[Senate Document 111-37]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


 
TRIBUTES TO HON. ARLEN SPECTER


                                           

                               Arlen Specter

                     U.S. SENATOR FROM PENNSYLVANIA

                                TRIBUTES

                           IN THE CONGRESS OF

                           THE UNITED STATES

               [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                           


                                           

                                  Arlen Specter


                                      Tributes

                                Delivered in Congress

                                    Arlen Specter

                                United States Senator

                                      1981-2011

                                          a
                                           


                                           


                            Compiled under the direction

                                       of the

                             Joint Committee on Printing



                                      CONTENTS
             Biography.............................................
                                                                      v
             Farewell to the Senate................................
                                                                     xi
             Proceedings in the Senate:
                Tributes by Senators:
                    Akaka, Daniel K., of Hawaii....................
                                                                     12
                    Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee.................
                                                                      3
                    Bennet, Michael F., of Colorado................
                                                                     21
                    Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
                                                                     23
                    Casey, Robert P., Jr., of Pennsylvania.........
                                                                 15, 24
                    Cochran, Thad, of Mississippi..................
                                                                     19
                    Conrad, Kent, of North Dakota..................
                                                                      8
                    Dodd, Christopher J., of Connecticut...........
                                                                     11
                    Durbin, Richard, of Illinois...................
                                                                 11, 17
                    Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
                                                                      9
                    Harkin, Tom, of Iowa...........................
                                                                     22
                    Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
                                                                     13
                    Levin, Carl, of Michigan.......................
                                                                      5
                    Murkowski, Lisa, of Alaska.....................
                                                                     26
                    Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
                                                                      5
                    Reid, Harry, of Nevada.........................
                                                                   5, 7
                    Sessions, Jeff, of Alabama.....................
                                                                     20
                    Udall, Mark, of Colorado.......................
                                                                     22
                    Warner, Mark R., of Virginia...................
                                                                      5
                                      BIOGRAPHY

               Since first elected in 1980, Arlen Specter has brought 
             rugged individualism and fierce independence learned from 
             his youth on the Kansas plains to become a leading Senate 
             moderate. His work as Philadelphia's tough district 
             attorney gave him insights to write the Terrorist 
             Prosecution Act, the Armed Career Criminal Act, and 
             coauthor the Second Chance Act.
               His legal background and experience in constitutional 
             law provided the skills to serve as Judiciary chairman 
             during the confirmation hearings of Chief Justice Roberts 
             and Justice Alito. In earlier confirmation hearings he had 
             the courage to cross party lines in opposing Judge Bork 
             and disagreeing with conventional wisdom in supporting 
             Justice Thomas after dissecting the contradictory and 
             highly charged testimony.
               As a consummate legislator, he has counseled compromise 
             and conciliation in a Congress that has established new 
             records for partisan discord. In foreign affairs, he has 
             advocated dialogue and accommodation as an antidote to 
             belligerency and saber rattling.
               Arlen Specter's five terms have made him the longest 
             serving U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania's history. A voice of 
             reason, his independence and balance have won endorsements 
             from the AFL-CIO and high marks from the U.S. Chamber of 
             Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and 
             the Americans for Tax Reform.
               Time magazine listed him among the Ten Best Senators in 
             2006. Knowlegis rated him the second most powerful Senator 
             in 2006 behind only Majority Leader Bill Frist. A November 
             11, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer editorial stated: ``Senator 
             Arlen Specter has more clout than some sovereign 
             nations.''
               Senator Specter attributes his zeal for public service 
             to his experience as a child when he saw the government 
             mistreat his father, Harry Specter, who migrated to the 
             United States from Russia in 1911. Private Specter, 
             serving in World War I in the infantry, was seriously 
             wounded in action in France's Argonne Forest. When the 
             government broke its promise to pay World War I veterans a 
             $500 bonus, the veterans marched on Washington.
               President Hoover called out the Army which fired on and 
             killed veterans on the Mall in one of the blackest days in 
             American history. As a metaphor, Senator Specter says he 
             has been on his way to Washington ever since to get his 
             father's bonus and since he hasn't gotten it yet, he's 
             running for reelection. The incident over his father's 
             bonus has made Arlen Specter a fierce advocate for 
             veterans' benefits and the ``little guy'' in his battles 
             with the Federal Government.
               From his immigrant parents, Arlen Specter learned work 
             ethics the hard way. His father, Harry Specter, who was a 
             peddler, took 5-year-old Arlen to small Kansas towns 
             selling cantaloupes door to door with a small basket in 
             hand. In his dad's junkyard in Russell, KS, 16-year-old 
             Arlen Specter cut down oil derricks with an acetylene 
             torch and loaded scrap iron into rail freight cars headed 
             for the smelter.
               His credentials include votes for the line-item veto and 
             a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. As a 
             two-term Philadelphia district attorney, he fought for 
             tough sentences for tough criminals and later, in the 
             Senate, wrote groundbreaking legislation providing for 
             life sentences for three-time recidivists on violent 
             crimes.
               Since 1981, he has played a significant role in Supreme 
             Court nomination hearings, for Chief Justice Rehnquist, 
             Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, 
             Ginsberg, Breyer, and Judge Bork. Notwithstanding 
             debilitating chemotherapy treatments in 2005, he stayed on 
             the job as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to preside 
             over historic Supreme Court confirmation hearings. His 
             work on the Judiciary Committee has included writing 
             significant legislation on dealing with constitutional 
             law, civil rights, and privacy.
               As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, he 
             led the fight to increase funding for the National 
             Institutes of Health from $12 billion to $30 billion to 
             expand medical research to find cures for cancer, heart 
             disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other maladies. He 
             has supported expanding health care for seniors and 
             children and has proposed legislation to cover the almost 
             50 million Americans who do not have health insurance.
               Because Senator Specter is keenly aware of the 
             importance of understanding the younger generation, he 
             often visits and speaks at universities and high schools. 
             He credits his parents, both immigrants, with emphasizing 
             the importance of education which has enabled his brother, 
             two sisters, and himself to share in the American dream. 
             To empower others with access to education, he led the 
             fight on the Appropriations Subcommittee to increase 
             Federal spending by 138 percent and raise funding for 
             scholarships and student loans.
               Constituent service and promoting Pennsylvania's 
             economic interests have been the hallmarks of Senator 
             Specter's Senate career. He maintained offices in 
             Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Erie, Scranton, 
             Wilkes-Barre, and the Lehigh Valley to help residents of 
             those areas who needed assistance to cut Washington's 
             redtape.
               From his experience as a teenager working on a farm in 
             Kansas, the State where he was born, Senator Specter has 
             understood and worked on the problems of Pennsylvania's 
             farmers from his position on the Appropriations 
             Subcommittee on Agriculture. He frequently argues in the 
             International Trade Commission to assist the steel 
             industry from being deluged with unfair foreign imports. 
             His proposed legislation, endorsed by both business and 
             labor, would create a private right of action in Federal 
             courts to stop subsidized or dumped products from being 
             imported into the United States.
               He has supported the coal industry by promoting 
             legislation for clean coal technology and securing $100 
             million for a Schuylkill County project to turn sludge 
             into high octane, environmentally safe gasoline. 
             Recognizing the long-term effects of global warming, he 
             has cosponsored the Bingaman-Specter bill to reduce harm 
             from carbon emissions.
               As chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the 104th 
             Congress and a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee 
             on Foreign Operations, Senator Specter traveled 
             extensively meeting with world leaders including Soviet 
             President Mikhail Gorbachev; French President Francois 
             Mitterrand; Israel's Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, 
             Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin 
             Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert; 
             China's President Hu Jintao; Indian Prime Minister Singh; 
             Pakistan's Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto, Mohammad Zia, 
             and Pervez Musharraf; Jordan's Kings Hussein and Abdullah; 
             and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Strongly agreeing 
             with Moshe Dayan's famous statement that we make peace 
             with our enemies not our friends, he has met with Syria's 
             Presidents Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad; the 
             Palestinian Authority's Chairman Yasser Arafat; Iraq's 
             President Saddam Hussein; Cuba's President Fidel Castro; 
             Libya's Leader Muammar Qadhafi; and Venezuela President 
             Hugo Chavez.
               From these meetings and his studies of foreign affairs 
             since his undergraduate days at the University of 
             Pennsylvania, where he majored in political science and 
             international relations, Senator Specter has been a 
             forceful advocate for aggressive diplomacy to solve 
             international conflicts. He wrote, with staffer Chris 
             Bradish, an article for the Washington Quarterly (Winter 
             2006-2007), outlining a blueprint for diplomatic 
             initiatives in the Mideast with emphasis on bilateral 
             negotiations with Iran and Syria. Similarly, he has urged 
             bilateral, as well as multilateral, negotiations with 
             North Korea.
               Early in his Senate career in 1982, he was among the 
             first to call for a U.S./U.S.S.R. summit in a resolution 
             which passed the Senate 90 to 8. He participated 
             extensively with the Senate observers at the Geneva Arms 
             Reduction talks in the 1980s and led the fight for the 
             broad interpretation of the ABM Treaty. Senator Specter 
             consistently supported appropriations to fight global AIDS 
             and promoted worldwide support for underdeveloped 
             countries including free trade agreements.
               Arlen Specter was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980 and 
             served five terms. In 2005, Senator Specter became 
             Pennsylvania's longest serving U.S. Senator. He was a 
             senior member of the Senate Judiciary, Appropriations, and 
             Veterans Affairs Committees.
               Senator Specter was a member of the Senate Judiciary 
             Committee since he came to the Senate. As such, he played 
             an instrumental role in many of the Senate's most 
             important issues, including the confirmations of Chief 
             Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito to 
             serve as Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
               Senator Specter also shepherded through the Judiciary 
             Committee legislation on asbestos litigation reform to 
             absolve what the Supreme Court once called an 
             ``elephantine mass'' clogging our judicial system. Senator 
             Specter has worked in a bipartisan fashion to reauthorize 
             key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, an important tool 
             in the U.S. war on terror. He has also authored 
             legislation to help consumers better protect the privacy 
             of their personal information in the face of recurrent 
             data security breaches across the country.
               On the Judiciary Committee, Senator Specter built on his 
             foundation as a lawyer and former district attorney. He 
             was the author of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which has 
             been praised for its long prison terms for repeat 
             offenders, and the Terrorist Prosecution Act, which 
             authorizes criminal actions in U.S. courts for assaulting, 
             maiming, or murdering Americans anywhere in the world.
               As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, 
             Senator Specter was chairman of the Senate Appropriations 
             Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
             Education. This subcommittee oversees Federal funding for 
             the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for 
             Disease Control, educational programs like Head Start, 
             Pell grants, and GEAR-UP, and worker safety programs. 
             Under his leadership, funding for education has increased 
             by more than 130 percent. Senator Specter was also 
             instrumental in doubling the budget for NIH, which has 
             made major advances in curing Parkinson's, cancer, heart 
             disease, and delaying the onset of Alzheimer's. Finally, 
             Senator Specter is a strong proponent of stem cell 
             research for the purposes of discovering knowledge that 
             may lead to cures for these same ailments.
               Strengthening our Nation's security has been a 
             longstanding priority of Senator Specter's. Thirty days 
             after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Senator 
             Specter drafted the legislation that established the 
             Department of Homeland Security. While serving as chairman 
             of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the 104th 
             Congress, he authored the bill creating the Inspector 
             General of the Central Intelligence Agency, marking the 
             only reform legislation to emerge from the Iran-Contra 
             affair.
               Senator Specter continues his strong advocacy for 
             veterans, a passion born from the first veteran he ever 
             knew, his father, Harry Specter, who was wounded in World 
             War I. As a former chairman of the Veterans Committee, he 
             pushed for just treatment for veterans and increased 
             benefits. Working closely with the Secretary of Veterans 
             Affairs, Senator Specter oversaw the opening of four new 
             veterans outpatient clinics in Fayette, Northampton, 
             Venango, and Warren Counties and passed legislation to 
             create a new veterans cemetery in Southeastern 
             Pennsylvania.
               A frequent visitor to all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, 
             Senator Specter places constituent service high on his 
             priorities and has been instrumental on the Appropriations 
             Committee in promoting Pennsylvania's interests in 
             agriculture, high-technology, steel, coal, tourism, mass 
             transit, highways, and military installations.
               In addition to tackling the major legislative business 
             before the Senate, Senator Specter also engaged in a 
             personal battle with Stage IV-B Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer 
             in 2005 and 2008. In both cases he underwent nearly 5 
             months of chemotherapy, but still maintained all of his 
             senatorial duties, including chairing hearings, voting, 
             and brokering important legislative initiatives. In July 
             2008, Senator Specter received his last chemotherapy 
             treatment and has since received a clean bill of health.
               Senator Specter was born to immigrant parents in 
             Wichita, KS, and grew up in the small town of Russell, KS. 
             He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of 
             Pennsylvania and served as an editor of the Yale Law 
             Journal. He began his career in public service as an 
             assistant Philadelphia district attorney. While serving in 
             that position, he was named assistant counsel on the 
             Warren Commission investigation into President Kennedy's 
             assassination. Two years later, Senator Specter was 
             elected district attorney of Philadelphia at the age of 
             35.
               Senator Specter lives in Philadelphia with his wife 
             Joan. They have two sons, Shanin and Steve, and four 
             grandchildren, Silvi, Perri, Lilli, and Hatti.
                               Farewell to the Senate
                             Tuesday, December 21, 2010

               Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, this is not a farewell 
             address but, rather, a closing argument to a jury of my 
             colleagues and the American people outlining my views on 
             how the Senate and, with it, the Federal Government 
             arrived at its current condition of partisan gridlock, and 
             my suggestions on where we go from here on that pressing 
             problem and the key issues of national and international 
             importance.
               To make a final floor statement is a challenge. The 
             Washington Post noted the poor attendance at my 
             colleagues' farewell speeches earlier this month. That is 
             really not surprising since there is hardly anyone ever on 
             the Senate floor. The days of lively debate with many 
             Members on the floor are long gone. Abuse of the Senate 
             rules has pretty much stripped Senators of the right to 
             offer amendments. The modern filibuster requires only a 
             threat and no talking. So the Senate's activity for more 
             than a decade has been the virtual continuous drone of a 
             quorum call. But that is not the way it was when Senator 
             Chris Dodd and I were privileged to enter the world's 
             greatest deliberative body 30 years ago. Senators on both 
             sides of the aisle engaged in collegial debate and found 
             ways to find common ground on the Nation's pressing 
             problems.
               When I attended my first Republican moderates luncheon, 
             I met Mark Hatfield, John Chafee, Ted Stevens, Mac 
             Mathias, Bob Stafford, Bob Packwood, Chuck Percy, Bill 
             Cohen, Warren Rudman, Alan Simpson, Jack Danforth, John 
             Warner, Nancy Kassebaum, Slade Gorton, and I found my 
             colleague John Heinz there. That is a far cry from later 
             years when the moderates could fit into a telephone booth.
               On the other side of the aisle, I found many Democratic 
             Senators willing to move to the center to craft 
             legislation--Scoop Jackson, Joe Biden, Dan Inouye, Lloyd 
             Bentsen, Fritz Hollings, Pat Leahy, Dale Bumpers, David 
             Boren, Russell Long, Pat Moynihan, George Mitchell, Sam 
             Nunn, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, and others. They were 
             carrying on the Senate's glorious tradition.
               The Senate's deliberate cerebral procedures have served 
             our country well. The Senate stood tall in 1805 in 
             acquitting Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in 
             impeachment proceedings and thus preserved the 
             independence of the Federal judiciary. The Senate stood 
             tall in 1868 to acquit President Andrew Johnson in 
             impeachment proceedings, and that preserved the power of 
             the Presidency. Repeatedly in our 223-year history, the 
             Senate has cooled the passions of the moment to preserve 
             the institutions embodied in our Constitution that have 
             made the United States the envy of the world.
               It has been a great privilege to have had a voice for 
             the last 30 years in the great decisions of our day: how 
             we allocate our resources among economic development, 
             national defense, education, environmental protection, and 
             NIH funding; the Senate's role in foreign policy as we 
             exercise it now on the START Treaty; the protection of 
             civil rights, as we demonstrated last Saturday, 
             eliminating don't ask, don't tell; balancing crime control 
             and defendants' rights; and how we have maintained the 
             quality of the Federal judiciary, not only the high-
             profile 14 Supreme Court nominations I have participated 
             in but the 112 Pennsylvanians who have been confirmed 
             during my tenure on the Federal district courts or the 
             Third Circuit.
               On the national scene, top issues are the deficit and 
             the national debt. The deficit commission has made a 
             start. When raising the debt limit comes up next year, 
             that will present an occasion to pressure all parties to 
             come to terms on future taxes and expenditures, to 
             realistically deal with these issues.
               The next Congress should try to stop the Supreme Court 
             from further eroding the constitutional mandate of 
             separation of powers. The Supreme Court has been eating 
             Congress' lunch by invalidating legislation with judicial 
             activism after nominees commit under oath in confirmation 
             proceedings to respect congressional factfinding and 
             precedents. That is stare decisis. The recent decision in 
             Citizens United is illustrative. Ignoring a massive 
             congressional record and reversing recent decisions, Chief 
             Justice Roberts and Justice Alito repudiated their 
             confirmation testimony given under oath and provided the 
             key votes to permit corporations and unions to secretly 
             pay for political advertising, thus effectively 
             undermining the basic democratic principle of the power of 
             one person, one vote. Chief Justice Roberts promised to 
             just call balls and strikes. Then he moved the bases.
               Congress' response is necessarily limited in recognition 
             of the importance of judicial independence as the 
             foundation of the rule of law, but Congress could at least 
             require televising the Court proceedings to provide some 
             transparency to inform the public about what the Court is 
             doing since it has the final word on the cutting issues of 
             the day. Brandeis was right when he said that sunlight is 
             the best disinfectant.
               The Court does follow the election returns, and the 
             Court does judicially notice societal values as expressed 
             by public opinion. Polls show that 85 percent of the 
             American people favor televising the Court when told that 
             a citizen can only attend an oral argument for 3 minutes 
             in a chamber holding only 300 people. Great Britain, 
             Canada, and State supreme courts permit television.
               Congress has the authority to legislate on this subject, 
             just as Congress decides other administrative matters such 
             as what cases the Court must hear, time limits for 
             decisions, number of Justices, the day the Court convenes, 
             and the number required for a quorum. While television 
             cannot provide a definitive answer, it could be 
             significant and may be the most that can be done 
             consistent with life tenure and judicial independence.
               Additionally, I urge Congress to substantially increase 
             funding for the National Institutes of Health. When NIH 
             funding was increased from $12 billion to $30 billion 
             annually and $10 billion added to the stimulus package, 
             significant advances were made on medical research. It is 
             scandalous--absolutely scandalous--that a nation with our 
             wealth and research capabilities has not done more. Forty 
             years ago, the President of the United States declared war 
             on cancer. Had that war been pursued with the diligence of 
             other wars, most forms of cancer might have been 
             conquered.
               I also urge colleagues to increase their activity in 
             foreign travel. Regrettably, we have earned the title of 
             ugly Americans by not treating other nations with proper 
             respect and dignity.
               My experience on congressional delegations to China, 
             Russia, India, NATO, Jerusalem, Damascus, Bagdad, Kabul, 
             and elsewhere provided an opportunity for eyeball-to-
             eyeball discussions with world leaders about our values, 
             our expectations, and our willingness to engage in 
             constructive dialogue. Since 1984, I have visited Syria 
             almost every year, and my extensive conversations with 
             Hafiz al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad have convinced me there 
             is a realistic opportunity for a peace treaty between 
             Israel and Syria, if encouraged by vigorous U.S. 
             diplomacy. Similar meetings I have been privileged to have 
             with Muammar Qadhafi, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Saddam 
             Hussein, and Hugo Chavez have persuaded me that candid, 
             respectful dialogue with our toughest adversaries can do 
             much to improve relations among nations.
               Now I will shift gears. In my view, a principal reason 
             for the historic stature of the U.S. Senate has been the 
             ability of any Senator to offer virtually any amendment at 
             any time. This Senate Chamber provides the forum for 
             unlimited debate with a potential to acquaint the people 
             of America and the world with innovative proposals on 
             public policy and then have a vote on the issue. 
             Regrettably, that has changed in recent years because of 
             abuse of the Senate rules by both parties.
               The Senate rules allow the majority leader, through the 
             right of his first recognition, to offer a series of 
             amendments to prevent any other Senator from offering an 
             amendment. That had been done infrequently up until about 
             a decade ago and lately has become a common practice, and, 
             again, by both parties.
               By precluding other Senators from offering amendments, 
             the majority leader protects his party colleagues from 
             taking tough votes. Never mind that we were sent here and 
             are paid to make tough votes. The inevitable and 
             understandable consequence of that practice has been the 
             filibuster. If a Senator cannot offer an amendment, why 
             vote to cut off debate and go to final passage? Senators 
             were willing--and are willing--to accept the will of the 
             majority in rejecting their amendments but unwilling to 
             accept being railroaded to concluding a bill without being 
             provided an opportunity to modify it. That practice has 
             led to an indignant, determined minority to filibuster and 
             to deny 60 votes necessary to cut off debate. Two years 
             ago on this Senate floor, I called the practice 
             tyrannical.
               The decade from 1995 to 2005 saw the nominees of 
             President Clinton and President Bush stymied by the 
             refusal of the other party to have a hearing or floor vote 
             on many judicial and executive nominees. Then, in 2005, 
             serious consideration was given by the Republican caucus 
             to changing the longstanding Senate rule by invoking the 
             so-called nuclear or constitutional option. The plan 
             called for Vice President Cheney to rule that 51 votes 
             were sufficient to impose cloture for confirmation of a 
             judge or executive nominee. His ruling, then to be 
             challenged by Democrats, would be upheld by the 
             traditional 51 votes to uphold the Chair's ruling.
               As I argued on the Senate floor at that time, if 
             Democratic Senators had voted their consciences without 
             regard to party loyalty, most filibusters would have 
             failed. Similarly, I argued that had Republican Senators 
             voted their consciences without regard to party loyalty, 
             there would not have been 51 of the 55 Republican Senators 
             to support the nuclear option.
               The majority leader then scheduled the critical vote on 
             May 25, 2005. The outcome of that vote was uncertain, with 
             key Republicans undeclared. The showdown was averted the 
             night before by a compromise by the so-called Gang of 14. 
             Some nominees were approved, some rejected, and a new 
             standard was established to eliminate filibusters unless 
             there were extraordinary circumstances, with each Senator 
             to decide if that standard had been met. Regrettably, 
             again, that standard has not been followed as those 
             filibusters have continued up to today. Again, the fault 
             rests with both parties.
               There is a way out of this procedural gridlock by 
             changing the rule on the power of the majority leader to 
             exclude other Senators' amendments. I proposed such a rule 
             change in the 110th and 111th Congresses. I would retain 
             the 60-vote requirement for cloture on legislation, with a 
             condition that Senators would have to have a talking 
             filibuster, not merely presenting a notice of intent to 
             filibuster. By allowing Senators to offer amendments and a 
             requirement for debate, not just notice, I think 
             filibusters could be effectively managed, as they had been 
             in the past, and still retain, where necessary, the 
             opportunity to have adequate debate on controversial 
             issues.
               I would change the rule to cut off debate on judicial 
             and executive branch nominees to 51 votes, as I formally 
             proposed in the 109th Congress. Important positions are 
             left open for months, and the Senate agenda today is 
             filled with unacted-upon judicial and executive nominees, 
             and many of those judicial nominees are in areas where 
             there is an emergency backlog. Since Judge Bork and 
             Justice Thomas did not provoke filibusters, I think the 
             Senate can do without them on judges and executive 
             officeholders. There is a sufficient safeguard of the 
             public interest by requiring a simple majority on an up-
             down vote. I would also change the rule requiring 30 hours 
             of postcloture debate and the rule allowing the secret 
             hold, which requires cloture to bring the matter to the 
             floor. Requiring a Senator to disclose his or her hold to 
             the light of day would greatly curtail this abuse.
               While political gridlock has been facilitated by the 
             Senate rules, I am sorry to say partisanship has been 
             increased greatly by other factors. Senators have gone 
             into other States to campaign against incumbents of the 
             other party. Senators have even opposed their own party 
             colleagues in primary challenges. That conduct was beyond 
             contemplation in the Senate I joined 30 years ago. 
             Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when 
             negotiating with someone simultaneously out to defeat you, 
             especially within your own party.
               In some quarters, ``compromise'' has become a dirty 
             word. Senators insist on ideological purity as a 
             precondition. Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine had it 
             right when she said we need to distinguish between the 
             compromise of principle and the principle of compromise. 
             This great body itself was created by the so-called Great 
             Compromise, in which the Framers decreed that States would 
             be represented equally in the Senate and proportionate to 
             their populations in the House. As Senate Historian 
             Richard Baker noted: ``Without that compromise, there 
             would likely have been no Constitution, no Senate, and no 
             United States as we know it today.''
               Politics is no longer the art of the possible when 
             Senators are intransigent in their positions. Polarization 
             of the political parties has followed. President Reagan's 
             ``big tent'' has frequently been abandoned by the 
             Republican Party. A single vote out of thousands cast can 
             cost an incumbent his seat. Senator Bob Bennett was 
             rejected by the far right in his Utah primary because of 
             his vote for TARP. It did not matter that Vice President 
             Cheney had pleaded with the Republican caucus to support 
             TARP or President Bush would become a modern Herbert 
             Hoover. It did not matter that 24 other Republican 
             Senators, besides Bob Bennett, out of the 49 Republican 
             Senators, voted for TARP. Senator Bennett's 93 percent 
             conservative rating was insufficient.
               Senator Lisa Murkowski lost her primary in Alaska. 
             Congressman Mike Castle was rejected in Delaware's 
             Republican primary in favor of a candidate who thought it 
             necessary to defend herself as not being a witch. 
             Republican Senators contributed to the primary defeats of 
             Bennett, Murkowski, and Castle. Eating or defeating your 
             own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism. Similarly, on 
             the other side of the aisle, Senator Joe Lieberman, a 
             great Senator, could not win his Democratic primary.
               The spectacular reelection of Senator Lisa Murkowski on 
             a write-in vote in the Alaska general election and the 
             defeat of other Tea Party candidates in the 2010 general 
             elections may show the way to counter right-wing 
             extremists. Arguably, Republicans left three seats on the 
             table in 2010--beyond Delaware, Nevada, and perhaps 
             Colorado--because of unacceptable general election 
             candidates. By bouncing back and winning, Senator 
             Murkowski demonstrated that a moderate centrist can win by 
             informing and arousing the general electorate. Her victory 
             proves that America still wants to be and can be governed 
             by the center.
               Repeatedly, senior Republican Senators have recently 
             abandoned long-held positions out of fear of losing their 
             seats over a single vote or because of party discipline. 
             With 59 votes for cloture on this side of the aisle, not a 
             single Republican would provide the 60th vote for many 
             important legislative initiatives, such as identifying 
             campaign contributors to stop secret contributions.
               Notwithstanding the perils, it is my hope more Senators 
             will return to independence in voting and crossing party 
             lines evident 30 years ago. President Kennedy's ``Profiles 
             in Courage'' shows the way. Sometimes a party does ask too 
             much. The model for an elected official's independence in 
             a representative democracy has never been stated more 
             accurately, in my opinion, than it was in 1774 by Edmund 
             Burke, in the British House of Commons, when he said:

               [H]is [the elected representative's] unbiased opinion, 
             his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience ... 
             [including his vote] ought not to be sacrificed to you, to 
             any man or any set of men living.

               But, above all, we need civility. Steve and Cokie 
             Roberts, distinguished journalists, put it well in a 
             recent column, saying:

               Civility is more than good manners ... . Civility is a 
             state of mind. It reflects respect for your opponents and 
             for the institutions you serve together ... . This 
             polarization will make civility in the next Congress more 
             difficult--and more necessary--than ever.

               A closing speech has an inevitable aspect of nostalgia. 
             An extraordinary experience for me is coming to an end. 
             But my dominant feeling is pride in the great privilege to 
             be a part of this very unique body with colleagues who are 
             such outstanding public servants. I have written and will 
             write elsewhere about my tenure here, so I do not say 
             farewell to my continuing involvement in public policy, 
             which I will pursue in a different venue. Because of the 
             great traditions of this body and because of its historic 
             resilience, I leave with great optimism for the future of 
             our country, a great optimism for the continuing vital 
             role of the Senate in the governance of our democracy.
               I thank my colleagues for listening.
               (Applause, Senators rising.)
?

                                           

                                      TRIBUTES

                                         TO

                                    ARLEN SPECTER
                              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. ...
               The word to describe Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania is 
             ``courage.'' The other word is ``survivor.'' And they both 
             go together. Arlen has had a distinguished career from his 
             youngest days. He was a member of the Warren Commission, 
             investigating President Kennedy's assassination. In the 
             Senate, his work has spanned the entire mark. One of the 
             things I appreciate most about Senator and Mrs. Specter is 
             their work on Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, which is 
             such an example of living history. ...
               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.
                                            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.
                                              Friday, December 10, 2010
               Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
             our colleagues who are departing the Senate after 
             distinguished service on behalf of their States and on 
             behalf of the Nation. I have been privileged to work with 
             these individuals, to learn from them, to collaborate and 
             cooperate with them, and to, in some small way, help them 
             do what they have done so well--represent their States 
             with fidelity, with great effort, and to move the agenda 
             of the Nation forward. ...
               Let me say to Arlen Specter and Joan Specter, thank you 
             for such service. Senator Specter is the champion of NIH. 
             It is an incredible achievement, what he has done to fund 
             that over the years. ...
               To all of these colleagues and their families, my 
             deepest appreciation and my profoundest respect.

               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. ...

               Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, for five terms, longer than 
             anyone in his State's proud history, Arlen Specter has 
             represented the State of Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate. 
             Over that time, he distinguished himself greatly, from his 
             commendable work on the Judiciary Committee to his recent 
             efforts to reestablish legal protections against fraud. We 
             saw from the beginning of his Senate service his 
             impressive grasp of issues. As he prepares to leave the 
             Senate, I would like to focus on two examples from his 
             time here that I believe speak to his formidable 
             character.
               In early 2008, our Nation faced its most daunting 
             economic situation in decades. It was clear that private 
             demand in the economy was fading in the face of a 
             devastating financial crisis. Economists across the 
             political spectrum were convinced that Federal fiscal 
             stimulus was desperately needed as part of a strategy to 
             keep recession from turning into depression. And yet there 
             was significant doubt as to whether Congress could summon 
             the political will to do what was necessary. Without at 
             least a handful of Republican supporters in the Senate, 
             the desperately needed economic rescue package would not 
             pass.
               At that moment, under immense political pressure, 
             Senator Specter was one of just three Republicans willing 
             to vote for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 
             Thanks to the foresight of these Senators, millions of 
             Americans have jobs today who otherwise would be 
             unemployed. We should all be grateful for Senator 
             Specter's determination to do what the country needed.
               Senator Specter has faced down more dire circumstances 
             than those surrounding the stimulus vote. In 1993, he was 
             diagnosed with a brain tumor--one neurosurgeon told him he 
             had just weeks to live. In 2005 and again in 2008, he 
             coped with Hodgkin's disease.
               In each of these cases, Senator Specter not only faced 
             down a deadly disease, but he pushed the limits of 
             physical and mental endurance to remain deeply engaged in 
             his Senate work. Work, for him, was integral to recovery. 
             As he wrote in an inspirational book on his health 
             experiences:

               Good health is a precious possession that is often taken 
             for granted. The same is true of the time we have been 
             given to contribute to the world around us. Poor health 
             may limit our time and capacity for achievement, but I 
             firmly believe that vigorous work provides the best way to 
             overcome a health challenge.

               Senator Specter, thank you for the inspiring example of 
             your determination. Thank you for a long and productive 
             career in this body, a career that has meant much to the 
             Senate, to Pennsylvania, and to the Nation.
                                           Wednesday, December 15, 2010
               Mr. REID. Mr. President, if you asked anyone in this 
             body to summarize Arlen Specter, I think the words that 
             would come up most often would be he is a real fighter. 
             Arlen Specter fought to defend our Nation in Korea. He 
             fought crime in the streets of Philadelphia as a district 
             attorney. He has fought cancer and won three times. And he 
             has fought for Pennsylvania every day he has served with 
             us here in the U.S. Senate.
               Senator Specter has witnessed three decades of progress 
             in Washington. He is a man who has risen above party lines 
             to demonstrate his independence time after time. But his 
             independence was not about him; it was about the people of 
             Pennsylvania, whom he has served with honor and dignity 
             for 30 years, even when cancer tried to keep him from 
             doing so.
               I have known and served with Senator Specter for almost 
             30 years, and I have come to admire his service and 
             dedication. We have not always agreed on how to solve the 
             issues facing America, but he has always been willing to 
             listen to me and any other Senator in the hopes of forging 
             bipartisan agreements that would help the country. He is a 
             very principled man, a man who does what he believes is 
             right, even when few others agree with him.
               Senator Specter was raised in the Midwest by his mother 
             and a Russian immigrant father who came to the United 
             States and later served his new country in World War I.
               He first discovered Pennsylvania as an undergraduate 
             student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned 
             a degree in international relations. After serving 3 years 
             in the Air Force during the Korean war, he attended law 
             school at Yale and established a successful law practice 
             in what would become his home State, Pennsylvania.
               Just as his father left his native land and served his 
             new home as a member of the U.S. military, Senator Specter 
             left his home in Kansas and served his adopted 
             Commonwealth in a different way--first as a district 
             attorney in Philadelphia for 9 years, and then as a U.S. 
             Senator for the last 30 years. And he did this with his 
             tenacity. He lost a number of elections. He kept coming 
             back, never giving up.
               As a Member of Congress, he has been a stalwart for 
             justice, health, and education. He has presided over 
             several Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and played a 
             major role in many more.
               He has ensured that vital and potentially lifesaving 
             research for cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other 
             diseases receives Federal dollars to pave the way for real 
             breakthroughs.
               One personal experience with Senator Specter--the so-
             called economic recovery package, the stimulus. He was the 
             key vote--one of the three key votes. He was a Republican. 
             He and the two Senators from Maine made it possible to 
             pass that. His passion in that legislation was the 
             National Institutes of Health. Part of the deal was that 
             they had to get $10 billion. Money well spent. But it is 
             something he believed in fervently, and we were able to do 
             that.
               He has also worked to cover children and seniors who 
             struggle to get access to health care they desperately 
             need. He has done that as a member of the Appropriations 
             Committee, where he has worked to make more education 
             available to all students with the help of scholarships 
             and student loans. Furthermore, his work with constituents 
             of every stripe makes a difference everyday.
               Senator Specter is a throwback to a previous chapter in 
             the history of the Senate--a time when moderates were the 
             rule, not the exception.
               When I came to Washington, Republicans such as Arlen 
             Specter were everyplace. That is not the case now. He is a 
             rare breed and will truly be missed.
               I wish Senator Specter, his wife Joan, and their two 
             sons and four grandchildren the very best in the coming 
             weeks, months, and years.

               Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute 
             and recognize the achievements of a colleague who will be 
             leaving the Senate at the end of this term. Senator Arlen 
             Specter has represented Pennsylvania in the Senate for 
             three decades, making him the longest serving Senator in 
             his State's history. During his tenure, he has been an 
             unrelenting advocate for his constituents and working-
             class Americans.
               Senator Specter has had an impressive career in both the 
             public and private sector. After graduating from the 
             University of Pennsylvania, he served in the U.S. Air 
             Force from 1951 to 1953. Following his service, he 
             attended Yale Law School and worked as editor for the Yale 
             Law School Journal. After graduating from law school, 
             Senator Specter became an outstanding lawyer. As an aide 
             to the Warren Commission, he investigated the 
             assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. He also 
             served as the district attorney in Philadelphia from 1966 
             to 1974, and practiced law as a private attorney before 
             being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980.
               In the Senate, Senator Specter and I found significant 
             common ground, as his strong sense of integrity and 
             moderate philosophy have been key in passing some of this 
             institution's most important legislation. During his time 
             in Congress, the Senator will be remembered for presiding 
             over historic U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings as 
             chairman of the Judiciary Committee. While undergoing 
             chemotherapy for advanced Hodgkin's disease, Senator 
             Specter managed the intense confirmation proceedings for 
             Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, 
             Jr. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, he 
             led the fight to increase funding for the National 
             Institutes of Health from $12 billion to $30 billion to 
             expand medical research to find cures for cancer, 
             Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other devastating and 
             debilitating diseases. It is no wonder that Time magazine 
             listed him among the Ten Best Senators in 2006.
               Arlen Specter embodies what it means to be a good 
             Senator--integrity, a strong work ethic, courage, 
             dedication, and being true to one's convictions. Senator 
             Specter has been a real champion for Pennsylvania and this 
             country. His compassion, independence, and voice of reason 
             will be missed in the U.S. Senate. I have appreciated the 
             opportunity to work with Senator Specter, and wish him and 
             his family the very best.

               Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, soon the current session of 
             Congress will be gaveled to a close. When that happens it 
             will also bring to an end the Senate careers of several of 
             our colleagues. I know we will miss them and the 
             contributions they have made over the years to the debates 
             and deliberations they have participated in on the Senate 
             floor and in committee.
               In the years to come I know I will miss Arlen Specter. 
             He has been such a strong and active presence in the 
             Senate for so many years and in so many ways the coming 
             session of Congress won't be the same without him.
               His long and varied history as a public servant really 
             began to take shape when he was asked to bring his skills 
             and abilities to the Warren Commission's investigation of 
             the circumstances surrounding the death of President John 
             F. Kennedy. It was a difficult and challenging job, but 
             Arlen proved to be well up to the task. After studying and 
             surveying the evidence surrounding the President's murder, 
             Arlen developed the ``single bullet theory'' that proved 
             to be the key to the case that helped to explain what 
             happened that day.
               In the years soon after, Arlen's understanding of the 
             law and all the technicalities and the countless details 
             that surround it made him an ideal candidate for the 
             position of district attorney. In 1965 he ran for the 
             position in Philadelphia and served there for 8 years.
               I have always believed that every life is a mixture of 
             both success and disappointment. How we handle them both 
             defines to a great extent the quality of our lives.
               That is why Arlen's unsuccessful reelection bid and a 
             few disappointments after that may have slowed him down--
             but it didn't stop him. It was just a few years later that 
             Arlen would run a successful campaign for the Senate. It 
             was here that Arlen really found his niche as he was soon 
             in the middle of a number of high profile battles in the 
             Judiciary Committee that won him the notice of his 
             colleagues for his indepth knowledge of Senate procedure, 
             the law, and our Constitution.
               Arlen's reputation as a warrior has stayed with him over 
             the years as he has faced a number of challenges in 
             committee and on the floor--as well as a number of very 
             difficult health issues in his life. He fought them all 
             with the same strength and heartfelt determination that 
             would make any fighter from Philadelphia proud.
               Although Arlen credits his successful return to health 
             to his enjoyment of squash, a difficult sport that he says 
             kept him strong and healthy enough to make it through each 
             health crisis he faced, I credit his good health to his 
             strong Philadelphia roots.
               As Arlen wrote in his book ``Never Give In,'' the key to 
             so much of life is to ``keep working and keep fighting.'' 
             That is the only way to ensure you will continue to make 
             progress--or at least--make your presence felt in the war 
             you are waging. That is how Arlen has lived his life as he 
             has pursued each goal he set his sights on. In the end, as 
             he wrote in his book, ``The tougher the battle, the 
             sweeter the victory.''
               Arlen has now served five terms for a total of 30 years 
             in the Senate. He has survived countless battles at the 
             ballot box and a wealth of health issues that would have 
             convinced a lesser individual that the time had come to 
             take it easy for awhile. Not Arlen, however. He has always 
             been someone who fought with all his heart for the things 
             he believed in and as a result, he has known the sweetness 
             of victory many times in his life.
               Arlen is not only the longest serving Senator in 
             Pennsylvania's history, he is also one of the most 
             productive. He has left a remarkable legacy and shoes that 
             will be very difficult for any future Pennsylvania Senator 
             to fill. Together with his wife Joan they have been a team 
             that has made a difference throughout their home State of 
             Pennsylvania and the Nation.
               Thanks, Arlen, for your willingness to serve the people 
             of your home State for so long and so well. Diana joins in 
             sending our best wishes and our appreciation for your 
             friendship to you both. I hope you will keep in touch with 
             me and with all your colleagues in the years to come. Good 
             luck. God bless.

               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. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to honor my friend 
             and longtime colleague, Senator Arlen Specter, the longest 
             serving U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania history.
               As many of you know, Arlen and I were freshmen Senators 
             together 30 years ago. I was the only Democrat newly 
             elected to the Senate in 1980. Senator Specter was one of 
             12 new Republicans elected that year, in the so-called 
             ``Reagan landslide,'' that gave his party the Senate for 
             the first time in 28 years.
               I bring this up because, even though I was a new Senator 
             in the minority, we quickly began working on a bipartisan 
             basis. For those listening today, the idea of a bipartisan 
             Senate may seem strange. Back then, it was commonplace and 
             I know that Arlen and I both hope that newly elected 
             Members of this body will revive this tradition in the 
             coming years.
               Early in our Senate careers, Arlen and I started the 
             Senate Children's Caucus. We believed that as the largest 
             nonvoting constituency in the country, children had the 
             greatest need for champions to advocate on their behalf. 
             The Children's Caucus has provided strong leadership on 
             early childhood education, funding for childcare programs, 
             and making passage of the Family Medical Leave Act 
             reality. I want to thank Senator Specter for being one of 
             my partners on these critically important issues for 
             almost 30 years.
               Senator Specter's accomplishments carry beyond his 
             defense of children. Over the course of his career, he has 
             served as the chairman of three important and influential 
             Senate committees: the Select Committee on Intelligence, 
             the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and the Committee on 
             the Judiciary. In each of these capacities he has worked 
             to ensure that America's legal system is true to our best 
             traditions and ideals, while ensuring that we have the 
             tools to prevent terrorism and protect our citizens. He 
             has also used his role on the Senate Appropriations 
             Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
             Education to increase research funding for the National 
             Institutes of Health. His work here in the U.S. Senate has 
             improved the lives of countless Pennsylvanians and 
             countless Americans.
               Of all Senator Specter's achievements, I have yet to 
             mention the most impressive. Since 2005, he has continued 
             to serve while fighting Hodgkin's lymphoma. Twice since 
             being diagnosed, Arlen has undergone chemotherapy for the 
             disease. Yet he continued serving the people of 
             Pennsylvania.
               I have worked with Senator Specter both as a Democrat 
             and a Republican, and I can tell you this--his commitment 
             to bipartisanship and independence should be a model for 
             all current and future Members of the U.S. Senate.
               I would like to thank Arlen for his many years of 
             service, and wish him and his wife Joan well as he leaves 
             the Senate. It has truly been a pleasure working with him 
             over the years. I know the State of Pennsylvania will miss 
             their senior Senator and I firmly believe that this body 
             will not be the same without him.

               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 served with Senator Arlen Specter for many years on 
             the Veterans' Affairs Committee. He twice served as the 
             committee's chairman, and, in recent years as I chaired 
             the committee, he remained a strong and vital force 
             working on behalf of our Nation's veterans, on both sides 
             of the dais. He has been an institution in the Senate for 
             many years, and it has been a genuine pleasure working 
             with him. I appreciate and applaud his long, dedicated 
             service to those who have worn our Nation's uniforms. ...
               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.
                                              Sunday, December 19, 2010
               Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise to speak today to 
             recognize the departure of my good friend, the senior 
             Senator from Pennsylvania. Senator Arlen Specter has been 
             present here in the Senate through some of its most 
             contentious times. He and I have worked side by side--
             sometimes in agreement, other times in opposition--for 
             many years. His presence will be sorely missed.
               Arlen is the son of immigrant parents. He was born in 
             Wichita, KS, in 1930, to Lillie Shannin and Harry Specter. 
             Harry served in World War I in the U.S. infantry, just a 
             few years after migrating to the United States from 
             Russia. While in combat in France, Arlen's father was 
             seriously wounded. Yet, a few years later, the Federal 
             Government, strapped for funds, broke its promise to pay 
             World War I veterans a bonus. This, of course, led to a 
             veterans march on Washington and a tragic encounter 
             between the U.S. Army and the protesting veterans. It also 
             led, indirectly, to Senator Specter's career in public 
             service as he has been fond of saying that he came to 
             Washington to get his father's bonus and that he would run 
             for reelection until he got it.
               Arlen attended college at both the University of 
             Oklahoma and the University of Pennsylvania, graduating 
             from the latter in 1951. He served in the Air Force during 
             the Korean war as an officer in the Office of Special 
             Investigations. In 1953, he married Joan Levy, with whom 
             he has raised two sons and four grandchildren. In 1956, he 
             graduated from Yale Law School and entered into private 
             practice.
               Senator Specter's career in public service began in 1959 
             when he became an assistant district attorney in 
             Philadelphia. In 1963, he was appointed to serve as 
             assistant counsel on the Warren Commission, investigating 
             the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Two years 
             later, he was elected to serve as the district attorney 
             for the city of Philadelphia, a position he held for 8 
             years. After another brief stint in the private sector, 
             Arlen was elected to the Senate in 1980 and has been the 
             longest serving Senator in Pennsylvania's history.
               Arlen has had his hand in a number of high-profile 
             efforts here in the Senate. However, I will always 
             remember him for his role in some of the most contentious 
             Supreme Court confirmation fights in our Nation's history. 
             He and I both served on the Judiciary Committee during the 
             confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork, which were, 
             at the time, the most contentious in our Nation's history. 
             In the end, Arlen and I reached different conclusions as 
             to whether Judge Bork should have been confirmed. I still 
             think Arlen was wrong to oppose Judge Bork, but, I have 
             never doubted that his decision to do so was sincere.
               Arlen and I once again found ourselves at the center of 
             a Supreme Court fight during the nomination hearings for 
             Justice Clarence Thomas. During those hearings, Senator 
             Specter had the daunting task of questioning Ms. Anita 
             Hill for the Republican side. I was and continue to be 
             impressed with the manner in which he handled that 
             responsibility. Those were difficult, sensitive issues. 
             None of us wanted to disrespect Ms. Hill, but we believed 
             it was important to ensure that the truth be examined and 
             brought to light, and I've always thought that Arlen 
             handled the matter with the necessary professionalism and 
             respect.
               In the years that followed the Thomas hearings, a number 
             of people expressed their displeasure for the way I 
             treated Ms. Hill during those hearings. I was always quick 
             to remind them that it was Arlen who questioned her, not 
             me. I was the one who questioned Justice Thomas. But, in 
             the end, I think the historical memory of that time has 
             tied the two of us together.
               Senator Specter has a reputation for being a fighter. 
             Having been on both sides of the debate with Arlen, I have 
             to concur with that assessment. His was among the sharpest 
             minds we have known here in the Senate and I am grateful 
             for the privilege I've had to serve alongside him.
               I want to wish Arlen and his family the best of luck.
                                             Tuesday, December 21, 2010
               Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I wish to offer some remarks 
             in furtherance of what Senator Specter told us about this 
             great institution (see farewell speech, page xi). I wanted 
             to spend a moment talking about his service to the 
             Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
               When I came to the Senate in 2007 as a Senator-elect, 
             one of the first things I did was go to see Senator 
             Specter. He asked me at that time to go to lunch. From the 
             moment I arrived in the Senate, he made it very clear to 
             me that not only did the people of Pennsylvania expect, 
             but he expected as well, that we work together.
               From the beginning of his service in the Senate, way 
             back when he was elected in 1980 all the way up to the 
             present moment, he has been a Senator who was focused on 
             building bipartisan relationships and, of course, focusing 
             on Pennsylvania priorities. I am honored to have worked 
             with him on so many priorities, whether it was veterans or 
             workers, whether it was dairy farmers or the economy of 
             Pennsylvania or whether it was our soldiers or our 
             children or our families. We have worked on so many 
             priorities. He has been a champion for our State and he 
             has shown younger Senators the way to work together in the 
             interests of our State and our country.
               That bipartisanship wasn't just a sentiment; it was 
             bipartisanship that led to results. I wish to point to one 
             example of many I could list: the funding for the National 
             Institutes of Health, that great bulwark and generator of 
             discoveries that cures diseases and creates jobs and hope 
             for people often without hope because of a disease or a 
             malady of one kind or another. That bipartisanship Senator 
             Specter demonstrated every day in the Senate has achieved 
             results for Pennsylvania, for sure, in terms of jobs and 
             opportunity and hope but also results for the Nation as 
             well.
               I know we are short on time, but I wanted to make one 
             note about the history of his service. No Senator in the 
             history of the Commonwealth--and we have had 55 or so 
             Senators, depending on how you count those who have been 
             elected and served, but of those 55, no Senator has served 
             longer than Senator Specter. I recall the line--I think it 
             is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, it is a great line about 
             what years mean and what service means, and I will apply 
             the analogy to Senate service. The line goes something 
             like this: ``It is not the years in a life, it is the life 
             in those years.'' I am paraphrasing that. The same could 
             be said of the life of a Senator. It is not just that he 
             served 30 years. That alone is a singular, unprecedented 
             achievement. In fact, the Senator he outdistanced in a 
             sense in terms of years of service was only elected by the 
             people twice. Senator Specter was elected by the people of 
             Pennsylvania five times. But it is the life in those 
             Senate years, the work in those Senate years, the 
             contribution to our Commonwealth and our country in those 
             Senate years that matters and has meaning. His impact will 
             be felt for generations--not just decades but for 
             generations.
               Let me close with this. There is a history book of our 
             State that came out in the year 2002, and it has a series 
             of stories and essays and chapters on the history of 
             Pennsylvania. It is a fascinating review of the State's 
             history. The foreword to that publication was written by 
             Brent E. Glass, at the time the executive director of the 
             Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. He wrote 
             this in March 2002. It is a long foreword which I won't 
             read, but he said in the early part of this foreword the 
             following:

               One way to understand the meaning of Pennsylvania's past 
             is to examine certain places around the State that are 
             recognized for their significance to the entire Nation.

               Then he lists and describes in detail significant places 
             in Pennsylvania that have a connection to our history, 
             whether it is the Liberty Bell or the battlefield of 
             Gettysburg; whether it is the farms in our Amish 
             communities or whether it is some other place of historic 
             significance. I have no doubt whatsoever that if the same 
             history were recounted about the people who had an impact 
             on our Commonwealth--the people who moved Pennsylvania 
             forward; the people who in addition to moving our State 
             forward had an impact on the Nation--if we make a list of 
             Pennsylvanians who made such contributions, whether it 
             would be William Penn or Benjamin Franklin--and you can 
             fill in the blanks from there--I have no doubt that list 
             would include Senator Arlen Specter. He is a son of Kansas 
             who made Pennsylvania his home. He is a son of Kansas who 
             fought every day for the people of Pennsylvania.
               So it is the work and the achievements and the passion 
             and the results in those years in the Senate that will put 
             him on the very short list of those who contributed so 
             much to our Commonwealth that we love and to our country 
             that we cherish.
               For all of that and for so many other reasons, as a 
             citizen of Pennsylvania, a resident of Pennsylvania, a 
             citizen of the United States but as a Senator--I want to 
             express my gratitude to Senator Arlen Specter for his 30 
             years of service, but especially for what those 30 years 
             meant to the people, sometimes people without a voice, 
             sometimes people without power.
               Thank you, Senator Specter.
               I yield the floor.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

               Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to join my colleagues 
             in noting the farewell address of Senator Arlen Specter is 
             an inspiring moment in the Senate.
               It has been my great honor to serve with Senator Specter 
             and to be a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with 
             him as well. I think of his contribution to the Senate at 
             many levels. I certainly appreciate what he did for the 
             Senate and for the Nation when he chaired the Judiciary 
             Committee and served on that committee, particularly when 
             it came to the hearings involving the appointment of new 
             Supreme Court Justices. Without fail, Senator Specter at 
             those hearings would always have dazzling insight into the 
             current state of the law and the record of the nominee. I 
             couldn't wait for him each time there was a hearing to see 
             what his tack would be. It always reflected a thoughtful 
             reflection on the historic moment we faced with each 
             nominee. The questions he asked, the positions he took, 
             the statements he made, all made for a better record for 
             the United States as the Senate proceeded to vote on those 
             historic nominations.
               But there is one area he touched on ever so slightly 
             that I believe is equal to his mark on the Senate 
             Judiciary Committee. This man, Senator Arlen Specter, with 
             the help in some respects and in some efforts by Senator 
             Tom Harkin, has done more to advance the cause of medical 
             research in his time than virtually any other Member of 
             Congress. He had a single-minded determination to advance 
             medical research and to put the investment in the National 
             Institutes of Health. On the House side, Congressman John 
             Porter joined him in that early effort--John Porter of 
             Illinois--but time and again Arlen Specter would have as 
             his last bargaining chip on the table, whenever there was 
             a negotiation, that we needed to put more money in the 
             National Institutes of Health. I know he was probably 
             inspired to that cause by many things, but certainly by 
             his own life experience where he has successfully battled 
             so many medical demons and is here standing before us as 
             living proof that with his self-determination and the 
             advancement of science, we can overcome even some of the 
             greatest diseases and maladies that come our way.
               He was, to me, a role model many times as he struggled 
             through cancer therapy and never missed a bell when it 
             came to presiding over a committee hearing or coming to 
             the floor to vote. There were times when all of us knew he 
             was in pain. Yet he never let on. He did his job and did 
             it with a gritty determination, and I respect him so much 
             for it. That personal life experience, I am sure, played 
             some role in his determination to advance medical 
             research.
               So as he brings an end to his Senate career, there are 
             countless thousands who wouldn't know the name Arlen 
             Specter who have benefited by this man's public service 
             and commitment to medical research. I thank him for that 
             as a person, as does everyone in this Chamber who has 
             benefited from that cause in his life.
               I also think, as I look back on his work on the stimulus 
             bill when he was on the other side of the aisle, that it 
             took extraordinary courage and may have cost him a Senate 
             seat to step forward and say, I will join with two other 
             Republicans to pass a bill for this new President Obama to 
             try to stop a recession and to give some new life to this 
             economy. There were very few with the courage to do it. He 
             was one of them. Sitting with him in the meetings where 
             the negotiations were under way, then-Republican Senator 
             Arlen Specter drove hard bargains in terms of bringing 
             down the overall cost of the project and dedicating a 
             substantial portion--$10 billion, if I am not mistaken--to 
             the National Institutes of Health. Again, the final 
             negotiation on the stimulus bill for America included 
             Arlen Specter's demand that the National Institutes of 
             Health have additional research dollars. His commitment to 
             make that happen did make it happen. Those three votes 
             from the Republican side of the aisle made it happen: a 
             stimulus which averted, in my mind, a terrible, much worse 
             recession, maybe even a depression in America. It was the 
             best of the Senate, when a Senator had the courage to 
             stand up, take a position, risk his Senate seat because he 
             believed in it, and do some good for America which would 
             benefit millions, as his vote and his effort did.
               When I look at those whom I have served with in the 
             Senate, there are precious few who meet the standards for 
             Arlen Specter. I am going to miss him for so many reasons, 
             but I know his involvement in public life will not quit. 
             That is often a cliche we hear on the floor after a 
             farewell address. But I know it because he has been 
             hammering away at me every single day about bringing those 
             cameras over to the Supreme Court. So even when he leaves 
             this body, if it is not done then, I am sure I am going to 
             hear from him again on televising the Supreme Court 
             proceedings. I give my word that as long as I am around 
             here, Senator, I will carry that banner for you, and if I 
             have a chance to help you pass that measure at some point 
             in the future I am going to do it because I think it is 
             the right thing to do and I know it has meant so much to 
             you.
               The Senate's loss is America's gain as he becomes a 
             public figure in a different life. During his tenure in 
             the Senate he has graced this institution with an 
             extraordinary intelligence, a determination, and a belief 
             that the national good should rise above any party cause. 
             I am going to miss Arlen Specter, and I thank him for 
             being my friend.
               I yield the floor.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.

               Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I was pleased to have an 
             opportunity to hear most of the remarks made this morning 
             by my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania and others 
             who have spoken on the occasion of his retirement from the 
             Senate.
               I couldn't help but remember when he was campaigning in 
             his first race for the Senate and I had been asked to be 
             available to help out in some campaigns that year. I was a 
             brand new Senator and didn't know a lot of the protocols, 
             but when I heard Arlen Specter wanted me to come up and 
             speak in Pennsylvania somewhere during his campaign, I 
             decided I would accept the invitation, although I was a 
             little apprehensive about it, about how I would be 
             received as a Republican from Mississippi going up and 
             helping this new candidate who was running on the 
             Republican ticket too. His wife Joan was a member of the 
             city council in Philadelphia, as I recall--very well 
             respected. Anyway, I enjoyed getting to know the Senator 
             and his wife better during those early campaign events. 
             Then, after he was elected, he asked me to make one more 
             trip up.
               He could not go to Erie, PA, and keep an invitation that 
             he wanted to accept and speak to a retired group of 
             businessmen. These were older gentlemen who had been 
             prominent in Pennsylvania business and political life. I 
             worried about it--that they would not think much about me. 
             But I went up there and nearly froze to death. I thought 
             this is just a payback for the Civil War, I guess, that 
             Arlen never got to express. He was going to do his part to 
             help educate me and refine me in the ways of modern 
             America. But that led to an entire career here working 
             alongside him on both sides of the aisle, which I have 
             enjoyed very much.
               We have all learned from him the commitment that he 
             makes to the job, the seriousness of purpose that he 
             brings to committee work, and he has truly been an 
             outstanding leader in the Senate, through personal 
             performance and his serious and impressive record of 
             leadership.
               I am glad to express those thoughts today and wish Arlen 
             well in the years ahead. We will still have a friendship 
             that will be appreciated. I look forward to continuing 
             that relationship.
               I yield the floor.

               Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I see my other colleagues. 
             I do wish to talk about one or two judicial nominees, but 
             I want to say first how much I appreciate Senator Specter.
               I have had the honor to serve on the Senate Judiciary 
             Committee with Senator Specter the entire time I have been 
             in the Senate--going on 14 years, I guess. No one has a 
             clearer legal mind. The clarity of his thought and 
             expression is always impressive to me. As someone who 
             practiced law, I see the great lawyer skills he possesses.
               Also, I note that he has not just today but throughout 
             his career defended the legitimacy of the powers of the 
             Senate. He was very articulate over the past number of 
             years in criticizing the abuse of filling the tree, where 
             bills can be brought up and amendments are not allowed. He 
             has believed that is an unhealthy trend in the Senate, and 
             he has been one of the most effective advocates in 
             opposition to it.
               He sponsored and helped pass the Armed Career Criminal 
             Act. He was one of the leaders in that. Having been a 
             longtime prosecutor in Philadelphia, I like to tease our 
             good friend Senator Leahy that he was a prosecutor, but it 
             was in Vermont. Senator Specter had to deal with a lot of 
             crime in Philadelphia and was consistently reelected there 
             for his effectiveness and is a true source of insight into 
             crime in America and has been an effective advocate for 
             fighting crime.
               I note also that he has a good view about a Senator. He 
             respects other Senators. He was talking with me one time 
             or I was sharing with him my concern about a matter, and 
             he used a phrase I heard him use more than once: ``Well, 
             you are a U.S. Senator.'' In other words, if you do not 
             like it, stand up and defend yourself. He respected that, 
             even if he would disagree.
               I remember another time Senator Specter was on the 
             floor. I had just arrived in the Senate. I wanted him to 
             do something--I have long since forgotten what.
               I said, ``Senator Specter, you could vote for this, and 
             back home, you could say thus and so.''
               He looked right at me, and he said, ``Senator, I don't 
             need your advice on how to conduct myself back home 
             politically.''
               I learned a lesson from that. I never told another 
             Senator what I said to Senator Specter. Who am I to tell 
             you how to conduct yourself politically back home in the 
             State of Pennsylvania?
               Senator Specter chaired the Judiciary Committee during 
             the confirmations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice 
             Alito. He was the leading Republican chair at that time. 
             He raised questions about the nominees. But as chairman of 
             the committee, with the votes and support of his 
             Republican colleagues, he protected our rights, he 
             protected our interests. He did not back down one time on 
             any action by the other party that would have denied the 
             ability to move that nomination forward to a vote and 
             protect the rights of the parties on our side.
               Those are a few things that come to mind when I think 
             about the fantastic service he has given to the Senate. He 
             is one of our most able Members, one of our most effective 
             defenders of senatorial prerogative and independence, one 
             of our crime fighters without par, and one of the best 
             lawyers in the Senate, a person who is courageous and 
             strong. Even when he was conducting those very intense 
             Alito and Roberts hearings--it was just after he had 
             serious cancer treatment, the chemotherapy. I know he 
             didn't feel well, but he was fabulous in conducting 
             himself at that time. Throughout all of that treatment, 
             his work ethic surpassed by far that of most Senators in 
             this body. It has been an honor to serve with him.

               Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wish to say how much I 
             appreciated the remarks of Senator Specter today. I, for 
             one, hope Senators on both sides of the aisle, Democrats 
             and Republicans, heed his closing remarks as he described 
             them and also the farewell remarks of so many Senators 
             over the last 2 or 3 weeks. I think there is a lot of 
             wisdom we can apply to our work going forward.
               I thank Senator Specter very much for his service.
               I yield the floor.

               Mr. UDALL of Colorado. ... I also wanted to associate 
             myself with the remarks of Senator Bennet, the Senator 
             from Colorado, in regard to Senator Specter's farewell 
             address to the Senate. In particular, I think Senator 
             Specter laid out a thoughtful and comprehensive way we can 
             change the Senate rules in the upcoming 112th Congress in 
             ways that respect the rights of the minority but also 
             provide the Senate with some additional ways to do the 
             people's business.
                                           Wednesday, December 22, 2010
               Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, time and time again I have 
             come to the floor to give a few remarks about Senators who 
             are retiring and leaving the Senate. They all contributed 
             in their unique way one way or the other to the Senate. 
             ...
               Mr. President, I wish to pay a farewell to another 
             longtime legislative partner, and that is Senator Arlen 
             Specter of Pennsylvania.
               I listened with great interest to Senator Specter's 
             farewell remarks yesterday. He decried the decline of 
             bipartisan cooperation in this body. As he put it:

               In some quarters, compromising has become a dirty word. 
             Politics is no longer the art of the possible when 
             Senators are intransigent in their positions.

               During his remarkable 30 years in the Senate--he is the 
             longest serving U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania's history--
             Arlen Specter has been admired for his fierce independence 
             and for his willingness to cross party lines in order to 
             accomplish big and important things for this country.
               Nowhere has this been more vividly on display than in 
             the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education 
             Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, on which 
             Senator Specter and I are senior members. Before last 
             year, when he returned to his roots as a Democrat, Arlen 
             was the senior Republican and I was the senior Democrat on 
             that subcommittee. Since 1989, as the majority in the 
             Senate has gone back and forth between the two parties, we 
             alternated as either chair or ranking member. But the 
             transitions were seamless as we passed the gavel back and 
             forth because Arlen and I forged an unshakable 
             partnership.
               That partnership has been grounded in our shared 
             commitment to finding cures for diseases ranging from 
             cancer to heart disease to Alzheimer's and in our 
             determination to maintain the National Institutes of 
             Health as the jewel in the crown of international 
             biomedical research. Our proudest accomplishment was our 
             collaboration in doubling funding for the National 
             Institutes of Health over a 5-year period, between 1998 
             and 2003. Last year, we again collaborated in securing $10 
             billion for the National Institutes of Health in the 
             Recovery Act, although I must be honest and give the 
             senior Senator from Pennsylvania the lion's share of 
             credit for that accomplishment.
               I say without fear of contradiction that there has been 
             no Member of Congress in the Senate or the House who has 
             championed NIH as passionately and relentlessly and 
             successfully as Senator Arlen Specter. Indeed, at times, 
             in my role when I was chair of the Appropriations Labor, 
             Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, I 
             have had to remind Arlen that there were other programs 
             besides the NIH in our appropriations bill. In fairness, 
             Senator Specter has also fought passionately to increase 
             funding for public schools and to increase access to 
             higher education, but there is no question that his great 
             passion, his living legacy, has been the National 
             Institutes of Health and biomedical research. Today, the 
             prowess and excellence of the National Institutes of 
             Health is truly a living legacy to Senator Specter, and we 
             have countless new medical cures and therapies because of 
             Senator Specter's long and determined advocacy.
               Mr. President, I will miss my good friend and colleague 
             from Pennsylvania, who has been a tremendous ally for many 
             years. As he departs the Senate, he can take enormous 
             pride in 30 years of truly distinguished service to the 
             people of Pennsylvania and the United States. I wish Arlen 
             and his wonderful wife Joan the very best in the years 
             ahead.

               Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to our 
             friend and colleague, Senator Arlen Specter.
               Senator Specter has spent five terms serving the people 
             of Pennsylvania here in Congress--longer than any other 
             Pennsylvania Senator. All of us can take a lesson from his 
             dedication and passion for fighting for the people of his 
             State.
               A member of the Judiciary Committee since he joined 
             Congress, Senator Specter built on his background as an 
             attorney and eventually assumed the chairmanship of the 
             committee. His expertise on constitutional issues has long 
             been admired by his colleagues.
               Senator Specter was always a leader on issues relating 
             to our National Institutes of Health, championing 
             investment in scientific research to find lifesaving 
             treatments and cures for a range of diseases. He 
             understood first hand how crucial such funding could be, 
             having fought his own battle with cancer. When we passed 
             the Recovery Act, it was Senator Specter who ensured that 
             it would include significant investments in NIH. His 
             efforts to help double NIH's budget have contributed to 
             advances in treatments for Parkinson's, cancer, heart 
             disease, and Alzheimer's.
               I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work closely 
             with Senator Specter on the Senate Environment and Public 
             Works Committee. He has been a thoughtful and constructive 
             member committed to addressing climate change and fighting 
             for clean energy jobs.
               Senator Specter loves this institution, and he will be 
             missed. He has left his mark, and I thank him for his 
             decades of dedicated public service.

               Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, when I came to the Senate in 
             2007 as a Senator-elect, one of the first things I did was 
             to go see Senator Specter. He asked me at the time to go 
             to lunch, and from the moment that I arrived in the 
             Senate, he made it very clear to me, not only did the 
             people of Pennsylvania expect, but he expected as well 
             that we work together.
               From the beginning of his service here in the U.S. 
             Senate, way back when he was elected in 1980, all the way 
             up to the present moment, he has been a Senator who has 
             focused on building bipartisan relationships and, of 
             course, focusing on Pennsylvania priorities.
               I have been honored to have worked with him on so many 
             Pennsylvania priorities, whether it was veterans or 
             workers, whether it was dairy farmers or the economy of 
             Pennsylvania, or whether it was our soldiers, or our 
             children, or our families. He has been a champion for our 
             State, and he has shown younger Senators the way to work 
             together in the interest of our State and our country.
               That bipartisanship wasn't just a sentiment. He is a 
             legislator who sought compromise that led to results in a 
             Senate often divided by partisanship.
               His record is long, so I will only highlight a few 
             areas.
               He helped to lead the effort to dramatically increase 
             funding for the National Institutes of Health, that great 
             generator of discoveries that cure diseases and create 
             jobs and hope for people often without hope because of a 
             disease or a malady of one kind or another.
               His experience working on a farm as a boy, in Kansas, 
             not in Pennsylvania, helped him to understand and work on 
             problems affecting Pennsylvania agriculture and farm 
             families.
               He stood up for Pennsylvania industry and workers 
             against subsidized or dumped products that hurt 
             Pennsylvania's steel industry.
               He fought to bring Federal funding back to Pennsylvania 
             to create jobs, build infrastructure, and invest in local 
             communities.
               No Senator in the history of the Commonwealth has served 
             longer than Senator Specter. In fact, the Senator that he 
             outdistanced in a sense, in terms of service, was only 
             elected by the people twice after several terms elected by 
             the State legislature. Senator Specter was elected by the 
             people of Pennsylvania five times, but it is the life in 
             those Senate years, the contribution to our Commonwealth 
             and our country in those 30 years that really matter. His 
             impact will be felt for generations, not just decades, but 
             for generations.
               There was a history book of our State that came out in 
             the year 2002. It was a series of stories, essays, and 
             chapters on the history of Pennsylvania, and it is a 
             fascinating review of the State's history. The foreword of 
             that publication, that book, was written by Brent D. 
             Glass, at the time the executive director of the 
             Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission. He wrote this 
             in March 2002. It is a long foreword which I won't read, 
             but he wrote in the early part of this foreword the 
             following:

               One way to understand the meaning of Pennsylvania's past 
             is to examine certain places around the state that are 
             recognized for their significance to the entire nation.

               Then he lists and describes in detail significant places 
             in Pennsylvania that have a connection to our history, 
             whether it's the Liberty Bell or the battlefield at 
             Gettysburg, whether it's the farms in our Amish 
             communities or whether it's some other place of historic 
             significance.
               I have no doubt whatsoever that if the same history were 
             recounted about the people of Pennsylvania, the people who 
             moved Pennsylvania forward, the people who in addition to 
             moving our State forward had an impact on the Nation; if 
             we had to make a list of Pennsylvanians who made such 
             contributions; whether it would be William Penn, Benjamin 
             Franklin, you can fill in the blanks from there, I have no 
             doubt that that list would include Senator Arlen Specter, 
             a son of Kansas who made Pennsylvania his home, a son of 
             Kansas who fought every day for the people of 
             Pennsylvania.
               So it is the work and the achievements and the passion 
             and the results in those years in the Senate that will put 
             him on a very short list of those who contributed so much 
             to our Commonwealth that we love and to our country that 
             we cherish.
               So for all that and for so many other reasons, I, as a 
             resident of Pennsylvania and a citizen of the United 
             States, but as a Senator, want to express my gratitude to 
             Senator Arlen Specter for his 30 years of service, but 
             especially for what those 30 years meant to the people of 
             Pennsylvania. Thank you, Senator Specter.

               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. ...
               My neighbor in the Hart Senate Office Building, Arlen 
             Specter, is one of the Senate's most independent voices 
             and perhaps the best friend that the National Institutes 
             of Health, and every American who benefits from its 
             cutting edge research, has ever had on Capitol Hill. ...
               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.
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