[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11619-S11620]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO OUR RETIRING SENATORS

  Mr. BURNS. Madam President, we are down to sort of the short rows, I 
guess, of the 104th Congress. We will be saying farewell to about 14 of 
our colleagues who have chosen to retire from the U.S. Senate, having 
given a good many years and a good amount of their talents to this 
country and to this body and, of course, to their constituencies in 
their respective States.
  I have fond memories of every one of them, as I came in 1989 and have 
been doing business with all of these folks with a great deal of 
pleasure. But it has not been all pleasure. There has been some bitter 
with the good. But nonetheless, that is life and that is the 
legislative process. That is the way it is supposed to be.
  I can remember my first speech on the floor of the Senate when I was 
standing in the Senators' lobby right behind the Senate, and I was a 
little bit nervous about my first time. Senator Simpson of Wyoming, my 
friend to the south, walked by me and said, ``You don't look very good. 
In fact, you look a little green around the gills and a little pale.'' 
I told him, ``You know, I've been in the auction business a long time 
and the public speaking business a long time, and this is the first 
time I think I've ever really known a little bit of fear.'' I was 
apologetic for that. I remember his answer was, ``If you weren't a 
little bit afraid, we'd be worried about you.''
  He has been a great teacher, Senator Simpson. I cannot imagine this 
U.S. Senate without his presence, without his wit, without his humor, 
without his approach not only to the legislative process, but his 
approach to life, because I can remember when we used to have the old 
off-the-record days and the dialogue between the press and this body, 
and especially with him and his wife Ann and his family. We will miss 
them in the Washington scene.
  Senator Heflin is going back to Alabama--the judge, we call him--who 
has been a teacher to me on the Energy Committee, facing some of the 
same kinds of problems in our respective States, even though he comes 
from the Southeast and I from the West.
  Senator Kassebaum. Nancy will go home to Kansas. Kind, thoughtful, I 
did not always agree with everything she espoused, and she with me, but 
nonetheless I will miss her.
  Senator Simon from Illinois we will miss, with his voice, very 
distinctive voice in this body. But I think we will also miss the 
pragmatic way he confronted life in this body and what he could do. He 
will go home to southern Illinois, and we will miss him.
  Senator Pell and his longtime association with foreign policy.
  I can remember as a young man traveling for the American Polled 
Hereford Association, and I had the opportunity to travel to the 
Pacific Northwest, to Washington and Oregon. I can remember when I went 
to Oregon, Mark Hatfield was Governor of that State. I deemed it a 
great, high honor to serve with him in his capacity both in Energy and 
Appropriations here, and I thought he was an outstanding Governor of 
the State of Oregon.
  Sam Nunn will be missed. He is the leveling effect on the Armed 
Services Committee. We have had great shifts ever since the Wall came 
down in this historic time that he chaired that committee, and also as 
the ranking member in the last 2 years. But nonetheless, he was the 
chair when the Wall came down with a tremendous change, a tremendous 
shift in power, in world politics and in world military might. It 
happened on his wave. While I was concerned about this Russian 
situation, can they feed themselves; he was concerned, can they take 
care of all of the bumps in the road and the landmines that they will 
encounter while making this great transition from a world power into a 
market economy and providing more freedom for their people?

  Senator Bradley, who has roots in Missouri, the same as mine, has 
done what he thought was right, not what everybody else thought was 
right.
  We will miss David Pryor because he will go home to his homeland of 
Arkansas. Quiet, persuasive, knowledgeable, dedicated.
  Bennett Johnston, who was the chairman of the Energy Committee when I 
first went on the Energy Committee. Again, he had a leveling effect 
because of the many contentious issues and emotional issues that we are 
confronted with every day when you come from a State that has a high 
proportion of public lands where the Government is really your 
neighbor, in fact the Government is the biggest neighbor you have. 
Thirty-eight percent of the State of Montana is owned by the U.S. 
Government.
  For some of you who are not aware what it is like to live next to 
where the Government owns everything, there are times when they are not 
very good neighbors. Kind of like the fella who moved into your 
neighborhood, and they asked, ``How are the neighbors there?'' And he 
says, ``How were they where you come from?'' You know, they really do 
not practice that kind of philosophy sometimes.
  But Senator Johnston is one of those people who tries to level out 
the bumps, take some of the emotion out of it, to at least look at the 
public lands policy as far as the right thing to do for the land and 
the right thing for the people, for the people who lived where those 
lands existed, and the impact it would have on their lives. I 
appreciate that.
  Hank Brown of Colorado will go home, back to Colorado. I think he 
probably is one of the most intelligent men in this body, whose mind is 
so curious and his approach to life is so pragmatic that he will be 
sorely missed in this body. Probably there are not a lot of folks 
across the Nation who will really appreciate what he contributed

[[Page S11620]]

to the Senate and what he has contributed to the United States of 
America, because he quietly goes about his way in doing the right 
thing, and very intelligently.
  Jim Exon was the Governor of Nebraska when I was traveling through 
Nebraska. There again, he is known as one of the outstanding Governors 
of the State of Nebraska. Nebraska is a diverse State, kind of like 
Montana, but of course a lot more robust because they have great 
agriculture across the State with all the different kinds of 
agriculture, because if you will look at Nebraska, it is pretty long. 
You have most of the manufacturing, farm manufacturing, which all 
pertained to agriculture, and the little towns in eastern Nebraska and 
the great grasslands and the sand hills to the west, and, of course, 
the North Platte River. I speak of Nebraska with great respect because 
I happened to have married my wife in Nebraska. I understand those 
folks. Of course, she comes from ranching people and the livestock 
industry. So we understand that.

  Sheila Frahm will not be coming back after we drop the gavel on 
Congress. She will go back to Kansas, coming from a great part of 
Kansas, the western part, just about where the next Senator who will 
speak came from years ago, the able Senator from Pennsylvania.
  All of these individuals will be missed for their individual talents 
and the resources they brought to this body. That is what we are, 100 
different minds. We are 100 different methods of approaching different 
problems that this country faces.
  I deem it a great honor to serve in the U.S. Senate with these men 
and women who we will not see on this floor again when the gavel falls 
this week. I say to my special friends, and especially to Alan Simpson, 
who way back in 1988 was part of me getting into this political arena, 
we do not say goodbye, we just say so long, because even though our 
trails fork at this juncture in our lives, that is not to say that our 
trails will not cross in the future again.
  I thank them for what they have given this body, for the service to 
their constituency, but, more importantly, I thank them for their 
service to the United States of America. It will never be forgotten.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent I may speak for 
up to 20 minutes in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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