[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 155 (Monday, October 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12831-S12832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATOR PETE DOMENICI

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before I outline what we are going to do 
this afternoon, let me say I had a conversation last week with Pete 
Domenici, who announced he would not run for reelection. I served with 
Senator Domenici for my entire time in the Senate on the Appropriations 
Committee. We worked on the Energy and Water Subcommittee over many 
years. During most of that time, he was either chairman or I was 
chairman, and the other one was the ranking member. We traveled the 
country looking at different facilities that related to the 
jurisdiction we had. It was a great subcommittee because all the money 
we had was discretionary, and it was a subcommittee that did so many 
good things for the country. There were water projects that were long 
overdue. We set up the safety and reliability of our nuclear arsenal. 
It was not easy, but we worked through that.
  Senator Domenici has a tremendously interesting background. Because 
of my fascination with athletics, and especially baseball, I was 
stunned to learn this respectable man--who has so much mental acuity 
and is good with numbers and all this--had started out as a great 
baseball player. He was a pitcher, a left-handed pitcher, as I 
understand. He played professional baseball. He was in the Brooklyn 
Dodgers' farm system. He left there to become a junior high school math 
teacher.
  He went on to earn a law degree before he began a storied career in 
the State of New Mexico as a city councilman and mayor. Now, of course, 
he is one of the more senior Members of the Senate.
  During the time Senator Domenici and I have known each other, we have 
gotten to know each other's spouses. He is very kind and thoughtful to 
Landra, my wife, as I try to be to his very sweet, personable Nancy. 
They have eight children.
  He is a person for whom I have great respect. I will miss him. He has 
a unique knowledge of the importance of our National Laboratories. One 
reason, of course, is we have two of them in the State of New Mexico. 
But we have them in other places--California, Illinois. I have traveled 
with him to Missouri.
  He is a person who has looked out for the Nevada test site--a place 
where almost 1,000 nuclear devices were exploded, most of them 
underground, but not all of them underground. He worked with me to make 
sure that facility--that is a billion-dollar facility--is still used 
for the security of this Nation. He has worked on, as I have indicated, 
the safety of our nuclear stockpile.
  He made his decision to retire for reasons that are certainly valid, 
but that does not take away from the fact we will all miss him.
  I must say, one of the other issues he has worked so hard on--
originally with Senator Wellstone, but after that much of the time 
alone--deals with mental health parity. Fortuitously, a week before we 
adjourned for the Columbus Day recess, we passed that legislation

[[Page S12832]]

in the Senate. Now we have to make sure our bill and the House bill are 
conferenced and we finish those two bills. But it certainly is a step 
in the right direction.
  So I do offer Senator Domenici my congratulations for the wonderful 
job he has done as a Senator and, as I told him on the phone, I express 
how much--after the next 15 months--I will miss him.

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