[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 148 (Tuesday, December 5, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S11548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RETIREMENT OF SENATOR CONNIE MACK

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I rise this morning to express how much I am 
going to miss our colleague, Connie Mack, who retires at the end of 
this Congress, after three terms in the House of Representatives and 
two terms in the Senate.
  My colleague, the first Republican in the history of the State of 
Florida ever to be reelected to the U.S. Senate, is a valued part of 
our party's leadership team. He has managed simultaneously to 
accomplish great things for the conservative cause while also 
increasing the level of civility in this body.
  One is tempted to call Connie Mack Reaganesque in the way that he 
combines an agreeable disposition with rock-solid principles. As 
chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, and as a member of the 
Banking and Finance Committees, he led the successful effort in 1995 to 
cut congressional spending by 9 percent--the largest cut in 40 years. 
Connie is one of the people who has led Congress in forcing the Federal 
Government to put its financial house in order.
  He has also left his mark in the areas of medical research and 
protecting the pristine environment in his home State of Florida. And 
he has been a warm, amiable gentleman in all seasons and all 
situations.
  I served with Connie Mack in the House of Representatives to which he 
was elected in 1982. That was a pivotal time in our politics, as he has 
pointed out. America had made a clean break at that time from decades 
of ever-increasing governmental interference in the economy. He entered 
Congress as a small businessman, a banker, who understood that the 
engine of America's greatness is its private sector. Then-Congressman 
Mack took Ronald Reagan's political banner as his own. As Connie has 
written, ``It can be summed up in one word: freedom.'' President Reagan 
inspired him into public service, and he has eloquently defended 
conservatism's most deeply held principles: limited government, 
standing up for democratic allies around the world, lowering the tax 
burden that Americans bear, taming the bureaucracy and the special 
interests, and returning to citizens control over their own lives.
  We agreed on public policy questions, Senator Mack and I. But having 
said that, I also know that my colleagues who opposed him on issues 
admire and like him every bit as much as I do. Connie Mack is that kind 
of person.
  Senator Mack said on the floor of the Senate recently--it was on an 
important foreign policy matter--that ``we must speak the truth and 
stand on principle.'' That is what he has done daily. That is the 
virtuous example he has set. It is what has made him such a good public 
servant for Florida and America.
  Mr. President, I know we will all miss our colleague, Connie Mack.

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