[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S6022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GODSPEED TO SENATOR DOLE

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I rise to join all of those in the Senate 
today to wish Godspeed to our distinguished majority leader and 
colleague, Bob Dole, as he departs the Senate and embarks upon his 
campaign for the Presidency of the United States. I do not know of any 
other event that is more important to all of us or to the country this 
year than his election as President. I am really glad in one sense to 
see him concentrate his full energies and attention on that objective.
  When I think about Bob Dole's leaving the Senate, I think about when 
I came to the Senate he was already established as one of the true 
legislative leaders of the Senate, although he occupied no elected 
position of leadership in the Senate. It was my good fortune to serve 
on two committees with him as a freshman Member of this body--the 
Agriculture Committee and the Judiciary Committee. He was not intending 
to serve on the Judiciary Committee that year either, but he was 
drafted to serve. We did not have enough Members to fill out the ranks 
on the Republican side. Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts just assumed 
the chairmanship of that committee. It was a very highly visible 
committee.
  I recall Senator Dole coming on the committee. Of course, he had been 
a lawyer, a county attorney in Kansas. He brought to that committee 
good judgment and experience on a number of issues. I can recall what I 
would think would be referred to as an obscure bill that year that the 
committee worked on, which was bankruptcy reform. After a lot of 
hearings, a lot of effort to resolve issues and to get a bill reported 
out, it was Senator Dole who, when it appeared there was not going to 
be any action on that issue, came up with a proposal that turned out to 
be the centerpiece of bankruptcy reform.
  It was that way on the Agriculture Committee. We would be locked in 
tough debate, arguments, differences of views based on regional 
considerations, sometimes party differences. The chairman from Georgia, 
Senator Talmadge, was trying to get everybody together. Time after time 
after time it was Bob Dole who ended up being the force and the 
catalyst that brought the committee to a point where it agreed and 
reported out legislation. That legislation would ultimately become law.
  Senator Dole, as a member of the Finance Committee--I did not have 
the good fortune to be a member there--but as chairman of that 
committee, I can recall his handling legislation on the floor of the 
Senate into the late hours of the evening with the patience and the 
calm determination to see the bill through, dealing with the competing 
interests, the offering of amendments, Democrats and Republicans alike, 
getting a fair hearing on their proposals of what should be in the bill 
and what should not be in the bill. And finally, after sometimes days, 
bringing that bill to a point where it would pass the Senate and then 
ultimately be enacted into law.
  A legislative leader, in the truest sense of the word, on a wide 
range of issues, some issues that other Senators did not want to work 
on, like in the Agriculture Committee, the nutrition issues, working 
out the difficulties in determining eligibility for food stamps, for 
School Lunch Program participation, how much would the Federal 
Government contribute, how much would State and local governments 
contribute, how much would individuals have to pay for these benefits, 
and on and on, the minutia, the tough, hard decisions. He was there to 
help make those decisions and to help shape a consensus of support for 
legislation on those issues when others could not do it, did not bring 
the skill and the determination and the capacity to do it that Bob Dole 
brought to the challenge.
  It was no wonder, when Howard Baker left the Senate in 1984, 
following the elections that year, the Senate turned to Bob Dole and 
elected him leader. He has proven himself over and over again to be a 
confident, fair, courageous, decisive leader, driven by character, 
integrity, and the notion of what is good for the public interest, not 
just what is good for the party interest or partisan consideration, but 
the general interests that serve the people of our great country. It is 
with that kind of leadership that we have come to appreciate the genius 
of Bob Dole and the outstanding way in which he has discharged the 
responsibilities of leader.

  We are going to have a tough job. I know that some people are talking 
about the succession, and who is going to replace Bob Dole. The fact is 
that nobody is going to replace Bob Dole. Nobody has the capacity to do 
all the things that he has done in the U.S. Senate. It has really been 
an honor--a great honor--and a wonderful opportunity to have had the 
privilege of serving on some of the committees he has served on, some 
he has chaired, and to be a part of this Senate that has been led by 
Bob Dole, the Senator from Kansas.
  So we wish him all the best and know that he will enjoy many more 
successes and many more triumphs in the years ahead. We are confident 
of that, and we bid him a fond farewell.
  Mr. KYL addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.

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