[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10942-S10943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENATOR DAVID PRYOR

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Senator David Pryor is retiring from the 
Senate at the end of this session after giving 18 years of exceptional 
service to the people of Arkansas and to the Nation. His quiet, 
thoughtful manner, his unfailing good humor, his wise counsel, and his 
natural leadership will be missed here.
  I think of that quotation from Edmund Burke, the great Irish 
statesman, orator, and writer, who observed in his ``Reflections on the 
Revolution in France'':

       Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the 
     field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of 
     great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, 
     chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those 
     who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field . . 
     .

  The Congress is an open field for serenading grasshoppers, who make a 
lot of noise unmatched by significant accomplishment. Senator Pryor, on 
the other hand, shuns the limelight of the Senate stage to devote his 
energies to quietly and tenaciously improving living conditions for 
American citizens, particularly the elderly.
  Senator Pryor began his political career in Arkansas investigating 
abuses in nursing homes, even working undercover as an orderly to 
gather firsthand evidence. As the Chairman of the Senate Special 
Committee on Aging for 6 years, Senator Pryor has led the crusade to 
protect America's elderly and to oversee Medicare. On the health care 
front, Senator Pryor labored valiantly to craft a workable solution to 
the massive health care reform effort in the last Congress.
  His concern for the elderly has led Senator Pryor to become an expert 
on, and a vocal critic of, the prices pharmaceutical companies charge 
for prescription drugs. And he has matched his criticism with action. 
Senator Pryor was instrumental in requiring drug companies to charge 
the same prices to state-federal Medicaid programs for the poor as they 
do to other bulk-drug purchasers.
  During this Congress, Senator Pryor has led a fight to close a 
loophole in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade legislation that 
creates a windfall for name-brand pharmaceutical companies by 
protecting them from generic competition under GATT. This loophole, a 
creation of error rather than of intent, means that consumers, and 
especially pensioners dependent on prescriptions that eat up a large 
percentage of their fixed incomes, are paying more for their 
prescriptions than otherwise would have been the case. I am proud to 
have supported Senator Pryor's tenacious and repeated efforts to remedy 
this problem. Although unsuccessful to date, Senator Pryor's leadership 
on this important issue merits commendation.
  On the Finance Committee, Senator Pryor has consistently worked to 
improve the notoriously painful interactions between the IRS and 
individual taxpayers. On the Agriculture Committee, he has championed 
issues important to the hardworking farmers laboring in the cotton and 
rice fields of Arkansas. This search for a balm to smooth the rough 
edges of life, to offer oil to calm the troubled waters of public 
exchange, is characteristic of the gentle Senator from Arkansas.
  In the behind-the-scenes life of the Senate, Senator Pryor has worked 
to encourage civility and order. He has provided leadership as the 
Secretary of the Democratic Conference in the 102nd and 103rd 
Congresses. He built the consensus that over a decade ago introduced 
family-friendly procedural changes, some of which are still in effect 
today, that restored some discipline to the way this body conducts its 
business. The time limits on votes and the recess schedule that we 
still attempt to follow are the lasting fruits of his labors.
  Senator Pryor has not limited his concern for family time to Senators 
alone. He cast a critical vote to override President Bush's veto of the 
Family and Medical Leave Act in the 102nd Congress, helping to provide 
a safety net for family members to look after a newborn, or a sick or 
dying relative, without risking the loss of their job.
  Another way in which Senator Pryor has enriched the life of the 
Senate and demonstrated his sincere devotion to young people is his 
continuing consideration for the Senate pages. These young people, whom 
we see every day on the floor and busily running our errands throughout 
the Capitol complex, have come from around the Nation to learn from us, 
as well as to assist us. Whether from large cities or rural areas, few, 
if any, of these young people are ever fully prepared for the demands 
and challenges of life on Capitol Hill, as many of us are not, until 
they have plunged into the midst of it. Having been a page himself, 
Senator Pryor knows firsthand that sometimes the learning part of this 
heady experience can be swamped under the working part.
  But he makes the time and takes the time to talk with the pages--and 
that

[[Page S10943]]

is quite a learning experience, for those of us who take the time to 
talk with them; I have often done that over the years--and to share 
with them his insight and his wisdom, to decipher for them the 
importance of what might be occurring on the floor, and to listen to 
their questions and their concerns.
  His interest in them is genuine, and it has made him a favorite of 
generations of pages. This is yet another facet of the quiet but 
extraordinary legacy of courtesy and accomplishment bequeathed to the 
Senate and to the Nation by Senator Pryor.
  Mr. President, I thank Senator Pryor for his service to the Senate 
and to the Nation. He has not trumpeted his ambitions, not made big 
noises like half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern, but has led by 
example, earning the genuine esteem and respect of his colleagues and 
the admiration of so many others whose lives he has touched. I wish him 
good health and happiness in his retirement. As he listens to the 
crickets chirping in the Arkansas dusk, raising their noisy chorus to 
the rising Arkansas moon, I hope that he remembers us as fondly as we 
will remember him.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. PRESSLER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota [Mr. Pressler] 
is recognized.
  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, I want to commend our former majority 
leader on his great remarks about David Pryor. His remarks have 
inspired me to say a few words about David. I have been trying to say a 
few words about each retiring Senator. But David Pryor has been a 
friend of mine. In fact, I have been down to Arkansas to his charitable 
event that he has to raise money in Texarkana several times. I have 
also been down to Little Rock to speak at college events. I feel that I 
have gotten to know David and Barbara Pryor quite well.
  He is a legendary figure in this body because he is, I think, one of 
the President's best friends, and David Pryor can go straight to the 
President with certain information or projects. That is an unusual 
responsibility for a Senator to have.
  But he is sort of a legendary U.S. Senator in that he came here as a 
page, I believe. He was in the House of Representatives when I was over 
in the House. I have followed his career for a number of years with 
great admiration.
  I shall miss David Pryor a great deal. He has done a lot of 
legislation. I serve with him on the Senate Finance Committee. I serve 
with him on the Senate Committee on Aging. But more than that, he is my 
friend. I shall miss David Pryor. We all come and go. David Pryor is 
leaving a little early, in my opinion, and I shall miss him very much. 
I join in those wonderful remarks paying tribute to Senator David Pryor 
of Arkansas.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Snowe). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. PRESSLER. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. PRESSLER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. PRESSLER. Madam President, I objected regarding the Pipeline 
Safety Act, which I am trying very hard to pass. I will not object if 
the Senator desires to discuss issues unrelated.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I would like to discuss an unrelated matter. If it 
becomes apparent that you can move ahead in terms of final disposition, 
I will withhold further comments. If I could, I ask unanimous consent 
to proceed with what I expect to be 12 or 15 minutes on the issue of 
education.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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