[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S616-S617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BENNETT JOHNSTON

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues acknowledging 
the remarks of the senior Senator from Louisiana earlier on the floor 
today.
  You know, it has been said you really never know a person until you 
have walked in his footsteps. As the incoming chairman of the Energy 
Committee, I take my first steps, Bennett Johnston, with great 
humility.
  I have observed, as a member of the minority, the manner in which you 
have conducted the affairs of the Energy Committee. You have always 
been an extraordinary legislator. You have been a consensus builder. 
You have had the capability to tackle the tough jobs and get the job 
done. You have always had the energy and the commitment to move ahead, 
yet somehow you genuinely accorded each member an opportunity to be 
heard and most of us an opportunity to exhaust our thoughts on the 
subject, and then you moved ahead with an agenda as you saw it. I know 
every Member who has worked with the Senator from Louisiana respects 
him. The Senator from Louisiana has tackled the national issues. As the 
Senator from Arkansas indicated, occasionally the Senator has been 
partisan, but the Senator has been partisan in a way that I think 
represented the reality that the Senator's party was in the majority. 
Yet the Senator from Louisiana was always willing to listen to the 
input from the minority.

  The Senator was a fighter for the State of Louisiana. I do not think 
that anyone can observe the career of the Senator in the last 22 years 
and suggest that the Senator has not served the State of Louisiana 
well. The Senator has left an example for other Members to follow.
  I came into the Senate 14 years ago. At that time, Senator ``Scoop'' 
Jackson of Washington was chairman of the committee. Jack McClure 
followed that tenure. I think one of the extraordinary things that we 
all wonder about during our careers in the Senate is knowing when it is 
time to go, when to have the wisdom and the honesty, because as we all 
know, in this business an awful lot of our everyday activities are 
associated with our own individual egos.
  The Senator from Louisiana has chosen to go out at the very top of 
his career. The Senator has ahead of him, obviously, some unknowns but 
some very exciting unknowns as the Senator looks to his future and the 
contribution that he will make to his State and America as a whole.
  The Senator has given me the honor and the pleasure of working with 
him, but he has also given me the wisdom and an insight that I will 
respect and learn from. The Senator has always been very fair in 
accommodating the interest of the junior Senator from Alaska.
  The Senator has gone up to Alaska on numerous occasions. The Senator 
has visited the North Slope, the Senator has visited ANWR, the Senator 
has listened to Alaskans, and the Senator has listened with a genuine 
interest to our problems and with a commitment to try to assist as we 
attempt to develop in our State what was done throughout the United 
States, perhaps 100 years ago. And that is a sound resource policy 
using science and technology available today that was not available, 
perhaps, 50 or 75 years ago.
  We will miss you, Bennett. I am looking forward to having the 
pleasure of working together these next 2 years. I look forward to 
assisting in completing the agenda of the Senator, as well as exploring 
new agendas. I look to the Senator for advice, consent, and counsel.
  Finally, in conclusion, let me just comment on a reflection I had 
when the Senator and his wife, Mary, were kind enough to include us in 
the Christmas card list. I saw, this time, grandchildren. Not just one, 
but several. Somebody mentioned to me some years ago when we had our 
first grandchild that, truly, that was the ticket to eternity.
  I do not know whether there is any reflection on this decision in the 
grandchildren, but I, personally, would not be surprised if the Senator 
has decided to try to spend a little more time with the grandchildren. 
Obviously, when you are around your grandchildren, you generate a 
reflection on perhaps some of the qualities of life rather than the 
quantity.
  So let me commend the Senator for the service that the Senator has 
given to this body, the State of Louisiana, and my State of Alaska, and 
the friendship which I have enjoyed and that I am looking forward, as 
we spend the next 2 years together, to working on behalf of the many 
interests that are before our committee.
  Again, my sincere best wishes on the Senator's new future. We look 
forward again, those Senators who are at least going to be around here 
for the balance of our term, to observing the patterns and the 
footsteps as the Senator from Louisiana moves out and pursues some 
[[Page S617]] of the exciting opportunities and challenges outside the 
U.S. Senate. It has been a pleasure, my friend. I wish you well.

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