sharing this story with another intern who served with Senator Hatfield in 1985, and he said: Well, let me tell you another story about a tree and Senator Hatfield. On this walk between the Capitol and the Russell Senate Office Building there is a tree that Senator Hatfield planted. It is a Metasequoia tree. It so happens the Metasequoia used to grow throughout Oregon millions of years ago. When people found the fossils and studied them, they concluded the tree was extinct--until the 1940s when they found a stand of Metasequoias growing in China.

Senator Hatfield arranged to have one of these trees planted in that walk. It so happens in 2005, when I was House Democratic leader in Oregon, we passed a bill that made the Metasequoia tree the fossil of Oregon, but we didn't know about this tree Senator Hatfield had planted. But there it is today. It is now 25 years old. It sheds its needles every winter, so people think it is a fir tree that has died. But it comes roaring back to life in the spring.

Now, 25 years into its life, it is equal to the highest of the broad leaf trees on the grounds of the Capitol. In another 25 years the Hatfield tree is going to soar over these Capitol grounds. In so doing, it is going to represent the values he fought for--the courage of one's convictions, the effort to get beyond the bumper stickers and into the nitty-gritty of issues, and to come to a conscientious decision that will take our Nation forward, the determination to be oriented toward solving problems and not to a partisan divide.

Certainly.

Mr. President, I have just one closing comment, and that is this: This is a picture of the Senator Hatfield tree. It has my staff in front of it. We went out there on July 12, Senator Hatfield's birthday, to take this picture and we hoped to give this to him. We didn't have a chance to do that before he passed away. But I think this tree will serve as a living reminder of all that he championed throughout his tremendous career. We have lost a great man, and our Senate and our Nation are poorer for it.

Mr. President, I applaud my colleague from Tennessee. I

appreciate him coming to make comments about his service with Senator Hatfield. When I was first coming to the Senate, Senator Hatfield asked me to bring greetings to his former colleagues. One of the first conversations I was able to have was to sit down with Senator Lamar Alexander who, like Senator Hatfield, served as a Governor, and who embodies so many of the qualities Senator Hatfield worked to cultivate.

Mr. President, I wish to join my colleagues in remembering Senator Mark Hatfield, an extraordinarily good man, a man of dignity and integrity. I didn't have the opportunity to serve with him in the Senate, but he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee when I was a member of the House Appropriations Committee, so oftentimes we would come together in conference on a given issue, and I admired him greatly.

Mark Hatfield was an independent man throughout his public career. He was a man of civility and deep faith, a devout evangelical Christian. He was a Republican who believed government could be a force for good.

During the course of my statement, I will read some comments by Senator Mark Hatfield, and those who are following this should pause and reflect that his was once a major voice in the Republican Party. Unfortunately, few, if any, voices such as his can be heard today. I hope there are those who are listening who will take heart that it is consistent with Republican principles to stand for the values of Mark Hatfield.

Announcing his retirement from the Senate in 1995, Mark Hatfield said:

As a young man I felt the call of public service and

believed in the positive impact government can have on the

lives of people. Government service has allowed me to promote

peace, protect human life, enhance education, safeguard our

environment, improve the health care of Oregonians, and guard

the rights of the individual.

As I said, though I didn't have the honor of actually serving in the Senate with Mark Hatfield, we shared a common hero. If a person visited his Hart Office Building suite and went to his conference room, they would see the most amazing display of memorabilia and tributes to Abraham Lincoln I have seen anywhere outside of my hometown of Springfield, IL. One whole wall in Senator Hatfield's office was covered with a collection of Abraham Lincoln paintings, photographs, and memorabilia. His fascination with Lincoln began when he was in grade school and he first learned about the evil of slavery and the leadership Lincoln provided in abolishing it.

Sometimes at night, Mark Hatfield said to a reporter, he liked to quietly slip down to the Lincoln Memorial to meditate. ``It's like a cathedral,'' he said. ``People come in talking loudly, but then they go up the steps, and it's amazing, they all begin to whisper. How can they help it?''

I can recall one particular instance where Mark Hatfield agreed to come to my hometown of Springfield, IL. Each year on February 12, we have the Abraham Lincoln Association dinner, and we invite people who are in public life or who are historians and academics to come and talk about their impressions of some aspect of the life of Abraham Lincoln. I remember his speech because he spoke about a man named Edward Dickinson Baker.

Edward Dickinson Baker had served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Congressman from Illinois from two separate congressional districts. He then moved to Oregon and became a Senator from the State of Oregon. He was a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln. He was killed early in the Civil War at the Battle of Ball's Bluff. His statue is one of the Oregon statues here in the Capitol Building.

Mark Hatfield came to tell a story of Edward Dickinson Baker and the friendship of Abraham Lincoln and the connection with Oregon. I went up to him afterward and said: There is another part of this story you might find interesting. After Abraham Lincoln served as a Congressman-- he was given one term, which was the agreement with the Whigs back in Illinois. He wanted to stay on, but they said: No, you can't. So they offered him another job which he turned down before returning to Springfield to practice law, and that was the job to be the provincial Governor of Oregon, the territory of Oregon. Had Lincoln made that decision, history might have been a lot different for America. Hatfield and I laughed about that and the Oregon connection between Lincoln and Edward Dickinson Baker. He was an extraordinary man, Hatfield was, in that he not only admired Lincoln, but he studied him and the history of his life.

Mark was born in 1922, the son of a railroad blacksmith and a schoolteacher. He attended Willamette University in Salem, OR. He ran for the office of student body president--the only race he ever lost.

As a young Navy officer in World War II, Mark Hatfield was at both Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the two Pacific islands that were the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Later, he was one of the first Americans to enter Hiroshima after the city was devastated by the first atomic bomb. Those experiences and his own religious views had a profound influence on his beliefs about the use of military power.

He was a lifelong foe of excessive arms buildup. He told the Christian Science Monitor in 1982:

There comes a time in a Nation's life when additional money

spent for rockets and bombs, far from strengthening national

security, will actually weaken national security--when there

are people who are hungry and not fed, people who are cold

and not clothed.

Mark Hatfield once castigated Democrats in the 1980s for not speaking up strongly enough about what he considered excessive military spending during the Ronald Reagan administration. He was the only Senator to have voted against the Vietnam war and the Persian Gulf war.

Politics wasn't his first calling. He was a college professor and then college president. In 1956, he was elected to the Oregon State Legislature, where he was instrumental in passing measures banning racial discrimination in housing and public accommodations--a decade before the government considered similar civil rights laws here in Washington. From there, it was a steady climb to State senator and secretary of state. In 1958, he was elected Governor, becoming the youngest ever in his State. He was reelected in 1962.

He successfully ran for the Senate in 1966 with a straightforward platform that included opposition to the Vietnam war. In all, he spent 30 years in this body, including 8 years as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. I remember him as chairman. When he would have conference committees, you could always count on Mark Hatfield to be genteel, courteous, and bipartisan. It was a great experience. Every conference committee was a great experience. The man really exuded fairness and integrity, and it is one of the reasons I wanted to come to the floor today and say a few words about how much he meant to me. When it came to particular issues on appropriations, he really focused on medical research, which was very important to him, and on efforts to eliminate poverty in the United States.

In 1995, he cast a historic vote. He was the only Republican to vote against a constitutional amendment to require a balanced Federal budget. His vote meant defeat for the measure because it fell one vote short for the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Senator Hatfield said he voted against the amendment for two reasons: because he believed it would starve social programs and tear deep holes in America's safety net and because it exempted defense and entitlement spending from cuts. Besides, he said, if Congress wanted a balanced budget, all it had to do was pass one.

Some younger Senators in his party were so angry at Hatfield for having cost them this balanced budget amendment that they set out to strip him of

his committee chairmanship as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Luckily, that threat never materialized. Senator Mark Hatfield shrugged off their anger. He told a reporter:

I've been out of step most of my political life. So what

else is new?

In the year after the balanced budget amendment vote, the Appropriations Committee, under Chairman Hatfield's leadership, went on to cut more than $22 billion in discretionary nondefense spending from the budget. He wasn't opposed to spending cuts, but he didn't support a constitutional amendment.

I wish to offer my condolences to Senator Hatfield's wife Antoinette, who has been his partner for more than 50 years, and his children and grandchildren.

``Stand alone or come home''--that is the advice Mark Hatfield's father gave him about facing moral choices, and Mark Hatfield lived his life by that rule. Now he has gone home, and we are left to recall and celebrate the life and service of this good man.

Mr. President, my home State of Oregon has many towering and majestic features, such as our iconic Mount Hood and our beautiful State tree, the Douglas fir. Senator Mark O. Hatfield, who passed away on August 7, stood head and shoulders above all of them.

Last night, the Senate passed S. Res. 257, a resolution in respect of the memory of Senator Hatfield. This afternoon, Senator Merkley and I, with colleagues of both parties, would like to reflect on the extraordinary legacy of our special friend, Senator Mark Hatfield.

For me, Senator Hatfield's passing this summer, just as it seems the Congress has become embroiled in a never-ending series of divisive and polarizing debates and battles, drove home that Senator Hatfield's approach to government is now needed more than ever in our country.

Senator Hatfield was the great reconciler. He was proud to be a Republican with strongly held views. Yet he was a leader who, when voices were raised and doors were slammed and problems seemed beyond solution, could bring Democrats and Republicans together. He would look at all of us, smile and always start by saying: ``Now, colleagues,'' and then he would graciously and calmly lay out how on one issue or another--I see my friend, Senator Cochran from Mississippi, who knows this so well from their work together on Appropriations--it might one day be a natural resources question, it might one day be a budget issue or a health issue or an education issue, but Senator Hatfield had this extraordinary ability to allow both sides to work together so an agreement could be reached, where each side could achieve some of the principles they felt strongly about. They would not get

them all, but they would get a number of them. That, of course, is the key to what is principled bipartisanship.

It was not very long ago, it seems, when Senator Hatfield walked me down that center aisle, when I had the honor of being selected Oregon's first new Senator in almost 30 years. I remember coming to the Senate, a new Senator, and watching Senator Hatfield at work. Sometimes he would be with Senator Kennedy and a big flock of the Senate's leading progressives, and sometimes he would shuttle over to visit with Senator Dole and a big group of conservatives. Somehow the public interest was addressed.

The question then becomes: How did he do it? What was the Hatfield approach all about? To me, Senator Hatfield was religious, but he was never intolerant. He was idealistic, but he was never naive. He was willing to stand alone but never one to grandstand.

But it was not his public life that shaped his belief and his principles. Those were forged in the most hellish of places: World War II in the Pacific. As a landing craft officer in the U.S. Navy, Senator Hatfield witnessed firsthand the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was one of the first Americans to see the devastating effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Later, he served in French Indochina, where he saw the economic disparities that would later lead to war in Southeast Asia. Those images remained with him throughout his life, acting as a touchstone for his belief that the world should be a safer and more peaceful place. It was Senator Hatfield's beliefs--those beliefs--that served as the foundation for his career in the Senate and for his opposition to the Vietnam war and to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Senator Hatfield was a major player on the national stage. At the same time, he never forgot our home State or strayed very far from his approach of trying to bring people together. I see our friend, Senator Alexander, on the floor, who also has had a lot of experience on natural resources issues.

I can tell my friends on both sides of the aisle that watching Senator Hatfield champion the need for family-wage jobs in the forest products sector, while at the same time being a champion of environmental protections of wilderness areas and scenic rivers, was like a classroom in the effort to come up with sound public policy.

When colleagues come to our home State, they will have an opportunity to go to the Columbia River Gorge, a special treasure. We had a big anniversary recently on the anniversary of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. Senator Merkley and I were there. That never could have happened without that unique ability of Senator Hatfield to bring people together, and he went into every nook and cranny of our State, communities that barely were bigger than a fly speck on the map. He would make their roads better and their schools better and their health care better, again by bringing people together.

I know colleagues are waiting. I would simply wrap up by saying that my State has lost a great son. The Senate has lost one of its former giants. Our Nation has lost a man who represented honesty and decency in public service. I will never, ever forget how much Senator Hatfield has meant to my home State of Oregon.

I note Senator Merkley is here who served as one of Senator Hatfield's interns as well as Senator Alexander and Senator Cochran. I think we have, through the graciousness of Senator Reed and Senator McConnell, time for all our colleagues.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, would my colleague yield?

I appreciate that, and I certainly don't want to interrupt his very eloquent remarks.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time for tributes to former Senator Hatfield be extended until 3:30 so that my friend and colleague can speak, as well as Senators Leahy, Alexander, Cochran, Bingaman, and Levin, who all wish to speak.

Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, let me thank Chairman Leahy for his kind and gracious thoughts. I know Senator Hatfield was very fond of the Senator as well. You have represented his values very well. I thank the Senator for those remarks.

Mr. President, this afternoon we heard tributes to former Senator Mark Hatfield from a bipartisan group of Senators. I would like to add to those tributes by including in the Congressional Record the eulogy that Senator Hatfield's son Visko delivered at his father's Memorial Service.

I ask unanimous consent that the following statement be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I think we have seen in the last half hour, almost going on an hour, the enormous goodwill that Senator Hatfield generated in the Senate, with Democrats

and Republicans alike coming to the floor. I just wanted to wrap up with one last comment.

Senator Hatfield did not serve alone. He was accompanied through his extraordinary public service journey that we have heard discussed today on the Senate floor by a remarkable woman, Antoinette Hatfield. For those of us who knew Mrs. Hatfield, the only way we could sum her up would be to say: What a woman. Whip smart, boundless energy, persistent in a way that made it clear she was going to push hard for what was important, but always in a way that left you with a sense that she would be standing up for what was right and almost invariably with her husband standing up for our State.

My colleague in the Chair, the Presiding Officer, Senator Merkley, described his experiences with Senator Hatfield very eloquently. We have heard that from one Senator after another. But I thought it was appropriate this afternoon--as many Senators knew Mrs. Hatfield and, I think, share my views--and important to note that Senator Hatfield often said--and my colleague will recall it as well--he could not have made the contributions to Oregon without having at his side, having the good counsel, enjoying the affection of this wonderful woman, Antoinette Hatfield.

So as the Oregon delegation in the Senate wraps up these tributes, we simply want to acknowledge not just Senator Hatfield's contributions but the chance we have had to be with Mrs. Hatfield in work situations and personal situations, and we wish to express our gratitude for all she has done for decades now working with her husband, working with Oregonians to make Oregon a better place.

This afternoon, Antoinette Hatfield, as well as her late husband, has our undying gratitude.

Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, let me speak a little bit about Mark Hatfield, because those of us who knew Mark thought the world of him. I had an opportunity to know him and to serve with him, and for 23 years I served with him in the Senate.

I rise to pay tribute to Mark as a dedicated public servant and a respected lawmaker, a man whom I liked to call my friend, and I think virtually everybody serving during that time, Republican and Democrat alike, considered him a friend.

He dedicated nearly his entire life to public service. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He took part in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He taught political science in Oregon at Willamette College for 7 years. He served in the Oregon State legislature. He served two terms as Governor. I remember him smiling when somebody would see him in the corridors and call him Governor. He became Oregon's longest serving Senator. He served five terms in the Senate.

Unfortunately, Mark was one of a dying breed in politics today. He was an old-fashioned Senator and a political moderate. He came from a brand of Senators that included names such as Bob Stafford and George Aiken, both from Vermont. Oregon, like my State, prizes independence in their elected officials, and he was certainly never afraid to buck his party. From his opposition to the war in Vietnam to his early support for the Endangered Species Act and federally protected wilderness, Mark showed us all that he was ruled only by the people of Oregon and his conscience.

A true compassion for people drove many of Mark's decisions. After being one of the first American servicemen to see the destruction and carnage of Hiroshima following the atomic bombing, he later declared his leadership in the campaign to pass the 1987 nuclear weapons test ban, one of his major accomplishments.

Having a father with Alzheimer's disease and other family members with cancer, Mark became one of the strongest Senate advocates of Federal spending on medical research. He also supported prohibiting the sale of arms to undemocratic countries and countries that did not respect human rights.

Spending 8 years as the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mark Hatfield did an amazing amount of good for his State of Oregon. In fact, it is hard to travel in the State of Oregon without seeing the differences he made.

Senator Hatfield was always known for his courteousness. Despite his independent streak, he had complete respect on both sides of the aisle. More than once I was there, and my two colleagues from Oregon on the floor know this, when people would come up to him and call him ``Saint Mark.''

It is important to remember that despite the squabbling that goes on in Washington these days, there are politicians who care deeply about the well-being of their colleagues in their State.

On a personal note, when I came to the Senate, I was No. 99 in seniority. Actually, there were only 99 of us in the Senate because there had been a tied race in New Hampshire. So I was the junior most Senator, sitting way over in the corner seat. Several of the more senior Senators reminded me how junior I was. I received a handwritten note, which I still have, from a Senator who wrote: When I came to the Senate, I was No. 99. But you move up. You move up quickly in seniority. He said: My door is always open to you. Let me know what I can do to help.

That Senator was Mark Hatfield. We became friends from that moment. I did go to him for advice. Marcelle and I traveled with him and Antoinette in numerous parts of the world. I can still remember the laughter on the plane. We would talk about everything--everything from children to politics, to sports, to whatever.

What a wonderful person. He was a public servant. He was a statesman. He was a friend. I consider myself fortunate to have known him, but especially to have served with him. This Senate was a better place with Mark Hatfield.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute to the life and the public service of Mark Hatfield.

Mark Hatfield began his lifelong career of public service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he returned to Oregon where he served in the State house of representatives, in the State senate, as the Oregon secretary of state, and eventually as Governor of the State. Fortunately for us--for the Senate and for the country--Mark Hatfield did continue his career of public service and went on to serve five terms in the U.S. Senate.

During his time in the Senate, Mark Hatfield repeatedly demonstrated he possessed the courage of his convictions. We have heard that word ``courage'' used this afternoon by Oregon Senators and others as it relates to Mark Hatfield, and there are so many examples of that courage, including an unpopular position he took relative to the Vietnam war. But in 1995 he opposed the balanced budget constitutional amendment, which was then under consideration by the Senate. It was a difficult position then to take as it is today. But he followed the courage of his convictions, and this is what he said about the constitutional amendment they were debating in the Senate back in 1995:

A balanced budget can come only through leadership and

compromise. This compromise must come from each one of us. .

. . In the end there is no easy answer, and there never will

be. Regardless of the procedural restraint in place, where

there is political will to create a balanced budget we will

create one. Where there is a will to avoid one, we will avoid

it. . . . A vote for this balanced budget constitutional

amendment is not a vote for a balanced budget, it is a vote

for a fig leaf.

Mark Hatfield said it as he believed it, straight from the shoulder-- courageously and direct. He did so in regard to many other issues.

From the vantage point of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Hatfield was able to champion causes near and dear not only to his heart but near and dear to the hearts of so many Americans. Among these causes was medical

research. Senator Hatfield was such an effective supporter of medical research that in 2005--8 years after his retirement from the Senate-- the National Institutes of Health opened the Mark Hatfield Clinical Research Center in honor of his career-long support of medical research.

How well I personally remember, as a member of the FDR Memorial Commission, how Mark Hatfield joined Danny Inouye, his cochairman, to finally lead us to build the long overdue memorial to one of America's greatest Presidents.

Today, the Senate mourns the passing of Senator Hatfield. How vividly those of us who had the pleasure of serving with him remember him. My wife Barbara and my deepest sympathies go out to Mark's wife Antoinette, to their family, and to their friends. As the Senate honors his extraordinary career, we can all take inspiration from his willingness to join with colleagues of both parties to achieve enduring goals.