[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]

 
                   TO OUTGOING SENATOR HARRIS WOFFORD

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, with deep feelings, I want to pay 
tribute to a colleague, Harris Wofford, who now embarks on the next 
chapter of a life that could already be called a masterpiece.
  Claude Pepper, a fixture here in Washington for two generations whom 
I had the privilege of working with, used to say, ``If more politicians 
in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the 
next election, it might be better for the United States and the 
world.''
  Perhaps Senator Wofford's election results prove that he was in that 
special breed. Harris Wofford, my good friend from Pennsylvania, has 
been an effective, dignified leader, working for the future, since the 
day he walked into this Chamber in 1991.
  Many of us recall that it was a tragic loss, the death of Senator 
Heinz, which first brought Harris here. That is something he himself 
never lost sight of, and he carried himself with the care and courtesy 
and seriousness of one who knew that his position shouldered an extra, 
intangible responsibility. His earnest, straightforward approach to the 
Senate, which eschewed distraction and hyperbole, was rooted in a sense 
of duty not just to his fellow Pennsylvanians but to his predecessor.
  No one here should be surprised by the hard work and seriousness that 
drove Senator Wofford. But we should have expected nothing less from 
him. This is the man who influenced Martin Luther King with his own 
writings on nonviolence in India. Who persuaded President Kennedy to 
telephone Coretta Scott King in October 1960 after Dr. King had been 
jailed in rural Georgia, putting the national spotlight on the case and 
protecting Dr. King when his life was in danger. And who helped 
establish the Peace Corps.
  So it is little wonder that Senator Wofford spent his time here as a 
driven, focused Member with a sense of mission that did not include 
self-promotion.
  With all that he had done--with all the lives he touched and 
bettered--Senator Wofford could have stayed in academia at Bryn Mawr, 
or could have continued on in private life. Instead, he took on greater 
challenges in public service. Because the same fire that drove him to 
work for Civil Rights and to help send some of America's best and 
brightest young people across the globe to make a difference never 
ebbed or faded.
  I have been fortunate enough to work with him on one of the issues 
that he cared deepest for: health care reform. As a candidate in 1991, 
he seemed out-gunned by a higher profile opponent. But Harris Wofford 
knew there was one fear, one worry running through every single working 
household in America--the fear that a serious health care need could 
very well drag a family into bankruptcy.
  In West Virginia, health care concerns have long been one of our most 
important issues. But it was Harris' election in 1991, a referendum on 
just how precarious and confusing and ultimately undependable health 
care really was in America, that woke up much of the Nation to this 
very real problem. He took that problem as his top priority in the 
Senate. If Pennsylvania sent him to Capitol Hill because he understood 
their health care worries, then he was going to do everything in his 
power to allay those fears.
  We all know that health care reform fell short in the 103d Congress. 
But the issue moved from the subject of academic symposia and economic 
modeling into the national conversation. Topics like managed care, 
alliances, and shared responsibility made their way into discussions in 
factory cafeterias and around dinner tables and in just about every 
office, business, and household in America. Television, newspapers, and 
magazines put more and more of their time and resources into looking at 
the American health care system--what worked, what did not, what we 
need, and what we have.
  Harris Wofford was one of the first leaders to really hear how 
frightened this Nation was about health care. And when he started to 
work on it, the people of Pennsylvania responded. So Congress took its 
cue--from his startling election and from the anger and fear of the 
electorate.
  We did not get the job done for a variety of reasons--distractions, 
delays, and a $100 million media blitz ran out the congressional clock 
before we could really get to work. All that arguing and posturing was 
the Senate's legislative engine revving loudly while stuck squarely in 
neutral. But health care reform is firmly entrenched at the top of our 
political agenda and serious reform came farther than ever before in 
Congress. Senator Wofford supplied much of the fuel which fired that 
movement. His candidacy, his election, and his service in the Senate 
were a release for the built up pressures parents and children, 
workers, and employers were all feeling about health care in America.
  I do not want to weigh the terms of his leaving the Senate, because 
that is unimportant. I will miss him as a friend and as a colleague of 
uncommon patience, respect, and thoroughness. America will miss him as 
a champion for health care reform and for seeing the charge of the 
Senate as being active and concerned and compassionate.
  And the challenge Senator Wofford brought here in 1991--to fix the 
American health care system--still confronts us. I have every hope that 
the 104th Congress will understand that we have not done anything to 
relieve the health care worries of our people and that the problems 
still continue. When we answer this call, it will be in large part due 
to Senator Wofford's work here and to the constant reminder he served 
as while in the Senate.
  Harris Wofford never wore his office as a title. He believed being a 
Senator meant carrying very real, very serious responsibilities--a 
trust to be earned and to be maintained.
  Most people with Harris Wofford's record and years of contributing 
would close the book with a chapter of tremendous service in the U.S. 
Senate. Somehow, I would guess that this will not be his instinct. I 
look forward to where the next pages in the life and career of this 
great patriot and human being will take him. I will miss his smile, his 
wisdom, and the fruits of his labor in the Senate. He and his talented, 
dedicated staff have earned infinite respect and thanks from the State 
and Nation they served so well.

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