[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 158 (Tuesday, October 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6278-S6280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Pete Domenici

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I am joined today by my colleague from New 
Mexico, Senator Heinrich. We thought we would come to the floor 
together and talk about Senator Domenici, our former colleague who 
passed away recently.
  Pietro Vichi Domenici was born to Italian immigrants in Albuquerque, 
NM, in 1932. He was a grocer's son. He worked in his parents' store and 
attended Catholic school. He graduated from our own University of New 
Mexico. He pitched in college on the Albuquerque Dukes' farm team, and 
he taught high school mathematics. He went to law school and built a 
law practice. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1973 and became New 
Mexico's longest serving Senator.
  He was a husband, father, and grandfather. He married Nancy Burke 
right out of law school, and his beautiful wife of 59 years was key to 
his long and successful career. She is a good friend of ours, and we 
spent an hour with her in Albuquerque a little over a week ago. She is 
still very strong, and she is still very focused, as one would expect 
as a mother and grandmother of her children and grandchildren.
  Pete Domenici was a statesman. He worked across party lines to find 
pragmatic solutions for the American people. New Mexicans will always 
remember him as one of the strongest fighters our State will ever know.
  Senator Domenici and I belonged to different political parties, and 
we didn't always agree on things, but I always appreciated that he 
cared deeply about the issues, and he put the Nation and New Mexico's 
interests first as he saw them. I join all of New Mexico in thanking 
him and in mourning his passing.
  Senator Domenici's math skills and his beginnings in local government 
served him well during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. Anyone who has 
served in city government knows the importance of a budget. Sitting as 
chair or ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee for 22 years, he 
held the Federal Government to the same rigorous, logical standard. He 
mastered the complexities of the Federal budget and served longer in a 
leadership position on that committee than any other Senator. He was a 
budget deficit hawk and a realist. He understood that supply-side 
economics do not work and that big tax cuts will not result in growth 
leading to a balanced budget. He went up against his own party, and he 
went up against President Ronald Reagan on the same budget issue.
  In the 1990s, he worked with President Clinton to produce a budget 
surplus for fiscal year 1998--the first surplus in our budget since 
1969. His willingness to work with Democrats, his pragmatism, and his 
stature with his own party made it possible.
  On the Budget Committee, he understood how to align New Mexico and 
national interests.
  He recognized the potential of our National Labs--Los Alamos and 
Sandia--and the potential they had for our State. He understood their 
importance to the national interest. He championed their work for 
decades. Our Labs provide thousands of good jobs in central and 
northern New Mexico, and the breadth and depth of their research and 
scientific contributions to our Nation are nothing short of 
astonishing. Pete Domenici played a critical role in the Labs' 
developments.
  He also had a key appreciation of the importance to New Mexico and 
the Nation of our military bases. In 2005, Cannon Air Force Base in 
southern New Mexico was slated to close. This would have cost New 
Mexico lots of jobs and would have had a devastating impact on the 
overall economy of the State. Senator Domenici, along with the entire 
delegation and Governor Richardson, worked to secure a different and 
critical mission for Cannon Air Force Base. Today, the 27th Special 
Operations Wing is going strong at Cannon. Six thousand men and women 
are employed, and rural Roosevelt and Curry Counties benefit from the 
base's $500 million economic impact.
  Senator Domenici's fingerprints are not only all over the Budget 
Committee but are all over the Energy and Natural Resources Committee--
which he chaired for 4 years in the early 2000s--and the Indian Affairs 
Committee, which I am fortunate to sit on today. He helped position the 
United States to be energy independent through the Energy Policy Acts 
of 2005 and 2007--the last time we really had bipartisan energy acts. 
He was a strong advocate on behalf of Tribes, working

[[Page S6279]]

to advance Indian healthcare and resolve longstanding water rights 
disputes, protecting Native art from counterfeiting, and improving 
reservation roads.
  My Uncle Mo talked a lot about the importance of being able to 
disagree without being disagreeable and to work together, if possible. 
Senator Domenici understood that while the delegation was divided by 
party, it was united in its love for New Mexico. He knew that New 
Mexico would be stronger if everyone worked together. It is partly 
thanks to him that our delegation continues a tradition of working 
together regardless of party.
  Senator Domenici's commitment to bipartisanship did not end in 2009 
with his Senate tenure; he continued to try to find solutions that 
worked for everyone as a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center 
in Washington.
  The Pete V. Domenici Institute for Public Policy at New Mexico State 
University in Las Cruces carries on his tradition through scholarship. 
The Senator said:

       It's time for us to join together and take these [partisan] 
     issues out of politics. The problems we face are so big, 
     people from both sides need to sit down and say, ``We can't 
     approach this the normal way.'' Some great leadership is 
     needed.

  We could really use that commitment to bipartisanship in the Senate 
halls today.
  Senator Domenici was in Washington for many years, but he never was 
out of touch with everyday New Mexicans. Whether it was the acequia 
repairs in the Espanola Valley, creating a port of entry at Santa 
Teresa, funding new fighter jets at Kirtland Air Force Base in 
Albuquerque, establishing the Petroglyph National Monument, protecting 
Valles Caldera, forming the Hispanic Cultural Center and Museum in 
Albuquerque, Pete Domenici identified New Mexico's needs and came up 
with solutions.
  Pete and Nancy had a special passion for people who live with mental 
illness, borne from his own family's experience. This is an issue that 
he and I talked a lot about and that our two families shared. He worked 
across the aisle for many years to achieve parity in insurance coverage 
between mental healthcare and medical services. Any family who 
experiences serious mental illness understands that the two should be 
treated the same and that adequate mental healthcare is absolutely 
necessary.
  In 2008, Congress passed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental 
Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. That Federal law means that 
millions of persons with mental illness and substance abuse disorders 
have better access to the care they really need.
  Senator Domenici spoke passionately and personally about mental 
health. He also did so on immigration. His mother originally immigrated 
to the United States illegally. During World War II, she was taken in a 
raid aimed at ``Italian sympathizers.'' Those of us who were here 
during the immigration debates in 2006 remember his plainspoken and 
moving speech on the floor of the Senate, where he said:

       I understand this whole idea of a household with a father 
     who is American and a mother who is not, but they are living, 
     working, and getting ahead. I understand that they are just 
     like every other family in America. There is nothing 
     different. They have the same love, same hope, same will and 
     same aspirations as those of us who were born here have.

  I couldn't agree more.
  Pete Domenici, my good friend, son of Italian immigrant grocers, a 
great Senator, a great American, and a great New Mexican, thank you for 
your remarkable contributions. You leave an exceptional legacy for New 
Mexico and for the Nation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I am really proud to come to the floor 
today to join my fellow Senator from New Mexico, Tom Udall, to 
recognize the life and service of the longest serving Senator from our 
incredible State of New Mexico, Senator Pete Domenici.
  Senator Domenici dedicated his entire life to the State and to the 
people he loved. He served our State in the Senate for 36 years. His 
decades of service to New Mexico left a lasting impact that will 
continue to be felt in every corner of our State for many years to 
come. Many in New Mexico called him Saint Pete because of how 
relentlessly he fought on the Appropriations and Budget Committees to 
secure resources for the people of New Mexico. We can still see the 
fruits of his labors at our State's National Labs, at our military 
installations, at our colleges and universities, and in water systems 
and community centers all over our State. That is because, while he 
worked on the forefront of major policy debates here in the Senate, 
Pete Domenici always put the interests of New Mexico above all else.
  Like myself, Senator Domenici's first public service experience came 
on Albuquerque's City Council, then called the City Commission. And, at 
least in my experience, I know that working at that local level was an 
invaluable way to learn how to hear from diverse viewpoints and 
stakeholders and find ways to build consensus and get the results for 
your constituents that you hope to achieve. I have tried to bring that 
approach with me into the Senate, and I know that Senator Domenici was, 
in part, so successful because of the skills he learned there.
  I am grateful for the example Senator Domenici set for all of us here 
in this body on how to advance important and complex policy goals in 
Washington with civility for our colleagues. Republicans and Democrats 
alike who worked with him on issues like the budget, energy, national 
defense, nuclear deterrence, and mental health parity still point to 
his dedication to bipartisan cooperation and compromise.
  Although they didn't always see eye to eye, Senator Domenici, a 
Republican, and Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, who served New 
Mexico alongside him for the vast majority of his time in the Senate, 
always made a point of improving the lives of New Mexicans by working 
together. It set a great example for people like me to watch how the 
two of them worked together. Their spirit of cooperation across party 
lines is still present in our State's congressional delegation, and I 
believe Senator Domenici's focus on putting policy results above party 
politics still resonates today.
  One of the greatest examples of this was Senator Domenici's work 
alongside two progressive Democratic lions of the Senate--Paul 
Wellstone and Ted Kennedy--to pass mental health parity legislation. 
Senators Domenici and Wellstone didn't agree on many issues, but they 
found they both had close, personal experience with and a passion for 
mental health parity. Both Senators had close family members who had 
experienced the great challenges of finding a way to pay for mental 
health treatment. Insurance companies were not required to cover mental 
health and addiction treatment in those days in the same way they 
covered treatment for so many other illnesses and diseases. Because of 
that, most insurance companies simply didn't cover these essential 
services at all.
  Starting in the mid-1990s, Senators Domenici and Wellstone worked 
together with mental health advocates to advance legislation to finally 
change that.
  After Senator Wellstone was killed in a tragic plane crash, Senator 
Domenici kept up the fight for 6 more years with a new partner in 
Senator Kennedy. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health 
Parity and Addiction Equity Act was finally passed in October of 2008, 
only a few months before Senator Domenici's retirement from the Senate.
  That is the type of bipartisanship, legacy, and statesmanship on 
behalf of the American people that I hope we will all remember for a 
long, long time to come. We should all try better to keep that spirit 
alive in the Senate today.
  I join all New Mexicans and all Americans in mourning the passing of 
Senator Pete Domenici. Our thoughts, our deepest condolences, and our 
prayers are with his wife Nancy and all of his family and loved ones at 
this time of great loss, for their family and for the State. I am 
certain that Senator Domenici's legacy will not be forgotten in New 
Mexico and will not be forgotten in the U.S. Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

[[Page S6280]]