[Senate Document 113-14]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TRIBUTES TO HON. OLYMPIA J. SNOWE
Olympia J. Snowe
U.S. SENATOR FROM MAINE
TRIBUTES
IN THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. Doc. 113-14
Tributes
Delivered in Congress
Olympia J. Snowe
United States Congresswoman
1979-1995
United States Senator
1995-2013
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2014
Compiled under the direction
of the
Joint Committee on Printing
CONTENTS
Biography.............................................
v
Farewell Address......................................
ix
Proceedings in the Senate:
Tributes by Senators:
Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
25
Cardin, Benjamin L., of Maryland...............
20
Collins, Susan M., of Maine....................
3
Conrad, Kent, of North Dakota..................
12
Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
17
Harkin, Tom, of Iowa...........................
13
Klobuchar, Amy, of Minnesota...................
24
Landrieu, Mary L., of Louisiana................
11
Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont..................
19
Levin, Carl, of Michigan.......................
15
McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky..................
4
Mikulski, Barbara A., of Maryland..............
8, 12
Murkowski, Lisa, of Alaska.....................
23
Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
14
Reid, Harry, of Nevada.........................
26
BIOGRAPHY
Olympia J. Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles on
February 21, 1947, in Augusta, ME. She is the daughter of
the late George Bouchles, a native of Mytilene, Greece,
and the late Georgia Goranites Bouchles, whose parents
immigrated to America from Sparta. After the death of her
parents, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, the late
Mary and James Goranites of Auburn, ME. Olympia attended
St. Basil's Academy, a Greek Orthodox school in Garrison,
NY, and graduated from Edward Little High School in
Auburn. She earned a degree in political science from the
University of Maine in 1969.
With her election in 1994 Olympia became only the second
woman Senator in history to represent Maine, following the
late Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who served from 1949 to
1973. In November 2006, she was reelected to a third 6-
year term in the U.S. Senate with 74 percent of the vote.
Before her election to the Senate, Olympia represented
Maine's Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of
Representatives for 16 years. Senator Snowe is only the
fourth woman in history to be elected to both Houses of
Congress and the first woman in American history to serve
in both houses of a State legislature and both Houses of
Congress. When first elected to Congress in 1978 at the
age of 31, Olympia was the youngest Republican woman, and
the first Greek-American woman, ever elected to Congress.
She has won more Federal elections in Maine than any other
person since World War II. Olympia is the third longest
serving woman in the history of the U.S. Congress.
Olympia's dedicated work in the U.S. Senate has garnered
her nationwide recognition as a leading policymaker in
Washington. In 2005 she was named the 54th most powerful
woman in the world by Forbes magazine. In 2006 Time
magazine named her one of the Top 10 U.S. Senators.
Calling her ``The Caretaker,'' Time magazine wrote of
Senator Snowe:
Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get
beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia
Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in
Washington, but while Snowe is a major player on national
issues, she is also known as one of the most effective
advocates for her constituents.
Focusing her attention on efforts to build bipartisan
consensus on key issues that matter to Maine and America,
Olympia successfully built a reputation as one of
Congress' leading moderates. In 1999, she became cochair
of the Senate Centrist Coalition with Senator John Breaux
(D-LA), and in that same year, she was cited by
Congressional Quarterly for her centrist leadership.
Olympia has worked extensively on a number of issues,
such as budget and fiscal responsibility; education,
including education technology; national security; women's
issues; health care, including prescription drug coverage
for Medicare recipients; welfare reform; oceans and
fisheries issues; and campaign finance reform. She co-led
the successful fight for a refundable child tax credit,
assisting an additional 37 million American families. She
has also led efforts important to her home State of Maine,
including successfully working to overturn the Department
of Defense's recommendations in 2005 to close two of
Maine's military installations, a successful push for
Federal disaster funds in response to a devastating 1998
ice storm and the 2006 flooding in southern Maine,
increased funding for the Togus veterans hospital,
reauthorization of the Northeast Dairy Compact so critical
to the survival of Maine's small family dairy farms, and
opposition to a proposed Federal rule that would have
devastated the State's lobster fishery.
In 2001 Olympia became the first Republican woman ever
to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance
Committee, and only the third woman in history to join the
panel. The committee is considered one of the most
powerful in Congress with jurisdiction over two-thirds of
the entire Federal budget, because its members author tax,
trade, health care, welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, and
Social Security related legislation. Olympia also served
as a member of the Subcommittee on Health Care, which
oversees matters related to health insurance, Medicare,
and the uninsured.
As former chair, and later ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Olympia
fought fiercely for our Nation's small businesses. Through
her proactive legislative efforts and strong advocacy on
behalf of America's small businesses, she consistently
championed affordable and flexible health care options,
increased access to capital, a fair share of Federal
contracting dollars and opportunities, and reduced tax and
regulatory burden, among other issues.
Also a former member of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, she was the former
chair and later ranking member of its Subcommittee on
Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and the Coast Guard where
she worked to pass legislation to allow Maine's fish and
fishing communities to thrive. A former member of the
Senate Budget Committee, she was a key voice in
establishing education as a priority within the context of
the first balanced budget since 1969, and in 1999, 2000,
and 2001 authored the amendment that for the first time
created a reserve fund for a Medicare prescription drug
benefit. She also sat on the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence.
Prior to her service on the Finance Committee, Senator
Snowe had been the fourth woman ever to serve on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, where she was the first
woman Senator to chair the Subcommittee on Seapower, which
oversees the Navy and Marine Corps. Olympia Snowe was a
leading voice in the Senate on combating sexual assault in
the military, fighting for gender integrated training, and
shipbuilding matters.
During her tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives,
she cochaired the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues
for more than 10 years and provided leadership in
establishing the Office of Women's Health at the National
Institutes of Health. She also served as a member of the
House Budget Committee; the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, where she was ranking Republican on the
Subcommittee on International Operations; and the former
House Select Committee on Aging, where she was ranking
Republican on the Subcommittee on Human Services.
In her first term, Olympia helped launch with House
Speaker Tip O'Neill the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP). Across her combined 30-year tenure on
the Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Senate Armed
Services, and Senate Intelligence Committees, she fought
to keep our Nation safe--authoring the creation of a
Diplomatic Security Service to protect our embassies,
questioning our broken system of issuing visas even before
the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and instituting
greater information sharing among our intelligence
agencies.
She served in both houses of the Maine Legislature,
first elected to the Maine House--representing her home
town of Auburn--in 1973 to the seat left vacant by the
death of her first husband, the late Peter Snowe, in an
auto accident. She was reelected in 1974, and was elected
to the Maine Senate representing Androscoggin County in
1976.
Senator Snowe is married to former Maine Governor John
R. McKernan, Jr., and lives in Falmouth, ME, and
Washington, DC. She is a member of the Holy Trinity Greek
Orthodox Church in Lewiston, ME.
Farewell to the Senate
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Ms. SNOWE. Madam President, I rise today with an
infinite appreciation for the institution of the U.S.
Senate as well as a profound sense of gratitude as I
prepare to conclude my 18 years in the Senate and my
nearly 40 years in elective office on behalf of the people
of Maine.
It has been difficult to envision this day when I would
be saying farewell to the Senate, just as it was
impossible to imagine I would one day become a U.S.
Senator as I was growing up in Maine. But such is the
miracle of America, that a young girl of Greek immigrants
and a first-generation American, who was orphaned at the
age of 9, could in time be elected to serve in the
greatest deliberative body the world has ever known and
become the third longest serving woman in the history of
the U.S. Congress.
So in contemplating how to begin my remarks today, I was
reminded of the words of the renowned American poet and
son of New England, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said:
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good
thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.
And because all things have contributed to your
advancement, you should include all things in your
gratitude.
That perfectly encapsulates how I am feeling on this
day--thankful and blessed. In that light, I first and
foremost want to thank the people of Maine for allowing me
to be their voice, their vote, and their champion for 16
years in the U.S. House of Representatives and for three
terms in the U.S. Senate. One of the definitions of the
word ``trust'' is ``a charge or duty imposed in faith or
confidence.'' To have had the trust of Maine people, who
have placed their faith and confidence in me, is an honor
of indescribable magnitude. Indeed, serving my magnificent
State over the past 34 years in the Halls of Congress has
been the greatest privilege of my life.
I also want to thank my amazing husband, Jock McKernan,
who is with us today and who, as you know, was a former
Congressman and former Governor of Maine. In fact, when
Jock was Governor while I was serving in the House of
Representatives, we used to joke that our idea of quality
time together was listening to each other's speeches. But
truly, we have shared a passion for public service and
quite a unique journey together, with 56 years between us
in elective office, and we have never regretted a single
moment.
I am also pleased to say he is joined today by our very
wonderful, longtime friends, Dan and Sharon Miller from
Maine.
On this occasion, I also think of my family, without
whom none of this would have been possible. I have often
joked that the secret to my electoral success is coming
from such a large extended family--some of whom we started
on campaigns at birth, I might add. They have been a
source of boundless love and support over the years,
through the struggles as well as the celebrations, and I
thank them from the bottom of my heart.
It is also impossible to serve for this long and at this
level without dedicated and exceptional staff, and during
my tenure in the House and Senate, I have had nearly 400
people on my staff who have helped to make all the
difference for me, for Maine, and for Washington. Here we
have had tremendous support with the invaluable guidance
and efforts on the part of my staff through the
extraordinary events of more than three decades, and they
have represented the very best and brightest the Nation
has to offer. They are here today in the back of the
Chamber and up in the gallery, and I applaud them time and
time again. In fact, we had a wonderful reunion of all of
my staff, and I realize it just simply would not have been
possible to have been on this legislative journey without
them.
The same is true of my staff in Maine, who have not only
been my eyes and ears but also my stalwart surrogates in
assisting Mainers with their problems and in navigating
the Federal bureaucracies. Like me, they have never been
inclined to take no for an answer, and in so doing they
have touched literally thousands of lives, helping to
soften the hardest days and brighten the darkest.
I thank and commend the stellar staff of the Senate,
from all of those ensuring the operation of the Senate
here on the floor, to the Cloakroom staff, the legislative
counsel, to all of our pages who are here from all across
America, to all those who actually keep the facilities
running, and certainly to the officers who are on the
frontlines of Capitol security, protecting our visitors
and all of us. You have my deepest admiration for your
immeasurable contributions to the Senate and to our
country.
I want to express my gratitude to the minority leader
for his gracious remarks about my service. Senator
McConnell has worked tirelessly in leading us through
extremely challenging moments for the Senate and for the
country. His longevity of legislative experience has made
him a true asset to this body, for our Republican caucus,
and I have the most heartfelt respect and appreciation for
his contributions to his home State of Kentucky and to
this country.
To my friend and colleague Susan Collins, I want to
thank her for her very kind and extremely generous words
on the floor last week. Public service was imbued in
Senator Collins from her earliest days in Caribou, ME,
where, incredibly, both her parents, Don and Pat, were
former mayors of the city. I happened to have served with
her father Don when he was also in the State legislature.
For the past 16 years, Senator Collins has provided
exemplary representation not only for Maine but for
America with her voice of reason, pragmatism, and
thoughtfulness, and Maine will truly be in outstanding
hands with Susan Collins as our senior Senator.
I am also indebted to my great friend Senator Mikulski,
the dean of the women in the Senate and for all women, for
the warm and wonderful comments she made yesterday on the
floor. I have known Barbara for more than 30 years,
beginning with our mutual service in the House of
Representatives. She is truly a dynamo who has always
brought to bear an unyielding tenacity that has
consistently been reflected in her vigorous advocacy for
those she represents.
As I said, in 2011 she became the longest serving woman
in the Senate, and there is no one I would rather have
surpassing the length of service of Maine's legendary
Senator, Margaret Chase Smith, than Senator Barbara
Mikulski. What a reflection on her legislative stature
that she has now assumed the mantle of longest serving
woman in the history of the U.S. Congress.
To our Presiding Officer [Mrs. McCaskill], I would say
that I have enjoyed serving with her as well in this
august Chamber and getting to know her. I know she will do
well into the future, and I have enjoyed working with her
over the years.
I see two of my colleagues here: Senator Isakson, who is
my neighbor in the Russell Office Building--a gentleman in
every way. He has been magnificent to work with. And, of
course, my colleague Senator Murkowski from Alaska, who
has made some great contributions to the Senate with her
consensus-building, her dedication, and her exceptional
abilities. I want to thank them because I have certainly
enjoyed working with them and getting to know them.
To all of my Senate colleagues, past and present, this
Chamber would simply be another room with fancy walls
without the lifeblood of passionate service and dedication
you bring to this institution and our Nation.
We all have our stories about where we came from, about
what shaped our values and aspirations and why we care so
much about public service as a vehicle for securing for
others the American dream, for all who seek to embrace it.
In my instance, my own legislative journey commenced when
I was elected to fill my late husband's seat in the Maine
House of Representatives. I felt then, as I have
throughout my career, that our role as public servants,
above all else, is to solve problems. I have often
reflected on my 6 years in the State house and the State
senate in Augusta, ME, because that is where I found
politics and public life to be positive and constructive
endeavors. Once the elections were over, my colleagues and
I would put the campaigns and the party labels behind us
to enact laws that genuinely improved the lives of
Mainers.
I also inherited a legacy of bipartisanship and
independence from Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who is
best remembered for her remarks made during only her
second year of her first term in the U.S. Senate when,
with truly uncommon courage and principled independence,
she telegraphed the truth about McCarthyism during the Red
Scare of the 1950s with her renowned ``Declaration of
Conscience'' speech on the Senate floor. In 15 minutes she
had done what 94 of her colleagues--male colleagues, I
might add--had not dared to do, and in so doing slayed a
giant of demagoguery.
So when people ask me why I may be challenging a
particular party position or why I don't simply go with
the flow, I tell them: ``Please don't take it personally.
I can't help it, I am from Maine.'' That is what Maine
people truly expect from their elected officials--they
expect you to do what you believe is right for the right
reasons and in the right way. We have seen that reflected
time and again, not only with Margaret Chase Smith but in
the distinguished service of great Senators who have
preceded me from Maine, from Ed Muskie to Bill Cohen and
the former majority leader of the Senate, George Mitchell.
Throughout my tenure, I have borne witness to
government's incredible potential as an instrument for
that common good. I have also experienced its capacity for
serial dysfunction. Indeed, as I stated in announcing I
would not seek a fourth term in the Senate, it is
regrettable that excessive political polarization in
Washington today is preventing us from tackling our
problems in this period of monumental consequences for our
Nation.
As I prepare to conclude my service in elective office,
let me be abundantly clear: I am not leaving the Senate
because I have ceased believing in its potential or I no
longer love the institution, but precisely because I do. I
am simply taking my commitment to the Senate in a
different direction.
I intend to work from the outside, to help build support
for those in this institution who will be working to
reestablish the Senate's roots as a place of refuge from
the passions of politics, as a forum where the political
fires are tempered, not stoked--as our Founding Fathers
intended. Because the Senate in particular is our
essential legislative mechanism for distilling the vast
diversity of ideologies and opinions in America, so that
we might arrive at solutions to the challenges we face.
The fact is, we are a can-do country, infused with an
irrepressible can-do spirit. It is in our blood, and in
the very fiber of who we are. It is in our hard-working
families, and in the limitless entrepreneurship and
innovation of our people. It is profoundly reflected in
our heroic men and women in uniform--whose unflagging
bravery and professionalism I have been privileged to
witness first hand throughout my tenure in Congress as
they answer the call in places like Iraq and Afghanistan,
with many having made the ultimate sacrifice so that we
may live and that freedom may always ring.
Here in this Chamber, I have spoken with many of you who
came here to get things done, to solve problems and
achieve great things for our Nation. I have heard you
lament the inability to accomplish more in today's
polarized atmosphere. As I have traveled throughout Maine
and America--even overseas, people ask me, has it always
been this way?
I tell them, I am so passionate about changing the tenor
in Congress because I have seen that it can be different.
It has not always been this way. And it absolutely does
not have to be this way.
I have been in the Congress long enough to have
experienced first hand what can be accomplished when
individuals from various political backgrounds are
determined to solve a problem. For instance, when I first
came to the House of Representative in 1979, I joined the
bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues, which I
ultimately cochaired for 10 years with Democratic
Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. We certainly did not agree on
everything, but with only 17 women in the House and
Senate, we simply could not afford to draw political lines
in the sand when it came to matters of importance to
women.
So when we spoke on these issues, we spoke as women, not
as Republicans or Democrats. That is what drove our
agendas at the caucus--and, together, we started to make a
real difference for women. That was a time in America when
child support enforcement was viewed as strictly a woman's
problem, a time when pensions were canceled without a
spouse's approval, a time when family and medical leave
wasn't the law of the land, and a time when, incredibly,
women were systematically excluded from clinical medical
trials at the National Institutes of Health--trials that
made the difference between life and death.
As Senator Mikulski eloquently described yesterday in
this Chamber, she was waging a battle for equity in
women's health research in the Senate while Pat Schroeder,
Connie Morella, and I were fighting in the House. At a
pivotal juncture, Senator Mikulski launched a key panel to
explore this shocking discriminatory treatment which
further galvanized national attention. In the end,
together, we produced watershed policy changes that, to
this day, are resulting in life-saving medical discoveries
for America's women.
In the House, we often worked across party lines to
craft our Federal budgets, in sharp contrast to today's
broken process where we cannot pass a budget in 3 years,
even with unprecedented deficits and debt. When President
Reagan was elected in 1980, he knew he had to build
coalitions to pass budgets that would address the
tumultuous economy. The result was that the moderate
northeast Republican group called the Gypsy Moths and the
conservative-to-moderate Democratic group called the
``Boll Weevils'' negotiated budgets together, to help
reconcile our political and regional differences and in a
model for bipartisanship, all of us spent days and weeks
fashioning budgets, literally going through function by
function.
Arriving at compromise was not easy by any means. It
never is. But the point is, we can undertake the difficult
work, if we choose to do so.
I was able to make a difference even as a member of the
minority throughout my entire tenure in the House, by
reaching across the political aisle. In 1995, when the
voters of Maine entrusted me to be their voice and their
vote in the U.S. Senate and I was finally serving in the
majority, I believed this kind of cooperative disposition
would remain an indispensable commodity in meeting the
challenges of the times.
That is why I joined the Senate Centrist Coalition
shortly after arriving in the Senate, which had been
formed by Senators John Chafee and John Breaux during the
1994 health reform debate to bridge the political divide.
After Senator Chafee passed away in 1999, Senator Breaux
and I thought it was an imperative that we revive the
coalition to help foster bipartisanship following the
divisiveness of the Senate impeachment trial. Following
the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore that
adjudicated the Presidential election, and an evenly split
Senate with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, Senate
leaders Lott and Daschle joined with nearly one-third of
the Senate at a meeting of the coalition to explore how to
move forward in a bipartisan fashion.
It is precisely this kind of approach that is crucial,
because it is only when we minimize the political barriers
that we can maximize the Senate, allowing it to become an
unparalleled incubator for results that truly matter to
the American people.
It was a cross-aisle alliance that produced the so-
called E-Rate Program in 1996. This was a landmark law
ensuring every library and classroom in America would be
wired to the revolutionary resources of the Internet,
which one publication has ranked as fourth in a list of
innovations and initiatives that have helped shape
education technology over the past generation.
My good friend and colleague Senator Rockefeller, with
whom I have been privileged to work on so many issues, was
doggedly determined to enact this benchmark initiative. In
typical fashion, Jay was not going to take no for an
answer--which made us perfect partners and coauthors, as I
was equally determined. By working with Members of both
parties who were willing to hear the facts and judge on
the merits, we overcame the hurdles and the E-Rate Program
was born.
During the 2001 tax debates, Senator Blanche Lincoln and
I as members of the Finance Committee joined together to
increase the amount of the child tax credit and make it
refundable, so that low-income families who didn't earn
enough to pay Federal taxes could still benefit from the
credit. Ultimately, our measure was enacted, becoming only
the second refundable tax credit ever, and ensuring the
child tax credit would assist an additional 13 million
more children and lift 500,000 of those children out of
poverty.
I also think of how my friend, Senator Landrieu who is
sitting here in the Chamber as well, and I formed the
Senate Common Ground Coalition in 2006, to rekindle cross-
party relations. Not only have Mary and I made history as
the first women to serve simultaneously as chair and
ranking on a standing committee, but we have worked
together on numerous measures that are assisting America's
greatest jobs generators, our small businesses.
In a shining example of what is possible with civility
and bipartisan teamwork, Senator Ted Kennedy and I
coauthored the landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination Act--to
stop insurance companies and employers from denying or
dropping coverage based on genetic tests, so individuals
would not forgo those potentially life-saving tests. At
that juncture, Democrats were in the majority--and
traditionally, the chair of a committee takes the lead
name on legislation. But Ted approached me and said
essentially that, because my work on GINA had made it
possible, it should be ``Snowe-Kennedy'' not ``Kennedy-
Snowe''--a magnanimous legislative gesture from the
legislative lion of the U.S. Senate. I am proud to say
GINA passed in 2008 and has been referred to as ``the
first major civil rights act of the 21st century.''
So there are templates for working together effectively
in the U.S. Senate on behalf of the American people. On
occasion, it is the very institution of the Senate itself
that is preserved when we stake out common ground.
Even in the highly charged atmosphere of the
Presidential impeachment trial, we made the process work.
During a gathering of the Republican Caucus, I advocated
that we hold a bipartisan meeting in the Old Senate
Chamber, to generate agreement between the parties on the
conduct of the trial. The Senate had been about to decide
the guidelines of the trial on a purely partisan basis,
but by convening both parties, we were able to chart a
logical, reasonable, and judicious course.
In 2005, I joined the so-called ``Gang of 14,''
comprised of 7 Republicans and 7 Democrats and spearheaded
largely by Senators John Warner, John McCain, Robert Byrd,
and Ben Nelson. The group was formed to avert an
institutional crisis as a result of repeated, systematic
filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees that had
been a corrosive force on the Senate. In response, the
Republican majority was seeking to break the logjam by
exercising the so-called ``nuclear option,'' that would
have jettisoned long-standing rules requiring 60 votes to
end a filibuster.
That 60 vote threshold had always been a bulwark
protecting the rights of the minority, but would have
become just a simple majority vote. Yet, just as we were
about to cross this political Rubicon, the Gang of 14
forged a pact based on mutual trust, that we would only
support a filibuster of judicial nominees under what we
labeled ``extraordinary circumstances,'' and we would
oppose the ``nuclear option,'' an agreement that embodied
the very manifestation of the power of consensus building.
So as this body contemplates changes to its rules in the
next Congress, I would urge all of my colleagues who will
return next year to follow the Gang of 14 template and
exercise a similar level of caution and balance. Because
what makes the Senate unique, what situates this
institution better than any other to secure the continued
greatness of our Nation, is that balance between
accommodation of the minority and primacy of the majority.
Regardless of who is in the minority, any suppression of
the ability to debate and shape legislation is tantamount
to silencing millions of voices and ideas--which are
critical to developing the best possible solutions.
I have mentioned all these examples as illustrations of
the boundless potential of the Senate--and that our
problems are not insurmountable, if we refuse to be
intractable. It is not about what is in the best interests
of a single political party, but what is in the best
interests of our country.
As far back as the fledgling days of our Nation, our
Founding Fathers warned of the dangers of undue allegiance
to political parties--a potential that Alexander Hamilton
and James Madison specifically cited in the Federalist
Papers. Now, one study by three political scientists pegs
Congress at its highest level of polarization since the
end of Reconstruction in 1877. It is true that, in the
intervening years, we have had no duels to settle
disagreements and no canings on the Senate floor as
occurred in the earlier years of the Senate--although
there was a physical brawl on the Senate floor in 1902.
Yet, the fact we are still more polarized now than at any
moment in 140 years speaks volumes.
So instead of focusing on issues as the Senate was
uniquely established to do, we've become more like a
parliamentary system where we simply vote in political
blocs. We have departed and diverged from the Senate's
traditional rules and norms in a manner that is entirely
contradictory to the historical purpose of the Senate and
the role the Founding Fathers intended for the Senate to
play.
The very name of our institution, the Senate, derives
from the Latin root senatus, or council of elders, where
the council of elders represented the qualities of
experience and wisdom and not just some experience and
some wisdom in a deliberative body, but more experience
and more wisdom in the highest deliberative body.
For thousands of years, and for the Greeks and our
Framers alike, the Senate has stood as an assembly where
the lessons of individual experiences were translated by
measured wisdom into stable collective judgments.
Therefore, understanding through patience, appreciation
through tolerance, and consensus through moderation are
all required to reach such judgments and to do the work of
the people. Indeed, I would argue it is only by
recognizing and striving to meet the institutional ideals
of the Senate that we can aspire to fill our obligations
to those we represent.
We all take an oath to support and defend the
Constitution of the United States and to bear true faith
and allegiance to the same. I have always believed this
oath necessarily included a duty to support and defend the
Senate as an institution and the integrity of its
deliberative process. That requires the ability to listen
before judging, to judge before advocating, and to
advocate without polarizing. It also includes a capacity
to differ with one's own party, and even to reach
agreement and compromise with another party when one's own
party is unable to prevail. Such leadership necessarily
requires all Members to recognize their individual duty to
serve the people best by serving our Chamber with the
highest standards of consideration, deliberation, and
explanation.
Former Supreme Court Justice Souter once said, and I am
paraphrasing: All of the Court's hard cases are divisive
because one set of values is truly at odds with another,
and the Constitution gives no simple rule of decision.
For, in truth, we value liberty as well as order, we value
freedom as well as security, and we value fairness as well
as equality.
So in the tough cases judges have a hard job of choosing
not between those things that are good and those that are
evil, but between the many, and often competing, good
things that the Constitution allows. Justice Souter could
have been talking about the work of the Senate and the
often difficult choices we too are required to make. This
observation accepts the intrinsic competition that defines
these difficult choices but resolves to rely on reason,
meaning, and the reputational integrity of the process to
make and explain the ultimate decisions.
Indeed, the Justice concluded his remarks by saying he
knew of ``no other way to make good on the aspirations
that tell us who we are--and who we mean to be--as the
people of the United States.''
We have witnessed the heights the Senate is capable of
reaching when it adheres to its founding precepts. Just
think about how we came together in the aftermath of the
catastrophic events of 9/11 to secure our country and to
help heal our Nation. Just think about the major debates
of the 20th century on such watershed issues as the
establishment of Social Security, Medicare, and the Civil
Rights Act. None of these profound advancements would have
been woven into the fabric of our society today if they
had been passed simply on party-line votes rather than the
solidly bipartisan basis on which each of them was
enacted.
I am not claiming there was some kind of golden age of
bipartisanship where everyone all sang from the same
legislative hymn book, and I am not advocating
bipartisanship as some kind of an end unto itself. That is
not the point. What I am saying is we have seen how
cooperation in the past has resulted in great
achievements, which likely never would have occurred if
bipartisanship had not intervened as a means to attaining
those most worthy ends.
Our grandest accomplishments in the Congress were also a
reflection of the particular compromises and level of
urgency required by the times in which they were forged.
Recently, New York Times columnist David Brooks summarized
this concept well when he wrote that there are policies
that are not permanently right and that:
[S]ituations matter most. Tax cuts might be right one
decade but wrong the next. Tighter regulations might be
right one decade, but if sclerosis sets in then
deregulation might be in order.
As we confront the impending confluence of issues known
as the fiscal cliff, we are at a moment of major
significance that requires the application of the
principle that Brooks describes. For the sake of the
country, we must demonstrate to the American people that
we are, in fact, capable of making the big decisions by
putting in place an agreement and a framework to avoid the
fiscal cliff before we adjourn this year.
We are surrounded by history perpetually in the Senate
as well as throughout the Capitol. How could we not be
inspired by it to rise to this occasion? Indeed, if you
know history, you understand the very story of America's
most formative days was defined by an understanding that
effective governance requires the building of consensus,
and such consensus is achievable even after the exercise
of passionate advocacy, which, in conclusion, brings us
back to the creation of a document we all cherish and
revere; that is, our U.S. Constitution.
Madam President, 225 years ago, 55 leaders from
divergent geographic and philosophical backgrounds
converged on the city of Philadelphia to draft a new
structure of government to strengthen our fledgling
country. These were no shrinking violets. They had risked
their lives and fortunes to establish a new nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.
They were strong willed and unabashedly opinionated.
They disagreed and argued about a great many matters, both
petty and consequential. Thomas Jefferson even considered
Virginia, and not the United States, as his country. Yet
by September of that year, 39 of the original delegates
signed the most enduring and ingenious governing document
the world has ever known, the Constitution of the United
States.
It didn't happen because 55 people who shared identical
viewpoints gathered in a room and rubber-stamped their
unanimous thinking. It happened because these visionaries
determined that the gravity and the enormity of their
common goal necessitated the courage to advance
decisionmaking through consensus.
I worry that we are losing the art of legislating. When
the history of this chapter in the Senate is written, we
don't want it to conclude it was here that it became an
antiquated practice. So as I depart the Senate that I
love, I urge all of my colleagues to follow the Founding
Fathers' blueprint in order to return this institution to
its highest calling of governing through consensus. For it
is only then that the United States can ascend to fulfill
the demands of our time, the promise of our Nation, and
the rightful expectations of the American people.
Thank you, Madam President. May God bless you, and may
God bless the United States of America.
?
TRIBUTES
TO
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE
Proceedings in the Senate
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, many of our colleagues will
be leaving us at the end of this Congress, and I wish to
take time this morning to pay tribute to some of my
colleagues, particularly those with whom I have worked
most closely. Of course, I must start with my colleague
and friend from Maine, Olympia Snowe.
In ancient Sparta, there was a saying that roughly
translates as this: It seems all the world knows what is
the right thing to do, but it is only the Spartans who
will do anything about it.
As my friend, colleague, and senior Senator from Maine,
Olympia Snowe, ends her service in the Senate, I rise to
pay tribute to this descendant of that legendary
civilization. Olympia is a true leader who has always
devoted her considerable intellect, energy, and commitment
to doing what was right for Maine and for America. Olympia
Snowe has dedicated her life to public service: 18 years
in the Senate, preceded by 16 representing Maine's Second
Congressional District, plus 5 in the Maine Legislature
adds up to a remarkable record of commitment to our Nation
and the great State of Maine.
That span of nearly four decades tells us only part of
the story, for Olympia has truly set the gold standard for
public service. From the State house to the U.S. Capitol,
Olympia has built an outstanding reputation as an
informed, thoughtful, and effective legislator. She can
always be counted on as a leader with integrity who
pursued solutions and who had no interest in just scoring
partisan political points. It is Olympia's character that
has made all the difference.
The private acts of public figures can tell us a lot
about their character, so I wish to share with my
colleagues this morning a story about Olympia Snowe that I
witnessed personally. There was a Republican fundraiser
going on one night and I was arriving late, driving up in
a car. People were streaming out of the fundraiser and
each of them was passing by a man who was on crutches,
with only one leg, clearly destitute, clearly down on his
luck, who was asking for money. Everybody but Olympia
Snowe passed him by without a word, as if he were
invisible. Olympia went over to this destitute man on
crutches, with one leg, and she not only handed him some
money but she took the time to talk with him. I think that
tells us so much about who Olympia Snowe is--her kindness
to this individual, when everyone else was passing him by,
her kindness to him when no one was watching, her kindness
to him was a private act that told all of us so much about
her character.
With her retirement from the Senate, Olympia Snowe will
join the pantheon of great leaders our State has produced:
Margaret Chase Smith, Ed Muskie, George Mitchell, and Bill
Cohen. All of them, similar to Olympia, exemplify the
principle that public office is a sacred trust.
Olympia's inspiring record of service is but part of an
even more inspiring life story. Several times, from
childhood on, Olympia has been visited by tragedy that
would have caused most people to become discouraged,
disheartened, and negative. Each time Olympia rose,
transcended her personal tragedy, and was more determined
than before to succeed and to contribute to a better life
for others. Her well-deserved popularity among Maine
people transcends party lines and is testament to her
strength and her spirit.
The people of Maine and America are grateful for her
many years of service. I am grateful for her leadership
and her friendship. I know Olympia Snowe will continue to
influence national policy for many years to come.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Mr. McCONNELL. ... This morning I would like to say a
few words about my friend and longtime colleague, Senator
Snowe.
She has devoted the last 40 years of her life to serving
the people of Maine. It has been an honor to work
alongside this remarkable woman for the last 18 years and
to see up close her tenacity and tough-mindedness in the
service of her constituents. Some have described Senator
Snowe's advocacy for Mainers as ferocious, and I think
there are few better examples of that than the fight she
waged on behalf of Maine after the BRAC recommendations of
2005.
When the list of targeted facilities came out, Senator
Snowe mounted what has been described as a relentless
months-long campaign akin to a defense at a trial. She
marshaled all the data and the best arguments. When
decision day finally arrived, not only were two of the
three Maine facilities told to remain open, one of them
was actually expanded. It is stories such as this that
help explain why Olympia's constituents keep sending her
back to Washington by such wide margins and why so many
were shocked to hear that she would be leaving at the end
of the year.
As one shipyard worker in Portsmouth whose job she
helped save put it: ``We love her, and she loves us. I
can't recall ever saying that publicly about a U.S.
Senator, but truly she's such a wonderful person.''
As Senator Snowe will tell you, many of her political
views solidified during her modest Maine upbringing. Her
parents ran a diner near Augusta. While they didn't have
much, her father was adamant she receive a good education.
So much so that he was dismayed to learn her kindergarten
only lasted half the day. ``He was convinced,'' she once
said, ``that I was getting off on the wrong foot.''
It was at school that Olympia first discovered her
passion for politics. At St. Basil's Academy, a Greek
Orthodox girls' school she attended until she was 15, she
won her first election--as dorm president. She later
graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn, ME,
and subsequently attended the University of Maine where,
in 1969, she earned a degree in political science. It was
also in college that she met Peter Snowe. Peter shared
Olympia's passion for politics. They married shortly after
graduation. In 1972 Peter was elected to the State
legislature, while Olympia went to work as a legislative
staffer for Maine Congressman Bill Cohen.
The young couple seemed well on their way to building a
life together, but in 1973, in the midst of a winter
snowstorm, tragedy struck. Peter was killed in a car
crash, and at a still young age Olympia was left to build
a life for herself.
What could have marked the end of her political
aspirations became a new beginning instead. As Olympia
once put it, she resolved to ``make a positive out of a
terrible negative.'' She ran for office in the special
election held to fill her late husband's seat, and she
won. It was the start of a long and distinguished career
in public service.
Olympia was subsequently reelected to the Maine House in
1974 and elected to the Maine Senate in 1976. In 1978,
when Bill Cohen, her friend and former boss, ran for the
U.S. Senate, she ran for his seat in the House of
Representatives and won again.
At the age of 31, she was at the time the youngest
Republican woman ever elected to Congress and 1 of just 16
women in the House. Olympia served eight terms in the
House. She was a member of the House Budget Committee, the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the former House
Select Committee on Aging. Working with an Arizona lawyer
named Jon Kyl and a Mississippi whip named Trent Lott, she
helped turn minority Republicans into a potent legislative
force, ensuring some of the biggest legislative victories
of the Reagan era.
It was while serving in the House that Olympia met Jock
McKernan, who was a rising political star in his own
right. Elected as Maine's second Congressman in 1982, Jock
served alongside Olympia in the House and was later
elected Governor of Maine. The two were married in 1989,
and they have been a great team since. As Olympia puts it:
``I have a wonderful partner in life. We've been able to
ride the waves together.''
When George Mitchell announced his retirement in 1994,
Olympia threw her hat into the ring and won by a landslide
with 60 percent of the vote against her opponent's 36
percent and carrying every county in the State. Believe it
or not, it was the smallest margin of victory she has
enjoyed in three Senate races. With this victory, Olympia
became the only woman in history to serve in both houses
of her State legislature and both Houses of Congress.
In the Senate, Olympia has worked tirelessly as a member
of the Finance Committee, the Armed Services Committee,
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
the Select Committee on Intelligence, and as chair of the
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
A lot of people like to focus on Olympia's independent
streak, but my experience is that she herself has always
cared most deeply about the people of Maine. She has gone
through great efforts over the years to talk to her
constituents directly. She once said, ``I've made main
street tours across this State a hallmark of my tenure in
public office. They are like my secret poll.''
It is through these tours that Olympia decides which
problems to fix--whether it was storm relief after the
1998 ice storm, the fight I already mentioned to keep
Maine's military facilities open, or reauthorization of
the Northeast Dairy Compact on behalf of Maine's dairy
farmers.
Of course, this isn't to downplay Olympia's penchant for
independence or for joining gangs. Senator Snowe's
maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from
Sparta, which may help explain her fighting spirit. Just
like the Spartan King Leonidas, she has never been afraid
of a fight--even with members of her own party.
She headed the Centrist Coalition with Senator Breaux.
She cochaired the Common Ground Coalition with Senator
Landrieu. In 1999 she was one of five Republicans to vote
to acquit President Clinton of both articles of
impeachment. And in 2005 she joined the bipartisan Gang of
14, which helped defuse an earlier dispute about threats
to change the Senate rules.
Yet what many fail to mention is that despite her
vaunted independence, Olympia has always been a very proud
Republican. She recently said:
We believe as Republicans that the individual is more
important than the State. We believe that the great days
of our past can be a steppingstone to an even greater
future. We believe a job is preferential to a handout and
independence is better than dependence. We believe that
the private sector is more productive than big government
will ever be.
When it comes to a balanced budget--a top priority for
the party--Senator Snowe has been a true leader. She has
been a longtime supporter of a balanced budget amendment.
As far back as 1993, when she was still serving in the
House, she was one of four initial sponsors of the
legislation that would have mandated a balanced budget.
One of her first acts as a Senator was to deliver a speech
before a Senate committee in support of a balanced budget
amendment.
Olympia's many accomplishments have attracted broad
notice outside of Washington. In 2004 Forbes named her
``One of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World,''
rating her even more influential than J.K. Rowling or
Oprah. In 2006 Time named her one of the ``Ten Best
Senators,'' noting that she is ``in the center of every
policy debate in Washington.''
I do not think anything compares with the honor that was
bestowed on Senator Snowe by the townspeople of Bethel,
ME, who, in 1999, created the ``Olympia SnowWoman,'' a
122-foot tall snowman that still ranks as the tallest
snowman--or woman--ever built. It required 13 million
pounds of snow, took more than 1 month to build, wore a
100-foot-long scarf, had 2 entire 27-foot evergreen trees
for arms, and required 16 pairs of skis for eyelashes.
``It's just my luck,'' Senator Snowe said of the
monument, ``I'd have a world record breaking monument
named after me, and it will be gone by summer.''
Olympia, you have had a truly remarkable career. We
thank you for your service to this Chamber and most
especially to the people of the great State of Maine. We
wish you all the best in the next phase of your life and,
as you think of what to put in your memoir, I would only
ask one thing: Please, go easy on us.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I rise during this
morning business hour to speak--particularly during this
time of tension as we are looking at the fiscal cliff--to
really use a few minutes to pay a tribute to two
wonderful, outstanding Senators with whom I have served
and who will be leaving us at the end of this term. They
are wonderful women named Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine
and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, dear friends
across the aisle. Although they were on the other side of
the aisle, there was no great divide between us. We have
known each other for many years.
I would like to say a few words about my very dear
friend, Senator Olympia Snowe. I served with Senator
Olympia Snowe in the U.S. House of Representatives and
then in the U.S. Senate. Wow. What an outstanding Senator
and Congressperson she has been, and I know we will
continue to see Senator Snowe in some type of role in
public service because that is just the kind of person she
is. She is deeply, in her DNA, a public servant.
Senator Snowe has served her State of Maine and our
Nation so well. She is one of our most respected Members
of Congress, known for her civility, her sensibility, and
her mastery of the issues. I might add that she brings
that New England sense of a more frugal government but at
the same time shows that you can do it in a compassionate,
smart way.
I know her as a cherished friend, a dear colleague, and
a crucial partner on so many issues. As I said, we served
in the House and the Senate together. We worked on those
issues I talk about, the macro-issues and the macaroni-
and-cheese issues. We fought for a better economy,
particularly in the area of small business; a safer
country, as we worked on the Intelligence Committee
together; and a more efficient government. Also, we worked
together on many issues pertaining to women. In the area
of small business, she is currently the ranking member on
the Small Business Committee, with our other colleague,
Senator Mary Landrieu. She knows the backbone of Maine's
economy is small business, and she also knows it is the
backbone of the American economy.
I have watched her day in and day out being concerned
about her fishermen who were out there working in the cold
waters off of Georges Bank for lobsters and the small shop
owners on Main Street. From the potato fields and lumber
yards to L.L. Bean, Olympia Snowe has stood for them but
also for the big issues in terms of jobs in the Bath
shipyards.
In national security, we have worked together to look
out for our troops over there and to protect our
communities from predators back here. She has been
steadfast and true. It is a committee that meets often
behind closed doors, but I will tell you, this is a
Senator who continually looks after the safety of the
American people.
One of the areas in which I have worked the closest with
her is the area of women's health. You might be interested
to know that Senator Snowe and I received the Good
Housekeeping Outstanding Achievement Award for what we did
to advance the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer.
Now, when I called my sisters and told them I was getting
a Good Housekeeping award, they thought it was the
funniest thing they had ever heard. When I told them I was
getting it with Olympia Snowe, they knew it had
credibility. I say that because what we did in working
together was in medical research and in clinical trials.
You might be interested to know that when I came to the
Senate, the only other woman Senator was Nancy Kassebaum--
another wonderful person across the aisle. Women were not
included in the protocols at NIH. Can you believe that?
That famous study--take an aspirin a day, keep a heart
attack away--was done with 10,000 male medical students.
Not one woman was there. They regarded including women in
research as presenting deviant results. We were known as
the deviant results. Well, Pat Schroeder; Olympia Snowe;
another Republican Congresswoman, Connie Morella from
Maryland--we said this couldn't continue. So we organized
across the dome, across the aisle, and we went across the
beltway to NIH. We pulled up and we demanded answers,
scientific answers, on why we weren't included.
The day we pulled up in our cars on a bipartisan basis,
George Bush the elder appointed Bernadine Healey to head
NIH. Then, again working together across the aisle and
across the dome, working with Senators Kennedy and Harkin,
we established the Office of Research on Women's Health at
NIH. The famous hormonal replacement therapy study was
done. It resulted in massive change in the way doctors
treated women, and it has reduced breast cancer rates 15
percent.
So I say to all, when you ask, what did Olympia Snowe
do, she would say: ``I worked on a bipartisan basis.'' And
because of what she did, we did, we all did working
together, men and women, House and Senate, we have saved
the lives of women 1 million at a time. I think that is a
terrific accomplishment. No matter what Senator Snowe
does, she can cherish in her heart that she did that.
While we were busy doing the big picture, she helped me
with an individual picture. We went to the refugee camps
of Cambodia together, along with the Congresswomen. It was
when the killing fields were at that time the highest. We
saw the horrible consequences of war. We worked together
to feed and care for the children.
I met a young girl in a refugee camp, in the Catholic
Relief feeding camp. Working with Senator Snowe, we
brought that little girl to the United States of America.
She is alive here today, married and living as an American
citizen.
So what did Olympia Snowe do? She saved jobs and she
saved lives. I am proud to work with her, and we are going
to miss her. ...
I am pretty emotional, actually, when I think about
Olympia and Kay. We have been together a long time. We
welcome the Acting President pro tempore and your
generation, but for those of us who maybe didn't build the
Pyramids--and I hope Senator Hutchison can say the same--
there is a lot of meaning in a Latin phrase I learned in
Catholic girls school many years ago: Exegi monumentum
aere perennius: We will build a monument more lasting than
bronze.
When Senator Hutchison returns to Texas again to find a
new way to serve the people of this country, she will know
that here in this institution, along with Senator Olympia
Snowe, they built monuments to last far longer than any
statues made of bronze. They made a difference in the
lives of people, and they have done it in a way they can
be proud of and for which we can all be grateful.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, for those of us in the
Chamber, and those of us listening, that [Ms. Snowe's
farewell speech] was one of those beautifully crafted and
beautifully deliberated and eloquent statements not only
about a Member's service as a Member of the U.S. Senate,
but a vision of the world we created and what we can be
again. It is so appropriate for the parting words of the
Senator, who is truly among the great who has served here.
I have had the great pleasure of working with the
Senator from Maine. As she very graciously pointed out, we
served together on the Small Business Committee. We were
the first of two women to chair a major committee for an
entire Congress.
There are Members here--Senator Mikulski and others--who
served for many years with Senator Snowe. For the minute
that I have before others speak, I just wanted to say that
she has served for over 34 years in public office. Her
integrity is beyond reproach. She served with intelligence
and grace that is widely admired, not just on Capitol Hill
and in her home State of Maine, but broadly throughout the
United States and the world. Her capacity for hard work
and tedious negotiations on important matters is inspiring
to us all. She has been a clear and clarion voice for
women and girls in Maine, the United States, and around
the world, for their legal rights, their economic
advancement, and their social advancement.
Above all, as we just heard, she has been a clarion call
for common sense and common ground. She was literally
involved in every major effort in the last 30 years to
find common sense and common ground in a place that is
getting harder and harder to find those two qualities
every day. So it is with a deep sense of regret that I,
for one, am going to have to say goodbye to her as a
colleague and a Member of the Senate.
I want her to know that I will continue--and I know many
of my colleagues feel this way--to work as closely with
her in any capacity of her choice to continue to be a
great voice for compassion, compromise, and common sense.
The people of Maine are losing a great Senator. The
United States is losing a unique talent that has served
this country and this institution so magnificently. We
wish her the best, and we say a respectful goodbye.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, yesterday I had the honor
of addressing the full Senate to pay a more amplified
tribute to the gentlelady from Maine. I will miss her
dearly and deeply. We have served both in the House and
the Senate together. We have done real good things,
including one of our finest bipartisan efforts in the area
of women's health in getting women included in the
protocols appropriately, the scientific way at NIH when we
were excluded. We helped to advance the whole issue of
more money for research for breast cancer and other
diseases that are generally specific to women.
I will never forget the day when Good Housekeeping
called and said that Senator Snowe and I were going to get
an award. I immediately called my family and told my
sisters that I had won the Good Housekeeping Award. Well,
they thought that was hilarious. I have many awards for
speaking, longest serving, but not Good Housekeeping. When
I told them I was getting the award with Senator Snowe,
they knew it had integrity, credibility, and was well
deserved.
So I just want to, from the bottom of my heart, thank
the people of Maine, who will express their gratitude for
her service. She has a duty-driven approach, an uncommon
sense to get the job done in a way that is inclusive and
has benefited our entire country whether they be small
business or the little people whose voices are never
heard.
So we wish her God bless, Godspeed, and we hope to see
her speaking out exactly on what she did today, a call
toward citizenship and more bipartisanship and less
partisanship.
God bless you, Senator Snowe.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I also pay tribute to my
friend and colleague, Senator Olympia Snowe, who is
retiring from the Senate after 18 years of exemplary
service representing the people of Maine.
Though thousands of miles apart, Maine and North Dakota
face similar challenges. In particular, we share very
similar climates. Our States' residents must endure long
winters, and, for the most vulnerable, keeping their homes
warm is sometimes a challenge. Senator Snowe has always
understood how difficult it can be for some families to
pay their utility bills and keep their heat on through
harsh winters and has been a tireless supporter of the Low
Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides
struggling families in our States with the certainty of a
warm home.
Senator Snowe's constant attention to constituent
concerns have made her one of the most popular Senators in
the Nation, and her dedication to her State and country
has not gone unrecognized. Throughout her 37 years of
public service, Senator Snowe has earned many honors and
distinctions. In 2005, Forbes rated her as the 54th most
powerful woman in the world. Later, in 2006, Time magazine
recognized her as one of America's Best Senators. She was
also recognized as one of eight female politicians that
could run and be elected President of the United States.
Senator Snowe is a true statesman and public servant,
never hesitating to put people over politics and fiercely
representing the values and needs of her constituents.
Throughout all her years of service, her steady resolve,
moderate voice, and willingness to work across the aisle
have been a force in Washington. It has truly been an
honor working with her to find practical solutions to our
Nation's most pressing issues. In a time of partisan
excess, Senator Snowe's ability to reach compromises with
Members on both sides of the aisle was extremely valuable
to this venerable institution. She will be sorely missed.
I thank Senator Snowe for her service to her country in
the U.S. Senate and wish her the very best in the future.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor now to
bid farewell to one of the Senate's most respected
Members, Senator Olympia Snowe from the great State of
Maine. She chose to retire this year after a distinguished
career in public service spanning nearly four decades,
first in the Maine Legislature, 6 years in the U.S. House,
and the last 18 years here in the U.S. Senate.
Throughout this remarkable career, she has been
respected for her independence, always putting her values
and country ahead of party and partisanship. She can, of
course, be a very persuasive advocate for the conservative
causes she holds dear, but, as we all know and appreciate,
she is willing to buck party loyalty when she believes it
is in error or when she believes in what is better for our
country. Our future depends on bipartisanship. I cite, for
example, when she voted in favor of the Recovery Act and
the Dodd-Frank reform of Wall Street.
I especially admire Senator Snowe's talent for reaching
across the aisle and building bridges in order to get
things done. On that score, she has represented the United
States and her State of Maine at her very best, and that
is just one of the many reasons why we are sad that she
has chosen, voluntarily, to retire.
Olympia Snowe has been a wonderful colleague and friend,
always congenial, always willing to listen, always willing
to examine different sides of an issue. What more could we
ask of any U.S. Senator? We have been fortunate to have
had a Senator of her high caliber, intelligence, and
character in this body for the last 18 years. I join with
the entire Senate family in wishing her and John the very
best in the years ahead.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Mr. REED. Madam President, at this time I wish to take a
few minutes to salute my colleagues who are retiring at
the end of this year with the conclusion of the 112th
Congress: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New
Mexico, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Kent Conrad of North
Dakota, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Kay Bailey Hutchison
of Texas, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Jon Kyl of Arizona,
Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Richard Lugar of Indiana,
Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Jim
Webb of Virginia. They have all worked ceaselessly to give
their constituents the best representation and give the
country the benefit of their views, their wisdom, and
their experience. They are men and women who are committed
to the Nation, and they have every day in different ways
contributed to this Senate and to our great country.
I wish to thank them personally for their service, and,
in so many cases, their personal kindness to me; for
listening to my points and for, together, hopefully,
serving this Senate and this Nation in a more positive and
progressive way.
In particular, let me say a few words about some of the
Members with whom I have had the privilege to work more
closely. ...
I have also had the privilege to work closely with
another Member of this body, my colleague and friend,
Olympia Snowe of Maine. Her willingness to reach across
the partisan divide to advance legislation to benefit the
Nation and the Senate and her State of Maine is, in my
view, legendary. I was pleased to work with her when it
came to supporting our fishermen and lobstermen, who are
critical to our local economies. She and I have worked
closely together on a host of other issues, including
supporting strong investments in LIHEAP and our Nation's
libraries. ...
I could go on with all of my colleagues, just thanking
them for their friendship, for their camaraderie, and for
their commitment to the Nation and the Senate. As they
depart, they have left an extraordinary legacy. Now it is
our responsibility to carry on in so many different ways,
and I hope we measure up to what they have done. If we do,
then we can go forward confidently.
With that, I yield the floor.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, it is an unfortunate reality
that the number of people in Washington working for
bipartisan solutions is significantly smaller than the
number of people claiming to do so or proclaiming the need
to do so. Nearly everyone seeks the ``bipartisan'' label;
fewer wear it comfortably or practice bipartisanship
regularly.
That is one reason I am sad to see Olympia Snowe leave
the Senate. Over three terms, Senator Snowe has
represented the people of Maine with intelligence and,
yes, moderation. Here's how Time magazine put it in 2006,
in naming Senator Snowe one of the Nation's 10 Best
Senators: ``Because of her centrist views and eagerness to
get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican
Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in
Washington.'' I've been lucky to observe her work in those
debates.
Start with her work on the Senate Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Committee, where she has served both as
chairman and ranking member. As a member of the committee,
I have appreciated her dedicated advocacy for small
business. She has worked hard to support SBA's Microloan
Program and programs for women-owned businesses. She has
helped improve SBA's trade and export finance programs;
elevated the SBA's Office of International Trade and added
export finance specialists to the SBA's trade and
counseling programs; and established the State Export
Promotion Grant Program, designed to increase the number
of small businesses that export goods and services.
Senator Snowe also has been an enthusiastic supporter of
our Nation's manufacturers. As a former cochair of the
Senate Task Force on Manufacturing, she has worked to
strengthen programs such as the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, which helps American manufacturers research
and develop new technologies, increase efficiency, improve
supply chains and out-innovate our overseas competitors.
American workers from Maine to Michigan and beyond are
better off for her support of this vital sector of the
American economy.
Beyond manufacturing, our States are linked in another
way: the historical lighthouses that dot our shores. I was
pleased that Senator Snowe joined me in offering the
National Lighthouse Stewardship Act, which would help
local governments or nonprofit groups preserve these
prized structures for the appreciation of generations to
follow.
I was also fortunate to serve with her on the Armed
Services Committee, where she served as chair of the
Seapower Subcommittee. She was a strong advocate for the
men and women of the Navy and Marine Corps, and worked
diligently to ensure that the Department of the Navy had
the people and hardware the Navy needs to defend our
Nation's interests.
On these and other issues, Senator Snowe has worked
across party lines for the good of her constituents and
our Nation. I can think of no issue that better
demonstrates her ability to reach beyond partisan interest
than one of the most controversial issues of our time
together here: the Iraq war.
I worked with Senator Snowe and a bipartisan group of
Senators who believed the status quo in Iraq was no longer
acceptable and who worked together to chart a new course.
We joined together to advance our collective view that
the primary purpose of U.S. strategy in Iraq should be to
pressure the Iraqi political leadership to make the
compromises necessary to end the violence in Iraq while
accelerating the training of Iraqi troops to take
responsibility for their own security.
We made clear that the open-ended commitment of U.S.
forces to Iraq was over, thereby undermining the Al Qaeda
narrative that we were there as occupiers and signaling to
the people and Government of Iraq that the time for
political reconciliation had come.
As Senator Snowe rightly pointed out at the time:
The Iraqi Government needs to understand that our
commitment is not infinite. Americans are losing patience
with the failure of the leadership in Baghdad to end the
sectarian violence and move toward national
reconciliation.
She continued:
It is imperative that Congress understands the
importance of placing the future of Iraq's independence in
the hands of those who should want it most--the Iraqi
people and their government.
As members of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, Senator Snowe and I also worked as part of
the committee's effort to investigate the misuse of pre-
war Iraq intelligence by policymakers.
Senator Snowe's support for the investigation and its
findings, in the face of strong criticism from some in her
own party, was important to bring transparency to the
decision to go to war in Iraq and will help to ensure the
American public is not similarly misled in the future.
Senator Snowe recently took another principled stand, in
what will likely be her last vote as a member of the
Intelligence Committee, when she was the only Republican
member to vote to adopt the committee's report on the
CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. That report
definitively shows that torture is not effective in
eliciting intelligence and will hopefully significantly
influence how our Nation deals with the detention and
interrogation of those we capture in the future.
Olympia Snowe's service has been of enormous benefit to
the people of her State. She is rightly respected in this
Chamber, and around this country, as a leader who has not
just talked a good game when it comes to bipartisanship,
but has followed words with action, often at the cost of
no little political discomfort for her. To the very end of
her tenure here, she has fought, as she put it just last
week on this, ``to return this institution to its highest
calling of governing through consensus.''
I want to thank her for the many ways in which she has
supported programs important to Michigan, and for the
thoughtful approach she has brought to the many challenges
we have faced together. As she returns to Maine, I wish
Olympia and Jock every success in whatever endeavors may
come. And I hope we can take to heart Senator Snowe's wise
words as we seek to answer the challenges before us.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, it has long been a Senate
tradition to take a moment as the current session of
Congress draws to a close to express our appreciation and
acknowledge the many contributions each retiring Senator
has made to our legislative deliberations both on the
floor and in committee. We will miss them when the gavel
brings to a close the 112th Congress--especially Senators
like Olympia Snowe who have made an important difference
during their service.
With Olympia's retirement Maine has lost a very powerful
and effective legislator and our Nation's small business
community has lost the support of a great champion.
Throughout her service in the Senate Olympia has shown her
great understanding of our economy and her commitment to
keeping our small businesses strong and vibrant. She knows
that our small businesses are truly the backbone of our
economies--on the local, State, and national level and
everything we can do to keep them going strong will have
the greatest impact on our efforts to keep our American
dream alive and available to the people of our great
Nation.
Olympia has very strong roots in Maine, and she has an
in-depth understanding of the priorities of the people of
her home State and what they expect her to work on here in
Washington. That is why she has a well-deserved reputation
for being a thoughtful and careful legislator, one who
looks closely at all the details of a bill before making
her decision, based on its merits.
I don't think I've ever met a Senator who was a more
avid reader than Olympia. Whenever the Senate takes up an
issue, she is always looking for more materials to read
that will help her develop creative and innovative
solutions to our Nation's problems.
Then, when the matter comes up for our review in
committee or on the floor, she has at the ready several
articles that will drive home and anchor the point she is
making. No one is better at researching an issue than
Olympia and then, when the matter is up for debate, making
it clear what she believes to be the best way to tackle
the problem. No matter the topic, it's always a plus to
have her on your side.
In the years to come, I will always remember Olympia's
dedication and firm resolve to get things done. As we
worked together on several issues, it was clear she had a
wealth of knowledge about how each provision of a bill
would play out. She brought some very good ideas to the
process and her input helped to make each bill better.
Olympia had always been known as a powerful and
effective speaker. Someone with the ability to not only
present her position with clarity and precision, but who
could also persuade others to her point of view with her
commonsense approach to problem solving. Those skills and
so many more helped her to make a difference throughout
her home State of Maine during her career in public
service. In the end, that is why she was so successful in
the politics of her home State. The people of Maine know
Olympia and they appreciate her efforts on their behalf.
Over the years Olympia has compiled a record of success of
which she can truly be proud.
I know I join with the people of Maine in telling
Olympia how much we appreciate her willingness to serve.
She could have followed so many different career paths,
but she was determined to make Maine a better place for
our children and our grandchildren. Thanks, too, for her
friendship and her support on the issues on which we
worked together. Olympia is an individual of great
strength and firm convictions and will be missed in the
months to come.
I don't know what the Senator has planned for the next
great adventure in her life, but whatever it is I am
certain we haven't heard the last from her. We will always
be pleased to hear her thoughts about the issues we have
before us here in the Senate.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in today's U.S. Senate,
moderates are few. At the end of this Congress, we will
lose another: Senator Olympia Snowe, who has served the
State of Maine in the U.S. Senate for nearly two decades.
She has spent nearly her entire adult life in public
service, and the people of Maine have revered her
dedication to her home State and to civic engagement.
Just the 23d woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, Senator
Snowe has risen through the ranks in her tenure in this
body, most recently serving as the top Republican on the
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. There she
has focused on promoting women in small business. She was
instrumental in establishing Women's Business Centers
through the Small Business Administration, a network of
nearly 100 centers designed to level the playing field for
women looking to start a small business. Most recently,
she has worked to advance legislation to establish a task
force specifically devoted to women entrepreneurs.
Senator Snowe has been a great friend to the environment
as well. She has worked closely with me to protect our
national forests and environment. She has partnered with
me to strengthen the Forest Legacy Program--important to
both Vermont and Maine--as well as the Land and Water
Conservation Fund. She has been a stalwart advocate for
the Community Development Block Grant Program, and for
years, she and I teamed together to protect this important
community development program. Senator Snowe has been a
strong supporter of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program, LIHEAP. The shared challenges of our States--
rural, New England States--have given us many reasons to
work together, and our partnership in these issues is one
that I will miss.
Notably, Senator Snowe, at a time when so many simply
tow the party line, never feared voting her conscience
over her political affiliation. Her support for the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which spurred
development amid the worst economic crisis since the Great
Depression, was instrumental in funneling necessary
resources to the States. She supported advancing
comprehensive health care reform legislation to the Senate
floor, so the Senate as a whole could debate the issue.
And she has stood up for women in important health care
choices.
When Senator Snowe announced earlier this year that she
intended to retire, she lamented the partisan shift she
has seen in Congress. During her long career in public
service, Senator Snowe put her State and the Nation first.
It's a lesson we can all follow. I wish Olympia the best
in her retirement and I will truly miss serving with her.
Her farewell speech to the Senate should be required
reading in every high school and college civics and
government class.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I would like to pay tribute
to the Senators who will not be returning when the 113th
Congress commences next month. I have already spoken about
Senator Kyl and about Senator Inouye, one of the truly
great Americans and giants of this institution. At the
time of his death, Senator Inouye was just a few weeks
short of celebrating 50 years of Senate service. Only
Senator Byrd served in this institution longer.
Turnover is a natural occurrence, but it's important to
acknowledge that the Senators who are departing have
served in the Senate for a combined total of 237 years, or
nearly 20 years per Senator, on average. Add Senator
Inouye, and the total is close to 300 years. That service
represents an enormous amount of expertise on issues
ranging from national defense and foreign affairs to the
Federal budget to energy policy. The departing Senators
will also take with them vast institutional knowledge and
bipartisan friendships and working relationships that will
leave a void we will need to fill. ...
Mr. President, few people have faced the personal
adversity Senator Olympia Snowe has overcome on her way to
becoming the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives; the first woman to have
served in both houses of a State legislature and both
Houses of the U.S. Congress, and the first Greek-American
Congresswoman. Senator Snowe, a first-generation American,
was orphaned at a young age and then her uncle, who was
raising her with his family, died a few years later. Her
first husband was killed in a car accident when she was
just 26 and, later, her 20-year-old stepson died from a
heart ailment. And yet, Senator Snowe didn't just
persevere. She ran for her late husband's seat in the
Maine House of Representatives at the age of 26 and won.
She was reelected to the State house in 1974 and, in 1976,
won election to the Maine Senate. She was elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, and represented
Maine's Second Congressional District from 1979 to 1995.
Senator Snowe successfully ran for the seat vacated by
former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell in 1994,
winning 60 percent of the vote. She was reelected in 2000
and 2006, winning 69 percent and 74 percent of the vote,
respectively. In nearly 40 years of holding elective
office, Senator Snowe has never lost an election.
During her time in office, Senator Snowe has been a
quintessential Yankee Republican, putting her constituents
and the Nation ahead of political party. While she served
in the House, she was a member of the moderate wing of the
Republican Party known as Gypsy Moths, working with
southern Democrats known as Boll Weevils to forge
bipartisan budgets. Here in the Senate, she was a member
of the Gang of 14. Prior to that, during the Senate's 1999
impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, she
worked with her Maine colleague, Senator Susan Collins, to
find a middle ground approach, drafting a motion that
would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the
charges, and the remedy a ``finding of fact'' resolution.
When the motion failed, Senator Snowe and Senator Collins
demonstrated the courage of their convictions by voting to
acquit the President on the grounds that his actions
didn't warrant his removal from office.
During consideration of the 2001 tax cuts, Senator Snowe
worked with former Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat
from Arkansas, to increase the amount of the child tax
credit and make it refundable, so that low-income families
who don't earn enough to pay Federal taxes could still
benefit from the credit, ensuring that it would assist an
additional 13 million more children and lift 500,000 of
those children out of poverty. But 2 years later, she
joined Senators Lincoln Chafee and John McCain as the only
Republicans to oppose the 2003 tax cuts. Pragmatism, not
fealty to a rigid political ideology, has been her guiding
principle.
Senator Snowe was one of eight Republican Senators to
vote to repeal the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy.
Although she represents a largely rural, pro-hunting
State, she has supported sensible gun control measures.
She teamed with our former colleague, Senator Ted Kennedy,
to coauthor the landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination Act,
which prevents insurance companies and employers from
denying or dropping coverage based on genetic tests. I
have been proud to work with Senator Snowe on a number of
small business initiatives, including our legislation to
increase the cap on surety bonds.
Senator Snowe has stated repeatedly that she inherited a
legacy of bipartisanship and independence from former
Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who delivered her
seminal ``Declaration of Conscience'' speech against the
bullying tactics, smear campaigns, and intimidation of
former Senator Joe McCarthy. As Senator Snowe remarked in
her farewell speech the other day, Senator Smith's stand
demonstrated truly uncommon courage and principled
independence. Senator Snowe has been a worthy heir and
guardian of Senator Smith's legacy. We will miss her
common sense, her pragmatic approach to governing, and her
ability to promote bipartisan consensus. ...
Mr. President, these men and women who will be leaving
the Senate soon have made extraordinary sacrifices to
serve our Nation. We are fortunate that they have chosen
to spend significant parts of their lives in public
service. All Americans owe them a debt of gratitude. Those
of us who will be in the Senate next month when the 113th
Congress convenes can best honor the legacy of our
departing colleagues by reaching across the aisle as they
have done so many times to forge bipartisan consensus and
solutions to our Nation's most vexing problems. The men
and women who will be leaving the Senate at the end of
this Congress understand that compromise isn't a dirty
word; it is the genius at the heart of our political
system. We will miss them.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to recognize my
colleague and friend, Senator Olympia Snowe, as she plans
to retire from the U.S. Senate. Her nearly four-decade
career in Congress has been one of distinction and
unwavering public service to Maine and the United States.
Senator Snowe's achievements are numerous. In 1978 she
became the youngest Republican and first Greek-American
woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1994 when she was first elected to the U.S. Senate, she
became the fourth woman to serve in both Houses of
Congress. She also has the distinction of being the first
Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the Senate
Finance Committee. In total, she has won more Federal
elections in Maine than any other person since World War
II--a testament to how loved she is by her constituency.
Senator Snowe has worked extensively on a number of
issues, including budget and fiscal responsibility,
veterans, education, national security, welfare reform,
oceans and fisheries issues, and campaign finance reform.
It has been my pleasure to work with Senator Snowe on the
Senate Oceans Caucus, where together we have stressed the
importance of ocean policy and the crucial role our oceans
play in all aspects of life in our respective States and
across America.
I also appreciate Senator Snowe's leadership on the
Small Business Committee, where she has been a strong
advocate for small businesses in Maine and across the
country.
I know that I speak for all the female Senators in the
U.S. Senate when I say it is sad to see such a well-
respected female colleague retire. Senator Snowe deserves
the highest accolades for her service to this Nation. This
is a woman who has done remarkably well by the American
people, by her constituents in Maine, and by her
colleagues in the U.S. Senate.
I personally admire her efforts to always work in a
bipartisan manner. Her moderation and willingness to
listen to all sides of an issue are examples for us all. I
am encouraged that she intends to continue her efforts to
advance good public policy by working to help elect those
who are unafraid to stand in the middle and work to build
consensus.
On behalf of the U.S. Senate, I thank Senator Snowe for
her dedication to her country, and I congratulate her on
her retirement. I also want to recognize her husband Jock,
who has also been an amazing public servant.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I wish to recognize my
colleague Olympia Snowe for her many years of
distinguished service and leadership on behalf of our
country and the great State of Maine.
Olympia has long been a friend and mentor to me. In
fact, she was assigned to be my official Republican mentor
in the Senate, and she has been a great one.
That was almost 6 years ago. So much has happened in
that time, but throughout it all I have continued to be
impressed with Olympia's grace, composure, and unfailing
ability to find commonsense solutions. Time and again, she
has reached across the aisle to put politics aside and get
things done for the good of her State and the country.
In addition to being a voice for bipartisanship, Olympia
has earned a reputation as one of the Senate's most
masterful policymakers. I've seen this first hand, while
working with her on a number of different issues over the
years. Olympia cosponsored my very first major bill in the
Senate, ``Carbon Counter'' legislation to reduce carbon
emissions and combat global climate change.
I also had the pleasure of working with her to create an
airline passengers bill of rights, which was included in
the 2011 FAA reauthorization bill and has led to a
significant decrease in tarmac delays. We joined forces
again this year, on legislation aimed at addressing sexual
assault in our military by improving the process for
tracking and reviewing claims.
Working with Olympia these last 6 years has been an
incredible privilege for me. I've respected her as a
policymaker, particularly for her work on national
security and small business issues. I've admired her for
her outspoken leadership and commonsense approach to
legislating. And maybe most important, I've genuinely
enjoyed her as a friend and a colleague--for her kindness,
her wisdom, and her unfailing good nature.
Olympia has been a truly outstanding voice for the State
of Maine and a great leader for the people of this
country. To say that she will be missed would be a
tremendous understatement, but I know she will continue to
find ways to improve our great country and give back to
the State she loves so much. Thank you, Senator Snowe. I
wish you the best.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute
to my colleagues, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and
Olympia Snowe.
We have served together in the Senate for two decades
and I will dearly miss their grace and their friendship. I
know that whatever the next chapter brings, both Senator
Hutchison and Senator Snowe will leave a lasting and
important legacy.
Both of these Senators are true pioneers. When she first
entered Congress, Senator Snowe was the youngest
Republican woman ever to serve in the House of
Representatives. Senator Hutchison graduated law school in
1967 as one of only 5 women in a class of 445 men. When
she arrived in the Senate in 1993, she became the first
woman to represent Texas in this Chamber.
Throughout her career, Senator Snowe has been a strong
advocate for the people of Maine. Whether they were
children, families, consumers, or small business owners--
the people of Maine knew they had a great champion in
Senator Snowe.
Senator Snowe always worked across party lines to get
things done for the American people. During her time in
the House, she worked with Senator Mikulski to lead the
fight to end the exclusion of women in health trials at
the National Institutes of Health. She worked with Senator
Rockefeller to help bring the Internet to America's
libraries and classrooms. She worked with Senator Ted
Kennedy to pass the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act.
Senator Snowe and I worked together on many bills over
the years, but I will especially remember our work on the
passengers' bill of rights to provide basic protections
for airline passengers. I will also remember the many
times we fought together to ensure equality for women
around the world.
Senator Snowe was a true leader and her presence in the
Senate will be greatly missed. ...
I will miss my colleagues, both on the Senate floor and
at our monthly women Senators dinners.
I wish them both well in all their future endeavors.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
ORDER FOR PRINTING OF TRIBUTES
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 the
retiring Members of the 112th Congress.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.