[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7071-S7074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             MAIDEN SPEECH

  Mr. CRAMER. Madam President, a very special thanks to my senior 
Senator, my great friend, and our former Governor, Senator John Hoeven.
  In fact, as he went through much of my speech for me, I thought to 
myself: Why, this is kind of like when I played high school basketball 
in Kindred, and we would be ahead by 20 points and the coach would get 
me off the bench and say: Go in and try not to screw this thing up. 
That is a little bit how I feel right now, but I thank him for the very 
kind introduction. Most of it was true.
  The idea of a maiden speech a year into your first term may seem a 
little odd, but I actually kind of like the idea. It gives me a year's 
worth of opportunity to reflect, which creates greater clarity about 
the future and vision.
  The first thing I want to say to all of my colleagues here is thank 
you for being so welcoming--and I mean all of them. What they say about 
the Senate and the collegiality of it is very true. It is not just 
true. It is really important, and it is something worth preserving.
  I can honestly say that out of the 99 that I have met, I love every 
one, individually and collectively, and appreciate all they have meant 
to me.
  Kris and I have been married for 33 years. We have five children 
together, and I am going to talk about one in particular in a little 
bit.
  Our children range in ages from 12 to 38, and that is too long of a 
story to explain, but we love and are proud of all of them.
  Our five grandchildren are a little closer in range. They range from 
1 to 7, and we love every single one of them--Lyla, Beau, Nico, Chet, 
and Willa--with all the love any grandparent could come with and with 
all the love that God has for us.
  I think it is important for people to know I am a child of God and a 
follower of Jesus, and it informs everything that I do, both at home 
and here and throughout life.
  I think it is important to know a little bit about where you come 
from. I was raised by loving parents. My dad was a rural electric 
lineman who never once complained about going out in a storm to get the 
lights back on for the farmers of our area. My mother was an elder care 
giver when she wasn't pumping gas at the local Farmers Union station. 
They did whatever they needed to do to help us kids and to provide for 
our family. We never felt like we needed anything because we didn't. We 
were loved, and we were well cared for and had great examples of 
culture and work ethic and values that are North Dakotan.
  I think it is important to understand where a person comes from, but 
I want to fast forward a little bit to this last year. I said I was 
going to talk a little bit about one of our sons. It was a tough 
campaign. A lot of people think that North Dakota is this bright red 
State and that everyone who runs there who is Republican wins. While 
that certainly has been the trend, I think it is sort of important for 
people to know that I am the first Republican in my lifetime to hold 
the seat that I hold right now for the people of North Dakota. In fact, 
the names of the previous Senators in this lineage are in this desk 
that I stand at.
  So it was a tough campaign. I got into the race late. I really didn't 
aspire to be a Senator. I liked the House of Representatives and still 
do, but the call came and I answered it.
  But what made the year so tough--and, fortunately, it was shorter 
than most campaign years in the U.S. Senate--is that I got in late. So 
it was a short year, but in the middle of the campaign, in the early 
part of the campaign, our 35-year-old son Isaac became very ill. He 
suffered from alcohol-induced liver disease, and we spent a good month 
and a half in the middle of an already short campaign at his bedside in 
intensive care both in Bismarck and in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic. I 
say that because it was perhaps one of the hardest 6 or 7 weeks of my 
life, the deepest valley of my life, but it was also one of the most 
instructive and informing. It was as informing as all those years in 
North Dakota in the State office helping Senator Hoeven--then-Governor 
Hoeven--build this dynamic economy.

  Those several weeks with my son probably prepared me as well for this

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job as any. I got to see our healthcare industry up close. I got to 
know more about addiction and mental illness and how tragic it is and 
how devastating it can be and how consequential not dealing with it 
actually is. It robs people of life. It is not just an inconvenience. 
So it was instructive in those senses, but more than that, I got to 
learn about our community.
  I heard from thousands of Americans who watched this very public 
tragedy play out in the public arena because of the very public job I 
was seeking, and my faith in mankind was enhanced. My faith in God was 
strengthened--learning that the sufficiency of His grace is more than 
adequate not just for salvation but for life, and it makes everything 
shall we say clearer for me today.
  Senator Hoeven raised the subject of some of my committee 
assignments, and I wanted to speak to that for a minute because he is a 
very important part, as you can tell, of my public life and career. 
While I stand on the shoulders of former Governor and former 
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer--John and I both served with him in 
economic development when John was president of the bank in North 
Dakota--it was John Hoeven who gave me my first entree into elected 
office at the Public Service Commission in North Dakota and worked with 
me. Then, of course, I had the opportunity to serve with him as he sat 
on the farm bill conference committee when I served in the House of 
Representatives.
  When I had that very first important meeting with Leader McConnell to 
talk about what committees I wanted to be on in the Senate, realizing 
that I was coming from the House, where I only served on only one--I 
served on the Energy and Commerce Committee. It is an important 
committee, a big committee, but it was only one committee. Here, I 
would serve on three or four or, as it turns out, five. The first thing 
I did was look at Senator Hoeven's committee assignments, and I wanted 
to assess how I could complement where he serves. He served on the 
Agriculture Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 
It made sense to me, with my environmental and regulatory background, 
to serve on the Environment and Public Works Committee, where both 
agriculture and energy development are greatly impacted. Whether it is 
environmental policy or land policy, regulations that I think serve as 
a bit of a taking of farmers' land are every bit as important as the 
revenue they receive through safety net programs. So I sought and 
received that.
  With respect to the Banking Committee, John talked a little bit about 
that and my role as an economic director in the State of North Dakota. 
I have always liked macroeconomics, and it has intrigued me how 
financial and economic policy go together. But as interesting as the 
Federal Reserve is to me, and it is, and as important as the Export-
Import Bank is to me, and it is, it is really the community bank--like 
the bank Senator Hoeven comes from and whose family started and was 
building in North Dakota, the local credit unions, the farm lenders--
that is what drives me more than anything in the Banking Committee.
  The Veterans' Affairs Committee is a great committee, and it is 
something that I could never have imagined aspiring to or being 
involved with. But I do know that John and I love veterans. North 
Dakota is home to only 750,000 people, but 52,000 of them are veterans. 
In North Dakota, patriots sign up at a rate four times the national 
average. So public service in the form of wearing the military uniform 
is really big and really important in our part of the country.
  I had an opportunity for a number of years to chair the Rough Riders 
Honor Flight in North Dakota, where we raised the money and organized 
the trips for about 500 World War II veterans to come see the memorial 
built in their honor. What a moving experience that was.
  Before servicemembers return from duty, of course, they serve, and 
that is why we should be working to give them the best resources we 
can, which is why today is an appropriate day for this maiden speech, 
because it is also a day we passed a very important National Defense 
Authorization Act to provide the tools and the things our military men 
and women need to be the dominating force for good in the world. It is 
an honor to serve them.
  I am the very first member of the Senate Armed Services Committee 
from North Dakota. I didn't know that when I sought that committee 
assignment to complement my Veterans' Affairs assignment, but I am 
honored to do it. The reason I sought that one is because again, going 
back, Senator Hoeven is a defense appropriator. I thought, how can I 
best look out for North Dakota's assets? And the Armed Services 
Committee seemed like the right place to be.

  I also believe that North Dakota's assets are perfectly positioned 
for the future of warfighting. So I am very grateful today for the 
passage of the National Defense Authorization Act and for the 
opportunity to serve on the Armed Services Committee.
  We have Air Force bases in both Minot and Grand Forks. Their 
histories are similar, but their new missions are very different. In 
Minot, we have two-thirds of the nuclear triad and the B-52 bombers 
that carry those impressive bombs and, of course, the intercontinental 
ballistic missiles, which are being replaced now by the ground-based 
strategic deterrent. The modernization of our nuclear triad in this 
NDAA is very important to our State, and I am honored to have been a 
part of seeing it through to completion.
  We also have a very important space radar station in Cavalier--
something very few people know about. Very few people in North Dakota 
are aware of that space station in Cavalier. Yet it is a very important 
asset. Now, as we launch this sixth service, the Space Force, again, we 
will see very important opportunities for North Dakota.
  We also have an excellent National Guard--both Army and Air Force 
National Guard--that does important work not just locally--and they do 
great work locally--but around the globe. Every Member here can attest 
to the power of their National Guard. Our ISR systems over in Fargo, 
flying the UABs--it is just remarkable, what they do and what they 
contribute to the national defense, our Air National Guard in Fargo, 
the 119th Wing, the Happy Hooligans.
  The Grand Forks Air Force Base--as I said, a base that was similar in 
its founding to Minot--is now a UAB base, a global hot base where they 
do important ISR work. Again, in the future of warfighting, the 
importance of good intelligence is so critical, and the airmen in Grand 
Forks are second to none in carrying out that mission.
  Again, the strategic pick of my assignments was designed to 
complement Senator Hoeven's and serve the good people of North Dakota.
  I will spend a little bit of time talking about my service in the 
House of Representatives because it is the People's House. I love the 
People's House. Senator Thune from South Dakota served in the House of 
Representatives, and he knows what it is like to be the only Member 
from an entire State. It has its opportunities and its challenges.
  I used to say to students who came to visit: If you want to know what 
America looks like, go to the House of Representatives, sit upstairs, 
look down, and you will see 435 people who are just like 700,000 
others--just like each one of them.
  The diversity of our country is perfectly demonstrated in the House. 
I absolutely loved that, but I also knew how hard it was, because if I 
could get my colleagues from South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska 
to go along with me, I would have five votes. That is almost 10 percent 
of California. That is a lot of relationship building to get things 
done. Yet I love it. There are still things about the House that I 
watch and love. There are things lately I watch and I wonder, but there 
are a lot of things I love about the House. The Founders knew exactly 
what they were doing when they created it.
  To come here and be one of two, to be a Member of the U.S. Senate, 
which is the equalizer for our legislative Chambers--our Founders 
really knew what they were doing. To have an opportunity to work with 
you all to provide a level playing field for the people of a smaller 
State has been truly, truly marvelous.
  I will not elaborate on my years as tourism director and economic 
development director or even on the Public Service Commission because 
Senator

[[Page S7073]]

Hoeven has done a good job on that. I would just say this: The thing 
that I learned more than anything on the Public Service Commission, 
even though--I carried the pipeline portfolio; sited the original 
Keystone Pipeline; sited thousands of miles of transmission lines, 
electric, gas, oil; carried the coal portfolio in reclamation; and 
worked with the Department of the Interior on those issues that are 
very important to our State. What I learned more from all of that than 
even big-time economics or engineering or energy security--as important 
as those lessons were over the 10 years I served, the thing I learned 
the most was how important the people are. In the wisdom of the 
Midwest, the laws required that whether you were raising somebody's 
utility rates, siting a pipeline or transmission lines, siting a 
refinery or a coal-fired powerplant or a wind farm, you had to hold a 
hearing in the community where the investment was taking place. In 
other words, you couldn't hide behind the pillars of the State capitol; 
you had to go to them and make it easy for them to come to you.
  I learned from the people of the prairies of North Dakota about not 
just life in general but how to site a pipeline. It was a farmer in 
Walsh County who said about the Keystone Pipeline at an open meeting: I 
don't know much about laying pipelines, but personally, I would try to 
avoid that quarry you are going through.
  So some very high-paid engineers moved the pipeline away from the 
rocks and into better soil.
  It was the mayor of Park River who came to a committee meeting and 
said to me: I don't know much about pipelines, but you are going right 
through the aquifer that serves the municipal water supply of my 
community. I think it would be better to move it.
  So I paid engineers to move it away from the aquifer.
  Through the collective wisdom of the people of North Dakota and the 
individual wisdom of many of the individuals of North Dakota, I learned 
that was something not to be taken for granted or wasted, which is why, 
in my service in the House and here in the Senate, I spend so much time 
holding townhalls of all types--so I wouldn't rob myself of the value 
and the benefit of the collective wisdom of the people I serve.
  I am so grateful to Senator Hoeven. He is a skilled and accomplished 
leader. He works tirelessly--you all know that--on behalf of the people 
of North Dakota. He is relentless in his pursuit of things for North 
Dakota. He has been a great friend and mentor. I am thankful for his 
partnership and his willingness to work with me in the future, as he 
did when I was on the Public Service Commission.
  As we go forward, I do have a couple of thoughts about some 
challenges. As I talked about this accessibility issue, this 
opportunity we have particularly in small States to know the people we 
work for really well and for them to have the opportunity to know us 
really well and to collect their wisdom, I fear a little bit that the 
lessons learned from being so close to the people are lost in this 
town--not so much by Members of Congress, but I am a fervent advocate 
of the administration and their officials getting out to our small 
towns and into the towns of North Dakota and other towns throughout our 
country.
  It is an area where I think the Trump administration has excelled 
beyond anybody. In fact, I believe this President to be the most 
accessible President probably since Abraham Lincoln, who used to hold 
office hours right in the White House, where people could come in off 
the street and have an audience with him. And I am not just talking 
about rallies. I am talking about a President who visits the State to 
speak with leaders at roundtables and a Vice President who comes to our 
military installations to meet with the airmen.
  We have an Agriculture Secretary who has been to North Dakota--what, 
three or four times, John?--not just to talk to the very important 
leaders of the Farm Bureau and the farmers union and the commodity 
groups, but I am talking about the farmers who get their fingers dirty. 
We have a Commerce Secretary who, in the middle of negotiating with 
China, came to North Dakota to talk to those farmers about the impact 
of tariffs on their markets; a Veterans Affairs Secretary who studies 
the alternative treatments being advanced and made available in Fargo; 
an EPA Administrator who lets North Dakotans continue to lead the way 
on promoting good waters of the United States policy; an Air Force 
Secretary who understands air capabilities because she has seen them 
firsthand; an Interior Secretary who came to listen to the concerns of 
farmers and actually changed the direction of certain regulations as a 
result of farmers pointing out how their personal property rights were 
being stolen by the Federal Government; and a NASA Administrator who 
observed the first ever university space program at the University of 
North Dakota.
  The list goes on and on, and I will spare you from it, but I think it 
is an important lesson and testament to how good this country can be 
and how much better it can be if we listen to the people in the 
heartland. All of this is why, in addition to bringing people of 
influence to my State so hopefully they can be influenced by it, I am 
concerned about the sheer magnitude of our bureaucracy.
  This week, we are going to hopefully pass a $1.5 trillion 
discretionary budget or appropriations, but I worry about the people 
who are going to manage that $1.5 trillion being so out of touch with 
real, everyday Americans.
  You can call it whatever you want. Some people call it the deep-
state, out-of-control bureaucracy, misguided but well-intentioned 
public servants, power-hungry civil employees, whatever you call it. I 
call it unelected bureaucracy that has codified corruption in many 
cases. They turned their own interpretation of guidelines into 
infallible laws, placing the creation and implementation of their 
policies and processes above the needs of the American people whom we 
serve and the elected leaders that send them there.
  I had experienced it many times in the 6 years I had been in the 
House, but I experienced it multiple more times in the Senate. Whether 
this comes from a place of self-preservation or self-importance, I 
believe it has to come to an end.
  A defining part of my tenure since the day I arrived until the day I 
leave will be to take on a bureaucracy that I believe has run rampant. 
There are several Cabinet officials and agencies that can attest to 
that statement already.
  I am not unreasonable about it, I don't think. I don't intend to be, 
but, Madam President, I am passionate about it. As I have made clear, I 
do not believe in the abolition of government. But I do think 
government needs to be more responsive to the people that pay for it. 
We ought to be giving the people a government that is worth their 
investment.
  I aim as my highest goal at the highest level to return the focus of 
the Federal Government back to the people. I have listened to so many 
well-intentioned bureaucrats explain their process, explain their 
system, explain their traditions and rarely do they talk about a human 
being on the other end of all of that, so I am committed to doing what 
is best for the people of this country with a very keen focus on the 
750,000 North Dakotans whom I committed my life to serving. Their 
individual and collective wisdom, along with their values, as old-
fashioned as they may seem to some, is our contribution to a great 
nation. They would want me to say to all of you, Merry Christmas and 
Happy Holidays.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I would just like to say how much I 
appreciate Senator Cramer, the working relationship that we have, not 
just here but a working relationship that goes back many, many years. 
As you can tell, he speaks very well, but what comes through is not 
only his commitment to his family and his faith, but his commitment to 
the people of North Dakota and his commitment to the people of this 
country.
  It doesn't matter what issue he is working on. He takes the time to 
listen to everybody, and he is always willing to explain where he is 
coming from and why he comes to the conclusion he does. But there is no 
question, he loves his faith; he loves his family; he loves his State; 
and he loves this country.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  I yield the floor.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.

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