[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 193 (Thursday, December 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7325-S7327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO BOB CORKER

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, let me begin where the majority leader 
stopped.
  It is a true story about the tunnels. Senator Corker was curious 
about smuggling supplies from Egypt to Gaza. Others of us might have 
asked somebody about that--not Bob Corker. He hailed a Jeep, rode to 
the border, inspected the tunnels, took photographs, and as the 
majority leader said, when he met with Benjamin Netanyahu that 
afternoon, showed him the photographs. Netanyahu was startled. The 
Prime Minister of Israel might have been surprised by Bob Corker's 
conduct, but none of us who knew Bob Corker were surprised.
  As Senator McConnell said, Bob Corker is always a man on a mission, 
with little regard for the obstacles in the way.
  In 1978, age 25, he had saved about $6,000, and he started a 
construction company. A friend of mine in Maryville, my hometown, 
worked for him as he built a shopping center in Blount County. My 
friend said: I always knew that that Corker was going to amount to 
something.
  After his experience in Haiti that Senator McConnell discussed, he 
also began to apply his skills of construction to help find decent 
homes for nearly 10,000 people in Chattanooga.
  I met Bob Corker 25 years ago. It was 1993. His friend Jimmy Haslam, 
who was his roommate at the University of Tennessee, called me and said 
he had this friend who was thinking about public service, and he 
wondered if I would talk to him. Jimmy Haslam is today the owner of the 
Cleveland Browns. When they first knew each other, I believe, according 
to Corker, they spent a lot of their time sitting on the roof of the 
fraternity house at the University of Tennessee drinking beer.
  Nevertheless, Bob Corker and I walked up and down the beach at Hilton 
Head, SC, for what must have been an hour and a half. In his typical 
Bob Corker way, he was weighing both sides--all sides--of the issue. 
Should I run for the U.S. Senate? Should I run for Governor of 
Tennessee--which might be better suited to somebody with his executive 
background.
  He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994, which would have been a very good 
year for a Republican to do that, with one exception. He had a primary, 
and he was defeated by Bill Frist, a doctor who had never before been 
involved in politics. Some people said it really amounted to Frist--for 
these two rookies who were running against each other in a primary--
Frist just spent more of his money to beat Corker than Corker spent of 
his to beat Frist. In any event, Frist came here and even served as the 
majority leader of the U.S. Senate.
  Of course, that didn't slow Bob down more than about 10 minutes. The 
new Governor of Tennessee, Don Sundquist, invited him to become, in 
effect, the chief operating officer of our State government.
  There, we saw the first indications of diplomacy that we now see 
today in his work around the world. He began to work with the 
Democratic mayor of Nashville, whom Governor Sundquist had just 
defeated in the Governor's race, and together they brought the Titans 
to Nashville and to Tennessee--which, by the way, play the Jaguars 
tonight at 7:20.
  Bob earned so much respect from the Democratic legislature that 
existed then that they tried to persuade him to run for Governor as a 
Democrat, but he said no, and he returned to Chattanooga and jumped 
back into business. Real estate companies were what he became involved 
in, and then he became the mayor of Chattanooga in 2000.
  Now, he would be the first to tell you that Chattanooga was already 
on a roll, that a lot of people had a lot to do with Chattanooga's 
success, but everybody else will tell you he was the best, fastest 
runner to have on the last stage of the relay team because he took what 
was already beginning to happen in Chattanooga and put it into high 
gear, lay the groundwork for what eventually attracted Volkswagen to 
put its

[[Page S7326]]

North American manufacturing plant there and to have the country 
generally regard Chattanooga as one of the most, if not the most, 
desirable, midsized cities in America. He was enormously successful as 
a mayor.
  Then, in 2006, the man who had defeated him in his Senate race 12 
years earlier, decided to retire from the Senate, and Bill Frist 
persuaded Bob Corker to run for his seat. Maybe Bill Frist didn't tell 
Bob the whole story. That was a tough year for Republican candidates, 
and it was a different race. It was the closest race in our State's 
history for the U.S. Senate, and Bob nearly lost it, but he did 
something that almost no one would do, whether they are a politician or 
an executive.
  Six or eight weeks before the election, he understood he was about to 
lose it, and he completely changed what he was doing. He moved his 
campaign headquarters to Nashville; he hired a new team; and he began 
to tell the story of who Bob Corker really is, instead of some 
Washington ad man's version of it, and so we began to learn about his 
interest in Haiti and about the 10,000 people whose homes he had helped 
find in Chattanooga and about his work to restore that city and to lead 
our State and recruit the Titans. People liked that. He was elected. He 
had the privilege of being the president, the secretary, and the 
treasurer of the freshman Republican Senate class that was sworn in, in 
2007. He was the only one.
  When Bob first came here, the truth is, at first he was bouncing off 
the walls. He was a lot like many executives who come to this body and 
find it a very unusual place to be and to work. That didn't last very 
long. As the majority leader said, he jumped in right away.
  Without repeating all of those things, there was the financial 
crisis, there were the problems with the auto industry. I would think 
Bob probably learned as much about General Motors as the General Motors 
board of directors knew, and he showed that as he worked with them. He 
was unafraid to talk to the managers or to the union about what needed 
to be done.
  He became really focused on the Federal debt of this country and 
seeing it as our biggest challenge, and I don't think there is anyone 
in this body, over the last 12 years, who has been more consistent in 
trying to point out what the real problem is--the entitlements. He even 
came up with a plan and introduced a bill to deal with it. The only 
problem is, he and I are the only two cosponsors of that bill. So as he 
leaves, that is a problem he highlighted, but we still have to work on.
  He thought about not running for a second term. He was discouraged, 
to some degree, about how the place works, but he had already 
accomplished so much that he decided to do it, and so he continued his 
habits of being up early, reading everything he could get his hands on, 
calling everybody he could think of, traveling to 70 countries, 
worrying about issues and saying what he thought--always trying to do 
it in a bipartisan way because he understood that is how you get 
results, and he wanted results.
  Bob Corker voted with the majority of Republican Senators 85 percent 
of the time, but he always has been a conservative who prizes results 
over speeches. In 2015, he became chairman of the Foreign Relations 
Committee and began to deal with the issues Senator McConnell 
mentioned--Iran, sex trafficking, and others. His tough-minded 
pragmatism and grasp of economics has restored prestige to the Foreign 
Relations Committee. His skills are reminiscent of the skills of the 
man we honor this week and the team of George H.W. Bush and what he was 
able to accomplish in foreign policy.
  When Time magazine picked him in 2015 as one of the world's 100 most 
influential leaders, I wrote about that incident at the border of Gaza 
and I said this at the time: ``If Bob Corker is not President of the 
United States himself, he is an obvious choice for Secretary of State 
or for the Treasury,'' which is exactly what happened when President 
Trump was running and was elected in 2016. He considered Senator Corker 
for Vice President, then for Secretary of State, and, more recently, 
for Ambassador to Australia. Of course, over this time, Senator Corker 
has demonstrated with President Trump the same thing he did with 
President Obama--that he was not afraid to work with him and he was not 
afraid to challenge him.
  This produced some sparks. I have told both President Trump and 
Senator Corker that they shouldn't worry about those sparks very much 
because that is just the way developers and contractors talk to each 
other. I know both men well enough to know that deep down there is a 
lot of mutual respect between the two of them.
  For me, these 12 years of working with Bob Corker have been a joy. It 
is well known that Senators--especially Senators from the same State, 
especially Senators of the same political party--don't always get along 
well with each other. This is a body that operates by unanimous 
consent. This is a body where relationships matter. Bob Corker and I 
have followed the old rule that Senator Howard Baker and Senator Robert 
Byrd followed: I won't surprise you if you won't surprise me. We not 
only didn't surprise each other, but we looked out for each other. We 
respected each other's work, even though we didn't always agree. Our 
staffers saw that. So they worked the same way, and I am convinced the 
people of Tennessee were the beneficiaries of that, because when they 
approached the Corker staff and the Alexander staff or either one of 
us, I think they found that one plus one equals three, not two, and 
that the people for whom we work are the beneficiaries.
  Peyton Manning once said that he hoped Bob Corker would serve in the 
United States until he was 100 years old. I think that was really to 
get people to quit asking Peyton Manning to run for the U.S. Senate, 
because he knew better than to get involved. While I am looking forward 
to working with Marsha Blackburn, who is Bob Corker's successor, I have 
to admit that I agree with Peyton Manning.
  Bob Corker has done as a U.S. Senator what every Tennessean and every 
American should hope a U.S. Senator should do. He has gotten up early, 
determined to find some way to make the country a little better, read 
everything he could find, talked to everybody he could find on the 
telephone--anybody he thought knew anything about an issue he cared 
about--and jumped into it with both feet, saying exactly what he 
thought was the right thing to do for the country and usually coming 
out with a result that did just that.
  It has been a privilege to serve with him and to know better 
Elizabeth and their wonderful family. I look forward to watching what 
has to be one of the best upcoming shows in town, which will be 
whatever Bob Corker decides to do next.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection.
  Mr. COONS. Madam President, I am honored to have the opportunity to 
join my colleagues and rise today to speak in tribute to my friend 
Senator Bob Corker and in recognition of his remarkable service to our 
Nation here in the Senate of the United States. Senator Corker and his 
staff have left an astonishing legacy of tireless energy, engagement, 
and productivity, and I am thrilled to have a few minutes to follow on 
the comments of the majority leader and the senior Senator from his 
home State of Tennessee.
  When I first came here as a freshman in 2010, I partnered with 
Senator Joe Manchin, who was elected at the same time as I was in a 
special election. We decided that the first thing we had to do was to 
go to Afghanistan and see our troops in harm's way. Having never been a 
Senator before, I had no idea how one went about getting to 
Afghanistan, but Senator Manchin assured me he had it under control and 
it was all going to be just fine.
  Just a few weeks later, I ended up on an airplane with two Senators I 
had never heard of--Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Bob Corker of 
Tennessee. Maybe I had heard of them, but I certainly had never met 
them and knew little about them.
  As we all got engaged in this trip--we went to Pakistan and 
Afghanistan--I learned more and more about Bob Corker. You just heard 
it, but I will

[[Page S7327]]

repeat it. Possessing a fierce work ethic, incredible intellect, and a 
determination to get things done, Mr. Corker is a builder who reaches 
across the aisle, extends his hand, and doesn't relent until there is a 
deal done. I can't think of a more frustrating place to try and bring 
that attitude than Afghanistan. We were there at a time when our own 
law enforcement had just informed us that then-President Hamid Karzai's 
half-brother had stolen nearly a half billion dollars from the American 
taxpayers. Chairman Corker unleashed on the President of Afghanistan 
with a focused communication that I will not soon forget, and that left 
me looking around to make sure there were folks from our side in the 
room.
  He was respectful and supportive of our men and women of the Armed 
Forces. He was engaged and purposeful with the leaders of Afghanistan. 
In every single meeting we had in Pakistan and Afghanistan and then in 
the follow-on in Jordan and Israel, Bob was a blizzard of activity with 
purpose. What an introduction that was.
  What I realized on our trip is that my background as a county 
executive who did a lot in land use and development and Bob's 
background as an entrepreneur and a builder and then a mayor and 
someone passionate about providing housing to those in need meant that 
we had a lot in common. He has an attitude of wanting to get a lot of 
things done and refusing to be satisfied with a body where folks talk 
too much and accomplish too little. So from that first trip, I 
concluded Senator Corker was someone with whom I could really get 
things done.
  He is the sort of person who has been willing at times to put Nation 
above party and to be always committed to his home State of Tennessee.
  I do want to make sure I also say thank you to his wife Elizabeth and 
to his daughters, Emily and Julia, and his family, including his 
grandchildren, who have supported him in this service.
  His dozen years in the Senate has left a lasting legacy, and that is 
only because he has a family who has loved and supported him even as he 
has traveled relentlessly around the world and worked tirelessly to 
tackle our budget issues. As a builder, an entrepreneur, and successful 
businessman, Bob can read a balance sheet, and he knows that ours is 
badly out of whack. As a member of the Budget Committee in my first few 
years here, he was relentless at delivering a message to anyone who was 
here that we were headed toward a reckoning. That is a piece of 
unfinished business that I feel some obligation to try and carry 
forward in Mr. Corker's honor.
  As you heard his colleagues say, though, it was at moments of Bob's 
tireless, relentless energy and his determination to build things and 
get things done that he encountered the tragic realities of the world 
that most moved him. A trip to Haiti opened his eyes to the profound 
need for housing in this region of the world. Much later, a trip to the 
Philippines to see the tragedy of young women ensnared by sex 
traffickers profoundly touched him and moved him. It is this 
combination of a relentless will, great intellect, and a huge heart 
that has made Senator Corker--Chairman Corker--such a successful leader 
here.
  Whether meeting with world leaders, fighting to solve budget issues, 
or chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, there is universal 
agreement about his passion, his character, and his integrity. That is 
because he genuinely listens to people, asks them thoughtful, sometimes 
tough, very focused questions, and then gets moving toward solving a 
problem.
  I asked for a review of the bills that we have worked on, and it is 
longer than the time I have allotted. So let me just give a few 
highlights. One of the issues that bears mentioning is that in a deeply 
divided, often too partisan Congress, where too few Members are willing 
to work across the aisle to achieve results, my work on legislation 
with Chairman Corker has led to most of the things that I can say with 
confidence have made a difference in my short 8 years here.
  We recently worked together to reauthorize PEPFAR, President George 
W. Bush's emergency program for AIDS relief, in just September of this 
year. We worked together--this is really Senator Corker's issue and his 
leadership--to pass the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act, a critical 
step in fighting the scourge of slavery around the world today. We 
worked to pass the Global Food Security Act, which authorized USAID's 
Emergency Food Security Program, and we worked tirelessly--work I 
intend to continue--to make our food aid more efficient and focused.
  There is the Water for the World Act, which promotes safe, clean 
drinking water for a billion people around the world and was signed 
into law in 2014.
  Most recently, there was a bill we spent a great deal of time on and 
where his staff was particularly effective, the BUILD Act, which will 
deploy $60 billion of American private capital around the world, at no 
cost to American taxpayers, in a way that meets the challenges we face 
from China, investing everywhere in the world. It allows us to step up 
the skills and strength of our private sector to help build and meet 
the needs of a growing world. Working to implement the BUILD Act and to 
execute on Bob's vision will be one of the things I will tend to this 
coming year, as well as making sure that the Electrify Africa Act, 
which we worked on together, is implemented this coming year, and this 
will be something I look forward to doing.
  Working on making sure that the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act is 
carried forward this coming Congress is something I look forward to.
  What I will deeply miss is time with Senator Corker. It was at Easter 
time last year that he asked me on short notice if I thought we should 
go to the fastest growing refugee camp in the world, Bidi Bidi, in 
Uganda, where more than a quarter-million people were living after 
fleeing war-torn South Sudan. I went to my wife and said: I sort of 
planned a quiet weekend at home this year, what do you think? She said: 
There is no better place on Earth you can be than with Bob Corker. She 
and I both have been impressed with his tireless commitment to making a 
difference in the world, and the impact of that trip on both of us--of 
spending that weekend not in the comfort or quiet of our own homes in 
our home States but with people who had just fled violence, torture, 
rape, and abuse, and to provide some measure of comfort and confidence 
to them and to gain insight into how we are helping around the world--
touched my heart and will affect the whole rest of my service and my 
life.
  Let me just say this in closing. We have had a remarkable time 
serving together in Foreign Relations. Chairman Corker has shown us how 
Members of this body should act. We have real differences. He is a 
conservative Republican. He is of the opposite party. He comes to 
things with different principles. But he has been relentless in finding 
solutions, and the problems that face us will not be solved without 
leaders like Chairman Corker.
  It has been my honor to have the opportunity to work with him on a 
few issues. Frankly, I wish more Members were here to talk about all 
the other issues--from financial services to the auto industry to 
things around the world--that I know are pressing business in this 
short lameduck session.
  Let me say this. I am eager to see what Chairman Corker does next, 
because his relentless energy, huge heart, and great intellect have 
made such a lasting difference here. I am eager to find out what he is 
determined to build next. There is nothing to which he has bent his 
will toward that hasn't been shaped by his character, his integrity, 
and his kindness.
  It has been a true blessing, Mr. Corker, to serve alongside you and, 
in some small way, to try to earn the opportunity to make a difference 
in this country and in this world with you. Thank you and thank you for 
your service to our Nation.
  With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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