[Senate Document 113-30]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
                     TRIBUTES TO HON. TOM HARKIN


                                           

                               Tom Harkin

                         U.S. SENATOR FROM IOWA

                                TRIBUTES

                           IN THE CONGRESS OF

                           THE UNITED STATES

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                                             S. Doc. 113-30


                                      Tributes
                                Delivered in Congress

                                     Tom Harkin

                              United States Congressman

                                      1975-1985

                                United States Senator

                                      1985-2015

  
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                         U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 

                               WASHINGTON : 2015 







                            Compiled under the direction

                                       of the

                             Joint Committee on Printing
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
                                      CONTENTS
             Biography.............................................
                                                                      v
             Farewell Address......................................
                                                                     ix
             Proceedings in the Senate:
                Tributes by Senators:
                    Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee.................
                                                                     21
                    Bennet, Michael F., of Colorado................
                                                                     16
                    Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
                                                                     40
                    Brown, Sherrod, of Ohio........................
                                                                     26
                    Carper, Thomas R., of Delaware.................
                                                                     28
                    Casey, Robert P., Jr., of Pennsylvania.........
                                                                     35
                    Coons, Christopher A., of Delaware.............
                                                                     14
                    Durbin, Richard J., of Illinois................
                                                                 12, 30
                    Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
                                                                     14
                    Franken, Al, of Minnesota......................
                                                                     22
                    Grassley, Chuck, of Iowa 
                     ...............................................
                     ..........
                                                               3, 8, 17
                    Harkin, Tom, of Iowa...........................
                                                                  5, 19
                    Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
                                                                 33, 37
                    Hirono, Mazie K., of Hawaii....................
                                                                     38
                    Inhofe, James M., of Oklahoma..................
                                                                     34
                    Klobuchar, Amy, of Minnesota...................
                                                                     23
                    Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont..................
                                                                     36
                    Levin, Carl, of Michigan.......................
                                                                     17
                    Merkley, Jeff, of Oregon.......................
                                                                     27
                    Murphy, Christopher, of Connecticut............
                                                                 14, 25
                    Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
                                                                     11
                    Reid, Harry, of Nevada.........................
                                                                      8
                    Sanders, Bernard, of Vermont...................
                                                                     31
                    Shaheen, Jeanne, of New Hampshire..............
                                                                     37
                    Stabenow, Debbie, of Michigan..................
                                                                     18
                                      BIOGRAPHY

                                 A Modest Beginning
               Tom Harkin was born in Cumming, IA (population 150) on 
             November 19, 1939, the son of an Iowa coal miner father 
             and a Slovenian immigrant mother. To this day, he still 
             lives in the house in Cumming where he was born.
               Growing up in a close-knit family of modest means, Tom 
             and his five siblings learned early in life the importance 
             of hard work and responsibility. During his youth, he 
             worked in a variety of jobs--on farms and construction 
             sites, as a paperboy and at a Des Moines bottling plant.
               After graduating from Dowling High School in Des Moines, 
             he attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC 
             scholarship, earning a degree in government and economics.
               Following graduation, Tom served in the Navy as a jet 
             pilot on active duty from 1962 to 1967. Later, he 
             continued to fly in the Naval Reserves. He is an active 
             member of American Legion Post 562 in Cumming and the 
             Commander of the Congressional Squadron of the Civil Air 
             Patrol.
               In 1968, Tom married Ruth Raduenz, the daughter of a 
             farmer and a school teacher from Minnesota. Tom and Ruth 
             have two daughters, Amy and Jenny, and three 
             grandchildren.
                                 Start in Washington
               Tom went to Washington in 1969 to join the staff of Iowa 
             Congressman Neal Smith. As a staff member accompanying a 
             congressional delegation to South Vietnam, he 
             independently investigated and photographed the infamous 
             ``tiger cage'' cells at a secret prison on Con Son Island, 
             where prisoners--many of them students--were being 
             tortured and kept in inhumane conditions. Despite pressure 
             to suppress his findings, Tom made public his photos and 
             eyewitness accounts, which were subsequently published in 
             Life magazine. As a result, hundreds of abused prisoners 
             were released.
               In 1972, Tom and Ruth graduated in the same class at 
             Catholic University of America Law School in Washington, 
             DC. They returned to Iowa and settled in Ames. Tom worked 
             with Polk County Legal Aid, assisting low-income Iowans 
             who could not afford legal help. Ruth won election as 
             Story County Attorney, becoming the first female elected 
             to this position.
               In 1974, Tom was elected to Congress from Iowa's Fifth 
             Congressional District. His energetic, person-to-person 
             campaign carried the day against an incumbent in a long-
             standing Republican district.
               In 1984, after serving 10 years in the U.S. House of 
             Representatives, Tom challenged an incumbent Senator and 
             won. Iowans returned him to the Senate in 1990, 1996, and 
             again in 2002. In November 2008, Tom made history by 
             becoming the first Iowa Democrat to win a fifth term in 
             the U.S. Senate.
               During his first term in Congress, Tom became the first 
             Member to create a mobile office, a specially equipped van 
             that Harkin staff members used to bring congressional 
             services to every one of Iowa's 99 counties each year.
                             A Commitment to the Issues
               As a young Senator, Tom was tapped by Senator Ted 
             Kennedy to craft legislation to protect the civil rights 
             of millions of Americans with physical and mental 
             disabilities. Tom knew first hand about the challenges 
             facing people with disabilities from his late brother, 
             Frank, who was deaf from an early age. What emerged from 
             that process would later become Tom's signature 
             legislative achievement--the Americans with Disabilities 
             Act (ADA).
               The ADA has become known as the ``Emancipation 
             Proclamation for people with disabilities.'' The 
             legislation changed the landscape of America by requiring 
             buildings and transportation to be wheelchair accessible, 
             and to provide workplace accommodations for people with 
             disabilities. To preserve the intent of the ADA after 
             several court rulings weakened the law, Tom and Senator 
             Orrin Hatch introduced the ADA amendments bill to ensure 
             continuing protections from discrimination for all 
             Americans with disabilities. It was signed into law in 
             September 2008.
               Tom also worked to advance collaborative research in 
             paralysis and to improve quality of life for those living 
             with paralysis, including by creating a clinical trials 
             network to measure the effectiveness of rehabilitation 
             therapies. His Christopher and Dana Reeve Act, named after 
             the actor and his wife, became law in March 2009.
               Tom also led the fight to lift former President Bush's 
             restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows 
             great promise for new treatments of conditions like 
             Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, and juvenile diabetes. 
             On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama signed an 
             executive order lifting those restrictions.
               Tom has long believed that in America we have a ``sick 
             care'' system, not a health care system. Rather than 
             treating people once they get sick, he believes that we 
             should remove the barriers to a healthy lifestyle, reduce 
             chronic disease and rein in the high cost of health care, 
             creating a ``wellness society'' in America.
               He did this in two ways--first as chairman of the Senate 
             panel that funds medical research, he led the effort 
             between 1998 and 2003 (in tandem with Senator Arlen 
             Specter) to double funding for research by the National 
             Institutes of Health into cardiovascular disease, cancer, 
             Alzheimer's, and other diseases.
               Tom helped to lead passage of the most significant 
             health reform bill in the last 40 years, the Affordable 
             Care Act, and authored the law's many prevention 
             provisions. The ACA expanded insurance coverage for 
             millions of Americans and made prevention and wellness a 
             national priority. Among its many improvements, the ACA 
             ensures that all Americans enjoy full coverage for proven 
             preventive services such as immunizations and cancer 
             screenings with no copayments or deductibles. Less than 4 
             years after the ACA's passage, more than 105 million 
             Americans have already received needed preventative 
             benefits without cost sharing thanks to this landmark 
             change.
               As the chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee 
             that funds education, Tom fought to improve education in 
             Iowa and across the country. He worked to reduce class 
             size, give students better computer and Internet access, 
             expand school counseling and safety programs, and improve 
             teacher training. He also led the effort to modernize 
             America's school infrastructure. Each year he secured 
             funding that became known as ``Harkin grants'' to help 
             school districts in Iowa update and repair their 
             facilities.
               Tom's dedication to agriculture dates back to 1975 when 
             he first came to Congress and became a member of the 
             Agriculture Committee. At that time, he had the great 
             privilege of serving as chairman of the Senate Committee 
             on Agriculture, where he led efforts to enact the 2002 and 
             2007 farm bills. These bills greatly expanded Federal 
             support for renewable energy, strengthened the farm income 
             safety net, preserved millions of acres of land through 
             agriculture conservation efforts, invested hundreds of 
             millions of dollars in small towns through rural 
             development efforts, and ensured tens of millions of 
             Americans had access to sufficient and healthful food.
               In September 2009, following the death of Senator Ted 
             Kennedy, Tom became chairman of the Senate Health, 
             Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Tom believed 
             that serving in this capacity carried on the legacy of 
             Senator Kennedy, who dedicated his life to ensuring that 
             our economy works for all Americans, guaranteeing every 
             child the opportunity to pursue a quality education and, 
             of course, the cause of Kennedy's life: access to quality, 
             affordable health care for all Americans.
                               Farewell to the Senate
                              Friday, December 12, 2014

               Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, almost 2 years ago I 
             announced I was not going to seek a sixth term in the 
             Senate. That decision and that announcement didn't seem 
             all that difficult or hard at that time. After all, 2 
             years was a long time off. Since then, I have been busy 
             with hearings, meeting constituents, getting legislation 
             through the HELP Committee, and working on appropriations.
               But now, knowing this will be my final formal speech on 
             the floor of the Senate; knowing that in a few days a 
             semitruck is going to pull up to the Hart Senate Office 
             Building and load hundreds of boxes of my records of 40 
             years--30 in the Senate and 10 in the House--and haul all 
             of that off to Drake University and the Harkin Institute 
             on Public Policy and Civic Engagement in Des Moines, IA; 
             seeing my office at 731 Hart Senate Office Building 
             stripped almost bare and the shelves cleaned; when I will 
             soon cast my last vote; when I will no longer be engaged 
             in legislative battle; when I will no longer be summoned 
             by the Senate bells; and when I will soon just be No. 
             1,763 of all of the Senators who have ever served in the 
             Senate--now the leaving becomes hard and wrenching and 
             emotional. That is because I love the Senate. I love my 
             work here.
               It has been said by a lot of pundits that the Senate is 
             broken. No, it is not. The Senate is not broken. Oh, maybe 
             there are a few dents, a couple of scrapes here and 
             there--banged up a little bit--but there is still no other 
             place in America where one person can do big things--for 
             good or for ill--for our people and our Nation.
               I love the people with whom I work. This is a deaf sign. 
             ``I-L-Y'' means ``I love you.''
               To the Senators, staff, clerks, Congressional Research 
             Service, doorkeepers, Cloakroom, police, restaurant 
             employees, and, yes, the pages--and especially to those 
             who labor outside the lights, the cameras, and the news 
             stories--who make this Senate function on a daily basis, I 
             thank you.
               I particularly thank my wonderful, dedicated, hard-
             working staff, both present and past, both personal and 
             committee staff. When I say committee staff, I mean the 
             Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 
             Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which I have 
             been privileged to chair or be ranking member of since 
             1989; also the Committee on Agriculture, on which I have 
             served since 1985 and which I chaired twice for two farm 
             bills, once in 2001 and 2002 and the second one in 2007 
             and 2009; and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
             and Pensions, which I have chaired since the untimely 
             death of Senator Ted Kennedy in 2009.
               I first heard Pat Leahy say this, so I always attribute 
             it to him: ``We Senators are just a constitutional 
             impediment to the smooth functioning of staff.'' This is 
             truer than most of us would probably like to admit.
               Also in thanking my staff, I don't just mean those who 
             work in Washington. I would never have been reelected four 
             times without the hands-on, day in, day out constituent 
             service of my Iowa staff. The casework they have done in 
             helping people with problems is every bit as important as 
             any legislative work done in Washington.
               In 2012 our office marked a real milestone--100,000 
             constituent service cases since 1985. I cannot count the 
             number of times Iowans have personally thanked me for 
             something my staff has done to help them.
               There is a story out our way that I have heard for a 
             long time. If you are driving down a country road and see 
             a turtle--see that image of a turtle--sitting on a 
             fencepost, you can be sure of one thing: It didn't get 
             there by itself.
               I can relate to that turtle. I didn't get here by 
             myself. My staff helped. I thank my staff, both past and 
             present, who so strongly supported me when I was right and 
             so diplomatically corrected me when I was wrong and who 
             all labored in a shared commitment to provide a hand up, a 
             ladder of opportunity to those who had been dealt a bad 
             hand in the lottery of life.
               Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed 
             in the Record a list of the names of my current staff so 
             they will be forever enshrined in the history of the 
             Senate.
               There being no objection, the material was ordered to be 
             printed in the Record, as follows:

               My personal office staff: Brian Ahlberg, Elizabeth 
             Stein, Lindsay Jones, Lilly Hunt, Sonja Hoover, Mandy 
             McClure, Kate Waters, Susannah Cernojevich, Jim Whitmire, 
             Richard Vickers, Katharine Jones, Jayme Wiebold, Joseph 
             Petrzelka, Eric Jones, Elizabeth Messerly, Lauren Scott, 
             Mark Halverson, Eldon Boes, Tom Buttry, Michele Reilly 
             Hall, and Richard Bender.
               Those staffers serving me in Iowa: Robert Barron, Amy 
             Beller, Alexander Lynch, Pamela Ringleb, John Moreland, 
             Jule Reynolds, Omar Padilla, Robert Hamill, Ryan Helling, 
             Kimberly Taylor, Tamara Milton, Tom Larkin, Alison Hart, 
             Jessica Gordon, Suellen Flynn, and Sandi O'Brien.
               My LHHS Subcommittee on Appropriations staff: Adrienne 
             Hallett, Kelly Brown, Lisa Bernhardt, Mark Laisch, Mike 
             Gentile, Robin Juliano, and Teri Curtin.
               Last, my HELP Committee staff: Derek Miller, Lauren 
             McFerran, Molly Click, Abraham White, Jenelle 
             Krishnamoorthy, Wade Ackerman, Andi Fristedt, Brian Massa, 
             Colin Goldfinch, Caitlin Boon, Mildred Otero, Aissa 
             Canchola, Amanda Beaumont, Brit Moller, Leanne Hotek, 
             Libby Masiuk, Mario Cardona, Liz Weiss, Michael Kreps, 
             Sarah Cupp, Zachary Schechter Steinberg, Kia Hamadanchy, 
             and Lee Perselay.

               Mr. HARKIN. Most of all, I thank my wife, Ruth, the love 
             of my life, my wife of 46 years. You have been my constant 
             companion, my soulmate, my strongest supporter, and my 
             most honest critic. You have been my joy in happy times 
             and my solace when things just didn't go right. So I am 
             looking forward to more adventures, love, and excitement 
             with her in the years ahead.
               To our two beautiful, smart, caring, and compassionate 
             daughters, Amy and Jenny, I thank you for always being 
             there for your dad, for giving me such wondrous joy in 
             being a part of your growing up. I am so proud of both of 
             you.
               To my son-in-law Steve and to my grandkids, McQuaid, 
             Daisy, and Luke: Look out, because here comes Grandpa!
               There is so much I want to say, but I want to be 
             respectful of those who have come to share this moment 
             with me--my staff, here and there, my family, friends, and 
             fellow Senators.
               I want to state as briefly as I can why I am here, what 
             has propelled me, and what has been my guiding philosophy 
             for all these years.
               It has to do with that ladder of opportunity I just 
             mentioned. You see, there is nothing wrong in America with 
             being a success. There is nothing wrong with having more 
             money, a nicer home, a nicer car, sending your kids to 
             good schools, having nice vacations, and a great 
             retirement. That is a big part of the American dream.
               But I believe when you make it to the top, and I made it 
             to the top, one of the primary responsibilities of our 
             free government is to make sure we leave the ladder down 
             for others to climb. Now, mind you, I said a ladder. I 
             didn't say an escalator. An escalator is a free ride. I 
             don't believe in that.
               If you follow my analogy a little bit more, with a 
             ladder you still have to exert energy, effort, and 
             initiative to get up. But, in order to do that, there must 
             be rungs on that ladder. That is where government comes 
             in, to put some rungs there--the bottom rungs--everything 
             from maternal and child health care programs, Head Start, 
             the best public schools, the best teachers, affordable and 
             accessible college, job training.
               Sometimes people fall off that ladder. Sometimes, 
             through no fault of their own, they have an illness, they 
             have an accident. That is why we have a safety net, to 
             catch them--programs like disability insurance, workers' 
             compensation, and job retraining programs to get them back 
             up on that ladder once again.
               Thirty-five years ago we looked around America and we 
             saw millions of people who, no matter how hard they tried, 
             could never climb that ladder of success. No matter how 
             hard they tried, they could never do it.
               These were our fellow Americans, our brothers and 
             sisters with disabilities. So what did government do? We 
             built them a ramp and we called it the Americans with 
             Disabilities Act.
               Again, we didn't build a moving walkway, did we? See, 
             with a ramp, people still had to show energy and 
             initiative to get up. I have often said there is not one 
             dime, not one nickel in the Americans with Disabilities 
             Act given to a person with a disability.
               What we did is we broke down the barriers. We opened the 
             doors of accessibility and accommodation, and we said to 
             people with disabilities: Now, go on, follow your dreams, 
             and in the words of the Army motto, be all you can be.
               I can remember standing on the floor and leading the 
             charge on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Once again, 
             I felt a lot like that turtle, with a lot of people 
             helping. When I think of the Americans with Disabilities 
             Act, I think of people in the Senate such as Senator 
             Lowell Weicker, Senator Bob Dole, and Senator Ted Kennedy; 
             in the House, Tony Coelho, Steve Bartlett, and Steny 
             Hoyer; and in the executive branch, at the head of it all, 
             President George Herbert Walker Bush, Attorney General 
             Dick Thornburgh, and Boyden Gray. On the outside, there 
             are people like Ed Roberts, Marca Bristo, Bob Kafka, and 
             the indomitable Justin Dart.
               Here, the one person who worked his heart out to bring 
             it together--it is that staff again I tell you about--is 
             Bobby Silverstein. It would have never happened without 
             him.
               So I believe government must not be just an observant 
             bystander to life. It must be a force for good, for 
             lifting people up, for giving hope to the hopeless.
               I have never had an ``I love me'' wall in the office. 
             What I did have were two items by my door when I walk out 
             to vote or go to a committee meeting or whatever. One is a 
             drawing of a house in which my mother was born and lived 
             in until she was 25 years of age when she immigrated to 
             America. That little house was in Suha, Yugoslavia, and is 
             now Suha, Slovenia. That little house had a dirt floor and 
             no running water. That was my mother's house.
               The second item on my wall is my father's WPA card. It 
             says: Notice to Report for Work on Project, WPA Form 402, 
             to Patrick F. Harkin, Cumming, IA. You are asked to report 
             for work at once on a project as a laborer for $40.30 per 
             month. There is a signature by a supervisor. It is dated 
             7/19/1939, 4 months to the day before I was born.
               My father was then 53 years old. He had worked most of 
             the time in a coal mine in southern Iowa, and was not in 
             the best of health. There were no jobs. Life looked pretty 
             bleak. Things looked hopeless. Then my father--who only 
             had a sixth-grade education--as he told me later got a 
             letter from Franklin Roosevelt. He always thought Franklin 
             Roosevelt sent this to him personally. He always said, ``I 
             got that letter from Franklin Roosevelt, and I got a 
             job.''
               That was important for a lot of reasons, not only for 
             the money and the dignity of work. It gave my father 
             hope--hope that tomorrow would be better than today and 
             that our family would stay together. You see, there were 
             five kids and a sixth one on the way--me. It gave him hope 
             that his kids would have a better future.
               The project he worked on is called Lake Ahquabi. My 
             friend Senator Grassley knows about Lake Ahquabi. It is 
             right south of Des Moines. It is a State park now, with a 
             lake and recreation, and people still use it today.
               Every Federal judge who is sworn in takes an oath to 
             ``do equal right to the poor and to the rich.'' Let me 
             repeat that: to ``do equal right to the poor and to the 
             rich.'' Can we here in Congress say we do that, that we 
             provide equal right to the poor and the rich alike? Our 
             growing inequality proves we do not. Maybe we should be 
             taking that oath.
               There are four overriding issues I hope this Senate will 
             address in this coming session and in the years ahead:
               First, as I mentioned, the growing economic inequality 
             in America. It is destructive of lives, it slows our 
             progress as a nation, and it will doom broad support for 
             representative government. When people at the bottom of 
             the economic ladder feel the government is not helping 
             them and, in fact, may be stacked against them, they will 
             cease to vote or they will turn to the siren song of 
             extreme elements in our society. History proves this to be 
             true.
               I don't have a cookie-cutter answer or a solution, but 
             it must include more fair tax laws and trade laws, more 
             job training and retraining, rebuilding our physical 
             infrastructure, and manufacturing. I believe it must 
             include some things seemingly unrelated, such as quality, 
             free, early education for every child in America.
               The answer to closing the inequality gap must include 
             rebuilding labor unions and collective bargaining. If you 
             traced the line over the last 40 years of the growing 
             economic inequality in America and also put that over 
             another line showing the loss in the number of union 
             workers, they are almost identical. I do not believe it is 
             a stretch to say that organized labor--unions--built the 
             middle class in America, and they are a part of the answer 
             in strengthening and rebuilding our middle class.
               I believe another part of the answer is raising the 
             minimum wage to above the poverty line and indexing it for 
             inflation in the future.
               We need more flextime laws, especially for women in our 
             workforce.
               We need to strengthen Social Security--not by cutting, 
             not by raising the retirement age, but by strengthening 
             Social Security (as in Senator Brown's bill).
               We need a new retirement system for all workers in 
             America--not another 401(k) but a system in which 
             employers and employees contribute and which can only be 
             withdrawn as an annuity for life after one retires. I ask 
             you to look at what the Netherlands has, that type of 
             retirement system. Lack of a reliable retirement is one of 
             the most underreported, unexamined crises on our national 
             horizon, and it is a big part of our growing inequality.
               Finally, we must continue to build on the Affordable 
             Care Act. The cost and availability of good health care 
             has in the past widened that inequality gap, and we are 
             now starting to close that element of the inequality. I 
             believe we need to add a public option to the exchange as 
             another choice for people. We must continue support for 
             prevention and public health, moving us more and more from 
             sick care to real health care.
               I believe that the second overriding issue confronting 
             us is the destruction of the family of man's only home--
             our planet Earth--through the continued use of fossil 
             fuels. We know what is happening. The science is 
             irrefutable, the data are clear, and the warning signs are 
             flashing in neon bright red: Stop what you are doing with 
             fossil fuels. We must shift massively and quickly to 
             renewable energy, a new smart electric grid, retrofitting 
             our buildings for energy efficiency, and moving rapidly to 
             a hydrogen-based energy cycle.
               The third issue I commend to the Senate for further 
             development and changes in existing laws is the 
             underemployment of people with disabilities. As you all 
             know, ensuring the equal rights and opportunities for 
             people with disabilities has been a major part of my work 
             in the Senate for the past 30 years.
               We have made significant strides forward in changing 
             America to fulfill two of the four goals of the Americans 
             with Disabilities Act; those two are full participation 
             and equal opportunity. We have done all right on those. 
             The other two goals--independent living and economic self-
             sufficiency--need more development.
               I ask you all in the next Congress to do two things to 
             advance these two goals of independent living and economic 
             self-sufficiency: First, help States implement the Supreme 
             Court's decision in the Olmstead case to more rapidly 
             deinstitutionalize people with disabilities and provide 
             true independent living with support services. This will 
             save money, and the lives of people with disabilities will 
             be better and more truly independent. Second, we must do 
             more on employment of people with disabilities in 
             competitive integrated employment.
               We all get the monthly unemployment figures every month. 
             Last month unemployment held steady at 5.8 percent 
             officially. My friend Leo Hindery has better calculations 
             to show the real rate is probably about twice that figure. 
             Also, we know the unemployment rate among African 
             Americans is about twice that--11.1 percent. How many of 
             us know, though, that the unemployment rate among adult 
             Americans with disabilities who can work and want to work 
             is over 60 percent? Yes, you heard me right, almost two 
             out of every three Americans with a disability who want to 
             work and who can work cannot find a job. That is a blot on 
             our national character.
               Thankfully, some enlightened employers have affirmative 
             action plans to hire more people with disabilities. 
             Employers are finding many times that these become their 
             best employees; they are more productive, and they are the 
             hardest working, most reliable workers.
               I ask you to meet with Greg Wasson, the CEO of 
             Walgreens, and Randy Lewis, who was the senior vice 
             president there and is now retired. Walgreens has hired 
             many people with disabilities in their distribution 
             centers, and now Mr. Wasson has set a goal of 10 percent 
             of all of their store employees will be people with 
             disabilities. This needs to be emulated by businesses all 
             over America. There are others making strides in this 
             area. I will mention a few: Best Buy, Lowe's, Home Depot, 
             IBM, Marriott. These are some of the other large companies 
             that are moving forward, hiring people with disabilities. 
             We need to learn from them what we, the Federal and, yes, 
             maybe the State government can do to help in this area. We 
             also need to implement policies to help small businesses 
             employ more people with disabilities.
               I dwell on this perhaps because I feel I haven't done 
             enough on this issue of employment for people with 
             disabilities, and we have to do better. I will say, 
             however, that our HELP Committee passed this year and 
             President Obama signed into law a new reauthorization of 
             the old Workforce Investment Act, now named the Workforce 
             Investment and Opportunity Act. In this law there is a new 
             provision I worked on with others to get more intervention 
             in high school for kids with disabilities to prepare them 
             for the workplace through things such as summer jobs, job 
             coaching, and internships. However, this is just starting 
             and funding is tight, but it will do much for young people 
             with disabilities to enter competitive integrated 
             employment. I thank all members of the HELP Committee for 
             their support of this bill but especially Senator Murray 
             and Senator Isakson for taking the lead to get this bill 
             done, along with Senator Enzi, Senator Alexander, and me.
               While I am mentioning the HELP Committee, let me thank 
             all members of the HELP Committee for a very productive 
             last 2 years, during which we passed 24 bills signed into 
             law by the President. These are important bills dealing 
             with things such as the ability to track prescription 
             medication from manufacturer to patient, safer compound 
             drugs, the Workforce Investment Act that I just mentioned, 
             the Child Care and Development Block Grant Newborn 
             Screening Act, and many more.
               I would like to publicly again thank Senator Lamar 
             Alexander for being such a great partner in all these 
             efforts. Senator Alexander will be taking the helm of this 
             great committee in the next Congress. Senator Alexander 
             certainly has the background to lead this committee, but 
             he also combines that background with a keen mind and a 
             good heart, and I wish him continued success as the new 
             chairman of the HELP Committee.
               The fourth issue I hope future Senates will take care of 
             concerns the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With 
             Disabilities. I don't think anything has saddened me more 
             in my 30 years here in the Senate than the failure of this 
             body to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons 
             With Disabilities, or the CRPD, as it is known. It has 
             been ratified by 150 nations. It is modeled after our own 
             Americans with Disabilities Act. It has broad and deep 
             support throughout our country--supported by the U.S. 
             Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, veterans 
             groups, every disability organization, every former living 
             President, every former Republican leader of this Senate: 
             Senator Dole, Senator Lott, Senator Frist. In November we 
             received a letter from the National Association of 
             Evangelicals supporting it.
               I would also point out that Senator Dole has worked his 
             heart out on this. If you remember, he was here on the 
             floor 2 years ago this month, right before we brought it 
             up. I thought we had the votes for it. Under our 
             Constitution it takes two-thirds, and we failed by six 
             votes. But Bob Dole has never given up on this--never.
               Well, I hope the next Senate will take this up and join 
             with the rest of the world in helping to make changes 
             globally for people with disabilities.
               I came to Congress--the House--in 1974 as one of the 
             Watergate babies. But with my retirement and the 
             retirement in the House of Congressman George Miller and 
             Congressman Henry Waxman, we are the last of the so-called 
             Watergate babies, with two exceptions. Among all of the 
             Democrats elected in that landslide year of 1974, there 
             were a few Republicans, and one is left--my senior 
             colleague from the State of Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley.
               I have the greatest respect for and friendship with 
             Chuck. Several weeks ago, here on the floor, he said some 
             very gracious things about me, and I thank him for that. I 
             especially appreciated his observation that even though he 
             and I are like night and day when it comes to political 
             views, there is no light between us when it comes to Iowa. 
             We have collaborated on so many important initiatives for 
             the people of Iowa, and I think we made a heck of a good 
             tag team on behalf of our State. So, again, I salute and 
             thank my friend and colleague of nearly 40 years, Chuck 
             Grassley. Carry on, Chuck.
               The other exception I mentioned is again my lifelong 
             dear friend, Rick Nolan, who was in the 1974 class who 
             voluntarily left Congress after three terms, returned to 
             the House in 2012, and was recently reelected.
               So 40 years later, this Watergate baby has grown up, 
             gray.
               I came to the Senate 30 years ago as a proud 
             progressive, determined to get things done. As I depart 
             the Senate, I can say in good conscience that I have 
             remained true to my progressiveness.
               I have worked faithfully to leave behind a more vibrant 
             Iowa, a more just and inclusive America, and a stronger 
             ladder and ramp of opportunity for the disadvantaged in 
             our communities.
               You might say that my career in Congress is the story of 
             a poor kid from Cumming, IA--population 150--trying his 
             best to pay it forward, saying thank you for the 
             opportunities I was given by leaving that ladder and ramp 
             of opportunity stronger for those who follow.
               If I have accomplished this in any small way--if any 
             Americans are able to lead better lives because of my 
             work, I leave office a satisfied person.
               So I am retiring from the Senate, but I am not retiring 
             from the fight. I will never retire from the fight to 
             ensure equal opportunity, full participation, independent 
             living, and economic self-sufficiency for every disabled 
             person in America. I will never retire from the fight to 
             give a hand up and hope to those who have experienced 
             disadvantage and adversity. I will never retire from the 
             fight to make this a land of social and economic justice 
             for all Americans.
               Let me close with a single word from American Sign 
             Language.
               On July 13, 1990, I stood here and gave an entire speech 
             in sign language. It confused Senator Kerry who was 
             sitting in the Chair. He didn't know what to do. The 
             recording clerks didn't know what to do, either. But then 
             I had to give it verbally. Well, I didn't want to do that 
             today.
               But there is one sign I want to leave with you. It says 
             something powerful. One of the most beautiful signs in 
             American Sign Language. Might I teach it to you?
               Take your hands and put them together like this, put 
             your fingers together, put your hands together like that. 
             You kind of close them, and it looks like an A when you do 
             that. Now move it in a circle in front of your body.
               That is it, pages, you have got it.
               This is the sign for America.
               Think about it. All of us interconnected, bound together 
             in a single circle of inclusion--no one left out. This is 
             the ideal America toward which we must always aspire.
               With that, Mr. President, for the last time, I yield the 
             floor.
               (Applause, Senators rising.)
?

                                           

                                      TRIBUTES

                                         TO

                                     TOM HARKIN
                              Proceedings in the Senate
                                           Wednesday, November 19, 2014
               Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate 
             the 75th birthday of my friend and longtime colleague from 
             our home State of Iowa, Senator Tom Harkin.
               As the Presiding Officer knows, Senator Harkin will be 
             retiring from public office in a few weeks. At the end of 
             the 113th Congress, Senator Harkin will then close a 
             chapter on public service that spans more than a half 
             century, including four decades in Congress. He served 27 
             years in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserves, 10 years 
             in the House of Representatives, and 30 years here in the 
             U.S. Senate.
               Now, I think anybody looking at that would say that is a 
             remarkable and distinguished record of public service. 
             After 40 years of representing Iowans in Congress, my 
             friend Tom soon will leave behind the Halls of the U.S. 
             Capitol. He also will leave behind a legacy of fiery floor 
             speeches, passionately delivered on behalf of individuals 
             with disabilities, also for Iowa farmers, also for the 
             elderly, also for child laborers, and for many causes that 
             he championed such as early childhood education, nutrition 
             and wellness, conservation, renewable energy and the 
             environment, and probably lots of others. But those are 
             things everybody knows that he has worked hard on.
               Throughout the years Tom and I have served side by side 
             in Washington for the good of our home State. For three 
             terms we worked together in the U.S. House of 
             Representatives. It was here in the Senate our shared 
             commitment to give rural America a voice at the 
             policymaking table was sown, and for many years we worked 
             together on the Senate Agriculture Committee, looking out 
             for the millions of Americans who choose to work and earn 
             a living in rural America. We worked together to advocate 
             for rural infrastructure and investment, access to health 
             care, housing, technology, and transportation.
               For the last three decades we have served alongside one 
             another in this distinguished body, the U.S. Senate, an 
             institution that both of us hold near and dear to our 
             hearts. Although some of our silver-tongued critics over 
             the years may have ascribed Tom's views as those of a 
             bleeding-heart liberal or mine mischaracterized as that of 
             a coldhearted conservative, we both, Tom and I, know that 
             our hearts have always been in the right place.
               Neither of us was born with a silver spoon in our mouths 
             and we learned early on to appreciate the work ethic of 
             our parents and grandparents. Each of us raised our 
             families with the hopes that our children and 
             grandchildren would achieve the promise of America's 
             prosperity and grow up to enjoy the pursuits of happiness.
               As Iowa's U.S. Senators, we have worked to keep alive 
             the dream of hard-working Iowan families.
               Now of course it is true that we have vastly different 
             views on the government's influence on America's ladder of 
             opportunity. However, we do wholeheartedly agree it is an 
             honor and a privilege to serve the people of our State. 
             For some reason our respective reelections every 6 years 
             have actually confounded political observers. Many 
             couldn't seem to square the notion that Iowans would 
             continue to elect two U.S. Senators from opposite sides of 
             the political spectrum for the last three decades.
               So to explain--or perhaps I don't have to because it is 
             widely understood--Iowans are not casual political 
             observers. Our electorate takes pride in retail 
             politicking and it is first in the Nation's political 
             caucuses. We certainly have given Iowan voters a night-
             and-day choice between these two U.S. Senators. So while 
             we may not see eye to eye on politics and ideology, we do 
             see eye to eye when it comes to working for Iowa's best 
             interests. Although our voting records may reflect night-
             and-day positions on some public policy, you wouldn't see 
             the light of day between us when we worked together on 
             matters that are of most importance to Iowans, including 
             but not limited to natural disasters such as the 
             tremendous floods of 1993 and 2008, Iowa farmers and 
             agriculture, notably recovering from the farm crisis. 
             Renewable energy and rural infrastructure have been our 
             mutual interest. We have also enjoyed welcoming economic 
             development leaders and constituents to the Nation's 
             Capital.
               Between the famous Siouxland steak dinner in Washington 
             and the Harkin steak fry in Indianola, there is no doubt 
             Tom will miss staking out Iowans to discuss politics and 
             policy. However, I have no doubt my home State colleague 
             will continue to champion the causes for which he has 
             devoted a lifetime of service. In fact, I have read in 
             news media about his retirement of what he intends to 
             pursue, and so I have no doubt he is going to pursue out 
             of the Senate what he has pursued in the Senate.
               To his credit, my colleague's legacy reflects the 
             priorities he set out to achieve decades ago, to make a 
             difference for those on the downside of advantage.
               My wife Barbara and this Senator extend our warmest 
             wishes to Tom and his wife Ruth, and of course to the 
             entire Harkin family, as he starts life's next chapter. I 
             see my colleague on the floor, so I can look at him.
               As you start life's next chapter, may you enjoy the 
             blessings of hearth and home, health and happiness. 
             Although Tom is retiring from public office, I am 
             confident he is not retiring from serving the public 
             interest. From one constituent to another, I thank you for 
             your lifetime of public service and I wish you good luck 
             and Godspeed.
               I yield the floor.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

               Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, first let me thank my friend 
             and colleague for his lifetime characteristic which is 
             being very gracious and very generous in his remarks.
               Chuck Grassley and I have served together since 1974. I 
             like to tell people that in 1974, there was a big wave of 
             Democrats who came in. They called us the Watergate 
             babies. We won a lot of elections. In fact in Iowa that 
             year they elected a Democratic U.S. Senator and every 
             House seat--I think there were six at that time--six House 
             seats all went Democratic except one, and that was the 
             seat that Chuck Grassley won that year, bucking the 
             trend--the tide--in 1974.
               So it is kind of a funny thing, Chuck--I speak to my 
             friend across the aisle here--that a lot of times people, 
             this year, have said, ``All you Watergate babies are gone 
             now, you and Max Baucus, and Chris Dodd, and on the House 
             side George Miller and Henry Waxman. So this is the last 
             of the Watergate babies.''
               I said, ``No, there is one left.''
               ``Well, who is that,'' they say.
               I say, ``It is a Republican.''
               ``A Republican? Who is that?''
               I say, ``My colleague from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, is the 
             last man standing from that class of 1974.''
               Again, it is a tribute to Senator Grassley that through 
             all these years he has won the hearts and minds of the 
             people of Iowa, been elected and reelected. Of course he 
             came to the Senate before I did. He came in 1981 and I 
             came in 1984. So I like to think we at least share in 
             common bucking the trend a little bit--the tide--because 
             in 1984 someone said, ``Harkin ought to run for the Senate 
             in 1984 because there will be a big Democratic 
             landslide,'' and so I ran. The tide was just the opposite. 
             There was a Reagan landslide here. But I was fortunate 
             enough to win the election. So I think the two of us share 
             the bucking of the tide, so to speak, getting into office 
             when we ran. But it has been a great association all these 
             years.
               As I stand here today on my 75th birthday, I think I 
             have two kinds of emotions. One, I wonder where the heck 
             did all the years go and how did they go by so fast. 
             Sometimes I say, gosh, I wish I could turn the clock back 
             and do it all again. The other emotion is the Irish side 
             of me. The Irish have a saying that any time you are on 
             this side of the grass is a good day. So I am sure happy 
             that I made it this far.
               I again want to say that since the time we took our oath 
             of office on January 4, 1975, we have served together both 
             in the House and in the Senate. A lot of the time we were 
             on the same committee, the Agriculture Committee, working 
             on a lot of different agriculture bills. I remember back 
             in the 1980s working on the credit bill at that time when 
             so many farmers were underwater. As the Senator said, it 
             has been a great honor and a privilege to represent the 
             people of Iowa.
               We belong to different parties, we have different 
             philosophies of government, but I like to think we share a 
             commonsense Iowa way of looking at the world. We are not 
             monolithic out in Iowa. We are not all one philosophy. 
             Sometimes I find very conservative friends of mine and I 
             may have a liberal view of one thing and I find liberals 
             and I may have a more conservative view of something else. 
             So the people of Iowa, as my friend has said, think a lot 
             about these things, and they take these things into 
             consideration.
               I say to my friend, I value his friendship and his 
             counsel through all these years, even though, again, as my 
             friend said, we approach things maybe from a different 
             philosophical standpoint. That is fine. But we have never 
             let a disagreement on philosophy ever be the last word 
             between us or the final word. It is always, well, that is 
             that. What is next? The one thing I really appreciate that 
             my friend said is that when it comes to Iowa, you don't 
             find any daylight when it comes to a disaster on what we 
             can do for Iowa and Iowans. We have had a wonderful 
             relationship through all these years and it is one that I 
             have cherished very much.
               I heard my friend, in making some notes, say that 
             sometimes they say he is a coldhearted conservative and I 
             am a bleeding-heart liberal. I am going to set the record 
             straight. He is not a coldhearted conservative, he is a 
             caring conservative. He cares deeply about people. He 
             cares deeply about the people of Iowa, too. I hope I am 
             not a bleeding-heart liberal. I hope I am a liberal who 
             believes in individual responsibility.
               My friend has been a very caring conservative through 
             all these years. I think together we have achieved 
             important things for our State: economic development, 
             rural development, agriculture, energy, all these things 
             we worked together on for Iowa. I am proud of the fact 
             that in Iowa right now 25 percent of our energy comes from 
             wind energy in Iowa. We produce the blades and turbines 
             and everything in Iowa and all the jobs there. That is 
             something we have worked together on through all these 
             years.
               People have asked me why I am leaving the Senate. Well, 
             it was my decision. At the time--almost 2 years ago--I 
             said, I love the Senate. This is a wonderful institution. 
             Yes, we hit a few bumps in the road once in a while, but 
             that is to be expected in a legislative process that 
             represents 300 million people in this country. But working 
             together you form friendships and alliances.
               I have often said that as a progressive, I want to go 
             this far this fast and the conservatives want to go this 
             far this slow, but by working together, you can make 
             progress. You can make progress, and that is what I think 
             both Senator Grassley and I have worked on together. We 
             try to make progress, especially for the people of Iowa.
               I thank the Senator for his kind words. I know we are 
             not supposed to say this on the Senate floor; we are 
             always supposed to speak in the third person. But I never 
             wanted to follow all of the rules anyway. So I wish to 
             speak directly and say: Thank you very much, Chuck 
             Grassley, for your friendship, your counsel, and for 
             working together through all these years. I will miss that 
             relationship--working on the Senate floor.
               I will be in Iowa. I will be working with the Harkin 
             Institute at Drake University. I will be spending a lot of 
             time on the disability policies and advancing the cause of 
             people with disabilities in some way, shape or form.
               I ask that my friend come and speak--and perhaps lead a 
             discussion at some time--at the institute at Drake 
             University. I would be honored if my friend would do that 
             sometime down the road. I know my friend will be well 
             received, and I think the young people at Drake need to 
             hear the conservative side of the story as well as the 
             liberal side of the story. They need to have that kind of 
             input.
               I know in the future my friend and his wonderful wife 
             Barbara, a great and wonderful person, and Ruth and I will 
             maintain friendships and our connections as we move into 
             the future. If there is any way we can work together for 
             the benefit of Iowans, just let me know, and I will be 
             glad to be the Senator's lieutenant in the field out there 
             in Iowa sometime.
               I thank my friend so much for so many years of counsel 
             and friendship and working together. Thank you, Chuck.
               I yield the floor.

               Mr. GRASSLEY. I thank my colleague for his kind remarks 
             and for being here and for serving the people of Iowa.
                                              Tuesday, December 9, 2014
               Mr. REID. Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln once said, ``I 
             want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I 
             always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I 
             thought a flower would grow.''
               Today I stand for just a few minutes to honor a man by 
             the name of Tom Harkin. Throughout his time in the Senate 
             he has planted many flowers--so many we can't count them 
             all. Tom Harkin's legacy of fighting for all Americans, 
             particularly those who are disadvantaged, will never be 
             forgotten. In fact, no one in the history of this 
             institution has done more for people who have a physical 
             disadvantage, an emotional disadvantage, a mental 
             disadvantage, and disadvantages generally, than Tom 
             Harkin.
               Tom's life wasn't easy. His father was a miner. His 
             mother, a Slovenian immigrant, died when Tom was 10 years 
             old. He and his family pushed forward, living in a house 
             without hot water or a furnace.
               Not one to use his difficult upbringing as an excuse, 
             Tom Harkin pushed himself very hard. He attended Iowa 
             State University. He came there on a Navy ROTC 
             scholarship. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Navy and 
             became an Active Duty pilot--a naval pilot.
               I have such admiration for naval pilots, for all pilots, 
             really, but thinking of landing on an aircraft carrier out 
             in the middle of the ocean, that postage stamp size you 
             have to try to find and land out there is something Navy 
             pilots do, and Tom Harkin did this.
               In 1974 he was elected to represent Iowa's Fifth 
             Congressional District, a seat he held for 10 years. When 
             he came to the Senate in 1984, Tom, similar to President 
             Lincoln before him, encountered many thistles.
               He was especially motivated to help millions of 
             Americans with disabilities, as I have already said. Here 
             is what Tom Harkin said once:

               I heard stories from individuals who had to crawl on 
             their hands and knees to go up a flight of stairs, who 
             couldn't ride a bus because there wasn't a lift or 
             couldn't cross a street in a wheelchair because there were 
             no curb cuts. Millions of Americans were denied access to 
             their own communities and to the American dream.

               Tom did a lot to make sure people did have the ability 
             to dream. What did he do? He encountered the injustice 
             faced by millions of disabled Americans and responded by 
             authoring the Americans with Disabilities Act.
               People don't realize now what those disabled people had 
             to go through. There was a big dispute here in the Senate 
             and in the House as to whether Members of Congress should 
             vote for this. It created a lot of issues for businesses. 
             A former Member of the House of Representatives, James 
             Bilbray of Nevada, was getting a lot of pressure not to 
             vote for this, but he voted for this, and here is why he 
             voted for it:
               Just like Tom Harkin saw this long before many of us 
             did, James Bilbray had a friend whose daughter was 
             confined to a wheelchair. This man wanted to visit 
             Congressman Bilbray and his family here in Washington, DC. 
             What an ordeal it was. They couldn't find a place with a 
             hotel room. They had trouble getting airline reservations. 
             It was extremely difficult. So Jimmy Bilbray said, ``That 
             is enough for me. I am voting for this.''
               This landmark legislation that was pushed by Tom Harkin 
             has helped to move areas of employment, public services, 
             transportation, and telecommunications for people with 
             disabilities. Tom Harkin's work to protect the 
             disadvantaged hasn't been just reactive, it has been 
             preventative.
               Tom has lost four siblings to cancer. In response to 
             that heartbreak, what has he done? Senator Harkin fought 
             to double the funding for groundbreaking medical research 
             at the National Institutes of Health. He had a partner in 
             this for many years, Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania. They 
             worked together as members of the Appropriations 
             Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education. Some will 
             remember that this was an unbelievable thing he did to 
             force us to spend more money on medical research. But in 
             hindsight, what a blessing this was for America and for 
             Members of the Senate who voted for this. It was good for 
             us, and it was good for the country. It was good for our 
             constituents. With the extra money NIH got, they have 
             engaged in a landmark effort to cure cancer, heart 
             disease, and a myriad of other diseases.
               We have a long way to go. Funding hasn't been adequate 
             the last 6 years. The only boost we got in NIH funding was 
             in the stimulus, the first few months of the Obama 
             administration where we got additional money. That was 
             done as a result of the work by Tom Harkin and Arlen 
             Specter, and that money now is not there. We need to do 
             more for the National Institutes of Health.
               Tom Harkin has been tireless. He worked to triple the 
             funding for the Centers for Disease Control. In fact, in 
             Obamacare he is the one who was responsible for the 
             prevention title in that bill.
               He has spent his career coming to the defense of the 
             defenseless. A longtime defender of human rights, Tom has 
             worked to fight child labor, both domestically and abroad. 
             His tireless efforts gave him the U.S. Labor Department's 
             Award for the Elimination of Child Labor.
               I have spent much of my Senate life on the Senate floor. 
             I can remember when I would look and see one of his staff 
             come to the floor, and I thought: Oh, no. I knew we were 
             in for some trouble. His name was Richard Bender. I really 
             have such admiration for Senator Harkin's staff, but it 
             was epitomized when Richard Bender walked in this door 
             because I knew Harkin was going to do something we had not 
             planned. Sometimes it took a lot longer to get things done 
             because of Bender and Harkin, but in the end it was always 
             better for our country.
               So after a lifetime of service, Tom will finally be able 
             to spend his post-Senate time in another direction, still 
             involved in a form of public service. I have such great 
             admiration for Ruth, whom I know extremely well. I don't 
             know Amy and Jenny, his daughters, but I do know they are 
             going to be able to spend a little more time with their 
             dad and her husband.
               On a side note, Tom Harkin is one of the few Senators 
             who has been to my home in Searchlight. I was there one 
             day, and I got a call. He said, ``Are you going to be 
             home?''
               ``Yes.''
               ``Do you mind if we drop by?''
               ``No, I don't mind if you drop by.''
               So within an hour he was at my home in Searchlight.
               So as Tom Harkin closes a chapter of service to the 
             American people, I salute him on a job very well done. He 
             has become the longest serving Democratic Senator in 
             Iowa's history, and he will be greatly missed.

               Mr. REED. Mr. President, I would like to take a few 
             minutes to salute my colleagues who are departing the 
             Senate at the end of this year with the conclusion of the 
             113th Congress: Mark Begich of Alaska, Saxby Chambliss of 
             Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Kay Hagan of North 
             Carolina, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, 
             Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, 
             Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jay 
             Rockefeller of West Virginia, Mark Udall of Colorado, and 
             John Walsh of Montana.
               They have all worked hard, ceaselessly giving their 
             energy and considerable time and service to their 
             constituents, to their home States and to our country. I 
             want to thank them for their service and for their 
             kindness to me over many years in so many cases. In 
             particular, I want to say a few words about these 
             colleagues. ...
               Tom Harkin has been a great friend, a longtime advocate 
             for students, for workers, for individuals with 
             disabilities. As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, 
             and Pensions Committee, he has worked to end the logjam 
             and pass reauthorizations of our childcare programs and 
             the workforce investment system, and he recently worked 
             with me to pass a bipartisan bill I helped author to 
             ensure consumers have access to the safest, most effective 
             sunscreens available.
               He has been a steadfast advocate for increasing our 
             investment in medical research at the NIH. An 
             extraordinary Senator, we have so much to thank him for on 
             behalf of every American. His legacy is going to be so 
             profound. It is hard to pick one. But his efforts, along 
             with Arlen Specter's, to double NIH funding was a landmark 
             in terms of not only successful investment in programs 
             that matter to Americans and the world but bipartisan 
             efforts to lead the country forward. ...
               Along with all of my other colleagues who are leaving us 
             at the conclusion of the 113th Congress, let me thank them 
             for their service, their dedication to improving the lives 
             of Americans, and on a very personal level for their 
             friendship. I wish them all well.
                                           Wednesday, December 10, 2014
               Mr. DURBIN. I have some tributes here for my colleagues 
             who are retiring, leaving the Senate. It is a lengthy list 
             of tributes.
               To Senator Tom Harkin, neighboring State of Iowa, whom I 
             worked with over many years on so many important topics, I 
             want to salute him for his service. The highlights of his 
             service include the Americans with Disabilities Act and, 
             of course, the Affordable Care Act. His work on education 
             and medical research is legendary. There was a time when 
             Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania 
             at that time, set out to double the medical research 
             budget at the National Institutes of Health and they did 
             it. Lives have been saved, people have been spared 
             suffering because they had the political determination and 
             courage to achieve it. I am going to miss Tom Harkin.
               I have served in Congress for a number of years and I 
             have heard an awful lot of speeches. One of the most 
             powerful speeches I ever witnessed in this Senate was 
             delivered by Tom Harkin in 1990. He gave his speech 
             without uttering a single word. He delivered it entirely 
             in American Sign Language--a language he knows from years 
             of communicating with his brother Frank, who was deaf. In 
             that historic speech in sign language--a first for this 
             body--Tom Harkin was urging the U.S. Senate to pass the 
             Americans with Disabilities Act.
               The ADA is one of the great civil rights laws of the 
             20th century. It is often called the ``Emancipation 
             Proclamation for Americans with disabilities.'' It is a 
             landmark achievement in America's ongoing efforts to 
             create a more perfect union. No one worked harder for its 
             passage than the senior Senator from Iowa, Tom Harkin. He 
             is often and rightly referred to as ``the father of the 
             ADA.''
               That speech in 1990 was unique in its use of sign 
             language. In another way, however, it was like nearly 
             every speech Tom Harkin has given because he was speaking 
             for people whose voices too often are not heard in 
             Congress.
               In his 40 years in Congress, Tom Harkin has been a 
             passionate, often fiery and relentless voice for good 
             people who have often been dealt a bad hand by life. He 
             has been a champion for men like his father, a coal miner 
             with black lung disease, and others who desperately need 
             health care. He has been a champion for people with 
             disabilities--in America and around the world. He has been 
             a champion of children in foreign lands who are trapped in 
             the worst forms of forced labor.
               Tom Harkin has been a champion of working men and women 
             in this country--and of their constitutionally protected 
             right to organize and bargain for decent pay and safe 
             working conditions.
               Tom Harkin has been a leader in safeguarding Medicare 
             and Social Security, and moving people from welfare to 
             work.
               The senior Senator from Iowa and I were both very lucky. 
             We are first-generation Americans. Senator Harkin's mother 
             came to this country from Slovenia; my mother came from 
             Lithuania.
               He knows from his own family's experience the love and 
             gratitude that so many immigrants feel for the freedoms 
             and opportunities America has given them and their 
             children. So he has fought for immigration laws that 
             protect America's security at the same time they honor our 
             heritage as a nation of immigrants.
               I want him to know that we will continue our efforts to 
             pass such laws until we succeed--just as we will continue 
             to push for adoption by this Senate of the Convention on 
             the Rights of Persons with Disabilities until we pass that 
             important treaty.
               As are so many others, Tom Harkin was inspired to public 
             service by the example of President John Kennedy. After 
             working his way through college, Senator Harkin spent 5 
             years as a Navy pilot in the 1960s. He had applied to 
             become a pilot for a commercial airline when he received a 
             more compelling offer. In 1969, an Iowa Congressman 
             invited Tom Harkin to join his Washington, DC, staff. He 
             said yes. He also used his GI bill benefits to earn a law 
             degree from Catholic University.
               Tom went back home to Iowa--and then he returned to 
             Washington in 1974, not as a staffer, but as a Member of 
             the House of Representatives. A decade later, Iowa voters 
             elected him to the U.S. Senate. In 1990 he became the 
             first Democrat ever to be reelected to the U.S. Senate by 
             Iowa voters. They must have thought that was a good idea 
             because they reelected him three more times after that.
               Today, 40 years after his first election, Tom Harkin is 
             grayer and wiser. But he has never forgotten where he came 
             from. He is a proud Midwestern progressive who has never 
             forgotten the hope and dignity that smart, compassionate 
             government gave his family when they needed it. He has 
             never tired of working to make sure that other families 
             have the same chances his family had.
               I wish Tom and Ruth, their daughters, and grandchildren 
             all the best.
               Tom Harkin leaves a legacy of achievement and 
             compassion. I will miss his presence in this Senate but he 
             and Ruth will always be a part of our Senate family.

               Mr. COONS. ... As I close, I would also like to thank 
             those of our colleagues who will be leaving the Senate 
             after the New Year.
               It is an incredible privilege to work in this Chamber 
             and to represent the people. Every day I am awed by the 
             dedication and talent of many of my colleagues, public 
             servants who come to work to fight for their States and 
             their government.
               To those who are ending their service in the Senate, 
             know that I value your friendship and partnership. It has 
             been an honor to work with you, and I thank you for all 
             you have done for our Nation.

               Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I add my congratulations to 
             Senator Chambliss. It is strange, coming here in the last 
             2 years and getting to serve only 2 years with giants in 
             the Senate like Saxby, like Tom Harkin, and like Senator 
             Rockefeller, whose legacies will live on. ...

               Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, it is hard to believe how 
             quickly this session of Congress has come to an end. 
             Before that final gavel brings it to a close, however, it 
             is good to have this time to express our appreciation for 
             the service of those Members who will be retiring at the 
             end of the year. They all have a lot to be proud of--from 
             their first speech here on the floor to their 
             representation of their State over the years.
               Those words cannot help but bring to mind Tom Harkin. I 
             have had a chance to come to know him and work with him as 
             the chairman of the Health Committee. I have been very 
             impressed with his dedication to his work and his 
             determination to make a difference for the people who 
             voted to hire him on for the job--and all Americans in all 
             of the States.
               I think one of the reasons why we were able to work 
             together has to do with his Wyoming background. Tom spent 
             some of the best years of his life in Rock Springs and I 
             cannot help but think that his time there made a big 
             difference in his life.
               Tom has quite a remarkable record of service to the 
             people of Iowa and it is clear they feel the same about 
             him. They have sent him back to the Senate to serve as 
             their representative for five terms in the House and five 
             terms in the Senate. During his service in the Senate I 
             appreciated having the opportunity to work with him as the 
             ranking member of the committee. In addition, the 
             leadership he has provided the committee as chairman has 
             enabled him to take an active role on issues that will 
             have an impact on his home State and the rest of the 
             country for many years to come.
               If I were to name just a few of the issues on which Tom 
             has made a difference I would begin with his work on 
             behalf of those living with disabilities that resulted in 
             the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tom's 
             groundbreaking legislation was written to help ensure all 
             Americans would have an opportunity to lead more 
             fulfilling and productive lives. In the days to come, his 
             work on this issue will continue to provide the support 
             that will help those living with disabilities to work 
             toward their goals in life--and achieve them.
               I also wanted to point out his work with our education 
             system. Tom understands the importance of a good education 
             and the difference it makes in young lives--today and 
             tomorrow. Thanks to his hard work and determination 
             students of all ages have a new appreciation for the fact 
             that an education consists of more than just a few years 
             in a classroom--it is a lifelong adventure, a journey that 
             never ends because there is always something new to learn, 
             some new skill that will make someone a more valuable 
             member of the workforce.
               I am sure he has heard it before but it is pretty clear 
             that Tom Harkin is Iowa, through and through. He has 
             devoted so many years of his life to the people of his 
             State and they are greatly appreciative of his efforts--
             and the results he has been able to achieve.
               Now, as Tom has made clear, it is time for someone else 
             to step up to the plate and continue the work he has begun 
             on so many issues. There is no question that you will be a 
             difficult act to follow. For all those years Tom's heart 
             and soul has been in Iowa while his mind and his focus has 
             been in the Nation's Capital, working to make Iowa a 
             better place to live.
               Now Tom's remarkable career in the House and the Senate 
             has come to a close and this chapter of his great 
             adventure of serving the people of Iowa here in Congress 
             has concluded. While we did not always agree on the best 
             way to get things done we always agreed that we needed to 
             focus on what we could do to have the greatest impact on 
             the lives of Americans all across the country. 
             Fortunately, I think we succeeded in many ways and Tom 
             will be remembered for those positive results--and so many 
             more.
               One last Tom Harkin memory has to do with his popcorn 
             tradition. I know I am not the only one who hopes it will 
             continue. I do not think a single visitor to your office 
             or that section of the building will ever forget the 
             wonderful aroma your Iowa popcorn sent all around the 
             area. For visitors from back home it must have been a 
             touch that made them feel right at home. It was just more 
             proof that you never lost sight of the people back home 
             and they loved you for that.
               Thank you, Tom Harkin, for all you have brought to the 
             House and the Senate over the years. You have made it 
             clear what the people of Iowa expect from their government 
             and what you were working so hard to achieve for them. 
             Thank you for your service, thank you for your dedication 
             to making our Nation a better place to live and most of 
             all, thank you for your friendship. You have not only been 
             a witness to the history of your State and our country, 
             you have helped to write each chapter over the years. In 
             the days to come your achievements will continue to 
             inspire the next generation of our leaders who will want 
             to do what you have done. I am sure they can count on you 
             for your insights, suggestions, and advice. Diana joins in 
             sending our best wishes to you.
                        ORDER FOR PRINTING OF SENATE DOCUMENT
               Mr. BENNET. I ask unanimous consent that the tributes to 
             retiring Senators be printed as a Senate document and that 
             Senators be permitted to submit tributes until December 
             23, 2014.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so 
             ordered.
                                              Friday, December 12, 2014
               Mr. LEVIN. I know that Senator Harkin is waiting to 
             speak. Senator Harkin is truly one of the greatest 
             Senators I have ever served with and Senator Harkin is one 
             of the greatest people I have ever known. He, Ruth, Barb, 
             and I have spent quality time, which is not always true 
             for many of us in the Senate to have that opportunity. ...
               I am going to join my family now. I know Tom will 
             forgive me for not listening, but I will be reading what 
             you say. You, Ruth, Barb, and I will have some more 
             quality time together--perhaps not as much fun as being in 
             the Senate, but we will make the best of it.

               Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, my colleagues are waiting 
             to speak to honor Senator Harkin. I am not going to take 
             the amount of time I did on his birthday. I want to tell 
             my colleagues that what I said on his birthday, on 
             November 19, I probably should have waited and said today.
               I want to speak about our working relationship, and I 
             want Senator Harkin to know that I have enjoyed my working 
             relationship with him, together working for Iowa. I 
             compliment him on the many accomplishments he has made. I 
             consider him a friend. As he goes back to Iowa, we will 
             maintain that friendship, I am sure.
               I would ask my colleagues if they would think about 
             looking at what I said before on his birthday, because I 
             am not going to repeat that here. But I think we ought to 
             recognize that Senator Harkin worked hard up to his last 
             day in the U.S. Senate, because one of his works over the 
             last 25 years was on inhumane labor issues around the 
             world, and he traveled to Oslo very recently to honor a 
             person who received the Nobel Peace Prize for that 
             crusade, as well as all the good work that Senator Harkin 
             has done on it. Probably that person received the award 
             because of Senator Harkin so long suggesting that the 
             individual deserved that attention.
               I am going to be very brief today, since my prior 
             remarks outlined our friendship and his record in some 
             detail. It is in the Congressional Record for posterity.
               Senator Harkin and I have been a duo from our home State 
             of Iowa for a long period of time. His voice is familiar. 
             So is his point of view, so is his work ethic for the 
             people of Iowa.
               He has been a champion for individuals with disability, 
             for the elderly, for early childhood education, nutrition, 
             and wellness; for conservation, renewable energy, and the 
             environment. We could go on and on about his passion for 
             these causes, and many others.
               Senator Harkin's legislative accomplishments are 
             numerous. He leaves a lasting body of work that improves 
             the quality of life for people who don't always have a 
             high profile in the Halls of Congress.
               One of Senator Harkin's greatest legacies is his ability 
             to translate his drive and passion into legislative 
             accomplishments. As the saying goes: He doesn't just talk 
             the talk, he walks the walk.
               Senator Tom Harkin lives and breathes the causes 
             important to him, and the United States and Americans have 
             a better quality of life because of it.
               It will be a new era when the Senate doesn't see him 
             rising to speak in his characteristic fiery delivery. It 
             may not have been so fiery today, but he did speak with 
             emotion about the things he believes in.
               I am grateful for his friendship and his long service to 
             the people of Iowa and the Nation. While I will miss him 
             around the Capitol, I am confident I will see him at home 
             in Iowa. Senator Harkin is not one to turn off his 
             enthusiasm for important issues, and I feel sure--and he 
             has already told us today--he will continue his 
             contribution to public service wherever and whenever the 
             spirit moves him. We know by his statement today it is 
             already moving him. He has plans for the future to 
             continue these crusades.
               With that in mind, I will say so long rather than 
             goodbye. Thank you.
               I yield the floor.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

               Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I start by saying that as 
             Senator Harkin was so eloquently speaking today, it 
             reminded me of a story of those going by the casket of 
             President Roosevelt.
               A reporter stopped someone and said, ``Did you know 
             President Roosevelt?''
               And he said, ``No, but he knew me.''
               There are people across this country--people with 
             disabilities, workers, folks trying hard to get up that 
             ladder--who want to know there are rungs on it, or want to 
             be able to stay in the middle class, who may not be able 
             to say they know Senator Tom Harkin personally, but he 
             knows them.
               We are so grateful, and I am personally grateful, for 
             your friendship and your leadership and mentorship.
               I want to speak for a moment as chair of the 
             Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, where I 
             had to follow the tough act of Senator Tom Harkin writing 
             the previous two farm bills.
               He has shaped agriculture and food and nutrition policy 
             in the House and Senate for 40 years, having a tremendous 
             impact, more than we can even imagine, in terms of not 
             only advocating for Iowa farmers--and I knew every day 
             what Iowa needed; that is for sure--and having both 
             Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley on the committee gave 
             the one-two punch for Iowa. But I have to remind all of my 
             colleagues that Senator Harkin really is the father of 
             modern conservation, of protecting our water and our soil 
             and our air, our wildlife habitat, our forests.
               Senator Harkin is the father of modern conservation. He 
             wrote the conservation stewardship program that he created 
             in 2002 and expanded on in 2008, and we protected it in 
             the last farm bill.

               Mr. HARKIN. Thank you.

               Ms. STABENOW. And he gave new strength to the farm 
             safety net for all of our growers. He has been at the 
             forefront of an energy future that he talked about today, 
             driven by renewable energy and moving forward to get us to 
             cleaner sources of energy. That creates jobs, as I know 
             has happened in Iowa because of his leadership. So we 
             thank you.
               There are so many things--the fresh fruit and vegetable 
             program in schools where children in low-income schools 
             have an opportunity to eat an apple rather than something 
             out of the vending machine that isn't good for them, the 
             opportunities for children to have healthier choices. 
             Senator Harkin has led over and over again. I can go over 
             every part of our agriculture and food policy improvements 
             that have been made that have been led by Senator Tom 
             Harkin, and we are so grateful.
               Senator Tom Harkin has been a personal mentor for me. In 
             the toughest times of getting this last farm bill done, 
             Senator Harkin gave me words of advice and wisdom--and 
             many times encouragement--and for that I am very grateful, 
             and have learned so much.
               I want to thank Senator Harkin for being a hero for 
             generations of people with disabilities, including people 
             in my own family, who have had doors opened because of 
             what he has done. The Americans with Disabilities Act 
             revolutionized the possibilities and the opportunities for 
             people. It is about opportunity; it is not about giving 
             people something for free, but opening doors which they 
             still have to walk through. Senator Harkin has done that 
             in a way that will be with us forever, when we look at 
             building structures and opportunities in workplaces for 
             people who want to work but just need a little different 
             kind of opportunity and now have that available.
               It was clear when Senator Harkin spoke about his family 
             how it shaped his sensibilities and passions. I remember 
             his speaking about growing up in a two-bedroom house in 
             Cumming, IA, that he shared with his parents and five 
             siblings. That is pretty challenging. Growing up with his 
             brother Frank who was born deaf gave him an understanding 
             of the obstacles to those with disabilities and a 
             commitment came from his heart and soul about making life 
             better--and he has. You have.
               I recall also when he talked about his father losing his 
             40-acre farm, and the New Deal giving him a chance to 
             support you and to support your family despite the fact 
             that he had a sixth grade education. He had the 
             opportunity to move ahead and work hard because somebody 
             out there, who didn't know his name, gave him an 
             opportunity to do so, which is what is our job to do.
               I know Senator Harkin's crusades to protect workers on 
             the job was influenced by witnessing his father struggle 
             with black lung disease, looking at him as a coal miner 
             and what he went through.
               I believe Senator Harkin is the definition of a self-
             made man. He grew up taking advantage of opportunities as 
             well as enduring the challenges and the circumstances of 
             his life, transforming and using that experience to create 
             better opportunities for everyone across the country.
               He is a patriot, having served in the Navy. He gained 
             his education through the GI bill and understands that is 
             an important part of creating opportunity and giving back 
             to people who serve for us and lay their lives on the line 
             for us.
               I know you are totally committed in your heart and soul 
             to education starting at birth right on through for the 
             rest of our lives.
               So I want to thank you, finally, for your leadership on 
             the HELP Committee, your hard work and your passion in 
             health care, your support working with me on mental health 
             care, your efforts on education, your efforts in 
             pensions--which, by the way, are promises we need to keep. 
             All of the things you have done through the HELP Committee 
             are things that will last for a long time to come.
               I know in Iowa, thanks to you, there are eight times 
             more community health centers than there were 25 years 
             ago--wow--so somebody can see a doctor and they can take 
             their children to a doctor, which will live on in their 
             lives.
               I want to thank you for being someone who knows how to 
             make laws, somebody who wants to solve problems, who in 
             his heart and soul is passionately, lovingly concerned 
             about our country. I know that you and Ruth and your 
             daughters and your grandchildren will have many more 
             opportunities to enjoy each other's lives but know there 
             are people in this country who are enjoying opportunities 
             because of you, and we salute you.
               Thank you, Mr. President.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.

               Mr. ALEXANDER. Senator Harkin's legacy is he stands as a 
             champion of Americans with disabilities. It will be a long 
             time before there is a greater champion of Americans with 
             disabilities in this body and I salute him for that.
               I salute him also for his leadership and style of 
             leadership. I had the privilege of the last 2 years being 
             ranking member of the HELP Committee. Senator Kennedy used 
             to say that we have 30 percent of the jurisdiction of the 
             Senate, and it seems like it sometimes. If you know our 
             committee, down one row is the murderers' row of liberals 
             or progressives who are of the Democratic persuasion; and 
             down the other side is a pretty good row of conservatives 
             of the Republican persuasion--12 on this side, 10 on this 
             side. So we have plenty of differences of opinions and we 
             don't hesitate to express them. Yet during these 2 years, 
             Senator Harkin and his leadership style have found a way 
             for there to be 24 pieces of legislation, signed by the 
             President of the United States, many of them very 
             significant, some of which took several years to do, 
             whether it was the compounding pharmacy, which was so 
             important in our State, the tragedy of meningitis from 
             unsterile products; whether it was the track-and-trace 
             legislation or the changes in workforce development that 
             gave more discretion to Governors and the citizens in 
             their communities. His style of leadership permitted that 
             to happen and I am grateful to him for that. I would 
             suggest to the Senate as we look forward to a time when 
             the Senate might be more functional and more productive 
             that one way to earn the respect of the people of this 
             country for this body, which is supposed to be the one 
             authentic piece of genius of the American political 
             system, is to look at the way the Health, Education, 
             Labor, and Pensions Committee has operated over the last 3 
             years under the leadership of Senator Harkin. I salute him 
             for his service and I thank him for that.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

               Mr. FRANKEN. I rise to talk about Senator Harkin. As the 
             soon-to-be chairman of the HELP Committee, Senator 
             Alexander is right about the HELP Committee, it is an 
             important committee. Sometimes I say it is not that 
             important unless you care about your health, your kids' 
             health, your parents' health, your kids' education or your 
             education, if you want to work sometime in your life, and 
             you plan to retire. Other than that, it is not very 
             important.
               But I want to talk a little bit about Tom Harkin, not as 
             a Senator but as a staffer. We have seen today when the 
             Senators give their final speeches, they talk about their 
             staff. Tom came in 1969 as a staffer for Neal Smith from 
             Iowa. The staffers, as much as we treasure our staffers, 
             they love this work for their Member and they love working 
             in this institution, and they love working in Congress--at 
             that point he was in the House. So at this point he is, I 
             believe, 29 or 30 years old. This was during the Vietnam 
             war, and there was something called Vietnamization. 
             President Nixon asked a congressional delegation to go to 
             Vietnam to look at how Vietnamization was working and what 
             was going on. While Tom Harkin was there as a staffer, a 
             couple of Congressmen were told about some conditions on 
             an island called Con Son where there were prisoners that 
             the South Vietnamese Government was abusing very badly. 
             The Congressmen requisitioned a plane to go to Con Son, 
             about 100 miles off the coast of the mainland of Vietnam, 
             and I believe the supervisor of the group who was there to 
             talk about the Vietnam prison system said this was sort of 
             like a Boy Scout recreational camp--that is exactly what 
             he said.
               So when they landed there, Tom took a couple staffers 
             and Members, got a map from someone who had told him about 
             this secret prison, and found it, where there were people 
             being horribly abused. Tom took pictures. Tom was told to 
             turn over the film. Tom didn't turn over the film. Tom was 
             then told that his employment in the Congress depended on 
             him turning over that film--a 30-year-old staffer at the 
             beginning of what most staffers hope is a career. That 
             film showed up in Life magazine and had a profound effect, 
             and Tom's career was over.
               That takes a lot of guts. That takes courage. That takes 
             the courage of your convictions, and that is what I have 
             seen in Tom Harkin. I learned about this when Franni and I 
             went with Ruth and Tom on a codel to Vietnam. I just spoke 
             about Carl Levin and talked about a codel with him, and I 
             talked about this codel with Tom. I have got to go on more 
             codels, I just figured out.
               This is what I observed, because this was the chairman 
             of the HELP Committee, and I got to watch that courage and 
             that courage of his convictions, as well as what Lamar 
             talked about, working well across party lines.
               I hold the seat that Paul Wellstone formerly held. I 
             would say that Tom was Paul's best friend. Tom every once 
             in a while talks about his brother and the experiences 
             behind Tom's signature achievement, the Americans with 
             Disabilities Act. Paul Wellstone led on mental health and 
             mental health parity, and that was because of his brother. 
             That is the legacy I want to carry on. I have not had Paul 
             here to be a role model, but I have had Tom Harkin, and it 
             has been a privilege.
               I thank the Senator.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

               Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, we are going to continue 
             with the Minnesota theme, and I think Senator Harkin knows 
             that our two States, Minnesota and Iowa, share more than 
             just a border. We share a lot of people with relatives on 
             either side of the border. I cannot tell you how many of 
             my friends have their roots in Iowa and how many people in 
             Iowa have their kids in Minnesota.
               We also share citizens who have a strong sense of 
             involvement. We have some of the highest voter turnouts in 
             the country. We both have notorious caucus systems where 
             people like to turn out and make their views known, and 
             our States have produced politicians such as Tom Harkin 
             and Hubert Humphrey, who came up through that tradition 
             and understand that you are there to represent the people 
             of your State because when you go home, they actually come 
             up to you in grocery stores, on the street, call you by 
             your first name, and understand that you are there to 
             represent them.
               We also share farming and we share this enormous belief 
             in science. We actually share Norman Borlaug. There is a 
             new statue--the Presiding Officer must go see it--of 
             Norman Borlaug in Statutory Hall. He was born in Iowa and 
             studied in Iowa, but also studied at the University of 
             Minnesota. He created the Green Revolution, which has 
             helped so many impoverished people in countries all over 
             the world by reducing hunger.
               Tom Harkin has followed in that tradition. He believes 
             in science, believes in investing in agriculture research, 
             and believes in investing in NIH.
               The other thing about Tom and me that I knew no other 
             Senator would address is our Slovenian heritage. When Tom 
             leaves--and I see Senator Brown is here--and with the 
             former Senator from Ohio, Senator Voinovich, no longer 
             here, I will remain, I think, as the only Slovenian 
             Senator here. I am hoping someone will come forward and 
             tell me they have Slovenian blood. For a while 3 percent 
             of the U.S. Senate had roots in Slovenia, which is very 
             interesting given how infinitesimal the population of the 
             country is compared to the rest of the world.
               Tom loves his Slovenian roots. Like Tom, my ancestors 
             came from Slovenia to America to work in the mines. It is 
             a big part of our lives and what we believe in.
               One time Tom came to my Minnesota Morning Breakfast and 
             saw that every Thursday I serve potica to my constituents, 
             and that is unique to Slovenians. It is a rolled dough 
             with either apples or walnuts in it. My grandma used to 
             make it. She would literally borrow card tables and roll 
             the dough throughout her entire kitchen.
               I found a number of places on the Iron Range of northern 
             Minnesota, where my dad grew up, that make this potica, 
             and we bring it in.
               Tom came and tried it and decided that for Christmas he 
             would send a potica to every Member of the Senate for 
             Christmas. He called my office and said they don't make it 
             in Iowa. I said, ``Let me give you the name of a baker on 
             the Iron Range.'' He personally called this woman and 
             said, ``This is Tom Harkin. I am the Senator from Iowa. I 
             am calling to order 100 poticas from you, 1 for every 
             Member of the Senate for Christmas.'' In very gruff 
             Slovenian fashion, she said, ``I am sorry, it is 
             Christmas, and we are booked. We do not have the poticas 
             to send to Washington, DC.'' Then he said, ``I don't know 
             if you know who I am. I chair the Agriculture and Forestry 
             Committee--big forestry area--of the Senate.'' And she 
             said, ``I know exactly who you are, but we do not have the 
             poticas to send to Washington.''
               So at that moment, he called me. I gave him the names of 
             a number of other bakers, he found one, and every Senator 
             got a potica for Christmas.
               The last thing I will say about Tom that we share in 
             common--we both represent States that believe in helping 
             people who are the most vulnerable. He did that with his 
             support for small farmers with the farm bill, and he did 
             that in his support for the disability community.
               I was at the House this week talking about the ABLE Act 
             with some of the Members, and to a tee, every Republican 
             brought up--because Tom could not be there--Tom's work on 
             the ABLE Act. They knew we would not have the bill that 
             Senator Casey worked on without Tom Harkin, and, as you 
             know, this is just the next step for the disability 
             community. It will allow parents and grandparents and 
             friends and neighbors to set up funds so that if they are 
             not there when this young person grows up, there will be 
             money set aside for them.
               Tom Harkin was Paul Wellstone's best friend in the 
             Senate. Paul would say, ``Politics is about improving 
             people's lives.'' That is what Tom has done every day in 
             the Senate.
               Thank you, Tom.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.

               Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, in January of last year, I 
             walked onto the Senate floor for the second time in my 
             life. The first time that I got to be on the Senate floor 
             was in 1995 when I was an intern for my Senator, Chris 
             Dodd. Back then it was a little bit easier for interns to 
             come here, and he brought me down to the Senate floor one 
             afternoon.
               I knew what I wanted to do. I had a small handful of 
             people I wanted to meet. I don't know if I ever told this 
             to Tom, but I wanted to meet Tom Harkin, and I got to do 
             that. Twenty years ago he was a giant in the Senate. The 
             one point I wish to make is this--I had the chance to 
             serve with Tom on the HELP Committee and I have seen his 
             legislative ability and the respect he commands here, but 
             I have only known him for 2 years.
               Anyway, the point I want to make is that the effect he 
             has had on the legislative process stands as an 
             achievement in and of itself. I would argue that I am one 
             of tens of thousands of public servants who decided to go 
             into this line of work, decided to care about the kind of 
             things I care about because I watched Tom Harkin on 
             television growing up.
               I came from a family that was nonpolitical. My parents 
             were both registered Republicans. There is no genetic 
             reason why I do this other than seeing people like Tom 
             fight on behalf of the disabled and the disenfranchised 
             and the dispossessed. He gave me the idea that there was 
             some worth to being in this line of work. If you grew up 
             after Vietnam, you were taught this was crooked or not 
             worth being a part of, and then there was a handful of 
             people like Tom Harkin who told you it was worth being a 
             part of.
               The legacy that Senator Harkin will have--whether it is 
             the farm bill, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the 
             Workforce and Investment Act, that is all you need to 
             leave this place fulfilled. But to think there are tens of 
             thousands of people who, like me, are doing this kind of 
             work and trying to keep up the legacy you are going to 
             leave is something to be proud of as well. I feel lucky to 
             be a Member of this body in part because I got to meet Tom 
             Harkin 20 years ago, I was able to follow his lead, and I 
             was able to be inspired by him.
               I yield the floor.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

               Mr. BROWN. Tom Harkin is my hero. Tom Harkin has never 
             shied away from a fight when it comes to workers rights 
             not only for Iowa but for workers all across the country 
             and workers around the world.
               He has come to many of us repeatedly and said, ``Don't 
             forget what our obligation is to the community of men and 
             women around the world who labor with their hands, who 
             fight challenges every day, who are abused in the 
             workplace, who are abused as children in the workplace.'' 
             Tom Harkin has been the single strongest voice for as long 
             as I can remember for those workers.
               Tom comes from a right-to-work State. It is not always 
             easy to stand up for labor unions and organized labor. We 
             have a press and media in this country which is 
             consistently antilabor.
               We have a political class in this country at every 
             opportunity that tries to undermine organized labor and 
             undermine the rights of human beings to organize and 
             bargain collectively, and Tom recognized that is one of 
             most important rights that human beings have.
               Tom Harkin, being from a right-to-work State, knows he 
             will face a difficult election darn near every 6 years. 
             One of the little-noted historical facts about Tom 
             Harkin--and I have not heard anyone else mention--is that 
             Senator Harkin has defeated more incumbent Members of 
             Congress than any elected official in U.S. history, and 
             that is not because of the luck of the draw or some 
             lottery in Des Moines or Iowa City or Davenport. It is 
             because Tom Harkin doesn't shy away from his strong 
             beliefs in the rights of humanity--organizing and 
             collective bargaining rights. When you are willing to 
             stand up day after day--not just in quiet groups in the 
             Democratic caucus--on this floor and you are willing to 
             stand up in Dubuque and the more conservative parts of 
             southwest Iowa and argue for labor rights, you are saying 
             to the other side: Bring them on. Bring on big money, 
             bring on antilabor forces. He expected to have tough 
             elections, and that is why Tom Harkin is my hero and 
             always will be.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.

               Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I too rise to share a few 
             comments about my friend Tom Harkin who has contributed so 
             much to this fight and to put rungs on the ladder so 
             ordinary people across America have a fair shot to thrive.
               When I first came out here as an intern in 1976, you 
             were already over on the House side--no, not yet. It was 
             about 1974, and I was working away, so I didn't get to 
             meet you then. But there were a series of speeches by 
             Senators when I was an intern here on the Senate side, and 
             one of them was by Hubert Humphrey.
               Hubert Humphrey was well known for saying that a society 
             should be judged by how they treat those in the dawn of 
             their lives, children, the twilight of their lives, 
             seniors, and those who are in the shadow, the sick and 
             disabled. When I think of that vision, I see Tom Harkin. I 
             see Tom Harkin fighting for children who are oppressively 
             working around the world under unacceptable circumstances. 
             Tom Harkin carries out the fight for those children and 
             for children's health care.
               I have seen him fight for our seniors, and just this 
             week he was speaking passionately about the obligations we 
             have to honor the retirement strategy so people can serve 
             their senior years in dignity. He fights for those who are 
             disabled, which we have heard about so much today.
               I thank Tom Harkin for taking his years on this planet 
             and dedicating them to this battle for those in the dawn 
             of their life, for those in the twilight of their life, 
             and for those in the shadows. No one has done a better 
             job.
               I also wish to thank Tom for the recent battles I have 
             had a chance to be a part of--the fight to end 
             discrimination in the workplace for our LGBT community, 
             which you shepherded through your committee and got to the 
             floor for the first time in which this bill has been 
             enforced since 1996, and proceeded to pass by a 2 to 1 
             bipartisan majority because of that firm foundation laid 
             out in the committee.
               I wish to thank you for your minimum wage bill and for 
             saying to America: Here is a vision: No one who works full 
             time should live in poverty. That is absolutely right. We 
             didn't win the battle over minimum wage, but we advanced 
             the conversation--you advanced the conversation. I thank 
             you for doing so, and for carrying out battle after 
             battle, and in so many cases, succeeding. In those cases 
             when the circumstances weren't yet all lined up, you 
             continued the fight, carried the voice so we would find 
             that moment in the future when we could secure a victory 
             for ordinary working people, for those who are disabled, 
             for our children, and for our seniors.
               I thank you for your service in the Senate. Well done.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.

               Mr. CARPER. The Senator from Oregon has thanked Tom for 
             his service in the Senate. I wish to thank him for his 
             service before he was in the Senate when he and I were 
             kids--well, not exactly--but when we served in the U.S. 
             services. We spent some time in airplanes--not in the same 
             airplane, but roughly at the same time. A lot of times 
             people come up to me and thank me for my service in the 
             Navy--and I am sure they do that with you--and I tell them 
             that I loved it. I loved the men and women I served with, 
             I loved the missions, and it was an honor to do that. I 
             wanted to start off by thanking you for that, and to say 
             that is one of the bonds which has drawn us together as 
             friends right from the start.
               The Senator from Oregon mentioned your strong effort to 
             raise the minimum wage, which ultimately was not 
             successful. I want to mention a couple of issues I have 
             had the privilege of working on with you that I think have 
             been very successful. There is a battle that needs to 
             continue to be fought, and I plan to continue to do that, 
             and my hope is that you and others will do it too.
               As veterans, I know how important the GI bill was for me 
             and for you as well. I think we got about $250 a month on 
             the GI bill, and I was happy to have every dime of it. I 
             moved from California to the University of Delaware when I 
             got out of the Navy, got an MBA, and I still flew for the 
             Navy and the Reserves, and it was a huge help for me.
               The folks who get the GI bill today come back from 
             Afghanistan and Iraq or wherever, and if they have served 
             for 3 years they get the GI bill, as you know, and that 
             means they get full tuition. If they go to the University 
             of Iowa, Delaware State, Iowa State, they get free 
             tuition. They get free books, fees, tutoring. In my State 
             they get a $1,500-a-month housing allowance. That is the 
             GI bill today.
               There are a bunch of colleges around the country that--
             just as they did when my dad came back from World War II 
             or when my Uncle Ed came back from the Korean war, others 
             have come back from Vietnam and so forth--there are scam 
             artists involved with postsecondary training schools, 
             sometimes colleges, and they see the GI with that benefit, 
             and they see it as if it were a dollar sign on their back, 
             and they want to go after the dollar sign and separate the 
             value from the benefit.
               The Senator from Iowa has worked on this so hard, trying 
             to make sure--there are plenty of for-profit postsecondary 
             schools and such that do a good job, and there are some 
             that don't. Nobody has been as active in trying to make 
             sure that we clean this up as you have been, my friend, 
             and my friend from Illinois, Dick Durbin, and I am pleased 
             to be the wingman on this. I promise that Senator Durbin 
             and I aren't going away. The folks who do this job right, 
             the for-profits that are doing a good job by veterans and 
             taxpayers, we salute them; and those who do not, we are 
             going after them. So I thank you and your staff for 
             standing up for veterans consistently.
               The other thing I wanted to mention is that many people 
             are having lunch right now across the eastern part of our 
             country, maybe getting ready, over in Iowa, to have some 
             lunch. If people go into a chain restaurant where there 
             are 15 or more restaurants in that chain across the 
             country--I think it is 15 or 20--they look at the menu to 
             order, and right there they see the calories. If they want 
             more information about the fats, trans fats, the amount of 
             sodium in the food--all kinds of information--they get it.
               We are a nation where obesity is a huge problem, a huge 
             cost driver in health care. I thank the Senator for 
             leading the charge on menu labeling, which is the reality 
             in our country, and you should feel good about that. I 
             feel very good about that.
               It has been a blessing knowing you and serving with you, 
             Tom. There is an old saying: Flattery won't hurt you if 
             you don't inhale. You are having a lot of flattery thrown 
             at you here today, so don't breathe too deeply and you 
             should be OK.
               We thank and salute you and your wife Ruth and your 
             family. In the Navy, when people have done a really good 
             job, we say words like ``bravo zulu,'' and I say bravo 
             zulu to you. When people are ready to weigh anchor and 
             sail off into the sunrise, we say things like ``fair winds 
             and following seas,'' and I say that to you as well. God 
             bless you.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

               Mr. DURBIN. I will speak briefly because I put a 
             statement in the Record, but I just want to say, Tom, that 
             next to the State of Illinois, I spend more time 
             campaigning in your State of Iowa than any other State. 
             Obviously the Presidential caucus brought me over there, 
             and I have come to know your home State of Iowa and to 
             appreciate that even though there is an extraordinary 
             Iowa-Illinois democratic organization, it is a tough State 
             and there are elections that are hotly contested.
               I recall that when I was running for the Senate in 1996, 
             you called into our headquarters and spoke to my campaign 
             manager, who said, ``How is it going, Senator Harkin?''
               You said, ``I am besieged.''
               It was a tough campaign, but you survived it and many 
             others. I think it is because of two things: No. 1 is your 
             dogged determination, and No. 2 is your commitment to 
             values that you have never given up on.
               I think there is an authenticity to Tom Harkin that has 
             saved him in tough years. People who disagreed with you 
             respected you because you stood up for what you believed 
             in. Some of the ideals you and I believe in may not be as 
             fashionable politically as they once were. There was once 
             a time when I worked for a man named Paul Douglas who 
             called himself in the Senate ``a good liberal.'' You don't 
             hear that word much anymore, do you? But the fact is, 
             there are moments in our Nation's history and in the lives 
             of ordinary people--the American family--when our 
             government needs to step in and help--and you have done 
             it. You have done it so many times. I won't repeat all 
             that has been said, but whether you were fighting for 
             working families, fighting for the poor, fighting for the 
             disabled, fighting to make sure every family had peace of 
             mind when it came to food safety--I am not sure that has 
             been mentioned, but the Senator from Iowa worked on that, 
             and I thank him for that leadership and inspiration.
               Finally, let me say I have been happy to team up with 
             you on this issue involving for-profit schools.
               I will tell my colleagues that the Senator's hearings 
             set a standard in terms of asking the right questions and 
             hard questions of an industry that by and large exploits 
             young people and their families, sinking these kids deep 
             in debt at the expense of American taxpayers and doing it 
             many times with the promise of nothing but a worthless 
             diploma when it is all over.
               I know, because I have tried, that the industry--the 
             for-profit colleges have friends in high places in 
             Washington, DC. I can promise you this: As long as I can 
             do it physically, I will continue to wage this battle in 
             your name and in your memory because of all your 
             leadership in this area.
               Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for being a 
             neighbor. And thank you for really standing up for the 
             right causes over the course of your public service.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.

               Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I am going to be brief. The 
             truth is that the Senator we are honoring right now, Tom 
             Harkin, will go down in history as one of the great 
             Senators of this particular period in American history. 
             Not many Senators, if any, have a list of enormous 
             accomplishments anywhere close to what Senator Harkin has 
             accomplished.
               I would like to tell my colleagues a little story. It 
             turns out that coincidentally, really, I have traveled 
             with Senator Harkin to a number of places around the world 
             as part of congressional delegations. Like most 
             congressional delegations, we meet with the leadership of 
             the country, the President and so forth. But what was 
             interesting in traveling with Senator Harkin is wherever 
             you go, he gets honored by ordinary people in those 
             countries.
               We went to Vietnam a number of years ago. Many people 
             will not remember, but the truth is that one of the very 
             first people ever to expose the terrible prison conditions 
             that the South Vietnam Government had established was Tom 
             Harkin. So we go there and we meet people who had been 
             imprisoned in tiger cages, and they said, ``Senator 
             Harkin, thank you very much for exposing those conditions 
             and improving our lives.''
               There was a very emotional response.
               Then I went with him to Ghana, and it turns out that in 
             Ghana and in countries in Africa, Tom Harkin had been a 
             leader in fighting against child labor. There were kids 8 
             or 9 years of age who should be in school who were out 
             picking crops. And Tom Harkin, working with people all 
             over the world, had a real impact on getting those kids 
             into school.
               We went to a school, a beautiful school which is 
             partially funded by the U.S. Government. We have bright 
             kids who are in school, and they were so proud of the 
             assistance we had given them, where they were in school 
             and not working in fields.
               Then we went to Chile. We met with the President of 
             Chile, all the dignitaries of Chile. Who knew this? We 
             went to Chile, and Tom Harkin got an award from the 
             government.
               In the very dark days of the Pinochet government, when 
             the democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador 
             Allende, was overthrown in a violent coup by Pinochet--
             with, unfortunately, the assistance of the U.S. 
             Government--and people were rounded up and put into prison 
             camps and tortured and killed, Tom Harkin went knocking on 
             the door to one of the prison camps. Pretty crazy, but 
             that is what he did. He was met with soldiers with guns. 
             But he exposed that particular prison camp and played a 
             role in facilitating the ending of some of the more 
             barbaric actions of the Pinochet government.
               Those are three trips I made with him. That is about 
             all. I am sure he has gone on other trips. That is a 
             pretty good record, internationally.
               Then, back home, in terms of disability issues, I can 
             remember and others can remember that 30, 40, 50 years 
             ago, families had kids born with disabilities, and often 
             those kids were institutionalized; they were hidden; they 
             were an embarrassment to the family. Something bad 
             happened; there was a child with a disability--Down 
             syndrome, whatever it may be. Think about the revolution 
             that has taken place, the mainstreaming of those kids. I 
             know in Vermont and all over this country, kids with 
             disabilities who are sitting in classrooms right now, 
             loved and respected by their fellow students, educating 
             their fellow students, making them more human, more 
             compassionate. I think many of us have been to high school 
             graduations where people with disabilities get their 
             diploma and people stand up and applaud those kids.
               There has been a transformation of the culture in terms 
             of how we deal with people with disabilities through the 
             Americans with Disabilities Act. That didn't happen by 
             accident. Tom Harkin wasn't the only person who did it, 
             but he helped lead the effort here in the U.S. Congress to 
             say that people with disabilities are part of the human 
             community and we are going to treat them with the dignity 
             they deserve.
               Then we have all the other issues that people have 
             talked about. Probably nobody in the Congress has been a 
             stronger fighter for working people and organized labor 
             than Tom Harkin.
               I think people come here, regardless of political 
             persuasion, to try to make a difference and do what they 
             think is right. We disagree about what is right, but I 
             think when we look at the list of accomplishments and the 
             enormously hard work that has gone into those 
             accomplishments, this man, Tom Harkin, will go down as one 
             of the great Senators of our period.
               Tom, thank you so much for all you have done.

               Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I wish to recognize a dear 
             friend, Senator Tom Harkin. Senator Harkin will be 
             retiring at the end of the month, but his influence will 
             be felt long after he leaves this Chamber. I speak for all 
             of my colleagues when I say he will be sorely missed.
               I consider myself lucky to have worked with Tom, and 
             even luckier to call him a friend. Tom has devoted his 
             life to public service.
               Like any good statesman, Tom is humble about his 
             achievements. Humility is a trait so often lacking in 
             accomplished men, but Tom is an exception. The allure and 
             glamour of beltway life never held sway over Tom, and his 
             years spent in the Nation's Capital have only shown that 
             he is an Iowa man through and through.
               The only thing that runs deeper than Tom's Iowa roots is 
             the corn that grows there. Tom still lives in the very 
             same house in the very same town where he was born--
             Cumming, IA, population: 383--a far cry from this bustling 
             metropolis. His family still keeps a farm in Cumming, and 
             I am sure he looks forward to spending many peaceful days 
             there in his retirement.
               Tom grew up in a family of modest means. His father was 
             a coal miner and his mother a Slovenian immigrant who 
             passed away when Tom was just 10 years old. From an early 
             age, Tom developed his signature work ethic by taking 
             various odd jobs on farms, at construction sites, and even 
             in a bottling plant.
               Tom's service to our Nation began long before he came to 
             Congress. He attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC 
             scholarship and served as an Active Duty Navy pilot for 5 
             years after graduation. Even after his full-time military 
             service, he continued to serve as a pilot in the Naval 
             Reserve. Tom is a man who always has and always will put 
             our country first. Even though he and I often disagreed on 
             matters of policy, I always knew that Tom had the best 
             interests of our Nation and those of his constituents in 
             mind.
               Tom and I first became good friends when I joined him in 
             sponsoring the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1989. At 
             the time, Tom was a first-term Senator approaching 
             reelection, and to support the ADA was politically risky. 
             But true to form, Tom bucked political expediency to 
             champion a law that the late Senator Ted Kennedy would 
             describe as the ``emancipation proclamation'' for those 
             with disabilities. Although the ADA faced serious 
             opposition, passing this legislation was personal for Tom, 
             whose brother, Frank, grew up deaf, and whose nephew was 
             quadriplegic. In the lives of these loved ones, Tom saw 
             how lack of opportunities for persons with disabilities 
             could make their lives all the more challenging.
               My friendship with Tom was forged in the battles we 
             fought to move the ADA through both Chambers of Congress. 
             I will never forget the day the Senate passed the bill in 
             1989. After the vote, Tom and I left the floor and walked 
             into the anteroom, where there were hundreds of persons 
             with disabilities in wheelchairs, on crutches, and with 
             various other disabilities waiting to receive us. Overcome 
             with emotion, both of us broke down and cried. It was a 
             moment I will never forget.
               I am not exaggerating when I say that Tom's work on this 
             hallmark legislation will have resounding effects for 
             generations to come. Because of the ADA, millions of 
             Americans with disabilities can now pursue the American 
             dream.
               Throughout his Senate career, Tom has always been there 
             to help those who could not help themselves. His work has 
             affected the lives of millions. Senator Harkin deserves 
             not only our recognition, but also our gratitude. I want 
             to wish him, his wife Ruth, and their family all the best.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

               Mr. INHOFE. Before the Senator from Iowa leaves, let me 
             make one comment. I look at him and all of those who are 
             saying nice things about the Senator from Iowa--and I am 
             from Iowa, so I can say this. My colleagues need to 
             remember that even conservatives can love Tom Harkin. I 
             think it is important for people to understand that.
               I have to say that I have been to I think at least 10 of 
             the airshows, and spending 90 percent of my time--my wife 
             and his wife, the four of us together, because we are both 
             pilots--sitting around and lying about airplanes, we got 
             real close to each other.
               I can say the same thing about my good friend Senator 
             Sanders, and I have said this on the floor before: The two 
             of you are two of my favorite in-the-heart liberals 
             because you are not ashamed of it. You stand up--exactly 
             what the Senator from Vermont just said. The things that I 
             have seen you do, you have a big heart. You have your own 
             philosophy. You are not a demagogue. You live your 
             philosophy.
               So I just want you to know there are a lot of 
             Republicans who love Senator Harkin just as much as the 
             liberals do. All right. Thank you.

               Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I wanted to speak about my 
             colleague Tom Harkin who will be retiring at the end of 
             this Congress. I commend him for his 40 years of service 
             in Congress for the people of Iowa.
               Senator Hubert Humphrey once said that the moral test of 
             government should be how it treats those in the dawn of 
             life, our children; those in the twilight of life, our 
             older citizens; and those in the shadows of life, people 
             with disabilities, among others. Tom Harkin's work in the 
             House and Senate has been a testament to what Senator 
             Humphrey said. Senator Harkin has never hesitated to stand 
             up and fight for those without power. He is also proud of 
             the legacy of the Great Society under President Lyndon 
             Johnson and never shies away from reminding us of the work 
             that was done then, or how much more we still have to do.
               When it comes to protecting and championing people with 
             disabilities, there is no equal to Tom Harkin. He helped 
             write the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, of 1990 
             and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. These bills did for 
             people with disabilities what the civil rights acts of the 
             1950s and 1960s did for African Americans. He authored the 
             Television Decoder Circuitry Act to create universal 
             closed captioning and he expanded services for children 
             with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities 
             in Education Act, IDEA. Under the Workforce Investment 
             Opportunity Act, he enhanced employment opportunities for 
             young people with disabilities and under the Affordable 
             Care Act he created the Community First Choice Option to 
             give States that offer services to people with 
             disabilities outside of nursing homes extra Federal 
             funding.
               Senator Harkin pushed the issue of prevention and the 
             health and wellness of Americans long before those issues 
             became national themes. Senator Harkin wrote the 
             prevention title in the Affordable Care Act and introduced 
             the first bill that allowed the Food and Drug 
             Administration, FDA, to regulate tobacco. He is also the 
             reason the word ``Prevention'' is included in the Centers 
             for Disease Control and Prevention's name. Child labor is 
             another area where Tom was ahead of the curve. The Clinton 
             administration's executive order, ``Prohibition of 
             Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced and Indentured 
             Child Labor,'' was backed by Senator Harkin and he helped 
             obtain the adoption and Senate ratification of United 
             Nations Convention 182, a treaty that called for the 
             elimination of the worst forms of child labor.
               On a personal note, I want to express my appreciation to 
             Chairman Harkin and his staff on the HELP Committee for 
             their help in getting three bills I introduced this 
             Congress passed into law--the Children's Hospital GME 
             Support Reauthorization Act, the Emergency Medical 
             Services for Children Reauthorization Act, and the 
             Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act. Without the 
             efforts of Chairman Harkin and his team, these bills would 
             not have moved forward.
               The late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, once said 
             that ``Politics is not just about power and money games, 
             politics can be about the improvement of people's lives, 
             about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing 
             about more peace and more justice.'' Tom Harkin is a 
             living example of those words. Our Nation and our world 
             are better today because of his life of service.
                                              Monday, December 15, 2014
               Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, Senator Tom Harkin and I 
             came to Washington in the same year--Tom, to the House of 
             Representatives, and I, to the Senate. For nearly 40 
             years, he has represented Iowans with the even temper and 
             strong commitment that has become a hallmark of his 
             tenure.
               Senator Harkin has been a leading defender of rights for 
             persons with disabilities, anchored by the landmark law he 
             authored, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Inspired by 
             the challenges faced by his own deaf brother, Tom Harkin 
             led a crusade to enact this historic legislation, ensuring 
             that individuals living with disabilities could not be 
             discriminated against because of those disabilities. The 
             ongoing effort to protect and support Americans--and 
             people around the world--living with disabilities, has 
             become a cornerstone of Senator Harkin's career.
               As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, 
             Education, Labor, and Pensions, HELP, Senator Harkin has 
             helped create a new model of health care, one focused on 
             prevention and health rather than reaction and sickness. 
             He was one of the leaders in crafting the Affordable Care 
             Act, giving millions of Americans better access to health 
             care. He has continually fought for the missions of and 
             the funding for the Centers for Disease Control, the 
             National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug 
             Administration.
               I have worked with Senator Harkin on a number of 
             matters, from international human rights to critical 
             funding for breast cancer research. Senator Harkin and I 
             have worked together in our shared commitment to America's 
             farmers and farming, an industry that is so critical to 
             both our States. Together we have worked to increase 
             conservation funding, promote water quality, and protect 
             the environment while supporting our family farmers.
               Tom Harkin is a lifelong Iowan. He and his wife Ruth 
             have given decades in public service representing the 
             people of Iowa. I want to congratulate him on an 
             accomplished career and wish him, Ruth, their wonderful 
             children and grandchildren all the very best.
                                             Tuesday, December 16, 2014
               Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, as we wind down the final days 
             of the 113th Congress, it is a good time both to reflect 
             on the past and to look toward the future. I have been 
             very moved as I listened to the farewell speeches of our 
             departing Senators, and I wish I had time to pay tribute 
             to each one of them. They have all been wonderful 
             colleagues, and I enjoyed working with and getting to know 
             every one of them. I wish them all the very best in all 
             their future endeavors. They will most certainly be 
             missed. ...

               Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I wish to recognize Senator 
             Tom Harkin and his 30 years of Senate service.
               When Senator Harkin retires at the end of this year, he 
             will also step down from his chairmanship of the Senate 
             Committee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, a 
             post from which he has advocated progressive policies 
             aimed at increasing opportunity for all Americans.
               One of Senator Harkin's greatest legislative 
             achievements is the Americans with Disabilities Act, 
             legislation that he fought for on behalf of millions of 
             disabled Americans. The ADA is truly a landmark law in 
             this country, and Senator Harkin's decades of work on this 
             issue will never be forgotten.
               Senator Harkin also has a strong legacy as a champion 
             for human rights, which began even before his election to 
             public office while he was still a staffer on Capitol 
             Hill. Invited to travel with a congressional delegation to 
             Vietnam in summer 1970, Senator Harkin arranged for the 
             group to visit the Con Son Prison in order to investigate 
             allegations of human rights abuses by the South Vietnamese 
             Government. At the prison, the delegation strayed from the 
             official tour and found abused prisoners held in so-called 
             ``tiger cages,'' which Senator Harkin documented 
             extensively with a camera. In defiance of some of the 
             delegation members, Senator Harkin courageously handed 
             over the pictures to Life magazine in order to better 
             educate the American public about U.S. involvement in 
             Vietnam.
               I have been fortunate to witness first hand Senator 
             Harkin's passion for U.S. leadership in human rights 
             during our service together on the Senate Appropriations 
             Committee, where he has brought heightened attention to 
             the scourge of child labor and exploitation. I know this 
             is one particular issue on which Senator Harkin feels his 
             work has just begun, and I look forward to hearing of his 
             continued efforts on behalf of vulnerable children around 
             the world.
               On a more personal note, I will miss competing with 
             Senator Harkin's office for the most staff participants in 
             the Everybody Wins! DC Reading Mentorship Program, a great 
             cause in which Senator Harkin has been involved in for the 
             last 16 years.
               I join my colleagues in thanking Senator Harkin for his 
             dedicated service in the Senate and wish him all the best 
             in retirement.

               Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I wish to recognize the 
             accomplishments of the distinguished Senator from Iowa, 
             Tom Harkin, who is retiring this year.
               Senator Harkin has served in the House and Senate for 
             nearly 40 years. During those 40 years he has been a 
             consistent and inspirational voice for the idea that 
             America should be a place where everyone can succeed.
               Tom's life experiences shaped who he fought for and why. 
             His mother died when he was 10. His father never got 
             beyond the sixth grade and suffered from black lung 
             disease. He grew up in a tiny town in Iowa. He saw what 
             the New Deal, Social Security, and Medicare did for his 
             family and he saw government as a force that could lift 
             people up and give them hope.
               Last week, during his farewell remarks to this body, he 
             said something that the progressives among us should take 
             to heart. He said:

               I believe government must not be just an observant 
             bystander to life. It must be a force for good, for 
             lifting people up, for giving hope to the hopeless.

               Under Tom Harkin's watch, government certainly has not 
             been a bystander.
               One of his proudest accomplishments was gaining passage 
             of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Tom stood 
             with people with disabilities, one of the largest 
             minorities in the United States, to enact historic 
             legislation that changed the lives of millions of people. 
             I was proud to cosponsor and support the 2008 Americans 
             with Disabilities Amendments Act, which passed with 
             overwhelming bipartisan support. His commitment to 
             creating and expanding opportunities for those with 
             disabilities is a hallmark of his career.
               Senator Harkin will also be remembered for his tireless 
             leadership as the chairman of the Senate Health, 
             Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. As chairman he 
             worked to promote health care and education, fairness for 
             workers, equal rights, and, above all, the American dream. 
             He worked to fund those priorities for years on the 
             Appropriations Committee.
               These are some of Tom's signature issues. But equally 
             important has been his work fighting injustice and human 
             rights violations across the globe.
               As a young congressional staffer he traveled to Vietnam 
             and uncovered torture on Con Son Island, off of Vietnam. 
             There people were being held in ``tiger cages''--5 foot by 
             9 foot cells dug into the ground where three to five 
             people were held captive.
               While he lost his staff job over the pictures he took, 
             he shed light on atrocities that too many others had 
             either ignored or covered up.
               Tom's values and the results he has been able to achieve 
             have made him a powerful moral and progressive voice for 
             decades. Some of us were drawn to Tom during his 
             Presidential run in 1992. I was. As a Hawaii State 
             legislator, I supported the Senator from Iowa long before 
             I ever had the privilege of serving with him in the 
             Senate. In fact, when his bid for the Presidency ended, 
             some of us continued to support him, making buttons with a 
             slogan I coined: ``Harkin for the Heck of It!''
               Tom Harkin has done much to help build the ladders of 
             opportunity that he so firmly believes is a big part of 
             what government should do. His work inspires us to 
             continue pushing to see that every individual in our 
             country has an opportunity to improve his or her life for 
             the better.
               Last week in his farewell remarks, Tom noted that while 
             he is retiring from the Senate, he is not retiring from 
             ``the fight.'' He also gave those of us who are still here 
             a list of unfinished business to continue the fight.
               First, we have to do more to address income inequality 
             and restack the deck so that working people have 
             confidence that their government works on their behalf. 
             Second, we have to work on addressing climate change. 
             Third, we have to do more to give employment opportunities 
             to the disabled, and finally, we have to pass the U.N. 
             Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
               These are all big fights. But it speaks to Tom's passion 
             for public service and improving access to opportunity 
             that in his farewell remarks, he would give us a list of 
             unfinished business.
               I will miss him in the Senate. I am confident that Tom 
             Harkin will be a prominent voice in American society for 
             years to come.
               Aloha Tom, a hui hou, or ``until we meet again.''

               Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wish to celebrate and thank 
             the 13 outgoing Senators who have worked tirelessly to 
             represent their home States in the Senate: Senator Mark 
             Begich, Senator Saxby Chambliss, Senator Tom Coburn, 
             Senator Kay Hagan, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Mike 
             Johanns, Senator Tim Johnson, Senator Mary Landrieu, 
             Senator Carl Levin, Senator Mark Pryor, Senator Jay 
             Rockefeller, Senator Mark Udall, and Senator John Walsh.
               I have worked side by side with these men and women for 
             years--some for decades--and witnessed first hand their 
             extraordinary commitment to public service and to the 
             people they so proudly represent.
               Even when we didn't see eye to eye on every issue, I 
             always deeply respected and admired their service to our 
             Nation and their dedication to fight for what they believe 
             in.
               It has been a privilege to serve alongside each and 
             every one of these extraordinary colleagues. I will miss 
             their leadership and their friendship, and I wish them all 
             the best as they embark on the next chapter.

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