[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S712-S713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO SENATOR PAUL TSONGAS

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, when then-Representative Paul Tsongas of 
Lowell, MA, was running for the U.S. Senate in 1978, a newspaper 
columnist referred to him rather dismissively as ``an obscure first-
term Congressman.'' Candidate Tsongas responded quickly to correct the 
error, saying, ``I'm an obscure second-term Congressman.''
  That was Paul Tsongas, meticulous with the facts, parrying an attack 
with laughter, and always keeping on course to his goal.
  Mr. President, Paul Tsongas embodied the best qualities of a public 
servant. Uppermost in his mind was the responsibility to make his 
community, his district, his State, his Nation, his world a better 
place than he found it. Part of that responsibility was to speak 
plainly the truth as he saw it, even when speaking the truth might 
undermine his own ambitions.
  During the 1992 Presidential campaign, for example, Senator Tsongas 
insisted on warning the American people, over and over, about the 
looming

[[Page S713]]

threat posed by our national deficit. He refused to embrace tax cuts, 
instead insisting that fiscal responsibility and prudent policy were 
the keys to bringing the Federal budget back into balance.
  Because we shared a commitment to deficit reduction, Senator Tsongas 
came to Wisconsin in 1992 to campaign for me in my Senate race. Deficit 
reduction was the centerpiece of my campaign effort, and, like Senator 
Tsongas, I took the position that massive new tax cuts would undermine 
our efforts to reach a balanced budget. It was heartening to me to have 
Senator Tsongas' support and encouragement.
  His principles of fiscal responsibility and prudent policymaking led 
Senator Tsongas, after ending his quest for the Presidency, to join 
with another former Senator, Republican Warren Rudman, to form the 
Concord Coalition, an organization that has become one of the leading 
voices for deficit reduction.
  While I did not have the opportunity to serve with Senator Tsongas, 
our philosophies often crossed paths. I have been proud to have had the 
support of the Concord Coalition on various deficit-reduction efforts, 
and I have been inspired by Senator Tsongas' vision, energy, courage, 
and dedication, both on this issue and in the practice of public 
policymaking generally.
  Mr. President, I had only recently begun my own career in public 
service when Paul Tsongas announced he would not run for re-election in 
1984, because he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgin's lymphoma. He 
wanted, he said, to spend more time with his family.
  He endured bone-marrow transplants, a treatment that was experimental 
at the time, and he eventually came back, first to chair the 
Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, then to run for President and 
then to cofound the Concord Coalition.
  Even as he was working in the highest circles of American politics, 
he always kept close contact with his beloved hometown of Lowell, where 
he served on the city council in the late 1960's and where he is 
recognized as one of the community leaders who help revive that former 
mill town.
  Mr. President, in April 1963, Paul Tsongas was serving in the Peace 
Corps in Ethiopia, and he wrote then-Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, asking 
for help in securing a party worker's job in the upcoming national 
elections. In that letter, the 22-year-old Tsongas told Kennedy, ``I 
feel confident that I have the raw material to become a successful 
public servant.''
  A typical understatement from Paul Tsongas, Mr. President. He will be 
missed.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GREGG. Parliamentary inquiry, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. The Senator is 
permitted to speak up to 10 minutes.

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