[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 135 (Thursday, September 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11406-S11407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page S11406]]



                           SENATOR CARL LEVIN

  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, serving in the Senate has given me the 
opportunity to work on many important issues with many talented Members 
on both sides of the aisle. When I leave the Senate, I will miss the 
professional and personal associations I have had working with my 
colleagues in the Senate and the House, none more than my association 
with my friend Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.
  Carl Levin and I have served together on the same two committees for 
the past 18 years, the Armed Services Committee and the Governmental 
Affairs Committee. During those years I have gained a tremendous 
appreciation for his energy, his intelligence, his tenacity, his skill 
in the legislative process, and his total commitment to public service.
  I trust and hope the voters of Michigan will return him to the Senate 
next year where, depending on the makeup of the Congress, whether 
Republicans or Democrats control, he will be either the chairman or 
ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and he will certainly 
be a leader on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and perhaps 
chairman of that subcommittee or ranking minority member on that 
subcommittee, a position that I have held now since the late 1970's.
  Mr. President, one of the hallmarks that I associate with Carl 
Levin's service in the Senate is his passionate belief that Government 
should work and that it can work, and that Congress has a 
responsibility to the American people to make sure that it does work. 
On both the Armed Services Committee and Governmental Affairs 
Committee, I have watched with admiration as Carl Levin's tireless 
efforts developed into a substantial record of legislative 
accomplishments across a whole range of important issues.
  When Carl Levin came to the Senate in 1979, he asked to serve on the 
Governmental Affairs Committee. I remember how glad the committee was 
to have someone with his background, eager to serve on this important 
committee. In that year, the chairman of the committee, Senator Abe 
Ribicoff, created a new subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Oversight of 
Government Management.
  Oversight of Government Management. That is a subject that might 
strike some people as dry, and I assume that many days it was dry to 
Senator Levin, but it has been one of the passions of his Senate 
career. Senator Levin was appointed chairman of this new subcommittee 
in 1979, and my good friend and outstanding Senator from Maine, Senator 
Bill Cohen, was the ranking minority member. These two remarkable 
Senators have formed a partnership as chairman and ranking minority 
member of this subcommittee that has lasted through changes in the 
control of the Senate from Democrat to Republican to Democrat and 
Republican, and lasts to this day. In fact, Mr. President I would say 
that the relationship between Senator Levin and Senator Cohen on the 
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management serves as a textbook 
example of successful bipartisan cooperation in the pursuit of 
effective Government that other committees and subcommittees, indeed, 
other Senators and Congressmen, should look at very closely. When these 
two dedicated and outstanding leaders get together on an issue, good 
Government is almost always the result.

  Over the years, Carl Levin has carried out oversight investigations 
and hearings on a broad range of Federal programs in the Subcommittee 
on Oversight, including Social Security disability, Internal Revenue 
Service operation, the Customs Service, and inventory management in the 
Department of Defense. The objective of these investigations was to 
improve the operation of important Federal programs. The results in 
each case demonstrate that thoughtful, careful, and constructive 
congressional oversight of Federal programs can often lead to 
improvements in performance more readily than legislation.
  Carl Levin has also built an impressive legislative record on the 
Governmental Affairs Committee. He has been the driving force behind 
lobbying reform, the independent counsel legislation, whistle-blower 
protection, ethics reform, the Competition in Contracting Act, and the 
reform of the defense acquisition process. All of these initiatives 
have focused on a goal of making Government more open, more productive, 
and more effective.
  Since the death of our colleague and great U.S. Senator, Senator 
Scoop Jackson, in 1983, I have served as the chairman and ranking 
minority member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the 
Governmental Affairs Committee. While Senator Jackson was still in the 
Senate serving, I was the vice chairman of that committee and while he 
was running for President of the United States, I was the acting 
chairman of that committee, so he and I worked together on that 
committee, for many years. Over the years this has been one of the 
premier investigative subcommittees of the Congress, and I cannot think 
of anyone more qualified, by temperament and by experience, to provide 
leadership on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations than Carl 
Levin.
  Senator John Glenn is also on that committee and provides superb 
leadership as either the ranking Democrat or the chairman of the 
Governmental Affairs Committee, depending, again, on which party 
controls the Senate. Senator Bill Roth and I have been partners on this 
subcommittee for many years, he serving sometimes as the ranking 
Republican when the Democrats are in control, sometimes as chairman, 
and he and I have reversed roles now, I believe, three times. So we 
have some outstanding members serving on that subcommittee with Senator 
Levin.
  Senator Levin has also been an extraordinarily active and energetic 
member of the Armed Services Committee during the years we served 
together. I remember when he first came on the Committee in 1979, and 
chairman Stennis asked him to chair the committee's hearings on the 
legislation implementing the Panama Canal Treaty. This was one of those 
detailed, complicated, and important jobs that everyone knew had to be 
done and hoped someone else would do. In what we came to realize was 
typical fashion, Carl Levin rolled up his sleeves and did an excellent 
job in carrying out the committee's responsibilities on this important 
issue.
  During our service together on the Armed Services Committee Senator 
Levin has served as the ranking minority member on the readiness 
Subcommittee and the chairman and ranking minority member on the 
Conventional Forces--now called the Airland Forces--Subcommittee. In 
that capacity he has made major contributions to maintaining the 
readiness of our forces and ensuring that they have the weapons and 
equipment they need to carry out their missions today and in the 
future.
  In reality, though, Mr. President, Senator Levin's impact on our 
national security has extended far beyond the subcommittees which he 
led. In fact, it is hard to think of a major issue that the Armed 
Services Committee has dealt with over the past two decades in which 
Carl Levin has not made an important contribution. He has been involved 
in our discussions on the size and makeup of our military force 
structure; on the modernization of our conventional capability; and on 
the modernization of our strategic nuclear forces. He has been a key 
player over the years in our oversight of ongoing military operations, 
including Somalia; the Persian Gulf conflict and its aftermath; and 
Bosnia. As I indicated earlier, he has been one of the drivers behind 
the enactment of the recent landmark legislation on defense acquisition 
reform, which of course has been a top priority of Secretary of Defense 
Bill Perry.
  As one of the most active members of the Senate's Arms Control 
Observer Group since its inception in 1985, Senator Levin has been 
heavily involved in keeping the Committee and the Senate informed on 
the progress of arms control negotiations. He has also made important 
contributions to the Senate's consideration of the Intermediate Range 
Nuclear Forces Treaty; the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe; and 
the START I and Start II Treaties. I know he shares my regret that the 
Senate has not been able to act on the Conventional Weapons Convention 
during this session, and my hope that the Senate will act on this 
important Treaty early next year.
  Mr. President, Senator Levin and I have not agreed on every single 
issue

[[Page S11407]]

in the Armed Services Committee over the years. Sometimes our positions 
differed, sometimes our philosophies differed. In those cases where we 
disagreed, my respect for his knowledge and his intelligence always 
caused me to double-check my own thinking. When we agreed--particularly 
on complicated issues like the reinterpretation of the ABM Treaty--I 
was always grateful to have him standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

  All of us know Carl Levin's tenacity and talent for negotiating. Now 
that I am leaving the Senate in just a few days, I don't mind revealing 
that while I was chairman of the Armed Services Committee, I used Carl 
Levin as one of my secret weapons when we went into conference with the 
House on the annual Defense authorization bill. Whenever the Conference 
got bogged down over a particularly difficult issue, I knew that I 
could assign Carl Levin to go off and work with the House and have a 
pretty high level of confidence that the outcome would be closer to the 
Senate than to the House position. Carl is a superb negotiator. I have 
to confess that the House conferees got wise to my strategy, because 
after a while I only had to threaten to turn an issue over to Carl 
Levin to break a conference deadlock.
  They simply, many times, would rather concede than go off and know 
they were going to be subject to Carl's very tenacious negotiating 
capabilities.
  Serving in the U.S. Senate has been the greatest privilege of my 
career, the highlight of my professional life. I will miss the Senate, 
and I will miss my colleagues. I will leave, however, with a great deal 
of confidence that the energy and creativity in the Armed Services 
Committee--and its unwavering commitment to our Nation's security and 
to the men and women in uniform--will continue under the 
extraordinarily capable leadership on the Democratic side of my good 
friend, Senator Carl Levin, of Michigan.

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