[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12243-S12244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE RETIREMENT OF MANY GOOD FRIENDS

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have come to the Senate to make some 
comments on a sad occasion, as I witness the retirement of many good 
friends.
  For instance, Senator Mark Hatfield came to the Senate just 2 years 
prior to my arrival. We served in World War II during the same period, 
1943-1946.
  As a matter of fact, at one time we compared notes and we decided 
jointly he was probably the commander of a Navy vessel that was in 
Tsingtao Bay, China, when I flew into Tsingtao at the end of the war.
  After the war, Mark became a college professor who displayed a great 
deal of independence. I have a photograph that I gave him a copy of the 
other day which was of Mark Hatfield, when he was Governor of Oregon, 
John Tower, when he was just a new Senator from Texas, and I when I was 
a candidate for the Senate. It was when we met up at a conference 
former President Eisenhower held in Gettysburg. We have shared a great 
many concerns as Senators from Western States, and Senator Hatfield has 
been very helpful to me over the years I have served as one of Alaska's 
first Senators.
  I was actually the third Senator to represent my State and as a 
Western Senator and former Governor, he has been very helpful to me 
throughout the time we have served together. We went to the 
Appropriations Committee on the same day, and I have served with him as 
he has been chairman of that committee during the eighties and, again, 
during this Congress.
  It has been a great privilege to serve with him. I have had the role 
on the defense side of the Appropriations Committee, and he has been 
very kind to me in allocating the funds necessary to fulfill that 
responsibility.
  He was the author of a compromise in 1980 of great importance to my 
State on the issue of subsistence for rural people in Alaska. It has 
been a very controversial compromise, but without that compromise, the 
bill that allowed Alaska and Alaska Natives to go forward with the 
selection of their lands would not have passed. It was a difficult 
situation through the 7 years of debate on what we call the D-2 
legislation, and Senator Hatfield was on the Interior and Insular 
Affairs Committee at that time and served as an Alaska surrogate, 
really, in many ways.
  I have cherished my relationship with Senator Hatfield and his wife, 
Antoinette. We have really shared many private occasions together and 
visited each other's homes. It is the kind of friendship that is hard 
to witness coming to an end.
  Now it is my hope that I will become chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee next year. He has left a great mark on the Senate in his 
terms as chairman of the Appropriations Committee and also when he was 
the ranking member.
  I know that the Senate joins this Senator in wishing Mark and 
Antoinette Hatfield farewell as they return to their native State, and 
we hope they have many fine years there.
  I am certain Mark Hatfield is not going to retire. We will hear from 
him again and again as he pursues his former career as a professor and 
is involved in educating the people of his State, particularly in 
sharing with them the knowledge he has gained in the Senate.
  Another Senator I find it hard to say goodbye to is Senator Sam Nunn. 
Sam came to the Senate in 1972. He had been a member of the U.S. Coast 
Guard prior to becoming a Senator. He has had a consistent commitment 
to our military forces and to a strong national defense. We have 
traveled together on many occasions throughout the world attending NATO 
meetings and, in particular, I remember the trips that we took into the 
Persian Gulf during the Persian Gulf war.
  Actually, we have not talked too much about it, but Senator Nunn, 
Senator Inouye, Senator Warner and myself were in the Israeli defense 
ministry one night when it was subject to attack by Scud missiles from 
Iraq. It was a very memorable occasion.
  The next morning, we went out to look and see what happened to that 
Scud, and it had fallen short of coming into the center of Tel Aviv. We 
were fortunate. Those who lived in the homes where it fell were not 
that fortunate. But we both remembered the Patriot missile system and 
its deployment to Israel. Had it not been there, I am confident Senator 
Nunn and I would have departed the Senate much earlier.
  I also thank he and Senator Hatfield for the many wonderful mornings 
we have had together at the Senate prayer breakfast. And like my 
friendship with Senator Hatfield, my wife, and I have had a wonderful 
relationship with Colleen Nunn and Sam, and have also joined them at 
their home for private occasions. It has been the kind of relationship, 
as I said, that is very difficult to see come to an end. I spoke to 
Senator Nunn as he was leaving here, and I know we will see him again 
and again.

  Senator Kassebaum has decided to retire. She brought to the Senate a 
legacy established by her father who had been a candidate for President 
in the thirties.
  After coming to the Senate, Senator Kassebaum became the first woman 
Senator to chair a major Senate committee. Senator Margaret Chase Smith 
chaired a special committee back in the fifties, but Nancy Kassebaum 
was the first to chair a permanent committee, and demonstrated to the 
Senate the real skill and capabilities of a woman Senator as she 
chaired her committee and used her soft-spoken approach. I find that 
her approach works very well, particularly since we know her as a very 
tough, resilient negotiator. Whether she is an opponent or ally, 
depending upon the issue at hand, she is well known for her skills as a 
mediator, and we all admire her very much.
  As chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, she brought 
to us on a bipartisan basis the best possible health care insurance 
legislation we could have, and she was very effective as part of the 
Republican health care task force as we studied for over 3 years the 
problem of our health care and health insurance systems.
  I know her deep interest in education legislation, and she has 
repeatedly helped us in Alaska with the various problems we face 
because of the rural nature of our State and the real demands on our 
State and local governments for job training programs.
  I recall very pleasantly Nancy Kassebaum's trip to Alaska, and we 
hope that she will return and visit us again and again.
  Her deep interest in aviation product liability legislation brought 
us changes in that area of the law so that we hope we will, once again, 
start having small planes constructed in the United States of the type 
that we very much need in Alaska.
  I know that she has indicated she is leaving to spend more time with 
her five grandchildren. I have to tell the Senate, I think we will see 
her most in airports, because one of her grandchildren lives in South 
Carolina, three live in Connecticut and one lives in Kansas. Our great 
lady Senator has a good reason in her grandchildren to travel the 
country, Mr. President.
  She has been a good friend, and Catherine and I are sad to see her 
leave, also.
  Senator Exon came in 1978, a year that I also was candidate for 
reelection, and in that year we also had the disastrous air crash that 
the Senate knows of in which I lost my first wife.

  It was following that time that Senator Exon, having served in the 
Army in World War II and in the Army Reserve for many years, became one 
of

[[Page S12244]]

my traveling companions, in the early 1980's, as I was chairman of the 
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and we went to many different 
meetings that related to the defense of our country and with the 
defense establishments of other nations.
  I have to say, however, Senator Exon's fame in my State was 
overshadowed by his wife, Pat, who is a much better fisherman, I mean 
fisherwoman; in my State we say ``fisherperson'' now. When they came to 
Alaska we enjoyed having them with us. I note, now that he is leaving 
the Senate, he may be able to come up and meet the challenge and be 
able to leave a little bit better record and surpass the records 
established by his wife when she was fishing with us in Alaska.
  In terms of a Senator whom I have known for many years, Senator Alan 
Simpson--I actually met him before he came to the Senate, as the son of 
the late Senator Milward Simpson. He was very active in Wyoming 
affairs, and prior to being here in the Senate, I remember meeting him 
at a Republican event in Wyoming. I have gotten to know him very well 
since he has been in the Senate.
  Senator Alan Simpson has served the Senate as the Republican whip 
longer than any Senator in our history. He served 10 years. As a 
westerner with particular understanding of the problems that are 
experienced by those of us who come from the West, he represented us 
very well with his knowledge of small population, public land States. 
With his very quick wit and his pithy observations of the circumstances 
that we face, he has always been able to find a solution that was 
acceptable to the Senate on issues that affected our Western States. He 
has generated a bipartisan solution in many instances when many of us 
thought there was no way out. It has taken real courage on his part in 
many instances to find that bipartisan solution.
  The Senate has witnessed that just recently in the immigration issue. 
Knowing his departure was coming upon us, many of us have worked with 
him long and hard to try to help him achieve his goal of the passage of 
sound legislation in the immigration field.
  We wish him and Ann, his lovely wife, the very best as they now 
return to Wyoming and to other endeavors. Alan Simpson is also a person 
we are going to hear more about.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair informs the Senator that the 
Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I continue 
until someone comes. There is another Senator here. I will continue my 
comments later. Thank you very much.
  Mr. BRADLEY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.

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