[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2509-S2510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Congratulating Senator Duckworth

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to thank my colleague for her first 
speech. The first speech given on the floor of the Senate is a 
memorable occasion for not only my colleague but for the staff, 
friends, and family who have followed this amazing story of Tammy 
Duckworth, a U.S. Senator from Illinois. She didn't disappoint with 
this first speech.
  If there was ever an inspirational speech speaking to who we are as a 
nation and what we can be, she encapsulated it in her comments on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. It was an aspirational speech, too--a 
challenge to all of us to do a better job for this Nation, to make it 
stronger and to represent more effectively the people who have sent us 
here to serve them.
  She brings a special quality to the service that very few have been 
able to bring to the U.S. Senate. I first met MAJ Tammy Duckworth 12 
years ago when she was my guest at the State of the Union Address just 
weeks after her helicopter had been shot down over Iraq. I was amazed 
by her tenacity, her courage, her good humor. I thought to myself, this 
woman has really made history. I think she can even make more history, 
and she has, being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as well 
as the U.S. Senate, an opportunity that fewer than 2,000 Americans have 
had in our Nation's history.
  I think back on what she brings to the Senate, and it is something 
that is special and extraordinary. To come to this Senate after her 
service in the military is to follow in the path of Senator Bob Dole, a 
disabled veteran from

[[Page S2510]]

World War II, who led the Republican side of the aisle; Senator Daniel 
Inouye, a personal friend to both Senator Duckworth and me, who served 
in World War II; Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, who served as well; 
Strom Thurmond, from South Carolina, a Republican; and more recently, 
Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran; Bob Kerrey, John Kerry--the list goes 
on and on, the great people who have served our Nation in the military 
and then came to serve in the Senate.
  One of the points she made in that speech was one of the reasons I 
supported her so wholeheartedly. When we face the most difficult, 
trying, and challenging votes in a Senate career, the vote to go to 
war, having the voice of Tammy Duckworth on the floor is a reminder of 
the real cost of war and how we should avoid it at any cost, if we can, 
and what we are asking our men and women in America to do if we send 
them off to war. She will have more credibility, will have more 
confidence in her judgment, than virtually any colleague on the floor 
of the U.S. Senate. So she is going to play a special role.
  Finally, let me say, in a short period of time serving as a U.S. 
Senator from the State of Illinois, she has shown that she is not going 
to be taking it easy. She has covered our State from one end to the 
other, most recently during the Easter recess, with town meetings and 
meetings with all sorts of people across our State, leaving a positive 
impression of her commitment to public service.
  When I saw her and her mom and her little daughter Abigail get on the 
plane just the other day, yesterday, to come out here, I realized it is 
a family commitment which includes all of her family and her husband 
Bryan. They are committed to this country, they are committed to our 
great State, and we are fortunate to have her service.
  Mr. President, I congratulate my colleague.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hoeven). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.