Claire McCaskill

Madam President, it is probably no surprise for my colleagues to know that I don't like much the idea of a farewell speech. I haven't spent a great deal of time contemplating it over the years I have been here. I am not a big fan of the concept. But I want to respect the tradition, especially since I have witnessed so many Senate traditions crumble over the last 12 years. So I will do my best to get through this without breaking up.

A traditional farewell speech in the U.S. Senate is full of accomplishments and thanks. I am going to skip half of that. I am extremely proud of my body of work over 34 years of public service, but it is for others to judge, and I won't dwell on it today, other than to say it is a long list and a tangible demonstration of the value of hard work.

The wonderful Barbara Bush said: ``Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people--your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.''

So rather than talk about what I have done, I want to speak a few moments about my family, and I have three different families I want to talk about today: my actual family, my family I like to call Missouri, or ``Missouri''--we argue about it a lot--and my family here in the Senate.

First, my actual family--because they are the most important. In the words of author Andre Maurois, ``without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.'' I have been very warm my whole life. I have not ``trembled'' in the cold because I have always had my family.

My parents taught me that caring about the community around us was noble and good and that holding public office was an honorable endeavor, even though my parents were largely spectators and supporters and not candidates or officeholders. They just cared, and they wanted me to care too.

At the risk of going down the road of too many family stories, it may explain a lot that my dad fell in love with my mom when he saw her smoking a cigar and belting out, ``Won't you come home, Bill Bailey,'' at a party; that my mother said I must say ``trick or treat'' and vote for JFK when I was 7; and that my father insisted that I not only learn the rules of football but that I also learn to tell a good joke and learn to laugh at myself.

My siblings. My two sisters and my brother have simply been the port in every storm.

My children. We have a large, blended family of many children and grandchildren that is close and loving. I adore them all, but I need to specifically mention my three children--Austin, Maddie, and Lily-- because they were there from the beginning--infants in car seats going to political events, toddlers sitting sometimes not so quietly as I gave a speech, and, then, amazing troopers in the almost decade of my career when I was a single working mom, hauling them all over the State on campaigns. They now have forgiven me for the missed recitals and the missed field trips and the fact that I couldn't be the homeroom mom. Today, they have grown into amazing, strong adults who make me very proud.

And yee howdy, those grandchildren--I have 11, going on 12. I can't wait until they are all old enough to yell at them what my mom used to say to us when we were dawdling and too slow in getting to the car: ``Last one in is a Republican.''

My husband, Joseph--how lucky I am to have him as my best friend. We were married 16 years ago, after I was well into my political career and after he had achieved great success in business. He is proud and supportive of me always, but he certainly didn't bargain for the incredibly unfair treatment we got at his expense because of his business success. Let the record of the Senate now say what my Republican colleagues did not during my campaigns: Thank you, Joseph, for your integrity, your honesty, your generosity, and your heart, which has always directed you to do good, as you do well.

Then there is my Missouri family. I love my State--all of it, every corner

of it, even the parts that aren't very crazy about me. My honor to work for Missourians has been immense. I am incredibly grateful to them for the opportunity I have had to get up every day and work my heart out in an interesting, challenging career of public service, and so lucky to have made many, many good friends along the way. I am excited that I will now have more time for them.

David Stier said: ``Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten,'' and that is how I feel about Missouri. That is why my office has tried very hard to help every individual who has come to us for help, every veteran who has needed assistance, every senior caught in Social Security redtape--no matter who they were or where they lived or what their politics were.

Then there is my staff family--my staff, here and in Missouri, in this job, in my previous jobs, and in many, many campaigns

Richard Bach said it best: ``The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.'' They have been my rock, my compass, my inspiration, and my coach--the best and the brightest, looking not for money or fame but just to make a difference.

To my Senate staff here today and watching and to all the staff in my offices of the prosecutor's office, the auditor's office, the county legislature, and the State legislature, I respect each of you immensely. As you go forth in the world, remember the McCaskill office motto--they could cite it for you right now if I asked them: If you work hard, you can do well. But if you are having fun, you will do great.

We were happy, and it made a difference. George Bernard Shaw said: ``A happy family is but an earlier heaven.'' Working with my staff was heaven.

Finally, to all my fellow Senators and all of the many people who work here in the Senate, I would be lying if I didn't say I was worried about this place. It just doesn't work as well as it used to. The Senate has been so enjoyable for me, but I must admit that it puts the ``fun'' in dysfunction.

Peter Morgan, an author, said: ``No family is complete without an embarrassing uncle.'' We have too many embarrassing uncles in the U.S. Senate and lots of embarrassing stuff. The U.S. Senate is no longer the world's greatest deliberative body, and everybody needs to quit saying it until we recover from this period of polarization and the fear of the political consequences of tough votes. Writing legislation behind closed doors, giant omnibus bills that most don't know what is in them, K Street lobbyists knowing about the tax bill managers' package before even Senators--that is today's Senate--and no amendments.

Solving the toughest problems will not happen without tough votes. We can talk about the toughest problems, we can visit about them, we can argue about them, we can campaign on them, but we are not going to solve them without tough votes. It will not happen. My first year in the Senate was 2007. We voted on 306 amendments in 2007. This year, as of yesterday, we have voted on 36. That is a remarkable difference. Something is broken, and if we don't have the strength to look in the mirror and fix it, the American people are going to grow more and more cynical, and they might do something crazy like elect a reality TV-star President. I am not kidding. That is one of the reasons this has happened.

Power has been dangerously centralized in the Senate. We like to say: Oh, we can't change the rules or we would be just like the House. We kind of are like the House, guys. We kind of are. A few people are writing legislation and a few people are making the decisions. We have to throw off the shackles of careful, open the doors of debate, reclaim the power of Members and committees, and, most of all, realize that looking the other way and hoping that everything will work out later is a foolish idea. For gosh sakes, debate and vote on amendments.

But with all the problems I have outlined, know that I love this place and you--almost all of you. You have filled my life with interesting work and unforgettable memories. We have argued, we have sung, we have fought, we have cried, and we have laughed together--just like family. You are family, and I will miss you terribly.

Desmond Tutu, a very wise man, said: ``God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.''

Thank you very much.

I yield the floor.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Thank you, Madam President.

I thank my friend and colleague, the Senator from Maine. It is always such a pleasure to work with her on legislation because she is a Senator who does her homework. Don't ever try to get one by Susan Collins. She knows what she is talking about, and if she is not sure of it, she takes the time she needs to try to find the right way forward.

What we are trying to do is, is to reassure the American people that we are on their side. The frustration out there is so high right now with what is going on with the cost of prescription drugs.

When people find out there is actually a pharmacist who is legally prohibited from telling them that you can pay 8 bucks if you just want to pay for it, but you will pay 20 bucks if you use your insurance plan--that is real money. That matters to Missourians.

We know the data shows that in 2013 alone, Americans paid about $135 million more than they should have. Why? Where is that money going? Who is making that money and why? We need to get a better deal for people.

We have so many problems with prescription drugs. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the work this body needs to do to bring down prescription drug prices. This is low-hanging fruit. The notion that we can just simply say: Pharmacists, you have the right to tell your customers they can get it cheaper, that is all we are doing. We are saying: Pharmacists, you have the right to tell your customers they can get it more cheaply. That is why the Lee amendment is so perplexing to me. Why would you want to leave 85 million people behind?

I get the ideology about regulation, but sometimes common sense needs to scoot all the ideology out of this place, and we need to just look at the barebones issue of how we save people money on prescription drugs. That is what this bill will accomplish.

Today was a big day for me. A bill that I am the Democratic cosponsor of, the President of the United States tweeted he supported it. Yowza. That is a big deal for me. I am thrilled the President of the United States tweeted this afternoon that he supports this legislation. It shows you not all is lost in this town. Every once in a while, we can get together.

I see my friend Senator Barrasso over there. He is a cosponsor on this bill with Senator Kennedy. It is really exciting to me when we have one of these moments where the administration agrees, Secretary Azar agrees, Republicans agree, and Democrats agree. If we can do this more often, maybe the people in this country will renew their faith in us as a body.

I am thrilled we are going to have a chance to get this done. I hope the body listens to the arguments my colleague made about the Lee amendment and how misguided it is in leaving so many Americans behind in terms of these cost savings.

While I am on the floor, I would also like to just briefly mention another vote that I think is important. I am very glad we are expanding grants for first responder training, opioid prevention, and all the other important things we are doing in this bill, but I am truly disappointed that it doesn't include a commonsense proposal that I worked with Senator Cassidy on that would provide more transparency on those who are lobbying on opioid-related issues.

My office did an investigation through the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, where we discovered there are all these advocacy organizations out there, such as the American Academy of Pain Management and others, that are deriving a lot of their budget from the opioid manufacturers. The opioid manufacturers are giving money to organizations, and, in many instances, they are just fronts for lobbying on behalf of opioids.

For example, we know that over $9 million was given to these organizations, with half of that coming from Purdue, the biggest manufacturer of OxyContin. I am not saying we should prohibit them from doing that, but people ought to know it. We ought to make it transparent. That is all the bill does. It just makes payments by opioid manufacturers to organizations that are 501(c)(3)s or 501(c)(4)s and requires them to just say the opioid manufacturers are behind their budget.

One of these groups actually lobbied CDC about not lowering the recommended dosage of opioids. Another one entered a brief in a case arguing that a doctor shouldn't be convicted, when he was prescribing thousands of pills a day, for moving controlled substances.

Transparency is always a good thing. I am disappointed and frankly confused as to why some of the Members on the other side didn't want to include this proposal in this package.

I certainly want to thank Senator Cassidy for his help. We tried very hard to get it in the bill. I hope it is not because Big Pharma has a vice grip on this place. I have seen it before, and it worries me that this might be the case.

There is irony in this. Not only is that provision not included but guess what is included. There is a provision in the bill that authorizes Federal money to one of these advocacy groups. Guess what. It is an advocacy group funded by pharma.

I think it is ironic that we are more comfortable giving Federal money to one of these groups that can serve as a front organization for the opioid manufacturers that helped create this crisis than we are in requiring disclosure of the private funding for these groups. I am hopeful we can either get the bill in conference or, more importantly, get that other provision out.

By the way, if we are going to allow Federal grant funding to these organizations, it should be all of them on a competitive basis, on merit, not name one that gets the money. There is something up there. There is something up there when you just name one that gets the money. I have learned that around this place.

I hope the bill passes today.

I am honored to work with Senator Collins on this important prohibition on the gag rule. It will save Missourians money. It matters.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the extraordinary life of my friend, colleague, and role model, Senator John McCain.

Senator McCain lived a life of superlatives. He was a war hero whose conduct in the face of unimaginable adversity spoke to the very essence of who he was as a man. He was a consummate statesman, who spent a career in public service working to foster consensus on the most intractable and important problems facing our Nation. He was a gentleman of the highest caliber, who understood that, although we may discuss, argue, and disagree, our common bond as Americans is stronger than the passing tempest of political debate.

The measure of a man like Senator McCain can be seen in the outpouring of sympathy from friends and colleagues across the political spectrum. He spoke his mind, and more importantly, he spoke his conscience. He was never afraid to tell those in power they were wrong and those suffering injustice that the United States of America would not abandon them. His commitment to doing what was right transcended political ideology, and I am confident that future generations will study his legacy as we have studied the great leaders of the past.

It is not difficult to find examples of Senator McCain's integrity in a career marked by such moments. I know that I particularly admired his steadfast courage in opposing and working to eliminate torture by the United States of America. He, more so than most, knew what that legacy would mean to our country. He knew that, if we were torturing, our servicemen and women would be tortured. He was willing to stand up for what was right and ensured that we would live up to our promise as a nation. His unwavering voice on the issue served, as it has so many times, as our national conscience, and we are all better for it.

We had our brawls every once in a while, but it usually ended with a joke and a laugh and a commitment to work together on the next problem that our country faced. I will cherish the memories I have of working with Senator McCain on issues related to eliminating earmarks, protecting children from human-trafficking, and providing the necessary resources to the men and women of the Armed Forces whom he loved and respected dearly.

His wit, intellect, and humor were the hallmark of a man who cannot be replaced; however, it is my hope that we might use this sad occasion to unite together around the principles that he stood for. I join my voice to the thousands that have spoken to his character as a colleague and as a friend and extend my most heartfelt sympathies to his family. I will miss him terribly, the Senate will miss him terribly, and our country will miss him terribly.