[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 20 (Monday, February 24, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1477-S1479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CLELAND (for himself, Mr. Coverdell, Ms. Moseley-Braun, 
        Mr. Reid, Mr. Hollings, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Ford, Mr. Akaka, Mr. 
        Levin, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Breaux, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Hagel, 
        Mr. Nickles, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Leahy, Mr. 
        Thurmond, Mr. Bumpers, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Warner, Mrs. 
        Hutchison, and Mr. Hutchinson):

  S. 347. A bill to designate the Federal building located at 100 
Alabama Street NW, in Atlanta, GA, as the ``Sam Nunn Federal Center''; 
to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.


                  sam nunn federal center legislation

 Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, today, I honor Senator Sam Nunn, 
my friend, and one of America's most outstanding public servants. In 
recognition of the exceptional service Senator Sam Nunn has given to 
Georgia, the Senate, and the United States, I believe it would be 
fitting that the new Federal building in Atlanta be designated the 
``Sam Nunn Federal Center.''
  Senator Nunn has provided exemplary bipartisan leadership over the 
past 24 years, serving in a variety of leadership positions including 
both chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee 
and the chairman and ranking member on the Senate's Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations. In his years in the U.S. Senate, 
Senator Nunn earned the reputation as an internationally recognized 
expert on economic policy, defense, and national security.
  Respected and honored by both his colleagues and constituents, it has 
been said of Senator Nunn, ``Unlike some who gained prominence in the 
nation's capital, Nunn has not done so at the expense of his home base 
* * * Public events shift and change, but Sam Nunn keeps right on being 
Sam Nunn.'' First elected to the Senate in 1972, Sam Nunn has been one 
of the most admired and respected Members of the U.S. Senate and has 
consistently been ranked among the most effective Senators in surveys 
of journalists and congressional staffers.
  Senator Nunn has recently ended his many years of service as a U.S. 
Senator and I am deeply honored to now occupy his seat. I believe that 
naming the Federal building in Atlanta after Senator Nunn would be a 
permanent way in which we can appropriately recognize Senator Nunn's 
contributions to the Nation. I urge my fellow colleagues to join me in 
honoring my friend, and one of America's most admired public servants, 
and support the passage of the bill to designate the ``Sam Nunn Federal 
Center.'' In conclusion, I would like to have Senator Byrd's September 
27 floor statement made in tribute to Senator Nunn re-entered in the 
Record.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that additional material be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

            [From the Congressional Record, Sept. 27, 1996]

                      Tribute to Senator Sam Nunn

       Mr. Byrd. Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching that 
     season when we shall witness the departure of many of our 
     colleagues who have elected not to serve beyond this 
     Congress.
       Mr. President, I was the 1,579th Senator of 1,826 men and 
     women who have served in the U.S. Senate from the beginning. 
     I have seen many fine Senators come and go. As I think

[[Page S1478]]

     back over the years, something good might well have been said 
     about most, if not all, of these Senators. We are prone, of 
     course, to deliver heartfelt eulogies, speeches declaring our 
     regrets that our colleagues choose to leave the service of 
     this body.
       About all of these Senators whom I have seen depart the 
     Senate, some good could be said, unlike Lucius Aelius 
     Aurelius Commodus, the Roman emperor who served from 180 to 
     192 A.D., one of the few Roman emperors about whom nothing 
     good could be said.
       I don't think that any of the Senators that I can recall at 
     the moment who voluntarily retired with honor from this body 
     were Senators about whom nothing good could be said. But 
     shortly, we will witness the departure of one of the truly 
     outstanding United States Senators of our time, and when I 
     say ``of our time,'' I mean my time as a Member of Congress 
     for 44 years, a Member of this body for 38 years. The 
     departure of Sam Nunn will be an irreparable loss. Someone 
     might be able to take his place over a period of years.
       I remember the death of Senator Russell, Richard Russell of 
     Georgia, on January 21, 1971, 25 years ago. In the course of 
     those 25 years, one-quarter of a century, I have to say that 
     I have not seen the likeness of Richard Russell, except in 
     Senator Samuel Augustus Nunn.
       So it may be another 25 years, it may be 50 years before we 
     see the likeness of Senator Nunn.
       I pay tribute to this distinguished colleague who is 
     retiring from the Senate after 24 years--illustrious years. 
     There are many things that one can say about Sam Nunn, as he 
     has been consistently productive, growing in stature year by 
     year to become, without doubt, the leading Senate voice on 
     national defense security and alliance issues--the leading 
     voice. His accomplishments, of which there are many, are 
     notable and derive from an approach to his work which is 
     unfailingly thorough and well-focused. He is blessed with an 
     exceptional intellect, and in Senator Nunn's case that sharp 
     intellect combines with a much rarer talent for harnessing 
     creative visions to practical techniques. Sam Nunn has been 
     especially successful as a legislator in this body because of 
     his ability to reduce complicated issues to an understandable 
     scope, while avoiding oversimplification. Then he works 
     patiently and persistently to build bipartisan support.
       Indeed, his many ideas and initiatives are often shared and 
     supported by his colleagues across the aisle. In a day when 
     bipartisanship is as rare as platinum and gold and rubies, 
     and certainly as valuable, Sam Nunn epitomizes that for which 
     so many of us strive, and often fail to achieve--bipartisan 
     consensus which the people so desire and which fuels large 
     majorities behind legislative endeavors. The ingredients of 
     vision coupled with practicality, and balance between liberal 
     and conservative views, mark his spectacularly successful 
     career as a Senator and are textbook examples for the younger 
     Members of this body and the newer Members of this body in 
     the years to come to heed and to emulate.
       Sam Nunn hails from Georgia, where commitment to the 
     Nation's defense runs deeply, and from whence some of our 
     greatest legislators on national defense have emerged. He has 
     upheld the great Georgia tradition so ably begun by his 
     granduncle Representative Carl Vinson, with whom I served in 
     the House of Representatives before coming to the Senate, and 
     his predecessor, Senator Richard B. Russell.
       While Senator Nunn has only served as the chairman or 
     ranking member of the Armed Services Committee for 12 years, 
     his record of achievement and the reverence in which he is 
     held in this body are comparable to that--and I know--
     comparable to that of the great Russell. This is a feat of 
     enormous distinction. The State of Georgia has to be 
     extremely proud to have given such talented sons to our 
     Republic, men who have so well borne the mantle of 
     responsibility to protect the defense of our Nation and 
     promote its fighting forces.
       Now, if you ask Sam Nunn what he regards as the most 
     important of his many, many achievements in affecting and 
     directing U.S. policy in the national defense arena, I 
     doubt--and I have never asked him this question--but I doubt 
     that he would mention the more widely publicized of his 
     achievements, such as his role in developing the Stealth 
     fighter; or the many initiatives he authored to reduce the 
     dangers of war in the Russian-American relationship; or the 
     meaningful measures enacted to reduce and make safer the 
     world's inventories of nuclear weapons and fissile materials; 
     or even his role in broadening and deepening American 
     leadership in NATO, in Bosnia, in the Persian Gulf, or in 
     Haiti. It is in the less heralded, less glamorous but 
     critically important area of the morale and welfare of our 
     men and women in uniform that is at the top of the list that 
     Sam Nunn might himself cite as his most noteworthy 
     achievement in the defense area.
       Senator Nunn was the key player in meeting the needs of the 
     All Volunteer Force so that we could attract and retain the 
     kind of men and women who could effectively manage and lead 
     our forces across the globe in all environments. He 
     constructed a benefits package for the men and women who 
     fought so well in the Kuwait Desert in Operation Desert 
     Storm. He crafted the post-cold war transition measures that 
     address the needs of our military personnel as they make 
     their way from the front lines of the cold war back into 
     American civilian society.
       He has worked tirelessly to instill a sense of pride and 
     loyalty in our uniformed men and women that is of such great 
     value to the Nation. As Edmund Burke said on March 22, 1775, 
     ``It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to 
     their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have 
     in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and 
     navy, and infuses in both that liberal obedience, without 
     which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing 
     but rotten timber.''
       Now I have been privileged to serve with Sam Nunn as a 
     member of the Armed Services Committee and with Sam Nunn as 
     its leader. Senators are not renowned for their managerial 
     skills, but the Armed Services Committee under Sam Nunn's 
     leadership has been superbly managed.
       In my 44 years in Congress, I have yet to see a chairman of 
     any committee who excelled Sam Nunn. In my humble judgment, 
     he is the best committee chairman that I have ever seen in 
     these 44 years in Congress, including myself. I worked hard 
     at being a good chairman. But Senator Nunn, to me, represents 
     the ideal, the model, the paragon of excellence as a 
     chairman.
       Unusual among authorization committees in the Senate, he 
     produced, from 1987 through 1994, eight straight 
     authorization acts, each of which continued major initiatives 
     to build a better managed, sounder Department of Defense. He 
     was the key figure behind the so-called Goldwater-Nichols 
     Reorganization Act, which decentralized power in the armed 
     services, giving more on-the-ground authority to our unified 
     commanders in the geographic areas where they had to prepare 
     forces to fight in various contingencies. He developed the 
     legislation which produced the Defense Base Closure and 
     Realignment Commission, which cut through the political 
     snarls involved in closing bases, and has been a most 
     effective tool in downsizing the DOD establishment in a fair 
     and orderly way.
       Over the years our uniformed leaders have consistently 
     looked to Sam Nunn as their champion, as a strong but 
     sensitive force, who empathized with their special needs and 
     could be counted on to take the kind of action appropriate to 
     best enhance the morale of the men under their command. He 
     did not fail them.
       Perhaps some of the most creative ideas that Sam Nunn 
     willed into reality came in the knotty area of reducing the 
     quantum of danger in the Russian-American relationship. He 
     championed, together with John Warner, programs to increase 
     communication between the American and Russian leadership, 
     and thus reduce the possibilities of tragic, accidental 
     nuclear war. Together with Richard Lugar, he crafted a 
     successful program to dismantle nuclear weapons possessed by 
     the states of the former Soviet Union. He led the Senate Arms 
     Control Observer Group for many years, as my appointee to 
     that group when I was Majority Leader, traveling frequently 
     to Geneva, leading delegations of Senators to ensure that 
     progress on the INF and START Treaties had the knowledge and 
     support of the United States Senate. He traveled extensively 
     to Russia, and in turn Russian legislative leaders traveled 
     to the United States, to exchange views and develop 
     cooperative solutions to problems, thereby increasing the 
     level of confidence and understanding between these two 
     superpowers. Lately he has developed additional initiatives, 
     again with a leading Republican counterpart, Senator 
     Domenici, to tackle the problem of terrorist actions against 
     the United States. All in all, Sam Nunn, when he leaves this 
     Chamber and walks out of this door for the last time as a 
     Member of this body, can take immense pride in his long, 
     intense and patient efforts in the superpower relations 
     arena. Those hard-won initiatives have had a substantial 
     impact on the measure of safety in our world. It is indeed no 
     exaggeration to say that the world today is a safer place in 
     part because of the monumental efforts of one man, the senior 
     Senator from the State of Georgia--Sam Nunn.
       These achievements and the quality of his dedication and 
     work on defense, alliance and international issues, ranging 
     from NATO to arms control and reduction, anti-terrorism, and 
     joint U.S.-Russian threat reduction and communications 
     measures have propelled his glorious reputation far beyond 
     the Senate. He is known internationally and he is viewed 
     universally as an expert in the defense field. He is well 
     known in official circles around the globe and is widely 
     sought for his wise counsel.
       Is it not remarkable that in my time there would have been 
     two chairmen of the Senate Armed Services Committee, two 
     ``tall men, who lived above the fog in public duty and in 
     private thinking''--Senator Richard Russell and Senator 
     Samuel Nunn--both experts in the field of national defense. 
     Both of whom sought for their wise counsel,--sought out on 
     this floor,--sought out before the bar of the Senate, in the 
     well, sought out in foreign capitals for their wise counsel.
       It is not an overstatement to say Sam Nunn's reach and 
     impact have been international and characterized by workable, 
     sound proposals and brilliant judgment. The global scope of 
     his work has set him apart from the vast majority of men who 
     have served in this body and is a testimony to his dedication 
     to the addressing of the burning issues of sanity and order 
     in our world today.
       While Sam Nunn will undoubtedly be remembered for his 
     Senate service in the area

[[Page S1479]]

     of national defense, as if that were not enough, his energy 
     and creativity have also been evident in many other areas. 
     The range of his thinking and his talents as a legislator and 
     policy maker encompass everything from health care, to 
     student loans, to insurance industry reform. In his farewell 
     address, announcing his retirement, in Georgia on October 9, 
     1995, he dwelled extensively on the need for America to put 
     our youth first, to work on protecting our children from 
     street violence and drugs. He spoke eloquently of the need to 
     reverse the saturation of our TV airwaves with programs of 
     sex and violence. He focused on the need to reinvigorate our 
     educational system in order to reincorporate great numbers of 
     American citizens back into the working culture of our 
     nation. He has developed successful legislation to lay the 
     groundwork for a nationwide ``civilian service corps'' by 
     offering education benefits in exchange for public service. 
     As the cochairman of the Strengthening of America Commission, 
     a bipartisan group of business, educational, labor and 
     academic leaders, he has proposed an impressive plan to make 
     radical changes in the income tax code to refocus our economy 
     on savings and investment and away from consumption.
       Most importantly, and as my fellow Senators well know, Sam 
     Nunn's success is in large part attributable to his hard rock 
     integrity.
       A religious man, he does not go around wearing his religion 
     on his sleeve; he does not go around making a big whoop-de-do 
     about his religion, but he is a religious man, a moral man. 
     Sam Nunn is known as a man whose judgment can be trusted. How 
     many times have I heard Senators come to the Senate floor to 
     vote on a measure and ask: ``How is Sam voting on this one?'' 
     He is a leader in this body, in spite of the fact that he has 
     not especially sought to lead. He has not been elected to a 
     leadership position, but he has grown into a leadership 
     position. He is a natural leader. His is the best type of 
     leadership, because it is a leadership that is born of strong 
     character. Horace Greeley said: ``Fame is a vapor; popularity 
     an accident; riches take wings. Those who cheer today, may 
     curse tomorrow. Only one thing endures: character.''
       Sam Nunn epitomizes that great trait, character. The Senate 
     will feel the loss of Sam Nunn and feel it deeply. His legacy 
     and achievements certainly will grow with time. I am 
     personally deeply sorry that he has chosen to go. He will 
     leave an empty place in the Senate.
       Napoleon rejoiced that the ``bravest of the brave,'' 
     Marshal Ney, had escaped and had returned across the Dnieper 
     River, even though he had lost all of his cannons. Napoleon 
     ordered that there be a salute to celebrate the escape and 
     the return of Ney. And he said, ``I have more than 400 
     million francs in the cellar of the Tuileries in Paris, and I 
     would have gladly given them all for the ransom of my old 
     companion in arms.''
       Had Sam Nunn been an officer in the Grand Army of France, 
     Napoleon would have given everything he possessed for another 
     Sam Nunn.
       His great natural talents will continue to bring him to the 
     forefront of the national policy discussion, and he will, I 
     know, continue to achieve great things in a variety of new 
     settings.
       I have never really felt about a man in the Senate--other 
     than Senator Richard Russell--as I have felt about Sam Nunn. 
     I was the majority whip in the Senate when Sam Nunn came to 
     the Senate, and I urged that he be placed on the Senate Armed 
     Services Committee. As a member of the Steering Committee, I 
     cast my vote to put Sam Nunn on that committee. That is where 
     he wanted to serve. I watched him grow. I have had some 
     differences, from time to time--minor, of course--with Sam on 
     some issues. That is not the point. Sam has fulfilled my idea 
     of what a Senator ought to be.
       There were 74 delegates chosen to attend the Constitutional 
     Convention. The Convention met behind closed doors from May 
     25 to September 17, 1787. Fifty-five of those 74 delegates 
     who were chosen participated, and 39 of the 74 signed the 
     Constitution of the United States. I can see in my mind's eye 
     a Sam Nunn in that gallery. I might well imagine that, as 
     they met from day to day, if Sam Nunn had been a participant, 
     they would have come, as they come here when Members of this 
     body gather in the well, and asked, ``What does Sam Nunn 
     think about this?'' I have no difficulty in imagining that. 
     In such an august gathering as was that Convention, which sat 
     in 1787, with George Washington, the Commander in Chief at 
     Valley Forge and the soon-to-be first President of the United 
     States, I can imagine that it would have been the same there. 
     They would have said, ``What does Sam Nunn think? How is he 
     going to vote?''
       The First Congress was to have convened on March 4, 1789. 
     And only 8 Senators--less than a quorum--of the 22 were there 
     on March 4, 1789. Five States were represented--New 
     Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and 
     Georgia. And the Senator from Georgia who attended that day 
     was William Few.
       It could very well have been Sam Nunn as a Member of that 
     first Senate, serving with Oliver Ellsworth, Maclay and 
     Morris, and others. And as they met to blaze the pioneer 
     paths of this new legislative body, the U.S. Senate, I have 
     no problem in imagining that, often, those men would have 
     turned to Sam Nunn and said, ``How are you going to vote, 
     Sam?'' ``How is Sam going to vote?''
       I think every Member of this body shares with me that 
     feeling about Sam Nunn. He could have been an outstanding 
     U.S. Senator at any time in the history of this Republic--not 
     this democracy. When the Convention completed its work, a 
     lady approached Benjamin Franklin and said, ``Dr. Franklin, 
     what have you given us?'' He didn't answer, ``A democracy, 
     Madam.'' He said, ``A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.''
       Now, what is there about Sam Nunn that makes him this kind 
     of man? He is not the typical politician that one conjures up 
     in his mind when thinking about Senators and other 
     politicians. Senator Nunn is not glib. He doesn't jump to 
     hasty conclusions.
       He does not rush to be ahead of all of the other Senators 
     so that he will get the first headline. He thinks about the 
     problem, and he logically, methodically, and systematically 
     arrives at a decision. Then he carefully prepares to put that 
     decision into action.
       I suppose that had he lived at the time of Socrates, who 
     lived during the chaos of the great Peloponnesian wars, Sam 
     would have been out there in the marketplace debating with 
     Socrates, about whom Cicero said he ``brought down philosophy 
     from Heaven to Earth.'' Sam would have been a hard man for 
     Socrates to put down because he has that talent, that knack 
     of thinking, an organized thinking, and the consideration of 
     a matter logically, carefully, and thoroughly. He is truly a 
     man for all seasons. His wisdom, his judgment, and his 
     statesmanship have reflected well on the profession of public 
     service at a time when fierce ``take-no-prisoners politics'' 
     has embroiled the Nation to alarming degrees.
       Napoleon did not elect to go into Spain, and Wellington was 
     concerned that Napoleon himself might lead. Wellington later 
     told Earl Stanhope that Napoleon was superior to all of his 
     marshals and that his presence on the field was like 40,000 
     men in the balance. Sam Nunn, the 1,668th Senator to appear 
     on this legislative field of battle, is like having a great 
     number in array against or for your position.
       I was looking just this morning over the names of those 
     Senators who are leaving, and examining their votes on what 
     is called pejoratively the Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 
     1995. Of those Senators who are leaving, seven voted against 
     that colossal monstrosity, for which many of those who voted 
     will come to be sorry. If this President is reelected, he 
     will have it within his power to make them sorry. He is just 
     the man who might do it.
       Among the departing Senators, Sam Nunn is one of those who 
     opposed that bill. Senator Heflin, Senator Johnston, Senator 
     Pell, Senator Pryor, Senator Cohen, Senator Hatfield, and 
     Senator Nunn voted, to their everlasting honor, against that 
     miserable piece of junk.
       Just wait until this President exercises that veto and see 
     how they come to heel--h-e-e-l. They will rue the day. But 
     Sam Nunn voted against it.
       For the outstanding quality of his character as well as for 
     the brilliance of his service, this Senate and the Nation are 
     eternally in his debt. He will always command, in my heart 
     and in my memory, a place with Senator Richard Russell.

     God, give us men. A time like this demands
     Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands;
     Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
     Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
     Men who possess opinions and a will;
     Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
     Men who can stand before a demagog
     And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking.
     Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
     In public duty and in private thinking;
     For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
     Their large professions and their little deeds,
     Mingle in selfish strife, lo. Freedom weeps,
     Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
     God give us men.
     Men who serve not for selfish booty,
     But real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty.
     Men of dependable character; men of sterling worth.
     Then wrongs will be redressed and right will rule the earth.
     God, give us men.

       Men like Samuel Augustus Nunn.

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