[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 151 (Wednesday, November 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11670-S11672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP OF THE MAJORITY LEADER

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 364 submitted earlier 
today by the Republican leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 364) to commend the exemplary 
     leadership of the Majority Leader.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed, and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
without intervening action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 364) was agreed to.
  The resolution reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 364

       Resolved, that the thanks of the Senate are hereby tendered 
     to the distinguished Majority Leader, the Senator from South 
     Dakota, the Honorable Thomas A. Daschle, for his exemplary 
     leadership and the cooperative and dedicated manner in which 
     he has performed his leadership responsibilities in the 
     conduct of Senate business during the second session of the 
     107th Congress.

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could inquire of the majority leader, 
would it be appropriate at this point for me to perhaps respond to some 
of the resolutions and have a few remarks before I yield the floor back 
to him to do whatever he would like to do in terms of concluding his 
remarks today?

[[Page S11671]]

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, by all means. I will probably be coming 
back to the floor because I have an engagement at 11:30. But I will be 
happy to defer to the Republican leader for whatever remarks he would 
make at this time.
  Mr. LOTT. Just briefly, Mr. President, with regard to the resolutions 
we have just passed, I want to add my specific expression of 
appreciation for our Vice President, Vice President Cheney. He is a 
long-time friend. He understands the institution of Congress. He has 
proven to be a very active Vice President and, obviously, a good and 
valued adviser to our President. But we all actually have a special 
affinity for this Vice President because we think he does understand 
the Congress as an institution, and I think he has been very positive 
in the way he has dealt with us. I just wanted that to be on the 
Record.
  I thank Senator Byrd for his performance as our President pro 
tempore, for his making us think about the history and the traditions 
of this institution, for his sometimes unbelievable speeches about 
history, and for his great quotes from memory of poetry and famous 
statements by statesmen and politicians. It is a very interesting thing 
to watch and listen to him.
  Of course, the one and the only centenarian, Senator Strom Thurmond, 
has done so much for his State and for his country.
  I just want to put on the Record at this point also that in his 
service in the Senate he has cast 16,348 votes. He was here last night 
until the last vote was cast.
  We are going to celebrate his 100th birthday with several events 
December 1.
  He will be one of the legends that will be long remembered in this 
institution and by our country.
  Let me say to Senator Daschle, I have enjoyed working beside him 
throughout this historic Congress and over the years. Sometimes we sit 
down and visit more often than a lot of people would think or realize. 
We certainly have a very strong personal relationship--one the media 
seems to miss. And that is just as well, probably, because if people 
really knew the kind of friendship we have and what we talk about, it 
would either hurt him or me--or both of us, or our colleagues. But that 
is as it should be. This is the Senate. We must find a way to work 
together.
  As I said on the floor yesterday, how we produce legislation is quite 
often messy and not pretty, but our forefathers designed this to be a 
body that could be moved only by unanimous consent or consensus. 
Sometimes it takes days, sometimes it takes weeks, and sometimes it 
takes months--just like last night. After all the fussing, the 
fighting, the squabbling, the amending, and positioning and all that 
went into it, when we voted on the Homeland Security Department Bill, 
the vote was 90 to 9. We actually scratch our heads and say, Why all 
that thunder and lightning and then that result?
  Well, that is a part of the process. Quite often that happens in the 
Senate, because along the way you have made changes. You have 
reconsidered other people's positions. But in the end it is quite often 
that a bill will pass by a wide margin.
  We have been through changes in leadership positions. The process to 
consider the removal of President of the United States who had been 
impeached by the other body, and now this historic 107th Congress.
  We should not go off quietly into the night without giving some 
recognition and some credit to what we have done in this Congress.
  We started over with a 50-50 split--somewhat historic in its own 
right. There had been 50-50 splits before, or even splits before. I 
have gone back and studied how those things were handled. They were 
handled not too well a lot of times. In fact, in one Congress I think 
it took them 4 or 5 months before they ever agreed on the rules to 
proceed.
  There was some criticism of me and our caucus, and probably of 
Senator Daschle and his caucus, with the agreement we came up with for 
this 50-50 split. If we had to do it over again, we probably would do 
it somewhat differently, or we would have done a few more things than 
we were actually able to agree on. But we did come to an agreement. We 
did move the session forward, and we produced some historic results 
during that period when we were evenly divided.
  At the beginning of the year, Senator Daschle actually was the 
majority leader for 17 days. He could have tried to take advantage of 
it. He could have tried some things that would have been infuriating to 
my side, or that wouldn't have been good for the Senate or the country. 
But he didn't do that. He did do some things, but they weren't done in 
a way that was taken advantage of in that interim period. Then I became 
majority leader again in the 107th Congress for about 5 months or so. 
Then I was back in the minority; Senator Daschle is back as majority 
leader.

  We were sort of getting used to our sea legs under this new 
arrangement in the latter part of June and July. We probably had not 
gotten our sea legs yet, and then came September 11. We had not planned 
on that, and we were stunned by it, the institution, as individuals, 
our staffs. Not only did America come under attack in New York and the 
Pentagon, and with plans to attack other places, we had the anthrax 
situation that put Senator Daschle's staff in a very difficult, 
dangerous position. All of us were affected by that.
  A lot of Senators rose to the occasion. The leadership, our officers 
rose to the occasion. I will talk more later about the service of our 
Sergeant at Arms, General Lenhardt, and the Secretary of the Senate, 
Jeri Thomson. They were under enormous pressure, and they were dealing 
with a totally different situation than we had ever experienced. We 
were the pilot project. We did not want to be, but we were.
  How did we clean the Hart Building? How did Senators get their work 
done? Well, they wound up in other Senators' offices. They wound up in 
my office upstairs. They were all over the place. We did what we had to 
do.
  Also, I believe those events united this body in a way that was very 
positive, and this country in ways that we are still experiencing. But 
we did find a way to speak with one voice, to pull up our courage, to 
continue to do our job.
  Those ugly, tragic events of that day gave us a period of unity and 
production that I have not seen since I have been in Congress. We 
passed bill after bill after bill to deal with the tragedy--from 
aviation security, to make sure our airlines did not go out of 
business; the PATRIOT Act--I will not enumerate all the things we did 
do. We did it working together across the aisle, across the Capitol, 
and with the administration in many instances.
  I have said here on the floor before, an interesting thing happened: 
The American people's approval of our conduct went to the highest in 
history. I don't know what the highest level was, but at least in the 
high seventies. Why was that? Because they saw us working together in a 
nonpartisan way to do what was right for our country. And when we got 
back closer to doing business as usual, those numbers sort of drifted 
back down.
  I think maybe during this period we are going to be out we ought to 
meditate and think a little bit about how we did in September and 
October and November of 2001, what we did not do sometimes in 2002, and 
see if there is a way we can, once again, come together and work 
together more often.
  So there have been bumps and potholes and there have been 
disagreements and there have been huge battles over prescription drugs 
and energy legislation and homeland security and a lot of others, but 
more often than not, we did get a result. We found a way to get it 
done.
  It takes an interminable amount of patience to be majority leader. 
Senator Daschle exhibited that patience, sometimes to the 
consternation, I know, perhaps, of his own colleagues in his own 
caucus. But that is the way it has to be done.
  So now we close out this historic period. We have had an election. We 
will be coming back in January with 11 new faces in the Senate and new 
leadership in the majority. I will have that opportunity again, God be 
willing, that we have of swearing in on January 7. We will need to find 
a way to work together again. I believe we will.
  Senator Daschle, when he became majority leader, stood in that place 
and pledged to me, and to the Senate, that he would work with us, and 
he

[[Page S11672]]

would be fair in his dealings. I think he has kept that commitment. I 
make the same pledge to him. I have learned some lessons being in the 
minority and being in the majority and being back and forth. It is a 
humbling experience. I think you learn that you have to do some things 
differently. I hope I will do them better. And I will need his help. So 
I believe we will find a way to work together for the best interests of 
this institution and for our country.
  I thank the many people associated with this Chamber, too.
  As I said to Senator Smith, it is far too often we forget to thank 
the people who make this place work: the people who turn on the lights, 
the policemen who work to keep us and our constituents and our staffs 
safe, the elevator operators, the custodians, the pages. All of these 
people who work in this Chamber and in this building are an important 
part of getting our job done. So to you all, I express my appreciation 
on behalf of myself and the Senate because you do a great job.
  With that, I would just like to conclude by wishing everyone a safe, 
happy holiday season. We need this respite. In the end, faith and 
family are more important even than what happens here.
  Now we will have a chance to spend some time thinking about those 
things and being with the ones we love the most. I look forward to 
returning in January. I look forward to seeing all of my colleagues as 
we begin the work that needs to be done for a stronger and freer 
America and peace in the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I indicated I will return to the floor in 
a short while. But while he is here, let me thank the distinguished 
Republican leader for his generous words. He spoke for both of us in 
recounting what we have experienced over the course of the last 2 
years.
  This has been an extraordinarily eventful 107th Congress. He did not 
mention, but I know he could have gone on to include the war in 
Afghanistan, extraordinary challenges on Wall Street, amazing things on 
the war on terror that we have confronted, breakfasts with the 
President as we attempted to confront these challenges one by one in a 
bipartisan way.
  So this has been extraordinarily eventful. You have to go back a long 
ways--a half a century--to find a time when power shifted within one 
Congress from one party to the other. I told him at the time--and I 
have since reiterated to him--how impressed I was in the way with which 
in our relationship he accepted that transfer of power. I hope I can be 
equally as magnanimous, and I hope to demonstrate that that will be the 
case beginning in January.
  He and I have developed a relationship that is built on a great deal 
of experience. And from that experience comes trust and affection.
  He also did not mention a great moment in both of our lives: when we 
became grandfathers. That has been a special treasure for both of us. 
And we have shared those moments about family and about grandchildren, 
as we have experienced them for the first time.
  So I look forward to working again very closely with him in yet 
another role. I hope that it can be even more productive. I hope that 
we both can learn lessons from this experience. I hope that we both can 
send a message to the American people that we mean to govern well, and, 
as I tell people sometimes, it is difficult to legislate, recognizing 
that with 240 million people in the same room, we have to reach a 
consensus about issues as challenging as homeland security. We will 
continue to do that with our colleagues, and with the best intentions, 
recognizing the expectations of the American people.
  So I thank him again for his courtesies, his friendship, and the 
leadership he has shown, and express to him, in the most heartfelt way, 
how much I look forward to working with him again.
  Mr. President, I have one final resolution, and that is the 
adjournment resolution.

                          ____________________