[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SENATOR JIM EXON

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I pay tribute today to Senator James Exon, 
who is completing his third term in the Senate and has unfortunately, 
decided to retire. His retirement caps a long and distinguished career 
of public service unique to his home State of Nebraska. Jim Exon and I 
have served together on the Armed Services Committee, and I have 
admired his strong support of our national defense. At the same time, 
as a conservative, and as ranking member on the Senate Budget 
Committee, Senator Exon has had a practical, direct, moderate 
temperament which has put him in tune with national sentiment on the 
need to control spending. He has been a leader of efforts to balance 
the budget, and that includes a need to reduce defense spending where 
possible, given the end of the cold war, and particularly in tempering 
the tendency to throw too much money on expensive new hardware systems.
  Jim Exon is against waste and he has put his legislative shoulders 
behind that effort. He would agree with William Shakespeare, who wrote 
in King Henry V:

     I can get no remedy
     against this consumption of
     the purse: borrowing only
     lingers and lingers it out,
     but the disease is incurable.

  Jim Exon will be missed here. I shall miss his candid style, his no-
nonsense temperament, and his refreshing directness, all of which are 
mixed with a down-home sense of humor. As a Senator, Jim Exon has 
always retained a modest sense of himself, never succumbing to the 
inflation of ego, which is a constant temptation in a body so much in 
the national limelight.
  Senator Exon's success as a three-term Senator follows a string of 
other successes. After graduating from the University of Omaha in 1942, 
he volunteered for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and served in the Pacific 
theater in New Guinea, in the Philippines, and, finally, in Japan, and 
was honorably discharged as a master sergeant in December of 1945. He 
returned from the war to start a business career and developed a very 
successful office equipment company.
  At the same time, he followed in his family's political footsteps. 
His grandfather served as a county judge in South Dakota, and Jim's 
early grassroots experience came in campaigning for his grandfather 
there. Jim started in politics by becoming a prominent leader of the 
Nebraska Democratic Party, serving as State vice chairman and National 
Committeeman.
  Jim came to the Senate in 1978 after having served as the Governor of 
Nebraska for two terms from 1970-1978, longer than any other person in 
that State's history. The experience served him well. He was rewarded 
by the people of Nebraska when he achieved the unique accomplishment of 
having been elected directly to the United States Senate.
  Jim Exon comes from the heartland of America and is an admirable 
reflection of the values, the solid citizenship, and the loyalty that 
characterize our heartland. He reflects the basic American values that 
honor family, fiscal responsibility, and national security.
  Last year in the context of landmark telecommunications reform 
legislation, he was the author of a provision intending to protect 
children from computer pornography by making it illegal to send 
indecent material to a child or display it on computer screens where 
children can access it.
  He has been, as well, a leader in protecting American businesses from 
takeovers by foreign firms in the area of national security. Known as 
the Exon-Florio law, passed in 1988, this act gave the President 
authority to investigate and stop foreign takeovers of American 
companies in the case where the takeover would threaten U.S. national 
security.
  Jim Exon is rock solid. This year he and his wife, Patricia, will 
have celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary, which goes to show that 
you can still stay married to your first wife a long, long time. He 
returns to Nebraska to join his three children, Steve, Pam, and Candy, 
along with his eight grandchildren, a very wealthy man he is indeed--
eight grandchildren.
  In citing his reasons for retirement, Jim Exon laments recent trends 
in American politics, such as the ``vicious polarization of the 
electorate,'' the erosion of the art of honest compromise as the 
essence of the Democratic process, and the negative attack ads 
dominating current political campaigns. As he departs, I hope that he 
will be a continuing force against these trends and that he, at least, 
will help inculcate in the new men and women who are entering politics 
in Nebraska the same values of fairness; good humor; practical, 
independent sense--common sense--and honest achievement that have so 
clearly emphasized and characterized his own career.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested. 
The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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