[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 149 (Thursday, December 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: December 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       TRIBUTE TO SENATOR SASSER

  Mr. RIEGLE. Mr. President, I want to follow the remarks of my 
colleague from Ohio, Senator Glenn, in reflecting on the enormous 
contribution that Jim Sasser has made here in the United States Senate. 
Those of us who had the rare privilege to come here as Senators and see 
the country in terms of two individuals coming from each of the 50 
States we have a chance to learn a lot about America and the regions of 
America, and we have the chance, the good fortune, the rare good 
fortune to meet some truly outstanding individuals.
  And to my mind one of those people is Jim Sasser from Tennessee. The 
qualities of leadership that the country needs, every single one of 
those qualities that I count the highest I have seen in Jim Sasser--
courage, wisdom, tireless effort, caring about the public, the whole 
public, not just part of it but the whole public, caring about the 
institution, making sure it works, skillfully serving as budget 
chairman. And I have been able to serve on that committee with Jim for 
many years. It is one of the toughest duty stations in this place. The 
budget process is complex. It is time consuming. Everybody has a 
different idea how to do it. The administration in power submits a 
budget that has to be altered, and it takes hundreds, literally 
thousands of hours of effort to plow through it and to sort it out and 
to get it right, and it takes really an amazing individual in terms of 
scope of talent to be able to handle that kind of an assignment
  We have had a lot of budget chairmen here in the Senate who have done 
very valuable work but none who has had to function under as difficult 
a set of circumstances as Chairman Jim Sasser. He got the assignment 
when it was as tough as it has ever been, when the Federal budget 
deficits were out of control. There was a lot of mistaken economic and 
financial policy that had been set loose in the country. Deficits were 
skyrocketing. And he was given the challenge to lead that committee and 
lead the Senate and help lead the country through those problems, to 
establish a new budget discipline, to get it into place, and to make 
sure that it would work.
  And what has been happening since that time is the Federal budget 
deficits have been coming down. Now, they have not been coming down 
because the economy has been shut down. We have brought them down at 
the same time the economy has been put on a growth track and 
unemployment has been dropping, the number of jobs in the country has 
been increasing, and we are getting some of the best economic 
performance we have had in many, many years. Not perfect; there are 
some problems. But we are making substantial progress and things are a 
lot better than they were. And Jim Sasser has been a principal 
architect of the economic and budget plans that has made that possible.
  Now, there is no glamor in that job. The Budget Committee 
chairmanship is probably the chairmanship that people here would least 
hope would fall on them, because it is so demanding and because even an 
outstanding performance is not going to be appreciated because there 
are no simple or perfect answers. But Jim has done an amazing job in 
that respect. And he has done it in a way in which I think he has 
looked after the interests of his home State and his home region, and 
looked after the broad national interests. That is a tremendous 
accomplishment.
  I have had the good fortune to have him serve with me on the Senate 
Banking Committee. I have served the last 6 years as chairman of that 
committee. We have had a lot of demanding and difficult problems to 
solve there. We have been able to work through them and get them solved 
with help from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. But no one was 
more valuable to me in that effort in terms of carrying my chairmanship 
responsibilities there than my friend, Jim Sasser.
  I think the thing that probably is the most important about Jim, 
though, is just the kind of human being he is. You really only have to 
look at his family to understand who Jim Sasser is, his mother and 
father. His father's role in public service years back before Jim, sort 
of setting a model and path that Jim has followed with such 
distinction; his wife Mary, their two lovely children.
  Balancing the requirements of having an exceptional family life and 
an exceptional professional life is very difficult to do and not 
everyone can do it. Jim Sasser has done it, and he has done it in a way 
oftentimes that makes it look easy when it is about the most difficult 
thing, particularly with respect to the mechanics of the budget 
process, of anything here that we have to do.
  As a member of the Appropriations Committee, as well, he has blazed 
trails off in many directions where his responsibilities have been in 
that area.
  We do not have many Jim Sassers in the Senate, and that is 
unfortunate because we need more and we need as many as we can get.
  I think those of us who had the special privilege to know Jim quite 
intimately understand his special qualities because he is not a self-
promoter. He is not a person who is up tooting his own horn. There is a 
lot of that that goes on around here, and I do not say that I am immune 
from it from time to time myself.
  But I think Jim is probably, if you were to do a ratio of quality of 
effort and accomplishment to personal horn blowing, he would have the 
best ratio in the place in terms of modesty, on the one hand, and 
accomplishment, on the other. That cannot be said about very many 
people. It can be said about Jim.
  I feel very privileged to have had this seat on the Senate floor next 
to my friend from Tennessee. There is no seat here I would rather have 
had than sitting beside him.
  I just want to close by saying--we are emotional people, at least I 
am--I remember years ago when my father, who was a local political 
elected official and was mayor of my hometown, the city of Flint, was 
defeated in a race for reelection. He should not have been defeated 
because he was the best man in the race and had a remarkable record of 
achievement, but he lost anyway, because elections can go that way. I 
think that is what happened here. I do not say that disrespectfully to 
anybody else, but I say it knowing the qualities of Jim Sasser. And I 
know something of the pain that comes with those kinds of losses within 
a family. Well, that was my father's loss. I think I felt it maybe even 
more strongly than he did.
  So I say to Jim, and I say to his family and to his supporters and 
friends and staff, his excellent staff, that you have every right to 
feel as proud as anybody can feel for their service here in the U.S. 
Senate, in this case for 18 long, hard, tough years. It has been a 
terrific piece of work, and it has lifted all the rest of us. It has 
set a standard that the rest of us have many times tried to ratchet 
ourselves up to in terms of making sure that we were hitting the same 
kind of high-quality standard and high-effort standard that Jim had in 
his work.
  He is a terrific human being. He is a terrific husband and father. He 
has been an outstanding United States Senator. He will be greatly 
missed within this institution and by his friends who love him.
  Mrs. BOXER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
California, Mrs. Boxer.

                          ____________________