[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 155 (Friday, December 15, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11826-S11827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SERVING IN THE SENATE

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I want to be sure before I go into my 
remarks that neither of the leaders, the majority leader or the 
Democratic leader, is waiting for some floor time for some special 
things they want to go ahead with because I hope not to cover every day 
of the 18 years I have served here.
  But I do want to make some remarks about this moment in time --a 
moment that I have kind of looked at with some amount of trepidation 
because this is the end for me, at the bottom of the ninth inning, and 
we have a couple of things to do before it is pretty much all over.
  I am probably speaking now for the last time in the U.S. Senate. 
After 18 years as a Member of this institution, some time ago I made a 
reluctant decision to step down--not to try again after three terms. 
And, to be perfectly honest, there are those moments when I look at 
that decision not to run for a fourth term with considerable regret. 
This has been an incredible experience--an experience that so few ever 
get to have and such a worthwhile thing to do.
  While my friends, the Democratic leader and the Democratic whip, are 
on the floor, I want to express to each one of them how deep my 
appreciation is for the cooperation and the ability to work together on 
issues of concern--not just for my State but for the country at large--
and how helpful Senator Daschle, our leader, has been; and my good 
friend Harry Reid from Nevada, the only State that really competes with 
New Jersey in the hospitality of the gaming industry. I hope we will 
continue to do more business than Nevada.
  In all seriousness, these are States that have a certain kinship that 
is not always easy to recognize because our coast is far larger than 
their coast, and sometimes we differ on issues but never on intent.
  This is a job that has been the highlight of my life, next to my 
family--my children, my grandchildren, eight of them; the oldest is 
seven. I want to make sure they understood what their grandfather did 
when he was spending time in Washington. They are too young to really 
know what the job is about. But they know who the President of the 
United States is. Some of them knew because the oldest one is seven. 
There are eight of them, obviously, and one is just 2 months old. The 
little one could not understand what I have done. I was lucky and 
brought all of them down for Father's Day. I was able to take them to 
the White House and take some pictures with the President. They will 
look at these pictures one day and say, OK, that is where our 
grandfather spent his time when we didn't see much of him. I hope they 
will feel the same kind of pride and love for country as I do.
  This job, one of some 1,850 people who ever served in the Senate, is 
such an honor to have. It is such an exciting place to be. I look at my 
desk now as a reminder of why I had this desk moved as my seniority 
improved from the far corner next to where it is now. I brought it with 
me wherever I went. It was a fairly easy task. I don't want the 
citizens to think I had people put to work for little reason; just a 
couple of screws lift out of the floor and we move it over here.
  When I think of my parents and what this country meant to my 
grandparents when they brought my parents as little children to these 
shores, I open the desk. As everyone here knows but the public probably 
doesn't, there is something one could call ``graffiti'' in these 
desks--a signature, a carving, a writing in indelible ink that gives a 
name and the State that the individual represented. I never got 
discouraged about this job, but anytime I needed a little stimulation 
about how important the work we were doing was outside of the 
legislative routine, I looked in this desk and I seen ``Truman, 
Missouri.'' Harry Truman sat at this desk when he served in the Senate. 
It is such an honor for me to be able to fill the seat, not the shoes, 
as they say.
  Every day I came to work here was a privilege, even when the day 
didn't turn out as one expected. The people of New Jersey sent me here 
to accomplish things that affected their lives and their families, and 
it is not easy to relinquish those duties. I hope they will believe 
that Frank Lautenberg served them honestly and diligently. I will leave 
it to them to mark the report card to see how we did.
  My service was a way for me to give something back. I had a 
successful business career, and I spent 30 years doing that, but there 
was something more that was needed as far as my life was concerned. I 
am so grateful my grandparents, in their wisdom in the earliest part of 
the last century, decided to pack up bag and baggage--they didn't have 
much baggage, I can tell you that; all they had was the spirit and 
desire to live free--and come to this country, my mother a year old 
from Russia, and my father 6 years old from Poland. They believed so 
much in America. They were so sensitive about things. For my 
grandparents, whose native tongues were reflective of the country they 
came from, anything but English was almost prohibited in the house. 
They wanted to talk English. They wanted to speak the language that 
their friends and their neighbors believed should be used as Americans. 
Now we understand people can live in multiple cultures and continue to 
treasure the language that they or their parents had before they came 
to America. In those days, any indication they could get that they were 
truly Americans meant so much.
  So they came and worked hard, with no education. My father went to 
the sixth grade only; he had to help his parents. But they never 
dreamed their children would have the opportunities that were so robust 
and so fulfilling.
  I spent 30 years in the computer business, running a company called 
ADP, Automatic Data Processing. The company started with two boyhood 
friends of mine. We started without any money of our own, without any 
outside financing. The company today has 33,000 people and is one of 
America's best performing companies in terms of its products and the 
stock market's response.
  I got there because this government was there to render service to 
our people. The one thing that bothers me when we get into political 
campaigns and speeches are made on the stump and people talk about the 
government and how small it ought to be and why it is too big and the 
loaded bureaucracies, I can't stand it. Honest to goodness, I work with 
the people who populate this place day in and day out--not the Senators 
exclusively but those who work here on both sides, Democrat and 
Republican. I see how diligent they are in trying to get their day's 
work done and how committed they are in the service of the people. I 
respect them. Of course, those whom I have gotten to know in my office, 
I love them as well. One develops a respect and almost a reverence for 
people who will come in and go to work at 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock in the 
morning and stay; if we stay until 2 o'clock in the morning, they stay 
until 2 o'clock in the morning. For many years, until very recently, 
there was never any compensation for overtime; that was considered part 
of the job. For those in the management of the office, and the 
leadership position among the staff, there is still nothing like 
overtime. They do it because they feel the responsibility. It has made 
an enormous difference in the way we conduct ourselves.

  Mr. President, the bottom line view that I bring is one that has 
developed as a result of the opportunities that were afforded me. I 
know I probably have said it too many times, but I ask my colleagues to 
indulge me once again when I talk about my family.
  My father died a very young man, at age 43. I had enlisted in the 
Army and

[[Page S11827]]

was given the benefit of the GI bill. The GI bill made the difference 
in my life, enabling me to use the knowledge and programs I studied and 
learned to start a business that became an industry. It is the 
computing industry, as contrasted to the computer industry, the 
hardware industry. To me it was a great example of the way government 
can empower individuals and families to improve their lives.
  It is a lesson I will never forget. The education I got through the 
GI bill set the foundation for me to build that business. When I look 
at what happened with ADP and the number of people it has put together, 
33,000 employees, processing paychecks for 33 million people across our 
country and others.
  When I was finishing my 30th year in business, I thought there were 
other things I ought to try to do to help pay back what I thought was a 
unique opportunity. I wanted to make sure that it continued to exist 
for others, as well. I came to the Senate. I ran in 1982 and was 
elected then. I brought what was a fairly unique perspective because 
there weren't, at that time, as there are now, so many businesspeople 
who came from not having had an elective office experience but came in 
fresh from the business to the Senate.
  When I got here, my goals were to try again to permit people to think 
independently, to make sure that the rights and the freedoms we enjoyed 
would be protected, to make sure there would be an opportunity for 
those who could learn without having, necessarily, the financing to do 
it. That is what the GI bill taught me. It has been my hope that people 
would understand that these opportunities must continue to exist. That 
is why we have these discussions about investing in education, making 
sure children have the appropriate nutrition, and that people can count 
on getting their health protected when they have a problem, or at least 
making certain as they grow and mature that they know they don't have 
to worry about an illness wiping out not only their assets but also 
demolishing their health.

  Just so everybody knows, I am going to take some time here. 
Therefore, it may take a little time for me to do the whole story. I 
see the majority leader either looking at me so anxious to hear the 
whole story that he wanted to ask me what it was.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if the distinguished Senator from New Jersey 
would yield, perhaps that is a good point. Yes, I would like to hear 
the story uninterrupted. If the Senator would allow us to do a little 
bit of leadership business--one of which, or both of which I know the 
Senator would be very interested in--I ask, with the agreement of the 
Senator from New Jersey, that his statement appear in the Record as if 
uninterrupted, and the exchange with Senator Daschle, our colloquy, 
appear after his remarks.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I am happy to cooperate because I have a sense that 
the subject to be included in their remarks is one with which I have 
intense fascination.
  I am happy to yield to the distinguished leaders.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is it the majority leader's intention the 
Senator from New Jersey will hold the floor, following the business?
  Mr. LOTT. That would be my request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes.
  Mr. LOTT. I yield to Senator Daschle.

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