William M. Cowan

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. President, I rise today in my final full work week and not yet 150 days into my Senate career, yet at the precipice of the close of that career. On January 30 of this year, Governor Deval Patrick sent me to this Chamber to represent the people of Massachusetts and their interests.

Yesterday, on June 25, those same people took to the voting booth and called me home. In doing so, they called Senator-elect Ed Markey to the high honor of serving this august body. After 37 distinguished years in the House, Senator-elect Markey now has this opportunity to offer his voice, wisdom, accumulated experiences, humor,

esprit de corps, and tireless commitment to justice and equality to the Senate. I, for one, believe that Massachusetts and the country will be better for it. Like a majority of Massachusetts voters who expressed themselves yesterday, I am quite confident Senator-elect Markey will serve with distinction and act in the best interests of the citizens he is now privileged to represent.

The Senator-elect bested a strong candidate who brought a new voice and, yes, a new visage to the Massachusetts political scene. I applaud Gabriel Gomez on a well-run campaign and, most importantly, his willingness to sacrifice so much in an effort to serve the people of the Commonwealth. He started this journey as a relative unknown, but I suspect we have not heard the last of Mr. Gomez. I thank him and his family for their sacrifices and their willingness to engage.

When it comes to farewell speeches, few will top the words offered by John Kerry on this floor a few months ago. After 28 years of distinguished service to the people of Massachusetts, now-Secretary Kerry spent nearly an hour reflecting on his service to this body. By the same measure, as merely an interim Senator serving but a few short months, I probably should have ended my remarks about 45 seconds ago. But before I yield, I will take a few minutes to reflect on my brief time in this body and extend my gratitude to a number of folks.

First, I want to acknowledge and recognize the outstanding staff members in Boston and DC who have helped me serve our constituents to the best of my ability. When Governor Patrick named me as interim Senator, a few people--okay, more than a few--openly questioned whether I would be up to the task and whether I was capable of accomplishing anything other than locating the lavatory during my temporary assignment. But I knew something those doubters did not know. I knew I was going to be able to do my best for the folks back home because I came to the Senate armed with the knowledge of the issues by dint of my time in the Patrick-Murray administration. I planned to make a few key hires and convince the bulk of Secretary Kerry's Senate staff to stay on and help me do the job the Governor sent me to do. In other words, I knew what I did not know, but I knew enough to hire the people who knew the considerable rest. Boy, have they proven me a genius. If you work in the Senate but a day--and I suspect the same is true in the House of Representatives--you will learn quickly that staff make this place hum, and good staff make all the difference in the world. I hope my team will forgive me if I do not list them all by name, thereby avoiding the sin of omission, but, instead, all of the staff will accept my heartfelt appreciation for their willingness to join my team, show me the ropes, teach a new dog some old tricks, educate me on all of the rules that matter, which seem to be written nowhere, and their exhibition of degrees of professionalism and service to our country that the public too often thinks is missing in their Congress.

To my entire staff, I have been in awe at your greatness. I am forever in your debt for your immeasurable contributions to our work in the interests of Massachusetts residents. I look forward to your many successes yet to come.

To two of my team in particular, Val Young, my chief of staff, and Lauren Rich, my scheduler, who have known and worked with me for years, thank you for your continued willingness to partner with and trust in me.

If I am being honest about the people who helped me look as though I belong here, I must spend a moment or two acknowledging the wonderful women and men who comprise the Senate staff. From the Capitol Police, who protect us every day and somehow knew my name on the first day, to the subway operators who always deliver us on time and unfazed, to the elevator operators who excel in the art of cutting off reporters and their annoying questions, to the cloakroom staff who field every cloying call about voting schedules and presiding hours, to the clerks and Parliamentarians who discreetly tell you what to say and do as presiding officer while the public in the gallery silently wonders why everyone addresses you as Mr. or Madam President while sitting in that chair, to the generous food service staff who look the other way when you go back for seconds and sometimes thirds, and to so many others who are the oil that makes this engine hum, each of you has shown me such patience, support, and grace that I know your love for this institution may trump even the Members' affection for this place and will sustain the institution long after any one or all of us leave this Chamber. You are tremendous resources for every new Senator, and I suspect great comfort to even the longest serving among us. The public may not know you by name or know the importance of your work, but now I do. I have been honored to serve you.

The next folks I recognize are the youngest and most silent among us. Of course, I speak of the pages, the young women and men who spend part of a high school year dressed and acting in formal traditions of this body. I have yet to speak with an uninteresting page or a page uninterested in the Senate and our government. These are dynamic young people who could be doing so many different things with their time but they give their time and service to the Senate and its Members. They are indispensable to both. I look forward to the day when my young boys will be of age to follow in the footsteps of these outstanding young people.

Last, and by no means least, I want to thank the family and friends who supported my family and me during my short tenure. We often say it takes a village to raise a child, but I can attest it also takes a village to help an interim Senator meet his duties at Congress and at home. Whether offering me a spare bedroom in Silver Spring or agreeing to last minute babysitting duties so my wife and I both could celebrate Black History Month at the White House, our village is vast and generous. Of course, every village needs a queen. The queen of my village is my wife Stacy. I was able to serve because she was willing to be mom and dad and sacrifice in ways known and unknown while I have been in DC. Over the past few months, I have missed many homework assignments, some birthday dinners, pediatric appointments, school performances, and parent-teacher meetings, but our sons never felt their dad was absent and unaccounted for because their mom, a supermom, more than made up for my absence.

Stacy has been my rock and salvation for nearly 20 years now. I am better every day for it. Let the record show for now and all time my love and dedication to Stacy.

In January of this year I planned to leave the Deval Patrick administration and transition back into private life. I was looking forward to more conventional hours, a reprieve from working under the public scrutiny of the press, and spending more time with my wife and our young son. So I came to the Senate. Go figure.

I was surprised, but deeply honored, when Governor Patrick sent me here to represent the folks back home. I am eternally grateful to the government's faith and trust in my ability to serve. This floor on which I stand today and with which I have become so closely acquainted over the last 5 months has been occupied by some of the most dynamic and greatest political figures of our Nation's history.

From my own State of Massachusetts alone: Adams, Webster, Sumner, Saltonstall, Brooke, Kennedy, all who held a seat in the Chamber before me, are enough to make any person feel daunted when assuming a desk on this floor.

I was appointed to the Senate to fill the seat of another great Senator, John Kerry, and work alongside another great Senator, Elizabeth Warren.

Thank you for being here, Elizabeth.

Although my time was short, I only sought to uphold not only Senator Kerry's legacy in this body but the work of all of the esteemed Senators who have dedicated their service to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and I pledged to be the best partner I could to Senator Warren.

I entered the Senate at a vexing time in this body's history. As we all know, congressional approval levels are dismally low. People across the Nation and political pundits everywhere believe partisanship is a divide too wide to bridge and a wall too high to overcome. Yet despite the overwhelming public pessimism, I came to Washington with two achievable objectives:

to serve the people of Massachusetts to the best of my ability and to work with any Senator willing to implement smart, sensible, and productive policy to advance the ideals of our Nation.

From the outside, the prospects for bipartisanship may seem slim. Party-line votes are the norm. The threat of the filibuster demands a supermajority to pass meaningful legislation. The American people have come to believe Congress is more committed to obstruction than compromise.

To the everyday observer we have reached a standstill where partisanship outweighs progress and neither side is willing to reach across the aisle for the good of the American people.

What I have encountered in the Senate is not a body defined by vitriol but one more defined by congeniality and common respect. That began before I even started here.

On the day the Governor announced my appointment, I was pleasantly surprised to receive calls on my personal cell phones--I still don't know how they got those numbers--from Senators King, Hagan, and Cardin. I had the pleasure of receiving warm welcomes from Majority Leader Reid and Republican Leader McConnell, among so many others that first day.

One of the first persons to congratulate me after Senator Warren and Secretary Kerry escorted me for my swearing in was my colleague from across the aisle, Senator Tim Scott. Since then Senator Rand Paul and I have recounted our days at Duke and our affection for college basketball.

On a bipartisan congressional delegation to the Middle East, I traded life stories and perspectives with Senators Klobuchar and Hoeven and discussed the comedic genius of Will Ferrell with Senators Gillibrand and Graham.

Senator Portman stopped by my Commonwealth Coffee last week to wish me well as I leave the Senate. He encouraged me every day during my time here.

Senator Burr, my next-door neighbor in the Russell Building, has always been good to remind me that I came from North Carolina before I had the privilege to serve in Massachusetts.

Senator McCain invited me to cosponsor my first Senate resolution.

Senator Manchin has shown me more kindnesses than I can count.

The freshman Senators on both sides welcomed me to their class and offered never-ending encouragement.

Indeed, one of them, Heidi Heitkamp, has become the North Dakota sister I never knew I had.

I wish I had time to recount every kindness each of the other 99, including the late Senator Lautenberg, gifted me while here, but I don't. Each has been recorded indelibly in my memory and is returned with gratitude.

In April I experienced the very best of this body's character in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings when Members from every corner of this Nation extended their sympathies, their prayers, and pledged their assistance and support for the city of Boston and to all those affected by that tragedy. In the aftermath we all came together as Americans to honor those killed and to support the wounded during their time of recovery.

We saw the same in the wake of terrible tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma.

Upon closer inspection, it is clear all of us here have common bonds and share similar goals. If only we are willing to seek out those bonds and focus on the goals that are in the best interests of our Nation.

While we may not agree on every policy, every line item, or every vote, we have each embraced the role of public servant, committed to improving the country we have pledged to support and defend. As I have discovered in my time here, there is more opportunity for cooperation than the American public might believe. This cooperation has led to some noted successes.

Thanks to the bipartisan work in the Agriculture Committee and on the Senate floor, we were able to send a farm bill to the House. Through the joint leadership of the so-called Gang of 8, we are debating right now a workable approach to comprehensive immigration reform. We have confirmed five Cabinet Secretaries.

In what will remain the most memorable all-nighter of my Senate career, through a marathon session and more votes in one night than most interim Senators have in a career, the Senate passed a budget. Now we anxiously await the urgent opportunity to conference with the House.

I have seen progress, and I remain a true believer in the democratic process, the core functionality of our government endowed to us by our Founding Fathers so many decades ago. I remain a true believer in the Senate's system of government and the Senate's role in that system.

If I have been asked a question any more frequently than: What are you going to do next, Mo, it has been: Is our system of government broken? Is Congress broken?

I have answered truthfully each time: No, our system of government is the greatest ever known and the best example of democracy in human history.

The genius of our Founding Fathers is on display every day on Capitol Hill, in every State capitol, and every city or townhall across this Nation. Part of the Founders' genius was the birth of the government designed to function as the people needed it to but function only as effectively as the privileged few empowered within it want it to work, or as Secretary Kerry himself said best a few months ago in his final floor remarks:

I do not believe the Senate is broken. . . . There is

nothing wrong with the Senate that can't be fixed by what's

right about the Senate--the predominant and weighty notion

that 100 American citizens, chosen by their neighbors [or

Governor, in my case] to serve from States as different from

Massachusetts and Montana, can always choose to put parochial

or personal interests aside and find the national interest.

What an awesome responsibility and privilege.

In my scant 5 months I have seen the promise of those words realized in more ways and in more interactions than the public, unfortunately, has had occasion to witness. I believe in that unlimited promise still.

I also have been part of history while I was here. With my appointment, in coincidence with the appointment of Senator Scott, two African Americans are serving in this body concurrently for the first time in our Nation's history.

Senator Scott and I are, respectively, the seventh and eighth Black Senators to serve in this body. While I believe this number to be far too few, I am also hopeful that it is a sign that these United States will soon be represented by a more diverse population that more closely reflects the diverse country that we are and the diversity of opinions that exist across and within our diverse Nation.

With different perspectives, different backgrounds, different races, religions, and creeds, we are better equipped to confront the issues that face our vast and changing Nation. America has always been and always will be a nation of immigrants, where religious freedom is in our DNA, where more and more we are chipping away at the barriers preventing us from achieving true marriage equality, and where people worldwide still yearn to reach our shores to enjoy our freedoms.

A Congress that is more reflective of this America, as this Congress is becoming, will be good for America.

Finally, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to the people of Massachusetts. Not one person was given a chance to vote for or against me, but I have gone about my work every day as if they had. I came to this body beholden to Massachusetts, her residents, and the country only, and leave confident that I have stayed true to that honor.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Commonwealth, it has been a true honor and privilege to represent you as your junior Senator in the Senate.

With that, this will likely be the final time I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss a rare birth defect of the brain, known as holoprosencephaly or

Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the nomination of Dr. Ernest Moniz--a native son of Massachusetts--to be Secretary of Energy. In voting yes on his nomination, the Senate will confirm someone who is extremely well qualified for the role of Secretary of Energy and someone who is proof positive that the American dream is alive and well.

Dr. Moniz is a son to first-generation immigrants to America, to Fall River, MA, a historic city on the south coast of Massachusetts rich with a history in the textile and garment mills and now with a bright future in the innovation economy.

It was in Fall River that Dr. Moniz first developed his love of science, both at home and in the Massachusetts public schools. With the help of scholarships from his father's labor union, Dr. Moniz was able to attend and receive his bachelor of science degree, summa cum laude in physics, from Boston College. From there, Dr. Moniz went on to do even greater work.

In Massachusetts, we are grateful for the decades of service he has given to one of the finest institutions not just in the Commonwealth but in the world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology--otherwise known as MIT--where he has been a faculty member since 1973. Dr. Moniz has led many groundbreaking initiatives at MIT, including most recently serving as the funding director of the MIT Energy Initiative and leading the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Through the MIT Energy Initiative, he has been at the forefront of multidisciplinary technology and policy studies on the future of nuclear power, coal, nuclear fuel cycles, natural gas, and solar energy. The initiative has spun out numerous startup companies from the campus lab into the emerging and important clean energy economy.

In addition to his many years of service to the Commonwealth, Dr. Moniz also knows his way around this town, which I am sure will serve him well in his new position. He served previously as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy and before that as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy for President Clinton.

One of the biggest challenges he will undoubtedly face as Secretary is how to continue critical U.S. investments in emerging energy technologies, including fusion, in the face of a difficult budget climate. While I recognize that, as Secretary, Dr. Moniz will need to recuse himself from this particular issue, I strongly support continued DOE funding of the domestic fusion energy research program at MIT, the C-Mod Program, which has for years led in fusion science and is an incubator for the next generation of fusion scientists. Unless additional action is taken by DOE, the C-Mod research facility at MIT will be abruptly terminated, 130 fusion scientists, engineers, graduate students, and support personnel at MIT would also be terminated, and hundreds of millions of dollars invested in this program over the past generation will be lost.

Our Nation's domestic fusion program simply cannot withstand the proposed reductions without a severe negative impact to our fusion research and our scientific contributions to the international fusion research community. This shortsighted approach could eliminate the ability of the United States to take a lead role in the development of the next generation of energy research.

The Department of Energy has significant responsibilities that impact America's economic energy, environmental, and security future. It is my strong belief that Dr. Moniz has the ability, knowledge, experience, and vision to be an excellent Secretary of Energy for the people of the United States. I look forward to casting my vote to confirm this brilliant scientist, dedicated public servant, and, yes, native son of Massachusetts.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.