[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2791-S2792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JOHN BREAUX

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a man who is a 
Member of this body who has devoted his entire adult life to public 
service. Today I speak of Senator John Breaux of Louisiana. I do that 
today because there are a number of things that have been written since 
yesterday, when the Medicare Commission made their report. I think lost 
in the information that has been produced is the fact that Senator 
Breaux has spent tireless hours, weeks, and months on this one 
proposal.
  When I came to the Congress in 1982, Senator Breaux had already been 
a Member of the House of Representatives for 10 years. He came to the 
House of Representatives when he was 28 years old. As I said, he has 
served his entire adult life in public service. Even prior to coming to 
the House of Representatives, Senator Breaux had worked on a 
congressional staff.
  Here is a man who could have been a success, as he has been as a 
Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate, in anything he 
wanted to do. He had a fine record as a student. He could have made a 
lot of money practicing law, but he decided to devote his life to 
public service. I think too often we lose sight of what people do to 
contribute to the public good.
  In my estimation, no one has contributed to the public good more than 
Senator John Breaux in the years he has been a Member of the House of 
Representatives and the Senate. If there is a difficult problem, John 
Breaux has to be called in to work on that problem.

  This is an example. He was called to be the Cochairman of the 
Medicare Commission, a very difficult job, but there was someone needed 
who understood the finances of this country; and that includes the tax 
structure of this country, that includes the very difficult health care 
delivery system we have, not only for those people who are not seniors, 
but particularly seniors, people who are on Medicare. I think we tend 
to forget how complex Medicare is and how important it is to the well-
being of this country.
  Mr. President, I served as a member of a county hospital board when 
Medicare came into being in the 1960s; 1966 through 1968 I served on 
that board. Prior to Medicare coming into being, about 40 percent of 
everyone that entered our hospital who were seniors had no health 
insurance of any kind. And that is the way it was around the rest of 
the country.
  Today, though, Mr. President, over 99 percent of seniors have health 
insurance. That is because of Medicare. Senator Breaux understood this 
very difficult problem. That is why he was asked to be the Chairman of 
this Commission.
  Of the 17 members of this Commission, 10 of them agreed as to what 
should be done. I am not going to get into the merits of what the 
findings of the Commission were other than to say it was very 
difficult. Ten people agreed to the findings because of the diligent 
work of Chairman Breaux.
  I repeat, he did not spend hours on this program; he did not spend 
days--he spent weeks of his time. When other people were doing other 
things with their constituencies at home or taking a little time off 
from the rigors of this body, he was devoting his time to working on 
Medicare.
  I mention that because not only was Senator Breaux called in to be 
the Chair of the Medicare Commission, he has also done a number of 
other difficult things. We in the West understand the Wallop-Breaux 
legislation which established a program for restoring our coastal areas 
in the country. It set damages for boats that damaged the environment. 
It is a very important part of the environmental movement that has 
taken place in this country. Senator Breaux was at the forefront of 
that. The legislation is named after him.

[[Page S2792]]

  When, in 1993, we needed to pass a bill, the Budget Deficit Reduction 
Act, we needed to pass a bill that would put this country on a sound 
financial footing, one of the persons that worked on this to make sure 
that this was able to be accomplished was Senator Breaux. He worked on 
the energy part of that legislation. Being from the State of Louisiana, 
he knew that area as well as anyone.
  As a result of his good work on that, enough votes were gathered on 
the Democratic side of the Congress to pass that legislation. Without 
his work it could not have happened, and we would not be in the 
economic situation we are in today where we have reduced a series of 30 
to 40 years of yearly deficits to now where we are having a surplus, 
where we are talking now about what we are going to do with the budget 
surplus.
  A lot of what we are talking about today is the direct result of work 
in that legislation and other pieces of legislation by Senator Breaux.
  In short, I want to make sure that Senator Breaux and the people of 
Louisiana understand our appreciation for the work that he has done 
with his Medicare Commission and what he has done as a Member of 
Congress generally.

  I have worked as a legislator on the State level, and back here now 
for going on 17 years. I think John Breaux is really an example we can 
all look to. I repeat, if a difficult problem arises, we call upon John 
Breaux to be part of the consensus building. Legislation is the art of 
compromise, the art of consensus building. And no one stands for being 
a good legislator more than Senator John Breaux.
  As far as the Medicare problem he worked on, as a result of his 
leadership, it is going to mean a great deal to this country. As 
Senator Breaux has said, the battle is not over. He said, ``I'm going 
to keep working on this issue as long as I'm in Congress.''
  So I again extend my appreciation and applause and recognition to 
Senator John Breaux for the good work that he did on this legislation. 
I do not know of anyone that could have accomplished what he did. It 
was a masterful piece of work. The people of the State of Nevada and 
this country should be as appreciative as we are of the work that he 
has done.

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