[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 131 (Tuesday, November 16, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11351-S11353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Farewell to Senator Hollings

  Mr. President, the task at hand for me is a difficult one. I want to 
take some time to talk about my senior Senator, Senator Hollings, who 
is retiring. Trying to do justice to his career is going to be a 
difficult task for me, but I will do my best.
  I want the people of South Carolina to understand that whatever 
differences I may have with Senator Hollings, they are political in 
nature. They have never been personal, and I cannot thank him enough 
for the time he has dedicated to the transition from the House to the 
Senate for our office. Senator Hollings has been a tremendous benefit 
to me personally. He has made the transition from the House to the 
Senate very enjoyable. He has helped my staff. He has been 
indispensable in our getting started in the Senate. I want to thank him 
personally and thank him for the kindnesses he has shown to me.
  Trying to follow Senator Thurmond and Senator Hollings is a tough 
act. South Carolinians have relied on these two great gentlemen for 
literally my entire lifetime. With the retirement of Senator Hollings, 
I think it is going to be hard to put in words how much he will be 
missed by the Senate and South Carolina.
  But when you start talking about a man, trying to give tribute to 
him, I think the first thing you have to start with is what means most 
to that person, to the man himself, and to his family. His wife Peatsy 
is one of the most delightful people you ever hope to meet. She is 
beloved by the colleagues in this Chamber and their spouses on both 
sides of the aisle. She is a joy to be with. She is a lot of fun, and 
she has been a great soulmate to Senator Hollings for many years. I 
know he is equally proud of his children. He lost a daughter. It is a 
terrible thing to have happen. He has four children and I think seven 
grandchildren.

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  For those people listening in South Carolina, the demands on one's 
time in this job are immense, and your family sacrifices in a variety 
of ways, whether it is going back home on the weekend to try to say 
hello to constituents or to be in a parade. I don't think we stress 
enough how important families are to Members. Senator Hollings has 
enjoyed the support of a first-class group of family members who have 
represented South Carolina very well.
  Wherever Peatsy Hollings goes, South Carolina goes, and there is no 
better way to be introduced in our State than to meet her.
  Senator Hollings' time in the Senate will be coming to an end. He has 
chosen to retire. It is a lifetime of public service that I will try to 
talk about in the next 10 or 15 minutes.
  As his generation is noted for ``The Greatest Generation,'' the World 
War II generation, he seems to have been there every time his State and 
his country needed him. He was a graduate of the Citadel. He graduated 
in 1942.
  As you can tell by his accent, which is the ultimate low country 
accent, he is from Charleston. If you had to create an image of a 
Senator, he would be my model. He looks like a Senator and he sounds 
like a Senator, and he also acts like a Senator. I mean that in the 
highest form of a compliment.

  He has represented my State since 1996 in the Senate but that is not 
the first time he has represented my State. It is not the first time he 
has served this country. As I mentioned, in 1942 he graduated from the 
Citadel. That was the class that got their diploma in the morning, got 
commissioned in the afternoon, and their orders the next day and they 
went off to fight a war. He is very emblematic of that generation. They 
never really had a chance to be young because the day they graduated 
college they went off to take on a vicious enemy.
  People talk about 1-year tours and the stress it puts on families--
that is true--but in World War II you signed up for the duration. You 
didn't know when you were coming home and you didn't know if you were 
coming home. You were coming home when the war was over, when Berlin 
fell and when Tokyo fell. His generation never enjoyed the benefits of 
getting out of college and being young men or young women because they 
had a tough task at hand at an early age.
  Let it be said for Senator Hollings and an entire generation, you 
handled the job exceedingly well. You rose to the occasion. You made 
the world free. If the Senator had done nothing else, that would have 
been a pretty good legacy for life. He went on to fight in north Africa 
and Europe. He fought the Nazis. He received the Bronze Star and seven 
campaign ribbons. He was in the action. He did his job well. He 
commanded troops in combat.
  At the ripe old age of 26 he comes back to South Carolina, but a 26-
year-old back then is not like a 26-year-old in normal times. I would 
argue that the 26-year-olds who come back from Iraq are going to be a 
little bit different, too. I can only imagine how war matures and ages 
you. It makes you able to put in perspective what is important. And his 
entire generation has had that perspective from the time they came back 
from the war and for the rest of their lives.
  It was shown in Senator Thurmond's and Senator Hollings's life. Both 
are World War II veterans. When he came back to South Carolina, he was 
elected to the House of Representatives at the age of 26. Shortly 
thereafter, he became Speaker pro tempore. So his colleagues saw in him 
something of a leader at an early age. They saw what the rest of South 
Carolina has seen for decades: Somebody who will speak their mind. You 
can be on the receiving end of speaking that mind--I have been on the 
receiving end--but he is fair. He has been tough on everybody. But 
people know he has a good heart. And he also has a good heart for South 
Carolina. That is why his colleagues put him at a young age in charge 
in the House.
  In the Brown v. Board of Education litigation, one of the first cases 
that came about was the South Carolina case involving Clarendon County. 
Senator Hollings participated in that case. It was a life-changing 
experience.
  In 1953, he became Lieutenant Governor. In 1958, he was elected 
Governor, the youngest Governor in South Carolina history at that time. 
From 1959 to 1963, he was a young Governor who had served in World War 
II, participated in one of the greatest legal cases of our time, and he 
took that experience and changed my State for the better.
  From 1959 to 1963, if you open up any history book, particularly in 
the South, these are tremendously troubling times. Social change is 
abounding. The old way of doing business is being challenged. People 
are fighting and sometimes dying throughout the South to bring about a 
new way of doing business.

  I never will forget Senator Hollings telling me about the court 
appearance in the Supreme Court when an African-American lawyer stood 
up and talked about fighting in the war, coming back home and being 
told to go to the back of the bus. And Senator Hollings said, ``that 
ended it for me. There was no way that I was going to be a voice for 
segregation.'' It hit him like a ton of bricks.
  One of his best legacies for my State and the Nation and the power of 
the Governor from 1959 to 1963--no lives were lost in South Carolina--
as he was leaving the office, there are all kinds of speeches going on 
in the South by Governors. Some people were standing in front of a 
schoolhouse and saying: You are not coming in; segregation now and 
segregation forever. Senator Hollings said that in South Carolina we 
will be a government of laws, not men. He challenged my State to accept 
the inevitable. He challenged my State to respect the Supreme Court 
decision. He led the way to the successful integration of Clemson 
University in 1963.
  The list goes on and on of what he has done to empower African 
Americans in South Carolina. He has been a champion for racial fairness 
his entire time. It is fashionable now. It is the politically correct 
thing to do now. But in 1963 it was not the politically correct thing 
to do in South Carolina or any other Southern State. But he chose the 
path less traveled. Our State is better off for it, and because of his 
leadership and others who followed, we were able to do things in South 
Carolina in a way of which we should all be proud. Hats off to you for 
that, Senator Hollings.
  During the time as Governor, he did some things economically that we 
have the benefit of today. Our technical school program, for those who 
are not familiar with South Carolina, is No. 1 in the Nation. If you 
are looking at doing business in South Carolina, we have a technical 
school system that will meet your needs. We will design a training 
program for your employees, specifically for your business. We have 
thousands of South Carolinians receiving college level education 
through our technical schools in an affordable manner. We have 16 
colleges now, over 160 career programs and high-tech professionals who 
have made the Michelins, BMWs, and Fujis possible to come to our State. 
He is the father of that legislation.
  If he had done nothing else, that would have been a great tribute, 
but there is a lot more that he has done. He created the South Carolina 
public broadcasting system, one of the best in the Nation, if not the 
best in the Nation. South Carolina ETV is known all over the world, 
really.
  As a young Governor, he took the road less traveled; he invested in 
education in a new and different way that pays dividends today. That is 
something he should be proud of and I am proud of on his behalf.
  In 1966, as a young man, he comes to the Senate. I don't have the 
time to read his legislative accomplishments because it would take most 
of the afternoon. It is fair to say that since Senator Hollings has 
been in the Senate he has not let any grass grow under his feet. He has 
been one of the most proactive Senators I have ever known. Almost 
anything that has been done in South Carolina with Federal assistance 
has been as a result of his efforts and that of Senator Thurmond.

  Primarily, Senator Hollings has led the charge on the Appropriations 
Committee in making sure South Carolina was as well taken care of in 
terms of Federal Government assistance as humanly possible. You will be 
missed, Senator Hollings.
  I will have, along with Senator DeMint, a very tough act to follow. 
We will try our best. But the Senator has done some things that I don't 
think

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most people know about but which have had a huge impact on who we are 
as a State and really the Nation.
  The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 was Federal legislation for 
the first time addressing the coastal areas of the United States. In 
1972, you were so far ahead of your time. The Costal Zone Management 
Act allowed Senator Hollings to be named Environmentalist of the Year 
by about every group in the Nation. Because of that act, we have come 
up with a plan to manage our coastline in terms of erosion.
  The Senator has also contributed to the clean health of the ocean, in 
1976, with the Ocean Dumping Act and the Maritime Transportation Act, a 
series of legislation that Senator Hollings offered that has changed 
the way we treat our coastlines as a nation.
  He probably has the most proactive environmental policy that we have 
had as a nation dealing with our coastal areas. It was a result of his 
efforts. Long after he is gone, the coastline of South Carolina and 
every other coast in the United States will be the beneficiary of his 
time in the Senate.
  He was talking about deficits before it was fashionable. Gramm-
Rudman-Hollings was an attempt in the 1980s to bring fiscal sanity to 
the Congress. By the time the 1990s came along, it becomes the way we 
campaign. About 10 years after his efforts--along with his colleagues, 
Senators Gramm and Rudman--it got to be the fashionable thing in 
politics to talk about not running up the debt.
  Senator Hollings was talking about the social integrity of Social 
Security before anyone else I have ever known. What are we talking 
about today? We are going to save Social Security. I hope we do. It 
would be wise to listen and learn from what he has been trying to 
instruct us to do.
  The first national park and only national park in South Carolina 
happened a couple years ago, the Congaree Swamp. That will be a 
monument to a balance between development and the environment for the 
rest of the time that South Carolina exists, long after we are gone. 
The Congaree Swamp will be well taken care of.
  There are so many things. The ACE Basin is probably one of the best 
monuments to our Creator. God has been good to South Carolina. When you 
travel through our State from the mountains to the sea, you will see 
some nature that is beyond description. From the mountains to the sea, 
Senator Hollings has been integrally involved in preserving what God 
has given us. The ACE Basin is a project he helped fund that has saved 
some coastal areas and some waterways in South Carolina. The whole 
basin is a monument to the environment. We worked together preserving 
over 30,000 acres in perpetuity in South Carolina. The Congaree Swamp 
is in the middle.
  As we look back over Senator Hollings's time in the Senate, you can 
see that he used his power in the Senate to make sure that future 
generations of South Carolinians would enjoy the things he has 
experienced as a young man. What better legacy to leave than a State 
that maintains its beauty.

  He has been aggressive when it comes to changing the fabric of the 
education climate in South Carolina with technical schools. One thing 
he should be most proud of is the Hollings Cancer Institute at the 
Medical University of South Carolina. South Carolina has pockets of 
health care problems that are Third World in nature. One day we are 
going to conquer these problems, but we have a litany of health care 
problems in South Carolina. My mother died of Hodgkin's disease. The 
Hollings Cancer Institute and the Medical University of South Carolina 
is doing some research that will pay great dividends in the future in 
terms of conquering this disease called cancer.
  My personal commitment to Senator Hollings is that I will continue to 
build upon what the Senator has started. It is my hope that the 
National Cancer Institute will designate this and we will try our best 
to make sure this happens as a tribute to the Senator.
  Again, I could go through legislative enactments, specific projects 
that have helped South Carolina, but I would like to end by saying that 
life is short. No matter how long it seems you have been around, it 
really is a small time in the scheme of things. South Carolina has 
enjoyed two long-serving Senators: Senator Thurmond and Senator 
Hollings. Both will have departed the Senate come next January. Let it 
be said about Senator Hollings that his time in the Senate will be felt 
by South Carolinians as long as there is a South Carolina. What the 
Senator has been able to do with the power entrusted to him by the 
people of South Carolina is to bring about a lot of good, Senator 
Hollings. The Senator has made our State a better place to live. The 
Senator has preserved things that would have been lost without the 
Senator. The Senator has talked about the future in responsible terms. 
The Senator has served our Nation during peace and war. The Senator has 
served South Carolina and the Senate well.
  I am honored to call you my senior Senator. It is my wish that you 
have many more years to help my State, help our State, and help our 
Nation. I hope that comes to pass.
  As I try to go forward as a Senator from South Carolina, I hope I am 
smart enough to draw upon what you have done and look at the model you 
have created and build upon that model.
  I am a Republican; Senator Hollings is a Democrat. That means 
something, but it really does not mean that much because we are both 
Americans, and we both love South Carolina.
  God bless, godspeed, and well done. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). The senior Senator from South 
Carolina.