Floor Statements

Madam President, I know there are others on the Senate floor seeking to speak, but I wish to bid farewell to one of our colleagues. Few people can say they have had the same range of experience and successes in life as Senator Jim Bunning. In fact, there isn't even another Major Leaguer who can say he struck out Ted Williams three times in one game. Jim accomplished that notable feat in just his second year in the majors.

Thirty-nine years after that, he had become the only member of the Baseball Hall of Fame to serve in Congress. For the past 12 years, I have been honored to work alongside this remarkable American in the Senate. We followed different paths in life, but we sure have deep love for Kentucky and its people. It has been my honor over the years to work closely with Jim to advance our common goals.

So today I wish to say a few words about my good friend as we honor his remarkable life and his remarkable service.

Jim was born and raised in Southgate, KY, and it wouldn't surprise anybody to learn he excelled in school and in sports growing up. He played baseball as a teenager at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, but it was for his skills as a basketball player that would earn him an athletic scholarship to Xavier University.

Baseball interrupted his college education, but at his father's insistence,

Jim would return to Xavier and earn a degree in economics that would serve him well in Congress over the years. He entered the majors in 1955, and over the course of a storied 17-year career he would play for the Detroit Tigers, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jim is a pretty imposing force at committee hearings--just ask Chairman Bernanke--but he was a dominating presence on the mound long before that.

At 6 feet 4 inches, he was a hard-throwing sidearmer who would tumble off the mound with every pitch he threw. By the end of his career, Jim could boast he was the first Major League pitcher to win 100 games, rack up 1,000 strikeouts, and throw no-hitters in both leagues. He finished with an impressive 224 wins, 184 losses, 2,855 strikeouts, and a 3.27 ERA--the career stats that would earn him a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jim's two greatest pitching achievements were his no-hitter in 1958 and the perfect game he threw on Father's Day, 1964, a feat that has only been accomplished 20 times in baseball history. Another little known feat was Jimmy's so-called ``immaculate inning'' in 1959 when he struck out three Red Sox on nine pitches, a feat that has only been achieved 43 other times in baseball history.

Around here we joke that Jim likes to throw the high hard ones, but he developed the skill early. Over a 4-year period with the Phillies, Jim hit more opposing batters with pitches than any other pitcher in the league. In fact, over a 17-year career, he plunked 160 batters or nearly 10 batters a year, making him the 13th most dangerous pitcher of all time, ahead of such other well-known head hunters as Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, and Don Drysdale.

Jim has never been afraid of a little chin music, and he brought that same competitive mentality to his life in public service. After baseball, public service seemed like a logical choice. It was Jimmy's turn to give back, and give back is exactly what he did.

When Jim walks out of this Chamber for the last time at the end of this session, he will be able to say with justifiable pride that he has given 33 years of his life to public service and to Kentucky.

Over those three decades, Jim has served in all levels of government--from the Fort Thomas City Council to the Kentucky State Senate, to both Chambers in this building--12 years in the House and 12 in the Senate. He has dedicated his life to serving the people of Kentucky, and Kentuckians are grateful for his service.

In the House, he made a name for himself, among other things, by working tirelessly to strengthen and protect Social Security as chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.

And then, in 1998, he decided to make a run at the U.S. Senate seat which at the time was held by Wendell Ford. It turned out to be a pretty close election, but once he arrived in the Senate, Jim set out to become one of the hardest-working and most influential Members of this Chamber.

He has been a staunch social and fiscal conservative, and a budget hawk who for years has sounded the alarm on the kind of concerns about spending and debt that drove so many Americans to the polls this month. Jim spoke for many Americans when he said in a recent statement that, being a grandfather to many he worries that future generations will be saddled by the poor decisions that are being made today. ``For the first time in my life,'' he said, ``I question if my grandchildren will have the same opportunities that I had . . .''

One particular issue that has been close to Jim's heart is the issue of adoption. In 2001, Jim introduced legislation to make adopting more affordable to American families. And in 2007, he introduced legislation to make those tax incentives permanent.

And, of course, if there was ever a controversial issue regarding the national pastime on Capitol Hill, Jim was right at the forefront, including the 2005 hearings related to steroid use in baseball. In one memorable exchange from that hearing, Jim offered the following testimony, from his own experience as a player: ``Mr. Chairman,'' he said, ``maybe I'm old-fashioned,'' [but] I remember players didn't get better as they got older. We all got worse. When I played with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and Ted Williams, they didn't put on 40 pounds to bulk up in their careers and they didn't hit more homers in their late 30's than they did in their late 20's.'' It was just this kind of straightforward, commonsense approach to the issues that has won Jim a legion of admirers not only on the baseball diamond, but off of it. And on this issue in particular, Jim's passion and personal perspective helped shed light not only on the dangers of steroid use at the professional level, but on the growing steroid epidemic among young athletes at all levels.

Despite his high profile, Jim never forgot about the issues that mattered most to his constituents back home. He's been a staunch supporter of clean coal technologies as an effective, efficient way to use coal, improve our environment, and bring jobs to Kentucky. Another issue that was extremely important to all Kentuckians was the failed clean up of radioactive contamination that was found in the drinking water wells of residences near the Department of Energy's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, KY, in 1988. In 2004, Jim harshly criticized the DOE's cleanup efforts, as well as called several hearings on Capitol Hill to draw attention to DOE's failure to compensate many workers that had been stricken with radiation-related diseases.

In every issue he has taken on, whether national, statewide or local, Jim has been a man of principle from start to finish. He has stayed true to himself. And in a truly remarkable life, he has got a lot to be proud of. But if you were to ask Jim to list his greatest achievement, I don't think he would say it was his election to the U.S. Senate or his induction to the Hall of Fame. They would both come in a distant second and third to the day he married his high school sweetheart, Mary. Jim and Mary still live in the northern Kentucky town where he grew up. They have been married for nearly 60 years. Together, they have raised nine children. And they enjoy nothing more than spending time with the next generation of Bunnings--which last time I checked included 35 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Jim will tell you there's no secret to his success. He is happy to give all the credit to Mary. As he put it in his Hall of Fame induction speech, she is his ``rock.''

Today, we honor and pay tribute to our friend and colleague for more than three decades of public service. Jim will be remembered for his two Hall of Fame-worthy careers, for his example of principled leadership, and for his devotion to God, country, and family. On behalf of myself and the entire Senate family, Jim, we thank you for your service, and we wish you the best in the next chapter of your life.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, may I make a few observations about where we are?

Mr. President, let me respond briefly to the majority leader. I too want to commend the members of the Appropriations Committee for all the work they have done, particularly Republican members of the Appropriations Committee who did spend an enormous amount of time crafting and developing the 12 different appropriations bills that we should have been acting on all year long. This is the first time in modern history that not a single appropriations bill went across the floor of the Senate--not a one. So the Appropriations Committee members on a bipartisan basis did indeed do their job. The problem was the full Senate didn't do its job. What we ended up with was this, this almost 2,000-page Omnibus appropriations bill which we only got yesterday.

The point is, the work the Appropriations Committee did in many respects was squandered because the full Senate didn't do its job. This is precisely the kind of thing the American people have gotten tired of.

The message we ought to take out of this is that next year, we are going to listen to the American people. We are going to do our work, do it in a timely fashion. There is no more basic work than the funding of the government. That is the first thing we ought to be doing.

Here we are trying to do it right at the end, as an old Congress goes out of office and a new Congress comes in. The message is, let's don't do this anymore. Let's make a bipartisan decision at the beginning of the next session that the basic work of government is going to be done in a timely fashion for an opportunity out here on the floor of the Senate for Members of both parties to offer amendments, make suggestions, and improve the bill.

I too respect the work the Appropriations Committee has done. I don't agree with the priorities we have had here in the Senate about what things are important. As a result of not doing the basic work of government, here we are at the end struggling with this issue. There is only one reason why cloture is not being filed and the majority leader, to his credit, has already said it. He doesn't have the votes. The reason he doesn't have the votes is because Members on this side of the aisle increasingly felt concerned about the way we do business. For many of our Members it was not so much the substance of the bill but the process. Let's learn from this. We will get together, as the majority leader said, and determine what appropriate time for a continuing resolution makes sense to offer to govern on an interim basis, and let's come back here after the holidays with a renewed desire to do our business in a timely fashion and avoid this kind of thing in the future.

I yield the floor.

Will my good friend yield for a question?

Will the Senator yield for a question?

I was just going to ask my friend--it is hard to ask a question without making something of a statement in connection with it, if that is OK.

I was not talking about the process by which the bill was developed in committee. And I started off, I would say to my friend from Nevada, commending the committee for its work. What I was commenting upon was the lack of taking the bill up on the floor of the Senate--over $1 trillion, the basic work of government.

And so, Mr. President, I would ask my friend, why, if these bills enjoy bipartisan support--and they did--why were they not brought before the full Senate and passed? I think I would say to my friend, I expect it is because you had other priorities. And this is the basic work of government. Why did we not bring any of these bills before the Senate floor?

Mr. President, today I rise to recognize the members of America's Armed Forces who are deployed during this Christmas season. The sacrifices of our military and those of their families are always great, but especially so during wartime and the holidays. As most Americans celebrate this time of joy and good cheer it is important that we take a moment to honor and remember the brave men and women in uniform who are defending our well being overseas and to thank their families as well.

Kentucky's military installations have been in the thick of the fight in the war on terror. The 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, for example, is once again overseas. The unit is fully deployed and is executing a critical mission in Afghanistan.

The Army's 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division is currently deploying from Fort Knox to Afghanistan. The Duke Brigade, as it is known, is the first unit of its kind at Fort Knox since the 1990s.

And the Kentucky National Guard continues to deploy to theater. Just last week, members of the 123rd Civil Engineer Squadron left for Southwest Asia.

I am profoundly grateful for the sacrifice of our servicemembers and military families. And, as a Kentuckian, I swell with pride at the contributions made by units from the Commonwealth's military installations and by Kentucky servicemembers. During this holiday season our prayers are with them.

Mr. President, I wish to recognize Louisville, Kentucky's, longtime meteorologist John Belski, whom a large swath of Kentuckians have relied on for accurate weather forecasts for over 23 years. After a long and successful career, John has retired. This September 8 he presented his final weather broadcast.

John began at WAVE-3 TV in Louisville in July 1987 and has been welcomed into Kentuckians' homes ever since. A typical morning for residents of the greater Louisville area began by tuning in to John for important details about the day's forecast.

Before joining WAVE-3, John worked in Louisville at WLKY-TV and also at stations in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. John's professionalism has earned him several awards, including 15 different Best of Louisville Magazine honors, the Best of Kentucky award by Kentucky Monthly magazine and the LEO Readers' Choice Award, just to name a few.

John was at the center of the hard-hitting winter storm in 1994, when Kentucky was blanketed with a record snowfall of more than 15 inches. In August 2009 he stood watch when a massive rainstorm produced large hail and flash flooding that caused major damage to some of Kentucky's most well known attractions, including Churchill Downs. And who could forget this time last year, when one of the most severe ice storms in Kentucky's history crippled the area, leaving 760,000 residents without power and causing 36 deaths across the State. Throughout it all, John's was a calm and steady voice, providing viewers with critical information.

Now that he has retired, I hope John will have more time to spend with his wife Lynn and his two daughters. John is not just known for his abilities as a meteorologist in Louisville. Whether it be partaking in one of the many county fairs or being present at the Kentucky Derby, John was always there, reporting. He is going to be missed enormously, and I would ask my colleagues to join me in thanking him on behalf of all Kentuckians for his service.

Mr. President, WAVE-3 TV recently published a story on the retirement of their friend, John Belski, and I ask unanimous consent that the full article be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, yesterday Democratic leaders unveiled an omnibus spending bill that some have described as one last spending binge for a Congress that will long be remembered for doing just that. The Senate should reject it.

It appeared to some of us we were making good progress on the economy when lawmakers in both parties agreed Monday to let taxpayers keep more of their own money. But yesterday Democrats unveiled a 2,000-page spending bill that repeats all of the mistakes voters demanded that we put an end to on election day.

Americans told Democrats last month to stop what they have been doing: bigger government, 2,000-page bills jammed through on Christmas Eve, wasteful spending. This bill is a monument to all three. It includes more than $1 billion to fund the Democratic health care bill. For those of us who have vowed to repeal it, this alone is reason to oppose the omnibus. It is being dropped on us with just a few days to go before the Christmas break, ensuring that no one in Congress has a chance to examine it thoroughly before the vote, and ensuring Americans don't have a chance to see what is in it either. This, too, is reason enough to oppose it.

For 2 years Republicans have railed against the Democrats for rushing legislation through Congress, but this is, without a doubt, one of the worst abuses of the process yet.

The voters made an unambiguous statement last month. They don't like the wasteful spending, they don't want the Democratic health care bill, and they don't want lawmakers rushing staggeringly complex, staggeringly expensive bills through Congress without

any time for people to study what is buried in the details.

This bill is a legislative slap in the face to all the voters who rejected these things.

For the first time in the modern era--for the first time in the modern era--Congress hasn't passed a single appropriations bill--not one, not one single appropriations bill. Democrats have been too focused on their own leftwing wish list to take care of the very basic work of government.

Now, at the end of the session, they want to roll all of these bills together, along with anything else they haven't gotten over the past 2 years, and rush it past the American people just the way they jammed the health care bill through Congress last Christmas. We all remember being here every single day throughout the month of December last year for a 2,700-page health care bill passed on Christmas Eve. This is eerily reminiscent of the experience last December, and I predict the American people have the same reaction to this bill as they did to the health care bill a year ago.

A more appropriate approach is available to us. We could pass a sensible, short-term continuing resolution that gets us into next year when the new Congress will have the opportunity to make a determination on how best to spend the taxpayers' money. The government runs out of money, by the way, this Saturday. Congress should pass a short-term CR immediately. We need to pass this tax legislation we voted on earlier this week. And we should accomplish the most basic function of government. We can at least vote to keep the lights on around here. I mean, the deadline for funding the basics of government was last October, and here we are on December 15 proposing treaties--treaties. We ought to pass the tax legislation and keep the lights on. Everything else can wait.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I am certainly not going to object, I want to thank the majority leader. I think it is a good way to go forward. There was some suggestion that some on this side of the aisle wanted to read the treaty. Our view is that that is not essential.

We do encourage our members--I know Senator Lugar, our ranking member on Foreign Relations, is here and Senator Kyl, who has been deeply involved in this issue. We would encourage them to begin the debate on the treaty.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the work of an unsung hero, COL Bradley Turner of Booneville, KY. After a 37-year career serving in our Nation's military, Colonel Turner recently retired on September 24 of this year.

Over that nearly four-decade span, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, and the Kentucky Army National Guard. Before earning the rank of colonel, Bradley was a sergeant in the Marines, a captain in the Army, and a lieutenant colonel while in the Guard. In 1991, he was deployed in Operation Desert Storm with the 623rd Field Artillery from Glasgow, KY.

Throughout his career he earned many medals, including the Bronze Star Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal, among others. His dedication in serving our country has truly been a blessing to our Commonwealth and our Nation. I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Colonel Bradley Turner for his service. The Booneville Sentinel recently published a story about Colonel Turner and his accomplishments. I ask unanimous consent that the full article be printed in the Record following these remarks.

There being no objection the material was ordered to be printed in the Record as follows:

[From the Booneville Sentinel, Dec. 8, 2010]

Colonel Bradley Turner Retires After 37-Year Career

Colonel Bradley Turner of Booneville has retired from the

U.S. Army Reserve after a 37-year career. He enlisted in the

U.S. Marine Corps in 1973 and served 4 years, attaining the

rank of sergeant. After leaving the Marine Corps he attended

Lees College and Morehead State University where he graduated

with a bachelor of science degree. While in college he

attended ROTC and was commissioned in 1981 in the U.S. Army.

He served 4 years on active duty, attaining the rank of

captain. After leaving active duty, he joined the Kentucky

Army National Guard. During his service in the Guard he

served as a battery commander, battalion and brigade

operations officer, and battalion and brigade executive

officer. In 1991 he was deployed to Operation Desert Storm

with the 623rd Field Artillery from Glasgow, Kentucky. He was

mobilized again in 2003 with the 138th Field Artillery

Brigade from Lexington, Kentucky.

While in the Guard he graduated from the U.S. Army War

College with a master's degree in strategic studies, and he

attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. He then transferred

to the 100th Training Division, U.S. Army Reserve where he

was the battalion commander of the 10th Battalion of the

100th Division in Lexington, and later a principal staff

officer at the division headquarters in Louisville. While at

the division headquarters he attained the rank of colonel.

His awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious

Service Medal (2 awards), the Army Commendation Medal, the

Army Achievement Medal, the Military Outstanding Volunteer

Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the

Southwest Asia Campaign Medal, and the Liberation of Kuwait

Medal. He is married to Debra Combs Turner and they have

three children, Tangee Young of Ricetown, Brandi Thompson of

Vancleve, and Jeremy Turner of Booneville. They have 4

grandchildren. They reside in east Booneville, and he is an

employee of the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville. Colonel

Turner retired effective September 24, 2010, at the 100th

Division in Louisville, Kentucky.

Madam President, yesterday America lost one of the most talented and dedicated diplomats it has ever produced. Richard Holbrooke began his diplomatic service several decades ago as a young foreign service officer in Vietnam. The storied career that followed spanned the globe and will remain an integral part of the diplomatic history of our Nation.

Dick Holbrooke will always be remembered for pursuing the hardest missions, whether negotiating the Dayton Accords which helped end the war in Bosnia or his immensely difficult final assignment as Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Holbrooke doggedly pursued what in his view best enhanced the diplomacy and national security objectives of our Nation. We honor his legacy of service to America's foreign policy interests by continuing his efforts to help Afghanistan deny the Taliban a return to power and to disrupt, defeat, and dismantle al-Qaida.

I might just add, I remember running into Dick at the White House a couple of weeks ago. He never missed an opportunity to be selling what he was doing. So he sidled up to me and in his usual aggressive way began to discuss his current mission in Afghanistan. He was a dedicated public servant, and we will all miss him greatly.

Madam President, I rise to pay tribute to Senator George Voinovich who has served this Chamber and the people of Ohio with honor over the past 12 years after an already long career as a devoted public servant. George has served in the Ohio statehouse, as Ohio's Lieutenant Governor, as the mayor of Cleveland, as Governor of Ohio, and as a U.S. Senator. That is quite a record of accomplishment. When George walks out of the Chamber for the last time, he will have served 44 years in public service.

Yet in a career that has taken him from Cleveland to Columbus to Washington and around the world, George has always made time for his family, and no one was surprised when in January 2009 he announced that he planned to retire at the end of this year in order to spend more time with Janet.

George and Janet have been married for nearly half a century and they have seen a lot together. George grew up in the same working class neighborhood in Cleveland where he and Janet still call home today. He attended Collinwood High School, Ohio University, and Ohio State University for law school. After practicing law for several years in Cleveland, he began his political career in 1963 as an assistant attorney general of Ohio. Three years later, at the tender age of 30, George was elected to the Ohio statehouse.

The 1970s was a period of economic turmoil for many American cities, and Cleveland was no exception. In 1978, Cleveland became the first American city since the 1930s to file for bankruptcy, and George, who was serving as the State's Lieutenant Governor at the time, decided he needed to do something to help his hometown.

Mounting a challenge to the Democratic incumbent, Dennis Kucinich, George overcame tough odds and won the race. Determined to bring the city around and bring Cleveland out of the economic ditch, George organized a series of coalitions and public-private partnerships to bring Cleveland back from the brink. More importantly, I think George would tell us he helped restore confidence and pride to the city.

His motto was ``Together, We Can Do It.'' And they did. He went on to serve as mayor for an entire decade and helped close an ugly chapter in Cleveland's history. It was a remarkable feat. Once called the ``buckle of the rust belt'' and the butt of a lot of late night television jokes, Cleveland underwent a renaissance under George's leadership. It paid down a $110 million debt, added thousands of jobs, brought new development and businesses downtown, and saw struggling sports franchises transformed into contenders.

For George, it was never about him. He would never take full credit for the growth and prosperity Cleveland enjoyed or the fact that he was named one of the Nation's top mayors. It was always about the people of Cleveland working together to make the city they knew and loved great again.

George's outstanding work as mayor helped him win the Governor's Mansion in 1990 where he served two terms. He faced a fiscal mess in Columbus, too, and worked hard to rein in spending. One of his signature achievements as Governor was education reform, and in particular the Cleveland school voucher program which provided thousands of low-income students with the opportunity for a better education and ultimately greater opportunities in life. But his record of success as Governor was deep and far-reaching. He helped restore Ohio's economy, balanced its budget, and saw unemployment hit a 25-year low. For a job well done, the voters of Ohio reelected George to a second term as Governor in 1994 with a remarkable 72 percent of the vote.

Blocked by term limits from running again for Governor, George ran for the U.S. Senate in 1998. He took the values that earned him so much success in Columbus and Cleveland to Washington. As a Senator, he has been at the forefront of numerous important national

debates. He has been a leading advocate for an effective and efficient Federal Government and for simplifying the Tax Code. He has been involved in legislation to enhance America's competitiveness around the world, to reform our energy policy and to ensure America's strength and security.

George has always had my respect and admiration for his adherence to principle and for his straight-shooting style. He always told you exactly what was on his mind.

Today we honor our colleague and friend, George Voinovich, for his nearly 4\1/2\ decades of public service. We thank Janet and the entire Voinovich family for sharing him with us, and on behalf of the entire Senate family, I wish to thank George for his service and wish him the very best in the years ahead. He will indeed be missed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to my old friend, Kit Bond, a man who has dedicated the better part of four decades to public service, and who has never failed in all those years to put the people of Missouri ahead of himself.

As Kit puts it:

Serving Missouri has been my life's work. . . . I have

walked the land, fished its rivers and been humbled by the

honesty and hard work of our people. The highest honor is to

receive and safeguard the public trust.

But Kit also knew when to leave the field to somebody else. As he put it in his retirement announcement last year before a packed Missouri House Chamber:

In 1973, I became Missouri's youngest governor. . . . I do

not aspire to become Missouri's oldest senator.

It may have been the one ambition Kit did not pursue.

Born in St. Louis, Kit is a sixth generation Missourian. He grew up in Mexico, MO, where his grandfather founded the A.P. Green Fire Brick Company, the largest employer in town. Kit and Linda still call Mexico home.

Kit has always been an overachiever. He graduated cum laude from Princeton University and first in his class from the University of Virginia School of Law. After that, he moved to Atlanta to clerk for one of the great pioneers of the civil rights movement, Judge Elbert Tuttle of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

After that, Kit went home to Missouri to practice law. In 1968, he ran for Congress and lost, but he did not lose his taste for politics. A year later, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General, where he ran the Consumer Protection Division under Attorney General John Danforth. The future Senate colleagues would become close friends, political allies, and dominant figures in Missouri politics for more than a generation.

In 1969, Kit was elected State auditor, and in 1972, at the tender age of 33, he was elected as the youngest Governor in the history of Missouri, and its first Republican Governor in 32 years. It was an extraordinary achievement, followed by an equally extraordinary series of events. Four years after winning the seat, he lost it to a Democrat named Joe Teasdale. But 4 years after that, he won it back from the same guy.

As Governor, one of Kit's greatest accomplishments was working with the Democratic legislature to take the Parents as Teachers pilot program statewide--a program that was designed to help parents prepare their children for the classroom and help them score higher on standardized tests.

As a young father and Governor, Kit saw how important the program was for his own son Sam. ``As a parent

looking for an `owner's manual' to care for a new baby,'' Kit said, ``[Parents for Teachers] was my lifeline.'' So in 1984, Kit signed a bill requiring all Missouri school districts to provide Parents as Teachers services.

Since its inception in the mid-1980s, this program has been immensely successful and helpful to parents all across Missouri, serving 3 million children in the State. Today, the Parents as Teachers program includes 3,000 programs and has expanded to all 50 States and seven countries.

As Governor, Kit was also a strong advocate for biotechnology and the expansion of community health centers to underserved areas.

After his success as a two-term Governor, Kit decided to follow his former boss, Senator Jack Danforth, to Washington. He won his first term with 53 percent of the vote, becoming the only Republican that year to capture a seat previously held by a Democrat. For the last 24 years, Kit has been a leader of this body.

There is no stronger advocate for the men and women of our Armed Forces than Kit Bond. He has worked hard to ensure that our Nation's veterans get the care they need and deserve. He has become an expert on Southeast Asian affairs, last year coauthoring a book on Southeast Asia and Islam entitled ``The Next Front: Southeast Asia and the Road to Global Peace with Islam.'' ``It is not difficult to convince a senator to write a book,'' Kit said. ``The hard part is convincing people to read it.''

The Senate is indebted to Kit for his service as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He has worked tirelessly to conduct responsible oversight of our Nation's intelligence community. He worked closely with former Chairman Rockefeller and our current chair, Dianne Feinstein. In doing so, they showed all of us the importance of working together in a bipartisan fashion on matters of national security.

Kit was instrumental in the passage of the Protect America Act and the subsequent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendment Act of 2008. He worked tirelessly behind the scenes and across the aisle to combat widespread misinformation about these bills.

Regarding the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, Kit said:

There is nothing to fear in [this] bill, unless you have Al

Qaeda on your speed dial.

Over the years, Kit worked hard to improve Missouri's transportation and infrastructure. Legend has it that his staunch protection of Missouri's highway funds even led to a physical altercation one day with our former colleague, Senator Moynihan. The details are a little murky with the passage of time, and Pat denied it ever happened. But Kit claims to have been the last Senator to be ``slugged'' on the Senate floor. The rest of us learned an important lesson that day: Don't mess with Missouri's highway funding.

I think anyone who knows Kit well will tell you the last 10 years have been some of the happiest for him. Linda has made Kit a new man. I understand she has improved his diet, his fitness routine, and, thank heavens, his wardrobe. He has proudly watched his son Sam stand up and defend the Nation Kit has served his entire life. First Lieutenant Bond served two tours in Iraq, the last as a scout-sniper platoon leader, where he conducted close reconnaissance and surveillance operations in order to gain intelligence on the enemy. We all thank him for his courage and his sacrifice in defending our freedom and security.

Now, I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge another one of Kit's loved ones--his dog Tiger, who has become sort of a YouTube celebrity around here. Tiger is, of course, named after Kit's beloved University of Missouri Tigers, and her favorite past time is lying under Kit's desk and destroying a stuffed University of Kansas Jayhawk. Tiger may not be the kind of dog one would imagine for the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Even Kit admits she is a little bit of a froufrou pet. But in Tiger's defense, Kit likes to point out that the last time she saw FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, she would not stop barking. Chairman Bair has not one but two degrees from the University of Kansas. ``I think she sniffed it out,'' Bond said.

Kit has had a tremendous career in public service. He has been elected seven times in Missouri from State auditor to his four terms in the Senate--more than anyone else in the history of the Show-Me State.

Looking back, Kit says his political adversaries kept him nimble, and the media kept him humble. Whatever the formula, Kit has been an outstanding Senator, and we will miss him terribly. I am sure it is hard for Missourians to imagine Kit outside of office. It is no easier for his colleagues to imagine the Senate without Kit. As his fourth term draws to a close, history will show he has served the people of Missouri and the people of this Nation with passion, honor, and integrity. He will be missed.

Let me just add, back in the mid-1980s, I started off in the very last seat back there, and then, 2 years later--these were not great years for Republicans. We had two freshmen my first year, and two freshmen 2 years later, Senator Bond and Senator McCain. So seniority being what it is in the Senate, I got to move out of the very last chair, moving over two more chairs, and Bond and McCain came back there and joined us.

We were such power players in those days, we referred to ourselves as the ``Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Players.''

But I must say to my friend from Missouri, you have come a long way from those early days. You have made an enormous difference in the Senate, and we will all miss you greatly.

Mr. President, I would hope it is not the intention of the senior Senator from New Hampshire to leave the floor. The accolades our friend and colleague, the senior Senator from New Hampshire, has just received from both sides of the aisle are richly deserved. I would hope he might be able to stay a bit longer so some of us have a chance to comment on his extraordinarily distinguished career.

He has devoted his entire life to public service, always served with a deep sense of purpose and with the overriding conviction that we must leave America in a better place than we found it, as he so articulately expressed. He has worked tirelessly for the people of New Hampshire and for all Americans, and he has been a truly invaluable member of the Republican Conference. He is the smartest guy in the room, usually the most strategic, and as witty as they come. Yet even as Judd's national profile has increased over the years as a result of his many natural gifts, he never lost sight of where he came from or the people he represents back home in New Hampshire.

Judd grew up in Nashua in southern New Hampshire and was introduced to the world of politics early on. In 1952, when he was just 5 years old, his father Hugh Gregg was elected Governor of the State. Judd went on to Phillips Exeter Academy for high school in the mid-1960s and to Columbia University after that, graduating with a degree in English in 1969. It was an eye-opening experience being in New York City, particularly in those years. Judd took it all in. He jokes that his minor in college was subway exploration.

Even as he witnessed all the student demonstrations and clashes with police on campus, he found time to dress up as the school's mascot for a time, the Columbia Royal Lion, working the sidelines at games. Judd returned north to attend law school at Boston University and got his J.D. in 1972 and then an LL.M. in tax law in 1975. Then he returned to New Hampshire to practice law.

Meanwhile, he began to venture into New Hampshire primary politics, coordinating primary campaigns for Ronald Reagan in 1976 and George H.W. Bush in 1980. It was during this time that he really developed his conservative principles. Over the years, he has stuck to those principles, and the voters have rewarded him for it. He has never lost a race--not one. Part of the reason Judd wins is that he is not afraid to lose. He would rather lose for the right reasons than win for the wrong ones.

Over the years, he has become something of a political legend in New Hampshire, and for good reason; he is the first person in New Hampshire history to serve as Congressman, Governor, and Senator. He was first elected to Congress in 1980, where he would serve four terms, and then, in what some viewed as a political gamble, he followed his father's footsteps to run for Governor in 1988. He was elected and easily reelected in 1990.

During his second term, New Hampshire, like the rest of the country, faced a difficult recession. But faced with pressure to raise the State's income tax or sales tax, he cut government spending instead. The New Hampshire Union Leader would later credit Judd as being able to manage the State through the crisis far better than anyone expected, and the Wall Street Journal ranked him ninth in its Good Governor Guide for cutting spending and keeping a lid on taxes during a serious budget crisis.

In 1992, Judd decided to run for U.S. Senate on his strong record on environmental protection and fiscal discipline. He won a close race. Upon arriving in this Chamber, Judd immediately set out to work for the people of New Hampshire. I know one of the things he is proud of in his nearly 17 years in the Senate is the work he has done to protect more than 300,000 acres of land in New Hampshire from development. He can also be justifiably proud of the remarkable work he has done as a Republican, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and, most importantly from our Conference's point of view, on the Budget Committee, where his knowledge and command of the issues always impressed the rest of us. He was clearly the right man for the job. When the budget came up, I think we would all agree on our side of the aisle, when Judd stood up and had something to say, everybody quieted down and listened. You can't say that about all of us on every issue all of the time. We recognized his talents from the very beginning.

Just 2 years after arriving here, he was selected to serve as chief deputy whip as well as cochairman of Senator Dole's Senate agenda committee, a working group tasked with developing and managing the Republican agenda at that particular juncture. It was the first time in 20 years that a Senator from New Hampshire had served in a Senate leadership role.

He never hesitated to work across the aisle to get things done. Judd understood that to make something happen in this body, as he just described, it happens between the 40 yard lines, and that means both sides have to participate. He teamed up with Senator Kennedy to coauthor No Child Left Behind. Referring to that particular accomplishment, Judd once said:

I don't think any of us ever gave up our basic principles .

. . Ted just understood that even though he had strong

beliefs . . . he understood you had to legislate to

accomplish that. There was no point in just standing off in

the corner and shouting.

History will remember that Judd also played a central role in Congress's response to the financial crisis of 2008 which we all remember very well. With our Nation on the brink of economic collapse, I was to select one person to represent our point of view at that critical moment. The choice was completely obvious, the one person we had who everybody knew had no other agenda and would at the end of the day do what was right for the country. So I made him the top Republican negotiator on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, now infamously referred to as TARP. His top priority then and throughout the entire debate over the effort was to ensure that the original package protected taxpayers by including language in the bill that stated all proceeds from the paybacks would go to reducing the debt, and he did a fabulous job.

It was because of Judd's principles, intelligence, common sense, and ability to work across the aisle, as I indicated, that I asked him to join my leadership team after I was elected Republican leader. I have relied on him heavily these last 4 years. Judd has been right in the middle of every legislative debate we have had since I have been in this position. He has never disappointed. He has been so effective, in fact, that Senator Reid gave him a couple of nicknames late in his career. First he called him the ``see-if-we-can-mess-up-the-legislation guy.'' After that, he described Judd as ``somebody who comes into a basketball game, not to score points, just to kind of rough people up, just to kind of get the game going a different direction.''

I think Judd and I would both agree that is a heck of a compliment. In fact, this is Senator Gregg's reaction to those nicknames given to him by the Democratic leader:

I appreciate the Senator's comments. I take them as a

compliment. I have been active legislatively. That is,

obviously, our job.

It is funny how people see things differently. I never saw Judd as a Bill Laimbeer-type player out on the court just to rough people up. I always saw Judd--sticking with the basketball metaphors for a moment-- as the intelligent point guard, as the ideas guy with the extraordinary judgment, as the type of guy who could see the whole floor, the big picture, and could make the unselfish play that would win the game.

Over the years, that is exactly what Judd did for our team. He has been instrumental in our efforts to hold the line, slow down or call out the Democrats these past 2 years in particular on an agenda that we viewed as deeply harmful to our future. He has been an indispensable member of the team. In fact, I am not sure where we would be now without him, and sometimes I have wondered where we will be a few years down the road without him. But he leaves his example, and he leaves the knowledge he has passed on along the years, and we will all continue to draw on that in the years ahead.

Judd was recently asked what the hardest thing about being a Senator was, and he answered without hesitation. The hardest thing was being away from his family. It is another principle on which he never, ever hedged.

I made a decision early on in my career which I've carried

throughout my career--that if the choice was between being

here and being with something that was important to my

family, I would be with my family. Maybe my children feel

differently, but I don't think I have missed anything that

was really critical in their upbringing.

Which brings us to Kathy, as Judd indicated, a wife of 37 years, a cherished member of the Senate family. We are so grateful for Kathy's grace and patience with the demands of public life, along with her important work in education, promoting the arts, the environment, and historic preservation, as well as her work in raising awareness about child abuse. Somehow, she and Judd's three children--Molly, Sarah, and Joshua--managed to put up with Judd's three decades of public service, and we thank them all for sharing Judd with us all these years in Washington.

One of Judd's greatest assets as a Senator has been his profound love for this institution and his gratitude for having had a chance to serve as a Member of it. He never took this place or this job for granted. As he once put it:

From my first day in the Senate to today, I remain in awe

of this fabulously interesting place. When I'm on the floor

and I look around and take in its history, it never ceases to

hit me that this is the most successful deliberative

democracy in history. It's an honor to serve there.

To say that I tried to convince Judd to stay is an understatement.

But he knew it was his time to move on and to write the next chapter in his life. While Senators come and go all the time, I cannot help but note that when Judd walks out of this Chamber--when he walks out of this Chamber for the last time--he will leave an enormous void.

So I will close, old friend and colleague, by saying you certainly are going to be missed. We wish you well in your future endeavors. Thank you for your service. You have done an extraordinary job.

I yield the floor.

Yes, regretfully they lost 1 to nothing but made it all the way to the finals.

But you weren't Saturday.

As my friend knows, as I mentioned to him, since the Senate was not in session Saturday, I was actually there. With 5 minutes into the second half, your Rebels were up by 9, and it looked pretty bleak. But all's well that ends well, and the Cardinals managed to win.

Mr. President, since we are talking about weekends, I guess all of our Members should expect that we will press on this weekend.

Yes.

Mr. President, over the past few years, the American people have been engaged in a great national debate about the proper role of government. This debate is as old as our Nation itself, but it has reemerged with new intensity amidst a prolonged economic downturn that continues to affect millions of Americans.

On the one side are those who argue the solution to our present troubles lies in giving more to Washington. They say if only Washington had more power, we could have averted these challenges altogether; and the only way to get us out of this and to put us on stronger economic footing is to hand over more of our freedoms--and more of our paychecks--to Washington.

On the other side of this debate are those who say in order for individuals to prosper and move up the economic ladder, they must be free to take risks. They must be free to fail. They argue for government limits and restraint and for making as many decisions as possible close to home.

Now, it is no secret most Americans fall into the second group. Whenever asked, most Americans say they will take a system of free enterprise and limited government over the alternative any day. But, occasionally, people find the first group's message appealing, too, especially in times of distress. That is why 2 years ago, Americans chose what they viewed as the safer route. Yet since then many have come to regret that decision.

We have all seen the deep discontent with Washington spread over the last year and a half as lawmakers here assumed more and more authority and spent more and more taxpayer money on wasteful projects and dubious long-term programs which couldn't possibly deliver what Democratic leaders said they would. Early last month, we watched as Americans told Democratic leaders in Washington they had had enough of their 2-year experiment in big government. On election day, our debate about government took yet another turn, and the bipartisan compromise the White House agreed to last week on taxes is a clear sign that it has had an impact.

In some ways, it has shifted the debate entirely. Here is how: For 2 years, Democrats in Washington have argued that the solution to our Nation's economic problems is to give bureaucrats in Washington trillions of dollars and then have them spend it for us. But with this bipartisan compromise, we are taking a different approach. We are telling the American people to keep money that is rightfully theirs so they can spend it and invest it as they please. This is an important shift, and the White House should be applauded for agreeing to it.

There are parts of this agreement I don't like such as the Democrats' insistence that we borrow the money we need to pay for a further extension of unemployment insurance. In my view, if both parties agree the debt is a serious problem, we shouldn't be writing checks we don't have the money to cover.

Yet, in another way, this bipartisan compromise represents an essential first step in tackling the debt because in keeping taxes where they are, we are officially cutting off that spigot. Taxes are going to stay right where they are for the next 2 years, and until we did that, Democrats in Washington were never going to be serious about cutting spending or debt. As long as more revenue was coming in, they would always have an excuse to spend more. With this agreement, Members of Congress no longer have that excuse.

History is very clear on that point. From World War II through 2009, every dollar of new tax revenue that the government has collected has been associated with $1.17 in new spending. This means for decades, lawmakers in both parties have spent every dime of revenue that came in from taxpayers, then borrowed a little bit more on top of it to set a higher baseline for the next year.

But the American people have caught on to the game and they have had it. They know the root of our problem lies not in the fact that Washington taxes too little but that it spends too much. They want the wasteful spending to stop.

Mark my words, if Republicans had gone along with the Democratic plan on taxes, they would have done the same thing they have always done. They would have spent it all, and then some. They had no intention of using any new tax revenue to pay down the

debt. The President has already said he has better ways to spend the taxpayers' money than they do.

Nobody expected the same Democrats who more than tripled the deficit to suddenly get serious about cutting it if they expected more tax revenue to come in next year as a result of higher taxes. So it never made sense to take money from job creators in order to hand it over to politicians who would only waste it. Nobody ever created a job by punishing a job creator, and we simply had to turn off the spigot--not from some but from everyone--to remove the temptation to spend it.

For the past 2 years, Democrats in Washington worked hand in hand with the White House spending trillions we didn't have on programs Americans didn't want. They wrote future budgets presuming Americans would agree to a tax hike to pay for it all. They cashed the checks before Americans had even written them like an employee who demands a raise on the grounds that he and his wife had already budgeted for a speed boat and a three-car garage. But the American people have rebelled against this way of doing business, and now we are going to move in another direction.

Some may continue to deny that Washington has a spending problem. Those are the people who are still out there arguing for a tax hike. But the only argument they appear to be making is that it is only fair for certain people to be punished with higher taxes.

I have heard a lot of Democrats in recent days say this group or that group doesn't ``deserve'' to have their current tax rates extended. But, of course, that has always been a losing argument in America. You can count me among those who want everybody in this country to succeed, and I suspect most Americans agree with that.

There may be some in Washington who are only satisfied if somebody or some group loses out, which either means they think there is a finite amount of success to be had out there, which is nonsense, or they are looking for an excuse to spend more money on turtle tunnels or researching the drug preferences of monkeys. But either way, Americans aren't interested in that point of view.

Americans aren't interested in scapegoats. They are interested in regaining our prosperity. They have lost faith in government's ability to get us through with more and more government spending. With this bipartisan compromise, we are finally giving these people a voice in this debate.

So today's vote is a step in the right direction. But it is only a first step. Unless we use it to pivot to the deficit and the debt, we will have only pushed the larger problem down the road, and no one sent us here to do that. It is time to come together to cut the debt in the same way we have come together to prevent a tax hike. It won't be easy, but we have laid the groundwork. I will vote in favor of this bipartisan compromise, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate and in the House to do the same.

Mr. President, we are losing through retirement a number of our most distinguished Members. None of them have I been closer to than the Senator from Utah, Senator Bennett, and I am pleased he is here on the floor today. He made his farewell speech last week, and now I wish to speak about his farewell myself.

Over the last 18 years, I have come to rely on Bob's counsel, and today I wish to thank him publicly and personally for being so generous with his candid advice and unfailing good judgment. I simply would not be where I am today without the benefit of Bob's wisdom and friendship, and I am deeply grateful for it.

Bob has always been a pretty low-key guy, and he has always preferred working quietly in the background--both rarities in politics today. But as with most everything Bob does, there is a method behind his style. As Bob once put it:

In Washington, there are two kinds of Senators . . . work

horses and show horses. I decided I would be a work horse.

Then he went on to explain the difference. He said:

Most of the show horses look in the mirror in the morning

and see a President looking back at them . . . But we haven't

elected a bald president in this country since [Dwight]

Eisenhower [so] I look in the mirror and realize I don't

have the qualifications.

What Bob failed to point out, of course, is that he has one of the longest resumes in the Senate. So I would like to take a moment today to go through just some of the things he has achieved in a very eventful life.

Born in Salt Lake City, Bob was the youngest of Francis and Wallace F. Bennett's five children. Bob learned the value of hard work from his dad and the importance of faith from both his parents. The product of public education, Bob graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City and then went on to attend the University of Utah, where he majored in political science and served as student body president.

After college, he served 3 years as Chaplain in the Utah Army National Guard. By then, Bob's father had already been a U.S. Senator for a number of years; and after his service Bob joined his dad's Senate reelection campaign in 1962. It was a close race, but Bob's father was able to win--and Bob himself was hooked on politics. After working on the campaign, he wasn't much interested in returning to Bennett Paint & Glass, so he packed his bags and moved to DC.

After bouncing around a little as a press secretary in Congress, a corporate researcher working on Federal pension law, and chief administrative assistant for his dad, he took a job as a lobbyist for J.C. Penney.

Now, in those days, lobbyists did not make as much money as they do today. But Bob enjoyed the work and the friendships he made, including his friendship with the legendary Bryce Harlow. Bryce ended up becoming more than a friend to Bob, he really became a mentor to him. And when Nixon won the Presidential election in 1968, Bryce pulled him aside and gave him some marching orders: ``If I have to give up my cushy corporate job to serve this administration,'' he said, ``so do you. Go get measured for a suit, go over to the Department of Transportation. Show up; you're going to be John Volpe's head of congressional relations.'' And that is exactly what Bob did. Bob will tell you he was proud of his work and experience he gained at DOT. He says no department was more successful. And he has all of the Presidential pens to prove it.

At the end of 1971, Bob was ready to leave government and start something new. So he bought the public relations firm Robert Mullen & Co. and soon unwittingly found himself right in the middle of the Watergate scandal. What Bob didn't know when he bought the firm is that it doubled as a CIA front and that one of its employees had organized the break-in at the center of the Watergate investigation. The unwanted attention ruined Bob's new business and completely changed the course of his career.

Howard Hughes was one of Mullen's clients at the time, and he asked Bob to work for him directly in California. Looking for a fresh start, he took the job, and left Washington for the west coast. After that, Bob found success running a company that made day planners and organizers. Under his leadership, the company went from 4 employees to 700 employees and $80 million in sales. And then, in 1992, with Utah Republican Jake Garn retiring from the Senate, Bob decided to fulfill his lifelong dream and follow in his father's footsteps by running for the Senate. After a tough primary, he beat his Democratic opponent and won the election by a 15-point margin. And since entering this Chamber, he has been a central player in some of the most significant legislative efforts the Senate has undertaken over the last two decades.

A staunch conservative with a track record of finding common ground on some of the toughest issues, Bob played a central role in the bailout of the Mexican government during the peso crisis in the 1990s. For his efforts, President Clinton praised him as ``a highly intelligent, old-fashioned conservative who quickly grasped the consequences of inaction and would stick with us throughout the crisis.'' Around the same time, he was also instrumental in the passage of legislation related to the confidentiality of medical records.

As someone who has always worked hard to build relationships with Democrats, I knew I could always rely on Bob to find out the pulse of Democrats on an issue. And Democrats could turn to him too. Here is what Senator Reid once said about Bob: ``There is no more honorable Member of this body than Bob Bennett.''

Bob and I have found common cause over the years, among other things, in our defense of the First Amendment. I remember being in the trenches together over the flag-burning amendment, which we both opposed. Both of us, of course, also strongly oppose any desecration of the flag. But we agreed that an amendment to the Constitution was not the way to go. And in the end, we prevailed. We thought it was worth the fight to ensure that Congress didn't place any qualifiers on the First Amendment.

Over this time, Bob became one of my most trusted colleagues, and that is why, when I was elected Republican leader, I asked him if he would serve as one of my advisers. He is smart and level-headed, a proven leader, a successful entrepreneur, and when he speaks everyone listens. In addition, he has a remarkable gift of persuasion. Far from the floor is where Bob does his best work. It is a trait he learned from his dad.

As Bob once put it, ``Building a consensus, building relationships where people will trust and do things for you is the hardest work of the Senate, and when it comes to fruition . . . it's also the most rewarding work in the Senate.''

Bob decided long ago to do his best to stay out of the nasty political fights that occur from time to time in Washington. That is one of the reasons you don't ever see him on the Sunday shows. Bob knows that most of the time the media is just looking for that gotcha moment. He is more interested in spending his time focusing on what is best for his constituents, whether it is in this Chamber, in committee, or back home.

In addition to Bob's role in leadership, he served as the ranking member of the Rules and Administration Committee, as the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, as the senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He has been involved in nearly every major issue that has come through this Chamber over the past two decades. He has worked hard to fix our economy and health care system, simplify the tax code, reform entitlement programs, and strengthen America's national security at home and abroad.

But Bob will tell you his most important job is being a husband. And of course today we also pay tribute to Joyce, who has played such an active role in the life of the Senate family over the years. We will miss them both. Together, they have raised six children and in nearly 50 years of marriage, they have certainly seen a lot.

When asked about his legacy, Bob has pointed out that it was always his hope to live up to his own father's example of integrity and hard work. And Bob, we know that if your dad were here today, he would be so proud of all you have accomplished not only in this Chamber and for our country, but also as a devoted husband, father and grandfather. So it is with a sense of gratitude for all that he has meant to the Senate and to me personally, that I pay tribute to Bob Bennett. It has been an honor to serve with him, and most importantly to call him a friend. And on behalf of the entire Senate family, I want to thank Bob for his service. He will be missed, and we wish him all the best in the next chapter of his life.

Madam President, I rise today to draw attention to the life and legacy of a good friend of mine, who sadly lost his battle with cancer. Randy Smith, the longtime executive director of the London-Laurel County Chamber of Commerce, died on November 19, 2010, at the age of 52 years old. For almost 17 years, Randy led the chamber and the entire community toward a stronger, fast-growing future. More than promoting the local businesses in the area, Randy dedicated his professional life to advancing the untapped potential and unique splendor of his community. He had the skills, personality, and intelligence to accomplish nearly everything he undertook--from creating some of the best civic events and festivals in the Commonwealth, to building a stronger chamber membership at a time when many small businesses are struggling.

There is no doubt that Randy's good humor will be deeply missed by all who knew him. But let there also be no doubt that Randy's record of accomplishment and legacy in Laurel County will never fade. The tenacity with which he fought his cancer for more than a year displayed the same trademark character that I have seen in him during our friendship of over a decade. No matter the issue, Randy Smith could be counted on to handle the challenge with the utmost integrity.

It is with a saddened heart that I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering the life and accomplishments of one of the Commonwealth's true unsung heroes. I would further ask that my colleagues join me in expressing our deepest sympathies to his wife Kim and their children Logan, Cameron, and Brianna. I would also like to share my sympathies with Randy's parents, Earl and Rosie Smith, as well as his brothers and sister, Phil and Eddie Smith and Sharon Benge.

The Sentinel Echo recently published a story remembering the life of Randy Smith and I ask unanimous consent that the text of that article be printed in the Record.