[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2247-S2248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering Barbara Bush

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, yesterday, our country lost a bright, 
caring, independent lady, and my wife, Honey, and I lost a good friend. 
Barbara Bush set a wonderful example as mom, wife, First Lady, and 
advocate for adult literacy. We express to the Bush family our sympathy 
and great respect for the life of Barbara Bush.
  Jon Meacham wrote the biography of George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush's 
husband, to great acclaim. He had access to the diaries of President 
Bush and Barbara Bush that was almost unparalleled in any Presidential 
biographer's experience. So it was a plain and unvarnished biography 
that told us a lot about those two individuals. I thought a better name 
for Jon Meacham's book--it was named ``Destiny and Power,'' and it must 
have been properly named because it sold a lot--would be ``The Last 
Gentleman.'' If I were to make a really accurate suggestion about the 
title for the book, I would call it ``The Last Gentleman and His Lady'' 
or maybe ``The Last Gentleman and His Very Independent Lady'' because 
Barbara Bush was a very independent lady.

  I remember it was 1991. It was a sunny day, and we were walking on 
the south lawn of the White House. I was the Education Secretary, and I 
was walking with the President and Mrs. Bush to the announcement of his 
GI Bill for Kids, which was a school choice program for low-income 
children. As we walked along, Barbara Bush turned to President Bush and 
said, ``George, you've got on the wrong pants.'' He had a suit coat on 
from one suit, and he had pants on from another suit. So she said to 
the President ``You go on back in and change clothes, and Lamar and I 
will wait here for you,'' which we did and he did.
  On another occasion, President Bush invited my wife and me to join 
Barbara and the President at Ford's theater. Of course, the President 
traveled with great security in a big car. As the protocol goes, he got 
out first, and as she was about to get out, she said, ``I'll get the 
door, George.''
  On still another occasion, I was sitting next to Barbara and George 
Bush, and the President was called on to make some remarks. He leaned 
over to his wife and said, ``Barbara, what should I talk about?'' And 
she whispered very loudly, ``About five minutes, George.''
  Barbara Bush was quite a woman. She said what she thought. When the 
second one of her sons decided to run for President, she was reported 
to have said, ``We've had enough Bushes.''
  When I ran for President in 1999 against her other son, I made what I 
thought--certainly by today's standards--some very mild comments 
disagreeing about something, and I heard

[[Page S2248]]

from Barbara Bush about what I had said about her son, George W. Bush.
  Not many of us think how difficult it must be to be the spouse of a 
President of the United States with all that one goes through, but 
think how much harder it must also be to be the mother of a President 
of the United States and the mother of another distinguished son who 
was Governor of a large State and who ran for President of the United 
States. Barbara Bush was the anchor of her family, and a very 
successful and remarkable family it was.
  I was Education Secretary for President Bush in 1991 when the 
National Literacy Act was enacted. Let's use Barbara's own words to 
define the event. She wrote in her memoir, ``I must say I got more 
credit than I deserve.''
  I don't agree with that, but she continued:

       I heard that George was going to give the pen to me, but 
     before he could, Senator Simon spoke up and said, ``That pen 
     ought to go to Barbara.'' I donated it to the George Bush 
     Presidential Library Center. In the end, however it's not 
     pens and pictures that count; it's the National Literacy Act 
     that really counts. It was the first piece of legislation--
     and to date, the only one--ever enacted specifically for 
     literacy with the goal of ensuring that every American adult 
     acquires the basic literacy skills necessary to achieve the 
     greatest possible satisfaction professionally and personally. 
     But even more than that, the act seeks to strengthen our 
     nation by giving us more productive workers and informed 
     citizens.

  In his biography of President George H.W. Bush, John Meacham wrote of 
a ``generational controversy,'' in his words, that Barbara Bush endured 
in May of 1990. She was invited to Wellesley College to speak at 
graduation and receive an honorary degree, but she was being criticized 
by Wellesley's young women, as President Bush put in his own diary--
these are President Bush's words--``because she hasn't made it on her 
own--she's where she is because she's her husband's wife. What's wrong 
with the fact that she's a good mother,'' President Bush wrote in his 
diary, ``a good wife, great volunteer, great leader for literacy and 
other fine causes? Nothing. But to listen to these elitist kids there 
is.''
  Meacham writes:

       Mrs. Bush invited [Mrs.] Gorbachev along with her to 
     Wellesley. There, [she] confronted the issues of work versus 
     family and the role of women head-on, delivering a well-
     received commencement address.

  She put the audience at ease early on by saying: One day, I am sure 
that someone in this audience will grow up to become a spouse of the 
President of the United States, and I wish him well.
  Meacham continues:

       ``Maybe we should adjust faster, maybe we should adjust 
     slower,'' she told the graduates. ``But whatever the era, 
     whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and 
     mothers, if you have children--they must come first. You must 
     read to your children, and you must hug your children, and 
     you must love your children. Your success as a family, our 
     success as a society depends not on what happens in the White 
     House, but on what happens inside your house.''

  Barbara Bush said that to the Wellesley graduates in 1990.
  The country is expressing to the Bush family, as I am trying to 
today, our great respect for Barbara Bush's life.
  President Bush, George H.W. Bush, has sent a response to those of us 
who sent our condolences, and I would like to close with the 
President's own words about his wife Barbara. This is what George H.W. 
Bush said:

       I always knew Barbara was the most beloved woman in the 
     world, and in fact I used to tease her that I had a complex 
     about that fact. But the truth is the outpouring of love and 
     friendship being directed at The Enforcer is lifting us all 
     up. We have faith she is in heaven, and we know life will go 
     on--as she would have it. So cross the Bushes off your worry 
     list.

  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Rounds). The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I ask for the yeas and nays on the pending nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Muniz 
nomination?
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). Are there any other Senators in the 
Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 43, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 79 Ex.]

                                YEAS--55

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--43

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Duckworth
     McCain
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________