[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1642-S1644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATOR TED STEVENS--ALASKAN OF THE CENTURY
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I wish to comment at this time about one of
the most effective and respected Senators in this Chamber. He can be
ferocious in trying to get his work done, but he always winds up doing
it with a smile on his face. He quite often acts as a typical trial
lawyer making his case against the opposing counsel or pleading his
case to the jury. Of course, we enjoy referring to him sometimes as the
``Tasmanian devil.'' When he comes to the Senate floor wearing his
Tasmanian devil tie, look out; he is ready to do the people's business
in quick order.
For more than 30 years, the Alaskan of the Year Committee has named
an Alaskan of the year who has significantly affected the character and
the development of the 49th State. Thus, it is no surprise that in 1974
Senator Stevens, along with the newspaper publisher, was named
``Alaskan of the Year.'' Recently, the Alaskan of the Year Committee
set out to name the Alaskan of the Century.
I inquired of the Senator from Alaska, which century? The past
century for past favors or the present century for expected ones? With
the usual sense of humor, he deferred to maybe the past century.
Mr. President, 88 names of great Alaskans appeared on the first
ballot. The second ballot contained 12; the third ballot contained 3.
On the final ballot, Alaska's senior Senator, who has served so well in
this body, Ted Stevens, was named ``Alaskan of the Century.''
What a great honor. On Saturday night, in Anchorage, AK, surrounded
by family and friends, this great honor, Alaskan of the Century, will
be conferred on Senator Stevens. Senator Stevens has had a role in
every significant event in Alaska for the last half century, whether it
be as a youth working for Alaskan statehood or his mastery in crafting
and shepherding through Congress the Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act, landmark legislation for which there is no other precedent.
It would take all day to list the great many things Senator Stevens
has accomplished during his 31 years serving in the Senate, and even
longer to list all of his friends. Mr. President, not only is Ted
Stevens a great Senator and a great Alaskan, he is, above all, a loyal
friend to all who know him. Even in the heat of battle, when it gets
tough around here, in the next minute or the next hour, he is lovingly
trying to do something to help his previous opponent, whether it be in
the leadership of his own party or across the aisle in the other party.
His 6 children and 10 grandchildren, and his wife, Catherine, who is
special in her own way, know for sure that Senator Ted Stevens,
chairman of the Appropriations Committee, senior Senator for the 49th
State, is indeed worthy of the honor he will receive this week as
Alaskan of the Century.
His service in the military, his service in that State, his service
of bringing that State into the Union, his service as a Senator, and
his service as chairman of the Appropriations Committee is truly
unique. I offer my personal congratulations. I know I speak for all of
my colleagues in applauding Ted Stevens.
I don't know how in the world we would even pick a Mississippian of
the century. There have been so many great ones in this past century,
but in Alaska, it is obvious: The man for that job and for that honor
is Ted Stevens. Thank you, Ted, for what you do for your country and
for your State. We are proud.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, let me say with enthusiasm how completely
this Senator agrees with the statement made by the majority leader. Ted
Stevens is one who is admired, I say even loved, by colleagues on both
sides of the aisle. We have worked with him; we have admired his work;
we have seen on so many occasions he has effectively led not only the
Appropriations Committee but the Senate itself in bringing together the
kind of consensus, the
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kind of compromises, for successful legislative action.
We all joke about his temperament. We sometimes say it is hard to
understand how a guy from so cold a State could be so hot under the
collar. I have to say, as Senator Lott has noted, he is quick to
respond and quick to find ways with which to overcome his frustrations,
as we all face them and deal with them on both sides of the aisle.
Alaskans have every right to be proud. They have every reason to
nominate and name this individual as Alaskan of the Year. Indeed, he is
an Alaskan of the Century. We are proud to work with him, proud to call
him a colleague, proud in this case to call him our chairman, and proud
of the fact that Alaskans recognize him for the unique talents and the
unique dedication and the unique leadership that he provides not only
his State as an Alaskan, but his country as a Senator. I congratulate
him on this special occasion.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I thank both leaders for their kind
comments about the honor I will receive on Saturday at home. I have
been humbled and confused by the decision of those who voted. Having
been in our State now for over the last half of the last century, I
have known a great many great people who have contributed to our State
during the period of the century. For instance, I refer to my first
senior partner, E.B. Collins, of Fairbanks, AK, who came to Alaska
before the turn of the last century and was a gold miner in Nome. When
he was unsuccessful, he walked from Nome to Fairbanks. That is a good
1,500 miles. He read law in an attorney's office, became an attorney,
and by 1913 he was named the Speaker of the first territorial House of
Representatives. I worked with him and he gave me great advice in the
first days when I went to the State.
There are so many others who have been so effective and have done so
much for the State that I find it hard to accept the honor.
I intend to make a speech, of course, about that when I get home on
Saturday, and point out the number of people who have done the work for
which I get credit. Many of them are right here in this room.
We have been, really, very successful in trying to defend the
proposition that once Alaska became a State, it should be an equal
among equals in our National Government. It has taken many hours on the
floor to ask for and receive the support of the Senate to defend the
proposition that a new State is entitled to the same benefits, the same
prerogatives, as those States that were in the Union ahead of it. I am
but the third Senator who has ever served the State of Alaska. My
colleague is the fifth. We are unique in the sense we are still a young
State. Our State has been a member of the Union only 9 years longer
than I have been in the Senate.
It is a distinguished privilege to be here. I am certain this award
is being given to me because I am a Member of the Senate and because I
am alive and others are not. But I do respect those who made the
judgment. I question it, but I respect them, and I do thank my
colleagues for what they have done today recognizing that.
Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I will take the opportunity, as the
junior Senator from Alaska, to make a few comments relative to the
designation by Alaskans of Senator Ted Stevens, Alaskan of the Century.
For years we have been proclaiming the Alaskan of the Year. This is an
extraordinary designation to honor an extraordinary individual.
When I first came to the Senate in 1980, as a freshman with virtually
no experience in the legislative process, I had an opportunity to have
an extended discussion with Senator Stevens. He suggested the best
position for the State of Alaska would be for him to give up his
position, his longstanding seniority on the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, so I could serve on that committee, and he vacated
that spot. He could be not only the chairman of the Appropriations
Committee but senior member of the Energy and Natural Resources
Committee and could be chairman if he so chose. But he chose to leave
that committee and make an opening available to me. Now I have the
honor of serving in that capacity. But it was a sacrifice for him. It
was a sacrifice he made on the basis of what was good for Alaska that
he pursued the appropriations process, the Governmental Affairs
Committee on which he served and continues to serve, as well as the
Commerce Committee.
I might add, with his seniority he has the option of serving as
chairman of those committees, as well as of the Rules Committee, I
believe. So he is really in an extraordinary position of seniority
within this body. As a consequence of that, the contribution he has
made, it is quite fitting Alaskans have selected him the State's Man of
the Century. I do not believe there is a more deserving individual in
our State. That is evidenced by the support Senator Stevens has
received in this nomination.
I am going back to Alaska tomorrow, along with our House colleague,
Representative Don Young, to acclaim, if you will, the recognition of
Senator Stevens and his wife Catherine in receiving this award.
He has been a central figure in our young State's history. It has
been a time of unparalleled changes in the 49th State. The remarkable
thing is that Ted, while he has become a figure of national prominence,
has not lost his interest and relationship with Alaskans. When we
became a State in 1959, we had a lot of catching up to do. Senator
Stevens has been very active in ensuring that Alaska catch up. The rest
of the States have been around 100, 150 years, some of them 200 years,
but ours has not.
While Ted currently ranks sixth in the Senate in overall seniority,
second among Republicans--and is just one of 109 Senators who have
served in this body for more than 24 years--he still can be found
meeting every Alaskan Close-Up student group, talking with residents
about health concerns and meeting villagers about their rural
sanitation needs.
In his 36-year legislative career--four years in the Alaska House of
Representatives and now in his 32nd year in the U.S. Senate, Ted has
played the largest single role in seeing Alaska, a territory of just
210,000 people 41 years ago, grow into a vibrant, modern state that has
more than tripled in population.
In the state's House he crafted legislation to help the state recover
from the devastating 1964 Good Friday earthquake. As majority leader in
the state's House and Speaker pro tempore, he helped Fairbanks
residents recover from the massive flooding they faced in 1967. And in
1989-90 he and I worked together to help craft federal legislation to
help Alaska recover from the aftereffects of the 1989 wreck of the
Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Prince William Sound.
His encyclopedic knowledge of Federal-Alaska State relations is
legendary in Washington. In the Senate, which has lost much of its
institutional memory in the past decade, Ted is able to offer insights
on everything from passage of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act in 1974, to
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. He can talk about
passage of the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation Act of 1978--a law now
justly named after him--to passage of the Alaska Lands Act in 1980.
Those four laws are the keys to shaping the direction of Alaska as we
enter the 21st century. His recollection of events is so extraordinary
not only because he helped draft the Alaska Statehood Act, while
serving as a legislative counsel at the Department of the Interior
starting in 1956, but because he served as chief counsel and solicitor
for the Interior Department in Alaska in 1960--helping to get the young
State off and running after Statehood in 1959.
I won't take this Chamber's time to talk about the Senator's early
life, or even his impressive military career, where he served as a
Flying Tiger in the U.S. Air Force in China during World War II--
service that helped form his comprehensive knowledge of the military,
which has been such a help to him in shaping our Nation's Armed Forces
budgets over the past two decades from his post on the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
I do want to speak a bit about what it has been like working with
Senator Stevens. While we have disagreed on only a handful of issues
over the past
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20 years, Ted Stevens has truly given of his time and shared his great
knowledge and expertise to help me to represent the citizens of our
State. He has selflessly given guidance and counsel to help our
delegation reach a common accord on what is best for Alaskans. And I
can't personally thank him enough for his many kindness. We have truly
worked together to help our small State, one that sports just three
electoral votes, have a voice in the direction of our Nation. It has
not always been easy.
We have had to battle those who have no knowledge of what life is
truly like in Alaska, whether we are trying to save our timber industry
in Southeast Alaska, or trying to protect our rights to access our
natural resources--Alaska's main means of supporting our citizens and
our State government. We are working together to win the right to
produce oil, without environmental damage, from North America's last
great storehouse of energy--the Arctic coastal plain.
While Ted served eight years as assistant Republican leader (whip)
handling key national issues, especially defense matters, he has been
willing to put aside personal ambition for the good of his State. Many
forget that Ted sacrificed his seniority on the Commerce Committee to
move to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee during the key fight
over the Alaska lands act. He then moved back to Commerce to represent
Alaska fishermen--proof positive that Ted always puts Alaska first.
During his years on the Appropriations Committee, he has battled hard
to make sure Alaska receives its fair share of Federal funding--money
needed to help Alaska provide basic services to its citizens--piped
water and sanitary sewers, roads and schools that Americans elsewhere
take for granted.
Today I, join with all Alaskans, to thank him for his skill, drive,
and dedication and congratulate him on the honor he will justly receive
this weekend. I also offer him a heart-felt wish for many, many more
years of service to the State and the Nation. Nancy joins me in
congratulations to both Ted and Catherine on this honor. It's been a
great privilege working with you my friend.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to
congratulate my friend and colleague, Ted Stevens, on being named
Alaskan of the Century. From his efforts to achieve Alaskan statehood
to his work on behalf of the State of Alaska, Ted Stevens has dedicated
his life to public service and proven his leadership both in his home
state and in the United States Senate. I know of no one more deserving
of this honor. I am proud to have the opportunity to know and work with
him and I extend him my heartfelt congratulations on this momentous
occasion.
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