[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S7980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO CLAIRE McCASKILL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Senator McCaskill has left an indelible 
mark on the Senate. A former prosecutor in Missouri, she brought the 
fight to protect the most vulnerable in her State and across the 
country to her work here in the U.S. Senate.
  Her work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and protect victims of 
sexual harassment and violence speak to the depth of her convictions. 
She has also shown great talent safeguarding our Nation and holding our 
government accountable as a former chair of the Senate Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and as a member of the 
Armed Services Committee.
  Senator McCaskill has fought hard to protect college students from 
sexual harassment and assault on campus. Senator McCaskill has even 
spoken of the sexual harassment that she herself faced as a young woman 
in the Missouri State Legislature. Long before the Nation began talking 
openly about the extent of sexual harassment and assault across all 
sectors of our society brought into the open by the #MeToo movement, 
Senator McCaskill prepared a report on the extent of sexual harassment 
and assault on college campuses. But Senator McCaskill has never been a 
woman content with report-writing; she introduced a bill to help 
address the issue. And when the Senate didn't move on that bill, she 
worked directly with colleges, holding public roundtables to call 
attention to the issue.
  That is a just a glimpse of the determination that Senator McCaskill 
brings to all of her work on behalf of her constituents. She is a 
straight shooter. In the face of misinformation campaigns about the 
Affordable Care Act, Senator McCaskill has always stepped up to promote 
the truth. I have always admired her commitment to preserving that law 
that helps so many of her rural constituents.
  As a former chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs Committee, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 
Senator McCaskill has dedicated much of her Senate service to keeping 
our country safe. I greatly appreciated her support for my National 
Guard Empowerment Act, which finally gave our National Guard the tools 
it needs to protect our Nation and take care of its members.
  I will miss Senator McCaskill's tenacity, and I am sure that Missouri 
and the Nation will too. Missouri is losing a champion in the Senate. 
Marcelle and I wish her, her husband, Joe, and her family the very best 
in this new chapter.

                          ____________________