[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. JOHNSTON. Mr. President, for 18 years, Senator Sasser has done 
the heavy lifting, the hard, painstaking, nuts-and-bolts work of this 
body. Concentrating on the details of programs and policies, he has 
served as Chairman of the Budget Committee, as Chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Appropriations Committee, 
on the Banking and Governmental Affairs Committees, and on the 
Democratic Working Groups on Central America and on Drug and Substance 
Abuse. Jim Sasser worked quietly and without fanfare to make government 
work, to make it more efficient, less costly and more responsive to the 
needs of the nation and its citizens.
  For instance, he established a GAO Fraud Hotline which enabled people 
to report fraudulent and wasteful government practices. Thousands of 
citizens called in tips, and million of taxpayer dollars were saved as 
a consequence. The Pentagon procurement scandal first came to light on 
the Fraud Hotline.
  On Appropriations he did his homework, traveling to uncomfortable and 
even dangerous parts of the world to see how American military dollars 
were being spent. He went to Thailand to see how Cambodian refugees 
were being treated, he checked out the Contras in Nicaragua, the Afghan 
war and the Persian Gulf. He inspected the USS Stark after it was hit 
by Iraqi missiles. Only after seeing the situations for himself did he 
make up his mind about the policies the United States should follow. 
This is what distinguishes Senator Sasser as a legislator, that he 
learns the facts, makes up his own mind and trusts his judgment.
  My colleague from Tennessee is one of those members who has brought 
to the Senate the qualities of common sense and rationality all too 
often missing from the heated discourse in this body. That has been 
manifest in our close association as members of the Appropriations 
Committee and especially in his work in the thankless but critical role 
as a member and as Chairman of the Committee on the Budget.
  It is fair to say that the latter has been a forum for considerable 
partisan posturing since its creation some 20 years ago. And it is 
certainly true that the role and contribution of that committee has 
been maligned and underappreciated by the press and even members of 
this body. The Senator from Tennessee has always been a voice of cool 
reason in the Budget Committee, and I truly believe that years from now 
people will look back on the role that Senator Sasser played in the 
budget summit of 1990 as one of the critical components in finally 
awakening the administration and the Congress to the need to take 
Draconian steps to curb runaway budget deficits.
  But if there is one thing in particular that Senator Sasser's 
colleagues will miss, it is his sense of humor and his fine sense of 
irony about the Congress and its cast of characters. No one in my years 
here has taken his job more seriously or has worked more diligently for 
the people who sent him here. But no Senator has possessed more of a 
gift for laughing at himself and at the foibles of those who would 
confuse the seriousness of public service with the fatuousness of self-
importance. Many of the seemingly endless late-night Senate sessions 
have been enlivened and enriched by the wit and endless repertoire of 
political stories and anecdotes of the Senator from Tennessee.
  One of those stories which the Senator often tells is about the 
candidate in Tennessee who would finish every stump speech with the 
declaration, ``Them's my views, and if you don't like 'em, I'll change 
'em.'' It can be said here of the Senator from Tennessee that, in fact, 
he brought a set of views and convictions to his work in this body that 
greatly enriched the public product, not only for the people of 
Tennessee, but for all the people of this country. If those views 
changed at all, it was owing to common sense and evolving 
circumstances, not because Jim Sasser legislated with a finger in the 
wind. He spent eighteen years in this body doing only what he thought 
was right for a State he loves deeply. For that, he will be long 
remembered and greatly missed by those of us who were honored to call 
him a colleague.

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