[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5361-S5370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING SENATOR MARK O. HATFIELD
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, my home State of Oregon has many towering
and majestic features, such as our iconic Mount Hood and our beautiful
State tree, the Douglas fir. Senator Mark O. Hatfield, who passed away
on August 7, stood head and shoulders above all of them.
Last night, the Senate passed S. Res. 257, a resolution in respect of
the memory of Senator Hatfield. This afternoon, Senator Merkley and I,
with colleagues of both parties, would like to reflect on the
extraordinary legacy of our special friend, Senator Mark Hatfield.
For me, Senator Hatfield's passing this summer, just as it seems the
Congress has become embroiled in a never-ending series of divisive and
polarizing debates and battles, drove home that Senator Hatfield's
approach to government is now needed more than ever in our country.
Senator Hatfield was the great reconciler. He was proud to be a
Republican with strongly held views. Yet he was a leader who, when
voices were raised and doors were slammed and problems seemed beyond
solution, could bring Democrats and Republicans together. He would look
at all of us, smile and always start by saying: ``Now, colleagues,''
and then he would graciously and calmly lay out how on one issue or
another--I see my friend, Senator Cochran from Mississippi, who knows
this so well from their work together on Appropriations--it might one
day be a natural resources question, it might one day be a budget issue
or a health issue or an education issue, but Senator Hatfield had this
extraordinary ability to allow both sides to work together so an
agreement could be reached, where each side could achieve some of the
principles they felt strongly about. They would not get
[[Page S5362]]
them all, but they would get a number of them. That, of course, is the
key to what is principled bipartisanship.
It was not very long ago, it seems, when Senator Hatfield walked me
down that center aisle, when I had the honor of being selected Oregon's
first new Senator in almost 30 years. I remember coming to the Senate,
a new Senator, and watching Senator Hatfield at work. Sometimes he
would be with Senator Kennedy and a big flock of the Senate's leading
progressives, and sometimes he would shuttle over to visit with Senator
Dole and a big group of conservatives. Somehow the public interest was
addressed.
The question then becomes: How did he do it? What was the Hatfield
approach all about? To me, Senator Hatfield was religious, but he was
never intolerant. He was idealistic, but he was never naive. He was
willing to stand alone but never one to grandstand.
But it was not his public life that shaped his belief and his
principles. Those were forged in the most hellish of places: World War
II in the Pacific. As a landing craft officer in the U.S. Navy, Senator
Hatfield witnessed firsthand the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He
was one of the first Americans to see the devastating effects of the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Later, he served in French Indochina, where he saw the economic
disparities that would later lead to war in Southeast Asia. Those
images remained with him throughout his life, acting as a touchstone
for his belief that the world should be a safer and more peaceful
place. It was Senator Hatfield's beliefs--those beliefs--that served as
the foundation for his career in the Senate and for his opposition to
the Vietnam war and to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Senator Hatfield was a major player on the national stage. At the
same time, he never forgot our home State or strayed very far from his
approach of trying to bring people together. I see our friend, Senator
Alexander, on the floor, who also has had a lot of experience on
natural resources issues.
I can tell my friends on both sides of the aisle that watching
Senator Hatfield champion the need for family-wage jobs in the forest
products sector, while at the same time being a champion of
environmental protections of wilderness areas and scenic rivers, was
like a classroom in the effort to come up with sound public policy.
When colleagues come to our home State, they will have an opportunity
to go to the Columbia River Gorge, a special treasure. We had a big
anniversary recently on the anniversary of the Columbia Gorge National
Scenic Area. Senator Merkley and I were there. That never could have
happened without that unique ability of Senator Hatfield to bring
people together, and he went into every nook and cranny of our State,
communities that barely were bigger than a fly speck on the map. He
would make their roads better and their schools better and their health
care better, again by bringing people together.
I know colleagues are waiting. I would simply wrap up by saying that
my State has lost a great son. The Senate has lost one of its former
giants. Our Nation has lost a man who represented honesty and decency
in public service. I will never, ever forget how much Senator Hatfield
has meant to my home State of Oregon.
I note Senator Merkley is here who served as one of Senator
Hatfield's interns as well as Senator Alexander and Senator Cochran. I
think we have, through the graciousness of Senator Reed and Senator
McConnell, time for all our colleagues.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon is recognized.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate a statesman
and a mentor, Senator Mark O. Hatfield. He took many roles: dedicated
public servant, conscientious man of faith, and pioneer for new
development in the West. He was born in 1922 in Dallas, OR, a small
town not far from our capital, Salem, to a family of modest means. His
father was a blacksmith and his mother was a schoolteacher. When he was
young, his family then actually moved to the State capital, which gave
him a chance, as a teenager, to work as a guide in the State capitol
building and to imagine returning one day as a public leader.
He proceeded to study at Willamette University in Salem. During his
freshman year, events took a dramatic turn with the attack on Pearl
Harbor in 1941. Senator Hatfield joined the Reserves and accelerated
his studies, so he completed his degree in 1943 and joined the Navy. He
proceeded as a naval officer and fought in Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and he
saw the devastating aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, an
imprint that, along with his State, caused him to struggle with the
appropriate and moral use of force throughout his life in public
service. In his own words:
In the war's immediate aftermath, one vivid experience made
the profoundest impression on me. I was with a Navy
contingent who were among the first Americans to enter
Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been dropped. Sensing, in
that utter devastation, the full inhumanity and horror of
modern war's violence, I began to question whether there can
be any virtue in war.
He elaborates on this process of questioning, this process of
challenging, in his book ``Conflict and Conscience.'' In terms of the
Vietnam war, he concluded that it did not meet the Christian
theologians' test for a just war. After the war, Hatfield went back to
Oregon and he started a law degree, but he changed course after a year.
He decided instead to pursue a master's in political affairs, and he
went to Stanford and completed that master's and came back to Oregon.
He started teaching at Willamette University, and in short order he was
running for the Oregon House, in 1950, first elected at the age of 28,
and then Secretary of State 6 years later at the age of 34, and
Governor 2 years later at the age of 36. Through these experiences,
Senator Hatfield developed the ability to chart his own course, to
determine and follow his own convictions. In 1964, he championed an
initiative to outlaw the death penalty. That ballot measure passed, and
Governor Hatfield then commuted the sentences of those on death row.
In 1965, in July, he was the one Governor at the National Governors
Association to vote against the resolution endorsing the Vietnam war.
In 1995, he proceeded to oppose the balanced budget amendment, and as
the Senate historian, Don Ritchie, observed, ``It was one of the most
courageous votes I had ever seen. He knew he was sacrificing his
chairmanship and his position as a Senator. Few knew then that Senator
Hatfield had offered to resign.''
Senator Hatfield also worked hard to build core institutions in
Oregon. He was a champion of Oregon Health and Sciences University and
built it into a fabulous institution of research and learning. The Mark
O. Hatfield School of Government carries on his legacy of leadership,
conveying those principles to young leaders who are dispersing
throughout the public policy arena. The Marine Science Center in
Newport, a tremendous research facility, continues to yield benefits,
including setting the foundation for the recent location of NOAA'S
research fleet in the city of Newport.
He was an intense advocate of medical research, and he championed
NIH, where a building now bears his name. He was a champion for the
U.S. Institute of Peace. He felt if there were academies that studied
war, there should be acadamies to study peace and reconciliation.
In 1975, he introduced the George Washington Peace Academy Act to
further the understanding of the process and state of peace among
nations, to consider the dimensions of peaceful resolutions of
differences, to train students and to inform government leaders in the
process of peaceful resolutions. It took 9 years, but this effort which
began as the George Washington Peace Academy Act ended in the
establishment of the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984.
As my senior colleague mentioned, he championed many efforts to
protect Oregon's precious wilderness. One of his final projects was to
protect Opal Creek, which has been described as 6,800 acres of virgin
old growth, the largest span remaining in western Oregon. He said about
this:
It is an inspiration. It is a place of educational and
spiritual renewal and exploration. To walk among the
centuries old fir, hemlock, and cedar inspires tremendous awe
and instills, I think, a perspective unlike itself.
My own connection to Senator Hatfield began in 1976, in the spring of
that
[[Page S5363]]
year, when I went to Salem to meet with Jerry Frank, Senator Hatfield's
legendary Chief of Staff, to interview for a possible summer internship
in Senator Hatfield's DC office. I will be eternally grateful to Jerry
Frank and Senator Hatfield for offering me that internship, for that
opportunity to come to our Nation's capital to see government in
action. My first responsibility was to open the mail. When you open the
mail, you start to understand the dimension, the breadth of political
opinion in the breadth of a State.
How readily did many constituents attack Senator Hatfield's Christian
faith because they disagreed with him on some policy position. I opened
so much mail that said: Hi, my policy position is this and yours is
different. So how can you be a man of Christian faith?
Indeed, Senator Hatfield started his book ``Conflict and Conscience''
with just this dimension, a politicization of religion. He puts in it a
number of letters that he received. One reads:
Dear Mr. Hatfield,
Your encouragement of antiwar demonstrations and the riots
that have come from such demonstration are in fact treason
for they give comfort and aid to our enemies. . . .
I and a lot of other Christian people are extremely
disappointed in your performance in the Senate, for you who
claim to be a Christian and have access to our Almighty God
should have a better understanding of human nature and the
evil in the human heart.
Senator Hatfield talked about the challenge of being a public man of
faith and working to take those principles and convert them to public
policy in the face of hostility coming from the left or the right. But
it was his determination to stay that course, to continue to be a
person of reflection and depth in the pursuit of public policy.
That summer, I was assigned to the Tax Reform Act of 1976. The great
joy that I had was that it happened to come up on the floor that
summer. Back then, before there was television in this Chamber, before
there was e-mail, you would come to the floor, if you were working on
an issue, and go up to the staff gallery and follow debate, and you
would rush down with the other staffers to meet your Senator coming out
of the elevators just outside those double doors. Because there were
lots of amendments, I got to meet with the Senator many times to
describe the debate on the floor here, and to fill in what folks back
home were saying about the particular issue at hand.
Then, occasionally, the timing being just right, we would have a
chance to walk back and forth. Senator Hatfield loved to walk back and
forth outside in the sunshine under the trees between the Capitol and
his office in the Russell Office Building. It was while observing those
debates that I saw the Senate at its best. There was an amendment from
the right side of the aisle that was debated and discussed and voted on
an hour and a half later. Then there was an amendment from the left
side of the aisle. The amendments were on the issue at hand, such as
different tax strategies, and often they were bipartisan in nature.
Indeed, you saw that our Senators at that time--most of whom had served
in World War II together--could disagree without demonizing each other.
This is a tremendously important facet of the Senate that has been lost
over the decades since. Indeed, there were many friendly debates
between Republicans and Democrats.
My father, Darrell, was a mechanic, and he had one of these debates
with his boss who owned the company. When I was offered the internship
with Senator Hatfield, Jerry called my father and said, Darrell, I won
the debate because Senator Hatfield will work to make Jeff a good
Republican. My dad said, no, no, no, I won the debate because Jeff will
work to make Senator Hatfield a good Democrat. Neither of us would have
broached such a topic.
The conversation wasn't about Democrats and Republicans. It was about
the challenges at hand and how you resolve them. It was from that
summer that I developed a lifelong admiration for Senator Hatfield and
his model of public service. Here is what Senator Hatfield had to say
about public calling:
Political service must be rooted in a philosophy of
society's overall well-being, with a broad vision of how the
body politic serves the people through its corporate
structures. The heart of one's service in the political order
must be molded by ideals, principles, and values that express
how we, in the words of the Constitution, are ``to form a
more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the
General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity.''
He continued:
Political service must flow out of such a commitment.
Convictions about war and peace, about the priorities
governing the expenditure of Federal funds, about the
patterns of economic wealth and distribution, about the
Government's responsibility toward the oppressed and
dispossessed both in our land and throughout the world, about
our Nation's system of law and justice, and about the meaning
of human liberty--these should be at the core of one's desire
to seek public office.
It was because of my admiration for Senator Hatfield that when I
became Speaker of the Oregon House in 2007, I called him and asked if
he would consider coming to swear me in when I took the oath of office.
He readily agreed to do so. That was the last public event that my
father was at before he passed away. It was one of Senator Hatfield's
last major public events.
I so much appreciated the symbolism of a Republican and a Democrat
coming together at that moment, and sought to help guide the Oregon
House, the same Chamber where Senator Hatfield started his political
career to solve Oregon's problems.
It is because of my admiration for Senator Hatfield that when I came
to this Chamber I asked for Senator Hatfield's desk. There are 14 names
carved into the desk drawer in his desk. The 13th is Senator
Hatfield's. As I looked at the names, I was surprised to discover this
desk had never crossed the aisle before. So I think it is symbolic of
Senator Hatfield's career of public service, focused on solving
problems and working together across the aisle, that his desk made that
journey to where it is now.
During those walks back and forth between here and the Russell Senate
Office Building, Senator Hatfield paused one day to pull the leaf off a
Ginkgo tree. He said: Jeff, this is one of the simplest of God's
creations. Why is it that folks can't see the beauty of God's creation
in the very simplest of one of his plants?
I held that leaf tightly in my hand, determined to preserve it. Just
as we got back to the office, he plucked it out of my hand and said:
Well, of course, you don't want to continue to carry that leaf. I
didn't have the courage at that moment to say: No, I would treasure
that leaf all my life, and then grab it back from him. So I don't have
the leaf, but I take that memory of his deep personal faith and
conviction.
I was sharing this story with another intern who served with Senator
Hatfield in 1985, and he said: Well, let me tell you another story
about a tree and Senator Hatfield. On this walk between the Capitol and
the Russell Senate Office Building there is a tree that Senator
Hatfield planted. It is a Metasequoia tree. It so happens the
Metasequoia used to grow throughout Oregon millions of years ago. When
people found the fossils and studied them, they concluded the tree was
extinct--until the 1940s when they found a stand of Metasequoias
growing in China.
Senator Hatfield arranged to have one of these trees planted in that
walk. It so happens in 2005, when I was House Democratic leader in
Oregon, we passed a bill that made the Metasequoia tree the fossil of
Oregon, but we didn't know about this tree Senator Hatfield had
planted. But there it is today. It is now 25 years old. It sheds its
needles every winter, so people think it is a fir tree that has died.
But it comes roaring back to life in the spring.
Now, 25 years into its life, it is equal to the highest of the broad
leaf trees on the grounds of the Capitol. In another 25 years the
Hatfield tree is going to soar over these Capitol grounds. In so doing,
it is going to represent the values he fought for--the courage of one's
convictions, the effort to get beyond the bumper stickers and into the
nitty-gritty of issues, and to come to a conscientious decision that
will take our Nation forward, the determination to be oriented toward
solving problems and not to a partisan divide.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, would my colleague yield?
Mr. MERKLEY. Certainly.
[[Page S5364]]
Mr. WYDEN. I appreciate that, and I certainly don't want to interrupt
his very eloquent remarks.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time for tributes to
former Senator Hatfield be extended until 3:30 so that my friend and
colleague can speak, as well as Senators Leahy, Alexander, Cochran,
Bingaman, and Levin, who all wish to speak.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I have just one closing comment, and that
is this: This is a picture of the Senator Hatfield tree. It has my
staff in front of it. We went out there on July 12, Senator Hatfield's
birthday, to take this picture and we hoped to give this to him. We
didn't have a chance to do that before he passed away. But I think this
tree will serve as a living reminder of all that he championed
throughout his tremendous career. We have lost a great man, and our
Senate and our Nation are poorer for it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, let me speak a little bit about Mark
Hatfield, because those of us who knew Mark thought the world of him. I
had an opportunity to know him and to serve with him, and for 23 years
I served with him in the Senate.
I rise to pay tribute to Mark as a dedicated public servant and a
respected lawmaker, a man whom I liked to call my friend, and I think
virtually everybody serving during that time, Republican and Democrat
alike, considered him a friend.
He dedicated nearly his entire life to public service. He served in
the U.S. Navy during World War II. He took part in the battles of Iwo
Jima and Okinawa. He taught political science in Oregon at Willamette
College for 7 years. He served in the Oregon State legislature. He
served two terms as Governor. I remember him smiling when somebody
would see him in the corridors and call him Governor. He became
Oregon's longest serving Senator. He served five terms in the Senate.
Unfortunately, Mark was one of a dying breed in politics today. He
was an old-fashioned Senator and a political moderate. He came from a
brand of Senators that included names such as Bob Stafford and George
Aiken, both from Vermont. Oregon, like my State, prizes independence in
their elected officials, and he was certainly never afraid to buck his
party. From his opposition to the war in Vietnam to his early support
for the Endangered Species Act and federally protected wilderness, Mark
showed us all that he was ruled only by the people of Oregon and his
conscience.
A true compassion for people drove many of Mark's decisions. After
being one of the first American servicemen to see the destruction and
carnage of Hiroshima following the atomic bombing, he later declared
his leadership in the campaign to pass the 1987 nuclear weapons test
ban, one of his major accomplishments.
Having a father with Alzheimer's disease and other family members
with cancer, Mark became one of the strongest Senate advocates of
Federal spending on medical research. He also supported prohibiting the
sale of arms to undemocratic countries and countries that did not
respect human rights.
Spending 8 years as the chairman of the Appropriations Committee,
Mark Hatfield did an amazing amount of good for his State of Oregon. In
fact, it is hard to travel in the State of Oregon without seeing the
differences he made.
Senator Hatfield was always known for his courteousness. Despite his
independent streak, he had complete respect on both sides of the aisle.
More than once I was there, and my two colleagues from Oregon on the
floor know this, when people would come up to him and call him ``Saint
Mark.''
It is important to remember that despite the squabbling that goes on
in Washington these days, there are politicians who care deeply about
the well-being of their colleagues in their State.
On a personal note, when I came to the Senate, I was No. 99 in
seniority. Actually, there were only 99 of us in the Senate because
there had been a tied race in New Hampshire. So I was the junior most
Senator, sitting way over in the corner seat. Several of the more
senior Senators reminded me how junior I was. I received a handwritten
note, which I still have, from a Senator who wrote: When I came to the
Senate, I was No. 99. But you move up. You move up quickly in
seniority. He said: My door is always open to you. Let me know what I
can do to help.
That Senator was Mark Hatfield. We became friends from that moment. I
did go to him for advice. Marcelle and I traveled with him and
Antoinette in numerous parts of the world. I can still remember the
laughter on the plane. We would talk about everything--everything from
children to politics, to sports, to whatever.
What a wonderful person. He was a public servant. He was a statesman.
He was a friend. I consider myself fortunate to have known him, but
especially to have served with him. This Senate was a better place with
Mark Hatfield.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, let me thank
Chairman Leahy for his kind and gracious thoughts. I know Senator
Hatfield was very fond of the Senator as well. You have represented his
values very well. I thank the Senator for those remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mark Hatfield was elected to the Senate in 1966. It
was a distinguished class that included some prominent Republicans,
sort of a new wave in the Republican Party. In addition to Governor
Hatfield, a former two-term Governor, there was Charles Percy of
Illinois, former President of Bell & Howell; there was Ed Brooke of
Massachusetts, the first African American popularly elected to the
Senate.
Also in that Republican class were Cliff Hansen, a prominent rancher
from Wyoming, and a young man who was a son-in-law of then-Republican
leader, Everett Dirksen, Howard H. Baker, Jr.
I hitched a ride with Howard Baker to Washington, DC, in that year
and went to work as Baker's legislative assistant in 1967, and, of
course, had a chance to meet Senator Hatfield. At that time, there was
less space for Senators than there is even today. So new Senators were
put into rooms with each other. For example, Senator Baker and Senator
Brooke and all their staffs were put in a single room, separated only
by a partition.
They got along with that for 6 months. But Senator Hatfield did not
like it very much. After all, he had been a Governor for two terms and
was not used to being treated in that way. He was polite about it, as
he always was. But soon he made a mission. He went around the Senate
and the Capitol and he counted up all the rooms that then-Senator James
Eastland of Mississippi had taken to himself. He found 34 different
rooms that were assigned to Senator Eastland and only half a room was
assigned to Hatfield.
Senator Hatfield then reported to the Republican conference that
Eastland had 34 rooms and that apparently someone was living in one of
the rooms because someone from Restaurant Associates was putting a tray
of food outside the door of this room in the Capitol and every morning
two arms would come out and bring the food in.
This was Senator Hatfield's first report to the Senate. I saw him
about 25 years later, when he was chairman of the Appropriations
Committee and had a lot of power. I said: Senator Hatfield, how many
rooms do you have now? He just smiled. My guess is he probably had 34.
But what I remember about Senator Hatfield, as a very young aide, was
how unfailingly courteous he was to every single person. If you caught
his attention, you had his full attention. It is easy to see why he was
elected to the Senate for 30 years. It is easy to see why he won 11
elections.
Of course, the other reason, he was so interesting. He was a Baptist.
He was a Libertarian. He was a great friend of Billy Graham. He was
pro-life, not just on abortion but on the death penalty as well. He was
antiwar. He was antibalanced budget. He was an interesting,
independent, decent man. I simply wanted to say, from the vantage point
of someone who feels privileged to serve in the Senate, what an
impression this man from Oregon made on a 26-year-old young aide to
Howard Baker in 1967.
I remember him for his courtesy, his decency, and for his
independence.
I yield the floor.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I applaud my colleague from Tennessee. I
[[Page S5365]]
appreciate him coming to make comments about his service with Senator
Hatfield. When I was first coming to the Senate, Senator Hatfield asked
me to bring greetings to his former colleagues. One of the first
conversations I was able to have was to sit down with Senator Lamar
Alexander who, like Senator Hatfield, served as a Governor, and who
embodies so many of the qualities Senator Hatfield worked to cultivate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, today, the Senate mourns the death of the
former United States Senator of the State of Oregon, Mark Odom
Hatfield. He was elected to the Senate in 1966, and served for 30 years
until his retirement.
The U.S. Senate lost one of its most talented and successful Senators
when Mark Hatfield retired from this body.
It was a pleasure for me to serve on the Appropriations Committee
when he became Chairman and to learn from his example of courtesy to
others and his polite but unapologetic adherence to his personal views
and convictions, even when they may have differed from those of others.
His service reflected great credit on the United States Senate.
Senator Hatfield was a tireless and effective advocate for serious
reforms aimed at improving the quality of life for all Americans and
addressing what he called ``the desperate human needs in our midst.''
During the 1980s, he effectively used his Appropriations Chairmanship
to champion a wide range of issues from human rights to improvements in
health and education programs and environmental and conservation
issues; and he got results.
Senator Hatfield's strength of character and commitment to doing the
right thing, according to his conscience, whatever the consequences,
was widely admired.
His contributions through his lifetime of dedicated service in Oregon
and our Nation's capital are impressive, and will be long respected.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
an outline of Senator Hatfield's legislative accomplishments.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Former Senator Mark Hatfield's Legislative Highlights
Served five terms as a United States Senator for Oregon
making him the longest serving U.S. Senator from Oregon.
(1967-1997) Twice served as chairman of the Appropriations
Committee (1981-1987 and 1995-1997)
As chairman and later ranking Republican on the Senate
Appropriations Committee, Senator Hatfield steered millions
of dollars to public works projects in Oregon. They ranged
from national scenic areas and hydropower dams to the state
university system and the Marine Science Center that bears
his name. Senator Hatfield fought earnestly throughout his
career for environmental protection and conservation,
including reforestation, the development of alternative
energy, and pollution control. He was a longtime defender of
Native American tribes, serving on the Indian Review
Commission to protect treaty rights on tribal lands.
Senator Hatfield quadrupled Oregon's wilderness areas to
more than two million acres and worked successfully to
protect the Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon Dunes and
Oregon's rivers. During his last session of Congress,
Hatfield helped preserve the Opal Creek Wilderness from
logging. He also generously funded a wide variety of civic,
academic and environmental programs.
Senator Hatfield restored funding for the National
Institutes of Health and secured appropriations for the
improvement of the Oregon Health & Sciences University, now a
leading U.S. research institution. In a hushed congressional
hearing room in 1990, he pleaded for increased money for
Alzheimer's research while describing how the disease had
reduced his father, a powerfully built former blacksmith, to
a ``vegetable.''
His unwavering commitment to peace and matters of national
security were heavily influenced by his experiences as a
young naval officer in World War II. He manned a landing
craft during the invasion of Iwo Jima in 1944 and then became
one of the first Americans to see the devastation in
Hiroshima the following year. Senator Hatfield believed that
lasting national security is not achieved through military
might exclusively, but only possible when people have access
to education, health care, housing and job opportunities.
In 1970 with Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota), he
co-sponsored the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, which called
for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.
In the 1980s, Hatfield co-sponsored nuclear weapons freeze
legislation with Senator Ted Kennedy. He also advocated for
the closure of the N-Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation, though he was a supporter of nuclear fusion
programs. The N-Reactor was used for producing weapons grade
plutonium while producing electricity.
Because of his opposition to what he viewed as excessive
defense spending and an unnecessary military buildup under
President Reagan, Senator Hatfield was the lone Republican to
vote against the 1981 fiscal year's appropriations bill for
the Department of Defense.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I am honored to join with my colleagues
in saying a few words about our former colleague, Mark Hatfield.
At the time I came to the Senate, Mark Hatfield had already served
for 16 years. For the next 14 years we were colleagues and friends in
the Senate. His retirement in 1997 was an occasion for regret for all
of us who knew him and admired him. He set a very high standard for
service in the Senate.
He was a master of the complex spending and tax issues that are the
weekly focus of most Senate work. Of course, in his role as chairman of
the Appropriations Committee, he was respected and appreciated for his
fair-minded consideration of requests from all Senators--Democrat and
Republican and Independent. He was a model of civility and of kindness,
and he took a genuine interest in the well-being of those with whom he
worked, both Senators and staff and all of those who worked to keep the
Senate functioning.
He had a heartfelt commitment to seeking nonmilitary solutions to our
Nation's problems around the world, and his votes--including his votes
against the Vietnam War--reflected that strongly held commitment.
It was not in Mark Hatfield's nature to be a demagogue on any issue.
He saw no advantage, political or otherwise, in twisting issues. The
pandering and posturing that afflict much of our political debate today
were not part of the politics he practiced.
I considered Mark both a mentor and a friend during the time he
served in the Senate and when I was able to serve with him. He has been
greatly missed since his retirement from the Senate, and now, of
course, our sense of loss is even greater.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute to
the life and the public service of Mark Hatfield.
Mark Hatfield began his lifelong career of public service in the U.S.
Navy during World War II. After the war he returned to Oregon where he
served in the State house of representatives, in the State senate, as
the Oregon secretary of state, and eventually as Governor of the State.
Fortunately for us--for the Senate and for the country--Mark Hatfield
did continue his career of public service and went on to serve five
terms in the U.S. Senate.
During his time in the Senate, Mark Hatfield repeatedly demonstrated
he possessed the courage of his convictions. We have heard that word
``courage'' used this afternoon by Oregon Senators and others as it
relates to Mark Hatfield, and there are so many examples of that
courage, including an unpopular position he took relative to the
Vietnam war. But in 1995 he opposed the balanced budget constitutional
amendment, which was then under consideration by the Senate. It was a
difficult position then to take as it is today. But he followed the
courage of his convictions, and this is what he said about the
constitutional amendment they were debating in the Senate back in 1995:
A balanced budget can come only through leadership and
compromise. This compromise must come from each one of us. .
. . In the end there is no easy answer, and there never will
be. Regardless of the procedural restraint in place, where
there is political will to create a balanced budget we will
create one. Where there is a will to avoid one, we will avoid
it. . . . A vote for this balanced budget constitutional
amendment is not a vote for a balanced budget, it is a vote
for a fig leaf.
Mark Hatfield said it as he believed it, straight from the shoulder--
courageously and direct. He did so in regard to many other issues.
From the vantage point of the Appropriations Committee, Senator
Hatfield was able to champion causes near and dear not only to his
heart but near and dear to the hearts of so many Americans. Among these
causes was medical
[[Page S5366]]
research. Senator Hatfield was such an effective supporter of medical
research that in 2005--8 years after his retirement from the Senate--
the National Institutes of Health opened the Mark Hatfield Clinical
Research Center in honor of his career-long support of medical
research.
How well I personally remember, as a member of the FDR Memorial
Commission, how Mark Hatfield joined Danny Inouye, his cochairman, to
finally lead us to build the long overdue memorial to one of America's
greatest Presidents.
Today, the Senate mourns the passing of Senator Hatfield. How vividly
those of us who had the pleasure of serving with him remember him. My
wife Barbara and my deepest sympathies go out to Mark's wife
Antoinette, to their family, and to their friends. As the Senate honors
his extraordinary career, we can all take inspiration from his
willingness to join with colleagues of both parties to achieve enduring
goals.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to join my colleagues in
remembering Senator Mark Hatfield, an extraordinarily good man, a man
of dignity and integrity. I didn't have the opportunity to serve with
him in the Senate, but he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee
when I was a member of the House Appropriations Committee, so
oftentimes we would come together in conference on a given issue, and I
admired him greatly.
Mark Hatfield was an independent man throughout his public career. He
was a man of civility and deep faith, a devout evangelical Christian.
He was a Republican who believed government could be a force for good.
During the course of my statement, I will read some comments by
Senator Mark Hatfield, and those who are following this should pause
and reflect that his was once a major voice in the Republican Party.
Unfortunately, few, if any, voices such as his can be heard today. I
hope there are those who are listening who will take heart that it is
consistent with Republican principles to stand for the values of Mark
Hatfield.
Announcing his retirement from the Senate in 1995, Mark Hatfield
said:
As a young man I felt the call of public service and
believed in the positive impact government can have on the
lives of people. Government service has allowed me to promote
peace, protect human life, enhance education, safeguard our
environment, improve the health care of Oregonians, and guard
the rights of the individual.
As I said, though I didn't have the honor of actually serving in the
Senate with Mark Hatfield, we shared a common hero. If a person visited
his Hart Office Building suite and went to his conference room, they
would see the most amazing display of memorabilia and tributes to
Abraham Lincoln I have seen anywhere outside of my hometown of
Springfield, IL. One whole wall in Senator Hatfield's office was
covered with a collection of Abraham Lincoln paintings, photographs,
and memorabilia. His fascination with Lincoln began when he was in
grade school and he first learned about the evil of slavery and the
leadership Lincoln provided in abolishing it.
Sometimes at night, Mark Hatfield said to a reporter, he liked to
quietly slip down to the Lincoln Memorial to meditate. ``It's like a
cathedral,'' he said. ``People come in talking loudly, but then they go
up the steps, and it's amazing, they all begin to whisper. How can they
help it?''
I can recall one particular instance where Mark Hatfield agreed to
come to my hometown of Springfield, IL. Each year on February 12, we
have the Abraham Lincoln Association dinner, and we invite people who
are in public life or who are historians and academics to come and talk
about their impressions of some aspect of the life of Abraham Lincoln.
I remember his speech because he spoke about a man named Edward
Dickinson Baker.
Edward Dickinson Baker had served in the U.S. House of
Representatives as a Congressman from Illinois from two separate
congressional districts. He then moved to Oregon and became a Senator
from the State of Oregon. He was a close friend of President Abraham
Lincoln. He was killed early in the Civil War at the Battle of Ball's
Bluff. His statue is one of the Oregon statues here in the Capitol
Building.
Mark Hatfield came to tell a story of Edward Dickinson Baker and the
friendship of Abraham Lincoln and the connection with Oregon. I went up
to him afterward and said: There is another part of this story you
might find interesting. After Abraham Lincoln served as a Congressman--
he was given one term, which was the agreement with the Whigs back in
Illinois. He wanted to stay on, but they said: No, you can't. So they
offered him another job which he turned down before returning to
Springfield to practice law, and that was the job to be the provincial
Governor of Oregon, the territory of Oregon. Had Lincoln made that
decision, history might have been a lot different for America. Hatfield
and I laughed about that and the Oregon connection between Lincoln and
Edward Dickinson Baker. He was an extraordinary man, Hatfield was, in
that he not only admired Lincoln, but he studied him and the history of
his life.
Mark was born in 1922, the son of a railroad blacksmith and a
schoolteacher. He attended Willamette University in Salem, OR. He ran
for the office of student body president--the only race he ever lost.
As a young Navy officer in World War II, Mark Hatfield was at both
Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the two Pacific islands that were the scene of
some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Later, he was one of the
first Americans to enter Hiroshima after the city was devastated by the
first atomic bomb. Those experiences and his own religious views had a
profound influence on his beliefs about the use of military power.
He was a lifelong foe of excessive arms buildup. He told the
Christian Science Monitor in 1982:
There comes a time in a Nation's life when additional money
spent for rockets and bombs, far from strengthening national
security, will actually weaken national security--when there
are people who are hungry and not fed, people who are cold
and not clothed.
Mark Hatfield once castigated Democrats in the 1980s for not speaking
up strongly enough about what he considered excessive military spending
during the Ronald Reagan administration. He was the only Senator to
have voted against the Vietnam war and the Persian Gulf war.
Politics wasn't his first calling. He was a college professor and
then college president. In 1956, he was elected to the Oregon State
Legislature, where he was instrumental in passing measures banning
racial discrimination in housing and public accommodations--a decade
before the government considered similar civil rights laws here in
Washington. From there, it was a steady climb to State senator and
secretary of state. In 1958, he was elected Governor, becoming the
youngest ever in his State. He was reelected in 1962.
He successfully ran for the Senate in 1966 with a straightforward
platform that included opposition to the Vietnam war. In all, he spent
30 years in this body, including 8 years as chairman of the powerful
Senate Appropriations Committee. I remember him as chairman. When he
would have conference committees, you could always count on Mark
Hatfield to be genteel, courteous, and bipartisan. It was a great
experience. Every conference committee was a great experience. The man
really exuded fairness and integrity, and it is one of the reasons I
wanted to come to the floor today and say a few words about how much he
meant to me. When it came to particular issues on appropriations, he
really focused on medical research, which was very important to him,
and on efforts to eliminate poverty in the United States.
In 1995, he cast a historic vote. He was the only Republican to vote
against a constitutional amendment to require a balanced Federal
budget. His vote meant defeat for the measure because it fell one vote
short for the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Senator Hatfield
said he voted against the amendment for two reasons: because he
believed it would starve social programs and tear deep holes in
America's safety net and because it exempted defense and entitlement
spending from cuts. Besides, he said, if Congress wanted a balanced
budget, all it had to do was pass one.
Some younger Senators in his party were so angry at Hatfield for
having cost them this balanced budget amendment that they set out to
strip him of
[[Page S5367]]
his committee chairmanship as chairman of the Senate Appropriations
Committee. Luckily, that threat never materialized. Senator Mark
Hatfield shrugged off their anger. He told a reporter:
I've been out of step most of my political life. So what
else is new?
In the year after the balanced budget amendment vote, the
Appropriations Committee, under Chairman Hatfield's leadership, went on
to cut more than $22 billion in discretionary nondefense spending from
the budget. He wasn't opposed to spending cuts, but he didn't support a
constitutional amendment.
I wish to offer my condolences to Senator Hatfield's wife Antoinette,
who has been his partner for more than 50 years, and his children and
grandchildren.
``Stand alone or come home''--that is the advice Mark Hatfield's
father gave him about facing moral choices, and Mark Hatfield lived his
life by that rule. Now he has gone home, and we are left to recall and
celebrate the life and service of this good man.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the passing
last month of Mark Hatfield, a former colleague of mine in the U.S.
Senate whose service to the people of our great Nation and his beloved
State of Oregon is truly noteworthy and continues to inspire public
servants today, 15 years after his retirement in 1996 from the world's
greatest deliberative body.
Indeed, service is the hallmark of Senator Hatfield's legacy; I know
because I had the pleasure of serving alongside him for many years.
Senator Hatfield served the people of Oregon as a State legislator, as
their secretary of state, as their Governor, and as a U.S. Senator. The
only election he ever lost was for student body president for his
beloved alma matter, Willamette! Although that is a record any
statesman can envy, it is more importantly, an example of public
service we can all admire.
As a Senator, Mark Hatfield served the people of Oregon for 30
years--longer than anybody in the history of the State--and he served
them well. He was an Oregonian through and through, and you could tell
he loved his home State. He worked tirelessly for all Oregonians,
regardless of their background or political persuasion.
As a young naval officer, Mark Hatfield experienced the battle of Iwo
Jima and the aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. These
experiences had a profound and lifelong effect on Senator Hatfield. He
hated war, but he always had respect for our servicemen and women.
Senator Hatfield was also deeply religious, and relied upon his
religious convictions and love for this country to guide him. He
believed in America as what some call it, ``a miracle of light.''
Senator Hatfield and I did not always agree on everything, but we
respected each other's views. I admired that Senator Hatfield always
tried to find common ground with his fellow Senators. This made him a
successful statesman and a respected individual on both sides of the
aisle.
Today, I am honored to have the privilege to add my voice to the
chorus of praise for this outstanding public servant whose service will
long endure in the heads and hearts of all Americans, especially those
who knew and had the pleasure of serving with him. My thoughts and
prayers are with his family as they mourn the loss and celebrate the
life of this great man.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring
the memory of Mark Hatfield, a former Governor and U.S. Senator from
the State of Oregon. Mr. Hatfield passed away on August 7, 2011, in
Portland at the age of 89.
The son of a Baptist railroad blacksmith and a schoolteacher, Mr.
Hatfield was born in Dallas, OR, on July 12, 1922. He graduated from
Willamette University in 1943, having fast-tracked his studies so that
he could enlist with the Naval Reserve.
As a young man, Mr. Hatfield served in World War II at the battles of
Iwo Jima and Okinawa and later saw firsthand the devastation of the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima. These experiences shaped him personally
and politically, and he became an outspoken advocate for peace, and a
prominent opponent of the Vietnam war.
In 1966, Governor Hatfield stood alone in the National Governors
Association when he voted against supporting the Vietnam war. And in
1970, as a Member of the U.S, Senate, he sponsored the McGovern-
Hatfield amendment with Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, which
would have created a deadline to end U.S. military action in Vietnam.
Senator Hatfield later was one of only two Republicans along with
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa--to vote against the 1991 Senate
resolution authorizing the first gulf war.
Mr. Hatfield will also be remembered as a leader in the fight against
the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In 1982, he introduced S.J. Res. 163--the nuclear freeze amendment--
with Senator Edward Kennedy, which argued that ``the greatest challenge
facing the Earth is to prevent the occurrence of nuclear war by
accident or design.''
Had it passed, the resolution would have urged the United States and
the Soviet Union to ``pursue a complete halt to the nuclear arms
race.''
Senator Hatfield told the Christian Science Monitor, ``We've
developed the ability to destroy the planet, but that doesn't give us
the right to destroy the planet.''
Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Hatfield fought for what
he believed was right, rather than walking any strict party line. He
fought for peace, for civil rights, for the environment, and for
medical research.
As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee for two terms, he
supported increased budgets for the National Institutes of Health;
fought for crucial social programs in a time of shrinking government;
and was an early supporter of the Endangered Species Act.
As a dedicated, remarkable and outspoken public servant, Mark
Hatfield's life was filled with a wide range of service and
accomplishments. Early in his career, he said, ``I pray for the
integrity, justice and courage to vote the correct vote, not the
political vote.'' It is clear he lived up to this principle and made
extraordinary contributions to our nation and to the world. Our
thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will be missed.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and
legacy of Senator Mark Hatfield--a lifelong Oregonian, a genuine
statesman, and a dedicated public servant. With a career in government
that spanned nearly five decades, Mark leaves behind a legacy of
service and a model of civility in American political life.
From the shores of Iwo Jima, to the halls of the statehouse in Salem,
Oregon, and the Chamber of the U.S. Senate, Mark dedicated his life to
our country. He served courageously as a naval officer in the Second
World War in the Pacific theater. He was a notable lawmaker in the
Oregon State Legislature, championing civil rights legislation in the
1950s well before the Federal Government's landmark efforts in that
area. He also served as Oregon's secretary of state, and for two terms,
he was a successful Governor. He went on to serve the people of Oregon
as a U.S. Senator for three decades.
I knew Mark to be a man of decency, always civil in the way he
conducted his business, and I believe that was his signature strength
as a legislator. While Mark and I did not always agree, he was never
disagreeable. He was principled and passionate about the things he
believed to be true, but he was also respectful of those with whom he
disagreed. His demeanor won him many friends and built many fruitful
relationships on both sides of the aisle, making him a most effective
legislator.
Upon retiring from the Senate in 1996, Mark reflected upon the nature
of our country's politics, saying, ``I'm going to miss the people, but
not the process.'' He had grown disenchanted with the coarse
partisanship that had warped the political process, and he knew that if
we were to keep moving forward as a country, the vital center would
have to hold, civility would have to prevail, and bipartisanship would
have to return. Solutions do not come from gridlock. Bipartisanship has
to win the day.
Since Mark retired from the Senate, our politics have become even
more tribal. But I believe it would serve us all well, as we honor his
life, to reflect upon the example he set--that disagreements do not
have to become roadblocks but instead can be opportunities for
innovative compromise.
[[Page S5368]]
I learned a great deal from Mark Hatfield during our time in the
Senate together, and I am grateful for this opportunity to honor Mark's
memory.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and
legacy of Senator Mark Hatfield. He was a true giant, a man who placed
principle above politics--doing what he felt was right for the people
of Oregon and the Nation.
Senator Hatfield's life was one of service. He served as a naval
officer during World War II. He fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and
Okinawa. Later, he was one of the first Americans to see the effects of
the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He served in the Oregon state
legislature, as secretary of state and Governor, and then as Senator of
the United States.
In the Senate, Senator Hatfield was known for his many
accomplishments for the people of Oregon. He used his position on the
Appropriations Committee, where he became chairman, to bring jobs and
opportunity to his State. One of his greatest legacies is in foreign
policy, nuclear disarmament, and in the pursuit of peace. Senator
Hatfield was one of the first in the Senate to oppose the Vietnam war.
He was a leader in the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, and he was a
steadfast supporter of civil rights.
I was honored to serve with Senator Hatfield in the Senate and on the
Appropriations Committee. We were neighbors on the 7th floor of the
Hart Building. We worked together on many important issues, especially
on international women's rights. As coastal Senators, we also worked
together on jobs that affected both of our States--everything from
fishery issues to saving jobs in the shrinking shipbuilding industry.
Senator Hatfield was a man of deep faith, known for putting his
values into action. He was also a gentleman who accomplished so much
for his State and his Nation. He will be greatly missed.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to join those who have
spoken or intend to speak about our former colleague Mark Hatfield.
Most people remember Mark as one of our party's most liberal
members--as a Republican who called himself a liberal even after
Democrats started avoiding the term.
I think he would like to have been remembered as someone who tried to
bring people together or as he put it, as a reconciler.
He was, as we all know, a man of deep principle and compassion. He
was also a gifted politician, to this day the longest serving Senator
in Oregon history.
Mark was also deeply influenced by his experiences.
It is said his deep aversion to war derived, in part, from his
experience as one of the first American servicemen to enter Hiroshima
after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Those of us who knew Mark as a colleague are glad to have had the
chance to know him and serve with him. And I would like to take this
opportunity to extend my heartfelt condolences to Antoinette and the
Hatfield children, as well as Mark's many grandchildren. America, and
the Senate family, have lost a good man.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, this afternoon we heard tributes to former
Senator Mark Hatfield from a bipartisan group of Senators. I would like
to add to those tributes by including in the Congressional Record the
eulogy that Senator Hatfield's son Visko delivered at his father's
Memorial Service.
I ask unanimous consent that the following statement be printed in
the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Good afternoon, thank you Dr. Ogilvie, Father Mike
(Maslowski) amazing as usual, thank you. Pastor Ron
(Kinkead), thank you. Thank you also to the Village Baptist
church for providing this lovely sanctuary for today's Public
Memorial.
I would like to thank the distinguished guests, former
staff members, life-long friends, and complete strangers who
have turned out today to honor my father.
It is remarkable to see the outpouring of love and support
for the man we simply called Dad.
I have pondered this moment over and over in my head for a
long time.
Would I speak? What would I say?
What could I possibly add to what has already been said
about my father.
So many introductions, so much accolade, hundreds of
honors, countless speeches, ground breaking ceremonies,
ribbon cutting dedications, political campaigns, opinion
pages, articles and books.
Words, words, words and more words, volumes of stories some
true, some false and some, hybrids of both.
A dear friend advised me to share the personal side, share
the family side, and share something close to my heart.
I thought to myself, I have shared enough. I have shared my
childhood, I have shared my adolescence, and I have shared my
adulthood.
My entire life, shared as a function of a public figure.
The tank is pretty empty, what more could I share?
So I thought about it and came up with the reoccurring
question.
The question that, I have been asked throughout my life.
``What is it like to be a Senator's son?''
I used to quip that I really didn't know anything different
he had always been a senator; except for the day I was born,
when he was Governor of this state of Oregon.
The only time in my life I wasn't a Senator's son, I was a
Governor's son.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
To be in the public eye, under the microscope, in the
spotlight.
What was it like to grow up under the weight of assumption
and misconception, subject to the torment of political
persuasion?
In the shadow of a figure so large and with the awesome
responsibility of privilege, simply because the people of
Oregon had given my father their faith in him every six
years, five times.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
I have been subpoenaed and compelled to testify in front of
a Senate ethics committee. Grilled for five hours by
government lawyers because someone thought my father had sold
out his career and the people of Oregon.
I witnessed my mother's real estate business shredded,
slowly, painfully and publicly, because someone thought my
father had sold out his career and the people of Oregon.
I have been hugged by total strangers who shared very
personal stories about how my father had changed their life,
or how he had bestowed their Eagle Scout award, on them
decades before.
In high school, I was walking a friend home after school.
Trailing us were two Secret Service agents. The same two who
had taken me to school earlier that morning, the same two who
had sat in on classes and in the lunchroom with me.
Two men whose job it was to throw down their lives for
mine. Not because mine was so important, but because the same
nut case had threatened the life of the President of the
United States and my father's life, in the same breath. While
my father and mother were out of the country, the thinking
was, the family would be the next, most likely target.
Agent Robert Alt, Agent Don and other members of the 24
hour protection detail, I will never forget the position you
were in for two weeks because I am a senator's son.
Twelve years ago ran into friends, a couple from Oregon, on
the street in New York. Even more than being delighted at our
chance meeting, in a city of millions, they were giddy with
the news that they had just seen my father's obituary at the
New York Times.
With great surprise I informed them that I had just hung up
the phone with him not 30 minutes earlier.
They proceeded to clarify that they had won and auction
item--a tour of the New York Times offices. During the tour,
they had seen the Obituaries of the notable and famous.
Including my father's. Pre written, ready to go.
I remember one time at a photo studio in New York I was
introduced by a friend, to an Art Director from Oregon. Upon
hearing ``Oregon'' and ``Hatfield,'' I could see the light
bulb go on over the art director's head. The same connection,
I had awkwardly embraced many times in my life, was made. He
then asked in a definite and knowing voice . . . ``are you
related (I began nodding) to Tinker Hatfield?''
With great relief, I said, ``no I am not.''
No offense to the famed shoe designer at Nike.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
I could tell you about the woman who came up to me when I
was 12 years old. I was with my father on a re-election
campaign swing thorough eastern Oregon. I was wearing a
three-piece, brown velvet suit--in eastern Oregon . . . in
July.
She had cornered me when I was alone. She waved her finger
in my face and exclaimed ``look at you in your fancy three
piece suit all dressed up from the east coast. You know we
have pretty girls here too, you just have to look for them
hiding behind the sage brush.''
I was stunned--where was the political playbook? What do I
say? I smiled and assured her I would keep my eye out for
girls hiding in the sage brush and I thanked her for
coming to the ``Meet Mark'' spaghetti dinner to support my
Dad.
One night at dinner at my home, I sat to the right of
former president Nixon, a dinner that included a round table
of official presidential historians. Nixon was brilliant, the
man fielded question after question on every aspect of
geopolitics, managed to eat his dinner and comment on how he
fondly remembered my mother's steamed green beans, and
[[Page S5369]]
how happy he was that she had served them again that night.
He conjured a memory of a visit to Oregon when he was VP.
My father, as governor greeted him at the airport. Dad wore a
white trench coat, Nixon a black one. The former president
said it was a smart move wearing white, because, when the
front-page photo of the event was published the next day, it
was my Dad who jumped off the page, not him.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham, all guests in
our home on separate occasions.
I have met Mother Theresa, Menachem Begin and the Pope.
I have flown onto the deck of an aircraft carrier, visited
mental institutions, medical research centers, and
courthouses.
Tom Brokaw wrote six simple pages about my father in his
book, The Greatest Generation. I always liked Tom Brokaw and
this book is amazing. It highlighted the few things and more
of what my father told me the ``one'' time he spoke about his
service in World War II. He spoke of how he was poised, as
the Commander of an Amphibious Craft, for the invasion of
mainland Japan. Of how if we had not dropped the atom bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he would more than likely never
have made it to the shores of Japan alive.
He said the catharsis for him was in sharing his rations
with Japanese children, after his mission changed from that
of invader to clean up and relief operations, in the
aftermath of the bomb. He showed me a few small porcelain
pieces he had dug out of the rubble. Simple everyday objects,
teacups and saucers.
I will always be grateful to the people of Japan for their
sacrifice, because in doing so, one US Soldier made it back
alive and went on to become my father and to spend nearly
fifty years of public service, fighting for the lives of
millions of people worldwide.
I would learn more about my father reading books and
newspapers, than I would learn about him, from him, or so I
thought.
Dad was the man who taught me to pray.
To say thank you, to give thanks and to be grateful, to
give thanks for food, to give thanks for the blessings of the
day.
The prayer: Inner voice as outer voice.
``God bless this food, in Jesus name amen.'' The kids'
simple prayer around our table.
``Dear heavenly father we pray that you bless this food to
the nourishment of out bodies and thus to thy service in
Christ's name we pray, Amen.'' His simple version around our
table.
I have heard Dad give thanks in front of thousands and in
front of a few. Because he wanted to and because he was asked
to.
His faith was remarkable. His prayers were soothing,
thoughtful and kind.
I have gone to nearly every kind of church with my father.
But one in particular stood out . . . a Baptist church.
When I was a teenager, Dad would come into my room and wake
me up on a Sunday to go to church. Then he would come in
again and wake me up again.
Often times he would come in with a look of incredulous
disbelief, when it seemed as though I was not going to budge.
He would declare ``I cannot believe you can't commit one
hour of the week to the Lord.''
Well ``one hour'' in those days at this particular Baptist
church soon became about 35 minutes.
This was because when would arrive on time and take our
seats, the minister, Pastor Maritz--had kind of squeaky voice
and he would say--``I see we have Senator Hatfield in our
congregation today, perhaps he would lead us in the pastoral
prayer.''--Privacy shattered--Dad would rise and deliver,
praying for all of us, for those less fortunate, for those in
need, for our soldiers over seas, for our leaders to have
strength and wisdom to make good decisions, to make better
decisions.
Dad was fond of mixing church and state--in church--during
prayer.
I believe he thought there was certain irony in doing so.
And that in church, he was a safe enough distance from
those who might decry his faith and it's influence on him
when it came to matters of state.
When he had given enough pastoral prayers we began arriving
late to church, well after the pastoral prayer had been
given. Pastor Maritz began to catch on. Being the smart
Baptist that he was, he switched to asking dad to give the
benediction.
Not long afterward Dad re-maneuvered, so we would arrive
late AND then leave early. I felt okay with dedicating 35
minutes a week, to the Lord in Church.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
I want to read a letter, which I opened and read to my
father two years ago.
It was at a time when his health and his total awareness as
we knew it began to fade. I believe it was during this phase,
that his inner awareness was unwavering, was still intact.
The letter had been mailed to the MOH School of government
at PSU and had been forwarded on to dad's home. It was
written by Philip Millam.
(Read Letter)
I have had this letter on my desk for two years.
Forty Years this man carried the desire to thank my father.
To tell Dad that with the simplest words ``thank you . . .
thank you for your service,'' that Dad had made this man's
effort in an unpopular war, feel honorable. In the fewest of
words he had lessened the feelings of animosity and of being
marginalized.
It brought tears to my father's eyes and to mine. I was
proud of my father and he knew it.
Mr. Millam I would like to respectfully ask you to stand up
and to be recognized. For your service to our country, in the
most difficult of circumstances, I would like to thank you.
And for providing me with a memorable father and son moment,
I would like to say Thank You.
What is it like to be a Senator's son?
Awe, Awareness, Anger.
Pride, Press and Privilege.
The realization that it is not about who I have met, where
I have gone or what I have done.
It is to be witness to his impact on the lives of others.
Mark Odom Hatfield.
His life was never about the man or the name. To shower
praise on it, to honor it, to chisel it granite or cast it in
bronze or, to sully or demean it, or to criticize it, is
missing the point.
The point of my father's existence was not to collect
awards or praise, but rather, I believe, to teach a lesson.
The lesson is a simple one, yet too often overlooked.
The lesson is that we need to be kinder to one another, to
help and to teach each other.
To honor and to respect one another.
Because long after the man is gone and the buildings are
renamed or torn down, the lesson must live on in each of us.
The lesson from the teacher, from the servant leader.
The lesson in many instances was to stand up when others
chose to sit, to speak out when others were silent. To find
clarity when the noise was deafening. To forgive those who
are unforgivable.
The lesson is to protect life at all stages of
vulnerability, or as he used to say, in the womb, at the
gallows and on the battlefield.
Dad taught me that it cannot be the selfish, it must be the
selfless who make the world a better world.
Each one of us has a part to play,
Each one of us has influence on the other,
Each one of us has a responsibility to ourselves and in
turn, to each other.
Dad never wanted to be a giant, he preferred to have giant
impact. His were not the shoulders to stand on, his were foot
steps to follow.
A few months ago in what we thought were Dad's final
moments, it was late at night I was going into the second
straight day at his bedside. I was holding his hand and
telling him it was okay to let go, he had lived a good life
and fought long enough, we would take care of mom.
It was during this time, he and I had a remarkable
exchange.
At the time, he wasn't talking very much.
I asked him of there anything he needed or anything I could
do.
He straightened up his leaning body and opened his eyes
wide and he said.
``You need to save a life.''
He asked me to save a life.
I said, ``Whose life should I save?''
He said, ``The first one you can.''
There was a long pause, he was staring straight ahead, not
blankly, but like he was seeing something that I wasn't.
I asked him what he was looking at, he said
``There are so many poor people and people who are hungry,
who are on the doorstep.''
I paused a while, wondering.
Then I asked him ``what do they look like?''
Without hesitating, he said
``They look like us.''
A glimpse at what it is like to be this senator's son.
It is a continual reminder that there is a calling to help
where ever possible, a calling to open our eyes to people who
we may think are different, or who we may think are less,
than who we think we are.
It is a reminder for us to open our eyes to help people who
others cannot see, or who others choose not to see.
Why?
Because they ``look like us.'' They are in fact us.
I would like to take a moment and thank from the bottom of
my heart, Dr. Francis Collins director of the NIH as well as
Dr. John Gallin, director of the MOH clinical research center
at NIH. Two men whose effort at sustaining human life and
medical research continues to inspire.
I would like also like to thank my sister Elizabeth who for
years has magnificently worn the titles of both doctor and
daughter, through some of the most difficult times during our
father's stages of declining health. You are a rock star of a
doctor. And a fabulous sister.
Lastly, I would like to thank my mother Antoinette
Hatfield, who for more decades than anyone, has stood by my
father's side in life. She has made sacrifices most of us
will never know, under more difficult circumstances than
anyone should have to.
Always the matriarch, she is the woman behind the man, in
front of the world.
Allow me to straighten your halo. You are an angel among
us.
Visko Hatfield, August 14, 2011.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I think we have seen in the last half hour,
almost going on an hour, the enormous goodwill that Senator Hatfield
generated in the Senate, with Democrats
[[Page S5370]]
and Republicans alike coming to the floor. I just wanted to wrap up
with one last comment.
Senator Hatfield did not serve alone. He was accompanied through his
extraordinary public service journey that we have heard discussed today
on the Senate floor by a remarkable woman, Antoinette Hatfield. For
those of us who knew Mrs. Hatfield, the only way we could sum her up
would be to say: What a woman. Whip smart, boundless energy, persistent
in a way that made it clear she was going to push hard for what was
important, but always in a way that left you with a sense that she
would be standing up for what was right and almost invariably with her
husband standing up for our State.
My colleague in the Chair, the Presiding Officer, Senator Merkley,
described his experiences with Senator Hatfield very eloquently. We
have heard that from one Senator after another. But I thought it was
appropriate this afternoon--as many Senators knew Mrs. Hatfield and, I
think, share my views--and important to note that Senator Hatfield
often said--and my colleague will recall it as well--he could not have
made the contributions to Oregon without having at his side, having the
good counsel, enjoying the affection of this wonderful woman,
Antoinette Hatfield.
So as the Oregon delegation in the Senate wraps up these tributes, we
simply want to acknowledge not just Senator Hatfield's contributions
but the chance we have had to be with Mrs. Hatfield in work situations
and personal situations, and we wish to express our gratitude for all
she has done for decades now working with her husband, working with
Oregonians to make Oregon a better place.
This afternoon, Antoinette Hatfield, as well as her late husband, has
our undying gratitude.
Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor, and I note the absence
of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Merkley). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask that the order for the quorum call be
rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________