Madam President, many people think that Congress is irrelevant, unimportant, and wastes time with the floor speeches that go nowhere. Yesterday on the floor of the Senate something historic occurred. Standing right back here, the senior…
Madam President, many people think that Congress is irrelevant, unimportant, and wastes time with the floor speeches that go nowhere. Yesterday on the floor of the Senate something historic occurred. Standing right back here, the senior Senator from California, Senator Dianne Feinstein, delivered to Congress and to the Nation a report on the use of torture by the United States of America. Seated on this side was Senator Jay Rockefeller who, as the predecessor and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, initiated this investigation into the use of torture. Her speech, which lasted about an hour, was followed by Senator John McCain, who stood up and applauded her for releasing this report.
It is worthy of note that what happened on the floor of this Senate yesterday was an assertion of constitutional principles that goes back to the founding of this country. It was an assertion of the three branches of government and their authority, and the authority of Congress to oversee the executive branch of government, and it got down to basics. Let's remember how we reached the point where this report was put together and delivered to the American people.
I will say at the outset that before I came to this job, I used to practice law and occasionally I would go into a courtroom. I really waited for that moment when I could turn to the jury and say: I want to let you know that my opponent in this case destroyed evidence, and I want to let you know why my opponent destroyed evidence--because what was in that evidence was so terrible they would rather leave it to your speculation of how bad it was than actually to let you read it. That is what started this debate which led to
the report. What happened was the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed videotapes of the interrogation of prisoners. After it was discovered that they destroyed them, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked: Why did you destroy those videotapes? They said: Because Congress never asked for them. The Intelligence Committee said: We didn't know they existed.
At that point the Central Intelligence Agency said to the Senate Intelligence Committee: We did nothing wrong, and we invite you, through your staff and members of the committee, to review the cables and emails within the Central Intelligence Agency which prove our case. It proves we did nothing wrong.
I think the CIA was surprised and shocked when the Senate Intelligence Committee took up their invitation. It meant, I understand, 5 years of work. They reviewed some 6 million pages of information. Two staffers from the Senate Intelligence Committee sat in what they call the cave day after day after day, poring through emails and cables to try to reconstruct what happened after 9/11 when the Central Intelligence Agency was interrogating prisoners. It wasn't an easy task. It was made even more difficult when we came to learn that the Central Intelligence Agency hacked into the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was a tough confrontation between two branches of government, and it is one that resulted, I think, in the right ending when Senator Feinstein, and the Senate Intelligence Committee, following the lead of Senator Rockefeller, stepped forward and produced this report.
I will reflect for a minute on how we reached this point, but first I will tell you that this report concluded that the CIA repeatedly misled senior officials in the Bush and Obama White Houses about detention and interrogation programs. The report said the CIA falsely told the Justice Department that techniques such as waterboarding helped to obtain lifesaving information that kept our country safe.
The report said the CIA detained more individuals and subjected more individuals to abusive interrogation techniques than it ever disclosed to Congress or the President. The CIA did not disclose the use of brutal interrogation techniques that went way beyond what even the torture memo of the previous administration had authorized.
It is worth noting what brought us to this point, and of course, it was the tragic, horrible events of September 11. After that occurrence, the Bush administration unilaterally decided to set aside treaties and laws that have served us in the past. President Bush's then-White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, recommended to President Bush that the President ignore the requirements of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions were treaties that grew out of World War II and established rules of warfare to protect soldiers and civilians. These treaties were ratified by the United States of America. They are and were the law of the land.
Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State under President Bush, objected to Alberto Gonzales's recommendation. He argued that we could comply with the Geneva Conventions, fight terrorism, and still keep America safe.
Here is what Secretary Powell said at the time about setting aside the Geneva Conventions. This ``will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice . . . undermine the protections of the law of war for our own troops. . . . It will undermine public support among critical allies, making military cooperation more difficult to maintain.''
Today, Secretary Powell's words seem prophetic. Unfortunately, President Bush rejected Secretary Powell's advice and instead followed Alberto Gonzales's recommendations to set aside the Geneva Conventions.
Then in August 2002, the Department of Justice issued the infamous torture memo. The memo said abuse only rises to the level of torture if it causes pain equivalent to organ failure or death. The memo also concluded the President has the authority to order the use of torture even though that torture would be a crime under U.S. law.
The Justice Department of the United States also signed off on the use of torture techniques such as waterboarding. This was in August of 2002. Thanks to the Intelligence Committee report, we now know that the Justice Department's legal advice was based on false information given to them by the CIA.
I have a long history with this issue. It was almost 10 years ago that I stood at this very desk and read into the Record a graphic description of an FBI agent's record of abuse of interrogation that she witnessed at Guantanamo Bay. At the time I was criticized by members of the Bush-Cheney administration, but we now know that the description by this FBI agent was accurate, and what she described was authorized by the Bush administration based on false information provided by the CIA.
It was 10 years ago when I first authored legislation to ban cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees. In June of 2004 America was shocked by the revelations about what had occurred at Abu Ghraib prison. The Bush administration told us these were rogue actions of a few bad players. I introduced my torture legislation in 2004. I wanted to make it clear that America condemned the abuses at Abu Ghraib and stood by our commitment to the humane treatment of prisoners. But what we didn't know was that the administration had approved the use of abusive interrogation techniques in CIA facilities and at Guantanamo Bay. A Defense Department investigation later concluded that these techniques migrated to Abu Ghraib.
I offered my legislation as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. I expected it to be noncontroversial. It was adopted unanimously here in the Senate; however, the Bush administration had it removed in conference.
In the fall of 2004, I tried again. I offered the same amendment to the 9/11 commission intelligence reform legislation. Again, my amendment was adopted unanimously by the Senate, and again in conference negotiations the Bush administration removed it. I didn't understand their opposition to my amendment because the United States ratified the torture convention, a treaty that prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, the same thing my amendment said.
A few months later, I had an opportunity to get to the bottom of this. Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's White House counsel, was nominated to be Attorney General. During his confirmation hearings in January 2005, Mr. Gonzales told me the administration believed they had legal authority to subject detainees to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. That was the first time that a Bush administration official had acknowledged this legal loophole. The Washington Post called that testimony ``a gross distortion of the law'' and cited it as a key reason for opposing the Gonzales nomination to be Attorney General.
After this revelation, Senator McCain asked me if he could take the lead on legislation that I had written to ban cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. I agreed. There was no better person than John McCain, who in service to the United States of America was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than 5 years. He had been subjected to torture because of his service on behalf of our Nation. It became known as the McCain torture amendment. Despite a veto threat from President Bush, the Senate passed the McCain torture amendment in December of 2005 by an overwhelming bipartisan 90-to-9 vote. When the President signed the amendment into law, he issued a signing statement reserving the right to ignore it if he chose.
In June 2006, in the Hamdan decision, the Supreme Court held that the administration was required to follow the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of detainees. The Court took the same position as Secretary Colin Powell had argued years before when President Bush had first decided to disregard the Geneva Conventions.
In September 2006 President Bush publicly acknowledged the CIA detention and interrogation program for the very first time.
In July 2007 President Bush signed an Executive order stating the CIA's detention and interrogation program ``fully complies with the obligations of the United States'' under the Geneva Conventions and authorizing the use of certain interrogation techniques. Again, the administration twisted the law to justify the use of abusive tactics
based on false information provided by the CIA.
In October 2007 the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General. The hearings were going smoothly until I asked Mr. Mukasey to condemn waterboarding as torture. He refused. That became the focal point of the debate on his confirmation.
On December 6, 2007, the New York Times reported that in November 2005 the CIA had destroyed videotapes showing the CIA's use of abusive interrogation techniques. The next day I sent a letter to Attorney General Mukasey asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation video evidence. I was the only Member of Congress to call for that investigation. In January the Attorney General opened the investigation. The CIA's destruction of these videotapes is what led to this Intelligence Committee report.
Then-CIA Director Hayden suggested that the Intelligence Committee staff review the operational cables and emails. The Intelligence Committee study was authorized by an overwhelming 14-to-1 bipartisan vote after the SSCI, the Select Committee on Intelligence, found that the cables detailed detention conditions and interrogations far worse than what the CIA had previously described to the committee.
The investigation led to the production of a report that is more than 6,700 pages long, including nearly 38,000 footnotes. It is based on a review of more than 6 million pages of CIA records.
In December 2012 the Intelligence Committee approved this report with a 9-to-6 bipartisan vote. Two months later, in February 2013, I received a briefing on this report before it was redacted. I was so disturbed by what I heard that I personally spoke with the President, then-Secretary of Defense Panetta, and John Brennan, to urge each of them to do everything possible to be briefed on its findings and support its declassification.
In March 2014 I sent a letter to CIA Director Brennan raising serious concerns about the CIA's hacking of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence computers and again urging declassification of the report.
In April 2014 the Intelligence Committee approved the declassification and the public release by an 11-to-3 bipartisan vote.
It is critically important that this has been declassified so the American people can understand what has been done in their name. It was inconsistent with American values. It didn't make us safer, and it must never be repeated again.
Yesterday Senator McCain came to the floor to support Senator Feinstein's disclosure. During the course of his statement on the floor, he said: Our enemies are acting without conscience. America cannot act without conscience. We are called to a higher standard than some because we believe in basic human values and in basic principles, and it may mean that some of the tactics used by our worst enemies are out of bounds for us, as they should be.
What happened with this disclosure is an important reaffirmation of our separation of powers and our constitutional responsibility.
I wish to congratulate Senator Feinstein, Senator Rockefeller, and every member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, but particularly those who voted to go forward time and time again. They were under immense pressure not to do so.
The fact they have held the CIA accountable to the American people, to Congress, and to the President is part of our constitutional responsibility. It reminds people that in a democracy the people govern and the people have a right to know what this government is doing in their name.
There has been a lot of debate since the release of this report, and I assume it will continue. But if it ends with the report in the press, we have not done enough. We have to reform our processes, and let me start with Congress.
I served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for 4 years. It was a daunting assignment. Virtually every hearing is behind closed doors and classified. No one knows here even at the Select Committee on Intelligence unless you tell them afterwards. Testimony before us isn't available to the public. Most of the time, the professionals from the intelligence agencies come before us and speak in the acronyms of their agencies to the point you can't even follow what they are saying. It took me 2 years of sitting there puzzling over what they were saying to finally get an insight into what the committee and its responsibility were all about. That is not right.
We need to make sure that congressional oversight of our intelligence function is up to the job and up to the Constitution. That means more resources put in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. When I served, members of the committee shared a staffer. We each shared a staffer. We didn't even have one staff person working for each of us on these subjects. The amount of money that is being spent, tens of millions of dollars in covert activities and the like, needs to be carefully monitored. As the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I have that responsibility to look at the overall budget on intelligence. There is not enough oversight. We need to make certain that our branch of government is up to that challenge so we can guarantee to the American people that we are doing our job, so that we can be held accountable as we hold the intelligence agencies accountable as well.
I think what happened yesterday is going to be part of the history of the Senate, an important, positive part. I hope it is just the beginning where both political parties come together and accept their constitutional responsibility.
Tributes to Departing Senators
I have some tributes here for my colleagues who are retiring, leaving the Senate. It is a lengthy list of tributes.
Tom Harkin
To Senator Tom Harkin, neighboring State of Iowa, whom I worked with over many years on so many important topics, I want to salute him for his service. The highlights of his service include the Americans With Disabilities Act and, of course, the Affordable Care Act. His work on education and medical research is legendary. There was a time when Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania at that time, set out to double the medical research budget at the National Institutes of Health and they did it. Lives have been saved, people have been spared suffering because they had the political determination and courage to achieve it. I am going to miss Tom Harkin.
I have served in Congress for a number of years and I have heard an awful lot of speeches. One of the most powerful speeches I ever witnessed in this Senate was delivered by Tom Harkin in 1990. He gave his speech without uttering a single word. He delivered it entirely in American Sign Language--a language he knows from years of communicating with his brother Frank, who was deaf. In that historic speech in sign language--a first for this body--Tom Harkin was urging the United States Senate to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The ADA is one of the great civil rights laws of the 20th century. It is often called ``the Emancipation Proclamation for Americans with disabilities.'' It is a landmark achievement in America's ongoing efforts to create a more perfect union. No one worked harder for its passage than the senior Senator from Iowa, Tom Harkin. He is often and rightly referred to as ``the father of the ADA.''
That speech in 1990 was unique in its use of sign language. In another way, however, it was like nearly every speech Tom Harkin has given because he was speaking for people whose voices too often are not heard in Congress.
In his 40 years in Congress, Tom Harkin has been a passionate, often fiery and relentless voice for good people who have often been dealt a bad hand by life. He has been a champion for men like his father, a coal miner with black lung disease, and others who desperately need health care. He has been a champion for people with disabilities--in America and around the world. He has been a champion of children in foreign lands who are trapped in the worst forms of forced labor.
Tom Harkin has been a champion of working men and women in this country--and of their constitutionally protected right to organize and bargain for decent pay and safe working conditions.
Tom Harkin has been a leader in safeguarding Medicare and Social Security, and moving people from welfare to work.
The senior Senator from Iowa and I were both very lucky. We are first-generation Americans. Senator Harkin's mother came to this country from Slovenia; my mother came from Lithuania.
He knows from his own family's experience the love and gratitude that so many immigrants feel for the freedoms and opportunities America has given them and their children. So he has fought for immigration laws that protect America's security at the same time they honor our heritage as a nation of immigrants.
I want him to know that we will continue our efforts to pass such laws until we succeed--just as we will continue to push for adoption by this Senate of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities until we pass that important treaty.
As are so many others, Tom Harkin was inspired to public service by the example of President John Kennedy. After working his way through college, Senator Harkin spent 5 years as a Navy pilot in the 1960s. He had applied to become a pilot for a commercial airline when he received a more compelling offer. In 1969, an Iowa Congressman invited Tom Harkin to join his Washington, DC staff. He said yes. He also used his GI Bill benefits to earn a law degree from Catholic University.
Tom went back home to Iowa--and then he returned to Washington in 1974, not as a staffer, but as a Member of the House of Representatives. A decade later, Iowa voters elected him to the U.S. Senate. And in 1990 he became the first Democrat ever to be re-elected to the U.S. Senate by Iowa voters. They must have thought that was a good idea because they re-elected him three more times after that.
Today, 40 years after his first election, Tom Harkin is grayer and wiser. But he has never forgotten where he came from. He is a proud Midwestern progressive who has never forgotten the hope and dignity that smart, compassionate government gave his family when they needed it. And he has never tired of working to make sure that other families have the same chances his family had.
I wish Tom and Ruth, their daughters and grandchildren all the best.
Tom Harkin leaves a legacy of achievement and compassion. I will miss his presence in this Senate but he and Ruth will always be a part of our Senate family.
Kay Hagan
Kay Hagan, my colleague from North Carolina, has done an amazing job. In her one term in the Senate, she really made a name for herself when it came to public service. She stepped up time and again and took tough votes. I know it because as whip I asked her to take on some important issues that would made this a better and stronger nation.
When Kay entered the Senate in those perilous days, America was in crisis. The economy was in freefall. Millions had lost their homes to foreclosure. America was fighting two wars--and though our military is the finest in the world, many of its members were exhausted from multiple deployments.
Six years later, we have made progress in all of these areas. Historians will record that Senator Kay Hagan helped to make America stronger and better.
Senator Kay Hagan comes from a family that knows a great deal about serving and sacrificing for America. Her maternal uncle, Lawton Chiles, was a Korean War veteran who represented Florida in the U.S. House and Senate and served as Florida's governor. Her father-in-law was a two- star Marine general, her brother and father both served in the Navy, and her husband is a Vietnam veteran who used the GI Bill to help pay for law school.
Senator Hagan first learned the ups-and-downs of Congress-- literally--by operating the Senators-only elevator while interning for her uncle.
Senator Hagan is a former ballet dancer--a discipline that demands great discipline and hard work. As a Senator, she has used those same qualities to benefit her State and our Nation.
She served 10 years in the North Carolina State Senate and in those 10 years, she earned a reputation as a commonsense hard-worker interested in results, not partisan fighting. As co-chair of the State Budget Committee, she increased the State's ``Rainy Day'' fund and balanced five straight budgets. You heard that right--five straight budgets. She also helped make record investments in education, raised teacher pay, and increased the minimum wage.
Here in the U.S. Senate, she has continued to be a leader on education issues, most notably helping to lead a group of Senators to start fixing No Child Left Behind. With her family's military background, it is no surprise that Senator Hagan has fought hard for military families and veterans. She introduced another bill that is close to my heart and that I will continue to work for. It would prohibit for-profit colleges from using the phrase ``GI Bill'' in aggressive marketing efforts aimed at separating veterans and servicemembers from their hard-earned education benefits. And she led the successful effort to provide health care to those affected by water contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast.
Kay Hagan will leave this Senate with a proud record of dauntless accomplishment and I am proud to have had the privilege to call her colleague. I thank her for her friendship and service, and I wish her the best in all her future endeavors.
Mark Begich
I can't imagine how the Senator from Alaska handles that commute back and forth, but he did it. I said the other day when we spoke about his service that many people don't realize his father was a Congressman before him and he died in a plane crash with Hale Boggs when they were flying back to Alaska to appear at an event. That plane was lost and never recovered. When Mark Begich came from Alaska to serve the United States, he completed the journey his father never could complete. His 6 years of service to Alaska have been extraordinary.
Before he got into politics, though, Mark was a whiz kid entrepreneur. When he was just 16 years old, he got a business license and he and his brother opened two businesses: a nightclub for teens and a vending-machine operation. The business world's loss was our gain.
Senator Begich started his political career working as an aide to then-Anchorage Mayor Tony Knowles. At 26, he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly, or city council. And in 2003, he became the first native-born Alaskan to serve as mayor of Anchorage.
In 2008, he dared to take on an Alaska legend: Senator Ted Stevens. When the votes were counted, Mark had become the first Democrat since Mike Gravel in 1981 to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
As a Senator, Mark Begich has been a voice for working families in Alaska and across America. He has diligently and doggedly pursued common-sense, bipartisan solutions to big challenges. In all things, Mark's heart is always with Alaska. He has helped to protect Alaska fisheries, promoted renewable energy development in the State, and made sure Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson remains strong and active.
Here is something about Mark my colleagues may not know. In 2011 he was part of a four-man team in the Hotline's live annual trivia contest. His teammates were three House members: Dennis Ross, Tom Davis, and Martin Frost. They were up against a formidable team that included Chuck Todd and Amy Walters. No one gave Mark's team a prayer of winning. But once again, Mark Begich scored an upset victory. He is to DC political trivia what Ken Jennings is to Jeopardy: A memorable champion.
But the actions for which he will be remembered are very far from trivial. When Mark Begich and others in the Class of 2008 arrived in the Senate America's economy was in freefall. Millions of families had lost their homes to foreclosure--the worst foreclosure crisis in America since the Great Depression. America was fighting two wars. Our military is the finest in the world. Many of its members were
exhausted from multiple deployments. On top of that, an outdated policy of ``don't ask, don't tell'' forced some servicemembers to lie about who they were in order to serve the Nation they love. Time after time, Senator Mark Begich took brave and principled votes that have made America better and stronger--militarily, economically, and socially.
This son of one of Alaska's great families has well earned--and will always hold--a place in our Senate family.
Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson and I came to the Senate together, Tim from South Dakota. He eventually became chairman of the banking committee after he faced one of the toughest physical challenges any Senator has ever faced, a debilitating brain injury that left him physically limited but never limited in spirit and intelligence. Thank God, with Barb at his side, he continued in public service to serve the State of South Dakota.
I am going to miss my great friend Tim Johnson.
He and I go back quite a ways. We served together in the House--and we came to the Senate together in 1996. That year, Tim Johnson was the only Senate candidate to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in a general election.
He won that first Senate election the old-fashioned way--with dedication, hard work, and a lot of shoe leather. I think he knocked on every door in South Dakota--twice. Dedication, humility, and unbelievable hard work--those are the values Tim learned as a fourth- generation South Dakotan. And they are the values that have exemplified his entire career.
In 1986, Tim Johnson was a semi-obscure state legislator from Vermillion, SD when he decided to run for his State's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Tim might have been the only person who thought he had a chance of winning that race, but he surprised people. He did win--and he has never lost an election since. Eight consecutive statewide victories and zero losses. That is quite an accomplishment.
Here is another interesting fact about Tim Johnson: During his first term in the House, he was responsible for passing more legislation than any of the other 50 first-term Members.
In his 36 years of public service, Tim Johnson has been a strong voice for family farmers and ranchers in South Dakota and across America. He is a longtime advocate of Federal support for renewable energy--especially ethanol and wind energy. He helped lead the effort to pass the Country of Origin Label Act--the COOL Act, for short--to let consumers know if the meat they feed their families was raised in America.
Senator Johnson has been a leading advocate for Native Americans. He has fought especially hard for the members of the Lakota and Dakota tribes--descendants of the legendary Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse--who call South Dakota home.
Tim Johnson has fought for a livable minimum wage. He helped strengthen America's health safety net by voting to create the Children's Health Insurance Program and to expand Medicaid to those who need it. He voted for the Affordable Care Act, which passed this Senate without a vote to spare. That was a difficult vote for many but I believe that history will show it was the right vote for America, and Tim Johnson was on the right side of history.
As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee these last 3 years, Tim Johnson has played an historic role in helping to implement the Dodd- Frank Wall Street reform law and prevent a repeat of the kinds of abuses that nearly crashed our economy in 2008. He has moved forward despite intense opposition to reform from both inside and outside of Congress.
One of the most important of the Dodd-Frank reforms was the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Chairman Johnson pressed successfully for Senate confirmation of Richard Cordray to head that new bureau so it would have a strong leader at the helm.
While he is justifiably proud of the legislative victories that bear his imprint, Tim Johnson may be even more proud of the constituent services he and his staff have given the people of South Dakota. Helping a veteran secure a proper disability rating or helping a senior citizen receive the Social Security and Medicare coverage he or she is due may not make headlines, but it makes a huge difference in the lives of individuals. Tim Johnson and his staff understand that.
I will never forget seeing Tim Johnson walk onto the Senate floor on September 5, 2007--less than a year after a brain hemorrhage nearly killed him. The courage and strength it took to come back from such a trauma is hard to imagine. Senator Mark Kirk, my partner from Illinois, told me that during his own recovery from a stroke, if he ever felt like giving up, he would ask himself: ``What would Tim Johnson do?''
Dedication to public service is a family trait in the Johnson Family. Barb's work on behalf of children and families has made life better for so many. Kelsey is an advocate for breast cancer awareness and research. Brendan is the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota. And Brooks is in the National Guard following Army service in Bosnia, Kosovo, South Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Some time ago, the chief and people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe honored Senator Johnson by bestowing on him a Lakota name. His Lakota name is Wacante Ognake. In English, it means ``holds the people in his heart.''
That is the spirit that has guided Tim Johnson throughout his public life.
I wish Tim and Barb the very best in all their future endeavors.
Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, and Mike Johanns
I want to say a word about three others on the other side of the aisle who are retiring: Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Mike Johanns of Nebraska. I got to know them when I gathered with one of these gangs, as they call them around here, to talk about deficit reduction. We spent more time together trying to explore the Federal budget in ways to reduce our deficit in a thoughtful manner so that we really got to know one another and respect one another.
There is a world of difference in our political values and philosophies, but each of them in their own way made a positive contribution toward making this a stronger nation.
I remember well the day Senator Chambliss announced that he would not let Grover Norquist and Grover's ``no tax increases ever'' demand dictate the terms of a deficit-reduction plan. That needed to be said, and it took political courage. Although Senator Chambliss will not be with us when the Senate convenes in January, I hope his example will be with us. And I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Senator Tom Coburn and I come from different parts of the country and different ends of the political spectrum, but we found there is a lot we agree on. I have always believed, as Senators Paul Douglas and Paul Simon said, that being a liberal doesn't mean you have to be a ``wastrel.'' Senator Coburn knows that being a conservative and protecting America's economy demands more than blind budget-cutting. His nickname is ``Doctor No,'' but when it comes to wishing him well as he steps down from the Senate, my colleagues join me in a resounding ``yes.''
Finally, here is a suggestion for when you have watched all of the ``shouting head'' political TV talk shows you can take: Listen to Senator Mike Johanns. Mike's quiet, reasonable approach was a real asset not only to the Gang of Eight negotiations, but to the entire Senate. We will miss his calm demeanor and his good-faith efforts to find smart, fair solutions to tough challenges.
None of them is running for re-election so I can't hurt them politically by saying that I regard each of these Senators as friends. They showed political courage when partisanship would have been easier.
I wish them the best in all their future endeavors.
Carl Levin
Last night it was my honor to salute Carl Levin of Michigan for his 36 years of service in the U.S. Senate. He has done so many things so well. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he has produced this contentious and challenging bill year after year, both as ranking member and as chairman. As chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he really raised that subcommittee to a new
level. He tackled some of the most complex issues of our day, particularly when it came to corporate abuse. He spent the time to get the facts right. When he had a hearing, he made an extraordinary contribution to the public dialogue about reforming our law and making this a better nation.
When I was first elected to the Senate, people back home said to me: Well, now that you have been in the Senate a year or two, which Senators do you respect the most?
I said then, and I will repeat it today, if I had a tough, important decision, one I was wrestling over, an issue or a vote, and I could only reach out to a couple of Senators at the time, one would be Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, now retired, and the other is Carl Levin. That is still a fact.
Long before Carl Levin was elected to the U.S. Senate it was clear that he had a gift for politics. Picture this--true story: At Central High School in Detroit, Carl Levin was elected class president. He won that race after, as he tells it, ``running around with a piece of matzoh telling other students: `This is what happens to bread without Levin.' ``How's that for a slogan?
As much as I hate to think about it, soon we will have a United States Senate without Levin--for the first time in 36 years. Our only consolation is that Carl Levin leaves a legacy of good and important laws. He also leaves a powerful example of what can be achieved when we choose integrity over ideology . . . and our common good over confrontation.
A Jewish publication in Detroit wrote a while back that Carl Levin and his brother, Congressman Sandy Levin, both deserve ``honorable menschen awards''--with the accent on ``mensch''--for their historic service to our Nation. I agree wholeheartedly. Senator Levin's keen intellect, honesty and fair-mindedness--his decency and unfailing civility--have earned him the respect of Senators on both sides of the aisle.
Many years ago I was an intern for a great Senator, Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. Every year now, the University of Illinois presents a ``Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award'' to an elected leader who shares Senator Douglas' deep commitment to social and economic justice, and efficient government. The recipient of the Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award in 2006 was Senator Carl Levin. Paul Douglas would have approved that choice heartily.
As was Paul Douglas, Carl Levin has been a foot soldier for justice. Paul Douglas was a leader in the effort to pass a strong Federal Civil Rights Act. In 1964, the year that law finally passed, Carl Levin was appointed the first general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.
Paul Douglas believed in government and he hated government waste. He used to say: ``You don't have to be a wastrel to be a liberal.'' Carl Levin reminds us that: ``There are some things that only government can do, so we need government. But we don't need an inefficient, wasteful, arrogant government.''
Carl Levin was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978. Before that, he was active for 15 years in Detroit and Michigan State politics. He taught law before he entered politics. He also held some other interesting jobs--including driving a cab in Detroit and working on a DeSoto assembly line.
He showed up in Washington in 1979 driving a 1974 Dodge Dart with a hole in the floorboard. He was still driving that same car to the Capitol 10 years later. That tells us something about Carl Levin's devotion to the US auto industry, its workers and unions.
When General Motors and Chrysler faced potential collapse in 2008, he pressed Congress and a new president to support the companies with billions of dollars in loans.
Those loans have since been repaid and Chrysler and GM are not only solvent, they are making a profit. The U.S. auto industry is in the midst of its fastest expansion since 1950.
Carl Levin is a champion as well of America's military, military families and veterans. He has served on the Armed Services Committee since coming to the Senate 36 years ago. He is one of Congress's most respected voices on national security and military issues.
Some years back he used his power on the Armed Services Committee to question the procurement practices of the military. He asked: Why was the Pentagon spending thousands of dollars apiece for things like toilet seats and hammers? He said: We need more money for soldiers and less wasteful spending for contractors. With the world growing more volatile and complex and increasing pressure to reduce defense budgets, those are questions we must all be willing to ask.
As a ranking member and then chair of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senator Levin's piercing intellect and his patient mastery of complex issues helped, over and over, to expose and correct serious wrongdoing.
As PSI chairman in 2002, he led a probe of the activities of Enron Corp; the investigation resulted in legislation to improve the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.
From white collar crime, to money laundering, abusive tax shelters, and gasoline and crude oil price-gouging, he has pursued the subjects of every investigation with nonpartisan vigor, seeking results, not spotlights.
The list of laws bearing his imprint is long and historic: The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984; Social Security Disability Benefits Reform, 1984; The Anti-Kickback Enforcement Act, 1986; The Whistleblower Protection Act, 1989; The Ethics Reform Act in 1989; The Lobbying Disclosure Act in 1995--the first major lobbying reform in 50 years.
The list goes on and on. Senator Levin voted: To repeal ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell''; to protect voting rights; and to limit the influence of private-interest money in elections.
He has voted to support American manufacturing--and stop giving tax breaks to corporations to ship American jobs overseas.
He supported my efforts to change bankruptcy laws to allow deserving homeowners to save their homes in foreclosures.
He voted to regulate tobacco as a drug--another issue that is personal for me.
I will always remember Senator Levin's vote on the Iraq war resolution. For years before 9/11, he warned anyone who would listen that America was threatened by terrorism. When the horrific attacks came, he supported pursuing the attackers in Afghanistan.
A year later, he and I were among just 23 Senators to vote against the Iraq War. He voted no, even though he was then chair of the Armed Services Committee. That took extraordinary moral and political courage, and history has shown he was right.
Carl Levin is the longest-serving Senator in Michigan history, surpassing another Senate legend, Arthur Vandenberg. As he proved long ago when he was elected president of his high school council, he is a natural-born politician. But like Senator Vandenberg, he is more than a politician; he is a statesman.
I will miss his presence in this Senate and I wish him, and his wife Barbara, all the best in the future.
Mark Udall
Mark Udall, my friend from Colorado and the Presiding Officer's colleague. As I said last night, I served with his dad. His dad may have been the funniest public servant I ever served with. What a wit, what a sense of humor. He once said: If you have politics in your bloodstream, only embalming fluid will replace it.
Thank goodness the Udalls have politics in their bloodstream. Mo Udall served in the House of Representatives, candidate for President; Mark Udall's uncle, Stewart Udall, who was Secretary of Interior under President John Kennedy; Tom Udall, Mark's cousin, the son of Stewart Udall, serves as Senator of New Mexico; Mark Udall himself, what a great person.
I can remember so many things about his public service, but I remembered, especially last night, when he lost his brother and came before our caucus lunch and talked about the love he had for that man and what that loss meant to him. It touched the heart of everyone in the room. It gave us an insight into the heart of Mark Udall as a person.
He was committed to a number of causes. His wife Maggie and he have given so much time to the environment and preserving our national heritage, but he also showed great courage when it came to his service on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Even as a new
member of that committee, he stepped up for principles and values, and I am glad he did, preserving our rights and liberties as American citizens and fully supporting the disclosure that Senator Feinstein made yesterday with her report.
Mark has fought to protect Americans' privacy rights with thoughtful reforms of the NSA and the PATRIOT Act.
In keeping with his family's tradition, he has made protecting our environment and our precious natural resources a top priority. He has been a leader in addressing climate change as a growing threat to our national security. He organized support in the Senate for legislation that would require 15 percent of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2021.
And in the 2013 Defense Authorization Act, Mark Udall led the effort to allow the Pentagon to continue to develop and use renewable energy
During his one term, Mark Udall made more dauntless decisions and achieved more good for America than many Senators who have served far longer.
He supported a recovery act that helped turn the tide against the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He voted for the most far-reaching financial reform since the Great Depression and he supported one of the biggest investments in college affordability since the GI Bill. Millions of Americans are back at work and millions of Americans know the security that comes with affordable health care, in part, because of his courage.
The famed explorer Edmund Hillary once said, ``Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.''
For Mark Udall, being a U.S. Senator has been about something more important than acquiring power. It has been about using that power to preserve our precious natural treasures and make life better for others.
Mo Udall would be proud of the U.S. Senator his son has become, and I am certainly proud to have worked with him.
I have been in the Senate now for 18 years, and I have seen many come and go. But we have lost, sadly, in this departure of these Members some of our best.
Mary Landrieu
I will close by mentioning the one whose fate was determined the last, and that was Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. She has been a great Senator for Louisiana. She worked harder and achieved more for that State than, obviously, the people of that State realized. There wasn't an issue that came before us that Mary didn't stand up and say: Now let me tell you how that affects Louisiana, and usually make an ask which was fulfilled.
Let me add one other grace note when it comes to her personal and public life. Mary and her husband have adopted two children. They are the light of their lives. Her dedication to the cause of adopted children has really made a difference not just to the United States but in the world. I am sure she didn't get a lot of political reward for it, but thank goodness she put a big part of her life and her public life into standing up for the rights of adopted children and adoptive parents, encouraging more and more, so the kids would have a loving home as part of their lives. It was just one of the things that Mary worked on, but it was one of the things I will remember. I am going to miss her and her service to the U.S. Senate.
Mary bleeds Louisiana. Her father is the legendary statesmen Moon Landrieu, former New Orleans mayor, HUD Secretary under President Jimmy Carter, and Judge of Louisiana's 4th Circuit Court. Her brother, Mitch, is the current Mayor of New Orleans.
Mary--the eldest of the eight siblings--learned important political lessons early. She was taunted in early grade school about her father's pro civil rights stands in the 1960s. Those experiences taught her that taking the right position sometimes makes you unpopular--but you do it anyway.
Mary was only 23 when she entered the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1980. She went on to serve as a member of her State's senate.
Mary is a formidable fighter for Louisiana. In her State's darkest hours, during Hurricane Katrina and in the aftermath of that terrible catastrophe, she stood strong. She was exactly the right person for Louisiana. More than any other single official, she deserves the credit for directing billions of dollars in relief and rebuilding money to her hometown and home State.
Governor Bobby Jindal's Secretary of Administration had this to say about Mary Landrieu: ``She's relentless; once she starts, she will not stop. And once she's on your side, she's on your side.''
This is what St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain remembers about Katrina: ``The very first federal representative we had on the ground after Katrina was Mary Landrieu . . . when water was still in our houses and neighborhoods. . . . She spoke to my deputies and offered assistance to them.''
Perhaps the best description of Mary Landrieu was offered by her mentor, former Senator John Breaux, who calls her ``a pit bull with Louisiana charm.''
In 2009, when Hurricane Katrina was just a dim, bad memory for some, Senator Landrieu made sure the stimulus bill included a provision that ended up allowing the state to rebuild Charity Hospital, the cornerstone of health care for many low-income New Orleans families.
Senator Landrieu has been a champion of the energy industry--so crucial to the economy of her State and her Nation. She has fought to preserve Social Security and Medicare and other safety net programs that provide dignity and security for so many. She has fought to defend voting rights, women's right, and children's right. She has earned a spot in heaven with her work to promote adoption. She provided a crucial vote to pass the Affordable Care Act, knowing full well that it would cost her politically. If that doesn't earn her a spot in heaven, it will at least earn her a place in history as a profile in courage.
With her political genes and determination, I know that Mary Landrieu will continue to be a force in Louisiana and American politics for years to come. And while I will miss seeing her every day in this Senate, I look forward to seeing her fight for what is right for many, many more years. It has been an honor to serve with her.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.