[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    TRIBUTE TO DEPARTING COLLEAGUES

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, since there is no one seeking 
recognition, I would like to take a moment to mention two of my 
colleagues who are leaving this body and proceeding to private life.
  Jack Danforth is and has been a friend of mine for many, many years. 
We started together as attorneys general back in the early seventies 
and worked together on many interesting projects at that time. So I was 
very pleased when I was honored to be a Member of this body and could 
rejoin Senator Danforth. His leadership, which he has displayed to all 
of us, his ability to bring to a point the very difficult and 
complicated issues that we have before us is amazing to all of us. His 
dedication to bipartisanship, his dedication to finding consensus on 
difficult issues has greatly enhanced the ability of this body to do 
its job.
  In particular, I worked very closely with him when we were dealing 
with the problems of civil rights during the Bush administration. He 
and I worked many, many hours with the administration and with Members 
on the other side of the aisle. He was the leader on our side in 
finding those magic words which would help us solve some of the serious 
problems that we had with respect to this complicated issue.
  In addition to that, as we have gone forward in other critical areas 
this year, education, of course, but most notably health care, he was 
one of the original participants in the so-called mainstream activities 
of Senator Chafee and one of the most dedicated and loyal attendees of 
the Thursday morning breakfast. Senator Danforth had an admirable 
understanding and comprehension of the very difficult aspects of 
achieving meaningful health care reform.
  He worked with us to the end, and shared in the disappointment that 
I, as well as Senator Kennedy and others, felt when we were unable to 
bring together a coalition in time to achieve meaningful health care 
reform this year.
  But without his help in many critical areas, we would not have been 
able to finally get consensus, even though it was too late by then to 
act upon a bill.
  In addition, I would like to say a few words about my good friend 
from Minnesota, Senator Dave Durenberger. He and I also worked closely 
together on many issues. In the area of education, and this bill in 
particular, we spent much time trying to find solutions to some of the 
difficult questions we face. I believe we did a good job, and hopefully 
it will be demonstrated by today's vote.
  His intuition and knowledge of the many complexities of health care 
are what we are going to miss most. Achieving health care reform in 
this Nation, as we have found, is not an easy thing to do. The 
complications of trying to work with multi-State corporations as well 
as States while trying to have national uniformity raises many complex 
questions. Unfortunately, we did not start out in the right way with 
those kinds of issues. Rather, we tried to change the whole system.
  He and I took it upon ourselves to deal with the mysteries of the so-
called ERISA language, which is foreign to most. Only after years of 
being on the committees that deal with the complications of ERISA and 
with all of the difficulties of multi-State problems of businesses in 
the benefits area such as health care pensions, I believe we finally 
did put together an appropriate solution to State flexibility in the 
mainstream package.
  As we found we had reached failure this year, there are many States 
which want to deal with the complicated issues of health care. Yet, to 
allow them to move forward without some Federal guidelines, and without 
understanding how to deal with multi-State businesses who have their 
own health care plans, created a great stumbling block for many months.
  It was only this past month that we were able to work out something 
acceptable to me as one who is dedicated to giving States flexibility 
to handle their health care problems and, at the same time, be fair to 
the multi-State corporations that now have working health care plans.
  So, Mr. President, I am going to miss him. His personality and his 
ease in discussing complicated issues will be a loss to all of us. I 
know we all want to share our thoughts about those two great Senators. 
But I for one today want to express it now in a moment when we are 
discussing one of the bills, for which they both have had very 
meaningful participation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

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