[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        LIFETIME DREAM REALIZED

  Mr. JOHNSTON. Mr. President, 40 years ago, when my wife, Mary, and I 
were students at LSU, we discussed my dream of some day serving in the 
U.S. Senate.
  I am one of those few fortunate human beings who have seen his dreams 
fulfilled in the fullest and most satisfying sense. This year, 1995, 
marks my 31st consecutive year in elective office. Over 22 of those 
years have been in this most noble and hallowed institution.
  James MacGregor Burns says that the measure of a man is not the 
honors he has received, but the difference he has made by his service.
  Mr. President, I believe that, working with my colleagues and a 
wonderful staff, we have made a difference for Louisiana. When I first 
started working on the North-South Highway for Louisiana, the trip was 
bumpy, dangerous, and slow. Today, Interstate 49 competes for motor 
freight shipments with a brand new Red River navigation system. We have 
improved our ports, dredged our rivers and harbors and built levees to 
control our flooding. By Federal statute, we have set aside over $600 
million in a so-called 8(g) fund for education, and we have built 
research facilities and secured research funds for all our institutions 
of higher learning in Louisiana. By Federal law, we have created nine 
wildlife refuges, with more than 100,000 acres of protected land, and 
three national parks that now receive over 1 million visitors a year.
  I am proud of these accomplishments, but I am most proud of what they 
will mean for the young people of our State.
  Mr. President, it has been my privilege to serve on the Energy 
Committee for 22 years, 8 of those as chairman, and to have a hand in 
every major piece of legislation which has been passed from that 
committee during those years, from deregulation of natural gas to the 
National Energy Policy Act. We have pushed free markets, free trade and 
free enterprise. We have fought for the poor, for the disadvantaged, 
and for our senior citizens.
  These 22 years have been successful and satisfying. I have simply 
loved it. But now, Mr. President, I must decide whether to continue 
Senate service or to depart in 2 years at the end of this term. Much 
argues for continued service. I love the Senate and I love to 
legislate. I am in superb health and have abundant energy, and 
reelection, though never assured, seems highly likely.
  Nevertheless, Mr. President, I am today announcing that I will 
terminate my Senate service at the end of this term. I will not seek 
reelection in 1996.
  There are rhythms and tides and seasons in life. I have been 
fortunate in my life to sense the rhythm and sail it full tide, and now 
I believe that the season for a new beginning approaches. As my 
colleague Russell Long used to say, ``It is important to retire as a 
champ and to leave the stage when the crowd still likes your singing.''
  I make this announcement now for two reasons. First, to allow me to 
devote my full time and attention to what will be a very active and, I 
hope, productive 2 years, and, second, to allow time for my would-be 
successors to make their plans and to conduct their campaigns.
  Who will succeed me? I do not now have a candidate, but I want my 
successor to share some deeply held views of mine: that politics and 
public service are synonymous; that the pursuit of public office is a 
high calling--in our society, it is the best opportunity for helping 
your State, your country, and your fellow man; that the Senate, with 
its faults and criticisms, remains a bulwark of our democracy and a 
hallowed institution. I will stand up for it, will not bash it and will 
defend it against those who do. Years 1995 and 1996 will be an exciting 
2 years, and after that I look forward to a new life and new 
challenges, doing what I do not know except that it will not be 
retirement.
  Mr. President, I love the State of Louisiana. Its people have 
bestowed upon me honor and power and a rare privilege. For that, I, my 
wife, and my family are profoundly grateful.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). The Senator from Louisiana.


       senator bennett johnston's Exemplary Service To The Senate

  Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, we have just heard a very profound and a 
very significant statement by the senior Senator from my State of 
Louisiana, very significant in what it means to my State of Louisiana, 
significant in what it means to this Senate by his announcement--very 
profound, indeed, because of what it says about an individual and what 
his priorities are and what he thinks public service is all about.
  When our State looks back over the long history of service by my 
colleague, people will remember a number of tremendous contributions 
and contributions yet to be made in the last 2 years of his term in the 
Senate. I look back and remember the David Duke campaign and a Bennett 
Johnston who stopped him in his tracks. I look at projects throughout 
our State of Louisiana: The Red River project, which would clearly not 
be there except for his strong commitment and never-ending 
determination to see it started and completed, and it will be because 
of his effort. I look back and see ideas like risk assessment, which is 
a very popular idea in 1995, that my colleague championed even before 
it was an idea in most of our minds. It is now on its way to being the 
law of the land.
  I look back and see a number of universities that today, tomorrow, 
and in the future will be doing research in science projects which will 
benefit not only this generation but generations to come because of the 
wisdom of my senior Senator in seeing that Federal dollars were wisely 
spent in those areas.
  I look back and see the very essence of our State of Louisiana 
through his efforts in wetlands restoration and wetlands protection 
that literally future generations will have a State to live in and to 
enjoy because of his great efforts today and yesterday in devising 
Federal programs to help those wetlands remain a part of our great 
State.
  Indeed, his services will stand as a monument to all those young men 
and women who today perhaps are a little turned off by the concept of 
public service, who think that somehow if you are there, you are not 
doing the work of the average citizen. Bennett Johnston's effort has 
always been to help people in our State to live a better life and to 
have a better future. So I think that his service will stand as a 
monument and an incentive to encourage other young people, men and 
women, to become involved in public service because public service is 
epitomized by his career, and he still has 2 very important years 
remaining.
  Public service is more than just being a critic. It is more than just 
being someone who complains about the status quo. Public service, as 
Bennett Johnston has carried it out, is public service that means 
helping to solve problems and helping to construct things that help 
people and to do things in a very positive sense. In his service in the 
Senate--and it has been my privilege to be his junior colleague for so 
long--he will always be remembered as a doer and a person who believed 
in this institution and who believed in making things happen for the 
good of all of us. His service will be a shining monument of that type 
of attitude, of what public service is all about.
  I congratulate him and his family for what I know must have been a 
difficult decision, but I applaud him for having the courage to make it 
and to serve with all of us over these years in such an exemplary 
fashion. It gives us a lot after which to pattern our lives and 
careers.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.

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