Legislative Session
Let me begin by thanking so many of my friends here: Senators Durbin, Carper, Hatch, and so many others. I must say to you, you have expressed your remarks, and they mean a lot to me. But they probably mean more to me than I think you…
Let me begin by thanking so many of my friends here: Senators Durbin, Carper, Hatch, and so many others. I must say to you, you have expressed your remarks, and they mean a lot to me. But they probably mean more to me than I think you know. They mean so much to me. Thank you for what you have said.
I would also like to begin by thanking the people of Montana. The people of Montana have given me the honor of representing them in the Congress for nearly 40 years. It is 39 now, and actually at the end of this year it will be 40 years. I want to thank President Obama very much for the opportunity to serve the American people as Ambassador to China.
I also want to recognize one of the best teammates and friends anyone could ever ask for, Senator Jon Tester. Thank you, Jon. There is nothing greater in life than the love of family. I have been an incredibly lucky man. I would like to thank my wife Mel, my son Zeno, his wife Stephanie. I would also to thank our children, Katie and Joey.
Mel, Zeno, Stephanie, Katie, and Joey, you inspire me daily. I am so grateful for each of you. I am so blessed to have Mel in my life. Her energy, her zest for life, her positive outlook, and her love have transformed me. I am the luckiest guy in the world because of Mel. Katie and Joey are clearly inspired by their mother. They are great kids, great achievers. I think the last grades I saw--one is in law school and the other is in college--they had all As. Why? Because they are inspired by their mother. That is why they do so well, in the best sense of the term.
My son Zeno is one of the best kids parents could ever wish for. I am so proud of him. He is so smart, intelligent, and decent. He is currently an assistant U.S. attorney, living in Helena with his wife Stephanie. I am proud of him. You may have read about that case where a lady pushed her husband off a cliff in Glacier Park, MT. He is the prosecutor in that case.
I am very proud of him. Again, an indication of how proud I am of him, I learned more about that case reading the papers than I did from him. He keeps his cards close to his vest and is such a decent, smart, effective guy.
Stephanie, his wife, has jumped right into life in Montana. She is so talented and special, and the Helena community is very lucky to have her.
Thanks so much to my parents Jean and John Baucus. I wish they were here today.
Growing up on a ranch in Montana, you learn the simple lessons, the measure of life. You learn to cherish the land. It gets in your blood. You work hard. It is humbling. There is so much you cannot control working on a ranch. You cannot control the weather, whether it rains or it does not rain. You cannot control the prices. It gives you a little perspective to feel philosophical about life.
On the ranch you are charged also with nurturing life, nurturing livestock, producing a small part of nature's bounty. You have an obligation to learn as a rancher.
It is also the Montana way to love the outdoors. We are outdoors people in Montana. We hunt, we fish, we backpack, we hike, we grow crops, we raise livestock, we mine coal, and we cut timber. I think Montanans are more outdoor people than any other people in the country. We love it. It becomes part of our soul. Montana writer Bud Guthrie said: ``Somehow I am part of it, a mortal partner to eternity.''
I grew up this way, and it shored up my belief that we all have a moral obligation to our kids and grandkids when we leave this place, to leave it in as good a shape or in better shape than we found it. That internal compass is also a lasting gift from my parents and their love of the land. My mom is one of the most special persons one could have the privilege to know. She had the class of Grace Kelly and the spunk and grit of Katherine Hepburn. She was a combination of them both--an intelligent, classy lady, always positive, always upbeat. She was so intelligent and so well read. She even read more books than I did. I would come home at night and say: Mom, what are you reading?
She would tell me all about the book. One she was reading was President Obama's second book, which he wrote when he was a Senator. What do you think about that, mom?
Oh, it is a pretty good book. It has something to say. It is a little long, though.
Anyway, she wrote a note to the President and told him that she liked it. He wrote back, and they became pen pals. It was very nice.
Someone asked me last week what my mother would have thought of all this. She would have been incredibly excited and fascinated with the adventure ahead. Although I miss her every day--in fact, I talked to her every day at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. That hour goes by daily, but I keep thinking of her. She is always on my mind, as is my father. He loaded bombs on airplanes in Europe during World War II. A product of the Great Depression, he instilled in me the values of hard work, humility, and good faith. He worked me hard on the ranch, stacked a lot of hay, a lot of fencing. I know why he did it--for the right reasons. I did not complain because I knew that he was trying to raise me in the way that he hoped would help me later in life.
He was also such a decent person. No one ever spoke an ill word of my father--ever--such a rock solid character. The Republican Party in Montana asked him to run for Governor. He would not have anything to do with it. He did not care about that politics stuff. He was a rancher and liked what he was doing--ranching. I was so blessed to have such great parents.
Now 52 years ago, I was full of youthful idealism and curiosity about life beyond the ranch. I am sure it was caused somewhat by my parents. As a college student at Stanford, I decided to take a year off from my studies between my junior and senior year. I grabbed a knapsack and I hitchhiked around the world for 1 year. It was June-August 1962 to about August-September 1963.
I set out to visit countries I had only imagined--India, Japan, and China, to name a few. Before I departed, I had never thought about a life in public service. But that trip opened my eyes. It charted my course. I realized how people across the globe were interconnected. We are all in this together.
I saw the indispensable role that America plays as a leader on the world stage. It was so obvious. I knew right where I was, in the middle of the then-Belgian Congo, and I had an epiphany. All this realization hit me that we are so connected, that our natural resources are diminishing. Somehow we have to work better together if we are going to have better lives, not only for ourselves but for everyone on the globe. We are so connected.
The world is getting smaller. Our natural resources, in fact, are diminishing. We have to find a way to work better together. I returned home with a commitment to a career where I could improve the lives of my fellow Montanans and of all Americans. I would not be standing here today had it not been for that trip where I hitchhiked around the world, probably the most defining era of my life.
It was by far the most influential, and that 1 year set into motion a series of opportunities to serve that I would never have dreamed would take me back to China to represent the United States 50 years later. When I first ran for statewide office in 1973, no one knew me from Adam. I had been away from the State for many years.
I needed some advice. I had met Mike Mansfield when I was in high school. Instantly there was a man I totally respected and honored. He planted the seed, I know, for later interest in public service. It was not a defining moment, but I could tell at the time. He told me I should run; I should go back home and serve. I was then working at the SEC, just a short distance from here.
If I wanted to run for Congress, he said, it would take a lot of hard work, a lot of shoe leather, and a little bit of luck. I took his advice literally. I wore out as much shoe leather as I knew how. I walked the entire length of the State of Montana from Gardiner in the south--Gardiner is next to Yellowstone Park--up to the Yaak, a remote part of Montana near the Canadian border.
I got to know so many great people who later put me to work for them in the House. It was right in the middle of the Watergate political scandal. I joined a congressional class determined to restore good faith and trust in government, a terrific bunch of folks. They were just great, the ``Watergate class.''
I think of my friends Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, Paul Simon, Henry Waxman, and George Miller, to name a few. It was a great class. They were running for office and serving for the right reasons.
When I hitchhiked around the globe as a young man, I also realized that no country has a monopoly on religion, culture or virtue. We are all together. We are all in this together. All people basically have the same dreams for their families--to put food on the table, to make ends meet, to take care of the kids, health care they could afford, and a clean environment for their families to explore and enjoy.
The Senate can make people's dreams a reality. We are so lucky as Americans to have this institution under our Constitution written by our very perceptive forefathers. It offers what few institutions in the world can boast--the opportunity to make a difference when history calls.
One of the greatest privileges I have had in this job is having one of the best staffs on the Hill. They are sitting behind me--some of them. They are terrific. They have always been ready with big ideas and dedication to answer history's call. If there is a vanguard of vision, my staff has been in it.
I might say, parenthetically, I am very proud of my staff for another reason. My office has spawned about six marriages. A woman or a man working in my office who didn't know each other until they started working in my office got together and got married--six times--and they have all worked but for one. I don't know, but maybe I worked them too hard or maybe not hard enough. Whatever the reason, over the years after they were married, to see their kids, it has been terrific. It meant so much to me.
How many people have served since the time I have been here? The answer is 1,423 folks have worked on behalf of Montanans and on behalf of Americans, each person making a positive difference to the lives of others.
I thank them all very much.
In the years I have been in the Senate, we voted to send our sons and daughters to fight wars overseas, to protect our national security. I think the strongest human instinct is self-preservation. When you come from a beautiful place such as Montana, and from the wonderful people of our State, you will stop at nothing to defend them.
Montana has a tradition of answering the call to serve. As a matter of fact, more Montanans have volunteered for service per capita than nearly any state in the Nation.
My own nephew Phillip left college to enlist in the Marines. Before long he was far away in Anbar province serving our country. I loved Phillip as a father. His fellow marines looked to him for support, counsel, advice, and leadership as they faced many firefights. He made lance corporal in record time. He gave his life to our Nation and then returned to the family ranch for the very last time.
Phillip, like each one of the fallen heroes who bore our battles, left behind big dreams undone and countless broken hearts. Dust to dust--we still shudder.
President Lincoln concluded his second inaugural address with a call for the Nation to ``care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.'' Lincoln's commitment remains our sacred duty today.
In the Senate we have made progress. We enacted tax credits for businesses that hire veterans and enacted a new GI bill. In the past 10 years Congress has doubled support for the VA. That is an investment of which we should be proud. Someone once wrote: ``In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.'' It is important we remember that. We make the tough votes to authorize war, and we must also find the courage to band together so that our troops return to a nation that honors their service.
Of all the bills that I have worked on, there are two that stand out. In 2010 we took the Montana National Guard's model of improved PTSD screening and expanded it nationwide. That concept of very meaningful PTSD screening began in Montana with the Montana National Guard. It worked so well I got it in the defense bill, and it is now being enacted nationwide to make sure we do the very best to protect our kids who are coming home.
The new screenings have resulted in more than 800,000 servicemembers who
have received personal and private one-on-one attention from a trained health care provider--both before and after deployment. Make no mistake; these screenings are saving lives.
I am also proud of another life-saving bill, the Affordable Care Act. It has been almost 4 years since President Obama signed that act into law, and in that time the law has done more than any other in the past half century to expand access to health coverage. It has provided 71 million Americans free preventive service. More than 6 million seniors have received discounts on vital prescription drugs.
More than 3 million young people have peace of mind knowing they will be allowed to stay on their parents' health plans. I am especially proud that now no child will ever be denied health care coverage because they had been sick or had a preexisting condition.
It has been a tough road. It has been a challenge I am proud to have taken on. While the debate over the law continues, I am proud to stand for it because it is helping millions of Americans.
Take Julie from Helena. Julie wrote to me that she is self-employed and finally able to get access to affordable, quality health care coverage because of the ACA.
John, from Missoula, has a daughter who survived ovarian cancer. Thanks to the ACA, she was able to stay on her parents' insurance and win her battle against cancer.
I am very proud of the role I played in helping to make health care more accessible and more affordable to many Americans.
In this Chamber there are brilliant men and women. With great respect to my colleagues, I insist that, in the most important respect, Senators are just ordinary people--big, not-so-big, tall, short, men and women. We are just people.
It is only through the extraordinary institution of the Senate that the ordinary people have the power to make life better for all Americans. We belong to something bigger than ourselves. When I first came to the Senate, Senators from opposing parties actually had lunch together in the private Senate dining room on the floor below the Chamber. It was called the inner sanctum.
In those daily rituals we learned about each other's families, home States, and developed real friendships. Senators dined together--no spouses, no staff, only Senators from both sides of the aisle. We compared notes, talked about our kids, and talked about our family. We talked about legislation, and we got to know each other. It was wonderful getting to know each other, to build trust, confidence, and understanding. It was the backbone of respect that we all relied upon.
Those friendships provided a refuge from the political firestorms and common ground to turn to after the wrangling over the disagreements of the day.
Now schedules are packed with caucus meetings and political fundraisers. The Senate is losing the spirit of friendship and forgiveness that, in the words of Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, ``is the final oil of harmony in all human relations and which rests upon the contrite recognition that our actions and attitudes are inevitably interpreted in a different light by our friends as well as foes than we interpret them.''
Friendship and forgiveness, that is the oil of human relations that brings us together. That private Senate dining room now carries only the echoes of the friendships once forged at its tables, and we are poorer for it. Yet there is nothing inevitable about this trend. The hope of this body lies in individual Senators. The heart set upon solutions to problems will win over the heart devising traps for political gain.
It is my honor to have friendships that formed the basis for solving some of the Nation's most difficult problems. I will never forget working together with the late Senator John Chafee on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
I worked with John for years before finding out he was an amazing war hero, decorated for his service in Korea. He didn't tell us that. It took years before I learned what a hero he was, a self-effacing kind of guy. Few people knew about his war record because he didn't brag about it or use it for political gain. He served because he believed in it, not because he thought he could benefit from it. Without a doubt, we need more John Chafees in the world.
Between 1989 and 1990, we sat together in a small room off the Senate floor, facing wave after wave of unhappy Senators--sometimes until 1 or 2 in the morning. He was the ranking Republican member of the EPW Committee. I became chairman of the Environmental Protection Subcommittee.
Together we met with our colleagues ironing out the compromises on acid rain, ozone depletion, air quality permits, and scores of other issues. Senator Chafee later became chairman of the full committee. We had our disagreements, but by-and-large under Senator Chafee's chairmanship I recall an oasis of civility.
That friendship helped us to pass the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. I am very proud of that effort. I was chairman of the committee at that time, and we finally got it.
It is a small point, but I always respected that he never raised his voice. He was always civil, always decent, always positive, upbeat, and trying to find a solution. John never lost his temper. He listened carefully to the other person's point of view.
He was a paragon of the Senate--as is my good friend from Iowa Chuck Grassley.
Chuck and I began our friendship by deciding to meet weekly face-to- face in his office or my office. It turned out to be 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday. We would bring our staffs together. Pretty soon our staffs were talking to each other. The health care staff after a while started talking to each other and our trade staff started talking to each other.
Heck, we were basically one office. If you were a fly on the wall, you would think this was one office where people were trying to get together to solve problems.
Chuck is a Republican; I am a Democrat. We have differences, but our goal is to solve the problems and find solutions while adhering to our principles.
Our friendship led to a culture of respect and honesty in the Senate Finance Committee that helped us pass important agreements of other bills to expand trading opportunities with the rest of the world. I am especially proud of our work together to successfully shepherd the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Senator Carper referred to it just a short while ago.
I thank my good friend Dave Camp. Dave is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. We have worked together a lot over the past couple of years on tax reform. We have bridged the partisan divide to help pass the most recent highway bill and the payroll tax cut. Dave is a super, super American and a wonderful man. I am very lucky to have him as a friend.
It has also been a terrific honor working with my good friend Senator Orrin Hatch.
Orrin, Dave, and I recently worked together to introduce Trade Promotion Authority legislation to make Congress a full partner in trade negotiations. In trade, as in so many important areas, working together is the only way to get the job done. The Senator is a real American--Orrin Hatch. He is the salt of Utah and cares about his State and his country. The Senator is a wonderful person to work with. I can't thank him enough.
Thank you, Senator Hatch.
In 1961, President-elect John F. Kennedy said: ``Our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, State, and local, must be as a city on a hill--constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities.
If we are indeed a city on the Hill, it rests firmly on the bridges that Senators built when they faced even the deepest of divides. I mention my closest friendships across the aisle because it is those bridges that we lack the most today.
The epiphany I had as a young man hitchhiking around the world 52 years ago I believe is even more relevant today. Advances in technologies and communications have made us more interconnected as people than ever before.
The challenges of globalization bind us even more. Climate change--we are all in this together--terrorism, economic development, and education can
all be addressed with good faith and a commitment to finding common ground.
I am committed in my next chapter to meet these challenges. The United States-China relationship I believe is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world that will shape global affairs for generations. We must get it right.
Thirty-eight years ago, Mike Mansfield said farewell to this institution by simply declaring: ``There is a time to stay and a time to go.''
Now, as I face my own crossroads, I am humbled to have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.
As America's ambassador to Japan, Mansfield worked hard to strengthen and improve America's relationship throughout history. I will try to do the same.
Many of you know I love to run. I actually have my eye on the Beijing Marathon--but, to be more honest, maybe I will scale it down to a half- marathon, something a little shorter. When I think about my next endeavor, I am reminded of something a professional runner, Paul Tergat, once said:
Ask yourself: ``Can I give more?'' The answer is usually:
Yes.
I can give more; we all can. I thank President Obama for asking me. I am indeed energized to serve America in this new role and to look at this as my sprint to the finish.
I trust Montanans to choose wisely as they have so well with my friend, the great Senator from Montana Jon Tester.
My final message is not for my esteemed peers but for the young people chasing their dreams across the Montana Hi-Line, searching for meaning through the Yellowstone River Valley or climbing toward their future along the Rocky Mountain Front.
The headlines paint the picture that there is no honor in public service. I disagree. I think the greatest noble human endeavor is service--service to friends, service to family, to church, to synagogue. Public service. The most noble human endeavor is service. So I urge you young folks to take up that challenge that politics is not an honorable profession. It is more than honorable. It is an obligation to serve. And I urge you to follow and serve. Choose to serve others. For me, it has been the honor of a lifetime. I am so lucky. And be ready--because history is calling.
It is with deep gratitude and respect that I say for the last time, with full faith in the highest forms of the Senate, I yield the floor. But before doing so, I just have to say I am not going anywhere. I am just taking a trip, maybe for a year or two, across the Pacific--just a trip. I will be coming back because we all are together on different journeys that we take.
I thank all of you, my colleagues.
I yield the floor.