[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 14, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S1386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING PAUL D. COVERDELL

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, many of us in the Senate still greatly miss 
our distinguished and honorable colleague from Georgia, Paul Coverdell. 
There are not many days that go by that I do not think about him when I 
am working in this Chamber and in my office. We really have been 
grieving and thinking an awful lot about him over the months since his 
unfortunate early passing away as a result of his problems last year 
when he had a cerebral hemorrhage.
  He was an extraordinary public servant. We all wanted to find a way 
to express our sorrow and to appropriately honor him. In that vein, I 
wanted to make sure we did not just have a rush to judgment of what we 
might try to do to honor him--doing it in several little ways but never 
an appropriate way.
  After discussion on both sides of the aisle and getting approval of 
the Democratic leader, I asked four of our colleagues to serve as an 
informal task force to come up with an appropriate way to honor Senator 
Coverdell. These four Senators, two from each side of the aisle, were 
good friends and worked closely with Paul. They had a personal interest 
in it.
  I thank Senator Gramm of Texas, Senator DeWine of Ohio, Senator Harry 
Reid of Nevada, and Senator Zell Miller of Georgia for taking the time 
to think about this, meeting together and coming up with ideas of how 
to appropriately honor Senator Coverdell.
  That is how this bill came into being. A lot of ideas were 
considered. They were discussed with Senator Coverdell's former staff 
members, family, particularly his wife, and they came up with the 
suggestion that is included in this bill.
  I thank Senator Daschle and Senator Reid for being willing to be 
involved in this process. As a result of their efforts, we now have a 
bill.

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