[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 141 (Friday, October 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12156-S12157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RETIREMENT OF SENATOR JOHN GLENN

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, when the 105th Congress adjourns sine die 
in the next few days, the Senate will lose one of our nation's true 
heroes, and one of

[[Page S12157]]

my personal heroes, Senator John H. Glenn, Jr. of Ohio. I rise today to 
pay tribute to this great American, a man I feel genuinely honored to 
call my friend.
  All of us old enough to remember John Glenn's flight into orbit 
around the earth on February 20, 1967 aboard Friendship 7 stand in awe 
of his courage and strength of character. But this enormous 
accomplishment followed on a distinguished record of heroism in battle 
as a Marine officer and pilot. He served his country in the Marine 
Corps for 23 years, including his heroic service in both World War II 
and the Korean conflict. And, in turn, his remarkable accomplishment in 
the history of space flight has been followed by an extraordinary 
Senate career over the past 24 years, as the only Ohio Senator in 
history to serve four consecutive terms.
  For the 20 years that I have been in the Senate, I have served side 
by side with John Glenn in both the Governmental Affairs Committee 
which he chaired for many years and now serves as Ranking Minority 
Member and the Armed Services Committee where he serves as the Ranking 
Minority Member of the Subcommittee on Airland Forces. More recently, I 
have served with John Glenn on the Senate Select Committee on 
Intelligence. This has given me a front row seat to watch one of the 
giants of the modern day U.S. Senate do the hard, grinding work of 
legislative accomplishment.
  Over the years, John Glenn has led the fight for efficiency in 
government, for giving the American people more bang for that tax 
``buck''. He was the author of the Paperwork Reduction Act. He has 
worked to streamline federal purchasing procedures, and led the fight 
to create independent inspectors general in federal agencies. He was 
the point man in the Senate for the Clinton Administration's battle to 
reduce the size of the federal workforce to the lowest levels since the 
Kennedy Administration. He and I have fought side by side to block 
extreme efforts to gut regulatory safeguards in the name of reform and 
for the passage of a sensible approach to regulatory reform to restore 
confidence in government regulations. Throughout his career, John Glenn 
has made himself an enemy of wasteful spending and bureaucracy, yet a 
friend of the dedicated federal worker.
  John Glenn has steadfastly served as a powerful advocate for 
veterans. He led the effort to bring the Veterans Administration up to 
cabinet-level and to provide benefits to veterans of the Persian Gulf 
conflict.
  On the Armed Services Committee, John Glenn has brought his enormous 
credibility to bear time and again both in that Committee and on the 
Intelligence Committee on the side of needed programs and weapons and 
against wasteful and unnecessary ones like the B-2 bomber.
  Perhaps John Glenn's most important role, however, has been as the 
author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act and as the Senate's leader 
in fighting the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. In 
this area, the Senate will sorely miss his clear vision, eloquent voice 
and consistent leadership.
  Mr. President, John Glenn, of course, has remained the strongest and 
most effective voice in the Senate for the nation's space program. Many 
of us will be on hand to watch the launch of his second NASA mission 
later this month, 31 years after the first. At age 77, John Glenn has 
volunteered to go back into space to test the effects of weightlessness 
on the aging process, and once again inspires our nation and sets an 
example for us all--an example of courage, character, sense of purpose, 
and, yes, adventure.
  No person I've known or know of has worn his heroism with greater 
humility. John Glenn is, to use a Yiddish word, a true mensch, a good 
and decent man.
  John Glenn and his beloved wife, Annie, are simply wonderful people. 
They, their children and grandchildren are the All-American family. My 
wife Barbara and I will keenly miss John and Annie Glenn as they leave 
the Senate family.

                          ____________________