Ken Salazar

Mr. President, I thank the Chair, the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island. I thank my great friend the majority leader, Senator Reid, for his inspiration and for his leadership of this body and his love for this Nation. I think our journey together in many ways has been a similar journey because if you think about a man from Searchlight, NV, raised in the house where he was raised, raised in the circumstances in which he was raised, working in the mines and being essentially part of the poorest part of Nevada, and yet today he is serving in the Senate as majority leader, that is a pathway that illustrates the opportunity and promise of America.

For his support and his leadership, I will be forever grateful, and for the support from his family, Landra and Rory and all of his children as well. I admire him and admire them. I appreciate the comments that were so heartfelt from him, and I appreciate the comments as well from Senator McConnell.

I thank my colleagues who are here this morning. I know almost everybody took off last night, so the Chamber is not exactly full this morning, but I see both Democrats and Republicans who came to hear me say the last few words I will say from this desk in the U.S. Senate.

Let me start out first by giving tribute to my family. My wonderful wife Hope, and my daughter Melinda, who is at Stanford, my daughter Andrea and my granddaughter who are in Denver today watching us on the Senate floor, they truly are the bedrock of my life. Without them I would not be here, and without them I would not have traveled the 64 counties of my great State of Colorado probably 20 times in the last 10 years because they were always there at my side since they were little, holding up balloons and walking parades and doing all the rest of the things it takes to become part of an elected office in such a large geographic area of Colorado. So today I say thank you, and I love you all very much.

I wish to pay tribute as well to my father Henry. As Senator Reid described his history, it is a very true history. He was born into poverty and lived through a lot of sacrifice but always remembered the two most important things in his life, as my brother Congressman Salazar often says: No. 1, family; and No. 2, love for country. I think those two values guided him to achieve what he still at the end of his life considered to be his greatest success, and that is that all eight of his children--all eight of his children--became first generation college graduates. So of my father Henry who taught me so many things about life, I will always be forever proud.

Within his family, as well as within my mother's family, if you look at the genealogy, which I will insert for the Record, we started back with Juan de Salazar who was born in 1520 and Juan de Salazar born in 1555, who became one of the original founders of the City of Sante Fe-- the City of Holy Faith--NM, and then Jose Bernardo de Salazar. It goes on to the point where I am a 12th generation son of the southwest of New Mexico and Colorado. It is a history I am very proud of. It is a history that I hope is not forgotten. It is a history that for a long time was essentially shoved beneath the dust and was not given the illumination of its reality. I hope in some small part my role here in the Senate has been to give credence as well as to celebrate that history that makes us such a wonderful and diverse America. So I appreciate everything I received from my father's side. Yes, he was a proud soldier in World War II. He was a tough master as we grew up. He made us understand the importance of hard work. He had a strong sense of pride, a strong sense of community and giving back, and a strong sense of love for his family.

My mother Emma likewise in so many ways was a strong spiritual person whom I still today call Saint Emma. I call her Saint Emma because nothing can even shake her from her roots. She is who she is. She has a great faith. She is not afraid to live or die. I remember many times in my life, including the death of my oldest brother Leandro, my mother was the one who held the family together after a tragic accident on our ranch back in 1992. To her selfless--completely selfless--love which she has taught the world and has taught my family, I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

I often have asked my mother: Is there a single person in the world you do not like, or is there a single person in the world you hate? My mother will think about it for a minute, and she will say no. She says: I love everybody. Just as she loves everybody, everybody loves her. So I thank her for her faith and all that she has taught us.

To my brothers and sisters--there are seven of us still left. My oldest brother Leandro, who passed away, taught us a lot about history and about the culture of our community. I remember his days working with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and then coming back to the ranch and farming and working with us for so long. He is and always will be my hero. I miss him.

To all the rest of my brothers and to my sisters, they have all been the bedrock also of my successes. Today, here on the floor of the Senate, as I give my farewell address, I have the honor of being joined by Congressman John Salazar, who is a Congressman for the Third Congressional District which covers about 65 percent of the State of Colorado. Congressman Salazar, in his own way, is a personification of many things that my family stands for. If you look at his history and his profile, he is a farmer, he is a soldier and veteran, he is a businessman. He knows issues such as water. He knows and has taught me so much. As he and I have grown up together, being here in Washington with him has been one of the highlights of my entire life.

I wish to also thank all of my colleagues here, and I will say just a few specific words about them in a few minutes.

In early February, the Senate selects a Member to perform its oldest nonlegislative tradition, the reader of George Washington's Farewell Address on the floor of the Senate. In 2006, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, gave me the honor of doing that reading. I think Washington's famous words are important for us to remember at this time of transformation in America. In his farewell to public life in 1796, Washington warned us of the dangers of partisanship, of geographic sectionalism, and the politics of division. Washington said:

We are one Nation. With slight shades of differences you

have the same religion, manners, habits, and political

principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed

together; the independence and liberty you possess are the

work of joint counsels and joint efforts of common dangers,

sufferings, and successes.

Washington's Farewell Address is a message to be reborn today. In this moment, in this time, with the inauguration next Tuesday, with this body in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, there is a new hope, with a growing sense that we are all in this together, and we are again becoming the one Nation the first President of the United States of America imagined.

Our next President, Barack Obama, embodies this historic change. He is asking us not to think of ourselves first as red States and blue States but as Americans first, with obligations of service to one another. We can solve our problems, no matter how difficult they are. We can reach the horizon of human possibilities no matter how difficult it might seem, but in order to do that, we must all work together. It is in this spirit of collaboration--of Nation before party, of compromise, of results-driven government--that Americans believe we can get it done this time.

I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you in this Chamber who have guided me in our work over the last several years. I wish to comment specifically just on four or five areas I am very proud of that we have worked on together in the Senate.

The first is about the forgotten America and the work we have done together to make sure the rural part of America that has so often been forgotten is no longer forgotten. When you look at the United States of America, the fact is, there are about 3,000 counties. About 1,700 of those counties are characterized as rural, and in each of those counties, we have significant unemployment. We have income disparities of some $10,000 per capita between people who live in those rural counties and the people who don't live in those rural counties. So it has been important for us to address the issues and needs of rural America. We have done that in some significant ways. The passage of the farm bill, which we ultimately had to pass out of this Senate, I think, on three or four different occasions during the last year, was a culmination of that promise to the forgotten America.

I wish to thank Senator Reid for making sure we kept our feet to the fire to get that bill done. I wish to thank the people who were involved in that legislation, including the chairman of the committee, Senator Tom Harkin; our ranking member, the great Senator from Georgia, Saxby Chambliss; as well as Kent Conrad and others who were involved in that historic effort, including all of the members of the Agriculture Committee.

Secondly, the creation of a new energy frontier. There were many of us, including some of us who are on the Senate floor this morning, who set about some 4 years ago with a vision that we could set America free; that we could deal with the reality of the inescapable forces of our time of national security and economic opportunity at home and environmental security for our planet; and that we could set America free from our addiction to foreign oil. Under the leadership of Senator Bingaman from New Mexico as chairman of the committee, and the work of Senator Pete Domenici and other members of the Senate Energy Committee, I believe we have taken some steps in that direction which are very significant. There is much more we must do, and we are absolutely committed to making sure we take the moon shot to energy independence in the years ahead. Of this I am confident: this time we will not fail. We cannot afford to fail in the energy imperative for our Nation.

I thank all of my colleagues with whom I have worked on the Senate Energy Committee. I also wish to thank every Member of this Chamber who has worked to make sure America's defenses remain strong and that we protect America at home through homeland security efforts and the implementation and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and the efforts we have worked on together in this Chamber to give the United States of America a new direction with respect to the war in Iraq.

It is because of the debates that have taken place in this Chamber that today we are on a new pathway and new plan in Iraq. As divisive as those debates have been, I am confident that the people who worked on that issue had the best interests of the United States of America in mind.

It is in that vein that I enjoyed very much the work I did with many Senate Democrats and Republicans in trying to craft the legislation that implemented the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. Sixteen Members of the Senate joined us in that legislation. Because that legislation really created the roadmap for where we are in Iraq today, I am pleased with the work I was able to do in that effort.

I will never forget the fact that Senator Levin, Senator Warner, and Senator Reid were among the first people who took me to that place in the Middle East, places I had never traveled to before, right into Baghdad, to places around that country. It was information I gleaned from those trips that helped me participate in one of the debates of our time that characterizes the last 4 or 5 years in America.

I wish to make a quick comment about health care. There are many people who have worked on this issue over time. I do think that what we were able to do with the Children's Health Insurance Program and the passage of that bill last year demonstrates how Republicans and Democrats can come together. When I see an Orrin Hatch and a Max Baucus working together to move forward with legislation that is so enormously important for the children of America, it is the right step for us as we try to deal with this enormous domestic problem that faces all of us. And there have been so many people who have been involved in those efforts.

Finally, I have spent a lot of time in this Chamber at this desk and my other desk working on the issue of immigration. It is an issue which, frankly, still continues to call out in a very clarion and clear voice that we must get to a resolution with respect to this issue because it affects so much. It affects our national security, it affects whether we really are a Nation of laws, and it affects the reality of 12 million people who live in the shadows of America today. I am hopeful that with President Obama's leadership, the leadership of the Senate, and the leadership of the House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats coming together, this is an issue we will finally resolve in the year ahead.

As I conclude, I want to make one more tribute to Senator Harry Reid. We both are men of faith, and we often share our faith together. He encouraged me, along with Senator Mark Pryor, to be a part of the Wednesday Prayer Breakfast in the Senate. I was proud to chair that breakfast with Mark Pryor over the last several years and with my colleague, Senator Mike Enzi.

I appreciate the fact that among those of us who attended that Prayer Breakfast, I am certain that among the 100 Members of the Senate, there is a great common sense that the possibilities of humanity are somehow achievable to all of us, that it is we as human beings who somehow stand in the way of finding what those human possibilities are for all of humanity.

I think back to a story some of you have heard of my grandmother who lost five of her eight children before those children reached the age of 5 years old. I always ask myself: What is it that kept her going? At the end of the day, my answer to my question has been that what kept her going was the fact that she had a faith in the future, that somehow around the corner, in a future she could not see, the world would be much better for her children and for her grandchildren. For sure she could not have seen that the eight surviving children of her only son would all graduate from high school. I am sure she could not foresee that one would become a U.S. Senator, another a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. What she could see was the world would be better for humanity. It is a common bond for Members of this august, wonderful Chamber of the U.S. Senate.

As I close, I want to share the prayer that I have shared with Senator Reid and many of my colleagues in this Chamber before. It is a prayer that my brother, Leandro, the oldest in the family, learned when he worked with Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers of America. In many ways, I believe this prayer embodies what we do in public service.

The prayer is as follows:

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;

So I will know my people's plight.

Free me to pray for others;

For you are present in every person.

Help me take responsibility for my own life;

So that I can be free at last.

Grant me courage to serve others;

For in service there is true life.

Give me honesty and patience;

So that the Spirit will be alive among us.

Let the spirit flourish and grow;

So that we will never tire of the struggle.

Let us remember those who have died for justice;

For they have given us life.

Help us love even those who hate us;

So we can change the world.

Mr. President, one thing I forgot to say. The 5 million people of the State of Colorado have give me a great honor to serve as their attorney general and to serve on their behalf. I will submit for the Record some of the work we have done in the representation of all of the 5 million people of the State of Colorado. No matter where they were from, no matter what their economic circumstance, they knew we were working on their behalf.

I am elated that Senator Mark Udall has joined us in the Senate because I am absolutely confident he will become one of the stellar Senators of this body.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the genealogy chart of my family and a list of the wonderful DC and Colorado staff.

Mr. President, I thank my wonderful staff, many of whom are here today, some of whom are watching back in Colorado, for having made this possible. Without their great effort, frankly, we would not be able to do what we have done. I thank them.

I thank my good friend, the Presiding Officer. I look forward to our continuing to work together.

I yield the floor.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honor the life and heroic service of SSG Christopher Smith. Staff Sergeant Smith, a member of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, died in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 24, 2008, from injuries sustained when his military vehicle overturned into a canal. He was 28 years old.

After spending 2 years at Kellogg Community College in Michigan studying for a career in sports medicine, Staff Sergeant Smith joined the Army in 2001. He served in Iraq from March 2005 to February 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and returned to the country for his second deployment in September of last year. As a cannon crewmember, Staff Sergeant Smith played an integral role operating high technology weapons systems. He distinguished himself as a strong leader within ``Bulldog'' Company and would lead his unit in his captain's absence. His extraordinary bravery and talent earned him more than 11 awards and commendations during his service.

Staff Sergeant Smith is remembered by those who knew him as a true patriot who always looked out for his fellow soldiers and believed strongly in his mission. He was deeply admired by his men, so much so that five members of his squadron incurred hypothermia in a dogged and heroic effort to rescue him from the canal. He was often hunting and fishing, rooting for the University of Michigan Wolverines, and grilling brisket and ribs for his friends. Most of all, he was a devoted husband and father.

Mr. President, Teddy Roosevelt famously said, ``it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.''

Staff Sergeant Smith sacrificed his life for this Nation as a man who knew that his country needed him to be ``in the arena,'' helping others. He accepted the risks of his job with extraordinary professionalism and served with honor and a dedication to duty that was second to none. We cannot repay our debt nor replace his loss.

To Staff Sergeant Smith's mother Donna, his father Virgil, his wife Bobbi Jo, his son Adler, his brother Phillip, and all his friends and family, I know no words that can assuage the pain you must feel. I hope that in time your grief will give way to the pride you must feel for Chris for all he accomplished and for all the lives he touched. His country will always honor his legacy.

Madam President, I commend the chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee for their diligent work on this package, which contains several bills that I have championed for Colorado. I particularly wish to thank my colleague and friend, Chairman Bingaman, and his staff, for his work and cooperation on the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness Expansion Act, which is included in subtitle N of title I of S. 22, and which is critical to preserving some of the Nation's most beautiful and critical wilderness lands. This has been a long road to reach agreement with all constituencies involved and we have faced some unique challenges. But ultimately, and with the chairman's assistance, we have worked through a number of issues to our mutual satisfaction in order to pass a bill that is good for all Coloradans.

One of those challenges has been our effort to protect the operation and maintenance of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel which is the critical component of the Colorado-Big Thompson Reclamation Project. The Adams tunnel was authorized in 1915 by Congress and later constructed within the park and has delivered water from the Colorado River drainage to Colorado's north eastern communities for decades.

I appreciate the Chairman working with us on protecting this facility that provides water to hundreds of thousands of people in Colorado. With his help, we included within section 1953(d) a provision that ensures that nothing in the subtitle, including the designation of wilderness, ``prohibits or affects current and future operation and maintenance activities . . . that were allowed as of the date of enactment . . . under the Act of January 26, 1915 (16 U.S.C. 191), relating to the Alva B. Adams Tunnel or other Colorado-Big Thompson Project facilities located within the Park.''

The bill also includes in section 1953(g) an additional savings clause, which ensures that the Secretary of the Interior's authority to manage lands and resources within the park is not diminished. It is my understanding that this type of general savings clause does not undermine or contradict the more specific provisions included in section 1953(d) of the subtitle. That is, the savings clause included as section 1953(g) does not alter or affect the provisions in section 1953(d), which make clear that the designation of the park as wilderness is not meant to affect the current and future operation and maintenance activities for the tunnel nor to prohibit or restrict the conveyance of water through the Alva B. Adams Tunnel for any purpose.

Am I correct in my understanding of section 1953(g)?

I thank the Chairman.

As with any wilderness legislation in a headwaters State, the water rights language in the Rocky Mountain National Park wilderness bill proved to be the most challenging. This legislation strikes a good balance between protection of park wilderness resources and protection of existing water rights, ditch rights-of-way, and water infrastructure, some of which predate the existence of the park.

The Water Supply and Storage Company--WSSC--owns and operates the Grand River Ditch, which is a water supply ditch located in the Never Summer Range in RMNP. The Grand River Ditch provides irrigation water to approximately 40,000 acres of land located in Larimer and Weld Counties in northern Colorado. WSSC owns, operates and maintains 11 reservoirs and 7 ditch systems, including the Grand River Ditch. WSSC's system of ditches, canals and laterals is more than 100 miles in total length and provides approximately 60,000 acre-feet of water annually to 173 shareholders. The Grand River Ditch is an integral component of WSSC's system. WSSC holds a right-of-way for the Grand River Ditch under the Irrigation or General Right of Way Act of March 3, 1891--1891 Act--codified at 43 U.S.C Sec. Sec. 946-49.

The Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act itself should not cause any change in land use, land management, or water rights within Rocky Mountain National Park. Towards this end, section 1953(e) is intended to clarify that neither the Grand River Ditch nor its right- of-way will be adversely affected if the end use of water diverted by the Grand River Ditch is for municipal purposes as opposed to irrigated agriculture. The Grand River Ditch diverts water high in the Colorado mountains and transports it some 50 miles downstream to its location of use. At present, all of the water is used for agricultural irrigation; however, a portion of WSSC's stock is owned by Colorado municipalities and Grand River Ditch water will be used for this purpose in the future. No matter what the end use is, the existence of the Grand River Ditch in RMNP imposes the same burden on the park. In other words, there is no difference in land use, land management or water rights in the park, whether the end use of water is agricultural irrigation or municipal use.

In 1921, the Supreme Court approved forfeiture of a right-of-way that had never been used for its authorized purpose of irrigation, but instead was used for developing electric power. See Kern River Co. v. United States, 257 U.S. 147, 1921. The case is distinguishable on several grounds from the Grand River Ditch, but the purpose of Section 1953 (e) is to avoid any attempt to apply a Kern River-type theory to the Grand River Ditch. Over 20 years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognized this point when it said: ``The end use of water off the Federal lands, as it may change over time, casts no greater burden on the Federal property to carry the water to its place of use.'' See letter dated October 1, 1986, from Douglas W. MacCleery, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture, to Malcomb Wallop of the United States Senate, included in the legislative history of Public Law 99-545.

Conversion of agricultural water to municipal purposes is commonplace in Colorado, and the Grand River Ditch is no exception. In a mutual ditch company such as WSSC, ownership of stock represents a pro rata share of ownership in the water rights of the company. The language of section 1953(e)

ensures that WSSC and the right-of-way of the Grand River Ditch will not be adversely affected by the change in end use of GRD water.

The language of section 1953(e), ``primarily for domestic purposes or any purpose of a public nature,'' was not lightly chosen. It was taken directly from the act of May 11, 1898, which--in the words of the great Justice Van Devanter, who is considered the most knowledgeable authority on public land law to ever sit on the Supreme Court-- ``permit[ted] rights of way obtained under the Act of 1891 [like the Grand River Ditch], the use of which was restricted to irrigation, to be also used for the other purposes named in the section,'' namely ``purposes of a public nature'' and ``domestic purposes.'' See Kern River Co. v. U.S., 257 U.S. 147, 152-153, 1921. After more than a century, the terms ``purposes of a public nature'' and ``domestic purposes'' seem to be fairly well understood. The phrases ``purposes of a public nature'' and ``domestic purposes'' are especially broad, and include municipal uses following delivery, by a potable water provider, through the Grand River Ditch or by means of another conveyance structure. We have agreed to exempt the Grand River Ditch from any restriction that conditions the existence of the right-of-way on agricultural uses and instead to allow them to make ``purposes of a public nature'' or ``domestic purposes'' the sole or predominate purpose.

The Grand River Ditch ``right of way . . . was granted on an implied condition that it should revert to the United States in the event the grantee ceased to use or retain it for the purpose indicated in the [1891 and 1898] statutes. That purpose--the main and controlling one-- was irrigation.'' See Kern River Co. v. U.S., 257 U.S. 147, 154 (1921). In the future, the water transported in the ditch will be increasingly used for water supply and municipal purposes, not irrigation. This transition may eventually ``entitle[] the United States to assert and enforce a forfeiture of the grant. . . .'' 257 U.S. at 154. To address this concern, we have agreed to state in the bill that ``the right of way . . . shall not be terminated, forfeited, or otherwise affected as a result'' of the change in purpose, ``unless the Secretary determines that the change in main purpose or use adversely affects the park.'' If the Secretary, in his discretion, makes that determination, he would then have to assert and enforce a forfeiture of the grant in court.