[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         A TRIBUTE TO SAM NUNN

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, after 24 years of service we are sad to 
see Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia go. Like his uncle before him, the 
Honorable Carl Vinson, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and 
that other eminent Georgian, the Venerable Richard Russell, chair of 
the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has served with distinction, 
ensuring our Nation's defense in the shifting sands of the post cold 
war. Sam Nunn can claim credit for overhauling the much maligned 
procurement system and for streamlining excess base closings. 
Additionally, he is responsible for engaging the Department of Defense 
in the war against drugs. With bipartisan support, he sponsored the 
comprehensive Omnibus Anti-Drug Substance Abuse Act of 1988 that 
addresses every facet of the issue: law enforcement, interdiction, 
treatment, education, and increased cooperation with the international 
community and our own Internal Revenue Service. The latter signals the 
agency's return to its former G-man days, targeting organized crime and 
the narcotics industry.
  Among our esteemed colleague's forays on crime are his chairmanship 
and current ranking minority leadership on the Senate's Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations. In this venue, Sam probed the fraud and 
abuse of student financial aid. He likened the Nation's Pell Grant 
Program to ``an open bank with no security guards and no tellers''. As 
a result of this and other investigations like it, reform measures were 
included in reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in 1992.
  Other significant achievements belonging to Sam include a 1974 bill 
which created a mechanism for tracking down runaway parents and holding 
them financially responsible for their children, definitely a harbinger 
of family values. He saw the value of providing numerous initiatives 
for small businesses, including the Small Business Development Center 
program which provides management and technical assistance to small 
businesses across the country, and the Preferred Surety Bond Guaranty 
Program enacted in 1988 and designed to encourage more standard surety 
companies to participate in the Small Business Administration's 
Guaranteed Bond Program, strengthening the heart of the American 
economy, the small businessman. And lest you ever think that Sam 
forgets the agricultural heritage of Georgia, he cosponsored the 
Conservation Reserve Program that encourages farmers to retire highly 
erodible and environmentally sensitive crop land on a 10-year cycle. 
Georgia, along with the rest of us, can thank him for the Georgia 
Wilderness Act of 1984 and the creation of the Chattahoochee River 
National Recreation Area.
  Yes, he will be remembered as an outstanding Senator and defence 
expert in the Georgia tradition, but as you can see, he has been much 
more. Most of all, he has been someone that the people of Georgia and 
the United States were proud to have serve them as a Senator.

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