[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]

 
                           DAVID DURENBERGER

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to take this 
opportunity to pay tribute to our able colleague from Minnesota, Dave 
Durenberger, who is retiring at the end of this Congress.
  Dave and I have worked together on many issues, but I have especially 
valued and long admired his understanding of our health care system and 
his commitment to better health care for the American people. We have 
sometimes differed on the best way to achieve that goal, but I have 
always admired his willingness to work as hard as possible to achieve 
this objective.
  I have worked with Dave on health care issues since 1986, when we 
jointly introduced the Access to Health Care Act. We worked closely 
together on the COBRA extension of coverage legislation in 1986. It now 
makes insurance available at employer group rates to more than three 
million people a year who otherwise would have lost their coverage when 
they lost their job, when they were widowed, or when they were divorced 
or disabled. We also worked together in 1986 to modify the formula for 
calculating the Medicare hospital deductible which unfairly burdened 
our senior citizens.
  Since Dave joined the Labor and Human Resources Committee in 1989, 
our work together has extended far beyond health. Senator Durenberger 
played a vital role in the passage of last year's national community 
service legislation, which is giving thousands of Americans the 
opportunity to serve their communities and receive educational aid in 
return. When we considered the bill in the Labor Committee, he urged us 
to emphasize not just national service, but also community service, and 
at his suggestion we changed the bill's name to the National and 
Community Service Trust Act of 1993.
  On the Senate floor, at Senator Durenberger's request, we included a 
provision requiring the Corporation for National and Community Service 
to look closely at some of the essential aspects of national service, 
such as the importance of educational awards in attracting participants 
and the significance of diversity in service programs. Most important, 
when Republican Senators had concerns with the committee-reported 
legislation, Dave Durenberger served as an able negotiator, worked out 
key compromises, and helped draft the alternative bill that eventually 
passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support.
  Senator Durenberger has been a steadfast and indispensable leader in 
shaping bipartisan education legislation. He helped develop a new 
Federal agenda that moved away from support for categorical, fragmented 
programs and toward greater support for locally-developed school 
reform.
  On Goals 2000, he was an unwavering supporter of the legislation 
itself and of the cloture vote that became necessary for the bill to 
pass. He also was a principal architect, along with Senator Hatfield, 
of the ``waiver flexibility demonstration'' that will give 6 States the 
authority to waive Federal education regulations that are barriers to 
coherent planning by local schools.
  On the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, he crafted a sound and 
far-reaching charter school provision and shepherded it through the 
legislative process. Federal support for charter schools is now an 
important reality for Massachusetts and many other States. He was also 
a dependable partner in the cloture petition on that legislation. In 
addition, Senator Durenberger was an early, consistent, and effective 
advocate for direct student lending, which Congress passed as part of 
the Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993.
  On each of these occasions, Senator Durenberger was willing to fight 
for what he believed, despite strong pressures to oppose it. Instead, 
he helped mold in it ways that broadened its appeal, improved its 
quality, and made it genuinely bipartisan, in the best tradition of 
leadership.
  His willingness to fight for what he believed to be the right course 
was nowhere more apparent than in the battle for universal health care. 
As a key member of the ``Mainstream Coalition,'' he worked hard to pass 
a constructive alternative to President Clinton's plan and to resist 
proposals that he felt would not sufficiently expand coverage or use 
true market principles to reduce health costs.
  Dave Durenberger achieved a great deal during his career in the 
Senate. I will miss him greatly as we continue to deal with the issue 
of comprehensive reform of the health care system, and I wish him well 
in the future.

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