[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11163-S11165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO SENATOR PAUL SIMON

  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, a few minutes ago--actually an hour 
ago now--the Senate demonstrated, I think, the kind of cooperation and 
collegiality that really is in the best tradition of this Senate, when 
Members on both sides of the aisle, male and female alike, came out 
wearing bow ties as a tribute to my senior Senator, Paul Simon.
  At the outset, I would like to thank the people who made it possible: 
Senator Connie Mack of Florida, with whom I had conversations regarding 
the surprise to Paul Simon and who made it possible also for Members on 
the Republican side of the aisle to have bow ties; to Senator David 
Pryor of Arkansas who took the initiative to have the ties made. I had 
to question him why it was that the girls didn't exactly get ties. We 
had to tie our own bows. But it was all right because the bows are 
really quite lovely. I know many of us will probably keep these as part 
of our wardrobes permanently. I couldn't help but think, when I saw so 
many Members of this Senate come out on the floor in their bow ties or 
their bows, how very special this institution is in its tribute to a 
very special Member.
  First, with regard to the institution. We very often call each other 
``distinguished,'' ``my good friend,'' ``the honorable.'' But there is 
something about serving in an institution like this that brings us 
together and binds us together, almost like a family, without regard to 
our political affiliation or even our philosophical orientation, maybe 
because we spend so many hours together or we work together and we work 
such long hours together, a point that is often missed by the general 
public. But the fact is, because of our coming together in so many 
different endeavors, the Members of this body all have a special regard 
and a special relationship one to the other.
  I think that regard and that relationship was reflected in the 
tribute to Senator Paul Simon when Members, again on both sides of the 
aisle, so willingly took up the bow tie and took up the bow in honor of 
him and in tribute to what has become his signature--his bow tie.
  Senator Pryor is on the floor now, and I don't know where he had 
these made, but they certainly are gorgeous.
  Senator Pryor and Senator Mack and the other Members, and I must say 
we had cooperation from just about everybody--the people in the 
cloakroom who made the ties available, the staffer who helped play a 
little trick on Paul Simon this afternoon when we sent him a note that 
said he had a phone call so he would leave the caucus long enough for 
an announcement to be made about the surprise. Everyone has cooperated 
to make this possible.
  It was really a great honor to him and a great honor to his service 
to this institution, as well as our State of Illinois and our Nation 
that this tribute was such a moving one. Even though we were in the 
middle of votes, everyone made the point to go up and to speak to 
Senator Simon and to wish him well.

  Paul Simon epitomizes public service. He has always sought to make 
government work for the people. He understands that democratic 
government is not separate and distinct from the people. But it is no 
more, no less than a mechanism for all of us to come together for our 
common good. In a democracy, government is all of us, and Paul Simon 
has spent a lifetime making government real, making government 
responsive, making government serve the public interest.
  He is a genuine public servant, and a public servant who has 
functioned consistent with his beliefs and his principles and his own 
ethic over the years, whether popular or unpopular, in the good times 
and the bad ones.
  One can always be certain that Paul Simon's values are never very far 
from his votes. He always has been known to care for the less 
fortunate, for those without a voice. His compassion for people has 
helped make him a conscience for this body and, indeed, for our Nation. 
He has been a fighter on issues without regard to whether or not they 
made it on the polls or the pop charts.
  In fact, he started working for education, for example, before it was 
as high up in the polling as it is today. Education is a passion of 
Paul Simon because he believes that it is an integral part of 
opportunity in preserving the American dream. So he fought for 
educational opportunity, and he has fought to make certain that 
opportunity was extended to all Americans everywhere--handicapped 
Americans, minority Americans, Americans in the suburbs and the 
cities--wherever in this country. Paul Simon's concern as a small ``d'' 
democrat for the people of this country has been unwavering.
  It is that same concern that drove him to be the chief architect and 
the

[[Page S11164]]

chief sponsor of the balanced budget constitutional amendment. Many 
times when I am called on, when I speak to people about the balanced 
budget amendment, which is an issue that now is very popular--it wasn't 
when he first started working on it--I remind people that it was a 
Democrat, Paul Simon, who championed the balanced budget amendment 
before it was popular.
  He did so because he knows and he believes that we have a duty in our 
generation to leave our children more than a legacy of debt. So it is 
essential, again, if we are going to hold on to that American dream, 
that we have to be responsive to the people, but we have an obligation 
also to be prudent and not to be profligate in our spending.
  I heard a story the other day that I think really describes Paul 
Simon, that I think is so typical or so appropriate with regard to 
describing Paul Simon. A woman said to me she always liked people who 
liked children and people who liked trees, because those were people 
who cared about what came after they were gone. If you think about it, 
caring about children and caring about trees and caring about the 
future of America is exactly what has distinguished Paul Simon's 
service in this Senate and in his public life through the years in the 
State of Illinois.
  He leaves some awfully big shoes to fill. He likes to point out that 
he could do for me what no one else can do, and that is make me the 
senior Senator from Illinois. While I look forward to being the senior 
Senator from this great State, at the same time I recognize that it is 
an awfully tall bill to fill, to live up to the standards and live up 
to the kind of ethic that Paul Simon has always represented.

  He has been a public servant of the first order. He started having 
town meetings in our State and, quite frankly--he has had a couple 
thousand of them--it is going to take me a little while to catch up 
with the number of townhall meetings that Paul Simon had in the State. 
He also had townhall meetings here. In fact, when I came to the Senate 
and joined him with the every-Thursday townhall meetings in which we 
speak to the people who drop by on the issues, this was an innovation 
by Paul Simon that, frankly, was absolutely consistent with his 
reaching out, with his spreading the gospel of democracy to the people 
who came to visit their Capitol.
  So, in closing, Mr. President, I would like to say that it is 
altogether appropriate that Paul Simon comes from and represents the 
State of Illinois. Our State has been long known as ``the land of 
Lincoln,'' and we are very proud of that. Illinois' greatest citizen 
made a monumental contribution to our country in very difficult times, 
but I think it is absolutely consistent with his legacy that our State 
has been served by a giant in the nature and of the name of Paul Simon.
  He follows in the best Illinois tradition: someone who is committed 
to keeping the United States of America the greatest country in the 
world, someone who has devoted the full measure of his talent and his 
energy to his State and to his country.
  So it is with great love and affection that I wish him well in his 
retirement, as I am sure that my colleagues do as they demonstrated on 
this floor this afternoon.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. PRYOR addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kempthorne). The Senator from Arkansas is 
recognized.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I want to thank my distinguished colleague 
from Illinois, Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, for the eloquent statement 
she has made about our departing colleague, the honorable Paul Simon, 
the senior Senator from her State.
  I also want to thank, Mr. President, our distinguished colleague, the 
junior Senator from Illinois, for the role that she has played in 
making this so-called bow tie day in honor of Paul Simon, not only a 
reality, but I think certainly, Mr. President, a success.
  I must say, I have been asked several times during the course of the 
afternoon--because I think I have gotten a little bit too much 
attention or credit for this, and I should not get any--but I was 
sitting at an airport some months ago, visiting with my friend and 
colleague from the State of Florida, Senator Connie Mack, and I do not 
know exactly how we started talking about Paul Simon of Illinois, but 
something came up, and Connie Mack said to me, he said, ``You know, we 
ought to do something to honor Paul Simon. What a grand person. What a 
distinguished American. What an opportunity we have had to serve with 
this man, Paul Simon.''
  We started thinking out loud, sitting in the airport, waiting for the 
plane. And the plane did not come, and it did not come, so we had idea 
after idea. Finally, Connie Mack said, ``You know what we ought to do? 
We all ought to, before Paul Simon leaves the Senate, we ought to wear 
a bow tie in his honor because it is such a symbol of this great man.'' 
So I said, ``Connie Mack, you have come upon a great idea.'' I raced to 
the telephone and called my friend in Little Rock, Mr. Bill Humble, and 
I said, ``Bill, can your tie plant make us up 100 bow ties?'' He said, 
``We'll be glad to.''
  And so with that, and then with the help, the wonderful help of 
Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, who helped arrange the disbursing of the 
ties today, and keeping this a secret, even almost from all of the Paul 
Simon staff, and almost Mrs. Simon, Jeanne Simon--I did notice she was 
here today to see the thunderous applause, the thunderous ovation that 
her husband, Paul Simon, received by his colleagues, I would say about 
95 percent of those colleagues wearing a bow tie to pay tribute to our 
colleague. So it has been a nice day. It was a nice way to express our 
affection and our respect for Paul Simon of Illinois. I have always 
admired him.
  I have admired him from afar when he was a Member of the House of 
Representatives, when he was doing so much with children's issues, when 
he was championing the cause of education in our society, when he was 
concerned about the breakdown of the family unit, which he was talking 
to us about, as Senator Moynihan was talking to us about decades ago, 
about this breakdown, and the perseverance with which he approached 
each and every issue that he undertook. And I am so grateful that I 
have had the privilege of not only sitting alongside this man, but also 
literally sitting behind Senator Paul Simon's desk for these numbers of 
years.
  Mr. President, it is time for those of us who are departing, like my 
colleague and wonderful friend from Wyoming, Senator Simpson, who I 
came to the Senate with in 1979, it is time now, speaking of desks, for 
us to clean out our desks and take those humble belongings that we have 
in these desks home with us or wherever we might go, and to inscribe 
our name as occupant of the desk.
  Many in our country might not know the history of these beautiful 
Senate desks in the Senate Chamber, but I hope all Americans will know 
that each Senator who occupies a particular desk will have his or her 
name inscribed in that desk for posterity and for all future 
generations to know.
  Finally, Mr. President, back to our friend, Senator Simon, if I were 
speaking to a political science class--and I think come the next 
semester at the University of Arkansas I might be speaking to one or 
two of those classes--if I am ever asked the question by one of those 
political science students as to how to pattern their life into 
becoming a politician, and a public servant, ultimately a public 
official, I think I would say to that class that you have to look no 
further than the life, the personal life and the political life, of 
Paul Simon of Illinois, because I think with his life he has made a 
statement, just like we on the floor today made a statement by wearing 
a Paul Simon bow tie.
  Paul Simon has made a statement for the last three decades that I 
think will be an inspiration to all who believe in this system of 
government and to all who believe that we can make this system of 
government better.
  A lot of people have so-called ``lost faith'' with our system of 
government, with politicians and with Washington, and what have you. 
But I think I would say this--and I am proud that my colleague from 
Illinois is here, my colleague from Wyoming, and our new colleague from 
Tennessee, and the distinguished occupant of the Chair from Idaho--I 
would just say that I think

[[Page S11165]]

that Paul Simon, perhaps as much as any Senator that I have ever had 
the privilege of serving with, has humanized government. He has 
humanized politics. And he has humanized politicians. I think he has 
done it with grace. He has done it with vision. And he has done it I 
think with joy, because that joy exudes from Paul Simon. The happiness 
of his profession, the happiness of his work, I think will live long 
after Paul Simon has left these Chambers of the U.S. Senate.
  So, Mr. President, with that, we say thank you, Paul Simon, thank you 
for being our friend, thank you for being truly a great U.S. Senator 
and a great Member of this body and a great friend of us all. Mr. 
President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. SIMPSON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming is recognized.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I, too, will join in the great remarks 
about my friend Paul Simon and thank the Senator, soon-to-be senior 
Senator from Illinois. My time as senior Senator has been so fleeting 
that I am hardly able to recall it because I served as the junior 
Senator to Malcolm Wallop, my friend from Wyoming. So enjoy the term 
indeed, I say to my colleague from Illinois. Do it well.
  And to my friend, Senator Pryor, who came here with me--and he and 
his wife Barbara have become very dear and special friends of ours--he 
is a most genial, generous, kind man, and a friend to his friends. If 
they rallied him in time of need, it would only be because in his life 
and her life they have done just exactly that to all around them.
  With regard to Paul Simon, you have to understand that I met Paul 
when we were State legislators together in 1971. There was a conference 
on outstanding State legislators, and here were Paul Simon and myself, 
he of the Illinois Legislature, me of the Wyoming Legislature, honored. 
They had two from each State. I was one; Paul was one. The first day I 
met him, I had a bow tie on because Paul and I had to at least know how 
to tie our own bow ties. There are people in here today that have no 
concept of how to tie a bow tie. In fact, some of them have difficulty 
with even a mechanical tie is my experience seeing it today. But we 
laughed about that over the years.

  But we are not in any way doing anything but paying tribute to this 
man who, with all the accolades we have heard, they are all true--
honest, direct, thoughtful, steady. I know. I served with him. He 
served on my subcommittee on immigration, refugee policy, always 
attentive, always asking, always, always having a query and inquiring 
and saying, ``Well, why is this? What is the purpose of this?''
  And so, indeed, he and Jeanne, we wish them Godspeed. We will see 
more of them as we go on to snatch more of our own lives for ourselves 
rather than in this place and leave those tasks to our brothers and 
sisters and knowing what is required of them and both of us ready to 
move on to other things.
  I could not have had a finer colleague, whether it was working on the 
issues of fraudulent marriage--Paul handled that while I was chairman--
or the balanced budget. We all know the things he does. We all know who 
he is. That is why we did this tribute today. No one else will have a 
tribute like that in the U.S. Senate--how we would honor one of our 
colleagues in any way as we did today and see the look on his face and 
the delight and that smile that is so very special. He knew that and we 
knew that. I thought how appropriate to honor him in that way. None of 
us will ever receive such a wonderful accolade, with whimsy, humor, and 
good spirit. I commend all those who brought that to pass.

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