[Senate Document 111-29]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TRIBUTES TO HON. CHRISTOPHER J. DODD
Christopher J. Dodd
U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT
TRIBUTES
IN THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES
S. Doc. 111-29
Christopher J. Dodd
Tributes
Delivered in Congress
Christopher J. Dodd
United States Congressman
1975-1981
United States Senator
1981-2011
Compiled under the direction
of the
Joint Committee on Printing
CONTENTS
Biography.............................................
v
Farewell to the Senate................................
vii
Proceedings in the Senate:
Tributes by Senators:
Akaka, Daniel K., of Hawaii....................
19
Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee.................
3
Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
26
Conrad, Kent, of North Dakota..................
17
Dodd, Christopher J., of Connecticut...........
6, 14
Durbin, Richard, of Illinois...................
9, 19
Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
23
Harkin, Tom, of Iowa...........................
15
Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
25
Hutchison, Kay Bailey, of Texas................
30
Lautenberg, Frank R., of New Jersey............
13
Levin, Carl, of Michigan.......................
21
Lieberman, Joseph I., of Connecticut...........
6
McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky..................
5
Murkowski, Lisa, of Alaska.....................
31
Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
11
Reid, Harry, of Nevada.........................
4, 15
Schumer, Charles E., of New York...............
14
Snowe, Olympia J., of Maine....................
27
Warner, Mark R., of Virginia...................
17
Whitehouse, Sheldon, of Rhode Island...........
12
BIOGRAPHY
Former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd is chairman and chief
executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of
America, Inc., which serves as the voice and advocate of
the U.S. motion picture, home video, and television
industries around the world.
Appointed in March 2011, Senator Dodd leads the
association's efforts to represent the interests of one of
the most creative and productive industries in America.
The major motion picture studios consistently produce
and distribute the most sought after and enjoyable
entertainment on Earth. Protecting this great American
export during a challenging economy and an ever-changing
technological landscape is Senator Dodd's highest
priority.
Senator Dodd served in the U.S. Congress representing
Connecticut for 36 years--6 years in the House of
Representatives and 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Senator
Dodd was one of the most widely respected legislators
during his years in Congress, earning the trust and
admiration of both Democrats and Republicans.
As a key participant in nearly every major national
policy debate over the past three decades, Senator Dodd
authored or coauthored major legislation in the areas of
education, health, financial services, foreign policy, and
election reform. In his last term in the Senate, Senator
Dodd enacted several major pieces of legislation. The
Senator played a decisive role in writing the significant
health care reform bill with the passage of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act. And Senator Dodd was
the principal author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act, crafted in the wake of one of
the worst economic downturns in history.
Senator Dodd is perhaps best known for bringing much-
needed attention to children's and education issues. He
formed the first Children's Caucus in the Senate, authored
the first childcare legislation since World War II, and
wrote the Family and Medical Leave Act, which has helped
ensure that 100 million Americans didn't have to choose
between the jobs they need and the families they love.
A recipient of the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public
Service Award recognizing leadership in foreign policy,
and a former senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Senator Dodd is a recognized expert on Latin
America. During his tenure in Congress he has also
traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Latin America
and served as cochair of the United States-India Senate
Caucus.
Senator Dodd's commitment to public service was
instilled at an early age by his parents, the late Senator
Thomas J. Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd. Thomas Dodd was the
executive trial counsel at the Nuremberg War Crimes
Tribunal before he was elected to both the House of
Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Chris Dodd is the longest serving member of Congress in
Connecticut history--having been popularly elected eight
times to the Congress. He was also the youngest person
elected to the House of Representatives from the Second
District of Connecticut, as well as the youngest person
elected to the Senate in Connecticut history. In 2007
Senator Dodd was a candidate for the Democratic nomination
for President.
Following his graduation from Providence College,
Senator Dodd answered John F. Kennedy's call to service
and joined the Peace Corps, serving in the Dominican
Republic from 1966 to 1968. Upon returning to the United
States, Senator Dodd enlisted in the U.S. Army National
Guard and Army Reserves. In 1972, he earned a law degree
from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of
Louisville. He practiced law in New London, CT, before his
election to Congress in 1974.
Chris Dodd was born May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, CT,
the fifth of six children. He lives in East Haddam with
his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, and their daughters Grace and
Christina.
Farewell to the Senate
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, first of all, let me express my
gratitude to all of the colleagues and other individuals
who have come to the Chamber at this moment.
Everyone who serves in Congress usually recalls two
moments in their service: the maiden speech they give
shortly after their arrival and their closing remarks. I
can't recall what the first speech I gave as a new Member
of the House of Representatives 36 years ago was even
about. I do, however, recall very vividly that there was
no one else in the Chamber when I gave it. It was an empty
hall early one evening with the exception of one
colleague, Johnny Dent from Pennsylvania. He was sitting
in his chair with his trademark dark glasses, listening
patiently as I gave my knee-rattling, hand-shaking maiden
address. Midway through the speech, he walked up to me and
said quietly, ``You know, kid, it is not on the level.''
Well, that was my first speech before the House, and I am
deeply honored that so many of you have come out to listen
to my closing remarks today so I do not have to speak to
an empty Chamber.
For more than 200 years, a uniquely American story has
unfolded here in the Chamber of the U.S. Senate--a
fascinating, inspiring, often tumultuous tale of conflict
and compromise, reflecting the awesome potential of our
still-young democracy and its occasional moments of
agonizing frustration.
For much of my life, this story has intersected with my
own in ways that have been both thrilling and humbling. As
a 14-year-old boy, I sat in the family gallery of this
very Chamber watching as my father took the oath of office
as a new Senator. A few years later, in 1962, I sat where
these young men and women sit today, serving as a Senate
page. John F. Kennedy was President and Lyndon Johnson
presided over this body. Eighteen years later, in fall
1980, the people of Connecticut gave me the honor of a
lifetime when they asked me to give voice to their views,
electing me to serve as their U.S. Senator. For the past
30 years, I have worked hard to sustain that trust. I am
proud of the work I have done, but it is time for my story
and that of this institution, which I cherish so much, to
diverge. Thus, Mr. President, I rise to give some
valedictory remarks as my service as a U.S. Senator from
Connecticut comes to a close.
Now, it is common for retiring Senators to say the
following: I will miss the people but not the work. Mr.
President, you won't hear that from me. Most assuredly, I
will miss the people of the Senate, but I will miss the
work as well. Over the years, I have both witnessed and
participated in some great debates in this Chamber,
moments when statesmen of both parties gathered together
in this Hall to weigh the great questions of our time. And
while I wish there had been more of those moments, I will
always remember the Senate debates on issues such as
Central America, the Iraq war, campaign finance reform,
securities litigation, health care, and, of course,
financial reform.
When I am home in Connecticut, I see the results of the
work we did every day. I see workers coming home from
their shifts at Pratt & Whitney, Electric Boat, the
Sikorsky helicopter plant--the lifeblood of a defense
manufacturing sector so critical to our national security
and to the economic well-being of my home State. I see
communities preparing for high-speed rail and breaking
ground for new community health centers. I see the grants
we fought for helping cities and towns to build
sustainable communities and promote economic development.
When I am home, I meet parents who, because of the
Family and Medical Leave Act, don't have to choose between
keeping their jobs and taking care of their sick children.
I visit with elderly folks who no longer have to choose
between paying for their prescription drugs and paying for
their heat. I hear from consumers who have been victimized
by unfair practices on the part of credit card companies
and who will no longer be subject to those abuses. And I
meet young children as well who, through Early Head Start
or access to afterschool programs, have blossomed
academically in spite of difficult economic circumstances.
As proud as I am of the work that has made these stories
possible over the last three decades, I am keenly aware,
particularly today, that I did not do any of this alone.
Until this last Congress, with rare exceptions, every
major piece of legislation I authored that became law--
including the ones I have just mentioned--had a Republican
cosponsor as well as support from my Democratic caucus. So
to my Democratic and Republican Senate colleagues who
joined me in all these efforts over 30 years, I say thank
you this afternoon.
I also want to thank, if I can, the unsung heroes of
this institution--the Senate staff and my personal staff.
It would be a grievous understatement to simply say they
make the trains run on time. Without them, as all of us
know, the trains would never leave the station at all--the
floor staff, the Cloakroom professionals of both parties,
and the hundreds of unknown and unseen people who show up
every day in this body to make this critical institution
of democracy function. Without them, no Senator could
fulfill his or her obligations to the American people.
Many of my personal staff and committee staff are
present in the Senate gallery today. Neither I nor the
millions of Americans whose lives you have enriched or
whose burdens you have lightened can ever thank you
enough. I only hope your time with me has been as
fulfilling as my time with you.
Of course, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the
people of Connecticut, whose confidence, patience, and
spirit have given my life and its work deep meaning. As
rich as our common language is, words cannot even come
close to capturing the depth of my affection for and
appreciation of the people of the State of Connecticut.
For almost four decades--three terms in the House of
Representatives, five terms in this Chamber--you have
entrusted me to labor on your behalf, and I deeply thank
you for that honor.
And last, my family. My parents are long since deceased,
but their guidance, inspiration, and example have never
departed. For the past 30 years, I have sat at this very
same desk occupied by my father during the 12 years he
served in this Chamber. His courage, character, and
conviction have been a constant reminder of what it means
to be a U.S. Senator. I thank my siblings and their
children and other relatives for their enthusiastic
support, particularly during the rough patches. From time
to time, we all need the safe harbor of family at the
darker moments. And to Jackie, Grace, and Christina, who
have supported and inspired me every day: You mean more to
me than I could ever say in these few short moments. So
come January, I am glad I will have more time to say it to
you more often. And to Jackie in particular: You have been
my anchor to windward in the rough and turbulent waters of
public service. When it was the darkest, you were the
brightest. I love you more than life.
As this chapter in my career comes to a close, a new
chapter in the Senate's history is beginning. When this
body is gaveled to order in January, nearly half of its
Members will be in their first term. And even though I
could spend hours fondly recalling a lifetime of
yesterdays, this new Senate and the Nation must confront a
very uncertain tomorrow. So rather than recite a long list
of personal memories or to revisit video highlights of my
Senate service, I would like to take this brief time, in
these few short moments, to offer a few thoughts to those
who will write the Senate's next chapter.
I will begin by stating the sadly obvious. Our electoral
system is a mess. Powerful financial interests, free to
throw money about with little transparency, have
corrupted, in my view, the basic principles underlying our
representative democracy. As a result, our political
system at the Federal level is completely dysfunctional.
Those who were elected to the Senate just a few weeks ago
must already begin the unpleasant work of raising money
for their reelection 6 years hence. Newly elected Senators
will learn that their every legislative maneuver, their
every public utterance, and even some of their private
deliberations will be fodder for a 24/7 political media
industry that seems to favor speculation over analysis and
conflict over consensus.
This explosion of new media brings with it its own
benefits and its drawbacks--and it is occurring
simultaneously as the presence of traditional media
outlets in our Nation is declining. So while the corridors
of Congress are crowded with handheld video and cell phone
cameras, there is a declining role for newspaper, radio,
and network journalists reporting the routine
deliberations that are taking place in our subcommittee
hearings. Case in point: Ten years ago, 11 or 12 reporters
from Connecticut covered the delegation's legislative
activities. Today, there is only one doing the same work.
Meanwhile, intense partisan polarization has raised the
stakes in every debate and on every vote, making it
difficult to lose with grace and nearly impossible to
compromise without cost. Americans' distrust of
politicians provides compelling incentives for Senators to
distrust each other, to disparage this very institution,
and to disengage from the policymaking process.
These changes have already had their effect on the
Senate. The purpose of insulating one-half of the national
legislature from the volatile shifts in public mood has
been degraded. And while I strongly favor reforming our
campaign finance system, revitalizing and rehabilitating
our journalistic traditions, and restoring citizen faith
in government and politics, I know that wishes won't make
it so.
I have heard some people suggest that the Senate as we
know it simply cannot function in such a highly charged
political environment; that we should change Senate rules
to make it more efficient, more responsive to the public
mood--more like the House of Representatives, where the
majority can essentially bend the minority to its will. I
appreciate the frustrations many have with the slow pace
of the legislative process, and I certainly share some of
my colleagues' anger with the repetitive use and abuse of
the filibuster. Thus, I can understand the temptation to
change the rules that make the Senate so unique and
simultaneously so terribly frustrating. But whether such a
temptation is motivated by a noble desire to speed up the
legislative process or by pure political expedience, I
believe such changes would be unwise.
We 100 Senators are but temporary stewards of a unique
American institution, founded upon universal principles.
The Senate was designed to be different, not simply for
the sake of variety but because the Framers believed the
Senate could and should be the venue in which statesmen
would lift America up to meet its unique challenges.
As a Senator from the State of Connecticut--and the
longest serving one in its history--I take special pride
in the role two Connecticut Yankees played in the
establishment of this very body. It was Roger Sherman and
Oliver Ellsworth, delegates from Connecticut to the
Constitutional Convention in 1787, who proposed the idea
of a bicameral national legislature. The Connecticut
Compromise, as it came to be known, was designed to ensure
that no matter which way the political winds blew or how
hard the gusts, there would be a place--one place--for
every voice to be heard.
The history of this young democracy, the Framers
decided, should not be written solely in the hand of the
political majority. In a nation founded in revolution
against tyrannical rule which sought to crush dissent,
there should be one institution that would always provide
a space where dissent was valued and respected. E pluribus
unum--out of many, one. And though we would act as one,
and should, the Framers believed our political debate
should always reflect that in our beliefs and aspirations,
we are, in fact, many. In short, our Founders were
concerned not only with what we legislated but, just as
important, with how we legislated.
In my years here, I have learned that the appreciation
of the Senate's role in our national debate is an acquired
taste. Therefore, to my fellow Senators who have never
served a day in the minority, I urge you to pause in your
enthusiasm to change Senate rules. And to those in the
minority who routinely abuse the rules of the Senate to
delay or defeat almost any Senate decision, know that you
will be equally responsible for undermining the unique
value of the Senate--a value, I would argue, that is
greater than that which you might assign to the political
motivations driving your obstruction.
So in the end, of course, I would suggest this isn't
about the filibuster. What will determine whether this
institution works or not, what has always determined
whether we fulfill the Framers' highest hopes or justify
the cynics' worst fears is not the Senate rules or the
calendar or the media; it is whether each of the 100
Senators can work together, living up to the incredible
honor that comes with this title and the awesome
responsibility that comes with this office.
Politics today seemingly rewards only passion and
independence, not deliberation and compromise as well. It
has become commonplace to hear candidates for this body
campaign on how they are going to Washington to shake
things up--all by themselves. May I politely suggest that
you are seeking election to the wrong office. The U.S.
Senate does not work that way, nor can it, nor should it.
Mayors, Governors, and Presidents can sometimes succeed by
the sheer force of their will, but there has never been a
Senator so persuasive, so charismatic, so clever, or so
brilliant that they could make a significant difference
while refusing to work with other Members of this body.
Simply put, Senators cannot ultimately be effective
alone.
As I noted earlier, until last year's health care bill,
there had not been a single piece of legislation I had
ever passed without a Republican partner.
Of course, none of those victories came easily. The
notion that partisan politics is a new phenomenon, or that
partisan politics serve no useful purpose, is just flat
wrong.
From the moment of our founding, America has been
engaged in an eternal and often pitched partisan debate.
That is no weakness. In fact, it is at the core of our
strength as a democracy, and success as a nation.
Political bipartisanship is a goal, not a process.
You do not begin the debate with bipartisanship--you
arrive there. And you can do so only when determined
partisans create consensus--and thus bipartisanship.
In the end, the difference between a partisan brawl and
a passionate, but ultimately productive, debate rests on
the personal relationships among those of us who serve
here.
A legislative body that operates on unanimous consent,
as we do, cannot function unless the Members trust each
other. There is no hope of building that trust unless
there is the will to treat each other with respect and
civility, and to invest the time it takes to create that
trust and strengthen those personal bonds.
No matter how obnoxious you find a colleague's rhetoric
or how odious you find their beliefs, you will need them.
And despite what some may insist, you do no injustice to
your ideological principles when you seek out common
ground. You do no injustice to your political beliefs when
you take the time to get to know those who don't share
them.
I have served with several hundred Senators under every
partisan configuration imaginable: Republican Presidents
and Democratic Presidents, divided government and one
party control.
And as odd as it may sound in the present political
environment, in the last three decades I have served here,
I cannot recall a single Senate colleague with whom I
could not work.
Sometimes those relationships take time, but then, that
is why the Framers gave us 6-year terms: so that Members
could build the social capital necessary to make the
Senate function.
Under our Constitution, Senators are given 6 years, but
only you can decide how to use them. As one Senator who
has witnessed what is possible here, I urge each of you:
Take the time to use those years well. I pledge to those
of you who have recently arrived, your tenure here will be
so much more rewarding.
More important, you will be vindicating the confidence
that the Framers placed in each person who takes the oath
of office, as a U.S. Senator, upholding a trust that
echoes through the centuries.
I share the confidence that Roger Sherman, Oliver
Ellsworth, and the Framers placed in this body and in its
Members. But I am not blind. The Senate today, in the view
of many, is not functioning as it can and should.
I urge you to look around. This moment is difficult, not
only for this body, but for the nation it serves. In the
end, what matters most in America is not what happens
within the walls of this Chamber, but rather the
consequences of our decisions across the Nation and around
the globe.
Our economy is struggling, and many of our people are
experiencing real hardship--unemployment, home
foreclosures, endangered pensions.
Meanwhile, our Nation faces real challenges: a mounting
national debt, energy, immigration, nuclear proliferation,
ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and so much
more. All these challenges make the internal political and
procedural conflicts we face as Senators seem small and
petty.
History calls each of us to lift our eyes above the
fleeting controversies of the moment, and to refocus our
attention on our common challenge and common purpose.
By regaining its footing, the Senate can help this
Nation to regain confidence, and restore its sense of
optimism.
We must regain that focus. And, most important, we need
our confidence back--we need to feel that same optimism
that has sustained us through more than two centuries.
Now, I am not naive. I am aware of the conventional
wisdom that predicts gridlock in the Congress.
But I know both the Democratic and Republican leaders. I
know the sitting Members of this Chamber as well. And my
confidence is unshaken.
Why? Because we have been here before. The country has
recovered from economic turmoil. Americans have come
together to heal deep divides in our Nation and the Senate
has led by finding its way through seemingly intractable
political division.
We have proven time and time again that the Senate is
capable of meeting the test of history. We have evidenced
the wisdom of the Framers who created its unique rules and
set the high standards that we must meet.
After all, no other legislative body grants so much
power to each Member, nor does any other legislative body
ask so much of each Member.
Just as the Senate's rules empower each Member to act
like a statesman, they also require statesmanship from
each of us.
But these rules are merely requiring from us the kind of
leadership that our constituents need from us, that
history calls on us to provide in difficult times such as
the ones we're encountering.
Maturity in a time of pettiness, calm in a time of
anger, and leadership in a time of uncertainty--that is
what the Nation asks of the Senate, and that is what this
office demands of us.
Over the past two centuries, some 1,900 men and women
have shared the privilege of serving in this body. Each of
us has been granted a temporary, fleeting moment in which
to indulge either our political ambition and ideological
agenda, or, alternatively, to rise to the challenge and
make a constructive mark on our history.
My moment is now at an end, but to those whose moments
are not yet over, and to those whose moments will soon
begin, I wish you so much more than good fortune.
I wish you wisdom. I wish you courage. And I wish for
each of you that, one day, when you reflect on your
moment, you will know that you have lived up to the
tremendous honor and daunting responsibility of being a
U.S. Senator.
To quote St. Paul, ``The time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I
have kept the faith.''
So, Mr. President, it is with great pride, deep
humility, and incredible gratitude, as a U.S. Senator,
that I yield the floor.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
?
TRIBUTES
TO
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD
Proceedings in the Senate
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, 16 Senators will retire
this year. There is a pretty big turnover in this body,
but that is a lot of Senators at once. We are losing an
enormous amount of talent, but, of course, we are gaining
a lot of talent with the new Senators.
I wish to show my respect for those who have served,
which I will do in a summary fashion because we are
talking about 16 individuals with very complex and
distinguished backgrounds.
One might ask, what are the characteristics of a
Senator? There are a lot of different answers to that,
depending on your background and attitude toward politics
and government. First, I have always thought that one
characteristic of almost every Member of the Senate is
that he or she probably was a first grader sitting in the
front row, hand in the air waiting to be recognized. This
is an eager bunch or you would not have gotten here.
Second, it is a group of risk takers. Most people who
end up in the Senate get here because a lot of other
people who wanted to be Senators were standing around
waiting for the right time to run. A lot of people who
were elected to the Senate seemed to have no chance of
winning at the time they decided to run, but the voters
decided differently, and here they are.
Third, we are almost all professional and congenial.
That is a big help. It is almost a requirement in an
organization of 100 individuals who spend almost all their
time with one another, who serve in a body that operates
by unanimous consent, when just one Senator can bring the
whole place to a halt, and whose job basically is to argue
about some of the most difficult issues that face the
American people. So it helps that almost every Member of
the Senate is an especially congenial person.
Back in Tennessee, people often say to me it must be
rough being in that job. They are awfully mean up there.
The truth is, I don't know of a more congenial group than
the Members of the Senate. We begin the day in the gym.
The next thing you know we are at a Prayer Breakfast, and
then we are at a committee hearing. Then we are on the
floor voting, and then we have lunch. It goes through the
day until 7 or 8 o'clock, or sometimes later. We live
together and we get along very well. We know and respect
each other.
Not long ago, the Presiding Officer (Mr. Udall of New
Mexico) and I were having dinner together with our wives.
We were lamenting the loss of families who know one
another, the way it happened when his father was serving
in Congress and when I first came to the Senate to work
for Senator Baker. And that's true. We've lost some of
that. Still, there is an enormous amount of affection and
good will here. You don't always get to be very close
friends in this job, but you get to be very good
acquaintances, and you learn to respect people for their
strengths.
Senator Domenici said, when he left, that we don't do a
very good job of saying goodbye here. That is true. As one
part of saying goodbye, I wish to say at least one good
thing about each one of the 16 retiring Senators. Much
more could be said about each, of course. Mostly, I am
going in alphabetical order. ...
Senator Chris Dodd has been here a long time--five
terms. Children and families are his hallmark and legacy.
I have felt privileged to work with him on the
Subcommittee on Children and Families. One thing we've
focused on together is premature births, but he's also
worked on a whole variety of other legislation. We will
miss his congeniality, his good humor, and his devotion to
the Senate as an institution, making sure it stays unique
as a place where we have unlimited debate and unlimited
amendments, so the voices of the American people can be
heard. ...
It has been my privilege to serve with these 16
Senators. We thank them for their service to our country.
They have had a chance to serve in what we regard as the
world's greatest deliberative body; it is a special
institution. We will miss their leadership, and we hope
they will stay in touch with us because they are not just
retiring Senators, they are all our friends.
I yield the floor.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have on many occasions spoken
of my affection for my friend Chris Dodd. At the caucus
today--the Presiding Officer was there--I indicated very
few people have had the opportunity and the challenges in
a single Congress as Chris Dodd. He found himself chairman
of the Banking Committee at a time when the country was
collapsing, the banks were collapsing. Yet he led the way
to working with the Republican President to do the so-
called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). It was
something that was done on a bipartisan basis. There was
never a better example in my entire government career of a
more cooperative group of Senators, Democrats and
Republicans, House and Senate, working together to create
something that was badly needed.
Then we had, of course, many other issues beginning with
Wall Street reform. Then, to complicate his life and to
add to the challenges in his life--the best friend a man
could ever have was Chris Dodd's best friend, Ted
Kennedy--Ted Kennedy was stricken very ill. Senator Dodd
knew he would not be back to the Senate. Very few people
knew that, but he knew that. He, in effect, was chairing
two major committees at the same time, the HELP (Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committee and the Banking
Committee. He did it in a way that is so commendable, so
exemplary.
I have so much, I repeat, affection for Chris Dodd that
I am not capable of expressing how deeply I feel about
this good man. I will have more to say later, but I did
want to take this opportunity, as soon as the Republican
leader makes his remarks, to allow his colleague from the
State of Connecticut to speak following the two leaders,
if that is OK.
I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks of
Senator McConnell, Senator Lieberman be recognized.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
The Republican leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, like most Members of this
body, I am rarely at a loss for words, but I think we have
just had an opportunity to hear one of the most important
speeches in the history of the Senate about our
beginnings, about our traditions, about what is unique
about this institution which makes it different from any
other legislative body in the world. I have heard many
people discuss that over the years but never anyone so
cogently point out why the uniqueness of this institution
is so important to our country as the senior Senator from
Connecticut has done today. So while we have a huge number
of Senators on the floor, I am going to strongly recommend
that those who were not here have an opportunity to take a
look at his remarks because I think they are an enormously
significant and important contribution to this institution
and to its future.
On a personal basis, I want to say to my good friend
from Connecticut how much I am going to miss him--his
wonderful personality, his ability to talk to anybody--a
uniquely effective individual.
So we bid adieu to the senior Senator from Connecticut
and hope our paths will cross again in the future.
I yield the floor.
Mr. DODD. I thank the Senator.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, for 22 years it has been a
blessing for me to have served with Chris Dodd in the
Senate as my colleague from Connecticut, as my dear
friend, as my legislative partner. I am going to miss him
a lot, as everybody in this Chamber will. I think when we
listened to the words he spoke to us just a few moments
ago--how full of wisdom and warmth they were--we knew how
much we are going to miss him and how much we should
consider what has made him not only our great friend but a
truly great Senator.
Chris mentioned Sherman and Ellsworth, whose pictures
are out in the reception area just off the Senate, who
crafted the Connecticut Compromise, really created the
Senate. I think Chris Dodd, who is the 54th Senator from
the State of Connecticut in our history, took this
institution that Sherman and Ellsworth created in the
Connecticut Compromise and made it work to the great
benefit of the people of Connecticut and the people of
America.
To the great benefit of the people of Connecticut and
the people of America, Chris Dodd was born to a legacy, an
honorable legacy of public service, which he watched, as
so many of us did in Connecticut, and, of course, learned
from, from his father, Senator Thomas J. Dodd. I could say
a lot about Senator Dodd, Sr. He was a prosecutor at the
Nuremberg trials, remarkably principled, skillful
prosecutor, who became a Member of the Senate.
I will tell you that as a young man in Connecticut, me,
growing up, thinking about a political career, when I
heard that Senator Tom Dodd was somewhere within range of
where I lived or went to school, I went to listen to him
speak. He was a classic orator, an extraordinarily
principled man who had a great career in the Senate.
As we know from the years we have served with Chris, the
characteristics I have described of his father were taken
and put to extraordinarily good use in the Senate.
Chris' words were very important, and, as Senator
McConnell said, should be studied by all of us and by
anyone thinking about coming to the Senate. We all talk
about this being an age of hyperpartisanship. But I think
that misses the point because, as Chris said, he is a
partisan in the best sense of the word. He is a principled
partisan. He is passionate about what he believes in. But
he knows we come to a point when partisanship ends, and
you have to get something done for the public that was
good enough to send you here.
Over and over again, any of us on both sides of the
aisle who have watched Chris work a bill know how
persistent, how open, how anxious he was to try to find
common ground, yes, to compromise because ultimately our
work is the art of the possible. Somebody once said to me,
``The futility of the failure to compromise, there is no
result from it.'' But if you have a goal, a principled
goal, you know you can achieve a significant part of that
goal if you can build enough support in this Chamber, and
time and time again Chris Dodd did that.
The other reason I think he did it is because of the
truth that he spoke in his remarks, which is that beyond
the great debates and the headlines and the sniping back
and forth. The Senate, after all, is 100 people who go to
work in the same place every day, and your ability to get
things done in the Senate, as is true in offices and
factories all over America and other places of work, your
ability to get things done here is affected, in great
measure, by the trust your colleagues have in you and even
the extent to which they like you.
I think, by those standards, Chris Dodd has been totally
trustworthy. As we were taught when we grew up in
Connecticut politics, his word has been his bond, and his
personality has warmed each of us as we have gone through
the labors we go through here.
Chris Dodd has served longer in the Senate than any
Senator from Connecticut. So on this day--and he will
forgive me a little bit of hyperbole. I would guess, as a
matter of friendship and faith, that he has probably
accomplished more than any other Senator in the history of
the State of Connecticut, and he has done it because he
cares about people. When he takes something on, he simply
does not quit.
I just want to tell you one story. In 1989, Chris met a
woman named Eva Bunnell at her church in East Haddam, CT.
She told him her daughter had been born with a rare brain
disease and was fighting for her life in the intensive
care unit. But when her husband asked his employer for
time off to be with his wife and critically sick infant,
he was told to go home and never come back, leaving a
family without income or health insurance.
The story, all too common at the time, is the kind of
injustice that has repeatedly moved Chris Dodd to action.
He authored, as we know, the Family and Medical Leave Act.
He worked, as I said before, on compromises that made it
acceptable to a large number of people, stuck with it
through two Presidential vetoes, and then finally saw it
signed into law by President Clinton in 1993.
Today, the records will show that more than 50 million
people have been able to take time off from work to care
for a loved one or give birth to a child without fear of
losing their jobs.
That is a lifetime achievement, but it is only one of
many such achievements Chris Dodd has had in the Senate.
Senator Reid talked about this last session of his Senate
career, extraordinary accomplishments: health care reform,
Wall Street reform, the Iran sanctions bill which came out
of the Banking Committee, which is, in my opinion, the
strongest such bill we have ever passed and the last best
hope to avoid the necessity to take military action
against Iran. This is the kind of record Chris has built.
Up until this time, I have been serious, and when you
talk about Chris Dodd, it would be wrong to be totally
serious because one of the things we are going to miss is
that booming laugh and the extraordinary sense of humor. I
have had many great laughs with colleagues here. I have
probably given too many laughs to colleagues, as I think
about it. But I have never laughed louder or more over the
years than I have with Chris Dodd.
Perhaps it is not totally appropriate on the Senate
floor, but I have two of his comments, one about me, that
I wish to share. I notice the former comedian is here. A
while ago, only Chris Dodd would have told an audience
here in Washington that he thought enough time had passed
in my career that he could reveal that Joe Lieberman
actually had not been born Jewish but was born a Baptist
and raised a Baptist, and then when I got into politics
and saw how many events I would have to go to on Friday
night or Saturday, I converted to Judaism to take the
Sabbath off. Then Chris said, ``And, you know, I am
thinking of converting to Judaism myself but only for the
weekends.''
Another quick quip. As my colleagues in the Senate know,
it is our honor to walk our State colleagues down the
center aisle in the Senate to be sworn in for a new term.
The first time I did that, we walked arm in arm, as we
always have. Chris turned to me and said, ``You know, Joe,
there are people who are worried that you may be the only
person I will ever walk down an aisle with.''
Well, fortunately, that was not true because, Chris and
Jackie got married and had these two wonderful daughters,
Grace and Christina, who have provided so much joy and
satisfaction and hopefulness to Chris.
We are going to miss you. I am going to miss you
personally. I speak for myself, but I speak, I would bet,
for just everybody in this Chamber in saying we feel so
close to you that we know our friendship will go on.
I would say Chris Dodd leaves, to sum up an
extraordinary Senate career, having achieved a record of
results that benefited the people of Connecticut and
America in untold ways. He has a wonderful family with
whom he looks forward to spending time, and he has so many
great years ahead of him, including, I hope and believe,
times when he will again be of service to our country.
God bless you, Chris, and your family.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to join with my
colleagues in saluting the departure of one of our best,
Senator Chris Dodd. I first saw his father, though I did
not meet him, when I was a student intern for Senator Paul
Douglas of Illinois, who had an office that was next door
to Chris Dodd's father's. I saw Senator Thomas Dodd
leaving that office and was certainly aware of the great
contribution he made to America.
Little did I know some 16 years later, when I would be a
candidate for the House of Representatives, that his son
would come to Decatur, IL, to do an event for me in my
campaign. It was a smashing success, the biggest turnout
ever. I am sure Senator Dodd believes it might have been
because of his presence. It also could have been because
it was a $1 chicken dinner and people came from miles
around. But I was happy to advertise him as the star
talent at that event.
What a great life story. Christopher John Dodd, the
fifth of six children of Thomas and Grace Dodd, was born
in 1944 with a caul, a thin veil of skin thought to be a
sign of good luck, covering his head. The doctor who
delivered him told his mother that with this sign of good
luck, this baby might grow up to be President, to which
Mrs. Dodd replied, ``What is the matter with Franklin
Roosevelt?''
It was a great line, but the truth is, while Grace and
Tom Dodd were both ardent New Dealers, they knew America
would not depend on one leader forever, not even FDR. They
knew and they taught their children they all have an
obligation in our own time to try to move America closer
to a more perfect union.
Thomas Dodd, Senator Dodd's father, worked to fulfill
that obligation in his time. He chased John Dillinger as
an FBI agent, prosecuted war criminals and KKK members as
a government lawyer, and served in both the House and
Senate. His son Chris followed his father's example, found
his way to serve America by serving in the Peace Corps as
a volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he lived for
2 years in a mountaintop village in a house with a tin
roof and no running water or telephone.
In that village he started a maternity hospital, family
planning program, a youth club, and a school. Those were
the first installments of what would become, for Chris
Dodd, a lifetime of work protecting women and children
worldwide.
Senator Dodd was elected to the Senate in 1980, at the
ripe age of 36. He is both the youngest person ever
elected to the Senate in Connecticut history and the
longest serving, as has been said. Early on, his
colleagues recognized his talents and named him one of the
three most effective freshman Senators. He has never let
up on his efforts to help America and help Connecticut.
He is a passionate, articulate voice for economic
justice, for civil, constitutional, and human rights, and
for America's role as a moral leader in the world. He is a
champion of fairness, cofounder of the Senate Children's
Caucus, lead sponsor, as Senator Lieberman mentioned, in
1993, of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which has
helped countless millions of Americans.
He has achieved more in the last 2 years, though, than
most Senators achieve in long careers. As chairman of the
Senate Banking Committee, he led the fight in the Senate
for the most important Wall Street reform since the Great
Depression. He picked up the fallen standard from his dear
friend Ted Kennedy and helped lead the fight Ted Kennedy
always dreamed of for affordable health care for all
Americans. For that achievement alone, Chris Dodd has
earned a place in history.
Chris Dodd has, as Eugene O'Neill might say, ``the map
of Ireland on his face,'' but he has the promise of
America written in his heart. His work in the Senate has
made that promise real for millions of Americans. In his
office in the Russell Senate Office Building, an office
once occupied by his father, are portraits of two
Thomases: Thomas Dodd, his father, and another of his
heroes, Sir Thomas More.
I listened to Chris' speech just a moment ago, and I was
reminded of what Thomas More wrote in his masterwork,
``Utopia.'' He said:
If you can't completely eradicate wrong ideas, or deal
with inveterate vices as effectively as you could wish,
that is no reason for turning your back on public life all
together. You wouldn't abandon a ship in a storm just
because you couldn't control the winds.
For 30 years in the Senate, even when he has had to sail
through fierce headwinds, Chris Dodd has kept his compass
fixed on the ideals that make America both great and good.
In doing so, he has made the Senate, Connecticut, and
America a better place.
I am proud to have served with him and call him a
friend. I thank him for his efforts that brought me to the
House of Representatives so many years ago. I thank him
for his service in the Senate and a special thanks to his
wonderful family; Jackie, a great friend, and those two
great daughters, Grace and Christine, whom I have seen as
swimmers at the Senate pool, good health and good luck to
the whole family for many more chapters in their lives.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to pay
tribute to my dear friend and colleague and, in a very
real sense, mentor. I can testify from the experience of
the last 2 years to his remarkable contributions to this
country.
I don't believe any other Senator could have navigated
the treacherous waters of the Dodd-Frank bill. It was like
watching a great conductor conduct a complicated piece of
music: knowing when to pause and let tempers cool, knowing
when to pick up the tempo, knowing when to come to the
final conclusion. It was a virtuoso performance, in
keeping with a career of contributing to Connecticut and
to this country.
The most remarkable tribute I have ever heard about this
wonderful man was in a very unusual place by a person who
honestly probably doesn't know who he is. It was May 21,
2010. I was visiting a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Army
Hospital, a member of the Second Battalion, 508 Parachute
Infantry Regiment of the 82d Airborne Division. He had
been wounded around Kandahar by an IED. Fortunately, he
was on the road to recovery. We joked for a moment and
talked about his experiences, and I turned to his mother,
who was sitting there watching her son, her life, her hope
make a full recovery, and I said, ``How are you doing?''
She said to me very simply, ``I am doing fine. You see,
I was able to take family medical leave and be with my son
while he recuperated.''
She probably doesn't know who Senator Dodd is or what he
did, but she, along with 50 million other Americans, was
by the hospital bed of a wounded son or a sick child or an
ailing parent. To me, that is the greatest tribute to what
Senator Dodd has done.
There is a great line I recall about Franklin Roosevelt.
His cortege was winding its way through Washington. A man
was sobbing. A reporter rushed up to him, ``Well, you are
so affected. You must have known the President. Did you
know the President?''
He said, ``No, I never knew the President, but he knew
me.''
Chris Dodd knew the people of Connecticut and the people
of the United States, and in every moment, he served them
with integrity and diligence and honor.
Chris, to you, to your family--and I say this because
your mother is from Westerly, RI, God bless her; and your
beloved sister, our dear friends Martha and Bernie, from
Rhode Island--as an adopted son of Rhode Island, thank you
for your service to the Nation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, may I associate myself
with the remarks of my distinguished senior Senator and
reemphasize our pride in the contacts that Chairman Dodd,
Senator Dodd, our friend Chris Dodd, has with Rhode
Island.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I wish to take a couple
of minutes to salute the service of one great Senator,
Chris Dodd.
Chris and I have served together for more than 25 years.
When I arrived here--and I was not one of the youngest
people to get here at that time, but Chris was someone I
knew from other walks of life--I turned to him, as well as
my dear friend who used to occupy this seat, Ted Kennedy,
for advice and counsel. Sometimes the counseling was
better than the advice, but we were younger then.
Chris Dodd has that incredible personality that gets
things done, that presents a leadership position on
issues. He has shown incredible patience in the way he
dealt with financial reform and with health care. But
never, as I saw it, did Chris leave the people who
disagreed with him with anger, with a feeling of anger or
with anything other than respect and friendship.
Chris comes from a distinguished family. His father
occupied a seat here for a dozen years. Now Senator Chris
Dodd has decided to leave the Senate. It was a decision he
made with which I totally disagreed. It was bad judgment,
I can tell my colleagues that. When I left after 18 years
of service, three terms, I decided I had had enough. I
left. Good fortune smiled on me, and I came back after 2
years, after a 2-year absence, missing being here maybe
more than it missed me.
I remember, as I made my outgoing visits--no, my
decisionmaking visits--Chris invited me to his office with
Ted Kennedy and a colleague whom we had at the time, Paul
Wellstone, now deceased but a wonderful colleague. The
three of them sat with me in Chris' office, and Chris
tried to talk me out of leaving. I said, ``No, it is a
decision I made.'' I began to have misgivings about it,
but by then, the die was cast; there were other people who
wanted to run for the job. So I left with lots of regrets.
I was away from here for a period of time. In 2001 when I
left, it was a terrible year--the year of 9/11 and the
beginning of a recession and the beginning of war and all
of those things. So I tried to play turnaround with Chris,
and I talked to Chris about leaving and I said, ``Chris,
don't leave. Don't do it.''
Chris Dodd will leave a void. I think it is obvious that
someone will follow, take the reins. It doesn't mean they
will ever take his place. I don't think that is possible.
Chris Dodd will have left an impression here of decency
and honesty and honor and respect on all of us on both
sides of the aisle--one of the few times we all agree.
So I say to Chris and Jackie and your two little girls
that we wish you well. Our friendship will endure way past
our time serving together.
Chris, follow my example. Give it a couple of years and
get back here, will you? Thank you very much, Chris Dodd,
for your wonderful service. We love you, and we will miss
you, and we will always think about you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly in
honor of our friend and colleague, the senior Senator from
Connecticut. I have watched him from the day I came here.
We knew each other a little bit when I was in the House.
He left the House to go to the Senate, but we had many of
the same friends when I came to the House. I always
marveled at his abilities.
For those of us who have served here--I have only been
here 12 years--we know the joys and difficulties of
legislating in the Senate. We know it is not easy, and we
know how satisfying it is. There are very few who reach
the acme of how to do it and who devote their lives to it.
I guess they are given a title--I don't know if it is
official; it is probably not--they are the ``men and women
of the Senate.'' We have had two leave us in the last
year: Senator Robert Byrd and Senator Ted Kennedy. They
were truly men of the Senate. It is not a title bestowed
easily or lightly or frequently.
Chris Dodd is a man of the Senate. He is in the category
of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd in terms of his ability to
get things done, his ability as a legislative craftsman,
as somebody who is able to combine idealism and
practicality, as somebody who is able to sit down with
someone, as has been mentioned before, with a totally
different viewpoint and get them to compromise and be on
his side and be part of the effort he is leading. He is a
man of the Senate. He will always be a man of the Senate.
I will miss him personally for his guidance and
friendship, and I think every one of us will.
Chris, good luck and Godspeed.
Mr. DODD. Thank you very much.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of
materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to
retiring Members of the 111th Congress, and that Members
have until Thursday, December 16, to submit such tributes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, in these closing weeks of
the 111th Congress, the Senate will be saying goodbye to a
number of retiring colleagues. For my part, I will miss
them all, but I have to be honest, the most poignant
farewell will be to my dear friend, Senator Chris Dodd of
Connecticut.
Chris and I have much in common. We are both proud of
our Irish roots. We were both elected to the House of
Representatives at the same time, in the famous post-
Watergate election of 1974. Chris moved over here to the
Senate in 1980, and I followed 4 years later. We both ran
for President--with similarly unambiguous results. Over
the years, we have collaborated on many legislative
initiatives, including, most recently, the historic
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--the health
reform bill.
As we all know, Chris Dodd is almost literally a son of
the Senate. With good reason, he is enormously proud of
his father, Thomas J. Dodd, who was a lead prosecutor at
the Nuremberg trials and served two terms in the Senate,
from 1959 to 1971. Chris worked as a Senate page at age
16, and was elected to the Senate at age 36. For three
decades, Chris has embodied everything that is good about
this body: a passion for public service, a sincere desire
to reach out across the aisle, a great talent for forging
coalitions and bringing people together, and a willingness
to work extraordinarily long hours in order to accomplish
big and important things.
Over the decades, Senator Dodd has been a leading
champion of working Americans, fighting for safer
workplaces, the right to organize, stronger public
schools, better access to higher education, and, of
course, quality health care as a right not a privilege. He
was the author of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act,
which for the first time entitled every American to have
leave from their job to take care of children or elderly
relatives.
Make no mistake, Senator Dodd is leaving the Senate at
the very top of his game. Last year, when Senator Kennedy
fell ill, Chris picked up the torch of health care reform.
When I became chair of the Health, Education, and Labor
Committee, I asked him to continue to take the lead in
forging the final bill, which he had led so expertly
before, and which will go down in history as one of
America's great progressive accomplishments, on a par with
Social Security and Medicare.
Even before final passage of health reform, Senator
Dodd, as chair of the Banking Committee, was hard at work
crafting yet another historic bill: the most sweeping
reform of Wall Street and the banking industry since the
Great Depression.
To be sure, other Senators played important roles in
passing health reform and Wall Street reform. But it was
Senator Dodd's dogged work and virtuoso skills as a
legislator that ultimately won the day. These two landmark
laws are a tremendous living legacy to the senior Senator
from Connecticut. He has made his mark as one of the great
reformers in the history of the U.S. Senate.
Chris Dodd has accomplished many things during his three
decades in this body. But, in my book, the highest
accolade is simply that Chris Dodd is a good, generous,
and decent person, with a passion for fairness and social
justice.
For me, it has been a great honor to be his friend and
colleague for the last 36 years. Our friendship, of
course, will continue. But I will miss the day-to-day
association with Chris here on the floor, in committee,
and elsewhere here on the Hill.
Paul Wellstone used to say that ``the future belongs to
those with passion.'' By that definition, our friend Chris
Dodd has a wonderful future ahead of him. No question he
is full of passion, passion for doing what is right for
the people of this country. But no question, the Senate is
losing a giant--one of our most accomplished and respected
Members. We are also losing a happy warrior in the mold of
FDR and Hubert Humphrey. As the columnist E.J. Dionne has
written, ``The happiness quotient in the Senate will
definitely drop when [Senator] Dodd leaves.'' I couldn't
agree more.
For 36 years in Congress, Chris Dodd has faithfully
served the people of Connecticut and the people of the
United States. And there is no doubt that he will pursue
new avenues of public service in retirement.
As I said, I will miss his friendship and counsel here
in the Senate. But I wish Chris, his wonderful wife
Jackie, and their wonderful young children, Grace and
Christina, the very best in the years ahead.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise again to recognize the
service of another great Federal employee. This is a
tradition that was started by our friend and former
colleague, Senator Kaufman, and I am proud to carry on
that tradition. But I want to first say that I appreciate
the remarks of the Presiding Officer (Mr. Reed) about our
colleagues who are leaving this body, and I share his
great respect for not only Senator Kaufman but all of the
colleagues who are leaving the body at the end of this
Congress. ...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute
and recognize the accomplishments of a colleague and
friend who will be retiring from the U.S. Senate at the
end of this term. Senator Christopher Dodd has represented
Connecticut in Congress for 36 years, and has been an
unrelenting advocate for his constituents and working-
class Americans.
Senator Dodd has led a very impressive career, and his
dedication and love of public service is evident. After
graduating from Providence College, he volunteered with
the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic for 2 years.
Upon returning to the United States, Christopher Dodd
enlisted in the Army National Guard and later served in
the U.S. Army Reserves. In 1972, he earned a law degree
from the University of Louisville School of Law, and
practiced law before his election to the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1975. In 1981, he became the youngest
person to join the U.S. Senate in Connecticut history.
Senator Dodd followed in the footsteps of his father, the
late Senator Thomas Dodd, being elected to both Chambers
of Congress.
Since his election to Congress, Senator Dodd has served
his State and the Nation admirably. He has been a true
advocate for our children and their families, forming the
Senate's first Children's Caucus. He was a champion and
author of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which
guarantees working Americans time off if they are ill or
need to care for a sick family member or new child. In
addition, he has consistently fought to improve and expand
the Head Start Program, a critical investment in our
Nation's future. Due to his tremendous advocacy of the
program, he was named Senator of the Decade by the
National Head Start Association.
Senator Dodd was also one of the key Senators who made
passage of health care reform, the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act, a reality. A close and personal
friend of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Dodd
worked tirelessly on health reform in the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and in the full
Senate during Senator Kennedy's battle with brain cancer
and after his passing. Senator Kennedy, who had been the
leader in the Senate on reforming our health care system
for several decades, would have been very proud of Senator
Dodd and his relentless efforts to reform our Nation's
health care system.
The health care reform law that Senator Dodd helped to
craft will expand health insurance coverage to
approximately 32 million Americans and create some
commonsense rules of the road for the health insurance
industry in an effort to clamp down on abusive practices
such as jacking up premiums or dropping coverage just when
people need it most. It also builds on our current
private, employer-based system by expanding coverage,
controlling costs, and improving quality, competition, and
choices for consumers.
Senator Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing,
and Urban Affairs Committee. He has been instrumental in
working to put our country back on sound economic footing.
As we all remember too well, in fall 2008 we faced a
financial crisis. Senator Dodd and I and other leaders
from both Chambers were called to an emergency meeting in
the U.S. Capitol as the Nation's economy teetered on the
brink of collapse. At this meeting, the chairman of the
Federal Reserve and the Secretary of the Treasury from the
previous administration told us they were taking over AIG
the next morning. They believed if they did not, there
would be a financial collapse. Those were very serious
days.
A few weeks later, the Bush administration proposed
virtually unfettered authority for the Treasury Secretary
to respond to the financial crisis. Senator Dodd, to his
lasting credit, insisted on defining the Treasury's
authority, subjecting it to strict oversight, and
protecting the taxpayer. He played a key role in improving
the legislation, culminating in nonstop negotiations into
the middle of a Saturday night in October. When the
history of the financial crisis is written, I expect Chris
Dodd will be given great credit for responding to the
crisis, helping to prevent a Great Depression, and
improving the legislation. He played a central role, I
believe, in shaping the response so that the ultimate cost
to taxpayers will be far lower than originally expected.
Senator Dodd also took the lead in writing landmark Wall
Street reform legislation to help prevent another
financial sector collapse. It will allow the government to
shut down firms that threaten to crater our economy and
ensure that the financial industry, not the taxpayer, is
on the hook for any costs. Senator Dodd is owed great
thanks for his leadership and hard work on these financial
issues during a very difficult time for our Nation.
These are just a few of the examples of the great work
Senator Dodd has done for the country. I would like to
close by saying that Senator Dodd's presence will
certainly be missed in this Chamber. He has served the
people of Connecticut faithfully, and I know that his many
contributions will not be forgotten. It has been an honor
for me to work with such a compassionate and dedicated
Senator, and I wish him and his family the very best.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the order for the printing of tributes be modified to
provide that Members have until sine die of the 111th
Congress, 2d session, to submit tributes and that the
order for printing remain in effect.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to bid farewell
to a number of our friends and colleagues who are ending
their service in the Senate. Their contributions are too
numerous to mention, therefore I would like to take just a
few minutes to highlight some of the memories of the
Senators I came to know personally.
Some of the departing Senators I have served with for
decades. Others were here for only part of a term. All of
them worked hard for their constituents and our country.
...
I am proud to express my great appreciation and
gratitude for Senator Chris Dodd's service to our country.
He brought extraordinary leadership to the Senate that
enabled us to make meaningful improvements to the
education and economic security of Americans.
I traveled with Senator Dodd to South America early in
my tenure here in the Senate. Although I enjoy traveling,
each time I go abroad I worry about my ability to
communicate with my foreign hosts. But, on that trip, the
language barrier was not an issue because, as I quickly
found out, Senator Dodd is fluent in Spanish.
Senator Dodd recognizes the importance of language
skills and cultural knowledge, not only to survive in the
world but to prosper in it. I have truly appreciated his
great respect for other cultures and passion for learning.
Senator Dodd has lent tremendous support to my national
foreign language coordination bill, which aims to equip
Americans with foreign language skills and knowledge of
other cultures. It is just one example of Senator Dodd's
outstanding work to provide our children with the
knowledge and skills they need to achieve prosperity and
economic security.
I would also like to thank Senator Dodd for his
leadership in the 111th Congress. We are making historic
and substantial improvements to the health care delivery
system and the regulation of our financial system, and
neither would have been possible without Senator Dodd's
guidance, persistence, good judgment, and support.
Senator Dodd has been selfless and generous in his
efforts to increase access to health care services
everywhere in our country, including Hawaii. I am grateful
that Senator Dodd has always recognized the unique health
care needs and challenges of my home State. His
contributions have been vital to the protection of
Hawaii's system of employer-provided health insurance and
ensuring that health care providers in Hawaii are more
capable of meeting the uncompensated costs of providing
care for the poor and uninsured.
I am proud to have served alongside Chairman Dodd on the
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
where he has been a tireless leader and an outstanding
consumer advocate. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act rightfully bears his name because
no one has done more to educate, protect, and empower
consumers and investors. Through his support, the act
makes significant investments in financial literacy and
education, and it provides meaningful disclosures and
protections that will allow consumers to make better
financial decisions. Americans are now better protected
against abusive, predatory, and anticonsumer business
practices than they were because of Senator Dodd's
unmatched contributions. Senator Dodd is a great champion
of consumers, investors, and financial literacy, and I am
honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to work
together with him on the Banking Committee.
Since I joined the Senate 20 years ago, Senator Dodd has
been a great colleague and ally. More important, he is
kind, generous, trustworthy, and a loving family man, and
I am proud to call him my brother and my friend. Although
I am saddened to bid him farewell today, I wish Senator
Dodd well in all of his future endeavors.
Before I close, I would also like to thank and applaud
Senator Dodd's family--Jackie, Grace, and Christina. They
have been a source of strength, happiness, and calm for
their husband and father.
Mahalo nui loa, Chris, for your service and friendship.
Millie and I send our warmest aloha to you and your
family, and we wish you well as you begin this new chapter
of your lives together. ...
In closing, the end of this Congress is bittersweet,
with so many talented and dedicated public servants
leaving this institution. All of them made a lasting
impact on the Senate and on our country. Mahalo nui loa,
thank you, for all your work.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, occasionally in the career of
a U.S. Senator, one is given the opportunity to shape
legislation that will bring historic change to our Nation.
The Senators who have seized such opportunities stand
among the Senate giants of our lifetime: ``Scoop''
Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, Everett Dirksen, Ted Kennedy.
As this Congress comes to a close, we must say goodbye
to Chris Dodd, a Senator who has seized such
opportunities, one whose drive and dedication and wisdom
have enabled us to bring great and needed change. Senator
Chris Dodd has been a good friend to me. He has been a
leader to those who seek an America that is stronger,
fairer, and more just.
Senator Dodd will be rightly remembered for his
essential role in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In the
aftermath of a financial crisis that brought the Nation's
economy to a halt and threatened a second Great
Depression, the need for Wall Street reform was clear, but
so were the enormous obstacles to passage. In addition to
honest disagreements about how best to proceed, we faced
determined opposition from Wall Street, which wanted to
maintain a status quo that put profits ahead of economic
stability. All of us who participated in the debate over
that bill know how complex and difficult it was to craft
it, and we all have enormous hopes that this landmark bill
will curb the excesses that cost so many Americans their
jobs and homes and businesses in the financial crisis.
History also will mark Senator Dodd's key role in
passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
a landmark step in the decades-long fight to ensure that
every American has access to affordable health care.
Taking up the baton for his dear friend, Senator Kennedy,
Senator Dodd provided strong and sure leadership, again in
the face of obstacles that at times threatened the bill's
very survival. Thanks to his dedication, health coverage
is more secure and affordable for families who have it,
and more accessible to families without it.
If Senator Dodd had accomplished no other legislative
victories than these two, he could rightly claim a place
among the Senate's most effective legislators. But Chris
Dodd accomplished much more.
Millions of American families have benefited from his
work in enacting the Family and Medical Leave Act. Before
this legislation became law in 1993, Americans faced
wrenching choices between their responsibilities at home
and at work. Despite two Presidential vetoes, Senator Dodd
continued fighting until he had succeeded. And today,
American workers are able to give their families the time
and attention they need without fear of losing their job.
Families and children have been at the heart of much of
his work. The Child Care and Development Block Grant
Program, which he fought to establish, has helped millions
of low-income families get the childcare they so
desperately needed. The Head Start Program has been a
career-long priority, and his hard work to ensure that
Head Start remains strong has made a huge difference in
countless lives.
His work on behalf of families extends to protecting
them from predatory credit card companies. I worked
closely with him in the fight for passage of the Credit
Card Accountability and Disclosure Act, which provided
tough new protections against unfair practices in the
credit card industry.
Part of the reason for Chris Dodd's extraordinarily
successful legislative career is that people simply like
working with him. He is good natured, open, and
nondefensive, willing to listen to differing points of
view. His openness is accompanied by an infectious sense
of humor that has eased tense moments and helped us all
take ourselves a little less seriously, which in turn has
helped overcome some mighty serious impasses.
A common thread runs through all his signature
accomplishments. Throughout his career, Chris Dodd has
been dedicated to the idea that compassion has a place in
this Chamber; that as we do our work, we should keep in
mind that real families, with real problems, are looking
to us for solutions; and that a Senator, with hard work
and resourcefulness and teamwork, can make a difference in
the lives of those families.
As Chris Dodd's Senate career draws to a close, speeches
will be given, portraits will be hung, someday statues
will be raised, but the ultimate monument to his Senate
career will be the mother or father who has time to care
for a sick child because of the Family and Medical Leave
Act. It will be the parent who doesn't have to choose
between putting food on the table or providing health
insurance for his children. It will be the child who
excels in the classroom because of Head Start. The
monuments to Chris Dodd will be the millions of Americans
whose lives are safer, more secure, and more prosperous
because of the work he has done here. No Senator could ask
for more meaningful tributes. I will miss his wisdom and
his humor as we conduct business here, but I will continue
to value his friendship. I wish him and his wonderful
family the happiest of times in all the years to come.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Mr. ENZI. At the end of each session of Congress it has
long been a tradition in the Senate to take a moment to
express our appreciation and say goodbye to those who will
not be returning in January for the beginning of the next
Congress. One of those I know I will miss who will be
stepping down to spend more time with his family is Chris
Dodd of Connecticut.
If I could sum up Chris' career in the Senate and the
way he lives his life every day with one word, I think
that word would be ``passion.'' Simply put, Chris is the
most passionate Senator I have ever known or had the
opportunity to work with and observe.
Coming from a well-known political family, Chris must
have learned at an early age the difference that it can
make. I have always believed it is the key ingredient to
any effort and it often means the difference between
success and failure. Looking back, the enthusiasm and
spirited focus that Chris so clearly brings to every
discussion or debate on the Senate floor and in committee
has helped him to create alliances and forge agreements
that have led to the passage of legislation that might not
have crossed the finish line and made it into law if not
for him.
Chris has now served for 30 years in the Senate, and he
has a great deal to show for his efforts. His style of
leadership, the relationships he has developed with his
colleagues, and his pursuit of his legislative priorities
have enabled him to make a difference in many ways and
have an impact not only in Connecticut but all across the
Nation.
One of the greatest achievements of his career has to be
the Family and Medical Leave Act that Chris authored and
helped to shepherd through the Senate into law. Thanks to
him, whenever it is needed, employees are now able to take
some time off to care for their children or ensure that an
elderly family member receives some attention and support.
One more moment that is familiar to us all, was Chris'
willingness to step in for our good friend, Senator Ted
Kennedy when Ted was in poor health, to help direct the
disposition of the health care bill. I am sure it meant a
great deal to Ted to know that the effort he was such a
vital part of was in such good and capable hands.
Looking ahead, Chris isn't really going into retirement.
He is taking on another challenge full time--raising his
family. He started a family later than some, but the
passion he has brought to everything in life has clearly
been brought to bear on the care and nurturing of his two
daughters. As every father knows, it is always the little
ladies who have their dads wrapped around their fingers.
As they grow up, each new day is another chapter of their
lives that is waiting to be written as Mom and Dad share
in the wonder and magic their children experience as they
discover the world around them.
Looking back, ever since the day when Chris first
arrived in the Senate, he has always loved being around
good friends, enjoying a good joke, and sharing a good
word or two. That is why it came as no surprise when,
during a recent interview he said, ``I don't know of a
single colleague that I have served with in 30 years that
I couldn't work with.''
That is why Chris has been such an effective Senator
over the years and why, when the day comes when he casts
his last vote and heads home to be with his family, we
will all miss him.
Chris, I hope you will keep in touch with us. You and
your wife Jackie have a great future in store and I am
sure you will enjoy every day together. As I have learned
with the birth of each child and grandchild--with another
just born--each day you spend with your children is more
proof of the wisdom of the old Irish saying--bricks and
mortar may make a house but it is the laughter of our
children that makes it a home.
Good luck. God bless.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to offer some
remarks on the departure of my good friend, the senior
Senator from Connecticut. After five terms and 30 years in
the Senate, Senator Christopher Dodd will be leaving us at
the end of this session. He will most certainly be missed.
Chris was born in Willimantic, CT, in 1944. He was the
fifth of six children born to his parents, Grace Mary Dodd
and another Connecticut Senator, Thomas J. Dodd. Senator
Dodd graduated from Providence College and then spent 2
years in the Peace Corps. When he returned to the United
States, he enlisted in the Army National Guard and later
served in the U.S. Army Reserves. After graduating from
the University of Louisville School of Law in 1972, Chris
practiced law in New London. However, just 2 years later,
he would answer the call to public service. Chris was
elected to the House of Representatives in 1974 and has
represented the good people of Connecticut in Congress
ever since. All told, Senator Dodd spent three terms in
the House before coming to the Senate in 1980.
Throughout his time in the Senate, Chris has been an
unwavering presence. He's chaired the Rules Committee and
the Banking Committee. He has been among the most
prominent members of the HELP and Foreign Relations
Committees. Over the years, our paths have crossed
numerous times. Of course, most of the time we have been
on opposing sides. But, there have been a few times--some
significant times--where we have been able to put our
differences aside and work together.
Most recently I worked with Senator Dodd on passing the
Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Chris talks often of
his service in the Peace Corps and the lessons he learned
during that time. As a Senator, he has been a tireless
advocate for the Peace Corps Program and for volunteerism
in general. In that regard, he and I have much in common.
As a young man, I served a full-time mission for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I too learned
much about the benefits of selfless, volunteer service
while serving as a missionary and those 2 years were
instrumental in my understanding of the world and
instilled me with a desire to serve and help others.
The Serve America Act was meant to embody these ideals
and provide similar opportunities for others. It could
have very easily been a purely Democratic endeavor. But,
in the end, we were able to work together in drafting and
passing this legislation. With Chris' help, the Serve
America Act became one of very few bills passed during
this Congress with a broad, bipartisan majority here in
the Senate. It was, in my opinion, a piece of legislation
that represents the best of what both parties have to
offer. Fittingly, we named the bill after Chris and our
mutual friend, the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
I want to wish Senator Dodd and his wife Jackie the very
best of luck going forward.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I would like to ask my
colleagues to join me today in recognizing the
extraordinary leadership and service of our friend,
Senator Chris Dodd.
Senator Dodd has served the Senate with grace,
intelligence, and compassion for three decades. The son of
a U.S. Senator, he loves this institution and has done
everything he could to preserve its best traditions.
Senator Dodd has always encouraged all of us to keep our
disputes and differences from becoming personal.
He leaves behind an incredible legacy of accomplishments
that have touched the lives of virtually all Americans.
I will never forget the leadership role he played in
helping to pass health care reform last spring--a fitting
tribute to his close friend Ted Kennedy, whose vision
finally became a reality.
As chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs, Senator Dodd led the effort to pass Wall
Street reform legislation. He was a forceful advocate for
holding banks accountable for their actions, and we could
not have enacted this landmark accomplishment without his
leadership.
Senator Dodd has devoted his career in public service to
making life better for our families and our children. I
saw this first hand as we worked together to ensure that
our children have safe places to go after school. As
chairman of the Senate Afterschool Caucus and the founder
of the Senate's first Children's Caucus, Senator Dodd
worked hard to expand the Head Start Program, to reform
the No Child Left Behind Act, and to make college more
affordable for students and their families.
In the face of Presidential vetoes, Senator Dodd
dedicated 8 years to enacting the Family and Medical Leave
Act, which has helped ensure that 50 million Americans can
care for their loved ones during difficult times without
fearing for their jobs.
Senator Dodd is a fluent Spanish speaker and has been
the Senate's leading expert on Latin America. I have been
proud to work closely with him to reform our Nation's drug
certification laws.
His own years of service in the U.S. Peace Corps
inspired Senator Dodd to support and promote President
Kennedy's call to service in this Chamber. In the Senate,
he has helped expand and modernize the Peace Corps and
worked to provide loan forgiveness to Peace Corps
volunteers, teachers, and others who devote themselves to
public service.
All of us in the Senate will greatly miss Senator Dodd.
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to join my
colleagues in paying tribute to Senator Christopher Dodd,
a longtime public servant and fellow New Englander whose
dedication to advancing the common good with common sense,
independence, and a genuine desire to solve problems has
served both his constituents of Connecticut as well as his
country for 36 years. With trust, comity, and a love for
the institution of the Senate, Senator Dodd has for more
than three decades contributed to creating a legislative
environment where at crucial moments in the life of the
greatest deliberative body in human history, the upper
Chamber was able to work its will to the lasting benefit
of the American people, and we could not be more grateful.
Indisputably, and as countless colleagues have noted,
public service has always been at the center of Senator
Dodd's life--literally, as he is the first son of
Connecticut to follow his father into the U.S. Senate, and
remarkably, for the past 30 years, Senator Dodd has had
the privilege of sitting at the same desk used by his
father, Senator Thomas Dodd, during his 12 years in the
Senate. Chris Dodd's longstanding devotion to the public
arena has spanned from his three terms in the U.S. House--
the last of which I was privileged to serve with him--to
his five terms in the U.S. Senate. Senator Dodd earned the
lasting gratitude of his constituents and admiration of
his colleagues with his stalwart leadership in foreign
policy, his vigorous and unwavering battle to enact the
Family and Medical Leave Act, and his longstanding
stewardship of our Nation's most precious resource--our
children.
On this last point, like many in this Chamber, I cannot
begin to justly measure the depth and breadth of the
legacy Senator Dodd has forged in safeguarding the most
vulnerable in our society. Consider for example the issue
of childcare. Time and again, Senator Dodd has battled to
ensure both the quality of childcare in America as well as
the funding for it, and as he keenly and presciently
understood, in this matter, our Nation could not have one
without the other.
An undeniable focus of Senator Dodd's, childcare has
unquestionably become one of his crowning achievements and
legislative hallmarks--and nowhere was his imprint on the
issue greater than during the landmark welfare reform
debate in 1995 and 1996. I well recall working with
Senator Dodd as we made the case that there was indeed a
pivotal link between viable welfare reform and childcare--
that for families struggling to reduce their dependency on
welfare--especially single parents--unaffordable,
unavailable, or unreliable childcare was the chief barrier
to steady employment, and one that could and should be
lessened, if not eliminated.
That is why I was pleased to join with Senator Dodd on
our amendment to add $6 billion in childcare funding to
welfare reform legislation, especially at a time when that
funding was very much imperiled. Arriving at a consensus
required leaders from both parties to jettison their
competing and hardened ideologies in favor not just of
making dependable childcare more accessible, but in
support of welfare reform that would effectively move more
Americans from welfare to work. Senator Dodd, as colleague
after colleague can attest, heeded his own beliefs that
``you don't begin the debate with bipartisanship--you
arrive there. And you can do so only when determined
partisans create consensus.'' Because he never lost sight
of the primacy of working across the aisle, we were
victorious in including the funding we sought in the
Senate-passed bill.
That bipartisan effort to garner concrete results
designed to make a difference in the daily lives of the
American people was not an isolated instance. Senator Dodd
and I collaborated on legislation to support campus-based
childcare for low-income mothers trying to further their
education, and we authored legislation to help States
improve training in early childhood development to make
improved childcare more available to more people. With
innate New England pragmatism and a desire for solutions,
Senator Dodd saw impediments to success that were
impinging upon a segment of our society that if only
reduced or removed would aid not only families striving to
improve their lives, but a Nation seeking to help stem the
tide of dependency.
Ultimately, what occupied Senator Dodd's agenda was the
active pursuit of an even better America. We didn't always
agree on what that path should be, but where we did find
common ground, as in childcare, we cultivated it. That
dynamic was at work recently as Senator Dodd and I, as the
former chair and current ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship,
collaborated to help the economic engines and catalysts of
our economy--America's small businesses, the very
enterprises that will lead us out of recession and into
recovery.
During the consideration of what would become the Dodd-
Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, I
truly appreciated Senator Dodd's perseverance in including
a provision I authored allowing small businesses to raise
concerns over burdensome regulations through small
business review panels within the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. Senator Dodd and I also worked to
reduce the regulatory compliance burden for small banks by
striking a provision of the bill which would have required
these lending institutions to report their transactions to
the Federal Government down to each individual ATM.
This kind of rapport was emblematic of how Senator Dodd
viewed good governance. In his valedictory address on the
floor of the Senate, he observed that ``in my three
decades here, I cannot recall a single Senate colleague
with whom I could not work.'' Indeed, Senator Dodd always
saw adversaries as potential allies--and foes as unwon
friends.
From the days of his youth, Senator Dodd grew up steeped
in the tradition of and respect for the Senate--and an
abiding admiration for this venerable institution that
runs at its own pace and by its own rules. Instead of
exhibiting rancor and a burning desire to win at all
costs, Senator Dodd sought instead to build relationships
and by doing so, strengthened his capacity for legislating
and contributed mightily to the advancement of this
esteemed Chamber. Legendary American poet and son of
Maine, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, once wrote that ``if
you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it.''
Chris Dodd has always aimed high--and met his target--
leaving a legacy of enormous accomplishment to his
constituents in Connecticut and to the American people.
In closing, let me just extend my personal appreciation
to his wife Jackie and their daughters Grace and Christina
for sharing Christopher Dodd with us.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I would like to take a
few minutes to pay tribute to the 16 Senators who will be
departing this body at the end of the year.
I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve
alongside each of these Senators as colleagues and as
friends. All served their States with distinction and gave
their constituents strong voices in the world's greatest
deliberative body. Senators Evan Bayh, Robert Bennett, Kit
Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Roland Burris, Chris
Dodd, Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, Carte Goodwin, Judd
Gregg, Ted Kaufman, George LeMieux, Blanche Lincoln, Arlen
Specter, and George Voinovich each left an indelible mark
on the Senate, and I wish them well as they take on new
challenges and opportunities into the future.
I would like to speak briefly about a few of the
Senators I knew best and served with in committees to
recognize their contributions and accomplishments and
share my fond memories of them and the legacies they will
leave behind. ...
Senator Chris Dodd departs the Senate after nearly three
decades faithfully representing the people of Connecticut.
From his service in the Peace Corps, the U.S. Army
National Guard and Reserves as well as his many years in
the U.S. Senate, Senator Dodd's commitment to public
service and love for his country have been evident
throughout his life.
Chris was a leader in the Senate, serving as the
chairman of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Committee, chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee
on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics, and
chairman of its Children and Families Subcommittee.
Although we had our differences on various policy
issues, I always appreciated his willingness to put
partisanship aside to reach consensus when possible in
order to improve legislation. For instance, earlier this
year when working on the financial reform bill, despite my
public opposition to the legislation, Chris worked with me
to incorporate my amendments in the final version of the
bill. I ultimately voted against the bill, but I am
grateful for the efforts he made to include my amendments.
Today we bid him farewell after 30 years of tireless
service in the U.S. Senate. ...
In conclusion, the departing Senators' contributions,
their dedicated service, and the issues they championed
will be remembered long after their final days in the
Senate.
I believe I can speak for my fellow Senators when I say
that we will all miss our departing friends.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, when the 111th Congress
draws to a close, we will bid farewell to 16 colleagues
who have collectively given more than 200 years of service
to our Nation through their service in the Senate. These
include seven of the Senate's most experienced Members.
People like Chris Dodd and Arlen Specter who have each
served five terms in the Senate. Kit Bond who has served
four terms and Bob Bennett, Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold,
and Judd Gregg, who have each served three terms in this
Chamber. ...
One of Chris Dodd's legacies to the Nation is
legislation to ensure that the unique needs of children
are addressed in our Nation's response to catastrophic
disasters. I was honored to partner with Senator Dodd in
helping to pass this legislation. ...
It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve with each
of the people who will leave this Chamber when we adjourn
sine die. Each has made substantial contributions to their
States, to the Nation, and to the Senate during their time
here.