[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2555-S2557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Richard Lugar

  Mr. President, everybody in this room, everybody in this Capitol, and 
everybody in this country knows who Dick Lugar was. We lost Dick 
earlier this week. Dick Lugar was and is an American icon.
  When I got elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, I came here and was 
put on the Foreign Relations Committee in 2006, primarily because we 
were one Republican short and because nobody else would take the seat. 
So I wasn't the unanimous choice; I was the only choice.
  Dick Lugar came to me and said: Johnny, would you take this seat? I 
have to have somebody take this seat, and I have to have somebody be 
the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee.
  I said: Well, Dick, I will be happy to take the seat, but I don't 
know a damned thing about Africa. I have never been there. I would be a 
bad chairman.
  He said: No, you wouldn't. I will take you over there with me. We 
will study it, and you will be great.
  Today, 15 years later, I am still on the Africa Subcommittee. I have 
been the chairman of it for half that time. I fell in love with it 
because of Dick Lugar. I have learned more about it, and America is a 
better country today for its being able to open doors in Africa.
  I worked with Dick Lugar on the New START treaty. Dick Lugar was a 
quiet gentleman, but he was a giant when it came to his ability to 
solve problems. He was elected as the mayor of Indianapolis, IN, at a 
time when racial tensions were at their height. He was one of the most 
successful mayors in the history of the country. At the particular time 
that he was elected mayor, he was the most respected mayor in the 
country. He received awards that designated him the best mayor in 
America.
  He was a man who held on to hope, who held on to opportunity, and 
fought for equality at whatever risk there was to him to see to it that 
it happened in his city. Later, he went on to be elected to the Indiana 
Legislature and then was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was the longest 
serving Senator from Indiana in the history of the U.S. Senate.
  As I said, I served on his committee with him, Foreign Relations, but 
I also served at the time that Dick got beaten. You wouldn't think a 
guy who had served six terms in the Senate and who had been a 
Republican would get beaten in his own primary by the Republican Party, 
but it happened to us. I know the Acting President pro tempore 
remembers those times a few years ago when our party kind of got 
divided. We had tea parties and other types of parties, and people 
started picking on folks. All of a sudden, it was a bad thing to have 
served for a long time. It was a bad thing to have been a gentle giant. 
It was a bad thing to have been a guy like Dick Lugar. So they got some 
new blood in to shake the place up, and they beat Dick in the primary. 
It was one of the saddest days I ever had to see. A man who had 
accomplished so much and who was so great got beaten over things that 
were really inconsequential--over political rhetoric. It was just to 
win a point of view, not to win a case.
  I went to Dick after it was over, and I said: Dick, I am so sorry you 
lost.
  He said: Don't worry about it. I have lots to do. I have The Lugar 
Center. I have the Lugar-Nunn initiative.
  Sam Nunn was the great Senator from the State of Georgia who, many 
years ago, held the seat I have. He and Dick Lugar did more for nuclear 
nonproliferation than any two men in the history of our country. Dick's 
fingerprints are on every positive nuclear deal we have ever made in 
this country. President Barack Obama gave him the Congressional Medal 
of Honor because of his efforts on behalf of peace. His efforts were on 
behalf of the country and nuclear nonproliferation.

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  Sam Nunn and Dick Lugar dismantled most of the loose nukes that were 
lying on the floor of the Soviet Union when the wall fell in Berlin. In 
the years after that time, he saw to it that they were disposed of 
properly rather than their having gotten into the hands of some 
terrorist who would have made a dirty bomb later on. Dick Lugar did all 
of that for his country.
  He loved his 604-acre farm back home in Indiana--his family home--
which he still ran until the day he died. It was where he served as not 
a visiting professor but as a real professor and not as an adjunct 
professor but as a real professor. It was where he talked about peace, 
love, hope, and humanity. Most importantly of all, he talked about 
people solving the problems of the world by working together and not 
against each other.
  I don't know that I will ever know a better man than Dick Lugar. I am 
a little younger than Dick, although not by that much. I haven't served 
nearly as long in this body as he had. Yet, in all of the time I have 
been here and from all of the things I have read about great Members of 
the Senate and of the ones I have known, like Sam Nunn from Georgia, I 
have never known one better than Dick Lugar.
  As a tribute to Dick--and just so you will know, the New START treaty 
is coming up for renewal in the next couple of years. The New START 
treaty is the treaty by which we broke the ice on inspecting and 
verifying nuclear warheads. Because of what Dick Lugar and Sam Nunn did 
and because of what we did in the Foreign Relations Committee in the 
negotiations for that, along with John Kerry and others, we saw to it 
that we got no notice of inspections in the Soviet Union and no notice 
of inspections in America of our nuclear warheads.
  In 12 hours, we can get somebody to Moscow. We can knock on the door 
of the nuclear storage facility and say: We are coming in. When we go 
in, we can scan the hologram on the nuclear warhead--it is part of the 
treaty--which is embedded so you can count the warheads. A lot of these 
nuclear warheads are not comprised of just 1 bomb--they have 12 or 15. 
It is so we will know exactly what they have and so they will know 
exactly what we have.
  Knowledge is power. Dick saw to it that we had the knowledge of what 
we had and what they had before we got in trouble rather than to have 
an altercation and then a threat and have to say that we really didn't 
know what they had or what we had and then to have to start 
overcompensating. The next thing you know, we would be overcompensating 
with war when we start living the lies unnecessarily--when we do the 
wrong thing.
  When I go down my checklist one of these days of all of those great 
people I had the chance to know, of the people I learned so much from, 
of the people I appreciated were around when I got to live so my kids 
could grow up in a world that was freer and more prosperous and more 
safe than any world possible, I will know Dick Lugar was my friend. I 
will know I had the honor of serving with him.
  To Dick's family, to his many friends in Washington, to the people of 
the State of Indiana who felt blessed just by having him so long, Dick 
lived a great life.
  God bless you. Thank you for your service.
  God bless the United States of America and Dick Lugar.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Georgia, who just 
gave us some great memories about Dick Lugar--one of the truly great 
Senators who served here in the last half century. He was a friend and 
was someone whom so many of us looked up to.
  One of the things he did that was special to Ohio was that he became 
totally devoted to his college, Denison University. He served on the 
board until his death. He was the longest serving board member ever, I 
am sure. He not only served on the board, but he showed up. Denison 
University, which is in my State of Ohio, is very grateful for his 
service, and as a neighbor from Indiana, again, I miss him, and I 
appreciate him.


                    Remembering Joseph H. Head, Jr.

  Mr. President, I am here to take a moment to pay honor to a mentor of 
mine who was also one of the great Ohioans, Joseph H. Head, Jr., who 
was known for his leadership, for his unwavering loyalty to his city of 
Cincinnati, OH--my hometown--for his vision, and for all of his 
contributions. He was a tireless contributor to our community. In fact, 
I would describe Joe as a kind of one-person chamber of commerce for 
Greater Cincinnati. He loved his city, and he loved to help young 
people. I was a beneficiary of that.
  I first met Joe when I was either in junior high school or just 
getting into high school. As usual, he was very direct. He came up to 
me and asked me about my future. I had no idea what my future was going 
to be.
  He asked: Have you ever been to a law firm?
  I said: No, I have not.
  None of my family had been lawyers, and I hadn't had any experience 
with that.
  He said: Why don't you borrow a tie from your father and come down to 
my law firm.
  What do you say to that?
  So I said: Yes, I will do that.
  I remember I was a little intimidated, but I went downtown with my 
tie on--it was a little bit long for me--and I had an interesting visit 
with Joe Head.
  Then, when I was in college, Joe Head gave me my first job in 
politics. It was an internship with then-Congressman Bill Gradison. Joe 
Head had been the chairman of his efforts and suggested that I work for 
him.
  Bill Gradison was a Republican from my hometown, and 16 years later, 
I succeeded him in Congress. Trust me, I had no clue that I was going 
do that at the time I interned for him, but that door was opened by Joe 
Head.
  I went on to practice international trade law after going to law 
school. Again, a lot of that was because of Joe Head, being exposed to 
the law through him. I then came back to Cincinnati and worked in his 
law firm, Graydon Head & Ritchey, where he was managing partner.
  Lo and behold, George H.W. Bush got elected President and asked me to 
come to Washington to work in the White House as Associate Counsel to 
the President. Joe Head encouraged me to do that, but he also 
encouraged me to come home when I was done. In fact, at the farewell 
party sending me off to Washington from the law firm, there was a large 
card that was presented to me, and Joe Head wrote on that card: ``Come 
home when you are done.'' That was great advice, maybe some of the best 
advice I ever took, because I did go home, went back to the law firm, 
and became a partner in that law firm.
  I had not expected to run for Congress, but, again, Bill Gradison had 
resigned unexpectedly, and Joe Head, of course, chaired my campaign.
  He was a guy who didn't just benefit people like me; he benefited 
everybody in Greater Cincinnati because he was so involved throughout 
his life.
  In 2016, he and his wife Louise were honored with the Jake Davis 
Award from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. That is a big deal. It is 
an annual award given to only one community-minded citizen or couple 
who volunteer their time and leadership skills to make Greater 
Cincinnati a better place to live and to work. Joe certainly lived up 
to that.
  Just a couple months ago, Joe also received another big honor, and 
that was the highest honor of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of 
Commerce called the Great Living Cincinnatian Award. I had the honor of 
being there to watch him receive that award. He received it for his 
community service, his leadership, and his lifetime of helping others 
in the community--all of his distinguished accomplishments.
  Joe also served his country. Prior to his service to our community, 
he served in Germany with the U.S. Army's artillery division for a 
couple of years. He also had the Midas touch in law and in business, 
both as the

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managing partner at the Graydon Head & Ritchey law firm and then as CEO 
and chairman of the Atkins & Pearce company, an industrial textile 
business.
  His active service on area boards was where he really distinguished 
himself. I got into the habit of just calling him Chairman because he 
chaired everything. He chaired the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of 
Commerce, the Children's Home of Greater Cincinnati, the Christ 
Hospital Board, the Fine Arts Fund for Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati 
Business Committee. I know I have missed a number of entities, 
institutions, and nonprofits he chaired. The point is, no one was a 
bigger booster or bigger contributor to our community.
  I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say that we are going 
to miss his dedication, his humor, his wisdom, and his uncanny ability 
to articulate and define issues. He was an impressive leader, a dear 
friend, and a truly great Cincinnatian.
  To his extraordinary wife, Louise, of 60 years; to his children, 
Lisa, Jeb, and Andy, and their spouses, Nirvani, Jack, and Melanie; to 
his grandchildren and his one great-grandchild, Jane and I send our 
condolences. We are thinking about you. Joe was so proud of each and 
every one of you.
  May we all endeavor to embrace Joe's extraordinary commitment to his 
community and carry on his profound legacy.
  Godspeed, Joe Head.
  Mr. President, I would now like to yield to my colleague from 
Delaware who has just come to the floor, and I would like to speak 
after him.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                       Honoring Our Armed Forces