[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7964-S7965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO ORRIN HATCH

  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I want to join my colleagues who, over 
the past few weeks, have come to the floor to thank Senator Orrin 
Hatch--the great Senator Orrin Hatch--for his service to this 
institution. Senator Sullivan just informed me that the body here--the 
Senate--has, by unanimous consent, passed a bill to name a courthouse 
in Utah after Orrin Hatch. He was sitting as the President pro tempore, 
and the surprised look on his face was a treasure for everybody who saw 
it.
  Orrin Hatch has consistently maintained a demeanor that represented 
the Senate well--and that is an understatement--over the course of his 
illustrious and record-setting 42-year career. As a matter of fact, I 
think the definition of ``gentleman'' in the new edition of Webster's 
dictionary simply lists two words: ``Orrin Hatch.''
  Whether he agreed or disagreed with any policy positions or with any 
individual Senator, he always, always treated you with the greatest of 
respect. Perhaps that is part of the reason that Senator Hatch will go 
down as one of the most effective legislators in the history of the 
Senate. All you have to do is go in his office and see all of the 
awards, the recordings that illustrate his fantastic music career as a 
songwriter, and all of the bills. I think it is safe to say that no 
other living Senator has had more bills that he has sponsored and that 
have been enacted into law than Orrin Hatch. We come here to make a 
difference. We do that through legislation, and that is an indication 
of the great legacy that this man has left this body.

[[Page S7965]]

  Not many people have the wherewithal, the stature, and bona fides to 
have Members from both parties sing their praises. That has happened, 
of course, on this floor, and that is what Orrin stands for. Orrin will 
be sorely missed--and I mean sorely missed.
  Senator Hatch is not most people. Simply put, the institution he 
loves will not be the same without him.
  Since coming from the House to the Senate, I have had the privilege 
of knowing Orrin up close and personal. Our offices are right next to 
each other. I bump into his security detail every morning and say good 
morning. I feel very safe about that. Then when we have votes, and just 
about the time he leaves his office and is accompanied by his security 
detail, he always asks me: Why don't you ride with me? So I have joined 
his security detail. Every security detail should have a marine. I tell 
him that I will be in the back to protect his back if anything would 
happen; obviously, nothing did. But the Senator from Utah should know 
that I still have his back, and I will always have his back.
  I think the measure of a man, with regard to his long hours in the 
Senate, is hard to measure until you work with him--and I am talking 
about Orrin, of course--but work with him with regard to legislation. 
We are talking about the Finance Committee, and we are talking about 
the tough legislation that we always have. We would always go to the 
conference room--those who are privileged to serve on the Finance 
Committee--and we would walk in, and there would be fruit juice and 
there would be vitamins and there would be goodies to eat--goodies, of 
course, that are good for you, as determined by the Senator.
  He had that very soft voice, and he would bring people to order. It 
was a very respectful situation in which we were trying to put together 
a bill to see if we could move it and work with our colleagues across 
the aisle. He had such a soft voice that, on occasion, I found that it 
was best to sit in the back of that conference room and look right at 
him, so I could tell precisely what he was saying because he never used 
his voice in a way that was high pitched; it was very calm and 
reasoned. That was his demeanor. He acted like a Hollywood version of a 
Senator.
  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act probably would not have come to pass 
without the leadership of Orrin Hatch. Boy, was that an effort. We went 
through the trials and tribulations of tough arguments on both sides. 
But we always kept in the committee, with him at the helm, a posture of 
at least trying to work together. We faced some tough issues. At the 
end of it, there were quite a few amendments. We worked late into the 
night. The amendments were not going to pass on a partisan vote. That 
is very unusual for Orrin. He kept his cool. He kept his demeanor.
  Finally, at the end, it became an impossible situation in which we 
were just going to get into a shouting contest, and he maintained 
order. When he maintained order, he really maintained order. Usually he 
didn't have to do that.
  My first boss in public service, acting as the chief of staff, was 
Senator Frank Carlson. He was a great man. He helped found the National 
Prayer Breakfast here, and in many other Agencies, all throughout the 
government, that spread. He worked with Billy Graham, somebody named 
Dwight David Eisenhower, and Conrad Hilton--those four, including Frank 
Carlson, started the Prayer Breakfast.
  The Senator always told me there are no self-made men or women in 
public service. It is your friends who make you what you are, and if 
there were ever a person you could put in that category in the Senate, 
it is Orrin Hatch. He is a person who would stand behind you when you 
were taking praise and beside you if you were taking some boos, but 
Orrin Hatch never had to do that because in working with him, the 
chances were that you had a good chance of passing a bipartisan bill.
  All of us stand with him with respect and out of friendship. We have 
a cloth of comity here that is not seen, but it has been observed at 
least in my 22 years here in the Senate, perhaps a little more than in 
the rowdy House, of which I was a Member for 16 years, and then 12 
before that as a chief of staff. I am sort of like a piece of furniture 
here, as some would say, with a marble top. But I have seen a lot.
  I am very worried about the comity of the Senate. If you pull at 
those threads, as we have been doing with issues where we should come 
together, even though there are very tough questions, I worry that we 
could get into sort of a situation like in Dodge City at the Long 
Branch Saloon and somebody having a rowdy time there. That should not 
be the Senate, and it should not be a situation where we pull at those 
threads of comity to the extent that we won't have any left, and then 
it is just a shouting contest.
  The exception to the rule was the Farm Bill, which the President is 
going to sign this afternoon. I had the privilege of leading that 
effort, along with Senator Deborah Stabenow from Michigan.
  I had some reporters in the other day, and they said: How did you get 
along with Debbie Stabenow?
  I said: Well, No. 1, we trust each other; No. 2, we are friends; and 
No. 3, it isn't our first rodeo. We just worked with each other to get 
it done. We got 87 votes.
  That is precisely the example we followed from Orrin Hatch, who did 
so much--produced legislation with Democrats that you would never think 
would work with a Republican or vice versa. That is his legacy. That is 
the man I have been privileged to know as a friend.
  There is a video out about Orrin Hatch. He has boxing gloves on, 
bright blue. There he is--just a couple of days ago when they took the 
video--willing to throw a few punches, trying to eat bacon with his 
boxing gloves on. It is a hilarious tribute to him, big smiles on 
everybody's faces. A tough guy, but not tough to deal with, he always 
had a way of working things out.
  It is a privilege to know Orrin Hatch. Not many people at my age call 
me ``Boy,'' but he always would come out that back door and offer a 
ride, and he would say: Boy, do you want to come along?
  I said: Yes, sir.
  It has been quite a privilege.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.

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