[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 162 (Thursday, December 9, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8677-S8680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, those of us who are leaving the Congress
at the end of this year are given the opportunity to make a farewell
speech. But more, it is an opportunity to say thank you to a lot of
people to whom we owe a thank-you, and to colleagues, to family, to the
staff here in the Senate and our state staff, and the people of North
Dakota, in this case, who gave me the opportunity to serve. It is the
opportunity for me to say thank you.
One of my colleagues the other day talked about the number of people
who have served in the Senate. Since the beginning of our country,
there have been 1,918 people who have served in the Senate. When I
signed in, I signed on the line, and I was No. 1,802. There have been
212 Senators with whom I have served in the years I have been in the
Senate. It is hard to get here and it is also hard to leave. But all of
us do leave, and the Senate always continues. When finally you do
leave, you understand this is the most unique legislative body in the
world.
I arrived 30 years ago in Congress, and when we all show up the first
day, we feel so very important and we believe the weight of the world
rests on our shoulders. Then we begin getting mail from home.
I have long described a letter that was sort of leavening to me, sent
to me by a schoolteacher early on after I arrived here. Her class was
to do a project to write to Dorgan in Washington, DC. I paged through
the 20 letters from fourth grade students, and one of them said: Dear
Mr. Dorgan, I know who you are. I see you on television sometimes. My
dad watches you on television too. Boy, does he get mad.
So I knew the interests of public service, of trying to satisfy all
of the varied interests in our country. It is important, it seems to
me, that we do the right thing as best we can and as best we see it.
That dad from that letter showed up at a good many of my meetings over
the years, I think. He didn't introduce himself. But in most cases, the
people I represented over these many years were people, ordinary folks
who loved their country, raised their families, paid their bills, and
wanted us to do the right thing for our country's future.
I have a lot of really interesting memories from having served here,
12 years in the House and 18 years in the Senate. The first week I came
to Washington, in the House, I stopped to see the oldest Member of the
House, Claude Pepper. I had read so much about him, I wanted to meet
him. I walked into his office, and his office was like a museum with a
lot of old things in it, really interesting things. He had been here
for a long, long time. I have never forgotten what I saw behind his
chair--two photographs. The first photograph was of Orville and Wilbur
Wright, December 17, 1903, making the first airplane flight, signed
``to Congressman Claude Pepper with admiration, Orville Wright.''
Beneath it was a photograph of Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface
of the Moon, signed ``to Congressman Pepper, with regards, Neil
Armstrong.'' I was thinking to myself, here is a living American and in
one lifetime, he has an autographed picture of the first person who
learned to fly and the first person who walked on the Moon. Think of
the unbelievable progress in a lifetime. And what is the distance
between learning to fly and flying to the Moon? It wasn't measured on
that wall in inches, although those photographs were only 4 or 5 inches
apart; it is measured in education, in knowledge, in a burst of
accomplishments in an unprecedented century.
This country has been enormously blessed during this period. The
hallmark, it seems to me, of the century we just completed was self-
sacrifice and common purpose, a sense of community, commitment to
country, and especially, especially leadership. In America, leadership
has been so important in this government we call self-government.
There was a book written by David McCullough about John Adams, and
John Adams described that question of leadership. He would travel in
Europe representing this new country, and he would write letters back
to Abigail. In his letters to Abigail, he would plaintively ask the
question: Where will the leadership come from for this new country we
are starting? Who will become the leaders? Who will be the leaders for
this new nation?
In the next letter to Abigail, he would again ask: Where will the
leadership come from? Then he would say: There is only us. Really,
there is only us. There is me, there is George Washington, there is Ben
Franklin, there is Thomas Jefferson, there is Hamilton, Mason, and
Madison. But there is only us, he would plaintively say to Abigail.
In the rearview mirror of history, of course, the ``only us'' is some
of the greatest human talent probably ever assembled. But it is
interesting to me that every generation has asked the same question
John Adams asked: Where will the leadership come from for this country?
Who will be the leaders?
The answer to that question now is here in this room. It has always
been in this room--my colleagues, men and women, tested by the rigors
of a campaign, chosen by citizens of their State who say: You lead, you
provide leadership for this country.
For all of the criticism about this Chamber and those who serve in
this Chamber, for all of that criticism, I say that the most talented
men and women with whom I have ever worked are the men and women of the
Senate on both sides of this aisle. They live in glass houses. Their
mistakes are obvious and painful. They fight, they disagree, then they
agree. They dance around issues, posture, delay. But always, always
there is that moment--the moment of being part of something big,
consequential, important; the moment of being part of something bigger
than yourself. At that moment, for all of us at different times, there
is this acute awareness of why we were sent here and the role the
Senate plays in the destiny of this country.
The Senate is often called the most exclusive club in the world, but
I wonder, really, if it is so exclusive if someone from a town of 300
people and a high school senior class of 9 students can travel from a
desk in that small school to a desk on the floor of the Senate. I think
it is more like a quilt-work of all that is American, of all the
experiences in our country. It allows someone from a small town with
big ideas to sit in this Chamber among the desks that were occupied by
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and so many
more, and feel as if you belong. That is the genius of self-government.
I announced about a year ago that I would not seek reelection after
serving here 30 years, 12 in the House and 18 years in the Senate. I am
repeatedly asked, as is my colleague Senator Dodd, I am sure, who is
leaving at the end of this year, what is your most significant
accomplishment? While I am proud of so many things I have done
legislatively, the answer is not legislative. I have always answered it
by saying: Well, the first month I was here, 30 years ago next month, I
stepped into an elevator on the ground floor of the Cannon Office
Building of the U.S. House of Representatives. That step into that
elevator changed my life. There was a woman on that elevator, and
between the ground floor and the fourth floor, I got her name. And that
is a pretty significant accomplishment for a Lutheran Norwegian. This
year, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. My life has been so
enriched by my wife Kim and children, Scott and Shelly and Brendon and
Haley; grandchildren Madison and Mason--they serve too. Families are
committed too, to this life of public service, weekends alone, and I am
forever grateful to the commitment and sacrifice of my family.
I wish to say two things about some other people as well.
First, there is our staff. All of us would probably say--but, of
course, I
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say with much greater credibility--I have the finest staff in the U.S.
Senate. I have been so enormously blessed. I am so proud of all of
them. They are talented, they are dedicated to this country, and I have
been blessed to work with them. In fact, I have worked with most of
them for many, many years.
Then I wish to say to the floor staff of the Senate that I come here,
as do my colleagues, and we say our piece and we get involved in the
debates, and the floor staff does such an unbelievable job. When we are
done speaking, we often leave. They are still here. They are the ones
who turn out the lights. They refrain from rolling their eyes when I
know they want to during these debates. Boy, are they professional, and
all of us owe them such a great debt of gratitude.
To my colleagues, I kind of feel like Will Rogers: There is nobody in
here I do not like.
It is a great place with some terrific colleagues, especially Senator
Kent Conrad. We have been friends for 40 years. For 40 years we have
been involved in the political fights and the political battles in
North Dakota. He is a great Senator. I said last night at a reception:
He is the best Senator in the United States Senate come January. But
what I should just say right now is, he is an outstanding Senator and
makes a great contribution to this body. Congressman Pomeroy, with whom
I have served, the other part of Team North Dakota, three of us who
worked together on campaigns 40 years ago, in North Dakota and who then
for 18 years were the only three members of North Dakota's
Congressional Delegation. It has been a great pleasure. We will
continue these friendships. But I say thanks to Senator Conrad
especially for the work we have done together.
Now, you know--and it shows--I love politics. I love public service,
always have. John F. Kennedy used to say every mother kind of hopes her
child might grow up to be President, as long as they do not have to be
active in politics. But, of course, politics is the way we make
decisions about America. It is an honorable thing. I have always been
enormously proud of being in politics. I have run 12 times in statewide
elections since age 26. I have served continuously in statewide
elective office since the age of 26--never outside of statewide
elective office--for a long time, 40 years. It has been a great gift to
me to be able to serve, and I am forever grateful to the people of
North Dakota who have said to me: We want you to represent us.
Now it is time for me to do some other things that I have long wanted
to do. That is why I chose not to seek reelection this year.
Let me be clear to you. I did not decide not to run for the Senate
because I am despondent about the state of affairs here. That is not
the case. These are difficult and troubling times. But I did not decide
not to run and to criticize this institution, although there is plenty
of which to be critical. I do not want to add to the burdens of this
institution. This institution is too important to the future of this
country.
I could talk, by the way, for hours about the joys of serving here
with all of my colleagues.
I was thinking about the late Ted Kennedy, when I was jotting a few
notes, standing at his desk back in that row for many years. I know no
one will mind me saying this: I think he is the best legislator I have
ever seen in terms of getting things done. Ted Kennedy, full of
passion, and on certain days when he was agitated and full-throated,
you could hear him out on the street fighting and shouting for the
things he knew were important for America.
I think of Bob Dole who would saunter onto this floor, and he almost
seemed to have an antenna that knew exactly what was going on, what the
mood was, and what he could and could not do and how you must
compromise at certain times. He had a knack like that, unlike any
others I have seen.
I think of Strom Thurmond, who left us at age 101. If anybody could
know his life story, what an unbelievable, courageous story. One of the
things that I remember about Strom Thurmond is my involvement with
legislation for organ transplantation to save people's lives. I did a
press conference on a bill I was introducing on organ transplants, and
Strom Thurmond showed up. I think he was 90 years old. He signed an
organ donor card. He said after he signed the organ donor card at age
90: I do not know if I've got anything anybody wants, but if I am gone,
they are welcome to it.
Robert C. Byrd, who sat where my colleague is sitting now--they do
not make them like Robert C. Byrd anymore. I recall one day when
another colleague was on the Senate floor, Robert C. Byrd got very
angry about what the other colleague was saying. He believed it was
disrespectful. So he rushed up to the Chamber, and the other colleague
had left by that time. I do not know that our colleague ever understood
what happened to him. But Senator Byrd, being very angry at what the
other Senator had said, said simply this: I have been here long enough
to watch pygmies strut like Colossus. He said: They, like the fly in
Aesop's Fables, sitting on the axle of a chariot observe, my, what dust
thy do raise. Then he sat down. And I thought, you know, they do not
make Senators like that anymore. The Senator who left did not
understand what Senator Byrd had just done, cutting him off at the
knees.
But I take a treasury of memories. I should mention as well one of my
best friends, Tom Daschle, who served here, a wonderful friend and a
great leader for a long while as well. I just take a treasury of
memories from this place.
This place, however, has substantial burdens ahead of it, and will
have to make good decisions, tough decisions, and exhibit the courage
needed for the kind of future we want; we are going to have to put some
sacrifice on the line for our country's future.
I want to talk for a bit about a couple of those issues. While there
are always big issues, and I have always been interested in debating
the big issues, my principal passion has been to support family
farmers, small business folks, and the people who go to work every
morning at a job; the family farmers out there who live on hope, plant
a seed, and hope it grows, who risk everything; the Main Street
business owner who this morning got up and turned the key in the front
door and went in and waited because they have everything in their
financial lives on the line, hoping their small business works; and the
worker who goes to a job in the morning every day, every day, and they
are the ones who know ``seconds,'' those workers at the bottom of the
economic ladder. They know second shift, secondhand, second mortgage.
They know it all. The question is, who speaks for them? The hallways
outside the Chamber are not crowded with people saying: Let me speak
for those folks.
In the first book I wrote, the first page, a book called ``Take This
Job and Ship It,'' about trade, on the first page of that book I
describe a story that was told about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
funeral. As they lined up in this Capitol to file past the casket of
the deceased President, a journalist was trying to capture the mood of
people who were waiting in line. He walked up to a man, a worker who
was holding his cap in front of him standing there with tears in his
eyes, and the journalist said to this working man: Well, did you know
Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
The man said: No, I didn't. But he knew me.
The question is, it seems to me, for every generation in this
Chamber, who knows American workers? Who stands up for the people who
go to work every morning in this country? As I said, there are big
issues that relate to workers and farmers and businesspeople and others
in this country.
Let me just mention a couple. We know that for America to succeed we
have to fix our schools. Thirty percent of the kids going to schools
are not graduating. That cannot continue. We cannot have schools that
are called dropout factories. We need the best schools in the world
with the best teachers in the world if we are going to compete. We need
substantial education reform.
We also have to get rid of this crushing debt. We know we cannot
borrow 40 percent of everything we spend. We know better than that. All
of us know that. We have been on a binge, and it has to change. We
cannot borrow money from China, for example, to give tax cuts to the
wealthiest Americans. Somehow we have to change all of
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these issues. It is time for this country to sober up in fiscal policy
and leadership from this Chamber as well.
We need a financial industry that stops gambling and starts lending,
lending especially to those businesses that want to create jobs and
want to expand. We need a fair trade policy that stands up for American
workers for a change and promotes ``made in America'' again. We are not
going to be a world economic power if we do not have world class
manufacturing capability. It is dissipating before our eyes. This is
all about creating good jobs and expanding opportunities in this
country. It is not happening with our current trade policy. It is
trading away America's future, and we know better than that.
On energy, we have ridden into a box canyon. Sixty percent of the oil
we use comes from other countries, some of it from countries that do
not like us very much. That holds us hostage, and we cannot continue
that. We need to produce more of all kinds of energy at home. We need
to conserve more. We need more energy efficiency. We need to do all of
these to promote stability and security in this country.
Another issue that I have spent a lot of time working on deals with
American Indians. They were here first. We are talking about the first
Americans. They greeted all of us. They now live in Third World
conditions in much of this country, and we have to do better. We have
to keep our promises and we have to honor our treaties. In this
Congress, I have had the privilege of chairing the Indian Affairs
Committee. This Congress, however, as tough as it has been, has done
more on Indian issues than in the previous 40 years. We passed the
Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the first time in 17 years. We
passed the Tribal Law and Order Act that I and others helped write,
which is so very important. We just passed yesterday the special
diabetes provisions that are so important to the Indians. We put $2\1/
2\ billion in the Economic Recovery Act to invest in health care
facilities and education and the other things that are necessary in
Indian Country.
We just passed the Cobell settlement which deals with a problem that
has existed for 150 years in which looting and stealing from Indian
trust accounts went on routinely. President Obama signed the bill last
night at the White House.
Those five things are the most important elements together that have
been done in 40 years by a Congress dealing with Indian issues. But the
work is not nearly over, and we have to keep our promises and honor our
trust agreements.
We face some pretty big challenges. But the fact is, our grandparents
and great-grandparents faced challenges that were much more significant
as well, and they prevailed.
All of us in politics especially know the noise of democracy is
unbelievable. It is relentless, incessantly negative, and it goes on
24/7. We have bloviaters all over the country who are trying to make
sounds from the chest seem like important messages from their brain.
They take almost everything they can find in any paper from any corner
of this country that seems stupid and ugly and just way out of line,
and they hold that up to the light on their program and they say: Isn't
this ugly?
Sure it is ugly, but it is not America. It is just some little
obscene gesture somewhere in the corner of our country. It is not
America. There is this old saying, ``bad news travels halfway around
the world before good news gets its shoes on.'' That is what is
happening all the time. This country is full of good. It is full of
good things, good people, and good news. Every day people go to work to
build, create, and invent, and they hope the future will be better than
the past.
There was a book titled ``You Can't Go Home Again'' by Thomas Wolfe.
He said there is a peculiar quality of the American soul, a peculiar
quality of the American soul that has an almost indestructible belief,
a quenchless hope that things are going to be better, that something is
going to turn up, that tomorrow is going to work out, and somehow that
has been what has been the hallmark of American aspirations.
When I graduated college with an MBA degree and got my first job in
the aerospace industry at a very young age, the first program or
project I worked on was called the Voyager Project. We were, with
Martin-Marietta Corporation, building a landing vehicle for Mars. That
was 40 years ago. That program was discontinued after about 4 years.
But 5 years ago, the new program resulted in firing two missiles, two
rockets from our country, 1 week apart. We aimed them at Mars. One week
apart the rockets lifted off with a payload. When they landed, 200
million miles later, they landed 1 week apart on the surface of Mars.
The payload had a shroud and it opened and a dune buggy drove off the
shroud and started driving around on the surface of Mars. First one
did, and then a week later the second arrived. They were named Spirit
and Opportunity. Five years ago, we began driving Spirit and
Opportunity on the surface of Mars. They were American vehicles. They
were supposed to last for 90 days. We are still driving those dune
buggies on the surface of Mars 5 years later.
Spirit, very much like old men, got arthritis of the arm. So they say
it hangs at kind of a permanent half salute.
Spirit also has five wheels, and one wheel broke. So the wheel didn't
break off, but now it is digging a trench about 2 inches deeper on the
surface of Mars and the arthritic arm just barely gets there, but it
does. It gets back to sample even a slightly bit deeper into the soil
of Mars to tell us a little bit about what is going on. Spirit, by the
way, also fell asleep about 1 year ago. They couldn't reach it. It
takes 9 minutes to communicate electronically, by radio, with these
dune buggies on Mars. So they sent a signal to a satellite we have
circling Mars and had the satellite send a signal to Spirit and Spirit
woke right up. So two dune buggie-sized vehicles are traveling on the
surface of Mars driven by American genius.
My point in all this is, first of all, they are very aptly named
during challenging times--``Spirit'' and ``Opportunity,'' manufactured
to last only 90 days but still driving around on the surface of Mars 5
years later. If American invention and American initiative can build
rockets and dune buggies and drive them on the surface of Mars, surely
we can fix the things that are important on planet Earth. I was going
to say this isn't rocket science, but I guess it is.
This country is an unbelievable place. This is all a call to
America's future. Where we have been and what we have done, all these
things together ought to inspire us that we can do so much more.
George Bernard Shaw once said:
Life is no brief candle to me. It is a splendid torch which
I am able to hold but for a moment.
This is our moment. This is it.
About 15 years ago, I was leading a delegation of American
Congressmen and Senators to meet with a group of European members of
Parliament about our disputes in trade. About an hour into the meeting,
the man who led the European delegation slid back in his chair, leaned
across to me, and he said: Mr. Senator, we have been speaking for an
hour about how we disagree. I want to tell you something. I think you
should know how I feel about your country. I was a 14-year-old boy on a
street corner in Paris, France, when the U.S. liberation Army marched
down the Champs-Elysees. An American soldier reached out his hand and
gave me an apple as he marched past. I will go to my grave remembering
that moment, what it meant to me, what it meant to my family, what it
meant to my country.
I sort of sat back in my chair, thinking, here is this guy telling me
about who we are and where we have been and what we have meant to
others. It was pretty unbelievable. Our problems are nothing compared
to where we can go and what we can be as a country, if we just do the
right thing.
This Senate has a lot to offer the American people. I know its best
days are ahead. That splendid torch, that moment, that is here. That
torch exists in this Chamber as well.
I feel unbelievably proud to have been able to serve here with these
men and women for so long. I am going to go on to do other work. But I
will always watch this Chamber and those who will continue to work in
this Chamber and do what is important for this country's future. I will
be among the cheerleaders who say: Good for
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you. Good for you. You know what is important, and you have steered
America toward a better future.
I thank my colleagues.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
Mr. DURBIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CONRAD. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have just heard from Senator Dorgan, an
extraordinary Senator and even more extraordinary as a friend. He has
served in the Congress for 30 years. He has served in public office in
my State for more than 40 years. It has been my privilege to call him
my best friend for 42 years. We just heard the remarkable ability he
has, a gift, to paint word pictures that communicate with people, that
help us understand the consequences of the actions we take here.
In recent weeks, I have become very interested in the universe and
the vastness of what surrounds us. One of the things I have found most
striking is that 1 light-year takes light 1 year, it goes 5.8 trillion
miles and the universe is 12 to 15 billion light-years across. This is
a vastness that is hard for us to calculate. Scientists tell us it all
started with a big bang almost 14 billion years ago. Now scientists are
saying it may not just be one big bang but there is a cycle that takes
place over 1 trillion years that leads to repeated big bangs. Byron
Dorgan has been a big bang in the Senate. He has made a difference
here. He has made an enormous difference in our home State of North
Dakota. He helped build a foundation that has made North Dakota, today,
the most successful State in the country--the lowest unemployment, the
best financial situation, the fastest economic growth. Byron Dorgan
helped build a foundation that has transformed our State. We are
forever in his debt.
As his friend and colleague, we are forever grateful to the
contributions he has made to North Dakota and to the Nation.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of the
Senator from North Dakota and add my voice as well to celebrate Senator
Dorgan's tenure in the Senate. I wish he was going to stay. He has been
someone about getting things done. As somebody who has sat in the
presiding chair a number of times, I have heard Senator Dorgan. Even
when I don't fully agree with him, no one is more persuasive in arguing
his case.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________