[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 203 (Wednesday, December 2, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO LAMAR ALEXANDER

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me add my words of fond 
farewell to my friend Lamar Alexander and the touching moment between 
the leader and the senior Senator from Tennessee, which is moving to 
all of us.
  Now, Senator Alexander and I have not always agreed, but what an 
amazing and capable legislator and true statesman he has been. He has 
been in the middle of things for much of his 18 years in the Senate. 
That is because he is not some ideologue who stood alone in his corner. 
It is because he is someone who has been always willing and insistent 
on reaching across the aisle, on hearing another Senator's perspective, 
and on searching for common ground, however narrow it may be. He 
searches to do the right thing.
  I remember when we did the immigration bill. There was a lot of 
pressure on Senator Alexander to vote against it, and I watched him 
wrestle with it and churn and churn, and I sort of knew in my heart he 
would do the right thing, in my judgment, and vote for that bill, as he 
did, at some real political consequence to himself. And that is who he 
was and is--a man of principle.
  We often would talk in the Senate gym almost every morning for a 
prolonged period of time--I don't go to the Senate gym post-COVID--and 
more often than not, we found each other on opposite sides of the 
Senate gym. We helped open up the amendment process on childcare 
legislation. Together, we led the Rules Committee for a number of 
years, and we come from very different backgrounds. But I will never 
forget the weekend that Iris and I spent with Honey and Lamar at 
Blackberry Farms, and it was a beautiful weekend for us that we will 
always, always cherish and remember.
  Given the opportunity to put a stamp on the Presidential 
inauguration, Lamar and I said whoever is in the majority--we didn't 
know--we would give each other time to speak, and it served us both 
well. This is the kind of person he has been: someone who is willing to 
reach out; someone who is willing to see the other side; and someone, 
above all, in tumultuous and very difficult times for all of us, who is 
a man of principle and conscience.
  Senator Alexander will leave this Chamber with a legacy that every 
Senator would be proud of. I wish him and his family the very best.

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