Mr. President, as the Senate completes its work for the year, we have also reached the end of the distinguished career of the senior Senator from Virginia, John William Warner, Jr. In their wisdom, our Founders created the Senate to be a…
Mr. President, as the Senate completes its work for the year, we have also reached the end of the distinguished career of the senior Senator from Virginia, John William Warner, Jr.
In their wisdom, our Founders created the Senate to be a body like no other on Earth to harness the special wisdom that experience can bring. I think they had people like John Warner in mind as the kind of person who would best serve the Nation in the Senate.
Senator Warner has lived a life of faithful, skillful service to his country. He served in World War II, enlisting as a 17-year-old. He interrupted his law school studies to also serve in Korea. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney. And for 5 years he served in the Secretariat of the Navy, leading the department from 1972 to 1974. That seems like a full career in itself, but it was just a prologue to five terms in the Senate.
Over three decades, John Warner has worked with great energy, skill, and wisdom to protect the national security of the United States. The Department of Defense is a massive organization with a budget that staggers the imagination. But Senator Warner has devoted himself to mastering the details of the DOD and been a relentless advocate for its modernization and continuous improvement in effectiveness. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated tremendous caring for the millions of men and women who have worn the country's uniform and been their best friend on Capitol Hill.
Senator Warner has been a counselor and mentor to me in my first 6 years here, and on behalf of the people I represent in Minnesota I thank him for his counsel to me on how to do this job right. He taught me that just as the human body has its bones and vital organs under the skin and out of sight, the most important work of the Senate takes place away from the TV lights and the press conferences.
The day-to-day work of achieving compromise on hundreds and hundreds of issues that come before us is where the real difference can be made, and John Warner excelled at that work.
Another Virginian, George Washington, said during the darkest days of the American Revolution that, ``spirit and perseverance have done wonders in all ages.'' Today I honor the spirit of patriotism that has always motivated John Warner and his perseverance through more than five decades that has made this a stronger and freer nation. May his sterling example of service inspire all of us to serve as nobly and as skillfully as he has done.
Pete Domenici
Mr. President, one of the lessons of our history is that America is not great because our leaders were somehow superhuman, but because regular people enjoy extraordinary freedom and use it to pursue ideals beyond their individual concerns. Senator Pete Domenici is a wonderful example of this unique brand of American greatness, and as he completes his service to the Senate, I wanted to take a few minutes of the Senate's time to honor him and thank him.
Pete Domenici was born to Italian immigrants during the Great Depression in Albuquerque, NM, which was a long cultural distance from Washington, DC. He worked in his family grocery businesses and played for a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which is enough to endear him to me right there. He became a junior high math teacher and then earned a law degree.
He served in local government for 6 years before his first election to the Senate in 1972. And he has served six full terms in the Senate, which is amazing in and of itself. But what is perhaps most amazing is he has remained the regular person he was brought up to be in Albuquerque and has always applied his commonsense values to the most complex national problems.
Senator Domenici has been a stalwart in the difficult job of trying to curb Washington's seemingly endless appetite for more spending. Politics tends to be a business in which all the rewards flow to those who say ``yes.'' But for the sake of the taxpayers and children and grandchildren of ours who cannot yet speak, Pete Domenici has been willing to say ``no'' to more spending in order to say ``yes'' to their economic future.
Senator Domenici has made a tremendous contribution to the advancement of science by focusing resources and efforts to understand the human brain. For decades from now, a wide spectrum of discoveries and therapies to improve human life will come out of his insistence on progress of the basic science of brain research. It has been a great privilege to work with him closely on his signature issue for the last several years: mental health parity. His tireless commitment to ending insurance discrimination, and willingness to share his own family's struggles, has broken down barriers to treatment and brought hope to millions of Americans living with mental illness.
The legislative process has regrettably become more divisive and partisan over the last decade, but through it all Senator Domenici has been a role model of civility, diligence, and goodwill. The Senate was built to achieve consensus on the great issues of the day, and Pete Domenici was always focused on what we could get done, rather than on who got the credit.
His ability and willingness to find consensus and produce legislation the American people need has been showcased by his 30 years of service on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It is a testament to his abilities that as either chairman or ranking member, Pete Domenici has guided three energy bills into law in the last 3 years: the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Pete found a way to cut through a tough, partisan climate in the Senate to address our dependence on foreign oil.
Personally he has been a connecting point for me with the great compromisers and policy experts of the Senate's recent past. And he has always reminded me that we are not Senators who happen to be people; we are people who happened to be Senators for a
time, and we need to nurture the roots of faith, family, and friendship that give us life.
Pete Domenici is a great American success story, and it has been an honor and privilege to serve with him in Washington. His influence on me will continue long after he has left this body.
Chuck Hagel
Mr. President, one of the first experiences of a new Senator is to open their drawer in their desk here on the floor and learn a special lesson in Senate history. Traditionally, Senators do what we prevent sixth grade boys from doing: we write our names into our desks. When I first opened my drawer here, I saw decades of people who had occupied this particular desk, and it told me that for however long I am here, I am a temporary occupant. Many came before me and many will come after me. So at each 2-year interval, we say goodbye to many of our colleagues and await the new.
I will be particularly sad to say farewell to the Senior Senator from Nebraska, Mr. Hagel. He came to this body with an extraordinary career in communications, finance, and international business. He was like a Senator of a bygone era, when Members of this body often were the national experts in their fields.
He made a tremendous contribution to the world of the Senate because he had first-hand knowledge of the dynamism and transformational nature of the global economy all around us. He is the kind of decisionmaker that is shaping the new economy and it has been so valuable to have him among us.
Chuck Hagel's whole life expresses his conviction that the world can and should be a better place, and it will not get that way by itself. He is fully engaged in life-long effort to make the world a better place, and he applies every waking hour to the quest. I know that ``retirement'' is not the word for his departure from this place--in a way he is released from this responsibility to pursue his passion of public service in multiple other ways. He is the embodiment of the ideal of a life of self-sacrifice for the betterment of others.
Senator Hagel brought his analytical, probing mind to the Foreign Relations Committee, where I served with him these last 6 years. His contributions to the committee's work were always thoughtful and challenging--and that was just his Halloween costumes.
Chuck Hagel is one of the most energetic people I have ever met. When you look at the list of organizations he supports with this ideas and his leadership, it looks like the combined resume of five people. He works with veterans organizations, antipoverty organizations, international cooperation organizations and the list goes on and on. He has been honored by dozens of organizations for excellence in public service.
For some reason, Nebraska has a habit of sending independent-minded members to this body, and they play a key role in our deliberation. Perhaps because Nebraska is kind of plains State, kind of a Midwestern State, kind of a Western State, and in that way unique, Nebraskans have contributed a great deal of independence to our deliberations, which is so valuable in the Senate's search for consensus.
We in Minnesota are glad to be a part of Chuck Hagel's life. Since some of his education occurred at the Brown Institute in Minneapolis, we too claim a piece of him.
We thank the people of Nebraska for sharing him with the Nation as a Member of the Senate. We will certainly miss his razor sharp analytical mind and his wonderfully engaging personality. I am personally grateful to him for the way he introduced me to the habits and ways of the Senate and for helping me understand how to do my best for the people of my State.
In the history of this Nation, different kinds of men and women have given some of their talents and vision to this place for the benefit of the whole Nation. We thank Senator Hagel for his willingness to serve and for the way he made the most of every moment of his time here in the Senate.
Wayne Allard
Mr. President, with the conclusion of our business for the year comes the moment when we must say farewell to Members who have chosen to leave the Senate, and I want to take this opportunity to honor my friend and colleague from Colorado, Senator Wayne Allard. He is leaving as a matter of principle, believing in the value of ``citizen legislators,'' which he is fulfilling by ending his service here after two terms. I greatly respect him for that choice.
One of the wonderful things about the Senate is the distinctive experiences that bring people to this place. Senator Allard's professional training is as a veterinarian, a skill that is of great importance to a State with as much livestock agriculture as Colorado. He began a successful veterinary practice from nothing in Loveland, in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. That experience has given him unique insight into the needs and concerns of America's millions of small businesses, where the job growth and creative energy of our economy comes from.
Wayne Allard brought many values with him to the Senate, but perhaps the most important is the need to use more care in the way we spend the people's money. He personally practiced that value by returning $42.2 million of his office allotment to the U.S. Treasury. As a member of the committees which handle appropriations, the Federal budget and banking policy, he has been a constant advocate for lower spending, improved efficiency in government programs, and steady progress toward a balanced budget.
Our former colleague, Howard Baker, once said that you could trace the decline of the legislative branch of Government to the installation of air-conditioning in the Capitol. What he meant by that was that previous generations of Senators were driven from Washington by the tropical summers, and that gave them an opportunity to reconnect with their roots so they could return refreshed and reoriented toward the people's wishes. Senator Allard needed no such climatic encouragement: he couldn't wait to get back to Colorado where he would spend countless hours listening to and learning from the folks who sent him here.
I will truly miss his example and his friendship here in the Senate. The Senate is a distinctive and valuable institution generation after generation because the senior Members pass on their lessons to the junior Members. Senator Allard taught me a lot about how to be a good Senator by working hard, sticking to your principles, and listening more than talking.
Former Senator Harry S. Truman said that if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog. But Senator Allard has been my good friend, encouraging me when I was discouraged and keeping me humble when I was flying too high for my own good.
I think the ideas of fiscal conservatism and frugality that he based his life and service on are returning to the forefront here in Washington as he departs. As we move toward a balanced budget, I think he can take pride in fighting for it for 12 years in Washington and pointing us in the right direction.
Wayne Allard is a good man who chose to serve in the Senate for a specific amount of time and he has done that. I honor him today as a person of character and wisdom, and I thank him for making me a better Senator and for making the Senate a place that better reflects the values of regular people.
Larry Craig
