[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6799-S6800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Remembering Paul and Sheila Wellstone

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I wish to speak this afternoon to honor 
the memory of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. Today marks 15 years since we 
lost Paul and Sheila, their daughter Marcia, and staff members Tom 
Lapic, Mary McEvoy, and Will McLaughlin. Because Paul was such a 
memorable and incredible person, it is hard to believe that it has been 
15 years since we lost all of them.
  For me, as for so many Minnesotans, it is impossible to forget the 
moment that we first heard about their plane going down. It is 
impossible to forget the wait to get the final news that there were no 
survivors. That is how much Paul and Sheila meant to the people of our 
State.
  I get my own special reminders every day. First, I get a reminder 
from the employees at the Capitol who were around when Paul graced 
these hallways. They remember him because he treated everyone with 
dignity. Whether it was the tram operator, the elevator operator, or 
the police at the front door, he treated them as though they were 
Senators. I also have the flags in my office from his Senate office. 
Every day, they are a reminder for me of Paul and all that he did for 
the people of our State.
  Paul and Sheila were always on the move. They were full of joy. They 
were persistent in their fight against injustices, small and large. 
During his lifetime as an educator, as an activist, and as a U.S. 
Senator, Paul Wellstone touched the lives of people throughout 
Minnesota and across the country. That is because his philosophy was 
simple. A lot of people, he said, would have people paid to represent 
them in Washington, but he was going to represent the other people. As 
he said in one of his famous campaign ads, he wasn't there to represent 
the Rockefellers; he was there to represent the ``little fellers.''
  If you go to any local mental health group, they remember Paul. If 
you go to any Somali event in our State, they remember Paul. If you go 
to any community on the Iron Range in Minnesota, they remember Paul--
both the man and then what he did.
  Paul was my friend and mentor. He told me that I should run for 
office, and, as he did with so many others, he taught me that politics 
should have a purpose.
  He also taught me how to campaign on city buses. This is how he would 
do it. At Nicollet Mall--being from a nearby State, the Presiding 
Officer is aware of Nicollet Mall in the city of Minneapolis. We would 
get on a city bus at one end of the mall, and we would work it as 
though we had just got on the bus: Meet everyone on the bus, go to the 
end, get off, and then get on another bus going the other way and meet 
a whole group of people. I have no idea what the busdrivers thought 
after an hour of this, but that is what we did.
  Paul Wellstone worked it bus by bus, block by block, precinct by 
precinct, and he made a lasting impression on people in a way that made 
them believe and know that getting involved in politics could make a 
real difference in their lives. He had an unending sense of optimism--
optimism that maybe people he didn't agree with in this Chamber would 
eventually change their views.
  He made a lot of friends here, on both the Democratic and Republican 
sides of the aisle. That was the message Paul took to new citizens, new 
voters, and everyone looking to get involved. He told them that working 
in public service can make a difference, and he showed them through his 
actions.
  He had many passions. He fought for everything from campaign finance 
reform to improving our rural economies. He fought against veteran 
homelessness, to protect the environment, and, of course, he fought for 
the rights of workers.
  He truly believed, as he famously said, that ``we all do better when 
we all do better'' and that politics is simply about improving people's 
lives.

[[Page S6800]]

  Anyone who ever met or talked with Paul found out that he had a 
special passion for helping those struggling with mental illness. That 
was shaped by his own family. As a young child, Paul watched his 
brother Steven's traumatic descent into mental illness. In college, his 
brother suffered a severe mental breakdown and spent the next 2 years 
in hospitals. Eventually, he recovered and graduated from college with 
honors, but it took his immigrant parents years to pay off the hospital 
bills.
  Paul would always talk about how, when he grew up, his house was dark 
because no one wanted to talk about mental illness back then because it 
had so much stigma. He wanted to get it out in the sunlight. He knew 
that there were far too many families going through the same 
experience, too many devastated by the physical and financial 
consequences of mental illness. He knew that we could and we should do 
better. For years as a Senator, he fought for funding for better care, 
better services, and better representation for the mentally ill, and he 
fought for mental health parity in health insurance coverage.

  Even years after his death, Paul's voice was heard loud and clear. 
Congressman Ramstad from Minnesota, a Republican Congressman at the 
time, took up the cause in the House. I helped. Ted Kennedy led the way 
and, of course, Pete Domenici, who had paired up with Paul on this 
important bill.
  Finally, in 2008, we passed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici 
Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. The bill requires 
insurance companies to treat mental health on an equal basis with 
physical illness. For Paul, this fight was always a matter of civil 
rights, of justice, and of basic human decency, and that landmark 
legislation is one fitting way we honor him.
  Sheila, of course, also dedicated herself to helping others, 
especially survivors of violence. I had the opportunity to work closely 
with Sheila when I served for 8 years as Hennepin County Attorney. She 
focused on domestic violence and was instrumental in creating and 
getting the funding for the Hennepin County Domestic Abuse Center. That 
center is an international model for serving victims of domestic 
violence by bringing together a full range of services and resources in 
one central location. Victims of domestic violence don't have to go 
through the redtape that would be difficult even for a lawyer to figure 
out.
  Of course, one of Paul's greatest legislative achievements was the 
work he did, along with Vice President Biden and others, to pass the 
original Violence Against Women Act. It was a team effort, and Sheila 
was right there on the frontlines with Paul.
  Together, they accomplished so much. Their commitment to others never 
wavered, and neither did they.
  It was just a few weeks before that tragic crash that I last saw 
Sheila and Paul. Sheila and I had been asked to speak to a group of new 
citizens, immigrants from Russia. It was a very small group, and we 
were there to talk about our own immigrant experiences, our own 
relatives. I remember she talked about her relatives in Appalachia, and 
I talked about my relatives on the Iron Range coming over from 
Slovenia. The event was winding down. It was a small, small event in a 
synagogue with these new immigrants, and, all of a sudden, a big 
surprise--in walked Paul. He wasn't supposed to be there. It was just a 
few weeks, a month away, from one of the biggest elections he had ever 
faced in the U.S. Senate. But he had gotten on an early flight and had 
come home from Washington. There he was--he and a group of immigrants 
and us--with no press, no TVs, not even a big crowd, all just a few 
weeks before his election.
  He came for two reasons. He loved Sheila, and he wanted to be there 
to support her. But he was also there because he loved the immigrant 
experience. He embraced it. His family, like so many Minnesota 
families, was an example of how you can come to America, succeed in 
America, and then, in turn, help America succeed.
  That is my last memory of Paul as he stood before those immigrants, 
telling about his own story, embracing them. I will remember him in 
that way, but I will also remember the joy he felt for politics, how he 
would run around that green bus of his, with people running alongside 
him on the parade routes.
  In the last year of his life, he told the public he had MS, and he 
couldn't run like that anymore. So he would stand in the back of the 
bus with Sheila and wave. What was so amazing about it was that he had 
energized so many people in those green Wellstone shirts to run around 
that bus that you didn't even notice he wasn't running. He had given 
them the energy and the hope to carry on his work, and they were doing 
it for him.
  Now, 15 years after we lost Paul and Sheila, it is our job to carry 
on and run around that bus. That is organizing, that is politics, and 
that is the gift of joy in improving people's lives that Paul, Sheila, 
Marcia, and those other beloved staff members left for us.
  Thank you.
  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. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Strange). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.