[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11198-S11199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO SENATOR PHIL GRAMM

  Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to my good 
friend and colleague, Senator Phil Gramm.
  Without Senator Gramm, none of us would ever know who Dicky Flatt is. 
We would not know nearly as much as we know about Texas A&M as we do. 
And we would probably still be trying to repeal Glass-Steagall.
  I met Senator Gramm on a number of occasions when I was a Member of 
the House of Representatives, but I did not really get to know him 
until I joined that Banking Committee in January 1999, when he was the 
chairman.
  Senator Gramm's first order of business was to finally pass a repeal 
of the Glass-Steagall banking law. I had worked on this same repeal 
during my first term in the House, 12 years earlier, and I know many 
others had been working on this effort for much longer than that. But 
it was Senator Gramm's dogged determination that finally pushed the 
ball over the goal line and brought our banking laws into the 21st 
Century.
  I won't bore everyone by going into a long list of Senator Gramm's 
other legislative accomplishments; they are too numerous to mention, 
but I would put him right up there with a small group of other senators 
who have had the greatest impact on the Senate in the past century.
  Outside of our working relationship, I have also gotten to know 
Senator Gramm, and his lovely life Wendy, very well over as friends.
  I would also like to tell a little story about how Senator Gramm's 
unselfishness greatly assisted me when I was in a tight spot. Everyone 
in this body remembers the anthrax attacks of last year. As a resident 
of the Hart Building, I was one of those who was forced to find other 
space when the Hart building was closed. The Architect of the Capitol, 
the Senate Superintendent and the Rules Committee did a great job, 
under very trying circumstances, of finding space for everyone. But 
there were about fifty offices that were relocated so space was tight. 
My staff and I were sitting on top of each other down in EF-100 
underneath the back steps of the Capitol.
  We were glad to have the space. But it wasn't much more than a 
glorified broom closet.
  Well, Senator Gramm heard about my predicament and very graciously 
let me use his Capitol hideaway office until the Hart building was 
reopened. He only asked that I did not ``trash the place and leave 
empty whiskey bottles on the floor.'' I can assure the Members of the 
Senate and the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky that I followed 
his instructions.
  I am also fairly confident that as much as I appreciated the kind 
gesture, my staff appreciated the fact I had somewhere else to go even 
more. It is not just Members who will miss Senator Gramm, but staff as 
well.
  We will miss his leadership, but I think we will miss his courage 
even more. Senator Gramm is wiling to take unpopular stands. He is 
willing to lose a vote 99-1. He is willing to keep the Senate in all 
night to fight for what he believes in, no matter how unpopular that 
stand may be.
  One example that stands out clearly in my mind was at the beginning 
of the debate on the Clinton health care bill. Many don't remember now, 
but when we first started working on that issue in Congress, President 
Clinton had a lot of momentum and it looked like only a foregone 
conclusion that he would get some sort of bill passed. Those of us who 
didn't the President's proposal really felt like we were swimming 
upstream.

[[Page S11199]]

  Then Phill Gramm took the Senate floor, and laid out a withering 
assessment of the bill and why it would do so much harm to the country 
if passed. He wrapped up his remarks by saying that ``the Clinton 
health bill would pass the Senate over my cold, dead political body.'' 
That served as a rallying cry for the rest of the Congress and signaled 
a real turning point in the debate. But, at the time, it wasn't popular 
and most people on Capitol Hill thought it wasn't very smart. But it 
was right. That's Phil Gramm for you.
  I have heard him say on more than one occasion. ``I've never taken a 
hostage I wasn't willing to shoot.'' Everyone knows Senator Phil Gramm 
will kill a bill if he thinks it's bad for America or if fellow Texans 
are being treated unfairly. And he has shot some legislative hostages.
  But more often than not, he was able, through negotiation, to work 
out a better product.
  I think the Senate will miss his homespun eloquence. I don't think 
there is anyone better at simplifying a complicated bill for his 
colleagues and the American people. Whether he uses the ``Dicky Flatt 
test'' or the wisdom his mama passed down to him, Senator Gramm has the 
unique ability to make the complicated simple. On this side of the 
aisle, that eloquence will be missed, he always did a great job of 
articulating our position.
  Mr. President, Senator Gramm will be missed not just by me, but this 
entire body, the people of Texans and all Americans. I will miss him as 
a Senator and a friend.

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