[Senate Document 114-24]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TRIBUTES TO HON. DAVID VITTER
David Vitter
U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA
TRIBUTES
IN THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. Doc. 114-24
Tributes
Delivered in Congress
David Vitter
United States Congressman
1999-2005
United States Senator
2005-2017
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2017
Compiled under the direction
of the
Joint Committee on Printing
CONTENTS
Biography.............................................
v
Farewell Address......................................
vii
Proceedings in the Senate:
Tributes by Senators:
Boozman, John, of Arkansas.....................
15
Cardin, Benjamin L., of Maryland...............
12
Cassidy, Bill, of Louisiana....................
5
Cornyn, John, of Texas.........................
8
Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
10
Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
11
Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont..................
8
McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky
...............................................
3, 5, 11
Peters, Gary C., of Michigan...................
14
Portman, Rob, of Ohio..........................
15
Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
7
Vitter, David, of Louisiana....................
5, 7
BIOGRAPHY
U.S. Senator David Vitter was a bold, conservative
reformer who worked to solve the most significant problems
facing our State and our Nation with Louisiana common
sense.
Senator Vitter believed that the Federal Government was
too big, too bloated, and too involved in Louisianians'
daily lives, and he focused on taking practical,
mainstream steps to cut spending, reduce the deficit, and
put government back in its proper role.
He was a champion for Louisiana jobs that depended on
oil and gas drilling, the leader of a Congressional
coalition to secure our borders and stop illegal
immigration, and an outspoken fighter for reforming the
Army Corps of Engineers to ensure better hurricane and
flood protection.
Senator Vitter fought against Washington bureaucracies
that placed themselves between patients and their doctors,
and against government agencies that destroyed jobs by
piling burdensome regulations on small businesses. He
believed that Washington needs the same commonsense
approach that is found around Louisiana kitchen tables.
Senator Vitter was first elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1999. He was elected to his first term
in the Senate in 2004, and overwhelmingly reelected in
2010.
David and his wife, Wendy, have four children and live
in Metairie.
Farewell to the Senate
Monday, December 5, 2016
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the
Senate floor for the last time. I am not generally big on
nostalgic reminiscences, but I would like to briefly
reflect on what is clearly the greatest honor of my
professional life--my 12 years in the U.S. Senate and 5\1/
2\ years in the U.S. House of Representatives and the
enormous honor of serving the people of Louisiana to whom
I will always be so deeply indebted.
In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I was on
the floor of the U.S. House being sworn in, surrounded by
our very young children, except for Jack, who wasn't born
yet. I said then: ``I am honored, humbled, awestruck to
stand before you today.'' I stated my simple goal: to
become at ease and comfortable as I learn the ways of
Congress, as I hopefully become an effective
Representative and respected colleague and friend, but
never to become so at ease and comfortable that I lose
these feelings of honor, of humility, of awe, and, believe
me, I haven't.
My very first year in the Senate was a very memorable
one. That year Louisiana was struck by Hurricanes Rita and
Katrina. After the initial shock of those cataclysmic
events, I realized that for quite some time, my priorities
as Louisiana Senator would be dominated by the desperate
need to rebuild our State, including dramatically
improving our hurricane and flood protection and restoring
our coastline.
Katrina's devastation was hard to imagine, destroying
much of southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi. Less
than 1 month later, Hurricane Rita slammed into southwest
Louisiana as another one of the most intense hurricanes in
history. I immediately went to work with Senator Landrieu
and the rest of our Louisiana delegation as well as my
good friends Thad Cochran, Trent Lott, and others to
secure the necessary disaster recovery assistance and also
to make reforms to the Army Corps of Engineers to better
protect our families and communities from future natural
disasters.
Louisiana has continued to face and survive other major
disasters, including Hurricane Gustav in August and
September 2008, Hurricane Ike in September of that same
year, Hurricane Isaac in 2012, the Red River flooding in
northern and central Louisiana, and the 1,000-year-flood
event in greater Baton Rouge and Acadiana this past
August.
As if all of that weren't enough, in April 2010, the
Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of
Louisiana, killing 11 men and devastating our coastline.
The disaster, followed by the horribly misguided offshore
drilling moratorium President Obama put in place, caused
economic and environmental chaos in Louisiana.
Once again, I immediately went to work with so many
others to increase and improve safety measures and reopen
the Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration and put people
back to work. We introduced legislation to dedicate a
majority of the BP penalties toward restoring coastal
ecosystems and economies damaged by the spill. It was an
uphill battle to ensure Louisiana was fairly compensated,
but we did, and we achieved substantial wins, including
passage of that critical RESTORE Act that I described.
During the recovery fight following each of these
disasters, I found that the most effective leadership
involved communicating clearly and employing solutions
based on Louisiana common sense, and what always inspired
me and kept me going was the unbelievable resilience,
faith, and determination of my fellow Louisianans. Their
strength and optimism have been oh so powerful reminders
of how blessed I have been to serve them.
On a host of other important issues, I always sought to
further two sets of political values, really modeled after
my two favorite Presidents, Ronald Reagan and Teddy
Roosevelt. I always strove to further the Central American
tradition of limited government and individual freedom,
and I was never afraid to shake things up, to demand
needed reforms to ensure that leaders in Washington served
the American people and not the other way around.
I have had the honor of protecting Louisiana's
traditions and proud heritage while here in the Senate.
Louisianans love the outdoors and want strong
environmental conservation and sportsmen's policies to
maintain that culture, and that certainly includes
securing the rights afforded to each American by the
Second Amendment, which I have fought to do.
Louisianans respect the sanctity of life, which has
been one of my top priorities while serving in Congress. I
have introduced many bills that end taxpayer funding of
abortion and abortion mills and have proudly stood in the
defense of life.
When it comes to our Nation's immigration policies, I
have been an advocate for targeted reforms that fix the
immigration crisis, starting with border security and
enforcing the immigration laws already on the books. I
fought President Obama's unconstitutional attempts to
implement executive amnesty, which only encourages more
immigrants to come here illegally and insults the millions
of fine immigrants who do follow U.S. law.
I was also the first to introduce legislation in 2007
to end dangerous sanctuary city policies and have
continued to do so each Congress since. I have also been
critical of too big to fail in the banking sector and have
found banking reform to be an area in which Republicans
can absolutely find common ground with Democrats. That is
where I found success in passing into law specific
measures that restrict too-big-to-fail and tax-funded
bailouts. Also during my time in Congress, I have
introduced several important government reform bills so we
can get back to the best traditions of our democracy,
which includes electing citizen legislators, making sure
they don't make themselves into a separate ruling class,
and advocating for term limits so individuals don't remain
in office for an eternity.
Americans of all backgrounds think Washington is on a
different planet and Members of Congress just don't get
it. That is why I fought to end Congress' automatic pay
raises each year. I first introduced that language in
2009, and the raises have been successfully blocked each
year since. Congress can be an effective representative
body only when it lives under the same laws it imposes on
the rest of the country, and one major way to support that
is through term limits. When I was a member of the
Louisiana State legislature, I was successful in
establishing legislative term limits there, and I have
offered the leading term limits measure for Congress here,
as well as imposing it on myself.
I fought for commonsense legislation that helps all
Americans have access to high-quality and affordable
health care. That includes the work to dismantle Obamacare
and replace it with patient-centered health care reform,
which I am very hopeful the incoming Trump administration
will achieve. In the meantime, I have been fighting to end
Washington's exemption from Obamacare, an illegal Obama
administration executive order that allows Washington
elites to avoid the most inconvenient, expensive aspects
of the Affordable Care Act by giving themselves taxpayer
subsidized health care through an exchange meant solely
for small businesses. Also in the health care arena, I was
able to pass into law the bipartisan Steve Gleason Act of
2015. It provided immediate relief for patients who have
been denied access to life-saving and life-altering
medical equipment. It was about a 2014 Medicare policy
change that we had to reverse. Our bill allowed these
patients to have access to medical equipment that truly
empowers them, that is a true lifeline, and it changes
their lives absolutely for the better.
I have also fought against large drug manufacturing
lobbies to allow for reimportation of safe and approved
prescription medicine from other countries, which gives
patients, especially our seniors, relief from rising
health care costs.
I have been honored to serve in the Senate in
additional ways as well, including as a top Republican on
the Environment and Public Works Committee and most
recently as chair of the Senate Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship. I am very proud to say that
we have accomplished so many of our goals in those two
roles.
We worked in a bipartisan fashion on EPW to pass
several major pieces of legislation, including the Water
Resources and Development Act of 2007 and the even more
significant WRDA of 2014, several reauthorizations of the
highway bill, the bipartisan and historic rewrite of the
40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, which began as
conversations between Senator Frank Lautenberg and myself,
a partnership which Senator Tom Udall continued after
Frank's unfortunate passing.
We were also able to hold the administration
accountable by conducting investigations into some
outright corruption within the Obama EPA, and we advanced
key transparency initiatives that shed light on
government's attempts to implement policies that were not
based on sound science or strategic needs.
As chair of the Small Business Committee, I have been
advocating to make sure the voices and concerns of small
business owners across the country are heard in
Washington. We have held 23 hearings here, 18 field
hearings, numerous roundtable discussions. We have heard
testimony from over 175 witnesses, usually about the
disastrous negative effects of Obama policies like the new
waters of the United States rule, key and disastrous
effects on small businesses and job creators and their
employees.
At the very same time, we found common ground with
Ranking Member Shaheen and other Democrats on the
committee. During my tenure as chair, we passed 32
bipartisan bills out of the committee, which is 22 more
than my predecessors did over a much longer period, and 8
of our bills have passed through the entire legislative
process and have been signed into law.
These accomplishments are but a fraction of the years
of hard work my staff and I have dedicated to the people
of Louisiana and, indeed, the American people. I have
worked hard to be a champion for them because the
government should serve the taxpayer and not the other way
around, and that includes by working hard to stay in touch
through 398 townhall meetings, at least 5 in each parish
of Louisiana, through 231 telephone townhalls, and through
active, energetic casework and constituent service.
Clearly what I will treasure most about my service here
is the people with whom I have been honored to serve; my
colleagues, including my fellow Louisianian Senator Bill
Cassidy, mentors like former Senator Rick Santorum and
Senator Jeff Sessions, and most especially each of the
dedicated people who have been part of Team Vitter. I have
come to the Senate floor several times this year to thank
key departing staff members.
That is for a very simple reason. My staff has been the
key ingredient--the key--to every success we have enjoyed
together in public service. Wendy and I consider them a
part of the family. I truly thank my staff again for their
tireless, dedicated service to Louisiana. I am so very
grateful. Wendy joins me in that.
I want to specifically recognize some of our leaders:
my chief of staff, Luke Bolar; my legislative director,
Chris Stanley; my wonderful finance director, Courtney
Guastela; our State director, Chip Layton; and committee
staff director, Meredith West; our grants coordinator,
Brenda Moore; my media head, John Brabender; senior
infrastructure policy advisor, Charles Brittingham; my
senior economic adviser, David Stokes; campaign treasurer
Will Vanderbrook; and communications director, Cheyenne
Klotz.
I know a few of our other former senior staff members
are here or are watching, like Mac Abrams, Joel DiGrado,
Bryan Zumwalt, Travis Johnson, Kathryn Eden, and Michael
Wong. Last, and obviously not least, is my beloved family.
My five wonderful brothers and sisters, our children,
their children, the extended family, led by the ultimate
leader of Team Vitter, my wife Wendy.
I can never thank them enough, and certainly I can
never ever thank Wendy enough. Through it all, Wendy has
been so enormously patient and supportive and
understanding, not to mention being the life of every Team
Vitter party, leading the rounds of Fireball shots. She
and our daughter Lise are in the gallery today. I thank
them and Sophie, Airey, and Jack for decades of love and
support. Lise, up there, was in my arms as a 2 year old
when I was first sworn into the House of Representatives
and made those previously quoted remarks: ``I am honored,
humbled, awestruck to stand before you.'' She has changed
some, but as I said at the beginning of my reflections,
those feelings certainly have not.
I would like to close as I did that day in the House
over 17 years ago; that is, simply by recognizing the
wonderful, loving forces that have brought me here today:
God, family, led by my parents up above, and my wife
Wendy, staff and friends, and of course the wonderful
people of Louisiana. They are here with me today. They are
here with me always. I thank them from the depths of my
heart.
For the last time, I yield the floor.
?
TRIBUTES
TO
DAVID VITTER
Proceedings in the Senate
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, after two terms in the
Senate and more than two decades of public service, our
friend and colleague Senator David Vitter will be leaving
us at the end of his term. I would like to say a few words
before he does.
Our friend from Louisiana is the first Republican
Senator popularly elected from his home State. It is an
impressive achievement that history will long record.
Senator Vitter had little opportunity to celebrate at the
time. Hurricane Katrina hit just a few months after he
took office. It was a catastrophic natural disaster that
presented massive and immediate challenges for Louisiana.
Our colleague did not miss a beat. Back home, he and his
team worked tirelessly to set up mobile offices. Here in
the Senate he fought hard to bring aid to those in need.
It underlined something we have all come to know about
Senator Vitter: He is passionate about his home State.
That has been a constant throughout his career. He simply
loves Louisiana. He loves the richness of its history,
loves the richness of its culture, loves the richness of
its food, too--crawfish pie etouffee and several other
things I can't pronounce. Senator Vitter loves it all.
He flies home just about every chance he gets. When he
was younger, he turned down offers from Harvard and Yale
to study law in the Pelican State. This is after he spent
some time in Cambridge, MA, and Oxford, as a Rhodes
scholar, by the way--pretty impressive--so perhaps it was
born of a simple lesson: You're just not going to find
alligator sauce piquante anywhere else.
Nor are you likely to find many Saints fans, certainly
none as enthusiastic as our colleague. You will find
Senator Vitter glued to a television every football
Sunday. If the Senate is in session, he will watch between
votes in the Cloakroom behind me. He has been a diehard
fan of the Black and Gold for as long as he can remember.
It was not as though he had much choice, of course,
growing up in the Big Easy, but he has stuck by his team
through thick and thin--often thin. It is what made the
Saints' eventual Super Bowl win in 2010 that much sweeter.
He called it a dream come true.
This tenacity and determination carries over to his
political career as well. Whatever the issue, Senator
Vitter's staff says he is always looking for solutions
that can improve the lives of Louisianans. They say he is
always ready to roll up his sleeves and stay the course on
legislation that will do just that.
Senator Vitter has worked hard to protect his
constituents from the effects of hurricanes and floods
before they occur and to rebuild when they do. He has
taken the lead on important initiatives to reform the Army
Corps of Engineers and improve our Nation's waterways.
Most recently, he helped to pass the first significant
reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act in nearly four
decades. Senator Vitter was a critical player throughout,
working across the aisle with our late colleague Senator
Lautenberg and then Senator Udall to steer this much
needed legislation to passage and eventually law.
Senator Vitter says he believes his most important job
is to keep an open-door policy for constituents who need
help. I know he would tell you that, although it may not
be the most publicized part of the job, he considers it
the most fulfilling.
He still remembers the woman in desperate need of a
liver transplant. With the help of his office, she got it.
He still remembers the veteran who needed an operation to
save his leg and his life. With the help of Team Vitter,
he received that too.
Senator Vitter will never forget the countless families
in need of assistance following Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, the oilspill, and recent flooding. He has seen first
hand the life-changing, even life-saving impacts
constituent casework can have. It is what inspired him to
compile these powerful stories and best practices into a
constituent service guidebook that will help guide his
successor from day one.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without
a great staff, and Senator Vitter has built a strong team
that is as committed to the people of Louisiana as he is.
It is tight knit. It is loyal. It is a group of men and
women who know they have a boss who takes genuine interest
in their success, who trusts their judgment, and who is
always eager for their input.
Senator Vitter awards a Reform Trophy each week to the
staffer with the best new policy idea. He truly believes
in a heavy dose of competition. That includes when his son
Jack is in town. Staffers can expect to be enlisted in an
entirely different competition then; it is called Office
Olympics. Team Vitter knows to bring their A game when
Jack is around. They also know to bring their sense of
humor. It turns out Jack is a bit of a prankster. I hear
you don't want Jack laying hands on a Post-it note or a
roll of aluminum foil when he is in the office, but
lifelong memories are often made when he does just that.
It is these relationships and it is this capacity to
make a difference for the people of Louisiana through
constituent service and the legislative process that I am
sure our colleague will miss most when he leaves the
Senate.
Senator Vitter may be retiring from his post in this
Chamber, but we know he will continue to look for ways to
serve the State he loves so much. Today we join with his
team and his family in recognizing his many years of
service. I know each of us is looking forward to seeing
what else our colleague is able to achieve on behalf of
Louisiana in the years to come.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, if the majority leader will
yield for one moment, I want to thank the majority leader
for his very kind words. Serving in the Senate for two
terms has been the highest honor of my professional
career. I have enjoyed it so much and have been honored by
the relationship with all of my colleagues, certainly
including the majority leader. I will have a few more
reflections next Monday, but I sincerely thank him and
also congratulate him for getting the Senate, particularly
in the past 2 years, back to working order and some of its
best practices. Not as a Member but as a cheerleader on
the outside, I will be very much looking forward to even
greater successes this coming Congress.
Mr. McCONNELL. I thank my colleague.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I have the honor to
recognize and thank my colleague and friend, the Honorable
Senator David Vitter, for his 25 years of service to
Louisiana. Our State has been fortunate to have him as its
voice and advocate in this Chamber for the past 12 years.
On a personal note, when I arrived at the Senate, David
worked with me, sharing with me some of the privileges
that normally he, as a senior Senator, could have kept all
to himself. With great graciousness, he worked with me and
said, ``Listen, this is how I think the process should be
set up. I would like you to have some of this privilege as
well.'' I will do the same with whoever replaces David. He
has set a pattern that, again, by his graciousness and
magnanimity, deserves repetition.
As a new Senator, I was fortunate to have him as a
resource for advice and knowledge that comes from time and
experience in this body. There are some things that happen
here that you have to kind of have experience to follow.
David had both the experience, the sharpness, and the
insight to recognize.
I again look forward to sharing what he has taught me
with whoever takes his place. I will note, as David did,
he helped lead our State through some of our worst times.
From Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to the great flood of 2016,
all of the way in between, David has worked hard to make
sure Louisiana and the people of Louisiana have what they
need to recover.
The hallmark of Senator Vitter's tenure is that he has
always cared deeply about our State, constantly looking
for what he could do that would benefit our State, not
just in the short term but doing that which is consistent
with his principles to help Louisiana and the United
States thrive in the long term.
He has been on the side of that family whose father
goes for 2 weeks, works on an oil rig in the middle of the
Gulf of Mexico, working hard so his family has a better
future. David has been on the side of that mom juggling
two jobs to earn enough to make sure her children's needs
are met.
A recent example--again for the short-term and long-
term perspective David handled so well--he stayed
persistent for years working across the aisle, first with
Senator Frank Lautenberg, then Senator Udall, to pass the
much needed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act,
the first reform of its kind in 40 years.
This reform protects both the workers--those people on
that rig, perhaps, at least the people who would be
processing the products of that rig--but also gives the
manufacturers of Louisiana and across the country the
certainty they need to expand their businesses and create
more jobs.
On a lighter note, David is a great Saints fan. We in
Louisiana kind of liked the fact that when the slogan
``Who Dat'' came up spontaneously, and people started to
put it on their shirts and the NFL was going to go to
court to stop this from happening, David wrote a letter to
Roger Goddell. The letter started off by saying: ``Who
Dat.'' So speaking truth to power on behalf of the ``Who
Dat Nation'' is one credit of his.
Similarly, David was tweeting before our President-
elect made it perhaps as high profile. I remember during
the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans--and again the context
of this is, the Saints had just been punished--of course
Saints fans think unfairly--by Roger Goddell. So during
the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, when the power went
out, David's tweet, without missing a beat said: ``Like
most Saints fans, I am immediately assuming Roger Goddell
is the chief suspect for the power outage.'' The quick-
witted quip cut to the emotion of the ``Who Dat Nation.''
As the 114th Congress comes to a close, the Senate will
be losing an important Member. David brings a sound,
strategic mind to this Chamber that will be missed. I wish
him, Wendy, their children, Lise, Sophie, Airey, and Jack,
the best of luck in their journey forward. On behalf of
all Louisiana, I say thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from
Louisiana for his very kind remarks. More important, I
want to thank him for years of great partnership, great
work on behalf of Louisiana. I know he will make an
outstanding senior Senator. Thank you.
I yield the floor.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I want to take an opportunity
to salute and thank and commend my colleagues who are
departing. ...
We also have other colleagues departing: Senator Ayotte
from New Hampshire; Senator Boxer of California, Senator
Coats of Indiana; as I mentioned, Senator Kirk of
Illinois; Senator Mikulski of Maryland; Senator Reid of
Nevada; and Senator Vitter of Louisiana. Each has brought
passion in their work to best serve their constituents,
and the institution of the Senate and the Nation are
better for this service. I am better for knowing them,
working with them, and having the opportunity to share
with them, and I want to thank them for their service. Let
me mention a few words with respect to all of these
distinguished Senators. ...
Mr. President, David Vitter and I served together on
the Armed Services Committee, and we continue to serve
together on the Banking Committee. As a senior member of
the Environment and Public Works Committee, he has been
very critical in ensuring that we continue our commitment
to infrastructure. Infrastructure is a word now that is
getting a lot of attention. Years ago, David was
interested in that, not only interested but instrumental
in making sure we did our best to keep up with
infrastructure so that we could have a productive America,
so that people could enjoy the benefits, and so that we
could be competitive in a global economy.
He has done a great deal. One area where we also shared
an interest is his Home Owner Flood Insurance
Affordability Act, which became law in 2014. This was
critical not just to Louisiana but to every coastal State,
including Rhode Island. His energy, his commitment, and
his dedication made it a success. I want to thank him for
that, and I wish him well as he goes forward. ...
I have been very fortunate. I have had the privilege to
serve with these ladies and gentlemen, and I want to thank
them for their service.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to briefly
recognize the service of retiring Senator David Vitter.
Senator Vitter has served the people of Louisiana in
Congress since 1999, through the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, across three different administrations, and
through countless debates. As he retires from the Congress
after nearly two decades of service to Louisiana, I wish
him, his wife, Wendy, their four children and his entire
family all the best in the next chapter.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know it is always difficult
to come to the floor and talk about the departure of our
good friends and valued colleagues. The word I have heard
mentioned the most this week is ``bittersweet''--people
looking forward to the next chapter of their lives but
regretting the fact that good friends and valued
colleagues are moving on to the next chapter of their
lives. Every other December, we find ourselves bidding
farewell to some of our most admired and respected
Members. Today I wish to speak briefly about four of them,
starting with our good friend from New Hampshire, Senator
Ayotte. ...
Mr. President, I would also like to say a few words
about the senior Senator from Louisiana, David Vitter.
Back in the 113th Congress, in 2013, I began my tenure as
the Republican whip, and at the same time I invited
Senator Vitter to serve the conference as a deputy whip.
One thing we always know about David Vitter, whether you
are a colleague, a staffer, or a constituent, is that no
matter what, he is going to have thought carefully about
the issue in ways that perhaps surprise many of us, and
when he has something to say about an issue, it is always
something worth listening to. I can't say that about all
of us, but certainly Senator Vitter adds to the value of
our deliberations every time he speaks.
Of course, nothing is closer to his heart than the
people of Louisiana, and what he has done diligently and
faithfully here is serve the people of his State. I have
had the pleasure of working with him on issues we share in
common, like coastal protection issues that affect both of
our States with our gulf coast.
Senator Vitter was sworn into office the same year
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. As a matter of fact,
for a time, he and his family literally lived outside the
Houston area because of the devastation wrought by that
terrible hurricane--a storm that FEMA called the ``single
most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history.''
Katrina did billions of dollars' worth of damage, killed
almost 2,000 people, left thousands without a roof over
their heads, and cut the population of New Orleans in
half. About 100,000 of those, I am told, made permanent
residence in Texas, having had their homes destroyed.
I know Senator Vitter took this devastation as a
personal challenge. He hit the ground running. When the
people of Louisiana needed him most, he worked at every
level of government to bring them together and get the
help they needed. Of course, just a few years after
Katrina, Hurricane Ike pummeled its way through the gulf
coast of Mexico before making landfall on the Texas coast.
So I have had a number of opportunities to work with
Senator Vitter not only on recovery efforts for our States
but to make sure our communities along the coast stand
ready to help each other and particularly as we prepare
for future storms.
I wish him and his wife Wendy and their entire family
well as they look to more adventures and more
opportunities to serve. I have no doubt he will continue
to take his passion for helping the people of Louisiana
with him wherever the future may lead. ...
Let me close by saying thank you again to our friends
Senator Kirk, Senator Vitter, Senator Coats, and Senator
Ayotte for the indelible mark and contributions they made
to the Senate and my sincere appreciation for how they
have faithfully served our country. I am grateful for
their friendship and wish them and their families well as
they tackle new ventures ahead.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, each year at the end of the
Congress, it has been a tradition for the Senate to pause
for a moment to express our appreciation for the service
of those Members who will be retiring. One of those who
will be leaving this year is David Vitter.
David will be a loss for my party's membership in the
next Congress because he was a hard worker and we could
always count on him for his support of our conservative
positions. Simply put, he made the most of the terms he
served and made an important difference on a number of
issues.
Over the years, David would study each bill in
committee and on the floor carefully to determine how
those who would fall under its provisions would be
affected. He had a good sense of what needed to be
strengthened or tweaked to make legislation more effective
and less costly. The people of Louisiana and the Nation
have had a friend in him, and they greatly appreciated how
well he looked out for them.
One issue that drew David's and my attention was
Obamacare. We both had a lot of concerns about how it
would work and whether or not it would provide the kind of
care its supporters promised. That is one of the reasons
why I hate to see him leave. We have a lot of work to do
on health care, and David would have been someone who
could help with the heavy lifting.
David also chaired the Small Business Committee in this
Congress and was able to put forward some ideas to
preserve jobs and businesses. I have been proud to work
with him in that effort.
In short, Senator Vitter has had a remarkable career
and has done his best to serve the people of his State and
champion the issues that were of importance to them.
Now David has decided to end his Senate career and take
on some new challenges. I have no doubt that his skills
and his background will lead him down a new path to help
the people of Louisiana. I wish him well and look forward
to seeing what he will do.
David, Diana joins me in sending our best wishes and
our appreciation for your service, as well as that of your
family. Together with Wendy, you were able to make a
difference that will last for a long time in the Senate
and in Louisiana. It is good to know you won't be far away
and we can get in touch with you whenever we need your
advice.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Mr. McCONNELL. ... It goes without saying that keeping
the Capitol running is a vast undertaking. It requires a
passion for service, round-the-clock work, and great
sacrifice by everyone employed. The legislative process
simply wouldn't be possible without the dedicated work of
so many. On behalf of the Senate, I would like to
acknowledge their efforts and say thank you to the
following:
To my leadership team for their wise counsel; to our
committee chairs and ranking members for so much great
work over the past 2 years; to the many colleagues in both
parties for working so hard to make this Senate a success;
and, to those we are saying farewell to--Senators Coats,
Boxer, Mikulski, Reid, Vitter, Kirk, and Ayotte--for your
service to our country, I say thank you. ...
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to the
senior Senator from Louisiana, my friend David Vitter.
Over more than a decade, I have had the privilege to get
to know David as a colleague and a friend. When he retires
in January, he will be greatly missed.
David is a New Orleans man, born and raised. In his
younger years, he achieved impressive academic feats,
graduating from Harvard and earning a Rhodes scholarship
to study at Oxford. As he is fond of telling, after his
time in England, he applied to three law schools--Harvard,
Yale, and Tulane--and chose to attend the best of the
three: Tulane.
Just a few years later, he won a seat in the Louisiana
House of Representatives. There, he earned a reputation as
an ethics crusader--a reputation that has stuck with him
throughout his career. Many observers credit him in no
small part with the transformation of his home State's
politics--once famously dominated by colorful but
ethically questionable characters--and he should be
rightfully pleased at the fruits his efforts bore for the
State he loves. In Washington, his work to strengthen
ethics laws at the Federal level may not have always made
him the most popular among his colleagues, but they
reflect the same spirit of reform and willingness to stand
up for what he believes in that have been the hallmarks of
David's career.
On the legislative front, David has been a champion for
his conservative values and his beloved Louisiana. Taking
office in 2005, he almost immediately was faced with one
of the greatest crises any Senator in my tenure has had to
confront: Hurricane Katrina. As his State has faced
Katrina's devastation and other natural disasters,
Louisianans could always count on David to deliver for
them, no matter what. Throughout, David mastered the skill
of fighting as hard as anyone when the situation called
for it--as he did as the top Republican on the Environment
and Public Works Committee, pushing back against the
overreach of the EPA--and then turning right around and
making partners of those who were his most entrenched
opponents--as he did by working with liberal Democrats to
update the Nation's water infrastructure and pass a once-
in-a-generation reform of the Nation's toxic chemical
laws.
David's work in the Senate has produced an impressive
legacy for him and for Louisiana. As he embarks on his
next chapter, I send my best wishes to him, his
accomplished and lovely wife, Wendy, and his four
children.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, much of the time here in the
Senate, we are engaged in pretty fierce partisan battles.
I would like to take a break from that for a moment and
talk about the four Republican Senators who will not be
back when the 115th Congress convenes next month. While we
may have different political philosophies and policy
prescriptions, I respect and admire each of them, and I
will miss working with all of them. ...
Mr. President, Senator Vitter is probably one of the
most conservative Senators and yet has a long record of
bipartisan accomplishments on behalf of his home State and
the Nation. I have enjoyed serving on the Small Business
and Entrepreneurship Committee, which he has chaired for
the past 2 years. During that time, the committee has
reported nearly 30 bills, 8 of which have been signed into
law so far. One of those bills, Senator Vitter's Recovery
Improvements for Small Entities After Disaster Act--the
RISE After Disaster Act--will help small businesses
recover from disasters more rapidly. Considering that
small businesses are major employers and the linchpins of
their communities, helping them to recover is crucial.
Senator Vitter is a Louisiana native, born in New
Orleans. He was an excellent student and went on to earn
his A.B. from Harvard. He attended Oxford University as a
Rhodes scholar, earning a B.A., and then he earned his law
degree from Tulane. He was elected to the Louisiana House
of Representatives in 1992; in 1999, he won a special
election to succeed then-Representative Bob Livingston to
represent the State's First Congressional District. He was
reelected in 2000 and 2002 with more than 80 percent of
the vote in each instance. In 2004, he won the Senate seat
being vacated by John Breaux. That election was historic;
he became the first Republican in Louisiana to be
popularly elected as a U.S. Senator. The State's last
Republican Senator, William Pitt Kellogg, was chosen by
the State's legislature in 1876, back before the 17th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. Senator
Vitter was reelected in 2010 with 57 percent of the vote.
Senator Vitter has had a productive career as a
legislator. On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed into
law the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st
Century Act, which amends the Toxic Substances Control
Act, TSCA, the Nation's primary chemicals management law.
Senator Vitter was the lead Republican sponsor of this
measure, working first with our beloved former colleague,
Senator Lautenberg, and then with Senator Udall. The new
law, which received bipartisan support in both the U.S.
House of Representatives and the Senate, will make it
easier for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA,
to review the safety of chemicals already on the market
and the new ones being developed, and it provides a stable
source of funding for EPA to meet the law's requirements,
a huge step forward with respect to chemical safety.
Senator Vitter has been instrumental in developing and
passing important public works bills, including the
current Water Resources Development Act, WRDA,
reauthorization. While he has been an architect of our
Nation's infrastructure policies, he has also been
sensitive to the concerns of his home State. Thanks to his
involvement in the past several surface transportation
bills, Louisiana is no longer a ``donor'' State with
respect to the highway trust fund; the State receives
$1.06 in spending for every $1 it sends to Washington in
gasoline taxes. Senator Vitter was stalwart when one of
the Nation's worst natural disasters--Hurricane Katrina--
devastated Louisiana and the rest of the gulf coast in
2005 and again in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon
oilspill in 2010. He coauthored the RESTORE Act, which
directs 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines levied
against BP--$5.5 billion--to the States whose fisheries,
shorelines, and economies were decimated by the spill.
Senator Vitter has numerous other legislative
accomplishments. To mention just a few, he authored the
Steve Gleason Act, which helps people afflicted with
diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, by
making it easier for them to acquire speech-generating
devices. He reformed the Federal Reserve Board by putting
in place the requirement that at least one sitting board
member must have community banking experience. He
successfully elevated Barksdale Air Force Base's Global
Strike Command to four-star general status.
I mentioned a moment ago that Senator Vitter is a
conservative. He and I have vast differences of opinion on
many issues. But that is OK; that is the nature of the
Senate. The genius of our system of government is that it
allows--and encourages--people with different points of
view to come together and agree on legislation that moves
our country forward, and that is something Senator Vitter
has been able to do over his career. I send my best wishes
to Senator Vitter, his wife, Wendy, and their children
Sophie, Lise, Airey, and Jack.
Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, as this eventful 114th
Congress draws to a close, today I wish to honor a number
of our colleagues who will be ending their service in the
Senate. I was a newcomer to the Senate at the beginning of
this Congress and the only Democrat in the freshman Senate
class of 2014. I am eternally grateful for the guidance
and wisdom of my fellow Senators, particularly those with
decades of experience fighting for the American people.
Constituents, colleagues, and historians will recount
their accomplishments for years to come, but I will take a
few minutes now to convey some brief words of praise and
gratitude. ...
Mr. President, in a Congress where bipartisanship is all
too rare, I have been honored to work with many Republican
colleagues on commonsense, bipartisan solutions. Senator
David Vitter has served as chairman of the Senate Small
Business Committee, of which I am a member, and has been a
consummate partner on issues affecting Michigan's small
businesses. On the Small Business Committee, we have been
able to pass significant legislation to ensure that small
businesses have the resources they need to compete,
expand, and give back to their communities. We extended
the SBA 7(a) Federal loan program to provide thousands of
small businesses with financing at no cost to American
taxpayers. Together, we introduced legislation that will
provide patent education to small businesses. We also
introduced legislation that will help small businesses
plan for and protect against cybersecurity attacks. I am
glad to have colleagues like Senator Vitter who believe
that no issue is too small when it comes to supporting job
creation and economic growth. ...
It has been a privilege to work with such talented and
committed colleagues. I wish them all the best in this
next chapter of their lives and thank them for their work.
Thank you.
ORDER FOR PRINTING OF SENATE DOCUMENTS
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of
materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to
retiring Members of the 114th Congress, and an additional
Senate document a compilation of materials from the
Congressional Record in tribute to the President of the
Senate, Joe Biden, and that Members have until Tuesday,
December 20, to submit such tributes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
ORDER FOR PRINTING
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
any tributes submitted by December 20, 2016, as authorized
by the order of December 10, 2016, be printed in the
January 3, 2017, Congressional Record of the 114th
Congress.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
[all]