[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 191 (Monday, December 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17877-S17878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE RETIREMENTS OF ALAN SIMPSON, MARK HATFIELD, AND NANCY KASSEBAUM

  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, three of our colleagues have just recently 
announced they are not running again for reelection. The most recent is 
Senator Simpson.
  I got to know Al Simpson when I was a State legislator and he was a 
State legislator. We were at a meeting that a foundation pulled 
together of what they, accurately or inaccurately, called the 
outstanding legislators from various States, and I got to know Alan 
Simpson there.
  I have worked with him over the years. He and I differ on some 
things, but he is a legislator's legislator. He really legislates. He 
sits down and works things out. He is a man of reason. He is not 
frightened by a new idea. I think he has made a tremendous contribution 
to the Senate, to his State of Wyoming, and to the Nation, and I am 
very proud to have served with him.
  I will add, one of the things that characterizes Senator Simpson, 
Senator Hatfield, and Senator Kassebaum is something the Presiding 
Officer has heard me talk about before, and that is there is not 
excessive partisanship. One of the things that has changed in my 21 
years, soon to be 22 years here in Congress, is that we have become 
gradually more partisan. Both parties share the blame on this, and it 
is not a good thing. It is like the budget process. We issue 
statements, we have press conferences, we denounce each other instead 
of sitting around a table, working things out. Alan Simpson, Mark 
Hatfield, and Nancy Kassebaum were the kind of people who worked things 
out.
  I have, up until the last election, served as chairman of three 
subcommittees. I do not think we ever had a party-line vote in any of 
my subcommittees. That meant sometimes I had to give a little more than 
I wanted. Sometimes others did. But I think the net effect was a good 
one for the Nation and, strangely, I think, good for the two parties. I 
think the public senses that we are excessively partisan and there is a 
negative attitude toward both the Democratic and Republican Parties out 
there. I hope we can move away from that.
  The second person who recently announced that he is retiring is 
Senator Mark Hatfield. Most people think about Mark Hatfield in 
connection with chairing the Appropriations Committee, or a hundred and 
one other things that he does. I think of Mark Hatfield particularly 
for his leadership in the area of arms control. Long before others 
raised the flag that maybe we should not be spending so much money on 
arms, Mark Hatfield was telling us that.

  Even today we spend more on our defense budget than the next eight 
countries combined. It does not make sense. If we take the 1973 budget 
on defense and add the inflation factor, we are spending more today 
than we were in 1973. In 1973 we were involved in Vietnam, we faced the 
cold war with what was then the Soviet Union and a nuclear threat 
there. We ought to be paring it down. Mark Hatfield has been a 

[[Page S 17878]]
voice of reason. Again, like Alan Simpson, he has been one who has been 
willing to work with people on the other side.
  Senator Nancy Kassebaum is the same. I read the stories about her, as 
I did about all of my colleagues and their contributions. One of the 
contributions Nancy Kassebaum has made has been on the Subcommittee on 
Africa, in the Foreign Relations Committee. She chaired that for a 
while. Nancy Kassebaum did not get any votes back home in Kansas by 
chairing the Subcommittee on African Affairs, but made an immense 
contribution in the very same way that Alan Simpson gets no votes in 
Wyoming by chairing the Subcommittee on Immigration.

  One of the things that we have in this body are people of real 
ability who have a sense of public service. And we need more of that, 
and a little less, as I indicated, partisanship and power grabbing. But 
Senator Kassebaum is primarily thought of by her work on the Labor and 
Human Resources Committee in which the Presiding Officer serves. And 
she has done a superb job there over the years, part of it in these 
years as chairman where she has had to make some very difficult 
decisions as we passed a budget resolution that cuts back on some of 
the things that she favors. But the contributions that she has made 
over the years have been very significant.
  I have been proud to serve with all three. The people of Wyoming, 
Oregon, and Kansas can be very proud of these three Senators--Senator 
Simpson, Senator Hatfield, and Senator Kassebaum.
  Mr. President, I do not see anyone seeking the floor, so I suggest 
the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Are we in morning business, Mr. President?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, we are.

                          ____________________